A67A13V5: Here's the third chapter! It's going to revolve mainly around Seto, Mariku, Bakura, and Takara.
Mariku:When do I meet Malik in this story?
A67A13V5: Let's see: I already said what this chapter will be about. Chapter 4 will revolve around October 13, which happens to be the day Mariku meets Takara. In chapter 5 Mariku meets Malik, and it'll be on Halloween in the fic.
Mariku and Malik: Yay! Will there be a party?
A67A13V5: Just wait and see. Say the disclaimer:
Mariku and Malik: If A67A13V5 owned Yu-Gi-Oh! the show would be Rated MA, and the shadow realm would make Hell look like paradise. She is not the inventor of astrology and she did not write "Snow White."
Mariku: Could you please explain the "Snow White" part?
A67A13V5: You'll understand when the time comes. I'll give you a hint: Ryota Kajiki
Mariku: What kind of hint is that?
Chapter 3: Unburied Treasure and Wilted Violets
"Wonderful Takara! Wonderful Otogi-boy!" Pegasus cried out. Takara sang and danced a very difficult song in front of Kaiba, pleasing him with her beautiful yet haunting voice. Otogi did not sing but played the piano and growled a few verses. Kaiba thought Otogi's growling complemented the music and Takara's singing quite nicely.1
"Yes they perform quite well," Kaiba said. He grew to like the nineteen-year-old Takara the past couple of weeks and thought highly of her. Why would he not? Takara was beautiful, graceful, cultured, and talented – everything the Yami queen should be. "I plan to introduce Takara to her new coven on the 13th of the October if that is fine with you Pegasus sama."
"You may take her whenever you see fit Kaiba-boy! Now why don't we all go outside? There are still many hours before the sun rises." Pegasus went outside and the three younger vampires followed him.
Takara kicked off her shoes and Ran throughout the Duelist Plains barefoot, much Kaiba's astonishment. Otogi saw Kaiba's shocked face and laughed.
"Takara likes to run around barefoot when she's outside. She's also quite popular among carnivorous animals," Otogi explained.
"What nonsense are you speaking?" Kaiba asked. Otogi shifted his eyes to Takara and Kaiba followed suit. "Oh my Ra…" Takara petted a bear cub while its mother watched closely. Kaiba made a move to rescue Takara from the bears, but Otogi grabbed his hand and told him to stay put. The two young men watched while Takara played with the bear cub. Soon more female bears and their cubs joined, making Takara the unofficial bear cub nanny.
Kaiba saw how happy Takara looked playing with the bear cubs. He thought of Mariku for some reason, and felt guilt in his heart. Takara was a girl who was obviously used to life outside the castle, unlike Mariku who never even ventured past the castle walls, mainly because he never had any need for it. 'No. It's because of something a human fortuneteller told Ramses-sama and Nefertiti-sama before Mariku was born.'
Nobody spoke of the human fortuneteller that arrived at the Yami castle over seventeen years ago, requesting audience with the Yami king and queen. He was an elderly man, polite and well educated in vampire culture. The man claimed he saw a vision of the future regarding the Yami king and queen and their unborn child. He asked to speak to the Yami king and queen in private; Ramses and Nefertiti accept his request. Seto was only around two at the time so he did not remember the visit from the strange man. However, he learned from older coven mates that Nefertiti became obsessively concerned about Mariku's safety from that day foreword. She constantly kept an eye on Mariku, and when she could not, ordered a servant or guard to do so. Nefertiti did all she could to make Mariku frightened of venturing to outside world.
Then there was the incident that occurred nearly five years ago. It was New Year's Eve and Ramses and Nefertiti decided to go into the forest for a stroll, just as they did before the strange human fortuneteller came. They made the mistake of not bringing any soldiers with them; they ordered all of them to watch Mariku while they were gone. The sun came up, but Ramses and Nefertiti never returned. Kaiba's and Set's father went to search for the Yami king and queen. He showed up hours later badly burned, carrying two disfigured corpses. Everyone immediately recognized the corpses as their beloved rulers. From that day, Mariku feared leaving the safety of the Yami castle to the point where he refused going to gardens by himself.
"I hope Takara will be able to make Mariku leave his fear of the outside world behind," Kaiba whispered to himself.
Mariku, Bakura and Atemu hanged around in the front hall. A human was to bring a fresh supply of cow blood coming that morning. Vampires used to drink human blood, but after creating a treaty with them, they resorted to drinking the blood of farm animals.
"How long is this supposed to take?" Mariku complained. He was already grumpy and irritated, and he only waited for two hours. The fact the sun was out did not help to soothe him
"Really? I've been waiting days for Necrofear to return with Kaiba's Ra-damned response, and you have trouble waiting a few hours for a delivery?" Bakura asked. He knew Mariku was the youngest of the bunch, but he did not except the young leader to act like a spoiled brat.
"I still don't get why the delivery man must come while the sun is out,"
"Humans can't see during night. Why do you think they've always got those damn torches while all we need to see well is a bit of moonlight?" Bakura asked.
While Bakura and Mariku conversed about human sleeping habits, Atemu kept babbling one about hummingbirds. Bakura fought the urge to beat the star-haired vampire to a bloody pulp. Mariku simply raised an eyebrow. Atemu had the strangest habit of babbling about random birds whenever he got nervous. He heard someone knock on the front door.
"Hummingbirds can fly backwards.2 They eat…Hey I think the delivery wagon is here," Atemu said. He went to answer the door. Mariku sighed in relief; Atemu nearly got on his nerves.
"If I had to listen to that idiot babbling on about hummingbirds for even another second I would've beat the crap out of him!" Bakura shouted. The two vampires joined the older one.
They found Atemu terrifying the unfortunate human deliverer, who looked as if he would Rather be anywhere but a vampire castle, with more random facts about birds. This time Bakura really did proceed to beat Atemu to a bloody pulp.
"I'm sorry about my cousin. He's been a little off lately," Mariku explained to the frightened man. "How much do I owe you?" Mariku gave the money he owed to the man, who quickly took off to get away from the lunatics known as Bakura and Atemu.
Kaiba rested in the guest room Otogi prepared for him. He was grateful that the quest room did not have Random creepy drawings of "Funny Rabbit"3 or any other strange cartoons. Instead, Otogi placed paintings of Egyptians pyramids and a miniature replica of the Sphinx.
He heard something thud against the window. Kaiba opened the window and saw a bat, with a note attached to its legs fly into the room.
"Necrofear, what are you doing here? Bakura must have sent you. Let me see what he wrote," Kaiba said. He got the note off Necrofear, who bit Kaiba's finger. Kaiba glared at the bat. Necrofear and Kaiba never exactly got along. After nursing the bite, Kaiba read the note.
October 1
To Kaiba McAsshole,
What's taking you so Ra-damned long? Mariku has gone EMO, and Atemu won't fucking shut up about BIRDS! Come back with whatever whore Pegasus gave you before I fucking kill someone! To make matters worse those Ra-damned lunar drow keep wailing during the afternoon, so none of us can sleep! I know we swore not to attack those backwards brutes, but may we at least find a way to get them to SHUT THE FUCK UP?
Send you response ASAP.
Bakura
P.S. Anzu says "Hi" to Otogi.
'Someone needs anger management counseling, and another psychiatrist.' Kaiba thought after reading the threatening note. Everyone in the Yami coven knew how insane Bakura was; Kaiba lost count of how many psychiatrists visited Bakura after the albino chased after the last one with a dagger. He was sure however that it was somewhere around one hundred. He reread the note. "Wait? What in Ra's name is emo?
Kaiba put the letter away and turned his attention to Necrofear.
"You may as well stay here for the day. I have to find Otogi," Kaiba said to Necrofear. The bat perched itself on the windowsill and ignored the young man. Kaiba found Otogi reading what seemed to be an important newspaper. "Otogi."
"Hi Kaiba-kun. I saw a bat fly into your room. Was it from one of your coven mates?" Otogi asked. Kaiba chuckled. Otogi was always sharp-eyed. No wonder he worked so closely to Pegasus.
"It was Necrofear, Bakura's bat. She gave me a note from her master and bite," – Kaiba lifted his hand to show Otogi the bite mark – "Judging from the note I think Bakura needs to go back to anger management counseling and see yet another psychiatrist."
"Bakura has always been psychotic, Atemu has always been a bit stupid, and Mariku-sama acts like some little emo kid." Kaiba lifted his eyebrow when he heard Otogi say "emo." Than Kaiba remembered that, the Gensou coven had more interaction with their local human society than other covens did with theirs and picked up some of its aspects.
"Bakura said the same thing about Mariku. Could you explain the meaning of emo?" Kaiba asked. Otogi went into a long explanation about the history of the emo movement, which quickly turned into a speech (a very disturbing one to Kaiba), about individuality and the freedom to pursuit happiness and true love. Speaking of which, Kaiba finally remembered what Bakura wrote at the bottom of the note.
When Kaiba told Otogi that Anzu said ""hi" to him, the green-eyed vampire blushed and stuttered awkwardly. Kaiba smirked; he knew very well that Otogi secretly liked Anzu. Too bad they would never be likely to wed.
Kaiba wrote his response and gave it to Necrofear who flew off, but not before doing some business on Kaiba's head.
Necrofear landed in her master's room and waited for the teenage vampire to return from wherever he was.
"ATEMU IF YOU SAY ONE MORE FUCKING WORD ABOUT PENGUINS – Oh, hello darling. Was Kaiba being jackass to you again? Give me the letter and I'll find a nice tasty bug for you," Bakura cooed to bat. Necrofear gave Bakura the note who rewarding her with an insect he found in the front hall that morning.
October 8
Dear BAKAra,
First off, I am hiring another psychiatrist to you and will send you back to anger management counseling as soon as I return with Takara. Second, I will return in a few days and expect everyone to treat their new queen with respect. Third, Otogi seems to have a crush on Anzu.
More brains than you will ever possess,
Kaiba.
Bakura smirked after reading the letter. "This Takara must be the girl Pegasus chose to marry off to Mariku. I hope she is as pretty as her name sounds. Hmm… I should probably not tell anyone about this, especially not Atemu. The Ram-damned idiot is likely to slip. I should go inform Anzu that Otogi may have a little crush on her." Bakura left his room to find Anzu and tell her about what Kaiba wrote concerning Otogi.
"Thank you for having me over as your guest Pegasus-sama," Kaiba said. He and Takara were ready to leave.
"It was a pleasure Kaiba-boy! Take care of our Takara on your way back," Pegasus said.
"I can assure that I will watch after Takara. I also assure you that the Yami coven will welcome her as our new queen. Now, Otogi will you show us the door?" Kaiba asked. Otogi escorted Kaiba and Takara to the door.
"Bye Kaiba-kun. Bye Takara-sama," Otogi said.
Kaiba was amazed by how well Takara seemed to know the Sennen Forest during the trip back to the Yami castle. Takara knew which plants to eat and which to not, the best places to shelter under – Kaiba vaguely wondered if Takara ever lived in a forest. Even if she did not, it was obvious that she had more experience with the wilderness than Mariku had with the Yami castle garden.
They arrived a few days later. Kaiba opened the door and allowed Takara in first. Takara looked around the front hall, and smiled showing her approval. For some reason, Kaiba could not help but to think there was something strange about Takara's expression. He chose to ignore it, thinking he was just exhausted from the trip.
"Welcome to you new home, Takara."
A67A13V5:Bakura's got a dirty mouth. XD
Malik: This story seems like it should be Fantasy/Angst rather than Fantasy/Romance.
A67A13V5: It does seems that way doesn't it? Chapter 5 will a little happier…sort of.
Mariku: What do you mean "sort of?"
A67A13V5: You'll just have to read to find out.
Atemu: Why did make me a complete idiot in your story?
A67A13V5: Well someone has to be the idiot, and having Jounouchi as the idiot of the story is a bit cliché.
Mariku: If it were not for the fact that A67A13V5 threatened to take away my god card I would send all flamers to eternal torture in the shadow realm. On the other hand, stating that you did not like Bleeding Moon or a particular part of the story in a polite manner is perfectly acceptable.
1 They song they perform was Epica's "Cry For the Moon" which I did not write and therefore do not own. I am not sure how the dance to that song would look, so just use your imagination.
2 Actual fact.
3 Pegasus' favorite cartoon for anyone that doesn't remember. I do not own it.
