365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Twenty Year Difference

7/25/19

Judai had done nothing in the last five minutes since teleporting to his dimension other than stare in amazement.

Green, he thought, eyes darting all over as he took in the sight of the castle in the distance as well, There's green everywhere.

Well, not completely everywhere, since there were still plenty of patches of dusty, gray ground, but the difference was still incomprehensible to him. Trees and bushes littered the realm, flowers bringing spots of other colors to mix in with the green and gray, and he could see dirt paths carved out that led to the villages he knew were scattered about around here.

Haou and Yubel had appeared next to him as well, also taking in the surroundings with wide eyes and slight disbelief.

"...It looks... almost like it did back then," Haou stated quietly, Yubel nodding in agreement while Judai racked his brain remembering the parts of Haou's memories he'd seen. Eventually he figured out what he was saying, and taking another quick glance around with it in mind, had to agree - it was starting to look the way it had thousands of years ago, back when Haou and Yubel had been alive.

It really was the same place, after all. It'd just been turned so unrecognizable that it was impossible to tell that it was.

"All this in twenty years?" Yubel wondered, nostalgia flowing through the connection quietly, "It was still a barren wasteland when we jumped."

Judai stewed over it for a few seconds with a frown, before he suddenly realized something important, "But the residents were changed. That'd be enough, wouldn't it?"

"You're right," Haou realized, "You went through the entire dimension and broke up all the conflicts you could, didn't you?"

It'd been one of the very few things Judai had done to utilize the political power the title of 'Supreme King' gave him - he figured that if he were going to help people and spirits, then he might as well start with his own land since as much as he had to get used to thinking about it, it was his. He was a ruler, and he had a responsibility to look out for the ones living in his territory.

It'd taken a solid three and a half months, but he'd managed to get through to every single resident and establish that the reign of wars was over, and that it was time to move on from all of the fighting that'd turned the place barren in the first place. His own servants had ironically been the hardest to get through to, considering they were the ones doing most of the terrorizing and fighting, and he'd hated having to flaunt his powers and position the way he had, but it'd been more than worth it in the end.

Plus, those that had caused trouble during the transition had later apologized profusely after being allowed to leave and finally live their own lives if they'd wanted to, so that was nice.

The point was, however, that because the residents had changed so drastically in how they treated each other and lived life, they would obviously start to care about the fact they were living in a barren wasteland; Judai knew that a few had even been around since those thousands of years ago and remembered what it was like, so he wouldn't be surprised if they'd told stories about it and spurred everyone else to take action.

Seeing it regain so much of its former glory, looking so incredibly different from before was cathartic for Judai. He'd been dreading having to step foot in this place again, as he usually did thanks to the memories associated with it, but now?

He felt like he could actually breathe here, for once.

This is a place I'd want to show Yusei, he realized, feeling oddly proud of what'd happened over twenty years thanks to his initial influence, I actually want to bring him here.

In a significantly happier mood now thanks to the pleasant surprise and subsequent realization, he smiled widely and took a few steps forward, spinning around the face the other two and exclaiming, "Well, come on! We gotta explore the castle, it's definitely going to be different somehow too!"

"I wonder if they fixed the garden," Haou replied, following behind him next to Yubel.

"Just don't forget that we've got things to do," Yubel reminded him, though Judai knew all three of them felt reluctant to leave the place now, "We'll have plenty of time to explore later - hell, Judai, you can just bring Yusei along if you want. Then you can have someone other than us to drag along with you to wherever you want to go since we can exist here in spirit form and not get pulled back to you if we end up more than a hundred feet away. You can do your thing and we can do ours."

"Ah, that's actually a really good idea," Judai blinked, humming happily as they walked, "Alright, exploring will come later then. Besides, we're going to get to explore someplace else today looking for Starlight Junktion and its card, so this works well."