Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Who am I? ❯ Light is in Reach ( Chapter 21 )

AN: I tried and I can't do it. I know you wanted longer chapters but the longer it is the faster it seems my inspiration runs out even if I stop writing and come back later. So I'm sorry but I'm going back to between 5-10 pages per chappie just because I write better for some reason so sorry to those who love long chapters, really I am. Anyway it's yay time because I'm over 100 pages now, actually I was last chapter but I didn't celebrate so I am now! Celebrate good times! Sorry it took me so long to update but I didn't want to give up on long chapters right away and took me a while to decide I write better the other way. But I hope you don't hate me too much I mean this is a decent length chapter. Anyway in this chappie it mentions a phone card, a lot of times in Japan instead of money they have a card they can put money on like an ATM or credit card they can slip into the phone instead of change. Also please check out my two new stories: Heat Wave and That was Unexpected! Shameless plug I know but if you like this I think you'll like at least one of the others so please read! Ok I'll stop talking now and hope you enjoy!

Japanese:

Baka = Stupid/Idiot

Gomen = Sorry

Moshi Moshi = Hello on the phone

hikari = light (regular people who have millenium items and spirits)

yami = dark (spirits of millenium items)

Pockey = Japanese snack - Cookie stick dipped in chocolate or strawberry or other coatings

-Mind Link-

~yami to hikari~

*hikari to yami*

Disclaimer: I no own Yugioh, though I wish I owned two certain white haired bishies! I'll just have to settle for plushies for now.

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"Who Am I?"

Chapter 21: "Light is in Reach"

They all slipped into Anzu's house and nearly collapsed. They all were soaked, cold, and exhausted. Bakura and Honda breathing hard because after the initial shock and adrenalin rush the abuse of Yami Marik's limbs became apparent as he started stumbling and could barely walk, meaning the two stronger of the group had to support him at least half way to her house. Anzu instructed them to sit in the living room as she went upstairs to grab some extra large not too feminine cloths to let her friends borrow. She grabbed a few extra blankets while she was at it as she made her way downstairs and plopped them all on the table in front of the sofa.

"What the hell? You expect us to wear YOUR cloths," Honda all but yelled.

"Unless you'd really rather sleep in what you're wearing now. And it's not like I gave you a tube top, they're some of my bigger t-shirts and boxers," she said slightly miffed after she tried to help them without anyone even asking.

"Why do you have boxers," Yami Marik asked looking over a pair of black silk ones in his hand.

"Because unlike what most guys fantasize about I don't sleep in just a t-shirt and underwear, I wear boxers too," she said her face a tint of red as she tried not to let her temper get the better of her right then. They were all exhausted and grouchy and needed some sleep, and loosing her temper wasn't going to help anyone right now. "Listen we're all tired and grouchy so why don't you just get changed and we can get some sleep."

"Wait wait, where are you sleeping," Honda said actually sounding frantic.

"In my bedroom where else?"

"I'm sleeping there too," he said quickly almost stammering.

"What," everyone else all but screamed at him.

"You are not sleeping with Anzu," Ryou screamed.

"You're not touching my woman!" Take a wild guess at who said that.

"I want in on the action!" Everyone turned to stare at Yami Marik who just smiled before Anzu promptly whacked him upside the head.

"I don't care if it's on the floor or in your closet or whatever, but we shouldn't separate. Remember what he did at Yugi's with the door? What if he comes and tries to separate us?" Everyone digested this new idea and looked at each other nervously.

"I guess you guys could camp out on my floor, just let me change first. And think you can lock my front and back doors while I'm gone? I'll be right back." She went up the stairs and slipped into her bedroom and quickly grabbed a pair of boxers and another t-shirt. 'Who could be after us? A duel monster? I know that we've met them before in our world when Doom was after us, but weren't they on Yami's side? Then again duel monsters could be like people, not all of them are good and not all of them are bad.'

She had just slipped her t-shirt on and turned around before gasping and grabbing her chest. Bakura had come up when she had her back turned and was now standing in the doorway. "God you scared me," she gasped trying to catch her breath. He had already changed into her blue shirt and red boxers that looked like their school gym shorts. He closed the distance between them and pulled her into an embrace. She felt heat crawl across her face as she slowly let her arms slide around his waist and just let herself enjoy the moment. Unfortunately the moment didn't last long as he pulled away and looked at her with a serious expression on his face.

"Bakura?" Instead of answering he slowly slid his hand beneath the shirt and pulled out the ring before pulling it over his head and depositing it around her neck. "Bakura? What are you doing," she said letting her hands fall to grasp the ring. She tried to pull it off but he stopped her hands. "Bakura I don't know how to use this, and you need this more than me," she said almost frantically.

"I've been using it to protect you without even trying anyway; it'll work better if you actually have it."

"But Baku-"

"I'll be right next to you, don't worry." She nodded as he ran his hand along side his face cupping her cheek. He slowly brought his face towards hers.

"Geez save it for a night someone's not trying to kill us," came Honda's voice just as their lips touched they jumped back away from each other, and once the initial shock wore off Bakura looked pissed. The three other guys were standing in the doorway. Honda looking annoyed, Yami Marik looking jealous, and Ryou looking away uncomfortably. They were holding the extra blankets she had given them downstairs under her arms. Anzu took a deep breath trying to calm herself before letting it out in a huff.

"Whatever lets just get some sleep." She threw herself down on her bed as everyone else camped out on the floor; she tossed them the few extra pillows she had on her bed.

"Should someone stay up and keep watch," asked Ryou nervously as he adjusted his pillow and took his spot next to her bed. Bakura was plopped at the end of her bed near her feet.

"But we're all so exhausted," Anzu moaned pulling the light blanket on her bed up to her chest before turning on her side to see the little camp out taking place on her floor. "How can we make someone stay up?" Anzu blushed as she felt Bakura's hand on her chest but realized he was putting his hand on the ring. "Bakura?"

"It's not in the area or the ring would have sensed it. The baka still has the rod remember? The ring starts glowing and points towards the items if they're near if I will it. Remember duelist kingdom with Pegasus eye?" She seemed to accept his explanation and turned to go to bed. Bakura yawned and crawled under the blankets with Anzu making her blush and pushed him off onto poor Ryou.

"Woman what are you doing," he growled from his spot on the floor.

"Guys on the floor," she said it like it was common knowledge. He was about to protest when he caught the look she was giving Ryou who had unwedged himself from under his Yami and scooted to the side leaving room for Bakura to sit next to him. He grumbled something about never helping stupid women who weren't grateful again before grabbing some of the blankets from Ryou and a pillow from her bed. Anzu rolled on her side looking over the floor and her friends getting comfortable and saying a silent prayer as she fell asleep.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open letting the bright blurry images of the world make their way into her consciousness before closing her eyes tightly trying to adjust to the light. She slowly opened her eyes again her vision sharper then before and blinked away the lingering blurriness. Yawning she sat up and looked to her floor to see it was now vacant of anyone and the blankets stacked in her corner. She went to shift in her bed when she realized she hadn't noticed the person sitting at the foot of her bed and on her foot. "Oh morning Ryou," she said softly still rubbing her eyes. "Where is everyone?"

"They got hungry so they're raiding your fridge as we speak." She sweat dropped and laughed lightly.

"Why didn't you go with them?"

"Bakura volunteered me to watch you until you got up." She looked unammused with his answer. "But then again I didn't really mind either." She blushed lightly and looked to the side.

"Well I should get up and get dressed. That and we need to call Ootogi and see how things went over there and where we need to meet up to figure out what to do." Her stomach growled loudly and she blushed beat red. "I guess I should eat before trying to call anyone," she said laughing nervously.

"How about I make you some pancakes? I'll get started while you get dressed." Before she could protest he was up and out the door. She thought back to the first time he made pancakes for her and blushed. She rubbed her cheeks trying to get rid of the red on her face. 'He knows I'm with Bakura, so is he just being nice and I'm reading it the wrong way? Or does he still...like me…?' She shook her head and sighed. "It's too early to try and figure anything out right now." She stumbled out of bed and closed her door to change. She slipped her shirt over her head and looked down confused as she heard a jingling sound. It took her a minute to remember about the ring as she held it up to her face.

'Why did he give it to me? Should I really keep it? What if he gets hurt…because of me?' She shook the thoughts from her head as she slipped on a bra and threw on a blue and black stripped tank top that hugged her form and some jean shorts and made her way downstairs and entered the kitchen, her jaw nearly hit the floor.

Yami Marik was eating what looked like a whole dozen's worth of scrambled eggs with Honda scowling from the other side of the table. Apparently it was a little less then a dozen because Honda was wearing one or two. Even though he was scowling he was also currently munching on some toast meaning he was eating at least something. She turned her head to the stove where Ryou was currently cooking pancakes, trying to clean up some kind of purple (AN: WTF?) gooey egg mess on the counter/wall/floor, and fight off Bakura's hands that kept going after the food as he attempted to clean.

'Why do messes always seem to follow me,' she thought distraught as she walked over and grabbed a roll of paper towels to help Ryou. She started wiping off the countertops not near where Ryou was cooking so she wouldn't get in the way of the thief trying to unsuccessfully steal a meal. She brought the trash can out from under the sink and started tossing used paper towels and an empty thing of eggs in it while throwing Yami Marik a look.

She jumped when she heard a yelp From behind her and turned to see Bakura with his face full of pancake and Ryou nursing one of his fingers. "Bakura!" He jumped to look over at her before smiling while she gave him a dumbass look. "What did you do to Ryou?"

"Me?!" Yami Marik started snickering at that. "I didn't do anything!"

"Actually I burnt my hand when I was reaching for the batter and leaned too far over," said Ryou as he looked over his blistered finger. She sighed and went over to check out the blister.

"Gross, that looks bad. Think you should pop it or are you just going to put some burn cream on it?" She was holding onto his hand with the burnt finger and leaning in closely making Ryou blush and Bakura fumed behind her as he watched. ~You better keep your distance little hikari.~ Ryou sweat-dropped and stuck out his tongue when Anzu wasn't looking.

*Grow up, she's just looking out for her friend.*

~You stuck your tongue out at me and you're telling me to grow up?~

"I'll be right back," Anzu called as she headed upstairs. Ryou went back to his pancakes as Bakura, after waiting a minute, followed her upstairs.

Anzu was digging through the draws in her bathroom looking for the peroxide when she heard a jingle. She looked down to see the far left pointer on the ring pointing somewhere to her left and behind her. She immediately jumped back and looked as the ring fell flat against her chest. 'What was that?' She looked around the room suspiciously and stopped to listen for anything unusual like the screams of her friends as they were attacked and slaughtered while she was looking for some stupid peroxide. But as she heard nothing she turned back to the cupboard and nearly screamed when she felt two strong arms wrap around her. But her scream was stifled by a pair of lips on her own.

As he slowly pulled away she opened her eyes to see him smirking. "Bakura don't sneak up on me like that," she said trying to reprimand him but it came out in more of a teasing voice.

"Why so jumpy," he asked with a smirk his arms still around her. She took a glance down to the ring but as she saw it wasn't reacting she looked back up at him and smiled.

"Guess I'm still half asleep." 'Maybe it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. It would have kept pointing if he was anywhere near us.' She shook her head as she saw the peroxide bottle was actually on the rim of the bathtub and not in the cupboard where she was looking. She wiggled out of Bakura's embrace, much to his dismay, and grabbed it and her other small amount of supplies before turning back towards Bakura and standing on tip-toe to kiss him. "Come on Ryou should be about done with at least a stack of pancakes. That is if Yami Marik didn't grab 'em," she said as an afterthought as she remembered him with the eggs and poor Honda eating toast.

Just down the road near the crossroad stood a lone figure scowling as he held a golden rod and sneered at a house down the road. Even before he got close his magic was defused by another force. 'Just you wait Bakura. You're ring will be mine and so will the girl.'

"I'll be ok really," Ryou whined trying to pry his hand out of Anzu's. She had gotten him to take a seat and was now heating a small needle over the stove to make it hot to pop the blister. He had suggested just popping it with a non-heated needle but she had promptly told him, 'If it's not heated the bacteria can get everywhere and you'll be infected in no time.' So now he was trying to convince her it wasn't worth her time and was trying to get out of her grip without hurting her in the process.

"Just hold still and it'll be over quicker. Really Ryou don't be so afraid it's just a blister." She brought the needle over and blew on it a few times and waved it back and forth as if cooling it a bit in her gloved hand. "If you really want you can turn your head away." He was very tempted to do so but didn't want to seem like more of a wimp then he had already shown himself to be and watched in horror as the hot pointy end slowly invaded his swollen tender flesh. He was amazed that he didn't scream but still fought not to pull his finger from her hand and suck on it.

It only lasted a second before she set it on the counter and quickly picked up the peroxide and putting it on his 'wound,' he winced and whined a bit but peroxide was never very forgiving when it came to blisters. She quickly wrapped it up and gave his finger a quick kiss before cleaning up this mess and she wondered if maids were paid good while doing so. Ryou of course did his impression of a tomato which he was getting really good at but stopped as he heard a growling coming from behind him and knew only his yami could make a noise that sounded like a chainsaw on crack.

Just as Bakura was about to jump/strangle Ryou and Anzu was going to pry them apart…the phone rang! Anzu took the moment in which everyone was registering this fact to run to said item and held herself back from hugging it as she answered it. She nearly dropped the phone as she heard a very familiar voice sniffling on the other end of the line.

"A-anzu," came the shaky feminine voice.

"S-shizuka," she all but yelled getting everyone's attention and giving Ryou a chance to get some distance between him and his yami. "Shizuka, what's wrong?"

"I don't know what happened," she said and hiccupped trying not to cry. "We slept in two different rooms, guys in one room, and girls in another. And when me and Mai woke up th-they they were gone," said yelled crying into the phone. Anzu felt her heart skip a beat and held onto the wall for support.

"Please Shizuka this is important, do you remember anything weird? Do you think they could have just gone out for food or anything like that," she asked in a soothing voice trying to get her poor friend to calm down.

"I thought something like that too but we went downstairs to look and the door. The door was off its hinges and there were all these marks on the door frame and the wall and it looked like the door was busted in." Her voice became almost a whisper at this point as Anzu's eyes grew wide. "How could something like that have happened and no one noticed? How could the guys be right across the hall from us and we didn't even wake up to see what happened," she choked out trying to take in some deep breaths of air. "I'm a really light sleeper I don't know how this happened."

"It'll be ok Shizuka." Something seemed off to her as she sat there and talked to her friend. "Shizuka, where's Mai?" There was a pause on the other side of the line.

"S-she's a mess. She's worse then me; she locked herself in the bedroom and left me out here alone. I don't know what to do." 'Something is definitely wrong here. Mai is the one of us that holds together under pressure almost no matter what. Even if she was in trouble she's one to take action not cry when she could be doing something.' She looked down at the ID and noticed it was Caller Unknown.

"Shizuka, where are you calling from," she asked trying not to let anything slip up about her suspicion.

"Jou's of course," she all but choked out. That was when Anzu pulled back and looked at the phone in her hand and then flipped through on her caller ID looking up a certain number, which was Jou's house, and it was not an unlisted number. It was then she noticed the voice of her 'friend' seemed a little angrier then before. "Anzu where are you?! Don't leave me!" Anzu quickly hung up the phone and nearly fell to her knees.

"Anzu who was that? What's going on," asked Honda getting up from his chair after cleaning the yolk from his hair.

"We have to leave," she said simply while looking over the kitchen. "Turn everything off, we have to go now," she said her voice a bit more urgent.

"What are you talking about," asked Bakura worried about how she looked like a frightened rabbit right about then.

"I just got a call, it sounded like Shizuka and it said someone had taken the guys in the night and needed help." She saw Honda about to say something but cut him off. "But it said unknown on the ID, and she said they were at Jou's house and that's where she said she was calling from. But Jou's number isn't unlisted, it wasn't Shizuka."

"Crap it's already back on its feet," Yami Marik said getting up from his seat looking pretty ticked. Truth be told he was pretty ticked, his plan had blown up in his face, his hikari (or at least his hikari's body) was walking around somewhere under the control of someone besides him, and he was stuck with this group of idiots because he was too weak to go out on his own.

"But that means he's already got everyone else," Honda yelled.

"We don't know that. It wasn't calling from Ootogi's and we don't know if it can mimic voices or what. But what we do no is it now knows where we are and we've gotta get out of here." Ryou quickly unplugged and turned off any appliances while Yami Marik and Honda fought over the food getting sweat-drops from the other three. They made their way out of the kitchen and threw on their shoes and went out the back way obeying Anzu's request. They made their way through a hole in a neighbor's fence and jumped another before finding themselves in a back ally.

"So where do we go now," Yami Marik said catching his breath.

"It doesn't know where everyone else is so they're ok for now. We need to get to a phone and get a hold of them." It was at this time Anzu cursed Marik for having his stupid gooney's break her cell phone in battle city. "There should be a phone just at the end and to the right on the corner. Come on." Honda and Bakura helped support Yami Marik as he was beginning to lag behind again and Ryou and Anzu ran ahead. Anzu made it to the phone first while Ryou sat on a nearby bench and waited for the others to catch up looking around warily for the familiar figure in case he was following them. Anzu quickly stuck her phone card into the electronic phone and punched in her friend's number. She waited as it rang once, twice, three times…

"Moshi moshi," Ootogi answered as there was a bit of shouting in the background.

"Ootogi! Are you ok? What's going on in the background?"

"Oh that? Jou and Yami are just fighting over pop tarts. At least I think that's it. They don't seem to be hungry and Jou's saying something like 'stay away from my pop tart' or 'my pop tarts not old enough for you' and such." Anzu knew exactly who 'pop tart' was.

"Anyway has anything strange happened to you guys today?"

"Today? No, why?"

"Listen we're coming over right now, whatever attacked us last night found where we are so we left and we're meeting up with you ASAP. Be there soon." Before he could protest she hung up leaving him listening to the dial tone.

Ootogi sighed and hung up going over to Shizuka and whispering to her about her 'flavor' and was somehow overheard by Jou and promptly smacked upside the head. As soon as he got Jou to shut up for a minute, which took a while, he explained the situation.

"I just got a call from Anzu. Apparently that guy from last night found out where they were so they just took off and they're on there way over here right now."

"What? Is Anzu all right? What about everyone else," asked Yugi looking teary eyed. Yami patted Yugi on the head as Ootogi said it sounded like everyone was fine. Yami looked down at Yugi's watery eyes and was debating on hugging him. Yugi had always been picked on as a kid and Anzu always stood up for him. And after Yami came along and she'd been kidnapped a *ahem* few times Yugi felt overly protective and got really anxious whenever there was a bit of trouble for the young brunette. Yami once mistook it for love, but he found out exactly who Yugi love as he looked to Yugi's blond friend; Jou was oblivious…

His attention was back on Ootogi as the guy said he was calling up more security and also alerted them his friends would be coming over soon. "I don't understand how I keep getting in the middle of these things with you guys," said Ootogi feigning annoyance.

"Gomen Ootogi, thank you very much for helping my brother and his friends as much as you already have," said Shizuka looking at the ground as if she was a burden. The next thing you know Ootogi was once again hitting on Shizuka and a jealous Yami was quickly thrown into the mix as Jou tried to protect his pop tart.

After finally making it into Ootogi's, it took them forever to convince the security that Yami Marik wasn't Malik. Apparently Ootogi wasn't taking any chances. They made their way inside in time for Honda to get hit in the face with a flying vase. While Yami Marik laughed Anzu tried to make sure he was ok as what looked like WW III was going on inside the apartment. Ootogi and Yami were flinging things back and forth in the living room while Shizuka, Yugi and Mai, who was taking a shower earlier, were eating breakfast to the side in the kitchen. And Jou just looked like a kid who ate an entire ice cream cake by himself bouncing back and forth between Yami and Ootogi telling them to knock it off and stay away from his pop tart-erm sister.

"What the hell is going on," Bakura muttered looking around sweat-dropping.

"Hey guys," Ryou said loudly trying to get their attention…and it didn't work. "Guys," he tried again. A half eaten orange (AN: ??) flew right by his head and hit the wall next to him. "GUYS!" To say the building shook with the force of his voice would be an understatement. The three boys called a cease fire to look at the new arrivals.

"Hey guys when did you get here," Jou greeted happily. The others once again sweat-dropped.

Hours later after the mess was cleaned up and a truce was drawn up, seriously they had Ryou write out a truce, they were seated around the living room munching on various junk foods for lunch. Anzu nibbled on some strawberry Pockey before she stated the obvious thing that was on everyone's mind.

"So what do we do?" And she got no response. "Oh come on. We've all had our souls sealed in figurines, cards, and god knows what else but no one knows how to get rid of souls?"

"It's not that easy Anzu. It's not like it's an empty body or sharing a body it's more like what you would call…possession I think?" Anzu quirked an eyebrow at Yami for shedding some light on this finally.

"You mean like ghost." This time Honda decided to throw his two-cents in.

"If it was something like that why not try an exorcism," asked Jou.

"This isn't the movies and it's not really a ghost so I don't know if it would even work," said Anzu sighing.

"Well what else can we do," asked Yami again.

"Hey baka, can you still trap your hikari's soul in that stick of metal," Bakura asked Yami Marik.

"IF I had that hunk of metal then yeah probably."

"Then that's what we do," said Bakura matter-of-factly. The other's all made a face that clearly said 'wah…?'. "If he can get his baka hikari's soul out of the way then it's only the monster inside the body and we can easily blast that thing back to the shadow realm if we get it to play a shadow game like when I dueled Yami in duelist kingdom," he said slightly agitated at the memory. Bakura looked over to see Yami Marik once again eyeing Anzu, as the ass had been doing all day, and scooted a bit closer putting a possessive arm around her waist before eyeing all the other males in the vicinity.

"Wow I didn't know you cared about my hikari," Yami Marik said clearly showing disdain for the arm Bakura had around Anzu but decided if Bakura was going to be defensive he'd have fun eyeing the other eye-candy in the room aka Mai.

"I don't but they're not sharing a body he's possessed or whatever and I don't know if I could send that kind of soul there." Anzu grinned on the outside while on the inside she was dancing with happiness at how her man was taking initiative and thinking up a plan!

"Ok but how do we get the millennium rod," asked Yami. "He's not just going to hand it over."
"Is there anyway the ring and the puzzle together could over power one item," asked Yugi.

"Well if they were both focused on only one item then maybe," Yami said thinking it over. "But he still has the necklace so he'd be able to shield the attack."

"What if we caught him off guard," asked Anzu looking up. "If we caught him off guard then maybe we could do the double team attack thing on the rod and if it was a surprise he wouldn't expect it and wouldn't be able to counterattack as quickly. We may have the advantage," she said feeling a bit of excitement mixed with fear and adrenalin as their plan seemed to finally be coming together.

"We'd only have the advantage for a minute or so though," said Yami dampening her plans.

"But all we'd need is a minute," said Ryou trying to encourage the others. "Once we have the rod we toss it to Yami Marik and he gets Marik's soul and then Yami can send it to the shadow realm again."

"Yeah but how do we catch it off guard," asked Shizuka coming into the conversation.

"Bait," was the one word that rang through the murmuring voices and caught everyone's attention which was now on the brunette girl. "Offer him the two things he wants on a silver platter and he'll go for it."
"But what's that," asked Yugi oblivious.

"The ring," she said clutching the shiny object. "And me."

AN: Don't ask about the Yugi liking Jou thing, I've been rereading old Shonen Jump and got a vibe mixed with inspiration that kind of kicked me in the ass and left me hanging. Anyway sorry it's not as long as before but at least I finally updated! Yay! So any of you have a clue on who the duel monster is? You'll never guess mwhahaha *cough**choke* anyway I hope you enjoyed and that I can update again soon! Ja!