Masaka: My Microsoft Word is going crazy on me. The boarders keep changing and it is about to drive me off the deep-end.
Yami Masaka: Really? I don't mind it so much.
Masaka: Well I do mind it!! WAAAH MY COMPUTER IS STARTING TO GO CRAAAZY!!
Yami Masaka: YAAAAAWN!! Whatever
Masaka: groans You are so very unhelpful
Yami Masaka: Just get writing! You said you wanted to finish a story for once in your life so hop to it
Masaka: All right!! Sheeesh!
Yugi had thought he was done with magic and inhuman forces.
He'd spent the greater part of two-years trying to stop the annihilation of mankind! He'd had his soul sucked out for his cause too! Didn't that count for anything anymore?
But apparently Yugi had been hoping for naught. It seemed that even if Yugi didn't want to get involved with otherworldly powers, those same powers wanted to get involved with him.
Damn it! At least when it had been duel-monsters Yugi had gotten the cool opportunity to meet with his favorite magician!
Fate was a tyrannical cruel witch!
Despite Yami's adamant protests the next morning (the ex-pharaoh had even gone so far as to try and haul Yugi off to school with the card Chain-Energy) Yugi headed off to the Domino Museum of History, which according to Nizuki was neutral ground for all magic forces.
The moment Yugi got to the top of the steps that led to the museum door Nizuki grabbed his arm and hauled the little hikari deep into the museum to the empty Roman Empire exhibit where Ryou was already waiting.
Nero hadn't come along since Nizuki had instructed him to keep Yami occupied.
It was incredible that Nero could be trusted to make-up a plausible excuse as to why a notoriously clam zoo had suddenly turned into a real-life reenactment of Jurassic Park and could be trusted to keep a unnatural powered former pharaoh away from a secret hikari meeting but Nero wasn't allowed to be a guardian angel.
Heaven obviously set the bar reaaaaally high.
…Then again if an angel's common spell could blow up a steel-grate reinforced three-foot thick concrete containment wall maybe being critical wasn't such a bad thing.
Either way Nizuki hadn't wasted any time worrying if Nero could handle the fiasco that was a nosy Yami and, with all the patience and understanding of an elementary school-teacher, had begun her seminar.
"Okay, just so you aren't jumping at shadows anymore, I have to tell you that demons do NOT normally set up dopey scenarios like that," Nizuki said in a very straight forward, yet sympathizing, tone. "There are numberless guidelines that were negotiated to stop these kinds of things from happening. My only guess as to why this demon can and is acting this way is because it's taking advantage of the Seer Clause."
Ryou and Yugi shared a mutually bewildered look then looked at Nizuki.
"Um…tenshi-chan…what is the Seer Clause?" Ryou asked.
"Huh? It's…oh yah; you wouldn't know it would you? Silver Clouds across the moon! We passed down all the information but noooo that would've been too easy! Stupid Constantine!"
"Who?" the two boys blinked curiously.
"Emperor Constantine….he commissioned the creation of a collective tome of all gospels and decided what got into the first edition of the bible ….He was an Ancient Roman guy…He was a cornerstone of the history of the Catholic Church?" Nizuki said.
Both lights just shook there heads.
"…Silver Clouds, I hate it when no one knows what I'm talking about but me," the strawberry-blonde angel sighed, massaging her temples to more physically express her frustration than to actually manage any kind of pain. "Eh, never mind. Just …just watch the History Channel once in a while okay guys? Sheesh!"
"Nizuki, we life in Japan; Christian history isn't really a big thing around here," Yugi couldn't help but point out. When Nizuki cast him a withering look he just smiled sheepishly.
"Okay, forgetting the whole historical deprivation thing and getting back to the Heavenly Law Books. Basically in the Book Of Compromises there is a clause that says pretty much verbatim, 'any of those who are not blind to the Great Powers may be approached by those of the lower-order in a manner not liken to any blinded mortal.'"
"…Which means?" Yugi and Ryou asked in unison.
"Which means a demon could crawl out of the sewers in full cloven-hoof, scaly tail, horned brow regalia and no one could scold him for it," Nizuki explained.
"WHAT!!" Yugi yelped.
"Awwwh! I didn't ever want any creepy Sight; I was suckered into it by the Ring!" Ryou whined.
"I know, I know, it's not fair but some souls…they just see things," Nizuki shrugged. "It would bee far crueler, I think, for Heaven to blind those who from their very core want to see."
"So we're going to get approached by demons all the time now?" Yugi grimaced.
"I should say not," Nizuki said, her lips pouted into an expression most models had to practice for years to perfect. "As long as you're smart about it, no demon can touch you."
"What do we do then?" Ryou asked avidly.
"Don't make vague or open-ending promises like 'I'll give you anything for your help.'"
There was a long pause.
"That's it?" Ryou and Yugi asked.
"Yep; a demon would have to get you to promise him that you'll surrender your soul. Verbal agreements and gambles are the tricks of the demon trade," Nizuki explained.
"But there has to be something else! I mean aren't there preventative measures we can take like wearing crosses or bathing in holy water or something?" Ryou wailed.
"What in the …Holy water and crosses? Oh I guess that stuff would give an underling hives or a nasty rash or something but honesty it just comes down to choice," Nizuki snorted.
"That's it? Choice?" Yugi repeated.
"That's what free-will is for, baby," Nizuki winked.
The angel then smiled thoughtfully and said, "But it wouldn't hurt you to build up a defense to temptation."
"How would we do that?" Ryou asked.
"Well, my little powdered-doughnut, for you it involves some simple life-style changes that I was going to suggest to you anyway," Nizuki said ruffling her protectorate's hair fondly.
"Well then Ryou is covered, but what about me?" Yugi asked his voice high-pitched with panic.
"You…will need to calm down," Nizuki frowned seriously.
"It's just that I-" Yugi whimpered.
"I know you are panicked but I can't help you if you're hysterical," Nizuki soothed. She gently rubbed Yugi's back.
Yugi closed his eyes and took several deep and calming breaths. He could actually feel his heart-beak slowing down.
"Better?" Nizuki asked.
"Better," Yugi agreed.
"Right then, now listen intently. Yugi, you already have a good quantity of fighting spirit within you, more than enough to keep you fighting when the chips are down," Nizuki said with a genuine smile.
Yugi blushed and clasped a nervous hand around his left-wrist.
"Ryou here isn't much of a fighter at all though," Nizuki continued undaunted.
"Hey! I-" Ryou began to protest.
"Did I finish yet? No, I didn't, you just had to get moody and interrupt, bad kitty," Nizuki scolded, flicking Ryou's nose with her forefinger.
"Ouch!" Ryou whined. Yugi laughed at the almost sibling-like quarreling.
"Now as I was saying," Nizuki said putting the mantle of Heavenly Being back on, "Ryou is naturally passive, usually letting other's will-power overtake his own. It's actually a common phenomenon; it's being a people-pleaser. So to help Ryou, I need to develop a stronger sense of self-right in him. I need to work on his belief in his own power and everything else he needs will fall into place."
"I'm not like that," Yugi mentioned.
"No, you're not. You're caught somewhere between confidence and meekness. It's actually endearing in a way, but dangerous in these new circumstances. Yugi, you will need to find your self-worth and validation in something else. This will be more important to you than anything else and will perhaps even help you garner Yami's attention," Nizuki agreed.
"But you can't tell me what this thing is," Yugi pouted.
Nizuki tilted back her head and let loose a laugh that sounded like something from childhood. It made Yugi feel calm about everything and judging by the smile on Ryou's face it did the same for him as well.
"You are so impatient little Yugi. Things will reveal themselves all in due course. His workings lead all people to their joy, if they know to keep an eye out for signs, and you do know. Just keep doing as you've been doing. You aren't alone in this, Nero and I will help you find your guiding star as well," Nizuki said soft as a mother's embrace after her laughter died down a little.
"…I still think it's dumb that you can't just tell me what it is I should do right now," Yugi pouted, kicking a crag in the floor mosaic.
Nizuki laughed warmly again and was about to say something when a sharp 'POP' snapped in the air and Nero appeared out of nowhere, hovering two or three feet above Nizuki's head.
"Nizukiiiiii!" Nero started to cheerfully greet, before the spell holding him aloft broke and dumped the poor cherub right into an enormous bronze vase on display.
"NERO!" Yugi yelped, jumping to attention immediately and hauling the young angel out of the vase and setting him back on his feet.
"Waaaaaaaaah," Nero whined, his eyes slightly unfocused.
"He always was bad at instant materializations," Nizuki sighed matter-of-factly while Ryou canned the immediate area anxiously, hoping no one saw that.
"Brrrrr!" Nero shuddered, shaking his head to clear away the listlessness his fall had caused him.
Nero then turned to Nizuki with a giant smile on his lips.
"Yami is all taken care of Nizuki-onee!" Nero chirped. "I was watching him just like you told me to when that Councilor Harrison man caught him trying to sneak off campus. Then Councilor man dragged Yami off into his office and everything went reeeeeally quiet."
Yugi and Ryou flinched in sympathy.
"Very good Nero," Nizuki smiled, patting Nero on the head. She then turned back to the lights. "Now as I was saying-"
"Uuuuum…there's something else," Nero softly interrupted.
"Yes, what is it?" Nizuki asked.
"I tried to erase Darrin's memories of yesterday again, like Nizuki asked me…and umm…it didn't…I mean I…"
"Oh no, what did you do to him?" Nizuki groaned.
"It's not a 'do' problem…it's a…'didn't' problem," Nero muttered, poking his index fingers together timidly.
"YOU DIDN'T ERASE HIS MEMORY!!" Nizuki yelped.
"Nero tried!! Mister Alligator Man is resistant to my spells! I think he has a Gift," Nero whined.
"A Gift?" Ryou and Yugi repeated curiously. They had been doing that a lot this morning.
"Awwwwh Silver thunderclaps and silver clouds across the moon! Just what we need, an extra sensitive human in the middle of a soul battle," Nizuki wailed.
"Extra sensitive?...OH! You mean extra sensory perceptive? ESP! It really exists! Oh wow, wow, wow!!!" Ryou awed with stars in his eyes.
The white-haired hikari was always fascinated in the creepiest stuff like Ouija boards, haunted houses, vampires, werewolves, unsolved occult murders and ESP.
It made for quite an interesting time when you had Ryou and Joey both talking about things that go bump in the night.
Once when Ryou was caught up in discussing one of his favorite spooky stories he'd said something (Yugi didn't remember exactly what) that made Joey literally pass out from fear.
Yugi had had to let the blonde sleep over for a month just to get Joey to start sleeping regularly again.
"It's not ESP the way you're thinking Ry-chan," Nizuki began to explain. "We're not talking about telepathy or telekinesis here…not even clairvoyance. Extra sensitive humans are generally just people who are immune from spells and magic for one reason or another."
"So…does that mean Darrin is going to be a problem?" Yugi asked.
"No…I don't think so anyway. He'll just be someone to watch out for. In my experience Gifted humans generally just stumble through well-set Heavenly Plans and muck everything up," Nizuki muttered grumpily.
"O-oh, I don't think Zubarro-san will cause any trouble," Ryou blushed.
Nizuki smirked teasingly. "Oh no? Why do you think that? Could it because Ry-chan has a crush on Zubarro-san?"
"N-NO!!" Ryou yelped.
Nizuki cackled in her usual almost-evil manner while Yugi put an extreme amount of focus on studying the way his fingers looked knitted together.
Nero was once again the only one to show no signs of being affected by the topic of conversation.
"Um…um…Nizuki-onee…I-If Darrin is no trouble…then does that mean…I did something right for once?" Nero asked.
"What? Nero-baby, you did plenty right, not just looking after Yami. You did great yesterday too," Nizuki said turning her focus on the little angel. She smiled warmly and ruffled Nero's hair like she'd ruffled Ryou's earlier. "I think being down here in the trenches has really done wonders for your spell-casting ability."
"I still not good at important spells," Nero pouted in a way that really, really made Yugi want to glomp him.
"Oh don't worry about that, a lot of angels are bad at the important spells," Nizuki dismissed with a way of her hand.
Just then, before another word could be said, the museum doors opened up and a pair of teenagers came walking in.
Nizuki gave then a critical once over then snorted and herded the two boys and diminutive angel out of the door.
"Eek, some days I almost think there are more demons on Earth then there are in the entirety of Hell," the angelic being muttered mostly to herself.
After the abrupt interruption to the 'Meeting of the Angels and the Lights', as Yugi had privately dubbed it, Nizuki decided that there had been enough serious talk and dragged the two lights to a nearby diner.
It was only when Yugi spied the clock inside that he realized just how much time had passed.
"It's already one-thirty? There's pretty much no point in even going back to school today!" Yugi groaned.
"So don't, there are more important things than school," Nizuki said while scanning through the menu.
"Hey! How can you say that? That doesn't sound very-"
"-Angelic of me?" Nizuki finished for her protectorate. "Ooooh I'm soooo sorry! I'd just like to mention that school isn't the begin all and end all of the universe."
Yugi and Ryou shared a surprised look then looked back at Nizuki.
"You sound like you have something against schools," Ryou mentioned tentatively.
Nizuki looked up from the dessert selection. (A/N: This angel is starting to become a sugar-junkie! Sheesh I bet that really ticks some people off…her looking so pretty while eating nothing but sugars I mean)
"Do I sound that way? Sorry, I don't mean to. It's just that some people take school way to seriously. I mean, hurray for education and the death of deadly ignorance, but I just worry that sometimes people take the whole system too seriously. If a person gets too involved with their books they can start to loose sight of the more important things around them and…Well…"
"Nizuki nearly lost her last protectorate to darkness brought on by school anxiety," Nero explained.
Nizuki twitched in discomfort and flipped over to the lunch section in the menu.
(A/N: YAAAH! No dessert! Eat like a real person, Nizu-baby!)
"Nizuki has had other protectorates?" Yugi asked in surprise.
"Nizuki-onee is thousands of years old, Yugi-sama. It would be weirder if she'd never worked a case before Friend of Yugi-sama's Ryou-san," Nero pointed out.
"Yah, I guess you have a point there…Say, what were some of your other protectorates like?" Yugi asked conversationally.
Nizuki stared long and hard at Yugi, until the tri-colored haired teen was sure the angel wasn't even seeing him anymore.
"Hmmph…stupid baka," Nizuki grumbled suddenly, turning back to her menu. There was a growl to her voice and Yugi though he saw her wings pop out and flap several times in extreme agitation.
Nero snickered like he knew a great secret and looked at his own menu.
Ryou blinked in total shock at his angel while Yugi tried to decide if he was offended that Nizuki had said that or not.
"Nizuki-chan…" Ryou said in slight shock.
"What?" Nizuki asked.
"Surely you don't …I mean… It's just that…" Ryou began to try to explain.
"What? I was just thinking about this stupid idiot I looked after once. I love the guy like mad but if I ever see him again I'm really going to have to hurt him. He was so…so…" Nizuki shuddered and clenched her fists around the menu tightly. "There aren't even words to properly describe that man."
"What man? Who are you talking about?" Yugi asked.
"Private information," Nizuki snorted, snapping her menu once like a towel, to get it more or less back into its original shape.
"Oh pooh," Yugi pouted. "You're probably one of those people that won't spill secrets even when intoxicated!"
"Darn straight," Nizuki said, not looking up from her menu. "Okay NOW I know what I want."
Yugi shook his head and chuckled. For the rest of lunch, the littlest hikari just leaned back in his chair and enjoyed the sight of his angelic acquaintances and his fellow hikari laughed and relaxing.
Suddenly, despite all the new threats involved, Yugi was glad that these angels had come into his life.
Masaka: sigh Poor Yugi
Yami Masaka: Huh? What poor Yugi? What do you mean? Is something going to happen to him?
Masaka: A lot is going to happen to poor Yugi…and poor Ryou too. But I guess since it all comes out fine in the end…
Yami Masaka: whimper Now I'm worried.
Masaka: Don't worry, they'll be fine.
Yami Masaka: shivers again then rights herself Well whatever, I'm really proud of you hikari. You managed to get another chapter done, and it didn't take months this time!
Masaka: Yaaaah…but I'm not sure how great the story will be from here on out. I mean there are a lot of elements that play into this story and I don't want to add too much or too little to any one of them or else the final conflict will turn out less…well less dramatic then I want it to be
Yami Masaka: Yah I guess I understand that…but hikari…do you really think this story belongs in the humor and romance section? It's getting pretty serious
Masaka: That is true…I think this is more like Romance…um…drama? But there are SOME funny parts and well…all the other drama fanfics are just so very angst ridden that I don't want to change the genre of my story
Yami Masaka: True that, true that…Oh well, we can always change it some time in the future if we have to turns to the door and whistles sharply Hey boys!! You're on!!
Nero comes bouncing happily into the room along with Yugi, Ryou and Yami. All of the boys are dressed in different colored tuxedos. Ryou's is white with a pale blue cummerbund and bowtie,
Nero's tux is also white but with a light pastel yellow shirt and no cummerbund or tie. Yami's tux is black with a red cummerbund and the tie is undone, along with the first three shirt buttons. Yugi's tuxedo is also black but with a purple cummerbund and a long white tie.
Yami Masaka: This is the fan-service section! We are doing this in the White Revolution and we want to do it in this story to turns to a door on the other side of the room and gives another sharp whistle Hey! Nizu-babe! Come on out
Nizuki: hidden behind the closed door I'm not coming out
Yami: Don't be such a baby, you can't look that bad.
Yugi: whispering to Nero this coming from the guy who refused to wear a bowtie even under threat of a hetero couple story
Nero: covering mouth with both his hands to smother giggles
Nizuki: still behind the door Angels are supposed to be 'pretty' people. We are just supposed to be strong. I refuse to be some…some…show-pony
Masaka: concerned look My yami…what did you make Nizuki wear
Yami Masaka: A dress leaning back in her chair staring evilly at the door Nizuki! You either come out of there or I haul you out of there! Coming out on your own will definitely cause you less bruises
Nizuki: STILL behind the door I don't want to come out!!!
Masaka: My yami…maybe we should
Yami Masaka jumps up from her chair, charges over to the door and yanks the whole thing off its hinges. She reaches inside the room, despite a whole barrage of shrieks and spells, and hauls Nizuki out into the light
Yugi: Oh
Ryou: My
Nero: SILVER CLOUDS!!
Yami: pouts and heads back to the other door Now I definitely don't want to be here. She's too pretty
Masaka: PLEASE REVIEW OR ELSE YOU'LL NEVER KNOW WHAT NIZUKI IS WEARING!!!
Yami Masaka: Damn, I dress 'em up good
Nizuki: grrroooooan!