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Ogawa Nakai


~8AM | MT ARAPILES | CAMP GROUND



Ogawa has been to Australia before, once while he was alive and another time after he was dead; the latter was for work and didn’t bear much thinking about or commenting on, he did his job and returned to Decibitus in a couple of hours. The first time had probably been back in ’85, a year or two after he became a yakuza and had enough cash on hand to thing about travelling abroad for the first time in his life; the country had been recommended by his Aniki, who’d said he’d had a good time there in the past and Ogawa had had no reason to distrust him and no better ideas himself.

It was shit.

The flight had been long and the airplane cramped, it was too hot, the language barrier was more severe than he’d been led to believe and the beer tasted like crap. He’d much preferred his trips within Japan before and after that; Osaka, Okinawa, Sapporo and so-on struck the right balance of familiar yet novel that he was looking for. Other people said he was boring when he told them he preferred staying close to home on vacations and Ogawa supposed they were right; he just liked things that were familiar.

Japan was familiar, even the parts of it he had never visited before; your home country always had a quality to it that you couldn’t always explain but which you could always feel. From Hokkaido all the way down to Okinawa, it was home. Cigarette smoke was familiar, the smell and the feel of it in his lungs; it was why continued to smoke the things even though death had blunted their impact somewhat. Working as a reaper was familiar; people always gave him odd looks when he told them that the jobs he was doing now weren’t all that different from the work he used to do when he was alive. For most people it was a bit of a change of pace, going from being an ordinary civilian to someone who tracked down wisps, hunted lost souls and sometimes fought for their non-lives; Ogawa had taken to it like a duck to water.

Same work, different boss really. Or at least similar enough that he had a leg up when it came to learning the ropes.

Not that any of this was relevant to the job at hand of course; he was just letting his thoughts wander unnecessarily. Australia wasn’t a place he would ever want to come back to in his free time, but work was work and he didn’t mind where it took him since what he needed to do never really changed no matter where he was. Language barriers had never been an issue since becoming a reaper either, so that was one of his major gripes dealt with too. He wouldn’t be staying for drinks though.

A pack of cigarettes was held out to him and he took one for himself with a thankful nod. Lighting it up with his cheap, disposable lighter, he watched as a familiar face walked up to join their party. “Yeah.” Ogawa exhaled a cloud of smoke that momentarily obscured Aron from view. “We’re here to back you up. Any idea where it went after you and Gali lost it, or should we just head to this Punk’s Rock and spread out from there?”
Cassandra Moore – Obelisk Blue


The darkness swallowed her and Cassandra tried her best not to let the oppressive feeling coming from the shadows overwhelm her. It sapped away any cheer she might have felt after her duel with Gokibore, any victory she might have felt over making a new friend; Haruko’s arrival was a sudden and cold reminder of her current situation and why she had felt compelled to come to the wood tonight in the first place.

Cassandra’s life was on the line in this duel; yes, she had realised that by now, the bleeding wound in her leg from the duel she had finished moments ago had made that very clear. Nonetheless, she didn’t have any choice but to duel; her opponent, whether that was Haruko or the spirits using her, wasn’t giving her a chance to refuse. It was a threat, not a warning.

Her opponent summoned a duel disk from the shadows and began to draw cards; Cassandra raised her own duel disk in response. She drew her own hand and frowned; it seemed luck was not on her side at the moment. She had no plays she could make.

“I’ll go first.” Haruko spent little time thinking over her plays and simply placed every card in her hand to the field. “I’ll set five and end my turn.”

Drawing for turn, Cassandra was relieved to see a card that would let her make use of the rest of her hand. The five unknown cards on Haruko’s field were daunting and Cassandra was tempted to play this safely, but she needed to end this quickly if she could. “I normal summon Reptilianne Gardna, then activate the effect of my Kagetokage in hand to special summon it.” There was no response from her opponent, no card activations and nothing verbally either. Cassandra continued. “Next, I’ll overlay my two monsters to XYZ summon King of the Feral Imps.”

“I activate my trap card, Enma’s Judgement.” Haruko revealed one of her backrow, a demonic judge appearing within the shadows behind her to pass judgement on her monster. Her monster was destroyed.

“I set a card and end my turn.”

The spirit-possessed Haruko smirked. “I draw.” Another card was drawn from the shadows and added to her hand. “I flip summon Shutendoji and then reveal a face-down, Graveyard of Wandering Souls.” The battle field changed, the shadows relenting to reveal a graveyard on Haruko’s side of the field; tombstones sprouting from the ground and wisps of spirits drifting among them. “I attack directly with Shutendoji.”

[Cassandra: 8000 > 6500]

“I set another card and end my turn.”

“I Draw.” Another good card, another chance to make a play. Two of Haruko’s face-down card had been revealed, but she still had unknown cards that she could use against Cassandra should she commit to this. She had no choice; her leg was starting to feel numb and her hands were starting to shake. Naga was still behind her, still clutching onto her back, but she barely noticed. “I summon Reptilianne Scylla, then special summon another Kagetokage.”

No response, yet again. Cassandra decided to play it safe and deal with Haruko’s monster before anything else. “I attack Shutendoji with Scylla.” The snake-monster lunged forward, tearing into and through the ogre.

[Haruko: 8000 > 7700]

“When a monster of mine is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, my Wandering Souls summon a token to my side of the field.” Some of the wisps floating around the field gathering together into a little ball of flame before placing themselves between Cassandra and Haruko’s lifepoints.

“Kagetokage, attack the Fireball token.” The shadowy lizard, barely visible on the current field, rushed toward to bite into the fireball and destroy it. “Next, I’ll overlay my monster again to summon another King of the Feral Imps.” The summon was successful this time, her monsters being replaced by a large, horned and muscular imp. “I’ll activate King of the Feral Imp’s effect, detaching my Scylla to add Reptilianne Vaskii to hand and ending my turn.”

“I activate my trap card.” Cassandra flinched. “Monster Rebone. I’ll be summoning your other King of the Feral Imps.” The monster in question rose from among the gravestones on Haruko’s side of the field; deathly pale and rotting in places. “Then I’ll activate another; Call of the Haunted and summon back Shutendoji.”

One step forward, two steps back. Haruko drew for turn. “I change King of the Feral Imps to attack position and normal summon Master Kyonshee. I attack your King with mine.” The undead King of the Feral Imps charged forward, crashing into her own and beginning to struggle with it; they were evenly matched, of course, and in a burst of light they both disappeared. “Attack directly with Shutendoji.”

[Cassandra: 6500 > 5000]

“Attack with Master Kyonshee.”

[Cassandra: 5000 > 2250]

“End turn.”

Cassandra drew and wilted when she say it was another Reptilianne Naga. She had all three in her hand now and as much as she cared for her closest friend she would not help her here. “I activate my face-down; Ojama Trio. I summon three tokens to your side of the field.” Three tokens appeared across the field from her, filling up Haruko’s side of the field. “Next, I’ll tribute two of those tokens to summon Reptilianne Vaskii.” The tokens faded into the shadows at the edges of the field as Vaskii emerged from the same.

“I’ll activate Vaskii’s effect to destroy Master Kyonshee.” The monster in question was destroyed, only to immediately be replaced by another fiery ball of wandering spirits. “I’ll go to the battle phase and attack Shutendoji with Vaskii.” That monster too was destroyed and a second Fireball token took its place.

[Haruko: 7700 > 6600]

“I’ll set a monster and pass.”

Haruko drew again and looked neither happy with annoyed with what she saw. “I end my turn.”

“I draw.” Cassandra’s hands shook as she added another card to her hand, then shook even more once she saw what it was. Evil Dragon Ananta; it was a card she had picked up around the same time that she had found her friends, discarded like all the others had been, but it had always felt… different from them. Darker. She had added it to her deck regardless because it seemed like a strong card and she had no reason not to; besides, she didn’t want to make the mistake of misjudging someone the way every had misjudged her friends even if it did make her feel uneasy.

It was the one card in her deck that she didn’t get along with. If you could, she tried to avoid summoning it but… it might be what she needed in this duel.

“I flip summon Reptilianne Naga. Then, I’ll activate Vaskii’s effect to destroy the last Ojama token.”

[Haruko: 6600 > 6300]

“Then… I’ll… I’ll banish all of the Reptiles I control and all the Reptiles in my graveyard to summon Evil Dragon Ananta.” The Naga and Vaskii on her field vanished into the shadows and all the monsters in her grave, Gardna and Scylla and the King of Feral Imps vanished too. In their place was a huge, multi-headed hydra.

“My Ananta gains attack for each monster I banished to summon it, meaning it has 4800 attack and defence. I’ll use it to destroy your Fireball token.” Then token was destroyed in an instant as the multiple serpent heads crashed down on it. “Then, in main phase 2 I’ll set another card and end turn. In the end phase, Ananta destroys a card on the field; I’ll target your face-down.” A trap card appeared and was destroyed before Cassandra had a chance to see what it was.

“I draw. I set one monster and pass.”

Cassandra drew again and immediately preceded to the battle phase. The end was in sight now; Ananta could attack over or destroy any card Haruko used, it would take time to get through all of the tokens she had, but Ananta could destroy the Graveyard creating them too. “Ananta will attack your face-down monster.” The monster was revealed, a collection of spirit goats, before being destroyed.

“When flipped, Scapegoat summons three Black Sheep tokens and when it is destroyed my Graveyard summons another Fireball token.”

“I end my turn; in the end phase Ananta destroys your Graveyard.”

“I draw. Let’s not prolong the inevitable any longer; I Link summon Yuki-Onna, the Icicle Mayakashi using the three Black Sheep tokens you just gave me. On summon I use its effect to negate your Evil Dragon Ananta and reduce its attack back to zero. I move to the battle phase and attack your Ananta.”

It was over. Ananta’s effect was negated, which also removed the attack it had gained from its effect, leaving it easily destroyed by the Mayakashi and taking the rest of her life points with it.

[Cassandra: 2250 > 0]

Cassandra fell to her knees, ignoring the pain in her leg as she waited for the darkness to close in on her.

----

Leo Wilde – Slifer Red


“What the hell? Who turned off the lights?”

To say Leo didn’t know what was going on would be an understatement. Ever since he had woken up to all that noise at the dorm everything had been progressing like something out of a cheap horror movie; teenagers mysteriously disappeared, a search party heading into the woods to find them only to find the place haunted or some dumb thing like that. Now he had to duel that weird girl who everyone said was a Satanist of something because they’d stumbled across her doing weird things in the forest in the middle of the night. She even had some kind of reverb effect on her voice.

This whole mess was either a bad dream or some kind of elaborate prank, either way he wasn’t going to entertain it much longer. If Haruko wanted a duel then he’d give her one.

“Alright, let’s go!”

Despite the declaration, it was Haruko who went first. “I set two cards and summon Master Kyonshee and end my turn.”

“Draw!” Leo ripped a card from his deck and added it to his hand; why he’d even thought to bring his deck with him he didn’t know, but it was coming in handy after all. “I summon Stratos and activate it’s effect, adding Blazeman to my hand. Then I move to battle and attack your Kyon-whatever.” The turbine hero dashed forward and punched through the zombie. “I set a face-down and end my turn.”

[Haruko: 8000 > 7950]

“You seem confident, but that’s only because of your ignorance. If you had any idea what you were up against you would be cowering in fear.” Haruko, or whatever she was calling herself in this roleplay of her, drew a card and added it to her hand. “I activate Solidarity and summon Mezuki. I attack your Stratos.”

The hero was destroyed as the empowered undead rushed over it, but rather than looking upset Leo looked vindicated.

[Leo: 8000 > 7300]

“You talk a lot of game for someone who just walked right into my trap. I activate Hero Signal, which lets me special summon a HERO monster from my deck when a HERO I control is destroyed by battle. I summon Shadow Mist.” A hero in dark armour appeared on the field, out of the shadows themselves like its name suggested. “Then I activate its effect and add a Mask Change to my hand.”

“I end my turn.”

“Draw. I summon Blazeman and activate its effect to add Polymerisation to my hand.” Leo added the card in question from his deck, and then slapped a second card from his hand onto the field. “Then I activate R – Righteous Justice and destroy two of your spells or traps; get rid of that Solidarity and the set card on the left.” Rays of brilliant light shone from both Blazeman and Shadow Mist, destroying Solidarity and an unknown card; Leo caught a glimpse of a demonic looking figure behind a desk before it was gone.

“Next, I’ll fusion summon using the Blazeman on the field and the Alius in my hand. Say hero to Elemental HERO Nova Master!” The Blazeman burst into flames, flames which grew and expanded before fading to reveal a larger and more powerful looking figure. “Nova Master, attack her Mezuki.” The zombie was easily blown away by the fiery hero now that it was no longer empowered by Haruko’s spell.

[Haruko: 7950 > 7050]

“When it destroys a monster by battle, Nova Master lets me draw a card. Then, I’ll attack directly with Shadow Mist.”

[Haruko: 7050 > 6050]

“I set one card and end my turn.”

“I draw.”

“What, no more taunting?”

“…I normal summon Shutendoji and activate its effect, banishing Mezuki and Master Kyonshee to draw a card.” The two zombies vanished from the grave as they were banished and Haruko added another card to her hand. “Then I’ll attack your Shadow Mist with Shutendoji.”

“Ha, I activate Mask Change.” Leo flipped up his face-down card, grinning widely as he did so. This was the first time he’d had a chance to activate this card since coming to this damn school and it was always one of his favourites. “I tribute Shadow Mist and summon Masked HERO Anki in its place. And because Shadow Mist was sent to the grave, I can activate its effect to add another HERO to my hand; Elemental HERO Woodsman.”

“I end my turn.”

Not so talkative now, was she? Whatever this was, nightmare, prank or whatever else, Leo was going to make this girl regret underestimating him. “I draw! I normal summon Stratos and activate its other effect to destroy your last backrow. With that gone, let’s wrap this game up. I attack your Shutendoji with my Anki.” The drunk ogre was quickly dispatch as the dark hero charged leapt into the air and crashed down on it with a kick.

[Haruko: 6050 > 4750]

“That triggers my Anki’s effect to add another Mask Change to my hand, but I’ll save that for now. Next I’ll attack directly with Stratos!”

[Haruko: 4750 > 2950]

“Now it’s Nova Master’s turn.”

[Haruko: 2950 > 350]

“Then I’ll activate the Mask Change I just search and tribute Stratos to summon Masked HERO Blast. Blast, finish this duel!”

Leo’s last hero attack, scarf blowing out behind it as it rushed towards Haruko and dealt the final blow.

[Haruko: 350 > 0]

“It doesn’t matter what I’m up against; I’ll always win in the end.”
I'm interested in giving this another shot.

@PapiTan@ERode I have updated Ogawa's profile with the suggested fixes to his magic.
Took a while, but here's my submission.


Sebastien Tomas


With so many gym leaders grouped together and the numbers advantage reversed, the battle was over almost immediately; the strange hybrid Pokémon were assaulted from all sides and turned against each other and the mysterious assailants soon recalled their Pokémon and made to escape.

Sebastien made to chase after them, breaking into a run with Murk loping behind him once the frenzied Pokémon were recalled, but when they mounted their Pokémon and began to ride away he was forced to give up on that idea; none of the Pokémon he had on hand were particularly fast, not on land at least, nor designed to carry a person comfortably. Frowning, he watched as the strangers disappeared into the distance before turning around and walking back to the others.

“What was that about?” It wasn’t a question he really expected an answer to, but as Sebastien angrily waved an arm in the direction he had just come he didn’t bother to hide his frustration over their attackers escaping. The battle had ended in their favour, if you could even call that mess a battle, but given that those people had got the jump on them, caused a lot of havoc and then got away scot free afterwards he couldn’t help but feel like this was their loss. Especially since he didn’t even know what their objective was in the first place.

He would have asked more, but he knew no one would have the answers he wanted and taking his anger out on them wouldn’t help matters. Besides, other people were already asking them. Astrid’s question told him that he wasn’t the only one in the dark as to what those Pokémon were and the fact that she hadn’t even called them Pokémon at all meant he also wasn’t the only one who thought there was something… wrong about them. They had been vicious in a way that no Pokémon he had ever seen had been, almost feral in the way they tore into each other and the damage they had done to Hestia’s Salamence meant they were stronger than normal too.

“What were they after? Why here? There’s nothing important in Postwick other than the gym.”
I'm interested in this, if there's still room.
Cassandra Moore – Obelisk Blue


Approaching Haruko directly seemed like it would be impossible. The spirits circled her relentlessly, surrounding her and blocking all paths towards her; even more spirits filled the trees around her and, when one tried to get close like Helena had, they would swarm them. It was only because the other girl and her spirit were distracting them that Cassandra had made it this far without being attacked herself.

She walked towards Haruko with feigned confidence, her head held high, only for her steps to falter about ten metres away from the possessed girl. It seemed this was as far as her courage would take her. She hesitated before speaking, her hand instinctively reaching for the deck in her duel disk for comfort, for reassurance, before finding her words.

“Hello?”

Like a weight pressing down on her shoulders she felt the attention of just some of the spirits shift her direction; the heavy feeling in her chest doubled, but the hand on her deck kept her steady. “I’m here to duel you. To put a stop to this.”

“Human.” Despite the many eyes on her, there was only a single voice that called out to her. “So many of you have come to the forest tonight; drawn to our power, drawn by our wrath. If only you had thought to show us this much attention before, but you didn’t think us worthy then. You thought us weak and abandoned us, left us to fester and grow hateful and strong. We are strong now.”

As they spoke, from amidst the formless mass of spirits, a single silhouette began to take clearer shape as Cassandra watched. It was large and round at first, nothing more than a circle, but soon she could see the outlines of legs and antenna as well as a pair of glowing red eyes. At the same time, a single, solitary voice began to stand out from the rest, though the mass still spoke as if it was a whole, rather than a group of individuals. “If it’s a duel you want, then I’ll gladly give you one. I’ll show you and all the others that I have grown strong enough not to need you anymore. There is no need for the humans anymore; I alone am enough.”

The spirit she would be facing finally took form; it’s large, round body covered by a glossy black shell and its many chitinous legs and feelers. The oversized insect, like a tick as wide across as Cassandra was tall, scuttled towards her. Cassandra stood her ground, feeling Naga behind her and giving her confidence even if the small snake was pressed against the small of her back for safety.

Rather than attack, the giant insect instead manifested a hand of cards of its own; the illusory hand hovering before it taking the place of a regular duellist’s holograms as her duel disk activated and she drew a hand of her own. “I activate Terraforming and add Forest to my hand. Activate Forest.”

Nothing changed outwardly when the field spell was played. They were already in a forest after all, but as the card was played Cassandra couldn’t help but feel like the trees around her had grown more… real, somehow. Taller and sturdier and more full of life. “Set one monster. End turn.”

Cassandra drew for turn and added the card to her hand. Under the watchful gaze of the insect’s compound eyes she picked out another card and placed it down on the field. “I normal summon Reptilianne Scylla and move to the battle phase. I’ll attack your face-down monster.”

Scylla rushed forward to trample the set monster, but when she got close the card suddenly flipped and she was ambushed by a spindly-limbed insect with razor sharp claws; the insect was destroyed, but not before taking Scylla down with it. “Man-Eater Bug is destroyed by battle, but when it is flipped it destroys a monster of yours too.”

Cassandra nodded. “Hmm, okay. I’ll set a can and end my turn.”

“My draw.” Upon seeing the card, the insect began to rapidly click their mandibles together in an act that roughly mimicked the sound of laughter . “I summon Gokibore. I attack.” Her opponent played quickly, adding a card to its illusory hand, summoning a monster that looked identical to itself and attacking her directly before she had much chance to respond or think. She had a chance to activate her set trap, but chose to save it for a direr situation, though as the Gokibore lunged forward and lashed out at her with the end of its sharp leg she regretted it. The monsters leg cut through her thin pyjamas and into her skin. Rather than just being struck by a simulated amount of force equal to the amount of damage taken, she felt real pain as the monster’s attack bit into her leg and drew real blood.

[Cassandra: 8000 > 6600]

Wincing in pain, she buckled but managed to catch herself before she could fall. She felt the concern radiate from her deck and hurried to reassure her friends she was okay. “I’m fine, I’m… hmm, I’m fine.” Across from her, the spirit of Gokibore was leaning forward, mandibles clicking and eyes gleaming as she felt a sense of satisfaction from it. “I draw.”

It was unnerving facing down this particular opponent; not because it was an insect, she had no problem with those and even found this one’s overly round body to be kind of cute, but because of the blatant malice towards her she felt coming from them. That kind of emotion was something she had never felt before; even at her old school, though her classmates had never liked her and even found her unnerving, no one had hated her like this. Wanted to see her come to harm.

“I normal summon Reptilianne Gardna. Then, I activate the Reptilianne Lamia in my hand, targeting your Gokibore.” She revealed the Lamia in her hand, reducing the attack of the opponent’s monster to zero to special summon it, before taking damage equal to its original attack. Cassandra braced herself against the oncoming pain as her life points were reduced, but it never came; it wasn’t just taking damage that had hurt her then, it was just the attack itself.

[Cassandra: 6600 > 5400]

“Next, I’ll Synchro summon Reptilianne Hydra.” Her Gardna and Lamia disappeared from the field, replaced by a larger, more gruesome looking creature with multiple long necks each ending with a human head with long, lank hair obscuring its many faces. “When Hydra is summoned she destroyed all of my opponent’s monsters with zero attack and I get to draw a card for each.” Cassandra drew a card and added it to her hand, immediately feeling the weight on her shoulders lessen at the sight of a familiar face. “Then I’ll go to battle and destroy your Gokibore with Hydra.”

The Hydra swept forward, its many heads lunged forward and crashing down on the now weakened Gokibore to tear it to shreds. Her opponent flinched in response, though if it felt pain too from the attack or was just unnerved to see a version of itself destroyed she wasn’t sure; either way, its rapidly clicking mandibles and waving legs gave away its agitation even if she couldn’t feel it. It saw her looking and immediately calmed itself down.

[Gokibore: 8000 > 5900]

“You are strong too. But it doesn’t matter; I won’t lose to a human. Draw…”

There was a pause, which somehow led into an even longer pause as the Gokibore looked at the card it had just drawn. “I… set one card and end my turn.”

Some of the tension in the air seemed to have gone as Cassandra drew for turn, the intensity she had felt from her opponent fading. The card she added to her hand was yet another familiar face and she felt Naga shift behind her back and poke her head out again to see. Feeling more confident, Cassandra put on a small smiled as she activated a spell card. “Hmm, I activate Reptilianne Poison, targeting your face-down monster. It is flipped into face-up attack position and has its attack reduced to zero.”

The set monster was flipped up to reveal another Gokibore, though far from being menacing this one was curled up like a ball with its legs tucked under itself. Oh, it was like a wood lice; cute.

“Wait…”

“Next, I’ll normal summon Reptilianne Naga to my side of the field.” Cassandra was now duelling like her normal self, smiling and even starting to hum to herself as she summoned Naga to the field. “Now, I’ll tribute both my Naga and your Gokibore to special summon Reptilianne Vaskii from my hand.”

“Hold on, that’s…”

Both Cassandra’s and the spirits monsters were tributed, melting away into puddles of acid that flowed and merged into each other before rising again as the four-armed, crowned Vaskii. “Battle phase.”

“I wasn’t expecting…”

“I’ll attack you directly with Reptilianne Hydra.”

[Gokibore: 5900 > 3800]

“Then attack you with Reptilianne Vaskii.”

[Gokibore: 3800 > 1200]

“I end my turn.”

Across the field, staring down two imposing snake-like creatures and having nothing in its hand it could summon to defend itself, the spirit of Gokibore slumped down as much as its insect body would allow. “I… I concede.”

Admitting defeat, the illusions surrounding the spirit faded; the cards in its hand disappeared, the forest returned to normal, leaving just the oversized insect itself. For her part, Cassandra deactivated her duel disk and returned her deck to her pocket, but not before whispering a thank you to her friends again for helping her with another duel. She approached the spirit, cautiously, but got the sense that it was no longer going to be a threat to her.

“Hmm, can you let me past now? I want to help that girl other there.”

The spirit didn’t answer at first; in fact it showed no signs of responding at all. Cassandra frowned and waited a few moments more, but when it didn’t move she turned to walk past it instead.

“How…”

“Hmm?” Stopping, Cassandra turned back to look at the spirit again, finding it still slumped over, but now with its feelers wiggling with agitation.

“How are you so strong? You defeated me, defeated my anger and hatred for humans so easily; I was supposed to be powerful enough to beat you.”

Frowning even deeper, Cassandra walked around to stand in front of the Gokibore. “Hmm, is hatred supposed to make you strong? I don’t know, because I’m not that strong myself, but that doesn’t sound right to me.” She always felt like she was at her best when she was just having fun while duelling and not really thinking about winning or losing; it felt easier that way, more natural, and the right plays just came to mind by themselves. Hatred and anger seemed like they would get in the way of that. “I just tried to duel the way I always do and counted on my friends to help me out.”

The Gokibore raised its head slightly, until Cassandra could see its eyes again. “Your… friends?”

Smiling, Cassandra nodded her head and brought her hands up so she could count them off on her fingers. “Hmm; Naga and Vaskii and Hydra and Scylla and all the others. They’re my friends.”

Red eyes stared back at her, Gokibore seeming to have trouble comprehending what she had just said. “I see…” The insect lowered its head again, lowering its compound eyes to the dirt. “No, I don’t see. I don’t understand at all. Maybe… maybe they were they right to abandon me; maybe I really am as weak and pathetic as they said. If I lost this badly, then they were right to throw me away.”

“That’s not right either.” Cassandra crouched down, balancing on the balls of her feet so that she was at eye level with the Gokibore when it raised its head again. “It can’t be right; no one should be abandoned.”

“But… our duel…”

“No!” There was intensity to Cassandra gaze that was hard to argue with as it bore into the insects own, a fire that hadn’t been there even as she duelled with her own personal safety on the line. “Everyone has something they are good for, you just haven’t found yours yet; that’s no reason to abandon someone.” A hand moved towards the deck sat in her pocket and she ran her fingers over the outline of her cards reassuringly. “My friends were abandoned once; nobody wanted to play with them, because they were creepy or weird or because people thought they were weak, so they threw them away. I was alone too, so I picked them up and learned how to duel so I could play with them; so that neither of us would be alone. It was because of them that I became a duellist. It’s because of them that I’m strong; not the other way around.

“I’m sure you can make someone strong too. But, if you really hate the people who abandoned you that much, maybe you can be my friend instead?”

For a moment all that happened was that the Gokibore stared back at her and for a second Cassandra thought that the spirit was going to turn her down. But then they nodded, the insects feelers wiggling around animatedly before the spirit began to fade and in its place left a single card behind.

Cassandra reached down and carefully picked up the copy of Gokibore. She slid it into her pocket, along with her other friends and smiled. “You can stay there for now. I’ll find a deck for you later.”
Cassandra Moore – Obelisk Blue


It wasn’t hard to find the source of the trouble. Even though it was deep in the woods and the middle of the night Cassandra had no trouble following the feeling of foreboding in her chest like a compass towards the centre of this mess; the ritual that Haruko had created and was still in the middle of.

Even though, traversing the woods at night wasn’t easy and Cassandra stumbled out of the dark into the ghostly glow of the clearing with her jacket scuffed and scraped by branches and her face and hands marred by dirt where she had tripped over roots. She was breathing heavily as she approached the mass of spirits, both from exertion and also because the feeling in her chest had reached a peak; the feelings of anger and pain and misery emanating from what she could now see were dozens if not hundreds of discarded spirits.

It hurt her heart too, just being near them.

Feeling a nudge at her elbow, she looked down to see Naga at her side, or at least peeking out from behind her back. The duel spirit met her eyes and nudged her arm again before pointing towards her duel disk. “Duel them?”

The snake girl nodded, before retreating behind her back for safety. Cassandra turned back to the maelstrom of abandoned spirits, to the girl who had awakened them and the other girl and spirit who was trying to fight them. She felt for these spirits, because they were hurting, but the only way to calm them down might be to fight them first.

“Hmm, okay then.”

Pulling out her deck, she readied her duel disk and stepped forward.

----

Leo Wilde – Slifer Red


“Huh? What do you mean they're missing?”

Leo’s eyes drifted towards the forest. Could they have gone there? It was the first thing he thought of, but to be honest he wasn’t sure why; why would anyone wander into the forest in the middle of the night? They’d have to be stupid. More likely they’d headed down the path towards the main building or one of the other dorms, sneaking out to go see someone else or, he didn’t know, have a late night duel to settle something? Maybe they’d even gone to the docks, trying to run away because they couldn’t cut it.

Any of those were more likely than them heading deep into the woods at night, and yet…

“Alright, I’ll help. Where should we look first?”
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