When Two Meet

Disclaimer and warning: Yugioh and Higurashi do not belong to me. Hanyuu would be nice…

Oh, and spoilers for Higurashi Rei and Umineko.

Chapter 4: Clearing the mist

Of course, Rena's story was shorter than Rika's, since she could not possibly have remembered any past worlds. She finally ended with Hanyuu going strange, and telling her newfound friends that she had no idea what was going on behind the stranger events. She could not provide any explanation for how Takano had not managed to shoot Hanyuu, or how she had missed at such a short distance. But she did tell them of the Hinamizawa disease, and Rika's strange behaviour.

'If I didn't know better,' Yugi mused, 'then I'd think that Rika had a yami of her own.' He didn't know how close he was…

At that point, Mion cut in. "You haven't even told them about the club or punishment games."

"Punishment games?" Both Yugi and Ryou stiffened.

"Yep, we used to have a sort of club, where we would play all kinds of games. The loser would have to play a punishment game."

"Such as?" Ryou was still rather nervous.

"Oh, just cross-dressing or stuff like that… those were good times. Speaking of cross-dressing, Ryou, you would seriously look cute in an Angel mort uniform. If I ever beat you in a game, I'll make sure to make you wear that."

Ryou flushed crimson. "What do you mean by a uniform?"

Mion held up a picture of Shion and the other Angel mort waitresses. "It's this."

Ryou's face turned from crimson to a deathly white that even eclipsed his normal pallor. "Uh… I-I'd p-prefer not t-to..." he stuttered.

Jounouchi and Honda were both ogling the waitresses in the picture. "Wow, they're hot!"

"That's my twin sister Shion. We look very similar. In fact, most people can't tell when we swap around. The only difference between us is our voices."

The two boys started drooling. Yugi, Anzu and Ryou simply rolled their eyes. But they were distracted by-

"CUUTE! Ryou in an Angel mort uniform would be so kawaii! I wanna take him home!!!"

"RENA! How many times have I told you not to take people home! Inanimate objects are bad enough!"

While Frederica paused for breath, Bakura took the chance to ask a question.

"So wouldn't it just be your problem? I mean, we were never your pieces. How the bloody hell did we get mixed up in all this crap?"

Frederica arched an eyebrow, eerily resembling Yami. "Patience, Tomb Robber."

"JUST. DAMNED. TELL. ME."

"Well, if I must cut a long story short, Shadi came to me and offered me his help."

"Shadi is a witch?!" Yami exclaimed.

"Now that is a long story, and I will not go into it."

"But Shadi-"

"- Does not know! He and the witch Shadi are two very different people. Often, when a person has a witch counterpart, they don't ever find out! It was only because you are my pieces that I became visible and am helping you at all."

Bakura frowned, his eyebrows drawn together in either thought or irritation.

"So, what is your link with Rika anyway?"

Frederica thought over that carefully. Through the thousand years she had lived, she had often considered that problem, but never arrived at a definite conclusion.

"Whoever I am, I am not Rika. For one thing, I don't mind inflicting pain on those who will not learn until it's drilled into their heads. Rika is simply my pawn, albeit a favourite one who didn't bore me."

"We still haven't finished with Frederica's story yet." cut in Yami.

"Well, Shadi lent me his pieces- that is, you and your allies. They were in the form of Duel Monster cards, so each person represents one, or a set of cards."

Yami and Bakura glanced at each other. Evidently, they both hadn't forgotten the RPG they had played …

"And as I told you, your souls are sealed inside the cards. And as for that mysterious witch… That person seemed to use as many mind-manipulating cards as humanly possible."

"What's so mysterious about that witch? Ra, a fool with half an eye would be able to see he was Yami Marik. C'mon, mind control, purple cloak, complete psycho… how could anyone ever think he was anybody else?" Bakura snapped.

"This is simply a game of Duel Monsters… but with your lives at stake. The information I have offered you is unimportant, but perhaps, it may teach you to seek help from outside sources. This shall be the first and last time you meet me… Farewell…"

A flash of blue light, and Rika was lying on the ground, in the same position she had been in a few minutes ago. Yami and Bakura would never know if they had simply been dreaming, but as they helped her up, and described the previous bewildering events, a dark chuckle sounded.

It seemed that someone had been watching all along.

As abruptly as it had sounded, the laugh terminated, and two words were heard.

"Game Start."

Who are your allies?
What is a friend?
Who is your enemy?

Danger lurks behind impenetrable light.
A story which has ended begins again.
Even the ruling passions cannot forswear innocence.
But true darkness can…

Darkness shall create, and darkness shall destroy.
Destroy all you hold dear.
But only darkness can save you…
Light will only blind your eyes…

A new game begins, and I shall play the cards…

*giggle**giggle*…

~Frederica Bernkastel~

After they had torn Rena away from Ryou (the latter being much ruffled from his exertions at trying to escape), Yugi finally proposed a trip to the park. Unfortunately for him, he didn't know about the chaos and panic that would ensue.

After all, they hadn't been planning to introduce the Yamis in the first place…

"Kyuu! The park is so pretty! I want to take it home with meee!" Rena stretched her arms out, as if to engulf the entire park (and preferably wrap it in some colourful wrapping paper and take it home).

Ryou smiled.

"It's a shame you can't, Ryuuguu-san."

"Ah, just call me Rena, Bakura-kun! We don't need honorifics, do we?"

"Rena, then. And you can call me Ryou."

Mion stretched her arms out. She seemed quite at ease, even though she had never been in such a big city before. To her, Domino had only been one of these scary things you saw on the television, but now she was actually there, it wasn't really that impressive. She mused over her new friends. Yugi, that short little tri-haired coloured boy, seemed nice and polite enough and Ryou was cute, but a little bland. It looked like she could resign herself to an ordinary existence after all.

What a joke.

Yugi suddenly froze as his link detected Yami only a little distance away. This spelt trouble, as he was sure the Tomb Robber was with him, and judging by their normal behaviour, they were probably duelling right now. He had no intention to let his new friends discover the yamis, as this could only spell trouble.

Ryou was also going though a series of similar revelations. No one, if he could help it, would discover his… rather violent yami. Quickly, he tapped into their link, and gave Bakura a mental shove. In his panic, he forgot how grumpy the Tomb Robber was liable to get.

'What?!' came the annoyed reply.

'You aren't fighting with Yami, are you?!'

'No.'

'Then what are you doing? We're only a short distance away, with two new students who know nothing about us! How are we going to explain this?!'

'Ryou, stop annoying me. Just leave it to us to pretend to be you two, if you are really such a fool that you cannot keep them here.'

'I can't!'

'Just go run off in the opposite direction, pretending you've left something behind, you imbecilic mortal.'

Ryou didn't like this suggestion at all, but had no choice.

"Ah, Rena, Mion-san! I've just left something behind!"

Mion grinned.

"If that's the case, you don't need to be worried about us! Just leave us here to wander around, we'll be fine!"

Ryou cursed inwardly. Was fate turning against him or something? He had to fake a cheerful laugh, and for once, felt sympathy for Bakura when the Tomb Robber had been forced to act all cheerful – when in actual fact, he wanted to murder the people in front of him.

"Ahaha… c'mon Yugi, we'll have to go back."

Yugi sent him a puzzled expression, mixed with a hint of panic. "Y-yes, Ryou? I… I can stay with them if you like…" He then broke off, seeing Ryou's murderous/alarmed expression.

'Yami! What does this mean?!'

'Aibou, just hurry and leave! We should be able to cover up for you!'

Once upon a kakera, I wanted to find a new name for myself. I was not fully Furude Rika, I knew too much. So I searched for a new name.

I found one of my father's wine bottles, which I drank from incessantly. The name upon them was interesting enough. B-E-R-N-K-A-S-T-E-L. But that seemed incomplete. So I decided.

I am Furude Rika. Furuderika. Frederica. Frederica Bernkastel. Some call me a witch. I am Frederica Bernkastel, the witch of miracles, travelling through the sea of kakera.

But I thought I had separated myself from this 'witch' when I reached my happy world. Does her… my rebirth mean the start of disaster?

"Furude! Idiotic non-mortal! Save me the trouble of slicing your ears off if you won't listen, fool!" Bakura looked extremely annoyed, the reason being that he again would have to imitate that spineless hikari of his. It was annoying enough that Yami had to also be the not-so-fortunate witness of his dilemma.

Yami's slightly softer tones cut through what might have been a barrage of insults from Bakura. "Rika, it seems that your friends are heading this way. That's probably not good, but then again, you'd know what happens after this, right?"

Rika shook her head slightly. "The scenario can change. There are different 'chapters' as Frederica puts it, and each chapter has a possible solution."

"So… you don't know what might happen?"

A wry laugh. "Oh, but I do. Chances are, we'll all be dead by the end of June. Of course, I'm looking at it as positively as I can."

Hanyuu suddenly materialised next to Rika, with a good deal of apologetic 'Hauu auu-ing'. "Sorry, Rika, but I was-"

"Looking for clues, I know." Rika gestured towards Yami and Bakura with a simple "These two are Yami and Bakura, but you should already know each other."

"Hauu auu…! Mion-san and Rena-san are heading this way!" Rika only replied to this with a sage nod of her head.

Sure enough, Rena's voice could be heard as she fawned over 'how cute' the park was. Bakura attempted a Ryou-ish expression and Yami attempted to widen his eyes to look a bit more like Yugi.

It didn't work.

"Ehh… Yugi, Ryou… RIKA? What are you guys doing here? Oy, and how on earth did you guys get introduced?" Mion sailed right in to the vicinity, fortunately not seeing the slight change in her friends' appearance.

"Ehh…Ahh… We just ran into this little girl, and… oh… is this Rika?" Bakura replied with Ryou's awkward 'head-rubbing' gesture. Mion seemed to fall for it, and called out as Rena ran to catch up with her.

"Mii. Who are these two?" Rika also did a good job at disguising the fact that they had met quite a while ago.

Yami smiled slightly. "My name is Yugi Mutou, and this is Ryou Bakura, my… friend."

End of this chapter!

Okay, I really don't have a reasonable excuse for not updating this story in a long time… except that school is extremely busy ;^;… At least it's longer than the other chapters…

If you want, comment and yell at me to write faster, and I probably will.