Chapter 2: A Restless First Night
A few hours after the banquet, everyone had gone off to bed. Amane and Hikari had retired to their room at the Strawberry Dorms. As Etoile, the two had gotten a room with two beds, not that the second bed was used often. Because of their romantic relationship, Hikari and Amane slept in the same bed, which had plenty of space for both of them. The only time when the other bed was being used was when Hikari’s friend, Yaya Nanto was spending the night, which only happened when Yaya’s roommate and girlfriend, Tsubomi, had kicked her out after some argument. These arguments were usually small however, and were usually resolved the next day. That night, as the two were getting ready for bed, they talked about some of the day’s events.
“Did you notice the looks that Chikaru was giving Shion during the meeting today?” Hikari asked, as she emerged from the bathroom in her white nightgown.
“Not really.” Amane answered as she sat on the end of the bed in her blue pajamas. “Why, do you think that Chikaru has a thing for Shion?”
“Well they have been friends for a long time.” Hikari replied as she joined Amane on the bed. “Who knows? They might be becoming something more.”
“Maybe.” Amane agreed. “All I know is that Shion needs to take a break or something. Otherwise she’s gonna collapse.”
“If only Tamao didn’t make things so difficult.” Hikari replied. “She certainly has changed.”
“Maybe she’s been mad about her breakup with Nagisa and is taking it out on all of us.” Amane theorized.
“That could be it, but…” Hikari began. “Nah, it’s silly.”
“What?” Amane asked.
“Well, have you ever noticed that weird ring that Tamao always wears?” Hikari asked back.
“You mean that ring with the green stone?” Amane answered. “Yeah, what about it?”
“It just seems like Tamao changed after she started wearing it.” Hikari replied. “It’s like it’s turned her into a different person.”
“You think that it’s some kind of magic ring?” Amane asked.
“Oh, I don’t know what to think.” Hikari replied. “All I know is that something weird has been going on this past year.”
“Well, let’s not worry about it for right now and get some sleep.” Amane suggested with her usual kind smile.
“Okay.” Hikari smiled back. With that, the two of them climbed into bed, kissed each other goodnight, and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
Meanwhile, Jaden was asleep in his room at the head mistress’ guesthouse. It was not a peaceful sleep however, as Jaden was having a rather strange dream. In his dream, Jaden found himself floating in a stormy cloud covered sky above a mountain range. In a clearing Jaden saw what appeared to be an army of Duel Monsters, and a very diverse group at that. There were made up of Warriors, Beast-Warriors, Beasts, Fairies, and many others. Not all of the beings in that clearing were Duel Monsters however. Two of them appeared to be human. One was an old man with a long grey beard, dressed in armor. The other was a young girl with red hair. Like the old man, she was wearing a type of armor, but she looked to Jaden like some kind of princess. Sitting next to the girl was a white wolf that Jaden recognized as the Duel Monster, Silver Fang.
It looked to Jaden as if the gathered army was awaiting something, and sure enough, what they were waiting for came. Marching into the clearing was another army, one made up of what looked to be some kind of armored demons. This new army was not alone however. Flying above the demon army was a huge black sea serpent. Jaden wondered how this army was supposed to beat a creature like that. He also noticed that there was someone riding on the snout of the creature. The person in question was a man with long, very light blue-green hair and dresses in white robes under battle armor. The man’s left eye was golden, while his right was a light green. For some reason, Jaden felt like he had seen that eye before, like someone else had eyes like that.
“So this is the resistance you’ve formed King Ironheart.” The man riding the sea serpent said to the old man with a confident smile. “Do you really think this rabble can stand against The Great Leviathan?”
“We will resist you with every ounce of strength we have Dartz!” Ironheart proclaimed. “Don’t underestimate us!”
“It doesn’t have to be this way you know.” Dartz responded. “We could work together to cleanse the world of evil, as a family. You are my father after all Ironheart, and Chris is my daughter. I would prefer not to destroy what’s left of my own family.”
“Father, please stop this madness!” the girl whom Jaden assumed to be the one called Chris begged.
“So you both think this to be madness?” Dartz responded. “You saw what happened to the people of our kingdom, to my beloved wife Iona, they changed into monsters!”
“They changed into monsters because the power of the Orichalcos corrupted them!” Ironheart rebutted. “Just as it is corrupting you now!”
“You’re wrong father!” Dartz responded. “The Orichalcos merely revealed the truth about the world, which is that the people of the world are inherently evil!”
“You leave me no choice but to stop you.” Ironheart calmly said.
“And just how do you plan to do that?” Dartz asked as a confident smile returned to his face.
Suddenly three roars echoed throughout the mountain range. Then from behind three of the mountains flew three dragons of western origin. The first was green and had smooth scales. The second was mostly black and was more slender. The scales of the second dragon were more ridged, and it had two large incisors protruding from his mouth. The third was brown, far more muscular than the first two, and had several spikes running down it’s back, and a horn on the end of its snout like a rhino’s.
“So theses pathetic creatures are also fighting against me?” Dartz laughed. “Their powers are weakened now that they’ve been changed into dragons! Even if they were still in their original forms they would not stand a chance against The Great Leviathan!”
“We shall see!” Ironheart proclaimed.
With that, the three dragons launched an attack on Dartz and his sea serpant, which Jaden guessed was this “Great Leviathan” that they were all talking about. The Great Leviathan returned fire, hitting the attacks of the three dragons, causing a huge explosion. Jade woke up in a cold sweat, the dream that he had felt so real.
“Well that was intense.” Yubel commented, as she appeared standing next to Jaden’s bed.
“You saw all of that?” Jaden asked.
“We are connected, remember? It’s not the first time that I’ve seen one of your dreams.” Yubel replied. “That dream you just had was different though. It was either a vision of some kind, or something you ate at that banquet tonight caused your stomach to get revenge. I mean, did you really have to eat four slices of that chocolate cake?”
At that point, Jaden’s cat Pharaoh, who was sleeping at the foot of the bed, woke up and yawned. As the cat yawned, a ball of gold light flew out and transformed into the spirit of Lyman Banner, Jaden’s dead teacher.
“What’s going on here?” Banner asked as if he had just woken up. “The two of you are making enough noise to raise the dead, and I should know.”
“Don’t trouble yourself Banner. Jaden was just having a weird dream.” Yubel replied. “A weird dream that was probably the result of him eating like a pig at that banquet. Who on earth eats four pieces of chocolate cake in a row?”
“Hey Mr. Banner, have you ever heard of something called the Orichalcos?” Jaden interrupted.
“Hmm… If memory serves me, I think it has something to do with the lost city of Atlantis.” Banner answered. “Though I have no idea what it is. Why do you ask?”
“…Just curious.” Jaden answered, wondering if the dream he had really was just the result of eating too much at the banquet.
“I think that we should all just go back to bed.” Yubel suggested. “After all Jaden you do have that big tournament tomorrow.”
“Yeah… you’re right.” Jaden agreed.
With that Yubel vanished and Jaden laid back down on the bed. Banner turned back into a ball of golden light, which Pharaoh jumped up and ate. As Jaden went back to sleep, however, he suddenly remembered something about the green eye of the man called Dartz in his dream. Tamao had eyes like that, though Jaden decided that it was nothing and went back to sleep.
* * *
Meanwhile, Tamao and her student council were having a meeting down in the basement of Miator. It was a large and old stone brick basement, a relic left over from when Miator was just a finishing school. There were changes made to it though, changes that Tamao herself oversaw. There were pieces of mechanical and scientific equipment scattered throughout the chamber, including a small glass canister containing the fragment of an ancient mural depicting a yellow reptilian eye. The canister itself was fitted into a much larger device placed at the far end of the room. In the center of the basement was a round table with five chairs. Tamao sat in the throne shaped chair while her four student council members sat in the others.
“Well now, it’s time for one of out late night meetings.” Tamao announced to her council. “The only piece of business for tonight is the preparations for the tournament. Is everything ready Hiyori?”
“I’ve rechecked the calculations,” answered the council member known as Hiyori, “and with all of the duels that will occur due to the tournament, the receiver should pick up enough negative psychic energy needed to resurrect The Great Leviathan.”
“I still don’t get how this works.” The councilmember known as Mika interrupted. “How is gathering all this psychic energy supposed to resurrect the Leviathan?”
“Hiyori, would you please explain to Mika how all of this works?” Tamao asked.
“Oh, of course.” Hiyori answered with a slightly startled expression. “It’s quite simple really, The Great Leviathan feeds off the negative emotions of humans, the so called ‘darkness’ of people’s hearts. With the psychic receiver that President Tamao designed allows us to gather that energy from the people here on the island. So far, we’ve gathered this type of energy from Miator students, which we’ve brought out with the club activities that we’ve created. Now that there are pro duelists on the island, the more aggressive feelings that they’ll bring out during their duels shall be collected and used to feed the Leviathan. At the same time, the more aggressive feelings of the students of the other two academies here on the island will be brought out as well.”
“And the four of you will help bring those feelings out in your opponents as well.” Tamao added. “The four monster cards that I’ve given you will push any opponent you have into a corner and cause them to fight there hardest, to show no mercy.”
“The Great Leviathan should be fully restored before the end of the tournament.” Hiyori continued.
“Excellent.” Tamao replied with a calm yet sinister smile. “Soon we shall have what we need to destroy this unfair world and create a new one, a pure one!”
“We shall all do our best to help you achieve that goal, President.” Replied the councilmember known as Jane. The other three members of the student council nodded.
“I know you will my dear friends.” Tamao responded. “There is no way we can fail.”
