'He has no free will,' Tristan thought to himself. 'These Ai Duplicates of the KaibaCorp Staff… they aren't just the Big 5 creating costumes that they put on and use to… I don't know why they would do that but I'm sure some of them would! But that isn't what is happening here. These Duplicates are just tweaked versions of the real people… and the Big 5 command them but they don't control them. And I can work with that. Because it means I am dueling against Caesar, not Johnson… and I can use the flaws that he created to take him down.'
Tristan drew his next card, looking over his hand… but rather than make a move he began to casually speak.
"So the real Caesar… he wasn't like you, was he?"
"No," Caesar said with a yawn. "He was… still. Reserved. But also energetic. It was… weird, you know?"
"Someone with a lot of emotions who keeps control over them, right?" he asked. "Let's them out in bursts?" He imagined suddenly Caesar standing before a dam, quickly patching holes as water that represented his emotions burst out of cracks. There was no danger that they would cause the dam to break, as Caesar was quick to deal with the holes before moving over to a valveand relieving some of the pressure.
"Yes. The military taught him better control of himself but didn't rid him of them." Caesar rolled his head back and forth, touching first one ear and then the other to his shoulders. "Sounds so… tiring."
"And Johnson didn't like that? Is that why he made you so relaxed?"
"He doesn't do emotional outbursts. Even Caesar was too much for him, same with Martin. That's why he altered us both. Not pleased with the results, said that there are still things he needs to work out, but its better than nothing."
"Martin?" Tristan pressed. "Whose Martin?"
"The other Duplicate that he has," Caesar said.
Tristan considered that before his eyes went wide. "Tea." Johnson's plan snapped into place in Tristan's mind. "He's dueling both of us!"
"Why risk it all on one chance when you can hedge your bets?" Caesar said before letting out a yawn. "Seems like a lot of work-"
"I think," Johnson's voice called out, "that's enough of that. Let us get back to the duel, shall we? I am growing tired of waiting while you two prattle on about meaningless things. Do NOT make me set up a timer." He paused. "And I am watching, Caesar, so don't think you can slip in more information."
"Man, I didn't want to say what I said there. I'd rather just nap. He's the one that is asking the questions…"
'Okay… think Tristan. Think it over. Johnson is dueling both you and Tea. And he is focusing on your duel at the moment. Which means Tea hasn't lost. Either she is currently dueling that Martin guy or she's already won. If she had lost he wouldn't care what was happening here because he would already have his body. Sure, he was trying to get bodies for the other Big 5 but he wouldn't be as focused as he is right now on this duel. If he had Tea's body this would be business… but this is personal.'
It was something that sometimes annoyed Tristan: the fact that people thought he was dumb. They saw him hanging out with Joey who, admittedly, wasn't the most analytical person in the world, and how he was willing to just be funny and goofy and not embarrassed with how he acted around others and assumed that he some idiot who could only go where Yugi told him. Everyone forgot that he was part of the School Council and on the Honor Roll.
He wondered if Johnson had made the same mistake.
"Alright," Tristan said as he held up a card, "I guess if Johnson wants us to get back to dueling we should do just that! I'll start by summoning Machina Peacekeeper!" It was a tiny little machine monster, a muted red color with three wheeled limbs and a cute little head, a pair of mufflers sticking out of its back. "And thanks to my Deck Master it gains 1000 attack points, bringing it to 1500. And I will now attack your monster!"
That made Caesar blink. "Uh… if you want to surrender there are quicker ways to do it than destroying your own monster."
"Nope," Tristan said even as his lifepoints dropped. (Tristan-1000)
"Then… what are you doing?"
"See, I needed to destroy Peacekeeper so I could use his effect, allowing me to add a Machina Union monster from my deck to my hand. And now that my Machina Citadel is returned to the field in defense mode-" The large Machina Monster appeared on the field, settling down to protect Tristan's lifepoints, "-I can now equip my Machine Gearframe to it." The smaller Machina monster appeared on the field and latched onto Machina Citadel, becoming just a bit more of armor for it. "Thanks for using Rains of Destruction so many times… that really helped bring up my Lifepoints so I could risk doing that."
Caesar frowned at that before letting out a sigh. "Right… I forgot about my Deck Master ability. I guess I should use that again and take out Citadel once more and end this duel." The magma balls rained down… but only Gearframe shattered, Machina Citadel remaining in place. "Man… you pulled some defensive stuff to protect your monster?" (Tristan-1500)
"That I did!" Tristan said with a smirk. "But hey, quick question for you: why are you doing any of this, anyway? I don't get the sense that you actually care about Johnson getting a body?"
"I mean… I care because he told me to care," Caesar stated with a shrug.
"But this isn't what you'd actually want to be doing, if you had a choice, right?"
"Of course not. This is… way too much work." He let out a yawn. "I know I shouldn't always be this tired and I know that even if I get a good nap in I'll still be tired but… I really just want a nap." He paused. "But I'm not going to surrender the duel just to go take a nap. Mr. Johnson won't let me."
"no no, of course he wouldn't," Tristan said. "You have to duel… I get that, its required of you. We all have things we don't want to do that we have to do, right? I mean, I have things that my dad makes me do that I really wouldn't want to do ever but… he's my dad and I really don't have a choice. And at least I could think about rebelling, right? You don't even have that option."
"Meh, rebelling takes energy too, you know?"
"Yeah… I know," Tristan admitted, glancing off to the side. "I mean… it does get tiring to fight all the time. And a lot of times it isn't a direct fight that is the worst. Sure, the screaming matches aren't fun and neither are the cold glares and sharp words but even when things are good it isn't relaxing in the slightest to always be walking on eggshells, wondering if the next comment is going to set everything off again and cause another fight. To not be able to, you know, have a single day where I can walk into my house and not wonder if me saying something about school or my friends will cause my dad to go onto a long speech about the family business.
"And… its not even always the bad things, the things he doesn't like, that wear me down. He knows that I'm friends with Edwin and that I interact with Seto so he thinks I can talk to them and get an in with them. We sell furniture… I'm real sure that KaibaCorp is so interested in us… well, maybe for desk chairs." He shook his head. "So even the good things? He's can let me enjoy them!"
Tristan paused.
"Sorry, I'm rambling. You want to end your turn now or…?"
"Oh. Yeah, right. I end my turn."
Tristan forced himself not to smirk. 'Yeah… I had to dredge up a lot of stuff I normally wouldn't have wanted to go through. Stuff about my dad that I've never told anyone before. Not even Yugi or Joey or Tea. But it was worth it because I got you to forget all about attacking me,' Tristan thought. 'Yugi might not have thought that the most honorable way to duel… but a win is going to be a win, especially since Johnson here isn't exactly making this the most honorable duel either. Now… now I just need to take you down, Caesar, and then I can get back to finding my friends and getting out of this digital hell!'
~MC~MC~MC~
"We need new desk chairs," Cassie said as she walked into the breakroom, shaking her head. "I swear mine likes to drop down an inch every time I get up. Its annoying."
"Then ask Moose for a new one," Nate said as he looked in the cupboard. "Okay, why exactly is there so much hot coco in here?"
"Edwin doesn't do coffee," Cassie said. "Its why there is always fresh milk too… he doesn't do regular hot coco either."
"I can't tell if I am going to get along great with that man or hate his guts," Nate commented.
"You'll love him," Cassie said with a smirk. "Anyway, chair…"
"Ask Moose," Nate repeated. "He's in charge, he can see about getting one ordered."
"Have you SEEN the chair Moose sits in?" Cassie retorted.
"Noooooooo," Nate drawled out. "Is it… is it really that bad?"
"Worse," she stated. "Held together with duct tape and prayer. I ask for a new chair and he'll probably go to the dump and get one there and spend two nights repairing it."
"Don't be silly," Vencent commented with a chuckle as he entered the break room. "He would make Cassie do it herself."
The British woman shuddered at that. "God, he actually would, wouldn't he?"
"And the answer is obvious," Vencent said as he moved to the fridge.
"And that is?"
The large man smiled at her as he grabbed a bottle of water. "Have Aria ask him."
"Have me ask who the what?" Aria asked, poking her head in.
"As Moose for a new chair."
"Okay, that makes more sense than what I heard," Aria said. "I thought you were going to have me ask a chair for a moose. Which, hey, I'm not going to judge why you would want a moose. Unless its to ride home on. MOOOOOSE!" She thrust out her arm like she was leading a calvary charge.
"Would that even work though?" Nate asked.
"Aria, do the thing," Cassie said, shielding her face.
"Do the what?" Nate asked only to turn…
…and see Aria staring at him with the biggest, cutest eyes possible.
When he finally snapped out of whatever trance her peepers had put him in he was startled to find his wallet open and Aria holding a crisp twenty.
"A warning, next time," Vencent commented, putting his own wallet away.
"Money money money money money!" Aria cheered happily.
"That… is dangerous and deadly," Nate commented dryly, unable to find himself mustering the energy to get mad over the little swindle.
'But effective," Cassie said. "Hmmm, maybe I should have-"
"Uh, everyone?" Sasha said, poking her head in. Kaiba's new head of his personal security detail didn't have much to do, what with Seto forgetting to actually BRING his Personal Security with him onto the KaibaCorp blimp, so she had mostly been hanging out at the KaibaCorp building that day while everyone else dealt with Seto, Edwin, and Pegasus being out of communication range.
"What is it?" Vencent asked.
"There is message coming in on phone. They seem rather… frazzled."
That caused the four to look at each other before following Sasha to Seto's office. "How did you get in here?" Cassie asked.
"As Head of personal Security I must be able to access any place Mr. Kaiba goes," the Russian woman stated.
"Or we could have had Aria look at the door," Nate joked.
Aria though rubbed her chin and began to stare at Seto's wall safe…
"Alright, let's see what this is about," Vencent said as he leaned over the desk and hit the HOLD button on the phone. "Hello?"
"Hello? Have I finally reached someone at the KaibaCorp building."
"You have," Vencent replied. "You are with Cassie Garnet, Aria Potts, and Vencent Radmere."
"And me but you wouldn't know me," Nate joked.
"This is Solomon Muto," the voice on the other end said. "The KaibaCorp blimp has been taken captive by Noah Kaiba."
"Noah… Noah Kaiba?" Nate exclaimed. "But he's dead!"
"Yes, which makes all of this rather worrisome," Solomon stated dryly. "I am not for sure how he is still around or if it is something else that believes itself to be Noah Kaiba-"
"Should we be concerned he said something and not someone?" Nate whispered but Cassie just quietly shook her head no.
"-not the biggest problem we have right now," Solomon said.
"Mr. Muto… what exactly is the problem?" Vencent asked. "Other than the obvious." He had already motioned for Sasha to get into Kaiba' computer, to see if they could trace the call. If their bosses were being held captive then they were going to do all they could so save them.
"Well… you know how Kaiba made a big deal out of KaibaCorp getting out of the weapons manufacturing business?"
~MC~MC~MC~
Solomon Mutto turned his gaze towards Duke, who was looking at the door that was currently being assaulted by what sounded like Marik. The two of them had gotten trapped in the large room after they had awakened from whatever it was that Noah had done to them and had been working to try and find a way out… but when they had heard Marik screaming at the door they had done a complete 180 and begun undoing all they'd done to free themselves, instead locking the room down even tighter.
The reason for this was what lay behind Solomon.
Namely 30 intercontinetal ballistic missiles and a guidance system just begging to be tampered with, along with tanks, jets, and other military vehicles.
"I think I found some weapons he missed."
~MC~MC~MC~
Johnson frowned as he turned away from the end of Tea's duel. 'That didn't quite go the way I had hoped… but that is why I set up back-ups.' He couldn't help though but scoff at how… dramatic… Tea Garnder had been. 'And she IS Tea Gardner. She can shout to the mountaintops that she is someone else, that her new name is Tea Chaos, but until the proper paperwork has been filed that simply isn't the case.' He shook his head at that… the follies of youth. Believing that one could simply declare something to be true and it would become true. That wasn't how things worked at all. There was a process that one had to go through, rules and regulations. That was how life WORKED.
Well, it didn't matter. Yes, Tea GARDNER had won… but she was now locked away, trapped in that room, unable to escape. He would have to think of a way to erase any records of the duel so that he could bypass Noah's little stipulations that one couldn't be dueled twice. That way he could come at her again with another one of the Duplicates he had at the ready.
'Hmmm. Perhaps I could get her to believe that we never dueled in the first place. That it was all a hallucination.' He rubbed his chin in thought. 'Yes… she is young and has a suspectable mind. I could easily trick her into believing that anything that occurred with Martin actually did take place. Perhaps retrofit one of the Duplicates to appear as if they were me and go to her in friendship? Make her appear quite mad, if only to herself, and thus make her question her reality.'
It had possibilities. It would make an eventual duel with her far easier if she wasn't for sure what was happening and believed that she couldn't trust her own mind. He could alter the cards she placed on the field, make her think she had played one and then done another, say one thing and do another, until she was left a gibbering wreck.
'But I must be careful. I can't risk Noah being alerted to what I am doing.' He knew that the young Kaiba was currently busy with other matters; Johnson had purposely poked at a few of the safeguards and alarms, just to try and get Noah's attention. He'd done that in the past, to make it appear like he was testing how far he could go and in a way he had but not in the way that Noah might have thought. Johnson wanted to see Noah's reaction time so that he had a base measurement of how quickly he would move to act against him. That way, when he didn't…
They were so close to achieving their goal, which meant that now was the perfect time to put his plot into motion. When people believed they were about to get everything they wanted that was when they ended up losing sight of things and end up suffering.
He turned to Tristan Taylor's duel. 'After all, what happens there will determine what happens to-'
Johnson frowned as he looked over the field. It didn't seem…right. He had expected Caesar to be doing far better than this. It honestly made little sense.
Pulling up the written logs he went over each turn and quickly saw the problem, his jaw setting in frustration.
'Why did he not attack him?' he thought darkly to himself. 'He could have cleared his board and left him once more scrambling to try and build up a defense.' He looked further down the list and saw more errors and lapses in judgement. 'No… no, this isn't right at all.' He pulled up the actual footage and watched as Tristan bluffed and bamboozled Caesar into making mistakes. 'How… unfortunate,' he thought to himself. 'Clearly there is something wrong with Caesar. I thought I had removed his emotions properly but it appears as if I miscalculated. I made him too lazy… I will need to fix that right now.'
He stood up, adjusted his suit… and willed himself to the battlefield once more.
~MC~MC~MC~
Tristan threw out his hand after drawing his card. "And now that one turn has gone by I am able to shift my Machina Citadel back into attack mode, which also causes my Deck Master's ability to activate, increasing his attack to 4100!" Caesar opened his mouth to say… something… but Tristan just kept going, talking to quickly so that he couldn't say a word. "And now I will attack your Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings!" He watched as Machina Citadel began to rewire systems and add the software patches his Deck Master had given him, his weapons becoming far more destructive and powerful. 'I need to take him out now, so that he can't think about some other trick he can pull!' Tristan thought. 'That is how I am going to win this duel. Not just through my cards but with my words and my cunning! This game is just as much about playing with your opponent's head as it is playing with your cards!'
His Machina Citadel raced forward, driving his chainsaw into Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings. It tried to bathe him in flames but the upgrades that the Deck Master had given Citadel meant that it was now fire resistant and thus could easily handle the blasts that the phoenix was sending his way. Tristan smirked as the bird let out a final shriek before it shattered, leaving only smoldering ashes to prove it had been there. (Caesar- 2000)
"Now Caesar," Johnson declared and Tristan whipped around to find the lawyer standing off to the side, adjusting his glasses and looking at the AI Duplicate with barely hinted at disappointment. "I know you are better than this. I want you to defeat Tristan and that means you will give it your all, do you understand?"
"I understand," Caesar said with a lazy shrug.
"I don't think you do," Johnson warned. "You've been… sloppy, Caesar. I am most displeased with your performance so far. There is little chance you will be able to achieve high marks from me… but I do believe you will still defeat him… if you focus."
"Just him?" Tristan asked, glancing at Johnson. "I'm no longer "Mr. Taylor" or "Tristan"? Come now, Johnson… I thought we were friends." He flashed a dark smirk at that.
Johnson though didn't rise to the bait. "Caesar… defeat him. Now."
"I was getting to it," Caesar complained with a weary sigh. "You are so impatient."
Tristan and Johnson both found themselves frowning a lot at THAT little comment.
"But fine… I'll take him down. First, even though my monster was destroyed, he isn't gone. He can be reborn, reverting back into Sacred Fire King Garunix due to the loss of those extra flames." The Sacred Fire King appeared on the field with a cry, diminished but still ready to fight. "And now that it is my turn I will use Fire King Island to destroy Ponix once more in order to add a Fire King monster to my hand. And… yeah, I guess I can summon him now, if that will make you happy. I bring forth Fire King Avatar Rangbail." The lioness-like Fire king juggled several orangish pink flames before tossing them into the air, causing them to explode around her.
"And she won't be staying… and neither will Sacred Fire King Garunix!" Tristan cried out. "I activate Machina Citadel's effect! I can now overload its systems to take out it and your entire field!"
"Caesar, counter it," Johnson said sternly.
"Yeah… that's not going to happen," Caesar admitted. "No way to counter that."
"I said… counter it," Johnson warned and his hand slowly reached up-
Tristan threw out a card and Johnson let out a cry when it cut through his hand, taking off several fingers.
"Don't whine, you baby," Tristan said. "It isn't actually real. Just ones and zeroes, right?" He narrowed his eyes. "Or maybe its more than that for you. So how about you not twitch while we finish this duel."
"You don't trust me."
"And that wasn't a question," Tristan countered.
His machina monster began to glow red hot and it had nothing to do with the small fires that were still licking at its armor plating thanks to Caesar's attempt to slow him down. No… every system was overloading and with a violent boom the entire monster's structure went up in flames. Plating ripped through the air, tearing apart Caesar's monsters as well as everything else he had on the field.
It was like there was nothing ever on the field.
"And now its back to my turn." He drewand smirked. "And this duel is over, Johnson. Nice try, what with rushing down here to try and help Caesar cheat, but you aren't stopping this. I summon another Machina Soldier to the field! And with my Deck Master's boost he is more than powerful enough to-"
But Tristan didn't get to finish. Everything suddenly flickered and faded.
"What did you do?" Tristan snapped, turning to glare at the lawyer.
"It wasn't me," Johnson said and he detected a twinge of surprise in his voice. Surprise… and fear.
"No," Noah said and Tristan looked to Caesar's side of the field, the Duplicate replaced with his lead tormentor. "That would be me. My my my, Johnson… I have heard plenty of times that lawyers are the real criminals in the world but I must admit you certainly are working hard to prove that stereotype true."
"I don't know what you are talking about, Master Noah," Johnson said.
"Really? You are going to claim that this isn't an illegal duel? That you didn't have it after you had already lost?" Noah snapped his fingers and suddenly Tea was in the middle of the field, looking about wildly. "I'd say she would tell a different tale."
"Tea!" Tristan said, instantly running to her and giving her a hug. "What happened?"
"He dueled me… said you cut a deal-" But then she shook her head and growled in her throat. "He lied to me. Damn it, I should have seen that. Never should have doubted you."
"I didn't really give you any reason to trust me though, did I?" Tristan commented. "I wanted to explain-"
"Its fine," Tea assured him, finally breaking away and turning to glare at Johnson. "You are the one that deserves all my ire."
"Is that so?" Johnson said. "And what exactly did I-"
"EVERYTHING!" Tea thundered. She took a step forward, jabbing a finger right at Johnson. "Trying to take our bodies! Trying to turn us against our friends! Ourselves! Manipulating people into doing your dirty work-"
"Oh please," Johnson said dismissively. "You aren't going to try and blame your father's actions on me, are you? He was corrupt long before I ever met him."
"I know," Tea said. "Its why I am no longer his daughter. But that doesn't mean you haven't done it to others. Preying on them in their darkest moments just to get what you want. All you care about is yourself!"
That though made Johnson let out a soft sigh. "Because in the end you are the only one that matters. What is the reason to give up your happiness for others who don't do the same for you?"
"Then you don't know what happiness is," Tea snarled and Tristan, even though he was thinking Tea didn't sound exactly happy at that moment, decided not to point that fact out. "Happiness comes in all shapes and sizes."
"Yes yes," he said with a wave of his hand. "Care for one's fellow man and all that. While you might be able to pull off being the Ghost of Christmas Past I am not Scrooge."
"Well, can't be the Ghost of Christmas Past because Kaiba has a restraining order," Tea commented and Tristan frowned at that, wondering what the heck that meant. "But you openly admit that you only care about yourself."
"I care about others… but not at the expense of myself," Johnson declared with a derisive sniff. "It would be foolish to do anything otherwise. Do you truly not understand this? No one gets ahead putting the world ahead of them. Because the world is cruel and savage."
"And there is a difference between looking out for yourself and driving others down," Tristan shot. "That's what you and the rest of the Big 5 do."
"I don't expect you to ever understand, no matter how much I explain it."
"Then…" Noah said, suddenly reminding them all he was still there, "why don't you explain it to me, Johnson? Because it seems to me that you decided you were the only one that mattered. Why else would you break the rules I set up on all of this?"
Johnson let out an aggravated sigh. "The rules you set down, Master Noah, made no sense. They did nothing to help us. You limited us-"
"I ENSURED THE VIRTUAL WORLD REMAINED RUNNING!" Noah roared, so forcefully that it sent Tristan and Tea skidding back. Johnson somehow managed to remain standing in the face of Noah's tirade, merely looking down at him with his face like stone. "You never understood that, Johnson. Never understood that things were not as stable as you deluded yourself into believing. The Virtual World was never designed to handle this many conflicting minds at once. Even with us being here for so long and allowing it to become used to us… it is still straining to handle every single person we have introduced into this world.
"These rules… they are to ensure that the system doesn't collapse on itself. And it is to ensure that moving control of our minds into their bodies happens successfully! Do you realize how complex the human mind is? The rules are in place so that their brains are primed to have our consciousnesses take over them. When you attempt to duel multiple people at once and cheat at the games you make it so the systems can't handle it and that allows them to fight back! All of this was explained to you but you have decided, with all your foolishness, to risk it all because of your impatience!"
Johnson merely stared Noah down.
"Well? What do you have to say for yourself."
Johnson slowly reached up and removed his glasses, polishing them carefully before finally speaking.
"I think… you don't understand who is truly in charge here."
"You?" Noah asked dismissively. "You aren't in charge-"
"No. not me. Unlike the other members of the Big 5 I have no dreams to rule. No… I speak of the true leader and ruler of the Virtual World… the true leader of KaibaCorp."
And then the entire building began to rumble.
"What… what is that?" Noah stammered, before turning to glare at Johnson. "Your meddling-"
"Has done nothing. This is merely the true cornerstone of the Virtual World making himself known."
~MC~MC~MC~
"Hey Ed?" Joey said, looking towards the horizon. "You have all sorts of freaky future knowledge and stuff right? So… uh… mind tell us what that is?"
I stared as the sky grew dark, storm clouds gathering in the distance before they began to solidify into a large looming form. From a great blob to a humanoid form, with a massive arm slowly reaching down towards the building we could see in the distance.
"Fuck," I hissed, already willing my wings to burst from my back. "Selene?"
"Yes?" she said only to blink when the Millennium Key appeared around my neck and I thrust out my hand. Sure enough what looked like a shell of ones and zeroes appeared briefly around her before shattering. "What… what did you…"
And then she let out a delighted sigh.
"mmmm… I feel… yummy."
"I unlocked the restrictions that were put on you. Focus and you should have your godly powers."
"Edwin," Pegasus said slowly. "Are you sure that was wise?"
"No but we'll need all the power we can get," I declared even as Selene rolled her shoulders and shut her eyes before, with a pop, she caused a pair of silver wings to burst from her back while a set of horns, curved like a crescent moon, slid from her forehead. Her clothes turned into her favored loose dress while runic tattoos of silver appeared on her flesh. She snapped her eyes open to reveal that she had decided to mimic me, giving herself black eyes with silver rings.
"I decided to copy you, my love," she said and I looked down to see that I was sporting golden runic tattoos myself, though mine were hardly as defined as Selene's. "Now then… can you match me?" she declared before she suddenly began to grow, swelling up to about 60 feet. The others leaptout of the way as she took up more space, bare feet digging into the ground as she lazily stretched.
"Hey Ed, what is-" Joey began but I focused and within seconds was Selene's height. "Geez man! Warn a guy!"
I merely reached down and held out a hand, the others gathering on my palm. When Selene smirked rolled my eyes. "I got this big last time I was here so easy to do it again. And giving them a ride keeps YOU from getting ideas."
"As if you aren't thinking of all sorts of naughty things we can do," Selene teased before looking at the cloud… which was continuing to take shape, the darkness now very much more man shape. "What is it, my love?"
"The true master and threat of the Virtual World," I stated. "The true puppeteer."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Gozaburo."
~MC~MC~MC~
Guest Omake- By The Patient One
A rule of thumb for any of you out there who wake up to find yourself suddenly living in an anime: take stock before you panic.
Long story short, that's a lesson I learned the hard way. I had been very disoriented and nearly panicked upon waking up in a room, building, town, and country that I hadn't been in before I fell asleep.
That was problem number one.
Problem number two was the room I woke up in: I was lying on a futon in a cheerful-looking room, by my standards. Besides the typical decor of a counselor's office with the motivating posters and comfortable furniture, a few floor-to-ceiling bookshelves were stacked with my toy and model collection…including a good few I hadn't seen before. A few vintage movie posters were hung on one wall while another had the massive antique golden world map I had gotten one year as a gift. And in one corner was a pile of presents beneath a small tree that promised to hold more.
So, it's probably around Christmas, I reflected. I guess I must be pretty good at my job.
Yes, it was odd that I was accepting that I was in another world but… well, sometimes your brain just finds anything to latch onto.
I got up and moved to the prominent desk near the back of the room. A quick look through the drawers yielded a teacher's ID bearing my own face, along with the name Zaine Hudson.
Ohananomitsu High School, I read as well. Never heard of it, but it's a safe bet I'm in Japan. It wasn't until later I realized I was reading in Japanese.
Then someone knocked on the door, the frosted glass reducing them to a silhouette in my eyes.
"Come in?" I called.
I don't know what I was expecting or even hoping to happen. Maybe the principal, someone who could fill me in on this situation? But no, stepping in was a high school girl, probably close to graduating. Black hair in a bun, brown eyes, and an immaculate uniform. She seemed calm but a little nervous.
"You're the new counselor?" she asked quietly. "I'm Megumi Sanaka, class 3-A. You have a minute?"
"Of course," I said, shoving aside my worries about my situation and offering her a seat. This was something I could deal with. I hadn't been a guidance counselor in the real world, but I had plenty of experience helping deal with others' problems, one way or another.
It was a pretty standard conversation over the next hour, talking her through her worries about graduation and college. Sanaka was pretty well put together, but she let out a few tears as we got to the bottom of her anxieties. In the end, though, she was looking a lot lighter.
"Thanks, sensei. Getting all of that off my chest helped."
"Anytime," I nodded as we bowed.
Maybe I'm in a slice-of-life series…kind of boring, but I could get used to this.
Sanaka walked to the door and was about to leave, but turned back at the last second.
"Oh, and, don't worry too much about the plot. The main story starts next semester."
"…I'm sorry?"
"Well, since you're going to be here for the story, I figured you should know that even the one-off side characters can see through the fourth wall. Though it varies who and how much. Anyway, thanks again!"
And with that, she left.
So, yeah. That's when I found out I was in a gag manga.
It would be a few months later before I found out it was a harem gag manga.
At least I wasn't the star.
Or a harem member.
Introducing the Chaos of Earth 17743: Guidance Counselor Zaine Hudson of Ohananomitsu High School
(He really, really, really, really, REALLY has his work cut out for him)