Come, come, come, come, join us, join us, in this world of darkness.
He stood alone, surrounded by nothing but the blackness, no sound could be heard, no light could be seen. He was all alone. His eyes widened and his face paled, and he let out a gut wrenching scream.
However in the world of darkness his screams went unheard. He collapsed to the floor, he didn't know existed, and in reality it didn't. A dark wind wrapping around his body, all the while black blobs appeared on the floor that was not, and never would be. The teenager however saw and felt nothing, his mind did that, and it was all too much for the poor boy, for he gradually faded into the darkness.
However just as he was about to fade completely there was a surging white light and the boy, not the child, for he had never properly lived past his tenth birthday, knew that there was still hope, hope that he could, and most certainly would cling to.
Osamu would never go back to darkness.
His Heroes would make sure of that.
Come, come, come, come, join us, join us, in this world of darkness.
He stood alone, surrounded by nothing but the blackness, no sound could be heard, and no light could be seen.
He was all alone.
He'd always been alone.
No one had ever cared for him, no one.
A dark wind wrapping around his body, all the while black blobs appeared on the floor that was not, and never would be. The teenager however saw and felt nothing, his mind did that, and it was all too much for the poor boy, for he gradually faded into the darkness. However just as he was about to fade completely he heard it, a soft, loving voice echoing through the darkness.
The boy blinked, well at least he thought he did, but it was not a trick. Far off in the distance he could see an outline of someone slowly walking towards him. The figure neared the boy, and upon seeing it the boy couldn't help but be shocked. The figure was the most hideous thing he had ever seen, and all he wanted to do was shrink away from it, go back to the nothing that he'd been surrounded by. Curl up into a ball and pretend, once more, that the world didn't exist.
Yet as the creature touched him with a repulsive hand he felt warmth coming from it, and as the creature smiled at him, Haru could do nothing but smile back.
Come, come, come, come, join us, join us, in this world of darkness.
"So your dragon's stronger than my monster, big deal," Osamu said, looking at the dragon with no fear at all, which was most definitely a first. "It can't stop me from crushing you."
"My dragon has an ability you might want to know about," Haru said, "by removing one DARK monster in my Graveyard from play; I can destroy one card on the field."
"What! No Way!"
"So," Haru continued, "by removing my Dark Nephthys from play, I can have my Dark Armed Dragon instantly crush your Elemental Hero Flame Wingman."
As Haru's Graveyard glowed, and the boy in question removed his selected card from the game, putting it in his top pocket, the great dragon opened its mouth wide, and destroyed his target with a burst of dark flames.
"No..." Osamu whispered quietly, as he watched his favourite monster burn to nothing under the heat, and power, of the black flames.
"I'm not done," Haru called out; pointing towards the card he had facedown on the field, "for now I active Escape from the Dark Dimension. This card allows me to Special Summon one Dark monster that has been removed from play back to the field, and the monster I choose is none other than my Dark Nephthys."
A beam of dark energy shot out into the darkness, quickly forming in the image of a dark black bird coated in a grey metal shell. It possessed a large pair of wings that burnt both red and black flames. Yet as the bird descended from the sky Haru's opponent noticed that it was attached to the trap card by a thin rope of black energy.
"Now," Haru said, "when my Dark Nephthys is successfully Special Summoned it destroys one magic or trap card on the field, and I have it in mind to make it destroy your facedown."
Osamu could only watch as his facedown card, Hero Signal, was ripped to pieces by the feathered bird's mighty talons.
"How does it feel to be all alone… Again?" Haru asked, mockingly
However Osamu didn't show any fear, far from it, in fact, to Haru's great surprise, he started to laugh.
"You call me a coward?" He asked, "Well to me you're the coward, hiding behind your big monsters too afraid to ever face your problems on your own."
"How wrong you are," a voice said, seemingly coming from all around them and Haru was suddenly aware that Yubel was standing beside him, however this time she wasn't just a mere spirit, she had full physical form.
"How," Haru managed to get out.
"I told you there was something here," she said, sounding awfully smug.
"Smugness later, explanation now," Haru snapped.
"I was getting to that," she said, annoyed. "It seems as though, whilst duelling, you've been transported to a realm of darkness and shadows..."
"The Shadow Realm..." Osamu breathed in both awe and fear.
"If I had meant to say Shadow Realm," Yubel said, "I would have said Shadow Realm. No, this most certainly isn't the Shadow Realm, a far darker presence lurks here. However that doesn't mean the rules are any different from the Shadow Realm, if you win you escape, if you lose you get trapped here forever."
"You know this because?" Haru asked.
"I'm a female demonic spirit, I know everything."
"Sure you do," Haru said sarcastically.
"In truth, it was that little 'fur ball with wings' that told me about the Shadow Games," here she pointed to her head, which Winged Kuriboh was sitting on top of. "It must have learnt a lot from its travels with the King of Games."
It was then that Osamu became fully aware of what was actually going on, and noticed the creature standing besides Haru for the first time.
"You..." Osamu gasped.
"Oh, you remember me?" Yubel said, turning to face the boy, a twisted smile adorning her features. "That's good, because I could never forget you after all the pain you caused my precious Haru, and I am now going to take great pleasure in watching you scream in agony. No one hurts the one I love and gets away with it. Back to what I was saying beforehand, you're wrong. Haru will never be alone, because, though he may have few, he is protected by those who love and care for him. That is the difference between him and you, you're protected by Heroes, and because their Heroes, they help those who need it, when they decide you no longer need help they will vanish."
"Love?" Osamu scoffed, "How can you love him? You're just a card!"
Let the screaming begin, Yubel thought happily to herself. "Just so you know," Yubel said to Osamu, "there are several things that you should, under no circumstance, ever say to Haru. That was one of them."
Before Osamu could comprehend what was happening to him he felt metal across his chest, as well as razor sharp talons. The pain they inflicted made him fall to the ground hard, just in time to be hit by burning black flames, which succeeded in knocking his life points down to 2800. However the pain didn't stop. No, it was repeated several times, and Osamu's screams soon filled the air. In fact Yubel, who stood there watching with a look of ecstasy on her face, would not have been surprised if people back at the school could hear him.
"He got off easy," she said to herself when the screams died down and he was left motionless.
What happened next Yubel could only put down to the boy having an extremely strong will and determination, Osamu started to move, slowly and shakily getting back to his feet, wobbling slightly as he did so.
With a shaky hand he drew a card from his deck and looked at it, before calling out his move. "I activate the magic card Lightning Vortex, by sending one card in my hand, like my Elemental Hero Sparkman, to the Graveyard; I can destroy every single face-up monster on your side of the field..."
All of Haru's monsters were quickly hit with bolts of powerful lightning, and when the lightning stopped his monsters were no more.
"... and don't forget," Osamu continued. "Since your Dark Nephthys was destroyed it is removed from play because of your Escape from the Dark Dimension trap card."
"I know that," Haru snapped, greatly irritated that some of his best monsters had been easily defeated, before he put the monster in question back into his jacket's top pocket.
"You've still got me," Yubel reminded him.
"I know," Haru said smiling.
"Now," Osamu said, "I play," here he showed the last card in his hand, "Elemental Hero Bubbleman, (ATK 800/DEF 1200), and since he's the only card in my hand I can Special Summon him, and I chose to Special Summon him in Defense Position."
A man in a blue bubble-like suit, with a cape appeared on the field, after a surge of bubbles erupted from the ground, taking up a kneeling position.
"Also, when Elemental Hero Bubbleman is successfully Summoned and there are no other cards in my hand or on my side of the field, I can draw two cards." Which he quickly did, replenishing his hand, and upon inspection of his newly drawn cards his eyes widened in astonishment.
He had drawn the card he needed to win, he had drawn his miracle.
"Now I activate one of my most powerful cards, a card with the power to create miracles."
Haru raised an eyebrow in curiosity, he had a strong hunch at what card was about to be played. This duel was starting to get interesting.
"I activate the magic card Miracle Fusion. This card allows me to remove Fusion Material Monsters from my side of the field, or Graveyard, that are listed on an 'Elemental Hero' Fusion Monster, from the game in order to Special Summon the selected Fusion Monster, So I remove my Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, and my Elemental Hero Sparkman from the game in order to Fusion Summon my Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman, (ATK 2500/ DEF 2100), in Attack Mode."
As the two creatures merged both players were blinded in white light, and when it dimmed even Yubel couldn't help but be impressed by the sight before her. The monster that stood before them now wore glowing white armour, coming out of which were two white wings which shone with the same intensity as the armour.
Truly the glowing monster was a sight to behold.
"My Shining Flare Wingman has the same effect as my Elemental Hero Flame Wingman did," Osamu informed Haru, "but it also gains 300 Attack Points for every other 'Elemental Hero' monster in my graveyard. Since I have two, its Attack Points increase by 600, giving it a total of 3100 Attack Points."
"That's cool," Haru said. "What? I'm allowed to respect my opponent's monsters, aren't I?" He asked, after receiving a glare from Yubel.
"If I feel you're giving them too much praise," Yubel warned, "you will regret it."
Haru was stopped from responding to that by Osamu's hate filled voice filling the room.
"Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman, attack Haru. Sunfire Nova."