Precious Time~ Glory Days~

*It's the weekend and naturally, you expect the areas around the schools in the city to be fairly quiet at this time of the week, but at the Domino City Duel Academy you will find Juudai and Asuka by the gate of the school, digging a hole.
Just digging a hole.
Why in the hell are they digging a hole? Weird.*

I really hope I'm right about this and we're not just digging this hole for nothing.

Number 00 has been dealt with. It was quite a duel, with him getting a very sudden upper-hand on me, but with working along side Hope, we managed to win and stop his plans to destroy the 12 dimensions.
I am now in possession of roughly around 71 Numbers, including Number 00 himself. This leads me to the bad news. There are still a lot of Numbers unaccounted for and are still on the loose. I was told by Number 00 himself that Numbers 6, 69 and 96 are some of the most dangerous that are still missing, 96 being the one that visited me not too long ago.

If you come across any of the missing Numbers, please contact me directly at the spirit foundation. I know that there are a few Numbers still with those who didn't show up last night, so if you could contact me as well to discuss what you would like to do with your Numbers, that'd be great.

I'm guessing since Number 00 broke them out of the prison dimension they were in, that the place may not be suitable for them to be returned to. For now, I'll be keeping a hold of them in a safe, secure location. Hope, on the other hand, will be helping me with the Spirit Foundation, along with my other spirits for the time being.

I do wonder though... Number 00 mentioned something about being called "mad" because a "rain of light" fell on him... what did he mean by that? I have my suspicions but... I guess I can't really confirm it right now.

Does anyone know anything about a "Number 96"? I got visited by someone yesterday claiming to be that Number, trying to bargain with me to let it go free in exchange for putting the rest of the Numbers back where they belong. They got a key for the Spirit Foundation from somewhere, which kinda concerns me. It's now in my possession though.

Anyone missing a key?

So for a while now, I've been working on getting together all the information we have so far on the Numbers. Some of this information I've released before, but now I have a lot of additional information to add to it. We've managed to get some information from interrogating one of the Numbers and then everything was clarified and further explained by one of the Numbers that is working with us. I'll explain a little more about him in a moment.

From what we know, there are 99 numbers in existence, with one other that is the one thought to be pulling the strings of this so called "game". I've been told that it goes by "Number 00". These Numbers are dangerous criminals that broke out of a secure prison dimension, criminals that were so dangerous that they were locked up and then just left for eternity, but something happened to make the confines of the prison weak and the Numbers broke out, scattering over Domino City, as this is the weakest point between the dimensions.
The Numbers can manipulate people and play on their strongest weakness or strongest desire. They will use that to their advantage. It is possible that they can further aide this by adapting their appearance and behaviour based on a persons fear or desire.
It is believed that the main aim this "Number 00" has in gathering up all the Numbers is to target and destroy the Duel Monster Spirit World, the very world that imprisoned them in the first place. It's a pure revenge attack.

At current we do not know where this "Number 00" is or where he's operating from, or even what he looks like, but we need to do what we can to keep the Numbers from the general public and from Number 00 himself.
As far as I can tell at the moment, if a Number randomly appears to a person, that Number has the possibility of possessing them. The card's influence on that person cannot be taken away by simply taking the card away, the Numbers card HAS to be won in a duel for the influence to be broken and for it to be up as a "reward", the opponent has to summon their Numbers in the duel.
So far, I have seen no evidence of Numbers cards that have been acquired through a duel possessing the person who won it.

So far I have seen one Number that was able to change it's form through something called a "Chaos XYZ change". It's possible that this happens when the Number has an incredibly strong hold of the person it's possessing.

Now, as I mentioned, I have one of the Numbers helping me. Number 39: Aspiring Emperor Hope.
Although I was suspicious at first, I have talked to Hope and he told me his story to explain how he became part of the Numbers.
He was an independent Hero working in the Spirit World, a hero who brought hope to those he helped and a hero that was trusted. He was once tasked with the duty to protect an important figure within the spirit world and although this figure was disliked by many, even the heroes themselves, it was Hope's duty to protect him as a hero, even if he wasn't too keen on it. The guy wasn't evil, just a politician that had controversial ideas.
Though, despite doing all he could, somehow, the guy was murdered under Hope's very nose, despite Hope being stood on guard outside the hotel room the guy was staying in. It was done quickly and silently.

Hope discovered the politicians body, but because there was no evidence of a break-in and no-one remaining to blame, Hope was accused of the murder, simply on the grounds that he was the only one there that night. They needed a scapegoat to blame and it became him. No matter how much he pleaded innocent and how little evidence there was, he was given an unfair trial and was instantly charged with the murder. He believes there might of been evidence to prove he was stood outside the door the entire time and didn't move, but that it was swept under the rug so they had someone to blame.
From there, he was thrown into the prison dimension and given his prison number.
Number 39.

Here, he learned the plans of the other numbers, should they break out and so he wants to help re-capture them and stop their plan to destroy the spirit world, in the hopes to clear his name.

Like I said... I was suspicious at first, but he has given us a lot of valuable information, so I'm willing to trust him.

For now, all we can really do is continue to stop the Numbers from influencing others and collect them up into a safe place where this "Number 00" cannot reach them.
Remember, they need to be won through a duel in order to safely acquire the cards.

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If you could all list what Numbers you have, then that will give us a good idea which ones we've found and who has them at the moment.
From now on, if you gain or lose Numbers, I'd like to be informed through either a private tag on your journals, through my Spirit Foundation e-mail or in person. If you lose any, I'd like to know who gained them, so I can keep the list up-to-date.

My current Numbers are:
Number 16 - Shock Master
Number 13 - Black-Cape Shield
Number 24 - Archer of Absolute Sorrow / C24: Archer of Absolute End
Number 39 - Aspiring Emperor Hope
Number 83 - Galaxy Queen

Weird.

For the past few days, I've be finding Dark Bugs all over the place. I thought Sakana had an infestation of them or something, but no one else has found any in their apartments other than me. I dunno, maybe Pharaoh's been bringing them in or something, though I did find a few at the Spirit Foundation too.

*It had been days since anyone had last seen Ruka, too many days, in fact. Juudai had given her a while to calm down and see if she would start coming round on her own, but he had been around to the apartment she was holding herself up in every single day attempting to try and get her to talk to him or let him in, but each time she never gave a reply.*

Come on, Ruka! Ruka!

*Today was no different. No matter how much he knocked, or how much he shouted to her, he got no response.
He stopped knocking and stepped back from the door. Enough was enough, he needed to get in to make sure she was alright. But how? Sure he could have Neos punch the door in, but he didn't really want to scare her anymore than she already is. Maybe there was a better way in?

Suguru! Feel free to wander across Juudai as he's contemplating his options!*

Did anyone else get a letter recently about some kind of card hunting game? It sounds like it could be a lot of fun, so I sent the form off to confirm my participation today!
I wonder how we find these duelists with these "Number" cards though. Hm, I guess we just have to duel who we can and they'll use the card if they have it.

I'm really looking forward to this!

Oh, I forgot to mention my birthday that was a few weekends back. Asuka and I ended up going on a spontaneous weekend trip to the beach to celebrate it. I'm really glad we did, I think it was good for the both of us. We haven't had much of a chance to go on a trip together for a while.