The Multi-Dimensional Babysitter (for Terra)

Location: Duel Academy

“How dare that Slifer Slacker embarrass me again!”

In his private quarters, a purple-faced Dr. Crowler stomped through the doors. Steaming was blowing out of his ears, and if someone was nearby, they’d think Dr. Crowler was brewing tea in a kettle.

Dr. Crowler bit down on his knuckles, thinking about how that drop out boy had mouthed off in class again, reminding everyone of Crowler’s public defeat at his hands during the Entrance Exam.

“He thinks he’s so clever. So he beat me once, but it was a fluke! A fluke, I say! But it’s gone to his head. He’s constantly late, he sleeps in class, he turns in homework with drool all over it...grrr! I hate that child!”

But Crowler was at the end of his rope. Nothing he tried had worked. Chazz, Alexis, Titan, and even the legendary Para Dox brothers had failed to deliver the results he wanted; which was a repentant Jaden Yuki that knew his place.

Suddenly, there was a flash in the room.

“Aah! My eyes!” Dr. Crowler covered his burning eyes. When the pain subsided, he peaked through his fingers. “What even was that—” he trailed off at the sight of an old dusty piece of parchment fluttering to the floor.

“Hmm, what is this.”

Dr. Crowler reached down and picked it up. Reading through it, he scoffed loudly. “This can’t be real! Whoever is pulling this prank better come out right now or else there will be big trouble!”

But no one came out.

Dr. Crowler glanced around, the silence stretching.

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. I’ll treat it as a venting exercise.”

With no real expectations, Dr. Crowler picked up his pen and wrote in the name of the bane of his existence: Jaden Yuki.

“As for the timeframe…” He tapped the pen on his lips. “Forever would do nicely.”

Done, Dr. Crowler sighed. “Like this would magically solve my problem. Better get ready for bed; I have another day of Jaden Yuki to look forward to tomorrow.” And so the professor went to bed. Unknown to him, but the sheet of paper disappeared, vanishing in an explosion of particles.

-()-

Location: Somewhere in Japan

In a large mansion overlooking the ocean, a rich couple sighed.

“Dear, I’m worried about Blair,” the mom said.

The father took a whiff of his cigar. Breathing out the smoke, he nodded. “I agree. I never imagined she would run away to Duel Academy like she did. If that young Mr. Truesdale hadn’t contacted us when he had, who knows when we would have found her.” As a doting father, he shuddered to think of the things that could have happened to his little girl, who had been masquerading as a teenage boy and living in a boy’s dorm.

Having been a young man himself once, the father knew that boys couldn’t be trusted around his daughter.

“What should we do, though? All the nannies we’ve hired have proven to be incompetent.” Or perhaps Blair was simply too smart. She was able to forge documents detailed enough to fool Seto Kaiba’s admissions’ office after all. Perhaps the employees couldn’t be blamed for being unable to keep up with his little prodigy.

“What about a boarding school?” suggested the mom. “She’d be under constant supervision, and their schedules are busy enough she wouldn’t have time to go running off again.”

“Hmm, I don’t think that will be enough. Boarding schools have lots of students. I want Blair to have as close to a 1-on-1 experience as possible.”

The father continued. “It needs to be remote so that she can’t run off, and the person needs to be attentive and competent. Preferably until she’s 18…” he muttered.

At that moment, the father’s phone buzzed. He pulled out his phone, and he squinted at the unfamiliar number. “Strange, no one should have my phone number…” He read through the message, his eyes widening at the perfectly timed ad.

“Might as well try this…”

-()-

Location: Somewhere in Unova

In the Pokemon Center, a frustrated Ash Ketchum was seated at a computer in the dark. “Stupid Iris, calling me a kid…” Ash complained, his expression pinched up.

Ash was already 15, and he had traveled multiple regions! He had even made it to the semi-finals last year. But somehow Iris, who had only started her journey this year, thought he was a complete idiot and too immature to be a good trainer. Like she wasn’t the one with an Axew that couldn’t fight and an Excadrill that didn’t trust her.

“So what if I don’t know type match ups; I’ve never needed them before,” he said, still steaming. He was at the computer, staring at a type matchup board, trying to memorize them. But he couldn’t even understand them conceptually. What did they mean electric attacks didn’t work on ground-types? Pikachu beat them all the time. If you and your Pokemon fight with everything you have, you could win any battle.

Suddenly, a pop-up window appeared.

“Gah, stupid pop-up,” Ash said. “How do I close this…” Ash was not the most literate person when it came to computers, a consequence of living outdoors and traveling on foot.

Before he did, though, Ash’s attention was caught by the heading and the accompanying image. He flushed a bit at the red-bottomed child. “Babysitter…heh, what if I put in Iris…”

Naturally Ash didn’t expect anything to happen; he was only putting in her name as a joke. “For how long? Um, until she realizes she’s the real baby,” Ash decided, putting that as the reason. After all, unlike Dr. Crowler, who wanted Jaden gone forever, or Blair's parents who wanted Blair to be safe until she reached of age, Ash didn't want to get rid of Iris. He just wanted her to stop teasing him, and she’d only do that if she stopped being so smug and prideful.

Hours later, Ash went to bed.

-()-

The next morning, three beds would be found empty.

Meanwhile, in a completely different dimension, three children were sleeping in a large field in front of a large house. Jaden was in his tracksuit, which he slept in, Blair was in her pink pajamas, and Iris was in her clothes. All three were fast asleep, completely unaware that their lives were about to change forever.