Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / X/1999 Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Then came an angel ❯ Old Age versus Relentless Time ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter 20

By Sapadu

Sorry this took so long, but I was writing something else, being kind of sick of the current story line, but now, it's back.
And Sorry, Megami-chan, they don't start on the blimp for another chapter. Oops... I forgot...

Ken had to fumble with a hundred yen coin to get it into the stupid telephone machine- this was the only thing everyone in the house agreed on, that the telephones needing coins in order to work were utterly unnecessary, since they couldn't be carried places like a comlink could, and, of all things, required money to use. What if it was an emergency? Would the operator ask 'Did you put in a coin? No? Then, I'm sorry, I can't connect you.'

Finally getting the coin into the stupid little slot, Ken tightened his gloves on his hands and pressed the buttons that Miss Ann had told him, which made up their house's 'phone number'. He pressed his ear tighter to the receiver, hoping it would work- this was his last 100 yen coin, his first four attempts failing to get a connection to his house.

He heard a buzzing on the other end for a few moments before someone picked up.

"Hello, Ken." Thank Yoda, it was Luke, "You're already finished?"

"I don't think 'already' is quite the word I'd use. More like 'finally'." Ken replied, feeling that nothing would be better than to curl up in bed with a warm heartbeat next to his ear. Hell, he'd probably fall asleep on the bench waiting for Luke to come and pick him up.

"Tough job?"

"Bleh. Could you come get me now?" Ken asked, feeling drained. Seriously, he was the only one left in the building, except Seguchi-kachou and the janitors.

"You're not going to like this, but while you were gone, your father had a Dream and wants you to walk home. Take the Rainbow Bridge route, and from there, everything should explain itself." Luke said and Ken could honestly hear the regret in his voice. It would have made him feel better if he wasn't currently feeling something akin to 'Reach out and Force-choke my father'. The Jedi Prince paused for a moment.

"You have GOT to be KIDDING!" He finally managed, and when Luke made a negative noise, the boy started to shout, "LUKE, IT'S ALMOST MY BEDTIME, NOW, AS IT IS! BY THE TIME I GET TO RAINBOW BRIDGE, IT'LL BE MIDNIGHT! AND, TO TOP IT ALL OFF, I HAVEN'T HAD ANYTHING TO EAT ALL DAY- DO YOU REALLY THINK, IF FOR SOME STRANGE REASON, I GET IN TROUBLE ON MY WAY HOME, I'LL BE ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF?" There was a pause and a new voice came onto the line.

"Ken- for one thing, you shouldn't shoot the messenger. For another, yes, I am serious. Walk home along Rainbow Bridge. Trust me, if this wasn't important, I'd send Commander Skywalker to pick you up. As for trouble, let the Tree deal with that." Triclops said, into the phone. Ken made a frustrated noise.

"If you weren't my father, and if mother wasn't as scary as she is, I'd seriously consider going Sith for just this one moment to throttle you." Ken hissed into the phone, to which his father didn't reply, aside from a,

"We'll see you when you get home." And with that, hung up.

Ken cursed a few times at the phone before hanging it up and walking out of the building.

It was dark as Ken started trudging home- less than a half hour and he was tired, his feet hurt, and his legs felt ready to give out on him, not to mention the twisting over the lack of nutrients in his stomach.

It was indeed midnight as Ken reached Rainbow Bridge, but at least there were no cars on the bridge, so he felt a bit better. The boy's eyelids sagged over his gray eyes as his feet scraped the pavement, and he could barely see his hand in front of his face since there were very few lights. But somewhere in the near distance, Ken could see a glowing cigarette stub.

"What are you doing out so late at night?" Sumeragi-san asked, taking his smoldering death-stick out of his mouth and tapping off a little bit of the ash. Ken blinked at Subaru a few times, feeling rather crabby.

"Walking home. What does it LOOK like I'm doing?" Ken snapped, completely ignoring his manners for the moment. Subaru raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't comment on Ken's attitude.

"Walking home? It's midnight, for one thing, and for another, taking a route across Rainbow Bridge to walk home from school is QUITE a detour..." Subaru commented.

"I'm not coming home from school- I had an omnyouji job at NG-Records Studio." Ken grouched, rubbing his hands together as a cool breeze came off the river below the bridge and shivering. Subaru looked rather interested in this.

"So, you're doing omnyouji work, now? The way your mother described it when I came to see her, she said that you were more of a Jedi than anything." He said, returning to his cigarette.

"Well, my mother has really flexible definitions- to her, a Jedi and an Omnyouji are the same thing. Kind of how a Catholic and a Baptist are both Christians." Ken said, wrapping his arms around himself- damn it, the morning was so warm, if he'd known he'd be going this route at night, he would have taken a sweater with him.

"That's interesting." Subaru replied, leaning against the railing on the bridge, "So... why are you here- on this bridge, at this time- precisely?" Subaru asked, if only out of lack of anything else to do.

"My father told me to walk home and take Rainbow Bridge. He said that it would explain itself from there- I'm hoping that means Luke will come and pick me up here." Ken explained, shivering and looking down at his shoes.

"Why would he tell you THAT?" Subaru mused, "I was told by another dreamseer that this bridge would be destroyed." Ken made a noise and Subaru turned to see the boy sneering at the ground.

"Figures." Was all he said. Subaru didn't comment, but his attention was drawn to the gloves the boy wore- they were almost identical to his.

"Those gloves you wear- why do you wear them?" The older omnyouji asked. Ken looked up from the ground and then down at his gloved hands.

"Dee-Jay." He said, and when Subaru made a confused noise, Ken explained, "The droid who raised me. When I was little he told me to wear gloves- not for a real reason, but because he said when I grew up and could go to Topworld, that I'd need to be used to wearing them so other people couldn't see my hands. Then, when my mother came back, she explained that she'd carved the Sakurazukamori symbol onto my hands when I was born so that the Tree would protect me. I still wear them... more because I want to remember Dee-Jay, than anything else." Ken said, then looked at Subaru's gloves, "I was kind of wondering why you wore yours..." The boy added, looking away. Subaru's face didn't change.

"The same reason, mostly." He said, hoping Ken understood, but the Jedi Prince frowned at him.

"No- I meant, why do you bother? I can see the marks perfectly clear." Ken explained. Subaru's head snapped around and his eyebrows shot up, in a clearly shocked expression.

"Did your mother die to save you, too? That's the reason behind my marks." Ken asked, his gray eyes blinking innocently. Subaru hung his head.

"Unfortunately, no. The Sakurazukamori did this to me... to mark me as his prey." Subaru explained, holding one of his hands up, the back facing Ken. Ken blinked, and then inquired what happened.

"He spent a year with me, pretending to be a friendly veterinarian- my sister and he joked all the time about when the two of us would get married- and the both of us believed he really was... kind... and a good person. But then..." Subaru drifted off into silence and Ken blinked at him.

"What? Did something go wrong?" Ken asked, looking honestly curious, and sympathetic. Subaru lit up a second cigarette.

"He lost an eye protecting me on a job... and afterwords, decided our year together was up, and that a 'bet' which we'd made when we first met was concluded. I didn't remember, but he said that if he could consider me special by the end of our year, he would let me live. If he didn't, though, he'd kill me... and I lost, apparently." Subaru explained. Ken's eyebrows shot up.

"And yet, you live? Was he one of those compassionate Sakurazukamori's? Mother said her great-great-great-great grandfather was when he held the position..." Ken offered, but Subaru shook his head.

"No... my sister took my place... he killed her..." Subaru whispered. Ken's jaw dropped.

"I've been looking for him for nine years, but he's kept completely to himself... I haven't seen hide, nor hair of him, and I fear that unless he wishes otherwise, it will remain that way." Subaru continued, keeping his face perfectly neutral as Ken looked thoughtful.

There was a long silence.

"That sounds like what happened with me and Luke... minus the killing my sister, since I'm an only child... But we had a similar experience... I stayed with him for a full year, as a Jedi Apprentice, and he was my guardian for that year... I kinda developed a bit of a crush on him... and it quickly went to head-over-heels in love...

"Then... my family interfered- see, my uncle Takuta had been acting as the Sakurazukamori, but the Tree had really renounced him and only accepted killings from him because I hadn't learned how to kill yet or how to feed the Tree- so they wanted to take me in... to train me in how to be an assassin and everything..." Ken caught the look Subaru was giving him and started to frantically wave his hands around in a placating gesture, "OH! BUT IT'S NOT LIKE THEY'RE REALLY NASTY OR ANYTHING- THEY'RE REALLY NICE, AS FAR AS FAMILY GOES... but... anyway, Luke found out... and... well... he started to distance himself from me... things were tense for a few months before my father came back to civilization and my mother came back from the dead... and that's when everything snapped- Luke and I had a really big argument: I almost even used the Tree in a half serious attempt to kill him, I got so mad... we didn't speak for such a long time... before my mother got sick of it and threw us into a locked closet, refusing to let us out until we made up...

"So... I guess what I'm saying... is that just because you THINK it's all gone to hell in a shopping basket... that doesn't make it true..." Ken offered, smiling hesitantly as Subaru stared at him.

"I think the phrase you're looking for is 'Going to hell in a HAND-basket'." The older man corrected. Ken made a face.

"THE POINT IS...!" Ken shouted, impatiently, "That you can't just give up on it... Besides, how do you know what his logic behind his actions was? Maybe he was doing what he did because he cared about you." Subaru gave Ken a very doubtful look.

"I don't know... maybe, in his mind, he had to make you hate him so that you wouldn't be hurt by him... or something like that... so he did what he did to make you hate him, because he felt it would protect you... trust me- when somebody is in love, logic goes completely out the door." Ken insisted.

"'Out the WINDOW'." Subaru corrected again. Ken smacked his forehead with his palm.

"Anyhow... we'd never be happy together... Even if we had a moment of being happy... I'd hate myself even more for it afterward..." Subaru looked in the opposite direction, absolutely determined to avoid Ken's eyes. Ken, absolutely determined to meet the older omnyouji's gaze, walked around him and stood in his line of vision. Subaru looked away again.

"But, from what I'VE experienced, isn't love supposed to be forever- like, until the stars turn cold or some mush like that? Why should there BE an afterward?" Ken insisted, continuing to follow Subaru's line of sight as the other man kept turning his face away.

Subaru's head stopped swiveling and he stared at Ken, dumbfounded.

"I've been bested by a thirteen-year-old, who grew up underground, raised by droids..." Subaru muttered to himself, looking appropriately humiliated. Ken put his hands on his hips.

"Damn right you have." Ken snapped, his tiredness now returning, as well as his grumpiness.

Subaru stared at Ken, finally sighing, and walking in the direction Ken had been going when he'd reached the bridge.

"Come on... I'll walk you the rest of the way home- if your mother finds out I was the last person to see you and something happens, she'll probably come after my skin." He said, in a begrudging tone. Ken was surprised but didn't argue.

And as the two stepped off the bridge, Sakurazuka Seishirou watched after them, feeling eerily reminiscent of his mother.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Yu-Gi-Oh, for all his dueling prowess, shadow game powers, and influence as a 5000 year-old pharaoh, could not, for the life of him, get Yugi to settle down and go to sleep. He tried coaxing, bargaining, persuading, even went as far as threatening to send the boy to the shadow realm for a while if he didn't go to bed, and NONE of it was working.

Alright, so Tea had somewhat asked the boy out on a semi-date the next day... that was STILL no reason to be so excited at THIS ungodly hour of the night.

"I wonder what Yuzuriha is like, anyway. Tea talks about her all the time, but she never says anything about what kind of person she is- what do you think, Pharaoh?" The purple-eyed duelist asked, still bouncing up and down on his bed. The ancient puzzle spirit sighed.

" " If you'd been listening to me from the start, you'd know that what I THINK is that you should be sleeping by now... " " He replied, knowing his other self wouldn't take the less than subtle hint.

"I MEANT about Yuzuriha- don't change the subject!" Yugi pouted to his Millennium Puzzle, flopping down on his covers and positioning a pillow under his head. Yu-Gi-Oh sighed.

" " Quite frankly, I'm a little curious about the presence of an inugami. They're supposedly rare, and even more strange is how this one actually obeys someone's commands- the legends about inugami say that by cutting off a dog's head and burying it where many people will walk over it, a dog spirit is raised up and can be used as a temporary weapon, usually to attack somebody. The problem is that after the deed is fulfilled, the spirit often turns on the person who resurrected it. I'm really rather worried about Yuzuriha... " " He explained, somewhat bluffing, but as he thought about it, he came to feel the words he was speaking were true. Yugi stopped bouncing in an instant and his face assumed an appropriately shocked look.

"WHAT?!" Yugi shot up, off his bedspread and stared, jaw gaping, at the apparition of his other self. The Pharaoh held a finger up to his lips.

" " Ssshh. Remember, your grandfather's downstairs and he can't hear my voice but he CAN hear yours. " " He reminded the shorter boy. Yugi covered his mouth.

"What can we do, then?" Yugi asked, looking anxious. Yu-Gi-Oh moved his hand as though to ruffle Yugi's hair, even though the ghostly limb simply passed through the younger boy's hair.

" " Sleep. Tomorrow, we still have duels to fight, and if we're going to win to confront Marik, then you'll need your rest. " " He said, and at last, the words seemed to get through to Yugi, who changed into his star printed jammies before curling up under his covers and going to sleep.

Silently, the Pharaoh cheered at himself for FINALLY getting his other to fall asleep.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Why, exactly, did Kendalina insist on HER doing all the shopping for the night?" Bakura asked Samantha, who was rocking back and forth on the bench she was sitting on. They were seated outside a convenience store where Kendalina had gone in after taking Sammy's supply of ammo and threatening her to stay outside, after stationing Bakura as her babysitter.

"Because last time she took me into one of these PDQ's, I stopped in the cereal aisle and blew our whole week's worth budget on every box I could grab." Sammy explained, going red in the cheeks. Bakura laughed at that- he and his father also tended to stock up on more non-Japanese foods at convenience stores, as neither of them had ever really developed a taste for raw fish or seaweed that they could eat on a regular basis.

"You like cereal that much?" The British boy asked, looking amused.

"Hell yeah! Cereal's the best thing invented since... chocolate!" Samantha enthused sitting up and laughing with Bakura. When their laughter had died down, Samantha stood up to ask Bakura a question.

"Bakura-san... are you okay with me spending so much time with you?" She asked, looking anxiously up at Bakura, who blinked, rather non-plussed, at her.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" He asked, looking confused. Sammy shrugged, shyly.

"Well... it's just that... I feel kind of like I'm taking up all your time, and maybe you've got other things you'd rather be doing... I know Motou-kun and them consider you a friend... but just don't want to make me feel bad- you do know it's okay if you don't want me taking up your every waking hour, right?" Sammy looked very persistent about this, which puzzled Bakura. He frowned for a moment, then smiled, gently.

"Not at all- if I didn't want to be around you, I would have pushed you away from the start. And sure, Yugi and the others are my friends, too... but they can't be with me very much and... you can. I appreciate that, believe me." Bakura assured her, his eyes shining,

"Thank you, Samantha. Thank you so much."

Sammy peered up at Bakura, but instead of looking relieved, her eyes turned glassy and a slow, but surely shocked look spread across her face. Her jaw dropped and her cheeks went a very ashen pale shade. Bakura frowned, reaching out with a hand to see if she was alright, but Samantha took a few staggered steps backwards and collapsed into a sobbing mess against the brick wall, with a horrified Ryou Bakura trying to find out what was wrong.

Until Kendalina came back out.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Back at the hotel room, Kendalina dropped Samantha, whom she'd carried on her back the whole way there, rather roughly onto the bed she'd occupied the night before.

Bakura was still rather confused as to why Samantha had just broken down so suddenly, or how Kendalina had managed to get the girl to sleep with just a wave of her hand, but Kendalina currently wasn't answering any questions.

The Jedi Princess leaned backward and stretched her back with a yawn.

"Argh, what a night! Guess this means no dinner for anybody- shame, too, I got some of that brownie batter Sammy loves so much..."

"Miss Kendalina." Bakura interrupted, and his voice must have sounded insistent this time, because she stopped rambling and looked at him seriously for a moment, before sighing in defeat.

"Okay... okay... I'll talk. C'mon, let's go outside." Kendalina gestured with her hand to the balcony adjoining the room. Bakura frowned.

"Why outside?" He asked, only to be met with a crabby Jedi.

"I NEED MY NICOTINE, DAMMIT!" Kendalina shouted, her teeth gnashing, and Bakura cowered for a moment before following her.

"That's really bad for you, you know." He muttered. Kendalina rolled her eyes.

"Not you, too." She grumbled, lighting up a stick and taking a drag as she leaned on the railing, "Okay, where to start..." Kendalina mused, before deciding.

"Well, mostly it starts when Samantha was twelve- since Sammy is, as you put it, not scientifically explainable, she attended a... erm... school for the gifted. While at school, she rather unwittingly saved the life of a girl by the name of Marina Maxen. Just so you know where I'm coming from, she had gray hair and brown eyes... and a bit of a hero complex, falling completely head-over-heels for Sammy." Kendalina gave Bakura a significant look. He blushed.

"You figured it out?" He asked, embarrassed. Kendalina made a scoffing noise.

"Pfft! You have a poker face like a five-year-old!" She laughed, then continued, "Anyhoo, Marina usually spent her entire time around Sammy, and consistently talked about how grateful she was Samantha was there, and had saved her, and shit like that... Not by coincidence, Marina ended up being Samantha's first love." Bakura's sputtering interrupted Kendalina's talking. The Jedi Princess looked at the white-haired boy, who looked like he was choking.

"S-S-Samantha's a... a... a..." He coughed, completely in shock. Kendalina frowned.

"Hey, don't you call her names- so what if she likes girls? She had a husband, too, 'fore she died, so don't YOU start classing her off with that 'lesbian' shit." She snapped. Bakura coughed a few times to regain his breath.

"Yes'm." He said, meekly.

"And stand up straight, while you're at it. And tuck in your shirt- you call yourself a man? I've seen jellyfish with more spine than you. Have some manners. And stop coughing on your hand- that's why we've got Kleenex." Kenda added in a bossy tone.

"Anyhow, you were talking about Samantha's relationship with Marina. I'm assuming this has something to do with her breakdown, tonight?" Bakura asked, turning to look at Kendalina. Kenda put her cigarette back in her mouth, the smoke rising from it to frame her face like a pair of devil's horns.

"That was just so you knew the circumstances around this- the thing is, Marina had... issues- a lot of them- and she wasn't really... very stable. In the end, she killed herself. Threw herself into a river. Samantha even tried to save her, but... it didn't work." Kendalina explained. Bakura blinked, feeling a little shocked.

"Well... I see how that might be a bad memory but... how...?" He felt a little confused, as well, to tell the truth.

"'Kura-kun, get a clue- what you said, the look on your face as you said it, and your features... you reminded her of Marina. And, I think she realized your little crush. Don't you get it? She sees Marina in you!" Kendalina explained, exasperated. Bakura blinked, this concept apparently not having occurred to him.

"And, generally, this pattern of romance interests has repeated with Samantha, right up until the day she got bitten and became a vampire. The reason she freaked is 'cuz she's worried." Bakura blinked again.

"She's worried that you're going to be the next person she cares about to die."

And suddenly, Ryou Bakura felt very small compared to the rest of the world.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The tremors over the day had worried Tea a little, but since they'd remained mostly slight and most people didn't seem able to feel them, she had supposed there was no reason to worry. She anxiously checked her watch to be sure it was the time she'd told Yuzuriha and Yugi she was meeting them- though, if Yugi had gotten challenged to a duel, that may affect it, while Yuzuriha probably was having transportation troubles, getting from her school's campus to the Shibuya convention center.

Yuzuriha had been rather tearful the day before- something about a man named Kusanagi and betrayal but... she also hadn't been very coherent when Tea had talked to her on the phone... maybe today she was feeling better?

"Tea!" Hearing Yugi's voice made her head snap around. It was a relief to see at least ONE of the two had shown up. She smiled as Yugi came jogging up- under any other circumstances, it would have been kind of comical, but she felt a lot better seeing the purple-eyed boy and his smile today.

"Hi Yugi- glad to see you got here on time..." She said, smiling, silently adding 'For once.' Yugi was panting and had his hands on his knees from running so much.

"You have no idea how many people wearing duel disks I had to dodge to get here on time today- even the Pharaoh thought we were going to get mugged, the way we were running from everybody!" Yugi managed to gasp between breaths.

That was when Yuzuriha arrived, with puppy Inuki floating after her.

"Thank you for waiting- I'm sorry, the train ran late today..." Yuzuriha apologized, but Tea waved it away.

"Not at all, we were worried you might not get here at all today." Yugi assured her. Yuzuriha bowed again.

"So... you're the Yugi Tea's told me all about..." She pondered, before suddenly asking, "There's something I've always wondered about..." Yugi blinked at her.

"Eh?"

"Since the puzzle you've got is sort of like a second personality, if one of you threatens suicide, would that be a hostage situation?" Yuzuriha asked. Yugi's expression was utterly priceless.

Then the ground began to shake...

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The next morning, Sammy was out on the balcony when the other two occupants of the room awoke. She avoided looking Bakura in the eye as she noticed the two getting out of bed, and went about fixing breakfast from the stuff Kendalina had bought the night before.

"Hey, Sammy- I found a box of that chocolate cereal that you like so much last night..." Kendalina went off, in a falsely cheerful tone, as though it would make Samantha feel better, but the purple eyed girl just poured three bowls, the smallest serving of which she kept to herself.

The door opened to their room and Tatsumi walked in, with Watari in tow. Sammy blinked sleepily at them.

"Sammy, after you went to sleep last night, I called the bureau and told them you'd had a bit of a breakdown last night, and that I wanted them here first thing in the morning." Kenda explained, swallowing the whole bowl full of breakfast in one gulp.

"And who, may I ask, is this?" Tatsumi pointed imperiously at Bakura. The British boy opened his mouth to explain, but Sammy stood up.

"Tatsumi, Bakura-san is also a participant of this tournament... he's acting as a guide for us, and showing us how to play, as neither Kendalina nor myself can play this game very well, and it's essential to getting back the souls which have been stolen..." She said, softly, looking at the floor.

Bakura, Tatsumi, and Watari all blinked. They'd never seen Samantha so meek and despondant.

"I see, Sapadu-san..." Tatsumi mused, before continuing, "If that's the case, then the ministry is going to have to remove you from the case. The Bureau cannot afford to have it's agents on assignment when they are in ill condition. Watari-san can take over from here." The blond waved somewhat sheepishly from behind Tatsumi.

"Now WAIT, just a minute here! I understand that you can't have people sick on the job, but what happened last night was under specific conditions- sort of like a disease that requires specific conditions to make someone sick. It won't happen again- I can promise you that." Kendalina got to her feet. Bakura also stood up.

"It was my fault, actually. If anything, I shouldn't be permitted to accompany them for the rest of their assignment." He put in, managing to sound extremely professional for a fifteen year old. 003 clapped her wings.

Sammy glanced up sideways at Bakura, before miserably dropping her eyes back to the floor.

"Sammy, say something- you were pretty insistent on us getting this job for a reason, so speak up. Defend yourself, dammit." Kendalina poked Samantha in the side with her elbow. Sammy shook her head.

"I don't know, Kenda. I just don't know... something's bothering me... just feels off today..." She muttered, before looking up at her friend with a look that could kill.

"Call Triclops. Maybe he Saw this." The younger girl ordered Kenda, who blinked, but did as she was told.

Triclops picked up the phone immediately.

"Kendalina, what's wrong?" He sounded grumpy. And sleepy, too.

"Trike, sorry ta wake you up if that's what happened but..." Triclops interrupted Kendalina, for the first time in the all their years of romance, sleeping together, and heartache.

"You DID just wake me up, in fact, I was right in the middle of a REM cycle- Ken had to shake me awake, which means he isn't sleeping yet, so..." And Kendalina interrupted Triclops.

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?! DO YOU MEAN KEN DIDN'T SLEEP LAST NIGHT? GET SKYWALKER ON THE PHONE, NOW!" Kendalina shouted.

"No. Commander Skywalker just managed to get Ken to calm down enough to go to bed, and before you ask, Ken didn't get home until about two hours ago because he had to walk home- No, Commander Skywalker did NOT have any fault in that, I TOLD him to and to go along Rainbow Bridge- and so the past two hours, we've been fixing dinner and getting everyone fed, and thus only just NOW are any of us getting any sleep." Triclops sounded cranky, even for him. Sammy was leaning in, her ear close to the receiver. Kendalina ignored her.

"Um... Trike, I'll grill you about that later, but Sammy wants to know if you Saw anything in a dream..." Kendalina said, tentatively. Triclops grumbled a bit.

"Yes. I did. But you woke me before I could See very much..." At this point, Sammy hit the speaker phone button and shouted at the phone.

"What did you See?" Everyone flinched, never having seen Samantha like this before.

"A dragon, for one thing..."

"What kind? The long, sleek, sea dragons, or one of the big, bulky types that breathes fire and sits on treasure?"

Pause.

"...The former... And it was circling over a building..." Sammy leaned in closer, as though she was watching a movie that had her on the edge of her seat.

"WHAT BUILDING?" She yelled. Triclops paused, seeming to be just as taken aback by Sammy's attitude.

"The Shibuya convention center."

"SHIT!" Sammy jumped over the two beds and ran out onto the balcony, "Kenda, you do your 'Defy Gravity' thing- I'M taking a shortcut." And she disappeared into a hole in space.

"'Defy Gravity'?" Watari questioned. Kendalina sighed and pulled a broom out from under her bed.

"Inside joke." She explained.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Yuzuriha dropped to her knees while Yugi and Tea managed to brace themselves. Yuzuriha looked up just in time to see the Dark Kamui bounding over the roof. In alarm, the young dragon got to her feet and brought her hands up in front of herself.

At the same moment, Fuuma, hovering over the open-roof stadium peered down. There was the same dragon who he'd run into at the arcade when he went with Kazuki.

And there was a boy down there, too. Despite looking young enough to be still in elementary school, he was dressed in the same manner as a boy-whore, which, of course, automatically caught the Dark Kamui's attention. And the pendant he wore around his neck somehow stirred something in his soul- like an echo.

Also, simultaneously, the Pharaoh felt an ancient presence, lingering on the edge of his senses. It felt... It felt almost like KAIBA, to be frank, except for the slightest of differences. And it was certainly more dangerous than even Kaiba with his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

" " Yugi, let me take over." " He asked his other self. Yugi blinked and looked around.

'Why?' He sent back.

" " I'm sensing something dangerous here. It's causing this earthquake, and it's powerful. Please, let me take over and deal with it. For yours and Tea's safety." " The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle pleaded. Yugi didn't understand, but he complied just the same.

(A/N: Why does Superman always have to find a phone booth when Yugi and the Pharaoh just swap places and nobody notices a thing. I mean, come ON!)

The spirit shield went up and a large cylinder shape covered the area. Yuzuriha opened her eyes to see Tea and a older looking version of Yugi standing behind her, both looking confused as to how all the people suddenly disappeared. Yuzuriha blinked too.

"Um... Yuzuriha... where did all the other people go? And what's with the huge green wall that's surrounding us all of a sudden? Any idea?" Tea asked, pointing up at the sky. Yuzuriha stared at Tea in horror, with wide eyes.

"It... it's my spirit shield... but how could you be here? It's dangerous for you to be inside..." Yuzuriha whispered, looking truly terrified. Yugi looked her right in the eye.

"Don't worry about us, Yuzuriha. You're here for a reason, this shield is up for a purpose, and we both trust you." He assured her. Yuzuriha blinked at these words, seeming so much like something Kamui would say, coming from Yugi, but she supposed, having properly met the short boy only just now, it may be completely in character for him.

A blast coming from Fuuma, whom was hovering over their heads, made Yuzuriha jump back and Tea ran for cover, so at least she wouldn't be in the way. This was very difficult, as the blast had destroyed the remenants of the roof that had been over their heads. Glass from the windows shattered and fell in chunks and splinters, one huge piece nearly catching Yu-Gi-Oh on the leg, but he moved just barely in time.

Yuzuriha jumped up onto the remainder of a support beam and called Inuki to her, who was changing into a sword just as she whistled. Wires shot out of the ground and aimed for Yuzuriha, but she cut through them, expertly. She did not, however, escape the slab of concrete that rammed into her from behind. Yu-Gi-Oh solved that problem nicely by summoning the Summoned Skull, whose electric attack shattered the stone.

Fuuma, whom was staying up in the air, out of harms way, chuckled at the impressive display. The power thusfar given off by the boy-whore kid was interesting, but not quite what he was looking for. But Satsuki would confirm his suspicions soon enough.

More wires came out of the ground, this time aiming for Tea. She screamed, turning to run and finding herself boxed in by debris.

"TEA!" The Pharaoh shouted, rushing towards her, a golden eye lighting up on his forehead.

The wires smashed against a deflective barrier emanating from the glowing Millennium Puzzle, turning to mush in seconds and falling by the side.

Yuzuriha was faring much better, now with the help of not only Inuki, but her friend's monster. The wires coming at her didn't seem that menacing or difficult to defeat- she just cut them down as fast as they came up and if she couldn't, she jumped out of the way.

Finally, a single wire got around her ankle as she jumped and snapped the joint, blood gushing forth and soaking her sock. Yuzuriha let out a high pitched squeak of pain, but there was a new kind of fire going through her veins- the adrenaline was lessening the throb of pain and boosting her determination.

She had friends to protect here.

And this world... the world where people like Kusanagi-san lived...

Even if he was a Dragon of Earth... he was still Kusanagi-san.

Yuzuriha wasn't stupid- she'd seen how Yugi looked at Tea and how she looked at him... even if they were both too dim to realize it themselves, Yuzuriha had no doubts they both cared for each other. And even after Yugi had changed, that little, noticable bit, she still looked at him...

It reminded her that the people we love are still those people, no matter what. That's why we love them.

The young dragon took a deep breath, her resolve built, and kept fighting.

Fuuma chuckled to himself as he blasted apart the roof and smashed the pieces against the barrier Yu-Gi-Oh was focusing on around himself and Tea. It was the same power as Kamui's, sure enough, but it was contained- he couldn't attack, but simply defend.

This was an advantage.

Fuuma turned his attention from the two lovebirds and aimed for the DoH girl and the skeleton that seemed to be with her. That was summoned by the Kamui-like boy... he wondered if it was also linked to his defensive power.

Only one way to find out. Fuuma aimed a blast at the skull, obliterating it completely. Yuzuriha screamed as the force of the impact threw her into the air and against a wall.

"Yuzuriha!" Tea shouted, before the Pharaoh shuddered, the impact of the destruction of his Summoned Skull hitting him and entirely knocking the wind out of him, almost as though all the power of the Skull had been sucked directly out of his own body. The pain was blinding- lights blinked before his eyes and an ache like he'd never felt before spread through his every limb as he dropped to his hands and knees.

"YUGI!" Tea cried, seizing the Pharaoh by his shoulder and shaking him a little. There was a 'tut tut'-ing noise over her head and Tea looked up to see a man standing over her. She felt a chill run over her- the man's hair was black and tousled, but the wind was blowing it up in such away, it reminded her firmly of a spikey haircut she'd seen every day of her life since meeting Yugi. And there was something of the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, in the way he held his posture and the clothes he wore... Tea blinked her eyes hard and forced herself to look the man in the eye.

"Pity- he had SUCH potential as an adversary... but tell me, Tea..." How did he know her name?!? "What does it feel like? To be so utterly helpless? So you're concerned for him, and you shout his name and try to reassure him that you're his friend and there for him... what GOOD does it do?"

Yu-Gi-Oh, hearing these words, lifted his head with his teeth gritted. The man standing over him was glaring down at him with a piercing, small-eyed glare. The ancient spirit almost bit his tongue, realizing the man he stared up at, from the curve of his chin and cheeks, to the murderous look in his eye, to the words he spat- he was almost EXACTLY like Kaiba.

"You're... wrong..." The Pharaoh choked out, his voice feeling weak and hoarse, "Tea's words..." He brought his arms up to lift himself off the ground, "And the strength... she and... my other friends..." One of his legs came out to support him, and he put his hand on his knee to raise up, "Give to me... though they might... not be here... with me..." His other leg came out, "That strength... is more..." Still staggering slightly from his weakness, "Than you could EVER understand." At this point, Yu-Gi-Oh's right knee practically collapsed, but Tea stood up quickly and supported him over her shoulder.

"That's right. Whoever you are, you can't POSSIBLY know what the friendship we all share does. Even if you can move bricks with your mind, or explode a city block just by looking at it, our friendship is STILL more powerful." Tea agreed, even as her own knees shook under her weight and the Pharaoh's.

Fuuma smirked.

"You've certainly got nerve. I'll give you that much credit. But don't worry- it's not you I'm after... for today." And he rose up into the air, soaring towards Yuzuriha, who was still dazed and confused where she was.

"YUZURIHA!" Tea cried.

"NO!" Shouted the Pharaoh, both of their eyes going wide as Tea tried to help him over to defend the other girl. Yuzuriha, hearing someone shout her name, shook her head, before realizing that the Dark Kamui was coming at her, with a killing look, and Inuki was several feet away, trapped under a piece of cement.

"STOP IT!" A blast of electricity hit Fuuma just a breath away from Yuzuriha, knocking him head over heels through the sky. Tea and Yu-Gi-Oh made it over to Yuzuriha, and Tea, being the only uninjured one, dug Inuki out and tossed the sword inugami back to his mistress. Yuzuriha caught it, but still looked around to who had stopped the Dark Kamui's attack.

And up there, exchanging blows, attacking one after another, Yuzuriha recognized the defense force uniform of Shiyu Kusanagi. She blinked, mesmerized.

"Kusanagi... san..." She whispered as Tea walked back over. The other girl looked up.

"So that's... Kusanagi?" Tea murmured, and smiled as a fierce, determined look came into Yuzuriha's eyes, and she stood up with a smile on her face, taking Inuki back in hand as the wires came back, as though saying to them 'Come and get me'. She sliced through each and every one, and when they started to wind together and charge, Inuki changed shape into a huge shield and covered the three, protecting them from harm.

"Wow... is there anything Inuki can't do?" Tea asked, in awe. Yuzuriha thought for a moment, and then said, with a smile,

"I'm pretty sure he can't play Duel Monsters." That seemed to revive some of Yu-Gi-Oh's energy and when Yuzuriha lifted the Inuki!shield to go back on the offense, he got up with her, drawing out the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl.

Up in the sky, Kusanagi was attacking the Dark Kamui, quite recklessly and as Fuuma sent back blast after blast, the Dragon of Earth didn't seem to care how much he got hurt, as long as he did damage to the Kamui.

Finally, after a hard blast into the stomach, which sent Kusanagi down to the ground, a few yards away from where Yuzuriha and the Pharaoh were holding their own ground, Fuuma landed in front of him.

"If..." Kusanagi panted between breaths, blood trickling over his lips and down his chin, "If you ever... try that... again..." He stood up, "I will kill you." Kusanagi's hands were balled into fists and the air around him crackled with energy as rocks trembled and bits of broken glass melted. The Dark Kamui only smirked.

"You Wish to protect her." He said, quietly, giving his fellow dragon a calculating, almost seductive look, "Even if you die, you wish to stand between her and danger." Kusanagi glared even more fiercely, his face flushing with anger at the younger man's attempt to manipulate him, "That's your Wish, isn't it?" Fuuma sneered, standing over Kusanagi in a menacing manner.

Kusanagi looked over his shoulder at Yuzuriha, who was rather valiently tearing apart the wires attacking Tea. He then looked at his feet, silently cursing to himself.

"Yes..." He growled. The Dark Kamui chuckled.

"I thought so..." He mused, before continuing, "Suppose I gave you some assistance with that... what would you say then?"

Kusanagi, knowing all too well the kind of shit Fuuma could pull, gave him a look so venomous it would have melted iron.

"I'd say you could go to hell and kiss my ass." He snarled. Fuuma tutted him.

"Such language. There are CHILDREN around." He scolded. This only served to infuriate Kusanagi more.

The wires stopped attacking, which made Yu-Gi-Oh nervous. Afterall, those things had been virtually unstoppable, like a swarm of cockroaches- why would they just give up?

"Of course, you do realize, if you're going to fight to protect her, you might as well become a Dragon of Heaven. Our sides are supposed to be equally matched- if you joined their side, we'd be unevenly matched. That's almost like CHEATING..." Fuuma mused, loud enough for everyone present to hear.

Yuzuriha, hearing this, dropped her sword. She hadn't thought of that- what if destiny determined that she and Kusanagi COULDN'T be together, for just that reason? Or, worse, what if this logic was making sense to Kusanagi, too? She shivered- never before, in her life had she felt so scared.

Kusanagi didn't answer either, but stood silent for a long time.

"Who cares..." He finally hissed, "So if it really is 'cheating', then who cares?" Yuzuriha blinked hearing this, "For one thing, rules are made to protect people, not so you can twist them to hurt others." Kusanagi snarled, and the smirk on Fuuma's face made it's way into the frown of a parent admonishing their child, "And SECOND... this isn't a game. This is war. And maybe people die in wars, but they save others, as well- I should know, being in a semi-army of sorts." To punctuate his point, Kusanagi took off one of the badges on his shirt and flung it as hard as he could at Fuuma. The Dark Kamui raised a hand and the badge shattered in midair.

"If I'm a traitor, by wanting to give her even the briefest moments longer of her life, then I don't care if what I do is by the rules or not." Kusanagi shouted, getting angrier by the second.

Over on the ground, Yu-Gi-Oh couldn't help but feel a sort of rift growing inside of him- after all the speeches and preaching he'd done about playing with honor and not cheating, to hear Kusanagi talk, it almost seemed to make sense- almost justified in bending the rules...

Fuuma chuckled.

"So... you're resolved on your Wish, then..." He murmured, "You Wish to die protecting her..." Kusanagi nodded, and the Dark Kamui's smirk grew wider...

"I can grant you that..." And he took a step closer.

Yuzuriha, realizing what he was going to do, snatched her Inuki sword and started to run, only to be blocked by a wall of wires that came shooting at her, Tea, and the Pharaoh.

"Dark Magician, destroy those wires- Dark Magic Attack!" Yu-Gi-Oh's powerful voice came over the noise, and the wires dissolved.

"Yuzuriha, go! Run!" Tea called, and Yuzuriha didn't need telling twice.

"Kusanagi-san!" She shouted, dodging wires that shot out of the ground, and blasts of the Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl.

Fuuma took closer steps towards Kusanagi, who's stance had moved from aggressive, to waiting.

"Kusanagi-san!" Yuzuriha shouted again, jumping over a piece of concrete as best she could with her injured ankle. Kusanagi looked over his shoulder one last time, before ruefully turning back to face his doom. Fuuma place a hand on his neck, but Kusanagi grabbed it.

"If..." He hissed, threateningly, "You TOUCH. One hair on her head. I will make you suffer as much as I can from the afterlife." Fuuma accepted this threat, but smirked all the same.

"Those are cold words, from a soon to be cold corpse." He warned, and Kusanagi, being no fool, understood immediately that the Dark Kamui had no intention of honoring his sacrifice.

Angry, the Dragon of Earth grabbed the Kamui's arm in both hands and mustered all of his energy for a big, final blast, just as the younger boy's other arm pierced his stomach.

"KUSANAGI-SAAAAAAAAAAAN!" shriek was horror-struck, filled with anguish, shock, and utter grief.

Blood spewed forth, a fountain of spray coming from both Kusanagi's stomach and from the large gash the explosion had made over the Dark Kamui'sentire right half of his body. The force of the explosion didn't seem to faze Fuuma in the least, and he simply shoved his arm further up Kusanagi's abdominal cavity, tearing through his chest and piercing his heart and lungs, at which more blood came out in a shower- splattering over everything within five feet of it, including a dumb-struck Yuzuriha, standing there, helplessly, with her sword slipping from her fingers.

"kusanagi-san..." She whispered, her eyes wide, and blank. Tears welled up and she didn't even feel their sting as they ran down her cheeks and the salt bit at the open cuts on her face.

Kusanagi's body lay face up, right at her feet- a large, gaping hole where his heart and stomach should have been, bloody wounds dotting his arms and face, and his eyes flung wide open in judgement, staring lifelessly up at Yuzuriha, clouding over as blood seeped from his body.

Yuzuriha's knees collapsed and she fell, practically face-forward, down... down towards the Earth.

The Inuki sword clattered away, changing back into Inuki, but instead of going to his mistress, the puppy just laid there, almost as though lifeless.

"Yuzuriha!" Tea called, running over to scoop Inuki up as the Pharaoh came jogging after.

"kusanagi-san... no..." Yuzuriha's words came out no louder than the softest of breaths, but they somehow echoed.

"Seems such a waste." Fuuma mentioned, kicking Kusanagi's lifeless body with his toe, "He really should have been more careful what he Wished for..." The Dark Kamui said these words so lightly, and Yuzuriha didn't even care what that could mean for her. The world seemed so entirely out of focus- nothing was real anymore, not the numb pain spreading from her ankle and chest through her body, not the crunch of cement under Fuuma's feet as he came closer, not Tea shouting to the Pharaoh... something about a 'He's going to kill Yuzuriha.' Who was Yuzuriha, anyway?

Certainly no one SHE knew...

Not even the flash of bright light, or the enraged female voice shrieking "FUU-MA-KUN!" were real. The Dragon of Heaven looked down at Kusanagi's glazed, lifeless eyes, and suddenly, all realness in the world ceased to matter.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

A/N: Come on- as soon as I started giving Kusanagi a personality, you guys should have guessed he was going to bite it relatively soon.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"So this is 'Defying Gravity'?" Bakura called over the rush of wind. Kendalina had, after a brief moment, hopped on the broom and told Bakura to sit behind her and hold on tight, before beginning to fly.

"If you must know, it's from the Broadway Musical 'Wicked' which is essentially the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West." Kendalina snarled as she sped up, aiming for a green, cylinder shaped object in the distance.

"And you're the Wicked Witch... how?" Bakura asked. Kendalina snorted.

"Just trust me- I am." She shouted. Bakura looked to his sides.

"Where are Tatsumi and Watari?" He inquired. Kendalina made a sound as though she were rolling her eyes.

"They're invisible, but flying just the same. I just like to show off." The Jedi Princess snickered after this, but swore venemently as the cylinder started to dissolve.

"Maa, Kura-kun, look at your Ring thingamajigger." Kendalina said, leaning forward. Bakura frowned but pulled out his Millennium Ring.

"One of the pointers is pointing straight ahead." He told her, and Kendalina made a noise as though to say 'I thought so.'

Bakura didn't mention that one was pointing to the East, towards the harbor, and another was pointing behind them, towards the museaum.

They were at the site where the spirit shield had been just a moment ago in two minutes, just in time to hear Samantha's voice pierce the air like an angry banshee choir.

"FUU-MA-KUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" Kendalina looked around frantically and saw Samantha, all dolled up in her armor, complete with a shield and sword, chasing after Fuuma, swinging her blade rather frantically and throwing an occasional spell.

"Yuzuriha? Yuzuriha, snap out of it." Kenda looked to see Tea shaking Yuzuriha, who was sitting as though in a comatose, by the shoulders.

Over everyone's heads, Sammy blocked an energy blast from Fuuma with her shield before charging and slicing off one of his arms. The limb fell and landed among the rubble with a splat. Drops of blood flew through the air as Samantha punched and kicked and swung her blade, slicing a large gash across Fuuma's face and shoulder. Fuuma grabbed Samantha's arm with his other hand and attempted to rip off one of her arms, but the mail she wore held strong against even the power of a Kamui.

Samantha blew her foe back with a swipe of her sword, hitting his stomach against the flat side.

"Tut Tut, Fuu-kun... Even if you ARE the dragon and I the warrior... We may have reversed roles of Old Age and Relentless Time." Samantha scolded. Nobody seemed to understand WHAT the hell she was saying, but a moment later, it was irrelevant.

Samantha started to chant.

"Heed me, Thou who is Darker than Dusk/
Heed me, Thou who is more Red than Blood/
In the Name of that which has been Buried in the Bottomless Abyss of Time Eternal/
I summon Thee, Master of the Ultimate Darkness/"

Kendalina swore, quite violently and dragged Bakura over to Tea, Yuzuriha, and the Pharaoh, fumbling with her ofuda.

"Shit, where'd I put that pen?" She cursed, pulling out her pockets as she looked for something to write with.

"Have no Pity on the Fools who stand in Our Way/
Infuse me with Power, Let your Strength become Mine/"

Watari and Tatsumi materialized next to the group.

"To Wipe them from the Face of this Earth/"

Everyone's shadows flickered.

"To Deliver unto them the Ultimate Doom/
DRAGON SLAVE!"

Tatsumi caught everyone in a Shadow Vacuum just in time, to keep the explosion from the Dragon Slave causing any damage to them, but when the sky cleared, everyone saw Fuuma's body drop limply from the spot he'd been in. Samantha hovered over him, not even scratched from her own spell. Everyone heard a loud groan come from the other Kamui.
"He's still alive!" Tea gasped in shock.

"Of course you're still alive, Fuu-kun. I'm not allowed to kill you- you're only allowed to die by natural cause, or Kamui's hand." Samantha spoke as though Fuuma had asked a question, and there was a deadly, menacing look in her eye.

"I despise people who don't fight with honor- people make sacrifices for reasons, and I'll be damned if I live to see one person's dying wish disgraced." Samantha hissed, her voice deadly calm and her gaze was shifting from menacing to hungry.

"Nasty, stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do." She took a few more steps until she stood over Fuuma's thoroughly beaten figure, and she began to kick him in the stomach with her armored toe.

"NEVER- DO- THAT- AGAIN!" She roared, accenting each kick with a word.

Fuuma curled up into a ball, and this seemed to anger Samantha even further, as she flung her self entirely at him, using each of her limbs to pin him down, before pulling something out of her pocket, putting it to her lips, and then stuffing it down Fuuma's shirt.

There was a muffled explosion before Sammy crawled off of the Dark Kamui, whose lower half of his body stopped moving completely.

"When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is NOT our friend." Sammy scolded, mockingly, before stomping off to join everyone else.

As she came to up close inspection, the armor Sammy wore seemed to be really a dress like a Greek Goddess, except made completely out of pearlescent beads, even as it moved flowing, without sound. The boots that covered her feet were made of gold leather and they glittered as though made of real metal. Her sword had a hilt that wound around her hand like living flame, and the shield was at least three-fourths her height, strapped with the symbols of the moon and sun, and though she lifted it as though it were air, it was obviously stronger than solid steel. Samantha's face was barely visable through her helmet- her hair was tucked under a solid plate of metal, with two glass wings raising out of the curve, and a curtain of the same beads in her chains covered her face like a veil, before she lifed the helmet and craned her neck in all directions.

Nobody spoke a word, before Sammy frowned and asked,

"Where's Bakura-san?" Everyone looked around, and Bakura was nowhere to be seen.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

When Yuzuriha had set up her spirit shield, the other Seals had felt it, obviously, and so it wasn't long before Kamui arrived, and even sooner afterwards, a limosuine sent by Imonoyama Nokoru pulled up, which everyone was more than grateful for, not wanting to answer to the police about anything.

Yuzuriha was still curled up in complete catatonia, not speaking or looking at anyone. The ride back to Tokyo was long and quiet, before Kendalina cleared her throat and broke the silence.

"Hey... um..." Her eyes landed on the Pharaoh, who was looking out the window, "You- Puzzle-san." He blinked at her, as though asking 'Who, me?', "Yeah, you... what's up? Can't you speak or somethin'?" He gave her a look that bordered on being dirty before shrugging.

"I'm just... thinking... that's all." The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle said, and when Kenda pressed him, he answered, "The man who attacked us today... even though he looked nothing like him... when I looked at him... I saw Kaiba..." Tea blinked before adding to that,

"Funny, but when I looked, I almost thought I could see Yugi..." She shuddered just thinking about it. Sammy didn't look up from cleaning her sword.

"Fuu-kun has... an inexplicable ability to look like anyone he feels like. Don't worry- you two aren't the first, and you probably won't be the last." She said. Yuzuriha didn't move, but Sammy cast her a glance. Tea looked sympathetically over at her friend, whom Inuki was nuzzling with his nose, and blinked.

From what Tea saw, she could see the faint figure of Kusanagi with his arms around Yuzuriha, resting her head against his chest.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"In short, Tatsumi-san, I'm staying. You can drag Enma himself down here, but I'm not going off the case."

A/N: And that's TIME- I've gotta go to BED.

I'll update soon- we find out where Bakura is and everything... Sorry this was such a sad chapter... Wah- it started out so happy, too...

But, on the bright side, next chapter, everyone's going to get piss drunk on the blimp in a game of 'I've Never'. Great fun. Oh, and Megami-chan reappears.