Bab 16: Chapter 16
IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END!! PLEASE READ IT!!
Akiza and I stepped off the bus together and began to walk towards her house, though she was admittedly a bit in a daze from what I had revealed to her.
I had decided to tell Akiza about the Chatroom. There was no reason not to, especially since there was a good chance she might find me staring off into space seemingly at nothing and might be concerned for me. Better for me to tell her about the chatroom than to think I was ignoring her or bored by her.
Of course, she hadn't needed any proof that what I'd said to her was real and had believed me right away, but I'd still shown her proof by asking if Lala could send me another Duel Disk. She'd happily agreed, and it had just appeared in my hands for only the two of us to see.
"I can't believe you get to talk to Alexis Rhodes whenever you want," Akiza murmured, slightly jealous. "She is a legend among Duelists, some people say she's even better than Mai Valentine as the best female Duelist in the world. Few people mastered Ritual Summoning better than she did, I'd love to talk strategy with her."
"Like I said, she is from before she even started at Duel Academy," I told Akiza. "From what I know, she's mostly been using the Chatroom to get rare cards that would cost far more DP or money than she has access to. It wouldn't surprise me if her Cyber Angel Deck is fully fleshed out by the time she starts at Duel Academy… She might even be stronger than Zane Truesdale if she masters her deck."
"I wish I could watch that Duel," she mumbled.
"I might be able to sneak it to you," I told her. "Someone will probably record the Duel, and Alexis will probably livestream it. I haven't checked if we can download livestreams or videos, but it's something worth checking out now that you know about the chatroom."
She smiled. "You're the best," she told me.
I returned her smile. "As are you."
She smiled before she suddenly stopped walking. I did the same and followed her gaze… Ah, now I saw why.
The two of us were standing outside of Akiza's house. We seemed to have walked around the back to where there was a sliding door present, so you could see into the living room.
I wrapped an arm around Akiza and pulled her against me as I could feel her irritation and sorrow bubbling… Her parents were in the living room together, laughing and having a great time, as though their lives were better without Akiza in it. How interesting that Hideo Izinski had time to spend with his wife, but not his daughter. Or, perhaps, he was simply less busy. Who was to say?
"Hey," I said softly. "There's still time for us to go to my place instead, if you want. My folks are always busy, so I basically live alone. We can set you up in the room beside mine, we can duel and talk whenever you want, go wherever you please…"
She took a breath. "… That does sound amazing," she admitted. "But… My parents will probably get a notice that I left Duel Academy for a break. Or they'll get a notice from Sector Security that their daughter is walking around with an unknown young man, given that my father is a senator and that sort of makes me a bit high profile."
"So, either way we have to meet them," I nodded. "I'll be with you the whole time."
"Thank you," she nodded and took a deep breath before she gently pulled away and grabbed my hand, leading the way up to the sliding glass door.
I watched as her mother looked at the both of us and her eyes widened, covering her mouth. Her father turned his head to us and stared in shock moments later.
Akiza took a deep breath before she pulled the door open. "I'm home," she said, her voice somewhat flat in her attempt to restrain her emotions, making her way inside as she gently pulled me along.
"Pardon my intrusion," I said politely as I entered the house. "You must both be Aki's parents. Senator Izinski, it's a pleasure to meet you in person."
"I… Er… Y- Yes…" He nodded. "I… W- Welcome home, Akiza. Who is…?"
"This is Yuno Fuji," Akiza introduced me. "He's my boyfriend, we've been officially dating for just under a month now."
"B- Boyfriend!?" Her father stood up in pure shock… It was no wonder he was stunned
"O- Oh…" Her mother quickly smiled, trying to salvage the situation. "It's… Nice to meet you, Yuno. I'm Setsuko Izinski, Akiza's mother."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Izinski," I gave her a smile. "I can see now where Akiza gets her incredible beauty from."
Akiza's mother blushed and then smiled, putting a hand on her cheek. "Oh my, you're very sweet…"
I yelped as I felt Akiza's knuckles digging into my sides, and I gave her a look.
"Do not flirt with my mother," she told me, a blush on her face.
"It was a compliment, not flirting," I told her. "There is a difference, Aki."
"Well, you should be complimenting me, not her," she grumbled.
"Sorry, sorry," I gently pulled her into a hug and pat her back. "I'll compliment you plenty later, I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of your parents with the compliments I'd give. Okay?"
"… Okay," she nodded and leaned against me.
I smiled at her before I turned back to her parents, still holding her against me.
"Oh, forgive us for being rude," Setsuko said quickly. "Please, take a seat. I'll go get us some snacks. Do you have any drinks you'd prefer, Yuno?"
"You can't go wrong with orange juice," I told her. "But if you don't have any, then chilled water is more than enough, thank you."
"I'll have what you get him," Akiza added, gently sitting on the opposite sofa from her father, pulling me down to sit beside her.
Her father stared at her and then at me before he slowly sat down. "… I… Wasn't aware you would be… Coming home, Akiza," he said slowly.
"Yeah, well, it would be hard to see Yuno over the break if I stayed at the Academy," she muttered. "So, I decided to come back home so I could visit Yuno whenever I wanted."
"I… See…" He nodded and looked at me. "My… Apologies, I was just stunned by the fact Akiza chose to come home… With her… B- Boyfriend. My name is Hideo Izinski, a Senator for New Domino City."
"A pleasure," I nodded at him.
"So, you also attend Duel Academy?" He asked.
"Yes, sir," I nodded. "I'm a first year at the Academy, Akiza helps me out sometimes with studying. Give me a duel and I'm fine, but I find Duel Puzzles pretty difficult. If I have the puzzle laid out in front of me then I can do better, but when it's only down in written form- and sometimes they just want us to know what certain cards do off the top of our heads- it's annoying."
"You have two decks that can perform insane combos, and you can't remember some cards?" Akiza asked me.
"There's a reason that there is text on the cards, Akiza," I told her. "Even I forget what some of my cards do sometimes and need a moment to read it."
'You should probably buy a memory talent from your chatroom,' Tez suggested.
'That is a damned good idea, I will be doing that,' I mentally agreed.
"Are you… Enjoying school?" Hideo asked, but this time directed towards Akiza.
Setsuko chose that moment to enter the room with a small tray, setting it on the table. I gently grabbed a glass of orange juice, while Akiza did the same. We ignored the biscuits placed with them for now.
"It's fine," she said curtly. "Much better now that Yuno is around to support me, it makes the experience much more enjoyable."
I saw both of her parents flinch at that, even I bit back a small wince. Not unjustified by any means, but still one hell of a dig at the fact that they'd basically been doing the bare minimum for a decade.
I focused on Akiza instead of her parents- they were adults, they could deal with it. I gently held Akiza's hand to show my support, and she squeezed it back in gratitude.
"You erm… Said you've been together for just under a month," Setsuko spoke up, trying to shift the topic. "How was it you got together, if you don't mind my asking?"
Akiza shifted uncomfortably, but I just squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring look before I turned my gaze back to her. "I probably started about halfway into the semester," I told her. "I'd just gone for a walk when I heard a fairly loud explosion and came out to see Akiza had just finished a duel. She asked if anyone else wanted to Duel, and I stepped up."
"I thought you were a moron," Akiza told me. "I wasn't expecting you to beat me in one turn."
I just chuckled. "Well, after that duel she was kind of in shock, and I told her that I had fun, and I wanted to duel her again. A few days she'd modified her deck and challenged me again, and I defeated her again though that time we had stakes on the duel that the loser would pay for the winner's lunch at the cafeteria. I honestly told Akiza that I was interested in her romantically, but I wanted her to think on it and give me her answer through a duel. A few weeks later, she invited me to a duel and gave me her answer through that duel. It was a pretty rough duel, but the end result was that we started dating."
Akiza's face slowly turned more and more red. She knew I was cutting a lot of it out, but I gave the basic summary, and it was enough to make her feel a bit shy. "Y- yes… That's about the gist of it… He's been everything I could ask for in a partner."
"And you… Don't mind about…?" Setsuko trailed off, a bit nervously.
Akiza flared up, looking very indignant and annoyed at that, but I just ran my fingers through her hair, and she looked down with a grumble.
"Akiza's powers don't bother me," I told her simply. "I know that she can't control it, she doesn't actually want to hurt people…" I grinned. "Besides, she actually has to be able to damage me in duels to hurt me in the first place."
She blushed and hit my shoulder. "You didn't need to add that last part," she mumbled.
I grinned at her. "I know I didn't, but you're so cute when you get annoyed at me."
"Do you want me to use Thorn of Malice on you?" She threatened playfully, but her parents gasped in shock as they took her threat very seriously.
"Why, Akiza!" I exclaimed in mock shock. "Wanting to bring out the whips, in front of your own parents mind you! I thought you weren't that sort of girl!"
Akiza stared for a moment before her face turned red and she hid her face. "Kill me," she groaned. "I forgot they were there when I said that…"
I just chuckled and looked at them. "Please, rest assured, Akiza was only joking," I told them, but they did not look reassured by my words.
It was going to be a long two weeks…
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.
.
Thalia groaned as she found her eyes slowly opening, her gaze blurry and the voices around her foggy… She recalled trying to reach out and listen from within her tree, when suddenly she'd felt a strange tug that left her feeling very disoriented.
She looked up to see a girl with long black hair and sea green eyes staring down at her… She could see her lips moving, but couldn't make out what she was saying… It was very annoying for the demigod, who was trying to regain her senses.
She suddenly found herself lifted onto the girl's back, starting to be carried down a hill.
Thalia strained her ears, trying to focus. "Who… Who…?" She croaked out.
"You're at Camp Half-Blood," she could barely make out the girl's voice. "You're safe now."
Camp Half-Blood…? Wasn't she meant to be in the tree…?
"Who- who… Are…" She tried again, coughing hard as her throat felt so raw, as if she hadn't spoken in years.
"I'm Penelope Jackson," she told her. "Everyone calls me Penny. Can you tell me your name?"
Thalia took a deep breath, glancing up over Penny's shoulder and seeing the group chat floating not far in front of her face.
Despite herself, Thalia smiled tiredly.
A New World Mission has been made available! All members, please check as soon as possible!
"My name is Thalia," she croaked out. "Daughter of Zeus…" Her eyes closed and she slumped on Penelope's back, passing out.
Thalia had left a single message in the chatroom.
Goth Thunder: I'm free.
VOLUME 1 – A DARK SIGNER'S REBIRTH: END!
And that is the end of the first Volume of Reborn as a Dark Signer! I'm going to be going on a 2 week break in order to enjoy the Christmas Holidays and the new year!
This story is also going to go on a break so I may focus on other projects during that time.
What project, you might ask?
A FLUGEL'S GACHA VOLUME 2 - EISENWALD ARC!
That's right, long awaited and long anticipated, A Flugel's Gacha returns for its second Volume!
Coming January 2nd, 2025!
You won't want to miss it!
— Bab baru akan segera rilis — Tulis ulasan
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