‘Phil! Don’t you dare move a muscle from that bed!’
Those words were like shackles to Phil, and ones that he had actually tried to ignore once there were sounds of movement coming from the direction of Atticus and Zane. One death glare later from Ms. Hibiki, who had been informed by Nurse Fontaine that Phil was better off staying in the infirmary bed, was enough to shatter his ambitions.
In a way, Phil got it. He wasn’t looking too hot by the time he and Nurse Fontaine had managed to get Crowler over to the infirmary. It had actually surprised him a bit. Ignoring the life point costs, which didn’t seem to trigger any of the ill effects of the shadow game, Phil had avoided taking damage during the duel. By all rights, he should be feeling quite normal now. That same surprise had swiftly turned into understanding when Phil remembered that he had in fact XYZ summoned during the duel. Still, the aftereffects were super annoying. He could literally feel his own condition deteriorating just from the initial walk to the infirmary alone.
The aftereffects of XYZ summoning… if his head didn’t feel so slow right now, it was a subject he would have loved to pick Bastion’s brain over when the guy eventually decided to show. But Phil was experienced enough to know what he was going through, though - Shock. Just like the adrenaline from the duel that was steadily wearing off, shock was a hell of a fucking drug.
But with th-
Phil slowly blinked his eyes as another rush of light-headedness sped through his brain like a coked-up street racer trying to break a speed record on a set of busy city streets.
“Woah. Mad wobbles.” Phil muttered with surprise as he tried to focus on the room around him. Just about anything was welcome at this point if it helped steady his disorganized thoughts.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ms. Hibiki remembered walking out of the library with Chazz and Chumley right behind her. The boys weren’t perfectly unharmed, but the extent of that harm was limited to just a few scratches between the two of them.
So, when she had walked into the infirmary to regroup and have Fonda check over the boys just in case, Ms. Hibiki was not prepared for how busy everything was.
Fonda Fontaine. A smart, driven woman Ms. Hibiki had known for upwards of ten years after Sheppard had poached the woman straight from the University of Tokyo, was running around trying to manage an infirmary that looked like it was in the middle of a warzone.
Vellian Crowler was laying unmoving on a bed. If it weren’t for the monitor next to his bloodied body showing a functioning heartbeat, Ms. Hibiki would have even thought he might be dead. It was difficult to believe that someone with that much blood on the outside of their body could still be alive.
Her growing horror hadn’t stopped there, though. No, that was reserved for the moment she watched Fonda use a single hand to shove Phillip back into his bed after the boy had made a wobbly attempt to grab his duel disk and leave. From the looks of her exasperated and heavily concerned expression, this wasn’t the first time the kid had tried to leave. Phillip’s eyes were dull, half-focused, like his normally sharp mind wasn’t fully present. The boy’s clothes seemed to be made more of blood than cloth, and the skin that wasn’t covered by his shirt was… cracked and steadily weeping bloody droplets. Like patches of earth that had baked under the scorching sun during the hottest week of summer.
“Midori!” Fonda said with a raised voice. Stress could clearly be heard thickly lacing her tone as she tried to manage the bustling infirmary by herself.
Ms. Hibiki rested her eyes on Fonda. “How can I help?” She urgently said.
Fonda immediately pointed to Phillip. “Make sure this damned fool of a kid doesn’t leave! He keeps saying that he wants to check on the others, but he isn’t in any shape to do that!”
Ms. Hibiki nodded curtly. She didn’t know whether to be proud of Phillip’s care for his friends, or angry for his utter disregard of his own safety. So, she settled for an even mix of both.
“And where… do you think you’re going?” Ms. Hibiki said through gritted teeth in her best ‘teacher voice’ as she approached Phillip.
“Fucking hell.” Phillip grumbled. “Why won’t you ladies let me back the lads up?”
“Language, Phillip.” Was Ms. Hibiki’s immediate response. Then her eyes softened. Even in his current state, he wanted to help his friends. Commendable, but stupid. “If it makes you feel better, Chazz and Chumley are with me, sitting in the corner trying to keep out of the way. As soon as I get a chance, I will personally go to find Bastion, Jaden, Alexis, and Syrus to confirm their safety.”
“No need to worry about the likes of me, professor. I am now present and accounted for. I was simply waylaid by a tiger of unusually large size and forced to duel a Shadow Rider with impressively bulky muscles. Tania was a difficult opponent, but my key is safe.” Bastion’s voice sounded out behind her back. Ms. Hibiki half-turned to look at the boy. For the most part Bastion seemed unharmed, apart from several scratches on his face and chest.
“Sup dude. Grats on the win.” Phillip greeted his friend with a fist bump from his bed. “Guess that just leaves Jaden, Syrus, and Alexis.”
“Alexis is on her way.” Fonda’s voice cut in through the conversation as she hurried past to check Crowler’s monitors. “Atticus is conscious and speaking in the other room. Chancellor Sheppard had been kind enough in agreeing to accompany her here. The poor girl, bless her heart, asked me to tell her when there was a change no matter what time it was. She’ll be there in about five minutes.”
“Bastion, Phil! Look outside!” Chazz was the next to speak from his spot near the door. Bastion immediately rushed over, and while Phillip tried to join him, Ms. Hibiki was ready, holding him back with a stern glare and single hand on his chest.
“Three very large beams of light coming from the forest?” Bastion asked partially in confusion, and partially to fill his trapped friend in. Phillip frowned, and she could almost hear the gears grinding away in his head. Even in the state the boy was in, he was still trying to fulfil the role of being one of the two strategists of their little team of students.
“I’d bet those are the Sacred Beast cards.” Phillip eventually answered in a slow tone. “Think about it – three Shadow Riders that we know of have fallen tonight. All around the same time. Ms. Hibiki, you beat one on the library roof. Bastion, you beat that one amazon lady I’ve already forgotten the name of…”
“Tania.” Bastion helpfully provided.
Phillip nodded. “Tania. That’s right. I beat… Bernardello.” Ms. Hibiki’s eyes flickered. She didn’t miss the half-second hesitation when Phillip said the name. “I don’t think anyone bothered Alexis, but I would put money on a Shadow Rider challenging Jaden tonight. And if there are seven riders for the seven keys… Nightshroud was number one, Don Zaloog was two, I think Crowler fought one before he dueled Bernardello for three, and then there were the ones I just mentioned. Four through six. That makes one Shadow Rider left if we assume there are seven riders for seven keys. Everyone still has their keys, right?”
One by one the key keepers present nodded as they checked their pockets.
Phillip shrugged and laughed. The movement was enough to make him visibly wince in pain. “Well what do ya know. Seems like they keys were just some dumb McGuffin to move the plot along. Not required items to summon the boss.”
Ms. Hibiki opened her mouth to ask where Phillip had drawn that conclusion, but Bastion beat her to the punch. “Phil what do y-“ His eyes widened in understanding mid-sentence. “I see… you’re saying that the keys are either a distraction or serve another purpose altogether…”
“Dunno for sure what they do, but ominous big bad light beams don’t happen for funsies. I don’t think they’re part of some cool light show the school is putting on for the students. Plus, three light beams? One for each Sacred Beast card, I’d bet.”
Bastion began to pace back and forth. “No! No, this makes sense! Tania wasn’t terribly concerned about the outcome of our duel. She accepted defeat gracefully! I thought she was being honorable about it, or maybe there were countless Shadow Riders lurking in the background to pick up after her, but this makes sense!”
“Spill it Bastion.” Chazz deadpanned. An underlaying tone of irritation was in his voice.
“Dueling energy!” Bastion shouted as if he had just come to one of the most important realizations in his life.
Bastion turned to Ms. Hibiki. “It all makes perfect sense! Every puzzle piece that we have at our disposal fits together if we add that single missing piece, dueling energy, to the puzzle! Years ago, maybe around Battle City? I can’t remember for sure. There was a hypothesis running around that spirited and talented duelists create some sort of ‘energy’ during their duels as a sort of unconscious byproduct. Knowing what I know now of shadow duels, I wonder if it’s also in part due to the magical nature of those duels. Think about it! Yugi Muto versus Marik Ishtar? Yugi Muto versus Ryo Bakura? Marik Ishtar versus Mai Valentine? Probably all shadow duels!”
Bastion’s hands shook in excitement, while a crazed grin developed on Phillips face as he began to understand Bastion’s reasoning. “With so many of the finalist duels in Battle City being shadow games, I can reasonably put forth a theory that enough dueling energy was created that various experts began to notice! The king of games himself being involved in so many duels during the tournament probably made the energy even more detectible! So, if there is a gate or some sort of magical block to contain three incredibly powerful cards that are compared to the god cards themselves, why not make it powered by duel energy? It could be a mistake, or it could be the creators wanting to make sure a set of strong duelists are around when the gates open. That way the Sacred Beasts could be suppressed by those same strong duelists if someone were to try and tap into their power. Or… if you want to go even crazier…”
Bastion’s face nearly began to glow as he continued to expand on his theory.
“I believe that the possibility of someone accessing the Sacred Beast cards in the past and deciding that their power at that point in time was not enough to meet their goals is highly likely. Or perhaps the Sacred Beasts had the power, but the person in question did not have a use for that power. Chancellor Sheppard said those cards were strong. Strong enough to even grant wishes, according to his sources. So if the Sacred Beasts were either judged as unable to fulfill the user’s wish, or that the user had yet to think of a wish to give them, the best course of action would be to seal the cards. That would keep them in one place and their powers in check until they decided to free the beasts.”
“So what you’re saying,” Chazz asked. “Is that the gate was made to open when enough strong duelists fought on the island.”
Bastion pointed to Chazz. “Yes! Precisely so, my friend! The spirit keys themselves were likely just objects, worthless by themselves, to give strong duelists a reason to fight and create dueling energy. No one would bother to investigate if the keys were useful or not. Simply the existence of keys in the first place usually means that there is a gate somewhere that they open. Thus, people automatically assume the spirit keys are the only way the gates open. This causes duelists of opposing sides to clash, which makes duel energy, which provides the power to open the gates. In fact, if I was the creator of the gates, I would go the extra mile and find some way to make the keys into duel energy batteries or collectors, as to make it even easier to gather the needed energy to open the gates.”
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Bastion turned triumphantly to Ms. Hibiki. His body language seemed to shout the words ‘I figured it out!’ to the very heavens themselves. She sighed and shook her head. “Let’s just focus on one problem at a time. I’m going to check on Atticus. Phillip, you’d better still be in that bed when I get back. Bastion, I know you two like to bounce ideas off each other, but look at the condition Phillip is in. He doesn’t need any more excitement tonight.”
Strangely enough, there wasn’t a single protest coming from Phil’s direction. Ms. Hibiki turned around.
“Ah. It seems Phil passed out during my explanation.” Bastion said the words matter of fact, even as a sense of alarm began to grow in his mind.
Ms. Hibiki sighed. “Fonda said this would happen inevitably. Don’t worry, Bastion. It’s his body’s way of telling his mind that he needs rest. I’ll let her know just in case, though.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bastion and Chazz carefully watched Ms. Hibiki walk into the back room to check on the nurse, Atticus, and Zane.
“If we truly do plan to back Jaden up, we’d better leave now.” Bastion mentioned.
“Do you think it’s okay to leave the dope alone? Both you and him are banking off the idea that there are only seven Shadow Riders.”
Bastion hesitated, but eventually asked Chazz one singular question in response. “You saw Ms. Hibiki seriously duel earlier. What did you think about it?”
Chazz didn’t even need to answer Bastion’s question. He grabbed a spare piece of paper from Nurse Fontaine’s desk and scribbled a sentence-long note. At Bastion’s questioning glance, he shrugged and placed the note in a conspicuous place near the door.
“Just in case Ms. Hibiki thinks we got taken. As long as she stays here, the infirmary won’t be an issue. Chumley, hang tight. We’ll be back in a few.”
Chumley paused in the middle of raiding Nurse Fontaine’s mini fridge. “Stay safe C-dog. I’ve already found a block of cheese. Once I source out a loaf of bread, I’ll have some yummy grilled cheese goodness waiting for you guys.”
“Don’t call me C-dog.” Chazz reflexively responded as the two boys slipped out the door.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Barely a minute or two after Bastion and Chazz left, Alexis came sprinting through the door with Chancellor Sheppard hot on her heels.
“Phil!” Alexis shouted. Her eyes widened in horror as she paused and took in Phil’s state. “What happened? A shadow duel? Is he alright? No… what am I saying? He isn’t alr-“
“Alexis. He’s stable. Your brother’s in back.” Ms. Hibiki gently interrupted her as she stepped into the main room.
Alexis hesitated, but eventually nodded and moved to the back room where Atticus’s bed was.
“It’s best to give them some space.” Ms. Hibiki explained as the faint sound of sobbing began to emanate from the room she had just left. “Bastion, now th-“ Her eyes narrowed as she realized the room had two less people than before.
Ms. Hibiki sighed and began to massage her forehead in an attempt to ease her stress.
“The hotheadedness of youth.” Chancellor Sheppard said with a sigh that was a mixture of admiration and exasperation. “Fonda gave me the barest details over the phone. Those two boys likely went to help their friend Jaden. If I was 30 years younger and in their shoes, perhaps I would have done the same.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ms. Hibiki watched as Phillip slept motionlessly under a pile of blankets that Fonda had buried the boy under to help with the shock. Chancellor Sheppard had left almost immediately, citing that he needed to message Kaiba for reinforcements and the best doctors the richest man in the world could send over on short notice. She hadn’t missed the fact that Sheppard visibly flinched whenever Kaiba’s name was mentioned.
“Scared the living daylights out of me.” Fonda said as she walked out of the other room to stand next to Ms. Hibiki. “Nearly the middle of the night and he knocks on the infirmary door when I’m busy checking up on Zane and Atticus. For a moment I thought it was one of those Shadow Riders coming to pick up more hostages.”
“Phillip mentioned he dueled Bernardello when he was listing off Shadow Riders earlier.” Ms. Hibiki commented.
The two women stood silently. The only sounds in the infirmary were the faint echoes of Alexis sobbing, along with Atticus’s reassuring words as he endured his sister’s tearful bear hug.
Eventually Nurse Fontaine broke the silence. “He did. That man ambushed Vellian right after a close duel. Nothing but scum lower than a diseased rat decomposing in a gutter. Marco threw his soul into a card and tried to do the same to Phillip. Why, if that monster clad in human flesh was still around, I’d beat him to death with my bare hands. No card games. No nonsense. Just me and that prick locked in a room.”
“Trust me Fonda, I’d be right after you in line. But Phillip managed to win…” Ms. Hibiki said. “And against the Italian Stallion himself. Say what you will about that… bastard.” She spat the foul word out in disgust. Uncharacteristic of her, but since the only conscious student around was Chumley, who was busy singing some strange cooking song while frying grilled cheese sandwiches, she felt the word was warranted. “But he was a legitimate pro duelist. For a student to go against him and win… what happened to Bernardello? Looking at Phillip, the duel must have been extremely close.”
At that question Nurse Fontaine fell silent again.
Ms. Hibiki’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean…”
“He’s dead.” The nurse answered. “That’s just about the only thing that I could get out of Phillip, besides that Vellian was in a bad state. Phillip had to kill Marco Bernardello to save Vellian’s life. With how much blood there was scattered around that hallway, I believe him. No man could lose that much blood and still live. There was no body, but the consequences of shadow games are often unpredictable and bizarre. It could have been destroyed as part of the penalty game.”
“To save Vellian’s life…” Ms. Hibiki echoed. “What’s the overall situation with the two of them?”
Fonda shook her head. “Not great, but he’s out of the woods for now. Phillip walked out of the shadow duel with his life, but he managed to get a nasty concussion and he started coughing up blood on the ride back from the abandoned dorms. His skin is so cracked and torn that it almost looks like some lunatic tried to flay him alive but got bored a quarter of the way through. It makes me wonder if the intensity of the shadow duel was such that his body couldn’t handle the strain and started to break down. Gave me a proper scare for sure, but the process seemed to halt once I got him to lay down. I still can’t believe the little trooper kept trying to walk out of here before he passed out. The adrenaline must have finally worn off.”
Fonda took a deep breath to stabilize herself as she gestured towards Crowler. “Vellian was unconscious when I got there. Surprisingly, that’s actually the good news. Bernardello put him through the damned wringer. He has cuts to his stomach so deep that I can actually see one of his many broken ribs with my bare eyes. I had to spend nearly twenty minutes cleaning the blood off his head before I could even begin to patch it all up. He’s mostly stable now, but I called a doctor I know in Domino City for a second opinion. He’s going to catch the first ferry over here in the morning.”
“All of this… simply because there was a snake under our feet that I couldn’t see. Phillip had to kill a man because I. Couldn’t. See. He’s fifteen for heaven’s sake!” Ms. Hibiki knocked the back of her head against the wall she leaned against several times in frustration. “Looking back, the signs were there all along, right in plain sight. Marco being available to teach right after Sartyr was stabbed to death. That poor kid, Dimitri! He was spending so much time with Marco before he tried to kill Phillip! And Marco even led the search for the boy! That must have been why Dimitri was never found. The head of security disappeared that same day! So many signs…”
Fonda put a comforting arm around Ms. Hibiki’s shoulders. “Hindsight’s 20/20. This isn’t all on you. This is on all of us teachers. And that rat was a former student. He was Vellian’s protégé. His record was spotless! Who would have even thought to suspect him? Don’t go beating yourself up, Midori. It’s like you always say to the kids when they make a mistake. Understand the mistake and learn from it, all so you can minimize the damage and prevent it from happening again.”
“But we’re teachers! We should be bette-“
“I’ll eat to that! To fixing mistakes!” Chumley’s cheerful voice interrupted. “Man, this night has majorly sucked and I think I’m going to have nightmares for at least a few months, but the first batch of my famous grilled cheese sandwiches are ready to rock and roll! Ms. Hibiki, Nurse Fontaine, do you guys want any?”
Ms. Hibiki couldn’t help herself. She cracked a smile at the earnest enthusiasm of Chumley. “Sure. Thanks, Chumley.”
Chumley pumped his fist and swiftly set a steaming-hot grilled cheese sandwich onto a paper plate to hand to Ms. Hibiki. After doing the same for Nurse Fontaine, who accepted it with a soft grin of thanks, he moved into the back room to make the same offer to Alexis, Atticus, and Zane.
“What a kid.” Fonda remarked as Ms. Hibiki took a small bite of her sandwich. “His legs are still trembling and his hands are still shaking, but he sees us being all serious, hears Alexis crying in back, and he does his best to cheer us all up. See, these are the types of kids that you are helping to grow. And it doesn’t stop there! Chazz dangled himself off a roof to rescue a kid from another dorm! He could have just ran! Phillip put his life on the line to save Vellian! Alexis didn’t even have a key, but she stood and fought! Bastion and Chazz were so concerned about Jaden and Syrus that they ran back out into the night to help! Bernardello’s a black spot. But as long as we still have kids like these at the academy, the future is so bright you need sunglasses to look at it.”
The grilled cheese sandwich was simple. One slice of yellow American cheese in the middle, a bit of butter slathered on both sides of each piece of bread, and fried on a little electric griddle Chumley dug out of the deepest depths of the nurse’s back closet. But it was warm. Cheesy. Tasty. And despite everything, despite her worries, Ms. Hibiki’s shoulders relaxed slightly with every bite.
“Thanks, Fonda.”
“Hey, it’s what friends are for.” Fonda replied after taking a satisfied bite of her sandwich.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Waves battered the sides of the ferry as it lurched into the harbor of Domino City. The morning mist partially obscured the craft, making it difficult to see any of the usual movement on board. As the ferry drew closer to the city, the docks swarmed with sailors preparing to help guide the boat close enough for passengers to begin loading for the morning.
“Let’s see…” The harbormaster muttered to himself as he thumbed through a stack of documents to see what the schedule looked like. “Number thirteen, on track from Duel Academy. Ah, right. This is the one that’s a day or two late. Nibbs, when the lads get the ferry tied to the dock, let the captain know I want to see him in my office. A delay of a few hours is fine, but I’ve got Roland’s men breathing down my neck asking why the ferry is this late.”
A tanned and rough-looking sailor saluted and stomped towards the ferry to get answers while the harbormaster stood at the window and watched the ship lurch towards the docks. Just why? Why was it this late?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A bit further down the docks, in an area that few people were paying any attention due to the strange lateness of the regular ferry, a brown-haired boy wearing a mustard-yellow jacket soaked with salt water and blood heaved himself out of the water and up a ladder to collapse onto the docks in exhaustion – and utter confusion.
The last thing he could remember for certain was waking up in the infirmary to the sound of a soft, gentle nursery rhyme, but even that almost seemed like a half-remembered dream.
Suddenly a voice, gentle, sweet, and calm, whispered close to his ear.
“Child. Sweet child. You mustn’t stop. Your bones, so cold in the water. Your flesh, trembles from the chill. Come. You must find warmth. Shelter. Only then may you rest your weary head on my lap. To close your eyes, but for a minute.”
Dimitri shuddered in sweet fear and longing as the voice seemed to drip into his ears like a stream of sickly-warm honey. Images flashed through his mind like black and white pictures, so distant it felt like they were taken by another person altogether. Rough-looking sailors heaving the unmoving body of a schoolboy out of a one-man sailboat battered to pieces by the waves. A captain in his cabin, eyes wide with fear as he gazed upon the results of a Ouija board floating ominously in the air.
DEATH.
That same captain, but now with a lifeless look in his eyes. His body is now half-merged with the ship, forever cursed to man the wheel of a ferry populated only by ghosts. The open door to the captain’s cabin behind the man shows a room with walls replaced by pulsing organs. The heartbeat of the ship.
And then as the last half-remembered image rushed past his eyes, Dimitri felt a rush of sickly-sweet warmth as exhaustion forced his eyes shut.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Dimitri’s eyes snapped open. A light is shining in his face. A bakery. He is curled up in a tight ball next to the ovens. So warm. So cozy.
“Hey kid. This is a crime scene. You can’t be here.” A gruff voice belonging to the flashlight-wielding police officer said.
Was this another dream? How did he get here?
“It’s not a dream.” A gentle female voice whispered lovingly into his ear. “Child, sweet child. Rest your eyes. I am here. Ignore the man. He is not here. This is a dream.”
The words contradicted themselves. But the woman. She wouldn’t lie to Dimitri. So he surrendered to the sudden loss of strength and closed his eyes.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Dark Necrofear gently caressed Dimitri’s cheek with one of her blue hands. Such a sweet boy. Hers now. She would not share.
“Kid. Are you alright?” The police man cautiously nudged Dimitri’s body with a boot. In one hand he held a flashlight. In the other, a gun. She pursed her lips. The interloper would not let her Dimitri rest. Just like the ones that owned the bakery. This would not do. His body already barely held the strength to stumble from the cold, cruel water to the warm lifegiving ovens. Even with her help.
No matter. Mother would provide. It was her duty. With her decision made, Dark Necrofear gently caused a gust of wind to open her Dimitri’s mouth. She slipped through the opening, and a second later Dimitri stood up. His motions were jerky, like a rusted metal puppet being moved with only a handful of strings.
“My child, my sweet child needs rest. But fret not. The oven grows dim. It requires fuel. You will do nicely.”