The Spirit Within You Chapter 3: Spiritless

A day has passed since Nikki has lost her Spirit, Cyber Petit Angel. The staff was eventually notified of the events that took place. After talking to the Chancellor to inform him of everything that happen in detail, Nikki was sent to the nurses office to make sure she was physically and mentally o.k. Physically Nikki is perfectly fine. But her mental health is still unknown. With her connection to the spirit world severed, Nikki is no longer able to see or communicate with Monster Spirits. When she attempts to look at the card that once housed her Partner it appears blank. The question on everyone's mind is will she break without the support of her Partner? Or will she summon the Willpower to survive as her partner would have wanted? Only Nikki can decide on which path she will take.

Nikki slowly opens her eyes from resting in the nurses office. She looks around for Angel at first, but then remembers what happened. She closes her eyes trying not to imagine what danger Angel is in. She feels feels empty. Like a piece of her is gone along with Angel. Nikki struggles to fully sit up, but finally manages to do so. She even feels weaker after that duel.

"I can't rest." Nikki says to herself as she slowly lays back down. "I have to do something and find her." Nikki closes her eyes once again to focus and clear her head, but can't seem to even concentrate. "But how?" she adds.

On the next morning, Morgan gets ready to go to class.
He gets interrupted by Miko, "Hey, I think you should go check up on Nikki. You're going to play on your 3DS in class anyway. It won't affect your grade. It can be something more productive."
"What are we going to do though? I'm sure she will be fine. If we want to do something productive, we could just search the island for any suspicious hide-out."

"You know, that's an even better idea, let's do that!"

"Nevermind, that sounds dangerous. I don't want to go alone, or rather, with just you. If something bad happens to either of us, there isn't much the other can do."

"Hmm, yeah, you're right. Let's go see Nikki then. Maybe we can get a group together to go search. Maybe Aki can help us? I hope she isn't too busy."

"But, I just wanted to play with my 3ds in class."

"Yeah, we're going to go see Nikki. Screw that. Anyway, text Aki."

Morgan texts Aki about his plans of seeing Blair, and possibly searching for a hide-out.

After that, Morgan walks over to the Nurse's office from his dorm. "Hello, how may I help you?" A women at the desk asks.

Speaking for him, Miko asks the Nurse, "Where's Nikki's room? We want to visit."

The woman at the desk points Morgan to the direction of Nikki's room.

Miko rushes through the building. "Morgan! Look! I found the room!"

Morgan knocks on the door, then turns the handle.

Miko flies towards Nikki. "Hey, are you alright? Morgan and I just wanted to check up on you. We're here if you need anything. We texted Aki so she can help you look later. Also, you should exchange contact information with Morgan. We can keep you updated."

Morgan just stands at the door and just watches Miko talk to Nikki.

"I'll be alright Tobias." Nikki said making a fake smile trying to reassure them. She then formed a confused look on her face as she looked around the room and back at Morgan and Tobias. "Where are your duel spirits?" Nikki asked confused.

The ignored Miko completely unable to even see or hear duel spirits any longer she was unaware that Miko had even entered the room as well as Core.

"Good morning, Tobias." Morgan responds.

Morgan realizes that Nikki can't hear or see Miko, even though Miko is floating practically in her face. He points in the direction of where Miko is, "Over there, Nikki.. In front of you."

He realizes that he is in a very awkward situation between him and Nikki, and is a bit lost as to what to say.

Miko, extremely surprised, starts talking to Tobias."Whoa, that's weird, hey Tobias, you can still see and hear me, right? I know I'm a spirit, but I shouldn't be invisible, and people should be able to hear me."

Morgan speaks to Miko in his head."I think it's just her. I can see Core just fine. It's probably really bad."

Miko, speaking to Tobias again, "Tobias, if you can hear and see me, Nikki is in a really bad spot, she can't see any spirits. Morgan sees Core just fine. If you see me, Nikki has some serious like, mental things she should get checked out."

Drace had spent his first few days at duel academy trying to find out what these rumors of stolen duel spirits was about. He looked over at his own duel spirit Oroshi not being able to think of what he would do if he was ripped away from him...

If these rumors were true he'd personally go duel the horrible people behind this. "Well oroshi first there was talk of a boy losing his little D and now there's been a report of a RaYellow girl who lost her cyber petit angel." Drace was worried about his fellow duelists and decided to go talk to this girl to see if she could give him any leads as to what's happening "well oroshi think its best if we give this girl a visit?" Oroshi chriped in agreement.


Drace and Oroshi headed towards the nurses office when they arrived the lady at the desk showed them towards a room with 3 duelists. Drace clears his throat as he introduces himself "Hello I'm Drace, I was wondering if you could give me any information about the stolen duel spirits...?"

"I-I'm sorry Miko and Core." Nikki said as her heart sank a bit. "But it looks like I cannot see or here you guys anymore." Nikki said. Nikki sat up a little bit more now so she can fully see everyone in the room. "But thanks for showing up guys." She added as a unfamiliar face entered the room and introduces himself. and asking about duel spirits.

"I'm sorry but I've told everyone everything I already know. There was a strange man talking in weird english and sometimes he would chant some words in a foreign language. I didn't understand either of it honestly and he kept calling me Ophelia or something." Nikki explained as she tried to remember more details. "Then he vanishes out of thin air and takes Angel with him." Nikki explained holding back her sadness. "Thats all I can remember right now."

Nikki was sad now. No wonder she felt empty she lost an ability she had for as long as she could remember. She laid down now trying to remember anymore details but all she could think of was Angel and how scared she must be. She reached in her pocked and pulled out her PDA. She thought about something for a moment before she quickly texts Chance. "Can you come see me?" it read.

She quickly placed her PDA back in her pocket and took a deep breath.

Miko sighs in relief. "Wow, that could have been bad for Morgan if you couldn't see or hear me, Tobias, thanks. Also, if she can't see us because she lost her Angel, we just need to get the Angel back."

Miko turns towards Drace, "Hey Drace, I'm Miko, a Chocolate Magician Girl. Nice to meet you. I'm Morgan's duel spirit. Morgan is the young boy over there." She points at Morgan as she says this.

"Are you going to go over and find Angel? We'd love to tag along. Maybe it would be easier if we search together. I'm still waiting on a response from our friend Aki."

She then turns to Nikki, "Don't worry about not being able to hear or see me .. Wait, dangit, she couldn't hear me say that. Morgan, tell her that you'll speak for me."

Morgan looks at Miko, who is standing next to a wall, and tells her, "No. That's too much."

"Ugh.. Fine.. We'll just get Angel back and everything will be back to normal."

Drace takes a minute to respond to Nikki after taking in her story about the strange man who stole her duel spirit. "Well Nikki I apologize for any inconvenience I've caused you if you remember anything else please inform of it. Try to be safe until all of this is figured out."

Drace then turns his attention to the rather talkative chocolate magician girl. "It was a pleasure to meet you Miko and Morgan I can use all the help I can get when it comes to these mysterious figures on the island." Drace became thoughtful on what he should do next as he asked Oroshi. "Think we should go look around the area where the incident happened?" Oroshi dipped his head as if he agreed with the idea, right before he walked out of the room a small bird like duel spirit was flying towards him.

Shocked at the sudden newcomer Drace jumped back from the doorway before noticing the Ra Yellow he assumed was the duel spirits companion who looked very stressed like he had just seen a gruesome scene. Approaching the new duelist Drace introduced himself "Hello I'm Drace and this is my duel spirit Oroshi and you are...?"

"I'm fine I guess Chance. I just wanted to see you, everyone else was here and I was wondering if you were coming here thats all." Nikki explained. "I can't really see duel spirits anymore.." Nikki paused. "Are you and Last Strix okay?" she asked unable to communicate with the spirit.

Drace noticed the two duel spirits getting along for the first time after chance had mentioned it, "nice to meet you as well and I'm sure Oroshi appreciates you noticing his well groomed feathers, your spirits feathers look very shiny and groomed properly as well."

Drace looked over at the two spirits happily playing with each other " Wr must be excusing ourselves now though me and Oroshi have very serious work looking for the people who robbed this girl of her duel spirit, I hope she can recover from such a tragic event."

Drace called to Oroshi signaling it was time for them to take their leave to continue their investigation on the stolen duel spirits. "If any of you find anything of importance don't hesitate to come tell us we are In the same dorm after all again it was nice meeting g you all." Drace waved good bye to his fellow students as Oroshi flapped his wings goodbye to last.

As they were walking away Drace started talking to Oroshi with a hint of joy in his tone " Well Oroshi looks like we've met some new friendly companions I hope we can stop whatever is going on before anyone else gets hurt." Oroshi squalled in argeement as they continued to their destination.

Nikki blushed when Chance held her hand for a second shedidn't know what todo until he left for a moment. Shewatched as Drace left the room. She wondered why he wanted to help find Angel and stop whoever is doing this. She figured he was just trying to make things safe for all duel spirits and left it at that.

"Thanks for coming guys. You didn't have to miss class." Nikki finally blurted out now. "I'll probably be here all day." Nikki said with a fake smile. "But i do appreciate it."

As Aki received the message from Morgan she quickly rushed over to the nurses office to visit Nikki.The nurse told her which room to go to and she walked down the hall.She walked into the room to find Nikki sitting in bed and gives her a big hug "How are you doing Nikki?" she asks.

Nikki was surprised by Aki's hug and caught off guard completely by how everyone cares so much. "T-thanks Aki." Nikki smiled now and gave her a small hug back. "I am doing fine. I can't see spirits anymore.. but I think I will be okay." Nikki added.

Tatsumi had just left the Chancellor's office after being debriefed on the events between Nikki and the Child of Anubis. Tatsumi was shocked that they managed to steal Nikki's Duel Spirit. I should check up on her. He thought to himself.

On his way towards the Nurses office, Tatsumi passed by the School Cafe. "Hmmm maybe I should pick something up to try to brighten her day if only a little bit." Tatsumi walked into the cafe and after a friendly exchange with one of the cashiers he left with a dozen cupcakes of variety of flavors.

Once Tatsumi reached the Nurse's Office, he saw Nikki was surrounded by many of her classmates. Tatsumi gave a warm smile to Nikki. "Someone sure is popular today." Then he held up the basket of cupcakes. "Figured you could use something sweet."

"Tatsumi.." Nikki was surprised that he bought her something. Normally she wouldn't accept gifts from anyone but today was different although she wished Angel could be here to share this moment she waa still rather happy. "Thank you." she finally said. "But you guys didn't have to do all this. I'll be fine." Nikki wasn't used to getting all the attention it was a weird feeling ahe almost wanted it to stop cause she was out of her comfort zone completely now.

"I wish there was something I could do you all of you." Nikki said. "I'll try to get better."

Tatsumi rested his hand on Nikki's shoulder. "You don't have to anything for us. Just get better at your own pace." Then Tatsumi grabbed one of the cupcakes he brought and handed it to Nikki. "Now eat up before they get cold." He said lightly.