“Oh, there you are, my knight!”
Phil blinked owlishly at the Obelisk Blue-colored interruption of his and Bastion’s careful research. He carefully glanced at Bastion, then at the rest of his friends, who were sitting a table away and appeared to be taking a break from their card game to watch the proceedings with various levels of amusement. No, there was no doubt. Princess Rose was looking squarely at him when she said the words ‘my knight’.
“I see you’re feeling better.” Phil chose the diplomatic approach over asking why the fuck he was a knight all of a sudden. In part because Rose did seem like a nice girl, albeit a bit stuffy, and in part because Lumina was sitting across from him while sending a death glare over and mouthing the words ‘be nice or else’.
Princess Rose sank into a deep curtsy while a gentle smile danced across her face, causing Syrus, Chazz, and Chumley to all sigh deeply with strong red blushes coloring their cheeks.
“I have been graciously informed by dear Alexis that I have you, Knight Phillip, to thank for her being there to stop the villainous knave from breaking through my door yesterday. Truly, though Lady Alexis does deserve much praise, this lady is also grateful for your staggering foresight and careful plans.”
Bastion disguised a bout of uproarious laughter with a fit of muffled coughing that sent him doubling over onto the table desperately trying to catch his own breath.
“Thus…” Princess Rose paused to shoot a look of mild concern toward Phil’s friend, only continuing to speak once Bastion regained control over his lungs and waved her onwards with a face flushed beet-red, almost to the point where it was a similar color to Jaden’s Slifer Red jacket. “Thus, this princess would be remiss in her duties if good work was not rewarded. I considered that question throughout the night and spoke with my father early this morning. Sir Phillip, as is my right and privilege as a lady of noble birth, I pronounce thee knight.”
Phil shot her a thumbs up.
“Sweet. I hope that doesn’t mean I have to move in an odd, L-shaped pattern whenever I want to go somewhere. Anyways just call me Phil, all my friends do.”
“Verily.” Rose nodded with a pleased look on her face and took a seat next to Phil with a single smooth, flowing motion. “Please then, my knight, would you mind informing me of the nature of your research here? I have heard from many a student of the frightening capability you and Sir Misawa share in the art of wielding knowledge as a weapon sharper than any blade.”
“Bastion.” Bastion smiled. “That’s what my friends call me. Anyways, so Crowler’s in a spot of bother and we’re trying to see if we can do anything to help out the old chap.”
"No!" Princess Rose exclaimed, "Not the nice man who wears far too much makeup! Will he be alright?"
Phil shrugged non-committedly. “We aren’t sure. He got poisoned yesterday at lunch, but Nurse Fontaine is watching over him now. We saw his medical charts when we were… er, glancing through the window to ease our own worries. The good news is that he’s still breathing. The bad news is that he’s unconscious, so we’re trying to decipher some of the medical mumbo jumbo Bastion saw on the chart. Once we know what it means, we might be able to either rest easy or feel a bit more panicked.”
“Speaking of which,” Bastion half-raised a hand while still flipping through a dense medical text with the other, “I think I found it. Digitalis toxicity. It’s a drug that strengthens the heart’s ability to contract blood and make it flow through the body. It’s hardly even a poison – normally digitalis is used for legitimate medical reasons, though I suppose any cure can become a poison with the proper dosage. What I find most curious about the whole situation is that the medical charts clearly state that traces of digitalis were found in Professor Crowler’s sandwich, but if that is the case and he was poisoned at lunchtime, even if he massively overdosed on the drug it would typically take hours to show symptoms. At least half the day would need to pass. Seriously, I also do not understand that if this truly was deliberate, why not use an actual poison? Cyanide, phenol, the list goes on. The human species holds the keys to countless numbers of deadly poisons that can kill within minutes with the proper dosage. Yet, in this situation, our unknown assassin decided to use something extremely slow-acting and then found some bizarre way to speed up the process tenfold.”
“Magic?” Lumina idly brought it up for Phil's benefit. She took a deep sip of piping hot tea from her thermos before continuing her line of thought. “Once a person or a duel spirit becomes a strong enough mage, the boundaries of what’s possible and impossible in the natural world get a bit blurry. I can see someone using their mojo to speed up a poison by a few hours. Sure, there’s still a commonly agreed-upon set of rules in place… but if a mage is strong enough or has a powerful enough backer, depending on what they try to do with that power or the target they choose, the rules can be a bit more of a suggestion instead. However, that duel spirit of Crowler's felt pretty strong when we were walking off the ferry. Maybe the guy was seen as enough of a problem to take the risk of serious retribution?”
Phil couldn’t help but agree with Lumina’s line of thought. Just like with the real Geneva Convention, the magical Geneva Convention could be seen as more of a Geneva Suggestion if you had enough power or were just batshit insane enough to risk the consequences. Especially since at most the poison was just sped up by magic. The bulk of it was as physical and real-worldly as a brick to the face.
Once he had gathered his thoughts and checked that Lumina didn't have any other considerations on the topic, Phil repeated her words for the rest of his friends to hear. Their reactions were a hair more skeptical than his own was, but by now they had all either fought their own way through the Shadow Rider incident, or had been involved in some creepy shit like Rose had, so with a little more explanation on Phil's part they took it up as a possibility.
“Should we tell Fontaine?” Chazz brought up, slapping down his Light and Darkness Dragon on the table and attacking with it to reduce Alexis’s life points to zero.
Phil nodded. “We should make sure she knows. Banner might already be on the case, but better safe than sorry. She’s a top-tier medical professional, but I don’t know if they covered literal dark magic when she went through med school.”
“It would be a good optional seminar.” Bastion added thoughtfully. “This world is a much wider place than I originally thought it to be. If I had been made aware that magic existed two years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. Now it’s an everyday occurrence. I halfway expect to see men flying through the air when I wake up each morning.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“We’re aware. But Phil, thank you. The concern of you and your friends will warm Vellian’s heart when he wakes up.”
Phil stood on his tip toes to try and peer past Nurse Fontaine’s shoulder, but it wasn’t enough. She was at least a head taller than him, perhaps a bit more. Still, the attempt was enough to make a slight break in Fontaine’s worried, yet tight expression, causing her to crack a tiny smile and ruffle his hair like a fond aunty at a family gathering.
“How about this.” She glanced around the small pack of students in front of the infirmary door. Phil, Bastion, Jaden, Chazz, Syrus, Chumley, Alexis, and Princess Rose all stood there watching the nurse with wide puppy eyes, as if they hoped they could get through the door via Fontaine’s heart. “As soon as Vellian wakes, I’ll send someone to get you all. Capiche? Until then, just focus on your classwork. Be kids, ya’ know? Let us adults worry about all this stuff. Besides… aren’t you lot supposed to be at classes right now?”
Phil could hear faint traces of Ms. Hibiki’s tones in her voice. They were different women, but they sure had similar views. The worst part was that even though he disagreed and thought he should be brought into the fold, if Phil looked at it from their point of view, the adult’s decisions made sense. No rational and caring adult would want kids being caught up in shit like this where even a professor wasn’t safe from being poisoned.
“Oh, and I won’t ask about how you found out about Vellian’s condition, nor his medical charts, hmm?”
It was clear that Ms. Hibiki’s piercing gaze was also shared with Fontaine, Phil decided as they all took the diplomatic route and left without any further complaints.
“Well, what now?” Jaden wondered, walking with his hands behind his head like he had hardly a care in the world. “We got told to buzz off, which is fair. I guess I can always spring for getting a sweet nap in during class. Unless you guys have any better ideas?”
Soon enough, reason won out and everyone started heading back to class under the line of thinking that even if they had missed the first few of the day, showing up to a handful of lectures was better than showing up to none. Phil, meanwhile, broke off and headed to the cafeteria to gather both his thoughts and hopefully a couple cups of coffee to further jumpstart his brain away from the horrifying memories of slogging through countless medical texts. Only then could he convince himself to join the rest in being bored to tears in class.
“The whole thing kind of pisses me off.” Phil confided to Lumina as he helped himself to the unattended pot of coffee in the cafeteria. The whole room was completely empty, with the cooks being who-knows-where and the students being off to class. “I get that things will eventually heat up, but it’s the waiting that sucks. It feels like I’m permanently tensed for a blow to the stomach that may or may not come, and I don’t know when it’ll come either. No leads, no obvious enemies I can take care of in some behind-the-scenes action. The teachers obviously know something is up, but they won't get us involved for completely understandable reasons."
Phil took a long, deep draft of his coffee before continuing. “Ah, if only your company had thrown me in the body of an adult. At least then the teachers would put me on the front lines. I wouldn’t have to deal with all this damned waiting around.”
“Jaden has the right idea.” Lumina shrugged, covering her mouth with a hand as she yawned. “There’s nothing you can do. Why worry about it? Just make sure you’re prepared and hang out until something happens. All this stressing you’re doing is wasting energy. You’ll get an ulcer in your stomach soon enough. If not from the worrying, then from all the coffee.”
“Bah, I know.” Phil took another swig of his drink with a displeased look, taking a second to refill his cup with motions that were almost automatic by now. “No use worrying about stuff I can’t change. It’s not like I’m looking forward to all the danger that’s lurking around the corner. I just want to deal with it so everyone can move on and be happy again. Get some milkshakes, rustle up a barbeque or two, ya’ know?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Lumina tossed one of her spare thermoses at Phil, who caught it with a surprised look on his face. He opened the lid and smelled the contents, letting the faint raspberry aroma drift into his nose like a nice, calming hug in the form of a drink.
“Tea?”
Lumina rolled her eyes. “Yes, tea. What else do you see me drink? Did you think I’d give you a thermos of motor oil or something like that?”
“You think I need to calm down?”
“I think you need to stop drinking as much coffee.” Lumina pointed at the now-empty pot with a wry grin. “At this rate you’ll get those chest pains again. And perhaps that ulcer I mentioned.”
Phil scoffed, but ultimately set aside his cup and took a swig from the thermos.
“It was only one time and it was momentary discomfort.”
“Shut up you know I’m rig- wait a minute…” Lumina narrowed her eyes as he head snapped to the side to look out one of the nearby windows. “What did Chazz say that Obelisk Blue kid looked like again? The one that tried to bust down your princess’s door?”
Phil bit back the usual retort he would have had if Lumina had been teasing him again. She actually sounded serious this time around.
“Spikey brown hair, serious eyes, Obelisk Blue uniform that’s been altered with white colors, and a potentially broken arm. Also apparently a bit of a cunt personality-wise. Why?”
“Either he just walked past the window or he has an identical twin.”
Phil’s eyes flew wide open, and he took one last gulp of tea before shooting out of his seat like he’d just sat on a tack. “Well fuck me silly, which way did he go?”
“Window to your immediate left, heading away from the main campus.”
“Roger that. Shame there’s no time to get the boys to help me out, can’t risk losing him. I’m thinking step one, make sure he’s actually evil and nab ‘em. Step two, confirm winning a duel un-brainwashes. Step three, pump the hopefully grateful git for info with help from the boys. Step four, milkshakes.” Phil muttered while dashing out of the cafeteria as fast as he could. Lumina grimly nodded and raced after him, biting back her own concerns over Phil going in by himself. Even she could tell Phil had a point. There was simply no time to get help, not if they wanted to see a lead like this pull a disappearing act for the second time in two days.
Phil wildly flung his head left and right – just in time to see the white and blue jacket of Raizou Mototani disappear around a corner. With all the speed he could muster, Phil sprinted after the boy, closing the distance in seconds, flung his body around the corner, and slammed in an unintentional collision against the boy, who had stopped in his tracks to stare at the jungle in the distance.
“What the hell?” Raizou snarled out the words as the two boys separated from the tangle of limbs the impact had put them into. “A Ra Yellow? What’s your problem?”
“Princess Rose ring a bell?” Phil immediately sprang into a taunting tone. With how generally unstable Raizou reportedly sounded when he was trying to bust down Rose's door, Phil estimated he could make the boy snap in less than five sentences if his target actually was crazy. If not, this was going to be awkward as hell, but he’d cross that bridge when he got to it. “What, is the light not shining on your head? Or has that dumbass seer of yours finally gone blind?”
Raizou’s eyes widened. For a moment, neither of the boys said a word, simply looking at each other straight in the eyes. Raizou was the first to break the silence.
“You know. You know. You knowyouknow." Raizou mumbled and staggered to his feet. Each word was said faster and faster while Raizou looked at Phil with a wild, unfocused glare. Phil’s own eyes widened, and his mind shot back to the dark alleys of New York City. The duel that had only taken four turns, and the body he’d left behind. Right now, Raizou was the spitting image of a man possessed. The same hazy look in his eyes. The way he completely ignored his right arm, which was bent in such a way that an arm should never be bent.
There was no doubt in Phil’s mind that Raizou was under the control of the cult he and his friends had hypothesized about earlier that day.
“The question~” Raizou giggled, the noise sounding sickly as it bounced around the clusters of trees behind the cafeteria. “The question is does it have the half-key, or is it sticking its nose where it does not belong?”
“The key?” Phil frowned. Raizou was obviously extremely unstable, but if he could get information out of the boy… anything could help. “What key. The spirit keys? The Sacred Beasts aren’t on the island anymore, they’re useless now. Take it up with Kaiba if you want them.”
“No! The half key! Does it have it!” Raizou’s face abruptly darkened as he spat out the answer. “The half key!”
“And what if I do?”
Phil’s noncommittal answer saw Raizou fully straightening up and changing his tone once more.
“Then if you do, Phillip Jenson, it may be in your best interest to hand it over to me so it may be returned to its rightful owner.”
“To do what with?” Phil challenged. There was no doubt the half-key he was talking about was what Jaden showed him earlier. Another piece of the puzzle was presented before his eyes. Now, the question was, what door would that key open?
Raizou’s body sagged over and he began to grimly chuckle. “To usher in the end, so the Light may remake this sick world.”
“And if I don’t want that to happen?”
“Then~,” Raizou used his left arm to snap open the duel disk firmly strapped to his broken right arm. The movement made his right arm audibly creak as the duel disk whirred to life, but Raizou didn’t make any kind of movement that betrayed even a single hint of discomfort. “Then it shall be as the seer foresees. This puny island shall be baptized in the fire brought by his new lieutenants, to be made fit for his eventual presence. Then the key may be plucked from the smoking corpses of the dead. Heheh, even now the preparations are being made. Phillip Jenson, you and your friends shall either see the Light. Or… every one of you will die screaming~.”
Phil’s face tightened in disgust and Lumina stepped away from the two students, sitting on a cloud she conjured with a snap of her fingers.
“Raizou, I don’t know you. Chazz said you were a bit of an uptight moron that couldn’t handle an Obelisk Blue hanging out with kids from other dorms. But you know what, I’m going to do my best to bust my ass to save yours. I’m not going to let another kid die on me.”
“Say what you want, hehe.” Raizou giggled. “We’re all dead men walking anyways. The seer will see to that.”
“How many times have I heard similar words…” Phil murmured dispassionately.
Phil: 4000 Raizou: 4000
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bon Lectro silently watched the men work while he smoked. His cigar, chomped tightly between his teeth, let out plumes of smoke large enough to cover half his face. The men worked like automatons. Axes swinging downwards like clockwork, steel biting into the thick jungle trees. They’d been at this for hours, but no complaints yet. To be honest, he wasn’t sure if the men were even capable of complaining anymore. Not after what his new boss did to them back in the city. Before, they had been nothing but worthless thugs slinking around the back alleys of Domino City looking for a quick buck. Now they were gathered under one purpose, what Sartorius called the ‘unification of the Light’.
But that would be for later. Right now, all Bon Lectro could do was wait for the men, sweating buckets in the heat of the jungle, to finish clearing out the area. Sure, more… exotic means were certainly available to him, but those means were accompanied by the possibility of detection. Besides, the only difference between him blasting out a clearing with magic, and his men clearing it out with axes, was a bit of time. Not days, just hours. He could spare a few hours if that meant his stay on the island could remain secret for a bit longer, at least until the party started in full.
A rustle of movement sounded out near his shoulder, and Bon Lectro’s hand shot out to grasp the head of a python half the size of a grown man. His lips thinned in displeasure. What a worthless island. A single movement was enough for his muscles to tighten, crushing the snake’s head before it could even think about wrapping its scaly body around its target. A moment later the remains of the python joined the pile at Bon Lectro’s feet, carelessly tossed right alongside the torn flesh of a dead Jaguar and several head-sized scorpions that laid in twitching messes, their stingers and claws brutally ripped off while the creatures still lived.
All he had to do was wait. Wait for the immediate area to be cleared of trees. Wait for his ninja associate to send the signal. He could almost taste it. The flavor. The aroma. So similar to his cigar. Bon Lectro licked his lips at the thought. Ashes and smoke, his favorite combination.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The ferry arrived once more. Nothing appeared out of place. The usual type of men, true salt of the sea, jumped into action to unload the second shipment of the day onto the docks of Duel Academy.
All was as it should have been. Yet, why did she feel so uneasy? Ms. Hibiki crossed her arms in thought, her gaze never leaving the scene laid out before her from her perch on the roof of one of the outbuildings near the dock. The building, a two-story structure that served as additional storage if the main dock storage ever ran out of room, provided a particularly good view of the entirety of the docks. Nothing could escape her hawkish eyes as Ms. Hibiki carefully scanned the scene for anything that was out of place, no matter how small, so her gut feeling could be put to rest.
She’d already checked everything else. The dock manager had shown her the paperwork, which was correct as usual. The captain, unusually dour for some reason, begrudgingly gave her a tour of the hold. The usual crates of food, a few boxes of extra uniforms in case any of the first years lost their own, a shipment of cards for the store, it was all there.
The only differences were the captain’s mood, and that she didn’t really recognize any of the crew members. But it wasn’t like the captain couldn’t have bad days, and she was aware that the job of a sailor was a tough one. Turnover in their line of work wasn’t completely unexpected. So, what was her gut trying to tell her? Was she just an overly worried mother hen reacting to taunting shadows in the wake of Vellian’s poisoning?
Her fingers tip-tapped away on her duel disk as she mulled her thoughts over, eyes still locked in a piercing glare at the ferry, as if the boat and the men who crewed it were a group of misbehaving students she was coaxing into speaking the truth over some incident or another.
‘This poison, Digitalis, you say?’ Banner had waited a moment, leaving the half-questioning statement hanging in the air until Fonda silently replied with a nod, barely pausing from monitoring Vellian’s condition. Even now, his life was still balancing on the precipice of death, demanding every inch of the nurse’s skill to keep stable.
‘Yes, it is as you say. There is no creation of the mundane world that could cause it to act this fast. I cannot say for sure without more information, but it would not be outside the realm of a standard mage’s abilities to simply speed up a poison throughout a man’s system. I could do so myself with a spare half hour, a pawful of sulfur, and a nice supply of fresh blood if I wished.’
The talking cat had paused as if falling deep into his own thoughts all of a sudden. Even though Lyman had repented and become a true ally, Ms. Hibiki sometimes wondered if the alchemist had any scraps of humanity left that had withstood the sands of time. Their colleague – no, their friend, was lying on the bed next to them, his life hanging by a thread, and Lyman was speaking of all these dark subjects as if they were absentmindedly discussing the day’s weather. Though Ms. Hibiki reminded herself, maybe in his eyes they were, in a way. As a near-immortal man, he’d likely seen this song and dance countless times before.
‘Though, I do wonder…’ Banner licked the back of his paw and continued. ‘Vellian is acquainted with a rather powerful duel spirit. The mage in question must have a good amount of strength, or perhaps a force with a mighty pedigree backing them, in order to escape Chaos Ancient Gear Giant simply squashing them like a fly in righteous retaliation. That is not to say the duel spirit would find that impossible, I just find it more likely that some assistance was given by a source of power to mask the presence of our foul poisoner.
Ms. Hibiki shook her head violently and refocused her eyesight on the ferry. There was nothing she could do about the situation in the infirmary, other than to leave it in Fonda’s capable hands, and perhaps to visit on occasion to reassure the unconscious Vellian that she was still carefully watching over the island.
The men on the docks were clad in white shirts soaked through with seawater, their rippling muscles making short work of the heavy crates still left on the ferry. Each one of them moved with almost mechanical precision – an indicator of a well-trained team of men who knew precisely what they needed to do to do a good job. Each one was thickly covered in all sorts of tattoos, but that was hardly out of the norm for sailors.
Ms. Hibiki narrowed her eyes and sighed, finally moving away from the edge of the building. The ferry was finished unloading and the men were going back to their posts, ready to cast off back toward Domino City. Whatever was going on, she wouldn’t find it here, and it was about time for her to swap out with Lyman for patrol duty. All she could do now was keep her eyes peeled and alert her feline associate of her worries.