Cardfight!! Vanguard SC: Defenders of the Gate

Chapter 36: Grief in Remembrance

After their last moments with Harmonics Messiah, the Defenders had returned back to Yudai's house. Each of them had retired to their own rooms, in obvious confusion and grief due to what they had to witness. Yudai in particular. He was in his room, arranging his cards on the bedside table. This was the only thing that seemed to calm his down these days.
Not only had Harmonics Messiah chosen to implant his remaining strength into Yudai, but the card he had given him was still blank. And that's even including what troubled him the most. Every he thought about it, he felt like fainting again. "Yui..." he said to the air, hoping the name would bring him joy like it always did. It didn't, instead, it left a foul taste in his mouth. His sister was alive, but was working with the people that planned to destroy Cray and Earth. The people who took Chiho and Izo. All these years, he had wished in his heart that Yui would come back to him, but now they'd have to fight on opposite sides. The worst part being, Yudai knew that he was in too deep to turn back now. He was the apparent leader of this resistance force. He knew he would have to fight her eventually.

"It's probably necromancy, Yudai," said a girl's voice. But there were no girls in his room, and the voice certainly didn't sound like it belonged to Roka or Kiseki. Yudai swivelled his head from side to side and looked outside his window. He was the only one around, so where did the voice come from?

"I'm done here, Yu-dummy, " said the voice again. Taking a hint, Yudai looked down. He came to face one of his new cards, Amazon Star, Bellatrix, a young warrior girl (she looked around 14 for a humanoid) with two spears made from stellar energy. Yudai's eyes twitched. Sure, he'd been told he had this PsyQualia thing, but this was just crazy. Thinking the grief and mental overload was getting to him, he turned around and decided to get some sleep. "Hey, don't turn your back on a lady when she's talking to you!" The card yelled. Yudai rubbed his temples and sighed. He turned around and said, "Fine, fine. Oh, mystical talking card! What can I do for thee?" in a fake exalting voice.

"Don't you mock me! If you were here on Cray right now, I'd run you through!" The card yelled once again. Bellatrix was obviously the hot-headed and tomboyish type. The card seems to glow with every word it spoke in a faint yellow light, like a flicker.

"Please calm down, Bella. Remember what we talked about." interrupted another one of Yudai's card, Obscured Astral Blade, Saiph. He was dressed like a musketeer, and his slanted hat and black hair covered his right pale blue eye. In his right hand, was a glowing blue rapier. "This human is Cosmic Sanctum's Vanguard, so please be more respectful," Saiph explained. Yudai sweatdropped. "Great, now there's two of them?..."

"My name is Obscured Astral Blade, Saiph. But, of course, you already knew that. You have our God's power now, yes? That means you should be able to do everything Harmonics Messiah did, while one a smaller scale. That includes talking to cards, creating them and other things." Yudai's eyes widened in surprise. Did he really have that sort of power?

"Bellatrix. You said something about necromancy?" Yudai asked. Bellatrix cleared her throat and was about to begin explaining, but was cut off by Red Variable Star, Betelgeuse, a star warrior dressed in red gear, and a captain in Cosmic Sanctum's Army. "Yes, once, when Harmonics Messiah and the Void were at war with each other, the Void managed to steal two of Harmonics Messiah's holy arts, creation and revival, from him." He began, much to Bellatrix's annoyance.

"Get in line, Beetle-juice!" said Bellatrix, over pronouncing Betelgeuse's name. "I wasn't done talking!"

" Let it go, Bella..." Saiph grimaced. Bellatrix and Betelgeuse began to argue, while Saiph tried to calm them down, and these voices in Yudai's head began much too loud. So...he snapped, stress marks appearing on his forehead. "BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE DIABLO UP!" Yudai shouted, then quickly clutched his mouth, hoping none of his housemates heard his sudden outburst. "You," he said, pointing to Betelgeuse. "Speak."

"Okay, now where was I?" He began, again. "Ah, yes. So, using the corrupted creation arts it created its avatar, Link Joker, and I suspect, it used the corrupted revival art to bring this Yui girl back to life to serve as its mindless puppet. She seems to have had her memories rewritten to have her despise you, and she has likely been stripped of her free will. You see, this process is not simply black and white. As she died, the Void must have filled her with life from one of her infinite possibilities, one in which she served it. Chances are, if we succeed in defeating the Void, she'll disappear from this plane of existence, body and soul. That kind of revival comes with a price you see, an exchange of equal value. If we succeed, she'll be lost in a distorted sense of time, space and matter. What we on Cray refer to now as 'The Locked Plane'."

"The Locked Plane?" Yudai asked. The eeriness of the name worried him greatly.

"Yes. It is the dimensional fracture that was left behind when the Link Joker units were created and entered our world. No one who goes inside escapes to tell the tale, but we are told it is like an everlasting lock. These days, on Cray, we use the rift for the eternal banishment of big time criminals, or threats to life on Cray. For example, had Claret Sword Dragon of the Shadow Paladins been captured before his death, he would have been eternally banished there. And I suspect the same fate will befall the girl."

Yudai narrowed his eyes. He thought of the bright-eyed, auburn haired girl he had spent part of his childhood with. The world was certainly a cruel place; doing something like this to a girl like her. Her fate killed her first, and then it had the gall to bring her back like this?

Yudai! You're covered in scratches and bruises! Don't tell me you were fighting again..." Yudai's mother asked as she came to pick Yudai and Yui up from school. Yudai was sitting in the principal's office with Yui, and was in a very sour mood.

"So what if I was?" He asked, as the trio walked towards his mother's car. "Those jerks were picking on Rei again..." He retorted. "But Yui got in my way, so I couldn't finish teaching them a lesson." Yudai's mother sighed.

"What am I gonna do with you, son?" She turned to her adoptive daughter. "Thank you, Yui. You did the right thing, okay?"

"No! If I don't do something, they'll keep picking on my best friend! What kind of friend am I if I do nothing!?" Yudai asked with tears in his eyes. Yudai gave her older brother a hug.

"But Yudai, you know you're too nice to hurt people. Maybe you should try to do what Rei's does?"

Yudai stared at her, confused. "You mean, I should let myself get bullied?"

"No, dum dum. Try smiling all the time. If you be nice to everyone and smile all the time like Rei does, even people who don't like you will end up liking you. So try starting now!" She exclaimed and she began pulling Yudai's cheeks.

"Okay, okay! Jeez, I'm smiling!" He forced out in muffled tongues.

"Yui is my light. She's too good to be floating around in a lock forever." Yudai sighed a closed his eyes. "Orionus," He said, as he stood up, beginning to gather cards into a deck.
"Yes, Yudai?" The hero from Cray's outer space answered in his unique voice that sounded like it was human but it had a metallic echo to it.

"Are you with me? Will you stand by my side until this entire ordeal is over?" He asked his Avatar. In response, Orionus chuckled.

"Next you ask, young king? On behalf of the clan I represent, I tell you that we will stay with you until the stars rain down from the heavens."

Yudai couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, my Avatar. Because I think I'm gonna do something crazy." He said as he put Orionus on the top of his deck, put the deck his FiCa, and left his room.

"Oh? What would that be?" the unit asked. Yudai went down the stairs to meet Roka, Kiniro and Kiseki, with Rei also. They were all ready to go out and fulfil the task their deceased commander; defeat the Void and save their worlds.

"What do you think?" He answered, facing his teammates. "I'm gonna save Yui."

Kiniro smirked. "Funny. We just had the same idea."