Heroes No More

Reality and Dreams

The world fills with fog around her. Garbled voices ring out all around her. She travels forward through the dimly lit space searching for anything at all.

"...Yu...mi..."

A stone wall rises up rises up on her right, stretching on to disappear into the foggy distance. She jumps back out of surprise, jumping again as another wall rises up on her left.

"...Summoned....sleep..."

A smaller wall comes up behind her, blocking her from going back. Afraid that she would get trapped, Yumi takes off down the path the many walls had created. Another wall rises up in front of her forcing her to take a sharp turn right.

"...wake..."

She stumbles as she tries not to run into another wall. Left or right? All around her she can hear the sound of stone walls rising up. Is she in some kind of maze? No, it feels more like a labyrinth. The Stone Labyrinth? Like the duel monsters card? That doesn't really matter; she just needs to get out.

"...Someone..."

A strange force of energy calls her to the left. It feels...oddly familiar  to her. Almost like its calling her. Yumi takes off to the left, using the energy she senses as a guide through the many turns of the labyrinth.

The walls of the maze suddenly opens up to a large rounded space. Despite the thickly layered fog, if Yumi doesnt know any better she thinks she can almost make out a figure standing at its center. She cautiously draws near, the foggy figure slowly solidifies with each step.

They aren't facing her, but she can make out familiar looking blue jacket and pants. However, their head remains blurry. She continues to get closer, clearing her throat when she's an arm length away.

"H-Hello. Do you know-"

The figure turns, their face taking shape. When their eyes lock, shock fills them both. They both gasp in surprise.

"WAKE UP!"

Yumi's eye lids shoot open. Danny's face greets her vision so closely that the girl jumps back in surprise. "Danny what are you doing here?!"

"I came here to get you for training. When you didn't answer, I came to check on you  Your duel monsters were around  You were summoning them in your sleep."

Yumi's eyes widen in surprise. A quick look around proves Danny right. Several Duel Monsters stand anf sit around the room in various places. They all look over curiously with a touch of worry in their expressions. She stutters a quick apology and returns them to their spirit form.

"I don't want to talk about it," Yumi tells Danny before he can ask.

He shrugs. "Okay. Come on then sleeping beauty. You're needed in the practice exam room."

Yumi rubs the sleep from her eyes as she gets out of bed. She spots a light gray back pack and sets her card box inside before quickly dashing after Danny.

The pair makes their way down the never ending hallways. They reach a large set of silver steel doors. It isn't until Danny promises Yumi that the door doesn't lead to the arena that he's allowed to punch in the code to open the entrance way.

The doorway leads to a rounded white walled room. She feels her feet in to the padded floor. Its a strange sensation. Yumi is tempted to play with the padded floors, but the sight if the three men sitting behind a long table across the room snuggs out the playful notion.

Their position against the wall reminds Yumi of a panel if judges. She has a sneaking suspicion that this she's going to be judged again. At least it doesn't look like she has to fight anyone this time.

The director, more like the man who ruined her life, shuffles a few papers before speaking. "Yumi Muto, today you will show us the expanse of your powers. We will assess your skills and construct a training routine based on what we observed. Do you understand?"

Yumi crosses her arms. "Yeah, I understand."

Danny sits down on the empty chair at the end of the table. He gives Yumi two thumbs up and flashed a reassuring excited grin. The other three men...are less than welcoming.

The director's expression became unreadable. "Show us what you can do."

"Um..." The Dark Magician's card appears in her hand followed by the Amazoness Sage. The cards begin the glow and in a flash the two Duel Monsters are summoned to her world.

"Okay guys, quick demonstration of a mini duel. Just like at the cons." Yumi tells them in a hushed tone.

They nod in understanding. They begin to step away from each other until they are at opposite ends of the room. Without a word, Amazoness Sage charges forward in a flash of blue and gold.

The Dark Magician is not taken by surprise at her actions. He lifts hisnwand and with a blast of magic causes her to explode in a burst of gold flecks of light.

Yumi releases the breath she hasn't realized she had been hokding. The pain she felt when the Dark Magician was attacked had her uneasy for the battle.

She looks over at the men uncomfortably. What more is there for her to do? Prove she can see the spirit forms of them? These aren't the kind of games she usually enjoys.

"That will be all. Get some food and rest. We will have your credentials ready by tomorrow." The Director instructs.

"That's it?" Yumi blurts out before she can stop herself. Oh well, she's already started. "You drag me down here to just show you things you already know? What kind of program is this?"

Danny clears his throat. "One...to get you out of your room?"

She blinks at him in surprise, unsure of what he meant or what to say. "What?"

The men's form before her begin to morph into two girls and a boy. They wave sheepishly over at her, like kids caught trying to break the rules.

Danny rubs the back of his neck nervously. "Please don't get mad. It's just that a lot of kids just want to lay in bed and cry all day when they first get here, but since they live in group rooms the other kids don't let them stay sad for long. You don't have any other roommates to drag you out of bed and help you adjust...so I thought I'd help."

"That is very thoughtful and clever," the Amazoness Sages muses with a slight chuckle.

Yumi crosses her arms and puffs out her cheeks in a pout. She isn't giving in just yet to the kind gesture. "You could have just told me to come out instead of making me freak out about another test."

Bright pink rushes to Danny's cheeks and he looks down at his shoes. "Sorry, didn't think about that part." 

"I-It's fine, really!" Yumi quickly adds. The last thing she wants to do is upset the one human friend she has here. "It was really thoughtful of you, all of you, thanks."

They all reply with their own forms of 'you're welcome' before proceeding to leave. Apparently dinner is going to be served soon and they want to get the good batch of food.

Danny quickly explains that with so many teens, the wait can be long and if you get there at the end you just get the scraps.

Yumi grimaces and shakes her head. "What are we waiting for then? Let's get down there before the good stuff is gone."

"So you aren't mad?" Danny asks as he leads the way to the cafeteria.

"I can't be," Yumi admits. "you were trying to help and the Duel Monsters have already agreed that it was a good idea to get me out of my room."

His face lights up at the mention of the Duel Monsters' approval. He starts chatting away about all of the fun training exercises and the different missions people go on once they're trained enough and how great it is over all to be with the Defense Program.

As Yumi listens she secretly hopes that maybe one day she can be as happy to be there as Danny is. Until then she feels miserable. She was almost killed 'Mika', she is about to start training in fighting, she's no closer to finding out where she comes from than she was yesterday. She let out a small sigh. Baby steps. Everything will have to be taken in baby steps.