Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Gorgeous Carat (YGO version) ❯ The Dragon of Maghreb Part 11 ( Chapter 18 )

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

The white haired boy looked about Tunis with excitement. He was going to enjoy this little excursion, oh yes he was. “The Sahara’s to the south and the Mediterranean’s to the north and east,” he crowed happily, refusing to leave his cousin’s side. Their blond companion had been shooting him irritated looks since they’d disembarked which were ignored by the shorter albino. “So since ancient times, Tunis has been a trading port. Tunis may have been a protectorate of France, but it’s now the most developed city of all northern Africa.”
‘Like I care,’ spat Malik inwardly, ‘Why doesn’t this jerk leave already?!’
“And of course the Alaoui Museum is a must see, why it’s even been called Tunisia’s Louvre.” The boy continued to go on and on and on, driving the blond to near insanity as they made their way to their hotel.
“Can’t you do something about… that?!” the Egyptian hissed silently to Noir.
Nodding in sympathy, the white haired thief tapped his cousin on the shoulder. “Thanks for taking us this far Ryou,” he said loathing having to be polite to the brat, “But we can make the rest on our own. Besides, I’m sure you have work to do as well.”
“Oh not at all,” the boy sneered, “Besides, I believe I have some say in this since I am a collaborator to this little trip of yours. I’d like to see this treasure of the Knights Templar myself.”
“Where’d you...” the thief began, utter shock and disbelief written all over his face. His cousin just grinned at him as if he were the cat who got the canary.
“Hey, Monsieur le Viscount, look at that!” Malik shouted and pointing at a random place. Apparently the ruse worked for the shorter albino whirled his head around and began to search for whatever it was that had excited the blond.
“Go quick!” Malik hissed to his master, “I’ll take care of the jerk.” Noir nodded and sped off. “It’s this way! Over here!” he said, turning back to Ryou and yanking him in the opposite direction.
“Um… what is it Malik?” Ryou asked, seeing absolutely nothing that could possibly be even remotely exciting.
“That camel’s taking a nap!” he cooed, “Isn’t it just precious?!”
The slightly shorter boy sweatdropped as he inwardly fumed. “So what?” he groused. Turning to complain to his cousin, he saw that the taller man had obviously split long ago. “Bakura you coward!” he grumbled.
Snickering behind his hand, the blond Egyptian pumped his fist and held up two fingers in a victory sign.

“Um, Noir, shouldn’t we go back for Malik?” Yugi asked, concerned for his friend as they made their way towards the outskirts of the city.
“He’ll be fine,” the thief answered, sticking close to the smaller boy in case any unsavory types tried anything with him. “He knows where to meet us, Quart Hadasht, the queen’s new capital.” The boy looked at him confusedly. “Otherwise, Carthage,” he explained, earning an ‘oh’ from Yugi. “It’s pretty close from here, but these hills are a b*^#^.” The thief panted, wishing he’d been able to pack something a bit cooler, black fabric did tend to hoard heat.
“Um… thanks,” Yugi said, blushing as Noir handed him the canteen. He took a sip then gave the water back. “I don’t feel that great myself.”
“Don’t get any ideas,” the white haired man said, scooping the boy up. “I’m only doing this because you’re still recovering,” he added as he began to carry the boy up the steep slope. Yugi buried his face into the man’s chest in a desperate bid to hide the increasing blush on his face.
A while later, the thief gently put the boy down on a large stone and panted as he quickly took a drink from the canteen. “This is… odd,” the boy said, taking in the surroundings. “This church looks pretty new.”
Noir looked over to the large building a bit in the distance and nodded. “It’s the Church of St. Louis,” he explained. “It was just finally finished. It’s been said that when Louis the ninth died during the crusades, he was buried in this church.”
“Louis the ninth?” Yugi repeated, “You mean the king who became a saint? He died here?”
The thief nodded. “That manuscript of you-know-who’s said,” Noir made sure not to mention a certain name. The boy still had horrible nightmares no thanks to that bastard. “’The star of the Queen's new capital, while working on the site of the sanctuary, connecting with the deceased Holy King MCCLXX.’ I finally figured out what it meant by ‘the sanctuary’ – Tophet.”
“The Tophet? What’s that?” Yugi queried.
“It’s supposed to be the place where the two great gods of Carthage were worshipped. They would have rituals there where they threw babies into a fire.” The spiky haired boy gulped and shivered as chills ran down his spine. Noir couldn’t help give a tiny smirk. “If you follow the line that connects the Tophet and the church, you’d wind up right…” He walked around for a bit then stopping shortly, “about here.”
“Damuous El-Karita?” Yugi asked reading an inscription on an abandoned sign post.
“Quite a view, huh?” the thief asked, looking at the city on the other side of the hill, “That’s Carthage,” he said pointing the city. The boy stood in awe of the city sprawled on and around the vast lake. “There was an early Christian church here over a hundred years ago. It also used to be an ancient Carthaginian dwelling. It was lost until about forty years ago. Cardinal Lavigerie had order an archeological dig here and now it’s been found. His exact words were, ‘Find all of Carthage’s treasures and keep an eye on them,’ I think. It may have been for archeology’s sake or if I’m right…”

“Hmph!” the white haired boy spat irritably, “Because of you, we’ve lost Bakura completely. You sure are loyal.”
“Well,” the Egyptian said giving a grin that would give the Cheshire Cat a run for his money, “He is my boss, so of course I am.”
“Oh really? Just your boss, hmm?”
Malik suddenly blushed profusely. “W-What are you thinking?! It’d be nothing but trouble if he thought of someone like me like that!”
“Oh, how come? You’re quite attractive.”
The blond’s red face became even redder. ‘I-Is he… is he hitting on me?!’ “Are you stupid?!” he shouted, “We’re both men! Besides, I’m a foreigner and he’s a noble!”
“So?” Ryou said brushing away a stray lock of blond hair. “Love doesn’t care if you’re a noble or a foreigner. If I think something’s beautiful, I call it beautiful, and you’re beautiful.”
Malik looked like he was about to faint. No one had ever called him beautiful, not even his beloved Noir. He was torn between letting this boy seduce him and running all the way to Carthage – to Noir. He stood there, silent for the longest time as his lavender eyes darted frantically for a way out of this awkward situation.
“Oh come now, don’t tell me you’re going to run from little me,” Ryou said, grabbing Malik’s wrist in a firm hold, but not enough to bruise.
The blond’s head continued to spin, he definitely wasn’t used to flirting; he’d been too busy working as Noir’s partner to have any time for romance. “Um… I don’t think we should be so close,” he whispered, catching sight of something he didn’t like.
“Don’t be that way Malik,” Ryou chided when the blond yanked his arm away. “Wait!”
The Egyptian quickly ducked into an alley. “Hide you idiot!” he hissed, pulling the white haired boy into the alley.
“Malik, just what are you…”
“Shut it!” the blond growled lowly and clamping a bronzed hand on the shorter boy’s mouth. ‘I-It can’t be!’ he inwardly screamed in utter panic, ‘Ezhdar’s here! He’s alive! I’ve gotta warn Noir!’
Sure enough, the tall brown haired, blue eyed devil was walking down the street they’d been in previously, followed by a bunch of his goons. “Seto Kaiba?!” Ryou whispered, recognizing the young businessman. “What on earth is here doing in a place like this?”
“Seto… Kaiba?” Malik asked perplexedly. “What are you talking about? That guy’s a millionaire from Fez. He used to be a good friend of Bakura’s. We’ve gotta get to Carthage! Now!”
“Calm down Malik!” Ryou hissed, not knowing why he had to be quiet, let alone hide from a fellow business associate. “I’ll get us the best seats on the very next train!”
‘Malik you idiot!’ the blond screamed at himself, ‘All that work, for nothing!’ He blanched as the white haired boy stepped from the alley. Seeing as he had no choice, the Egyptian followed, praying to every deity he knew that they wouldn’t be noticed.
“Why hello there,” came the one voice Malik had been dreading. Apparently the gods were in rather foul moods today. “How unexpected to find you here,” the tall brunet said smirking evilly. He gestured to his henchmen and they quickly surrounded the two, several of them latching onto the two boys rather roughly.
“W-What are you doing?!” shouted an indignant Ryou, “I demand to know the reason behind this uncivilized behavior, Mr. Kaiba!”
“Whatever are you talking about?” Ezhdar drawled, amusement clearly sparkling in his one eye.
“Don’t you dare play dumb with me!” spat the smallest of the males. You and I’ve been to the same clubs in America. I know you remember me, I’d certainly remember someone with features like yours.”
The Mafioso continued to smirk as he drew his pistol and cocked it. “Why don’t we stop dancing around each other and get down to business. I want to know where Bakura is. Tell me now or would you rather see him broken into a thousand pieces, Monsieur le Viscount?”
‘H-He is… he’s serious!’ Ryou thought. “B-Bakura’s probably in Carthage,” the boy stammered, “That’s all I know, I swear! Now let him go!”
“Uh, boss? What do we do wit’ ‘em?” a huge burly thug asked, still holding onto the furious and panic stricken blond.
“They’re no longer any use to me,” his boss replied icily.
“Hey! We did what you wanted!” protested Ryou, “You’ve got to let us go!”
“Oh do we kid?” said another of Ezhdar’s thugs, leering at him in a way that made the albino’s skin crawl.
“Y-You IDIOT!!!!!!!!!” bellowed Malik, desperately trying to kick at the white haired boy, “Why’d you tell them?! If you didn’t, we wouldn’t be goners!!!”
“COWARDS!!!!” Ryou spat as yet another thug cocked his gun, silently regretting not getting any ‘fun’ with the two.
Suddenly the thug fell flat on his face and the gun went flying and landed several feet away. The two boys stared in shock at the figure standing over him. “That wasn’t pretty nice of you Mr. Ezhdar,” a spiky haired man said, brandishing his own gun.
“Damn!” spat the taller brunet, recognizing the detective. He then made a mad dash into the city, his thugs standing there for a few seconds before running after their boss. “Not so fast!” shouted the spiky haired detective as he began pursuit.
‘$^*^!!’ Atem cursed, returning a minute or two later, ‘the bastard got away!’
“Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but what are you doing here, Mr. Detective?” Malik asked finally after recovering from the shock of being rescued.
“Just who is he, Malik?” demanded Ryou, not one to be ignored.
“That’s Bakura’s stalker,” deadpanned the Egyptian.
“W-W-WHAT?!” sputtered Atem, blushing. “You’ve got the wrong idea! Besides it’s different this time.” Both boys looked at him, silently demanding him to explain. “I have business with that villain. It’s only a coincidence I’d run into you.”
“Well, I guess that’ll have to do,” Malik said unhappily, “I think we’d better go together. I was getting kinda lonely with only Monsieur le Viscount here,” he added jerking his blond head toward the utterly confused albino.
“M-Malik! I’m hurt!” Ryou pouted.

“It’s hard to believe this used to be an ancient church,” the spiky haired boy said, as they made there way through the ruins, “It’s a bit dreary isn’t it?”
“That’s because they hadn’t gotten to excavate this area yet. Still, under all this is the dream of the ancient Phoenicians,” Noir countered.
“Which is probably just as dreary,” the boy muttered under his breath.
“Now we need to figure out what to do next.”
“Hey Noir,” piped up Yugi, “this floor has all these pretty colors!”
“That’s because it’s a mosaic,” the thief explained, smiling a bit at the boy’s childlike joy as he admired the ancient artwork. “You can a bunch of colored stones and cut them into tiny pieces then make a picture out of them. Most ruins like these have them.”
“Doesn’t this one look weird though?” Yugi asked, staring intently at the mosaic, “These colors don’t look natural to me.”
Noir blinked, then mentally kicked himself in the head.
“Noir?”
“You’re right,” the white haired man said coming over to inspect the colored stones, “This is… Yugi look out!”
“Death to defilers of God!!!” screamed a man, waving an ancient looking sword.
The spiky haired boy froze, unable to move due to man’s sudden appearance. There was a sharp whoosh followed by an even louder crack causing the man to cry out as he was just as suddenly sent flying back. A black and white blur streamed by the boy and the man found himself pinned under a none too happy phantom thief.
“Care to tell us who you are and what you’re doing here?” hissed Noir.
“We Knights Templar know you seek what is not to be yours,” the man spat, his wrinkled eyes narrowing and glaring hatefully at them, “You may have made it here, but you’ll never get your hands on the treasure! DIE HEATHEN!!!” he screamed, pushing and kicking the thief off of him. The old knight rolled with a practiced grace and grabbed his previously discarded weapon. He leapt up and made a beeline straight for the spiky haired boy, intent on ending his life.
“Yugi!” Noir bellowed again and whipped at the knight again, catching his sword arm.
“Damn it all!” spat the knight.
The thief then swept at the man’s legs and knocked him to the ground, this time pinning him face down. “That’s my property you’re trying to kill,” he snarled, “I’d stop if I were you.”
“You… demon!” came the venomous reply.
“You ok, Yugi?” Noir asked after tying up the old man with a piece of rope he’d managed to bring with them.
“I’m alright. Since when did y-you… carry a gun?” the boy asked, catching sight of the shine of metal tucked into the thief’s jacket.
The white haired man looked away from the boy guiltily and silently wishing it wasn’t necessary. He’d always been fine with just his favorite whip, but this whole affair with Ezhdar didn’t just put poor Yugi on edge.
“S-Sorry,” the boy apologized, “It’s just that… I remembered something nasty.” ‘In a forest of my memory, my hand jerks up from a gun…bright, red blood…’
“Dummy,” the taller thief said as he gently wiped at a stray tear that had escaped one amethyst jewel, “There’s no need for you to be all worked up. I don’t think I’ll even have to use it.”
“Stop treating me like a kid!” Yugi protested under his breath, actually grateful for the thief’s kindness. “I’m older than you.”
“Just be more careful, ok?” Yugi nodded. “’The star of the Queen’s new capital’,” he quoted, earning a questioning look from his smaller companion. “I never could figure that bit out until now. The design of that mosaic looks like it used to be a star if you’d look real close.”
“Look old man,” growled Noir feeling the heat of the knight’s damning glares, “We’re not like those other guys after your precious treasure.”
“Then tell me this, blasphemer, how did you know about this place?!” the knight demanded. “You must have deciphered that document that was stolen from our stronghold of Les Andelys!”
“I may have looked at it once or twice,” Noir drawled, “but I most certainly did not steal it.”
“I suppose you’ll say that you’re not a part of that vile mafia, the ‘Black Hand’,” the knight spat venomously, “Your fellow heathens broke into our sacred stronghold and took that from us!”
“The ‘Black Hand’?!” parroted Noir. ‘Then Ezhdar really is in the ‘Black Hand’! Is that why the knights are chasing after him?’
“That document and this land are meant to be seen only by those who have been chosen by god. Only those directly related to the ‘Lord God’ are allowed here!” spouted the old man.
“’Lord God,’” Yugi puzzled quietly to himself, “Rex Deus?”
“You! How is it you know that name?!” demanded the knight, glaring at the boy. “Only those of the Templars know those sacred words! Just who are you?!”
“I-I…” stammered Yugi. “My great-grandfather told me. He told me that the Motou family was descended of Rex Deus, that ours is a noble Christian lineage. I really didn’t understand him at that time though.”
“You can’t possibly be one of the Motous,” the knight said incredulously, “There is no way a heathen thief could be from that most noble family!”
“Well it’s true he’s no longer a Motou,” smirked Noir, playfully draping an arm around the boy’s shoulders and making him blush and squirm. “but he was one of them at one time.”
“I hate you,” Yugi hissed at the thief, loathing the reminder of the debt he owed him.
“Release me at once!” demanded the knight. “It is obvious that I was mistaken,” he added contritely upon realizing his mistake, “Do forgive me, young sir. I am a descendant of a Templar Knight, one of several at that. Our blood lines come from those of Champagne, Anjou, Fountaine, and other noble French families.”
“So you all have been protecting this place all these years?” Yugi queried in awe and getting a curt nod from the Templar Knight. “Since the Crusades?” Another nod.
“Talk about loyalty,” quipped the thief. The knight glared at him, but Noir chose to ignore it. He still had the upper hand after all.
“Our Holy King Louis the ninth fought for Jerusalem’s treasure around 1250. He later then organized the eighth Crusade as part of his plan to bring it to France,” the knight started, “But his majesty fell ill suddenly, his plan half finished, and went to meet the lord in Carthage.”
“Hey Noir!” Yugi called after fiddling around with the mosaic, “It looks like this part of the floor slides open!”
Noir beamed at the boy, earning a slight blush from him. “Good work. Hey old man, when you said Jerusalem’s treasure, you didn’t mean that legend did you?”
“What legend?” Yugi asked as the thief began sliding the mosaic away.
“After Jesus was crucified, the Romans went crazy and began killing people in Judea left and right. The huge treasures kept in Jerusalem were buried deep underground at the time. To be more precise, under the temple of Solomon. After Jesus’ death the Romans got rid of most of Jerusalem’s priests and began ransacking the temple, turning it into a big pile of rubble. Ever since then no one knows where the treasure of Jerusalem is.”
The knight sighed and nodded in agreement. “When Holy King Louis died, our ancestors moved the treasure to this land. We swore to protect it until the day the true ‘Lord God’ came to us. We Knights Templar carry the blood of Jerusalem’s priests, the blood of noble King David himself.”
“What the?!” sputtered the thief after having descended down the revealed stairs. “There’s nothing here!” he called back up, greatly annoyed.
“Of course there isn’t,” smirked the knight, “Some of the younger generations of our order sinned and got greedy. They went here to grab the treasure for themselves only to find… nothing. So ever since then, we’ve been here, searching for it.”
“There’s an inscription there,” the thief said returning from the hidden passage. “It’s been copied from that manuscript.
Yugi and the now released knight followed him back down. “It looks like it moves,” Yugi said looking closely at the carved plaque.
“You’re right,” the white haired thief said, once again mentally kicking himself. ‘I can’t believe I missed that! Some thief I am!’
“Careful Noir,” Yugi warned, “It’s pretty old.”
“I know that!” he shot back, trying to figure out how to move the plaque.
“This is why we led you here,” the knight said, solemnly.
“Huh?” was the boy’s confused response.
“Got it!” the thief crowed and carefully slid the stone downward.


Sakura: Ooo what’s behind there you ask? Well, you’ll just have to wait til the next part won’t you?

Yugi: Meanie!

Sakura: I know dear, I know. Well until next part my lovely readers, jya ne!!