Eye Gate Deep 01
"On the corridor…"
By Elanor PamHi, hi!! Ask and ye shall receive, they say. I received some kind emails of people that had read "The greatest love of all" and asked for a sequel. They were few, but sent me such kind and encouraging words (even comparing me to professional writers!!) that I couldn't just say no. It had to be delayed for a while, since I tried to install Windows 2000 and somehow screwed up the computer, losing the Office, the soundboard data and the modem data. Reinstalling crappy 98, I got the modem back, but the video board is gone, meaning that my super monitor is useless. In other words: I have to use Win98 to access Internet and Win2000 to do everything else, and I can't listen to my dearest anime mp3.
I still haven't reinstalled Office, since my backup copy is missing a file, and I'm writing right now on the WordPad… and my first impression of it is, bluntly: WORDPAD SUCKS. LOOKS CRAPPY AND DOESN'T HAVE THE JUSTIFY BUTTON.
Well, here is the sequel, featuring the puzzle and the almighty 3rd floor. (I just hope I'll get the Office back soon. I really miss the spell check now, I don't even know if I wrote "spell check" right…)
Thanks to Thundergryphon, lily22, fwirl22 and Shizuku!! You all rock, thanks for cheering. Big kisses to everybody that reviewed. Your kind words encouraged me to do this sequel. If you didn't read "The Greatest Love of All", I'd advise you to do so, or you won't understand much of what happened.
(Revised at July 31, 2002: YAY!! GOT OFFICE BACK AND NOTICED A LOT OF STUPID SPELLING ERRORS!! ANYWAY, UPLOADING AGAIN WITH THE RIGHT FORMAT!! YAY, YAY, THREE TIMES YAY!!)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Yuugi blushed slightly, looking at his friends, while opening his backpack slowly.
"C'mon, you freak, show it!!!"
"Stop getting us nervous!!"
"I can't believe you kept it from me, your traitor!!"
Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu leaned eagerly on Yuugi's desk, leaving us all to wonder how the desk could support the weight of three tall teenagers, since it was so used to that cute, small, petit one. Yuugi laughed heartily, his arm into his oversized backpack, searching. All of them had big smiles on their faces, like children waiting for a big surprise.
For once, the classroom wasn't drowned in solitude at lunch.
"Here," Yuugi stopped searching, "got it!"
He pulled a golden box from the backpack, placing it carefully on the desk. As if they were a single being, the other three got different chairs, placing them around the small boy, and sit, the four leaning over the box.
"Wo-----w", was the only thing they could say about the golden engraved box, shining under the classroom lamps. Yuugi opened the lid with a big smile on his face, and the three companions opened their mouths in perfect synchronism. Some seconds passed.
"Cool! What is it?" Jounouchi asked, innocently, to be knocked on the head by his two friends, while Yuugi laughed.
"ARE YOU MONGOL OR BLIND?" asked Honda, while Anzu shook her head, sighing.
Jounouchi didn't seem to like the question. "So what is it, Mr. Know-it-All?"
"You're so dumb! It's a Lego game!"
Yuugi put his head on his desk, laughing so hard it seemed he was crying. Anzu gave up, looking away at the window, trying to calm down. The "Barbarian Brothers" looked at them, their clueless faces a perfect Kodak Moment. "…isn't it?", asked Honda, now in doubt.
"Use your head, fashion hair" Jounouchi motioned to the box. "Is Lego all golden? I prefer asking what is something then making dumb mistakes…"
"Well, it can be anything. Bingo…"
"Origami…"
"Stamps…"
Yuugi was still laughing hard, and a vein was jumping at Anzu's forehead. The two turned to them.
"What is it?"
Yuugi lifted his head with some difficulty. "It's a… aHAHAHAHA…" he bonked his head on the desk.
"Why's he laughing so hard?" asked Jou to Honda.
"Beats me."
Yuugi calmed down a little. "Well, let's put it like this. When Grandpa gave it to me, he said 'It's something you can see, but can't see'. Can you solve the quiz?"
"IT'S AIR!!" Jounouchi bellowed, proudly.
"It's a puzzle" Anzu pointed to the box, rolling her eyes.
"AAAaaaahhhhnnnn……" the boys chanted, in a duet.
"Well, I was near. I said 'origami'…"
"But I said Lego. It's nearer!"
Yuugi laughed again. Having friends was so much fun. Principally when two of them were nearly brainless - not that he'd phrase it like this. But they were quite that, he knew that and he didn't care. Piecing the puzzle together, he drew their attention away from the little fight, while they opened their mouths at the way he easily pieced each one of the extremely complicated-looking golden toy, as if it was a second nature of him.
"I was a little boy when grandpa gave it to me" he said, absent-mindedly, piecing the toy artistically. "If I remember well, it was even before I knew Anzu-san…" his voice trailed and lowered, face softening sadly; his eyes were looking down at the puzzle, shining, and, under the white light of the classroom's lamps, his skin seemed to have a gleam of its own. Anzu's eyes reflected the light, trembling, as tears gathered; between the three, she was the only one who knew what he had felt his whole childhood. Honda looked at the floor, uncomfortable, and started to fiddle with his nose (that seemed to be running); Jounouchi bit a trembling lip, his eyes starting to gleam just like Anzu's. Yuugi kept on, as if talking to himself, handling the golden pieces effortlessly.
"At that time, it was my only friend. I was so lonely, and when I played with it I didn't feel lonely anymore. I felt like a caring hand held mine, helping me put each piece in its place."
Something that sounded suspiciously like a sob came from the direction of Jounouchi or Honda; it was difficult to tell which one, since both seemed to be fruitlessly fighting their tears.
"My biggest fear was that some bully discovered I was carrying it around… it's golden, you see… maybe they would steal it… so I never carried it to school, and, even after I got Anzu as a friend, and she would chase the bullies away, I was afraid. I don't know if this is real gold or not, but someone really strong could appear and hurt Anzu for it… then I kept on leaving it in the dark. That way, both my treasures would be safer…" he blushed heavily, stopping with the puzzle for a moment, having just taken notice that he had let the words flow freely and they had overflowed a bit too much.
Anzu smiled at him, as if he was a child saying something cute, while the two boys wept and wailed on each other's shoulders.
"Ahn… well…" he continued to piece the puzzle, his fingers seeming a bit nervous "After sometime it started to be very hard, because at home I had the puzzle but I missed Anzu, and at school I… Anzu was there… but not the puzzle…" his cheeks had a tomato color right now. "So I began carrying it to school, but only now or then, because walking around with it in my backpack leaves me quite paranoid…" he chuckled. "I'm always afraid some bully will choose that day to mess up with my books. What would happen if they found a golden box there? I was even afraid a teacher would find it. Teachers aren't saints, and although some are reliable, there are others no better than some students."
"YEAH!!" Jounouchi and Honda clenched their fists. "Like Cyouno!!"
"Sawamura!!"
"Takeda!!"
And as they named all the teachers that gave them bad grades (well, ALL teachers), Yuugi softly laughed again. Had he ever laughed that much in less than ten minutes? Not even in a whole day…
"But nothing serious happened, did it?" asked Anzu, smiling with him.
"Oh…" Yuugi stopped laughing, and although his smile didn't fade, he paled a bit. "Yeah, once…"
The classroom drowned in silence, to be suddenly broken by yells of 'WHAAAAAAT???', 'SPIT IT', 'WHO THE HELL WAS' and 'I GONNA SEND'IM TA HELL'. Yuugi held his hands up reassuringly, while mouthing (his voice couldn't be heard) 'easy, easy, calm down…'
Eventually the teenagers calmed down, and Yuugi could go on with his little tale, his hands seeming to slide back to the puzzle on the table without him noticing. "Once a group of scary guys tried to rob me in the middle of the street. Now… isn't that funny?… if they had taken me to a dark corner, people would've gotten more suspicious…" he muttered. "Anyway, one of them lifted me through my backpack and opened it with me still hanging from it… and then he said 'Oh, oh, look at what I've found here!!' and picked the box."
"Mm-hm, mm-hm!" the others nodded, expectantly.
"Ahmn, well, you must be expecting some big surprise to save me and the box and all, but…" Yuugi scratched his head, looking nervous and paling a bit more, as if he repented having brought the matter on. "I was so scared that I couldn't even make a sound, and when he picked the box I got so… so… I don't know, panicked, appalled, desperate, the thing is, I scarcely remember what happened, it was all confusing and my mind was simply numb…"
The audience rebelled.
"Who cares!!"
"Go on!!"
"We're curious!!"
He smiled, sheepishly. "I… really can't remember… my mind was really numb and dizzy, and I can only recall some fuzzy scenes of quick movements and my body being moved around like I was a doll…" he trembled slightly, seeming suddenly cold, his fingers unconsciously grasping the puzzle pieces harder. "The next thing I remember is suddenly seeing myself with my backpack semi-destroyed and hanging from a strap, my uniform torn and dirty, and the box between my hands… I looked around and saw that I was standing at a dark alley, more than half the city away from where I was before. And the only thing I felt at that moment was that I was incredibly tired, and that the box was with me and I, I knew I was safe and it was safe…" He was shaking more evidently, although he seemed to be fighting it. "I, I felt so tired I didn't dare to move from where I was standing, because I was already dizzy and if I moved anymore I, I would probably fall… I eventually tried to, to take a step, but, but my body hurt all over and I was suddenly on the floor…"
Jounouchi was shaking in symbiosis with Yuugi, his face the exact color of mint cream, his lips alarmingly pale. "C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-creepy…" cackled him, his voice sounding falsetto.
Honda would make a great success at a Halloween party, looking like a ghost. "T, that sound more like a nightmare… are you sure they didn't just knock you out and you dreamed all this?"
Anzu was indignant. "You never even mentioned that to me!! Let me guess, it was on that month you'd go completely spaced out to school, with that creepy dazed look!! People would call you and you'd turn to them slowly, with your eyes all open and staring at nothing. It looked like you had seen a 24-hour horror movie special on TV at a stormy day with your lights off!! Even the bullies of the class thought you were creepy and left you in peace for the whole year…"
"Y, yeah, you got it right… I was still scared after that thing, grandpa was worried too… and mom came back from a trip and got really scared. She delayed any other trip for the rest of the month, so she could take care of me." He looked down, ashamed. "It wasn't really… a bad month. At least she was worried about me, ne…"
Once again the classroom echoed the silence between them, the only sounds being the "pachi, pachi" of the puzzle pieces. The boys looked at that Yuugi, the one unknown from the whole school, all the bullying and prejudice replaying themselves into their heads; both wanted to bury their heads into a hole and disappear from the world. But that Yuugi wasn't unknown to Anzu at all - in fact, it was the real Yuugi, the one she had known since little… trust him to keep a secret for years just to keep her from danger. He always cared more about the others than about himself.
Suddenly the object of their thoughts slumped face-first on the desk, like a rag doll.
A fly could be heard somewhere by the window. The ventilator seemed to sound like an helicopter. Surprise kept the silence for a few more seconds before they finally chorused:
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!?!?!?"
Two pairs of hands started shaking the fainted boy to each possible side, while the remaining pair was occupied pulling the blond hairs of its owner, that was running around in circles.
"WAKE UP, WAKE UP!!"
"PLEASE ANSWER, YUUGI!!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! YUUGI'S DYING, YUUGI'S DYING, YUUGI'S DYING!!"
The above interjections and all their variants repeated themselves in a chain, until the main cause of the mess started giving some signs of consciousness. (Admirable, since, after being shaken around like that, he should have broken the neck or something). They looked at his fluttering eyelids, and sighed in relief at the same moment.
"Hnn…" he moaned, pressing a hand on one of his sleepy eyes and sitting with some effort. "…did I zzleep…?"
Once again, the classroom saw itself choking into the silence, but this time it lasted longer, since none of the eyewitnesses really knew what to answer the boy. One could swear he had a stroke, the way he passed out…
Yuugi laughed weakly, swinging back and forth on the chair, like a drunk, and with dark rings under his eyes. "Mm sorry…" he mumbled, confusedly, his eyes seeming about to roll into his head at any moment. "…'t happenzz… when… piecin' the puzzlw… fwelin' tired… and thenzz… mayb'n my… brainzz… overworkzz or som'thin'…"
Suddenly the bell rang, giving them all a scare (well, Yuugi didn't even seem to notice). Loud noises of children running up the stairs could be heard, and the floor and walls trembled with the stomps.
"Well, Yuugi, you'd better put your puzzle away", said Anzu, just to discover that Yuugi had slumped on the desk again, this time smashing the puzzle and putting all the pieces apart, spreading them on the floor. Hurrying, they picked all pieces, making sure there was none forgotten, and put them into the box, that was hurriedly shoved into his backpack, just as their classmates arrived.
The teacher arrived just then, opening the student list, and then noticing Yuugi smashing his nose on the wooden desk. He lifted an eyebrow, looking at Anzu, that usually knew when anything was wrong with the boy.
"He, um…" Anzu began. "He had to stay all night up… his grandfather caught a strong cold, or something…"
The teacher seemed satisfied with the answer, beginning to call names for homework listing.
"I hope Yuugi doesn't snore" Jounouchi muttered to Honda, that agreed.
~~*~~*~~
The bell rang, and they all left the classroom. Yuugi still looked tired, earning him some glances from classmates - that weren't more interested in him than ever, but wanted to see the boy's eye rings for memory sake. Jounouchi grumbled at some of them, as if he was Yuugi's dog, and Honda laughed a bit. Anzu looked worried.
"Are you sure you can go back home like this?" she asked, reaching a hand to his shoulder. "Sincerely, you look like you could drop sleeping anytime, just like before…"
"I'm alright" he said, in a tone that showed he had said that 222 times before. (A.N.: Yeah, I like Sleeping Sun!! Nightwish rules!!) "I slept over two classes and I'm fine. I'll just sleep some more at home, so don't worry." Anzu seemed to be about to say some other thing, but Yuugi, clearly irritated, started first. "And NO, I'm not going home by bus. And I have money, I could go if I wanted to. So don't talk about lending me some, I-DON'T-WANT, I'm going by feet."
"Let him be, Anzu. He can be more stubborn than a brick wall" said Jou, earning a sideways glance from Honda that practically screamed Look who's talking. He didn't notice it, keeping on. "I DON'T have money to go by bus, but none of you is offering…"
"You have two hours till work" Honda said, eying him. "And, anyway, you're not passing out. Yuugi is."
"I'M NOT!!! How annoying!" Yuugi was annoyed. "Thanks for worrying, but you're overdoing it! I'm not going to fall here and now!!"
He sighed, turning around again. They had reached the point were he had been beaten up. For a moment, the three boys kept silence, remembering the stains that had been there not much more than a week ago; and Anzu tried to see what was so interesting on the floor, without finding anything worth looking.
A small, delicate woman in cleaning uniform approached them, smiling. "Looking for anything, sweeties?"
"Oh!…" Yuugi lifted his head to her, and bowed. "We're sorry for being on the way."
"It's nothing, the corridor is wide enough for all students to pass by", she said, sweetly. "It isn't really cleaning time yet, but I want to know the place. I'm new at this school. It's a pleasure to meet such nice and polite kids."
"Ahaha, nothin' big!" laughed Jou, stupidly, probably wanting the cleaner to know that, although they were nice, not all of them were polite.
If the woman noticed, she hid it very well, smiling sweetly at him too. "Excuse me for now, I'll look at the floor upstairs… nice to meet you, my name is Haruno Takasugi. Please take very good care of yourselves, and good luck." Before they could ask what she meant, though, she had disappeared in the middle of the descending students.
Yuugi looked at the guys, but Honda and Jounouchi just shrugged at the same time and Anzu shook her head. Shrugging also, he took a step forward, just on the place he had been beaten on - and suddenly he felt a blanked wrap itself around his consciousness.
Mind numb, he distantly felt he was falling in slow-motion, although at the same time something… something seemed to be moving his feet with great effort, going ahead, ahead… something holding him from falling, like hands around his chest, his feet moving on their own, such effort… he breathed painfully, slowly…
…and suddenly tripped and fell on the floor on his knees, time back to normal, his mind back to normal. He had taken some three steps away from the place. The students were still walking, none of them bothering to help him, as always; but all of a sudden he felt the warmth of Anzu's hands (somehow, he recognized it right away) trying to lift him from behind. Her voice started getting intelligible to his ears, while the surprise faded away.
"Anzu" he breathed out, voice husky and weak.
"…I told you not to push yourself too hard, and NO, NO WAY you're going home by feet in this state, you're sweating cold!"
"Anzu!" his voice was suddenly strong. "I'm alright! I just tripped! Stop getting all worked up about it, jeeez!" he got up on his own, although his knees trembled. "I'm sincerely grateful for your worry, but it's making me feel I'm uselessly weak…"
Anzu stayed silent, looking at him as if she could see through his skin. He looked to the other two boys; Honda seemed to have also approached him when he fell on the floor, but Jounouchi was standing on the same place, lips white - although Jounouchi was the most fair-skinned of them, it seemed to be easier to notice when he paled; blame him for having reddish-pink lips. He was starting to notice Jou paled for any reason, not only fear; hunger, worry, sometimes confusion (teachers get worried at him on tests; it always looked as if he was about to pass out)…
He smiled at them, his normal smile. "Look, I'm okay, nothing to worry about! And I don't want to delay you. Don't you have to baby-sitt today, Anzu? And your cousin is spending the week at your house, isn't he, Honda-kun?"
They nodded, uncertain; looking at each other and then at Yuugi, they said good-bye and left, faces still serious. Yuugi and Jounouchi stayed in the same position, facing each other. Jounouchi's pale lips finally moved, the last students passing by them.
"…I have two hours before work."
"I know" Yuugi muttered, and his knees gave up, making him fall. He breathed, trembling, finally letting the panic cover up his mind like a tsunami, the tiredness washing over his terribly strained body. He moaned weakly, his body aching.
"Jounouchi-kun… I don't have money to go by bus…"
Jounouchi approached him, and crouched, his back to the smaller boy. "Fine. Let's go walking, and Anzu won't see us."
~~*~~*~~
Anzu and Honda arrived at the bus stop, faces still serious. The sun was setting earlier, sending a reddish light to the street. Cars passed, now and them, reflecting the blood sky. Suddenly Honda spoke.
"So, he's this type of guy, eh?"
She nodded, quietly. He looked at the ground, biting his lip.
"I think…" his voice faltered. "I think we'll need to pay a lot of attention on him…" he laughed a little, but his voice cracked. "I really think we'll need to take very good care of him…"
They couldn't help thinking the same thing - Do your part, Jounouchi.
~~*~~*~~
Later, on the way to the Kame Game Shop, Yuugi - in Jounouchi's back - suddenly laughed, still weak. "Aren't I uselessly weak…? This is so pitiful…"
"Yuugi…"
Silence lingered on the air for a moment.
"…I think I saw… something back there. Above you."
Yuugi was still quiet.
"I don't know if it was imagination or not, but I saw… when you stepped there, and started falling, I saw… above you… something like a silhouette…" He felt Yuugi tense on his back. "I think the others didn't see it, because it was there for less than a second, and they didn't seem to be surprised or scared, they jumped to you, while I was frozen in place…"
Yuugi couldn't help but notice Jounouchi was angry with himself. He probably felt bad for not helping Yuugi.
"If I saw a shadow looming over someone, I wouldn't get frozen." Yuugi laughed a bit. "I would most probably have a heart attack and drop dead…"
"Don't play with that" Jounouchi's voice never sounded so darkly serious, not even when he threatened to jump from a bridge. Then it softened somewhat, although it still sounded shadowed with worry. "Yuugi… it was probably my imagination, although it was… disturbing. But, now that I think…" he stopped for a moment, looking ahead at no real place "…that silhouette… it didn't seem to be 'looming'."
The boy was puzzled with those words. "What do you mean by 'not looming'?"
"You'll probably think it's funny" he said, still serious, but blushing a little "but, the way it leaned over you, with its arms lifted to the side… I don't know, it looked… it seemed… not to be looming. I don't really know how to explain… it just didn't look bad. And, anyway, it appeared after you started falling… it was just a second, but…" he looked to the ground. "Well, I can't explain."
"Then, why were you so pale?"
"Yuugi…" he seemed to be laughing or choking, it was difficult to know "I don't know if you remember it or not, but, I'm afraid of weird things that remind me of ghosts, like silhouettes leaning over my friends, you know…"
Yuugi laughed a bit, the atmosphere easying a bit. The Kame Game Shop was near, and Sugoroku would jump half a meter when his grandson arrived home on the back of a friend, looking weak and tired as if he had been running the marathon the entire day.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Yay! First part is done. Took me a while. I'm slow when writing fanfiction (or anything that I consider important, category that doesn't include homework), that must be because I'm Capricorn and capricornians are perfectionist. I have to read and re-read each paragraph I write to see if it's alright, if I forgot a word, if it's confusing, check punctuation, even try checking spell errors. It's been 12 days since I started writing this (counting, of course, the days I didn't touch it at all), and I haven't gotten Word back yet, although my super-monitor is striking back!! ^___^ Well, what I wanted to say is that, without Word, I can't be sure about spell check, so bear with me, please.
By the end of the chapter, I was hearing Alanis Morrisette, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Creed on the radio, then it started a boring music and I put my Enya cd. From that you can say I'm eclectic, but truly, I hate funk, forro and samba - I'm Brazilian but hate samba, well, I'm not alone at all (wave to my back, crowd cheers from behind), see? We are rock, metal and classic lovers. I'm still crying because I couldn't go to Nightwish's show at ATL Hall, but, oh, well, what can I do if I have a cheepskate of a father, that goes to Caneco 90 to dance forro (yeargh) and can't take me to a rock concert once in my life. (Sob)
After all this random talk, I just wanted to warn you that next chapter can come in a month or in a year - you never know. Mystery of life. Will you review? Pleasepleaseplease?? (puppy eyes) And I hope some parts weren't too sappy or something. It's just that I'm big fan of angst but I also like happy things and romance and such… go figure.
Ah, on a footnote, at TGLoA, there was a point in which I wrote "spitted" instead of "spat"… GOMENGOMENGOMEN (banging head on the wall) I CAN'T BELIEVE I'LL GET A CERTIFICATE AT ENGLISH LANGUAGE THIS YEAR AFTER MAKING SUCH AN ERROR!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!