Chapter 32: (26) Yuumi Katayama

Date: ???????

I open my eyes to a black void.

‘huh, deja vu’

“Hey goddess, was there a fire again?” I sarcastically ask the void.

Suddenly, I’m transported to a familiar white room and a voluptuous goddess. Sitting in an elegant… beach lounge chair… by a lake.

I look down, and find that I’m wearing a two-piece stripped red and white bikini.

“Come here, my child.” She urges.

I do so and lay in the lounge chair next to hers.

“Right there, yes,” she confirms.

“Goddess Ness, I am quite confused about what is the purpose of being called here.” I question.

“*Sigh* me too.”

“What?”

She stops laying back and sits. “Me too.”

I copy her gesture. “And…….?”

“*Sigh* Ok, enough of the riddles. Yuumi, I have something you might want to hear.”

“That being?”

“The soul of the original inhabitant of that body is currently on the last step before her soul is washed and reincarnated. As a formality, I told her about what happened, and she wants a few words with you.”

My jaw drops and shock sets in. “W-What!?” ‘After what I did? Fuck shit crap! This is going to be awkward. What if she wants her body back!?!?’

“Yuumi, you can stop panicking.” The goddess reassures.

She then adds, “Your thoughts here are as plain as the words that exit your mouth.”

“B-But.”

“No buts. Come on, she will be here any second now.”

Just like clockwork, when the goddess finishes her sentence, a bright light shines from the lake and a figure emerges from beneath. She looks eerily familiar, just like looking at a reflexion, but she has a strange transparency and wears a stripped blue and white two-piece bikini.

I look to the goddess but find she has vanished.

Quickly standing up, I look at the specter and nervously ask. “So we finally meet?” scratching my head.

Her expression remains neutral, but she hurries her steps.

“Hmmm. I’m sorry, okay!? I didn’t even know you were still alive! I promise it’s all Ness’s fault!” I try to bargain, as she gets closer and closer to me.

I brace myself for whatever is coming.

“THANKYOU!!” the spirit exclaims and reaches for a hug.

….

….

“Huh?” I let out.

‘What the fuck?’

————

The spirit seems to have calmed down.

“So… Why the ‘Thank you’? I was expecting you to be mad.” I tell the specter.

It shrugged. “Why would I be mad at you? From what I heard, you are much more of a victim here than me. I would have died anyway, but if the goddess didn’t interfere, you would still be in your boring old world.” She assures.

In response, I ask. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. First of all, how munch do you know about me?”

“Other than you were previously a man in an archaic and violent world, not much.” She tells.

“Ok… And you're fine with a man taking over your body?” I question.

It laughs. “If you hadn’t, I’m pretty sure a man would have taken control of it in another way.”

“What?”

“*sigh* God—I mean Solus, you’re dense, aren’t you?”

“I mean, I can guess what you meant, but are you sure? Were you that fucked before I took over?”

“Yuumi, I was broke with no guarantees I would enter the academy and even if I had, I had no funds to pay the tuitions fees.”

“You wouldn’t enter, not with that joke of a deck.”

The spirit looks down. “That deck was my pride and joy… But you’re right, it was weak… Really weak.”

“Childs play literally.” I add.

“What?”

“Well, what did Ness tell you about my world?”

“That it was archaic, violent and chaotic.”

“Hmmm, Yes I would agree, but, did she tell you about what we called dueling over there?” I say my suspicion.

“No, she didn’t.” The specter confirms.

“Yu-Gi-Oh!, It was a children’s card game.” I tell.

The spirit’s eyes open wide “Children?!?!?!?! Dueling is dangerous!!! Not something to be played with!” The spirit warns.

“Hahaha. Yeah, that would be your reaction. But it’s the truth, it was just a game. We didn’t have solid vision, so we just played using the cards and in computer games.” I explain.

“What? Just a game? Like poker?” She refers.

“You have poker? Didn’t know that, but yes, like poker.” I confirm, surprised at the common base.

“Thats…. weird….” it remarks.

“Oh hell no, it’s your world that’s weird. Really, why are the people in mine better at dueling even tho we don’t use it to wage war?”

“I… don’t know…” It closes.

“*Sigh* Well, that’s me then. Other than that, you aren’t really missing anything. So, how about you? It had to be tough growing up and Orphan.” I suggest.

“Well, first, I wasn’t an orphan until 14 years old.” The spirit drops a bombshell.

‘WHAT!?!!?!??!?!?!!’

“C-Can we sit down? I feel like this is going to be a doozy.” I urge.

“Sure.” It approves.

————

So Yuumi’s story… God I didn’t expect this… Apparently she wasn’t always an orphan, her original last name was Katayama, the Katayama family was (And maybe still is, I don’t know, have to check this after) a prominent family with ties to organized crime and various city organizations, including the Dragoon city council. Now why did they abandon their only daughter?

…

…

How about I let her explain it herself?

“Well… it started with my brother. He was a professional duelist, much to the annoyance of our father, who basically groomed him to be his heir.”

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“Creepy” I comment.

“It happens, still he was good, really good. He graduated from NWDA academy in cyan rank and immediately began taking names in the industry. My brother rocked the Dragoon City dueling world. From that point my father couldn’t complain anymore. The connections my brother was making were serving the Katayama family almost better than my father’s traditional business and political connections, and father was fine with that. ‘This is what an heir is supposed to do, supersede the previous.’ He argued.”

“I’m guessing there is a twist in this story.”

The spirit looked down and then sipped the drink that the goddess had previously left.

“That’s right.” She confirmed and then gave a deep sigh.

“It all happened when I was 13… My brother was in the final round of the Dragoon city seasonal championship. It wasn’t the biggest tournament that year, but it was an official tournament, nonetheless. So, final round, he was facing his opponent ‘Thunder Strike’ was his stage name. The duel was going heavily in my brother’s favor.”

“Do you still remember the deck your brother and his opponent played?”

“Hmmm, I don’t remember what Thunder was running, but my brother’s deck was famous for he’s signature move of drawing 5 cards when he passed the turn with a card called ‘Super Rejuvenation’.”

“Huh, Dragon Rullers.”

“Oh, yes! I remember the dragons he used to summon! Those were majestic.” She reminisces.

“So, the duel?” I remind.

“Yes, I was getting to that. It was my brother’s turn, and he made a show of bringing as many monsters as he could to the field and after that, entered the battle phase.”

“I think I can see where this is going,” I comment.

“He declared an attack with all monsters and then—”

“The opponent didn’t accept surrender?”

“Yes.” she despairingly said.

An eery silence ensued.

————

“All that was left was red mist.” The spirit continued suddenly.

“Solus…” I mutter.

“They blamed my brother for not attacking more carefully. This was a televised event for entertainment, not a fight to the death.”

“But it wasn’t he’s fault!” I shout “Why didn’t thunder surrender!?!?”

“*Sigh*, I overheard my father say that some other family must have had some blackmail or be holding something or someone hostage, something that Thunder valued more than his own life. Still, it could all be my father’s attempt to put the blame on others.”

After a few more seconds of silence, I asked. “Well, that’s a depressing story, but where do you fit in?”

“Guess whose footsteps I was planning to follow?”

“… Don’t tell me…”

“Yes, I wanted to be a duelist like him.”

I sigh and lightly facepalm. “Don’t tell they threw you out because they wanted you to follow another path and you didn’t listen? That’s like, generic fallen from grace tragedy number 3.”

She doesn’t take my joke well. “I don’t care anymore… It happened, now it’s your problem to deal with anyway…”

“You mean they’ll come looking for me?”

“Maybe if you become as popular as my brother was.” She trails off.

“*Nervous laugh*, I have no restriction with extra deck summoning, and have already publicly shown off I’m a penta summoner.”

“Then they are probably already observing you.”

“In the NWDA?”

“Then no, if the politics around the academies haven’t changed since a month ago, then you're safe there. From being forcefully grabbed, I mean, they might still try to pull some strings in the council.”

I lay back. “Nice, just as I was starting to relax.”

————

We kept making small talk, mostly about our experiences. I notice the specter is starting to shine and, at the same time, Ness returns.

“That’s all the time we have.” Says the goddess. Snapping us out of our conversation.

I look at the spirit.

‘Poor girl…’

It laughs and then says.

“Not really.” in a downward tone.

“Then this is goodbye?” I ask the spirit.

“Yes.” It confirms. Then looks at the goddess.

“Goddess Ness, I think I want to follow through with what we talked about.”

This makes the goddess raise an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

“Whats this you’re both talking about?” I interject, standing up.

“Well Yuumi, it looks like the spirit of the original Yuumi wants to give you their memories…” the goddess carefully explains. She seems hesitant.

“That’s… generous?” I say in a questioning tone.

“Its more than generous!” The goddess snaps, then explains. “Understand that everyone has things they don’t want others to see. Not even gods… Are you sure?” The goddess firmly asks the spirit.

The spirit looks at me.

“Yes. She deserves that.” It concludes with a content smile.

“I-If you think so…” I stutter, thinking about what she’s about to reveal...

…

…

“*Sigh*, then let’s go if you have any last words to each other say them now.” The goddess instructs, times up.

…

We turn to each other. I’m fidgeting, grabbing my arm, trying to figure out what to say.

The spirit beats me to it.

“Well Yuumi, this is goodbye. I hope you make my name be remembered.” She requests.

I feel a tear slide down cheek.

“I guess it is *sniffle*. It was nice meeting you. I promise to make your name know throughout the system… Thank you… for everything.” I barely am able to say between the tears.

“*snap*” The goddess snaps her fingers and my vision turns black.

————

Date: 22/Ago/35MT

When I open my eyes again, I find myself on a soaked pillow. My face is wet with tears…

“Yuumi….” I mutter, looking out of the window into a dark sky. The waterworks open again, I just stay up bawling my eyes out.

At the same time, I remember things I’m pretty sure I’ve never done… It only takes me a few seconds to realize that those were Yuumi’s memories… my memories now.

“She passed the torch to me… I can’t just continue sitting around doing nothing. I will make you proud… Wherever you are…” I say in a whispered tone.

After a few more minutes, I lay back down in bed and try to sleep.

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