Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Psyche ❯ Aquistions ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: Yugi-oh is the property of Kazuki Takahashi, who is a genius. I think I own Captive Passions. I don't really think it exists, but the name is cheesy enough to have already been used someplace somehow…. Well, the version that appears in my story is all mine. Nobody else would want it.

 

Authoress also wants to say. Yes, I used to be one of the dim witted geeks. If you can't poke fun at yourself, why write?

 

This is the third part of the Chrysalis series. You will enjoy this more if you read Chrysalis and Emergence first. You will get lost!

 

Psyche

 

Chapter Six: Acquisitions

 

~*~*~*

Bakura

~*~*~*

 

“You sure you want this?” Bakura weighed the parcel in his hand thoughtfully, wondering idly what the pharaoh would do to him and if there was any possible way to get Marik to suffer too. He still had a few issues from April first that he wanted to discuss… yes, discuss… with the other spirit.

 

“Yes, I am sure.” Yuai counted out a wad of bills. “We agreed on seven hundred fifty, right?”

 

Bakura shrugged and handed over the parcel and took the money. It wasn't like she could do anything with it anyway. He was more curious about how she even knew of its existence, it wasn't exactly a topic they covered in school, but he needed the cash and she didn't seem to want to discuss her new found obsession with oddities. “What are you going to do with it anyways?”

 

Yuai tucked the parcel into her backpack with a noncommittal shrug. “Thanks Bakura.” She hefted he large pack over her slender shoulder and turned away. “If Yugi or Yami asks, tell them it was my idea.”

 

“Asks what?” Bakura pocketed the money, still eyeing the small girl and suddenly wondering if he should take the thing away from her. I'll get it back tonight. I haven't explored all the possibilities of breaking and entering on the Kaiba estate. Two birds one stone.

 

She tipped her head in a small shrug. “See ya around.” She suddenly turned and looked at him with a wide, almost frightened, look on her face. “You really are a nice guy Bakura. Thanks. For everything. If I can ever…” She looked away. “I got to go. Bye.” She nearly ran out of the park and disappeared down the street.

 

That girl is really odd. Bakura turned and walked down the path that would lead him back to his hikari, fingering the money in his pocket. With the cash that Yugi's little girlfriend had just provided, he could search for the missing Eye without niggling little details of financing and who to mug for cash. People were surprisingly tight with cash. In the old days all he had to do was find some richly dressed ass and he'd be financed for a year. Today, with it's cubic zirconium synthetic monstrosities, it was difficult to spot a good payday. Unless he wanted to mug Kaiba, who, thanks to Yami's interference was now showing signs of becoming as adept at magic today as he had been back then, was getting to be too risky to roll.

 

His hikari was were he left him, merrily feeding bread to overweight ducks and giggling at their antics. Bakura eyed him carefully from a distance, wondering at him. He is me. As I always was, but hidden. I didn't even realize… Ryou waved as he spotted him. Bakura snorted and ambled over to him. My soul didn't die with my parents, it just went to sleep till it was safe. Smart soul. Very smart, little hikari.

 

“Bakura look, they have ducklings!” Ryou was glowing with happiness as he pointed to a group of little brown fuzz balls that floated in a small armada behind a rather frazzled looking duck.

 

“Are they edible?”

 

And that was how he learned that a bag of day old bread could indeed be used as an effective weapon.

 

~*~*~*

Kaiba

~*~*~*

 

Yami stood next to him looking uncertainly at the school building. “Somehow Kaiba, I just don't see it.”

 

“Look, I'm new at this, give me a break.” Kaiba turned away and stomped down the street, back towards his house, too irritated to even wave to his driver to follow.

 

Yami took one last look at the building and followed. “If it helps, you are getting better. This time it led you to a place that Jonouchi spent a great deal of time in, which is better then standing in at that dueling arena where Jo had to dress up as a dog. Which was much better then the lovely revisit to the VR pods. I didn't particularly care for that little reminder of getting my mind sucked into a VR Shadow Game.”

 

“Shut up.” Kaiba growled at the smirking pharaoh.

 

“You really don't change do you?” Yami grinned happily. Since he'd started teaching Kaiba Shadow Magic, the brunette had started acting a bit more like… well himself…Seth. Yami, stuck in a foreign world with only the tomb robber for company, was nothing short of ecstatic with the thought he might actually have his old friend back.

 

Kaiba grouched along, fisting his hands in his pockets. He'd been so sure. The magic arrowing him in the direction of the school with such desperate precision. The magic however seemed more interested in showing him places that Jo had been in, then in revealing where Jo was now. Without doing the tracing spell, he could already tell the next place the magic would point him would be the site of an abandoned warehouse, that had been mysteriously bought by a industrial company and demolished. He was rather proud of that. “Any other brilliant ideas?”

 

“None that you'll like.” Yami tipped his head thinking carefully. The spell could have been blocked. A difficult thing to do, but then so was mind altering spells and visions. Whoever had Jonouchi could easily have done both, but how to get around the block was the trick. Unhappily, the one who best knew how to do that had been Seth and Seth, or rather Seto, was still relearning what had at one time been as natural to him as breathing.

 

“And I'm liking wandering around Domino City chasing down stray leads like an overworked cop. Why don't we stop for donuts and make my day complete.” Kaiba snarled wondering vaguely if there was a donut shop nearby. He'd skipped breakfast in his rush to find out where the magic would point him today and while the thought of donuts made his stomach turn into a mass of shrieking knots, he could use a cup of industrial strength coffee. “What are my options?”

 

“There's still Jo's finger over at the police station.” Yami pursed his lips thoughtfully, looking off into the distance. “It would have a more direct…connection to Jonouchi and could be used to bypass any blocks that might have been erected.”

 

Kaiba's stomach tried for it's merit badge in knot making. The just thought of that finger made him sick. Sick remembering that it was Jo's finger. Sick thinking of the things Jo's clever fingers had made him feel, how he had loved those fingers, how he had kissed, nibbled and licked each one. Sick knowing that he was the cause of Jo loosing that finger, that he should have been the one who's finger was rotting in some little plastic bag with an evidence tag on it. “That's the only option?”

 

Yami frowned at him, his eyes narrowing. “Have you come up with any better ones?”

 

“No.”

 

~*~*~*

Yuai

~*~*~*

 

It didn't look very dangerous. It was actually rather pretty. It looked vaguely like some kind of impressionist/ medieval/ the-elves-are-invading take on a knife handle. It was silvery and swirly with a sort of leaf shaped disk on the top. There was no blade or anything like that, just the handle, which had a habit of gleaming in odd spots where no light was actually hitting it. Hardly something that inspired confidence that it was capable of cheating death.

 

Still, Mr. Kallon had been specific. This was a Shadow Knife and this, he insisted, was what would save her from miserably dying in a pointless car accident and being reborn into another miserable life, which thanks to the font of joy that was the Millennium Necklace, she now knew would be a thrilling tour of Africa, complete with dead parents, being beaten out of various villages as an unwanted mouth to feed, long periods of starvation, a short brutal marriage and finally dying of dehydration in the middle of a desert, abandoned there by her loving spouse. Lovely, truly lovely. And it would be hers to cherish in less then twenty four hours. She turned the thing over in her fingers again, then shrugged and shoved it back into the leather wrappings that Bakura had wrapped it in.

 

“Hey, Yuai? Have you seen my math book?” Mokuba ambled past where she was perched on the stairs, overlooking the front entrance.

 

“Is it on the coffee table? I think I remember seeing it there.” She stood up and followed the boy down to the living room.

 

The book wasn't on the table. They looked under the table, on top of the TV, behind the sofa, under the sofa, under the other chairs, in the dining room and were just making headway in the kitchen when the phone rang.

 

Mokuba eyed it suspiciously. Since the finger in the mail incident, he'd become wary of mail, phone calls and even e-mail messages. “Who do you think that could be?”

 

Yuai shrugged and watched the phone, waiting for the butler to pick it up. It was only fair, she took care of Mokuba. The butler took care of answering doors and phones and whatever else the man did between times. She had her suspicions that it involved the cook, at least two of the gardeners, a large quantity of vodka and a deck of cards. She poked her head into the refrigerator waiting for the answer to Mokuba's question.

 

“Mr. Kaiba, there is a call from Mr. Kado. He says he has orders to report to you or Mr. Kaiba if he acquired any information about the whereabouts of Mr. Jonouchi.” The man's stuffy, overly formal voice toned from the intercom system.

 

Mokuba lunged for the phone. “Jo!” He yanked the receiver off the cradle and frantically hit buttons. “Mr. Kado, where is he?!”

 

Yuai stood absently holding the refrigerator door open, not even noticing the cool air that whooshed lightly around her legs.

 

“Really?!” Mokuba nodded his head enthusiastically, his eyes staring intently at the wall. “When?” He smiled so wide he looked like a demented Halloween pumpkin. “That's great! I'll call big brother and we'll be down there immediately.” He pushed the button and hung up the phone, throwing it up into the air with a happy shriek. “They found someone who saw it. An old lady. She saw some guy in a jeep. She said that she heard a loud crashing sound and saw a man looking over the cliff where they found the car. She said he got into the jeep and there was a sleeping blond kid in there too. She saw him! She saw him! Mokuba dashed wildly around, first heading in one direction then running back in another, all the while babbling hysterically. “She even remembers the jeep. She said she sees it a lot at a market by where she lives! It's owned by this guy who lives in the town!” He hugged Yuai then dashed out the door. “Jo's coming home! Jo's coming home!”

 

Yuai looked down at the smashed phone that now lay in tiny plastic pieces on the floor and smiled, running after him in the hopes that she could save at least one phone to call her boss. The smile turned a bit evil as she thought of Yami having to deal with the larger Kaiba. “Wonder what he'll smash?”

 

~*~*~*

Bakura

~*~*~*

 

Pegasus, beyond his encyclopedic knowledge of the soap Captive Passions, had given him a few ideas about the Millennium Eye.

 

“It is attracted to people who are injured. Those who are grieving, lost, and in pain.” Pegasus had explained, while staring vacantly out the window. “It likes it's host to be in pain. I think it feeds of misery and the more misery it can inflict, the happier it is.”

“You're saying it knows what it's doing?” Bakura fingered his Ring. As far as he knew, the ring made no decisions on its own.

 

“I believe so, yes.” Pegasus looked haunted. “When I first got it, I was still grieving for my wife, but I was still sane. After having it for a few years, I realized that it was somehow making sure I never got better. It was keeping me exactly as it wanted me, emotionally unstable and, increasingly, mentally unstable as well. The Eye felt… malevolent… like it was plotting, thinking, planning.” He shook his head. “A terrifying sensation to have about something that was now a part of my body.”

 

Bakura, now standing on a street corner eyeing a bar called The Black Crow, agreed with him. Yes, it is terrifying to know some part of you is evil and completely out of your control. I lucked out. The idiot pharaoh drove that part of me away. Which, though I'll never let him know it, I'll be indebted to him for, for the rest of eternity.

 

He watched a few black swathed, artistically slumping figures walk into the gloom of the bar. He shuddered and walked across the street. The Black Crow was the hottest goth bar in the city, with more depressed, gloomy people per foot than any other place except Domino High School and since it was the Friday, it wouldn't be back in session for two more days.

 

He had considered visiting the depressed lot that he was unwillingly associated with. Little Yugi had been looking like the poster child for Prozac, and if Kaiba got any more depressed they'd have to scrape him off the sidewalk, in more ways than one. Yugi, though, had his yami to look out after him. He doubted that the pharaoh would allow his pipsqueak light to be taken in by the Eye. Bakura also doubted that Kaiba was in any danger from rogue Millennium Items. He wasn't going to take any bets that his dear, old friend, the high priest wasn't lurking like a shark under Kaiba's oh-so-sunny disposition. He'd seen that bastard's smile on Kaiba's lips a few times. The dragony, snarly , toothy smile that kept secrets close and mocked you for not knowing them.

 

All of which left him here. He took a deep breath. It can't be that bad. I spent five millennia locked in the Millennium Ring. One idiotic club filled with dim witted geeks trying to be cool can't be worse than that. He put on his most long suffering expression, checked to make sure all his black leather was appropriately depressing, flipped his now black streaked hair around his face and went in search of the Eye.

 

~*~*~*

Kaiba

~*~*~*

Forget Shadow Magic. Put your bets on money and leg work. Those will get the job done without the tour of Domino City. Kaiba settled back in his limo, smiling smugly out the window. Mokuba, Honda, Yugi, Yami and Ryou were all chatting excitedly around him, but he didn't pay them any attention. In just a few hours, he'd have Jo back. Kado had already tracked the name and the address of the man down. A security team was already on it's way and soon as they got there, if not sooner, Jo would be safe. Jo would be on his way home.

 

He took a deep breath, letting all the stress from the last few weeks start to seep out of his body. I'm coming love. Just hold on a bit longer. I'm coming.

 

~*~*~*

Yuai

~*~*~*

 

The park was still pretty. Most of the kids had gone home for the day and only a few older couples wandered through the twisting paths that led through the trees. The sun was starting to slide gently down into a soft golden glow that promised a exquisite sunset. The warm breeze of the afternoon was now starting to cool off slightly as it ruffled the tree leaves and tossed around the flowers into shimmering carpets of moving color.

 

Yuai walked along one of the less used paths that would eventually take her up to the wooded area she used to camp in. Mr. Kallon walked beside her, smiling at the slowly disappearing day. She only had a few more minutes and something, somehow was going to smash her right out of this world and into Africa.

 

“Are you sure this will work?” She fingered the Shadow Blade nervously.

 

“Oh yes.” Mr. Kallon turned and smiled at her. “We worked this out very carefully.” He gave a small laugh. “We've had a long, long time to figure this out and this is the best and safest way we've come up with.”

 

“There were other ways?” Yuai looked up hopefully. It wasn't that she thought it was going to be terrible or anything. After all the Shadow Knife had been amazingly…well…unknife like, but that amazing unknifishness was what was worrying her. She would have felt a lot more comfortable with something a bit more… or less, like a incomplete prop from a sword and sorcery movie. Every time she looked at the stupid thing she kept wondering if Gandalf was going to wander by asking if anyone had seen his paperweight.

 

“A few, but they really weren't all that pleasant. I particularly didn't like the one that involved the mass strangulation of frogs. Ever try to strangle a frog? Damn messy business. Difficult too.” He shook his head.

 

“This isn't making me feel better.” Yuai looked down at the unknife like knife in her hand.

 

“The Shadow Knife, if used at the precise moment you are supposed to die, will disrupt the curse that causes you to be endlessly reincarnated into torturous lives and die piteous deaths. It will cause the curse to rebound and break the cycle, allowing you to live the life you were meant to live.” He smiled encouragingly down at her. “Its only power is over the curse. To you, the blade is completely harmless.” He pointed down at the Knife. If it had really possessed a blade, it would have been slammed through her left palm, multiple times. “As you can see. It does absolutely nothing to you, yourself.”

 

Yuai nodded, feeling slightly better. It may have been nothing but sleep deprivation, but it was reassuring that someone had thought this thing through. Instead of waking up tomorrow as a new born African, she could wake up in her comfy bed and look spend the day celebrating Jonouchi's homecoming. She wondered if she should run by the store and pick up some Rocky, Rocky Road ice cream for him. She could do that after she was free of the curse. Then again, maybe she should just let the limo driver pick her up in the park and stay far away from sidewalks for a bit.

 

“It's almost time, dearest. Do you know what to do?” Mr. Kallon motioned for her to sit on a nearby bench.

 

She nodded. “When you tell me to, I am supposed to press the…uh.. blade against my chest as if I was going to stab myself through the heart.”

 

“That's right. Now it might take a moment or two for the curse to be disrupted, so expect a bit of pain and dizziness. Curses are nastier than colds sometimes.” He checked his watch. It was an old, tarnished pocket watch with more dials, hands and numbers than Yuai could really see a need for. “Okay. I'll count down from ten. When I say zero, you pretend to plunge the blade… well, where the blade should be… into your heart.”

 

Yuai nodded feeling a bit nervous. The pain and dizziness part sounded kind of nasty, but, then again, not as nasty as being ground to pieces by a car's front bumper.

 

“Ten. Nine. Eight.”

 

She'd have to remember to call the school Monday. With Jonouchi home, Mokuba would never get to class.

 

“Seven. Six. Five.”

 

Maybe she could get everyone together and, if Jo was well enough, have an ice cream party. Jo would love that. She'd send one of the divers for the ice cream.

 

“Four. Three. Two. One.”

 

So much to do, once this was over. It'd be nice to see Jo again.

 

“Zero.”

 

She lifted the knife and, playfully pretending to be a suicidal maiden out of a romance novel, slammed it against her chest. For a brief instant she felt a bit silly, sitting ther holding a unknifelike knife against her chest.

 

Mr. Kallon looked expectantly at her, then shrugged.

 

Then the pain hit. It felt like a real knife was driven through her chest. Her mouth dropped open in a voiceless cry of pain. Her body shuddered uncontrollably, spasming against the blade that wasn't there. Her heart shuddered, then fluttered piteously as it started failing. Pain and darkness wrapped around her mind, dimming it, then finally destroying it completely.

 

Mr. Kallon watched the small lifeless body drop off the side of the bench and thud onto the grass. He reached over, picked the Shadow Knife out of the delicate hand that was still clenched around the hilt and pocketed it, pausing a moment to gently stroke her hair. “I'm sorry to have lied to you, dearest. But it's really for the best.”

 

~*~*~*

 

Okay, okay throw tomatoes. I'm braced for it…

 

dragonlady222: Well, the curse is broken, but I don't think it was quite what Yuai was planning…

 

Daebird: Thank you for the picture!!! I love it! No you really weren't supposed to find Kaiba being psychologically tortured amusing, but I'm happy you liked it. Jessica is the female sibling. Pauline/Teddy is her brother. He is working as a man pretending to be a female weight lifter. He is also a agent for a secret government agency. Don't worry. Bakura's addiction to Captive Passions isn't over yet! Will Jessica have a two headed baby? Will Raven ever be exposed as the scheming slut she is? Will Bakura ever break free from that soaps evil ways? For all this and more, stay tuned.

 

Sakiyama: Kaiba's going as fast as he can! But Yuai? A curse is a curse is a… well, maybe not. Just who is Mr. Kallon? What exactly was he lying about? Questions will be answered in the next chapter

 

Sorceress Sarrkh: Thanks for supporting my little OC. At least she doesn't have to worry about her Millennium Item any more, but I suppose you aren't all that thrilled with why she doesn't have to worry about it… I liked the part with Kaiba too. It's fun making him eat his words. However, he does have a habit of sliding back into old patterns of thought. Also, yes, this is the last of the series. As much as I like this series, I want to go explore things like Kenshin, Inuyasha and maybe Yu Yu Hakasho. I've got a great idea about how to completely humiliate a certain, overly adorable, demon lord.