The Abnormal: Amane's Tale
Disclaimer: Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, and TV Tokyo. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.
Part 9: The Girl and the Inhuman Human
Serenity's never been to a club before, her wardrobe is proof of that. Tea and Amane glance from her to each other before unanimously deciding that she needed a new outfit for her birthday party. The girl protests almost the entire way to the mall, but they are relentless.
"Serenity, you don't even have a proper bra that fits you," Tea puts her hands on her hips as Amane practically stuffs Duke's girlfriend (never thought she'd be saying that allowed) in the backseat. "Besides, you're turning sixteen. Think of this as an early birthday present."
Five hours later, they drop off a very embarrassed Serenity Wheeler at her apartment with new underwear - "Amane, she's been wearing sports bras for all of high school." "So?" "Serenity has bigger boobs than me!" "Tea, you're barely a B. Everyone has bigger boobs than you." - five new shirts - "Serenity, try this one!" "Amane, I drew the line at halter tops. That is see-through." "Your point?" - two pairs of jeans - "I can't breathe!" - and one pair of really nice heals - "Left or right, Serenity." "I don't know." "Make a choice." "...kind of like them both."
Make that two pairs of really nice heals.
Amane pays for everything. Well, it appears that she's paying for everything, but in reality it's the Spanish government that is unknowingly picking up the tab. gh05twr1tt3r has returned to the Internet and has established it as her own little empire. The poor Spaniards' should have updated the security surrounding their gold. It would have given her more of a challenge. She thinks she'll go for Italy next and then work her way up to Switzerland.
But the fact that she has several million euros in her back pocket isn't enough to make her nervous. It's not the fact that her Internet handle is neck and neck with Yugi Mutuo when it comes to international criminal infamy. No, it is her own father that terrifies her the most.
She catches him trying to pick the lock on Ryou's bedroom door once. He stops as soon as he sees her coming up the stairs, moving away as if he was never there. There are other nights where he doesn't come home at all. He calls mom on those afternoons, saying that he's got a big case and that he's up for promotion. He needs to stay behind because something big is going to happen soon. Dad can't tell her much, but Amane thinks that he's going to be part of a raid some time within the next few weeks.
She's tapped the land lines and her parent's cell phones. Every call, every text message, every little thing that they do is recorded onto her laptop for her to go through at the end of the day. There is an extensive log of all the Internet sites that they visit, both on their phones and home computer. She's compiling a complete history of both of her parents, digging into their lives in a desperate hope for something - anything - that will help keep the Orichalcos away.
In her other free time, Amane researches old protective enchantments and ornaments from old pagan practices. She goes out and buys wind chimes and dream catchers, hanging them from her ceiling in hopes of warding off evil. She also buys a large bag of salt from the grocery store and pours it discretely around the walls of her room. Amane hopes that they will be enough to protect her and the information that is inside these four walls.
She's also been thinking about her future. Amane knows that it's going to be filled with war against the beast and the Orichalcos, but less than a year ago, she didn't know that. She gets her first reminder of what that old was like when Tristan gets accepted into Columbia in New York City. She remembers that, not long ago, she too had sent in applications to college. But now she doesn't want to go.
Amane takes this opportunity to start thinking about moving out of her parents house and into an apartment. It would give her more control over the protection that she could have. With her alternate identity of gh05twr1tt3r, she could easily score a penthouse suite in one of the best condominiums in America, but that would raise too many questions as to where she got the money. Amame thinks that she'll bum it in a small place for a while and then make her way up. From Italy to Switzerland, one might say.
She realizes that what she's really considering is running away - running from her father and leaving her mother to his mercy. Amane actually considers leaving now, just packing her bags and disappearing off the face of the Earth. But then she thinks of Ryou and how he would probably tear the city apart, if not the entire country, looking for her if he came home from Atlantis and she was gone. She puts the idea out of her mind and decided to stay, if only for the sake of his sanity.
She wonders if this is what it's like to be a soldier. Amane wonders how long it's going to be before she goes out and gets herself a gun. She doubts that it will be that long because she's already bought herself a switchblade. A gun is just the next logical step.
The clock turns seven when Magic appears in front of her. Unfortunately for him, she'd expected him to do that and was fully clothed with no undergarments within sight. He tries not to look too disappointed as he becomes completely physical and looses his heartbeat, his breath, his signature plural voice.
"I mentioned that you were coming to Serenity and she's fine with it," Amane explains as they wait together on her front porch for Tea to come pick them up. Magic's toes curl in the grass at his feet.
"I thought it would be appropriate if I brought her a gift," he seems to pull a wrapped box from out of no where.
"Can I know what it is?" She asks.
"Serenity likes things made of stained glass. She likes the colours that they cast on the wall when the light shines through them. It's just something that she can hang in her window," he comments, leaning back and cracking his neck in a way that is all too human. "I can't believe she's already sixteen. It seems like just yesterday when she was born."
"You were there when she was born?" Amane says without thinking, before realizing that of course he was there. Magic was practically everywhere at once, so he was probably there when Serenity was born.
"I was there when you were born as well," he admits. "Ryou Bakura was not as loud as you were, but you slept easier than him ever did as an infant. And while your parents were asleep at night, sometimes I used to go into your room and just sit with the pair of you. I even changed your brother's diaper once."
"Don't ever tell him that, he'd be too embarassed," Amane laughs.
"It is not something I want to remember," he shudders at the memory, before turning his head towards on end of the street. She takes that as a sign that Tea is about to arrive. Amane stands and helps Magic to his feet. He holds her hand until Tea's car comes around the corner.
He looks nice, she notices. In fact, she would go as far as to say that Magic dressed up a bit for this. Not in the sense that he's wearing something fancy - on the other hand, he looks more like an actual teenager going out with his friends. He's clad in faded jeans and a white hoodie with an interesting swirling design on the back. Amane can see that something is written on his white shirt, but has no idea what it says.
"Hey, you two! Get in!" Tea waves from the driver's seat. Magic stiffens, but Amane hooks her arm around his and together they walk to the car. She elbows him in the side to get him to talk.
"Th-thank you, Tea," he stammers from where he sits in the back with her. She realizes that this is probably the first time he'd ever talked to another human, aside from herself, in over a millennia.
"For what?" Tea asks as she pulls out of the drive way.
"For driving us," he leans forward, eager for more communication.
"No prob," she grins into the rear view mirror. Amane frowns slightly at Tea's new attitude towards the being she thinks is her brother.
Magic whispers in her ear, "I don't have the Ward."
"Oh," she murmurs back as his hand finds her's again.
"So, Joey's driving Serenity and picking up Tristan," Tea explained from the front. "Duke's coming on his own. We'll have to wait for him, cause it's his cousin that owns the place. Until then," she reached down and cracked the music on the radio, "let's go!"
It usually takes about half an hour to get to the club, however they make it in twenty because Tea keeps hitting green lights all the way down. They seem to change just as she starts pulling up. Amane has the sneaking suspicion that Magic is doing something to make that happen.
Usually, it's only Tea and Amane that sing along to the songs when they do to parties and have friends in the car. However, Magic joins them, knowing the lyrics to every beat that comes onto the station. It gets tot he point where Tea decides to play Name That Tune with him. Magic can not only name the song title and band name for each song, but the album name, the year that CD was first released, and track number of the song. She finally gives up after he gets her on Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse.
"How do you know all of that?" She asks, exasperated and slightly awed.
"I know a little bit of everything," he answers. Amane chuckles in the background, knowing his secret.
But Magic looks absolutely ecstatic. When he looks at her, asking silently if he's going a good job at talking, his eyes are bright with pure joy. She even sees the corners of his lips twitching into a smile as Tea continues to talk to him.
When their car finally pulls into the parking lot, Magic is the first to hop out of the car. He holds the door open for Amane, helping her out. He leans over enough that she can finally see what's written on his shirt. It sends her into such a fit of laugher that she nearly collapses.
"I don't get the joke," Tea stares at her.
"Neither do I," Magic raises an eyebrow in confusion. She continues to laugh at the guy because only on him would a t-shirt that said 'I was an atheist, but then I realized I am God' be this hilarious.
Joey tried to pick her up again. She turns him down as nicely as she could and watches him slick back over to were Tristan is sitting. Amane walks passed the dance floor, knowing that Duke and Serenity are somewhere in the mass of dancing bodies. She finds a seat at the bar and orders herself a Diet Coke. She hasn't touched alcohol since...that night when Keith disappeared.
An instant later, Magic is at her side, lifting himself onto the chair beside her that she could swear was empty a few moments earlier. The bartender asks if he wants anything. He ask for tap water, of all things. The guy behind the counter gives him an odd look, but a few minutes later a Black Eye Peas song is playing and they are both sipping on their drinks.
"So?" She nudges him with her shoulder, "Is it as bad as you thought it would be?"
"I never thought it would be bad," he shrugs. "Serenity likes her gift."
"That she does," Amane remembers the girl's face when she opened it as they were waiting for Duke. Serenity had been utterly delighted and had actually hugged Magic. He hadn't known what to do for a second, glancing at her for any form of advice. She didn't give any, just to be annoying. He got the hang of hugging eventually.
"That was really sweet of you," she comments as the bartender comes back to ask if they want refills on their drinks. Magic stops him and looks the man dead in the eye.
"She's not the one for you," he tells the man.
The guy frowns, "What?"
"Your girlfriend. But that smell on her you've been thinking is cologne is actually women's perfume and it's not her's," Magic holds his gaze. "Don't be too harsh on her, she's only just come to term with who she really is."
"O-okay," the man stumbles off, looking a bit dazed. He brings over their refills, but doesn't ask for any money.
"What the hell was that?" Amane hisses at him.
Magic blinks, "His girlfriend is just admitted to herself that she's a lesbian. He's been thinking that she's been cheating on him with his older brother. He's wrong: it's with a woman that he doesn't know."
"How do you - no, wait. I know. Sorry, I forgot for a second," Amane shakes her head, looking at him from the corner of her eye. He takes a quick drink of his water before continuing.
"I'm not human, Amane. I'm never going to be human," he tells her. "I know who every person in this room is. I know who they are, who they were, and who they will be. I know they're parents and their parent's parents. I know that you share common ancestors with five people in this room if you go back ten generations and eight if you go back twenty. And that includes that guy over there," Magic points to some creeper kid at the other end of the bar, "who's been eying you all night."
"Well, that's one hell of a turn off," she looks at the kid, who couldn't be a day over fourteen but was trying to score with her.
"Trust me, I can read his mind. If you saw what was going on his mind right now, you would be reaching for the mace in your bag right now," Magic sends the kid a glare that sends him running to the other side of the room.
"Nice," Amane comments. "Is this going to be the part where you say that you're too old, too dangerous to be with me? That because you're not human and all."
She hopes that that is not the case. It would totally ruin what she wanted to tell him tonight.
Instead he looks a bit embarassed, "Ah, no. That's not what I was going to say."
"What then?" She asks.
"I thought you'd find it cool," he rubs the back of his neck.
It's then that she realizes just what Magic is doing. For all this insane powers and crazy-ass back story, his castle and his workroom and his library, he is simply trying to impress her. It's like when a guy shows off his car to the girl he likes. Except with him, Magic is showing her his abilities.
He's so inhuman that he's human. He's so brilliant that he's an idiot. He's so weak that he's the strongest person in the world.
He's so imperfect that he is perfect. And he's hers. Amane reaches forward on impulse and pulls his face towards her's, kissing him full on the mouth. She doesn't give a damn if anyone sees her. She doesn't care if they think she's kissing Ryou because she's not. She's kissing Magic. And he's finally gotten out of his stupor to start kissing her back.
When he pulls back, his eyes are ridiculously wide. He's panting, but no breath comes out of his mouth. Then he reaches down, pulling the bar stool she's sitting on closer to him and then goes right back to kissing her. This time, it's soft and slow, one of his hands at the base of her neck and the other on the small of her back. Hers have long since disappeared into his hair. Amane comes to the conclusion that this is probably one of her better decisions in life.
She's the one that breaks the kiss this time, only because she's the one that actually needs to breathe in order to survive. Before she can go back to him, Magic looks to the side and groans.
"What's wrong?" Amane gasps.
"Duke and Joey saw us. They think -"
"Magic, if they want to watch, they can cough up an entrance fee," she tells him. "They can tell who ever they want. I don't care."
"But we thought..." his voice slipped back into his plural one of a second. The he tried to go back into his singular one, but quiet halfway through. "We thought that you were just figuring things out."
"I have figured things out. Better question: have you?" Amane leans forwards and plants a kiss on his neck. She wants him, bad enough at when she looks over to where Duke and Joey are standing dumbstruck, she smirks into Magic's skin.
"Yeah. We've figured a few things out," he backs away. "Adrian!"
The bartender jumps when Magic calls, moving back to them with almost frightening speed, "Yeah?"
"We came here with a few friends. They look like this," he grabs the bartender by the hand and lost his human form for a second, becoming the burning shadow. As he returns to the way he was, Adrian steps back in shock, "Could you tell them that we went back to our place?"
The bartender nods dumbly. Amane gets a bit tired of waiting, so she drags Magic out of the club and around into the alley. She pushes him in the wall and claims his lips for her own. He's hers. He's totally and completely hers.
"Wait," he hisses into her mouth.
"No. No more waiting. I've been stupid enough to let this go on for as long as it has," Amane tries to kiss him again, but Magic holds her at arms length. For one horrifying moment, she fears that he'll reject her.
"Not that kind of waiting," he tells her. "It's just...we can't do this, like this."
"You're not making sense."
Magic leans his head back against the bricks before taking her hand and pressing it against his neck, "We have no heartbeat in this form. No heartbeat means not blood flow, which means...please don't make us say it."
Amane frowns in confusion for a few seconds before looking down and...oh. No blood flow meant no erection for him.
"So go invisible," she feels like pulling on her hair in frustration. She wanted him so badly and now there was this whole thing to deal with.
"Amane, there is a garbage can next to us," Magic sighs. She looks and low and behold, there is one right there. It makes her feel like a hooker he just met, meeting him in a place like this. Amane feels dirty - really dirty. She backs away from him.
"I'm...I'm so sorry. I just got carried away," she mumbles. "Shit, I never should have - I thought you'd want...you know what this is just stupid, I'm sorry - mhnn!"
Magic pulls her back towards him, kissing her with every ounce of desperation that runs through his body and yet he cannot feel. She finds herself doing the exact same thing to him and suddenly he's walking her backwards. Her legs hit the end of her bed and she figures that he must have teleported her there at some point. When he pulls back for breath, she realizes that his eyes are changing again and he's back to how she first met him.
Amane gently touches his face and Magic looks at her with one of his smoldering gazes. She knows that he's not human, knows and excepts that fact. She knows that he is incapable of feeling any emotion, but that doesn't stop him from being the most emotional person she's ever met. She knows that he loves her, somewhere deep down in the core of his being, a part of him that he thinks he's lost but hasn't really. Amane knows and accepts him for all that he his.
"Are you sure?" He asks her one more time.
"I love you," she tells him in return. Amane doesn't know where that came from, but it seems to fit. She once thought that she would only love Ryou. She was wrong. Because Magic isn't Ryou, he will never be Ryou. And while she will always love Ryou, she is still in love with this inhuman human, this imperfectly perfect person.
Magic tries to force out the returning phrase for those three words, but can't. She wonders if he can lie. She doesn't think he can. Amane smiles anyways, placing a single finger on his lips to silence him.
"I know," she says to him. "I also know you can't say it. Could you...show me instead?"
"We think we can do that," Magic whispers huskily, kissing her jawline lightly. Amane's hands find the zipper of his hoodie, pulls it all the way down and pushes it off of him.
"I still can't believe you wore that shirt," she snickers when she reads the line that is written on the fabric. He looks down.
"Wait, this was what you were laughing at?"
"Yes!" She rolls her eyes, "Now shut up and kiss me."
He does. They stumble their way onto her bed and he kisses her everywhere. His hands are a bit rough, but his touch is soft and gentle and wonderful. Amane clings to him as Magic practically worships her body, driving her to the brink of madness without even being inside her.
When her mind starts to make it's way back to planet Earth, she finds him with his face between her legs. Amane's hands find his hair and she hopes that he doesn't make her scream too loudly because her parents might be home and oh god, do that again!
He leaves her so close to completion it physically hurts. Magic move up, tongue swirling around her belly button for one moment before capturing her mouth again. Amane practically begs him to just please, please do it. She wants to be closer to him. She's not close enough and she wants to be be, but they're not.
She nearly screams in agony when he shifts off to the side away from her to dig in the bedside table for condoms. In his haste, Magic nearly drops the contents of the entire box on the floor. His hands shake almost uncontrollably as he tries to put the thing on himself. She tries to help, but can't do much because her entire body has been turned to putty by him.
He leans over her one last time, but instead of kissing her Magic shakily forces "We want to love you" out of his mouth. And then suddenly, he's inside her. He's moving and Amane forgets how to breath for a few minutes. She can't tell where she ends and Magic begins. They're as close as they are ever going to get. They are one with one another.
She loves him. She loves him. Amane tells him this constantly, with each thrust of his body and between every single one of her gasps. She loves him. She has never loved someone like she loves him. She will always love him.
Always and forever.
Her name is the only language Magic knows, the only thing he is capable of saying. And he stares into her eyes as she explodes, following a second behind her. When the stars disappear from her vision, he is collapsed on top of her, breathing hard and his body a mass of involuntary twitches. Pulling out of her makes him make a very strange noise as he rolls off of her. He waves his hand and the used condom disappears from sight.
When Magic turns to face her, changing eyes still staring directly at her, she doesn't think she's ever known anyone to be as beautiful as him.
Her eyes droop and a wave of tiredness washes over her. Magic touches her lips gently with his fingers, as if in awe of her existence. It is only then that she realizes that he's smiling.
When she comments on it, Magic brings her hand towards his chest. He settles it over where his heart is, "It feels warm. Better than warm. Is this happiness?"
"I think so," she snuggles up to his body. "It's too bad, though."
"What's too bad?" He asks.
"You wore me out completely. I wanted to go a second round at least," Amane chuckles as darkness starts to invade the corners of her vision.
"You could...always come over to our place," Magic suggests.
"Aren't you worried that we'll keep the entire castle up?" She jokes sleepily.
He whispers his next words to her just as she slips into the world of her dreams, of her Soul Room and his castle, "Amane. You. Us. Our room. Desk. Now."
Amane wakes up the next morning to her cell phone going off. It chirps and buzzes on her nightstand, forcing her into reality. Magic's arm is slung over her hip as his body curves against hers. His grip tightens when she shifts away from him to grab it.
"It's Tea," he mumbles against her back. "She wants to know how you got home."
"Well then, I'll need to answer her or she might call the cops," Amane smiles at his reluctance to let her go. She answers her incoming call with a bright and cheery "Good morning!"
"Amane, it's practically noon," Tea is rolling her eyes, she can just feel is. "I just woke you up, didn't I?"
"Kind of. I had a late night," she grins as Magic blearily opens his changing eyes and moves away, getting up to grab his boxers that have migrated to the farthest corner of her room. He raises an eyebrow suggestively when he catches her staring at him.
"It was with Ted. Except his name isn't Ted, is it Amane?" Tea's voice is surprisingly not dark or accusing. It's accepting, almost as if she's known...Amane's blood runs cold as she finally realizes that her best friend knows a lot more than she lets on, "I don't know who you brought with you last night, but he was not your brother."
"How did you...?"
"Figure it out? Amane, I'm not an idiot. Your brother has red eyes and the person that you brought had eyes that were white," she says it like she's telling her the time of day. "What kind of person has white eyes? And for that matter, what kind of person has red ones?"
"Tea, please. I can't answer those questions," Amane sits up. Magic puts his hoodie around her shoulders, sounding her with warmth. Then he sits beside her on the bed, waiting for the call to end, head tilted to the side as he listens to Tea's words from a far.
"I don't want get involved in what you're getting into. Something tells me that I don't want to know anyways," she sighs into the receiver. "But...who ever he is, does he make you happy?"
Amane looks at Magic, sitting there in nothing but a pair of boxers. Her face softens at the sight, "Yes, he does."
His eyes snap to her's as they continue to change their color. They are full of his love for her. She wonders if she can see the same love in her eyes.
"Then don't you dare let him go," Tea tells her before hanging up. Amane slowly sets the phone down, turning to him.
"We...make you happy?" He hesitantly asks.
She chuckles softly at him, "Very happy."
"Amane, you make us very happy too," he leans forwards and kisses her softly. Amane smiles into his kiss and embraces him and all that he is.
And then they begin the Great Clothing Search, which surprisingly enough takes them a full fifteen minutes to complete.
"Magic, how the hell did my panties get over there?"
"We were in a bit of a hurry!"
"Moron."
"Your moron."
Blush, "Sh-shut up."
"Never. Never ever ever."
"Are you at least going to tell me how old the guy is?" Tea asks, exasperated with Amane for not telling her a damn thing about the mystery man.
"No, Tea. Trust me, you wouldn't believe me even if I did tell you," she answers.
"Older or younger than you. Come on, give me that much," the girl leans forwards and hisses, hoping not to attract the attention of Ms. Madusa
"Older," Amane tells her.
"How much older?"
Amane gives her a look that says 'Back off.' She doesn't, "So why does he look like your brother?"
"He doesn't," she feels like slamming her head into her desk. "Ryou looks like him."
"Does he know about this guy?"
"Knows him: no. Knows of him: yes."
"So your brother copies his style, like a celebrity or something?" Tea is on the edge of her seat.
Amane shakes her head, "No. Not like that."
Actually, she doesn't know why the two of them look so similar. It's something that's been nagging at her mind for a while, but she's never gotten around to asking Magic about it. She should probably do that sooner rather than later.
The girl behind Amane pokes her in the shoulder and passes a note to her. It's written on a scrap of lined paper in Duke's handwriting: 'We need to talk.' She looks back at the guy and he grimaces at her glare.
After class, Duke follows her outside the school and behind the bleachers. Tilla Mook and Pete Coppermine are lip locked and half naked there. Amane raises an eyebrow, "Can you two get a room? And if I may suggest one, use the janitors closet on the third floor. No one ever goes in there."
Red in the face and embarrassed at getting caught, the pair of them stumble away righting their clothes. Amane turns on Duke, "It's none of your business about what you saw on Saturday."
"I know it's not," he looks around anxiously. "It's none of my business how you and your brother are when you're alone. I've known for a while and I've been trying to keep it secret for you two."
"You what?" Her jaw drops. Someone found out about her feelings for Ryou? Duke knew and the first thing he does is try to keep it under wraps?
"I'm not blind, Amane. I've seen the way you two look at each other. He'd do anything for you," Duke comments. "It's freaky weird and stuff, but it's your business and I don't really want to get involved in that."
"Then what do you want?" She frowns.
"I need some advice," he blurts out. Duke tells her that his parents want him to break up with Serenity.
"Why? She's the sweetest girl on the freaking planet. What problem could they have with her?" Amane, confused as hell, asks him.
"They did a background check on her when they found out we were dating," he admits. "They hired some guy to practically stalk her for a month and then run her financials. They're convinced that she's only with me for my money."
"That's the stupidest thing I've heard in my entire life," she's outraged, completely and utterly outraged. "Serenity's never even asked me for fifty cents to get something from a vending machine before. Hell, when I paid for her clothes for Saturday, Tea had to steal her wallet to keep her from trying to do it herself."
"I know, but they don't see it like that. They never liked my decision to attend a public school - they keep saying that now that I've had my fun with 'commoners' I should go back to the family business. They made their millions running a company that sugar plantations in the Caribbean. They've never been down to one of their farms, so they don't care if it's practically slavery that's racking in their cash," he snaps, slamming his hand against one of the posts that hold up the bleachers. Amane had never asked how the Devlin family got so rich, but now she's not sure if she wanted to know.
"Serenity is my life," he tells her. "I want to marry her one day. I want to have kids with her, I want to raise them with her, I want to live with her for the rest of my life. And when I'm dead and gone, I want to be buried next to her. But if I choose her, then my family will want nothing to do with me. I've seen it before. They disowned my cousin because he wanted to run off with his mistress instead of living with the wife they chose for him."
"They have a problem with her because she doesn't have money?" This seemed absolutely ridiculous.
"Well, that and they think she's going to turn out like her parents," he explains. "You do know about them, right?"
Amane shakes her head. All she knows is that Joseph Wheeler is a single father that works as a mechanic. Other than that, she knows nothing.
"Her dad's a former alcoholic and he sent a few months in jail for trespassing a couple years before Joey was born," Duke tells her. "Their mom got pregnant with him when she was sixteen and is a crack addict. She left their father after Serenity got diagnosed with her eye problem. The private investigator found her working the streets in Brooklyn as a prostitute."
"So what you're saying is that your parents think that Serenity is going to whore herself to you for money to buy drugs and alcohol?" Amane shakes her head, disbelieving, "Do you believe that there's any merit to what they're saying?"
"Of course not! Why would I?" Duke looks livid at the thought that she would even suggest such a thing.
"Good, because at the end of the day, it's what you think that counts. Now I don't know what your parents are smoking that they believe any of that crap that you just told me," Amane still can't wrap her own head around the idea, "but they obviously don't know shit. You love Serenity, you really do, but they don't get that and they probably never will. So you're going to have to make a choice and it's going to be between them and her."
"But which one? What do I do, Amane? I've got no clue where to go from here," he begs her for answers that she doesn't have.
"I don't know, Duke. I really don't. But you've got to make that decision and you've got to do it soon because I'm not always going to be around to help you out. Why did you come to me anyways?" She asks.
"Because you've had to make a choice like that," he looks down at the ground. "Between your brother and your parents."
Duke is both right and wrong at the same time. Amane has chosen Ryou over her parents. She's going to run at the end of the year and leave this life behind her. She's not going to look back and she's going to fight beside her brother all the way to the end of this bitter war against the Orichalcos. Duke thinks that she's chosen to be with Ryou over whatever their parents think is a respectable match for her and that's the only part of his theory where he's wrong.
"You've got to make that choice for yourself," she tells him again, starting to walk back to the school. Duke follows along behind, but asks one more question.
"Amane, are you going somewhere after graduation?"
"Yes, Duke," she tells him straight up. "Yes, I am. After we graduate, you're probably not going to see me for a very long time."
"Where are you going?"
Amane pauses, thinking of what is best to tell him. When she comes up with an answer, she tells him, "I made a choice. And I'm going to follow the path that that choice has set out for me."
Hello everyone.
I'd like to thank those who reviewed for the last chapter: ilovemanicures and xXAnarchronIsmEpsIceXx.
It is official: Magic and Amane are together-together now. They will be for the rest of The Abnormal as well as the rest of The Others series. However, one must remember that Amane has and will always love Ryou, despite her relationship with Magic. Nothing is going to change that.
Something has been on my mind lately. I'm sure you've all heard of the charity that LittleKuribo is going for Dan Green and his family. I'm not going to try to convince you to donate (if you can that's great; if not, that's fine too), but I think that it is absolutely amazing that someone has organized this for the man. When I tell people that I write fanfiction for Yugioh, I sometimes get laughed at because people think that anime is stupid or that Yugioh is just about a children's card game. It's not.
It is a tale that taught me about what it really means to be a true friend, showed me just how far one can go to protect their family, and gave me an insight into the depths of the human soul. I woke up early every Saturday morning so that I could watch Yugioh when I was young and it was because of Dan Green that I was able to do that. It is because of Dan that I got interested in Yugioh and made me start to write.
It's because of him that I was able to meet all of you.
And when ever I receive an email from , telling me that someone favourited one of my stories or put me on author alert or wrote me a review, I smile. Because I know that Yugioh is so much more than just a card game. It's a community of people across the globe that I am apart of. People from all over the world have touched my life, just as I've reached out and touched theirs.
So when I see that LittleKuribo has set up a charity for Dan Green, I know that someday his children are going to find that video he posted asking for help. And then they too will realize what Yugioh is and what they are apart of: one giant family.
Until next time, my friends,
AlcatrazOutpatient
