Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / X/1999 Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Then came an angel ❯ Confusion ( Chapter 25 )

Chapter 24

 

By Sapadu

 

He felt cold.

 

It wasn't really cold- he was used to that. No, this was a feeling of dread. Of horror.

 

A tingling in his non-existant gut that something very bad was going to happen.

 

He also felt numb.

 

Again, it wasn't a feeling that you feel on the skin- he didn't have any skin to feel it on, anyway, as he was now.

 

Instead, this was the numb that one's mind feels when they suffocate.

 

He was being choked. And crushed.

 

This overbearing darkness, and pressing weight of guilt. It was as though heavy stones were being piled on top of him.

 

Piled on by his own hands.

 

Every bit of suffering, he deserved. He knew that now.

 

Marik wished he could die.

 

But death wasn't ready for him yet.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Samantha was filling a giant metal tub with water in the privacy of the room she and Kendalina were sharing on the ship. It was handy, she admitted, to having a pocket of subspace as their room- it left a lot of space for things like this giant tub, as well as the barrier she put around it so that when she lit a fire beneath it to heat the water, the flames wouldn't spread and set the whole ship on fire.

 

Kendalina found her as she stripped of the fancy dress the Solar had wanted to wear that day. The water was boiling, steam was rising, and the flames were bright blue beneath it.

 

Kendalina was cranky.

 

Samantha stepped into her tub.

 

"How's the water?" Kenda asked, lightly. If one hadn't known her well, they might have thought she was seriously asking courteously.

 

Samantha knew, however, that courtesy had gone out the window for Kenda when she left the Jedi Temple and became the Wicked Jedi Witch, pursued by the Empire as a traitor and fugitive, and sought after by the desperate as a miracle worker.

 

"Scalding, thank you." Samantha said, with the same tone of thinly veiled sarcasm.

 

Kendalina stared at her partner for a moment.

 

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" She finally shouted, angrilly. Samantha closed her eyes and rested against the edge of the tub, not wincing as a hissing noise announced that her skin was probably being burned. Neither woman seemed to care.

 

"Saving your sorry ass from disappearing, that's what." Sammy said, not opening her eyes or even raising her voice. It was very funny to hear those words come out so calmly. Kenda, however, seemed very annoyed by this.

"I'm not afraid of dying, Sammy. I've done it many times- you know that. And you also know that I don't need you to babysit me. I took care of myself when most kids were still depending on their parents to teach them how to walk." Kendalina shouted, wrinkling her nose. Samantha sighed.

 

"What's that sigh supposed to mean?" The other woman demanded, glaring at the vampire girl with her sightless eyes.

 

"You seem to lose sight of it. No pun intended, Kenda... but it's always when it matters most that you seem to forget." Samantha replied, her eyes opening as she sat up, going about washing herself, properly.

 

Kendalina made a noise.

 

"Don't grind your teeth like that, Kendalina- it's very unpleasant to listen to." Sammy said, lifting one arm and running water over it a few times before doing the same to the other.

 

"You're not answering my question." Kendalina replied, curtly.

 

Samantha sighed again.

 

"I did what I did, my dear friend..." She said, this time not pausing for the drama, but to chose her words properly, as she closed her eyes to reflect, "Because... it would have been so sad... for Triclops to lose his most important person... and for Ken-chan to find himself without a mother... this time, forever."

 

Samantha's eyes opened.

 

Kendalina's eyes widened. Her clouded pupils dialated, and her breath caught.

 

After a five minutes, she spoke.

 

"I..." Kendalina began, as Samantha had finished her water ritual and began to climb out. The amythest-eyed girl turned to look at her friend, who was slumped against the door, looking at the floor with a miserable expression.

 

"I really..." Kenda said, lifting her head so that Sammy at least saw her eyes.

 

She was smiling a sad, guilty smile. One that Samantha hadn't seen since Kendalina had left the Jedi Order.

 

"...Have nothing to say to that..."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A/N: I just watched some AMV's with clips from Advent Children. I decided Kendalina would look best with those graphics, and I also realized that the way I render her, she'd probably look a lot like Tifa, with Cloud's attitude, and the kick-ass-ness of Kadaj.

 

*shrugs* Just in case anyone was interested.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ken recognized this kind of black space- there were bubbles of void floating at random, and a kind of white noise (ironic, really) ringing in his ears.

 

This was a dreamseer's scape.

 

However, he didn't need to move to know there was someone else with him- Ken saw a bubble come towards him. If it could be called a bubble- it was really more of a pyramid...

 

And there was a person inside.

 

Ken lifted his hands and pressed them against the glass. The person was bent over so that their head was buried against their knees.

 

Ken tapped on the glass.

 

The person looked up. A pair of pale lavender eyes met Ken's grey ones.

 

The Jedi Prince frowned.

 

"Hello... who are you?" He asked, wrinkling his eyebrows a bit and tapping into the other person's mind to access how to speak to him- the words that he spoke felt weird, and definitely not Japanese... what was this new language, Ken wondered.

 

The other person... a boy, Ken concluded... blinked at him.

 

"Go away." He said. Ken frowned, and stubbornly repeated his question. The boy inside the pyramid glared at him, almost defiantly.

 

"Why do you care?" The other replied. Ah, so he was stubborn, too. If nothing else, it told Ken that Jedi Mind Tricks would be useless, but that wasn't very helpful, since he'd had no intentions of using The Force, anyway.

 

"Because I want to." Ken answered, honestly. The other boy looked incredibly annoyed by this simple answer- whether it was because he didn't believe it or because he didn't think it was a real answer, Ken couldn't tell.

 

"Why?" He asked again. Ken shrugged.

 

"Because that's how I am." The Jedi Prince answered, smiling. If there was one thing he'd learned from Luke, it was that being polite and kind to someone who was being rude and standoffish in return would ALWAYS irritate them... which often led to a crack in their nastiness.

 

"Fine, my name's Marik. Now go away." The other boy said, closing his eyes and looking away. Ken blinked at him, then smiled again, this time a bit more sincerely.

 

"If I could, I would be gone, Marik-san. But it looks like my father wants us to meet." Ken pointed to the bubbles that went floating past. Marik gave him a look, but said nothing. Ken understood.

 

"Aah... my father's a Seer. So, he can go into other people's dreams and stuff, and connect two other people's dreams- that's probably what he did here, so that means he wants us to meet." Ken said with a shrug. Marik made a disgusted noise.

 

"Great. We've met." He said, and Ken didn't need the Force to tell the utter helplessness in the statement, "Now what?" Ken shrugged.

 

"Hell if I know- my father is psychotic, anyway." Ken said, sitting on the ground outside the glass case. Marik laughed at the tone Ken used, and he heard him chuckle a little.

 

"You and me, both." Marik muttered, though he probably meant it to himself. Ken looked up and tilted his head to the side.

 

"So, your dad is insane, too? What's he got? My father has multiple personality disorder." Marik gave Ken a look, but seemed to be seriously thinking about the question.

 

"Why do you care?"

 

There was that question, again, Ken noted. Was it really that difficult for this person to believe that other people might actually care about things going wrong? Or did he just think so little of himself that he believed he wasn't worth the attention?

 

Ken didn't answer this time, thinking about his own answer, before deciding that if he kept answering honestly, Marik-san would have no reason to distrust him.

 

"I answered that already- I'm just like that." Ken replied, not smiling this time. Marik wasn't looking at him anyway, seeming to find something about his own knees fascinating.

 

"So you care. That's nice, but it's not going to help. Please go away." Marik said, not looking up. Ken gave him a glance. So it was hopelessness...

 

"Did something happen?" He asked. Marik started at his question.

 

"I might not be able to do anything about it... but if you want to talk, I can lend an eye." Ken offered, softly. Marik glanced at him sideways.

 

"An eye? Don't you mean 'an ear'?" He asked, but Ken shook his head.

 

"I'm deaf. So, instead of hearing words and noises, I see them. And, to a lesser degree, feel the vibrations noises give off, when my eyes are closed." Ken explained, feeling a small measure of pride that Marik looked honestly interested in this.

 

"So... wait... do you see words as in they're written in front of your eyes as someone speaks?" Ken shrugged, but nodded a little, conceding it was something like that, "What if it's a language you don't understand- do you see it written as it's pronounced in your language, or as the language itself is written?" Marik pressed, shifting position so he was looking directly at Ken. Ken bit his lip for a moment, then attempted to explain, though he wasn't sure it made much sense.

 

"It's really complicated to describe, but when it HAPPENS to me, it seems so simple..." Ken finally said, almost defeated. Marik snickered a little.

 

"I know what you mean- my sister says that all the time about this necklace she has. Supposedly, it shows her the past and future, but she always says that she can't quite describe how." Marik made a gesture with his hands, as though to say 'Geez, sisters'. Ken smiled again.

 

"You have a sister? Is she nice?" Marik blinked at him, before Ken explained, "I'm an only child- though Luke has a twin sister named Leia- so I don't know what it's like to have siblings." Marik continued to blink, so Ken figured he'd drop the other shoe while he was at it, "To be honest, my parents only had me as something of a business venture... to continue my mother's family bloodline or something before she died." Marik's somewhat happy expression faded.

 

"Ah..." Marik said, as though this seemed to have some meaning to him. Ken, being his mother's son, caught this.

 

"Marik-san?" He asked, and Marik looked grim.

 

"I know what that's like... I was born to be the heir to my family, too..." He said. Ken smiled, half-sympathetic, half-empathetic.

 

"I see..." Ken said, wondering if it would be rude to ask what that entailed, before Marik threw the towel in.

 

"My family... were guardians of the tombs of the kings... for many generations. Which meant we had to essentially be buried alive with the kings, and live in the catacombs." Marik paused to swallow, and Ken felt more than a little startled to hear this.

 

"So... wait... does that mean you grew up underground, too?" He asked, shifted and pressing his hands against the glass. Marik frowned at his use of the word 'too.'

 

"What do you mean 'too'? Have YOU grown up underground?" Marik asked, his violet eyes narrowing. Ken went a little red in the face.

 

"Y... yeah..." He stammered, looking slightly abashed. Marik looked startled.

 

"Oh. Well... yeah, I grew up underground. So did my sister, my parents, my parent's parents... I think the only one in my whole family who'd been born above ground was my brother, Odion. And he was really adopted."

 

Ken looked at Marik a long time, before a smile crept onto his face.

 

"Sorry if this sounds corny, or insincere, coming from a complete stranger, but I'm glad you weren't alone." He said. Marik's head shot up and he turned to look at Ken, almost as though he'd spat some disgusting swear, except there was no anger...

 

Just the shock.

 

"...What are you talking about? I WAS alone..." Marik frowned, his eyes glazing over into a glare, "Ishiszu and my parents never cared about me, beyond if I would be able to carry on our destiny- a destiny I didn't WANT. And Odion isn't even family by blood- he couldn't help me when all was said and done. Don't tell me that I wasn't alone when I WAS!" Marik's voice escalated to the point of shouting, the noise, though inexistant, ringing off the glass of his entrapment.

 

Ken sat there, watching every word he spoke get bigger and louder and angrier, not moving or even blinking.

 

Marik stopped shouting, his fists pressed up against the glass as though he meant to hit the boy sitting just outside of his reach.

 

And then he smiled.

 

"So, do you feel better now, Marik-san?"

 

And Marik just gaped at him.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"So... this is a curse on the Sohma family then?" Yuzuriha asked, frowning.

 

Tohru was sitting across from her, more than a little red. Somehow, Hatori-san's transformation had caused quite an uproar among the Ten no Ryuu.

 

Sorata looked bemused about this, almost as though he knew EXACTLY what Tohru had meant.

 

"Mmm... Stargazer mentioned once there was a cursed family in Tokyo... though he never mentioned any names or what their curse was, apparently the head of the family had a few connections with Temples in Japan, trying to find someone to lift the curse." He said, scratching his chin. Arashi simply poured tea and remained silent, though thoughtful, and Kamui merely nodded politely to show he was listening.

 

"Hatori-san is the dragon, then?" Subaru mentioned, his eyes looking distant. Tohru continued to stare at the table, feeling ashamed that the secret had slipped out despite her best efforts.

 

"Ah... hai..." She replied, not looking at her tea until Yuzuriha pushed it toward her, "D-Demo... please don't mention it to anybody... this is an incredible secret to the Sohma family and I wouldn't want to be the cause of anymore trouble for them." Tohru pleaded, putting her hands on the table and leaning forward.

 

Subaru held up a hand to silence her.

 

"You have our word of silence, Honda-kun." He said, almost blandly, not touching his own cup, "However, do not think it is your fault that the secret was revealed to most of us- Kamui and I both saw Momiji-kun transform on that day. And most of our members are from temples and religious shrines that would most likely have a record of twelve family members being cursed with something as significant as the Juunishi." He explained. Tohru looked down, ashamed, then corrected him.

 

"A-ano... there's fourteen." Everyone turned to stare at her, "The twelve Juunishi... Yuki-kun... Shigure-san... Hatori-san... Momiji-kun... Hatsuharu-san... and everyone..." She started, "And then... Akito-san... is cursed, too, somehow..." She didn't know how, but she knew the curse extended to him, "And... then there's... Kyou-kun... the cat."

 

This was met with blinks. Sorata was the first to speak.

 

"N... Neko... desu ka?" He said. Tohru nodded. He gaped, and then Arashi spoke.

 

"I'd heard rumors that the cat was acknowledged somehow as part of the cursed family. However, I didn't know that somebody would actually be possessed by the spirit of the cat." She said, quietly, as though it was a great shock to her.

 

"But it's great that Neko-san isn't excluded completely, ne, Tohru-chan?" Yuzuriha piped up, smiling her old, long missing bright smile and turning to Tohru, who jumped, but then smiled, too.

 

"Hai! I was so happy when I found out- I'd always wished that I could have been born in the year of the cat instead of year of the dog!" The other girl agreed, her smile matching Yuzuriha's exactly. So well, actually, that all the other Dragons of Heaven present sweatdropped at the sight.

 

"Well, if the animals attract other animals of their kind, it would explain why we all felt drawn towards Hatori-san, then." Kamui mumbled, pressing the knuckle of his forefinger against the tip of his chin, "All of us are dragons, too. I wonder if this means..." Kamui's eyes widened as a thought occurred to him, "The Dragons of Earth... would they be drawn to him, too?"

 

The other Ten no Ryuu all turned to him, startled, as he whispered this. Tohru blinked, completely oblivious to what this would have implied.

 

"Chii no Ryuu... desu ka?" She asked, blinking. Sorata and Yuzuriha frowned with consternation and Subaru and Arashi looked grave, almost pale with this thought.

 

Kamui pushed himself away from the wall he'd been leaning against.

 

"Tohru." He said, and Tohru jumped, standing from her seat like a soldier standing to attention- Kamui would have sweatdropped if the situation weren't so serious.

 

"Ah- Hai?" The riceball asked, blinking. Kamui's eyes seemed to bore into hers as he stared.

 

"Anyone who knows about this curse- tell them to be cautious around Hatori-san, or avoid him entirely." The Ten no Ryuu said, with a kind of frown without the anger.

 

"Additionally, I'll see if I could meet Hatori-san and set wards up that would prevent any creatures from being drawn to him. That might help, somewhat." Subaru added, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them. Tohru turned to glance at him, but didn't say anything.

 

After an awkward silence, she bowed and said she had to be going.

 

"A-ano... thank you for your hospitality." She said, bowing again at the front door. Kamui and Sorata followed her out, just in time to see three people coming towards them.

 

"Yo, Tohru!" Called a rough, familiar voice, "Yosh-ya! We've been lookin' for ya!" Tohru blinked and peered through the fog to see Uo, Hana, and Megumi all walking side by side towards the dorm house.

 

"Ah, Uo-chan... Hana-chan..." Tohru said, somewhat breathlessly as Uo's call had startled her. The three stopped just a few feet away. Hana gave Kamui a glance that none of the others caught, except Megumi, but in the end she simply said a polite 'Konnichi wa', before turning back to Tohru.

 

"Tohru-kun, you'd been gone all day- we were all very worried about you." She said, quietly, with no accusation in her voice. Tohru bowed, worriedly.

 

"S-Sumimasen, Hana-chan... d-demo... Sorata-san asked me to come over... Th-there was something important he needed to ask me about." She stammered, in apology. Sorata grinned and shrugged. Uo took a few steps forward, putting a hand on Tohru's shoulder and glaring at Sorata, who was a full foot taller than her.

 

"Haa~... nothing happened to her... did it?" She asked, in something of an interogatory tone. Sorata's grin didn't fade.

 

"Nah... Don't worry- Tohru-kun's safe any time she comes to visit... None of us would let anything bad happen to anybody under our roof." He said, lifting an arm and scratching the back of his neck. Uo looked doubtful, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she put her arm around Tohru's shoulders and pulled her off.

 

"Yosh! Thanks for taking care of her! We're going now!" The ex-Yankee announced, half-dragging Tohru away. Hana glanced at Kamui one more time before bowing with a polite 'Excuse our intrusion' and turning away to walk next to Tohru and Uo.

 

Hana and her brother shared a glance, but said nothing as they kept walking.

 

Sorata and Kamui stared after the four, both thinking,

 

'So... much... black...'

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The next morning, on board the battleship, Mokuba was again running around, trying to find all the duelists for the next match. This was done with an eerie amount of ease, until the time came to find Mai.

 

It was Mokuba's scream that drew everyone to her room.

 

"ROLAND, GET THE MEDICAL STAFF- MAI NEEDS TREATMENT IMMEDIATELY!" Mokuba shouted as Joey almost ran him over going into the room.

 

There were two punctures in her neck, both leaking blood, and Mai's eyes were closed.

 

Kendalina got there before the medics did, and had the wound patched as they came through the door.

 

"You can go back, gentlemen. There's nothing you can do." She said impatiently. The doctors hovered in the doorway, only moving to the side when Joey came in with Tristan and his sister hot on his heels. Kendalina moved away enough to allow Joey room to grab Mai's hand, presenting her with the disturbing image of a grieving husband attending his wife who was possibly on her deathbed. Considering that picture, Kendalina's natural response came blurting out:

 

"Oh, grow up." It was this response that aroused Joey to launch himself at her, a fist coming swinging at her face, all chivalry forgotten. It became apparent that Joey's full resentment of Kendalina's failure to contain the vampire had stirred, and regardless of who was watching, a determination to exact retribution for Mai's loss had been born.

 

"If it is vengence you want, exact your sum with Marik, not my partner, if you please."

 

Samantha appeared in the doorway. All eyes turned to face her with her simple statement, which seemed to add an entirely new definition of all the events that had just taken place. Tea gave Samantha's expression a long stare, as her face seemed to be utterly lifeless, all puns aside.

 

"What's that supposed to mean?" She inquired. Samantha didn't change.

 

"Mai-san is smarter than to be quiet enough for a vampire to just bite her, without a fight- we would have heard a scream, a struggle, or something. This happened after someone stole Mai-san's soul; which means her body would have been utterly helpless."

 

Everyone drew the same conclusion on their own. In a matter of minutes, the room emptied, Joey the last of all to give Mai a long look, as though to firm his resolve.

 

Kendalina gave her partner a very harsh glare.

 

"You've certainly got everything figured out for someone who was GONE last night, don't you?" She asked, not attempting to keep the accusing tone out of her voice. Samantha gave the Jedi Princess a hurt look.

 

"Kenda..." She protested, in a high pitched kind of whine. Kendalina rolled her eyes and blocked her ears.

 

"Kendalina, listen..." Samantha pleaded, putting on the most pathetic face she could, "Solar-san is just busy. She has more than one customer at the time, so she has to be in certain places at certain times to set specific events in motion. She won't even tell me exactly what it is, but...." Kendalina's eyes opened, slightly, though that was more a signal that Kendalina was considering what her friend was saying than to show she was listening, "Kendalina... just trust me, please?"

 

Kendalina made a face, and then snorted, as though Samantha's begging was amusing before she strode past her, walking to watch the next match- supposedly between Kaiba and Ishizu.

 

"Funny how a shinigami with an all-knowing spirit in the back of her head is so utterly useless." She sneered.

 

That did it. A loud growling noise issued from Samantha's throat, like a animal dying as it's throat was slit- a kind of gurgling noise that came from a foam building inside her jaw and the rise of bile in her throat, combined with a roar that came from deeper in her body than her diaphragm. Kendalina didn't have time to move as she found herself pinned to the ground, Samantha's fists beating her head, before she had a chance to roll over and tackle back. Her friend's teeth, fangs and non-fangs alike, sank into the flesh of her arm, puncturing down to her bone.

 

Kendalina's fist connected with Samantha's head, a definite cracking noise heard as her punch managed a brief fracture in the vampire's skull, and her own knuckles. Samantha's jaw clenched even tighter, until Kendalina brought out her lightsaber. Instead of activating it, though, she rammed the butt of it into her partner's stomach, knocking the wind out of her in a moment. The ex-Fury followed up rapidly with a sharp kick, which sent the shorter girl flying across the room, long enough for Kendalina to activate her lightsaber.

 

Samantha, not to be outdone, was back on her feet in an instant, the long claws which she hadn't used since her first assignment extending from her fingernails and her hair starting to weave itself into snakes, which were beginning to hiss. Kendalina was on her feet and charging as Sammy launched herself at the other woman with a kind of roar issuing from her throat. The two butted heads as one of Sammy's arms came of with a slice from Kendalina's weapon and Kendalina found one of her legs punctured, clear through, by Samantha's fingernail claws. The two of them found themselves on the floor, the more beastly of the two clawing, snarling, and biting at the other while the assassin pulled her weapons out, shooting, cutting, and stabbing at the other girl.

 

This scene was met by all the duelists who came down, the fight between Ishizu and Kaiba being concluded, and the sight that greeted all involved looked very similar to a women's mud wrestling competition, except with blood and not mud.

 

In the end, Joey separated the two of them with a single sharp kick to Samantha's breastbone. The vampire went rolling away, coughing and spitting up blood as she did so, before looking up to glare at the offending foot which had kicked her. Similarly, Kendalina glared up at Joey with a kind of look that would have made even Kaiba flinch. Joey didn't look at her.

 

“You told me to grow up. Do that yourself before you lecture me again.” He scorned, in a tone that was the perfect combination of sullen and stern- but most certainly not like Joey. Kendalina made a huffing sound before she rolled over to crawl to her feet.

 

Samantha didn't move from her place against the wall.

 

She seemed frozen.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Instruments beeped and whirred as the ship's navigator attempted to regain control of the engines. As if it weren't bad enough, the communications were down, so he couldn't even reach Mr. Kaiba and inform him that something was wrong.

 

The ocean came up to meet the ship.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Satsuki bemusedly watched Yuuto fighting with the fire lady. Who was she… a Dragon of Heaven, she knew that much but… there was no name that she could place with the face.

 

Not that she really placed any faces with names- she hadn't known the girl who lost her inugami, she hadn't known the girl in Shibuya, or the boy who she'd protected, she hadn't known the man who Kamui had killed in Shibuya… and she could have sworn that he had been a fellow Dragon of Earth.

 

Really, Satsuki only placed names with Yuuto, Kanoe, and Kamui.

 

BEAST prodded her with wires, and it stung.

 

`Of course I don't have a name for your face, BEAST.' She chided it, sullenly, `You don't have a face.'

 

BEAST made a whirring noise that sounded like a growl. But only because it sounded that way. It meant nothing- BEAST couldn't feel things like annoyance or anger or indignance.

 

It was then that Satsuki noticed an icon up in the bottom of her screen.

 

`You have incoming mail.' She mused to herself, clicking on it.

 

An interesting offer- an offer to come in contact with someone, and who it said she could meet, made Satsuki wonder.

 

`Another Kamui?' She mused. She checked the address.

 

`Kaiba Corp…'

 

A/N: Yes! I am alive. Just college that's eating me alive.