Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The clock read 11:50 pm, and the rain was beating hard against the window in a steady rhythm. The dorm was quiet, with most activity kept quiet, to at least give the air of students attempting to get some rest before class the next day. It was that time of year, where exams drew nearer and everyone was up studying... Some more frantically than others.

Asuka wasn’t one of those people, thankfully. Her homework was done and dusted hours ago, and she was thankful she was able to; There was no way, at this hour, she was going to accomplish anything. Truth be told, even the book she was reading and the cup of tea warming her hands wasn’t doing much for her. 

On a night like this? With the potential for a new midnight channel? She’d be lucky if she finished even a chapter of pleasure reading. 

She wondered if there even would be a new episode of it, tonight.

She wondered who she would see, if there was. Most of her closer friends were safe. At least, she hoped that was the case. The TV world couldn't threaten someone who had gained a persona. If there was a way for that to happen, surely they would have found out in the last two and a half years of fighting.

She worried if it would be one of the transfer students. It’d fit the pattern they had so far…

Asuka burnt herself on her tea as she brought it to her lips, snapping her back to reality.

So much for reading. She hadn't absorbed any of it, had she?

You couldn't blame her for her anxiety, really. The TV World had been a never ending source of it for a long time now. And even after so long of trying to figure something out, get anywhere with it, there was nothing. It felt like they were still no closer to closing off access for good.

(Sometimes she wonders if they should have just never gotten involved with it at all, with saving people from it. Maybe they would have taken the disappearances it caused more seriously.)

(Oh, who was she kidding? It didn't get them to take her brother's disappearance seriously.)

She glances at the clock again. 11:58. Has it been that long? She couldn't afford to get lost in her thoughts like that. Not right now. 

She sits straight up, as the clock ticks over to 11:59. Asuka can feel her heartbeat pick up, just a little.

It better stay blank, Asuka thought. It would be better for them all if it just stayed blank. if there was no new episode, there was no new rescue mission to plan. Everyone would be able to continue with their exams without any other care for another day. Maybe they would have some free time to actually enjoy being teenagers. They had earned it.

Midnight.

Despite Asuka's wishes, the screen flickered on by itself. Asuka snapped her book shut and tossed it onto the couch next to her, leaning forward. She knows that across campus, her friends, allies are doing the same.

The world depicted in the episode was dark, a mountainous pass decorated with scorched ground and abandoned weapons, and eerie, eerie silence. There was no sign of the shadow that the channel was starring.

The camera moves slowly through the pass, showing that it was definitely the site of some kind of battle; One that was pretty recent, judging by the smoking craters in some places. A few more weapons lay on the ground, burnt and melted to the point of unusability laying right by them. It got easier and easier to see the more it progressed. 

The dying embers of a battle ground.

(... Was this really the mind of one of her classmates, this …. destructive, violent imagery? Did someone target one of the adults this time?)

The camera showed an intimidating looking castle cloaked in darkness, with angry spires that jutted into the sky. Down on the ground, shadows patrolled the gates.

Corrupted HEROs. That’s what they looked like. And sure, seeing duel monsters was not, by itself, something to worry about. One could always say that a Duelist’s deck was part of their soul.

But… she would think that everyone she knew played HERO… They were supposed to be safe already.

The camera traveled through the dark interior of the castle, passing through a central hall lined with paintings that only looked vaguely like people she could know, with red paint slashed across them in Xs, and doorways that branched out from all around the curved room. Eventually the camera passes down one of the halls, ones equally dimly lit and almost gaudily decorated.

The camera enters what looks to be... not a throne room. A private study maybe. And at the balcony stood a figure in dark armor decorated with gold, with a long flowing red cape.

This had to be their shadow.

But with that armor, and with them facing away, it was hard to say who it was-

"You evaded capture for so long." The figure kept his back to the camera, voice measured and calm. "I'd be impressed if this whole thing was painfully stupid."

Asuka felt like she had taken the wrong end of one of her own spells, ice creeping along her spine. That voice was familiar.

And her worst fears were confirmed as the man turned away from the balcony, pacing back into his study. And in doing so, Asuka could see his face.

"If you were going to run for so long, why were you weak enough to get caught so easily? Why of all times, did you allow strength to fail you?" Given the context, it wasn't hard to figure out who he was monologing about.

"You may as well have not fought at all. I wonder if you'll be able to prove yourself with one last chase."

... It was cut out. 

Asuka rubbed her eyes, as if that would make what she just saw make anymore sense. As if clearing her eyes would make the sounds she heard any less real.

Judai? But... but how.

Chapter Text

Asuka stared at the TV, long after the screen went dark. It took her longer than she would have usually wanted to process that they did have a new victim. She wracked her brain for the last time she had seen Judai. It was exam season, and she hadn’t been as on top of what he’s been up to as she should have been.

Judai wasn’t inclined to studying, even for his exams in his final year of school; Asuka hadn't been sure how to continue motivating him. And to be frank, she didn't really have the time to dedicate to that in lieu of her own exams. 

It meant if something truly led to Judai having his own shadow, she wouldn't know.

... Oh, she couldn't just sit here fretting over what she could have done. If she allowed herself to, she would likely be here all night and she needed to at least see what everyone else thought of the matter. Asuka scooped up her PDA and tapped out a quick message, and saw a few "Someone is typing..." messages pop up nearly immediately. 

While waiting for their responses, Asuka scooped up a thick jacket and slipped it on. The rain was still coming down her window in waves, and while she had to go outside, go check for herself, she didn't want to get sick by running in the rain. That would help no one. 

Out of the corner of her eye, the first of the messages popped up:

[Thunder] What did the slacker do now????

[BigBoyRoid] I saw Aniki earlier today and he seemed fine i don't know how that could happen.

Manjoume and Sho got to it first, and somehow Asuka wasn't surprised. They were both in the Obelisk Blue dorm now, though Sho still checked in on the Slifers every so often. At least, Asuka was thinking he still did. Perhaps he, like everyone else, had become too busy.
…
There were the transfer students, however, and the friend that Judai had made, that he had been spending as much time with as he possibly could… Maybe they’d see him here too, out of coincidence. Maybe he would have answers.

[CyberAngel] I’m heading over to his dorm to check on him. I feel safer doing that than reaching out to someone.

[CyberAngel] Do you guys want to meet me on the way there?

[BigBoyRoid] already on it hurry up

[Thunder] of all the days for Mr Dino DNA to not be staying in his room. 

[CyberAngel] Are you coming?

[Thunder] What do you take me for? 

[Thunder] of course.

Asuka zipped up her jacket, and turned to exit the room. She kept her footsteps light as she made her way out to the outside, setting off with purpose towards the Red Dorms. 

Judai’s door was ajar when she arrived. Implying the man himself probably was not through that door. With an appropriate air of caution, she pushed the door open and was greeted with…

Nothing.

A whole load of nothing. The bed was disheveled, but whether it was from any kind of struggle or the fact that Judai just didn’t make his bed was entirely up in the air.  There wasn’t a TV in this room to check; The only one available to the Reds without any kind of special circumstance was down in the dining hall.

She would have to check there next.

From outside, a sound of two voices bickering carried up to the door, and Asuka turned her head to listen in. Looks like the rest of the group that was up had made it over. It was definitely Sho and Manjoume out there, clambering up the stairs to Judai’s dorm.

“Aniki!” Sho ran in through the open door first, looking frantically around the disheveled room. “Aniki, come on, this isn’t funny!” He hopes its a joke, and Judai’s not doing this stuff right at exam season,

Asuka already knows in her heart that this isn’t the case, that someone decided that Judai needed to take an unwarranted trip through the TV. While Sho tears the room apart, Manjoume is surprisingly quiet, eyebrows furrowed in thought.

Without a further word, Manjoume strides over to the desk and tugs open the top drawer. Revealing that Judai’s deck was still tucked in the corner. “That’s what I thought.”

“What’s what you thought?” Sho asked, hurrying over from the otherside of the room, as Asuka joined his side as well.

“He left his deck here.” He said, watching the air around the deck more, and Asuka can only assume that he’s actually looking at a spirit. Perhaps this would be easier than normal, if they were able to talk to Judai’s deck.

Usually he tried to pretend that the spirits around him didn’t exist, and for this moment Asuka was glad that evidently he had decided to put that aside for their investigation. 

“Well? Well? What’re they saying Manjoume!” Sho was near frantic and Asuka couldn’t blame him. It was a  miracle she was keeping as calm as she was, really.

“Calm down, shrimp!” Manjoume snapped, before turning his attention back to the air. “Unfortunately, not much useful. No one saw anything. Apparently, the slacker up and vanished without a word.” There went the hope of an easy investigation with the help of Judai’s spirit partners.

“Winged Kuriboh can still help look for him though, right? Right?” Sho asked, not willing to give up on the idea. It wasn’t a bad one, anyway. 

“Yeah, once we’re actually in the TV world.” He paused, staring at the air for a moment, before shaking his head. “Them or that damn cat. I don’t know about you though, but I’m not risking my ass going in there with just the three of us.”

“We should still check the cafeteria, before anyone else gets up though.” Asuka stated. So much for an easy answer. “We’d best get down there before everyone else gets up for the day.”

People being around wasn’t really a concern at this hour.  But they’d need to be getting to bed themselves soon, and there was no accounting for anyone who may actually want to be in there looking for food. It could happen. Judai himself was even somewhat guilty of it. 

“Come on, guys.”

Manjoume nodded, shuffling Judai’s deck and still watching the cards, before  putting them in his pocket with a scoff. He still made a point of putting them carefully in an inner pocket, protecting them from the soggy weather outside. 

Sho lead the way down to the first floor.

Downstairs was a quiet, still place, with no one about thankfully. In the corner sat a communal TV, one big enough for a teenager to climb through if they really wanted to. And one that they had made use of a few times, early on in their work here.

It didn’t happen often now though. The one in Manjoume’s old dorm in the Slifer dorm had a far bigger TV, and it was more private too. They could meet there without too many questions being asked. 

The three of them hurried over to the TV. It was warm, as if it were active sometime recently. Sometime recently. Hm. If Judai had been seen earlier today, like Sho had said, then this is probably the fastest they’ve ever been alerted... 

And yet what they had seen on the TV had been so... concerning. It must have been something that had been building  up for a long time to be so well developed already. 

The three of them took some time looking for any signs of a physical struggle, but there... didn’t seem to be one. There was nothing out of the ordinary here, was there. It was quiet. There wasn’t a fight. The only sign of life was Pharaoh sleeping on a corner table. (Shou gave him a scratch on the head, not ignoring the cat even now.)

Whoever did it either was able to take Judai completely while he was asleep, or he had some kind of trust in that person and hadn’t even thought there was something to be concerned about until it was too late.

That was a concern all on its own. 

“We’re not finding anything. I’m going back to bed.” Manjoume announced soon enough.

“But what about Aniki, he’s all alone in the TV world-”

“I know shrimp.” Manjoume aggressively rolled his eyes. “But we’re not finding anything and I need my beauty sleep.”

“We have time until he’s in serious danger.” Asuka says slowly. She doesn’t like the idea of having to give up the night’s investigation any more. But crass as he was being, Manjoume had a point. “We’ll be better prepared to do a more thorough search in the morning, after classes are done.”

“After classes... What if he gets hurt in that time.” Sho grumbled, but he had to concede. “Let’s... go to bed, I guess.” But he shot a longing look at the TV. He wasn’t stupid enough to go alone. Asuka had some faith in that.

“Let’s get going for now.” 

It was with a heavy heart that they left though. It felt like giving up, even if it was the most logical decision right now.

Chapter Text

Where was he?

Judai found himself left abandoned on a stone floor with tall, elegant ceilings and a floor with strange symbols etched into it, with no one… appearing to be around. Of course, Looks could be deceiving, and he of all people should know, after the last two and a half years of adventures no one else would ever believe.

He staggers to his feet. “Hello?” He calls, and he feels a lot more sluggish than he expected. A little like he was walking through molasses, honestly. Which was a problem. Considering, you know, the mysterious castle and all. The more he focused, he also realized he could feel the tingling under his skin, the kind that meant he could probably call a persona to his side.

… The TV world. Okay okay. So he was in the TV world mysteriously, in a part he was pretty sure he had never been to and when there wasn’t anyone missing probably. Which was weird, because new areas didn’t pop up unless people were missing right? Well, he was missing now. But that didn’t count.

Maybe he sleepwalked here. That made sense, right? It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing done - Maybe someone came and stole another Slifer and it woke him up. As his thoughts wandered, he started wandering too. If he just stood there and thought and thought and thought he’d probably burn out his brain anyway.  If he didn’t find his way back to the real world he was going to miss breakfast. Well, and it’d probably be more dangerous. Couldn’t forget that.

The walls were ornately decorated, but not particularly good at grabbing Judai’s attention. It was the kind of glitz and glamor that reminded him closely of his friend though.

“Who created this place? If I didn’t know better I’d say it was Manjoume.” He laughed quietly to himself. And soon enough Judai had stumbled across a staircase, one lined with windows. And overseeing a deserted cavern with what looked like little tree stumps sticking out of the ground.

Tree stumps? How weird.

… How’d he get so far into the TV world anyway? Mean, at least he wasn’t seeing any shadows. He didn’t want to see what would happen if he had to try and fight a lot of them by himself. He’d tire out real quick and man he could already hear the complaining from his friends.

…

The exterior looked boring and sad. He felt bad for whoever it was that built this place. 

Judai finally tears his eyes away from it as the staircase exits into a wide open auditorium, with the edges lined with pictures. People that Judai was pretty sure he was supposed to know, classmates he was pretty sure. He definitely saw their faces around school, but he didn’t think he knew them particularly well. A few of them had red Xs drawn through them. 

Red Xs?

Creepy. He picked up the pacing, looking to get out of there before he had to think about it much longer. This was going to be a task for a much larger group, and people who were better at working out the people puzzles. Judai was the action guy, not so much the ‘make the brain work’ guy.

There was more than one way out of this room, and so far he hadn’t seen any kind of TV and he didn’t even get to pretend he was going to plan this trip out. He didn’t have a Go - Home or anything.
“Hey, Winged Kuriboh? Can you give me a hand here?”

… Where he expected the eager cooing of his loyal spirit partner, there was nothing. That was not normal.

“Hey, Winged Kuriboh?” He asked again, reaching for where his deck should have been holstered. And where it absolutely decidedly was not holstered. Uh oh. Why couldn't sleep-walking Judai have thought to grab his deck?

This, uh… may be a lot harder than he expected. But he wasn’t one for backing down. Not now, not ever. He hadn’t survived years of doing this already by just giving up, right? Right? “Eenie, meenie, miney mo….” He said, pointing at each door and then picking the one heading off to the left at random. There had to be something for him that way.

Judai had a good gut feeling about it. And he usually trusted his gut feelings; they usually served him well. And it was better than sitting here forever with choice paralysis. Just standing around wasn’t going to get him home. It was going to get him trapped here.

Plus he really wanted out of this creepy picture hall. Whoever’s palace this was, they needed to hire a better decorator. 

He escapes through the door, into another ornately decorated hallway, with torches lining the wall, and metal fixtures on the wall in some semblance of decoration. The floor is covered in a deep red rug. Fixtures lined the walls and Judai wasn’t sure if they were meant to be useful or anything... or were just there to look ominous. Which was probably a cool way to decorate a castle.

Not that he’s put much thought into what a castle should even look like outside of comic books. How did someone make a functional castle anyway-

No, that was so irrelevant right now. He could think about what made a cool comic book castle later.

(Besides, it totally wasn’t that picture hall.)

The hall led to a room that he thinks is called a study. A desk is pushed up against one wall, with a bunch of paperwork scattered over the top, and a few were haphazardly slashed with the same red paint he had seen all the way back in the picture room, and Judai wasn’t sure he even wanted to bother trying to read those. Sounded like homework, and who didn’t know that Judai wasn’t very good at homework?

The center of the room had a large door that led out to a balcony, wreathed in the same scarlet red that had lined the halls outside. Whoever decorated this room had a good taste in color at least.

The other side of the room had a bookcase, though it didn’t look like it had that many actual books. And they had strange titles like Nighttime Guardian and Those Old Playground Rumors that sounded almost kinda sorta interesting if it weren’t for the fact that they looked pretty dense, and would probably take him all night to even try to get through. And he didn’t really want to be here that long, his attention span wouldn’t last, even if he wasn’t at risk of dying. One looked to be a photo album too! Though it was shoved in the back corner, and looked almost dusty. It definitely looked to have gone untouched for a really, really long time.

That was probably really odd, in the TV world. Why would something be dusty like that? 

Huh.

He reached for the photo album, curious. Maybe it could tell him about this place! There had to be something useful in pictures, right? Things that wouldn’t take him all dang night to figure out like the thick books. Judai flipped it open, coughing when it threw up thick waves of dust. The pictures inside were old, fragile and yellowed, and they seemed borderline incomprehensible in places. The earliest pictures were blurry shapes -  a small figure that’s probably a kid sitting at a table  with someone older, and a figure behind them that was tall and had wings. Another had the same smaller figure with the same winged one, and the kid was holding out a bundle of something that just was not detailed enough to figure out. 

And it was all the same, it all created a noticeable weight in his chest. And Judai felt more and more nostalgic as he looked through the blurry photos. Like he should know what he was looking at, if only he thought about it. If he dug around in his memory he would find what he was looking for. But none of this was ringing a bell....

His curiosity was cut short though, as he heard a noise outside, and the clink clink clink of metal armor.

Ahaha that might be a problem. He didn’t think he wanted to actually go up against a shadow right now.

He could already hear  the scolding that’d result from that!!

New problem though, how is he going to leave without just walking straight into dealing with a shadow who would probably happily kick his ass? He had enough experience to know that was probably a bad idea. (Some very painful experiences at that. No thank you!) So he probably, probably needed to find a way to escape. And the only way out seemed to be through the balcony. 

Or if he found a secret passage! Those were common in castles, or so all the stories went.

The clinking kept getting closer, and he was pretty sure he was running out of time to keep thinking about this. Judai tugged on a few of the thick books, hoping that a secret passage or something would swing open and give him an escape. (A small bit of excitement bubbles up. The thrill of actually finding a secret passageway never seemed to actually leave him!)

Sadly, he didn’t find one before he heard someone at the door.

Another time then. He threw open the balcony, and looked around. It didn’t seem Winged Kuriboh was with him, but maybe if he summoned someone else he could totally nail a landing.
Or… He could totally sidle along that ledge right there by the edge - AH! That’s the door opening, he didn’t have time to keep waiting around.

Here goes something, I guess.

He climbed up onto the railing and slowly but surely started inching his way down the ledge. It was fine, the person, whoever it was that walked in wouldn’t notice that the balcony door was cracked, and he’d have a chance to keep looking for the exit.

Considering that no one was currently screaming at him he figured he was probably fine, right? Right?

There was another balcony just across the way and he thinks thinks thinks he can make his way over there safely. And he doesn’t want to stick around and give whoever that was that walked in a chance to kick his ass. That’d be embarrassing and he’d have to admit it to Manjoume and no thank you.

He’d be hearing about that for weeks. He began carefully shuffling his way down the edge and towards the window, trying very hard not to look down or to think about how easily he could fall. Nope.  Judai almost made it, thankful that he had pretty good balance. There were some perks to having run around in this place for years!

As he reached the other balcony, He looked back. Still, there was no one there, and Judai let himself sigh in relief. He totally avoided whoever it was. He stepped onto the railing and let himself hop down, grinning. And to his joy, this door did open. Not sparing a second glance towards the previous balcony, he threw the door open and returned inside.

Now, he was going to find another damn way out of here. He was going to have a story to tell the others. 

Back on the balcony Judai abandoned, a figure cloaked in black and red stepped outside, looking about.

The weakling ran away.

He didn’t know why he was surprised. But he supposed that it would have been boring if he had just let himself be caught. The man turned and disappeared back inside with a flourish of his cape. Oh well. It wouldn’t be fun without a chase, now would it?

He could use a challenge, he thinks. The other had managed to avoid being caught this time, but it was only a matter of time, of course. The King always won, for he was strong.

Always.

Chapter Text

Resting that night didn’t go well for Asuka. She returned to the Obelisk Girls dorm. And by the time that the sun had come up, she had been about ready to throw in the towel tonight. Caffeine was going to be her saving grace for the day, she could already tell. 

She would have to stop by the kitchen. Great. She couldn’t afford to go into today without as much energy as she could manage. No, that’d be a death wish, and with Judai counting on the lot of them to rescue him from the TV world....

Unless, of course, he was in the Slifer dorm right now, stuffing his face, probably with Johan and oblivious to the fact he scared the ever living shit out of his friends last night. It would be just like him. And she would want to punch him and hug him all at once. Wasn’t that a great pipe dream? Where all their problems were resolved neatly in a little bow?

...Nothing with the TV World was ever that easy. 

Getting dressed and gathering her deck, she headed out into the main building. It felt ... hokey. That they still had to go to class right now. But who else out even knew Judai was gone yet? It wouldn’t take people at the school long to notice he was gone. Judai was the kind of bright presence that was hard to miss, and his absence was palpable. It’d be known by.... maybe second period? 

She was obsessing and she knew it. Maybe Asuka was still trying to wrap her head around how this could have possibly happened. It was so.... out of the blue.

Asuka really needed to get that coffee before class. She wondered if she had time to catch up with Manjoume and steal some from him. His habit of flaunting his money did have some benefits. And this time, she was ready to take his offers for once.

-

Asuka expected the questions about where Judai was. She had braced herself for them.  The teachers would ask, and the people further from their group would ask. The inner circle would pretend as though nothing was wrong and...

“Hey, uh, Asuka? Have you seen Judai this morning? He was supposed to meet me for breakfast.” 

And she somehow still had not been prepared for Johan to ask where he was. Of course Johan was worried about Judai. The two of them had been thick as thieves since Johan transferred in. 
“He’s not feeling well today.” Asuka said, only realizing the problem of what she said just a bit too late.

“Ah! Is that so? Maybe I should go see him after class then.” He looked so genuinely concerned. And him going to see Judai would be a problem because Judai wasn’t actually anywhere he could see.

Asuka, you should have known better. 

“Do you really want to risk the contagion?” She tried, hoping that it would actually dissuade him for long enough for the group to jump into action.

“I’m not afraid of a little gettin’ sick.” Johan nodded and Asuka wanted to throw her hands up already. Why were these two so similar? 

“Oy, mate. Give ‘im some space for the day, yeah? He’s probably going to be asleep, and not very good company.” Oh, thank the gods, Jim came to her rescue. She appreciated him.

“Besides, between Shou and Kenzan he’s going to have all the attention he needs.” Asuka gets her footing back, jumping back to her own defense. There. That was better.

Johan frowned, clearly still not very dissuaded by that, but he was at least getting the impression they weren’t going to allow him in right now, not without a lot of complaining. “Well, you guys will pass on my well wishes, right?” 

Asuka tried not to sigh in relief. He seemed to be listening. Hopefully. “Of course I will. Besides.” She pulled her PDA partially out of her pocket and tapped it. “You can just leave him a message. I’m sure he’ll love having something he can play back.” This was mostly not meant to be teasing, but if it helped, it helped.

Johan turned slightly red, rubbing the back of his head. “Well how could I say no to that?”

Before they could continue their conversation, a harsh voice cleared his throat behind them. “A- hem . Andersen, what exactly are you doing?” 

“A-ah. Sorry Professor Cronos. I was just asking about Judai.”

The professor groaned. “Of course it's about Yuki.  Take your seat Andersen. Now. Unless you want detention. Cook, I recommend you do the same.” 

Jim nodded with a tip of his hat, and Johan scrambled over towards the Slifer section where he usually sat near Judai.

... Disaster averted, for now. But she had the feeling that they hadn’t seen the last of Johan’s getting involved. The other transfer students hadn't been able to avoid it after all....

Jim took a seat next to Asuka. “So it’s true? Judai was the target?” He asked quietly, letting Karen off his back so she could rest comfortably on the floor at his feet. 

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“Thought that persona users couldn’t be taken?” 

“That’s the problem... We thought so too.”

They tried not to discuss this for the rest of the class. Hopefully class could do something to help Asuka to stop obsessing over this so badly.  She needed to clear her head. There was no time to worry about the lack of power they’d have in the TV world without Judai. Or worry if he was safe or not.

Asuka had already lost most of the night to these thoughts. She needed to be the one for action now.

She was still so glad when class was over, and they could finally make their way to Manjoume's old dorm.

There had been some merit to the school day, however. There hadn’t been a single hint of anyone else that was missing and unaccounted for. Any hope that Judai’s disappearance was a kind of kidnapping was gone.

-

Manjoume was leaning back in a chair, shuffling idly through his cards to hide the fact he was nervous. He’s just preparing, of course, why would  anyone  think he’d be worried. How Dare. Jim was crouched near the other wall, talking quietly to Karen and making sure she was ready for the adventure into the TV. Shou was pacing in front of the TV as if it’d make it less obvious he was out of his mind anxious. Everyone knew, of course. O’brien was perched in one of the chairs furthest from the TV, as if he were barely trying to be part of the group. He looked cool as a cucumber, unbothered.

He always looked like that though. It didn’t mean he didn’t care, they all had come to find.

As for Asuka herself, she tried to present a calm presence, as much as she could manage. Now aws not the time to falter. She watched her PDA out of the corner of her eyes to see who all they would be venturing into this new land with. And at her feet lay Pharaoh, who Judai always insisted was necessary, and Winged Kuriboh had told Manjoume the same. 

Something about cats being sensitive to the supernatural

No one else was coming, it seems. They were tied up in trying to deflect attention from the situation, or weren’t even  on Duel Academy Island, or just could not slip away themselves without causing even more of a stir. Which was fair. They really couldn’t use any more attention than they already had on them.

“Alright everyone, I think it’s time to get a move on. Stay alert, and let’s go.”

“Finally! We’re coming, Aniki!” Shou was the first person in, barely waiting. He would probably regret it, but you had to admire his enthusiasm, right?

“About time.” Manjoume complained. “Everyone else kept us waiting. How rude.” Still grumbling under his breath, he made his way from his chair, slipping his deck into his jacket, and he jumped into the TV. If it weren’t for Shou’s nerves and desire to help Manjoume likely would have been first in.

It was safe, right by the TVs. At least, it usually was. So they would probably be perfectly fine.

“Welp, guess we’re following.” Jim hauled Karen onto his back, checking his deck was in place and then made his way over to the TV to climb on in. “See y’all on the other side.” And he was gone.

Asuka looked to O’brien. “I’ll bring up the rear.” He said gruffly, standing up, and coming over. Pharaoh lumbered to his feet and stretched out, resting his paws on the TV screen.

“Right.” Asuka turned and climbed into the TV herself, helping the fat cat over the lip of the TV on her way over. 

There had been nothing unusual about heading into the TV world of course. It was painfully normal.

 This close to the TV was always the same, with ruined structures lining the area, making it look like it had once been a far more beautiful place, but had since fallen into disrepair. And everyone made it through safely. Complete with O'brien coming in behind her to complete their group. 

“Oh, I wish more people had been able to come with us.” Shou complained, looking out into the faded fog that lined the area. He looked so much less than enthused. 

“What, are you saying we can’t handle this shrimp?” Manjoume asked, rolling his eyes dramatically. “In fact, I bet I could go alone and would be absolutely fine.” 

Some people never change…

“You wouldn’t though, you know better,” Asuka said, with a tone of warning. Was he probably trying to comfort Shou in his own weird Manjoume way? Yes, probably. However, she didn’t want to risk any ideas being gotten.

“There is strength in numbers.” O’brien added from behind her.

Shou nodded and took a deep breath. “I guess so.” 

Well, this was about as good as she could expect. Before they could debate where to go, though, Pharaoh stuck his nose into the air and sniffed, before letting out a loud meow and tore off into the fog without a second of hesitation. 

“After him!” Asuka said, startled into action by the cat tearing off into the fog. She hadn’t expected that! 

“The cat’s eager.” Jim commented, following after them.

“For a fat cat he sure can move.” Shou complained.

It quickly became clear that Pharaoh wasn’t just running aimlessly, but instead seemed to have an actual goal in mind as he made his way through the fog. It would help them find their wayward friend faster though, so no one was complaining.

It wasn’t long before the ground began turning from the tiled floor of their starting area to the dusty roads they had seen on the TV the night before. And if it had been eerie on the TV, knowing that it was just an image on a screen. It was much different actually walking through it. Through the abandoned weapons and silence. The air seemed to hang heavily on the group of students.

“At least we know we’re in the right spot.” Jim commented, trying to lighten the mood.

“That’s a good sign, yeah.” Asuka nodded. “Does anyone see any signs of life?” 

“This far out?” O’brien shook his head. “It doesn’t look like there's a single sign of life here. It’s suspicious, stay on guard.”

Wonderful…

“The evil looking castle over there would probably beg to differ.” Shou said, his voice shaking slightly, pointing his fingers towards the castle. It was the one they saw on the TV, the same jutting spires and ominous aura. That was definitely where they were going.

“Meaning the defenses are only going to get worse the closer we get.” O’brien pointed out. 

“We’ve handled scarier than just castle guards.” Manjoume rolled his eyes. “I don’t get how this is in the slacker’s head. You’d think it’d be … I don’t know, annoyingly cheerful.”

“Bit rude, but I haveta agree. He doesn’t look the type.” Jim replied. 

And so did Asuka. So did Asuka. 

“Halt! Who dares to trespass on to the king's lands?” Called an angry voice,  drawing their attention and causing them to all jump to battle formations..The voice in question was a shadow, with dark red and green armor and a somewhat feminine voice.

“Finally, this is going to get interesting.” Manjoume complained. 

Asuka grabbed the top card of her deck and skimmed over what she had drawn, feeling the power of her persona beginning to build up in her hands. But she didn’t attack, not yet. Maybe they could get something out of her information wise; And maybe even avoid a fight.. “We would like to have an audience with him actually.” 

“Really, Asuka?” She swiftly elbowed him to remind him to shut his mouth before they got into a fight that just didn’t need to happen right now. They wanted to find their friend with minimal fighting. Less fighting meant less energy spent meant saving him that much faster.

“Ha! As if no name strangers like you could be worth the king’s attention!” The shadow laughed, clearly finding her asking the funniest thing she had heard all day. Now, that was rude. 

“No name stranger, do you know who I am!” Oh Manjoume. Looks like Asuka’s elbow meant nothing to him right now.

“Do not escalate.” O’brien commanded. 

“Do not escalate- do you hear her.”

“Of course, if you can beat me in a fight, you’d be able to continue,” the shadow teased. “Maybe you would be worth being a part of the king’s court.”

“See!” Manjoume felt vindicated.

Asuka finally held up the card in her hand. “Fine. We’ll fight you then.” The shadow rolled her neck, and whistled. From the ground erupted two more monsters - and there was no doubt about it. The monsters that were summoned were corrupted HEROs as expected, being Avian and Burstinatrix cloaked in shadows.

“My title is Evil HERO Inferno Wing.” The first shadow announced. “If you cannot get past even us, the king would crush you into paste without even noticing you were there.”

It sounded almost helpful, though that seemed at odds at best with how antagonistic the shadow had been until this point.

“On your marks, everyone!” Asuka called. Everyone got into position, as Jim let Karen down off his back and Pharaoh ran off, jumping up and over a rock to get out of the line of fire.

It was when they had barely gotten into positions that the fight began, with the dark recreation of Burstinatrix thrusting her hands outwards, throwing a stream of fire out towards the team, barely giving them time to recuperate.

Asuka held up the card she had grabbed from her deck - Cyber Angel Dakini. “Persona!” She cried, causing a burst of cold air to leap from the card, barely preventing the flames from reaching everyone. 

“Wow, they don’t even need the slacker’s help to be annoying.” Manjoume complained, drawing a card and holding it out - Armed Dragon Level LV 10. “Deal with these idiots!” 

“Idiots? How presumptuous.” Inferno Wing muttered as she turned away from the lightning strike as if she didn’t even feel threatened, though it hit her companions with very little effort. 
Nevertheless Manjoume’s mouthy actions did not go unpunished; Avian immediately targeted him with a feather storm, ripping several brand new holes into his jacket.
“Why me.” He whined. 

“Now is not the time, Soldier.” O’brien said harshly, drawing his duel disk in its gun form, and firing off a few Volcanic Scattershots, raining flames on their opponent’s with barely a second thought, and thoroughly burned away any feathers of Avian’s that remained floating in the air. 

Meanwhile, Shou raised his Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill, as the cool feeling of metal wrapped around Manjoume, soothing the cuts left from Avian’s wings and gently reinforcing his coat against further damage.

“Watch out, Everyone!” Jim called, as Burstinatrix reflected the flames back their way. Pulling out his Fossil Warrior Skull King, he threw up waves of dirt, throwing Burstinatrix off balance and throwing the reflected waves of fire wide of any of them. Not to mention, it seemed to make for a solid hit on her.

O’brien grunted in annoyance. That limited his options, if she could reflect fire, didn’t it.

Burstinatrix had higher attack points than Avian, so they’d want to get hit by her attacks less. Worse still, of course, would have been Inferno Wing. She didn’t seem to be trying too hard to hit them back just yet. Instead, just weaving around the bolts of lightning from Manjoume’s revenge attempts.

She hadn’t been doing much in this encounter actually. It was like she had been just watching them, waiting to see how they handled her lackeys. But now, she was ready to join in on the tussle, going for Manjoume, the pest who hadn’t been leaving her alone for this entire encounter. “You had your chance to beat me, and you did not take it! This is the end!”

From there, it felt like the real fight was on, and everyone was forced to keep heavily on their toes, with O’brien, Manjoume, and Asuka going more heavily on the offense, while Jim maintained a defense with his earth magic, and Shou kept them all alive.

It was different, fighting without Judai. And sure, Asuka was no stranger to having to keep track of her friends on the battlefield, but… The vibe of the fight was wrong. Maybe the transfers wouldn’t notice, but she noticed. She was sure that Manjoume and Shou noticed.

By the end of it, even Shou was overheated, and peppered with burns and cuts, but they had indeed won the fight. Somehow.

Inferno Wing fell to her knees. “You folks are strong. I wasn’t strong enough to stop you from getting closer to the king’s castle. That is my failure.” Her allies had been forced to flee much earlier, stepping away to rest, recuperate and come back another day. 

Asuka breathed heavily, feeling the last of the healing spell from Shou wrapping around her arm to soothe the aching pain. She was more out of practice than she was comfortable with. That was tougher than she expected. And if that much was wearing her out, she had a bad feeling about the rest of this campaign.

“However,” Inferno Wing continued. “You will not have such an easy time going forward. The commander will not allow it.”

“Easy?” Shou complained under his breath. “That was supposed to be easy?” 

“Commander?” O’brien asked, and that seemed to be a far more relevant detail. “Who is this Commander?”

“He’s the commander, of course. He is the one who oversees the King’s army. If you want to even get close to the King, you will need to go through him.”

“Of course.” Asuka sighed. 

Shou groaned, but the look on his face said that he was already ready to accept this and do whatever he had to for the sake of saving his Aniki. 

“Maybe this commander guy will be an actual challenge.” Manjoume said, rolling his eyes dramatically at the conversation going on. As if they hadn’t had a problem fighting off just these three foot soldiers. 

“Overconfidence will be the death of you.” O’brien scolded. “Keep your head about you.” He didn’t seem to be too bothered by the information of their future opponent. It was a chance to prepare for future encounters.

“Ciao!” Inferno Wing fluttered her hands towards the group, and then she disappeared into a wisp of smoke. And finally, it was like a little bit of tension had finally sunken out of the group. That was one part done.

“Well that sure was exciting.” Jim said, after a moment of silence, finally standing up from checking on Karen. And from behind a rock, Pharaoh jumped up, sitting on top of it and meowing loudly to get their attention. 

Shou moved forward to check on the cat, petting him to make sure he hadn’t actually gotten injured. “Thanks for staying out of the way…” He said. No one really wanted Pharaoh to get hurt. Not because of this. “The cat’s fine! I think anyway. He seems fine.” 

Pharaoh meows loudly to prove Shou’s point.

“Is everyone else ready to keep moving?” Asuka asked, looking around at her friends. That was a rough battle, but they could hardly stop here for the day. They had barely just begun.

She got an echo of approval in response from her friends. “Pharaoh, I guess you’ll have to continue leading us.” She said,. They could see the castle but if Pharaoh could keep them from having to spend that much more time looking for Judai when they arrived… Then it would be better for everyone, right?

And so the hike began. It seemed that Judai’s shadow wasn’t intent on leaving them alone, as after that first fight, more of the corrupted HEROs, all calling themselves the “Evil HEROs” had faced them down, even if they weren’t as willing to talk as Inferno Wing had been.

They were getting used to the kinds of fights they were going to be seeing here! Considering this dungeon was made by Judai, though, relaxing was definitely going to be a recipe to getting hurt. Not to mention, the whole walk there felt… empty, without his presence there alongside them. 

As they made it closer to the gates, which turned out to be surrounded by thick rivers of lava, they were met not with more guards, but a familiar friendly voice.

“So you finally came to cause my King trouble, hm~?”

“What’s he doing here?” Manjoume complained. 

It was hard to doubt their eyes. Sitting up on top of the tall, imposing gate was definitely Johan. Or… a version of him, at least, with orange eyes and some kind of leather get up that was almost indecent looking.

“Well, Judai is close to him…” Asuka murmured. 

Pharaoh yowled at the shadow Johan. Something was off about him, compared to the knockoff heroes that they had seen on the walk here. Something more than just… regular shadows.

“We need to speak to your king.” O’brien took the lead this time, stepping up to the front of the group. Despite the fact he was the newest member of their little team, he seemed the least winded by fighting their way here. There was something to be said about doing mercenary work.

“Just as a coupla friends. That’s all.” Jim added, tilting his hat in a friendly manner. 

“We even brought his cat.” Shou added. Pharaoh was basically Judai’s at this point; everyone knew it.

Johan hopped down from the top of the gate, pulling a staff out from behind his back. “You guys aren’t very good at arguing.” He stated plainly. “Besides, what use does he have for another Pet~?”

Another Pet. What did he mean, "Another Pet.” Pharaoh yowled in indignation. The humans though… were met with a collective “Huh?”

“What are you going on about, Andersen?” Manjoume found his footing first. Good for him, frankly. Asuka didn’t think she could say the same…

“What’d I say that’s so confusing?” Johan asked, tilting his head. “It was just a simple question.”

“Take us to see your king.” O’brien repeated, hoping to nip this whole thing in the bud before it really got out of hand.

Maybe getting out of hand like this was what Johan intended to happen.

“We really need to get by. It’s important.” Asuka knew Johan to be a pretty reasonable guy - surely he would listen to reason and not make their rescue any harder.

“Well, I’d love to help you guys, really. But I don’t really appreciate people coming to hurt my king, y’know~?”

“W-Who said anything about hurting?” Shou asked, giving Johan a nervous smile and holding up his hands. 

“Word travels~! Did you think I wouldn’t hear what you’ve been doin’ to my subordinates?”

His subordinates?

“You’re the commander they were talking about.” Asuka said, and it wasn’t a question.

“Ding, ding, ding~!" Johan seemed pleased that she had actually gotten it. And who would it really surprise that Judai would choose Johan to hold such a high position? (Ignoring any sting that came from him choosing someone he had just met this year over the friends he had known for over two years before this… )

“Wow, you’re even more annoying than the actual Andersen.” Manjoume held his hand out, card in hand and the air around him practically crackled. “If you’re not going to guide us, just get out of our way.”

Johan didn’t look deterred at all. “You don’t wanna do that.” He just shook his head. 

There was some kind of eerie calm about him at that moment. Asuka was having a bad feeling about this; about what Johan could possibly be planning. 

“I think I do! Take! This!” 

“Manjoume!”

It was too late to stop the attempt at attacking Johan. Johan just held his staff, causing a glittering green shield to harmlessly dissipate it. “I warned you guys…” 

The bad feeling intensified. Pharaoh immediately took off for cover, and Karen whined for Jim to do the same. And everyone would feel the energy building in the air, sticking to their skin and arms with barely a word. “Last chance to escape~!”

Behind Johan, a long, shadowy dragon emerged, the details obscured except for the lit up gems along the side, in the colors of the rainbow. 

They didn’t want to take that attack head on. Absolutely not. “Everyone get away!” 

And she didn’t need to say it twice. Everyone turned tail and ran, and behind them the ground exploded into a burst of rainbow light. 

“Retreat!” Asuka called, and no one argued with her. They could find their way back here much easier tomorrow. And just by the size of that spell he fired off, there was no way they were going to be able to get through him without, at minimum, some rest. And even that felt like being generous.

… Somehow, despite making progress, the trip ended up feeling something like a failure.

Johan watched the group flee, and then shook his head again. “One attack? Really? No wonder my king doesn’t want them to come in.”

Chapter Text

Judai didn’t find his way out of the castle nearly as fast as he thought he was gonna. In fact he was kind of finding the opposite; that the more he wandered, he was well and truly lost. Getting out was not as simple a task as he had been thinking it was, and he had no idea how much time had passed in the real world.

His friends were probably awake now, and probably asking questions. Which he had been tryin’ to avoid honestly! What were they thinking?

What was  Johan  thinking? Everyone else probably would come looking for him in the TV world, and it’d be embarrassing to admit he probably slept walk in there. But Johan didn’t know about the TV world! He didn’t know anything! And he was probably going to be worried sick about him.

“No, Judai.” He scolded himself. “Everyone will cover for you and you’ll be nice and ready to go before anyone  really  asks questions.” He mulls on this idea for a moment before grinning. “Yeah. No one else will even notice.” 

Somehow that wasn’t as comforting as he had been hoping.

Moving on.

He hadn’t seen anyone since he had fled the study, and he didn’t know if he should be grateful or on guard. Well, of course he should be on guard, but like, should he be extra on guard or not. The room he had fled into was a bedroom he was pretty sure, with a comfortable but plain bed. Maybe it was meant for castle staff. There, Judai had been given a chance to catch his breath and prepare himself. He had managed to find a bag in the room’s closet, and shoved the photo album he had taken into it. Something about it… It just screamed important information here. 

And he needed whatever important information he could get. 

There hadn’t been anything else of interest to him. It was a little sad, actually. He would have loved to learn more about whoever lived here.  You can explore more when you come back with your friends.  Judai reminds himself. 

‘Sides. Whoever came in probably had an idea of where he was and he probably needed to get moving now. Tangling with too many shadows would just be  dumb.  And Judai was dumb but he was not  that  dumb.

Unfortunately, it hadn’t improved in the hours since he had left the room either. And in that time, he’s only found himself lost among a maze of torch lit corridors, with the same metal decorations that all just looked the same as before. 

There wasn’t even another window facing the outside, and so he couldn’t even pretend to know what time it was.

And considering how much his mind is starting to wander, he’s probably going to need to find somewhere safe to rest. Which is all well and good, but uh if he sat down again he probably was going to fall asleep. Which was dumb. Even if the place was eerily devoid of shadows.

It should probably worry him more than it is, if he were being honest. But he hadn’t had to try and fight anything since he arrived. And the idea of doing that was giving him the kind of unfortunate buzz that told him that would be a bad idea actually. And he didn’t get that feeling very often so if he was feeling it now, it must be important. Surprisingly, he still didn’t have any desire to get his ass kicked with no escape in sight. 

It’s only then that he starts to hear voices from around the corner, and Judai ducks around a corner and hopes that maybe cartoon logic will actually work here. No one will look his way and he’ll have an opportunity to keep looking for some kind of route out of here! 

“Did you hear? The commander got into a fight with a group of interlopers.”  This voice spoke with a soft whistle. 

“Oh?”  This one sounded warm and nice..  “All by himself? He won, right?”

“Of course he did! That’s why he works with the king!” 

Who was this commander guy? And who were these ‘interlopers’ that they were talking about? Was it Judai’s friends? Did they get beaten up by this commander guy?

That’d be really bad. They would be okay right? 

Right?

Judai hit himself in the cheek. “Quit worrying about that, Judai..” He scolded himself. He could worry about his friends later. They were taking care of themselves just fine.

“Luft, What was that?”  Oh. They weren’t as far as he thought. Uh!

“I think I heard the voice from over here! Come on!”  Oh, brother. He turned and bolted down the hallway, and threw open a random door and slipped inside. Without looking back, he ran further into the room, hoping to lose whoever it was that had unfortunately noticed him.

Where was he anyway?

… He quickly realized  that he had found his way into a room with towering bookshelves, lined with even more books, with books titled things like the  Tales of the Shadow Riders  and  The Legend of the Society.  Ones that, if Judai didn’t know any better, could have totally been about his first few years at the academy.

Which made sense. Whoever this was was probably also at his school. Maybe it was Professor Chronos. Ha, that’d be weird!

Man, he wanted out of here.  But if people were looking for him outside the library, then he probably shouldn’t go back out the way he came in. But wandering among the shelves wasn’t getting him to another door.

It did find him a little nook with a very soft chair, and a book. Except as he picked it up, he realized quickly that it wasn’t a regular book. It was a comic book, with an art style that looked like the ones he used to read all the time as a kid. 

And if he didn’t know any better, he’d say the protagonist looked a lot like he did. He always wondered what he’d look like in a comic book style, but he never expected to find out like this. 

He looked between the direction he came, and the chair, and hesitantly  he sat down on the arm chair. Which was perfectly comfortable, like it was customized just for him. Weird, but he wasn’t going to complain. He desperately needed something comfortable. He should keep trying to escape. But… But he wanted to read this comic. And could anyone blame him? It’s not everyday you see something like this! Plus this totally had to tell him more about who this castle belonged to.

It’s  research! 

He’s always getting told to do more of that anyway! He looks from side to side, making sure that he wasn’t getting snuck up on one more time, before turning his attention to the comic.

It wasn’t a hard read, or at least, the first few pages weren’t. His look alike in the book was a Prince. And he seemed like the fun kind of prince too. The kind that snuck off into the outside, looking for adventure. And maybe fantasy settings weren’t  usually  Judai’s thing, but something about this felt so… nostalgic, he didn’t really want to stop reading.

Quickly, though, his attention had gone from Prince Look alike to the child that accompanied him. The prince’s servant. They looked happy. They looked really happy, actually. And reading about their adventures, finding fruit out in an orchard and trying to sit through lessons and … just everything. It was really, really… mundane? And yet it made Judai’s heart ache for something he couldn’t explain. Kind of like the photo album had. Just like it had, actually.

He snapped the book shut halfway through. He wasn’t sure he could keep reading this right now. It was making him emotional and it probably wasn’t safe to get emotional while he was still stuck in the TV World!

… He was finding it harder to entertain the idea of getting off the couch than he thought though. Like Judai still needed to process what exactly he was looking at here. “Come on Judai, you can be all sappy back in the real world.” He even resorted to slapping himself a few times, trying to get his head back in the game after that. He refused to be defeated by a dang comic like that!

And still he didn’t get up. He had been on the go all night. Was it still even night? He hadn’t even seen a window since he escaped from that study room. He didn’t know if it was still dark outside or nah. Which was actually really unnerving now that he started thinking about it, and he didn’t think he could actually stop. 

Man he really didn’t like being trapped in the TV world by himself. It left him a little bit too much time to think, and he was beginning to learn he didn’t actually like thinking that much. Plus he didn’t even have his deck, so he couldn’t even talk to Winged Kuriboh to fill the silence. Which was too bad.

He hadn’t been without Winged Kuriboh since he had started at Duel Academy. He didn't like exploring without him thing. Judai furrows his brows, and eventually decides hesitantly. “I can... take a breath here, right? I’ll be fine.” 

He didn’t exactly feel like he would be fine. This was a whole dang palace!! But he didn’t want to have to worry about what was around the next corner for just a moment. Even he had a limit it seems! And he had reached his, just a little bit.

He missed his bed. He was tired, emotionally and physically. Which is dumb, he’s barely done anything but walk around, and usually he’s all for that. It usually even makes his friends complain about it even. That he had way too much energy. 

Judai scolded himself again, though he was getting the impression that maaaaybe it wasn’t going to work this time, as he leaned over to put the comic into the bag he had found. With a groan, he pulled himself back to his feet. He didn’t want to get up. He didn’t want to leave this comfy little corner but he had to get back to his friends.

What was it he had heard those servants saying? That this commander guy had run into someone and fought them off? If those really were his friends they were definitely potentially in danger and Judai wasn’t okay with just waiting around to see what would happen if they had to come looking for him again. He doesn’t know what he’d do with himself if they got seriously hurt because he couldn’t get up and get himself out of here.

Judai didn’t want people  to worry about him for something he should have been able to take care of himself.

Besides, it wasn’t safe to just sit down and rest in a place like this. Even though this felt a little like a safe room.But he’ll just have to tell his friends when he gets out of here and he can finally recuperate!

He forces himself to start walking before he keeps getting lost in his thoughts like this, in this stupid... ah, what’s the word? Spiral? Spiraling was a term right? And it was definitely something he didn’t want to be doing out in public where any shadow could walk in and have him attacked.

Ick.

He drags himself back to the front of the library, and he really wants nothing more than to turn back. But he opens the door and peeks out anyway, looking from side to side to side, making sure he wasn’t going to have any unwanted visitors. That’d be super unfortunate. 

He slips out of the library, seeing no one, and as soon as he gets to the end of the hallway, he crashes straight into someone coming around the corner, and it looks like he failed step one  immediately.  “Oh, hi there! Didn’t see you!” Judai said brightly. Something something... Look like he belongs there, right? And no one would question anything. He doesn’t remember where he heard that but it totally has to apply now.

Or he’s in trouble, probably.

“Just be more careful, okay?”The person he crashed into shook their head to regain their senses, and Judai took a second and got a good look at them.

... He looked suspiciously like Johan, but what would Johan be- wait a minute!

“Are you the ruler?”  He blurted, his mouth running before he thought about it. Johan didn’t look like the type for a gothic castle but-

Thinking about words had never exactly been his strong suit, and it didn’t look like that was about to start changing now. 

“Hoh?” The man, Johan, blinked, before laughing. “Well, you could say that~! But you should know that, my King.” 

Judai blinked, pointing at himself. “Me? King?” He had kind of assumed Johan was gonna be king when he saw him here. Why would Johan be calling  him  King?

“Well, of course, my King! I have to admit, you look quite strange with brown eyes.”

“I look strange with brown eyes?” Judai didn’t know how to respond to that. “I- I’ve always had brown eyes, Johan.”

“Well, not here.” Johan shrugged. “You look lovely regardless~”

Judai felt his cheeks redden. No, he doesn’t really understand why Johan’s shadow would be calling him cute like that. Unless Johan thought that. But Johan didn’t think he was cute, did he?

... Man, he was tired if he was lettin’ this throw him off so badly. He really needed to get out of here. “Thanks, Johan! Really. I’d love to stay and chat, you know, but I got places to be so see ya!” He was pretty sure he probably shouldn’t stand around and wonder all about what Johan’s shadow said. 

Wait a minute- If... if Johan was the ruler, did that mean that Johan was here? Judai couldn’t just  leave  him! He stops walking, and lets himself think about it. If Johan is alone and scared in this place too, could Judai just- Just leave him?

No, he couldn’t.

He looks to the side, totally ready to ask Winged Kuriboh what he thought about it all. Surely his winged buddy would agree that they have to try-

Oh right. He was alone himself. And all things considered, the other Johan was probably the first friendly face he had actually seen since arriving here in this stupid place. “Hey, uh, Johan. Can I ask you something real quick?” 

Johan tilted his head, curious. “Yes, my king~?”

“Could you ... remind me where we’d keep prisoners?” This was no time to be concerned if his acting was any good. This was the first sense of direction he’s had since he woke up in this place!

Johan seemed to find this entertaining at least, laughing as he pat Judai on the back. “I can escort you down there, if you wish my King~!” 

Something in the back of Judai’s head was telling him that this was a very bad idea. That risking wandering around with a shadow was asking to get hurt. But it was Johan. Johan would never hurt him, and he was pretty sure of that, even if he was a shadow. Plus once they found the  actual  Johan, Johan would accept himself and he’d get a persona. And then they could get the hell out of here, and there’d be no trouble at all. “Yeah, that’d be great actually, Johan!”

“Your word is my command, my King~”

It never occurred to Judai for one moment that he may be expecting too much of Johan. 

“Lead the way!” He’s tired, and maybe if he’s walking with Johan, he’ll avoid getting hassled by anyone else on the staff. Really, this plan was fool proof! 

“What were you doing wandering about, my King?” Johan asked, as they made their way through the halls. Compared to Judai’s aimless wandering, Johan’s step had much more of a purpose, and they were actually getting somewhere. Which was really nice.

“Ah, I was just, you know, taking a walk.” It only occurred to Judai too late that he didn’t actually know what a King was supposed to do all day, but fake it til you make it right? And Judai would just have to be very very good at faking it for a little bit.

“Hm.” Johan’s eyes sparkled slightly. 
... It was so strange, not seeing them be green. “Of course, my King. I should not question you.” Johan didn’t look remotely bothered as he said that, as if it were the most normal of things.

Judai didn’t think he’d get used to it though, and honestly, after saving Johan, there’d be no reason to, so... He’d just have to deal, right? Yeah, it was fine. 

But if Johan thought he was his king, then he hoped he didn’t have to do any weird acting, because he didn’t know if the whole king act was really his style. Couldn’t imagine himself wearing a suit or a crown.

(Nope, nope, nope, he wasn’t going to be thinking about the comic. That was the last thing he wanted to be thinking about right now. He could process that later!)

“My King, my I ask why you need to go down to the dungeons though?” Johan asked, barely looking where he was walking. “It’s not very interesting. Even the Queen’s garden would have been far nicer for just a walk. Forgive my question.” Johan realized he had just gone back on his own word a little too late, but it’s not like it really bothered Judai. Maybe it bothered the king.

Not that Judai cared if the King was bothered or not. 

“You know, just visiting for reasons. Making sure everything is okay. And stuff.” So maybe he shoulda come up with a proper explanation for Johan when he asked, but everything would be fine if he just played it off, he was pretty sure... Okay, so he didn’t know if that was going to be how it actually worked, but this at least pointed him in the right direction. 

“Of course, my King. It only makes sense you would want to secure it yourself.” Oh, did he actually buy that? Awesome! That was one less thing Judai had to worry about then. 

“Yeah, you know. All the better for keeping everyone safe, right?” Judai says, and he laughs a little, and just saying that felt weird. A little like dismissing his friends. But it’s okay, he didn’t have to worry about that, if he could just get out of this without a fight. 

“That’s right! My King cannot be beat.” He seemed to genuinely believe it too. 

Finally they arrived at a set of stairs descending into the depths of the castle, and from the top of the stairs nothing on the bottom could be seen. A staircase leading straight to hell. Just saying that felt like he was making a dumb, morbid comparison. But how scary could a dungeon be?  The stairs looked safe, everything looked clean, and it was only a matter of time before he found Johan and got this whole thing under actual control. And then they could... dunno, it was midterms right? That was what everyone kept talking about. 

Not like Judai ever bothered to study.

“Here we are, my king~!” Johan bowed slightly, gesturing with his arm towards the stairs. “Right this way!”

“Ah, thanks, Johan.” Judai could smile for him, even if he was tired of being on his feet all day, tired of everything he had been forced to think about and was resolutely ignoring. 

“Do you want me to wait up here for you, my King? I would be happy to continue walking with you!”

“Err...” Yeah, no if Johan was down there, then he’d need to have Shadow Johan there too. “Actually, come with me?” He said hopefully. The less likely they were to fight, the better he was pretty sure. 

Johan looked surprised, but then he grinned, big and wide. “I’d be happy to accompany you down there.” he doesn’t seem suspicious at all, which is good. Probably. He didn’t seem to have an issue with going down to see his normal self. Which made sense, he was pretty sure.  It wasn’t actually time for the shadows to get all aggressive, right?

Yeah.

The two of them made their way down into the dungeon, and once at the bottom, Judai found that... it was dim, and dark, and... frankly, a little boring. He expected more dramatics for a castle dungeon. You know, something a lot scarier than plain jail cells and solid stone walls.

“Well, here we are, my King!” Johan gestures dramatically again. “I don’t believe anyone is supposed to be down here right now, though.” 

Judai ignores the shadow now, starting down the hallway and looking around hoping that he’d catch sight of Johan just that much faster. Surely, he was going to be somewhere around here and this could all be done with.

...

So not only was the whole dungeon a lot shorter than he expected, there was no one down here. It was  eerily  quiet, and maybe Johan just didn’t have any enemies, or they were already dealt with. But the one at the very end of the hall was open, and maybe just maybe that was who Judai was looking for.

Quiet footsteps approached Judai from behind. Johan must have come over here to join him. Judai turns to ask him a question, and he only got a moment to see the apologetic look on Johan’s face, before he was shoved through the open door.

He isn’t given the moment to orient himself before it's slammed and locked behind him. “Wuh-” 

“Sorry, my King. My Queen asked me to make sure you could not roam free.” The look of sorry seemed real at least. But still, that didn’t change the fact he was locked up now! 

Judai had the intense feeling that he should know who this Queen that he kept mentioning was. But it continued to evade him, hanging just on the edge of his tongue like an answer to the worst kind of quiz. Gross. 

“How long am I gonna be locked up then?”

Johan shrugged. “I know my King and Queen have a plan, but that’s all I really know. But I wouldn’t worry about it, my Other King.” He had changed Judai’s title. Just a little bit. 

“Other King?” He asked quickly.

“Well, it’d be kind of hard to tell who’s who if I just called you both my King in the same sentence right? That’d be silly.”

“Y-Yeah.” How the hell was there another him? He couldn't have a shadow, he thought. Unless it was a really really weird creation of Johan’s, in which case he probably had a lot to learn about his best friend going forward. 

“My King and Queen are calling me.” Johan sighed. “I’ll go to see them now. You just sit tight, okay Other King. I promise you’ll be well cared for~!” 

Somehow that sounded really ominous. Or maybe Judai was just in too much a state of shock. He had gotten lost in his idea of what was happening and had his ass kicked for it. Frankly, he probably deserved it. He was the idiot. And now people were going to get hurt looking for him still. 

And even though he knew that logically he should be trying to summon his persona and blast his way out he... he never realized how important actually having his deck with him was. He never went anywhere without it! 

... He really was alone in a stupid cell because he was stupid and let himself get caught and now people were definitely going to be in danger having to come in here and look for him. Damn it.

And now all he had was the bag he had been dragging with him for later viewing. Though guess later was going to be now.

Unless  this  room was going to be the one with the secret passage! Maybe he would be that lucky! Wait, but then the open cell door was totally a trap, and that meant there probably wasn’t. But he couldn’t give up, could he? He had to be the optimistic one and figure a way out of here.

Johan didn’t like leaving any version of his king down in the dungeons, but it was what he was told to do. Still, he casts a look over his shoulder as he makes his way back up the stairs. He wanted to find his true king, and let him know what had happened.

And the throne room would be the easiest place to find him, would it not be? Thankfully his king was never hard to find, for him, despite sometimes being a little... directionally challenged. And soon he had arrived at the doors leading into the king’s throne room. And there he was. Standing off to the side, gazing out the window.

“My king~!” Johan called for him. “I have something to report.”

“Oh. Pet. What is it? Have you located our intruder?”

“Heh, that I did my King. He has been locked up in the dungeons.”

His king’s face crinkled up just a little bit, showing his displeasure. Which was odd, did his King not get what he want-

“I believe I wanted to be the one to capture him. I told you this, Pet.”

Johan bowed his head. “I apologize, my King. The opportunity was just too good to pass up. And this way, he will not be a threat to you.”

“He will not be a threat... but I have been deprived of the chase.” Haou seemed disappointed about that even. Perhaps he really had just wanted to prove his strength versus his counterpart that badly.

Johan was sorry to have taken that away from him, but... “He’s still yours to defeat in the end! And you know you’ll win that fight, my King~!”

His king blinked slowly, turning to face the outside window. “Your confidence will not be misplaced, Pet.”

Johan believed with every fiber of his being that his King spoke the truth.

Chapter Text

Nobody had really wanted to retreat, and yet here they were, stumbling back out of the TV. Beaten, exhausted, and frankly with very little to show for it. They barely made it to the castle gates, let alone get anything useful in actually locating Judai. Frankly the performance was almost pathetic.

Breathing heavily, Asuka turned immediately to Manjoume. “And what did we learn today?” She asked, giving him a pointed stare, as everyone moved to take a seat somewhere in the room, with Pharaoh jumping up by Asuka and flopping straight over next to her.

“That Andersen might be a little more trouble than I expected.” He answered, rolling his eyes. That was... not quite the answer that she was looking for, but she’d take it for now. Anything even close to Manjoume admitting that he shouldn’t have attacked right away was enough for her.

“We’re going to need a plan to not get wiped out by that spell of his right away.” O’brien pointed out, serious as usual. “That spell... It looked to be a very powerful light spell.” His observation skills were useful, at least.

“So he’s probably weak to dark! ... But Aniki was the best at that kind of magic.” Shou got excited for one brief moment before the reality of the situation hit him once again. That wasn’t exactly an option. “And my brother’s not going to help either...”

Asuka didn’t want to think about the Kaiser right now. 

“We’re simply going to have to make do without Judai. We may just have to be prepared for a difficult fight.” She didn’t like having to say it. ...

Wait, there was a very obvious solution that they were overlooking, wasn’t there. “... Or..  If he’s a proper shadow, the easiest way might be to have Johan actually talk to him.”  She didn’t like suggesting taking anyone unnecessarily into the TV world. It wasn’t usually a recipe for good things. 

“That’s a risky proposal. But I’d imagine we ain’t keepin’ him out if we take too long to find Judai anyway.” Jim said. Asuka had no doubt about that. “Besides, Johan's a reasonable guy.”

“Luckyyyy. He’s going to get a nicer introduction than most of us got.” Shou grumbled. He didn’t seem too mad about it. At least, Asuka hoped not. Shou wasn’t often the spiteful kind.

“My concern is that we’ve all proved we were reasonable up until we had to face ourselves.” O’brien said, closing his eyes. “Unless I’ve misunderstood something important here?”

“Not me. Anyone saying otherwise is lies and slander.”

“Yeah, we all know you’re the one lying, Manjoume....”

“Shut up shrimp!” Manjoume stood up from his chair, slamming his hands on the table. 

“Focus!” Asuka raised her voice, staring both the boys down. And to their credit, neither of them seemed willing to test her right now, and did as asked, settling back into their seats, though they were still throwing each other looks across the table. 

Boys. 

“You aren’t missing anything important.” She turned to address O’brien’s question. “If we can’t find a better way around Johan’s shadow, we’ll have no choice but to hope that giving him advance warning will be enough.”

It was a risky play, but hopefully it’d be the only major risk they needed to take. “Maybe Kenzan will finally be out of detention.” Shou wondered. 

“Regardless of that, Johan’s help will mean we’ll be up one person no matter what.” Jim reminded. With how scattered they had been this mission, any plus was going to be extremely nice.

“Someone will have to talk to Johan tomorrow. Someone who will explain it to him well.” O’brien said. 

“I’ll handle that.” Asuka said. “I did... kind of lie to him earlier in class. I may as well apologize for that at the same time.”

“Mind if I join ya, Tomorrow Girl?” Jim asked. 

Blink. “Oh, of course Jim. That’d be really nice actually.” And there he was again, coming to her assistance. She hoped she wouldn’t get used to that.

Manjoume abruptly stood up. “Unless you all have anything else interesting to say, I’m going to get dinner. Manjoume Thunder needs his beauty sleep.” He goes to leave, but anyone paying attention could see that he waited just enough for someone to stop him. And only left once no one did.

Asuka had just gotten used to his antics. Some things, blessedly, never changed. “Well, I guess he has the right idea. The rest of us should rest up for tomorrow. We have a while before the next wave of fog, but I don’t think anyone wants to chance it.”

The group broke apart for the night amid the chorus of agreements. Asuka braced herself for another night of restlessness. The truth was she didn’t think any of them were going to be getting any of that. It had been a really rough end to what had been a really hopeful day.

“Oy, Tomorrow Girl. Would you like some company?”

Would she…? 

“Actually, that would be wonderful, Jim.” 

And it was. Maybe she would get some relaxation in after all. 

The two of them spent the next few hours down by the beach, with the humans hanging out on the pier, while Karen got to lumber around in the sand for a bit. Asuka and Jim were…. Well, not trying to forget the day, but just decompressing. And for the most part, the attempts were working! Jim had a lot to talk about, between his work on fossil digs and his life down at South Academy.

All the while, Asuka was able to keep an half an eye on the activities of the rest of her friends with her PDA open on the railing. Most of it confirmed what she already knew, that certain friends did in fact relax by arguing with each other, which she didn’t fully understand but if it worked for them she wasn’t going to stop it as long as she wasn’t required to get involved with it. It was as good as she could have hoped, all things considered. 

Until she got a private message from Shou. With a sigh she raised her hand. “Sorry, Jim. I should see what Shou needs.”

“Of course, of course. Take your time.” He nodded, casually leaning on the railing. And he didn’t even try to lean over to see her screen. How nice. 

[BigBoyRoid] so i might have run into johan and he was asking about aniki

[CyberAngel] and so how did that go?

[BigBoyRoid] i might hav etold him to go talk to you. I dont know if i could explain this to him well

[CyberAngel] Right. Thanks for warning me, Shou.

Asuka put her PDA back on the railing and sighed. “It looks like we might be seeing Johan a little earlier than we expected.”

“I guess he didn’t wait to see if Judai was goin’ to come up to class tomorrow.”

“He seemed worried, like he knew something was going on.” And… considering that they saw his shadow there as well, it… made sense that anything his shadow knew affected him subconsciously. Which was both useful and a little infuriating, but she would deal with it. It could be far worse, really. It also meant he would probably hear them out.

“Makes sense, has he messaged you yet?” Jim asked. 

“Not yet, but it’s only a matter of-” As if to prove her point, her PDA buzzed. “-time.  Right as we were talking about it.”

[RainbowBridge] Hey, Asuka. Do you have a minute to talk? It’s important. 

[CyberAngel] Yeah. I’m down by the lighthouse. Come meet me.

[RainbowBridge]  I’ll be right down! Sorry for botherin ya

“Look alive I guess.” 

Jim chuckled at the choice of words. By now they did have some time to actually feel alive after an afternoon of getting roughed up.

“Hey, guys!” Johan must have been waiting for some kind of confirmation, because he didn’t take long to get down to the pier at all, looking even more worried than he had this morning. 

“G'evening, mate.” Jim tipped his hat slightly at Johan as he approached. 

“Evening, Johan.”  Asuka wasn’t exactly thrilled to see him yet, but it was going to have to happen, and maybe she’d really be able to relax instead of dread the next day. “You wanted to talk about Judai right?”

“How did you-” He blinked, thinking over his words. “Ah, you musta spoken to Shou before I got here.”

“He may have given us a heads up.” Jim nodded. 

“Right! So… I went down to the Slifer dorm to check on him. I mean, I don’t distrust you guys, but you know it’s not like him to just not not reply at all. I was a little bit worried.”

Well, it was a little more normal for him to forget to respond to his PDA when it didn’t involve TV World shenanigans. Unless it involved Johan, it seemed. 

“Can’t blame ya for that, mate.” Jim nodded. 

“So… I was going to check with the nurse, but I ran into Shou and asked him about it. He panicked a bit and said that Judai was missing. And that I should talk to you about it.” He stared off into the ocean for a second. “Poor lil guy. I didn’t mean to upset him.” Johan frowned.

“You just caught him off guard. He won’t hold it against you.” Asuka assured him. “But… Yes, there’s a lot more to where Judai is than we really wanted to tell anyone. It’s… a bit of a long story. Do you want to hear it now?”

“Well, I did come out all this way already, I don’t think I want to go to bed until I have some answers.” Johan nodded, looking away from the ocean to look at Jim and Asuka.

Deep breath, Asuka. It’s not the first time you’ve had to give this talk to someone… Just… the first one in a long time that wasn’t after that person had been to the TV world for the first time. 

“Just know that you have to believe me, alright? It sounds rather fantastical the first time you hear it.” She admitted. “I don’t think I would have believed it if I didn’t live through it myself. But both Jim and myself can confirm it.” Jim nodded to back up her point.

Johan laughed, slightly.  “Honestly, I think I’d believe anything could happen. This sounds like a pretty fantastical school!” 

That felt like an understatement. What was the line between fantastical and just plain scary?

“Well, I guess the best place to start is with the TV World. It’s… a world adjacent to ours, I guess.”

“Like the spirit world?” Johan asked. Right, he was familiar with that already, just like Judai and Manjoume were. 

“Well, a little like that actually, yes. People who go into it usually have to face what’s called a shadow of themselves.”

“It’s the part of you you don’t want to accept.” Jim added. “And this shadow can create a whole… dungeon-like palace based around it.”

Johan seemed confused, but nodded anyway. He said he was willing to believe a lot of things here, and he was planning to stay true to his word on that.  

“People who can accept themselves get what’s called a persona.” At this, she smiles fondly. “It usually becomes a card in our deck. A little like a prize for coming that far.”

“A card in our deck? What’d you guys get? Or is asking like, really personal.” He stumbled for a moment, before straightening out. 

Asuka reached for her deck and pulled out a card. A ritual monster, Cyber Angel Dakini.  “This one is mine.”

And likewise, Jim pulled out a Fossil Warrior Skull King. “And this here is mine. I’m glad to have him.” 

Johan looked them both over with a visible sparkle in his eye. “A card that represents your soul?” He seemed to find wonder in that. 

… At the beginning of the year, hadn’t Johan said he was looking for a missing piece of his deck? Maybe he was thinking about that card, Rainbow Dragon. 

“That’s right.”

He thought about it, before shaking his head. “Right, right, that’s cool n all, but what’s that got to do with Judai?” Johan said, trying to get them all back on topic. 

“Well, that’s the hard part. Most people don’t usually go into the TV world of their own volition.” Asuka still twitched whenever she had to think about that. That it had happened to her brother years before she even stepped foot on Duel Academy Island, and for everyone it had happened to before that. “Usually it’s someone else trying to use its strange properties for their own gain.”

“Myself nor O’brien did so willingly. We had to be rescued by the others from around here.” Jim nodded. And he seemed to have left out O’brien’s role in his kidnapping which, for the moment, was probably better. 

“So someone kidnapped Judai?!” Johan sat up straighter, his attention fully on his friends now. This was important. 

“Basically, yes.” Asuka said. “And… we were going to have to talk to you anyways.” She admitted, unhappily. 

“Turns out, you two are close even on the flip side.” Jim said, trying to make light of the situation. “Your shadow seems to be workin’ closely with his.”

“That in itself is a little unusual. You don’t usually see someone’s shadow before they’ve even gone to the TV World.” Asuka said. “... But you usually can’t have a shadow if you’re a persona user either. So everything has been thrown off anyway..”

Johan stayed quiet, but then he furrowed his brows slightly. “I want to help.”

They didn’t even need to try and convince him. 

“It will be dangerous.” Asuka warned. Of course, she wanted his help, they all did. It’d be the easiest way around someone who would have been an extremely tough opponent otherwise. But she wasn’t going to let Johan walk into that hellish place without being fully prepared either. That wouldn’t be fair to him. 

“I don’t care.” Johan said simply. “If Judai’s in danger, I want to help save him. I’d do anything for that.” And anyone with half a brain could hear the passion in those words. There was no questioning it. 

Asuka could feel a weight lifted from her chest. “Thanks, Johan. You’re a real pal.”

He nodded again. “So how exactly is this gonna work?” 

“Well, here’s the plan for tomorrow….”

[CyberAngel] Johan’s agreed to help us. 

[Thunder] that’s earlier than expected

[DoomFire] That is good news. Glad to see he was reasonable

[BigBoyRoid] i am so glad i didnt mess it up somehow.

[Thunder] Did anyone actually expect Andersen to say no

[Thunder] have any of you ever listened to those two talk?

[Thunder] Barf worthy.

Asuka chose not to respond as it devolved into bickering pretty quickly. But it was just another thing to make this night a little better

Another day at school without Judai left everyone with buzzing nerves. Asuka was pretty sure it wasn’t just her, at least.  She could see Johan keep looking around from his place down by where Judai’s seat should be, Shou had his nose in a book desperately trying to focus on classes (and probably failing too), Jim seemed more worried about Karen than the events of the class, and if the fact that Asuka herself was stuck on analyzing her friends, it should be clear where her mind had gone for the day. 

Hopefully, today would be the day they made some real actual progress towards saving their friend.  And that he hadn’t found a way to get himself hurt before then. Judai should have been the most experienced person on their team, but even now his ability to not run straight into danger was… annoyingly frayed.

She trusted his ability to survive. She just also trusted that his own mind was his enemy here and experience tended to be... less than helpful there.

This whole thing is very close to actually running into Exams proper, and this was going to take all of them down if they didn’t win.

Thankfully, blessedly, the school day finally ended and they once again met up in the private room. 

“Why’s Pharaoh here?” Johan asked. “This doesn’t sound safe for a cat.”

“He’s helping us find Judai in the TV world.” Asuka said.

“Winged Kuriboh could probably do it too, but it’s better than the cat running off and getting himself lost in the TV world. Do you know how much of a pain it would be to go chase him down?” Manjoume asked.

Johan chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I guess that’d be the case.”

“I’m assuming Asuka and Jim already filled you in on the risks? This is your last chance to back out if you have any hesitation.” O’brien stated, staring Johan down. “Your Shadow  will  go after anything you consider a weakness. Are you prepared for that?”

“Yes.” Johan seemed as serious as he was last night about that, even with the time he was given to think it over. “I’m willing to do anything to save Judai if he’s in danger.” Talk about conviction. 

“It’s just like I said last night.” Manjoume rolled his eyes. “Barf worthy.”

Johan tilted his head. “And what do you mean by that?”

“You heard me.”

“Boys.” Asuka scolded. Johan held his hands up in surrender. He’s not sure what Manjoume’s deal is, and honestly he has more important things to worry about. “Now, let’s just go through the TV and we’ll meet on the other side, alright?

She got a chorus of agreement, and the same song and dance from yesterday repeated as everyone made their way into the TV. Johan hung back until Asuka was about to go through, before taking a deep breath and climbing through.

“That... I don’t know how to describe how that felt.” Johan mumbled on the other side. 

“Welcome to the TV World, Mate.” Jim tipped his hat slightly. 

“Make sure to stick closely to one of us.” O’brien reminded. “Once we leave, it won’t be safe out there.”  

“Most of us had to learn that the hard way,” Shou stated. “Uh, I think it goes without saying that you really don’t want to do it like that.” He shivered slightly. Unfortunate memories.

Pharaoh meowed loudly to draw their attention to him, announcing to the humans that it was time to get a move on and find his owner now. “Yeah, Yeah Pharaoh. We’re coming.” Manjoume rolled his eyes. 

And once again the hike was on. At least they had a general direction now, if still not quite a proper plan. And though it was a long walk, Asuka was thankful that Johan didn’t even think to complain, every bit living up to his word that he’d do anything to be of help for this. 

“Why does it look like this here?” He asked, part way there. Asuka wished she could have given him a better answer than a helpless shrug. 

“That’s the problem, none of us knew.” They hadn’t been paying enough attention. 

Maybe Judai just didn’t want them to know. Which was an.. Uncomfortable thought. Why wouldn’t he feel comfortable just telling them he was feeling… some kind of way. 

Maybe with Johan’s help they’d actually get inside today and answer what that way was. Because if it was anything serious that just told her Judai was a better actor than any of them expected.

Unsettling.

Johan looked unhappy with that answer. And Asuka couldn’t blame him for it. 

“Well, we’ll know when we find his shadow.” Manjoume repeated, trying to help despite his harsh attitude. “And if he doesn’t, I’ll kick his ass myself.”

“Get in line. Aniki should have told someone…” Shou said. No, no one really thought he had it in him to hurt Judai, but the sentiment was real. 

“You can decide what order you want to smack him later. Though I think this experience is more than enough deterrent from trying to hide this again.” O’brien said. He was the most recent addition to the team, and his time here was probably nice and fresh in his mind. 

“Give the poor guy some time to recover, at least. Fighting yourself is draining.” Jim reminded. He idly reached up to scratch Karen’s neck, but was caught off guard when she suddenly growled at something. 

Up ahead, Pharaoh hissed, immediately turning tail and running as fast as his little furry legs could move to take himself behind the safety of the other humans.

“Well, guys, looks like we have some more company. Ready for a crash course in combat, Johan?” Jim asked. 

The fight was easy at least. And Johan had hid safely with Pharaoh inside a large crater, staying safely away from the battle. 

“So… I’ll be able to do that too, after this?” He asked. She wasn’t going to tell him to not find that cool. It was good that he could find something cool in this. The fights had their merits, no matter how much Asuka wished they’d be a thing mostly of the past. 

“Theoretically yes.” She nodded.
“Unless you aren’t as ready as you think. That’d be really, really bad.” Shou said. 

“I mean, I don’t know what I’m going to see, I’m a pretty open book I think.” Johan mused. “How bad can it actually be?” He  could have taken everyone else’s unwillingness to answer as a sign. Hopefully he really was as comfortable with himself as he said. 

“Johan...” Asuka shook her head. 
“You really are a discount Yuki.” Manjoume rolled his eyes.
Johan rubs the back of his head. 

“Guys, I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be waiting around for more shadows to find us.” O’brien said, crossing his arms. 

“O’brien is right. Let’s get a move on. We have a lot to do today.” Asuka pointed towards the castle in the distance. Looming, waiting for them to arrive. 

 And as they approached, Asuka began to notice small movements. The glint of a small bit of red ducking behind a particularly large rock, a blur of shiny blue in the sky. It was like they were being stalked by the Crystal Beasts.

She got the impression that Shadow Johan was preparing for their arrival. And she didn’t know totally what that meant, beyond the fact he knew Johan himself would be here. 

He shouldn’t be aggressive right away though, so they should have a moment to actually talk him down before he starts attacking. And just as the presence of his monsters heralded...

There he was, sitting up on top of the gate as before. This... This was going to be a tough one. 
“I didn’t expect you guys to come crawling back so soon~!”

What was Johan even looking at?

Up there, posing on the gate in what could only be described as leather bondage gear was definitely... Well, it was definitely him! Except with orange eyes. 

He sounded kind of like a jerk, as well. He didn’t think he would be so rude to his friends. 

“You even got the other me to come with you?” The shadow looked curious, leaning forward, though not jumping down from his perch just yet. “I guess he just really wanted to come see our King that badly!”

... Our King?

Johan looked to his friends, hoping to get some kind of explanation. But none of it was helpful, ranging from an encouraging nod from O’brien to a smile and a tip of his hat from Jim, Asuka’s more apologetic smile, Shou’s seeming embarrassment, and Manjoume’s impatient ‘get on with it’ hand motion.

Well, excuse him for not knowing what to do.

“So... I assume you’re not going to just let us by so we can see him?” Johan asked hopefully. 

His shadow tilted his head, thinking. “Nah. I get it, you want to see him. You’d do anything for him, right~? Said it yourself~?”

“Well, yes, of course. That’s why we’re here. Because we want to save him.”

Shadow Johan looked bored with that answer. “You just want to save our King?”

“Just?”

“Johan. Keep it together. He’s trying to rile you up.” O’brien warned. 

Deep breath Johan. Right, He knew that. Mostly. He was usually okay with not getting riled up, and that was a big usually. There’s just something about staring at himself that was apparently really, really infuriating. 

Guess this is why they were warning him about it.  

“You’re me. You tell me what I mean by that?” There was a hint of taunting - Okay, more than a hint.

Johan furrowed his brows. 

“You’re not being very interesting right now.” Shadow Johan complained. “Are you going to do something other than stand there soon?” And as he said that, Johan was immediately pelted by a tiny rock.

And as he turned to look at where the rock had come from, he caught sight of the same flash of red and purple. And this time, it seemed that his own partner wasn’t having it, as Ruby materialized herself into existence and immediately went after her own duplicate.

That was one problem out of the way. 

“Johan, focus on taking care of your shadow. We’ll keep his friends off your back.” Asuka nodded, and everyone else seemed like they’d be helping, so yeah.

Great. That just meant he had to deal with a bored shadow, who was staring down at him with half lidded eyes. “What do I have to do to get you to let us through?” Preferably without his friends getting severely violenced thanks.

His shadow sighed dramatically. “This again.” Shadow Johan jumped off the wall, landing in front of him. “Well, you could always just join me~!”  And suddenly his shadow was very close to him, looking him over. 

“W-what?”

"Join me! I'm not sure what you could do off the top of my head, but I'm sure our King would appreciate second Pet~!” 

Oh, why did he have to phrase it like that? Johan’s face was very, very red. (In the distance, he heard Shou ask why Shadow Johan had completely turned down the offer of Pharaoh. Willful Ignorance?)

“I don’t know what that exactly entails.” Johan paused, and then added quickly, “I don’t think I want to know either.” 

Shadow Johan pouted. “Awh, but it finally got you to do something interesting~. Doesn’t spending time with our King always sound like fun to you?”

Right, remember what everyone told you Johan, he’s trying to throw you off. That’s why he keeps saying all these.... weird things. “By our King, you mean Judai, right?”

“Yes, our King~”

“Right, well... much as being his... ‘pet’ sounds fun.” Johan wasn’t going to unpack that any more right now. He really didn’t want to, but he couldn’t avoid mentioning it. “I would rather get in there and take him home. And we can figure this out in the real world, all of this.”

“Or, we could stay here~!” Here? With the growing sounds of combat surrounding them, with a lonely, intimidating castle in front of them? “Where our King’s strength is absolute. Where we can always be at his side, be the one he relies on. Tell me that doesn’t sound like a dream~?”

Johan swallowed. “Yes. In another context. Maybe not being a, uh, pet. But I want it to be real. I want that chance away from here. Somewhere happier.”
“You’re me. I’m you. We both want to be by his side, and do whatever that takes. But ... he’s not going to be happy there. So, let us through. And when we’re out of here, I’ll make sure to finally talk to him about this all.”

Shadow Johan stepped away, but he didn’t seem angry at all. Rather.... he had a soft smile on his face. “You know? I’m almost disappointed I didn’t get a chance to fight everyone else myself. It sounded like fun.” He held his hand up. “Hey everyone, battles over! Retreat!”

So Johan’s friends, all at once found themselves without opponents, and in that moment the two Johan’s were surrounded in a soft, rainbow glow.

Asuka hadn’t been sure what to expect when Johan was left to confront his shadow; befitting of someone calling himself the commander of this army, he ... well, had an army prepared, with darker counterparts to Johan’s own crystal beasts at the ready. 

But true to his word, Johan seemed... open and willing to accept himself. And Asuka had to say she was proud of him. That it never turned into a proper fight against his shadow. Oh, fighting his little pet army was tough, but at the very least, Pegasus and Eagle found it quite hard to fly with their wings iced over, and the rest were finding the ground that much harder to navigate with the ground frozen over. 

Of course, while Asuka herself was fine, that didn’t exactly speak for everyone else in their team.

“Soldiers, Status check.” O’brien seemed to have the same idea, looking out to the group to see how everyone was holding up. 

“Easy as pie,” Manjoume snorted, tossing his nose up at the destruction wrought around them. And by the static left hanging in the air, he had definitely had a good time. 

Shou was dusting himself off, cheeks puffed out slightly in annoyance. “I’m alive, thankfully. It wasn’t even as hard as I expected.” He seemed satisfied too, under that annoyance.

“Karen and I didn’t have a lick of trouble.” Jim confirmed, crouching down to give the crocodile a friendly scritch on the head to let her know what a very good girl she is. 

“That battle wasn’t a problem for me.” Asuka voiced her own confirmation, for the benefit of everyone else. Transparency was important. 

The real question, of course, was how Johan was holding up after speaking with his shadow and accepting it so easily. And he hadn’t spoken yet, staring down at the card his shadow had gifted him in quiet.

“Johan-” Asuka went to speak to him, worried, when a smile began to crack out over his face. 

“It’s about time I got this. I thought I might get this but I didn’t expect-”

“Show us the card.” Manjoume interrupted, before Johan could get into the theatrics of the moment. 

Johan turned the card in his hand so everyone else could see it. A beautiful, newly minted Rainbow Dragon. The card that Johan had been looking for to complete his family since he had first received the Crystal Beast deck.

Of course, his card completed him in a way. 

“Glad it worked out for ya, mate.” Jim smiled. “You gonna feel good to keep goin’ on today?”

Johan’s face screwed up in thought. “We have to go find Judai, right? We don’t have time for me to go back and rest. I think I can handle myself just fine.” He paused, letting himself think about that for a moment, as Pharaoh finally decided it was safe enough to venture out from wherever he had been hiding from the fight. “Yeah. I can handle this.”

Chapter Text

It turns out that after kicking and pushing at every little bit of the wall, searching for the hidden passageways that just  had  to be there, they just… weren’t. The walls were as solid as they looked, and without the help of a persona even Judai wasn’t foolish enough to think he could do something like bend mental bars.

So he sat.

You know, you never realize just how unpleasant being left to your own thoughts can actually be until you have no choice but to sit and dwell and dwell and dwell. At least Judai didn’t realize it. Or maybe he just pretended he didn’t, and tried to make sure that he was never actually left to his thoughts for too long. 

Man, he usually at least had Winged Kuriboh with him. This sucked. And worse yet, Shadow Johan couldn’t even be bothered to come visit his prisoner. Guess this... other king said no. Judai felt he should know what that meant, but maybe he just didn’t want to admit it.

Judai hadn’t wanted to touch the books he had grabbed earlier at first. They were... dubious? Was dubious the right word? No... They were just unsettling. He didn’t like them, they were unsettling and they made his chest twinge in ways he didn’t like. 

And he couldn’t figure out why, because none of it was familiar. Was it?

... Was it?

It didn’t take long before boredom, curiosity, and a desire to be able to be anywhere but his own head even for just a little bit had Judai cracking open the comic book and the photo album from earlier. Maybe there’d be a hidden clue on how to escape. In the blurry pictures and the comic that starred him. It did make a tiny bit more sense now, with the context from Johan’s Shadow. If this... other TV World Judai was a king, then it made sense that the comic version of him was a prince.

And maybe the friend the prince had reminded him a little of Johan, but that idea didn’t feel right, like something in him was rejecting that idea with every bit of its fiber. It wasn’t Johan it was supposed to represent.

Okay, but who else did he know with that hair color? He needed to wrack his brain. Something, anything to provide some much needed answers. And the more he read, the more he was totally sure that this mysterious person was never actually named by the book, and if they weren’t named, then it meant it must be a puzzle, and it  must  be important! 

Eh, maybe he was reaching a little, but he was pretty sure he was allowed, given the circumstances. 

The comic book wasn’t any easier to read after the first time.

It’s not like he had any other choice, anyway. It was all he had to do right now. Even if the words started to blur together as they were read once again.

“I do not understand why they insist on coming after you like this.”

Judai’s head snapped up, and all of a sudden, he was looking himself in the eyes.

“H-Huh?” He had faced a lot of shadows, and he thought he was mostly used to it by now? But it turns out, staring down yourself was really as hard as everyone else made it look. Which… haha, he didn’t like it.

He didn’t  think  he saw himself as any kind of king. That was… pretty rude. It was pretty rude to his friends.

“Their attempts to invade this castle are annoying at best, and they dared to take my Pet from me. I don’t get why they think you are worth the effort.” The King stared down at him with cold, piercing gold eyes. Judai didn’t even feel like he was looking at himself. “It’d be better for them to just stand down and protect themselves from further harm.”

… What?

“You’re not making a whole lot of sense. I mean, I know I don’t usually, but-”

“We’re the same, if the rules of this world are to be believed. You should know what I mean by that.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t be arguing with you if I didn’t!”

“They’ll just get hurt. So they should stand down. I will not be holding back if they make it to me.”

“Why are you telling me this? I’m kind of, you know.” Judai waved his arm at the bars. “Not able to do anything about that. You know, you could just let me go. I’m pretty sure they’ll go ahead and let you be.” Judai didn’t know if this plea was going to land, it’d be a miracle if it did, really, but-

… Yeah. It was pure hope. It was pure hope and Haou probably wasn’t going to take it.

… Not even Judai would be stupid enough. 

“That’s between me and my Queen.” Haou said.

“... Johan mentioned them too. Who is this Queen anyway?”

“That-” The king actually seems thrown by this question. “You should know the answer to that question. Especially since you have been taking my books.”

Judai squints at the comic book. There was nothing in there that said  anything  about a Queen. 

“Well, fine. Be that way.” He huffed. “Can you tell me about the people in the book?” 

The king didn’t seem to have a response, and Judai wishes he’d just give a straight fucking answer. How hard could a name be?

The answer, apparently, was very.

“Say something. Don’t just stand there.” Judai got onto his knees and got closer to the bars, gripping them tightly. “Why did you come down here anyway?”

“...To let you know that your idiot friends are trying. I suppose.”

Judai narrowed his eyes. “Don’t call them idiots!”

Haou shrugged. “Is that not what they are? After all we’ve been through? They’re going through a difficult fight for someone who by all means should be strong enough to save himself?”

“Hmph. I suppose that makes them the strong ones. Surprising.” The king shook his head, and turned to walk away. “You’re not worth my time.”

What?
“Wait! You answered none of my questions! You get back here, and- and-” What was he going to do, behind bars with only books. What could he do to the King like this?

. The King stopped, just long enough to respond a single time. “You aren’t fighting with your all. I can see that. And so you aren’t even close getting out of there.”

Judai growled, and angrily flopped back as the King disappeared up the stairs. His own shadow was a real jerk, wasn’t he?
...  His own shadow. Meaning he  must  know about the books and he just willfully wasn’t saying anything! He knew Shadows didn’t tend to be very helpful but even this was ridiculous! Couldn’t even answer a simple question for him. Who  was  this queen?

He began to get the feeling that maybe it was a little important to freeing himself. Before his friends got hurt trying to fight the King. Because he did believe one thing in all of that. The king seemed to genuinely believe that his friends would get hurt at best if they made it this far in. 

And Judai felt it in his soul that that was right. And he didn’t want that. 

He returns to the comic book with renewed vigor. He’d solve the answer of the queen.

... He had the feeling that it had something to do with that person with him in that comic. And so Judai continues, flipping the pages slowly and looking  over every bit to do with them, trying to take it in. “You’d probably be a lot nicer to me than that King was.” The thought is mostly left to the air. Judai doesn’t expect a response, even though he’d really, really like one.

But at the thought that they’d be at his side filled him with warmth, and he doesn’t know if it’s just because he’s already kind of, you know, stuck in a  spiral, but he thinks that just maybe staring at them and trying to figure them out was easier than the part where he was having to think about himself.

Idly, he wondered if this person was the mysterious queen. They seemed to make him happy in the comic. (Him? When did he just accept that comic was supposed to be him?)

Nah, that couldn’t be the case, the king was way too grumpy for someone like that. Judai would like to think he’d smile like the comic if  that  were true. He wished that he knew their name though. It was hanging there, on the tip of his tongue like something he had said millions of times.

Just... poof. 

He tells himself worrying about this is part of escaping. It was clearly part of the mystery he was supposed to be solving. Even if he didn’t know why he was chosen for it.  

he doesn’t know how much time passes, except that it definitely is. 

And he flips through the pages. And he’s starting to think the sound of turning pages is getting as annoying as the silence. But it’s more comforting than his own thoughts, or trying to break through metal bars. Again. 

Judai left the blurry photo album propped open, though he had quit flipping through it pretty early on, when he could make out so little of it. And he was going to continue leaving it open, but his brain needed a break from words. He wasn’t that good at reading for long periods of time. 

How much of a respite could a blurry album be though?

....Quite a lot, apparently. Because maybe it was because he was really, really sick of reading words that he noticed something real interesting. That the person in the comic looked a whole lot like the blurry spirit behind him in the album. Which was... odd, to say the least, because he was pretty sure he’d remember if he had actually ever met this person. 

Or maybe he was just stuck here so long, he was looking for connections that weren’t there. How long had he been here anyway?

Man.

Why didn’t he remember these pictures anyway? There were a lot more than he had the time to see when he was flipping through it back when he was in the study. Palaces didn’t generate like, whole new memories. At least, he was pretty sure. No one else had ever said they made stuff that wasn’t kinda sorta based in reality. So....

... Did he really forget someone he probably cared about?

He officially felt like he was losing it down here. Not to mention, he was really, really tired. After all of this reading and thinking and tightness sitting in his chest, it was only really starting to catch up to him now that he had been up for a very long time at this point. 

If he was going to be stuck here like a weak damsel, with all these conflicting thoughts floating around aimlessly in his head and confusing him...

He guesses he may as well get some sleep right? He liked to sleep. Sleep was good for him. Maybe this all would make a lot more sense to him afterwards. Plus he’d need energy to be able to fight the King later. Because he hadn’t given up on the idea of just fighting his way out. 

Judai retreats to the back corner, and shoves the bag he had been dragging around into it so he could use it as a sucky makeshift pillow. It was soft enough, he thought. 

He was going to grab a very much needed nap. 

“Hey Yubel?”

“Yes, my Judai?” 

Judai had been sitting on the very edge of the dining room chair, picking at his snacks tiredly. He wasn’t really interested in them, despite the fact they were usually his very favorite. He just wasn’t hungry.

“I wish someone would come play with us.” Judai said,dejectedly. Yubel looks away, looking anywhere but at Judai right at that moment. They were thinking about something. 

“I know.” They say finally. “Just... know they have decided to miss out. But you’ll always have me, my Judai.”

Judai hummed, leaning back into where the spirit was. He believed them all the way. Because they were Yubel and he never questioned it for a minute.

“Promise me?”

“Of course my Judai. I won’t be going anywhere.”

Those words seemed to perk Judai right up, causing him to break out into a big smile. He was glad to have a very favorite card like them. 

“We’ll just have to make new friends.”

... He wasn’t going to be able to keep that promise.

Judai was pretty sure he intended to get a waaaay longer nap in, but he ended up shooting up, breathing heavily and trying to figure out what the hell the images his brain just showed him were.

Wait a minute...

He rushed to grab the photo album and flipped it open. And sure enough, there was the one he had been friends with in his dream. “So... your name is Yubel?”

He feels like just knowing a little more about them made learning about them just a little less... heavy?

Yeah.

... He had way too much time to think.

Chapter Text

Despite the fact Johan said he was ready to go, they took a moment to sit down before they dared to venture further. The last thing they needed to do was charge ahead, find they couldn’t win, and have to put off fighting for even longer. 

But after sitting for only a few minutes, it quickly became how generally antsy they were to keep going, to keep searching for their friend. And so they finally progressed for the first time past the front gates, with Pharaoh clambering up Johan’s leg as they crossed the bridge until he finally caved in and held the cat.

The difference between outside and inside was almost night and day. If the dry, destroyed wasteland of the walk up wasn’t unnerving enough, being close to the dark angry spires that shot into the sky that left the eternally streaking comet barely visible was terrifying. And they were still going to march forward into it. This had to end today. This had to end soon.

It was surprisingly silent as they walked on.

“Why is nobody talking?” Shou wondered. The vibes must be putting him off, and it was no wonder. Normally even as they marched towards their most difficult fights Judai was here, trying to keep their spirits up. And this time they had no idea what was going to be waiting for them, beyond a vague picture of a cruel ruler they viewed through the TV.

“I think we’re just taking in the sights.” Asuka said, though she didn’t seem like she totally believed her own answer. But it wasn’t a total lie. It just wasn’t positive. It was a lot cooler on this side of the fence, away from the lava moat, but that left a deathly cold in its place, from the darkness that permeated the air around here. 

As they walked, Manjoume reached into his coat, and pulled out a deck. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he’d have it. He drew a card straight off the top, and held it out to the side. “Hold on to the slacker’s card, Marufuji. Too talkative for my tastes.”  

That was sweet of him. But after all this time, Manjoume’s bursts of kindness weren’t so surprising to her anymore. He was just a lot more of a softie than he wanted everyone to know. It was his worst kept secret at this point.

Shou looked at him, and took the card. “...Thanks, Manjoume.” 

“Tch, don’t mention it.” Meaning Manjoume was going to be hearing about it for the next couple of weeks most likely. Judai was going to get a kick out of this.

Shou brushed his finger over the card, before putting it safely with the rest of his cards. 

“Did it help, mate?” Jim asked, adjusting his hat, for not the first time in the last couple of minutes. Asuka was getting to see that it was a nervous tick. 

Shou nodded. “Yeah. It feels like Aniki.” 
It was only as the silence finally began to be broken that they finally found their way to the big double doors at the end of the long wind up, and it truly was a miracle that they hadn’t been greeted by any of the castle guards heading up the way. They made it all the way to the double doors without any kind of retaliation. 

And that only meant that there had to be that very retaliation on the other side of the double doors, waiting to ambush them.

“Look alive, people.” Asuka said quietly. And thankfully, for once in their lives, her friends listened. A welcome change. They should do it more often. “O’brien, Jim, can you get the door?” 

O’brien cocked his gun, nodding. “On it.” 

Jim took the other side of the door, and the two met eyes. No words passed between them, but it didn’t seem it was necessary. At once, the two threw open the castle doors. 

They were met with nothing except a large, empty entry way. Lined with pictures, just what they remembered from the TV. These were definitely their classmates, and if Asuka was to hazard a guess based off everything else she had seen since she had arrived here, she was willing to hazard a guess these were all the students that Judai had beaten since he had arrived at Duel Academy. The same strange red X dripping down from the pictures that the TV had shown them. 

She didn’t want to think about what the X was made with too hard. Just needed to remind herself 

that nothing here was actually real, whatever it was. 

Asuka sure wasn’t planning to investigate it any further.

“Well, boys? Any idea where we need to go next?” Because by her count, there were multiple ways forward…  

“Well, uh, actually. I think accepting the other Johan might have given me some information to work with.” Johan gave an awkward grin. “Part of the reason it’s been so quiet is… uh. Well, we’re going to have to go down both of these side paths.”

“Oh great.” Manjoume rolled his eyes. Asuka couldn’t say she was excited either, but what had to be done had to be done. Judai was waiting for them. “And why exactly do we need to do that?” 

He laughed nervously, pointing towards the big doors in the back. “Well, you see that door? We’re… not going to be able to get through it without grabbing something from each end.”

“And it’s safe to assume we’re going to have to fight for the keys, right?” O’brien said, matter of factly. Johan nodded. 

“And the other Johan had his own key, so he never bothered with actually fighting them? Wow, this feels weird to say…”

“You get used to it.” Shou offered. 

Johan unsurprisingly did not look comforted. 

“Johan, do you think it’d be safe for us to break off into teams or should we approach this all as one unit?”

“... I think we should be fine in smaller groups.” He decided. “You guys seem to be pretty good at this.”

O’brien nodded. “Then gather around. We need to figure out who is going where.” 

Asuka disliked it when they decided to go their separate ways, no matter how many times it happened inside of dungeons. They had managed to avoid the worst of, you know, actually dying. But it only took one time of this being a mistake.

“Oy, Johan, what kind of spells can you cast? Seems a bit important for buildin’ our teams.” Jim asked.

Johan hummed, unsure of how he was supposed to answer this. “Uh… Bless? And I can heal, I think.” His brows furrowed a little. Which wasn’t surprising, considering he got so little time for adjustment.

“We’ll put you in the opposite team from Shou then.”

“It’d be nice to have backup for once.” Shou muttered, seemingly dejected. Asuka put her hand on his shoulder. 

“You’re really good at holding your own.” She assured. “It shouldn’t be for too long, should it, Johan?”

“No, I don’t think it’s going to take that long.” He looks from side to side. 

After some deliberation, the groups were decided.

Asuka, Jim, and Shou would go one way, and O’brien, Manjoume, and Johan would go the other, with Pharaoh refusing to join either team. (Truthfully, he probably would be safer staying by one of the stone pillars where there seemed to be no activity.). Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to see more than a simple fight or three, and then they would be free to move on.

Asuka was hoping they wouldn’t have to expend much of their energy on this.

“Right. Alright everyone, be safe out there, meet back as soon as you physically can.” Asuka understood that it was mostly fluff to say, but it made her feel better, before everyone turned to leave finally.

Her group took the left hallway, and this one led to a grandiose garden like area, somewhere that you might be comfortable bringing guests. And if Asuka were being honest, the gardens actually heavily reminded her of the school’s hotsprings of all places. It definitely had the air of somewhere that’d be comfortable to hang out if the circumstances were very different. 

“It’s hot in here…” Shou commented. “It’s not as bad as outside though.” 

Which was the hope, considering that this wasn’t quite as close to the lava river outside. It wouldn’t be the first time that these dungeons followed inconsistent rules of heat anyway. 

Jim had let Karen down as they began to walk through the much more muggy area, and she immediately lumbered over to the water, looking in. “Be careful, girl.” He called over, making sure to keep his eye on where his dear friend wandered off too. With this much water about, it’d probably be a good idea to have some kind of scout keeping track of their surroundings.

Heh. Perhaps she’d find the key in the water and this trip into this garden, or spa, or whatever it was meant to be in their friend’s head.

The truth of the solution quickly became apparent though - The room was a big circle, and as they quickly learned, there was nothing of interest anywhere above ground. “I guess whatever this is is going to have to be somewhere in the water.” Asuka noted with a sigh. 

Just as she said this, Karen resurfaced with a small roar. “In the water, really?” Either there was a fight down there… or the key was down there. “Are you boys ready for a dive?” She asked. 

Jim nodded, gesturing for Karen to come closer. “Perfectly fine with that, Tomorrow Girl. You gonna be good, Shou?” 

Shou nodded. “Y-yeah. Why does this feel familiar…?” Shou’s eyes drifted to his card case, where he held the card that Manjoume gave him earlier - and his eyes lit up. “Wait a minute. I think I have it!”

“Well, out with it.” Jim said.

“If it could help us any, Shou, that’d be great.” Asuka nodded.

“Back in first year. It wasn’t anything to do with the TV world. At least, we didn’t think it had anything to do with it. But we had gotten sucked into a spirit… whirlpool thing. Aniki ended up dueling against Kaibaman!” His eyes were wide, and a look of relief appeared on his face for the moment. 

“It must have made a mark on him somehow.” Because TV World aside, Judai always found the most interesting places to get into duels. 

“... Well, Aniki ended up losing that duel. And he had been acting off the whole day before.”

Judai? Losing a duel, TV World or otherwise? That was a rarity.

Asuka had a feeling she knew when Shou was talking about, what could have thrown Judai off so badly. And if it was back during when they were fighting the Shadow Riders, then… No wonder he would have been off his game. Especially since they would have all been  new  at this during that time.

Jim looks between the two of them silently, as if judging them. “Well, I trust that the two of you have mostly figured out what’s goin’ on here.” He looks purely to Shou now. “If you say that there’s something down there, then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll go ‘n check it out. Karen should be able to help us get down there no issue.”

Karen opened her mouth, roaring to quietly confirm this.

Shou nodded more enthusiastically now, scooting over to grasp onto Karen. Jim did the same, holding his hand out to Asuka to give her something more solid to hold onto. How kind of him.

Asuka closed her eyes as she did, counting quietly to three. “Alright boys, hold your breath.”

“Still better than the first time, honestly.” Shou said. 

“... I want to hear this story later.”

And then they dived into the water with Karen’s help, the crocodile moving through the water quickly and easily. She was in her natural habitat here, and Asuka found herself glad Jim had chosen to come with her, even if just for this.

There wasn’t much time to think as they dived, however, as they quickly found a hole at the bottom of the lake that spat them from the warm water of the springs into a strange, empty cavern, where a few friendly little spirits were milling here and there, but scattered as soon as the intruders arrived.

Okay. 

“Well, Well, Well. Do I finally have some more challengers? Good. It was getting  boring  around here.”

“And! Yeah, that’s the guy that was here before.” Shou pointed at the man who had spoken, and well… it was hard to miss the resemblance to the Kaiba Corp CEO. And from what Asuka understood of the man, having a card that resembled himself was not remotely above him.

“And Judai dueled him…” No wonder he lost, at the time. Though privately, Asuka was willing to bet Judai could win the rematch.

“Many people’d kill for that chance.” Jim whistled softly. “Gotta admit, I’m a tad jealous, myself.” 

“Are you kids planning to stand around and gawk or are you actually planning to entertain me?” Kaibaman didn’t seem to appreciate their hesitation. “I’ll even cut to the chase for you; You guys are looking for the key the King entrusted to me, yes?”

Asuka nodded. “Yes, that’s the case. And I’m assuming we are going to have to fight you for it?”

“You’ll have to win it in a duel with me. I’d rather not engage in what kind of magical nonsense you get into out there. No, this will be a battle of pure skill.”

So they were going to have to basically beat Seto Kaiba to get a key. Perhaps it would have been safer if -

No. 

This group was more than capable of handling a duel for the sake of saving their friend. Even one that promised to be this difficult.

After some deliberation, Jim chose to duel him. Shou hadn’t wanted to mess up such an important duel, and Jim and Asuka had basically rolled the dice for it. 

“You kids are… passable duelists.”   Kaibaman huffed as his lifepoints ticked down to zero. From what Asuka knew about, that was as close to a compliment as she could hope for. 

“We won, so give us the key.” She held her hand out. 

“Tch. So demanding. Can’t you wait one moment?”  Still, the spirit pulled a piece of a key from nowhere and flipped it through the air towards Asuka’s waiting hand. And thankfully, her coordination didn’t fail her as it landed safe from harm.

“... We must have all grown from when we were first years…” Shou noted. “None of us could beat Judai back then, and even he couldn’t win this…”

Jim chuckled. “That’s just the passage of time for ya.”

The spirit furrowed his brows.  “What are you children still doing here? I gave you the key, now SCAT.”

“...Shou, do you remember how to get out of here?” Asuka asked.

Shou nodded, holding up Winged Kuriboh. “Actually, yeah!”

It wasn’t nearly the same as Judai himself doing it, and summoning his friend. And there was no way any of them could do it in combat.

But it was good to see Winged Kuriboh anyway.

The hallway that the group of Johan, O’brien, and Manjoume set off down was decidedly kind of… eerie. The dark stone interior of the castle had quickly given way to a light colored path almost reminiscent of the hallways of Duel Academy itself, with big TVs lining the wall every couple of feet, and HERO monsters that were framed in between each of those monitors.

And to their right, The windows reminded them that for all the comforting familiarity of the inside, the outside was still very much the gloom and doom of this entire palace.

 Manjoume was carrying himself pretty casually, watching the cards with bored eyes, while O’brien is standing more alert, eyes sweeping every which way, though it wasn’t like there were any doors that enemies could leap out at them from.

Though, Johan thought nervously, running his hand over his deck case. It could easily be from behind them. 

“Relax.” O’brien commanded, gentle but firm. “Be alert, but you’ll be unable to act if you let anxiety cloud your mind.”

“Yeah, I know.” Besides, Judai needed him to be put together. To help him out. “It’s just new.” His fingers tap a rhythm against his waist, and he can feel the hum of his family beneath his finger tips, trying to provide him some degree of comfort. 

It was much appreciated, honestly. 

“These cards are creepy.” Manjoume announced, causing Johan’s eyes to snap back over to the wall, from looking down towards his family. 

“They don’t look like they were well taken care of.” O’brien notes. “That seems unusual for Judai.” 

Johan approaches one of the framed cards now too, looking them over, with pain in his heart.

“I actually know what this means.” Manjoume said, not looking at either of his companions. “He actually lost a duel to Phoenix last year. He took it badly enough that he left Duel Academy over it.” And where had he heard that before?

Judai actually left over losing a duel… Something about that felt wrong.

“That wasn’t all there was to it, was there?” And luckily for Johan, it seemed he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Thank god…

Manjoume turned from the frame abruptly and started to head down the hallway once again. “Not really, no. Had something to do with the LIght of Destruction. Or whatever the hell it was called. Hurry up. This hallway can’t last forever.”

Well, whatever it was, Manjoume both knew what it was and seemed to have some kind of personal connection with it.

At the end of the hall, they found a large set of double doors leading into a duel arena, where a tall imposing monster waited for them, more faded and destroyed cards lining the edge of the stage. Johan immediately goes to look at the cards, but he’s held back before he is able to.

“There are others here to challenge Destiny already?”  The voice boomed, and if Johan didn’t know any better, he would wonder if Edo had actually followed them in here somehow. Even though he was pretty sure Edo was dragged off to do something in the Pro Leagues. 

“We’ve come to challenge you to a fight for your Key.” O’brien wasted no time in making their point.He stands shoulders squared and hand resting on his duel disk. Ready for a fight. Johan really hopes it doesn’t come to one so easily…. But the way this  world worked seemed a little, uh, obvious in how it worked.

“Did you expect it to be that easy?”  The being demanded.  “When your enemy is fate itself? Do you mere humans think that fate can be changed at a whim so easily?”

“Give me a break…” Manjoume rolled his eyes hard, and Johan wonders how much of that attitude came from doing this for years. 

… How old would villain speeches get if you heard it day in, day out?
… Did this even count as a villain speech? It didn’t feel right attributing one  to Judai.

“It’s not at a whim.” Johan argues, bracing himself for this. “We came here, with the goal to save our friend. And we need the piece of the key for that. That’s all.”

“And we came prepared for any task we needed to do to complete our mission.” O’brien said.

The monster, the Destiny Hero, chuckles, as something goops off the ground around it.  “Very well then. If you want to see what the power of  Destiny truly is, be my guest!”

Johan gulped, drawing Rainbow Dragon out of his card holder, as Manjoume did the same with his Thunder Dragon, and O’brien with his Volcanic Emperor. Johan bemoaned, just for a moment, that this couldn’t be a duel, and then he focused on the fight. 

Whatever this may turn out to be.

Johan wasn’t sure what he expected from his first fight, but he didn’t know if that was it. It had been a flurry of sounds, and colors, and despite that he hadn’t found himself worried if he was capable of keeping his allies alive or not, despite the fact that Manjoume was reckless (skilled, of course, but reckless nonetheless), and O’brien was good, but not the absolute best team player. 

Even so, when all was said and done, Johan  ached . His arms were sore, his head hurt, and though a part of him was still buzzing excitedly from the adrenaline of a fight, he wasn’t all that sure what he was feeling underneath that all. Maybe that was for the best. He brushed his hand lightly over his wounds, glad to see they still disappeared, even after all that energy he had spent.

“You’re just like the king.”  The Hero complained.  “No respect for Destiny or what it means. Awful.” 

“Maybe your destiny isn’t as great as you think it is…” Johan said with a nervous chuckle. He hoped sincerely that it was as cool as it sounded in his head.  

“You lost the fight. Give us the key we agreed to.” O’brien said.  

“We’d like to quit wasting our time here.” Manjoume was more forceful than he probably needed to be, Johan noted. He was like that, sure, but was it really necessary…?

“Fine, fine. Don’t think that just because you have won this fight means that you’ve escaped what Destiny has in store for you further in.”  The key was flung out towards the kids, and Manjoume snatched it up with a dramatic flair. 

“Good job, soldier.” O’brien gave them both a small smile. Manjoume pretended he didn’t enjoy the praise as he turned to leave first. 

“Thank’s O’brien. Let’s go reconvene.” 

“Of course.”

Asuka’s group made it back in record time after the duel, only a little wet compared to what they all expected, and thankfully, they also found that Pharaoh was completely unharmed, and just lazily napping by the back wall, right where they left him. Lazy cat…

Miraculously, Johan’s group was only a few steps behind Asuka’s with Asuka examining the keyhole. She turned as she heard the noise of footsteps behind her. “Oh, there you guys are. How’re you doing?”

“Johan’s got some practice to do as a healer.” Manjoume said, and Johan shook his head.

“I told you if you needed more you could just tell me. It’s about communication…” 

“Like I said. He enjoys the sound of his own voice.” O’brien said.

Asuka had the feeling they have been having this argument for a bit now. Maybe it was just to fill the space, sure, but she was glad she didn’t have to walk back with them and hear that nonsense.

Without being asked, Shou stepped up to Manjoume’s side. “If you’re actually hurt, I can handle the rest of it.” And of course Manjoume accepted, because he was never going to just turn down some free pampering. It just wasn’t in his nature. While that was happening, O’brien brought the key part over to Asuka. “Here you go. Are those all of the pieces?”

She hummed, going to put the keys together. “I think so… “ She quickly went to snap them together, and to her delight, they did. And of course, the doors swung open with no fighting. And if they thought the few photo frames in the first room were notable. Then… this one was something else.

This was definitely one of the rooms that had been seen in the midnight channel too, a few nights ago. Meaning that they shouldn’t have too much trouble actually locating Judai… right? 

Well, one would hope, though this place wasn’t known for being easy. Or consistent.

Still, if they had believed they knew what the images outside had meant, then this inner chamber - It was people they held a stronger relationship too. Quickly, Asuka could pick her brother out among the crowd, and then Ryo. And notably Ryo was one of the few that weren’t slashed through….

“What’s the deal with these pictures anyway?” Johan wondered, stepping up to get a better look at them. “Hey, is that me?”

And looking over to see what Johan was looking out confirmed it. That was definitely him, crossed out like the rest. Though it was near larger, more ornate doors near the back. In what Asuka was willing to bet was some kind of sign of honor. “It looks like it… Actually, here’s me?”

And one by one, everyone found themselves, mostly near that back door. Except for Jim, oddly.

“Well, I’m willing to bet it's because Judai and I haven’t dueled yet.” Jim said.

“And the rest of us have. Are you saying you think that’s what decides the pictures?” O’brien asked.

“... Aniki never beat my brother.” Shou nodded slightly. “The last time they dueled properly,they only drew.”

The conversation died as they processed that. And in Asuka’s head it was painting something of an interesting picture about where exactly Judai’s head was. This focus on strength, the cataloging of people he’s beaten…

And yet the king refused to even try to show his face. Usually Shadows were a little bit prone to being all over that, frankly. Like he had little interest in interacting with them. Asuka didn’t know what to make of that.

She needed just a little more information. 

“This room is depressing. Can we look for the Slacker already?” Manjoume asked. Asuka jolted, and though the way he  said  it was rough, it wasn’t wrong either. They could get lost in this room forever, letting the questions of what it could all mean spin around in their heads forever. But the better way would just to find the man of the hour. He’d be able to answer their questions better than the rest of them could hope too. 

“Yes, we should do that.” Asuka agreed.

And then Pharaoh meowed, lazily trotting over to the door on the left. The one that, if Asuka recalled correctly, was opposite the path the TV had gone down. So away from the study.

“I think the cat’s tryin’ to tell us something.” Jim stated, and that was met with sounds of agreement. It made enough sense, she supposed. Asuka hoped that the cat knew where he was going though. Because if  Pharaoh didn’t know, then well..

“The cat is the best lead we have. We should listen.” O’brien said, snapping her out of her spiral.

“Right. Onwards.”

The hallway wasn’t that interesting. Now that they were inside the main part of the castle, there were a few more decorations on the walls, and a few side tables with some roses and some small… card binders? They seemed to just be decoration, and Johan was definitely interested in stopping to look. Not that they had the time too.

Still, Asuka saw him snatching extra glances. Glances that thankfully didn’t turn into him trying to actually stop and look at the cards. And soon enough, Pharaoh was circling around a doorway, leading down into the darkness. A staircase.

“Well, I guess it makes sense we’d find him by going down…” Basically into a dungeon. She didn’t want to say that out loud. And so she traded looks with the boys, any interest in the cards or the decorations or other potential traps put aside for the moment in favor of exploration.

And Johan was the first to actually make a move, going down the stairs with Pharaoh barely a step ahead. “Come on guys!” He was excited, and Asuka couldn’t blame him. And she was willing to bet the others weren’t going to either. And as expected, Shou was the next down, following Johan excitedly.

She followed him down the stairs, into the dimly lit dungeon.

Pharaoh barrelled to the end of the hallway, skidding to a stop on his fuzzy behind and meowing. Johan had to dig his heels in to not trip over the cat, and Asuka and the others, ended up having to stumble to a stop to keep from crashing into him. 

The searching was not in vain though, as she was sure that was Judai laying on the ground in the cell, staring at them with wide eyes as he realized they were there.

Judai hadn’t expected to be visited again so soon, and honestly, when he first heard the footsteps, he was pretty sure it was the king coming back to bother him some more. Because if he was really a shadow him, why wouldn’t he? And then, he heard a cat meow.

“Judai?” And that voice definitely wasn’t his own. It was… Johan’s. 

So had Shadow Johan come back to visit? Except, that didn’t sound like any cat Shadow Johan would have, it sounded more like  his  cat-

He sat up, looking wide eyed out at his visitors. And that was a Johan who was decidedly not a shadow. And his cat. And Shou and-
And everyone. They actually made it down here. 

Judai shouldn’t have been surprised. He knew his friends were strong enough to get down here, even without him. He  was  surprised. But he shouldn’t be.

“Johan…. Everyone…” 

“We came as fast as we could.” Asuka explained, as the group outside gathered around the lock to try and get it open. And it looked like they left it pretty quickly to O’brien. Guess he couldn’t blame them for that.

“We’re gonna get ya out of there, mate.” Jim assured. 

Groaning, Judai forced himself to sit up and to reach for his bag to return himself the few books he had been hauling around with him. Even after all the mental pain they had spent the last day or so causing him, he’d still feel very very weird not taking them with him.

“How long was that anyway?” Judai realized for as long as he was stuck walking in circles and decidedly not escaping, he had totally lost the clock somewhere in there. Which is fine. His friends had made it here, they were unharmed, and… Well, he wasn’t going to think too hard about it. Judai was super glad they had made it here alive and in one piece.

“It took us about two days. Admittedly, it was quite fast for a palace run.” Asuka admitted. “We had good motivation though.”

Judai thought for just a moment that this palace was unusually easy to get through, and he would have unpacked what weird feelings that left him…

But then Pharaoh appeared again up front, pushing up against the bars and meowing, and Judai was snapped out of his thoughts. Cat… Pharaoh was trying to comfort him, and it was pretty obvious at least.

“It doesn’t feel like 2 days. It felt like…” Judai had reached through the bars to give Pharaoh some very much needed pets for being a very good kitty. “Just one really long one, I guess.” 

“It felt a lil like that out here too, waiting for you.” Johan grinned slightly. And Judai was maybe just a little embarrassed to note how much he had missed seeing Johan specifically. 

There was a loud click, as the door opened. “There. You should be free.” O’brien stepped away from the cell door so Judai could easily scramble to his feet and get out in fast time.
And he was out walking free into the safety of his friends.

And for the first time in days, he got to feel the tension leave his shoulders, just a little bit. He felt O’brien’s hand on his shoulder briefly, giving a friendly squeeze before backing off and giving him space. And then he was getting crowded, with a flurry of attention and Shou throwing his arms around his waist.

It was overwhelming. But not in a bad way. At least he was pretty sure it wasn’t a bad way. 

“Alright guys, give him some space.” Johan said. “We can have an actual reunion with everyone once we get back, right?”

Shou reluctantly let go, taking a step back. But not too far, Judai noticed. Classic Shou. 

“So… You guys know how to get out of here, right?” Judai rubbed the back of his head. 

“Yeah, it’s actually quite easy.” Jim grinned. 

… And once they went back up to the main room, with everyone filling Judai in as they went, it was to find that… the exit was a lot closer than Judai realized. 

It also became quickly obvious that they were not going to be going home nearly as easily as expected. 

“Of course the door is blocked off…” Asuka sighed. 

“What else did we expect?” Majoume asked.

“We’ll just have to find another way around. We may not be able to get out of here without a fight.”

“Don’t say that, O’brien…” Shou sighed. “Oh. Uhm, speaking of. Aniki, we brought your deck. You should take it back.” He said, pulling the cards out of his jacket to hand over.

And Judai took it eagerly. And just by having them in his hand again, he felt immediately energized. Man, he really, really missed having his pals with him. Now, he felt more complete. And he could actually fight if they ran into trouble.

He hoped he wouldn't see that Other Judai again. Judai wasn’t sure that was a conversation he wanted to have with his friends until they weren’t in the TV world.  Or maybe sometime around never. That didn’t need to be their problem. 

Before they could really begin to come up with a plan though, the ornate doors at the end of the room, the ones that, to Judai’s dismay, were surrounded by portraits of his friends, swung open, in what was totally an invitation to trouble if Judai ever saw one.

Every part of him was screaming to go the other direction, but …

“Judai… I don’t think we’re going to get out of here without you dealing with your shadow.”

… Oh. So they already knew. That was unfortunate. Probably had to do with the midnight channel. And who  knows  what they saw on that.
Judai was screwed, wasn’t he?

Pharaoh bumped up against his leg to encourage him. 

“Well, you’ve seen this all  before Slacker. You know what you have to do.”

Yeah, one would think that experience would make it all easier, but somehow he was getting the impression that it uh… wasn’t going to be that simple.

And that feeling only got stronger when they stepped forward and saw that it was a beautiful, if somewhat creepy throne room on the other side of the door, with the other Judai waiting for him, leaning on the arm rest. 

Shit.

Chapter Text

Judai had not wanted to see him so soon.

He looked so smug on that throne, and just looking at him right now just pissed Judai off. Why can’t he just let them go home?

Judai doesn’t want to approach that facsimile of him, doesn't want anything to do with it. But if that guy really controls the way in and out of here, well… He didn’t really have much of a choice. The Shadow’s threats ringin his head. That his friends would get hurt if they made it this far. And it’d  be his fault for just.. Not being strong enough to stop that. 

“I was wondering when you all would make your way back here.” Shadow Judai said. “Though I have to admit, I’m rather surprised you brought everyone else with you.”

“Don’t see why you would be.” Judai is eager to cut off any questioning before he has to actually explain anything. “The door is kinda locked, you know. Makes it hard to leave, y’know?” He plays it off like a joke, though he definitely isn’t fooling himself, and if he wasn’t even foolin’ himself, how could he possibly be fooling his friends…

“The slacker couldn’t leave us behind if he tried.” Manjoume crossed his arm over his chest, though Judai could tell that Manjoume was side-eyeing him. Haha…. Yeah, that wasn’t a good look for him, but he was just going to have to deal.

“Is that really what you think?” Shadow Judai tilted his head. “Is that really what any of you think? I am surprised he didn’t even suggest trying to blast your way out.”

“Of course Aniki wouldn’t leave us behind.” Beat. “Would he?” Shou looks at Judai with a confused look, hopeful. And… aha…

“Of course not. You guys are my pals!”

“Coward.”

“There’s nothing cowardly about having friends.” Jim added, narrowing his eyes slightly. “Or Relying on your pals to get you through the tough times.”

“There’s strength in numbers. That’s common knowledge.” added O’brien further, standing at the ready.

Judai could feel Asuka looking at him, trying to figure out why he wasn’t just dealing with the king already. And the truth was that Judai just.. Didn’t have a good answer. He just didn’t want to talk about it, and even he knew it wasn’t for the best. 

“What about when your allies just hold you back? What about when they always just need to be saved?” The king had hopped off his throne by now, striding over to meet the group head on, and O’brien had stepped in front of Judai, as if that would stop a determined shadow. Especially his own. 

“Aniki doesn’t think that!” Shou probably didn’t like what he was hearing. And frankly, Judai didn’t either, just keeping his head tilted. “You’re probably not giving us the full story!”

“Hey Judai, how are you holding up?” Johan asked quietly. “You don’t look so well.” Judai didn’t know how it went for Johan. He didn’t get to be here, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a painful experience. Johan was like that, he always seemed to be so sure of himself and where he was going… 

“I’m fine Johan. I just need a minute.” He tried to smile, but it wasn’t a good smile, and he was very aware of it.

“C’mon Judai, just accept this loser’s word already so you can give us your side and we can go home already.” Manjoume shoved Judai’s shoulder, light enough that it was clearly just meant to be encouragement, but for some reason it didn’t encourage him.

… He just had too much in his head, and not nearly enough time to process it all. 

“Manjoume, relax.” Asuka scolded him. “You weren’t any better. None of us were.” 

“So. After all you’ve done, you really need your friends to be fighting your battles for you.” 

“You’re the one that’s tryin’ to cause issues.” Jim said. 

“If that weakling doesn’t like what he’s hearing, then he should just come let me deal with him, already. Or prove me wrong.”

Judai didn’t want to hear it anymore. He knew he shouldn’t, he knew it was just rejection basically, but before he could even really think about it (a running problem with him, hah), he pulled one of his newly returned cards. And with a flare of power, fire crashed into the ground in front of the King.

“JUDAI.”

The dust from Burstinatrix’s blast settled, and it hadn’t seemed to hurt the king at all. But a visible dark aura surrounded him, causing his cape to flutter in it. And his eyes were… definitely glowing. 

“To say something so painfully stereotypical, I see you’ve chosen the weakest path.”

And just as he said that, a burst of darkness throws Judai off his feet. Yeah, this was not his brightest move. He just got so damn annoyed and he acted without thinking. And his friends knew damn well what he just did, that was just great… 

“Johan, take care of him!” Asuka said. She shouted, taking charge. It suits her. 

“On it!” Johan is at his side, and oh he has healing magic, that suits  him  a lot too. In front of him, he hears Shou expressing concern, before he’s drawn back to the battle at hand, because he’s needed to keep the heat from Shadow Judai off of them.

“Are you okay?” Johan asks Judai quickly, as Judai felt the warmth of healing magic wash over him. And it doesn’t do much for just how tired he was, but it helped with the aches from being on his feet so long… and okay, maybe from getting blasted off his feet too. That probably had some kind of effect. Yeah. 

“I would have thought you of all people would have known better than to pick a fight with me.” The King said, easily dodging a couple strikes of thunder from Manjoume, before disappearing from sight. And he reappeared just as fast as he had left, grabbing Shou and using magic to blast him into O’brien.

Jim was at least ready to keep them both from smacking into the ground, but that… hah. It looked like it hurt. And Haou was forced to retreat back a few feet from Asuka’s well placed ice spell. 

Watching them work was something else, and maybe it was the first time that Judai could relax a little just watching them fight without him. (He shouldn’t be just watching though. Already they were getting roughed up. But they were taking care of eachother.)

“Judai, you get yourself together, okay? I’m going to help them.” Johan assured, standing up. “You don’t need to fight this. “

“But- But Johan-”

Behind Johan, he could see Jim jumping to block an attack for Asuka, and in turn the King was struck with a volley of fire shots from O’brien and a few strikes of lightning from Manjoume. Meanwhile Shou healed Jim while Asuka quickly dusted herself off from acting as… was she acting as bait for an attack?

It’d match the way she dueled, anyway…

“Johan, we have to-” Judai didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as Johan slipped behind Judai,  throwing what looked to be a rainbow colored light spell at an encroaching Evil HERO. 

“Looks like he’s called his army.” Johan grit his teeth. “Stay behind me, Judai.”

And now Johan was getting involved in the fighting, as his shadow self stepped back to keep his friends even busier. Great, so even his shadow self still managed to have friends. 
… Was that impressive or just kinda dumb? 

Nono, that didn’t matter right now, he had something infinitely more important to worry about. But his friends were holding up just fine against the King. Even… Johan seemed to be figuring it out quickly,for someone who was very very new to this kind of combat.

“I think the commander shared something with me.” He whispered quickly when he caught Judai’s look. And he’d have to ask what that meant later, when he wasn’t worried about the fight. Because with all his friends tied up in dealing with the newly summoned army, with spells of every shape and color flying (kinda literally), Judai was forced to have been given some space. 

And so it was for the second time that Shadow Judai bothered to get up close and personal. “I did say you would be mine to deal with if you couldn’t muster the strength.”

Nope, nopenopenope he was not dealing with this right at this second! He swept out trying to trip the shadow, and messily turned that into a harsh wind attack when the King easily sidestepped it. He thanked the heart of the cards quickly that they granted him Avian right this moment because wind seemed real useful.

“It’s a shame you know. Your friends are using these wonderful coordinated strategies, and you’re… literally tripping over yourself.”

“No one asked you.”

“Judai! Don’t let him get to you!” Asuka shouted over the noise of the battle, managing to slip under a wide physical attack to get closer. And sure it probably wasn’t going to be permanent, or even last long, but she did try…. “Remember his goal is literally messing with your head!”

“If anyone’s allowed to be imperfect right now it’s you! Get away from him!” Johan’s attack seemed to do the first bit of actual real damage to the King, and if anything was impressive it was that… The guy had seemed almost indestructible up to this. And the why’s on that were going to have to solidly wait until later.

But his stupid shadow wasn’t going to be knocked down so easily, and before anyone could react, Shadow Judai had reappeared behind him, moving like the shadows he wielded, to pick him up and blast him into the ground.

Crap.

“How much longer are you going to fight such a fruitless battle?” Shadow Judai asked, as Judai was knocked onto his back. Shou rushes to help him up, and Judai is definitely thankful for that. But this is getting them nowhere. This Shadow’s got endless reinforcements, they haven’t seemed to make a damn dent, he’s in pain, his friends are in pain…

And he’s proving everything the shadow said about his friends getting hurt because of him and his poor leadership and weakness  right.

Because that’s exactly what was happening here, right?

“Just… stop.”

Shadow Judai steps away, crossing his arms, and even the ring of the army he commanded ceased attacking and stepped away. Despite the fact that he didn’t seem any lower on energy than he was before, he stopped attacking when Judai asked. Probably just… waiting for him to speak more. 

And the fact that everyone was still ready to attack was… probably for the best. Because Judai already screwed up once despite the fact he really, truly should have known better. He’s been through this all before. It’s not like any of this was exactly new. 

Guess that’s how the TV World gets ya.

“Fine. You win this one.”

“Do you have something you want to say, Judai?” Asuka asked him gently. For all the attacks she had taken, both for getting her own attacks in and for making openings, she seemed to be in pretty good shape.

“We’re not going to judge you, you know that right?” And there was Johan. And man Judai almost  wished  they were actually angry. It’d probably be a lot easier to deal with. It’s something that he upset himself with that he tried really hard not to think about actually.

“Yes. Are you happy?” He didn’t want his friends to get hurt anymore. And they already got hurt by him. But it made him happy, to see that they were able to fight so effectively even when he let himself get downed so easily. It made him happy to see that. That already some of it was wrong.

“You know what to say.” The King, though he was breathing heavily, seemed to be waiting just as much as everyone else for Judai’s admission. (Because for the most part, Shadows weren’t evil. Judai knew that.)

“Fine. Nothing you’ve said… has been a lie.” Deep breath, c’mon Judai. You’ve got this. You can do this. You’ll be fine. He’s surrounded by friends who believe him, still fighting to defend him despite hearing what the king said. Plus they’ve all had shadows. He couldn’t really afford to be scared at this.

“We’re the same person. I guess I can’t really deny that. Probably never should have tried.”

There was tension there, just for a moment that it would fail to work for the first time, and that would have been just his luck and he probably would have deserved it. But…

The king just comes over, holding his hands up. “I suppose that is good enough.” His lips quirk up. “I suppose maybe you’re not completely weak after all.”

Judai and the King were surrounded in the dark light for a moment… and then… It was just Judai. With a card in his hand; a spell card, which was definitely really weird for a persona card, but not totally impossible.

… Super Polymerization? 

Everyone was quiet for some time, just letting everything process. And taking the moment to relax and take stock of themselves and each other. Though… there was a pervasive presence that was hard to ignore. Though it wasn’t obvious what it was, because the King was recovered, so who could it be?

… Judai thought he knew actually. And it was just a matter of how to explain it to his friends. His friends who were probably still wanting some answers after all that nonsense with his shadow. “So… uh…”

“What was all that about not trusting us, anyway?” Manjoume demanded, resting his hands on his hips. And while Judai had admitted that was all true, he hadn’t quite figured out how to uh.. .actually explain that all yet. Fiddly emotional stuff wasn’t exactly Judai’s cup of tea, and this wasn’t how he wanted to get a crash course in it!

“It was…” he scratched his cheek, staring down at the copy of Super Polymerization. “Just built up over the years, I guess.” 

“You should have told us way earlier, Aniki.” Shou was upset, and he probably had all the right to be, because Judai probably wouldn’t want to hear that actually his best friend distrusted him all this time. There was no way to make that sound nicer, was there? But he was way past that.

“I didn’t want to hurt you guys.” And that was the only argument that he had. It was a poor one. Judai wouldn’t have bought it. Even he had to admit it was pretty stupid. 

… And it kinda looked like his friends from the other academies didn’t seem to know how to feel about this. Which, fair, he supposed. They didn’t get to be here for a lot of this stuff from the previous years. And that was for the best, but then they got dragged into it anyway…

Manjoume whacked him on the head. “Do you hear yourself?”

Johan gave Manjoume a look, and Asuka sighed and shook her head, but no one moved to actually tell him off. Which was also fair. He probably deserved to be smacked.

“I do,sometimes.” He tries for a joke, hoping it’d lighten the mood somewhat.

“Not often enough.” Manjoume huffed, looking like he was definitely considering whacking Judai again, and he would deserve it still. 

“It’s true though. I didn’t want to see you guys get hurt anymore. What… what if I couldn’t save you next time?” There was less of a violent chorus of nopes than Judai expected which, honestly, he was going to take. Maybe just accepting that the feelings were even real made them a whole lot easier to actually cope with. 

Which was a weird thought but surprise! Things hurt less when you weren’t just keeping every little thing bottled up. 

“You should follow your own advice. You were the one reminding everyone else not to be a lone wolf.” O’brien pointed out. Judai rubbed the back of his head with an awkward noise. 

“Yeah…”

“If you take nothing else away, Judai. Let the take away be that we can stand on our own.” Asuka said. “Although.. Maybe you could try communicating before this all blows up next time.”

“No one wants to see you go through that again, mate.” Jim smiled. 

“We’re supposed to be your best friends!” Shou huffed. But he also looked like he was a half step away from launching into a hug so maybe he wasn’t all that mad.

“Yeah.I know. Sorry probably doesn’t really fix this, but…” 

“We can figure it out when we get home.” Johan said, giving him a gentle smile.

And Judai smiled back.

The presence still taunted him. There was still something he needed to do, and maybe it could finally put the rest of his unease to bed. And let him breathe for a while. 

“Before we go though, uhm… You guys can’t hate me for this, okay?”

He got a suspicious look in return for this. 

“Yeah that’s fair. Listen, there’s something I need to tie up before we leave. I think I know how I got here. And… I want to take care of that.”

“Judai, you can  not  be planning to go confront someone alone after all of this.” Asuka frowned.  And considering everyone seemed to agree with her, Judai was going to have to maneuver carefully. 

“It won’t be long. I’m hoping it won’t even really be a fight. I just… I just have to do it. I need to talk to them before we leave.”

“Talk to who?” 

Deep breath. He staggered to his feet. “I’ll… explain later. It’s just really important.”

Did he know exactly what he was running into? No, not really, but he tried to throw a smile over his shoulder as he did so. Because he knew his friends thought this was the stupidest thing he could be doing right now and he probably couldn’t actually blame them for it.

And he was pretty sure that behind him he could hear well wishes and threats to come after him if he took too long in equal parts and… that was okay. 

But if he was going to be better to his friends, then that meant he had to speak to someone very important before he could consider this all to put to bed.

He stumbles into the room behind the throne room as the door revealed itself from the stained glass that was dissolving into nothing. He’s not totally sure what he’s seeing once he crossed through though… It’s dim. That’s the first thing he noticed. It’s dim and it’s hard to see. And the second thing he notices is a pair of glowing eyes in a back corner. Definitely watching him. Which would be alot more creepy, probably, if he didn’t come here with a purpose. 

“Come out, Yubel. You’re not hiding from me.” The words are out of his mouth before he can really even think about it, and then he just has to let it hang there. The words were just out in the world, for better or for worse. And Judai really hoped it was for the better. 

He didn’t know how he was going to make this right, but he wanted to end this without getting anyone else hurt. That was his biggest goal here. 

“So nice of you to finally address me, my Judai.”  Their voice seemed to echo around him.  “I was beginning to think you’d just leave without saying hello.”

Judai gave a wry smile. “Nah, that’d be rude.” It wouldn’t have been impossible, because he felt like shit and his friends probably did too, but… No, after all he remembered? Not a chance. Especially since accepting his shadow granted him… a lot more in the memory department than he expected. “You went through all the effort of bringing me here to see you.” 

“So you did realize it was me. It took you long enough.”  Judai couldn’t tell if that was meant to be venomous or not, but his head hurt already, this wasn’t the time to try and figure that out exactly. 

“... Yeah. I’m… I can’t even deny that. It took me way too long.” He holds his hands up, slowly approaching them. “It took me way too long to figure everything out.”

“So you aren’t denying it. That you abandoned me. That you left me to burn.”  That voice was hurt. And he wished he had just remembered sooner, that he had been able to try and just resolve this better. In a way that didn’t leave someone he cared about in pain. 

“I didn’t leave you to burn. That wasn’t the goal. I didn’t want that.” He still wished he had more time to come up with a better way to confront this whole problem. But he was just going to have to wing it and come up with something that made everyone happy. So they could all go home. 

“Are you sure about that? Or was it not your way of showing love? That you were making sure that I would be strong enough to protect you.”

“Why else would you never look?”

… What? “Why didn’t I look?” He takes a few more steps, intending to try and touch them, but vines burst from the ground in front of him, causing Judai to stumble back, pinwheeling his arms in an attempt to not hit the ground from having to backpedal so hard. 

“H-hey? What was that for? We were having a nice conversation.” At least, Judai was pretty sure it was a nice conversation. 

“No, no you’re welcome to come over, my Judai. I just wanted to share that love with you, that is all.”  Something about that didn’t sound right, but it didn’t match the person in his memories or even in the comic all that well either. Like something was up here. 

“Hey, wasn’t bringing me here enough to toughen me up?” He laughs, as if it’d lighten the mood. He just doesn’t want Yubel to think he’s trying to be aggressive. “I mean, Shadow Judai kind of knocked me around out there.” Saying that probably wasn’t enough, but baby steps were probably the way here. 

A part of him wished one of his friends were better with words had come, but he was also pretty sure that wasn’t going to work well. 

“Perhaps, but it showed me a new issue, that you had given your love to another. That you had found someone else you cared about more.”

Uh, he was pretty sure that’s not what happened, but he eyed the vines warily, realizing that he was going to get whacked if he stepped near that. And he kind of didn’t need that right now. “That wasn’t what happened. It’s…” Judai didn’t know what to say to that, and he didn’t have the time to dig through the king’s memories to figure out what all happened there.  

“Is it not?”   They finally revealed themselves, a tall, draconic figure emerging from the shadows. Both beautiful and terrifying. 

And whom Judai was determined to get through to in one way or another. 

“Why else was it so easy to summon his shadow here? Why was he so easy to manipulate to being in your service? Why did  you  accept it so easily?” 

“... Did you think I was trying to replace you?” But he hadn’t even remembered them until the beginning of this hell day. 
… But he remembers enough. He remembers letting them be shot into the sky, and he remembers, if only through the pictures, that this was not the first time they’ve had a close relationship. 

“I could believe it all was love, except for that you replaced me with that  boy .”  The revelation here was that they were apparently jealous of Johan. But… why? Didn’t they hold different roles in his life?

“He wasn’t meant to replace you. I can’t tell you about his shadow! I didn’t even see it. I was kind of, you know, locked up at the time.” He tried not to think too hard about what the purpose of that was. 

“...  My Judai. You ran straight into him.”  Yubel shook their head.  “Though maybe you hit your head at some point.”

Judai stopped for a moment. Ah, had he? 

… Duh. He was just an idiot. He supposed all his friends would agree with that. 

“Right, Right. I just uh, didn’t make the connection. I’ve had a really long day.” He took a deep breath, straightening up. “Yubel, I… I messed up. I should have found another way to help you. There had to have been another way to fix everything that happened back then.”

“Is it really something you need to apologize, when we both became stronger in that-” 

“Yes!” Judai interrupted. “My intentions were good, but… you weren’t meant to get hurt. You weren’t meant to burn. I didn’t want that.”  He scrambled for a way to prove it, one that was going to be enough and make enough of an impact. Judai needed them to believe that he didn’t mean it.

…

Well, he did just  get his new persona card.

The question here, of course, was what could he do with it. What could he do with it that could prove to Yubel that he wanted to make it up to them, and apologize so thoroughly to them. Prevent them from hurting his friends, him, or themself. 

He stared at the sea of vines surrounding them. Alright Judai. Your first task was getting over there to them so he could do anything. He took a few steps back as he was thinking. He didn’t want to attack them if he didn’t have to. 

“What else could you have possibly intended?   Yubel replied. 

“Well, you were supposed to join some friends up there. I kinda didn’t realize that wasn’t going to happen.” There was no time to hesitate, and he was just going to have to trust in his own physical ability. And so Judai took a running leap at the vines, intending to clear them. Or at least, if his luck held, Yubel would be shocked enough he tried to not be able to retaliate in time.

He needed to get over there. 

And he touched the ground and for a moment he thought he was in the clear, before a vine caught his ankle and caused him to trip, drawing an annoyed cry out of him. That was not what he meant to do.

“And yet you did nothing, even when I cried for you.”

“ I know! I wasn’t given the chance!” He didn’t know how he felt about the fact he was made to forget. That was something that he’d have to unpack a lot later. Judai tried to get back to his feet despite the scrapes and the pain in his ankle. “I want to make it right! I have the chance to do something now, and I want to!”

Judai doesn’t know if it’s because Yubel was actually surprised by his declaration or they actually wanted him to get close, but it seemed to give him the time he needed to stumble past the wall of vines and face Yubel. 

Yeah, he probably only had a short time to react before he was going to be thrown back to start, and so he pulled out the new card, Super Polymerization. He didn’t know what it was capable of.... But he had a feeling, and usually his feelings were pretty good.

“I won’t abandon you again. I refuse to abandon you again.” Judai holds the card up, so Yubel could see it. 

Super Polymerization was probably one of the most powerful fusion spell he’s seen. and somehow this felt like a fitting first use of it. 

“What are you suggesting?”  Maybe they were just hesitant to trust him, and honestly he could kinda understand that, because his track record probably didn’t look too good from their perspective. 

“I’m suggesting that I make sure we can’t be separated.” 

“With that card of yours?” 

Judai holds it out. “That’s the plan.” And just as he says this, dust around them begins to get stirred up, tugging at Judai’s clothes and the vines forming a wall behind them. “The card can bind us together. And... being separated won’t be something we have to worry about anymore.” He thought he’d be more scared, but he’s filled with confidence that he was making the right choice. “Will you trust me this time?”

And that his friends would understand it too, when he made his way out there to explain to them. 

Yubel doesn’t grab the card right away, and he can’t blame them, because if this whole thing had happened because they were hurt then... there was a lot riding on this. But then they take the card between their claws, holding it with him.

The wind picked up.

And it hurt. It didn’t feel at all like recruiting a persona usually did. For him that was usually grabbing a card, and a feeling of warmth, and that was that. But this was something more. 

He faintly feels Yubel reaching out to grab him, and blindly, he grabs back.

And Judai still doesn’t regret it.

Chapter Text

No one had wanted to let Judai just wander off by himself, and the tension was so thick in the throne room it could be cut with a particularly dull knife.

By this point, everyone waiting out there had been healed up, and there were no more apparitions hanging around left to fight, so all that was left was waiting for Judai. But with his shadow defeated, there wasn’t much danger left lurking about, right?

Asuka feels like she should have been more surprised when her peaceful time petting Pharaoh while she tried to wind down was interrupted by screaming. 

“Judai!” Johan’s eyes widened, his breath catching.

“Leave it to the Slacker to find trouble!” Manjoume complained, even though he looked ready to act.

“He needs backup. Regardless of what he said before.” O’brien replied, pushing off the wall. 

“Welp. Guess we’re havin’ one last hurrah.” Jim didn’t pick up Shirley, simply holding his hand to help Asuka to her feet. Just as well, because Johan was the first to take off running. Not that everyone else wasn’t very close behind him. 

And what they saw... well, Asuka wasn’t totally sure what she was looking at.

Judai was being cradled to the chest of a strange demonic looking entity, who gave them a sharp multicolored stare before dissolving into sparkles, and forming into a card. Said card landed on Judai’s chest as he fell onto his back. 

“Oh no! Judai are you okay?” Both Johan and Shou ran to try and drop to his side, definitely planning to try and heal him.

Thankfully, Judai gave them a smile and a thumbs up.

“Judai what happened?” Asuka asked, walking to Judai’s side, though giving him some space. He already had people getting close to him and crowding. 

“Just... ah, unfinished business. I’m okay.” He sounded jittery even despite the healing magic, but honest.

Manjoume is still staring intensely, before scoffing. “How come he gets two awakenings?”

Judai’s head hurt. His body hurt. His heart hurt, and everything felt a little too noisy. A part of him wished he had been given a chance to rest before he had needed to go after Yubel, but on the other hand for all the pain he felt, he didn’t really regret it. Even if the recovery magic wasn’t helping much, and that he’d need to just get home as fast as possible. 

And he knew they had questions, and he wanted to answer them! It’s just...

No. He couldn’t put anything into words. And his friends were talking still, he knew it, even as he was helped up and they made the slow, painful trek across the now truly quiet waste land. He feels pats on the back, touches on his shoulders, and a quick hug and he  could probably hazard a guess who it’s all from, but truth be told that’s  all  he could do. 

And before he really notices, he’s safely at the TVs, and they can put all of this behind them. Judai knows he wants to go back to his dorm and sleep for a week, and just process this all. Yubel didn’t feel like a normal persona, and he didn’t expect them to be. They were something special.

But it was going to take a lot to get used to compared to what he had done in the past.

“Judai, listen to me, please.” 

It’s only Johan’s calm, steady voice that draws him back to reality finally, and he looks at them all with tired eyes. “Do you need help through the TV?” 
Huh. How long were they trying to get his attention, he wonders. He had been tuning them out. 

“Oh. Uh. I should be fine. Thanks though.” 

They all trade glances and Judai decides he doesn’t actually care if they believe him or not, and he’s probably a jerk for that but- but he can deal with that later. He moves towards the TV and goes to step through it, with his foot catching on the edge and causing him to spill out through it.

 But he still made it to the real world. He hadn’t been there in days, and even through the burst of very loud concern in the back of his head (he couldn’t blame them but… wow was that going to take some getting used to), and as his friends hurried through the TV after him, they found him laughing on the ground.

“Judai, what’s with you?” 

“It’s… It’s just great to be home!”

He even surprised himself with the laughter, but he couldn’t stop. Maybe he was a little hysterical after days in the TV world. How did people handle weeks?

(Usually even worse. But he wasn’t thinking about that. It was a problem for future Judai to think about. And Future Judai would hate him for it and he didn’t care one bit.)

He sees Johan offering his hand first, and he doesn’t doubt there was some kind of tussle to be the first to help him to his feet. And It’s Johan, so of course he takes the offered help. And if there was anything that he had been  forced  to confront, is that maybe he should actually try having some faith in the people who had been supporting him all along. 

Because his rescue team hadn’t been just Johan. It had been everyone. And that was… that was just wonderful.

That thought doesn’t remotely calm the laughter. 

Asuka looks at him with soft eyes and a smile. “You should get some rest, Judai. Why don’t you go with Johan back to your dorm.” Judai hears a small huff in the back of his mind at the suggestion and that will probably have to go somewhere in the future Judai category too. But tonight was for resting.

“Yeah… That’s probably a good idea. Let’s celebrate when I get up though!” 

And as he and Johan turn to leave to make the trek back up to Judai’s dorm room, to the sound of their friend’s agreement and planning. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him. He’s got to make this up to his friends, because they’re probably... gonna have feelings about what they saw there.. He’s probably got to sort out whatever is going with Johan. And he knows he’s got to make things up to Yubel somehow too.

And yet despite it all.

He felt lighter than before.