«There's nothing to do, I can't just focus!» blurted an exhasperated Anzu, sitting at her desk trying, in vain, to do her homework. She put the pen away and stood up.
She had tried to send away the restlessness all day long, but she couldn't. She went to the window. It was evening now, the sun had left an hour ago.
While her glare flew on Domino City's roofs, her thoughts went to Yugi. They hadn't ever left him, actually. The reason to her restlessness was exactly him.
He was seeking for a new, dangerous criminal since three months now. She didn't know in detail, but she had heard from Jonouchi they had found a trace just the day before.
She wanted to be of some use, but Yugi – the Pharaoh, actually – had declared it was a personal question and he had to take care of it on his own. He had asked his friends to trust him. He had her particularly to promise she wouldn't worry.
"«Trust me, Anzu. I'll take care of this threat and everything will go back to how it was. You know me now, don't you? Don't worry.»"
And she trusted him, really. She had seen him face endless threats in the past few years, each time a more dark and powerful one, and he always won. She didn't doubt he could face this one too, yet…
…yet there was something different this time. She didn't know what it was, there wasn't logic behind her thought; it was just… a feeling.
Anzu would have called herself stupid, had it been a normal situation.
But after living countless adventures beside a Pharaoh whose soul was sealed 5000 years before, after she had testified the power of shadows, she couldn't just ignore her forebodings.
She took her coat and left. Luckily her parents weren't home that week, she didn't feel like making up excuses.
Knowing Atem would probably be mad at her, she got herself into Domino's streets, searching for him. She was about to call Jonouchi, when a strange, dark vortex appeared in the sky.
It was crazy near Yugi's uncle's Games Shop.
Anzu rushed, hoping it wasn't too late.
«I equip Dark Magician with his Black Magic Book, so he gains 500atk points! Then I set a covered card and finish my turn».
«Is that all you got, Pharaoh?»
They were in the street right next to the Games Shop. Yugi had let his other self take over to face the shadow they chased those past months.
That shadow, now standing right in front of them, just on the other side of the duel field, was a man. He was wearing a black cape, so it wasn't possible to exactly grasp his body size, and a mask figuring a raven. They deduced he was a man just from his voice, admitting he wasn't faking it.
The two Yugis didn't know what his precise purpose was, but they knew he needed three manufacts in order to accomplish it.
He had stolen one of them three from an Egyptian museum three months before, it was an emerald that, exposed to the moonlight, shone revealing another gem on the inside.
They didn't know what the other two objects were, but the man had revealed one that same evening. In fact, he challenged them betting their Millenium's Puzzle. Obviously losing it wasn't an option.
Atem couldn't see his enemy's face, but to imagine his contemptuous grin was easy, even too much, basing on his tone. He could understand him, his monsters were powerful enough.
But he doesn't believe in the Cards' Heart like I do. My friends will never betray me. 'cause this are my cards for me: friends, not monsters.
«If that's your game, I surely won't spare you» the enemy said. «My Octopus could erase your weak mage on its own, but I want to annichilate you completely» he declared, proceeding in activating a Ritual Card, that allowed him to sacrifice his Octopus to summon another monster, whatever level it was, as long as he had it in his hand. «I introduce you to Lord Raven Renya, Pharaoh. His 5000 atk points will destroy your mage, with a difference of 2000 life points. Unfortunately, that's all you have left».
Atem didn't react, staying silent.
«You're not giving up your poker face? Good, do that. Attack, Lord Raven Renya! Destroy his mage!» And when you do, I'll finally get Pharaoh's soul. Then I'll just have to follow the old parchment instructions and blend it to Pandora… No one will be able to even think of stopping me then!
Absorbed in his greatness' dreams, the man didn't even notice the smirk on the boy's face. «It won't be that easy. Activate Trap: Dark Allegiance!»
«What do you think you're doing? Your silly trap won't stop my assault!»
«Believe what you want. When my Dark Magician is under attack, this trap allows me to summon a compatible card from my deck, and I choose Dark Magician Girl!»
The young mage appeared on the field, smiling to her Master.
«Then my mages blend their attack points, plus a 500ap bonus given from the trap, reaching 5500 Attack Points! Your raven can do nothing to stop them!» claimed Atem with a winning smile.
This enemy was defeated too. That Lord Raven Renya, a card he'd never seen before, seemed to be the man's winning card; once it was destroyed, he doubted he had other seriously dangerous cards inside his deck. Actually even if he did, he would have just destroy them as well, thanks to his bond with his cards. He had victory in his pocket.
He watched the man on the other side. It was hard to say because of the mask, but he seemed to be boiling angry.
«You're going to repent that, Pharaoh».
It was almost a hiss, he barely heard it. Soon after, he felt the dark energy around them intensify. He looked up, and saw a black vortex forming.
What was happening?
Coldly calm now, the man drew. « I was hoping catching you would be easier, but you're a real nuisance. You left me with no other choice» he said.
For some reason, Atem trembled. The dark energy kept growing stronger.
The man summoned a card. The two Yugis were expecting a monster, but it was a Magic Card. They'd never seen it before. It looked like Mistical Space Typhoon, but was purplish red. «What..?»
«You're far too powerful here, I underestimated you. I'll bring you where you're in my power, then!» the man announced with a creepy laugh.
«Activate now, Other Dimension!»
The purplish vortex started to grow bigger. Meanwhile Atem was thinking. Other Dimension? What is he doing? He wants to bring me "where I'm in his power"? Does he mean Shadows' Reign?
He hurriedly checked his hand, but he had no useful magic to stop that card. What's going to happen to my magicians?
Finally the vortex stopped growing. Just to start moving. Straight into Atem's field.
Leaving Atem and Yugi in utter surprise, that thing passed through the magicians, leaving them unharmed. It didn't stop though. It reached the Duelist and swallowed him.
Finding himself in a strange reddish place, the Pharaoh had to fight in order to not lose consciusness. It was hard, he heard countless rumors surrounding him, sounds he couldn't understand…
Then a voice.
If he had managed to keep a bit of his cool, now he lost it.
«Yugi! Atem!»
He knew that voice all too well, wouldn't miss it among thousands similar.
Anzu.
Beep, beep.
A sleepy boy senti hand searching for his telephone and set the alarm off.
It took him a few seconds to realize he didn't have an alarm on his phone.
It wasn't just that; the cellular on his desk wasn't the one beepping.
Growing more and more surprised, the child known as Edogawa Conan took his papillon/vocal changer and grabbed his other phone. It was lucky Kogoro had an heavy sleep.
The calling number was unknown. Stranger yet. Whoever was calling him must've been in an urge to speak with him anyway, because the phone kept sounding all the time it took to close himself in the bathroom and set the voice-changer on Shinichi's voice. «Hello?» he murmured, hoping to not wake Ran up.
«What took you so long, Tantei-san?!»
That was the ending hit to Shinichi. «Kid?! How do you know this number?»
«I got no time for such foolishness, meitantei» Kid answered hurriedly, though immediately adding «it wasn't a big deal anyway». It was easy to figure the grin on the Phantom Thief's face, though there was something in his voice. Had he not known him, he would have thought he was… Worried? Hard to believe.
«I was wandering around Haido last night» the thief started telling. He got all of the shrunken detective's attention. «Suddenly something… uhm, strange, happened. Can you think of how I make things appear from nowhere?»
«When you pretend to, you mean?» Conan said. Detective instinct. «It's always a pleasure to uncover your tricks». Meanwhile he had put the papillon away, pretending with Kid wasn't worth it. He didn't know how, but the thief knew about his true identity all too well.
«Yeah, well… Last night someone appeared out of nowhere for real. No trick. On a roof near to my position, just so, one moment he wasn't there, the following he did».
The child raised an eye-brow. «You had a realistic dream and called me just for that?» he asked in a sceptical tone. He surely was more open-minded now to sci-fi and so on – I mean, he was a seventeen years old guy in a child's body because of a damn pill –, but there was a limit. What did Kid want him to think, the man used an invisibility cape? Please.
«I wasn't dreaming. It was a strange man, with a raven mask. Very creepy, if you ask me. By the way, he didn't notice me, so I got closer to grasp something. At first I thought there was a trick too, like an ridde manhole or something».
«You didn't find it though, so you're asking me?» Shinichi was surprised. Kaito Kid was asking his help on a case? Unreal.
«No» was the thief's answer. He was losing his patience. «There wasn't a trick, I'm telling you – but that's not the point. That man made a call. He told someone to find and bring him a guy…»
A kidnapper?
«…and this someone he called answers the name of Gin, if I didn't heard wrong» he added.
«I thought that'd take your interest, since the man who always blew me up while I was acting like your little friend calls himself Bourbon, and he called me Sherry. Really, tantei-san, I don't know who those alcool-guys are, but I didn't like raven-man's tone one bit. I've been searching for the guy for hours now».
Shinichi realised he was trembling. Gin. Moreover, the man who gave the order wore a raven mask… He remembered all too well the words Akemi whispered right before dying.
"«They always dress black, resembling ravens…»"
Was it possible that..?!
«Where is that man now?!» he almost shouted to the phone. He damned himself mentally remembering that Ran – and Kogoro too – were pretty near.
«Meitantei?»
«The masked man! That who, says you, appeared from nowhere! Where is he now?!» he asked again, agitated.
«No idea» was the thief's flat answer. «Did you listen or where you pretending, Tantei-san? I'm telling you there is someone in danger somewhere in the city and you're asking about the man?»
«How could you let him leave!» Shinichi blurted. Kid was right, they had to find that guy those assasins were looking for, but if that man was really the Organization's boss… To think the white magician had been so close to him…
Conan couldn't know, but on the other side of the city, Kaito grimaced. «That man had a strange aura around him» he said. «Anyway what could have I done, with my ThrowCards gun? I'm relatively sure he was armed, and even if admitting this it's irritating, he would have probably had the upper hand. All the more if he can appear like that. I'm lucky he didn't notice me» he finished, irritated. Justifying his own actions was his last thought right now.
He wasn't doing all that just because someone was in danger, or because the sight of that men had sent chills down his spine. That man dressed black and wore a raven mask.
Black, and an animal. It didn't seem so air-founded that he was linked to the men who killed his father, Kuroba Toichi.
This was the reason Kaito had put his pride aside this once and called Kudo Shinichi, his rival. He didn't know all the details, but he was linked to a similar organization too. An ally could turn in handy in that situation.
«All right. But how do we find that guy they're searching for? I need some hints», said Conan, after he went back to being lucid. The thief was right, he couldn't afford to lose his cool this moment.
«The man described him this way: about seventeen years old, black hair ending purple, kind of star-shaped. He also got a blonde fringe, you could say he doesn't exactly go unseen. He also said he should be disoriented, somewhere in the city».
Conan was silent for a bit, taking the informations in. «That's not what I was expecting at all, but thank you, Kid. It shouldn't be too hard to find. I just hope he's not in Gin's hands already».
«If you hope so, go out and join the hunt, Tantei-san» Kaito commented, then turned the call off.
Conan stopped, eyeing the phone.
That thief always succeeded at irritating him, even when asking for an allegiance – because that was the meaning of that call, right? They were allies now.