365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Original Reactor Site

1/11/19

After that revelation, Yusei decided it was probably best to just show Judai the site of the original reactor; it would be a great place to start if there was anything there for them to use.

And find something they did.

"There's so much duel energy just floating everywhere, Yusei," Judai said lowly, "It's... unnatural. The only time I've ever seen this much just floating around was when there was pretty much war in the spirit dimension, and it's not a good thing."

"Remember what I said about Zero Reverse? It changed the landscape completely, it was a devastating event," Yusei replied, "It's not really surprising to think there's still issues with this place. It's been closed down and I'm the only one who's gone through it recently, considering I wanted to lay out new site plans."

Judai hummed, still looking out at the huge rundown building in front of them, "Well, let's go see the actual reactor, there's bound to be something there if it's this bad outside the building already."

Two steps into the building, the duel energy practically latched onto Yusei, and Judai hissed. That was the last thing they needed, Yusei getting his core more corrupted by whatever this was.

See, every person had a core where they made and stored duel energy. Most people didn't have much, but psychic duelists and anyone who's had contact with the spirit world or any dimension of it tended to have larger reserves and stronger cores. Then, you have the Kings; the Pharaoh, Yugi, Judai, and now Yusei. Generally, their cores are representative of their status, boasting significantly larger reserves, magically enhanced cores, and the automatic ability of cutting off duel energy usage before it reached a critical level; this meant they would never use so much that they couldn't see spirits anymore. Sure, they wouldn't be able to materialize them anymore, but they'd still be able to see them.

How did Judai figure out so much? Well, after the fight with Paradox, he'd looped back around the world and sought out Yugi of course, and after revealing that he'd just gotten back from that fight, had spent a long few months researching magic and the spirit world with him. Granted, Yugi did most of the math and science aspects of it, Judai just did the physical parts that required his specific powers, but it was still very enlightening.

Quickly, Judai grabbed Yusei's arm, pulling him close and flaring out his own energy. The corrupted duel energy backed off and soon enough there was a little bubble of clean space around them.

"Judai?" Yusei asked, slightly flustered from being pulled close so quickly.

"Stay close to me, it wants to latch onto you. Is this reactor sentient or something? This is the weirdest I've ever seen duel energy act, it usually doesn't latch onto things, let alone know to back off from foreign energies. It's supposed to be neutral."

"I mean, the other reactor was apparently sentient enough in a separate timeline to create Meklords to commit genocide...? I had to divert it's energy to the surrounding cities so that it would never gain enough sentience to lash out."

Judai groaned. Great, it could be sentient.

"Just... just explain on the way there, let's go," Judai sighed, pulling Yusei a bit closer when the duel energy around them tried to latch on again. At least the bubble stayed around them, though Judai was positive that the second he let Yusei and go and couldn't channel his own duel energy around him so easily the corrupted energy wouldn't hesitate.

Oh well, look at the bright side of things - at least it gave him an excuse to hold him close.