Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Clubit Academia ❯ The Shariku-sama 1000th post special! ( Chapter 15 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Shariku 1000th post One hour Special at the cost of plot and/or quality

-Training time! A secret Play! Ultimate contest! Long titles! Unnecessary monologues that belong on cartoons more than books!

Act 2: Chapters 9, 10 11 and 12 but then i thought it would be a brilliant idea to mix them up and say it was my passion as a writer that made me do it.

Amazing! Well and truly amazing. A wave of excitement was flooding through his bloodstream, bringing everything that it passed along for the party. Something special had happened. He didn't know why, or even how for that matter, but he did know he had barely slept that night, had trouble even getting into bed. It was only when Dorou had finally had enough and disappeared behind him for a few moments that he had finally settled down.

It was simply magical.

Now, with a bit of a headache that he could not explain, Paine rushed out of the dorm room, only just getting his sleek, black trainers on before checking which way he needed to go and headed down the south corridor. Raising a hand to a neighbor whose name he hadn't asked yet (even if he did pass him every time he went out in the morning) he scrambled as soon as he got passed the young boy, racing down the hallways where he knew no teachers would pass.

“Though who endure, conquer.” He wasn't sure why he thought those words as he jogged through the courtyard of the Mizaki complex, a beautiful set of gardens contained within the outer walls of the other set of dormitories. Maybe it had to do with coming so far despite the disease that had wracked his body a few days ago. Maybe because he was willing to go further. It didn't matter. For him, all that mattered on this day where the heat from the sun glowed on him beautiful, would be the training.

Dorou and Priestess were waiting for him.

***

She types. That's she does.

And that's how she sat.

And qwerty followed uiop followed Qwerty followed Uiop followed.

Kenshin didn't care who you were, he would help you.

The samurai never returned.

…

She was so bored. Things were about to get interesting, but until then, she had to wait, in this dreary monotonous boredom that contained her within her room, only a seventeen inch monitor to keep her company, and orange that had gone cold. Shariku-sama was not pleased.

What made the boy special? Was he interference? An enigma sent by the forces who would work against her. To confuse her, or simply to test her?

He was in her rankings. Her Rankings! She hadn't anticipated that. Pfft, as far as she was concerned, the dumb n00b wasn't to enter for another five months. Four months at best, and that was only if he grabbed the reins provided to him after what happened in the Nurse's office.

Of course, the excitement would begin by then. Things would become a little too hectic to judge completely what was going to occur She couldn't get everything right. Her humanity provided that limitation.

Though not for long.

Kenshin had disappeared. Kenshin had been removed from the rankings. And Paine59 had just shot in there to take his place. That didn't make sense. The n00b had to be at least in the two rankings below, or had to previously been in the rankings to get in at that level.

This put him in at number ten. A n00b in tenth in her rankings? One was bad enough! More than anything, she felt the compulsion to slam down those buttons, eject him from the rankings. She could easily set Kenshin's name back in there. Set him on suspended mode or something. Perhaps even just shift everyone up one. Only the bitchey would whine.

It was evidence though, and she was still in charge of the investigations into the comatosed children. Kenshin was another part of that puzzle and now, so was Paine59.

She wished she had kept that e-mail now. The samurai lecturer might have left her some kind of clue that she had missed the first time. Hadn't he typed jibberish in for the header? Maybe there had been something more. For seconds the thoughts crossed over her mind as to how unnecessarily complicated it would be to wrest control of the main server and spend a few minutes on Kenshin's account to see if he had kept the message on his side.

He probably hadn't.

Still, she supposed it wasn't necessary now.

Here's to waiting.

***

“You're late!” Dorou shouted, as Paine approached the couple. “Penalty!” (I wonder, how many people understand)

“Sorry,” he said automatically, waving a hand to greet them. “I must have been more tired than I thought. I can't even remember when I fell asleep.”

“Yes…well,” Dorou's eyes averted their gaze from Paine for a moment, before turning around. “Let's get started shall we. No sense wasting time with idleness.” He turned, heading to their destination and Paine swore he could hear a giggle behind the harsh tone. He didn't understand.

Their destination was just around the corner, and as they turned to catch up with Dorou it came into sight. He had insisted in this place since, if anything, it was the closest they could get to a place where a lot of things seemed to happen. It was the nearest stretch of land where the now completely sealed off Old Forums were, and the closest he could get to them. The building loomed over them, the only items discernable on it now being a couple of drainpipes that no longer connected to the inside of the building, and the bush that Dorou had used as a marker.

The stretch itself was just one half tarmac and one half grass, leading up to the mound that housed the building. It wasn't important. They'd all stand on the grass, but on the top of the hill, just in front of what may have once counted as the main entrance, there was someone there.

“So,” Priestess said, distracting him. “Dorou tells me you have voices in your head.”

“Just one actually,” he replied instantly, more focused on the figure at the top of the hill. He looked familiar, but couldn't place why. Paine's eyes had a horrible tendency to be unclear in the morning. They felt worse than usual today.

“Right. Sorry.” He squinted. It was an older male. Black hair? “So?” Priestess was talking to him still.

“So?” He had a laptop on him. Was it? He thought he could see the apple mark from here.

“Errrr,” She kicked her foot hard against the ground, her smart black shoes bouncing on the toe. “Does it have a name?”

“I don't know actually,” Paine said, focusing his attention back on the girl as it occurred to him the first time that it was something he hadn't sked. “Let me check.”

Even Dorou had turned around to watch as he said it out loud. “Do you have a name?”

A handle designation has been set to make it easier for you to refer . Would you like to hear it?

“Er, yeah. Sure.”

It is Know

“He said his name's Know, with a K.” He trapped his thoughts on this, contemplating not just the weird name, but the way it had appeared to his mind, fully spelt with instant comprehension, though he would have thought that he had more heard a voice than saw words being written down. Priestess was still staring at him.

“So…you just talk to it…him? And he answers?” Her eyes looked a lot larger behind her glasses, her eyebrows like bewildered lemmings, though he couldn't tell why.

“Yeah.” He shrugged his shoulders a little, as he heard Dorou groan loudly. The thief could see who was on top of the hill.

“Can I talk to him?” she asked.

“Not really, he's in my head, isn't he?” Paine replied, turning back to focus on the other person. “I could ask him something for you if you want?”

“I should have tied you down to that bed when we left you.”

“What?” Paine shouted, realizing who it was in the distance.

“Nothing,” she said nonchantlently.

“It's that guy.”

“Who?”

“The guy with the cat ears.”

“Er yes,” Priestess commented, trying to regain her bearings. “Yo's supposed to be guarding the building. Make sure none of the students get in. Me and the hall monitors got told yesterday afternoon. It's okay though. I had already gone ahead this morning and informed him you wished to use this area to train.”

“You did?”

“Why do you think we are standing here now and not getting disciplinary measure thrown at us?”

“Oh right. Thanks.” Though he knew he should have felt more grateful on the inside, Paine was more concerned on just how early Priestess got up on the mornings. It was eight am now, a Sunday as well. Shouldn't she be doing religious stuff? He hadn't come across any churches, or even any signs of a Christian society now that he came to think of it. They probably just used a lecture room and held meetings there or something. Just how many Christians were there here anyway?

“So,” Dorou chirped, waving to the lecturer, who barely gave them a glance before yawning heavily and going back to what Paine assumed must be his work. “How do you actually want to do this?”

“The training?” Paine responded, temporarily distracted. “Well, we just duel each other right. I figure we'd take it in turns. Maybe the one who sits out could take notes and evaluate the others or something.”

Dorou scoffed. “Yeah, that'll work. Do you know how bad my notes are gonna be? And how enormously long winded and boring Priestess' are?” Paine spun to the girl, for some reason expecting violence, but she merely shrugged.

“I won't deny it.”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Paine asked the thief, his mind going through just what else they could do. He couldn't just look through his deck and tak about it. Even now, even with Know in his head, there was still hesitation at touching it.

“First off,” Priestess began, “you have to ask yourself just why you are training?”

“To get stronger of course.” It was an instant reply. He also felt that feeling rabbit's must get when they see the hunter's box fall on top of them.

“Then we have an excellent gymnasium for that.”

“No one's ever in there though, except maybe at the start of term,” Dorou piped. Paine groaned at the semantics.

“You know what I mean…” His hand lightly grasped his forehead, feeling it throb just a pulse or two heavier than usual. “Stuff like, you know, tactics and stuff.”

“You can think up tactics back in the dorm,” Doro replied. “You don't need to bring us out here to do that.”

That wasn't possible actually, he thought to himself, since his deck was refusing to remove itself from his belt.

“But it's good to test it out against an actual player. I can think of dozens of tactics all the time, but they may not work in reality.”

“Reality is overrated, Paine,” Priestess said. He didn't realize she was standing next to Dorou, and that there was a gap between the two of them and him. “And a tactic that might work against one person won't against someone else. If you were to find one that could beat Dorou, and then tried it against me, it would most likely backfire. Our strategies are that different.”

“Fine!” he nearly shouted, though the aggravation was clear. “Then what do you suggest?” He thought that was the answer they were looking, but they looks disappointed for a second.

“Let's do the program Dorou thought of last night,” Priestess said. “And then you can answer for yourself. It's quite simple really.”

“Program?” Paine felt a little anxiety as he saw the two of them activate their duel disks in unison, before Priestess removed a panel and started pressing buttons. “What are you…”

“Technical handicap match,” Dorou interrupted, “and I only say that because the voice in your head doesn't really count if it were a tag team match. It'll be me and Priestess against you. No time limit. No life points.”

That was a bit unfair, Paine thought, as he watched the nurse tap buttons lightly, apparently setting up the new rules. Two on one would be a little unfair, but he could see the advantages of facing two people at once.

“Wait!” he did shout this time. “No life points?”

“Rest assured mate,” Dorou said, as Priestess finished up. “If it were the standard eight thousand, me and her could defeat you in two turns, regardless of the encyclopedia in your hear. Or the fact you beat us both separately.”

“But then what's the point?”

“That is the point,” Priestess stated. “Press the green button to link up with us.” Looking to the underneath of his duel disk, he pressed the now flashing green button who's existence he had questioned for a while now. It beeped a quick step, and he guessed they were now linked under the new rules.

“As Ms. Onikage would say `Have an epiphany, dammit.'”

“Ah, you cursed,” Dorou commented, looking with a greedy smile at his girlfriend.

“It was a quote. It is considered invalid under the rules.” It was Dorou's turn to groan this time. “Shall we start?”

“I guess so,” Paine said, though he felt even less sure than his response sounded. Were they just to hit each other then? That might work, though it seemed a little ineffective in the long term.

Yes, in metaphorical terms, that is the case. You are to attack and receive damage in the standard manner of dueling. However, there will be no life points for damage to be recorded with.

“I didn't need to be told that,” Paine mumbled mentally, activating his duel disk.

“Paine, Dorou, Priestess,” Priestess called out to him. “That will be the turn order. You will go first.”

“Right!” he exclaimed, excited now. The two of them were going to try and teach him something with this program, he wanted to know what it was. Hopefully, it would help. If not, this would still be fun, if not highly unfair, but that was a challenge in itself.

He drew his first five, followed by Archer Extras, which he had mentally jotted down as being an attacking version of scapegoat. That was a two thousand attack right there, but they were completely defenseless. Star of the show was also in his hand, and the knight seemed to almost gleam when he inspected it, as if just waiting to get out onto the field. It'll have to wait though. A Stage Set and…

“The Dumb King?” Unintentionally speaking aloud, his hand clasped over his mouth, inadvertently showing his opponent's the card he was trying to hide the name of. It was a monster card, 1000ATK/1000DEF.Its effect…

“What's the effect of this card?” Asking wasn't his aim, but it happened anyway.

The Dumb King.

Four Stars. Earth.

Theatre.

When this card is destroyed, it will stay on the field until the end of the turn. It may still be attacked again. During this time it may not attack.

1000ATK 1000DEF

He flicked it closer to his face, examining the picture of the royal man. He looked fat and bumbling, even within the small square card.

It would do for defense, until he was ready for the next turn.

“I'll start by summoning the Dumb King in attack mode,” he called out, watching as regent appears in a glow of digital purple. With all the bulk it was hard to tell if the king was truly obese or whether he just wore five or more heavy jewel encrusted robes. With his hands behind his back (as if they were to a back that was like a support column overloaded) the king looked forward with eyes that appeared closed, smiling chuffly to himself. He didn't look like he could attack.

“And I'll set this card face down.” Archer Extras. Insurance. “End my turn.”

“Is that a new one, man?” Dorou called out, pulling his sixth glossy card out of the deck. “Well howzabout I show you my oldest?” He slapped it down. “Prince of Elves. Prince of Thieves.” (ATK1000DEF2000)

The white glow of the monster summoned shone so brightly it blinded Paine, and his king turned into stars as he had to avert to eyes, feeling them water beneath his tight eyelids. Covering them with his free arm, though it was pointless by now, he waited as the intense shine tore through his shirt and continued attacking his coronas, trying to shut them impossibly tight.

Then it was gone.

He was almost disappointed to find that Dorou hadn't used the opportunity to steal him naked. Instead, a blue haired, handsome looking elf was standing on the battlefield, wearing what looked little better than muddy brown worker's clothes. It was what he would expect a practical dressing drifter to wear. Padded and warm, yet still cheap and worn. On top of its head, it was wearing the dumb king's crown.

The Dumb King Exclaimed loudly in surprise, feeling his head frantically as if to confirm it was gone. Realizing it had gone, it giggled childishly to the thief, like a child would do to a bully that had taken its apple.

The Prince of Elves, Prince of Thieves, put the crown into its pocket, which Paine assumed meant it just disappeared. The Dumb King started to sweat, still giggling.

“And I'll set one card face down as well,” Dorou finished, doing so. “Endth the turn!” The King was now taking a few steps forward, its hands raised, as if to hover at the line of politely requesting his crown back and outright begging. The Prince thief responded with a small dagger appearing from the palm of his hand, and the king backed off again, with a look that made one think he intended to ask again later `when the time was more convenient'.

Priestess, who hadn't said a word since the duel started, took a card from her deck, before checking her hand methodically. “I'll place one card face down, and set one card. End turn.”

It occurred to Paine that he should of asked if Dorou would have been allowed to attack, but figured it was meaningless now.

Now, time to attack, he thought as he drew out another card. Mystical space typhoon. Perfect. That'll set him up for a straight out attack with appropriate defense. A part of him played with the idea of holding back for a few turns, waiting to see. Without life points, it was an acceptable gamble, but considering Priestess' tactics in their last duel, he'd be getting disrupted constantly. It wasn't worth it.

“First, I'll play Stage Set,” he shouted, whacking the card into the special extra slot provided, and watching as, as usual from the depths of nowhere, stages appeared. Not just two this time, but three. Clearly for outdoor purposes, each had paintings drawn by adults for children on the back of them. Paine had a hill, a castle on top of it, and a flower that dwarfed the both of the behind a blue background with a smiling sun. The stage raised the king only about two feet into the air, wobbling comical as it tried to keep its balance in the elevation.

To Priestess' right, a painted church appear, to which she barely acknowledged. It looked like it had been painted by a child in three seconds. To his left, the painting of an inner Victorian city show up. This one however, looked as if it were drawn by some of the greatest artists of all time combined. Each paving stone was highlighted in detail, and the jubilant expressions could be seen on the kids' faces as they ran down the streets.

“How?”

“Is this what you think of me?” Priestess asked, but went no further. Paine dismissed it. The Dumb King was humming to itself.

“Next, I'll sacrifice the Dumb King to…” He was stopped, as he heard the wind torn in a gunshot. Suddenly, he became aware of a knife embedded in the king's cranium. It didn't bleed, but the monster did poke its head up, like it had sensed dripping water from a leak above it. It looked around, but didn't see anything.

“To…” He waited, just for a moment, to see if Dorou had done anything (he figured Priestess wouldn't do anything like this). The King just spun around again, its hand feeling its head but always missing the sharp weapon that had driven itself deep into him. Eventually, he figured no one was behind it, and the king itself decided it must have been the royal imagination. “…to summon the Star of the Show!”

From behind the stage, the Star appeared, his helmet in his hands, waving to all the imaginary children as it took to the stage bowing and smiling its large, broad smirk.

When it saw the king, it almost jumped out of its greaves, falling to the floor with a girlish shriek. The King didn't seem to realize the knight's confusion, and looked to the man as if he were crazy.

“By the heaven's, milord,'” the knight said, its voice becoming squeaky. “Are you quite alright?”

The King responded with a childish squeal, and nodded contently.

“V-very well,” the star said, standing back up very slowly, as if afraid the king might bite him. Quickly shuffling to put its helmet on, the star readied his sword, and stood for the next orders.

So the King wouldn't die just yet, meaning Star of the Show wouldn't get an attack boost from it being in the graveyard. It wasn't too important, it could still beat Dorou's monster. In fact, Paine decided it was better this way. With Priestess on the field assisting, his attacks could easily be turned around if he attacked with too much power.

“Star of the Show! Attack Prince of Elves, Prince of Thieves.”

“Jolly good, sir,” the knight said, as it raised its long sword, and took off in the direction of Dorou's stage.

He readied Mystical Space Typhoon, trapped it between his middle and index fingers.

“Activate trap card!” Dorou called out. “Shadows of the street!”

As the Star neared its target, the prince pulled its knife, and parried the initial blow. Using the shock of the strike, the elf threw its momentum into the backdrop, taking the monster with it and disappearing around the area where an old woman strayed perilously close to a dark alley.

“It allows me to either place a monster into face down defense mode, or temporarily remove it from the game,” Dorou explained. “Hardly matters in this case though, right mate?”

Paine hesitated. If this meant what he thought it meant, then Dorou was wide open. Priestess still had one card face down, so that proved a threat. Still, the risk didn't matter too much, he'd just lose Star if something went wrong now.

“Star of the Show, continue the attack!”

“Very good, milor…errrr,” the Star tripped over its own tongue, and stopped to think it through. “Milord #2. No, that's not right. Milord B? Milord omega? Oh never mind.” And with a quick step it ran over to where Dorou was standing. The thief watched the knight tear through him with its blade, shrugging as he was cleaved in half (-2600:âˆž).

“I end my turn.”

Not a bad start, he figured. He had struck early and secured a blow. Even if Dorou had been a little confusing, this would have been a good start. Even more so, he still had Mystical Space Typhoon, though he cursed himself now that he had not set it.

Suddenly, the Dumb King gasped, waddled forward a few steps, and rolled over on his front. The Star ran up to him, winded by the sudden appearance of death, the king's head unable to touch the ground with all the weight in the way. As the Star examined him, it came across the knife, and pulled it out slowly.

“A knife?” it said. “But who could have done such a thing?” The pain on the Star's face was genuine, and it wept tears as the Dumb King turned to nothingness.

“It was you. All you,” Paine muttered.

“My turn!” Dorou shouted back, and Paine watched as the Prince of Elves, Prince of Thieves stood at the front of the stage, as if to have never left. He drew his card, and turned to Priestess with a grin.

“Do you have it?” she said, a smile on her face now as well.

“Didn't even have to palm it.”

“What is it?” Paine asked, questioning whether they were even going to answer. It occurred to him that he should have asked if they were allowed to show their cards to each other.

“First, I'll attach this card, the Velvet Glove, to my Prince of Elves, Prince of thieves!” Dorou started, doing as he stated. On its right arm, a smooth, black velvet glove shimmed into existence, covering the monster's hand completely. For a second, the prince admired its new accessory, then again looking forward.

“This card has one very simple effect,” Dorou began to explain against his nature. “It allows the monster to take a card from any deck in the game, as many times as you want. If you take one that is yours, you lose 1000 life points. Take one that is not yours, and the owner gains 1000 life points. But, as we know, Paine, life points don't matter in this, do they mate.”

Paine's eyes widened. Of course! How could he have not realized that in the instant he was told? If you can't defeat an opponent by life points, there was always stripping them of their cards. That was how Dorou intended to win?

“Wait!” Paine shouted. “What's the point of winning like that?” Even though he was saying it, his words were choking him. Hadn't he relied on something similar? Yet Dorou was apparently unaffected by these words. Instead, his grin merely rose.

“Paine,” Priestess said calmly, catching his attention. “This is a training program. It wouldn't matter if that was his intention or even if it were within his capabilities. Please continue to watch.”

After a few seconds, Paine nodded his understanding, and turned back to Dorou, who was looking at Priestess expectantly. Returning the gaze, Priestess cracked for a second under his serene gaze. “Wh-what?” she shouted back to him, losing her cool.

“I told you earlier,” he said. “For this combo, you have to turn around.”

Disgruntled noises came out of her mouth, as she clutched her head with her fingers. “And I told you that such nonsense isn't necessary.”

“It is,” he countered. “I won't do it otherwise.”

They played a battle of eyes for a few moments. Paine could only guess that Dorou won.

“Fine,” Priestess conceded a second later, turning around smoothly. “Is this to your liking, Sir Dorou?”

“It would be if you were missing trousers!” he shouted back to her.

“What?”

“Beginning the first combo of the season,” Dorou called out, containing the approaching explosion. “Prince of Elves, Prince of Thieves. I want sixteen cards, from Priestess' deck!”

“What?” Paine called out, as he turned towards Priestess. She simply stood there, arms folded, her right arm under the duel disk, as she waited patiently.

It appears that the first opponent wishes to take sixteen cards from his partner's deck using the effect of Velvet Glove on Prince of Elves, Prince of thieves. The advantage of doing so allows them sixteen extra cards during this turn, as well as a 16000 life point boost to the second opponent. However, in this duel, this is irrelevant.

Still confused by this tactic, Paine looked back to Dorou, and then to the thief prince on the stage, his eyes straining forward as he saw it already holding sixteen card and counting through them like a wad of bills. He shouldn't have been that surprised that it had got them so quickly.

“Activate trap card!” Priestess shouted out of the blue, now spinning around to face Paine. “Refusal of greed. Unnecessary gift!”

“What's that do?” Paine called out, feeling that he was being assaulted on all sides by two armies that he would have never been able to defeat singularly, even though he had.

She will answer.

“This trap card allows me to deny any boost to my life points that I may incur from the effect of a card that is not my own. In return, I am given the opportunity to inflict direct damage equal to half the life points that I was presented with to my opponent.”

“Uh oh.” Sixteen thousand divided by two was not that hard to figure out.

“Dorou may have been the thief, but he will always be my partner, never my aggressor.”

Paine had lost, for the first time.

***

Had the ceiling grown? It certainly looked liked in when one was hanging off their chair with their head on the floor and a sake glass sitting on your left spectacle.

The clock didn't tick in here. It only shifted. That was more than could be said of the clocks elsewhere in the Academy. She'd have to fix that.

No, she wouldn't. Even with the complete lack of energy that was bursting through her system now, she knew she'd never get that done.

The ceiling slouched as she moved over, and she watched the small glass slide off her and onto the floor, spilling its contents over the red fuzzy carpet and approaching her mouth, stopping just short of her out sticking tongue. She groaned, loudly and exaggerated, hopping that no one heard it, even though there was no one for about a building away.

Maybe she should… Her thoughts stopped as she heard footsteps. Light, and near her door. She should have heard them much sooner; that was what concerned her more than their presence. She rolled back, her legs falling off the chair and round her body, allowing her to sit up properly.

Readjusting her shifted glasses, she stared at the wooded door as it might soon be disintegrated by a shotgun, and listened as she heard a shuffling near the bottom.

A small purple disk slotted through (it didn't say whether it was CD or DVD) the tiny crack of the door. She looked down at disk as if it was going to tell her what it was doing there. Her hand went for the door, but she thought better about it. They were gone now.

Reaching forwards, she took the metallic object in her hands and examined it, making sure not to get her own marks on it. How she wished for a hamburger at this point! It must have been years since she last had one. Clutching the otherwise blank disk, she swung onto her desk chair and slotted it into the computer, waiting.

A few keystrokes later, and it started up. It was a video. VLC struggled a bit in the first few seconds that a computer is programmed to be slow with and then shifted from strewn and broken squares into a picture. Not clear, not clear at all, but one could still see enough to know what was there.

It was Zen.

On a field, muddy despite rarely walked upon, green despite rarely tended, the young boy stood. He was looking at the screen, making Shariku felt like she was being watched. His breathing was heavy, guarded, his stance lopsided. He was too tired to hold his duel disk properly.

She could see that the date listed on the camera was two months off from the current date. It was wrong, and about as helpful as a safety on a bow and arrow.

He didn't say anything, even as he drew his cards. His gaze never moving from the camera. It was as if he was acting, but something else stated whether or not he even knew there was a camera there.

The duel began.

***

“Thirty three, thirty four, thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight,” Dorou whimpered, as he dropped the final card on the floor besides him. His deck looking a little pitiful now. Turning to Priestess with the look a child would have in a sweet store with an unsympathetic mother, he whined.

“It's your own fault,” Priestess chided him, doing her best to hide a smile “You should have destroyed that card earlier rather than wait for him to do it.”

“I was going to lose thirty two cards anyway,” he muttered. “I figured a few more wouldn't matter.”

Even with all the defense behind it, the Prince of Elves, Prince of Thieves wasn't enough against the force of his Star. Regardless, they had now defeated him twice, at great expense to Dorou though. He had to discard double the amount of cards that the Velvet Glove drew once it was removed. Paine would have to ask the specifics of the card to Dorou later, as he couldn't figure why the thief just didn't rip his entire deck out from under him.

Priestess had lost a whole bunch of cards as well, the sixteen that Dorou had pulled out from beneath her had just faded to the graveyard come the end of the turn, and Paine found himself thinking, although it was kinda cool to defeat him that way, it didn't actually count in this duel.

At least now he had his strategy. Wipe their cards clean. Empty the duel disks, and he could attain victory in that unique manner. They were even helping him with it, and Dorou was down to about fifteen cards (making Paine realize that he must have padded his deck in advance, since the boy had told him one night in bed that he always kept it to forty, intending to travel light).

Priestess was also low on cards, but not as much as Dorou. He figured it didn't matter. They would both lose once Dorou alone couldn't draw any cards.

The three large stages had attracted a bit of attention now, and wandering students were not stooping onto their bags and rucksacks to sit on the smooth tarmac and watch the duel. A few people were cheering randomly. Somebody was insulting everyone who did anything.

“Kick their asses, Paine!”

“Smash that stupid knight!”

“Hellllllo nurse!”

“I insult everyone and everything, including your mothers!”

One of the girls from the library was there, the shorter one. The taller one had gone to get them snacks apparently. EA and Brado were also lingering around.

“hehehehe, hey brado pullz my figer”

“lol k”

*farts*

`hehehehe'

`lolz'

The only disadvantage was that he had no cards that could really rip the cards out of their decks, but if their tactics were going to continue along these lines, all he needed to do was wait it out.

No, that wouldn't learn him anything. Patience was a good thing, but sitting around and just defending never won a war.

“Archer Extras: attack!” And from the four remaining space, each of the group of five fired a flurry of arrows towards the now defenseless thieves. He stood there and took it, not caring about the loss to his life points, since there wasn't any. Paine felt stupid.

How many life points has Dorou lost?

Dorou has lost no life points. His current score is infinity.

How many would he have lost were this a normal game.

There is insufficient data for this question.

How so?

Were this a normal game, it is highly probable that Dorou would have prepared and attacked differently.

I could have figured this out for myself you know? I just wanted a quick answer.

…

Dorou has lost 6400 life points, 2000 in that last attack.

Thank you.

He knew Priestess had only lost 1000, and that was by her own violation, to discard another card from his hand. He had lost that weird little child. His opponent was still well protected.

“My turn,” Dorou called out, flipping out a card and not even looking at it. “I'll play Broken tooth Pickpocket, and set two cards face down.” From behind the stage, a small child poked his head round, and swung up onto the stairs like a cat. From there, he wandered up the stairs and onto Dorou's stage, his loose chaps slapping against him as old rag met with virtual wood. Paine couldn't tell if he was homeless or just very poor, but the boy didn't seem to care. He smiled a smile that revealed four distinct holes that made Paine hiss at the thought, and took off his cap to bow to the audience.

Almost immediately Paine watched as the watching students, as if flooded by the idea in one quick wave, rushed over between the two stages and sat down. The little and large duo came up first, and both watched a separate stage. Others seemed to have problems deciding who they were facing, and EA just lay down at an angle where both stages were partially viewable.

He watched Dorou as the boy took his time, actually waiting for some of the stragglers to come sit in the center of the three stages. Paine groaned, quiet enough not to catch any attention. Nobody really liked being watched during rehearsal, even if it was by a single person. A whole crowd of kids was just a distraction.

“Broken tooth pickpocket!” Dorou shouted. “Attack one those archer tokens.”

With a long exaggerated bow, the small boy took off into the audience, wading around all the people. Brado tried to touch him as he went past but the boy stepped out with an ease of dexterity and rolled up onto Paine's stage. The archer token that the boy was heading for stared at him apprehensive, even more so when the child stood there and stared at them, his big grin stealing their resolve. Suddenly, he pointed behind them, and they all turned to the direction of the painted castle.

Raising his leg, the pickpocket kicked the first archer is the backside. The man released a cry of pain or shock, and they all disappeared.

Paine knew he probably should have stopped that, but there was no real damage, and this thing would be taken care of later…

There was a card missing from his hand…

…and the pickpocket gave it to Dorou as it reached him.

“Damn!” Paine cursed, unable to help himself.

“I'll give it back afterwards, kay?” Dorou shouted, waving the Crafty villain in the air.

One day, Paine swore, one day he would be the one to use that card, and for himself as well. Every frickin' time! Whose card was it, his or Dorou's?

“End turn!”

Priestess drew, her eyes closed as her mouth moved wordlessly, taking the card into her hand.

Then she spoke, but her words were not English. The chattering of the students, caught as they were in gossip and speculation, quickly stopped as they heard. Three guessed what language she was speaking. One held back a titter. Only one understood.

That one was not Paine. It filled his mind, and felt so familiar. Where had he heard it before?

For the first time since it had been there, the one in his head did not answer.

Then she was finished, and it appeared on the field, the two face down cards disappearing as it did so.

The man was huge, dwarfing the woman who he appeared next to, two feet above her, and more than double her width. Bulky, he held his height well as he looked down to the star in front of him with a bearded face. He was unarmed, but dressed in old red robes that made him look a Greek scholar but with a heavy Asian tan. Again, Paine found himself wondering where he had seen this before, but couldn't quite place it. Something was wrong. (2100ATK2500DEF)

“Whosoever possesses this Lance and understands the powers it serves, holds in his hand the destiny of the world for good or evil.”

And with that she placed another card onto the field, and in the muscular man's hands appeared a simple wooden stick. As tall as the man was, it was easily contained in his hands, and looked like it would snap were he to but clasp it. It was sharpened at one end, albeit poorly.

“Dhul-Kifl, attack.”

Paine just watched now. Waiting for the trick.

The man, who was now looking at the stick as if trying to figure out if it were kindering or a huge redwood, and being unable to determine the answer, heaved a sigh. Paine swore he felt an urge of boredom or annoyance in his voice, and jumped when the large man shattered the twig in his hand into two pieces, before tossing it to the floor and heading for the Star of the Show, who cowered at the sight of the giant man.

Traveling seven steps across from one stage to the other, in what would have taken Paine twice as long, the large man's feet soon became hazards for the children, and they scrambled out of the way, not willing to take the risk even if he were digital.

When he stopped, he was by the Star, eyes looking down at the now beady looking knight, whose knees chattered against each other, the poleyn battering dints into its partner. Star looked ready to swing his sword, but stopped as the man loomed over him, his shadow taking the Star's world, filling with nothing but the sight of the prophet above him.

Then nothing happened. Star took a few moments to realize there was a hand being offered to it, and it shot back when he looked again into the man's eyes. Paine could see they were a simple blue, and yet his feet had glued themselves to the ground. It wasn't terror. There was no need, but it stopped you, froze you worse than a New York policeman with a revolver at your chest. Running was not an option.

“His attack points are weaker!” Paine muttered desperately to himself, hoping the Star would somehow realize, but now there was just the arm, displayed prominently towards the right of the stage. Following with its eyes, the star looked around, lost for words, unwilling to speak, and eventually wandered off, heading back to Paine's hand.

Taking the card off the Duel Disk, Paine wondering what the hell had just happened, he heard a resonance near Priestess. The broken stick was vibrating, cleaving itself out of the earth. The large man barely noticed, moving back to his attack position.

Above him, Paine saw, one by one, the cards in his hands, bare for anyone to see. Painful choice. Phantom of the Opera. Mysterious Sandbag and of course, Star of the Show. He barely saw his knight before the Spear pierced the card, shattering the digital image into thousands of nothings.

Priestess waited, and Paine didn't need to be told what to do.

“Is destiny inevitable? A card that leaves the field must surely be headed for the graveyard. One that doesn't is merely taking a break elsewhere before moving on.”

“I quote, therefore my intelligence is increased in the eyes of the people around me,” said Dorou, getting no response out of his girlfriend.

“Trap card,” Priestess continued. “To follow in death.”

Her mouth opened to speak further, and then curled back upon itself and was bitten into by the teeth. Paine briefly wondered why the hell he was focusing on her mouth so much, and looked back to the game.

An indicator flashed on his duel disk, telling him to discard a card from his hand.

“What?”

As a result of the trap card, `To follow in death” a player who discards a card from the deck to the graveyard must also discard one other card of their choice.

Sheesh. Monster, spell and trap.

He took a few moments to decide, then found himself regretting choosing Painful Choice. He needed a monster in Phantom, and Sandbag was universally useful. Painful choice however, he could not control, and so it went.

His turn came next.

The Archers were still there, three of them. 1500ATK to one, the other or both, but now he was the only one with an empty field.

Tactics. Tactics. What could he do? No, don't answer that. I just need to think it.

You are closer than you think.

He was. It was probably true. All he had to do was clean out Dorou's cards. But with Priestess's control tactics messing up his hand and deck, and Dorou's constant theft he could run out of cards in a turn. He needed them gone, but how.

His deck was more suited to out and out attacking there was a bit of easy destruction in there, but nothing that allowed him to control his opponent's cards. He might have had one or two that let him, but he didn't even know of their existence yet. What was he to do?

No, wait. Don't answer that.

At least draw a card.

“Oh right,” he muttered, and took it.

The Silent Mime

**** theatre/Earth

ATK1500DEF

Effect: When this card is summoned, choose one monster on the field. Mime may use this effect of this card in the same manner as stated on the card. If the monster is destroyed, then Mime is sent to the graveyard.

“Thank you,” he deadpanned. Wait, wasn't this what he needed?

This…

Shut up! Yes, this was perfect. And to the actor it all became clear. He had the ability of theft in this card. Even more so, it allowed him to steal the thing he needed the most.

“I play the Silent Mime,” he announced.

***

The hooded man stood before him, an unnaturally stiff stance holding his body upright. Duel disk already connected to arm, the five cards drawn. Waiting for its opponent to do the same, the man froze as to a statue.

Ruffling a hand though his hair, Zen swung the huge sword from its sheath on his back, and slammed it into the muddy ground beneath him. The hooded man did not flinch with the force, much to Zen's chagrin.

With jittering encoding distorting its face, the man watched as Zen summoned his Duel disk, and took five cards in hand, a vexing expression on his face, an interruption to his loneliness.

A sixth. The young man summoned a monster to the field. Drazzi, who ripped out the hearts of its opponents to watch the dying beats that it took great pleasure in halting. Another card was placed down, and the turn was ended.

Taking its sixth card, the hooded man spent a few minutes pondering, a hidden hand roaming its cards, before pulling out and playing Painful Choice.

Immediately the card shattered across a pixilated landscape that faded instantly, and the figure was left with nothing. Having done its job, the trap card also disappeared.

The man, unconcerned, scrolled along its deck and pulled out another card that he placed sideways on the field, hidden from his opponent and the camera. Another card was placed to trap his opponent, and the game moved along.

Zen looked up as it started to rain from a starry night sky, relishing in the thunder that cracked along the horizon. With a draw, he pulled Drazzi away from the field, and watched as the monster howled at an invisible moon, holding its own heart in its hand, and dying in terror.

From Drazzi's fear came Barbs, and the Warlock wallowed in the death of the demon, its fear sustaining him, as it grew larger onto the field, soon towering above the robed figure, and with a powerful lunge, decimating the face down card. A three eyed Sangan popped up from under it, and playfully headed to the graveyard.

Placing another card down, Zen ended his turn, and almost immediately the man drew another card, playing Graceful Charity and discarding with but a glance to its cards. Four men in tattered armor appeared, and charged towards the enemy, taking both parties out in one fell swoop, leaving the battlefield barren.

Then, a trap activated, and a grave appeared in the ground, old and decrepid. Suddenly, a lightning bolt shot from the skies, sparks flying everywhere as Zen was forced to block them with his sword. By the time he looked back from safety, Jinzo was there, standing as tall as his warlock had, and neuting his trap card.

More lightning fizzled through the field, and Zen was struck for the first time. Slipping, he grabbed his heavy blade for support, and winced as parts of him sizzled, his blue hair now singed. He began to look worried.

***

Well, the Silent Mime didn't work.

Stealing a control effect didn't mean a thing where the monster simply vanishes and destroys your monster as a result.

He hadn't lost a third time yet, but he was 2000 away from doing so.

Dorou had lost once though, though that point was as hollow as his stomach felt at the moment.

“'Bout time we ended this, right?” Dorou said. He had gone to sitting down, right when his own Broken Tooth Pickpocket had been destroyed. Dorou was lucky like that he wasn't dumb enough to allow his attachments overprotection. Even though he had that Shadow card left (the thief had told him for some equal parts bizarre/equal parts perfectly logical for Dorou reasons), he hadn't let his creature stay alive when it had wiped out the remaining archers.

“Does that mean you have it?” Priestess asked him. “Good.”

“Good?” Paine responded. “Good what?”

Unknown. It may be a reference to the luck involved in obtaining a certain card.

“After this, Paine,” she said, ignoring him. “You will have three turns left. Realize it before then.”

“Realize what?”

The point of this duel.

But there is no point. It's just for training.

Then that alone is point enough, but there is more.

Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to be constantly telling you how annoying you are?

Because 10% of the answers I provide you you will already know. 23% of the answers will appear too ambiguous for your current level of understanding, and the remaining 67% will be of no real use to you.

Right… Thanks for clearing that up.

“You heard her, Paine,” Dorou shouted, though there was no need even above the hustle and bustle of the crowd below them. “Three turns. Make them worth it.”

What was this? A destiny board? He sounded so sure.

“Activate spell card: The Perfect Crime!” Raising the card high into the air, Paine allowed himself to be blinded by the piercingly bright sun behind Dorou's stage. He winced as the duelist swung his Duel disk forward, and slotted the card in, reveling in the pulsating machine as it activated the cards effects, the audience watching with bated breath.

Dorou then turned around and walked over to Priestess. “Can I have it?”

“Sure.”

“Thanking ye.”

Taking the card she handed to him with a gentle swipe, he turned back around and headed for his stage, taking his time.

“Now, I pay 5000 life points to activate this card, and another 5000 as the effects of A Perfect Crime for using a card I take from another player.”

Slotting the new magic card into the next slot, the thief cleared his throat with a slight cough, breathed in, and raised his hands dramatically.

“And then stuff happened, and we were all mystified by it, for though it was not really all that good in the long run, the quote still made it all the more better, and all the people were happy and stuff, and much cheese was thrown by peasants into my waiting bank vaults. And I need to get milk when this duel is over.”

The audience said not a word, and though he could tell that some were smiling (Paine own right cheek had tensed up with humour), most were just baffled. It occurred to him that most probably hadn't seen much of Priestess' dueling before.

Walking over to her boyfriend, Priestess kicked him in the shin with hard capped shoes. The thief winced even as his own grin grew larger. But then he stopped, and Paine watched the duel disk on the boy's left arm convulse jerkingly and raised itself, upwards and stiff. Dorou looked like he had been expecting it, but still had to hold a struggle for control as it started to rapidly vibrate and, from the graveyard slot, a small green grasshopper crawled out, slowly followed by two more.

Then another two, one crawling over the other as they swarmed over Dorou's disk and onto his hand, which was now clenched like a fist. Two more were coming out, and then three. Five popped out all at the same time and looked like they were struggling to get over each other. Paine felt his body become prone as he saw the insects covering his friend's arms, desperately trying to tell himself that it was an illusion, but having a hard time believing it. There now must have been about thirty of them, and they had migrated around the duel disk where Dorou's hand ran out of space, npow having to climb upon each other.

Everyone was silent save Dorou, whose agitation was palpable, causing his right foot to tap hysterically in the tarmac below. Suddenly, with a rush that Paine's eyes missed, all the grass hoppers took off in the shape of Dorou's entire arm, immediately dissipating into an omnipresent swarm that filled Paine's field of sight. The were heading for him, and the few meters across the audience felt like tidal wave insectoid pressure. A few people below him screamed out of fear as the creatures came for him, and he felt the urge to run himself, not just the urge of acting out such a scene, but that thing he dared not admit to himself as well.

His eyes sewed themselves shut, his arms covering his face. He thought of Archnophobia and Jeff Daniel being covered head to foot in Spiders, their individual bites becoming deadly wounds that would destroy his entire body if he let them get the chance. He thought of slugs and leeches, sucking all the blood out of him. He thought of death.

Eventually, his eyes pried themselves over, and the creatures were a lot closer. Some hovering in the air, the rest were crawling over his duel disk and onto his deck. With a yelp, his tried to swat some off, realizing now that they weren't exactly like grasshoppers. His hands went through the digital illusions, but little did they quell his beating heart as, one by one, they took the cards from his deck and disappeared into his graveyard, like thieves stealing sweets from shops and running out.

Shaking his hand, he realized that outside forces never mattered to these creatures, and were forced to watch as they took all his cards one by one, until there were but four left. The last horrid insect bit into the final one, and pulled it into the graveyard slot, finally disappearing into the darkness, where it remained.

“End turn,” Dorou stated. “Your turn, Priestess.”

“I also end my turn,” Priestess said, pulling a card out at least.

“Wait wait wait! What the Yami just happened?”

In reference to the card last activated, it appears the user must pay 5000 life points to activate it. They then remove their graveyard from play, and for every two cards removed, a card from your deck is sent to the graveyard. The opponent had 46 cards in their graveyard, so twenty three have been removed from yours.

“Never mind!” he shouted, before Priestess could open her mouth. “It just told me.” He wished he hadn't used that Dust Tornado now. Looking at his disk, it looked bare with only the three cards sitting there. All he had left now was Stage Set on the field, and what he guessed was three cards in his deck (he couldn't actually check, for he still wasn't able to touch his deck in that manner.)

What was it they wanted him to realize? For a second he waited but it appeared Know was staying quiet on this one. Maybe it was because he had asked it before. But what? That one could do great damage at great sacrifice, as Dorou had demonstrated? That although one can fight back to a certain degree where against multiple opponents, if those opponents are invincible that it is still impossible? Perhaps even that if one if clever enough they can have their idiotic boyfriend take all the damage for them even as he dies three times over?

Taking a card, he saw another Stage Set in front of him. Of all the times…

All that was left was the Mysterious Sandbag. He placed it down on the field just in case something would allow him to activate it next turn. “End turn.”

“End turn,” Dorou said, taking a card.

“End turn,” Priestess said, taking a card.

His forehead striking him, Paine was taken aback at the sudden attack. He flinched backwards, and thought he heard a few gasps from the audience but couldn't quite tell. Were the headaches coming back? Now was when he needed them the least. Breathing as steady as he could, his cheeks flushed with blood and heat, he reached for his deck. Two cards. He needed to turn the duel around in two cards. He needed to win.

The top of the card met his fingers. It felt rough and cold at the same time, and he wanted to sit down. He was tempted to ask for a toilet break, but knew that he couldn't let it happen. Just pull the card.

He took it. Ragged Maiden. She helped last time, but would she…

His thoughts stopped, and became white and dark forever.

***

The cameraman shuffled on the mud, rocking the camera as it focused off the hidden man and focusing back on Zen, the boy acquiring another card from his deck, his Spider Demon sitting in defense mode, as its two token children empowered it.

The hooded man started to speak, raising its arms in various exaggerated manners. It ended with a final downwards shunt, and Zen grew visibly angry. Summoning the genie, he watched as the dark Djinn trapped within the lamp switched its ATK with the Spider besides it, making it more powerful than the Breaker Knight before it. It raised itself up high, and headed for its opponent, before a series of explosions destroyed the children of the spider demon, and made Breaker weaker than he was before.

Destroying its opponent, the genie shrank back down to its original size, and hovered above its worldly cage with a foreboding grim that would freeze the soul in its presence (if such a thing existed on this battlefield). Placing more cards, Zen ended, and the hidden man drew faster than before, barely waiting for his opponent to finish.

The ground shuffled at their feet, and a head, devoid of flesh and blood rose from the ground. Barely pulling itself out, the Skull Servants vanished as a bright light encompassed it, and took its soul into the Thousand Eyes Restrict, that hovered above the battle ground, and wrapped itself around the Spider Demon.

From the tree behind its owner, a Strike Ninja shot out of the shadows, landing in front of the Djinn and striking it down with a flash of metal on metal. The lamp shattered, and the Djinn screamed its way out of existence, leaving the path open for the Thousand Eyes to scream the pain machine from its giants eye, as bubbling plastic steamed out, and dripped over Zen's face.

Scarring the boy's face, he screams louder than the monster had, and was left with a forever itching that vexed him as he continued to play. In that dark field where no soul lay, he summoned a demonic whirlwind to take away the tricks and traps of his opponents at great cost. It left the Thousand Eyes defenseless and his Belthazar, thrown to the grave to be brought back, scratched its crimson death claws at the hidden figure, who remained as still as always, even though its ninja appear to abandon it.

As the ninja returned, it again disappeared, never to return, and a sorcerer as black as chaos appeared to take its place. Summoning magic that had long been used, it chose to defend, rather than attack one it was equal with.

The demon forever known as the source of evil among witches stepped forward, and observing a minor demon appear next to it, grabbed its skull and, squeezing tight enough for the demon to burst to its innards, threw it at the enemy and charged forward, giving itself the opportunity to strike at the enemy directly once again.

***

“were am i?”

“That's an easy one,” a voice above him said. “We're in your mind.”

His eyes, (though later he would know that they couldn't have been) flung open, and saw nothing. There was something next to him, watching him as he was asleep. He couldn't see it, but it was there. It felt like a young boy.

“Is it empty?” he asked, still disorientated. “Or can I just not see anything.”

“I am not sure. It has been like this ever since I moved in.”

“Who are…”

“You know who I am.”

“Right. Okay.”

“So what am I doing here.”

“You're dueling of course. This is still part of Priestess's program, though it is unlikely that she was planning this.” Paine felt shifting cloth on his eardum touching the air. It was pointing to something. He saw three doors appear to his left. One was the door to the main entrance of the Academy. The middle one was a draping red curtain, and the third was a sleek metal door with a sign on it that he couldn't read from here. “Your training is going well?”

“I don't know,” Paine replied. “I kind of figured I wasn't learning anything.”

“Of course not,” it replied. “For You have no real motivation.”

“Yes I have,” Paine retorted with a snap.

And what is it?

“It's...er...” It was gone. That urge to grow stronger had been dashed by just a few words from Priestess, wiped away and shown to be useless. The aim to get stronger now just seemed like a silly cartoon plot; without any proper definition. He learned that one could rationalize a dream into complete nonsense, but to have it happen hurt.

“Even more so fighting against friends. Against friends there is no need to fight.

No internal conflict. No drama. And so nothing can be learnt, even more so in this game where there is no need for to truly protect.”

“Are you saying I should hurt my friends?” Paine asked. Was that what he had to realize? It was more than a game.

Just living is meaningless when one can barely survive. Just surviving is meaningless if one can barely fight. Just fighting is meaningless when one can barely win.

What had said that? Its voice had sounded different from his other companion.

“You will do that enough in the future,” the first said, somehow ignoring the other voice. “Your pride will strike them constantly. No, what is being suggested is that is that you find a reason to fight.”

“A reason?”

“What are you, Paine?”

“Now you're asking me a question” he muttered. “I don't know. An actor I guess. That's what I want to be.”

The voice was silent for minutes, hours?

“Close enough. Choose the middle door.”

“Why the middle...” But the feeling that there was someone there had dissipated into the darkness that was supposedly his mind. Looking to the curtain, he moved up to it, his hand reaching out tentatively to feel furry draping. Playing with it in his hands, he held his breath, crossing the threshold.

Sunlight surprised his eyes, his fingers shielding and rubbing them as he was assaulted by the image of an alleyway. The houses around him were short, but more like cottages in the countryside than anything else. The ground beneath him was just plain dirt, and footprints had dug deep into the ground through years of use.

It stank badly, and he felt himself coughing and wheezing as his nostrils accept a trojan gift of pungent aromas.

“Stop her?” a voice said from behind him. He turned, away from the sun, and saw what looked like a small army. With raised pitchforks, angry villages charged towards him with a thunderous howl accompanying them. His foot nearly gave away as the sight pushed him back. A strange figure was leading them directly into his path and he cursed through clenched doing their best to chatter teeth as he realized that somehow he had been set up.

“F2463k1121!” the robed figure shouted at him with a feminine voice, and grabbed his arm as she sailed past him, dragging him along and grazing his shin against a badly timed rock. With a thrust he brought himself up and somehow managed to follow her, getting her to let go as he started to overtake.

“What's going on?” he shouted, now recognizing her.

234b'rbh111222221cbj22155U55551mb45111255cb555bh131rb11111163jl,1 cUbh5bs96f19cmh1j1mb23jr1j14m1993ghb53292I1j984cc81cgrm5c5bh1bE11111g72crbh 23441j 5b14jc1Oj14O1b26155551crh9I.9114bh41j bh1c bh1b,c823281U2211!”

Why he was expecting an answer, he had no idea, but his thoughts were taken away from him and impaled in an axe that flew far too close to his right ear and smash the oncoming support post. Paine nearly jumped back into the direction of the crowd as a large war horse roared like a giant where it should have whinnied. The two teenagers swung a hard right, the crowd following them further into the darker alleys of the town.

A few minutes passed, but Paine and his accomplice stayed glued to the roof. A horse was buckling its hooves underneath them repeatedly, and Paine felt that it was going to give them away by doing so, like it was marking out their position for its masters. A few more minutes passed, and he began to question whether the girl had actually left her robes on the barn roof with him. But then she got up, carefully, telling Paine with a wave of her robes where the rafters were, and they ascended up to the top of the barn and onto the etched roof of the connecting farmhouse.

Moving slowly and quietly for the next few minutes, the two traversed across the town, slowly onto higher and higher houses. All the time they were silent, and they almost panicked when a nursemaid pushed her window open, cutting them off from each other.

“What do we do?” Paine mouthed over to the girl. Her face hidden by her heavy hood, the girl raised her robed hand for a second, and then pounced in front of the window, grabbing the curtains and rustling them shut before jumping back. Paine thought for a crazy second that she wanted him to jump pass, but her hand outstretched to stop him again, and they waited.

“S23h3321U1113,1cUbh5c,s51bb172c942444441jwj1111111111U992f .Bh459111r122 1j41bh212771cOlbs777bh45jgr234s234rhw9651j,1cU9s81rhb984U555bh41fs54bhl9666 63."

A baby's cry filled the side of the house, and Paine's urge to jump rose from zero to immediate. Keeping himself as flat as a human could possibly be against a wall with a two inch ledge to stand upon, he waited until he heard the window shut again, the mumblings of an fat old lady entering his ears.

“M41541f14 9141c,” the girl whispered, and he realized the coast was clear. Scrambling past the window, he almost fell off again when a high pitch warble assaulted his ears.

“That wasn't the baby.”

Their trek continued, and Paine found himself being brought up higher and higher, until his guide finally gave up on the ledges and rafters and went straight onto the roofs, bringing herself up to the top of the final building.

“S32m1cj1211rbj5rbh5j5.52134cOln81Urm1cj111111OOlg14bh41j23 .”

She sat down, and he felt propelled to do the same, though walking on a roof wasn't as easy as he felt it should be. The tiles felt wobbly, and each step felt like he was alerting people below him to where they were.

“O555555c.” Her hand rose to the sky and he felt his breath removed as he was introduced to the town he had been running through fro the past twenty minutes. With his lungs finally reminding him he needed air, he watched the picturesque town below him as it hustled with life. He guessed they were five floors up, for most of the other houses were still quite tall, but not as much theirs. All the roofs were a light blue tile and the bleached white rock made the houses almost sparkle. Houses of all shapes and sizes filled his mind, and he could see three churches near each of the town's walls that surrounded the girl's hometown.

In the middle, a giant castle loomed over them about a mile away. It had many towers, of which he imagined only architects could dream about. Each was a smooth tipped turret that rose thirty meters into the air and away from its brethren. In the middle, the largest spire shot up into the sky, far beyond all the others.

“Woah,” were his only words, and as he looked he realized that each of the churches were facing to a side of castle's square base, and guessed they were used to tell direction with another one on the other side out of his sight. He was near the E church, but wasn't too far away from the SW one either.

“C1135113. O555555c.”

It was then he realized that she had actually been pointing down to a nearby house. It was similar to the others surrounding them, and only one floor smaller. In the window there was a young girl, leaning on the windowsill with her hands resting her cheeks. She too was looking out at the town around her and seemed obvious to the both of them.

“Rel? Reeeelll! Oi, Rel!”

And from her quiet windowsill, Rel turned around to see her mother standing there. She looked exhausted, out of breath and ready to collapse. Worried sick, she rushed up to her mother, holding the falling woman before she could hurt herself.

“Mother?” Rel Her mother looked ready to fall asleep for a million ears, and ready to cry as if she had lost a dear one. “What has happened mother?”

“It is your sisters, Rel,” her mother said, holding back tears to give the sad news. “They have snuck off to the prince's ball while I had traveled down to the marketplace. Oh they have taken their best dresses and finest shoes. I can only imagine that they have crafted their hair into beautiful designs in order to woo the menfolk.”

Rel gasped, and remembered that earlier she had seen Red, the eldest of the sisters, desperately looking for her special comb. Now, it made a little more sense.

“But why should they wish to go to the Prince's ball. The Prince is a tyrant to our people, and though he has the power of this land in his grasp, it would never be enough to convince my sisters to try and stand by his side in matrimony.”

“Oh, that is true Rel. But unfortunately, they leave not for him, but for the return of the knight. It says that he is returning from distant lands. Already the green priest and the dark thief have returned to their church, and the Prince wishes to hold a celebration in the honour of all three. Oh Rel, your sisters leave hoping to be able to woo the knight, and bring our family happiness. They know that the Prince owes the Knight so much, and would be more than willing to let him take one of them as his wife. But I could never let that happen. My daughters are known for being the most beautiful in all the land, and I have tried so hard to keep them from his clutches. But should he find them, I know that he would take one of them away for his own, and then...and then...”

And Rel held her mother as the tears finally came to her in their fullest, and the woman sobbed against the shoulder of her child. Rel felt sorry for her mother and held her tightly, even as she tried to reject the words the woman had said. It reminded her that the woman she called mother was indeed not. And though they loved each other so much it would never be as much as she knew the woman loved her sisters. Every time she looked she would be reminded that they were also not bound by her with blood, and therefore she did not share their beautiful looks that had become so exquisitely pleasing to the eye that it had become a danger for one to leave the house without being accosted by suitors on all sides.

As her mother calmed down, she held her so they could see each other's faces, and decided what she must do.

“Mother, I shall head to the castle and stop them.” Her mother's shock made her hold the woman down.

“No, you mustn't.”

“But I must. The ball has already begun into the evening, but the Prince will not be making his appearance until the bell tolls eight. Before that happens I shall convince them to part from this madness and return them here before the prince makes his arrival.”

“But Rel,” her mother said, her face trying to smile in awe of her little girl's courage, but still faced by an increasing sorrow. “However will you get in? They will not allow you in without a dress, and you will not receive yours until your sixteenth birthday. Oh, if only we had the money to have bought you one last year, we might have been able to salvage this mess.”

“It is alright mother,” Rel continued determined, for although she was not as pretty as her sisters, she made up for it with her wit. “I will use the clothes that we found on the tree above my mother's grave. They are more than suitable for the appearance I shall need. And I have a friend, a servant, who I met at the marketplace a few score back. She once did nothing more than sell fruit at a store in the town square, but recently she was given the luck to be employed within the palace. She will let me in if I call upon her, and I can pretend to be a servant myself until i can place myself further within.

“Oh Rel.” Her mother nodded, though it tore her heart to do so. The situation was dangerous, and now she risked losing all her daughters. Holding her tight one last time, she nodded. “Okay. Go. Bring your sisters back safely.”

***

“L111111111111111111111111111111111111 993cU5jrb1cU bh1b bh1b g72jO 36r f5 j22221ghb. 333w l541555551 U555 r555, w41 m1f 32cU 1OO bh243r j333ghb c771s, bh77177gh s1121'OO f1111113rr 1 w9651c j5O5k5O1b92222233311c.”

It sounded like a question. “Um, sure,” Paine agreed. And he heard a heavy sigh from under the robes.

“L555993h1k5c541533111U1311h777s1cc7761l63cgl52311111975'j2 12g5bb81cg.”

***

Getting into the palace gates had proven more of a cinch than it should have. The first line of guards were letting anyone in, as they had grown bored of long identification processes in a line of hundreds, and Rel had passed through under the cover of a group of friends that hid her dull clothes under their own bright and colourful robes. Next, she shot off along a side path, knowing enough from what she had been told that servants always enter through the side entrance. It was after that that it had gotten a bit tough. The side entrance turned into seven separate doors, each of various sizes and all made out of featureless oak that made it impossible for her to tell was a safe way in. It was a few moments of pondering before she was surprised by a guard coming up behind her.

“What can I help you with girlie?” he said, loud enough to scare her out of her young wits. She turned around to see the sentry. Scruffy, with an unkempt beard, he didn't seem like he was angry she was there. It might have been that he had already picked up other stragglers.

“Ah,” she whimpered, before remembering the lines she had memorized. “Good sir. I am just a servant girl…well not yet anyway. I am supposed to be meeting my friend, Sal, who used to work at the marketplace, for she was to have me work here during the ball. But I have gotten lost. Do you know where I could find her, good sir?”

“Sal, who used to work at the marketplace you say?” the man asked, rubbing his stubble with deep thought. “Ah yes, is she not the one with dirty yet light hair, who prefers to keep it short than grow it beautiful, and is so short sighted that it is said that when she scrubs the floor, she has to put her nose right up to the stone just to know it is there?”

Rel giggled, in case it was a joke. “I do believe that speaks of her most poignantly sir.”

“Then wait right here dear maiden, and I shall fetch her for you. Let us hope she does not hurt herself on the way here though.”

“Oh, thank you, good sir.”

Rel breathed a heavy sigh as the man chose the second door nearest to her, and disappeared with a loud thud. Resting against the gigantic stone block that lay between the two doors, she waited, keeping an eye out in case anyone else should pass.

Moments later, the door opened up again, and out popped a small, pointy nose, followed by a young woman, who Rel recognized immediately. “Sal, it is good to see you.”

“It is you, Rel,” Sal replied, as she strained at her friend. “I thought his description sounded familiar.” They stopped for a second as the guard marched out of the door, holding back for a few seconds in case there was a problem. “But what are you doing here?”

“I have come to work, of course, as you said I was to do so today. Oh, please do not say you have forgotten dear friend. I have long ached to be able to see inside the castle, even if I have to serve wine to the oldest and dirtiest of nobles.”

Gritting her teeth in a way that did not show on her cheeks, she prayed her friend would catch on. A second later, Sal smiled.

“Rel, you silly fool. I meant why did you come to this door? I swore I had told you many a times that I wished for you to meet me at the eastern entrance, yet here I find you at the western entrance, no doubt feeling lost?”

Rel bit her cheek hard, and thought of the page boy she had met at the market once, creating embarrassment for the guard, and this was enough.

“Well, I'll be having to head back on my rounds. You girls take care.” And with a tap of his helmet, he swung back in the direction he had came from. Sal looked around, and pulled Rel into the castle.

“You better have a suitable explanation for this,” inquired Sal, her face now grim.

“My sister's are here. They wish to capture the heart of the Prince's great Knight.” Seriousness changed to shock, and Rel was happy to have her friend understand.

“That is suitable enough,” Sal responded. “The knight should be in the great hall by now, greeting the nobles. It is restricted to most of the common folk, but your sisters will likely be able to gain access by their appearance. There are four other halls. The dinner hall to the south should be empty, for they are not using it tonight. The remaining three has surround the great hall, the north by archway, and east and west by corridors guarded by members of the elite castle guard. Only select servants are allowed in, but I have heard that Robin managed to get in and out a few times already. Either they do not care, thinking it okay to allow a servant's curiosities, or they believe we could do with extra hands on the grounds.”

They started to walk, and Sal picked up a mop and bucket and passed them to Rel. “Take these, and make it look like you are heading to a new place to scrub floors. The rest, I hope you can cope with yourself.”

“Thank you Sal,” Rel said truthfully. “You are indeed a good friend. I hope I do not get you into too much trouble by doing this.”

“With feet that are as small and silent as yours carrying you,” her friend said with a smile, “then I should have no fear at all. You can tell me all about it afterwards.”

***

“No talking to anyone but the guards,” Rel mumbled to herself. The guests were out of bounds unless it was to ask them if they wished for another drink, and other servants she would not risk spilling her cover for.

Which was very bad, since it was those who guarded this palace ball that were most likely to skewer her should they discover that she was an intruder, it would be best to talk to no one, but that was not an option.

The north hall stood out in front of her, filled with a festival of people, dancing and talking, eating and jesting. To the left a man stood on a chair while he recounted a tale of a fighting against a strange ghoul that played a church organ, and to her right was a giant of a man, his face wracked with scar, sat alone on a small chair that should have become kinderling under his immense bulk. He ate his food in a slovenly manner, and Rel could not help feel sorry for him.

Having discarded the mop in the corridor, Rel now held a stack of empty plates covered with the bony remains of a meal that someone must have carried into the room. She did not know where the kitchens were, but hopefully she would not need them that long. A chortle filled the air, high pitch and annoying somewhat. It was her sister, Blu.

Heading into the south corridor to the main hall, her back the subject of a fine looking noblemen's hand, her sister began to blur in with the rest of the crowd on the other side. Without thinking Rel walked after her, carefully avoiding all nobles so as not to call a scene. Reaching the archway, she moved to walk through it.

And a large man blocked her path.

“Sorry,” he said to her in a calm voice. “I know it to be easier, but you'll having to taking the corridors to passed here.

“I…” Rel started to protest, but figured what was going on. “Sorry. It is just so frustrating, the plates I want are but there.” She pointed to a table around the corner. The guard's eyes followed her to an abandoned table in the corner.

“And I wish I could make an exception to such a pretty face, but alas, the prince's rules are strict, and all three of we would be in danger should someone notice our letting you pass. Forgive me, but you must take the scenic route.”

Watching her sister get further away into the crowd, she bowed her head in failure, though the guard interpreted it differently.

“Tell you what, take the long route around. I shall make it all up to you tonight at ten, when we shall meet in the barn.”

Resisting the urge to laugh and attack the guard in a heir threatening manner, Rel caused her cheeks to blush, and nodded happily, before quickly turning away and back into the crowd, pressing the dirty plates against her chest and biting her cheek, though not to cause her face to blush. With a fast pace and missing a few plates that she could do with picking up to maintain an illusion, she headed for a side entrance to get into the main hall. Hiding the plates behind a curtain, she took up the bucket and mop she had left there, and begun her trek to the other side.

Now if Rel was to tell you one of her few weaknesses, it would only be if she felt it to be truly necessary. For though she was sharp and quick of thinking, a skill that allowed her to speak her way in and out of most situations, she would have troubled in navigating the simple lefts and rights of the world, and many a townsfolk could have told you that they would find her, lost and, confused, in both the simplest and most complex of places. Sometimes it was a mere dead end of an alleyway. Others, it was the other side of the entire town. Once, she was even known to have gotten inside the southeast bell tower and couldn't tell you how she did. It was a frustrating curse to the young lady to say the least.

And this demonstrated itself most efficiently as she turned right down the western corridor, followed by another right, and then a foolish left and past six other corridors, which although took her to her destination better than she predicted, was enough to convince herself that she had gotten utterly and truly lost. She could still hear the crowds of the eastern ballroom, but only in a corridor that headed to the west, and her ears picked up upon noises from the main ballroom.

Soon, she could only conclude that she was lost.

Her ability to remain calm was another skill that Rel could boast of, though it did not serve her, for every attempt at deduction only left behind more confusion, and it only became a matter of time before her focused thoughts started to wander as aimlessly as her legs were. It was not until she was closer to the edge of the castle than she was to the closest ballroom that she was ready to panic at the first sound, and so did so.

And that was when ran into her with the speed of the fastest boar. Bowling into the young lady with all his force, the knight screamed in unison with her as they collapsed into the wall together, taking with them a curtain rail, which tore from its railings and blinded them, a vase, that the last king had gotten on an expedition to India, and the table it belongs to. Pulling the curtain off herself, overwhelmed by what had just happened, Rel had just enough time to see a mop land on her attacker's head, before a bucket landed on her own.

“Excuse me, but are you alright?”

“Spit if I'm alright!” she cried out, losing her calm for a second. “Get off me, you bumbling lout!”

“Oh…sorry.” Ripping the curtain off herself, she struggled from a second with the bucket, the water helping her slip it off, yet soaking her further in the process. Shaking her head, she looked to her aggressor, and saw a man, around the same height as her, with an iron helmet over his face. Staring at it, she waited.

“Aren't you going to take that off?” she asked him.

“Er…no,” he replied, after thinking it over a few seconds.

“Okay.” Rel had just started to consider just what type of person she had stumbled into (though that was the other way round) when she was distracted by the sound of approaching death knells. He heart jumped. Getting caught here with a strange man. What would happen to her? An explanation might only go so far. She began looking for a pace to hide, when a hand took her down the north corridor.

“This way,” the young man shouted, and they tore off down away from the oncoming defenders, just hearing their voices as they confirmed that the noise came from around where Rel and the boy just were.

“Who are you?” she asked him, as the man dragged her down the royal corridors. It appeared to Rel that the castle was practically a maze of twisted archways and seemingly meaningless doors. For two full minutes they ran, meeting no one, and eventually the man slowed down, and they waited with heaving breath.

“I do believe,” he said between breaths, “that we ran further than necessary.”

“Were you born a fool?” she struck with her words. “We need of merely hid from the guard, and they would have left. There is a ball going on, and they would be expecting foolish couples to wander off to be together in some lonely and romantic corridors.”

“Huh?” the boy responded. “Are we a couple?”

Were she asked later, Rel would tell anyone who dared mention it that she had but bit her cheeks once again. Turning away from the boy, she headed off in another random direction, but intending to reach her sisters. But was stopped by a sneeze.

“We both got a little wet it seems,” the boy said, following here. but quickly overtaking. “Please follow me; I know a place where we can change.”

***

Now why she followed him, Rel would not be able to tell you. Perhaps it was the mere curiosity of why there was another seeking to hide from the guards like herself. Perhaps it was the helmet. Like we have told you, she could not tell.

The room the knight (and she called him that solely because of the helmet, and not because she thought him to be the knight that everyone talked about, for he was much too short for that) took her to was lavish to say the least. White lace covered each of the four wall of the room and draped from one corner to the next, so that two of them were hidden. Were there a window she could not see it, and there were so many sheets that if this room was double its size it could be a maze within a maze. She kept close to this knight, as he led her round the room, until they reached a long line of exquisite dresses. Greens and reds and purples and silks and velvets and nylons poured out onto the floor, and Rel was amazed to see such a sight before her.

Though with some hesitation, and a badgering of the boy not to look at her, she soon chose a light blue nylon dress that fit her perfect. Though she did not like the flexibility it denied her, she felt herself without choice as it was able to cover her feet, and she could not find replacements for the shoes that she had gotten from the tree above her other's grave, and they were too old and worn to be seen along with such a beautiful young lady, as she now showed herself to be.

Staring at herself through the mirror, she was amazed that she had the ability to be as beautiful as each her three sisters. She looked at the almost alien face that returned the blank stare in the large mirror, and bit her cheeks instinctively as she saw the knight looking at her.

“It was as if I were staring at an angel,” he said to her. “No, a princess.”

“You have a strange definition of hierarchy, young knight,” she replied acerbically, though not able to hide her pride from the comment.

“Yes, I imagine it well,” he announced, his eyes glazing over to the drapes over the the wall, his hands moving as if constructing pictures. “A princess from a distant land, known of her beauty and inner strength, but forced to run and hide when her kingdom is taken over. She hides first as a slave, and then a circus performer, slowly traveling the lands, looking for that one true love that escaped from her year. A boy, who would his fights, not through fists, but with games, and would trick his way to victory. Then, he would…

“Are you quite mad, young knight?” she replied. “That hardly sounds like a story worth being heard.”

“What's wrong with it?”

“You have two stories for a start, and what sounds like concepts and ideas where there should be plot and characters. One should know who they are writing and what they are writing for, not let the characters be thrown into some half formed idea that doesn't work.

“But I do have characters… I have a maiden and a…”

“You have a girl and a boy that you do not even know what you are doing with.”

“I…”

“Why does the princess have to run from her kingdom?”

The boy stopped in thought. “A revolt, inspired by traitorous minister!”

“See, you had to make it up just now,” she called. “You're a rotten storyteller.”

“And you.” She didn't realize how close he was. “You are magnificent!”

“I beg your pardon. He stepped up to her, and he gazed admiringly. Were not his helmet in the way, their noses would be touching.

“Such beauty, and mind and wit to match them.” In the next second, he was on one knee, and Rel looked down at him in horror. “I do believe I will never see a creature more fitting for me in my life than you do now. I will take your hand and…”

But Rel had heard enough. To be distracted like that was bad enough. To be grabbed by a suitor when she was on a mission was unacceptable to the young girl's mind, and she sprinted through the corridors as fast as her legs could carry her, cursing her own foolishness for allowing such a situation to occur. Now, she knew she would have to act fast. The dress would allow her access into the ballrooms. She could grab her sisters and leave quickly. She just had to find the ballrooms first.

And of course as these things often play out, it wasn't long before she ran head on into two passing guards and a noblelady, whom she nearly bowled over as she sprinted passed, her eyes picking up the mud on their boots and treating it as a good sign.

“Rel?”

Slowing down for a second, Rel turned to see her eldest sister Red standing behind her along with the two guards. Her sister looked at her with both surprise and worry on her face. For a second Rel wanted to grab her hand and continue running, but knew better than that. “I'm afraid you are mistaken my lady,” she managed to get out, before a high pitched scream filled the corridor.

“Guards!” the man cried out, just meters behind them. “Stop her, she is to be my wife!”

And Rel had no more after that, she took like the wind, leaving her sister behind and hoping that her words would prove suitable for the situation (in all truth she hoped his words would be enough to stop him and kill off the huge distraction, but they were quite loudly pursuing her now.)

It was at this point where Rel's greatest weakness would be her greatest strength. With no knowledge of the hideously identical corridors, it was not long before she was lost again, and though she kept running into more and more guards, her feet would get her more than adequately lost enough to keep her out of harm's way.

After a full five minutes, by which time she was beginning to feel the heat on her lungs reach a difficult stage, the young lady with a stroke of luck came upon an open door, which had a window shining brightly out of it. Rel wasn't one for charming, but this appeared to her as a gift of freedom, and she ran into the room, only to find that the window could not be open.

“What luck,” a voice chilled from behind her, “that I did not lose you.” The man approached her from behind. I apologize. I did not mean to alarm you with my sudden declaration. I understand that woman are by nature…” But she did not hear the rest, for she was out of that window faster than the strongman could pitch the lightest rock across the ring, the now shattered window be damned. Her feet landed in mud, and she felt it tightening around her shoes as it ruined her dress. Squelching forward, she watched as the knight peered his iron head out of the window.

“Stop her!” another voice called out, and she turned to see a much taller man, wearing a gold amulet and purple robes, and she knew she had come across the Prince of the castle. Turning tail she found herself traveling through a muddy field of pumpkins, that were so large that the young girl could easily hide behind them. Moving as fast as she could, she ran around the largest fruit of the field, down the bushes (that hid her most invitingly), and over the wooden fence, tripping just before she reached it, and covering her dress completely in mud, staining the gown a grungy brown, and losing one of the shoes the tree had given her from her mother whilst jumping over.

Looking back to it, she wiggled her tiny toes, and continued across the field, keeping an out for glass, until she reached the castle wall. There she saw a grain sack, and in a moment, she had emptied it of its contents and continued running, wrapping it around her face to hide herself completely. Finding a door, she ran out into the city, and did not stop for want of exhaustion or guard, until she was safely back in her home once again.

***

“What about her sisters?”

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***

And so two days passed, and Rel hid in the basement of her own home, with only the fire to keep her company. Each day she would place a log on it, and each day she would slowly watch it burn to cinders underneath the sack that she refused to remove.

Rel was terrified the whole time she was trapped in that basement, and despite the temperature of the heat room, she would shiver for those days she was trapped in there, and it was said that when she heard the doves, who would continuously swoop down to the small cellar window to warm up, she would jump and whimper her shrieking, biting her tongue harder than she would ever bit her cheeks, so much so that she bled twice in one night, and that the dove took the blood, and granted one of her wishes, making her the mud and the gown and the sack unweave and weave back together, trapping the young maiden within the robes, and keeping her face hid from all those that would look. And before leaving it told her that it would give her second wish, but only if she gave it the blood of someone else, for it had tasted hers twice now, and it had grown lull of its blandness.

And so five days would pass, and eventually her stepmother would come down to the heat room, and tell her news that she had heard. Those at the castle were looking for a female intruder, and they knew she ran into the city. They had searched for many days, and now they had found a clue. Her shoe, and they knew it was a small slipper made out of strange materials, and so knew that it belonged to a girl of so height, and that if they looked for such a girl then the slipper would only fit her. The guards, along with the kind knight and mad prince, were approaching each house one by one, and asking, nay forcefully, all women to try on the slipper, and whosoever it fit was to have the honour of marrying the knight, but so far no one had been chosen. Few had tried willingly, and those who did did so only for wealth that would come with the position, but all were forced, and one by one all women would wear the shoe, and it wasn't long before they reached Rel's house.

It would be then when Rel would cry, for she knew the torment she had brought upon her family. More than anything she wished she would be able to leave them be, and give them peace that her presence would never allow. For many hours, and what felt like years, she imagined herself trapped somewhere dark, somewhere she could never cause trouble to those who must smile at her when they wished nothing but spite upon her body for the pain she caused them. But no matter how long something must go on for my friends, it must soon end.

And even in the room where the fire burned, Rel could hear the guard slam their metal fists against the oak door of their house, and Yel, the youngest of her mother's daughters, appeared shortly to tell her to keep her head down and not to make a sound, if she wished ever to be safe again.

Then her mother left, and Rel heard every word, for they were only a few planks of wood above her, and she was worried she might cough and give away her presence. She heard as, her sisters, pretending to be greedy, all willingly volunteered to try on the shoes, which she knew they had tried on before, but their feet were much too big for her small heirlooms, and one by one they tried, desperately, if she could imagine their faces, to fit upon this small slipper. Blu would try and simply fail, understanding that it was not possible. Yel had the smarts to bind her foot in advance, hoping it would help, but the prince stated with a hiss that he knew that the foot was not bound and that she was faking. And then Red tried, and she must have tried for a full hour, passionately struggling, before the guard pulled it off her and threw her to the fireplace, where she jumped off with a yelp, but not before scattering the cinders into Rel's face, and she coughed and wheezed until she could take no more. Before she had a chance, a hand seized her from above, and pulled her out of the heat room, bumping her head on the wood, and knocking her out for a few minutes.

***

“J1112U,EO1111231112512111cUl1112O?”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“41514hrh3333333b321321321111I,9b'rbh41mO63f1t.”

***

“Forgive me for hiding her, your majesty,” her stepmother cried out, throwing herself to the knees of the prince. “I did not wish you to see our shameful secret. She is but my step daughter. An ugly trollop, whose face is scarred and wracked by the very blood of her birth, and even more so by the fire she plunged herself into as a child. Hence she wears those rags, and we do not let her outside, but instead keep her inside and put her to work on the fire she foolishly loves so much. Indeed, I would say she is the acid which scars this family, and would cause a pivot of the beauty of this family.”

And Rel cried with joy beneath her robes, for she knew that her stepmother truly loved her. And through her tears her eyes were fixed upon the boy who had ran into her, his helmet was still resting where his head should have been, and she wondered briefly why he was here, and was shocked at the answer she came up with.

“It matters not,” the prince hissed. “We are to try every woman's foot, and that includes creatures such as this.” But as he went to rip the robes off, he felt a tug pull back on them, and found the mundane task an impossibility. He struggled, and soon called the guards over to do the same, and soon all four grown men were tugging on her robes without success.

“Cease this nonsense,” the prince said, before turning to the Knight who had posted himself by the door. “Her feet are still in my sight. If you would try the shoe...” And Rel watched as the knight approached her with her old dirty slipper and struggled, hissing and growling like an animal that had not been fed. The guards holding her down, she thrashed and kicked in their hands, as the knight tried to slip the slipper on to great difficulty. She knew that, no matter what, she must appear insane and keep that shoe off at the same time. It was not until she landed a sharp blow to his helmet and howled out in pain, that he was able to get it on, breathing a sigh of relief as a trickle of blood poured from under his helmet.

“A perfect fit!” he cried out, and Paine ripped off his helmet to greet the one he had been searching for, watching her face appear before him, the robes dissolving into nothingness onto the floor below as easily as a summer's night would fade into day.

***

“I1432c11111?” she called out one last time, as the real knight and his guards, and the mother and her three daughters, and the house and the kingdom all dissolved, leaving just the two of them standing there, alone in nothing but their feelings. “Paine!” The girl in front of him was sobbing. She was beautiful; her blond hair flowed out behind her as she rushed to him, tears forming under her eyes. She embraced him roughly, sobbing as if she was to never let go.

“I don't get it,” he said, as he found himself tightly holding her back. The once Ragged Maiden pulled back on him and looked him in the face with blue eyes.

“I can't believe you,” said Rel. “How can you not understand when you finally can?”

“Where did the ending go?” he continued. “How can I just stop it here when there's so much still to do?”

“Oh you fool,” she replied, hugging him again and speaking into his ear. “Why should the destination matter, when the path is just as fun?”

Paine looked to the path line stretching out in front of him, in the world of luminance that now filled eternity. To his side, the glowing purple figure appeared to wave, but descended into distortion.

“It still needs improvements though.”

“Doesn't everything?”

***

“Well, he was a good friend. It's a shame he died so early on.”

“Dorou,”

“Yeah, you're right. I guess we should admit knowing a moron who would pass out during a practice duel. Geez, it's just a card game you moron.”

Paine felt himself headbutting a blunt object with ridges, and grunted in response for his stupidity.

Damn,” a high pitched female voice said. “So who do I owe ten bucks?”

“Me,” another voice, much younger called out.

“You? You can't even read!”

With a gasp, Paine realized he didn't know what was going on. “Cinderella!” he shouted, launching himself into a crowd of staring onlookers, who looked back confused.

I'd prefer Rel if it's all the same to you.

Before he had chance to respond, Paine was mauled by Priestess, who grabbed his eyes and started to examine them without a word. She peered into both, before waving her fore finger back and forth, left and right, up and down, making his eyes followed it. It wasn't until she jammed her hand down his throat that he began to protest.

“Ein hine,” he mumbled, and she let go of him, looking contently at him.

“N00b!” somebody shouted behind him. He didn't care who though.

“Oi mate,” Dorou said to him, falling down besides him. “What was that about?”

“I presume it would be this,” Priestess said, taking the card Paine held tightly in his hand. On it, a picture of a girl stared lovingly back at him. He knew the smile was fake, and for impressions only, but still, he felt warm looking at her.

“Cinderella?” Dorou said exploitatively. “Is it me or is that the first one to actually get a name.”

“Deus ex Machina,” Priestess replied.

“Yeah but that doesn't count.”

“Regardless…”

“I mean, it's still a concept, ain't it…”

“Regardless!” Priestess stated firmly. “We are still in a duel, aren't we Paine?”

She looked at him determined, and he stared back, observing the audience and stages behind his friend. He noticed the lecturer was there as well, standing with the rest of them, laptop in hand as it made beeping noises. He was looking at Paine like he was genuinely waiting for his answer.

“No, we're not,” Paine answered. “Though if you don't mind, could we leave the game running until I'm finished?” Priestess kept on staring, before a smile cracked in her lips.

“Right,” she said. “Right you are, and yes we will.”

The three sat together, ignoring the others as they wandered off complaining, as Paine sat down and started browsing though his graveyard, the quiet yet eager teacher peering over his head, ready to take notes as they took each card in turn, and admired them to their fullest.

***

His own card attached to him, the duelist gathered the energy that fell in his hands, and tossed it at the enemy. Seven hundred for seven hundred. Even now the hidden man did not look concerned. Even though the chaos song was coming for him. And it would take away all that it was.

The turn ended, and the man continued. From the ground, it once again summoned a skull. This however, belonged to the most wretched and warped servants of the all. Once, considered a king in its own right. With its own servants trapped beneath the despoiled battlefield, it grew upon the machine their bones fashioned, until it was the strongest. Stronger than Balthazar. Stronger than Zen Ku.

From its ivory knoll, it shimmered, disappearing into the twilight along with twin blades that followed it into darkness. The duelist, eyed his surroundings , watched the invisible burden close in on him. Then, in melancholy unison, the swords plunged into him, and he looked to his chest, to where no blood and no gore ejected from his body like spaghetti from a boiling pot. The duelists coughed, falling to one knee as the battle overtook him. The figure merely watched him, waiting for the end to come.

Zen's Balthazar dissipated, the opponent's attack destroyed it with ease, disposing of the warped human without touching it. The duelist looked on shocked, as his macabre of monsters fell from his hands in shaking cowardice, failed agony that took his soul. With an air of falseness, he congratulated his opponents, and held back tears that belonged to the half he thought never to see again, his robes exploding around him as the fake sword came back into view. Hurriedly reaching for his trench coat, he swung it over his wailing body, and tried to rush passed the man, his hand trying to push him out the way the way one would move a brick wall.

The hidden man just looked at it, the arm that was being absorbed into his world. The boy transformed before him, his eyes exploding with fireworks that only he and the camera could see, that crawled from beneath him and took him to the depth of the annihilated earth that he had always sought. The confusion spoke upon his face, the mere act of losing a duel taking his mind as the man took his body. Coughing as he cried, Zen Ku was slowly taken into the body of his opponent, and soon, was never there at all.

Moments passed, and the rain stopped as if it had never truly begun. The hidden man, now the only one, turned to the camera, and the device shook violently as its owner came up to the creature. It remained still for a few minutes longer, failing to record their voices, and then, it stopped, and the screen was blank for the remaining ten seconds Shariku watched.

***

“Well, that certainly helps,” Shariku mumbled, shutting down the VLC and leaning back. “In the style where the sentence is stated in a negative disposition.” Leaning back on her chair, she swung to her juice, discovering it to be an empty glass. “What time is it?” she muttered, before checking and, as if realizing something began typing like a devil possessed.

***

“It mainly a beatdown deck, with elements of monster defense,” Yo told them uninvitingly. “However, there seem to be many other little aspects added in. We have basic control and burn style cards, as well as the advantage of quick play for most monsters. It is indeed impressive, but could do with improvements.”

Paine was only partially listening to the quack teacher's fevered ramblings. His mind was stuck on Rel. Was she in her card? Of course, that is her home. And how did he speak to her again? The way you would anyone else. It would probably be best to try speaking to her later. Though it was less important, it was really necessary to write down all the cards now before the batteries died on his duel disk.

Looking to the duel disk, he saw the last remaining card, locked in place until Priestess had finished her turn, something they had decided against to prevent things going weird. Hopefully it was a third stage set.

“Lost child,” Dorou mumbled, playing with the card Paine had just put down. That was one mystery he didn't have to deal with anymore, and he knew why it did what it did.

It was good to understand… finally.

Then it happened. All of it, without anyone noticing.

Deus Ex Machina stared back at him, the God Machine staring lifelessly out of its card. It had been a while now. Just a few days really, but an eternity none the less. He knew that he shouldn't just use the card, but all the same, didn't want to abandon such a powerful move.

It was then when his head started tingling, before he could decide. Feeling the light sting, he feared for a moment the headaches might return. He relaxed himself and breathed deeply a few times, as Priestess had told him to, but it felt different this time. His forehead wasn't pounding. More like his ears were tingling, a monotone filling his canals like someone had left a tv on in the other room. Looking up, he saw that the others had stopped browsing his cards, also pricking their ears up like hawks.

IT begins.

“Anyone else hearing a TV?” Dorou asked the group, and all nodded, as the sunlight disappeared from the skylight. Expecting to see clouds, Paine was confused to find that it simply wasn't there anymore. Not the clouds. The sky. A black void filled above his head and covered with landscape with nothingness. He heard Yo scream something incoherent as the teacher noticed as well, and all four found themselves looking at it, not sure what to do.

The dot appeared then, and slow it got largely, an infinitesimal speck slowly floating towards them. Getting bigger and bigger, Paine found himself stepping back slowly, and then faster, the others following his lead, except Dorou, who waited until the last second to jump out of the way, before the resonation ended in a sickening crunch.

A man lay before them, older than them by at least ten years, and with a long, scruffy beard. Paine felt something clench round his heart as he realized that the man was definitely dead. His arm tied limply behind his back, and the skull had been squashed by the rest of the body in the impact, the tongue rolling uselessly to the side.

Yo screamed loudly, as did someone else who Paine could not see. Dorou squatted over the body and began checking it over, as if there was some secret catch that would revive it.

“Admin!” Yo shouted. “The Admin!” The teacher was sweating now, his eyes darting from the body to the skies, not sure which to look at, as if fearing that other corpses would start raining down from the skies. Instead, a voice fell upon them.

“From darkness, your academy was formed. An accident, more than anything. IT was imagined a good idea at the time, fantasies built out of procrastination and amusement. It shouldn't have gone anywhere, but it did. The Ten saw to that.”

It took him a moment, mainly because he naturally assumed the voice was coming out of the void that had deposited the body, but he slowly realized that it was coming from their duel disks. The two small speakers that would shoot out along with the light projectors beat out the tune of the voice. It didn't take a genius to realize that everyone in the Academy must have been able to hear it.

“They came, one by one. Separated, never a true union, and they changed this place. And while it remained darkness they still pulled it towards the light, and they brought others with the. Many joined, and many left, but the power grew all the same.”

“Yo!” a voice called out, and Paine saw LeBlanc running up to them, holding his side as the young boy wheezed from such a short run. “What is this intrusion? What is…” His voice trailed away as the saw the man on the floor. “This is?”

“And now, it is time to take that power, combine it, fuse all the pieces together.”

“What in the Michael Barrymore is going on?” Dorou asked casually.

“I recognize the voice,” Priestess said, both calm and tense at the same time. She hadn't even looked at the body, though she was standing right next to it.

“The comas will continue. Friend will face friend, just as they would bitter rival. You will all face each other, and n00bs will fall.”

Paine's head clicked hard. The word that caused Pain from that person on the first day. “It's her!”

“Welcome to the Shariku Rankings, minna-san!” the voice declared boldly all throughout the Academia. “This time, everyone is invited, and I won't be excepting no as an answer.”

“Ms. Onikage?” Priestess mumbled. “The voice is distorted, I can't really tell.”

“Know, is the voice Shariku Onikage?” Paine shouted, his fists tight.

Broadcast has been intentionally distorted through a vocal distortion codec device. However, encoding methods are sloppy. There is a ninety per cent match of it being the person known as Shariku Onikage.

“Rule wo kantan! Those who are currently entered shall keep their ranking. All others will be entered in randomly, until all members of Clubit Academia are accounted for. Your profilers will inform you who you are to duel. When told, you will have one hour to prepare. If you fail to approach your opponent in this time, both duelists are disqualified. There is no exception. Duels are standard to the Shariku Rankings rule base. One round. 8000 life points. No time limits! Attempts to leave the academy shall result in the obvious.”

“It cannot be,” LeBlanc said, his voice hoarse, turning to Yo as if trying to ensure all that was going on was sane. “This is madness! Does she plan on massacring the entire student body?”

In the silence that followed, five beeps were heard, one after the other, as numbers flashed up on the Duel Disks Paine's said ten, and he could see that Priestess said nineteen.

“Sixth,” LeBlanc muttered. “That is my ranking in her game.”

“What are we waiting for?” Paine shouted, his entire body shaking with undesired adrenaline. “We have to stop her.”

“Right.” And the two of them ran off back to the Academy, feeling the darkness wrap around them as it chased them down. The other three paused for a moment, before Dorou and Yo followed them. Priestess stayed behind.

“Something isn't right,” she said aloud, as she looked to the void above her.

“The only question is left, will we head towards the light, or fall into darkness?”

Epilogue

He waits. That's what he does.

Though he would think himself a fool to be waiting this long.

One could wait. Must wait. Here, at the end of all things. Wait just a little longer. Such a good trick didn't always require such patience, but mortals always feared what they could not see, and dread and tricks are always better than a trick alone.

And as he waited, he sang a poem he heard long ago, or did he?

And while the leader falls,

And the gays begin their game,

Entire worlds are pulled,

And from planets they do fall.

Taking all who would not yield to the dream

And so embraced it further.