Yugioh: The Power of Four

Chapter 26: ARC-V - PART 12

"They weren't so tough." Manjome said after he and Kenzen defeated a team of Obelisk Force soldiers.

"Hardly broke a sweat." Kenzan added as he chuckled.

On one side of the group, Tèa and Asuka gave their compliments to their teammates.

On the other side, Manjome sighed and walked a little away. "Hey, what's up with you?" Kenzan asked as he caught up with him. The black haired Duelist sighed again as he folded his arms over his chest, looking depressed.

"It's nothing." He muttered softly. Kenzan snorted.

"Oh come on. Tell me what's up? We just won a Tag Duel against soldiers representing an upside down version of our school! How come you stopped being so smug all of a sudden?" Kenzen demanded.

"I said it was nothing, now drop it." He snapped back.

"Fine, whatever." Kenzan said as he held up his hands in surrender.

Manjome groaned inwardly. There was no way he would ever tell anyone, let alone Kenzan, what was bothering him. The truth was, he was still upset that the Asuka he knew chose to be with Judai instead of him. He tried his best to hide it in front of everyone. He actually wasn't happy when Reiji assigned this world's Asuka to be on the same team as him. Every time he saw her, it reminded him of the pain he was feeling... the pain of rejection. He knew things would never work with this other Asuka, especially after how he acted toward her.

True, he thought he was talking to his world's Asuka at the time, but it didn't change the fact that this Asuka didn't have strong feelings for him either. He was told that there were other girls and that the one for him was still out there. Despite that encouragement, Manjome himself didn't believe there would be any woman that would see him the way he saw Asuka...

Before he could brood further, a golden dome had sprung up around him and Kenzan. "What the hell?!" He shouted as he and the Dino Duelist were cut off from their female teammates.

"Tèa! Asuka! You girls alright?" Kenzan yelled, but got no reply.

"What's this?! Where are the girls?!" Manjome shouted in alarm. Kenzan banged and shoved against the edge of the barrier, but it did no good. Nothing worked.

"No good! Looks like we're stuck in whatever this is!" A second later, a strange, dark doorway materialized before the trapped Duelists. Confused, they stared as someone came walking through toward them.

The person they saw shocked them, especially Manjome. "You?! How could you of all people be here?!" The person who stepped through just laughed.

"Actually Manjome, I was hoping you could tell me." The figure before them was a muscular young man with spiked up dark brown hair and wearing glasses. He had a Duel Disk on his left arm, but it was not activated yet.

"From what we learned, of all the people that went to that messed up world, only three never came back. You, Amon Garam, were one of them. How did you get here?" Manjome pointed out before he asked again. Amon shrugged.

"I wish I knew. One minute I was trapped in darkness with no way out. The next, a voice calls out to me and tells me I can become King if I prove my worth. So he lets me out and now here we are again at opposite sides."

"A voice? Who? Also, what happened to that woman I heard was with you?" Kenzan asked, curious. Amon then showed some regret.

"You mean Echo? Yeah, I haven't seen her since I..." Amon stopped talking. He knew full well what had become of her. He really didn't expect her to come back after what he did to her. He forced that regret out of his mind and changed the subject. "As for that voice... Honestly, I have no clue who or what spoke to me. Regardless, it made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. That demon Yubel took away my chance of becoming King of that world. As much as I would rather destroy her in a rematch, I have no choice but to beat you guys first. Sorry for the inconvenience." Amon apologized as he turned on his Duel Disk. Manjome grunted.