Yu-Gi-Oh! DA: The Phantom Seal - Chapter Twelve

And finally we have something resembling a villain in this book. The Card Takers were jerks, but not really bad guys. This thing is obviously malicious in intention. Also we get some foreshadowing that John is going to be saved by a card that Karen made for him. With her being into card design, I think it's really about time.



Chapter Twelve

The Poltergeist


Classes were coming to a close. It was only two days before the end of the first year. Karen was excited. Her last class of the day was Card Design Basics, where she was supposed to get the results of her final project back. She kept telling me that after she got her results she'd have something to show me, but I didn't have any clue what it was. Mostly because Karen wouldn’t so much as give me a clue as to what it was. But she was excited, so I was excited, and Thomas and Ria, our only friends on the island, were excited too. They had both scored high enough on their finals to be accepted into High Dorm. They were slated to move in today and stay until the summer break began, and they would automatically be invited back into High Dorm next year.

I sat through my classes, but the learning phase had passed. We basically just sat back and hung out. Thomas droned on and on all throughout the day, talking about upgrading his deck, how awesome his move up to High Dorm was going to be, how Ria was kinda cute, but also crazy, how great it was to be moving up to High Dorm, how hungry he was, what he was hungry for, how hungry he was, how excited he was to be moving up to High Dorm, and why the color red was better than the color red-orange. Along with other far less important things.

Like I said once before, good kid, but way chatty.

I didn't really listen to him. Not completely anyway, not at first. I was busy thinking about what might have Karen so worked up. Then came lunch and I had to worry about keeping Ria from clinging to me while still finding the time to eat. Not for the first time, when Karen got fed up and tried to rip Ria’s throat out, I almost didn't stop her.

Ria. When she wasn’t acting like a prissy fangirl she was actually pretty cool, but she seemed to prefer her little act. I didn’t know why she acted the way she did, and I never asked. It was none of my business.

Finally we got back to class. Thomas immediately started going again, and again I didn't really listen to him. Not until he mentioned something about a poltergeist.

“A what?” I asked.

“A poltergeist,” he answered. “A malevolent spirit. Apparently there’s one living in the honors dorm, but I don’t believe it. I mean, if seven people had really been taken by a poltergeist, I’m sure someone would have said something by now, you know?”

I smiled reassuringly, “Yeah, no way no one from the school staff wouldn’t say something.” But of course I’m paranoid, so I wasn’t really sure, not one hundred percent anyway, but as far as I knew, if ever there was something evil about, my Soul knew about it, and its power hadn’t alerted me to anything. So I put Thomas’ statement out of mind. He was already off on a new tangent anyway. He was talking about how he was conflicted about how to improve his deck.

“Part of me wants to add more monsters that can be Special Summoned,” he said, “so I can tribute more often for ‘Ignis’’ effect. But at the same time, I could accomplish the same thing by keeping my monsters the same and just increasing the number of burn cards.”

“Well,” I replied, “if you add too many monster cards that can be Special Summoned, then you risk using up your entire hand early on, and you won’t have any Traps to set or Spells to play, but the same goes for the other option. If you add more Spells and Traps, then you risk not drawing enough monsters. If it were me, I’d try to find a cheap way to summon Token Monsters to use as tribute for your monster effect.”

Thomas seemed to take my advice to heart. He paused to consider it-

-For about half a second, before he started again on something else. This time around I listened even less than usual. I was still worrying about what he’d said earlier about the poltergeist. Or at least I was until our final class of the day let out early, and I forgot all about it.

Thomas and I walked to the lobby where we ran into Ria (of course).

“Johnny!” she called, running up to me and throwing her arms around me. I rolled my eyes and very delicately peeled her off of me.

“So, Ria, you got out early too?” I asked, trying desperately to distract her.

“Yeah,” she said. “Every Dueling student did.”

“Not Card Design Students?”

“Nope,” said Ria, leaning close to me, “just us.”

I took a step back.

“I’m gonna go, guys,” Thomas announced. “I’m gonna set up my new room and get settled in.”

“Ooh,” said Ria, “me too! Johnny, you should come with me. We can test out the bed.”

“I’m with Karen,” I said flatly.

“So?” Ria replied.

“And I’m not physically or romantically attracted to you at all whatsoever.”

“So?”

“And I’m with Karen”

“So?”

I rolled my eyes again, “I’m just gonna hang back here and wait for Karen. You kids go ahead.”

Ria shrugged, “Fine. Your loss.”

She strutted away. Thomas followed. I walked slowly outside and sat against the stone slab depicting ‘Kuriboh’, and waited for Karen to get out of class. My class hadn’t let out too early, so I didn’t expect to wait long.

It was about twenty minutes before Karen walked out the front doors of the school, talking with a couple of her classmates. When she saw me waiting she smiled, excused herself from the conversation, and ran over to join me.


Thomas


Ria and I made our way away from the building in silence. I’d never come right out and say it, but I had a huge crush on her. Normally I’d be coming on to her bit by bit, feeling things out, but she had a huge thing for John.

Plus she was kinda self-centered and seemed a little crazy. It was intimidating.

"Where are we going?" Ria asked me. I hadn't even thought about it, but of course she wouldn't know where I was headed.

"The honors dorm," I told her. "There are rumors that something weird is going on there. Something about a poltergeist. I want to check it out, even if it does sound ridiculous.

We approached the building. As we did, my pace slowed. I felt uneasy for some reason, and so my legs slowed without me meaning for them to. Still, it wasn't until my buddy Ignis showed up. The transparent spirit of the fox genie appeared from my deck. Ria didn't react to him, but that was to be expected. She couldn't see spirits.

Ignis hissed in my ear, and even though the sounds made no sense, I understood the sentiment behind them. There was something here that shouldn't be, and it was dangerous enough to make Ignis afraid. Before I could even process that revelation, though, a student in a blue jacket ran from the honors dorm and nearly barreled into me. I barely got out of the way. He looked terrified.

“What the hell’s goin’ on here?” Ria asked. Even as she spoke an intense swirling wind picked up, pulling us toward the entrance to the building. That's when I saw it, a swirling, shadowy form. As I watched another honors student was pulled into the shadowy vortex, his body torn apart, broken into wisps of shadow, and faded away.

“Oh my God,” Ria screamed, “what the HELL is goin’ on!?!”

“Oh shit, oh no,” I screamed despite myself. Out of duels I’m not the bravest person you'll ever meet. “Oh crap, it’s some kinda Shadow Magic!”

“Shadow what?! We gotta get outta here!”

You aren’t going anywhere, said a voice that echoed in my head. I’ve nearly absorbed enough Duel Energy to emerge completely into your world. You are both very strong. The Duel Energy of either of you would be enough to complete my new form, and I plan to absorb you both. I will become unstoppable!

“What is that?” Ria demanded.

“Some kinda magic being,” I answered.

Quiet vermin! the voice commanded. Prepare to become part of a superior being. Prepare to be consumed!

“Hold on,” said Ria, fear and confusion being replaced instantly with the stubborn anger that she was known for, “nobody consumes Ria Hernandez.” As she spoke the sucking wind died down and a form began to emerge from the shadows. The lights were out, so there were plenty of them. The form was vaguely human-shaped, but incoherent and incomplete. A form that was still somehow formless. Instead of cringing back like a normal person Ria stepped closer to the form, placed her hands on her hips, and stood to face it. I thought she was being stupid, until I heard her say, “Thomas, run.”

She was distracting it so that I could get away.

To the form, Ria said, “You can consume me if you can beat me estupido.”

Very well, the form replied, and three spear-like tentacles shot from its vaguely defined torso. Ria moved like lightning. She avoided the first tentacle with ease, and the second with greater difficulty. The third struck a glancing blow and sent her sprawling into the wall beside the front doorway. Ria winced and looked up. When she saw me still standing there, she cried, “I told you to run!”

The shadow form lashed out again, this time at me, and I turned and ran out the door. The doors slammed closed just as I passed through them. The sky over the dorm has grown dark, the dark magic from the creature inside overflowing into the sky. I heard thunder rolling in the sky overhead. I turned back to the closed doors and tried with all of my strength to open them, but they were sealed. Ria was still inside, and there was nothing I could do to help her. It only made things worse when I heard Ria scream, and the shadows around the building began to deepen into a solid barrier. I barely got away from the building before I was trapped too.


John


“So,” I asked Karen as she sat down with me, “what’s up? What’s the big news?”

“Well,” she began, but she was cut off when our Souls began to glow in unison. I looked instinctively in the direction of what my Soul had felt, just in time to see dark clouds form in the sky above High Dorm. A wall of Shadows formed around the building, reaching above the treetops. I looked around. No one else had seen anything yet. We didn’t have much time. Without another word, my Soul flashed and Karen and I vanished.


We reappeared outside of the honors dorm.

“John!”

“Thomas?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

Thomas ran up to me from within the dorm just as a cloud of darkness surrounded the building completely, “John, Karen, Ria’s still inside!”

“There’s something weird inside there!” said one of the dorm's students who was present with us in the clearing. He stood with four others, the only representatives of the building's twenty or so occupants. “We all saw it,” he said, “and we barely made it out alive!”

This is bad, I realized. These guys can’t remember being attacked by a monster. It will ruin their lives.

So I broke my only rule involving use of my powers. I reached into their minds and I ripped away their memories of the day. They all passed out.

Thomas and Karen looked wide-eyed at the fallen students. “They’ll be fine,” I said, “but they won’t remember anything that happened in there.”

I looked Karen in the eyes, and we both knew what I had to do.

“Go,” she said, “but take this with you.” She handed me a card, explaining, “The student with the highest score on their final project got their project made into a card. I made it for you. Now hurry. I’ll keep things under control here.”

I looked at the card that Karen had given me and smiled, placing it into my deck. Then I turned toward the building. My Soul flashed and the darkness parted, the doors behind them swinging open, and I stepped inside. I felt the shadows close behind me.

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