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WHO: Haou!Juudai and Johan
WHERE: A street/alley outside the MAC, I guess
WHEN: Monday night, a little while before the timeswap ends
WARNINGS: Violence, a little!
SUMMARY: It's probably a good thing the timeswap ended when it did... for Johan, at least. Otherwise, he'd be so fucked. (...Figuratively.)
FORMAT: Log to start, whatever afterwards

Haou was very, very keenly aware someone was following him again.

He stopped walking and let the cool rush of wind flow over him for a moment, wide crimson cape rustling a bit in the process. Scoping out the area with only his senses, feeling the eyes on his back and hearing the subtle movement occurring from behind him; obviously, its origin was trying hard not to be detected, but did not have nearly the skill that was necessary to fool him.

No... not nearly enough. No hiding place, no disguise could throw him off anymore.

"Come out," he commanded, deadpan, without turning around, and waited for a response. If none came, he would have to go over there and swiftly kill the one who had the fearlessness -- not courage; fearlessness was far different from courage -- to follow him.

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Johan thought he'd been a bit quieter than that. Well, it wasn't as if it mattered. He'd told Juudai that he would follow him until this strange alteration was over with. He strolled out of the shadows and looked at his best friend.

"Did you want something?"

"Don't play stupid."

Haou turned to face Johan, with slightly more fury engraved into his features than their previous encounter. Yet, at the same time, other than a little emphasis on his previous line, there was hardly any emotional flavor to his words.

"I warned you. That I would kill you if I saw you again."

At that point, he started towards him, fists clenched, in the intimidating, even condescending manner an angry parent may start towards a child to stop them from disobeying their rules.

"I don't intend to go back on that promise."

Johan didn't believe that Juudai would do it. What he believed was that Juudai believed that he would. Which meant he wasn't going to stand there and even let him try.

"I'm not that easy to kill. You should know that." And with a concentrating frown, he put up one of his shields. He hoped he'd be able to keep it up until Juudai once again let him be.

Then he could keep on following him.

"You are already dead," Haou corrected flatly. His duel disk began to spin... though it didn't appear as though he was preparing to summon anything. Instead, he'd decided to use the sharp edges on the spinning device like a sawblade, swinging his arm to try and cut into the shield with a bit of his own power backing the blow. It wasn't worth wasting the energy to summon anything, and it would be so much more fulfilling if he could dispose of him on his own.

...Perhaps not fulfilling, but he didn't especially feel like going through much trouble to deal with him, considering the shields seemed to be all he possessed to defend himself currently.

"I've told you already, I'm not dead. You know that...usually." Johan kept up his shield, concentrating harder. This wasn't going to be easy; he knew that Juudai had powers of his own, but could he use them now? The answer was probably 'yes'. "And when you thought I was, Yubel had me. But you saved me, Juudai." If he had to repeat everything they'd went through in Dark World to get through to Juudai, he would.

"Don't lie to me." A little louder than the previous flat statements, but not much different in tone. Haou wanted to add "I have saved no one" to that, but had enough self-control by now to prevent it from accidentally spilling out. He continued to slash at the shield ruthlessly, utterly determined to break it, a small streak of his power left behind with each swipe.

Johan flinched; the shield was not going to hold up that much longer. It required his own strength to maintain, and he hadn't put in quite as much practice as he should have, in retrospect.

Or, perhaps more accurately, in the face of someone trying to kill him.

"I'm not lying." He shifted back some; perhaps if he could put some distance in between the two of them, he could back off for now. Just until Juudai's murderous instincts eased up.

Haou's only response to that was to step forward once and swing powerfully at the shield once more, with greater force this time. There was nothing standing between him and murdering Johan in terms of conscience or morality, and once there was nothing between them physically, either... it would be over only as quickly as Haou willed it.

Johan stepped back, only to find his feet slipping out from under him as he tripped over a small pile of reeking trash that he'd somehow either avoided or just hadn't noticed before. That break in concentration, coupled with the attacks on the shield, was all that was necessary for his only defense to shudder and fade away.

Oh, shit.

Haou didn't bother hovering over him for long, instead grabbing his shirt and slamming him against the wall for the second time that week. One hand clenched around his neck with slowly increasing strength, while his eyes pinned him with an intense glare.

"I don't need to ask why you would do this," he stated dully, since really, didn't the entirety of Dark World want him dead? "But tell me this. What made you think you could get away with such an unforgivable crime without consequence?"

Johan struggled as hard as he could, but Juudai was much stronger than he had thought he was. Stronger, and a lot more stubborn.

"What crime, Juudai? Telling you what you don't want to hear?" He fought to get the words out around the hold Juudai had on him. He would not deny that he was Johan Andersen. He wouldn't lie like that.

He doubted he'd get much of a chance to say anything else, either. Not with that kind of grip on his neck.

Not pleased with that answer in the least, Haou started to choke him harder... but at the same time, a tiny flash of something hardly unidentifiable appeared on his features, then vanished just as quickly.

"You have gone to some lengths to make it a believable illusion. But the dead cannot be brought back to life." He paused. "Every action has consequences. These are yours for being a fool."

No longer wanting an answer from him, the grip around Johan's throat kept getting tighter, tighter...

His hands clutched at Juudai's hands as he tried even harder to get them off of his neck. Harder, but with the same lack of success. The Gem Beasts stirred noisily in their deck, but being only spirits here, there was little that they could do beyond protesting Juudai's actions.

Johan kept staring at Juudai, though, determined to stand by who he was, even if he died for it.

Haou winced suddenly, feeling a strange oncoming sense of vertigo. His position did not change, but his form began to blur and shift in an indescribable phenomenon. It was a quick process, taking only a few seconds to complete, and by the time it was over, an older Juudai was staring back at Johan.

The second he registered what he was doing, that his hands were around Johan's neck, he yanked them away from him so fast it made him literally fall backwards from the momentum. His eyes were wide.

"Wha... what just... Johan?"

It took Johan a few moments to realize that he could breathe again and that he wasn't being choked. He coughed some, drawing in huge breaths of air, and tried to get himself steadied.

"J...Juudai?" Doing much critical thinking at the moment was completely beyond him. He was simply happy that he was alive. Not to mention that from the sound of his voice, Juudai had recovered his good sense.

"...What the hell was I just doing?" Juudai asked carefully, staring up at Johan, practically flinching every time he coughed. His heart raced; something had obviously just happened without his knowledge, but what? The concept of anything he'd been doing happening without his knowledge scared him, quite frankly, and probably moreso considering his last memory was of him in his apartment when the communicator turned on...

Johan breathed in more; it grew easier with each time that he did it, since he wasn't being choked anymore.

"Attempting to strangle me. Because for the last few days or so, you haven't believed that I was really me. You were wearing black armor and your eyes were all gold."

They'd reminded him of something...or someone. And despite having just escaped being strangled by his best friend, Johan thought he knew who.

Juudai was dead silent for a moment.

"...What?!" he half-shouted. "Are you sure? But that's not... how...?!"

It was his turn to be incoherent now. He couldn't come up with words to express his shock -- he knew in his heart of hearts that Johan wouldn't lie about it, but how could it have happened? If he were Haou, he would have known about it, wouldn't he? And wouldn't Yubel have known, too? Wouldn't she have been able to smack some sense into him if that were the case?

Somewhere in him, he wanted to panic, but tried to keep himself as reasonably under control as possible for now.

Johan straightened up cautiously, more because he wanted to be sure he was ready to do so than anything else. Everything seemed to be working right. He stepped away from the betraying pile of trash that tripping over had caused him to lose his shield.

"You're not the only person it happened to. I read a lot on the network about how people were changed with younger or older versions of themselves, or what could be their...doubles from other worlds, from what I gathered. I didn't understand all of it, but it's all there if you want to see it for yourself."

Juudai let that process slowly, and then visibly relaxed a little. "At least I'm not going crazy, then. But..." He slammed his fist against the ground to get rid of a little of the tension, then lifted himself off the ground back onto his feet. "Damn, why did it have to be that time? Couldn't whoever the hell caused this have picked a better one?"

"Don't ask me. Though it would be interesting to see what you could be like in some other world, or being older, or even younger." Johan couldn't help the grin that flickered across his face. With the danger over, his usual ease around Juudai had reasserted itself. "What if you'd turned into a six year old or something?"

"Tch, that probably would've been a better choice. I was better as a six year old than I was as Haou... though no less stupid either way."

He laughed nervously. Even true as it was, Juudai felt like it was just a little insensitive to joke about it right after Haou had tried to kill Johan. Still, this was Johan, and he'd always had a pretty decent sense of humor.

Johan glanced a bit more closely at Juudai; he was a little worried about his reaction, which was one reason he was joking in the first place, to try and ease the tension.

"Are you all right now, though? I mean...you again? If that's the right way to say it." This wasn't exactly a situation he'd been in before, so he wasn't sure of how to ask.

"Yeah, I think so."

Juudai made a face. "But... damn, this is... damn it. I can't believe this happened again! I already wasn't doing such a great job of being a 'hero' here, and now this had to happen... I need to make up for it," he gritted, clenching his fists and looking to the ground. "I'm sick to death of not doing anything, and now I probably screwed up a fair few people's opinions of me as well. I have to get my ass in gear, now."

Johan stepped closer to Juudai. He knew how frustrated that he had to be, and he felt much the same way. "Any help you need, you've got. I've wanted to do something too, but I honestly don't know how." He wasn't really that good with people on a personal level. Helping them to save their own lives, he could usually manage, especially if dueling were involved. But the situation they were in here wasn't one he was used to.

"So..." Juudai said in a low voice after a moment, "you saw Haou for yourself." A note of shame rose into his voice for an instant. He forced a crooked smile. "Pretty bad, huh? That's what I have to prevent from ever happening again, the right way this time."

"You were every bit as stubborn as I've always known you were. You refused at all to believe that I really am Johan, even when you saw my deck in action," Johan rubbed at his neck a little. "Where did you get those Evil Heroes, anyway?"

"Not surprising," Juudai muttered awkwardly. "As for the Evil Heroes... I guess they changed along with me, and were kinda influenced by my mindset at the time. I think Hane Kuriboh and Neos were kinda mad at me then, too, because they never came up in duels anymore, and eventually I just took them out of my deck completely. Then again..." He cringed. "I'm pretty mad at me for that, too. Even now, I just... a whole bunch of emotions come up every time I think about it, and hell if I could give a name to all of them."

"The thing to do when you make mistakes is to try to make up for them. But you already know that, don't you?" Johan looked at him, one eyebrow quirked up a little. He knew what Juudai's answer was going to be. He knew him too well for it to be anything else.

"Of course." Juudai grinned, more genuinely this time. "That's why I think I'm going to start doing some vigilante stuff soon. I hear people do it all the time around here, but I think it's time I joined in as well."

"Are you going to wear some kind of a uniform?" Johan asked, half-teasing and half-serious. "And seriously, if you want some help, I can do my best. My shield isn't too much, but I could try." He frowned some thoughtfully. "I should probably practice with it, though."

"Whaaaat? No way," he said with a laugh and a wave of his hand. "No uniforms except for this one right here." Juudai patted his sleeve, and then eyed Johan ambiguously at the offer for help. "Well... I'm not sure. I mean, I know I can trust you with this, but I don't want you to get hurt or anything, since you're not proficient with the shield yet."

"Then I'll work on getting stronger with it, and finding out just what it can do." That was a simple enough answer in Johan's mind. Truth to be told, he was wary of going out without knowing exactly what it could do anyway.

"...I guess so. But don't you dare get hurt," Juudai admonished, sounding lighthearted but really meaning it. He needled Johan in the shoulder in a playful sort of manner, but didn't really feel like playing much, in truth. It was about time he got to work on this City, after all.

"I'll make a point of it," Johan promised, teasingly needling Juudai back. "And that goes for you, too." Though, he doubted that Juudai would have to worry too much about it. Yubel would guard him.

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