heleentje

Series Title: Shatter
Chapter Title: Drawn
Author: Heleentje
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Rating: K+ for this part, T overall
Characters: Gem Beasts, Johan, Juudai
Word Count: 1003
Warnings/spoilers: spiritshipping-if-you-squint, spoilers for season three and four
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX or any of its characters

3. Drawn

Johan never throws away his old deck.

This makes them vaguely jealous, but they know they’d respect him less if he had abandoned his other monsters, because they know he’s not like that.

Johan cares.

He’s their brother, their friend, and in a vague sense their owner too. They belong to him and he belongs to them, but he’s never been theirs alone. Johan is a child of the world, destined for great things. They’ll help him and support him with everything they’ve got.

At North School, they’re often alone. Johan has a lot of admirers, but very few friends. That’s not through lack of trying, but Johan is too kind and too special, for people to trust him. They only see him angry once, when someone (driven by jealousy) attempts to steal them. The result is a duel that culminates in a One Turn Kill and a lecture that makes the other duelist cower in fear and his monsters turn their backs on him. This duelist will have a hard time repairing the bond between him and his cards, after all, he wanted to abandon them for a group of monsters he could not even dream of controlling.

But Johan is too kind. They worry about him, he doesn’t belong in North School, where the climate and the people are too harsh for him.

So when an exchange program for Duel Academia is announced, and Johan enters his candidature, they pray he’ll be picked. When they ask him about the Academia, Johan tells them about a student that arrived when he was still in his first boy, Manjoume Jun, dueled his way through the elite of the school without breaking a sweat, and Johan tells them how he watched in awe and hoped that one day he would go to the school where the boy came from.

“Is that the reason why you want to go?” Amber Mammoth asks.

Johan shakes his head, and says that he feels drawn to Duel Academia. There’s something there that he needs to find.

“Is it Rainbow Dragon?” Emerald Turtle asks.

“It might be,” Johan says, “it’s important.”

He’s ecstatic when he’s chosen to go to Duel Academia, and so are they. Duel Academia will be good for him, they know, but they still worry.

“It will change everything,” Sapphire Pegasus states.

“It will,” Johan confirms, “but you’ll always be my family.”

The summer holidays pass in a blur. Johan spends his days packing clothes, procuring a passport and going through his possessions. They’ll be traveling by ship, which Amethyst Cat thinks is utterly ridiculous, because a plane would be faster and much more comfortable.

Life works in strange ways. When Johan sets foot on the ship he shivers, and tells them that he needs to stay hidden. When they ask him why he shrugs and says that he’s got a bad feeling about the other passengers.

So they hide. It’s easy, because they can warn Johan when someone’s coming. There are a few close calls, the champion of West School, O’Brien, is too perceptive and the crocodile that the Southern champion, carries with him often picks up on Johan’s scent, but they manage to evade them all. In the meantime, they study their traveling companions. They don’t like O’Brien or professor Cobra, but the student from South, Jim, isn’t threatening. Amon Garam nearly discovers them, when Johan has trouble holding back his laughter at seeing the student talking into his microphone. Cobalt Eagle deems him harmless.

They spend the days inside the many corridors of the ships and the nights outside on deck or looking for food. It’s peaceful. But Johan refuses to reveal himself.

Nothing happens.

The journey is quiet, there are no accidents, and Amethyst Cat is rather pissed off when they finally arrive at Duel Academia. Johan justifies:

“Maybe something would’ve happened if I had shown myself.”

They’ll never know.

Amethyst Cat is still angry, but Johan frowns and her angry demeanor quickly changes to concern. Johan tells them that there’s more to come.

They go to the roof, because Johan has some time left before the start of the opening ceremony and he likes high places (he spent a lot of time overlooking the sea when they were still on the ship). It’s there that they meet Yuuki Juudai for the very first time.

Johan knows about him, he spent some time looking up duelists who can see spirits, but the encounter still leaves him awestruck. Juudai is special, they all know it.

Later, when they are running through the hallways, because Johan is late and lost, he tells them that he feels a bond with the other boy.

“Is he the one you were looking for?” Sapphire Pegasus asks.

“Maybe,” Johan answers, “he is important.”

Johan is right, of course, and they realize it the moment he and Juudai are picked to duel each other. The match is thrilling, both Johan and Juudai are competitive and neither wants to give up. This is one duel that will be remembered for a long time.

Johan looks happy, but they can still feel his sadness when he reveals that he doesn’t have Rainbow Dragon. He laughs, but they know the pain the separation is causing him. They feel the same.

But they don’t have much time to think of the Dragon. For a few weeks, life at Duel Academia is good. Johan and Juudai become fast friends and spend almost all their time together. Juudai shows them the secrets of the island, and talks endlessly about past adventures. They absorb it all. Duel Academia is truly interesting!

But after awhile they start realizing that Johan was right when he hid on the ship. Jim is kind and Amon isn’t unfriendly either, but when Sho is kidnapped and Juudai is roped into dueling O’Brien for his freedom, they know that weird things are happening. And when Juudai faints afterwards, they realize that Duel Academia isn’t safe anymore.

Johan shivers. Things are changing.

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