Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Gorgeous Carat (YGO version) ❯ The Dragon of Maghreb Part 10 ( Chapter 17 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The white haired thief sat poring over his notes. “M…CC…LXX… M stands for 1000, so this is definitely a date,” he said going over the Roman numerals. ‘Ezhdar was connected to this too, this code.’ “Well the date is obviously 1270. The holy king’s death… the holy king’s crusaders… that would put this around the eighth crusade.” ‘Makes you wonder what these Knights Templar were hoarding. I did start this for my own reasons, but now…I have no interest in a pile of jewels.’
“Noir! Noir!” called Malik, banging on his cabin door.
“Not so loud, Malik! What is it?”
“It’s Yugi, he’s been acting weird even though the opium should have left his body by now.”
“What?!”
The taller man dashed from his cabin and ran down the hall to Yugi’s, skidding at the door. “Yugi!” he shouted, bursting in.
Before them was a pitiful sight. The spiky haired boy sat huddled in a corner, his arms wrapped around his knees as he shook and trembled horribly. Yugi would every few moments let out a moan of pain. ‘It feels like my head’s breaking in two. All this horror… blood…the blood is…splashing,’ he thought, trapped in his own recurring nightmare.
“Yugi, what’s wrong?” Noir asked, genuinely concerned and placing a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder. The older of the two let out a scream of pure terror at the sudden touch. “Yugi!” Noir yelled, “It’s me, Noir! Don’t you recognize me?!” he said, shaking the boy as carefully as he could to get him to snap out of it.
“D-Don’t touch me!” the boy screamed.
“Yugi…”
Malik put a hand on the thief’s arm, shaking his head. “Poor guy’s confused right now. It would be best if you back off.” Noir was about to protest, but just looking at the boy was enough to get him to listen to the blond’s advice. He took a few steps backward, giving the petite boy the space he needed.
Yugi’s disconnected mind saw that as a chance to escape and the boy shot up and bolted for the cabin door. “Yugi wait!” Malik called, grabbing for the boy’s shirt only to miss it by mere inches. “Where are you…” The boy was already gone before he could finish that question.
‘I’ve got to get out of here!’ the panic stricken boy told himself as he ran throughout the ship, ‘But where am I? Whe…ere…’ The sound of waves crashing against the ship’s hull caught the boy’s attention, making him realize he was now on the deck of a moving ship.
“Oh my! Look over there!” a passenger said to her companion, spotting a figure climbing the railing. “Someone’s…” The other passenger let out a gasp as the figure started to lean over the top of the railing.
Yugi didn’t care if anyone saw him. He needed to get off that ship! He had to get away! From what, he no longer knew. All he knew was this ever increasing need to escape, to find someone, but who? Deciding this was his only chance, he let go of the railing and let his body start its potentially deadly plunge to the water below.
There was a sudden black and white blur and a cry of “YUGI!!!!” The spiky haired boy felt himself suddenly being yanked backwards and over the railing. “JUST WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” bellowed the white haired thief, desperately trying to keep his grip on the boy who was now just as desperately trying to climb back onto the railing.
“NO!!!” Yugi screamed back.
“Stop fighting me, Yugi!” Noir pleaded, wincing at the powerful kick he just received. He continued to yank at the boy and landed in a heap on the deck several moments later, the smaller of the two still struggling against the thief’s hold. “Damn it Yugi! What is going on in that head of yours?!”
The poor boy began to relax in the firm grip only to start to shake and shiver. “I’m… so very cold,” he whimpered.
“Come on,” Noir said, forcing the boy to stand only to be forced himself to support the smaller one’s weight. Sighing in frustration, the thief scooped the boy up into his arms. “Let’s go back to your room. A bit of brandy should warm you up quick.”
‘I wonder if Noir realizes how sad his own eyes look right now. Damn! All I can ever do is standby and watch!’ Malik thought bitterly, rushing back to his own cabin barely able to stifle his sobs.
A few feet away from the previous scene, a slightly shorter version of the white haired thief stood with an unreadable expression on his face. Ryou didn’t know what to make of what had just occurred in front of him.

Noir stared guiltily at the now peacefully sleeping boy. He never regretted anything more than he did now. ‘I never should have brought him with me. I never should have exposed him to that bastard!’

Flashback
“Bakura look,” a boy with blue eyes and chestnut brown hair said as he sat beside a somewhat smaller white haired boy on a roof of an abandoned building. “That’s the old city over there,” he said pointing to the less than fashionable looking part of Fez, “and that’s where the French built their new city.” He was silent for a few more moments before speaking again, “If you have enough ‘power’ in the world, you can control everything,” he said again with an odd tone to his voice, his white haired companion said nothing, choosing to keep his own opinions to himself. Besides, he didn’t want to anger his ‘brother.’ “If we’re going to take back what’s rightfully ours, we have to think of what the other world powers think of Morocco. There’s a lot of stuff holding us back. We need to become a world power, so they can’t hold us back anymore. I don’t know how, but I’ve got an idea.”
“An idea?” the smaller boy asked.
“Yeah, as long as we’re together, we can do it. You and I Bakura.”
“Ezhdar.”
“You’re with me right?” the taller boy asked, snapping Bakura out of his own thoughts.
“Of course!” he chirped, earning a smile from his ‘brother’.
End Flashback

“It’s a real joke isn’t it,” the white haired thief asked bitterly as he popped open a bottle of wine and took a swig right from the bottle. ‘You’re just a fragment now… a fragment of my lost heart…Ezhdar.’

“I’m so-sorry! I’m s-sorry!” the strawberry blonde girl hiccupped over and over again as she sat crying her eyes.
“Shizuka?” a spiky haired man asked, entering the small house’s front room, “What’s the matter? Did some…”
“M-Mr. Atem,” she began, quickly rubbing at her now puffy eyes.
“Did something happen to your grandfather? Is that why…” The girl began sobbing uncontrollably again. Fearing the worst, the private detective rushed further into the house. Lying half in and half out the kitchen was the body of the old man who had so kindly taken in Yugi not so long ago. Atem’s crimson eyes bugged out and he started at the sudden low groan emanating from the old man. “Gah!” he shouted, “Don’t scare me like that. I’m glad you’re alive though.”
“Not to sound rude here,” Sugoroku grumbled, “but would you mind getting off my foot.”
Atem blushed sheepishly and quickly jumped back. “Here let me help you. Can you stand?” he said, guiding the older man to a chair. “Just what happened here, grandpa?”
“Ezhdar,” the old man replied, wincing a bit, “He’s alive.”
The detective gasped in shock. “But he…”
“didn’t die,” Sugoroku finished. “He barged in here and demanded to know where Bakura was.”
“Don’t tell me you…”
Just then the girl’s sobbing increased in volume and intensity. It was several minutes later before either of them could hear let alone speak. “He… He didn’t!” Shizuka sniffled, “I-I had to! He was going to kill grandfather if he wouldn’t talk! He was strangling him!”
Atem pulled the distraught girl into a hug and began to rub soothing circles on her back. A pang of nostalgia hit him as he remembered doing that many times for his now long gone younger sister. “It’s alright Shizuka,” he said reassuringly, “I understand. I think I would have done the same thing if I were you. You did nothing wrong.”
“We have to warn Bakura!” the old man ordered, “I’m sure that devil’s planning on chasing Bakura all the way to Tunisia.”
“By we you mean me right?” the spiky haired man queried, receiving a curt nod from the old man. “I’d love to help I really do, but I’m in the middle of a case here.”
“Then why not go ask Ezhdar himself?” Sugoroku asked slyly, “He is connected to the ‘Black Hand’ after all is he not? I’ve heard rumors that he’s actually their leader.”
‘Ezhdar’s… the leader of the ‘Black Hand’?’ the detective pondered in shock.
“He was such a sweet boy,” Sugoroku said forlornly, remembering the kind and gentle boy he’d seen as a son, “But then those vile Americans came and everything changed.”
“Americans?” Atem asked, his interest piqued.
“Yes, a group of rich Americans came by here a few years ago. I don’t know what it was they told the boy, but I did catch a name. Kaiba.”
“Kaiba?!” Atem parroted, finally recognizing the name he’d heard in connection with the blue eyed devil. “Are you sure you heard right?”
“Grandfather’s memory is perfect,” Shizuka protested, finally having calmed down a bit. “He remembers everything that ever happens around here, even years later!”
‘If that really is true,’ he mused, ‘I’ve be cracking the case of a lifetime! If Ezhdar really is a Kaiba, then he’d be more than just the head of a criminal organization.’ The spiky haired man sat in silence a few more minutes, going over the facts he’d learnt up to this point in his head. ‘That’s why I had that weird feeling when I first met Ezhdar! I did see him somewhere before! The head of the Kaiba financial group, the largest and richest in the world, had a young man with him when I was in America. That man was Gozaburo Kaiba’s son. Ezhdar looked a hell of a lot like that man!’ He clenched his fist. ‘Miho, Seth, I finally found the first clue to the truth of your ‘deaths’! I’m one step closer to avenging you!’

Noir flopped back onto the bed, dropping the three quarters empty bottle, causing it to make a muffled thud on the carpet and roll underneath the bed. “I admired my mother ‘cause she was sho shmart,” the thief slurred, “She hated the borin’ life of a noble. Sho she up and left ‘n’ went ta Egypt. She fell for shome Arab prince ‘n’ got me.” He then gave off a bitter chuckle, “Shounds like a lie don’ it? Whelp itsh true! The resht of her folks threatened ta cut her off if she married the guy. But maman weren’t shcared at all. We was happy, fer a while. Was tha besht time of ma life. Then ma ol’ man had ta go ‘n’ die on us. Grandpa Omar had ta die too. Shtupid shuccession dishputesh! Then dey tried ta kill maman ‘n’ me, sho we ran. I knew even den, if ya hang onto ta power ‘n’ authority, you’ll only loshe dem shoona or later. All we had wash her ‘n’ me. We wound up in Fez, then maman got sick. She got weaker every day, it wash up ta me ta do shomething!”

Flashback
A white haired boy ran through the city streets, ignoring the angry shouts of the man chasing him as he clutched the loaf of bread closely to his chest.

A while later a greasy looking fat man came over to the young thief, holding up a coin. Bakura eyes the shiny piece of metal then nods, leading the man to a nearby alley where he proceeded to remove his shabby rags.
End Flashback

“By da time I wash ten, there weren’t nothing I didn’t do ta shurvive,” Noir continued his sordid tale for the still sleeping Yugi, “I couldn’t have gone any lower. I met Eshdar then. He took me ta meet hish pals ‘n’ taught me how ta shteal properly. It wash da firsht time anyone wash nice ta me. Maman died afta dat ‘n’ I went ta live with Eshdar. Did ya know, we ushed ta shleep tagether like a buncha kittensh? I really felt like a piece o’ s^*^, but ol’ Eshdar said, ‘Whash ugly in da light, ish really pretty in da dark. Da dark ish our friend, it’sh what controlsh da world, not da light.’ Sho I shtarted callin’ mashelf ‘Noir’. He wash… the only one who… believed in ‘noir’.”
The white haired thief swiped angrily at his eyes, angered and surprised at the tears falling from his chocolate orbs. He quickly stiffened when he felt a set of petit arms wrap around him. “Y-Yugi?” he stammered.
“Maman used to hold me like this a lot,” the boy replied, tentatively rubbing the younger man’s back. “Then I’d stop feeling so sad for a while.”
“Y-You’re (hic) awake?!”
“Where am I?” Yugi asked, blinking as he truly saw his surroundings for the first time.
“D-Do ya know who I am?” the thief slurred, worried for the boy’s sanity. He forced the embarrassment at being caught drinking and crying aside, he’d deal with that when the time came. Yugi nodded. “H-How long?”
“I kept dozing, but I think I just woke up for real now. So even you can cry.”
Noir blushed redder than the wine he’d been binging on and quickly shoved the boy away, making him ‘eep’ then fall back onto the bed. “J-Just ferget what I shaid and did, ‘k? It wash da booshe talkin’.”
“Don’t be an @$$, Bakura!” Yugi scolded, “Not now when I’ve got my head back on right!” The thief stared at him guiltily. “Noir…”
“Y-Ya had me real worried,” he said, looking away from the boy, “I wash shure ya’d never come back.”
“I did feel like just lying down and giving up,” Yugi said grimly, “But I just couldn’t, I didn’t want to.” ‘Not for me,’ he added silently.
“Dash, real shmart,” the thief said curtly. “I’d hate ta have ya shkip out on me when ya shtill have that debt ya owe me. By the way, da interesht’sh gone way up, ya wanna shee?”
“Y-You damned loan shark!” the spiky haired boy shouted indignantly, “I just don’t believe you!” ‘But still, if it were for your sadness pouring into my closed off heart…’

Meanwhile, a certain blond Egyptian was hanging around the sitting room of the thief’s suite. Well, actually, it was more like he was tidying up than hanging out. “Just how many books did he pack?!” Malik grumbled as he tried to straighten up a bit. “There’s nowhere to sit!”
“Um, Malik?” Yugi asked, shyly entering the messy cabin, “Can I help?”
“Yugi!” squealed the blond, promptly glomping him. “I’m so glad you’re getting better, but you still need to take it easy.
“But it’s not right to make you do all the work,” the boy protested.
“Nah, it’s ok, really. Besides, it gives me something to do. Anyway, where’s Noir?”
“He uh, had to go clear his head.” Yugi blushed slightly, remembering what he had heard while in the company of the drunken thief, “He’s around somewhere. About this treasure of the Knights Templar…”
“Yugi! Shh!” Malik chided, quickly clamping a hand to the boy’s mouth, “Not so loud!” he hissed, “If someone hears us, we’ll be in major trouble!”
“Oops, sorry,” the boy said sheepishly, forgetting that they weren’t the only ones on the ship.
“No biggie,” Malik said, patting his shoulder, “But it really is awesome isn’t it, being in the treasure hunting business. It’s a heck of a lot better than becoming merchants or something like everyone else. Noir’s always saying that prestige isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I did find what Ezhdar was really after though. He said something about a ‘symbol of power’, one like nothing else in this world, something to do with miracles. Though I don’t know what he was raving about.”
Yugi had flinched at the mention of the blue eyed man, but calmed down quickly. ‘Miracles huh? I sure can use a few myself,’ he said silently.

“Now that was interesting,” Ryou muttered to himself as he left the general vicinity of his cousin’s cabin. ‘So they’re treasure hunters. I knew my cousin was bad news, but to go after the treasure of the Knights Templar! I definitely have to get in on this some how!’ The white haired boy then smiled mischievously, chuckling quietly to himself.

A couple hours later, Noir was back in his sitting room nursing a nasty hangover and going over his notes yet again.
“Let’s see,” he whispered to no one in particular, “The holy king that died in 1270 was,” he counted silently on his fingers, “Louis IX. Those who served in the eighth crusade called him the ‘Holy King’. It was believed that he died of an illness in… Tunisia!” The white haired thief winced in pain at his shout. “Damned wine! Why did I have to binge drink now of all times? Well, at least I finally figured this thing out!” He quickly ran for the rapidly cooling pot of coffee safely perched on a buffet table on the other side of the sitting room.

Yami: About time you got my hikari back to normal, onna.

Sakura: One more word from you Yam-chan, and I’ll stick you with Bakura instead of Noa in my Blade Runner fic.

Yami: Y-You wouldn’t dare!

Sasuke: She would, I know her type.

Sakura: I’d watch myself if I were you, Uchiha. You wouldn’t want to p.o. the miko. Well, I’m off to work on the next chappie! Jya ne!