Hmm...response is less than I'd hoped for.

Have I been declared a crazed Anzu/Tea-basher and abandoned? I hope not, considering I do not, did not, and never shall bash her or any other Yugioh character. Mock their dubbed antics, yes, but the dub is ridiculous. It deserves mocking. And that's beside the point anyway.

Oh well.

I shall continue nontheless!

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Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!


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In a strange and shifting landscape, he searched. What he sought, he had no idea, but he was looking quite hard for it. The scenery around him turned dark and cold, and he found himself walking down a dim and dank corridor.

Echoes of half-fading sound reached him; screams of what had to be unspeakable agony, roars from terrifying unseen beasts, and dreadful moans that he could somehow horrifyingly tell came from something only half alive. It was enough to make him retch, but still he searched for whatever it was that he was looking for.

A flash of silver drew his gaze to the end of the corridor, where he saw rows and rows of small dark cages, dangling from the ceiling on thick dark chains. There was something bright and white and shining in one of them...

Yuugi's eyes shot open.

He sat up, and then instantly thought better of it as a throbbing ache suddenly attacked his head on all sides. Gritting his teeth, Yuugi tried to force the pain to go away. Surprisingly, this worked. As the pain began to fade Yuugi looked around. He was in somebody's bedroom, all alone. Yuugi blinked at the vibrantly pink upholstery, before the door opened. Jonouchi walked in, stopping dead in his tracks when saw that Yuugi was awake and looking at him.

"Yuugi! It's about time y'finally woke up!"

Yuugi winced at the joyous shout. The pain in his head wasn't all gone yet. Unaware of this painful interference, Jonouchi continued speaking loudly.

"Man, we saw you get knocked out. It's been two days, we were all getting worried..."

Jonouchi trailed off, Yuugi staring back at him. He'd been knocked unconscious for two entire days? Jonouchi then chose to mention something about getting the others and left, presumably to go and find them; Yuugi let himself sink back into the pillows. Outside, he could hear rain falling. It sounded like a very heavy rainstorm; some corner of Yuugi's mind noted that it was a little odd for so much rain this time of year.

Eventually, Jonouchi returned with Honda and Mai in tow. Yuugi noticed instantly that someone from their group was missing.

(Where is Yami) Yuugi asked, already fearing the worst.

The suddenly downcast looks the other three were wearing only confirmed Yuugi's fears. Mai still felt the need to say the dreadful words out loud.

"Shortly after you were knocked out, Yami was captured," Mai said softly.

Even with the expectation that that was true, hearing it was still painful. After a minute, Yuugi tried to get up - why, he wasn't sure, but he felt like he just had to move. The others stopped Yuugi, telling him he still needed to take it easy for a while. After a bit more uncomfortable silence, the others excused themselves, leaving Yuugi alone.

Yuugi tried to do as they wanted, and attempted to doze. But something about the fact that Yami was gone - besides the fact that he was in the clutches of the demons, who were doing who-knew-what to him - was just too disturbing. Yuugi had to see for himself, to quiet the part of himself that was raging and denying, over and over, that Yami was really gone.

Knowing there were people on the other side of the bedroom door, and that they would send him back to bed as soon as he tried to leave, Yuugi tried to make himself not think of anything. He listened to the rain that was coming down as fierce as ever.

The rain sounded angry, as though something important to it had been taken away as well. The weather would forget and it's fury would pass over time, but Yuugi didn't even have anything to remember him by...

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Yuugi paused in his meandering thoughts, poised over the last few words.

Something to remember him by...like that pendant! Yami's pendant! Yami had given it to him moments before that girl demon had attacked. Where was it?

Yuugi looked around the room, but the pendant was nowhere in sight. Maybe it was in another room...Yuugi tiptoed out of the bedroom. The rest of the apartment was open before him. Yuugi couldn't see any sign of the pendant anywhere, but he could hear someone taking a shower, and Jonouchi was asleep on Mai's couch.

Maybe the pendant had been left behind accidentally...and so it was still on the roof? Yuugi hoped this apartment was in the same building...slipping on his shoes and borrowing an umbrella, Yuugi crept out of the apartment, eyes peeled for someone stopping him, and climbed up the stairs.

Rain pelted him and a gust of wind sent a chill through him the moment Yuugi pushed open the rooftop door. Ignoring the weather, Yuugi looked around the roof. Eventually, a glint of gold caught his eye. Yuugi went to check it immediately, and was delighted to find the pendant lying out in the open, waiting for him. When he picked it up, Yuugi was startled to discover that the pendant, despite lying out in the rain and cold for hours on end, was completely dry and warm. It seemed almost to hum as it lay in his hand...

While Yuugi wondered about this, he caught a glimpse of something. It was only a flash of something else on the roof, something gleaming and bright. Yuugi spotted it just out of the very corner of his eye. Stuffing the pendant away in a pocket, Yuugi wandered over to the source of the gleam with a vague sense of curiosity.

It was a feather of some kind, long and elegant looking. It stuck out of the weird gritty material that the roof was covered with at an odd angle. Yuugi thought it seemed almost as if the wing this feather had come from had been slammed hard against the roof, and this single feather had been ripped free...

"Yuugi! Are you trying to catch pneumonia out here?"

Mai stormed up behind him, her features stern. Then, seeing what Yuugi held in his hand, they faltered.

"...Come back inside. We need to plan on what we should do next," Mai said.

Yuugi took the feather back inside with him. It was almost eerily sad to contemplate how the gleaming feather still possessed its subtle glow...

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"Hey, I have a question. What can we really do, anyway?" Honda asked as soon as the four of them began to confer.

"They were after Yami," Jonouchi pointed out, "And now that they have him, is there any chance we can find where they'd keep him?"

Remembering something Yami had said, Jonouchi added, "Wait, if they have Yami, are they even gonna come back for us?"

"Not likely," Mai said, "Actually, you boys could just go back to your old lives right now. Forget this even happened."

Yuugi shook his head immediately.

(No. Couldn't forget this) he signed.

Seeing the depressed state of their gentle-hearted friend, Honda and Jonouchi felt guilty for even considering Mai's suggestion. Knowing their friend very well, it didn't take much longer for Jonouchi to follow the train of thought that Yuugi was leaning towards to its conclusion, even before the mute teen began to consider it himself.

Hell, it was probably inevitable anyway.

"...Is there any chance we can get him back?"

Yuugi and Honda jerked in their seats, startled. Mai just blinked at the question, confused that it would even be asked. And humans made fun of their female blondes for having a lack of forethought?

"Do you even understand what it is you're proposing, Jonouchi?" Mai asked Jonouchi, just to be certain, "You want to go against a demon swarm to try and single-handedly rescue Yami?"

(Not single) Yuugi signed, (I want to find Yami also)

"Both of you..."

Mai trailed off, her face clearly showing her troubled thoughts. Discarding them with a shake of her head and a rueful smile, Mai continued, "You're going to have quite a job locating him. That swarm is long gone by now. Unless you knew where they planned to take Yami, there's no way for you to track them."

"We'll figure something out!" Jonouchi protested, not to be dissuaded.

"A cross-country chase, when we have no idea where we'll be going?"

Honda looked doubtful. Then the doubt changed into remorse.

"Not to mention that my folks would go berserk if I cut town. You know how they are...well, Jonouchi does."

The blond teen nodded.

"Yeah, I know. It's okay if you need to stay here, Honda," Jonouchi added, "Can't force ya to risk your life ticking off your folks. Right Yuugi?"

Yuugi signed his agreement, not the least bit angry. Mai chose to stay out of the matter, not being a full-fledged member of their friendship troop. As soon as the three teens had done their little routines to reassure each other that they would be best friends forever and that nothing would ever change that, Honda excused himself to go back home.

"If I don't know what you guys are up to, or where the hell you're going, who can I tell?" was Honda's reasoning.

Once Honda was gone, Yuugi turned to Mai.

(Is there any sort of clue or anything to where the demons took Yami) Yuugi asked, (If the demons have been hunting Ban-Ile all this time, the Ban-Ile must have some sort of idea)

Mai thought. Several minutes of near-silence passed - Jonouchi was fidgeting - before Mai spoke again.

"The only thing I ever heard of was this old poem," Mai explained, "It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it does talk about the location of the 'homeland of the demons'. This may have nothing to do with where that swarm has taken Yami, but it's all I can think of..."

"Better than nothing at all," Jonouchi grinned, "Let'er rip, Mai!"

Eyes closed to aid her recall, Mai recited the verse.

"If untimely end be what thou seeks,

My dearest friends, please follow me.

Know me as Door to Dark and Despair

Hidden not in lands of fair.

Blue serpent head in water's heart,

This is the mark of thy start.

My breath flows out to mark the place

Tails become heads in this way.

Follow back without a change

Mark where sky and clouds meet and part ways.

Here thy dilemma shall only grow

A rule of Shadow that thou didst not know.

Having only ancient treasured Key

I shall open up to thee.

Having golden Key and Lock

On the Door to Death thou is safe to knock.

Knowing this that either way

To Demon Death thy visit pays."

Yuugi and Jonouchi sat for a bit after the poem ended. Finally Jonouchi, unable to contain his response to the words, spoke.

"That was the creepiest, weirdest, no-sense-makingest thing I have EVER heard. Ever."

"I warned you," Mai replied.

"Guess we're back to step one, eh Yuugi?"

Yuugi, however, was still thinking about the words quite hard. The only visible signals of Yuugi's intense mental activities were his distant gaze and the twitching of his fingers - as if they were trying to form the words of the thoughts going through Yuugi's sharp mind. Seeing these cues, Jonouchi grinned. The only reason Yuugi was in the same class as himself and Honda at school was the shorter teen's lack of interest in doing schoolwork. Otherwise, Yuugi was a certifiable genius, through and through.

Once he was finished contemplating the meaning of the poem, Yuugi refocused his gaze to see Jonouchi watching him expectantly.

"Got something?" the blonde teen asked.

Yuugi nodded.

(Think so) Yuugi signed, (Directions made no sense. Thing about Key and Lock reminded me of Yami's story. Powerful treasures sound like those artifacts. I think we need at least one to go to land of demons)

"Cool! I love a good scavenger hunt," Jonouchi grinned.

"That does make sense," Mai said, "If the artifacts sealed the way into the demon's homeland, then they would naturally allow passage. That's the reason the demons are hunting down Ban-Ile to begin with, to find the artifacts!"

Inwardly, Mai was wondering why this had never occurred to her. It seemed so obvious...but most revelations seemed obvious in hindsight.

"Uh, just out of curiosity..." Jonouchi asked, his enthusiasm ebbing only slightly, "You know anything about that, Mai? Like, how many do we gotta chose from?"

"It's common knowledge that there were seven mystical artifacts used in the seal," Mai explained, "They were a specially created set, the only ones that could do the job. After the sealing, the artifacts were locked away, scattered across the globe. No one except those who guard them know where exactly any of them are, as there are so many possible hiding places to go through."

"Awesome!" Jonouchi exclaimed, nearly cheering, "After all, it would totally suck if this turned out to be too easy. Right?"

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