Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Yu-Gi-Oh! A Tapestry Incomplete ❯ The Men who Loved Mesmori ( Chapter 10 )

~Previously on Yugiou; "Did you hear that? It sounded like a gunshot…" Anzu perked up.

"Yo! Guess whose back!" Jounouchi roared at the top of his lungs followed by laughter.

"Guys, guys, lets not argue here. Let's find some duelists to duel and then you two can argue all you want." Yuugi cajoled determined to get all his ten star chips now.

"This place looks even more deserted then by that stream." Jounouchi grumbled.

"Umei?!" they all gasped, none of them expected to see her so soon from their last encounter.

Mesmori was rambling on embracing Umei in a huge hug. "Oh great leader Umei Jopa Crawford, I have been looking for you everywhere and now I've found you! Now you can see how I duel now! Now you will bring me into your sect!"

Umei broke from her hypnotic state as she peered off in one direction and saw something shine in the distance. She shot towards everyone in a split second and screamed all at once, "Get down!"

A gunshot went off.

Dene knew it was over to. The black hair of the fiery girl flew out behind her as she had jumped in the air. In an instant, she had turned all the way around in midair as if she were floating. Her right foot came out as she came back around to face Umei for the last time. Dene's right foot flung in the air behind from what she had done. All motion stopped and for that second, everything was still.

"Stay away from him, we have a score to settle, leave them out of it." Umei didn't care how much blood was on her face or how horrendous she looked, she just spat out a mix of blood and saliva to the side of her.

"So you care for them?" Dene glared at the three boys. "You finally abandoned that Seto Kaiba only to fall in the arms into one of them… Don't you see, I am the only one for you, koibito…"

`-I should have given her a chance… I lost it all…' Jounouchi didn't feel himself running towards her, he didn't feel himself catch her just when she fell, he didn't feel tears flow down his cheeks.

Umei looked up at Jounouchi who was still holding her; she could hardly see him because of Mesmori's gigantic cowboy hat. Umei stuck her tongue at him and said, "You-gave me a chance…?"

Both Dene, and her angel, had disappeared into the light leaving the scene completely.

~

-

A Tapestry Incomplete

Episode Ten: The Dinosaur and the Flame-the Men Who Loved Mesmori

-

Umei was leaning against a tree that stood outside the meadow that was her battlefield against Dene. She sat under the shade; legs sprawled out before her as her hands rested in her lap. The bullet was still in her right hand but it had stopped leaking blood by now. The wounds and bruises on her body were left unattended to so she could practically bleed to death and suffer through the pulsing pain. She couldn't lift her body she just sat there, her head held down, as if she were lifeless. Her eyes were just hooked towards her legs, the only part of her that wasn't bruised, the only part of her she wanted to save.

Umei heard footsteps coming towards her as they swished in the grass. She brought her head up a little just to see Jounouchi sit next to her by the tree. In his hand he was holding a first-aid kit he had obtained from the bag Honda carried around.

"Okay, just tell me where it hurts and I'll try to make it better." Jounouchi popped open the kit.

"Is that so." Umei tried to chuckle but instead it came out as a cough. "I don't need it."

Jounouchi looked at her a little strangely, "Demo…"

"See," Umei tried lifting up her arms, "I heal easily, these are minor, I took way worse back home. They're just my arms."

"And your face!" Jounouchi blurted out as he stared at Umei a little aggravated; he slammed the kit closed. "Your face is so swollen! You're cut everywhere and most of all you're bleeding from your eyes and mouth and nose! Doesn't that worry you?! How can you still see?! It looks as if your ears are bleeding too!"

Umei looked away.

"You don't look like a Siamese kitten anymore," Jounouchi huffed, "You look so revolting now… busu."

Umei glanced back at him. "Siamese kitten?"

Jounouchi kept going on as he mocked her, "Someone will ask me `Oi, is that Umei, daughter of Pegasus?' And then I'll say, `Hai! Busu na!'"

Umei felt herself giggle.

"So, are you going to let me help you or what?" Jounouchi grinned. "Busu, busu, busu."

Umei sighed and pushed her self so she sat all the way upward. "I'll take care of my bullet wound-" she touched her chest where the bullet had gone in, "-knowing you, you would be like Yuugi and try to cop a feel at me." Umei narrowed her eyes.

"Me never!" Jounouchi opened the kit again and crawled over until he was sitting directly in front of the battered girl. "Wait, did you say Yuugi-"

"Are you going to aid me or what? I don't got all day." Umei tried to regain her tranquil aura.

Jounouchi dabbed a cotton swab in a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide Solution. "Why didn't you ask me yet?" he murmured as he brought it to Umei's face.

"Asked you wha-AHIEO! ITEE! ITAI! KONO YARO!" Umei screamed in pain as soon as Jounouchi swabbed it over the cuts on her face.

Jounouchi couldn't help but laugh as he brought the stick back and dabbed some more of the liquid on it.

"OI OI! You aren't touching me with that again! You are enjoying this!" Umei found the strength to bring her hands to her face and rub at the burning spots from the liquid on her.

"Umei, a baby?" Jounouchi started laughing louder.

"You aren't suppose to put that on deep punctures or wounds! You're going to make it worse!" Umei grabbed the box from him and jerked out the bottle. "Let's see how you like it." She began dousing it on her hand and was surely going to rub it in his face. But being too careless, Umei caught on that she was pouring it on her hand with the bullet in it and she immediately dropped as she shook the whole island with her bloodcurdling scream.

"Whoa there!" Jounouchi grabbed her trembling right hand and brought it to him, he reached over for the kit and took out a cloth. He proceeded to wipe of the whimpering teen's hand.

Umei regained her sanity and sucked in her troubles. She suddenly asked, just to keep attention off her, the question she had started but never quite finished. "What have I not asked you yet?" Jounouchi stopped wiping her wound and noticed something unusual.

"I thought you wore your duelist glove on your left hand?" Jounouchi tugged it off her right hand.

"Jou-kun…" she grew light-headed. The bullet didn't go too far into her hand, it barely pierced the bone. Jounouchi took out some forceps and pulled the bullet out and threw it into the bushes beside them. He then began to wipe off the blood from her fingers and wrist. She shook her head and quickly stammered, "I have two duelist gloves, I switch off each time so both hands get the feel of dueling, Jou-kun."

"Jou-kun?" Jounouchi looked up at her with gleaming eyes but she turned her head away. "So no more `Katsuya this' or `Katsuya that'?"

"Stop changing the subject!" Umei slit her eyes to him. "What was it that you wanted me to ask you but I didn't?"

Jounouchi tied a bandage over her palm and up to her wrist. One wound down, quite a lot more to go. "You didn't ask me where the others had ran off to, you must like being alone with me." He laughed and took some gauze up to the sides of Umei's head.

"Ugh, stop playing games, where are they?" Umei flinched as he applied pressure to her injuries, he tied the large bandage over her head to stop the cuts from bleeding there. Why was he acting as if he never hated her in the first place?

"Yuugi and Anzu went off looking for help. Mesmori and Honda went off looking for…" Jounouchi became saddened as he stuck Band-Aids over the cuts on Umei's face and cleaned the blood off.

Umei didn't have to hear him say it, she just listened to him think it. "Mai's body?" Umei didn't change her expression as she shrugged.

"You seem pretty calm knowing someone died." Jounouchi said a little angry. He slammed the box closed and handed it back to Umei, "There, I'm finished, tend your arm, busu." He said rather bitterly.

"Oi, oi." Umei coaxed as she looked back at Jounouchi. "Don't buy into that stalker's words. Mai can't possibly be dead."

Jounouchi shot his head towards Umei, "But the gunshot-"

"Dene knows she would only kill someone who means something to me right in front of me so I could see it. She bluffed. She might have threatened Mai with a warning shot but I know, I believe, she didn't kill her. She might have roughed her up a bit, but not kill her. She rather torture people in front of me so I can get riled up and come at her. She's such a masochist, her and pain… But she shows how she feels straight up. That's what is different from her and me. She can show emotions straight up whereas I'm always coating them… Then there is Mesmori who only shows her emotions when I'm not around." Umei began to take off her white, woolen jacket that ended above her abdomen.

Jounouchi blushed to see Umei's scarlet tube top. He shot his head away and said, "You know you aren't so ugly. You're starting to look much better. Your face looks fine." He gasped trying to take his mind off things.

"I believe that isn't everything you just think is fine about me." Umei mocked.

Jounouchi's hair stood on end.

Umei brought her attention back to her shoulder, "It's still bleeding… I really must be cut from the inside. Blast that Dene, she starts something but never finishes it. She ran off for that older looking guy, that guy…" Umei held her left hand over her wound; she placed her index finger and middle finger around the cut and stretched her skin away from it a bit. The hole in her chest was completely obscene and Jounouchi could have practically thrown up as he watched what she did from the corner of his eye.

She brought up the forceps and Jounouchi nearly vomited at what his eyes witnessed next. Umei jammed the forceps into her wound as more blood oozed out in clumps. From the way she was moving it around in there, the forceps could have pushed the bullet in further. Jounouchi became nauseous as sweat broke out over his face.

Umei's face was stern as she took the pain. Suddenly, she brought the bullet out and threw it into the bushes beside her, just like Jounouchi did. She replaced the bloody forceps with some cotton and some bandages. "I need to go back to the castle and get checked with this wound, it's pretty bad. Hmm, it was so close to my rib cage, I could've killed myself guiding those forceps like that." Umei began to giggle.

Jounouchi fell over, he had turned a pale green.

Umei placed the cotton over her injury and tied the bandages over her. She was done. Even though a lot of blood had dried on her skin and began to make her skin feel itchy, she was finished. She then tied her bloody woolen jacket over her waist and above her belt. Because it was so sunny, the comfort she got from her bare shoulders felt pretty well. She was about to stand when Jounouchi handed her something.

He was already sitting beside her again and was giving back her hat and duel gauntlet.

"Arigatou…" She placed her hat atop her head, covering her bandages. Umei then stared at the hole in her gauntlet from the bullet, she placed it in her pocket instead.

Jounouchi got up first and helped her up.

"You see, no one can pull off this appearance except me." Umei strutted around Jounouchi. The boy seemed to have been too busy thinking about something else. Umei stopped fooling around and stared at Jounouchi. "Mai's going to be okay, don't worry."

"It's not that." Jounouchi huffed. "It's you."

"I'm going to be okay too." Umei smirked.

"It's not that either."

Umei thought about it for a while and stared at Jounouchi puzzled. "Still trying to give me a chance. Still trying to decide if you should or that I shouldn't bother being friends with you because of the way you acted towards me even though I wanted to make up?"

Jounouchi stared at her wide-eyed. "Oh yeh, you can read thoughts." He started to beat himself up for forgetting.

"I know what you were thinking during the whole time I spared with Dene…" Umei tucked her hair into her hat. "Everything you thought, I heard it. Every word you thought, it took my mind off fighting Dene just to listen to you."

Jounouchi pushed his right fist into his left palm. "So you're saying it's my fault you were so badly injured and so close to death…"

"Iie… If you, Honda, and Yuugi didn't interfere I would probably be dead by now. I owe you all…" Umei smiled at what she said.

Jounouchi still had a hurt expression sketched on his face. "There's something else… What's all this about you and Kaiba?"

Umei became dumbfounded at the sudden random question. She couldn't help but giggle as Jounouchi waited for her response. "Does that bother you? There's nothing between us anymore, don't worry, we had our ups and mostly downs but it's over. He was too high-rise and I was too shallow…" and with that said and done, Umei began to walk off in search of the others.

Jounouchi gazed after her but soon remembered something else that interested him. He ran after her and said in a light tone, "Did you know about Mesmori's hairstyle?"

---

Umei was right, she really did know Dene well. There was Mai, bruised but alive, standing on the beach. She had a deep cut on her left arm and a bruise on her other arm. She tried to fix her hair that was left askew as she talked with three of the security officials with a group of duelists surrounding her and wanting in on the story.

"At least she's okay." Honda sighed in relief.

Mesmori on the other hand had strolled over to the crowd. She wanted to get a good, a perfect, look at Mai, the girl who had Jounouchi's heart. Mesmori stood outside the commotion just to hear what Mai was saying. Honda crept up behind her.

"Listen I don't want to go through this again! I already told you twice!" Mai was getting ticked off as she began tapping her foot.

"We need to get it straight, Kujaku-san." One of the men with the longest beard Mai had ever seen said as he began rubbing his bald head. If he didn't wear his shades he would certainly not look as appealing to Mai since they framed his face.

"Mr. Motsuwa, please, she's is probably to being traumatized from attacker." The sultry voice of Wolfram Schwarz persuaded. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses as he showed off his beaming honey eyes.

Mai stared at him intently. "Your eyes, they're just like hers… So beautiful. The girl who attacked me had those eyes. What was your name again?" she said softly.

Wolfram glanced at Mai a little worried. "Wolfram Schwarz, ma'am."

"Schwarz… That name seems familiar… How old are you?" Mai was practically hitting on him. The crowd around her began to stare at her puzzled.

"Way to go Schwarz-san." Sawatari nudged Wolfram in the arm pretty hard yet he intended it harmless. "All the ladies lay eyes on you and they just kick us to the side."

"Mr. Sawatari, we are men having honor, stop act like child." Wolfram shot his head at Sawatari as he took his shades from his pocket and placed them over his eyes.

The crowd of duelists began to laugh.

Motsuwa pushed his glasses up as he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Minna! Everything is under control, you can go now, back to dueling, we have to ask Kujaku-san more dull questions."

Everyone bean to groan in disagreement.

Motsuwa brought out his gun and shot at the sky, "Outta here or the lot of you are disqualified."

People began to push by Mesmori as she still stood there unable to move until she saw Mai for herself. As soon as everyone was gone Mesmori's eyes began to sparkle. Mai was beautiful, she resembled a model! Mesmori felt a pain in the pit of her stomach as she looked away. Jounouchi really knew how to pick them, there was no way for Mesmori to compete with Mai, she had something Mesmori didn't have yet... Experience because she was older…

"I thought I said to leave, I want everyone gone." Motsuwa shouted.

Mesmori looked up to see he wasn't talking to her or Honda. A short boy around the age of fifteen stood by Mai. He wore a red woolen cap on his head but it didn't help to constrain his long, brown spiky hair that extended all the way down to his thighs.

"I'm waiting for her." He said calmly as he pushed up his bag he held on one shoulder from falling.

Mai glared at him and purred. "Dinosaur Ryuzaki! Go somewhere, I'll talk with you later."

Ryuzaki clenched his fist.

Wolfram stared down at him, "Might as well go, before you do something you don't want to do."

Ryuzaki snorted and turned around. Mesmori took a good look at his face; he had a tuft of purple dyed on the hair that stuck out of his hat from the front. As Ryuzaki walked by, he accidentally bumped his shoulder into Mesmori's.

He shot his head at her and was ready to give a remark but he found himself tongue-tied. His hard expression grew soft.

"Oie!" Mesmori gasped as she turned towards him and bowed, "Gomen!"

She felt even more embarrassed when she noticed that she bumped her own head into his.

Ryuzaki still didn't say anything, he just started walking again, still staring at Mesmori until she was out of his sight. Mesmori had been blushing until the three guards brought her back to reality.

"What are you two doing?! I said to leave!" Motsuwa warned.

Honda broke a crack, "Just admiring the scenery."

Mai's eyes widened a bit, `Jounouchi's friend…' she then took a glimpse at Mesmori and had a rather strange expression on her face then. `What a strange girl!'

Sawatari and Motsuwa stepped up to Honda and Mesmori while Wolfram was finishing his discussion with Mai.

"Okay you two, you got ten seconds to vamoose." Sawatari threatened.

"This is our first sight of the sea up so close, it is so beautiful!" Honda acted as he placed his arm around Mesmori. "We were just married and we came here to duel as a honeymoon present, you can't take us away from this spot that we shall remember for the rest of our lives." It looked as if Honda was about to cry.

Mesmori wasn't even paying attention as she listened to what Wolfram and Mai were talking about.

"Whoa whoa, this girl!" Motsuwa blasted. He then whispered into Honda's ear, "Quite eccentric isn't she?"

"It's what I love about her." Honda had a look of determination. "Oh my dear Mesmori-koi!"

Sawatari kept staring at Mesmori, but Mesmori didn't care, she was too busy listening to Mai and Wolfram.

"So you didn't get name?" Wolfram pleaded.

"For the last time, no." Mai hissed.

"See where she go?"

"Iie. I was too occupied with whether my arm was broken!" Mai screamed.

"She speaking to you?"

"She asked me why I let my friend go!" Mai was growing impatient because it got harder to understand him through his thick accent.

"Who is friend? Here now?" Wolfram became a little uneasy.

"Well you serve her father; Umei Crawford. She had walked off after acting strangely and then that girl crept up behind me and attacked me."

Wolfram held his head as if he was having a headache.

"What's wrong now?" Mai lost her mean persona.

Wolfram shook it off, "Last question… Did she take anything of you?"

"My entire deck! And right in front of me she slit her arm and dripped her own blood all over it!" It looked as if Mai was about to cry as she got even more frustrated. "I would like to go look for my deck if you three are through."

"Ja, that's all, but leave this to-"

"Matte!" Mesmori slipped through Honda's grip and ran over to Mai. She began to search through her endless pockets.

"Nani? What are you doing?" Mai gasped.

"Here! I think this is all of it, I wiped off the blood for you…" Mesmori exhibited Mai's deck in her hands.

Mai screamed for joy as she snatched her deck from the fifteen-year-old and embraced her in a hug. "Arigatou!"

"Where you get that?" Wolfram asked as Sawatari and Motsuwa began to circle around Mesmori and the extravagant Mai.

Honda broke in and grabbed Mesmori's hand, "We found it, how lucky! We have to go and do things married couples do! Oh and duel of course, Ja ne!"

Mesmori was untangled by Mai and was being pulled away by her `husband'.

Sawatari grabbed Mesmori's free hand and stopped them both.

"Mr. Sawatari!" Wolfram warned.

"Something isn't right… I saw you early with that different boy, I remember now, you said he was your boyfriend! So what does this mean? You're cheating on your teenage husband? And I've seen you around East Domino High when I come to pick up Umei-san after school. Umei's a second-year and you're a first-year. There is no way you could be married at your age!" Sawatari turned to Motsuwa, "Just for that, disqualify them both."

"Geez, you catch on fast!" Honda shouted.

"You can't disqualify us!" Mesmori pleaded as her eyes sparkled with innocence.

"You can't disqualify them!" Mai and Wolfram censured at the same time.

"You don't make that decision, you are not the person in charge of disqualified persons, I am." Motsuwa beamed as him and Sawatari began to bellow.

"That's not fair!" Mai protested.

"I may not be charge of qualifications, but I am charge of you monkeys." Wolfram said darkly.

"Why do you care? There's no help for the helpless. It's not like any of them are going to make it to face Pegasus anyway… Go back to the castle and worry about doing Pegasus's every whim. You may have been around longer than me, but I know how to get people to do as I say. Or just go back to Germany-I never liked how you said my name. O-mae." Sawatari began to squeeze Mesmori's arm.

"Eyah!" Mesmori cried. "Stop!"

"Cut it out or you're going to regret that…" Honda warned as his expression grew dark along with Wolfram's.

"Mr. Sawatari, we'll see how Mr. Pegasus likes this." Wolfram stepped in front of Mai, "You best be leaving."

Mai nodded about to take off.

"Where're you going! You're disqualified too!" Motsuwa ordered.

"Nani!" Mesmori and Mai said at the same time.

Motsuwa peered at Wolfram, "Just to be fair, the girl's been through too much to continue dueling any longer."

Mai was on the verge of slapping Motsuwa's beard right off.

Wolfram snarled but still remained sedated, "I did know not you could think for self not. Mr. Sawatari is your master and you his hound. As you say, `kutabre subeta'…"

"Wolfram!" Motsuwa went off and hurled a fist at him. In a flash, Wolfram brought out a black pistol with `Schwarz' written on the barrel in gold. Motsuwa stopped instantly.

"Unlike your model, mine was modified by greatest gunsmith of all world. Able to shoot a second faster to your model. It shoots off round split millisecond after first. Plus it much fancy. You were outdone by sixteen-year-old girl, my sister is truly greatest gunsmith in world…" Wolfram edged his fellow guard to prove him wrong.

`That gun?!' Mesmori thought.

Mai hunched behind Wolfram as Sawatari released Mesmori's arm. Mesmori fell back onto Honda.

"You two leaving now." Wolfram motioned for Honda and Mesmori to go.

Mesmori bowed, "Arigatou Schwarz-san."

"Come on!" Honda grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the feud.

"Me take you to safety." Wolfram offered his arm to Mai and she gladly accepted. "Guten Tag." He called as him and Mai began to walk away.

Sawatari wasn't going to let this slide. He revealed his gun from his own pocket and held it pointing to Wolfram's back. "Oi Schwarz-san!"

Mesmori looked behind her with wide eyes.

Wolfram turned to see what was about to shoot at him.

"This is what I think is fair!" Sawatari screamed as he released a shot.

"OIE!" Mesmori screamed. She had jumped onto Sawatari just in time as the bullet meant for Wolfram slid by him. Wolfram brought Mai to the floor with him so she would be safe from the fire.

"Do you treat all girls this way?" Mai cracked as she shielded her head.

"Ike! Motsuwa get her!" Sawatari struggled as Mesmori tried to take the gun away from him.

"Coming!" Motsuwa piped up.

"No you aren't!" Honda ran in and socked Motsuwa square in the eyes, shattering his glasses to pieces.

As Honda and Motsuwa quarreled, Mesmori was trying to think of a way to get out of this mess without being killed. She quickly had a notion and placed it into effect. She pounced to the floor and swept Sawatari clear of his feet-acknowledgment goes to Umei! Once he fell to the floor, Mesmori, proud of what she had done, grabbed at the gun and got to her feet. She was about to run but the hand of Sawatari grabbed her leg and knocked her to her stomach. The gun rolled by her. She soon discovered herself in a terrible position. Sawatari had her pinned to the floor and his gun was now fixed on the back of her head.

"Please don't!" Mesmori began to cry.

"Mesmori!" Honda called as Motsuwa crept up behind him and constrained him by his arms now.

"Sawatari!" Wolfram yelled, kneeling to the ground trying to keep Mai covered.

"See how I get people to do what I say." Sawatari bellowed as he pressed his pistol into Mesmori's neck harder.

"Errrriiii." Mesmori clenched her eyes, the gun was still warm from being fired already and the metal burned her skin.

"Now what do you say? You're going to have to do something for me if you don't want to get killed." Sawatari said soothingly with an impish grin.

Honda's eyes bulged, "USO!" Motsuwa tightened his grip on Honda.

Wolfram was about to lose it, "Sawatari I swear-"

"Oi, the spotlight's on her, nothing you can do can save her. You even try and I'll blow her brains out!" Sawatari shouted. He noticed Honda struggling to be set free. "That goes for you too…" He focused back on the girl below him, "So little songbird, chirp up."

Mesmori bit her lip and tasted her warm tears that rolled down her face. No matter what, she would not allow herself to be defiled even if it meant life or death, she risked it all as she screamed, "I won't! Kill me if you want but I won't give my body to you no matter what! I rather die with dignity than live with guilt! My heart is for someone else! Oni! Kusai oni!"

Sawatari just smiled.

"That smile makes me sick, kill me too when you're done." Honda held his head down.

"Nani!" Mai said bringing her head up.

Sawatari laughed as he clicked his trigger. "Busu, you just lost your chance, from the way you look, you'll never get anyone! DIE!"

"IIE!" Honda, Mai, and Wolfram screamed as the gun went off. A smog set over the two. There was no way Mesmori could have survived that shot, she was too close to it to even move. Mesmori didn't deserve anything like that, she cared so much for others than she did her own self. So much love she showed for others it killed her. The waves of the beach washed up and then back, the only thing heard.

Even Motsuwa was so stunned that he let go of Honda. Honda didn't even get revenge on Motsuwa because he took off as soon as he was free. "Mesmori! Mesmori!" he called through the haze.

The smoke finally cleared, but everyone was shocked to see the outcome. Mesmori was huddled on the floor trembling; her hands over her head, her knees tucked under her, and her cowboy hat rustling with the water that washed up on the beach. Sawatari, on the other hand, was lying on the beach floor, his gun beside him. His blood stained the sand as it became apparent that he was shot right through the skull. But that wasn't what shocked the viewers at all.

A man in a purple robe stood in front of Mesmori with his right hand out. He was holding the gun that had shot off and hit Sawatari between the eyes, where his glasses were cleanly split. Oddly enough, his pistol was also black with `Schwarz' written on the barrel in quartz lettering. He was unseen, his face in shadow. He brought his hand back into his robe now even more a mystery than before.

Mesmori didn't dare look up once she heard the content, raspy voice of HIM. "MiMi-Chan, he never should have touched you. He never should have said that to you…"

The hooded face moved over to Motsuwa, the quivering Motsuwa who looked as if he was about to pee his pants. The stranger then said coldly, "People who stare should be punished." A streak of fire burned over the sand right to where Motsuwa stood and engulfed him. His screams were heard as he fell to the ground and charred to death.

"AIE! Oh my god!" Mai screamed into Wolfram's shoulder, diverting attention to them now.

The hooded figure was fixated on Wolfram but Wolfram didn't meet his eyes. After what Honda saw he was still staring at the incinerating man.

"Wolfram, still going by your code… `People who dishonor should be punished'?" the man's robe began to rustle in the wind that blew by, his hood flew off to reveal his extremely beautiful face. He had hair just as much hacked as Wolfram except instead of blonde it was a dark silver pulled into a long ponytail. His skin was a rich cinnamon while his eyes glowed different colors. His left eye was yellow while the other was a mix of purple and gray.

"I don't run to murder as my resort. You run off after you were expelled, where did you go! Why you dressed that way! You dress as if you joined cult! You dishonor whole family! Hedwig you-" Wolfram spat.

The figure's eyes bulged as they beamed again. A ring of fire formed around Honda, Wolfram, and Mai.

"EE!" Mai screamed as the blaze was harsh on their skin.

"Stay down." Wolfram ordered as he brought himself over Mai and Honda, protecting only them.

"My name is Scortch! Hedwig died." The robed stranger shouted, breaking his peaceful demeanor.

Sand began to whirl up from the ground like a tornado as it started to cover the trio. Their screams turned to mere faint whispers as they were soon buried alive by the crazed intruder named Scortch. The flame went out and a huge mound of sand was left on the beach.

All this time Mesmori still couldn't bring herself to look at whatever happened but found herself listening to the screams as torture to her ears. Scortch's voice pierced through Mesmori's mind as she cringed even more, this brought about even more torture than the screams. "I don't care what my MASTER says, I'll disobey him for you. With Rashid being his right hand that influences his decision and me being his left hand that carries out his power, I have the right to disobey him once in a while. Since we've last met I've gained new abilities to take your heart, I'm finally stronger and will never be beaten again to lose your heart. You deserve the strongest lover. You didn't listen to my demand and I'm glad, not only am I here to collect you for my master but I'm also here to kill my rival to show you I deserve to be your lover and not her…"

Scortch turned to face Mesmori, he bent down and placed his hands on her shivering shoulders. She kept her head glued to the floor beneath her while the flames of the burning Motsuwa still did not cease in the background. She felt the water wash up to both of them as he said in an anesthetized tone that Mesmori would never forget for the rest of her life and would surely be all she dreamt about, "No one's here, just you and me, MiMi-Chan… No one will stop me now from what I'm about to do to you… Umei won't save you this time…"

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The End?