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[daemonized]

ARDYN IZUNIA

Ardyn Izunia. Professor of law. Lord of law. Liege of law. The one grading your papers. Leave a message.

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Comments

[daemonized]

[He always has a moment for these types of conversations, Kaiba. It'll be a minute before he responds, though, trying to parse out exactly what it is that his old student just sent him.]

It unfortunately seems rather like something Retrospec would /send/.

A "soul prison" sounds very metaphorical. Symbolic, even. And is that a card with your likeness on it?

[crushcard]

[ god damn it Retrospec why are you giving him an identity crisis of some sort

Also the next few messages aren't usually how Seto usually speaks, he's clearly trying not to freak out and kind of failing at it Ardyn help ]

It is. From when I was younger, though, I think. It doesn't look like anything completely recent.

What if it was literal? Professor, I. I don't want to call it a memory because this sounds completely ridiculous but you know those hallucimemories that have been discussed on the network?

I remember my soul being stolen.

This doesn't make sense.

[daemonized]

[An identity crisis? Don't you know that's what Retrospec is best at?]

Mr. Kaiba, as much as it's not comforting to hear, these "hallucinomemories" have been nothing but ridiculous. Mine are of magic and monsters and blizzards on trains, for example.

[But, then again, it's not as if he doesn't want to offer even a modicum of comfort to Kaiba, because this sounds... strange. A soul being stolen? How very metaphysical.]

Stolen how? Do you remember anything else, specifically?

[crushcard]

[ It's only been a month since this stupid app, he's not ready for this yet, ok ]

....... That's. Fair. I'm sorry. I forgot that some of the hallucinomemories we briefly discussed the last time defy the laws of logic and realism.

[ He absolutely does not mean for it to sound sarcastic. He actually kind of genuinely forgot, in his panic. That's just, not very great, although it does mean that Ardyn's gentle(ish) rebuke forces him to think properly, a little bit more rationally. ]

It was brief, but I remember some things. A flash of gold. Not sure what it was but it was probably something that triggered the whole process.

Darkness. Overwhelming despair. Like I'd never be happy again.

Somehow, one way or another, I was looking at my own body. From behind bars, like I was looking at it from an outsider's perspective.

... It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

[daemonized]

It sounds fantastical, but so does everything else I've heard, from practically everyone. You needn't fear any judgment from me.

[Only that usual tendency to feel concern for those all around him. Rip Ardyn.]

A flash of gold? Was it painful?

[crushcard]

[ Ardyn Cares Too Much, rip, except that right now, that lack of judgment is very very appreciated. Thanks for letting him not sound like a crazy person. ]

No. It wasn't.

And strangely, it's like how when light reflects off an object at a certain angle and you're blinded for a split second? That type of flash.

The lack of context frustrates me, to be honest. I can't figure out why (or how, now that I think of it) someone would want to steal my soul.

[daemonized]

[He'd be a hypocrite if he said that Kaiba sounded like a crazy person, honestly. He has no right to think that after he's experienced a few of the things in his own memories.]

Someone with malicious intent, no doubt. Why else would anyone steal a soul? It all sounds rather villainous.

Unless you believe there to be a more... practical reason?

[crushcard]

[ If Ardyn were to hear it in person, there would be a somewhat hollow laugh.
The kind that comes as if he's contemplating some kind of worst case scenario, like he can't actually believe this current reality.

That's not too far off the mark, actually. ]

... Your guess is as good as mine, considering that the memory ends there. There's no other context, nothing to inform about the whys and the person or people responsible for it. Or how this... other version me ended up in that sort of situation in the first place.

Perhaps I made enemies of a sort. Perhaps magic was involved.

Does the magic you're aware of have the capability to do something like this?

[ and here lies the real question. ]

[daemonized]

[A second before the reply comes through, because he does think about it for a bit. His magic is the only sort that he knows of, but for Kaiba's sake he's straining his memory, searching each one for any sort indication that there was more than just healing, as he recalled it.

He comes up with nothing.]

The only magic I can remember is my own healing magic. That isn't to say that there's no such other magic out there. It bends to very rules of what we know, so it's a theory to consider.

For what good it'll do for now.