(75) Me time

The holographic screen in front of me disappears, leaving me staring at the bland white wall behind it.

I look down at the carpeted floor with the couch on top.

“Anf.” I take a deep breath in and step off the couch after letting it out, stepping right up to my closet where I grab my stockings and shoes, then I start donning both articles. After being done dressing, I pick up my phone and walk through the hotel’s front door in hurried steps, holding my watch up for it to open.

I’m going for a walk to get my thoughts in order. I know I should really get a bite to eat, but stuffing myself isn’t going to cut it this time, not with what I’m feeling.

What am I feeling? I don’t know… I don’t know who I am; I don’t know who my family is; I don’t know who to trust or who to follow. I don’t even know what my name is anymore. ‘Probably Yuumi Katayama, but that’s debatable.’ What I’m trying to say is: I don’t know anything anymore. And maybe I never did, but I sure had fooled myself that I knew everything.

I get into the elevator, hearing that familiar but out-of-place space station 13 title screen theme.

‘Maybe that’s what I should take from this. “Reality is confusing”’ But I can’t help but protest about such a vague concept. Am I really Yuumi Katayama? From the what the goddess told me: Yes. From what Yuumi herself told me: Also yes.

‘Then why did it take so long for me to accept that? And what does it even mean? Should I start acting like the original Yuumi? I don't think so. I would ignoring too much of myself to even stand it.’

The root of the problem is the rest of my memories, thirty years of them. But they don’t match me anymore. They’re a hang on from years past.

I look down on my duel disk, remembering the time I spent as a kid playing with these Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and wishing I could have a real duel disk and duel with real monsters… The best part? Those are Yuumi’s memories… Not mine. Before I reincarnated, I didn’t get care about Yugioh until I was an adult, and by then I already was more interested in playing in tournaments than in the nostalgia they brought to some people.

For me, it was strange seeing so many folk who couldn’t move on from GX or even duel monsters, stuck in the past, unable to accept that the game had moved on. And even then, most of them had never played seriously during the era they put on a pedestal.

I once saw somebody complaining about how the modern game was all about locking your opponent out of playing and how it was much better back then, completely ignoring the fact that the first real powerful meta decks were stall deckout/burn based, the first ever meta deck in the OCG was even stall exodia, all the way back in 1999.

But I didn’t argue with that person… I realized he was high on nostalgia. ‘Master Rule: Playground Edition’ was what he was after.

*Ting*

A calm digital bell signifies the elevator arriving in the lobby, and I walk out.

Resuming my train of thought, I question. ‘I wonder if they would’ve been satisfied getting transported to this world?’ Would they be happy finally being able to play out those childhood fantasies of riding a blue-eyes white dragon or summoning a dark magician? Or would they be disheartened that this world had also moved on from the "normal, set, pass" era of Yugioh? There’s really no way to know, because they didn’t get transported to this world. I did.’

And now we return to the question of: ‘Who am I?’ I’ve said before that I am a mixture of the original Yuumi and my old self, but back then I wasn’t interacting with Yuumi’s parents… It was just a convenient way to answer the complex question of: “Who am I?” But now, I find that answer insufficient. Is Miranda Katayama really my mother? Is Liam Katayama my father? I feel like there’s no definitive answer here and I hate it!

“Woah!” I slip on a piece of marble on the steps down to the hotel section lobby. A small fall leads me to the bottom of the stairwell.

I dust myself off. “Tft! This is what I get for not paying attention.” I look to around but spot no-one. “Thank god, that would've been embarrassing.”

“What would be embarrassing?” I hear a familiar female voice ask behind me.

“Anna?” I ask while turning my head.

Sure enough, she’s there, bright green hair in a pixie cut, wearing a strappy white tank-top with denim shorts, and black, over-the-knee boots. Yet, she isn’t alone as another girl I recognize holds hands with her close by.

She has golden blond hair styled in two long pigtails and blue eyes, wearing an extremely cute outfit comprising a short-sleeved light-blue button-up blouse tucked into a plaid light-pink skirt paired with thigh-high white stockings with little light-pink laces near the top and pink sneakers. She’s holding Anna’s hand with her arm around her’s.

“… And Aya…? What are you two doing here?”

Aya blushes and hides behind Anna, while Anna herself chuckles. “Isn’t it obvious? We’re on a date, silly.”

“Ahh! Don’t tell her!” Aya whines behind Anna, her face in shock that Anna had just betrayed her.

I take a step back, blinking in confusion. “Errrrr, I’m sorry, but when did this happen?” I ask in a surprised tone of voice, my eyebrows arching down on their own.

Anna looks back to Aya, but she only further hides behind her, so she teases. “Come on baby, why don’t you tell your friend? She deserves to know, at least.”

This results in a deeper blush from Aya, but she eventually tells. “Y-You can tell her for me.”

Aya’s attitude only confuses me further. ‘Aya hooking up with Anna is weird on its own, but now she’s suddenly shyer than Aiko too? What the hell is going on here? I really hope it’s wholesome because Anna didn’t seem like a bad person.’

Anna sighs at Aya’s response but still complies. “Well, if you’re sure…” She glances up at me. “It’s not complicated, really. She seemed a little down after our duel together, so I decided to check up on her. I found her crying in her room so I cheered her up, and I might’ve ended up staying the night too…”

Her answer only adds to my confusion. ‘Aya didn’t seem sad after her duel with Anna, actually she looked like she over the moon…’ That’s a bad analogy here because we're literally some million kilometers away from the moon, and closer to what would be Venus and mercury, but still. The point is: To me, she didn’t seem sad the last time I saw her. And as it isn’t difficult to see who’s the dominant one in this relationship, I’m a little worried about Aya.

I look over Anna’s shoulder at Aya and ask. “Is that really true?”

She looks me straight in the eye and nods.

Letting out a sigh, I turn to Anna. “Well, you treat her well, Anna. If you break her heart, then you can be sure I’ll never allow you to run away easily.”

Anna chuckles, turning to Aya. “Hear what your friend is saying? Guess I’ll have to treat you even better from now on. Don’t want to get on her bad side.” — This only serves to make Aya blush harder — She turns back to me and says. “Don’t worry, I’ll won’t let her get in harm’s way as long as she is with me, cross my heart on that. Now what about you? What are you doing walking around so absentminded?”

Holding my left arm with my right hand, I glance at the floor and sigh. “Aff, well, I just had a very difficult conversation. I’m still a little discombobulated.”

Both Anna and Aya frown, with Anna asking, “Are you alright? Do you want to talk about it?”

I gaze up at her with a subtle smirk on my face. “Woah, calm down playboy. You already have your hands full with one girl. Don’t try to get me as well. I’m just going on a walk to the pleasure floor… Maybe get a massage before the Aiko VS Yasuna duel.”

Chuckling, Anna says. “Well, if you say so. You can be sure I’ll be looking forward to that duel. It will unquestionably be more exciting than any other beginner tier duel, maybe even the advanced tier if the right cards show up.”

Smiling, I say. “Don’t sell yourself too short. That duel you two had was the most nail-biting thing I have ever witnessed. Thankfully, in this duel, it doesn’t matter who wins. So we’ll be cheering for both sides.”

Anna tilts her head to the side and asks. “How does that work? Do they just leave a platform empty?”

I shake my head. “No, we’ll have two members on each. We still haven’t decided who goes with who, but with solid vision to back us up, it’s mostly irrelevant. Most of our routines were made to work with two people, as that’s the most convenient way to train.” I stroke my chin before continuing. “Now that you mention it. Anna, back in the ship. You were in a cheerleader uniform, so I’m guessing you’re part of the CSG cheer group, but do you actually perform outside of your duels? I didn’t see you in the intermediary bracket cheer team.”

Her mouth moves to a frown, and she shakes her head. “Unfortunately no. The headmistress said they won’t allow duelists to act as support staff and vice versa. They’re two separate positions.”

Clicking my tongue, I say. “Tch, that’s a shame. I would’ve loved to see you performing... Well, I’ll let you two move on with your date. Sorry for holding you up.” I lean to the side to glance at Aya. “And you tell me if she does anything that you don’t like.”

Anna stifles a laugh as Aya blushes—She seems to do that a lot. “Don’t worry, I’ll treat her right. You be careful where you step from now on.”

“Fu, fu, don’t worry, it was a onetime thing.” I assure her.

She sighs. “I hope it was… Well, we’ll be going, bye.”

Waving at her, I repeat. “Bye.”

The couple walk off in the opposite directing where I intend to go. Good thing too, that would’ve been awkward otherwise.

With them walking away, I let out a deep sigh. “So Aya has gotten herself a girlfriend… Or, more accurately, Anna has gotten herself an Aya... How the world turns.”

I continue walking towards the elevator lobby, arriving at a standing touch panel where I select the pleasure deck.

The screen quickly changes to an indication of what elevator I should get in.

Following that, I step into an elevator once again, this time a much larger one, but still empty.

—

After descending through the elevator, I arrive at a wide open area styled like a park. Looking up, there are many floors offering services from shopping to strip clubs, all cramped together in eight circular floors that make up the pleasure deck. The main attraction, in the middle of it all, on the ground floor, is a massive communal pool, which spans well over 80 000 square meters, subdivided into various smaller pools all of them leading to the massive one in the middle which takes up over 80% of total size and is deep enough to be seeded by marine life. More of a communal lagoon than a pool.

I might’ve said to Anna I was going to get a massage, but seeing this massive monument of human achievement orbiting the sun, I change my plans and decide to go for a swim instead. I know I’ve already had a ‘beach day’ with the girls, but that was different. This is me time, and I do what I want.

Unfortunately, as I wasn’t planning this initially, I didn’t bring my swimsuit. Thankfully, just about every store on the first floor is dedicated to supporting the main attraction.

Walking out of the elevator lobby, I wander around looking for a store selling swimsuits and quickly find one specialized in just that, with various holograms out the front displaying exactly what they sell on… Duel monsters… There’s a dark magician girl wearing a swimsuit based on her usual outfit with her hair let down spinning a sign simply saying: “Special sale! up to 20% off on bikinis and one-piece swimsuits!”

It’s the first store I find, but as I’m just looking for something simple, I step in.

The small store is filled with holograms of various duel monsters holograms showing off their merchandise.

My eyes snap to a display with ‘Harpy lady’ wearing a two-piece red thong bikini. Going over to it, I hold my phone up to the machine below display, allowing it to read my measurements.

It spits out a small package with nondescript lettering and print of measurements that closely match my own. This is not a fancy retailer with in-store fitting, just a hole in the wall swimsuit store, so I’m more than satisfied.

I look around the store for a changing room, but I’m unable to find one. The lack of staff also doesn’t help with this. What I find instead is a selection of arm-bands and thigh-straps meant to hold phones and duel disks. I also get one of them that matches the color of the bikini I just bought.

Unfortunately, I’m unable to find a changing room. Defeated, I just walk out, receiving a notification on my phone about the purchase. It took a while for me to get used to just walking out of stores with my purchases in hand, but it’s the most common way to shop over here.

With a swimsuit acquired, I make my way to one of the many entrances to the pool. There, I pass my phone over a turnstile gate checkpoint, which unlocks and allows me access to the enclosed mixed shower and changing area.

Many lockers don the walls of the entrance hallway. I walk further in into the changing area proper and find a spot with relative privacy where I undress from my uniform, folding it neatly so it doesn’t crumple up. Finished undressing, I unpack my impulse purchase, grabbing the strappy bottom and holding it up.

“This doesn’t look like much… Oh well. I’m won’t the only one wearing something similar.”

With that, I change out of my lime-green panties for the red thong bikini bottom. The garment fits me well, covering the front and wedging itself in-between my buttocks in a sexy manner. I continue with the top, unlocking my bra and changing it out for the strappy red bikini top. It contains my modest breasts well enough, not as well as my customized underwear, but that’s asking for too much. Finally, I grab the thigh-strap with cord attached and slide it up my left leg to its resting spot. I detach my duel disk from my skirt and slide it in an adjustable red case, then I screw the cord from the strap to it and attach it to the strap.

I finish folding my uniform and underwear, bringing it over them over to an empty locker which opens after I hold my watch up to it—No, I’m not that smart. There was a massive sign out the front explaining how to use the lockers—Putting my uniform in it, I close the locker and it automatically locks itself, then I adjust my bikini one more time using one of the mirrors opposite to the locker wall. Looking at my butt, I’m unable to resist the urge to grope it a little, and end up wiggling my exposed butt-cheeks like two large jiggly puddings.

“Fufufufu.” I giggle at myself. “I really shouldn’t be doing this here.”

Being satisfied with my looks, I walk over to the shower section.

There isn’t much fanfare here, just a wall of shower heads with a simple push button underneath to activate.

Planting myself under one of the many showers, I press the button, and cold-ish water lightly grazes my skin, straightening my mid-back length purple hair. I hum to myself as it flows over me. It’s not that cold, much warmer than the cold showers after action duel class, but it has a strange smell, not pool chlorine, but something else. It’s not an unpleasant smell.

When the water finally stops on its own, I walk out of there and through the entrance to the pool proper.

A cacophony of noises arrive at my ears, the sound of maybe thousands of people having fun, coupled with a sight of never-ending crystal blue water dotted with people wearing a plethora of different colours. I look up, gazing at the massive fixture on the celling illuminating this enormous lagoon. Then I draw a breath through my nose, the same ‘pool water’ smell from before being the dominant scent. The artificial sunlight starts warming my skin, with a calming cold breeze cooling it down at the same time.

I let out a satisfied sign, saying. “Now, this is what I needed. I really missed this felling.”

With that, I walk around many of the smaller pools, straight to the gigantic one that dominates the space. I arrive next to a set of marble stair leading down into it. I take them down, while feeling the cold-ish water slowly envelop my skin. Humming in satisfaction all the way down, I finally feel my feet touch the tilled bottom of this section right as I’m about neck level with the surface.

There, I let out of deep relaxed sigh, a silky and cooling veil of water enveloping almost my entire body, with my hair running down into it and waving out. I take a deep breath in and hold my nose closed, then I plunge the rest of my head into the water momentarily, just to get my head wet.

After wetting my hair, I try floating around and find it a simple task. I wasn’t really an avid swimmer back then, but I lived in a costal city where my family took me to the beach on most of their vacation days. I didn’t continue doing that after I moved out, but I still visited the beach from time to time. Even with Yuumi having no experience swimming other than trying not to drown in the massive bath back in the estate, I find that my carry over skills adapt themselves well enough and my experience with my new body helps me compensate for the differences, like my smaller stature.

I’m soon doing breast stroke to the deeper areas of the pool, where wildlife lives in unison with the pool-goers. The sound of jet-skis soon becomes dominant, as patrons drive them around the really deep areas. I wouldn’t say the pool is vacant, there’s many people around, enough to where I have to be careful about how I move my feet, but almost all of them have some else to talk to, so very few people even pay attention to me passing by them.

The ones that notice me seem satisfied just staring. I won’t lie that it feels a little validating and empowering having people gawk at me. But I try not to let that thought take over my head. That’s a rabbit hole I don’t want to fall into, and I’m satisfied with just the occasional glances. I don’t need to be the center of attention.

When I finally reach a spot that I deem deep enough, I take a deep breath and dive in.

As I open my eyes, I feel a light sting of salt, but a colorful hidden world of sea life suddenly also reveals itself. Colorful species of fish swim between bright clusters of coral and seaweed. The flat artificial pool-bottom is completely taken over by moss-covered rocks and bright coral, with shellfish scampering around the plants. It’s an unimaginable sight, the type of stuff I would expect from a protected coral reef.

‘This is amazing… If this is a little genetic modification can do to an artificial environment, then imagine what the oceans on earth look like.’

I lean to the bottom and start doing dolphin strokes, getting closer to the artificial ecosystem. Feeling something graze my skin, I look to the side and notice an almost transparent fish swimming along. A small smile forms around my lips. ‘Hey buddy, going to get some food?’

Even with the impossibility, it seems to understand, as it charges down to a patch of moss close to the bottom

I follow it, hovering a meter away as it nibbles on the rock. Strangely, even with not being used to swimming, I’m not feeling out of breath just yet. The oxygen concentration augmentation I took for action duel class comes to mind. ‘I wonder if there’s a mod for breathing underwater… That’s seems like something that would exist.’

My train of thought gets interrupted by my buddy scurrying away as the biggest spiny lobster I’ve ever seen crawls from the rocks.

‘Holy shit, that’s massive… I think I know where they got those lobsters from yesterday’s buffet. It might’ve been a massive pain in the ass with the academy representatives, but the food was exceptional. Flame broiled lobster, chilled stone-grab…. Mmm, I getting hungry just thinking about it. I really should get something to eat…’

At the same time, I feel the familiar muscle contractions of Co2 build up starting. So I let out some bubbles, but I know that I really need to get back to the surface. I stop waving my arms and start treading some water, gently hovering to the surface a couple of meters up.

My head breaks the surface and I draw in a deep breath of crisp air. “Annnffff.” and then exhale. “Fuuuaaah.”

I look around, trying to identify where I just surfaced, and I don’t take long finding the place where I dived some meters away. Yet I also spot something that piques my interest.

There’s a floating stand a couple of meters away, with simple bar seats and a massive sign that reads: “Floating crab shack! Get your drinks and shellfish! Now serving farmed king-crab! Cocktails included!”

Suffice it to say that my cravings for crab just went through the roof, and there’s no-one sitting at the bar already, so I swim over to the floating wooden shack with passion.

Arriving close, I wave at the owner and call. “Hey! Are you open!?”

The owner, a man with bronze skin wearing a blue aloha shirt, pauses what he’s doing and turns around. “Yeah, just about, climb aboard.”

I oblige, swimming to the shack and climbing onto one of the many metallic bar stools, my feet still in the water.

Looking inside, there’s a menagerie of fishing paraphernalia framed on the wall above the liquor bottles and spirits, with a large charcoal grill to the right and a blowtorch close by.

He finishes cleaning a tall cocktail glass and puts it in line with the rest, before walking over to me and placing a hand on the table. “Good morning beauty, what would you like to order?”

I gaze at the overhead menu, then I look back at him to tell. “Hmmm, you know what? Let’s just go with whatever you think is best.”

Holding a hand up, he says. “Say no more.” and turns around, stepping to the massive collection of bottles behind him. “You wanna get hammered or a light buzz? I have options for both.”

I think about it for a bit, but soon remember that I’ll have a duel to perform in later today. “Just something light. I still have to look presentable later today.”

He grabs a bottle, saying. “I wouldn’t worry about it. I bet you’d look gorgeous either way.”

I chuckle. “Appreciate the compliment, but I already know how I’ll turn out if I drink too much right now.”

“Hmf, if you say so,” he says, putting a tall glass in front of me while he violently shakes a cocktail shaker in the other hand. The sound of ice shaking around echoing inside the metal container fills the space, but he soon stops and pours a light-yellow liquid, filling the tall glass up. He pushes it forward and tells. “A basic mimosa, cold and refreshing, perfect with some crab… Which, now that I mention it.” He turns back around, picking a metal bucket up and lining it with some brown paper.

He picks up some large metal tongs and uses them to fill the bucket up with lobster claws and king-crab legs from a large charcoal briquette grill. He drips some melted butter into the bucket before placing it next to the cocktail with a smile on his face. “Charcoal grilled mixed seafood bucket, our speciality. Cocktail refills are free, and please don’t throw trash or wash your hands in the pool. With that said, enjoy your meal, cutie.”

‘… What is this? KFC for lobster?… I’m into it!’ I smile at him, saying. “Oh, I will. Thanksies!”

He laughs before saying. “No problem,” and walking away to tend to his grill.

I eye the bucket of sea candy ravenously, then I plunge my hand into the bucket and grab the first thing my fingers touch. I end up pulling up a massive king-crab leg with grill marks and a smoky scent mixed with warm butter. For food this good, I don’t mind getting my hands dirty, and I grab the nut cracker looking tool next to the bucket, breaking the shell to reveal a perfect red meet which I lower into my mouth, taking a big bite.

The flavors of sweet, smoky, perfectly tender king crab with salty butter flood my mouth, an enormous amount of juice being released. I savor every bit of the tender meat, knowing perfectly well there’s a bucket full waiting for me.

I gulp that fantastic bite down with the cold mimosa, the bubbly drink covering my taste buds in a layer of sweetness and sour.

I look around, taking in the tropical resort ambiance I’m somehow able to enjoy 160 million kilometers away from any natural breathable atmosphere. The artificial sunlight warming my skin with the wet cold breeze cooling me down.

The owner turns around with a smile. “I’m guessing you’re a fan?”

I give a thumbs up. “You bet! This is incredibly delicious.” Then I remember something I heard in a documentary once. “But isn’t king crab like impossible to farm or something?”

He shrugs. “Sure, natural king crab might be, but just a little genetic modification, and that’s not a problem anymore. Same story for most of the shellfish crawling around beneath your feet. Natural lobster takes up to seven years to mature, but artificial-species they seeded the ecosystem with cuts that down to six months.”

This only leaves me more impressed at the genetic modification technology of this world, and the hubris to apply it to food, of all things. Yet that doesn’t turn me off, not when this shit tastes so damn good.

I say with an agreeing nod. “Makes sense. That also explains how this whole thing is possible in the first place, I guess.” I look around, seeing a notable amount of people and no one paying attention to the floating shack. “Do you normally get these few customers? It’s almost rush hour.”

He shakes his head. “Nah, that’s more of a tournament thing. Different clientele, and most are more interested in filthy bars and cheap beer.” He eyes my hip and continues. “But you would know all about that, right?”

I realise he’s talking about my duel disk. “Oh, this thing? Yeah, but I won’t say I like that type of audience. Especially as a cheerleader. They forget that there’s a time where it’s okay to stare, and a time where it isn’t.”

He sighs, a look of realization forming on his face. “You’re that kind of duelist? Well, now I know why you look smoking hot… Oh, sorry, I’m guessing you don’t appreciate that comment.”

I shrug. “Eh, don’t worry about that. Unlike those fools, you actually mean it. Besides.” I look around at the nearby pool goers. “I’m kind of desensitised to these looks already.”

Chuckling, the owner says. “Alrighty then. I’ll leave you to enjoy your meal!”

I nod at him with a genuine smile. It’s nice to know ACTUAL nice guys still exist. Those hungry dueling fans almost made me believe they had all but vanished.

With that, I go back to enjoying the food. I’m pretty sure I had some other worry on my mind when I came here, but you can bet whatever it was is long gone by now. If it was really that important, I would remember it, right?

…

…

…

‘Well, that’s a lie. I haven’t really forgotten it. Familly is complicated and ever since man walked the earth, the question of self has always been raised and never answered satisfactorily. But I may have an answer to the simplest question.’ What was my name? Legally it’s Yuumi Matsunaga, and in a few weeks, maybe even days, it will be Yuumi Katayama. But I feel like neither of these names suit me. Should Matsunaga symbolize the portion of me produced by Liam's unspeakable action and all that followed it; And Katayama the fourteen years before that. Then my real name would be:

“Yuumi Matsunaga Katayama.” I mumble with a light smile, looking off into the distance.

It may be a simple answer to a complex question, but those are often the best answers.

This still leaves three other big questions in the air, but for now, I will remain satisfied with at least answering the simplest one.

I lean back, allowing artificial sunlight to cover more of my body, and reach into the bucket of sea candy again…