April 31st
5:00 pm
L was having a wonderful dream. He was sitting on what appeared to be a giant marshmallow, looking down a path made of graham crackers lined with trees of peppermint sticks covered in gumdrop leaves. A mansion rested at the end of the path, made of gingerbread and decorated with frosting and various hard candies like jewels, with towers that seemed to be made of layers and layers of cake, topped with a cherry. Absently, L reached down to his marshmallow seat and ripped off a piece, starting to nibble on it. The sky was a perfect blue, and he thought he could hear birds singing somewhere. They sounded different from normal birds, but then, this was a dream after all. At least the marshmallow tasted delicious, and like a real marshmallow. His last dream about a candy kingdom had ended up being a nightmare, because all of the candy tasted like broccoli.
"H-hey! What are you doing, sitting on my marshmallow bush? I spent ages growing that!"
L glanced up. There was a little person hovering over head, and she swooped down to hover at eye level with him.
She had child-like proportions, but seemed slightly the wrong shape to be a child. Purple hair framed her face, with one green eye and one purple eye. She was dressed all in purple, with a witch's hat, and seemed to be riding on a fork. Her eyes widened when she saw him. Then her mouth dropped open, her face went red, and she started to stutter.
"O-oh!" she stammered. "I-It's – well, u-uh, – y-you – oh my."
"Maddy, come back! What's wrong?"
Another tiny person ran down the path, daintily holding her cream colored dress up to avoiding tripping. Her blond hair swirled down her back, and she seemed to have a cherry buried in her hair. L looked at both of the little people, vaguely amused. What an interesting dream this was becoming.
The cherry-head girl looked at the witch, and then at L. Her eyes widened too.
"Oh my!" she said, beaming. "No wonder Madeleine looks so tongue-tied for once!"
L swallowed his big bite of marshmallow.
"Hello," he said after studying them for a moment. "I don't think I know you."
"You don't," the cherry-head girl said, as the witch girl slowly started to lower herself to the ground, still red-faced and mumbling.
The cherry-head girl lifted her cream colored skirt, trimmed with what looked like frosting, and curtsied.
"I am Pudding, the Princess of the Madolche Chateau and Estate," she said. She adjusted her tiny tiara better on her head. "And this is Madeleine, the court magician."
Madeleine had started to play with her hair, wrapping it around one finger and unwrapping it, every now and then glancing up at L and then blushing before hiding beneath the brim of her hat.
"And we know you," Pudding said, beaming. "You're Law –"
An explosion rang across the grass, causing the peppermint trees to groan and a few gumdrops to drop from the tree. L glanced up at the sky, which appeared to be turning gray very quickly. Oh, well. He supposed that even in sleep, the good times couldn't last forever. He looked sadly at the candy trees, as he had been planning on sampling those in a minute. He pushed off of the marshmallow bush, as Madeleine had called it.
Pudding looked more than nervous – her hands were clasped in front of her, and she was staring at the sky, her face pale and tears growing at the corners of her eyes.
"Oh, no, not again!" she cried. "M-Madeleine, get to the barrier! Seraphina will need your help!"
"Right!"
Madeleine's embarrassment had completely vanished, and her eyes were narrowed with determination. She hopped onto her fork and zoomed up into the sky. There appeared to be ripples traveling across it, like in a science fiction movie when a laser hit a force field.
Pudding grabbed L's hand – hers was tiny compared to his – and tried to pull him down the path.
"Come, come, come," she said. "Come into the Chateau, before it sees you!"
"Before what sees me?"
L wasn't quite sure what kind of turn this dream was taking, but he had always found that he got interesting hunches in dreams, and was interested to see how this would all play out.
"No, no, don't look up!" the girl cried. "You can't hide your name here! If it sees you, it will know you! Come, come, come!"
After staring at the sky for another moment, he let the little princess pull him down the candy road and up to the cake castle. L managed to swipe a bit of frosting onto his finger as they passed under the moat.
There was a commotion of activity just inside the chateau. L watched as he sucked on the frosting on his thumb, as more of the little people rushed around, shouting things. A small man with a suit and monocle hurried over.
"Milady, we were worried," he said.
"Not right now, Rusk!" Pudding cried. "Look, look who's here!"
The butler looked up at L and his eyes widened so far that his monocle fell off.
"Oh, my," he said. "However did he get here?"
"I think he may be dream walking," Pudding said. "But oh, oh, oh, why did it have to be now?"
There was a strange feeling in the pit of L's stomach. It occurred to him that the taste of the frosting in his mouth was very, very realistic. And he was starting to feel very light-headed, like something was pressing in down on him.
It didn't seem to just be him, either. Pudding looked frozen to the spot, and Rusk was starting to sweat.
"He's coming," Rusk said tensely. "Milady, please return to the inner chambers; your mother is waiting."
"I can't leave now!" Pudding cried.
"You can, and you will, milady. Ruby will accompany you – won't you, Ruby?"
He called this across to a small, purple creature with four ears and big, pupil-less red eyes, a giant round ruby attached to the tip of its tail. The little creature chittered a response, ran across, and started pushing Pudding back into the castle.
"We have to close the gates!" Rusk cried out.
"Choux and Gelato aren't back!" someone shouted back.
"They're probably fighting with Seraphina!" another shouted.
L looked around the room, at the small people who seemed to be dressed in different kinds of cakes, at the strange animals darting about with gems attached to their chests or heads, and started to think that he had never had a dream this odd before.
"Excuse me," he asked the butler. "But what is going on?"
Rusk looked up at him, very seriously, as he replaced his monocle.
"I'm afraid the Madolche Chateau is under attack...again," he said.
"From what?" L asked.
Rusk pursed his lips.
"Well...because it's you," he said. "Come to the window."
Behind them, a giant mammoth with four tusks and an amber stone on its forehead was starting to winch the drawbridge shut. Rusk led L to a small window framed with swirling frosting. L had to crouch into his normal sitting position to look out the window.
Outside, he could see several small shapes: one was purple, and darting about in the air, and he could only assume it was Madeleine. There were a few other shapes her size he couldn't quite make out, and one normal proportioned person with long orange hair and a very odd pointy hat, brandishing a staff. He stared at that figure for a moment, forgetting everything else. He couldn't quite explain what he felt when looking at it but...it was...strange. Like...like a sense of home – that was funny. He had never felt anything like that before. But looking at the faraway figure made him feel strange like that – in fact, he was so intrigued by the feeling that he had almost missed the most obvious part of the scene.
All of the figures were facing a huge, sinuous dragon.
The creature was huge compared to the shapes facing it, a shimmering, metallic black, like a giant snake with black feathered wings. L could see the glint of rainbow colored jewels down its side, catch hints of gold that trimmed its scales – he could almost hear its screeching cry as it smashed against an invisible wall, over and over again.
"What...is that?" L asked.
Rusk was shaking his head, and he started to wring his hands.
"It's happening again," he moaned, almost to himself. "This is how the war started the last time."
"War? What war?" L asked, his brain going into investigation mode in spite of himself.
The dragon whipped its head back. Rusk pushed L away from the window.
"No! What if it sees you?! You can't hide your name here!"
L rubbed the back of his head, which had collided with a stale graham cracker railing as he fell.
"But what's happening?" he insisted. "What's going on here?"
Rusk looked pale. He removed his monocle and started to polish it.
"The Death Wars," he whispered. "They're starting again."
"Ryuzaki? Hey...Ryuzaki?"
L opened his mouth to speak, to ask Rusk more questions – because although he didn't want to admit it, his heart was racing, and he felt like he might throw up, and he was seriously considering for a moment that this might not be a dream after all –
And then he opened his eyes.
Matsuda was looking down at him, confused.
"You okay?" Matsuda asked. "Looked like you were talking in your sleep."
L shifted. He was still sitting in his armchair, right where he had been just a few minutes ago. Or maybe longer. How long had he been asleep?
"I'm fine," he said. "You can go back to work."
Matsuda blinked, shrugged, and went back to his desk. L stared at nothing in particular. He started to chew on his thumb – and stopped. He stared at his thumb.
There was frosting on it.
He looked up across the room. It was almost time for everyone to leave, and in fact, Soichiro and Aizawa were starting to pack up, chatting softly.
It was about time they changed meeting places, L thought to himself, as he licked experimentally at the frosting. Chocolate. He hadn't had any chocolate cake in a while. Where had it come from?
Hm. A new meeting place...
Perhaps Kaiba Mansion would be a good place to go...
April 31st
7:45 pm
"He's coming here? Tomorrow?"
"And he wouldn't take no for an answer," Seto growled.
Yugi shook his head incredulously. He took off his glasses and started to fiddle with them, his eyes moving to the ceiling, staring at something that probably wasn't actually there.
Besides Yugi and Seto, only Jonouchi, Anzu, and Ishizu were present in the wide meeting room. Jonouchi and Anzu had only tagged along with Yugi; Ishizu had already been here when Seto stormed in and gave them the news: L and the taskforce had decided to relocate temporarily to Kaiba Mansion.
"We were going to train tomorrow," Yugi muttered. "Can't do that if the task force is mulling around the house."
"Do you think I like it?" Seto said. "L stays at a location for at least a week. The last thing I need is that guy hanging around my house for a week. And what about my brothers?"
"Didn't you tell him that they were here?" Yugi said. "Shouldn't he be more worried about revealing his identity?"
"He doesn't seem to care. And he wasn't asking, Yugi, he was telling me."
Seto gripped the back of a chair, feeling as though his fingers might punch through the plush. If there was something he hated more than anything, it was someone who tried to act more authoritative than him – only Yugi could get away with that. Who the hell did L think he was?
"Almost a whole week without training?" Jonouchi said. The young man looked like he wasn't sure whether to be relieved or worried. "That guy'll take advantage of that – only Yugi and Mokuba have gotten their ka out completely. And Mokuba can't seem to get his to come when he calls."
"I know, I know," Yugi said. He placed his glasses on the long table and started to rub at his eyes. "This isn't good."
"What do you want me to do?" Seto snapped.
"I'm not asking you to do anything, Seto," Yugi said. "But...this is going to be hard."
The spiky haired young man shook his head. Seto blew out. His hands were tightening, and tightening, and tightening around the chair, and he longed for something to throw across the room. A soft hand alighted on the back of his own. Ishizu said nothing, and Seto refused to look at her. But he could almost feel his muscles unloosening.
"Marik, Rishid and I can attempt to cast a silence spell on the basement room," Ishizu said, after a beat. "The task force wouldn't hear what we were doing."
"What if L decides to go snooping?" Seto said, raising an eyebrow. "Since I'm almost positive that's why he wants to be here in the first place."
"We could...tell him we're testing holograms," Anzu said.
Seto half-glared at Anzu, but he had to admit it was a somewhat plausible idea.
"That's a lot of people to be testing holograms," Jonouchi said. "Besides, I'm thinkin' this guy wouldn't like having a whole lotta other people in his HQ. We could be Kiras, to him. Right?"
Years ago, Seto might have been surprised that Jonouchi could think. Now, he could only shake his head.
"We'll avoid the area for two days," Yugi said. He picked up his glasses and started to play with them. "Then...we'll see. Maybe we'll come in small groups...and Ishizu, you and your brothers can try that silence spell. Maybe – maybe we could try some kind of illusion spell, too. To make it harder to notice things downstairs."
"Good idea," Ishizu said. "You and I can work on that tonight."
A brief pause punctuated the room.
"What time tomorrow?" Yugi said.
"Early. He said he would arrive at eight."
Yugi nodded.
"All right. Ishizu, do you want to go ahead of me? Jonouchi, Anzu, you guys don't have to wait, this could take a while."
Jonouchi nodded, clapped his friend on the shoulder, nodded to Seto, and headed off. Anzu lingered for a moment. Ishizu paused to squeeze Seto's hand, and gave him a small smile. His lips flickered slightly, but he couldn't bring a real smile out. She still didn't say anything before she walked towards the basement.
"I'll see you later?" she said.
Yugi smiled, and Seto did not miss the hint of red coming to his rival's cheeks.
"Yeah. I'll meet you at the usual spot."
Anzu smiled widely. She practically floated from the room, with an annoying sort of dancer's grace. Seto sent Yugi a sidelong glance.
"So when are you two getting married?" he said.
Yugi rolled his eyes, but he was definitely blushing. He looked down at his glasses again.
The young man obviously had something he wanted to say, as he continued to fiddle with his glasses, not looking at Seto. Seto's sigh came out almost as a growl, and he pushed away from the back of the chair. When Yugi was like this, there was no rushing him. After a beat, Yugi spoke.
"So, Seto...how's Duel Academia running?"
Seto rose an eyebrow.
"How the hell should I know? I own it; I don't run it."
"Thought you might be paying attention to the next group of professional duelists...any outstanding students?"
"Try all of Obelisk Blue."
"Any...particularly interesting Osiris Reds?"
Seto shot Yugi a look, but Yugi wasn't looking at him.
"Why do you care?"
Yugi still didn't look up, staring at his glasses as he fiddled with them.
"No reason. Never mind, it's off topic."
"What's wrong now?" Seto said. "You always do this when you're going to say that something is wrong."
Yugi shook his head. Then he replaced his glasses on his nose.
"Things are happening in the Shadow Realm. Silent Magician has been telling me that there is...unease."
"Why do we care what's going on there?"
Yugi looked at him with hard violet eyes.
"Seto, do you know why it's called the Shadow Realm? Because it is a shadow of this world. A reflection. Things that happen here affect what happens there. Things that happen there affect what happens here."
Unease seeping into Seto's chest.
"So what's going on?"
Yugi's lips tightened.
"A war," he said. "A war is starting – again, according to Silent Magician. An old war is coming back."
Seto's hands clenched into sweaty fists.
"What kind of war?"
Yugi looked pale.
"That's the thing," he said. "I don't know. It's like..."
He paused.
"It's like...they're are afraid to talk about it. The monsters are scared."
A/N: sooo, out of curiosity...do you think the story is moving too slowly? :/ I'm just wondering, because in Death Note terms, it's kinda moving along well, but in Yu-Gi-Oh terms, the pacing may seem slow. Is anyone getting bored? (I don't want to bore anyone! D:)