Chapter 10: What's Lost Is Found

written 9/28/2018 – 10/1/2018

published 10/8/2018

2,062 words

Tender lumplings everywhere

Life's no fun without a good scare

The mayor's office was small and cramped and not at all intended for use as a place for travelers to sleep. And yet, that's exactly what Pegasus made the two humans do.

"We'll continue looking for your friend," the two-faced mayor had promised. He shot an angry look in the direction of Kaiba and his team, once again sending the three child-sized monsters scuttling to hide behind their much larger leader. One by one, the skeletal Mokuba, the witch-y Rebecca, and the devilish Leon all cautiously peered out around Kaiba's long, bony legs. They were terrified of the monstrous mayor, and Marik wasn't sure he could blame them.

"I'm sure we'll find him, won't we, Kaiba?" The mayor's voice had a growl and a hiss lying underneath it. Just listening to it sent shivers down Marik's spine, and he could see the other monsters all shrinking in on themselves. Even Pegasus' biggest fan Otogi was wincing and stepping backwards, as though trying to get away from the mayor's voice.

Kaiba, on the other hand, returned Pegasus' glare with just as much fire, his deep eye sockets morphing into an unnatural 'v' shape. "We will look. But I make no promises about finding him."

Yugi's face fell, the hopeful spark in his eyes vanishing, and Marik felt more than ever like kicking himself.

Since it was so late, Pegasus insisted that the humans stay in the temporary safety of his office, telling them to rest their bodies.

"At least try to get some sleep," he suggested, driving them back to his office. Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, and Otogi all stayed behind, saying that they would help Kaiba and the others search for the missing human for awhile longer.

Arriving back at his hole-in-the-wall office, Pegasus gently forced Marik and Yugi each into the soft chairs in front of his desk. He looked them both over with some concern, offering them a tired smile. "You've both gone through a lot tonight. You won't be of any help to your friend in this exhausted state."

"But-" Yugi opened his mouth to argue, then sighed, defeated. He slouched back into the chair like a deflated balloon, causing the small frame of his body to look even smaller. "... fine."

Marik felt his stomach drop. He turned so that he was facing away from Yugi, pretending to get comfortable in the chair as a way of avoiding facing his remaining friend.

His pragmatic side recognized the wisdom of what Pegasus said – there wasn't anything the two of them could do to help Ryou at the moment, not when they were exhausted, and probably the best thing they could do was wait until the morning. Especially in an environment as hostile as this Halloween Town of Hollow World, what could two humans hope to accomplish?

Yugi sighed again, his voice low, hardly a whisper. "But, still... I hope Ryou's alright out there. If anything bad has happened to him..."

The air hung thick and unsettled with that incomplete sentence, and Marik fell into a fitful sleep.

.

.

.

"RYOU!"

Marik's eyes flew open, the sound of Yugi's delighted voice breaking through his slumber. His body woke up faster than his brain did, jumping to an alert sitting position and swiveling around in his chair. His drowsy mind began to catch up with the world around him, and his eyes widened at the sight before him.

There was a crowd of familiar monsters packed into the mayor's office. Kaiba was there, with Mokuba, Rebecca, and Leon all nipping at his heels. Anzu was flapping her wings around excitedly, with Jounouchi and Honda crying out in alarm and ducking on either side of her, trying to stay close while avoiding being hit. Pegasus himself stood in front of the door, carefully closing it behind him, grinning from ear to ear. Otogi stood beside Pegasus, and, although his shadowy form made it hard for Marik to be sure, it looked like he may have had a similar smile stretched across his own face.

And, right in the middle of them all, being held firmly in place by Kaiba's body hands, was a very flustered and startled Ryou, with messy bed-head and a comically large coat wrapped around his thin shoulders.

Yugi had let out the surprised outcry, springing up from his chair across the room, launching himself at the pale albino. He wrapped the confused Ryou in a tight hug, murmuring soft, soothing words to him.

"Oh, Yugi! Yugi, I was so scared! I was afraid I'd never see you again!"

"It's okay, you're here, you're safe."

Marik let out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding. Relief washed through his body, and he smiled.

"We found him wandering the streets this morning," Kaiba explained. "We didn't realize he was a human at first – the coat he's wearing smells like Bed Bug."

"'B-Bed Bug?'" Jounouchi repeated. He made an alarmed, whimpering sound in his throat. Honda and Anzu looked equally as disturbed beside him, and the three monsters gripped each other in a frightened hug of some sort. "Y-you don't m-mean...?"

Kaiba raised an eyebrow, glancing at the cowering trio with a face of disinterest. "There's only one Bed Bug in Halloween Town."

"But – but -!" Honda sputtered, his large fish eyes darting between Kaiba's face and the Ryou's coat. He shook his head, disbelieving. "It couldn't have been Bakura!"

"You've met him?" Ryou asked brightly. He exchanged a smile with Yugi. "This very nice – well, not nice, exactly, but rather decent – beetle man named Bakura found me and took care of me last night."

Yugi looked at his friend with some interest. "Oh?"

"Yeah! He took care of my injuries and let me sleep in his bed. He even gave me some food! In exchange, he ate my nightmares?"

"He ate what now?"

Marik held up his hands, not following any of the words being thrown through the air around him. "Hold up! Start over! Who or what are we talking about?"

"Hi, Marik!"

"Hi, Ryou." The Middle Eastern American turned to Kaiba, frowning up at the tall, skeletal man. "Explain."

Kaiba sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose – or, at least, where his nose should have been. "We found your friend earlier this morning. He was wandering through the streets, before most monsters are awake yet, and didn't seem too sure of where he was going, since he kept looking at the street signs."

"He looked like he was lost," Mokuba added, hanging off the older skeleton's arm. "When we got close to him, we could tell he was a human."

Leon nodded. "We couldn't tell at first, since he looks so pale and everything."

"We scared him at first, but he calmed down once we explained who we were," Kaiba continued. "It seems like he spent the night over at Bakura's place, which isn't far from the Hanging Woods but not someplace I would have expected."

"Why not?"

"Well..."

When Kaiba failed the answer, Otogi jumped in. His dark face remained unreadable, but his tone of voice sounded as though he was trying hard to be helpful. "Bakura is a Bed Bug, the only Bed Bug in the region. He pretty well known around here for avoiding folks, and when he does have to interact with people, he's a bit, ah, rude?"

Honda was a little more open with his opinion. "He's an a**hole."

"Honda!"

"Well, he is!"

Ryou shrugged. "I didn't think he was that bad. Uncouth, sure, and definitely not the friendliest person I've ever met, but he wasn't as bad as all that! He even got our backpacks for us."

At the mention of their backpacks, Marik's eyes widened, and he glanced downward, only just now recognizing the objects that hung from Ryou's arms. He'd been so focused on the return and safety of his friend, he hadn't even noticed what Ryou was carrying with him.

"Here, Marik!" Ryou tossed the familiar bag in his direction.

The tan human caught it, quickly patting down the bag, trying to feel around the objects inside. Seemed like everything was still there. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Yugi performing a similar procedure to his own backpack.

Glancing around the room, it seemed that Pegasus was the only one of the monster set who wasn't at all concerned about this 'Bakura' creature. The two-faced mayor seemed to be completely relaxed, a smile teasing his lips as he slunk around the room. Marik watched as the monstrous mayor settled back at his desk, his long limbs spread out in a way that made the desk look much too small for them, and his spidery fingers began rifling through the stacks of papers scattered across the desktop.

"Now that everyone is here, safe and sound," Pegasus began. "We'll have to figure out what to do with you three. Humans don't enter our world regularly, so there's no official protocol for what happens when humans do."

Marik frowned, remembering what Adina had said earlier. "But humans do sometimes come here, right?"

"Yes. Sadly, they don't often make it very far." Pegasus pursed his lips. "Occasionally, they get recorded in our history as 'lucky,' but those are few and far between. Most recently, there was a human woman, a few years ago – she came through a Rift right outside our capital city, Duat. I believe she still lives there."

Jounouchi perked up, his mask twisting into a comical grin. "Yup! She chose to live in Duat, instead of going home. She said her brother was dead, and she had no home to go back to, so she stayed on here." Turning to the three humans, he added, "She helps tutor my kid sister during the week. She's real nice."

"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but we don't really want to stay here." Yugi's shoulder slumped a bit. "We'd like to get home, if that's at all possible."

Pegasus made a clicking noise with his mouth that sounded slightly put out. "Well, whatever happens next, I'm not of the position to really decide. I'm only an appointed government official, after all. I'll have to talk to my superior to find out what to do about this situation."

He held up a finger. "But, in the meantime, I can arrange for a place for you three to stay. My superior is a busy man, with a lot of things to take care of, and it make take some time for him to decide what the next step for us should be. So, during that time..."

The mayor reached into a drawer, pulling out a hotel pamphlet and waving it around with a flourish. "The best place for you three to stay is at the Spider's Parlor Inn."

Ryou bristled, shrinking back to hide behind Yugi. "Spider?!"

"Not like the ones who live in the Hanging Woods," Kaiba cut in. "The inn is run by Kisara. She's a business woman, pure and simple, and she knows not to eat her guests."

Ryou didn't look any more at ease. Neither did Yugi. And, honestly, Marik didn't feel too great about the idea, either.

"Trust me, you'll be perfectly safe there," Pegasus promised. "Kaiba will make certain of it. Won't you, Kaiba?"

The tall skeleton grunted in response, but otherwise said nothing.

Pegasus clapped his hands. "Then it's settled! I'll get word out to my superior right away, and then we'll see about getting you boys some food and a place to spend the night."

"... Fine." Marik was hesitant to agree, but there didn't seem to be a lot of other options available to them right now. He saw Yugi's shoulder slump once more, this time in utter defeat.

"By the way," he added after a moment. He looked straight at Pegasus, filled with curiosity. "Who is your superior, anyway?"

An eerie grin spread across the mayor's features, and he gave Marik a toothy smile that made the human's spine tingle.

"Why, my superior is the highest ranking official in all the land – it's the Shadow King Atem, himself!"

Author's Notes:

- Bakura is like that one person in the neighborhood who no one likes, which is fine with him because he doesn't like anyone else, either. But Honda, who prefers people to be straight-forward and honest, likes him the least.

- Not so much a note as I just want everyone to bear in mind that Bakura has six arms, ergo his coat has six sleeves. Ryou is currently wearing a coat that's at least ten sizes too large for him and has multiple sleeves that he has nothing to do with. I just think that image is adorable.