"He isn't here, what a surprise," said Shizuka, shivering and stamping her feet in the increasing chill as dusk fell. "That's what happens when you drop in on people unannounced, guys. You drive half an hour out to the middle of nowhere for nothing."
Yuugi, Jounouchi, and Honda were already searching the wall for some way over it and into the yard beyond. Shizuka rang the bell one more time, but the intercom didn't come to life.
"What if he's just asleep?" asked Honda. "He's probably keeping weird hours if he's working on some project. We should try to get in there."
"I agree," said Jounouchi. "We're not really breaking in if we're his friends checking in on him. If he gets mad and calls the police, he's not our friend anymore. Simple as that."
"Okay, but like, this wall's huge," said Yuugi, stepping back to look at it. He felt the approaching darkness of nightfall like a cold breeze carrying away the weight and humidity of a storm that brewed around him. The night didn't remove all the shadows that clung to him, but it did dilute them and make them easier to bear. Ryuuji had explained that this was the reason Ryuuji was currently more active at night than during the day.
"Honda and I'll hoist Shizuka over," said Jounouchi. "She lighter and more agile than any of us."
"How will she get back over?" asked Yuugi.
"I'll open the gate, dummy," said Shizuka, already taking off her coat and handing it to Honda so he could lay it over the bars at the top of wall.
"But…what if it needs a key?"
"That's not how gates work on the inside," said Shizuka. Honda and Jounouchi already had their hands woven together for her to place her foot. They counted to three, and then lifted her up. She disappeared over the top of the wall. There was a light thud as she touched down on the other side. Jounouchi and Yuugi turned to wait by the gate, which soon rattled open. Honda took down the coat and joined them, shaking loose and dirt and debris before handing it over to Shizuka once more.
"This kinda feels like trespassing," said Yuugi as they approached the unlit house. At that moment, a light above the door flickered to life as a sensor inside registered the late evening dark. Jounouchi tried the knob, but the door was locked. Shizuka joked they should go ahead and break a window for good measure. That'd teach Ryou to answer his damn phone next time Jounouchi called.
The four of them went around the house, searching for signs of life or a way inside. Neither of those things was evident. They reconvened at the front door.
"So, what now?" asked Shizuka, looking expectantly at Jounouchi, their fearless leader.
"Now we look for a spare key."
"What? It's nighttime. That'll take forever," said Honda. He crossed his arms and turned away.
"But there's four of us. We can cover a lot of ground and check the obvious places. I don't think Ryou is the kind of guy who has much imagination when it comes to home security. It's probably really obvious."
"We can barely see anything," said Shizuka. "And the neighbors will think it's suspicious that four random adults are searching Ryou's yard with the lights on their phones and whispering to each other."
"Then let's be quick about it," said Jounouchi. "I can't shake the feeling that something's up, okay? Ryou could be in danger. He could be dead."
"If he's dead, he's not in danger anymore, though, is he?" asked Honda, but sighed and crouched down to begin looking under the rocks leading along the path to the door. The rest began to search as well. For all his part in the complaining, Honda was the one who found the key velcroed to the bottom of an overhang. Jounouchi congratulated him on taking the order to be quick to heart. Honda told him to shut up.
The four entered the house, splitting up in the main hall to search every room. Yuugi went to the back of the house. He entered the far bedroom alone, and in passing through the doorway felt the unexpected sensation of every shadow clinging to him being sloughed off. He froze a moment, stunned by the slowly dawning realization that this room had a barrier around it to keep out the shadows.
For a moment, a small seed of doubt planted itself in Yuugi's mind. He wondered if Ryuuji's spell involved more than Yuugi and Seto. Had Ryou somehow been roped into it? Why hadn't Ryuuji told him? Was it a secret? But then, why'd Ryuuji not seemed concerned that Yuugi was going to Ryou's house?
Yuugi quickly took stock of the room. On its own, nothing stood out about it. It was a bedroom. There were a few books on a shelf above the bed. There was a desk against the wall beneath the window. A closet along the left wall held clothes and blankets and a chest of drawers with more clothes. Yuugi searched lightly through all of it, not wanting to make much noise. They were supposed to be looking for Ryou, not nosing though his stuff. Yuugi found nothing. He surveyed the room once more and wondered why this room was so special. What was it supposed to protect?
Or rather, who?
This was the first time Yuugi had experience magic he didn't know the precise source of. Who'd cast this spell? Where were they now? There was a possibility Ryuuji didn't know about other shadow magicians in Domino City. Those other shadow magicians might put up a fight. They wouldn't let Ryuuji change the world unchallenged. Just because Ryuuji was tired of Magic & Wizards did mean other shadow magicians were of the same mind.
Yuugi stepped out of the bedroom and went to rejoin his friends in the hall. No-one had found anything. The house was empty. Ryou wasn't home. Now the question was whether or not they ought to wait for him to return.
"C'mon, it'll freak him the fuck out if he shows up and we're here," said Honda. Shizuka agreed with him. Yuugi didn't say much.
"I want to have a talk with him. I want this settled," said Jounouchi stubbornly. "I didn't come all the way out here for more questions I can't answer. I say we wait."
"I have work in the morning, Jounouchi. Plus, I'm starving. We were supposed to get dinner," said Honda. "At least let's go eat. Then we can come back with some food and see if he's home. Tell him we were in the area and decided to bring him something."
"You're right," said Jounouchi, clutching his stomach, which had begun to rumble at the mention of food. "I'm kind of hungry, actually. Maybe we need a break to eat. It was a long drive out here."
"Then, let's go."
Honda replaced the spare key where he'd found it, and they left. Yuugi remained sullen throughout, lost in thought as his mind was overwhelmed with questions that were never answered, but just splintered off into more and more questions. Who was the shadow magician in that house? Had Ryou somehow learned shadow magic himself? Or did his father know it? How had Ryou come across the Sennen Ring years ago anyway? Had that been more than just chance? He'd said something about it coming from his father. Was that story true? Yuugi had had no reason to question it before, but now….
It seemed joining together to search for Ryou had put everyone into a nostalgic mood, and the decision to get hamburgers for dinner like they were teenagers again was unanimous. Instead of Anzu, it was Shizuka this time, but nothing else had changed. Shizuka recited a few of Anzu's favorite pieces of advice about friendship and hope, and they all laughed and agreed this was just as good as the actual thing. Yuugi perhaps agreed a little slower, and the joke soon ended in respect to his and Anzu's history. Jounouchi apologized with zero subtly, embarrassing everyone and saying that Anzu had been their friend for so long that he sometimes forgot what had happened between her and Yuugi in the more recent past.
In reality, Yuugi hadn't been hurt by the joke, not deeply. Yuugi liked to put the past behind him. Anzu was still their friend, and that would never change. He told Jounouchi this. What he didn't tell Jounouchi was that the thing that was really bothering Yuugi was the mysterious room in Ryou's house. He'd started calling it the magician's bedroom in the back of his mind. It was literally all the could think about.