Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Reverse of Arcadia ❯ Chapter 3: The Meeting – The Spirit World and new Allies ( Chapter 6 )

Reverse of Arcadia

Game novelization by Sakura (aka L-sama no Miko)

Chapter 3: The Meeting - The Spirit World and new Allies

“Would somebody… somebody please….”

Who's calling me? Where am I?

“I'm a prisoner in the Spirit World. Please help me…”

Who…

“Somebody… please listen to me!”

I feel myself floating and then a sudden pulling sensation. When I am fully aware of my senses once more, I find myself standing in the forest I had dreamt of the day before I got kidnapped by these Arcadia weirdoes. Only this time, there was no mysterious voice begging me for help. Seeing as they weren't going to come to me, I decided to go to them.

After making my way through the labyrinthine forest, I came upon a small town. It wasn't anything like Satellite or Neo Domino. It looked like just a plain ordinary town with cobblestone streets a fountain here and there and neatly pruned and well cared for plants in planters and gardens.

As I pass through the gate, a little boy in a Dark Magician costume called out to me from behind some crates that were partially blocking an alleyway. “Psst!! Over here! Hide quick!”

“Look kid,” I start, “I don't have time to play games…”

He glares at me, and grabs my arm. “They'll catch you if you don't hide this instant!” he hisses.

“They?” He gestures with his staff up some stairs and I see two monkey like creatures wearing armor. They might have been kinda cute if it weren't for their tiny beady red eyes. Somehow I got the feeling they weren't too friendly either.

“You check there,” one of them says, “Me check here.”

The boy drags me into the alley as one of the monkeys started coming down the stairs toward us. He breathes a sigh of relief once the armored primate passed by and was out of sight. “That was a close one!” he says, “They almost caught us! By the way, I'm Torunka. I know you're a human I can tell. Since you're here, then it must mean you're of the few chosen ones who can come here. Those goons were working for Zeman the Ape King. He's the one who took over this land. That big monkey jerk's been catching us spirits using a curse with a minus staff. I was barely lucky to escape the curse myself. I only got grazed by it so that's why I'm so short and ugly. I'm really a handsome and powerful spellcaster.”

I can't help but snort at that. “What's so funny?! Don't you believe me? Look brat, just look at this town! Where do you think all the people are, huh? There's your proof!”

“It's not that,” I say stifling my giggling miserably.

“Then what? Oh! I can't believe you don't believe I could be a handsome and powerful spellcaster is that it?! You kids today! You have absolutely no respect for your elders! Fine! I'll prove it to you. Watch this!” He starts waving his staff and chants. A few seconds later, he hands me a deck of Duel Monsters cards, “I bet you could use that right now, huh?”

I glance through the cards and I recognize them all! “This is…!”

“Yep, it's yours,” Torunka says, “So do you believe me now? I should warn you though, that may be your own deck, but the cards can only be used here in the Spirit World. Sorry about that… it's just that I really don't have the confidence I used to, no thanks to this puny body. So how about a duel? I'd like to see just how good you are and I think I my magic may be getting a bit rusty.”

Well, it didn't look like I had anything better to do. Nor was I going to be going to wake up from this freaky dream anytime soon either. “Why not,” I say.

“Great! Just so you'll know, I used to be pretty hot stuff back in the day. There's no need for you to go easy on me `cause I look like this.”

This kid was actually pretty good! He sure seemed to know how to handle all those spellcasters in his deck. But luck was still on my side as far as dueling went and just barely managed to beat him at the last possible second.

“Hey not bad,” Torunka says, “Not bad at all. Now I can go along with you without any worries. And of course my magic is just exquisitely perfect too!”

“Whoa wait a second here, Torunka!” I demand, “What do you mean go along with me?!”

“Why to Zeman's palace of course! Didn't I mention that part?”

“Uh… no.”

“Oh. So I didn't ask for a favor back there?”

“I think I would have remembered that you little…”

“Must have slipped my mind,” interrupted the annoying little punk, “I'm telling you it's no fun getting old.”

Oh please, him old? Yeah riiiiiiight and I'm the tooth fairy!

“Well, I guess I'd better ask. Please help me rescue Luna!”

“Who's Luna? And why should I go rescue her anyway? I'm warning you half-pint, I'm really not in the mood for `playing pretend'.”

“Boy, are you dense! Just what are they teaching you brats these days? Fine I start from the beginning. As of right now, you're the second human to come to this world. The other one would be Luna. She's real important you see, `cause she holds the key to freeing the Ancient Fairy Dragon who got sealed away by Zeman. She got caught when she was protecting me from those simian goons. I must go and rescue her to pay the debt I owe her! That and help save my world too! I can't do it by myself the way I am now so…”

“I get it. You need someone bigger than you to help.”

“Hey! I'm still plenty powerful! I could have beaten you if I wasn't going so easy on you!”

“Whatever, chibi. I'll play along, only because Crow would chew me out if I left a kid wander around all by himself.”

“Splendid! Zeman's palace can be reached from the north part of town. Let's go!” he then promptly starts to drag me all through the town and out the northern exit.

*************************************

We follow the winding rocky mountain path all the way up and sure enough there stood an enormous castle near the mountain's summit. A lone monkey stood guard at the huge gates. “Who you?” he asks, confused by our sudden appearance, “This here Zeman's palace.” He then produces a banana yellow duel disk. Ok, if that's how he's gonna play. I bring out my own duel disk that I hadn't realized I had with me. Did Torunka do that? Oh well no matter, I had monkey butt to kick.

Jack was right, I really had to learn not to judge by appearances. This guy's deck was full of attack boosting beasts and deck searchers. I swear if I saw another Giant Rat or Nimble Nomonga I'd go ape myself. It took me practically forever to get past his wall of animals but we were now able to enter the castle.

“Wow!” Torunka says, genuinely impressed, “You beat one of Zeman's henchmen! Now that's something! Ok, now Luna should be somewhere in there, so let's get started and look for her! It shouldn't take too long though. You've got a distinguished spellcaster with you. Oh and before I forget again… here.”

I blink as he hands me his staff. As soon as I touched the smooth wood, a faint shock went through me as if it were alive with an electric current. “You sure?” I asked. I didn't know the first thing about magic - at least from what I could remember, I still hadn't recovered my memory from before Kiryu found me and Divine's messing with my mind wasn't helping either. I just would know what to do with it.

“Take it. That staff's filled with what little magic I could spare. It should be able to use a power similar to those minus staves of Zeman's. Though… with the way my magic is now… Oh! I completely forgot! What do they call you anyway?!”

I smack my face with the palm of my hand. Is this kid for real? This dream just gets weirder and weirder. Might as well start calling myself Alice and develop an addiction to tea and cake. Maybe paint a few roses red while I was at it.

“Iolanthe,” I say.

“Iolanthe… interesting name. Greek for violet isn't it? Well, then…” He cleared his throat. “Let us commence our search, brave warrior, Iolanthe!”

Oh boy! Just what did that bastard do to my head?! I sigh and follow the half-pint wizard into the castle.

“Old man loud,” the simian guard grumbles as I pass by, “Brain hurt. Friends inside give you pain.”

Inside, the light of the vast amount of torches make everything have a yellowish tinge to it, even the many columns standing on each side of what appears to be the main hall. At the far end we two more monkeys. Could that be where this Luna is being held? I start making my way over, sneaking behind and between the stone pillars, but the mini mage pulls me back and shakes his head. “That leads to the throne room I think. Let's try elsewhere.”

Fine with me. If those guys were anything like the guard outside, then I'd be in for a world of hurt if I was forced to duel both of them at once. We come across some stairs leading to a second level off to the right and went on with our search. Suddenly, Torunka's staff started to glow as we pass by a door at the end of the southern hall. I stop to look at the door. It seemed plain enough, however, when I tried to open it, it was locked. Bingo! This had to be the place.

“Use the staff,” Torunka whispers.

“Like this?” I ask, holding it up before the door. The staff's glow increases then there was a soft click. I try the door and it swung right open. Well, guess the thing was useful after all - if only for unlocking doors. We cautiously step in and sure enough, there was a little girl with mint green hair done in two pigtails sitting on the wooden bench that was obviously supposed to be a bed. Wait a sec! I faintly remember seeing someone with pigtails like hers somewhere before. Oh yeah! It was during one of the two times I was here before!

“Luna?” I ask.

“You're a human!” she says jumping off the `bed'. “You're here to rescue me right?”

“Uh… yeah. I guess I am,” I say.

“I knew it!” she cries happily, “You heard me! Thanks a lot um…”

“Iolanthe.”

“Thanks so much, Iolanthe! By the way, did you come with a spellcaster called Torunka? I got caught helping him escape and I'm worried about him.”

“I did,” I reply. “He's right…” I look to my side and see that the brat was no longer with me. Damn he must have wandered off while we were talking.

“Get your paws off me you damned dirty ape!” I hear from down the hall. “Do you even know who I am?! I'm one of the most powerful…”

“Oh dear. Looks like he's in trouble again.”

“Iolanthe-chan don't worry about me!” Torunka yells, “Get Luna out of here! On second thought, get over her and help me!!!”

I sigh and smack my face again. “He's really a pain isn't he?” Luna says, giggling. It was obvious she'd spent quite a bit of time with the brat before getting caught.

“Door open. Why?” I hear a monkey chirp.

“I can't believe I got caught,” the mini mage groused as he was led into the cell by a monkey soldier. “Why didn't you come help me, Iolanthe-chan… you're so cold-hearted…” He begins to sniffle. Heh. Some old man whining and pouting like a little kid!

“Who you?!” the soldier queries, upon spying me.

“Oh there you are Iolanthe-chan!” Torunka says, “And Luna too!”

“Intruders. You no escape,” the monkey says, readying his duel disk. Yeesh, here we go again.

Yep, I was right. Not only do these goons all look alike, they all have the same decks, though this one seemed to have a few subtle differences. Good thing I was expecting this, this time. It was still a tough battle, but it didn't take as long for me to beat the moron.

“You strong,” he says, “Me get friends. You stay.” The stupid monkey then runs out the cell, leaving the door open! Just how did they manage to take over that town at all?!

“Does he really think we're going to stay here?” the chibi wiz kid asks. “Yeah, right! Let's get out of here!” For once I agree with the brat. “Stick together people!”

We all dash out the door and down the halls. However, it was a huuuuuuuuugee mistake letting Torunka take the lead. The little pain in the rear kept leading us right into more and more monkey soldiers. Just whose side did he think he was on?!! Arrgh! He even led us to a room that looked like one of those crazy Escher drawings. It took FOREVER to find our way out of there!

*********************************************

When we were finally free of the castle, I was totally exhausted from all that running. So we stopped at one of the town's fountains to rest and talk. “Whew,” Torunka says as I take a moment to splash some of the crystal clear water onto my face.

“No thanks to you, Torunka!” Luna quips, huffing and panting. “We never should have let you lead the way!”

“Whatever you mean Luna? My plan went off without a hitch,” defended the chibi magician. “Getting caught allowed us to find you, Luna.”

“Who got caught now?!” I yell. I've just about had it with this kid! “It was YOUR staff that found Luna's cell in the first place! You only got caught because you had to develop a major case of ADHD and wander off!!”

“She's right you know. We both heard you screaming for her to help you back there!”

“That was so that, Iolanthe-chan could find me. See all according to plan.”

“Whatever…” Luna retorts, sighing heavily, “What it all really comes down to is that if Iolanthe weren't there, we'd never have gotten out to begin with,” the girl mutters under her breath.

“Eh? I didn't quite catch that, Luna,” Torunka replies.

“Geez…” she says sighing again, “At least we can talk freely now. I really owe you a lot Iolanthe. Thanks again.”

“What about me?! I helped too you know!”

“Alright, alright! Thanks Torunka. Anyway, I was called to the Spirit World by the Ancient Fairy Dragon,” Luna begins, telling her tale, “who was sealed away by that nasty Zeman. I was on my way to meet Regulus, a friend of the Ancient Fairy Dragon's when I got captured. He should still be in the forest east of here.”

“Yes,” added Torunka, “But I've heard rumors that he's been acting strange lately.”

“Still, I have to meet with him. It's important! So I'm asking you if you would come with us, Iolanthe? Please?”

Well that voice in my first dream did say to help this girl. Might as well, who knows, maybe this Regulus would know how I could wake up from all this weirdness. “I don't see why I shouldn't,” I say.

“Really? Thanks!” the mint haired girl then gives me a big hug. “Ok, let's get moving!” She sure is a perky kid. But I can't help but like her. She reminded me of Crow's kids.

“Yes. With Iolanthe-chan along there should be no problem whatsoever.”

********************************************

A short while later, past another labyrinth like forest, we come upon a clearing. Suddenly I hear what appears to be a lion's roar. Sure enough an enormous lion with one horn on his forehead came charging toward us.

“Waahh!!!” Torunka cries, ducking behind me. “R-Regulus?”

This was Regulus?! This animal who looked like he was ready to eat us whole was the person Luna had to meet?!

“You're Regulus?” Luna asks bravely coming up to the growling great cat, “Please listen to me!” she pleaded, “I made a promise to the Ancient Fairy Dragon that I'd help protect the Spirit World. That's why I'm here!”

“She's come to free the Ancient one,” Torunka added.

“Enough of your pathetic lies!” he roars, “What kind of fool do you take me for?! I already know you wish to use the Ancient Fairy Dragon's powers for evil!” He then let out another roar and charged Torunka. The poor kid screamed like a little girl then dashed further off into the clearing, the great cat giving chase.

“Torunka!” Luna shouted, fearing for the spirit's life.

“Please noble, Regulus!” he begged from behind a boulder, “We humbly beg you for your time!”

“You would dare mock me?!” snarled Regulus.

“It's like he's hearing the exact opposite of what we say!” Luna says, “Hey! What's that?! There's a minus staff stuck to his leg! That's it! I bet it's that staff that's doing that to him!”

“Good work Luna!” Torunka says then clears his throat before addressing the lion once more. “Regulus is smelly, a klutz, and a crybaby! Even my housecat can take him on!”

I hope he knew what he was doing, otherwise we'd be short of one arrogant bratty little kid.

Regulus let out another furious roar. “Did you think you could butter me up with that pathetic flattery!” He then chased Torunka around the clearing again.

“Iolanthe-chan! Do something! Quick!” the poor kid pleads. Why is it always me who gets into wacky situations like this?

“I've got it!” Luna says pulling me aside. You duel Regulus, that'll distract him enough so I can get that staff off of him. Quick give me Torunka's staff!”

“You sure this'll work?” I whisper back.

“Not really, but it's the only thing I can come up with.”

“Well better than nothing I guess.” I gulp nervously as I walk up to the snarling beast. “N-Nice kitty, kitty. Uh, I mean, bad lion! Baaaaaad lion!” I can't believe I'm doing this. Talking animals that play card games, what next?! On second thought, I'd better not ask that.

Joy of joys. Another beast themed deck with a few fairies mixed in - especially the one fairy I never could stand, Honest. That guy was a real be-yotch! I've been on the receiving end of his special ability too many times before. I was panting heavily and sweating by the time I won the duel. The good thing was that I gave Luna more time than she needed to use Torunka's staff to get the minus one off of the lion's leg.

“Yay! I did it!” she shouted with glee.

“Well done you two!” Torunka said from his hiding spot.

“What… is happening?” the lion asks confusedly.

“I thought I was gonna have a heart attack over here,” the half-pint of a wizard mutters in relief.

“You!” he says walking over to Luna. I ready my duel disk in case he tried anything. “You're the young Signer girl!”

“Glad to see you're back to normal, Regulus!” she says, just as relieved.

“You…” the great cat says to me, “I sense you have a special bond with the Ancient Fairy Dragon as well. I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for guiding this girl to me, young lady. I must also beg for your forgiveness. That despicable ape had the gall to place a curse on me and I became confused by it. I am ashamed… to think I believed you to be enemies.”

“I thought we were gonna be cat food for sure. You gave us such a fright, Regulus!” Torunka piped up. “Can't say I blame you though. You did hear the opposite of what we said after all.”

“Is that so? Then just what was it you said to me before Torunka?” Regulus asks, glaring at the kid.

“Ehehe!” the mini mage said, laughing nervously, “What does it matter? We still have to save the Ancient Fairy Dragon right?”

“You are quite right, Torunka…”

Before the lion could go on, Luna let out a gasp. “Oh no! I'm sensing danger's heading towards us in the real world!”

“What?!” shouts Torunka.

During all the commotion with Regulus, I had forgotten I was dreaming! If what Luna said was true, then that would mean my sleeping body could be in serious trouble and I'd never be able to wake up!

“You must get rid of this danger in your world first,” the lion says firmly. “I also believe it is not yet the right time to rescue the Ancient one. If you should ever need the Ancient Fairy Dragon's power, then you must find a way to return to the Spirit World. Until then, Torunka and I will do all in our power to protect it.”

“Exactly!” agreed Torunka, “Regulus and… w-w-what?! You must still be suffering from side effects of that curse, Regulus! I don't think I'd be much help looking like this!”

“Don't worry Torunka,” Luna says smiling, “We'll be back before you know it! Well I guess I'll head back to those Arcadia creeps now.”

“Wait Luna!” I call, “That bastard Divine kidnapped you too?!”

“Oh?! You're in the Arcadia building too?! That's great! That means you can rescue me there too!”

“Take this!” Torunka says handing me his staff. I look at him, puzzled.

“It's ok. I made it so you can take it with you to your world. Who knows, it just might come in handy there too - like rescue Luna! Kick their asses, Iolanthe-chan!”

Before I can say anything, the forest fades away along with my body.