A Japanese Weresheep in Mutsuba Town
Author's Note: Time for a new pairing! Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH! series.
Pairing: Developing Yuhi x Chupataro.
Summary:
There are some forms of alien activity even MIK turns a blind eye to. The truly alien activity between Chupataro and Ohdo Yuhi, for instance.
Chapter 146: Liberation
"Just what thoughts are swirling around in Yuhi's head?"
"Whether it's for others or for himself…No matter the reason, he's still a personality that's been created by someone for their own convenience."
That personality was Otes.
The sun, the moon, and the Earth in perfect vertical alignment.
Eyed red wings spread above the planet, and droves of human and alien souls the world over are forced to shed the reptilian skins they've been uncomfortable in since birth. Telling themselves "I am afraid to interact." "I am not good enough." "I am too broken to love."
They run and hide from tens of millions of laughing, scary Damamus, who tag them and cause them to vanish at a touch.
"DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR!"
The people's terror is heard from space, immortalized upon posts similar to those erected in the last days of witches. Or nailed to stakes exhibiting the feared teardrop and cross of Resurrection of the Dead.
The Forbidden Holy Lance targets a scarred knight, airlifted by apostles into the sky. A tree of light grows from the metal figures. Keter, Chokhmah, Binah, Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malkuth…
Sun and spirit bleed into the far face of the moon. Bony talons curate, marshalling the bodiless souls through the hexagonal door of the Rush Duel program on the moon's surface.
Behind the gate, an extraordinary object – the Gordias Unite. A temporal anomaly in the form of a Gordian knot, various cubic structures tied to one another and suspended in an imaginary fold outside the regular universe.
The ethos of their times was the great liberator: Liberator Eto.
Yudias and Otes trade blows with their Parallel World Power and Time Power. Images skip over Yuhi's eyes like he's watching the Vuvuijouppa Vugriyu's holographic reproductions or Zaion's movie screening of Setsuri: A Dream of Furniture.
A pyramid.
A scientist named Eve, duelling an opponent with the Adam Factor.
Infernoid Lilith, frozen in ice.
A blonde girl, Ritual Summoning Cyber Angels.
A maiden in love, infiltrating a school disguised as a boy.
A dead boy killed in a car accident, playing the card Deepest Impact.
Cup ramen.
The infinite Damamus press their noses and cheeks against the window of memory, making faces at Yuhi, and he screams.
Destiny calls.
The Damamus eat iced curry bread, fuse, and change into Chupataro.
Yuhi cries.
To waver is to be weak!
Remembering hurt. As did not having anything to remember. Was this the unfathomable darkness of not having your own identity Manabu talked about? And paradoxically, the freedom lying beyond the burden of individuality?
"For Otes, every Rush Duel is the ultimate question of who he is. To lose, then, means he is nothing – a meaningless existence."
Empty.
An empty machine.
The empty Time Machine.
Epoch goes in, nothing comes out.
The Darkmen go in, nothing comes out.
Yuhi was all the emotions. Dreamed of everything ever. Dreamed of something.
He and his reflections recede infinitely in an alluring split mirror. The mirror cracks, and more images strobe.
Scar-Red Nova.
A Fishborg. The one with flowers poking out of the top of the bowl.
Plague Wolf.
Sogetsu Maguto's head.
Nyandestar.
Everyone clapping for him at the Galaxy Cup award ceremony.
He blinks and the flickering stops.
Looking back at him was the giant helmet of Otes, fallen over sideways on an ocean of refined dark matter material. The black of the Dark Matter Ocean, tinged an electric blue with Dark Power.
It was all the Dark Power that Yuhi had absorbed into his body after activating Resurrection of the Dead and unscrewing the lid on Yuamu's container of soy sauce. A wellspring of destructive negative energy winding in on itself, like a snake devouring its tail, colliding galaxies, or the Ohdo family crest.
The "water" had the consistency of an oil slick, breezing rhythmically across Yuhi's ankles. The wuthering waves left faint purple stains on Yuhi's bare feet, though he'd forgotten ever taking off the boots of his UTS uniform, or where they were now.
They weren't anywhere Yuhi could see them, and there wasn't anybody Yuhi could ask.
He was alone.
Otes and Yudias' attacks had jogged his memory somewhat. He recalled flashes of his life from before. Yudias, Yuamu, Chupataro, and Damamu. He cared about them?
Dunking his hands underwater, Yuhi clumped together dark matter material into an effigy of Otes. Specifically, the Otes he became, still roundly debated if he was the real Otes or not.
His memories of his friends and family had gaps. Yet, in a trance, he kneaded his iteration of Otes with photographic accuracy.
There was a giant shipwrecked Otes helmet to serve as reference!
"I'm Ohdo Yuhi."
"I'm Otes."
He was conversing with himself. Or Otes. Or both.
It's a delicate balance, but…
He wouldn't validate Otes' existence through his inaction any longer.
Come, sweet death.
He gave in to the impulse to close his fingers around Otes' throat. To throttle and then strangle what he'd become; his sole witness, the overturned helmet, no person wearing it.
…
Yudias felt the same. He denied Otes – this Otes' – being.
"This is farewell."
Yuhi-Otes did what Otes always did. He did the Otes smirk.
"Transamu Diskarma Rainac conducts his second attack! WAR TO ZEN! HATE CAUSE ACHE QUIET!"
Transamu Diskarma Rainac spun his flail, the tall shadow of Death bringing the spiked ball down on Roadstar Gladimagia.
"GWA~!" (Otes LP 100 ↓ 0)
…
But if people don't act of their own free will, then nothing will change at all.
So, you must regain your own lost form by your own volition. Even if it means your words become lost or confused with the words of others.
Yuhi removed his hands.
"You've changed so much," Otes rasped. From the neck outward, he was slowly dissolving, the Dark Power transferred to Yuhi's palms from Yuhi choking him inclusive.
Remembering hurt. But not remembering hurt worse.
Yuhi cried over the golem of Otes, which he'd created out of dark matter material. The helmet's red lens had splintered, and he was looking into his own disappearing eye.
"I feel sick."