After Zero (A Yu-gi-oh story with no dueling)

Chapter 4 - Breakdown

"I understand. Thank you for your cooperation." Stardust closed her laptop and took off her headphones.

"Really? You've talked to them?" Red Daemon's was awake and lay facing Stardust's desk. She'd probably been listening for most of the conversation. "You think we can't take the problem?"

Stardust simply shot a cold glance back, which made her subordinate shiver. "I have done what needs to be done. Humanity shall be protected, even if I have to work with them."

"I don't care!" Red Daemon's jumped off the bed, summoned her armor and punched a hole through the wall. "You'll see! I can do this on my own! I'm dealing with this now!"

//

Powertool watched the target warily. He was afraid of what a one on one fight might bring for the people around them. Remaining calm, remembering the task Stardust had given him. "Why are you here?" He asked.

The demon knitted her brows, probably formulating some kind of reasonable falsehood. "That boy. He asked for my help, to bring him here."

Powertool looked at the person she was talking about. He definitely had a positive flow synchro aura around him, and to his memory there had never been any troublemakers out of this particular village.

"She's not lying." The boy spoke. Powertool was pleasantly surprised, most people would just quietly cower around a spirit of his caliber, though he supposed the boy must be used to it since most of the Superheavy Samurais are quite strong in their own right.

"Are you here to hurt anyone?" Powertool amped his sensors, reading the flow of synchro around his target. It was extremely unusual, as if it simultaneously existed and didn't exist.

"I see no reason to hurt these spirits or these people. They offer me shelter and sustenance. I am here to help... uh?" She looked at the human.

"Bruno."

"I am here to help Bruno." Not for a single second did the synchro around her so much as shake. She was telling the truth as far as Powertool was concerned.

"Fine. I guess you're not a problem." Powertool sighed. At least it seemed like the mission was done. He could see Ancient Fairy and their two new friends approaching from where they were. So it should be fine for him to try to make friends. "So uh, nice-"

"I found you!" A voice thundered from on above. Powertool recognized the voice. How could he ever forget? His mentor, his hero, his captain. Red Daemon's had arrived.

//

"Bruno, get back!" She pushed him back into the house and raised her sword. Mere seconds later a fist slammed into her blade, sending her through the wall.

"Wait! Captain they're not-"

"Shut up!" She fired back at Powertool before barreling through the house, grabbing the nameless spirit by the throat and lifting them both into the air. "Now I've-"

The nameless spirit felt an odd feeling pass through her body. Suddenly she couldn't feel Red Daemon's on her neck anymore. In fact she was falling.

"Get back here!" Red Daemon's shot downwards and... went straight through her target. She snapped back to look at what happened.

The spirit was fine. Nothing was missing, the only injuries were from getting thrown through the house earlier. She landed on the ground and looked at her hands. They were flickering, as if they weren't exactly there. Eventually she noticed there was a fist through her stomach. Red Daemon's was punching her over and over, each attack passing harmlessly through her.

"You bastard!" Red Daemon's jumped back, flames flaring to life.

"Bruno!" The nameless spirit ran to the wrecked house, phasing through the rubble. Despite her intangibility she eventually found something solid and pulled Bruno through the rubble.

"Am I dead?!" Bruno whimpered, distressed after the house had fallen on him and he simply passed through the wreckage.

"I think I know what's happening." She heard her own voice, it was also strange, sounding like it was passing through an audio compressor. "I've unverified our existences. A bit like Schrodinger's cat, we are here but we aren't. Our information has been encrypted to a quantum, that is to say we exist as a single byte, so we are not affected by-"

"What? Whatever! You're strong right? Go stop that crazy monster spirit!" Bruno was yelling desperately. His home was being attacked, and he needed to save as much of it as he could.

"Captain please!" Powertool suddenly stood between the two opposing sides. "They are not enemies! I verified it! They have nothing to do with the pillars of light!"

Without warning Red Daemon's punched Powertool into the sky. "Shut up and stay out of my way!" Before Powertool started falling, he was whisked out of the sky.

"What are you doing? Red Daemon's have you gone crazy?!" Ancient Fairy gently set her brother down while yelling at her captain.

"I said shut up!" Red Daemon's pulled her fist back. "I'll send you all straight to hell!" Flames started to coagulate and exude from her body.

"I have an idea." Bruno quickly whispered to his friend, his mind was clearly racing. "You should unverify her existence, so she can't hurt anyone. Wait, actually, can you do that?"

"Yeah, I can do it." She let go of him, running straight towards the encroaching flames. She made a finger gun and pointed it at Red Daemon's. "Here goes! Driveback Shot!" A yellow orb formed on her fingertip, and left with the speed of a bullet.

"Absolute Powerforce!" Red Daemon's fist contacted the shot and exploded in fiery rage, engulfing the entire village.

And absolutely nothing was burned. 

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Character information and glossary

Bruno: A young man from the Synchro region who acts quickly under pressure.

Unknown monster sprit: A bizzare human-like spirit who cannot remember her own name. She's a little difficult to interact with and her unusal behavior sets Bruno uneasy. She seems to be some kind of weird dragon related to synchro. She possesses the unusual ability to cause things to become intangible in some overly complicated way.

Red Daemon's: The three meter tall, irritable captain of the Signer Knights. She is ready to blindly follow their leader to an unhealthy degree, although she is pretty reliable in a fight. Her Blind loyalty now fuels her rage.

Powertool: One of the youngest of the Signer Knights. He looks up to Red Daemon's and wants to help humans and monster spirits alike. He's able to connect to other machine spirits through an appendage on his arm.

Ancient Fairy: The other of youngest Signer Knight. She and Powertool are siblings and will fight for each other's safety dearly. Like her brother she enjoys helping everyone and can do so quite handily. She's able to heal other spirits but has trouble doing so with machines and cyberse.

Human-like spirit: A monster spirit that has taken on a form similar to that of a human to better interact with an live among humans. This term does not apply to spirits which already looked human (monsters like Maurading Captain) or to humanoid spirits (like buster blader).

Signer Knights: The group of monster spirits in charge of ruling the synchro region. All six are human-like although all six act very differently.

The Pit: The bottomless hole located at the intersection of the four regions in the center of the world. No one of the current age knows how it was formed.

Synchro flow: Synchro adjacent spirits and people have a invisible aura around them that strong synchro spirits can see. The flow can be positive or negative which indicates their connection to normal synchro  and dark synchro.