Coming Forth by Sundown
Chapter 02
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama/romance
Pairing(s): YamixYugi, JouxMai, brief mentioning of YamixAnzu and YugixAnzu
Spoilers: Post-series, thus, many spoilers, including Yami's real name
Warnings: None


Across town, Jounouchi was at the casino watching Mai deal cards. Her shift was about to end, and he had arrived early for unspoken reasons, leaning against the doorway as Mai handed out tokens and shooed the people off to go play other games.

"What're you doing here?" Mai asked as she snapped her purse shut, swinging it over her shoulder.

"No real reason, I just thought it'd be nice to walk you home." Jounouchi said, shrugging as they left. "There're a lot of outside people in town, and I know you can take care of yourself, but I'd feel better if I walked with you."

"That's sweet…but you're right, I could handle myself if anyone made trouble."

"I know." Jounouchi said guardedly, sensing he was about to be made fun of. He was right.

"Well, come on then, you'd better come make sure no one tries to attack me."

"Keep an attitude like that and see if I ever walk you home again." He grumbled in response.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for making fun of your chivalrous ways. Feel better now?"

"Loads." They walked in silence for a few moments. "So…you're going to help us set up for the festival this afternoon, right?"

"Yep. Anzu called me yesterday."

"Oh, okay."

"Do you want me to pick you up in the car and drive you to the park later?" She offered.

"No, that's okay."

"Alright."

It was silent again. Then, quite suddenly, Jounouchi saw a rather scruffy looking man walking their way. He frowned. There was a bar not far from the casino and on occasion a few hapless drunks had tried to harass Mai. But this man didn't really look drunk. He was staggering a bit, but his eyes were clear.

Without warning, the man leapt forward and grabbed Mai by the wrist.

"Hey, let me go!" Mai snapped, struggling back. Jounouchi paused, knowing Mai wasn't incapable of protecting herself from harassers. Yet, for some strange reason, he didn't loosen his grip on her arm, even after she had kicked him in crucial parts of his anatomy. "I told you, let me go!"

The man merely grinned at her. Jounouchi grabbed him roughly by the arm, commanding, "Hey, you heard her, let her go."

The bum finally released her, only to swing around and punch Jounouchi in the side of his face. Getting to his feet, Jounouchi scowled and clenched his fist, hitting him back, landing the blow squarely on his jaw. It didn't slow the stranger down for a second, he leapt upon Jounouchi, still grinning in that weird way, pummeling him repeatedly, seemingly not tiring.

"What is wrong with you?!" Jounouchi shouted, punching him back; the man's nose was pouring blood and his lower jaw seemed out of alignment with the upper, and yet he didn't seem to feel a thing.

"That's enough!" Mai suddenly thwacked the stranger over the head with a large rock. He swayed and slumped to the ground. "Are you okay, Jounouchi?" she asked, dropping the rock and pulling him to his feet. "That guy really beat you up."

He wiped blood off his face. "I'm fine." He looked down at the stranger. "Do you know him?"

"Never seen him before in my life." She replied, shaking her head.

Jounouchi touched the side of his face and winced. "C'mon, let's just go before he wakes up. I don't feel like fighting him again."

"Good idea…when we get to my house you'd better come in and put some medicine on those cuts…" Mai was saying as they walked away. Suddenly, an arm snaked around her neck and Jounouchi spun around to see the man holding her in a headlock, seemingly unaffected by the bloody knot on the back of his head.

"I thought you hit him HARD with that rock!" He cried in frustration.

"I thought I did too!" Mai shouted back, struggling to get away.

"What is up with this guy, it's like he's invincible!" Jounouchi muttered as he grabbed the man's arm and tried to pry his hands off her, only to invite a kick in the stomach.

"Okay…this worked once…" he picked up the same rock and slammed it point-blank into the man's face. It worked at first; he released Mai and staggered backwards, falling to the ground. Then he lay still.

Mai backed up. "Jounouchi…"

He knew what she was thinking. It was pretty common knowledge that a glancing blow to one's nose to force the bone into a person's brain and kill them. To think he'd…

"It's okay Mai." He said shakily. "At least he won't try to come after you again. You're sure you don't know him? He really seems to have something against you."

"I swear, I've never seen him before." She said, shaking her head. Then she paused and asked, "…Is he dead?"

Jounouchi shook his head. "I don't know…What??" He leapt backwards as the stranger pulled himself to his knees and was now reaching toward their legs. He reached for the rock again. "No Mai, I don't think he's dead."

"Jounouchi…that's not going to work." Mai observed. "I- Arrgh! Get off!" She kicked out at the man, who had latched his hand around her ankle, and jammed her heel sharply into his face. Still, he kept reaching out toward her, still grinning, looking oddly happy.

"Okay, new plan." Jounouchi grabbed her wrist. "Let's just run."

"You read my mind." They took off at a sprint, and after a few moments, Mai glanced over her shoulder. "Jounouchi, you won't believe this-"

"He's following us?!" He groaned. "Dammit, this guy is invincible…look, let's head for the busy part of town, we can lose him in the crowd, and then backtrack to your house."

"Works for me."

Fifteen minutes later, Mai inserted the key to her house in the door, opened it, and slammed it shut behind them as they collapsed, panting, in the hallway.

"You're sure he didn't follow us?"

"I'm pretty sure we lost him a few corners back." Mai kicked off her shoes. "I'm calling the police about that guy."

"You do that." Jounouchi agreed.

While Mai went to call, Jounouchi leaned back against the wall and mentally went over what had just happened. It had been beyond weird, the sort of thing someone would never want to experience once, much less again. But the disturbing thing was that he had the feeling this had happened to him before. It had been when Shadi had used the Millennium Key to take over Yugi's grandfather's friend, Professor Yoshimori. He'd been chasing them, and Jounouchi had beaten him up pretty badly, but instead of feeling anything, like a normal person, the professor had just kept trying to attack them. He knew there was no way Shadi would be behind this, but what if it was something similar?

"…Jounouchi?" He heard Mai's voice and snapped to attention.

"What?"

"You had a strange look on your face…what were you thinking about?"

He explained to her the story about Yoshimori, reaching for his shoes. "I'm going to go see Yugi about this." He said. "It's as strange as anything else we've ever had to deal with."

"What about your injuries-"

"I'll take care of them there, they have a first aid kit."

"I'll drive you over." Mai put in firmly. "That guy might still be around. I'll put up the top and that way he won't see us."

"Thanks Mai." Jounouchi smiled.

- - -

At Yugi's house they could hear voices in Yugi's room even before they reached the second floor. With puzzled glances at each other, they peered in to see Anzu and Honda already there, deep in discussion.

"Guys?" Jounouchi asked, as all three looked up, and he saw solemn looks on all of their faces. "What's going on?"

"Oh good, we've been trying to call you for the last hour. Marik called," Honda said. "Atemu's back."

"Back? What's what supposed to mean?"

"He's…alive. Apparently Marik came home and found him there waiting for him."

"But…Atemu…?"

"I know." Yugi's voice sounded odd, but Jounouchi couldn't quite put his finger on what the unusual tone was. "But he's there. I talked to him. And Marik asked me to fly over as soon as I can…and I figured the rest of you would like to come too. I think Atemu will want as many of his friends there as possible."

"We've been checking flights though. There's not very many to Luxor, and all of them are booked," Anzu said, moving over on the bed to give the two newcomers a place to sit.

"Why do we have to go to Egypt?" Jounouchi asked, frowning.

"Atemu can't leave Egypt or enter Japan, he doesn't have any identification or a passport."

"But the flights…it's impossible to find seats right now, couldn't they just wait a week?"

"Marik thinks we need to go over there now," Yugi answered.

"But why-"

"I say it's because of the Bon Festival," Honda interrupted. "That would make sense, right? What if Atemu was able to be resurrected because of it? That would mean he'd only have three days here."

Jounouchi brightened. "Yeah, that does make sense!"

"Which means we need to get over there soon," Mai pointed out. "It's nearly two o'clock already, and I'm sure it must be a long flight-"

"Eleven hours," Anzu nodded, phone pressed to her ear. "By the time we arrive, one whole day of the festival will be over."

Yugi was silent, watching them converse. He knew the timing made sense, but Marik had sounded absolutely frantic over the phone, far more frantic than he would have sounded if it was just a Bon Festival issue.

There's got to be more to it than that.

"That's it." Anzu hung up the phone. "That was the last airline. They'd love our business, but all their flights out are full for the next three days. Everyone coming and going from Obon…"

"So what are we going to do?" Mai asked, inviting a curious look from Jounouchi.

"What do you mean, 'we'?"

"Well I'm coming with you."

"No you're not," Jounouchi replied.

She scowled. "And who are you to say I'm not? Atemu is my friend too. Besides, with that strange man wandering around Domino trying to abduct me, I don't want to stay here-"

"Strange man?" Yugi asked. Then, as if he'd only just taken a good look at him: "Jounouchi, what happened to your face?!"

"That's part of the story. Can I use your first aid kit?"

In-between winces as Mai tended to his scraps, they explained about what happened. Yugi's eyebrows knit together. "That doesn't sound good at all…"

"We have more pressing matters," Honda picked up the phone book and waved it at him. "There are no more commercial flights available. Yugi, a few of the planes had single seats left, maybe you should just get on one of those and we can try to follow later-"

"No, we should all go if it's possible," Yugi replied firmly.

"Well, then how? Either we need a very fast boat or someone with a private plane-"

"Kaiba." Anzu said aloud.

Jounouchi shook his head. "No way."

"He has a private jet!"

"And he's so likely to let us just borrow it," Honda muttered sarcastically.

"There's no harm in asking-"

"Oh no, there's plenty of harm." Jounouchi waved his arms. "Way too much harm."

"Don't you want to see Atemu?" Mai asked.

"Of course, but do we have to ask Kaiba?" He groaned.

"Yugi's the one that got the call, and Yugi's the one that knows Atemu best." Anzu interrupted sensibly. "So Yugi ought to make the choice."

They all turned to him. Yugi blinked, then nodded. "Kaiba's our only choice, let's go for it."

- - -

The intercom on his desk in the study crackled. Then: "Sir, you have a visitor."

He scowled, putting down his book and jabbing at the machine. "Pretend I'm not here and tell them to come back next week. It's a holiday for God's sake. Who comes and bothers me at home on a holiday?"

"It's Mutou Yugi."

Seto raised his head and frowned. "Yugi?"

"Yes sir."

"Fine, send him up." He got up from his desk as the door opened and Yugi, followed by the others, filed in. "Yugi…this is a surprise."

"Sorry to barge in. We need a favour." Yugi took a deep breath. "We need to use your jet."

"My jet," he repeated, looking bemused.

"To go to Egypt."

"Egypt, of course."

"Because Atemu has been resurrected, and he can't leave the country without identification, so we have to go over there, and all the commercial flights are booked."

Seto folded his arms. "Yugi, you were never one for practical jokes."

"This isn't a joke!" Anzu cut in. "Yugi's serious, we need your jet."

"You need to use my private jet because a ghost has come back to life in Egypt."

Jounouchi scowled. "Hey, lose the condescending tone. We wouldn't be here asking for your help if we didn't need it."

"Like I care what you think, Jounouchi." Seto shrugged him off.

Mai grabbed Jounouchi's hand to stop him from retaliating, and his argument died in his throat as he shrunk back with a slight blush over his nose, glancing down at their hands.

"My jet," Seto mused. "Jet fuel is very expensive. The economy is shaky enough, joyrides to other countries aren't prudent. Not to mention the amount it'll cost for the pilot, the rate for holiday flights is at least double the usual cost-"

"I know, we'll find a way to compensate you later," Yugi said fiercely. "This is really important."

"Don't bother."

"What?"

"I said, don't bother with compensation. If Mokuba finds out you asked for a favour and I didn't help you, I'll never hear the end of it. I'd like to actually have some relaxation on my holiday." Seto walked over to his phone and picked up the receiver, pressing a button and speaking quietly into the speaker. Setting it down, he wrote something on a piece of paper and held it out to Yugi. "Here's the directions to the airfield, be there in an hour."

"Kaiba, thank you-"

"Please, I haven't been this amused all month." He sat back down at his desk, picked up his book, and pointed toward the door. "Now get moving before the amusement wears off and I regret this."


Author's Notes: I suck at writing fight scenes. :shrugs: Focus on the storyline and not the crappy writing, alright? xD And wow, Kaiba actually did something useful for a change. xD; More interesting things will happen next chapter, promise.

For the record, Mai moved to Japan a few months before.

Thanks everyone who reviewed chapter 01. :) Your comments and support were very, very appreciated!