January 14, 2028
Main Arena, Duel Academy's Main Building
7:24 PM
A more appropriate statement upon Yuki's victory might have been, "School Duel, I'll be back," because there was the rather large gap of winter break between 'choosing the duelist representative' and the duel itself. This had been done, traditionally, to make coming back to school after vacation more exciting for Duel Academy's students (and theoretically increase their motivation and performance), but it was hard to imagine someone as enthusiastic as Yuki Muto ever dreading the start of a new semester. No, as fun as winter break had been, it could never have gotten his blood pumping like this.
"… to complete the team, please welcome Bubbleman and Necroshade!" Yuki finished his summoning with a flourish, gazing up at his six main monsters, one for each element, gathered around him in a circle. "Yeah! I've got the sweetest monsters ever. With you guys on my side, we'll whoop whoever North Academy sends our way!"
"Hey! Yu— Jaden!" The duelist turned at the sound of his name, spotting Syrus racing into the arena at top speed. "There you are! What are you doing? Everyone's waiting for you!"
"For me? Why?"
"For the meet and greet," Syrus huffed out in exasperation… or it could have been he was merely out of breath. "North Academy just showed. Your opponent is here!"
"Then what are you waiting around here for?" Yuki asked, switching off his duel disk and making his monsters turn invisible again. "Let's go!" He jumped from the platform and took off the way Syrus had come.
"Well, yeah, I mean that's why I— oh, wait up!"
…
It would seem, Syrus thought glumly, that this semester was going to be just like the last one. All through winter break he'd tried to work up the nerve to say something to his oldest friend, but he'd never found the right moment, despite all they'd seen of each other.
It was tradition for the Mutos and Wheelers to spend a lot of time together over the holiday season. He'd been looking forward to it, to having his best friend back just to himself for a while.
He should have known better. On a whim, without consulting anybody, Yuki had told Belowski of his true identity and invited him to spend the holidays with the Mutos. (Syrus took comfort from the fact that he'd gotten a proper dressing-down from Uncle Yugi and Aunt Tèa for that, even though they'd ended up allowing Belowski to stay anyway.) The Anubis had apparently mentioned, during one of his and Yuki's talks, that he'd never experienced a family holiday, being an orphan sponsored by KaibaCorp, and so the younger boy had made him the offer on the spot. Yuki's heart was in the right place, Syrus supposed, but did it have to be this winter break? Couldn't they have planned it for next year?
So instead of hanging out with his best friend during their joint family activities, Syrus had been left with the company of Zane (if being avoided like the plague could count as "company") and the adults— and not just during family events, either. In the end, he'd ended up spending most of his break with his mother, either shopping or at parties, which was embarrassingly comforting. At least she still cared about him.
January 14, 2028
Dock A, Academy Island
7:26 PM
Scowling, Chazz Devlin tugged at his turtleneck for the dozenth time, glancing back the way Syrus had disappeared thirty, no, thirty-one minutes ago now. The students of North Academy had almost finished disembarking, and that slacker still wasn't here. He was making them all look bad.
He tugged at his shirt again. It wasn't uncomfortable— it had been made to fit him like a glove— but he was feeling a bit self-conscious at the moment, looking at North Academy's uniforms.
He'd selected the fabrics and styles of his new uniform himself, then ordered a set of six, custom-made, from one of the best clothing manufacturers in the world, and yet now he was almost wishing he'd just sucked it up and worn the standard red jacket for Osiris students (he'd been demoted after his failing grades last semester) because his custom-made uniform looked an awful lot like the ones all of North Academy's students were sporting.
Duel Academy's rival school, founded by SchroederCorp, was located somewhere in Siberia, of all places, and made up of students mostly from Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and the rest of Europe to the east. Their ranking system was done individually instead of in groups, so rather than be divided by color, each student had a number based on how many of their classmates they'd beaten at least three times. As a result, what color (dark blue, brown, or black) the students wore was up to personal preference, and there was no outward defining feature to determine how proficient they were. Chazz, in his all-black uniform, blended right in.
Chancellor Foster had stepped off the boat now, and he and Chancellor Sheppard were officially greeting each other. Where was that red-jacketed—
"Yeah, yeah— spirited. But enough with all the how-ya-doin'. I wanna meet who I'm gonna be duelin'!"
Ah. Of course, he'd blundered right into the Chancellor's welcome without waiting to be called over. Decorum and protocol had never been high on Yuki's list of priorities.
"Yes, Jaden, we were getting to that." Chancellor Sheppard deadpanned.
"Great! Then I'll just wait right here 'till we get there."
"Jaden. So you're Duel Academy's phenom," Chancellor Foster addressed him.
"Phenom!? That's the coolest thing I've ever been called! What's it mean?"
"It means be quiet," Sheppard said with gritted teeth. Next to him, Professor Crowler looked ready to wring Yuki's neck.
"So come on, come on, when do I meet my opponent?"
Said opponent turned out to be just as eager, because at that moment a big, hulking fellow, who turned out to be named "Czar", decided to break protocol as well and introduce himself. Chazz tuned out the posturing and taunting as the two duelists sized each other up. He had very little interest now that the whole thing had been officially Yuki-fied.
Instead, his attention was drawn to the sound of heavy panting at his side. Glancing over, he realized Syrus had finally returned, nearly bent over double as he tried to catch his breath. "You really do need to get in shape, pipsqueak."
…
Syrus dared to glower at Chazz for a moment from underneath his bangs before once again focusing on getting air into his lungs. Now that the other boy had come to a truce with Yuki, he'd become yet another person intruding on Syrus's relationship with his best friend. It seemed the universe had conspired to make Syrus a permanent outcast.
The whole thing with Chazz bothered him even more than the thing with Belowski because it proved that Yuki was capable of understanding and empathizing with other people's emotions. Syrus had always comforted himself with the fact that Yuki was just naturally oblivious, that he was clueless when it came to the serious side of any relationship, only now it appeared the only one Yuki didn't want to bother treating seriously was Syrus. What on earth was wrong with him, that he repelled everyone he looked up to?
It was so confusing, being a teenager. He couldn't remember the two of them ever having problems like this back when he and Yuki'd just been kids, just like he and Zane had never had the issues back then that they did now.
Of course, that had been before Atticus disappeared and Zane withdrew into himself, so maybe it wasn't entirely Syrus's fault that his brother despised him. His therapist had said that people reacted in all kinds of strange ways to trauma, depending on their personalities.
January 14, 2028
Academy Island
8:03 PM
Czar, Jaden decided, had a very cool accent. "I look forward to seeing you on the field tomorrow. And then, we will see who is best duelist— and which is best school— for rest of year, yes?"
"Sure thing, bro. Can't wait to throw down!"
"Throw down what?"
All right, so the roads of communication were a little bumpy, but they didn't need to be able to talk to each other in order to communicate— their cards would do all the talking for them.
"It's lines, Jay."
"What?"
"You said 'roads of communication.' It's lines of communication. You know, like telephone lines?"
"No, not really." Syrus let out one of his signature sighs, and Yuki grinned. He'd missed Syrus over winter break. Usually, they'd have spent that time hanging out, taking advantage of the time off school to have fun together, but this year he'd been so excited to discuss spirit-talking with people who actually got it that he'd forgotten about pretty much everything else.
For example, he'd forgotten to tell his parents about the eye-glowing Belowski insisted had happened during their first duel, to see if they could explain it. The incident had unnerved him enough that he'd pushed it to the back of his mind while still at school, but his parents were used to dealing with the unnerving. They probably knew what it meant, or if they didn't, they knew someone who did. (There was also the matter of the time he'd blacked out, when he'd gone for a walk and then found Alexis in the woods. That unnerved him, too, but he couldn't say anything about it— directly, at least— without breaking his promise to Alexis not to tell anyone about their investigation.)
However, he'd had so much fun showing Belowski around Domino, and then later partaking in holiday activities, that the issue had slipped right out of his mind. The time had zipped by, and before he knew it, it was time to go back to school.
And now that he was back at Duel Academy, Yuki's focus was once more entirely on the action. There was nothing in the world better than a challenge, and he had sorely needed one for weeks now— which was not to say, of course, that Belowski was an easy opponent, but after a while it became more about trying to out-think each other, rather than the thrill of the unexpected.
Yep, thrilling was the word for it— he could hardly focus on anything except the match tomorrow. Paranormal mysteries would have to wait. They would keep for one more day, right?
January 14, 2028
Academy Island
11:49 PM
Alexis hadn't been able to sleep— and it wasn't because, like the rest of the girls on her floor, she was excited about tomorrow's match. No, she was finally back on Academy Island, and it was time for her to resume the search for her brother.
She was halfway to the cave's clearing before she remembered her agreement with Yuki to not go out there on her own again. Perhaps, in light of it, she should have turned around and waited until the school duel was over when he could focus on their investigation again, but after a month of sitting idle, the idea was unbearable. So, she compromised by sending him a quick message— Going to look around the woods again. You know where.— and then continued on her way. The fact that she couldn't be sure he would be awake to receive the message was inconsequential, or so she told herself.
She walked through the forest confidently, having memorized the path by now, her way made easier by the waning gibbous moon.
Phases of the moon were something she and Yuki had considered when trying to figure out the pattern of when the cave was there and when it wasn't, but since they only had two occurrences to draw from, it had been mostly guesswork. They'd made a habit of coming back as often as they could, hoping for another data point, but so far, the wait had been fruitless. Yuki had put forward, rather depressingly, the theory that the cave's appearances were years apart, but Alexis refused to consider that possibility. She had not screwed up the only opportunity to find clues about Atticus's disappearance in two years.
There was very little chance, considering past experience, that this night would be any different from all the times she'd come with Yuki, but Alexis wasn't going to let that stop her. She'd had enough of doing nothing. She wanted her big brother back, the one who drove her insane with his teasing, who helped her with her homework, who had challenged her as a duelist, who made her laugh until she snorted milk out her nose.
Lost in her thoughts, Alexis was surprised when she looked up to see the clearing before her— the path had become so familiar she'd reached it without realizing. Squinting, Alexis stepped into the circle of trees, having to watch her step carefully in the darkness. She pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight, frowning in mild confusion at the sky. A waning gibbous moon was almost full— where had the light gone?
The flashlight didn't seem to make much difference to the sudden darkness, and Alexis could only move one step at a time as she began another search of the hated clearing. It was all the same— the same trees, the same rocks— only looking slightly different in the flashlight's blue glow.
No, no, no, Alexis thought, gritting her teeth in frustration. There must be something—
"You miss him."
Alexis jumped, almost dropping her phone as she whirled around, eyes darting around the blackness. "Who's there?"
"Someone who knows what happened to your brother… and who's willing to take you to him, if you would like."
The voice was deep and raspy, sending a chill down Alexis's spine. Atticus… someone was going to help her find Atticus!
For a split second, Alexis hesitated, every instinct screaming in alarm. For one moment, the voice of reason shouted at her, telling her to run, but it was quickly getting softer and softer, and she was finally getting somewhere with her search; how could she give that up?
The younger Kaiba's eyes glazed over, and her body relaxed, her grip on her phone going slack and letting it fall to the ground. She walked forward, following the voice and its promises, her figure rapidly disappearing in the darkness.
Moments later, the inky blackness that had surrounded the clearing lifted, and the light of the moon once again filtered through the trees— but the place was devoid of any sign of life except the bright, blueish glow of a phone flashlight.
Osiris Red Dorm, Duel Academy
January 15, 2028
8:50 AM
"All right Syrus, get your eat on!" Yuki cheered, devouring almost an entire bowl of rice in one go. "This stuff's so good! The hard part is remembering to chew—" he paused to shove a bit of fish into his mouth— "before you swallow."
"That explains why we're missing so many forks!" Syrus snapped. "Stop stuffing yourself!"
"What's your prob, Syrus?" Yuki had the gall to sound hurt, and Syrus's frown darkened.
"I'm just trying to look out for you, Yuki, because that's what good friends do. I may not be good for much, but I can at least do that. If you want to win today's match, you're going to need to be a lean, mean dueling machine. Sometimes it just really bugs me how cavalier you are about everything, you know? How long did you even train for this match? An hour?"
"More like half…" Yuki admitted sheepishly. "Listen, Syrus, I appreciate your friendship, I really do. And I appreciate it because you're you, not because you 'lookout' for me, or whatever. After all, not everyone would be so honest. I had no idea the way I trained bothered you."
"Well… it's just hard, you know? How some people can do barely any work and still excel at everything, and others work themselves to the bone and just barely pass. I guess sometimes I'm just a bit… jealous."
Yuki stared at him. Clearly, he had no idea how to respond to Syrus's bluntness. Actually, Syrus had no idea how to respond to Syrus's bluntness. What had he been thinking, blurting that out? He opened his mouth to brush it off as nothing, but—
"Nya. Nya, nya."
"Wow. Great cat impression Sy."
Syrus scowled at his friend. "That wasn't me! It came from outside."
The sound came again. "Nya. Nya, nya, nya." Yuki got up and went to the door, opening it a crack only for a blurry, orange ball to shoot past him into the building— a ball that, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a cat.
"Yuki! We can't let it in here! No animals allowed, remember?"
"Well, it's not like I gave it an invitation. It just came in," Yuki pointed out. The cat— a rather rotund orange tabby cat, to be exact— was continuing its racket as it circled the Osiris's legs, demanding attention. "Wow. What do you think it wants?"
"Our food probably, which it can't have." Syrus crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look firm. "If we feed it, it will just keep coming back and we'll get into trouble." Under his breath, he added, "Maybe this will convince Professor Dean to give us something other than grilled fish for breakfast for once."
"Oh, come on, Sy," Yuki pouted. "I like Professor Dean's grilled fish. Oh— ow!" The cat, apparently irritated at not being the center of attention, had now stood up on its hind legs and was digging its claws into Yuki's leg. This, in turn, allowed Syrus to see that it was, in fact, a he.
"NYA, NYA, NYA, NYA!"
"Whoa, okay buddy. Chill out." Yuki reached down and scooped the creature up into his arms. "So demanding. What should I call you… Your Majesty?"
"You can't name him, Yuki; he probably belongs to someone else."
"Well, we can't just call him 'the cat', now, can we? Besides— WHOA!" Being picked up clearly wasn't what the cat wanted, because he had now wriggled out of Yuki's arms, clawing at his jacket in the process and knocking his phone out of his pocket. Both it and the cat fell to the floor, and the feline promptly began batting at the rectangular device.
"Whoops, that's not a cat toy, buddy." Yuki retrieved his phone (thankfully undamaged) and blinked at it in surprise. "I have a message from Alexis." He swiped it open and began to read, his expression quickly becoming… anxious? Frightened?
"NYA! Nya, nya."
Syrus, alarmed, was about to ask what had happened when the door to the cafeteria slammed open once more, revealing an incredibly haggard-looking Chazz.
"Will someone stop that racket!? Some of us are trying to sleep!"
The smaller Osiris, who had jumped about a foot in the air at the other boy's sudden appearance, furrowed his brow in confusion. "What are you doing here? Aren't you going to the match?"
"No. I don't care who wins the school duel. I am taking advantage of this rare opportunity to get some extra sleep— or at least I was until some reprobate decided to let a cat in here. Get rid of it!"
"Nya, nya, nya, nya, nya, nya…" The cat hadn't let up on his insistent vocalizing and was now clawing at Yuki's shoes.
"I have to go." Both Syrus and Chazz jerked their heads toward Yuki, blurting out their surprise.
"You mean… to the duel arena?
"Go where?"
"I can't say. Just… tell Chancellor Sheppard I'm sorry, but something urgent came up, all right?" Shoving his phone into his pocket, the brunet snatched up his duel disk and headed for the door.
"What— but— you can't just bail on the school duel, Yuki! North Academy will win by forfeit, and then you'll probably be expelled!"
"Not if I appoint a replacement." He looked pointedly at Chazz.
"What!?" His rival squawked. "I can't duel in the rivalry match!"
"Why not? Technically, you were the runner-up in the preliminaries. You're practically the only one who can do it."
"But— I— I mean—"
Yuki grabbed hold of Chazz's shoulders, surprising the other boy into cutting off his stammering. "You can do this, Chazz. I've never faced another duelist quite like you. North Academy won't know what hit 'em— and I've really got to go."
He turned on his heel and dashed out the door, heading for the woods at a near-sprint, the tabby cat bounding along behind him. Syrus and Chazz stared after him, and then at each other, both completely bewildered.
"What just happened?"
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Alexis came back to herself with a gasp. It was dark— unnaturally dark— and she instinctively threw out her hands to find purchase. She groped frantically around in the pitch black, but there was nothing for her to grab hold of. Following her training, she dropped to the ground, resting her hands on what felt like smooth stone, in order to gain her bearings.
Squinting heavily, she was just able to make out four walls, presumably also made of stone, and she couldn't spot the moon or any stars, so that meant there must be a ceiling as well, though she couldn't see it through the impenetrable darkness. It was eerily silent, and Alexis had the terrible thought that this must be what immurement was like.
She refused to let any of her whirling thoughts show on her face, however. She was a Kaiba, and Kaibas didn't show fear, no matter what. "Who are you?" She demanded, because someone had to have brought her here. "What do you want from me?" She listened hard, but couldn't hear anything to indicate another presence. In fact, she could barely hear herself. Her voice didn't carry or echo, and almost seemed to be muffled somehow.
"What I want from you is very simple." The voice came from the blackness, somehow both deep and raspy, soft and loud. "I want your soul, Alexis Serenity Kaiba."
Terror, deep and primal and unlike anything she'd ever felt before, began to seep into Alexis's heart. She felt herself dragged back to the first time she'd found the cave, and the feeling of suffocating, strangling despair… she was petrified, unable to move, or think, or breathe—
No! She took a deep breath and forced it out. My mind is my own. My mind is my own. I won't lose it again.
"Impressive," the voice spoke again. "Not many are able to resist at all, much less so successfully. Let's see if you can keep it up, shall we?"
With a clatter, a white object appeared out of the darkness, skidding to a halt at Alexis's feet. She bent to retrieve it and quickly recognized the familiar shape of a duel disk. "You want a duel? If you want my soul, why not just take it? Or are your powers limited to illusion and hypnotism?" She smirked, showing bravado she didn't feel. I am a Kaiba. My parents defied destiny by sheer force of will, and that strength is mine as well.
Her insult seemed to have hit a nerve, because the voice hissed at her, "There is no power in existence that can merely take souls as they wish. There must always be a contest, a weighing of the scales beforehand. But you would be wise not to doubt my power, Dark Master. I am capable of things you cannot even comprehend."
Alexis raised an eyebrow skeptically, choosing to ignore his odd address. "If you're so powerful, why should I duel you? Seems to me like it would be smarter to just refuse."
"Ah, because you have something to gain as well, my lady. You came to my lair searching for answers… and answers are what I'll give you, should you win."
Alexis's breath hitched. Somehow, with all this talk about souls and contests and powers, she'd forgotten why she'd come out here in the middle of the night in the first place. "Atticus. Are you the one who took him!? Tell me where he is!"
"Not unless you can beat me," the voice returned. "That is the rule."
"Alright, so we'll duel." Alexis strapped the disk to her arm and slid her cards into its slot. "If I win, you return my brother to me. That's the deal."
"Your end of it at least. Don't forget, I want something, too. If I win, I get your soul to take back with me to my realm. Shall we begin?"
"Let's duel!"
Academy Island
January 15, 2028
9:17 AM
Yuki crashed through the forest, running at top speed toward the clearing where he'd first found Alexis that awful night, her eyes glossy and tear-filled, and that look on her face… he hadn't told her, but he'd never seen anything so terrifying as when he'd grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her to face him, only to see that expression staring back at him. It had been a mixture of absolute devastation and misery, like her entire world had shattered and she'd been left alone to grieve its loss.
He and Alexis had come here many times during the last semester, searching for any hint of the mysterious cave—or whatever it had been. Normally, Yuki would never have even considered giving up that much sleep, but whatever had taken hold of Alexis the last time she'd come alone… it was scary.
It was that fear that drove him now as he ran as fast as he could through the trees. He barely had to think about where he was going; his feet knew the path well enough by now.
He burst into the clearing, eyes darting around frantically, but there was no sign of his friend. No. No, no, no, no! She couldn't have disappeared like Atticus had, right? There had to be something, some clue—
"Nya. Nya-ya."
Startled, Yuki glanced down towards his feet, where the same orange tabby cat that had interrupted his breakfast was sniffing at something on the ground. He blinked, completely taken off guard. "Did you… follow me here?"
"Nya." The feline looked up at him expectantly.
"You… found something?" Yuki asked, moving forward to take a better look. Briefly, he wondered what the heck he was doing, listening to a cat when he should be looking for Alexis, but there was just something nagging at him…
He bent over and retrieved the object his companion was so interested in, recognizing it immediately. Alexis's phone! He looked back at the cat in amazement. Was it possible? Had the cat actually… come to get him? Had it known Alexis was in trouble? Yuki thought back to the way the creature had pounced on him, shaking his own phone loose from his jacket and alerting him to Alexis's unread text in the first place. Surely, the animal couldn't have done that on purpose?
Yuki licked his lips, trying to get some moisture back in his mouth. His heart was still pounding, adrenaline pumping as fear buzzed in the back of his head. "I'm probably way overthinking this…"
"Nya." The cat looked immensely pleased with himself. In the next moment, he had turned and was bounding off again, toward the opposite end of the clearing, where the trees were so thick you couldn't see much beyond it. "Nya," he said again, looking over his shoulder at Yuki expectantly.
"…or maybe not. It's not like I have any other leads." Slipping his friend's device into his pocket alongside his own, Yuki followed his unconventional guide.
Main Duel Arena, Duel Academy Main Building
January 15, 2028
9:30 AM
It had quite literally been a matter of pointing out that there were no better options for Chancellor Sheppard to allow Chazz to duel. The man had been beyond flustered, nearly panicked, when he'd been told that Jaden wasn't coming. Chancellor Foster, on the other hand, had been positively smug, and had taken great pleasure in dragging out his acquiescence to the proposed change. (Fortunately, it seemed that the desire to stop Dr. Crowler's pleading and wheedling was one that could be universally experienced.)
As Chazz made his way to the arena for the school duel, he made a point to walk with his head up proudly, despite the nasty looks he was receiving from his former dormmates. He was learning not to care so much about what other people thought of him, something his therapist said was healthy, and showed incredible resilience since Chazz had reached that decision on his own while still in secondary school.
It was something that he very much doubted his hulking ape of an opponent would be able to grasp. Chazz had seen Czar's type before— they thought that power, or at least the appearance of power, was the surest way to win.
The black-jacketed Osiris was proven right by the first words out of his opponent's mouth.
"You're going down," the muscled giant said, "because when it's the Czar against the Princeton, there is little doubt as to which one is stronger. Prepare yourself for a royal battle, my little friend."
Chazz smirked, not bothering to inform the other duelist that he was no Princeton at all, and settled into the familiar battle stance as his blood began to sing.
Academy Island
January 15, 2028
9:36 AM
The trees and other fauna grew so thickly together that Yuki had trouble squeezing between them, snagging his clothes and hair more than once as he struggled to keep up with his mysterious companion. It got harder and harder as he went, and it was only when he raised a hand to massage the place between his eyebrows that he realized how hard he'd been squinting. Startled, he looked up and was alarmed to see that the sun's light was almost completely blocked out.
That's weird, he thought, this isn't exactly a rainforest. Pine trees shouldn't be able to do that…
"Nya, nya." Yuki looked down to see the tabby cat watching him impatiently.
"Alright, I'm coming." The urge to find Alexis, safe and whole, trumped any wariness he might have felt about the strangeness of the situation, and so he continued on— and on and on even as it got darker and darker and harder and harder to do so. Eventually, he was only able to follow the cat because of the continuous sounds he was making, as if he knew Yuki couldn't see him.
Then, rather abruptly, the noises stopped.
"Hey, uh, cat? You still there?" Yuki waited, but there was no response. Hesitantly he took a few steps forward. "Could you give me a sign, or something, 'cause I really can't see you…" Suddenly struck by inspiration, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, quickly turning on the flashlight and wondering why he hadn't thought of using it sooner.
It turned out it would have made very little difference if he had remembered— the flashlight barely penetrated the darkness at all. Yuki frowned. He knew what his phone's flashlight beam was supposed to look like, and this wasn't it. He should at least be able to see a meter in front of him—
A scream tore through the air, and every other thought flew out of Yuki's head. "ALEXIS!"
Unknown
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Alexis was not feeling very well. On the one hand, her mind kept trying to slip into a terrifying, dark fog that was creeping further and further into her consciousness. On the other, it felt like every nerve in her body was alight, tiny pinpricks of flame burning underneath her skin from her head to her toes. It wasn't exactly painful, not yet— but it kept getting worse with every hit her Life Points took.
"That's right. Stay down— there's no point in fighting; you can't win."
With trembling arms, Alexis slowly pushed herself up onto her knees, and then, swaying, back to her feet. "I… won't," she managed through gritted teeth, forcing herself to focus, to keep going. "As long as I'm… dueling for Atticus… you won't beat me." Her father had always said that, when you had a reason to fight, nothing could keep you down. There was no obstacle that couldn't be overcome with the proper motivation, and Alexis had plenty. "My turn. I draw."
With trembling fingers, she pulled the next card from the top of her deck. "I—"
"Alexis! Alexis, where are you!?"
Startled, the Anubis whirled around, searching the darkness for the owner of the voice. "Yuki…?"
"No!" The voice of her opponent snarled in rage, and the darkness pulsed, as if it were alive. "Impossible!"
The next moment, Alexis managed to make out footsteps approaching rapidly, and then Yuki's red-jacked form burst through the shadows, making them ripple and shudder from the sheer power radiating off him—
Alexis stared, not quite able to believe what she was seeing. Yuki had told her about Belowski's claim, that his eyes had started glowing during their duel, but there was a world of difference between contemplating that idea and actually witnessing it. Her friend's eyes were… were glowing.
They were a bright gold color, seeming to burn, but not really giving off any light, she didn't think, at least not much. And yet… and yet his presence was definitely pushing the darkness back. It cleaved and parted around him, pulsing in agitation. The air felt electrified, and Alexis could feel her hair standing on end.
Despite this, she couldn't tear her eyes away, watching transfixed as Yuki approached. His gaze was somehow both fierce and warm, eerie and comforting. Whatever it was he was doing to the darkness, it was also cutting through the fog in her mind, and she let her shoulders slump a bit in relief when she realized she didn't need to fight it so hard anymore.
"How could you have found us!?" The voice demanded, snapping Alexis out of her stupor and once again focusing all her attention on the enemy— stupid, turning your back on a threat, she thought with a scowl.
"There was no possible way—"
"Nya." The female student jumped as she felt something soft and warm brush against her legs. Looking down, she was astonished to see a large orange tabby cat winding itself around them, chattering excitedly.
"YOU!" The voice bellowed in rage, and Alexis winced at the volume, her ears ringing painfully. The cat, at whom the yell seemed to be directed, hissed in alarm. "YOU INTERFERING SPIRIT! You will pay for this. You will pay dearly!"
The darkness vanished so suddenly it was like having someone flick on your bedroom light while you still had your curtains drawn— blinding and painful and making Alexis immediately squeeze her eyes shut as tightly as she could. She opened them again only after counting to thirty, slowly cracking her eyelids to give her pupils time to adjust.
Wherever she had been before, during the duel, it was gone now. There were no stone walls or ceiling anywhere in sight— she was standing in a regular patch of forest, no different from any other spot she'd passed through during her many trips to the cave's clearing. The sunlight filtered through the foliage, and a light breeze ruffled her hair. It was just a regular, peaceful morning—
Wait a minute. Morning!? Alexis looked at her watch, blinking in stupefaction down at the perfectly displayed 00:48 that it showed. According to her (extremely expensive and sophisticated) timepiece, it wasn't even a half hour past midnight, so how could…?
"Oh… that doesn't feel too good. I think I need to sit down." The Anubis glanced up just in time to see Yuki collapse to his knees.
Main Duel Arena, Duel Academy Main Building
January 15, 2028
9:45 AM
In spite of Czar's posturing, Chazz wasn't overly worried about the match— which, unfortunately, did not mean the duel didn't cause him any aggravation.
"Of course. It just has to be you," he grumbled, scowling down at the familiar yellow visage.
"Nice to see you, too!" Yellow greeted him. "Need me to fight a monster for ya? Let's do it!" The tiny creature turned to face Czar's Zoa. "Oh. Never mind."
"What's the matter?" Chazz smirked. "I thought we were best friends. Don't you want to help me out? I play Ojama Yellow!"
"No, please! Anyone but me!" The little gremlin squeaked as he appeared on the field. Chazz ignored him. He also ignored the incredulous laughter coming from the stands, his smirk only growing wider.
Alright, so he'd admit it wasn't too aggravating.
Academy Island
January 15, 2028
9:49 AM
"Yuki? Yuki, are you alright?" A comforting hand was on his shoulder, steadying him as he fought not to wretch. The dizziness and nausea had come upon him suddenly, along with a cold sweat that overall was making him feel quite miserable.
"Think I… overdid it… on that run," he gasped out, barely able to talk what with his lungs burning like they were.
"I think you did a bit more than run," Alexis said from above him. "What are you even doing here? Don't you have—"
"Alexis!" Yuki's head shot up (a terrible idea, in hindsight) and he was able to take in the most glorious sight he'd ever beheld: Alexis, alive and well. "You're okay!" His elation vanished as quickly as it'd come once he remembered what, exactly, had brought him out here. "Now, care to explain what exactly you're doing out here? We agreed not to search the woods alone to protect each other! What if something had happened? What if you'd vanished, just like—" he cut himself off, abruptly realizing he may have gone too far.
"Don't talk about how the buddy system will save us if we ever get in trouble— Atticus had Zane with him and it didn't make a bit of difference!" Alexis snapped. She took a deep breath and continued, more calmly, "It's because my brother vanished that I had to come out here in the first place. And it's a good thing I did, because something actually happened this time."
Yuki stared at her. "Wait. It did?"
"Yeah." She frowned. "Funny how something only happens when I'm out here alone, and never when you're around.
The Osiris gave her a pointed look. "Maybe that means, I dunno, that you shouldn't be coming out here alone." He paused, taking in the clearing the two of them were currently occupying. "…wherever here is, anyway."
Alexis took a moment to study their surroundings as well and had to agree: they'd never been to this part of the woods before. "Weird. Wait, how did you even find me then?"
Yuki let out an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his head. "It's a bit of a funny story. See, Syrus and I were eating breakfast when…" he proceeded to tell her about the events of the morning, watching as her expression grew more and more skeptical with every sentence. "…I thought I'd lost him, but the next thing I knew, there you were." He shrugged, before furrowing his brow in thought. "You know, I wonder if he's still around here someplace. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…" Yuki craned his neck as he looked around the clearing, hoping to spot his mysterious friend. He didn't really expect to find the cat, and so he got a bit of a start when he realized that one oddly shaped pile of dead leaves was, in fact, not an oddly shaped pile of leaves at all.
There, at the base of a large tree, sitting calmly and cleaning himself, was the large orange tabby cat. At Yuki's "kitty, kitty, kitty," call, he took a moment to give the boy a supremely unimpressed look, before going right back to licking his paws. "There! See? I told you a cat led me to you."
Alexis stared at the feline for a moment, an odd look on her face, before turning her back to the animal and pressing the palm of one hand to her forehead. Apparently, she needed some time to process this new level of strangeness. Yuki probably would, too, he thought, after his adrenaline had gone down.
Alexis was looking down at her watch again. "Do you know what time it is?"
"Uh…" the Osiris fished out his phone and turned it on. "…9:42."
9:42!? But that doesn't make any sense! We'd only been dueling half an hour, if that—"
"Wait, dueling? Dueling who?"
"I don't know, it was too dark to see him properly; I could only hear his voice." She looked back at him. "Speaking of dueling, didn't you have a somewhat important match this morning/"
"Oh, that," Yuki waved it off. "I asked Chazz to stand in for me. No big deal."
"No big—!?" Alexis flailed. "Yuki, you don't just… do that! The school duel is a big deal—"
"Yeah? Well, I think my friends are a bigger deal." For a moment she just looked at him, her expression unreadable, before abruptly turning away. Of course, this put the mysterious cat (who now appeared to be taking a nap) right back in her line of sight, and so she picked up that thread of the conversation again.
"Alright… alright. Let's think about this logically. Everything this cat did could be a coincidence—" Alexis started to pace "—except that you actually found me. And that the voice seemed to recognize him."
"…uh, what voice?"
"The opponent I was dueling. Remember I said I couldn't see his face?" Right, she had said something about a duel, hadn't she? At Yuki's nod, she continued, "He got really angry when he saw you and the cat. He said… he said the spirit would pay for its interference."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know!" Alexis groaned in frustration. "I don't think the cat is a spirit— I felt him rub against my ankles, so that means he's corporeal, right?"
"One way to find out." Yuki crawled over to the feline (he still didn't feel well enough to get up and walk, though he was feeling loads better) and reached out to pet his belly. The cat purred in enjoyment and rolled further onto his back to give Yuki better access. "Nope. No ghost cat here."
"Okay… okay. Maybe it wasn't the cat who did all those things to help. Maybe it was a ghost that was using him as a… medium of sorts."
"…are you saying we're in the presence of an actual ghost?" Yuki honestly didn't know how to feel about that. On the one hand, spooky. On the other… awesome!
"I don't know. They could've left by now. Or I could've misheard what the voice said…" Alexis paused in her pacing and finally looked back at Yuki. "You didn't happen to hear what he said, did you?"
The Osiris frowned in confusion. "Lex, I just got here."
"I know that. But before the darkness disappeared—"
"Darkness?" Yuki glanced around, realizing for the first time that the darkness was, in fact, completely gone. "Huh. I don't remember getting out of it…"
"You don't remember it vanishing?" Alexis was (once again) looking at him oddly. "But… I thought you were the one who made it go away?"
"I can't make darkness just go away. No one can. Right?"
Realization seemed to dawn on Alexis's face. "Yuki… what's the last thing you remember?"
"Following this guy here through the woods, like I told you." He'd managed to get the cat into his lap now and was quite enjoying the cuddle fest. "Why?"
Alexis took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Yuki… I think you blacked out again, just like the last time something like this happened."
The Osiris paused in his stroking of the cat's fur, eliciting a displeased nyaa from the creature. "You do?"
"Yeah. And… remember what you told me about your duel with Belowski?"
An entirely different kind of unpleasant feeling was building in Yuki's stomach now. "You mean…"
"Yeah. Your eyes were glowing— a bright, golden color. I saw it."
Main Duel Arena, Duel Academy Main Building
January 15, 2028
9:52 AM
Chazz, meanwhile, had just discovered that he hadn't quite managed to evict Yuki Muto from his head.
"Boy, oh, boy," commented his imaginary rival, "Two monsters with 2600 and 3000 attack points? What on earth are you gonna do, Chazz?"
"Easy. I'm gonna win."
"You know, talking to yourself is pretty crazy as it is—" inwardly Chazz cringed. He had not meant to respond to imaginary Yuki out loud "—but thinking you are going to win? Even crazier!" Czar taunted him. "Not if you're going to keep playing little pipsqueak monsters like that."
Inexplicably, Chazz felt a twinge (a very, very small twinge) of indignation on Yellow's behalf. "A good duelist doesn't need powerful monsters to win a duel," he countered, "they just need to know how to make the best of what they've got. Allow me to demonstrate."
…
Less than five minutes later, Chazz was grinning triumphantly as it dawned on Czar that this was the end. "You. Go. Bye. Bye."
Academy Island
January 15, 2028
10:11 AM
The walk back to Duel Academy took a while since neither freshman had recognized the clearing they'd ended up in, and it took a bit of trial and error to find the right direction. At any other time, Yuki might have been disappointed at missing a duel as epic as the annual school rivalry match, but considering everything that had happened, he was a bit too preoccupied to think about it. I think you blacked out again… your eyes were glowing.
What did it mean? Was he developing some sort of superpower, like his father'd had in high school? It had started this way for him, too, according to all the stories— blackouts and mysteriously glowing eyes. Yuki wondered if there was some sort of spirit inhabiting his mind, like from Ancient Rome. How cool would that be? He and his friends could save the world, have epic duels and take down treacherous villains. Then they'd have their own stories to tell someday. Yuki had always secretly dreamed of something like this happening, and now it was. He could barely contain his excitement.
On the other hand, the complete panic and terror he'd felt realizing Alexis might be in danger had decidedly not been a part of his daydreams. He'd imagined himself rushing to the rescue (of his friends in general of course, not just Alexis), but had always imagined himself being brave and fierce in those scenarios, not frightened. Was it normal that the thought of losing Alexis, of never seeing her again, made him start to sweat and his stomach hurt? He hoped not.
…
Alexis herself, trailing a bit behind Yuki, was caught up in her own tumultuous thoughts— not the least of which was how much everything hurt.
She'd hoped that the pain would turn out to be just another illusion like the darkness and cold stone of her tomb-like surroundings had been, but the further they'd walked, the worse she'd felt. It wasn't just the bruises and scrapes from the few times she'd been knocked down, either— she'd checked. She could tell the difference between those pulsing points of agony and the throbbing ache that resounded throughout her body.
The implications were more than a little bit concerning. She'd heard about duels that could cause real, physical damage— her Uncle Joey's brush with death during Battle City was a favorite story in both the Kaiba and Wheeler households— but she'd never expected to face such a duel herself, for one very distinct reason: the Shadow Games were supposed to have ended when Pharaoh Atem returned to the afterlife. If someone had found a way to bring them back…
No, surely that was impossible. The rift between their world and the Shadow Realm was gone, and the dark forces that had allowed such contests were sealed away. Everyone had been sure of that.
And yet… and yet, some powers did still remain in their world, didn't they? All of the Wielders and Keepers still had their Heka; even if they only used it rarely, it was still there. And then there were things like the Seal of Orichalcos, which had allowed Dartz and his minions to enact Shadow Games, despite the spell having been created long before Aknadin and Kul Elna.
The Ishtar family had carefully preserved the secrets of the Pharaoh for thousands of years, but that didn't mean they couldn't have made a mistake. There could have been a misunderstanding, or a copying error during one of the many times they'd had to transfer it to new papyrus. It was technically possible that they'd been wrong about what the Pharaoh had actually achieved… right?
Alexis shoved the unhelpful thoughts away, to the back of her mind to (maybe) revisit later. They weren't important right now; what mattered was that she'd found the person who'd taken Atticus, and it seemed that he wanted to get his hands on her as well. That gave her an advantage— she had something he wanted— and she needed to figure out how to best use that against him. She would get her brother back, even if she had to use herself as bait.
It was what her father would have done, after all.