Episode 89. - Sharing A Bond, The True Meaning

Remni panted, finding himself gasping for breath despite having no physical reason to do so. The dark haired youth that was now carefully guiding his car through traffic had not spoken to him since they had left the warehouse. Remni felt a strange growling feeling inside himself.

"Who are you?" was Bombazar's question to the driver. The other did not look across at him, but the creature that answered was easily recognized. The Phantasmal Horror, Gigazald...

"A friend," was all the answer that was given. Remni's head drooped, and he lost consciousness a few moments later. The driver sighed a bit, then focused his attention on the road ahead yet again.

When Remni regained consciousness, he found himself lying on a green sofa that reeked of stale chips and old apple juice, with the obligatory minor hint of beer. The huge man that was passing through the room at the time, noticed his eyes opening, and yelled in the direction of the kitchen of the apartment.

"Shu! He's up! And I'm goin' out! Don't wreck the place!"
He took up his jacket, and slung it over his shoulder, then opened the door, and shut it firmly behind him. Remni could hear the sound of a key sliding into a lock, and nearly panicked, until he realized that the lock could easily be opened from the inside.

Shu Lon stepped out of the kitchen a moment later, and glanced at the door, then over at Remni. Then, without a word, he motioned to the groggy Remni, indicating that he should get up and come into the kitchen.

Remni did so without too much thought, picking his way carefully through the total mess that was the apartment's living room, into a surprisingly spotless kitchen. Shu gestured toward the chair at the small table. Remni sat, and Shu set a glass of apple juice down in front of him. Remni sniffed at it cautiously.

"It's either that or beer, and I don't think he'd want you drinking his beer," Shu remarked. Remni sipped it, then took a few gulps, and found that somehow, the cold liquid seemed to make his head feel clearer. He drank about half of it before stopping again, to ask the most obvious of all questions.

"Where am I?"
His 'host', who was currently actually acting far more as if they were also a guest in this particular home, did not answer him right then. Instead, he sat facing Remni at the table.

"If I answer that, it won't help you. You're at my friend Bert's apartment, we've driven about six miles from the warehouse where they tried to trap you. Now, did that answer help?"

Remni shook his head, admitting that fundamentally, it did not. He drank a bit more juice.
"What am I doing here? Where's my car?"

"Your car's down in the parking area, obviously. As for what you're doing here, nothing, really. Couldn't just dump you on the street so I brought you to the nearest safe place."

"Safe? Safe from what?" Remni demanded now, feeling the energy of Bombazar rise within him. That energy quickly found, as it attempted to expand through the room, that most of the psionic wavelengths in the area were already 'occupied'.

"I... remember you..." he said, his attitude now changing to one of slight bewilderment as he tried to recall exactly where he had met this person before.

"You are Remni Yokura. I am Shu Lon. I was your opponent at the World Championship tournament a month ago. That is where we have met."

Remni nodded in acknowledgement. Slowly, everything was beginning to feel a little more real again. He could remember clearly the duel in the dark warehouse, but his mind could offer no explanation as to why he felt so tired. He drained the glass and set it aside. Shu Lon picked it up and took it over to the sink, immediately going about the process of washing it.

"You know what you are up against, right?" Shu began, wasting no time in getting to the point, "What you might be getting yourself into if you duel him? What you're risking?"

Remni's mind instantly snapped back into full awareness. The implication of the question was clear enough, to him, that he immediately felt his Kaijudo respond.
"I'll do whatever it takes to save Hikari. I've beaten him before. I can do it again."

Shu gently placed the glass in the wireframe dish drain rack, and turned back to Remni.
"Yes, you probably can. But if beating him the first time did not solve it..."

The fire in Remni's eyes and demeanour died away, as the words sunk in, and he remembered the exact outcome of his first confrontation with Juravis.
"Yeah... it's true. I don't totally understand this yet. But I have to try! I can't just sit around and do nothing with Hikari the way she is! How do you know so much about what's going on here anyway!? Are you another friend of Juravis'?"

"Hardly," Shu replied, sitting opposite Remni again, "I just have what you could call a network. It's easy for me to find out things when I need to."

He now took his deck out of the bag that had been hanging over the chair he was sitting in, and began to shuffle it, his eyes darkening as he did so.
"So tell me this, Remni... what is it you want, as a duelist?"

As he asked his question, he finished his shuffling, and deployed five shields onto the clean kitchen table, very neatly. He then proceeded to draw six cards off the top of his deck, and lay them also neatly in front of him. Remni looked up at him with an almost helpless expression, and then lowered his head.
"I can't. I can't duel any more today. I feel tired..."

"You're not tired. This will make you feel better. Like the juice. Give it a try."
Despite his generally unsettling Kaijudo, Shu's words made Remni feel comfortable. He took his own deck out and handed it to Shu for shuffling.

"So, I'll ask you again..." Shu continued, handing the deck back to him after doing so, and watching as Remni placed his shields, "What is it you want, as a duelist?"

"Wha? Whaddya mean? I want to save Hikari! Soulswap to mana. End turn."

Shu's eyes met Remni's, with distinct calm. He placed a Horrid Worm into his mana zone.
"That's what you want as a man. As her boyfriend. What do you want as a duelist?"

"I... I want to reach the top. To be the best duelist. Like at the Championships. Like this! Magmadragon Jagalzor to mana. Summon Gonta, the Warrior Savage!"
Immediately, to both if them, the kitchen became nothing more than a hazy overlay on their senses. Something that was there, and yet not important enough to occupy the mind. Now, they were somewhere else. A place where a jungle beneath a blazing sun, reached a shimmering shore. A place where darkness loomed in the distance, obscuring the shore as it stretched off toward the horizon...

In this place, Remni stood, Gonta standing before him, both facing the deep darkness in the distance. From that darkness, another shape now emerged. The shape of another young man. From him, more dark energy seemed to spread...
"Terror Pit, to mana. Summon Propeller Mutant."

The whirring engine of the flying Hedrian was not even loud enough to cause any reaction from the jungle. Gonta watched it carefully, but Propeller Mutants are innately flimsy entities. If Gonta had any need to engage it in combat, victory was surely his.
"What you said... refers to ambition. One I distinctly remember devouring. I'm not talking about your basic human wants. What is it that the you who duels, wants? End turn."

Remni placed an Aqua Surfer card into his mana zone, causing the seashore to shimmer momentarily under the shining sun.
"I want... I want... unstoppable speed and power! Summon Bronze-Arm Tribe! Gonta, ikei!"

The great warrior charged directly at Shu, and shattered the first shield. Shu calmly absorbed the energy from it, noting the further increase in the power on Remni's side due to the Bronze-Arm's efforts, and nodded.

"Good. Do you know what Juravis wants?"
He exuded more darkness energy. A Horrid Worm card went to his mana zone, and another burrowed its way up to the surface near him. His summon for the turn. The Propeller Mutant flew calmly overhead, as if on patrol. Remni could feel that his opponent's turn had ended.

"What he wants isn't important! I'm going to overcome him! Gonta to mana. Summon Pyrofighter Magnus! Pyrofighter, ikei!"
The Dragonoid's speed was, as always, beyond human perception as anything more than a red flash, and the shattering of a shield. Gonta and the Bronze-Arm Tribe charged a moment later, and two more shields shattered. Shu had already been reduced to only one.

"It's very important. You defeat other duelists at this level by knowing what they want. If you do not, and they manage to deceive you, you may walk right into their traps..."
He drew his card, placing a Gigamente into his mana zone, and instantly cast Ghost Touch. The howling darkness surrounded Remni, and his Crystal Paladin was dragged out of him. As if that were not enough, Bloody Squito quickly filled the air as well, and the Horrid Worm made its move forward to bring oozing death to the Bronze-Arm Tribe, as well as rob Remni of his Pyrofighter Magnus. Remni exhaled, steadying himself.

"Scarlet Skyterror to mana. End turn..."

"I know what you want. You want to attack me quickly, to strike before I can strike back. Yet, such a plan is exhausting, and my manner of being can only make it worse. I cast Proclamation of Death."
The spell, as always, sent its energy straight for Remni himself, but Gonta, loyal as ever, swiftly moved into the way, and was instantly aged into dust. Shu ended his turn there.

"I'll just keep coming!" Remni insisted, summoning a Quixotic Hero now.

"And I'll just keep devouring your effort..." Shu noted quietly. He charged mana, and a cloud of deadly smoke now seeped out of his darkness, engulfing the Beast Folk. Another fallen.

"You can't keep it up forever," Remni declared, drawing his card and instantly putting it to use. A giant flaming missile descended upon the swarming Bloody Squito, wiping them out. Remni ended his turn, his hand of cards still empty.

"Can you sustain your assault? I fear you still do not understand. Death Smoke, to mana. Cast Dark Reversal, to revive my Bloody Squito."
The darkness energy moved swiftly into the crater left by Remni's Comet Missile, and a familiar, yet eerie, buzzing, could soon be heard. Then, the cloud of Brainjackers again took flight, ready to defend Shu if need be, yet again.

"I understand just fine. I've dueled lots of duelists that like to wait there and try to destroy everything. It doesn't stop me. I just keep coming. Magmadragon Jagalzor!"
Though the creature is well known as a Volcano Dragon, Remni's Jagalzor seemed to descend from the flames of the sun itself. It hovered over him, causing the air to ripple with heat, and steam to rise up from the surface of the glassy ocean.

"You keep coming. I keep... hmm... what is the word for what I do... I don't think I quite know. Nevertheless, Slime Veil to mana. Cast Terror Pit."
Shu's darkness, still seemingly undefined as anything other than living blackness, now sent some of that blackness to grab onto the volcano dragon. Heat exploded outwards against the black energy that threatened to engulf it, but Remni knew what Jagalzor did not seem to. There was no hope of escape. The roaring finally died away, and Shu's turn ended.

"We are each waiting now, Remni. Waiting for that being which acts as our definition, to arrive. Each of us has an equal number of those beings in our decks. Whose will appear first?"

Remni drew his card, and his face paled momentarily. A Crystal Paladin. He could not afford to try to hold onto the card. Shu had many ways of making that, a mistake. He did the only sensible thing, in his mind. Used it for his seventh mana card.

"Ah, I see. Now you have made all preparations for his arrival... I should do the same, and make sure. Summon Gigazoul."
The Chimera joined the ranks of Shu Lon's creatures, growling across the sand at Remni. Each duelist was ready now. Shu spoke again, to Remni's mind.

"Your strength is that you are a flame which cannot be quenched. Your opponent is nearly never safe. Even if I draw a Shadow Moon now to make my Squito strong enough to stop your Dragon of Destiny, you still have ways. Yet, this cannot make you a winner, truly. It cannot make you the better duelist. It cannot help you save your girlfriend."

Remni felt the rage surge within himself yet again.
"Then what?! If what I am, my strength, isn't enough, then what is?!"

He swept the next card off the top of his deck, and his Kaijudo surged with incredible ferocity. His strength was enough. It was definitely enough.

"I summon Bombazar, Dragon of Destiny! Bombazar, break final shield! Ikei!"
Shu nodded in acceptance. Bombazar had come. The blast of heat shattered the shield quite decisively, and this one was the only one to trigger. Locomotiver.

"You must learn your opponent's desires, Remni. Learn that true victory is achieving those desires, and true defeat is being unable to. Only one player can win a duel, but both can achieve what they consider victory. Today, I've been defeated, but yet, I have not, because my desire today was different to begin with..."

"Okay, now you really sound like you're just making this up..." Remni said, as Shu drew the card that would most likely decide the duel. There was no spike in power as the darkness duelist looked at the card.

"Remni... a duelist who draws the wrong card, or hits the wrong trigger... the duelist who has control but things swing against them despite every calculation... can resist 'defeat'. They can resist nearly any effect your mind can throw at them, even if you seem to crush them in the end. It is not important whether or not you can win a duel against Allen Juravis. What matters, is if you can outplay him. Summon Gigazoul."

The new Chimera ambled out of the darkness beside the first. Clearly, it was not here to stop Bombazar. At this point, it was not the creature for the job, and not even one of Shu's Shadow Moon would have been enough truly. Remni could draw any number of things that would allow Bombazar to get right past the Squito even with augmented power.

"I can. I know I can," Remni nodded. He knew this as well. Shu had needed a way to destroy the Dragon of Destiny, and he had drawn none. Even if he had, Remni could simply have kept coming. The threat of Gigazald had never manifested.

"It's not a problem if you cannot. Just make sure that he does not outplay you. That is always enough. Now, Gigazoul, ikei."

"Shield Trigger! Ten Ton Crunch!"
Another violent creation from the lands of Fire descended upon Shu Lon's Horrid Worm, splattering it into nothing but ooze. Shu shrugged, and despite clearly having lost, continued the attack, ordering the Locomotiver to strike next, followed by the Propeller Mutant. The Hedrians triggered no further surprises, but that was all there was. Shu's turn ended.

"Bronze-Arm Tribe to mana! Summon Aqua Hulcus, and Pyrofighter Magnus, and cast Spiral Gate on your Bloody Squito! Pyrofighter, todomeda!"
The blazing Kaijudo, seemed to amplify the radiant heat and light from Remni's sun, driving back the darkness and evaporating the shadows, leaving Shu Lon kneeling on the shore beside his Chimeras and Hedrians. It was over.

Slowly, Remni's mind lost its link with the shared mindspace, returning him to the awareness of the quiet kitchen where he sat, facing Shu Lon. Shu was currently leaning back in the chair, with his eyes closed.

"Did I outplay you?" Remni smirked. His confidence underwent a sharp change to annoyance, a moment later, when Shu responded quite simply "No."

"I had you. Practically every step of the way!" he insisted. Shu simply repeated... "No."

"Tch. Fine. I'm sick of you sore losers..." Remni said, starting to get up. Shu's Kaijudo practically latched onto him and held him in his seat.

"Listen to me. It is true that you were usually enough of a step 'ahead' that you were very likely to win... but that does not mean I was outplayed. That is something you must remember when you duel him. He cannot hurt you if he does not outplay you, but you cannot necessarily defeat him, either..."
Shu made this entire speech without moving or opening his eyes. Remni shuddered. Such a creepy weird duelist.

"Wait... is that what happened to Hikari? He outplayed her because she didn't have Bombazar in her deck anymore? Is that why he could do what he did to her?"

Shu finally sat up straight again and opened his eyes, then began to gather up his cards.
"I can't say. Only the three of you know what happened that day, but from what you seem to remember, I'd figure that's about right"

"Wait, how do you know what I remember?" Remni wondered, on guard again. Shu smiled.

"Not everything is as simple as what you can manage to believe in right now."
The rasping voice of Gigazald faded away as quickly as it had come to him, and now, Shu continued the rest of his communication himself.

"Use everything in your power to avoid being defeated by him. That's all that will matter. Good luck."

Remni nodded, getting the distinct impression that he would get no more advice, cryptic or otherwise, out of the darkness duelist he had just won against. He gathered up his own cards, and as he finished doing so, Shu Lon held out his hand, and a jingling sound alerted Remni to the presence of his car keys. He took them from Shu with a slightly concerned look.

Now, his mind was swirling with memories. Memories of Kaithar dueling her opponent, and the overwhelming psychic output she had wielded against him when it was clear that he had not stood any chance. Then, by contrast, he remembered his own duel. By using the Slash Chargers to remove both his Bombazar, his own opponent had been able to avoid being truly defeated, at least in their own mind.

His thoughts drifted further back now, to his duel with Luni Matthia. She had not displayed any signs of being defeated at all. In fact, she had acted, as Shu had said... like a 'victor'.

"If you think you are ready... if you think you understand most of my ranting at all, I will do you one last favor. I will have my network find Allen Juravis for you."

Remni was again wary. Another person offering help for no apparent reason. A person who had already given a fair amount of such help, also for no apparent reason.

"One question... why are you helping me at all? Why are you doing all this for someone you've only met once?"

Shu turned, and put his deck of cards into his bag yet again, then rummaged in it a bit until he found a notebook and a cellular phone. He began to thumb through the book, which seemed to be full of names, numbers, and notes.

"You... really do have some kind of network, don't you? What is with you people? This is a card game, and you are making it into some sort of--"

"This book is my connection, and these people, are my friends. That's what games do, Remni. They help you make friends. Even people like me who are inconspicuous to the average person, can build a lot of relationships through something like a card game. It's a bond. A bond to anyone willing to pick up a deck of cards and challenge you to a 'friendly duel'. As for why I am helping... I once devoured your hope. Now, I am returning it to you."