[FIC] The Spiritless Key, Chapter 3
Yuuma came to the designated dueling spot as early as he could. It wasn’t as if he felt ready for the duel, oh no. Even with Black Mist’s help, he wasn’t sure if he could pull off a victory. He was just too much of a failure, and his deck had suffered for it…but he didn’t want to be late. That would just be admitting to how worthless he was. That was how Shark and his cronies found him, standing in one place and openly fidgeting.
“So, you did show up. Good to see you’re not as much of a coward as everyone says you are,” Shark sneered, making Yuuma flinch. It wasn’t that he didn’t already know what everyone thought of him…but still…
“Don’t listen to him,” Black Mist hissed into his ear. “You only need to listen to my words, and mine alone. With that, you will have nothing to fear.”
“Uh…un…” Yuuma nodded nervously, the agreement thankfully being vague enough for Shark to interpret the words as a response to his taunting.
“I won’t drag this out any longer than necessary. That’s the best I can do for a weak shrimp duelist like you. Now, start the duel!”
“Um…yes!”
0-0-0-0-0
It was no surprise to say that Shark was disappointed in this mockery of a duel. He had heard stories about the timid student who had the gall to even attempt playing Duel Monsters, and was an insult to the game itself. He had thought the reports were exaggerated, but it was true. He really did hesitate for almost minutes at a time to play a card, and would sometimes not end up playing something at all. The constant second guessing had long become tedious to listen to. It wasn’t even a duel; the boy was barely playing as it was!
Still, Yuuma acted stranger than he expected. He had been told that he boy’s mental focus was phenomenally bad thanks to his lack of self-confidence, but he didn’t expect Yuuma’s eyes to drift away from the duel as often as they did. They darted around, rarely fixating on anything other than straight on the duel field or a point just off to his side. Nothing was there, so Shark wrote it off as yet another one of Yuuma’s strange habits, but still, he wondered.
Most of his thoughts, however, were focused on how much of his time was wasted on this duel. He wouldn’t get any stronger like this. He couldn’t reach his goal doing mockery sideshows like this. What he needed was power!
Then suddenly, he felt a voice whisper in the back of his mind, promising just what he wanted. It wasn’t necessary for this duel, not at all. Still, he wouldn’t pass this chance up. If it helped get him through this even just a little faster, it would be worth it. After all, it couldn’t hurt to get a taste of how the power worked before he used it for bigger and better things.
He let it take control. He reached for the new card that had appeared in his extra deck and summoned it.
Even watching Yuuma, a boy who was scared of his own shadow, fall to the ground in fear of Number 17: Revise Dragon felt satisfying.
0-0-0-0-0
“A Number,” Black Mist hissed into Yuuma’s ear. “Now is the time to really listen to me, boy. I’ve put up with your self-doubt until this point, but now things are serious. This is your first test, child, whether you can actually fulfill the task that you will execute for me.” Yuuma only began shaking all the more. It took Black Mist sliding a tentacle over the boy’s neck to calm him, warningly indicating the spot where he had marked him.
“Focus. Summon my card, and you will do well.”
“Y…yes…” Now that he had a clear goal, a strategy set in place, his desperate search for a strategy was not so desperate after all. Somehow, Black Mist’s eyes piercing through him weren’t as intimidating as the eyes of everyone else. Unlike the eyes of others, always looking down on him, sneering, judging, Black Mist’s eyes didn’t feel like that. Black Mist observed him because he needed him, needed the vessel that held the key to achieve his goals. It may have not been much of an improvement in the eyes of others, but to Yuuma, having someone not look at him and judge him completely useless was enough to bolster him. Just follow Black Mist’s directions without fear…
“I…I overlay my three level two monsters to build the Overlay Network! XYZ Summon! Number 96: Black Mist!”
He ignored the cries of surprise coming from the others as the admittedly intimidating true form of Black Mist showed itself on the field. Even with all that show, for it to have only 100 attack points only made Shark laugh in derision: what could he do with a monster like that? Of course, it was impressive that Yuuma could XYZ summon at all…
“Ignore their taunting. Attack that dratted Number, and win!”
“Uh…right! I attack Revise Dragon with Black Mist!”
He heard the sycophants laugh derisively; call him an idiot for attacking with a monster that had only 100 attack points. This time, he paid them no heed. Somehow, knowing that Black Mist was here, guiding him, made it easy to ignore the mocking catcalls, the insults that he knew he deserved. Black Mist knew what he was doing.
“I activate Black Mist’s effect! When it battles a monster, I can detach one overlay unit to halve the opponent’s attack, and add those attack points to Black Mist!” He heard the laughter stop, heard instead the cries of shock as the monster lashed out, tore through Revise Dragon’s body easily.
Shark acted quickly, activated a trap that would negate Revise Dragon’s destruction, but the damage was done. Yuuma had started turning the tides of this battle. It seemed like it would all be for naught, however, when Shark activated Revise Dragon’s effect yet again, sending Yuuma into a panic. If Black Mist got destroyed, then-!
“And now you’ll see why I am worthy of being the strongest of the numbers, boy!” Black Mist hissed into his ear. “I can activate my effect during the opponent’s turn as well!”
“I…I activate Black Mist’s effect once more!” Everyone stared in shock; they didn’t expect that to happen at all. Shark had nothing to protect Revise Dragon from being destroyed a second time, and even more damage was dealt to Shark as he was thrown back. Shark growled in frustration, but his hand was nearly empty, and nothing would help him other than to stall. He threw a monster in facedown position and ended his turn there.
“You have him on the ropes. His feeble defense will do him no good,” hissed Black Mist. “You have the power to end this right now. Activate this card’s effect, force a position switch. Summon another monster to attack with, and you’ve won…”
He did as he was told. For the first time in what felt like forever, he moved with confidence, with energy. This power…he didn’t really have anything to fear, not with Black Mist by his side, did he? He forced the monster into face up attack position-a weak thing, no effect that could help.
“I activate Black Mist’s effect!” He didn’t know why he did that. It was useless. It wouldn’t have any effect on the outcome of the duel. The second attack was still necessary to win. But this power, this new sensation of living, he almost felt…alive. He didn’t want to lose it…he wanted to make sure it was still there. And judging by Black Mist’s look of approval, he was doing things correctly.
Black Mist’s true form destroyed the weakened monster. His second monster struck Shark directly and sent him flying back, life points dropping to zero. Yuuma froze, doing nothing but breathing heavily for the next few moments. He still couldn’t believe what had happened.
He had won. He had beat Shark. He…he hadn’t…failed…
Yuuma nearly collapsed on the spot, terrified. He wasn’t used to this. Oh god, what was going to happen now? More people would find out, and then they’d challenge him, and he’d start failing all over again because god, he wasn’t ready for all this success yet. Defeating Shark would attract too many people, people he wasn’t ready to take on yet…and he wanted to just help Black Mist, how could he manage this, this was too much…
“Calm yourself,” an irate voice hissed to him, making Yuuma’s rapid thoughts freeze.
“B…Black…”
“Not out loud, fool!” Yuuma visibly flinched at that, and Black Mist had to sigh at the inadvertent setback. Why did he have such a delicate host? “You can’t make yourself look completely weak now!”
“B-but, if I look strong now…Black Mist, I’m not ready, I…” The boy’s already quiet voice faded into nonexistence as he began shivering, closing his eyes and waiting for the inevitable look of disapproval that would come his way from Black Mist.
“I see. It would be too much, to expect someone like you to hold up under such an onslaught.” Yuuma sighed and looked down. Subtler words than usual, but as he expected, he was worthless…
“Staying underfoot may be beneficial to us, at least until we can collect more of the Numbers.” Black Mist smirked as he held up a hand, and Yuuma dared to look up just in time for him to spot a light coming from Shark’s chest into Black Mist’s hand. It formed into the card that they had just defeated, Revise Dragon…and Black Mist scowled.
“The Numbers are pieces of the Original’s memory…tch, he didn’t even know that much? A useless memory fragment.”
“O…oh….” Of course he was successful. Something that useless…it would be fitting that a useless guy like him would only be able to succeed at getting useless things…
“Do not worry. Even if the Number is a useless memory fragment, it is by no means a useless card. After all, its effect is somewhat similar to mine, albeit inferior. It will boost your strength nicely. You have done well enough, my little pawn.”
Unintentionally, Yuuma found his spirits rising by just the smallest amount. To not be told that he was a complete failure, that he had, if not done well, at least done enough to succeed, was a relief…almost a joy. And somehow, it felt real. Not like those false assurances he always heard from others, like Akari and his grandmother, from that Mizuki girl who occasionally tried to encourage him into activities. Those felt condescending; given to him out of pity or shame…they didn’t believe he had any kind of the potential they said he had.
But Black Mist…his life was on the line with these duels, wasn’t it? Yuuma was the only one who could help him at all, wasn’t he? So if he wasn’t doing a good job…Black Mist would know. Black Mist couldn’t tolerate failure. He would let him know…as scary as he was, Black Mist was the only one he could really trust, right?
He didn’t have to worry about failing him. That was what Black Mist said. Just listen to him and let him direct everything, and he would merely be a means to Black Mist’s end…in that way, he wasn’t failing, right? He wasn’t…
“Boy, you may have a point. Your deck is full of monsters that are weak on their own, but would do greatly in supporting an XYZ-based deck…we must acquire more Numbers before we can be known…”
He was even agreeing with him? The sheer incredulity of the situation made Yuuma speak up…quietly. He didn’t want to draw Black Mist’s ire again.
“B…But how? Shark is the strongest duelist in our school, or at least the most well-known…if people found out I beat him, then…”
“Do not worry. Leave things to me.” The dark being smirked, and Yuuma found that his quivering had stopped. Instead he followed the whispered instructions in his ear, allowed black tendrils invisible to all but him to creep across his skin and change his expression into something much unlike the scared boy that had been dueling only a few moments ago.
He strode up to Shark, looking down on him (and wow, it felt strange to be looking down on someone for once, was this what everyone felt like when they berated him under their breath? It was so…empowering…), making the older boy flinch back at the almost twisted smirk that didn’t fit on Yuuma’s face at all.
“You…you will speak nothing of this,” Yuuma hissed, repeating the words he was told, trying hard to mimic Black Mist’s sinister tone. It must have worked somehow: Shark looked like he was frozen in place at those words.
“W…what?” the older boy finally managed to choke out.
“You say nothing about what happened in this duel. Or, at the very least…do not mention my victory.” Yuuma paused, looking for all the world like he was thinking of what to say next when he was merely listening to Black Mist’s next words.
“Tell them, perhaps, that you took pity on a pathetic thing like me,” Shark flinched at the harsh snarl that appeared in his words, as if some sort of raw emotion had infected that one single word, showing real, raw anger that had built up over time. “That, even though you defeated me, you decided to not rob me of the only thing that kept me from being truly pathetic, perhaps. It would make sense, after all. The disgrace of a duelist would be so pitiful that not even a rogue shark would prey on its remains, wouldn't it?”
Shark’s silence only convinced both Yuuma and Black Mist that he would indeed keep quiet, at the very least.
“He is an arrogant one,” Black Mist purred. “Whatever pride he had in his duels is shattered by losing to us…honestly, he should be grateful to us, giving him an out like that. Of course, he would probably be ashamed by that out as well, wouldn’t he? Now, those useless sycophants, on the other hand…they will lose all respect for Shark now. They are ruled by fear. You must appeal to them directly before they will keep our secrets…”
“You,” Yuuma snarled in response, finding it easy to be nothing but a voice for this spirit, casting aside his own useless personality for that of the Number’s. The two boys who had been accompanying Shark had been about to flee, and froze at his increasingly sinister voice.
“You two…you will follow my small request, won’t you?”
They had been about to protest: why wouldn’t someone want to brag about beating someone like Shark? They could totally help bolster his reputation, maybe even help him out a little.
But then Yuuma smirked at them, and they found themselves wanting to get away. There was something not right with him at the moment, some strange glint in his eyes that marked something sinister and strange going on. It wasn’t natural, some nobody-no, less than nobody!-beating Shark, there had to be something bad going on…and they had to get away!
Only they couldn’t. It felt like their legs were rooted to the ground by some mysterious force, by something almost like…fear. They couldn’t know that they were actually being held there by Black Mist’s tentacles, invisible to them. Instead, they could only look on as their hypothetical fear grew into the real thing, watching Yuuma become something strange and sinister before their very eyes.
“Y…Yes, of course! We w-won’t tell a soul about you winning or anything!” they found themselves stammering in unison.
“Good…now get out of my sight,” The boys fled as they were told, not looking back. Yuuma nodded, and then smirked as he seemed to think of something else as he looked on at Shark.
“I believe you have something of mine…”
“What?! Impossible…how?!” Shark finally seemed to find his anger once more, that terrifying rage that made him known as the vicious shark of the school. Only this time it seemed to have no effect: Yuuma’s face had been schooled into some indifferent, almost nonchalant expression.
“Oh, not intentionally of course…you see, Takeda has taken a lot of cards from me in the past…I want them back.”
Five minutes later saw Yuuma standing alone with Takeda Tetsuo’s deck in his hands and an almost vacant expression that hid the shock his mind was still going through.
He couldn’t believe he had managed to do all that.
“One down,” murmured Black Mist. “You just may be useful to me yet, little pawn.”
Yuuma only nodded in response.
[A/N]: ahahahahaha this AU is making me cry so much ah my gad. I STILL REGRET NOTHINGGGG
“So, you did show up. Good to see you’re not as much of a coward as everyone says you are,” Shark sneered, making Yuuma flinch. It wasn’t that he didn’t already know what everyone thought of him…but still…
“Don’t listen to him,” Black Mist hissed into his ear. “You only need to listen to my words, and mine alone. With that, you will have nothing to fear.”
“Uh…un…” Yuuma nodded nervously, the agreement thankfully being vague enough for Shark to interpret the words as a response to his taunting.
“I won’t drag this out any longer than necessary. That’s the best I can do for a weak shrimp duelist like you. Now, start the duel!”
“Um…yes!”
0-0-0-0-0
It was no surprise to say that Shark was disappointed in this mockery of a duel. He had heard stories about the timid student who had the gall to even attempt playing Duel Monsters, and was an insult to the game itself. He had thought the reports were exaggerated, but it was true. He really did hesitate for almost minutes at a time to play a card, and would sometimes not end up playing something at all. The constant second guessing had long become tedious to listen to. It wasn’t even a duel; the boy was barely playing as it was!
Still, Yuuma acted stranger than he expected. He had been told that he boy’s mental focus was phenomenally bad thanks to his lack of self-confidence, but he didn’t expect Yuuma’s eyes to drift away from the duel as often as they did. They darted around, rarely fixating on anything other than straight on the duel field or a point just off to his side. Nothing was there, so Shark wrote it off as yet another one of Yuuma’s strange habits, but still, he wondered.
Most of his thoughts, however, were focused on how much of his time was wasted on this duel. He wouldn’t get any stronger like this. He couldn’t reach his goal doing mockery sideshows like this. What he needed was power!
Then suddenly, he felt a voice whisper in the back of his mind, promising just what he wanted. It wasn’t necessary for this duel, not at all. Still, he wouldn’t pass this chance up. If it helped get him through this even just a little faster, it would be worth it. After all, it couldn’t hurt to get a taste of how the power worked before he used it for bigger and better things.
He let it take control. He reached for the new card that had appeared in his extra deck and summoned it.
Even watching Yuuma, a boy who was scared of his own shadow, fall to the ground in fear of Number 17: Revise Dragon felt satisfying.
0-0-0-0-0
“A Number,” Black Mist hissed into Yuuma’s ear. “Now is the time to really listen to me, boy. I’ve put up with your self-doubt until this point, but now things are serious. This is your first test, child, whether you can actually fulfill the task that you will execute for me.” Yuuma only began shaking all the more. It took Black Mist sliding a tentacle over the boy’s neck to calm him, warningly indicating the spot where he had marked him.
“Focus. Summon my card, and you will do well.”
“Y…yes…” Now that he had a clear goal, a strategy set in place, his desperate search for a strategy was not so desperate after all. Somehow, Black Mist’s eyes piercing through him weren’t as intimidating as the eyes of everyone else. Unlike the eyes of others, always looking down on him, sneering, judging, Black Mist’s eyes didn’t feel like that. Black Mist observed him because he needed him, needed the vessel that held the key to achieve his goals. It may have not been much of an improvement in the eyes of others, but to Yuuma, having someone not look at him and judge him completely useless was enough to bolster him. Just follow Black Mist’s directions without fear…
“I…I overlay my three level two monsters to build the Overlay Network! XYZ Summon! Number 96: Black Mist!”
He ignored the cries of surprise coming from the others as the admittedly intimidating true form of Black Mist showed itself on the field. Even with all that show, for it to have only 100 attack points only made Shark laugh in derision: what could he do with a monster like that? Of course, it was impressive that Yuuma could XYZ summon at all…
“Ignore their taunting. Attack that dratted Number, and win!”
“Uh…right! I attack Revise Dragon with Black Mist!”
He heard the sycophants laugh derisively; call him an idiot for attacking with a monster that had only 100 attack points. This time, he paid them no heed. Somehow, knowing that Black Mist was here, guiding him, made it easy to ignore the mocking catcalls, the insults that he knew he deserved. Black Mist knew what he was doing.
“I activate Black Mist’s effect! When it battles a monster, I can detach one overlay unit to halve the opponent’s attack, and add those attack points to Black Mist!” He heard the laughter stop, heard instead the cries of shock as the monster lashed out, tore through Revise Dragon’s body easily.
Shark acted quickly, activated a trap that would negate Revise Dragon’s destruction, but the damage was done. Yuuma had started turning the tides of this battle. It seemed like it would all be for naught, however, when Shark activated Revise Dragon’s effect yet again, sending Yuuma into a panic. If Black Mist got destroyed, then-!
“And now you’ll see why I am worthy of being the strongest of the numbers, boy!” Black Mist hissed into his ear. “I can activate my effect during the opponent’s turn as well!”
“I…I activate Black Mist’s effect once more!” Everyone stared in shock; they didn’t expect that to happen at all. Shark had nothing to protect Revise Dragon from being destroyed a second time, and even more damage was dealt to Shark as he was thrown back. Shark growled in frustration, but his hand was nearly empty, and nothing would help him other than to stall. He threw a monster in facedown position and ended his turn there.
“You have him on the ropes. His feeble defense will do him no good,” hissed Black Mist. “You have the power to end this right now. Activate this card’s effect, force a position switch. Summon another monster to attack with, and you’ve won…”
He did as he was told. For the first time in what felt like forever, he moved with confidence, with energy. This power…he didn’t really have anything to fear, not with Black Mist by his side, did he? He forced the monster into face up attack position-a weak thing, no effect that could help.
“I activate Black Mist’s effect!” He didn’t know why he did that. It was useless. It wouldn’t have any effect on the outcome of the duel. The second attack was still necessary to win. But this power, this new sensation of living, he almost felt…alive. He didn’t want to lose it…he wanted to make sure it was still there. And judging by Black Mist’s look of approval, he was doing things correctly.
Black Mist’s true form destroyed the weakened monster. His second monster struck Shark directly and sent him flying back, life points dropping to zero. Yuuma froze, doing nothing but breathing heavily for the next few moments. He still couldn’t believe what had happened.
He had won. He had beat Shark. He…he hadn’t…failed…
Yuuma nearly collapsed on the spot, terrified. He wasn’t used to this. Oh god, what was going to happen now? More people would find out, and then they’d challenge him, and he’d start failing all over again because god, he wasn’t ready for all this success yet. Defeating Shark would attract too many people, people he wasn’t ready to take on yet…and he wanted to just help Black Mist, how could he manage this, this was too much…
“Calm yourself,” an irate voice hissed to him, making Yuuma’s rapid thoughts freeze.
“B…Black…”
“Not out loud, fool!” Yuuma visibly flinched at that, and Black Mist had to sigh at the inadvertent setback. Why did he have such a delicate host? “You can’t make yourself look completely weak now!”
“B-but, if I look strong now…Black Mist, I’m not ready, I…” The boy’s already quiet voice faded into nonexistence as he began shivering, closing his eyes and waiting for the inevitable look of disapproval that would come his way from Black Mist.
“I see. It would be too much, to expect someone like you to hold up under such an onslaught.” Yuuma sighed and looked down. Subtler words than usual, but as he expected, he was worthless…
“Staying underfoot may be beneficial to us, at least until we can collect more of the Numbers.” Black Mist smirked as he held up a hand, and Yuuma dared to look up just in time for him to spot a light coming from Shark’s chest into Black Mist’s hand. It formed into the card that they had just defeated, Revise Dragon…and Black Mist scowled.
“The Numbers are pieces of the Original’s memory…tch, he didn’t even know that much? A useless memory fragment.”
“O…oh….” Of course he was successful. Something that useless…it would be fitting that a useless guy like him would only be able to succeed at getting useless things…
“Do not worry. Even if the Number is a useless memory fragment, it is by no means a useless card. After all, its effect is somewhat similar to mine, albeit inferior. It will boost your strength nicely. You have done well enough, my little pawn.”
Unintentionally, Yuuma found his spirits rising by just the smallest amount. To not be told that he was a complete failure, that he had, if not done well, at least done enough to succeed, was a relief…almost a joy. And somehow, it felt real. Not like those false assurances he always heard from others, like Akari and his grandmother, from that Mizuki girl who occasionally tried to encourage him into activities. Those felt condescending; given to him out of pity or shame…they didn’t believe he had any kind of the potential they said he had.
But Black Mist…his life was on the line with these duels, wasn’t it? Yuuma was the only one who could help him at all, wasn’t he? So if he wasn’t doing a good job…Black Mist would know. Black Mist couldn’t tolerate failure. He would let him know…as scary as he was, Black Mist was the only one he could really trust, right?
He didn’t have to worry about failing him. That was what Black Mist said. Just listen to him and let him direct everything, and he would merely be a means to Black Mist’s end…in that way, he wasn’t failing, right? He wasn’t…
“Boy, you may have a point. Your deck is full of monsters that are weak on their own, but would do greatly in supporting an XYZ-based deck…we must acquire more Numbers before we can be known…”
He was even agreeing with him? The sheer incredulity of the situation made Yuuma speak up…quietly. He didn’t want to draw Black Mist’s ire again.
“B…But how? Shark is the strongest duelist in our school, or at least the most well-known…if people found out I beat him, then…”
“Do not worry. Leave things to me.” The dark being smirked, and Yuuma found that his quivering had stopped. Instead he followed the whispered instructions in his ear, allowed black tendrils invisible to all but him to creep across his skin and change his expression into something much unlike the scared boy that had been dueling only a few moments ago.
He strode up to Shark, looking down on him (and wow, it felt strange to be looking down on someone for once, was this what everyone felt like when they berated him under their breath? It was so…empowering…), making the older boy flinch back at the almost twisted smirk that didn’t fit on Yuuma’s face at all.
“You…you will speak nothing of this,” Yuuma hissed, repeating the words he was told, trying hard to mimic Black Mist’s sinister tone. It must have worked somehow: Shark looked like he was frozen in place at those words.
“W…what?” the older boy finally managed to choke out.
“You say nothing about what happened in this duel. Or, at the very least…do not mention my victory.” Yuuma paused, looking for all the world like he was thinking of what to say next when he was merely listening to Black Mist’s next words.
“Tell them, perhaps, that you took pity on a pathetic thing like me,” Shark flinched at the harsh snarl that appeared in his words, as if some sort of raw emotion had infected that one single word, showing real, raw anger that had built up over time. “That, even though you defeated me, you decided to not rob me of the only thing that kept me from being truly pathetic, perhaps. It would make sense, after all. The disgrace of a duelist would be so pitiful that not even a rogue shark would prey on its remains, wouldn't it?”
Shark’s silence only convinced both Yuuma and Black Mist that he would indeed keep quiet, at the very least.
“He is an arrogant one,” Black Mist purred. “Whatever pride he had in his duels is shattered by losing to us…honestly, he should be grateful to us, giving him an out like that. Of course, he would probably be ashamed by that out as well, wouldn’t he? Now, those useless sycophants, on the other hand…they will lose all respect for Shark now. They are ruled by fear. You must appeal to them directly before they will keep our secrets…”
“You,” Yuuma snarled in response, finding it easy to be nothing but a voice for this spirit, casting aside his own useless personality for that of the Number’s. The two boys who had been accompanying Shark had been about to flee, and froze at his increasingly sinister voice.
“You two…you will follow my small request, won’t you?”
They had been about to protest: why wouldn’t someone want to brag about beating someone like Shark? They could totally help bolster his reputation, maybe even help him out a little.
But then Yuuma smirked at them, and they found themselves wanting to get away. There was something not right with him at the moment, some strange glint in his eyes that marked something sinister and strange going on. It wasn’t natural, some nobody-no, less than nobody!-beating Shark, there had to be something bad going on…and they had to get away!
Only they couldn’t. It felt like their legs were rooted to the ground by some mysterious force, by something almost like…fear. They couldn’t know that they were actually being held there by Black Mist’s tentacles, invisible to them. Instead, they could only look on as their hypothetical fear grew into the real thing, watching Yuuma become something strange and sinister before their very eyes.
“Y…Yes, of course! We w-won’t tell a soul about you winning or anything!” they found themselves stammering in unison.
“Good…now get out of my sight,” The boys fled as they were told, not looking back. Yuuma nodded, and then smirked as he seemed to think of something else as he looked on at Shark.
“I believe you have something of mine…”
“What?! Impossible…how?!” Shark finally seemed to find his anger once more, that terrifying rage that made him known as the vicious shark of the school. Only this time it seemed to have no effect: Yuuma’s face had been schooled into some indifferent, almost nonchalant expression.
“Oh, not intentionally of course…you see, Takeda has taken a lot of cards from me in the past…I want them back.”
Five minutes later saw Yuuma standing alone with Takeda Tetsuo’s deck in his hands and an almost vacant expression that hid the shock his mind was still going through.
He couldn’t believe he had managed to do all that.
“One down,” murmured Black Mist. “You just may be useful to me yet, little pawn.”
Yuuma only nodded in response.
[A/N]: ahahahahaha this AU is making me cry so much ah my gad. I STILL REGRET NOTHINGGGG