The next day swiftly arrived to see Phil’s downtime abruptly interrupted by the calm, black-suited figure of Roland carefully picking his way through the alley to sit at the ever-smoldering trash can that was the centerpiece of the whole area.
Phil could see how Roland casually ignored the wary looks of the raggedy men beside him in favor of glancing toward him while the pair held their hands over the fire. He wasn’t particularly surprised. Lumina had commented earlier that he wasn’t looking great. Not as bad as he was at the end of the Shadow Rider raid, but not great. The seconds drifted into minutes of silence. Roland could clearly see something in Phil’s face, but the man’s own expression didn’t offer any hints as to what that was. A minute drifted into five. And then ten.
Roland slipped off his sleek black sunglasses and used his other hand to massage the bridge of his nose. Hardly a great way to relieve stress, but it was often better than nothing.
“Mr. Kaiba wants to see you, Phillip.” He eventually spoke up.
Phil looked over to Roland through the corner of his eyes. He’d been expecting exactly that. But before Phil could even answer, Roland continued to talk casually, like the two of them were discussing the day’s weather.
“The cops are following a different angle now since no one got a clear look at you or the driver of that Lada before you left. MacKenzie was confirmed dead at the scene, and his close followers have all either been arrested, killed, or flat-out disappeared. The group of students you were working with all made it out alive more or less in one piece. They are currently under the protection of Kaiba Corp. Mr. Kaiba will want a full debrief and then you can get on one of our planes back to Domino City. What you do after that is none of our concern.”
Silence rushed back to fill the air between the two. Phil chewed on the side of a stale bagel he’d found thrown out behind a nearby bakery. A quarter, a half, and two-thirds of the bagel disappeared under Phil's steady bites into his mouth before he spoke up with an answer.
"You got it, boss. Where to?"
Roland closed his eyes and heaved a relieved sigh. He stood and gestured toward the mouth of the alley, where there was a limousine with an open door waiting partially out of sight. Phil probably would never have noticed the car if it hadn't been explicitly pointed out to him.
Phil cocked his head slightly in surprise. “Nice wheels,” he muttered, stuffing the last of the stale bagel into his mouth and trooping toward the car. Roland politely nodded to the remaining men around the fire and matched Phil’s pace.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
What came out of the meeting between Seto Kaiba and Phillip Jenson, only those two knew for sure. As soon as the two met behind the secured office doors in the New York City branch of Kaiba Corp, the doors were shut. Locked. Triple locked. The motion-sensing machine gun turrets were activated. The entire block was designated as a temporary no-fly zone. Snipers were put into place and Roland stationed his men like they were troops defending the most important city in the world. From how Seto Kaiba was acting, it might as well have been.
He only had the barest idea of what the two might be talking about. That alone was enough for Roland to somewhat understand the need for such secrecy. He was usually one of the more informed people in Kaiba’s entourage, with only Mokuba generally being higher on that list. Yet for all that preparation, Seto Kaiba and Phillip Jenson both walked out of that office in the end in one piece, both wearing pensive looks. The pressure radiating off Kaiba was enough to make Roland's heart feel constricted. Like it was straining to beat, to carry his lifeblood around his body. The almost scarier part was that the boy seemed to possess a similar pressure. One slightly lesser than Kaiba, but still noticeable.
“Send him back to Domino.” Kaiba snapped out the orders in a brisk manner and pointed toward several of Roland’s black-suited men. “You, you, and you. Send word to the relevant personnel in my space station to prepare for my arrival. I have several modifications for them to make in the areas possessing artificial gravity. By the time I personally arrive there, they’d better be at least halfway done.”
“You heard the man! Move! Move!” Roland shouted like the world’s angriest drill sergeant after Kaiba was finished talking to spur his men to move even faster. As usual, that did the trick. It wasn’t just those three men. Every single black suit under Roland’s command started to sprint around in order to turn Kaiba’s words into reality. One man phoned Kaiba’s private airport to ready the plane. Another politely, yet hurriedly rushed the boy to the door. Roland grabbed the paper with the modifications to make from his boss, and the rest scurried around like ants in a disturbed nest to gather the materials Roland listed off that he knew for sure weren’t already at the station.
It was an odd series of modifications. Well, the space station itself was already odd, to be fair. Only Kaiba, Mokuba, and Roland himself knew why it was that way. After all, it was no easy task to tear open a gate into the literal afterlife. But this?
If he didn’t know better, Roland could have sworn that Seto Kaiba was adding some sort of racing track to the space station.
But that hardly made any sort of sense…
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
There was no mistaking it, Domino City was the place to be at any time of the year. Fall. Winter. Spring. Summer. All four seasons were beautiful in that city. Of course, there were still downsides, Zane considered as he weaved through a thickly crowded square with the rest of the group he was with. Compared to the mountains he’d spent most of the summer in, Domino City was perhaps a wee bit too crowded.
Zane furrowed his brows and used his steel-like shoulders to continue pushing through the swarming crowd like a boulder being placed in the middle of a roaring series of rapids. Behind him, almost in a straight line due to Zane’s efforts in breaking through the crowd, Atticus rapidly swung his head around to soak in all the sights he’d missed for so long with the kind of enthusiasm one would normally only see in an extremely happy dog. Perhaps a dog that was also given cocaine. A coked-up dog? A coke dog.
A rare chuckle broke through Zane’s stoic mask at the thought. Behind Atticus was his friend’s little sister, Alexis, who had hardly let her brother out of her sight for longer than an hour since he’d recovered. Completely understandable. Zane himself still woke up sometimes in the morning wondering if the night they’d recovered Atticus was just some fanciful dream. But no, his brother in all but blood was back where he was meant to be.
Then came his own little brother, Syrus. Zane could at least admit to being slightly proud of the fact that the boy was doing an admirable job hiding his nervousness at the size of the crowd. Better than curling up in a ball and forcing Zane to do a search and rescue. It probably helped that Alexis was making sure to keep one of her hands clamped on his Slifer Red jacket in a vice grip so the much smaller Syrus wouldn’t be swept away before anyone could notice.
Their group at one point had been a bit larger. Bastion Misawa accompanied them for most of the morning until his phone rang with a call from his internship supervisor. Some fellow named Eisenstein needed him back at the lab ASAP. Jaden hadn’t lasted more than two hours before a duel in the distance drew him away. Zane and the rest had been tempted to watch as well, but Atticus had started ranting and raving about some sort of ice cream shop halfway across town….
It kind of snowballed from there. As usual whenever Atticus Rhodes was involved. Finally, though, Zane managed to push through the last of the crowd to find the entrance to the ice cream shop.
“Yes! Ahahaha! Yes!” Atticus shouted, rushing up to the windows of the shop to kneel and throw his hands wide into the air. “Mommy Mree’s! I have missed thee so! For one thousand years I have been prevented from sampling thy unimaginable delights by a foul, cursed knave of a dark spirit! Mommy Mree’s! Grant this worthless Atticus succor!”
Alexis slapped her big brother on the shoulder with an exasperated look spread across her face. At least she wasn’t uncomfortable at the mention of Atticus’s previous state. Her brother had worked hard ever since he woke up to turn that into a massive joke for everyone instead of a point of trauma.
“Bro. This is an ice cream shop. And you were only gone for a few years. Not a thousand.”
“Feh. There are some things in a man’s life that cannot be messed with.” Atticus spat. Zane could clearly see past his expression of mock anger. His friend, as usual, was greatly enjoying the act of screwing around as much as humanly possible. “Besides, Lexy-lex, don’t you know that each year a man is possessed by an evil spirit is equivalent to at least a few hundred years?”
As usual, the lighthearted argument between siblings began to fill the air to gradually replace the hubbub of the crowd. Zane took a seat on one of the chairs outside of the shop. He was content to be here, but he had little interest in ice cream at the moment. Eventually, Atticus threw up his hands in mock frustration and dragged Alexis into the shop (which was actually called Mother Mree’s Ice Cream Emporium, not Mommy Mree’s). Syrus followed; his shining eyes clearly fixated on the mega banana split 5000 poster hanging up in the window. Zane chuckled softly at the sight. His brother was actually going to try to eat that gargantuan split.
And then a boy wearing a spotless white business suit and a dead serious look on his face sat down at Zane’s table. Zane glanced at him and nodded his head amicably in greeting. It was a bit odd that the boy had sat at his specific table, considering that there were several empty tables around the ice cream shop, but eh, whatever floated his boat. There was no point in starting something idiotic on a day as nice as this when everyone was so happy.
“Zane Truesdale?” The boy abruptly said the name out loud. There was something about how he said the name. Zane could recognize it. The sheer arrogance. He’d once possessed something similar. Perhaps not a tone this bad. But before that event earlier in the school year, well, Zane could admit he’d been a bit high on his horse.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Yes?” Zane eventually responded with a quirked eyebrow and a single word.
“Aster Phoenix.”
Zane looked the boy up and down after the abrupt introduction. Now that he thought about it, he actually did somewhat recognize him. Aster Phoenix was an up-and-coming pro duelist. Quite a good one, actually. His official record hadn’t been marred by a single loss so far. So this was him.
“Aster Phoenix…” Zane hummed and leaned back on his chair, using the slight movement to glance through the window of Mother Mree’s Ice Cream Emporium. Atticus was harassing the poor lady at the counter to ‘give him his gosh darned twenty scoop ice cream extravaganza or so help me I’ll hop the counter and do it myself’. The others were still trying to decide what ice cream flavor to get. To be fair, there were a lot of choices. Verging on nearly a hundred, at least when Zane poked his head in about a year ago. He hadn’t had any reason to go since.
“Well. What can I do for you?”
Aster smoothly spread his hands out, moving one of them under his suit jacket to produce a spotless duel disk that he quickly strapped to his arm. However, he avoided Zane’s pointed question initially in order to get out a quick monologue.
“Zane Truesdale. They say that you disappeared into the mountains for a couple of months. Then one day you come walking out. Talking, thinking, and even dueling like a new man. It’s enough to make a guy wonder what you saw… and what you’re worth now.”
Zane knew exactly what he’d seen. It was hardly the first time he’d tramped across that mountain range. That range was the home base of the Cyber Style Dojo, after all. But this time was different. He’d completely eschewed the usage of technology, of outside help. He’d walked in there with his duel disk and the clothes on his back. Being completely unburdened by all distractions was the only way Zane could be sure he’d find answers to his question. The question. The problem that had rampaged through his mind ever since his disgraceful defeat to Camula. In all honesty, Zane could also recognize that the same question had still been lurking at the back of his mind for years. He’d ignored it back then, but it was still there.
What was he worth? As a man and a duelist. What was he worth?
Everyone said that Zane Truesdale was perfect. The teachers. His classmates. The media picked up on the story of the shining, unblemished star of the island. The Kaiser of Duel Academy. Even Seto Kaiba himself offered a word of rare praise when Zane was given the honor of meeting him in person for a minute or two a few years ago.
But perfect was just that. Perfect. A word that meant Zane was already at his peak. Without a place to climb higher. Perfect meant that there was no more room for improvement. That this was the best he was ever going to get.
Perfect wasn’t enough to defeat Camula while also devising a way to save his brother’s soul. Perfect wasn’t enough to find Atticus after he’d disappeared in the abandoned dorm. Perfect wasn’t enough to find some way to help his own little brother cast aside his insecurities to grow as a duelist.
Maybe Zane was perfect. And if he was… that honestly scared him the most. At this rate, he knew what would happen when he graduated from Duel Academy and joined the pro circuit. Perhaps he would do well at first. But a perfect Zane with no more room for growth would eventually meet a foe that still had that room available. That had a larger peak to climb toward. One that wasn’t perfect yet, but with more potential. Perhaps even infinite potential. He could see that in some of his juniors already. Jaden Yuki, for example. Jaden Yuki might not even have a peak to reach. He would always learn, always grow, until his ability as a duelist was far out of sight from Zane’s peak. To infinity and beyond.
Zane memorized Kaiba’s words from the meeting after the Shadow Rider raid. He’d worked them over and over in his head to try and understand their meaning. Eventually, he came to a certain conclusion. The reason behind sending him to the mountains. It was to force Zane to rediscover his own roots. To ponder over what precisely was his own power. Maybe he could even find a new peak to strive toward.
Several weeks later, in which Zane defied death countless times, the doors of his old dojo were in sight. Those same, nostalgic doors. The only difference was the silence. No shouts were coming from the building. No sounds of disciples being put through their paces. The entire complex was empty, save for one man. Why? It was another question for him to consider. There should have been no reason for the disciples to be sent away. Zane was quite aware of the graduation rates from the dojo. There should have been an ample number of students running around. Dueling. Sparring. Shouting. Learning.
It soon became clear that Chancellor Sheppard – no, his master, had different expectations for his visit.
That alone caused a knot to form in Zane’s heart.
‘Unless… you’ve come seeking more.’
That was what his master said when Zane walked through those doors. What exactly was he seeking back then? A duel with his old master to test his own ability? Possession of the formidable Cyberdark cards? His master seemed certain Zane was pursuing the latter. That was why the dojo was empty other than the two duelists. He was fearful that Zane would harm the other students in some mad pursuit of power. In all fairness, the thought had crossed his own mind on the journey there. The power of the Cyberdarks was said to be so great that the head of the Cyber Style himself had sworn they would never see the light of day again. Could anyone at the dojo even stop him if he really, really wanted to take that deck?
Did he want that? A so-called ‘power overwhelming’?
“Hey Zane, what’s with the weirdo? Bro, you know it’s hot out, right? Middle of the summer. Don’t wear a suit. You’ll get heat exhaustion. No one wants to give you a piggyback ride out of here to an ambulance. That would be weird. I only give piggyback rides to my buddies and good-looking gals.”
Atticus’s voice broke through Zane’s memories like an out-of-control train. His friend possessed a firm, yet still easy-going tone in his voice. Enough to remind Zane that Atticus Rhodes, while usually appearing to be a teasing, jokester of a man, was quite a formidable duelist in his own right. That same fact was what brought him to the abandoned dorm to be possessed in the first place, and what helped him survive being worn as a flesh suit by that dark spirit Nightshroud.
Zane opened his mouth to answer Atticus’s question, but Aster Phoenix was faster. The boy leaned forward with his duel disk clearly showing on the table, looking straight at Zane with a laser-like glare.
“Duel me, Zane Truesdale. Unless it really is true that the Indomitable Kaiser peaked in Duel Academy.”
Zane looked back at him with a gaze that was as steady and unmovable as the mountains he’d spent half the summer climbing. He could feel it in his heart. Aster Phoenix wasn't being entirely truthful. There was some other angle at play. For the life of him, he couldn't see it, but there was undoubtedly an angle.
“Do you want me to take care of this?” Atticus casually broke back into the conversation with practiced ease. “Not just anyone can duel the top dog right off the bat, ya know. Gotta work your way up the ranks.”
Zane let a tiny grateful smile flit across his face, standing and patting Atticus on the shoulder in appreciation for his concern. “Thanks, but if I want to be a pro, I’ll have to duel this guy eventually. Might as well do it here.”
Aster confidently smirked and stood to mimic Zane. “There you go. Confidence befitting the Kaiser. I will be interested to see if fate will allow that confidence to remain intact. After all, it is my destiny to win here and show you the truth of the light.”
Zane: 4000 Aster: 4000
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Thus it begins. The Kaiser versus the Man of Destiny.” Sartorius murmured. He was halfway across the city from where Aster was, but distance meant little to a seer of his caliber. Yet not all was capable of being seen. Not yet. Even Sartorius was somewhat unsure of what the results of the clash of champions would be. That alone was a feat worthy of recognition.
However, it wasn’t like the strings of fate guiding that duel were completely hidden from his prying eyes. No, the situation was more like there were a few too many options left on the table, all options that were equally likely for both of the duelists to take, instead of more likely and less likely options he could remove from his calculations to narrow the results down.
Of course, there was another question. One equally important, one that was a major influence in creating that multitude of options. That day in the dojo. The day that try as he liked, Sartorius was completely unable to see the ending of.
Did Zane wrest control of the Cyberdark deck from Chancellor Sheppard? What words did the two men exchange before Zane walked out of the dojo to begin his journey back to Domino City?
“Hm. What words. What words. What do you think?”
A purple-haired man clad in a pure white coat glanced toward Sartorius to consider the unclear question the seer left hanging in the air.
“Aster will win, of course. He has the support of your esteemed self.”
Sartorius gently nodded. “May it be as you say, Prince Ojin.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
15 hours. That was how long it took for Phil to get from New York City to the Domino City Airport. 15 hours in which he had eaten nearly every scrap of food on Kaiba’s private plane, and consumed every sip of every non-alcoholic beverage he could find. Of course, that 15 hours had also included one of the longest showers Phil had ever taken in his life. Lumina had managed to get one in too. No one seemed to care that the water was still running while Phil was obviously in the other room trying to detonate his own stomach on the stack of enchiladas hidden away in the very back of the fridge.
And now, after being kicked off the plane by an annoyed stewardess, Phil stood outside of the airport with Lumina and looked into the horizon.
“So… what now?” Lumina eventually ventured the question into the warm noon air. Phil didn’t immediately answer, choosing to stand in silence amid the sound of cicadas buzzing all around them.
Phil gently closed his eyes to soak in the atmosphere like a starving man being handed a ticket to an all-you-can-eat buffet. “Man. I love this sound. You know, back at home around where I lived, we had cicadas come out just about every year. The noise they make is a bit annoying at first, but I grew to enjoy it. It’s nostalgic, I guess. Reminds me of growing up. Of happy, carefree summers. But I guess that’s beside the point. There’s what, a month left in the summer? Maybe a little bit less?”
Lumina closed her eyes to try and picture the academic calendar she’d seen hanging in Phil’s dorm room a countless number of times.
“Hm. Yes. I think you’re right. It is about a month. But don’t quote me on that, Phil. I’m not responsible if one of the teachers chews your face off for being late. You know Hibiki can fold you in half if she wants to. Or worse, give you that blank wall detention again.”
“Eh. Let ‘em.” Phil lightly shrugged. “I doubt much of anything important will happen before school starts. I know in the manga all the crazy stuff happened during the school year. Probably the same in the anime. Tragoedia probably would have naturally emerged from his shit-filled hidey-hole during the school year if I hadn’t gone over to America to burn his rat face out of his academy. Knowing GX I bet he’d show up in a tournament arc or something. The point is, you see those mountains in the distant horizon?”
Lumina squinted her eyes to follow Phil’s pointed finger.
“Yes… yeah. I see them. Why?”
“I’m gonna go to them. See what’s up over there. I’ve never gotten a chance to travel across Japan. This might be a slightly different Japan than back on Earth, but it’s close enough to count. While I'm doing that, I'll train. A good old 80s-style training montage where I can Eye of the Tiger that shit. If I practice outdoors, away from people, no one should bug me about my XYZ cards. Hopefully, I can get my body used to the summoning process before school starts. If I can withstand even one or two more XYZ summons in a duel, it could come in clutch if some other motherfucker decides to shit out some modern summoning methods.”
Lumina shook her head and mussed up Phil’s hair with a hand.
“I guess I’ll stick around with you then. I would ask you to take it slow, but I know you won’t, and someone will need to keep the hospital on speed dial.”
Phil nodded in agreement and began to walk toward the distant, mist-covered mountains, while Lumina hopped back on top of her cloud and floated next to him.
“It’ll be an adventure for sure.”