Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Late Nights ❯ Haphazard Healing ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3: Haphazard Healing

Tira woke to find herself under her covers, still dressed. Her bleary eyes soon focused, and she looked cautiously around the room. She noticed slips on each side of her door glowing, and reasoned that Yami hadn't left the room too long ago. She reluctantly sat up, and got out of bed. Her room had no windows, and she preferred it that way, so it was pitch black while her alarm clock notified her that it was eight in the morning.

She flicked on her lamp that resided on a small cabinet beside her bed, and walked toward her dresser/vanity. She looked at herself in the mirror and sighed when she saw her hair was a mess. `Bed head is a pain in the arse,' she thought grumpily to herself. She WAS a morning person, but she hated it when her hair was messy. Her nimble hands picked up her brush, and she dragged it through her hair, untangling it. Once her chore was finished, she took a silver broach-like clip from the vanity surface and clipped all her hair back at the nape of her neck. She pulled her bangs out of the clip, for some of them had gotten stuck in it with the rest of her hair, and ignored the little makeup that was on her vanity.

She slipped gracefully out of her clothes and put on her professor's clothing, which was made of a black loose-buttoned shirt and loose pants that flared slightly at the bottom, both satin. Usually she would wear teenager-like clothing, but today she had planned a pop quiz for the students. The students who had picked up on her pattern would have realized by then that whenever she dressed formally, there was a test of some kind, and THOSE students would spend the little study period that she gave every period to prepare for the unknown.

Tira stared at her visage in the mirror and sighed softly. `Another day of work. I hope that brat Davidson got sick, he's such a snob, and always tries to beat me at something I'm a professional about. That damn bookworm prat really gets under my skin…' she growled to herself quietly and walked out of her dimly lit room. She hadn't expected Yami to stick around that long, but inwardly wished he had…

Another sigh escaped the silver haired woman's lips, and she walked silently into the kitchen to be greeted with a very peculiar sight… It seemed Yami had made her breakfast earlier that morning. Her eyebrow shot up and her eyes widened slightly. She eyed the pancakes that still steamed on the table with syrup dripped all over them and wondered how Yami knew her favourite breakfast… That was when Baby Blue decided to be a pain in the ass.

{{PANCAKES!!!! YAY!!!! GIMMI GIMMI GIMMI!!!!!!!!}}

{{AH! Jesus Blue, careful on the damn ears!!!}}

{{PANCAKES!!!!}} And Blue continued to chant the word annoyingly.

{{BLUE! SHUT THE HELL UP!!}} Tira yelled at her, making the persona shut up instantly.

Tira was soon pushed to the side as Blue pushed herself to the controls.

{{Blue! If you humiliate me in any way this morning…}} Tira started threateningly, {{THEN YOU'RE AS GOOD AS DEAD!!!}}

Unknown to both of them, Yami was watching from a shadowy corner as Tira's eyes kept changing form blue to emerald, yet again as if she were having a conversation. He watched curiously when they stayed blue and he heard her speak like a child in a candy store.

"Pancakes…" Blue licked her lips and plopped herself down in a chair. She grinned like a child and started to cut the yummy pile of soaked pancakes with a well-placed knife. Soon all of the pancakes were cut into bite-sized pieces, and Blue dug in with gusto.

Yami watched with wide eyes as she acted like a child, and noted that she did so only when her eyes were BLUE… A smile slowly formed on his face, and he watched in amusement that she pouted when she had inhaled it all.

"Ah, no fair, it's all gone…" Blue sniffed softly.

{{Ah, quit your whining, you didn't have to share}} Tira said bluntly before she took over again.

"What a pain Blue is…" she said softly to herself before standing and taking the dishes to the dishwasher. She rinsed them at the sink for a moment before carefully placing them in the racks.

Yami was surprised when he caught what Tira said after her eyes changed back to emerald, and guessed that when her eyes were blue, she was called Blue… he was very confused. `Does she have some sort of personality disorder?' he thought to himself as she mechanically put the dishes in the dishwasher.

Tira sighed softly when she was done and glanced at her watch. 8:32 am it read, so she had class in half an hour. She silently walked into the living room and organized all the scattered papers that were on the coffee table. She placed them in the suitcase that lay underneath the table, and clipped it shut. The suitcase held all of her records and plans for her classes, and had a charm on it that allowed it to hold more than a normal suitcase would.

She pressed the 4-2 symbol on the lid and a small glow of light came from the symbol before it recognized the user and opened with a completely different class's contents. In her suitcase of White Magic, there were 5 `grades' of students, and about 3 classes to each grade, thus the second number on the activation symbol. She pulled out the journal that held all her notes of the class and flipped through it quickly. She stopped the pages when she reached the `students-D' section, and looked up Davidson. There he was, Jake Davidson, the most annoying pain in the ass she'd ever had in all of her classes EVER.

She quickly scanned through all of his information: phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, birth date, age, gender, etc. and stopped when she reached, `Personal Notes'. She scanned the LONG page of notes and nodded triumphantly when she hadn't missed a single one of his `achievements' and `screw ups'. She noted that he'd told her last week that he knew all of the healing techniques in the `White Magic for Healing by Lucia Markevitch', and decided that THAT was what the pop quiz was going to be on. She grinned to herself and put the notebook back in the suitcase and slammed it shut. She ran her finger along an invisible line of symbols on the handle and watched as it shrunk into a pretty black bracelet. She grabbed the bracelet and clipped it onto her wrist before walking calmly to the door and slipped into her black runners. She hit each toe on the floor to make sure her shoes were on and opened the door silently. She pulled her keys of the hook by the door and locked it before walking out the door.

Yami watched her go and eyed the White Magic banishing/protection slips of paper with ancient symbols that were placed on each side of the door. He slowly walked up to them and placed his hand on one. To his surprise, it didn't shock him at all, and he slipped into the shadows on the other side of the door. He caught a glimpse of her speeding motorbike and turned invisible. He hopped onto the roofs of houses and buildings and followed her to the university.

Tira relished in the cool morning air, and sped up her bike to 15 km/h over the speed limit. She smirked at a passing police officer, and the old geezer left her alone. Sooner than she had hoped, she arrived at the University of Magic and reluctantly parked her bike.

She pulled out the keys and passed her hand over the ignition, and created a warding symbol in the process. She smiled at the familiar symbol and headed to her first class with her bracelet jiggling on her wrist. She smiled politely at the headmistress of the school as they passed in the halls, and continued on her way.

Soon enough, she arrived at her classroom, and she prepared her schedule for the day. Within half an hour's time, her students began to file into the room, and she closed her suitcase with a snap. She stood, walked around her desk, and sat on it with her legs crossed, her right knee hooked over her left. She waited patiently, and three minutes later the rest of her students had filed in. There was no need for bells. Students came of their own free will, and if they didn't come to class, the professors couldn't care in the least.

Tira checked her watch, and as usual, all of her students had arrived on time. She flicked her finger in the direction of the door, and locked it with a simple spell. She turned her emerald eyes to her class and spotted the smarter ones flipping through notes, knowing her semi-formal attire meant a test. A fake sweet smile graced her perfect lips when she saw Davidson staring at her with a superior expression on his cocky features. Her eyes closed in a semi-innocent smile and she hopped gracefully off the desk.

She needed to give her students the time she gave every morning to study, but that didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy herself while she waited. She walked around her desk and sat back down in her leather chair. She pulled open one of her drawers and dug around in the blackness that was the compartment, searching for the book she'd left there a week ago. After a while of searching through the foggy darkness, she pulled out a book titled Ancient Necromantic Techniques by Dariden Yotama. She began to read from where she left off while occasionally glancing at her watch. After the time was up she slammed her book shut, and all eyes focused on her. She waited a few tense seconds before standing smoothly from her chair. Her emerald eyes glanced across the room and she smirked at her class- no, she smirked at DAVIDSON, now THAT'S right... She grinned when Davidson squirmed under her gaze, and she pulled her notebook out of her suitcase.

The necromancer looked indifferently down her nose at the book, like many teachers did, and pretended to read to the class, " Mr. Davidson here informed me not eight days ago that he knew EVERYTHING in the book White Magic for Healing by Lucia Markevitch." She raised her indifferent eyes from the notebook and closed it gracefully. "Today your popquiz will be: To heal me. I will purposefully hurt my self in a way that requires a certain way of healing, and you will have to know what spell is needed for the situation, and how to perform it." Cold emerald eyes glanced indifferently at the sweating Davidson, and she had to suppress a victorious smirk. "Are there any questions that call for my immediate attention? No? Good. We need to get started. I had told you two weeks ago that it was essential for you to know all of the contents of White Magic for Healing, and if you ignored direct information, than you'd better wing it." Tira looked over the class and was surprised to see Travis, the worst student in the class, smiling slightly to himself while everyone else was shakin' in their shoes. `What's this? Did Travis of all people heed my warning and study for this? Or does he have a knack for the stuff…' She turned her eyes away from Travis so as to not draw attention to him, but not before winking at him slightly. She ignored his shocked look and walked over to the right of the room, by the door…

Yami watched in amusement when the students were mortified that they had a popquiz, and watched the whole show from the shadows… He'd previously gotten past the barriers of the building easily because of the magic in the blood Tira gave him the previous night, and had followed her through the school to see what she did on a regular school day…

Tira quickly drew a small and simple battle-magic circle on the floor with chalk from the blackboard, and summoned a simple sword to her hand. She banished the circle after the summoning was done, and walked back to the front of the class. She smiled at them all before shoving the sword into her stomach. She could have smiled at the students' faces, but held it back when the pain hit her full force. It wasn't enough to phase her, but it still hurt like hell. She pulled the sword from her stomach and watched in disinterest as her own blood pooled at her feet.

Yami had been shocked speechless when Tira had plunged her sword into her stomach, but had been even more surprised with what she said next…

"Well class, the one who can heal me gets full marks on the popquiz, if none of you can…" she trailed off in a light tone before finishing in a monotone and stoic face, "Then you have a dead teacher."

The students gazed at her in mortification as she lied down on the floor in her own blood with her hands by her sides…

"Well? What the hell are you waiting for? I'm waiting…" impatience snaked into the last bit she said, and the students immediately tried to figure out what to do. A stomach wound was no small matter, for many components made themselves known when in the process of healing. For example, you had to know the human anatomy like the back of your hand, and second, you had to know the process and magical chant required to heal.

One girl in the class, named Rebecca Winsly, tore out her book in a feverish attempt to save her teacher.

"Ms. Winsly. Fail."

Shocked eyes turned to the still teacher on the floor that had spoken, and the others tried to think of a way to heal her without killing her, because a healing spell gone wrong was VERY dangerous. Many of the students had no idea what to do, and they simply stayed out of the way. Soon five students had gathered around the heavily bleeding teacher, but none of them acted, too uncertain of themselves to do anything.

Tira lay there like a stone, wondering what was taking the students so long to heal her. She opened her eye to the sight of five students. Derrick Davidson, Travis Kibbeth, Toria McMin, Jaketh Yeriota, and Marie Maliver all stood over her with unease written across their pale faces. Derrick looked down at the teacher with a haughty expression that was slowly changing into one of panic. She heard Travis take a large breath, and knew he'd be the one to try.

The students stared at Travis in shock when he bent down next to the teacher with a concentrated look, and Marie was about to yell at him that he wasn't good enough to ensure that Professor Necro would live. She, however, shut her mouth when she, alone, noticed that the professor was glaring at her.

Tira relaxed completely and went into a meditative state when Travis rested his hands over her wound. She could have sighed in content when she felt the warmth of white magic on her smoldering wound, like a cool breeze during a hot summer day. She was shocked, however, when she realized how SKILLED Travis actually WAS! A gasp of surprise would have escaped her mouth when she realized this had she not bit her lip, drawing blood.

Travis paid no attention to the people around him, and went into a trance. Bright purple lines began to run out from under him like worms, but he stayed still as they formed a complicated magic circle for healing stomach wounds in particular. He closed his eyes mechanically and went inside his head. He saw his magic glowing around him as he looked out from a white sphere in the middle of the convoluted mass, and watched without interest as the white circle protected him from the power of his magic. He slowly let himself loose from that sphere in his mind that held who he was, and went out into the coiling mass of purple magic, that was his own personal white magic. Most people only had `white fire' white magic, but he had a `purple flame' white magic that had developed beyond the normal with all the practicing he had done. The complex tendrils of purple wrapped themselves around him, and slowly drew him out of his body to travel into his professor's. His magic led him through the maze of veins in the body, and brought him to the major damage of the stab wound. He grew `bigger' in a spiritual sense and brought the whole `picture' of the wound into his `view' rather than just see a very small part of it from a vein. He expertly glanced over the wound and planned to himself what he would do first and after that. First the major wounds from damaged organs had to be knitted back together, and that included fusing the flesh back together, the veins, and burning out any clotting blood etc. He finished with the organs soon enough, and started to slowly knit the tissue, muscles, and veins back together. Once he was done, he carefully burnt out any infections that had started, and vaporized all of the spilt blood.

Once Travis was done, he sat back and promptly fell over onto his back. The purple magic circle dissipated from beneath him and his professor, and he slipped off into a blissful sleep, not needing to check with his physical eyes to see the wound perfectly healed and no scar to be seen.

Tira sat up easily from where she had lain and gazed at Travis with a small smile on her perfect lips. "Well," she said to the rest of the class, "Travis has received BEYOND a passing mark for THIS class." She turned her eyes to look at the rest of her students. "The rest of you pass, I suppose," she said with a shrug like she didn't care. She stood from the ground and picked Travis up. "While I take Travis to the healer, the rest of you should study," she spoke harshly with serious eyes and left the room with sure steps.

While she walked down the hall, she was alerted to a presence following her. A small smile graced her lips when she realized her subconscious mind hadn't alerted her to him because he wasn't considered a `threat'.

"I suggest you stay out of sight, Yami, for some of the White Magic Masters here act first and ask questions later."

Yami, lurking in the few shadows provided by the light, heeded her warning and followed behind her carefully.

Once Tira had left Travis with the school's many healers, she swiftly glided back to class, executing perfect muscle control with every step. She walked into the classroom and was slightly surprised to find her students ACTUALLY STUDYING for once in some of their lives. She couldn't help but inwardly smile at that; she sat back down at her desk and pulled out her book… It was quite interesting, and it was teaching her many gruesome ways to kill the undead. Once style in particular, used for `slave corpses' that followed a Necromancer's commands, was to use a strange combination of herbs and spices that, when blown over the corpses, would disintegrate their frail flesh that clinged to the bone by mere sinews. She was quite amused by the simple herbs used for the powder, and easily memorized the directions word for word for later use. She smirked when she came to the more… `capable' of the dead monsters known. To her annoyance, there was no information on vampires… She closed her eyes and pondered why… A thought struck her, and she checked the author of the book once again… To her astonishment, she found that the name, when rearranged, translated into `vampiric being' in another language. She stared at the author's cleverly hidden name in shock, surprised that a VAMPIRE of all beings was telling HUMANS how to kill some undead!!

Yami, who had been watching from the shadows, grew curious when she stared at the cover of her book like it didn't exist. He slipped into the shadows of equipment on her desk and read over the author's name. After he decoded the strange name, he was shocked. He knew only ONE vampire that would help humans in such a way… Ishizu Ishtar, a thousand year old vamp like himself… though not AS old…

"Yami… do you know this vampire?" she asked, her voice too silent for human ears to hear, her mouth not moving at all, though it remained slightly open.

"Yes, I do," he replied, equally quiet, wondering if Tira, the `human' could hear… apparently she DID when she ANSWERED.

"Who is it?"

"Her name is Ishizu Ishtar. She has always been against the undead, even if she WAS an undead of types…"

"Can you let me meet her?"

"I am afraid that is HER decision…" he replied mysteriously.

"Can you tell her then that Tira KatoIra, of the TsuKiraN (not Jap, it's an OTHER language *hint hint*) wishes to meet with her at some time, I'm sure she can find me…"

Yami stayed silent… `She's of the TsuKiraN??!! SINCE WHEN HAS SHE NOT BEEN HUMAN?!!'

"I bet your wondering how I'm not human…" Tira's eyes shadowed as she stared down at her book. "But I am afraid I will have to leave that tale for a cold and rainy night, when I'm not `busy' with OTHER things…"

Tira stood from her chair, her eyes still shadowed and spoke out to the class calmly, "You are dismissed for today, and I suggest you study. Most of you won't be able to pass the healing test that is to happen in exactly two weeks time." After she dismissed the class, she checked her schedule. Lucky for her, she didn't have another class until the late afternoon at 6 PM. She checked her watch and confirmed that it was only 11 am. She smiled softly to herself and packed her things, as well as the necromancy book, into her `briefcase'. She strode calmly from the room, not caring if Yami followed or not. When she passed the wards on the school that were permanently etched onto the pillars that held up the entrance, they flared strangely and she stopped moving. Something was wrong… someone was trying to get into the school… someone uninvited…

The woman quickly shrunk her suitcase and snapped it on her wrist. She considered calling her friends, but knew they would never be there in time. Cold and calculating eyes examined her surroundings with a practiced precision. Her senses stretched out to cover the area with a radius of 5 kilometers. To her surprise, she didn't pick up any active vampires or any undead at all in the area, besides Yami that is…

"Yami, who the hell is here?" she asked, her voice many keys lower than before.

Yami was startled to hear such a cold voice from the once cool girl. "I do not know, I didn't sense any undead in the area, and none can hide themselves from me."

Tira scanned the area again, this time with all her senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, (not taste), and her sixth sense, which was VERY advanced and could locate something she was looking for with a radius of 1000 miles, literally. She sensed many vampires in the city, none causing trouble (she didn't disturb those, or even make contact with them), though a few were in activity, draining blood from dieing victims. She scowled darkly when she sensed that the patrol that was supposed to have been protecting the city during the day had become oblivious to all vampire activity. Okay, to say she was pissed would have been an award worthy understatement.

Yami was disturbed by the dark aura emanating from Tira, and he risked the chance of entering her mind… To his surprise, she seemed to welcome him into the complexity of her split mind, and calmed greatly when in his presence.

[Is something wrong, Tira? You seem very… distracted…]

{Distracted?? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM, HAVING A FUCKIN FIELD TRIP??!!! THE DAY SLAYERS THAT ARE IN THE CITY ARE COMPLETELY FUCKIN OBLIVIOUS TO ALL VAMPIRE ACTIVITY AT THE MOMENT, AND MORE THAN 56 PEOPLE HAVE DIED TODAY BECAUSE OF THEIR INCOMPETANCE!!!} Tira's mind voice radiated power, and Yami thought the idea of hiding away in a shadowed corner to be VERY COMFORTABLE at the moment…

[What is going on? I cannot sense any vampiric activity, why is it you are able to and I am not? Am I not a vampire myself?]

Tira calmed down greatly and thought over this newly presented possibility almost serenely… {Then… what the hell's going on?}

For the first time, Tira sounded confused and slightly scared… like she wasn't used to having things so out of her control before.

[Tira, no people have died today. I have no idea what is going on with you, but I KNOW when a vampire has taken blood, for it is in the connection that we all share.]

{…} Tira was honestly bewildered and frightened. She'd never had such a problem before, she'd always been able to control her powers. Why the sudden change of things?? What was going on??!!

Tira did the only thing she could think of to do. Call Shanna. Her cell-phone ringed without answer for a few moments, then Shanna's voice was heard on the other end.

-Yeah?-

"Hi Shanna. Listen, I have a problem, my powers seem to be on the blitz. How many people have died today by a vampire's fangs?"

-… well, none actually, which is rather strange… And what's stranger is that YOUR powers of all people's went crazy. You're the most powerful person I know! How the HELL could YOUR powers be on the fritz?? Are you sure you didn't drink too much last night? Or did you `friend' tire you out too much…- Shanna sounded very sly on the other side of the phone, and Tira could almost `hear' her smirk.

"SHANNA! SHUT THE HELL UP!!" Tira yelled into the phone.

Shanna, at home with a cute blond boy named Marik in her bed, pushed the phone away from her ear as she heard her friend yell at her. Her eyes widened to the size of tennis balls as she stared at the white phone in her hand, cocky expression gone.

Marik woke up. "What the hell was that?" he grumbled grumpily under his breath.

"Nothing Marik, my friend's just PMSing or SOMETHING." Shanna grinned cockily and waited for the reaction…

-I AM NOT PMSING SHANNA! JESUS CHRIST!! THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT FUCKIN DAY FOR SOMEONE TO GET UNDER MY GODDAMN NERVES!!!-

That woke Marik up entirely. "Holy shit, is that your silver haired FRIEND?"

Shanna gazed at him with half lidded eyes and looked at him with a look that said `You're an idiot.'

"Calm down Tira!! I'm here to help you!! Not to be yelled at!"

Back with Tira, her face was a cute flushed red as she glared hotly at the phone. "You're no fucking help," she growled into the receiver and hung up.

[That did a lot of help.]

{NO! YOU THINK?} Tira yelled at him. {I've never been this goddamn… pissed off before. This power lapse is really affecting my consciousness. Shit. Not my fuckin' day. I'm taking the rest off work as a sick day. I'm NOT teaching black magic to that shity class load of morons.}

She dialed another number. "Hi, Mary? This is Professor Necro, would you please get Michael to teach my only other class for today? Why? Because I need a break! And I'm NOT in the best of moods!" with that, she said a quick and polite goodbye and hung up. "That went REALLY well!" she said sarcastically.

"You need to calm yourself…" Yami said from behind her, making her freeze.

"When did you get back there?" she asked, her voice small. From the looks of it, her powers were far more fucked up than she had first thought.

"You need to calm down. I will take you to a place where you can recover your `injury'…" Yami spoke heatedly into her ear.

Tira gulped when the surrounding area that had once been the school grounds, became total shadow. From the looks of things, Yami was her only protection at the moment… Though she STILL didn't know why her powers had suddenly gone screwy.

Yami appeared before her in the shadows and walked toward her. #Calm yourself… and find out what happened to mess with your powers…#

Tira, completely unable to fight Yami because she had previously submitted to him (she let him take her blood), followed his orders mindlessly and fell deeper into the comfortable darkness. When she opened her eyes again, all of her personalities stood before her. To her shock, she seemed to be in her mind (completely, not in two places at the same time type of thing). What surprised her even more, however, was that Crimson, the darkest of all out of the group, had joined in the `meeting'…