Chapter 6: Tale of the Wicked Gods
After saying goodbye to the three girls who were his tour guides at Lilum, Jaden returned to the head mistress’ mansion, along with Pegasus, Croquet, and the head mistress herself. After the four had settled down in the mansion’s sitting room, Jaden broke the awkward silence that had been present since they left Lilum.
“Mr. Pegasus, you said that you knew about the card that Chikaru was using. I’d like to know what that information is.” Jaden calmly demanded.
“Yes, and you do have the right to know.” Pegasus said as he gently placed his cup and saucer on the table in front of him. There was a short pause before Pegasus continued to speak. “I guess I should start by telling you that the card you faced today is not the only one of its kind. There are two others.”
“Two?” Jaden asked in surprise. “Mr. Pegasus, are these cards...?”
“Yes,” Pegasus replied before Jaden had a chance to finish his question, “the card you faced today and the other two like it are God Cards. They are known as the Jashin, The Wicked Gods, and as you’ve seen, they are quite evil.”
Jaden was shocked by what Pegasus had told him. Not only was there another set of God Cards, but they were an evil set. Perhaps even more evil than the Sacred Beasts.
“Mr. Pegasus… did you create those cards?” Jaden asked a bit hesitantly.
“No, I did not create The Wicked Gods.” Pegasus answered. “But I do know who did.”
There was another pause, and Jaden saw a sad look appear on Pegasus’ face.
“It all started many years ago.” Pegasus began. “It was not long after I had created Duel Monsters. I had taken in several orphans to train them to become duelists and card designers. It was a sort of early version of the duel academies that exist today. Although looking back, I suppose I had really started that project to fill the void of loneliness left by the passing of my late wife. My two best pupils were a pair of twin brothers, Gekko and Yako Tenma.
“The Tenma brothers were my best students, and over time I had grown quite close to them. They were like the sons I never had.” At that point, there was another pause. Jaden could see a sad look suddenly appear on Pegasus’ face.
“What happened to them?” Jaden asked. It was a few moments before Pegasus continued his story.
“I suppose I am the one to blame for what eventually happened.” Pegasus continued. “My obsession with trying to bring back my wife from the great beyond and the actions I took to achieve that goal were not exactly the actions of a good parent. As I said, I had grown close to the Tenma brothers. I had even told them of how I had gotten the Millennium Eye, and of my plans to bring back my wife. Even though those plans involved causing great harm to others, my boys fully supported me. It was after my plans had failed that the trouble began.
“My defeat to Yugi-boy and the lose of the Millennium Eye to that creature inside of the Millennium Ring had caused me to think about all of the wrongs I had committed to achieve my plan. I realized that what I was trying to achieve was unnatural, and that the ends did not at all justify the means. At that time, both Gekko and Yako wanted to avenge me, but I had told them that it would have been wrong for them to get revenge on Yugi-boy for ruining my plans, since I had already caused him so much harm. Gekko supported my decision. Yako, however, did not seem to understand why I didn’t want revenge. Still, Yako respected my wishes.
“Things got worse after the Battle City tournament however. Yako was furious that Yugi-boy had won the Egyptian God cards, and that I was doing nothing to reclaim them. I had told both Gekko and Yako about how I created the Egytian God cards, and why I decided to seal them away. So Yako could not understand why I would let anyone use the God Cards, especially Yugi Muto, the one who had ruined my plans. Gekko of course once again respected my wishes, but my decision not to try and take the God Cards was the last straw for Yako.”
“Yako created the Wicked Gods, didn’t he?” Jaden asked. Pegasus nodded.
“Somehow, Yako was able to get a hold of my original research of the Egyptian God monsters.” Pegasus continued. “He had used that data, along with his own research to create a new set of Gods, Gods that were filled with malevolence, embodiments of pure evil.”
“What happened after Yako created the cards?” Jaden asked. There was another pause. Jaden could see that it was not an easy story for Pegasus to tell.
“Gekko and I did not learn of what Yako was doing until it was to late.” Pegasus continued. “Gekko decided to confront Yako on his own without telling me. The two of them had a duel, though I did not see it. I had found them several hours afterward. Somehow, Gekko had managed to win against the Wicked Gods. The results were tragic, however. The duel had left Yako in a coma.”
“Did Yako ever wake up?” Jaden asked. Pegasus sadly shook his head.
“He’s still in the hospital.” Pegasus finally answered. “And not long after the incident occurred, Gekko had decided to strike out on his own for some reason. I haven’t seen Gekko in years.”
The room fell silent again. Pegasus leaned back in his chair, and Jaden could see a small tear roll down his cheek.
“Neither Master Pegasus or Master Gekko could bring themselves to destroy the cards Master Yako had created.” Croquet cut in, seeing that his boss was no longer able to speak. “It was decided that the cards would be locked away and brought to a location that neither Master Pegasus, Master Gekko, or myself would know.”
“So you didn’t even know that the cards were here?” Jaden asked in surprise.
“We were only informed of possible locations of where the cards were sealed.” Croquet replied. “All the locations were duel academies that Master Pegasus himself helped to start. The three academies on this island are among them.”
“So I’m guessing that we came here is because someone’s now after the Wicked Gods.” Jaden theorized. Croquet’s nod confirmed that Jaden’s theory was correct.
“A few days ago, we had heard rumors of someone trying to locate the cards on this island.” Croquet explained. “Master Pegasus didn’t want to take the chance that the rumors were false. We brought you along, Mr. Yuki, to deal with whoever is after the cards, and to take care of any students who came across the cards and were using them.”
“You could’ve told me the real reason why we were coming here.” Jaden exclaimed.
“I was afraid that you wouldn’t come here if you knew the real reason.” Pegasus cut in. The card designer had finally regained enough of his composure to speak again. “I’ve heard about how you prefer to stay out of supernatural affairs.”
“That doesn’t mean that I’d not want to help.” Jaden replied. “I’ve seen what The Wicked Eraser did to poor Chikaru. Those cards are way too dangerous. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure the Wicked Gods don’t fall into the wrong hands!”
“Well, at least we have the first one in our possession.” The head mistress said, finally adding to the conversation.
“Actually, we don’t.” Jaden said, startling everyone. “Right after I won the duel, some girl in some kind of ninja outfit arrived and took the card before I could do anything.”
The room fell silent again. Shocked looks were on the faces of Pegasus and the head mistress.
“Oh dear, it’s worse than I thought.” Pegasus said in a worried tone.
“Don’t worry!” Jaden proclaimed. “I’ll find who took the card, and make sure that the other two Wicked Gods don’t fall into the wrong hands!”
“Thank you.” Pegasus replied with a slightly worried smile. With that, Jaden began to head back to his room.
“One last thing young man.” The head mistress said, stopping Jaden in his tracks. “I must ask you not to tell any of the students here about any of this. I will not have panic on this island.”
Jaden looked back and nodded before leaving. Back in his guest room, Jaden thought long and hard about everything he had heard about the Wicked Gods. The biggest question on his mind was who was after the cards. Jaden’s first thought was that Gekko Tenma was the culprit, but he decided that it was unlikely. After all, Yako was the one that created the Wicked Gods; Gekko was the one that helped seal them away. Plus the person who took The Wicked Eraser was a woman. Athough Jaden admitted to himself that she could’ve been a henchman of some sort. After awhile, Jaden decided that his next course of action would be to look for the remaining Gods before someone else found them.
The next morning, Jaden went back to the Lilum infirmary to visit Chikaru. Kizuna, Remon, and Kagome were also there. Jaden told the four girls everything he had heard about the Wicked Gods. He decided that the four Lilum girls had the right to know, since they were already involved. Chikaru and the others promised Jaden not to tell anyone else what they had heard. With that done, Jaden left to go find the other two Wicked Gods, though he had no idea where to start looking.
* * *
Elsewhere on Astraea Island, Shizuma was tending to the flowers in the Etoile greenhouse. It was one of the few of her duties as Etoile that Shizuma still enjoyed. Though even working in the greenhouse had become less enjoyable ever since “she” had gone. The flowers of the greenhouse were still beautiful, but even they had lost their color when she lost “her.” Still, Shizuma found her work in the greenhouse relaxing, and it would be one of the things she would miss after graduating.
Shizuma was suddenly interrupted from her work when she heard the voice of someone entering the greenhouse.
“Hello, is anyone here?” a familiar voice asked. Shizuma recognized the voice immediately. It was the voice of that pretty new transfer student that she had her eye on.
“Well, this is a surprise.” Shizuma said as she emerged from the corner of the greenhouse she was working in to find a surprised Nagisa.
“O-oh, Etoile! I had no idea that you were here.” Nagisa exclaimed in surprise.
“There’s no need to be so formal.” The silver haired girl chuckled. “You can call me Shizuma.”
“Oh, okay.” Nagisa said with a tone of surprise. Shizuma found the girl’s nervousness very cute.
“So what brings you to my greenhouse?” Shizuma asked.
“Your greenhouse?” a confused Nagisa asked.
“Well, sort of.” Shizuma answered. “This is actually the private greenhouse where the Etoile, in this case me, prepares the flowers that are used for certain school ceremonies.”
“Oh, so there’s no club that uses this greenhouse.” Nagisa replied with a tone of disappointment.
“Why, what’s wrong.” A concerned Shizuma asked. She did not like seeing the redhead unhappy.
“Well, I’ve been trying to find an after school club I can do.” Nagisa explained. “All of the dueling clubs are full, and I’m not very good at a lot of the stuff the other clubs do, like painting or cooking.”
“I see.” Shizuma said with an understanding smile. “Well, I’m afraid there’s no club here, but if want, you can help me with the flowers just for today.”
“Oh, okay!” Nagisa exclaimed as a smile appeared on her face. Shizuma was very glad that she could make the redhead happy.
The two girls spent the rest of the afternoon tending to the flowers. As Shizuma worked along side Nagisa, she found that she really enjoyed spending time with the girl. In fact, it was the happiest that Shizuma had felt in a long time.
