Masaka: Sob hysterically My poor car is DEAD!! I hadn't even learned to drive it yet!! And what's worse is all the Goodwill stuff I had in the back is all BUUUUUUUUUUUURNED!! Damn it all, take the car but not my donations
Yami Masaka: U-- Yes, this is my hikari folks. This is really how she reacts to someone burning her vehicle; she starts sobbing about how all her Goodwill donations are now ruined…can't believe you, so stupidly sweet, you can't get mad at anyone but yourself. Gives me an effing tooth-ache sometimes
Masaka: I can't help how I react! I swore when I was woken up at three-o-clock in the morning though, so I'm not that-
Yami Masaka: Yes you ARE namby-pamby! ANYONE would swear when woken up at a Ra-forsaken hour!! What matters is that you didn't get upset over the right thing!! AND YOU STILL HAVE THIS NAÏVE OUTLOOK OF THE WORLD EVEN NOW!! YOU DON'T THINK YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD IS DANGEROUS AT ALL!!
Masaka: Well it's not…not really. I mean when our neighbors fence caught fire and we helped put it out, our neighbor bought us pizza, and when my car was on fire one of our other neighbors came running out of his house in his underwear to help so-
Jason: saunters up and wraps his arms possessively around Masaka There, there little light one. You don't have to go on defending your position. Yami Masaka just doesn't understand goodness is all. You could talk forever and she'd still never get it so just give up gloats over the top of Masaka's head at the yami while stroking up and down Masaka's arms personally I find it sweet and refreshing that you have so much faith in humanity and that you can look on the good side of things
Masaka: blushing like a maniac U-uh we-well th-thanks Jason, b-but really I just have s-slow reactions to stuff like this that k-keeps me from g-getting hysterical and well I um…that is um… Jason, I think you should stop with the hands and the-
Yami Masaka: Aura burning like an inferno eyes turned absolutely red
Jason: Smirks over Masaka's head and starts to move his hands towards forbidden territory
Masaka: ACK!! BOOB GRAZE!! YOU GROPED ME!!
Yami Masaka: Battle Axe raised over her head DIE YOU STUPID HALF-RATE DOG MUSE!! DIIIIIIIIIIIIEE!!
Jason runs off laughing manically
Nero and Yugi: Timidly walking out to check on Masaka Are you alright Masaka
Masaka: Y-yah, I'm fine…u-uh let's start the chapter now something crashes in the background and another battle cry sounds before Masaka and Jason's fight destroys everything and we have nowhere to post
Nero pulls out the force-field shield he got from Tie-dyed Trickster and sets it up around Maska, Yugi, the laptop and himself
CHAPTERSTARTCHAPTERSTARTCHAPTERSTARTCHAPTERSTARTCHAPTERSTARTCHAPTERSTART
Yami was unhappy. Not really ticked off, or upset, just unhappy.
For about two month or so now he had been noticing some things were not quite as they should be and it was testing the limits of his patience.
For instance he noticed that Nero had been coming over to the Game Shop quite often while Yami was out on his dates, leaving the house only after Yami arrived home.
Yami also noticed that Ryou, the poor hikari who was so often afraid of everything, was spending more and more time in class with a goofy smile on his face and a blush on his cheeks. Now this wasn't particularly something bad, but it was so uncharacteristic of the boy that it made Yami feel uncomfortably out of the loop.
Also the white-haired boy's physical stamina seemed to have changed recently. Before now, Yami could count on Ryou collapsing during P.E. wheezing and panting, trying to pass it off as a momentary thing but finally allowing the coach to escort him to the nurse's office. And yet, now-a-days, so long as it wasn't too sunny for the boy's tender skin, Ryou could often be found outrunning the average students and falling just short of outmatching the athletic powerhouses of their class like Joey or Honda.
And while Ryou's health seemed to be increasing, Yugi's strength seemed to be drained a little more than usual. More than once Yami had been greeting home, not by Yugi's usual cheerful chirp, but a tired rasp. And where once Yugi had the energy to badger and embarrassing the hell out of Yami if he returned late from one of his 'study-dates' Yugi now couldn't be woken by a nuclear-blast after ten-'o'-clock. Which was much preferred over the times when Yugi WAS awake late, only because he was in too much pain from sore muscles, an aching throat or –and this made Yami's heart pound with concern and protective anger- bruises to actually get a decent amount of rest.
However, the most distressing change in the norm Yami wasn't aware of until his brought his observations to the lunching-tree meeting…
"Yugi has been WHAT?" Yami yelled, leaping to his feet in horror.
Joey, Honda, and Otogi all looked up at the former sovereign in confusion not moving an inch from their place under the lunching tree.
"YOU GUYS HAVEN'T HUNG OUT WITH YUGI IN HOW LONG??" Yami growled in both anger and shock.
Joey rolled a large chunk of his chili-chicken pita-pocket over into one cheek so he could mumble; "for about two months we haven't hung out with either Yugi OR Ryou after school-hours. They always say they've got 'prior plans'."
Otogi, who had unfortunately been too close to his blonde compatriot and had subsequently gotten a nice splattering of chili chicken across his uniform pants, sighed heavily and added in his part: "Occasionally we'll see Yugi out and about but he's always with other people. So far we've seen him with at least three freshman and two seniors, one of them being the infamous Atsushi."
"Infamous Atsushi? Who in Ra's name is he?" Yami huffed angrily, very miffed at being so out of the loop. As mentioned before, he hated being out of the loop.
"Atsushi Mamio of Class A-4 (A/N: Muwahaha, I made Domino High School have FOUR grade levels just because I felt like it, fear me and my un- Japanese culture writing waha!)I haven't really met him but I know his reputation. He's supposedly some real hard-ass. Really tough guy who managed to somehow sweet-talk the administration into letting him start a club," Honda explained casually from the ground where he was sprawled out, watching the brilliant colored leaves of the lunch-tree sway in the breeze, losing its coverage bit by bit.
"Not only that, I heard the guy is a real pervert too. He supposedly has a thing for young boys and has already been suspended for 'inappropriate behavior'," Otogi tacked on.
"Hey, I never heard that part!" Honda blinked in shock.
"Really, well it's all the girls in class can talk about…strange…are you not on talking terms with the girls, Hirito?" Otogi said with a mocking grin. Honda growled and sat up to get back at the dice-throwing pretty boy but Yami beat him to it.
The ex-pharaoh's face had turned pale as Otogi had shared his news and now the ex-pharaoh looked seething mad.
"So what you're telling me is that you've see Yugi hanging around with a reported molester and you did NOTHING ABOUT IT?" Yami growled, gripped the lapels of Otogi's jacket tightly in his fists.
"Whoa, take it easy boy!" Otogi gagged as his shirt collar was pulled tight around his windpipe.
"Hey, lay off him Yams; you got no room ta talk about us being bad friends after all the stuff you've pulled on Yug lately," Joey said, taking hold of Yami's shoulders and pulling the shorter male backwards.
"What do you mean? What exactly do you think I've 'pulled'?" Yami asked, his eyes narrowed with rage and suspicion."
"Well…lots of little things," Otogi spoke out again. "You and Yugi used to be so close you might as well have been surgically attached and then Tea came along and you two pretty much stopped talking."
"Yah, and not only do you not talk to him, you hardly ever hang out with him anymore, and you leave him with all the chores at the Game Shop," Honda spoke up. Immediately Yami began to splutter, trying to think up an excuse for his behavior but after several painfully long seconds without coming up with anything fitting Yami just trailed off into silence. "All you really ever seem to do is hang out with Tea and then maybe go home for dinner. We all know, we've seen you do it on at least several occasions."
"We care a lot about Yugi of course; after all we've been through how could we not?" Otogi spoke up in this silence, "but the fact remains that we are JUST friends and we have no REAL authority to tell him to do anything. Besides he's entitled to live his own life, the rest of us certainly are."
"Ain't that the truth. Normally between school, housework and the motorcycle I'm trying to restore and all the jobs I do to afford restoring it, lunch-time is about the only time I have to spend hanging out with you guys," Honda sighed mournfully. He didn't mention his budding friendship with Serenity in this list. Nothing had happened between them yet but Honda didn't want to attract Joey's attention to the matter and make things worse.
"And I've been dealing with my fair share of troubles trying to expand Dungeon Dice Monsters," Otogi agreed, tacking in his own woes.
"And Kaiba's got his big ol' company, Mai is livin' her dream in Paris, Seren' isn't gonna be back from my mom's place 'til MARCH at least, and I've got the after-school job marathon of hell on top of the study-groups 'M always runnin' off to join. Fact is, the only ones who DON'T seem ta be doin' much…are Yami and …speakin' of Ms. Friendship, where the heck is she?" Joey asked as he looked around the lunching-tree.
"She has this…dance…thing …she's doing in Osaka. Apparently it's a scholarship opportunity or something. She and her mom left this morning and won't be back for a couple of days," Yami explained shortly.
"Huh, I guess I take my last statement back. 'Side from you, everyone seems to be real busy," Joey shrugged. Yami glared at him for imply that he was being slothful but didn't make any motion to physically show the blonde his anger.
"Well, speaking of the absent, where are Ryou and Yugi," Honda coughed, breaking the awkward silence by asking the question that had been on his mind for the last several minutes.
Otogi sighed, "Honda, THOSE two have an EXCUSE! They TOLD us that they were going to be eating lunch with Nizuki and Nero in the school auditorium."
"Oops, sorry, I guess I forgot," Honda blushed.
"Wait, wait, wait… they're eating INSIDE? …That's very strange. Usually whenever the trees have changed color Yugi is the first to be outside under the lunch-tree, he loves the changing colors. And Ryou is a fan of deep autumn too because apparently the weather is easier on his body," Yami said while rubbing his chin curiously.
"Maybe they just had something they needed to do," Otogi shrugged.
"Yes, but what…aside from knowing WHO he's with, we have no idea what Yugi is really up to, or what trouble he's gotten into," Yami puzzled. "…Okay gentlemen; I say this situation bares further investigation."
"What do you mean?" the three boys asked curiously.
Yami hefted himself up off the ground and dusted himself off of all the leaf debris and dirt he'd picked up. He turned towards the school building and over his shoulder commented: "I mean that we should go spy on them of course."
And then he walked.
Honda, Otogi and Joey all looked at each other for a long moment before looking after the diminutive sovereign then back at each other again.
"Awh, what the hell," Joey shrugged, throwing his wrapper over his shoulder into the waste-basket before getting up to follow Yami.
Otogi and Honda dawdled behind a moment longer to share exasperated looks that only a fellow side-character could understand before getting up as well.
It was time to reconnect with their light-spirited buddies.
SCENECHANGETOTHETWOHIKARISANDTHEIRTWOANGELSWHOAREALLENJOYINGLUNCHUNAWAREOFTHESUDDENATTENTIONTHEY'VEGARNERED
Nizuki rolled her eyes once at the snoring lump of a drunken yami snoozing of Ryou's couch before closing her compact mirror and looking over at the three sets of curious eyes.
"The idiot is snoring away. You'd think after a few millennium of being stuck in a stupid golden ring the guy would be more inclined to well…DO things in his second life, don't you think?" the angel informed.
The three 'boys' sitting around her all visibly relaxed at the news of Bakura's unconscious state. Not that Nizuki could really blame them. Over the last two months or so they'd been forced to deal with the white-haired male's many problems more than once. Mostly it was simple things they had to be careful of, like avoiding waking him up while they still tried to hang out, do homework and generally just act like friends.
Once or twice, however, Bakura's behavior had caused some disturbing problems in the form of thugs hanging around the house. Between Nizuki, whose job it was to protect, Atsushi, who apparently was a brother of five and had way too many protective instincts for his own good, and Darrin, who was after all a martial arts student, the thugs hadn't lasted long.
So long as Bakura didn't do anything stupid the problem with the yakuza was settled…which was part of the reason Nizuki was keeping closer track of the yami these days.
"I'm just glad that he isn't causing any trouble. I can deal with the drunkard part of it but when he's out causing chaos…" Ryou trailed off shaking his head warily.
Yugi affectionately patted Ryou on the back and gave the boy an empathetic grin. "I'm sorry that Bakura is always like that Ryou."
"Yes, well, at least he's a somewhat decent drunk…if there is such a thing," Ryou sighed as he speared a bit of orange from the fruit salad he'd packed in with his lunch and bringing it to his lips.
"Nero thinks it is now time for a random topic change!" Nero chirped, "Ryou-san, how is martial arts lessons working out?"
The bit of orange came sailing back out only a second after it went in.
"Ah- ah- ah w-well um…it's going um…I think I have to say that…um well you see it um," Ryou stammered and chocked, his face steadily going more and more red until his face could have been mistaken for a stoplight.
"…It's going good?" Yugi offered after a minute or so of this.
"Y-Yes, it's going good," Ryou escaped with a sigh. Nizuki rolled her eyes behind Ryou's head.
The angel hadn't been overly enthusiastic about her protectorate's growing crush. In fact the angel didn't seem to like Zubarro as much as she had before, despite all his actions. Yugi suspected that the attitude had nothing to do with Darrin, himself. Nizuki had been running interference up in Purgatory for Nero's sake as well as pulling Bakura's butt out of the fire and striking down all those that dared to hurt Ryou all at the same moment for about a month and it would have been unnatural for that stress to not affect her mood, angel or not.
"Well I'm glad for you, Ryou. It's nice to see you so active," Yugi smiled as he picked up the breads he'd bought for Nero and himself and working to get them out of their surprisingly thick plastic covering. "No offense but before you started these lessons you were so weak. I used to worry that you'd wind up in the hospital."
"Yes well, unfortunately genetics plays a big part in that," Ryou sighed, "I just have to do my best to cope with what I was given."
"Good attitude," Nizuki chuckled, hugging Ryou from behind, causing the boy to blush fuchsia again.
"So how's the karaoke club going for you, Yugi? You learning anything, getting any stronger, forming a stroooong mental/spiritual defense against agents of darkness?" Nizuki asked pertly while Ryou was incapacitated with embarrassment.
"Well…um…I-I guess," Yugi sighed, rotating his meat-bun in his hands as if unsure where to bite into it first. "It's just…well…Karaoke Club has been having…it's been having…a few issues."
"Like what?" Nizuki asked while she absentmindedly ran her fingers through Ryou's hair.
"…I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind too much," Yugi sighed heavily before taking a bite of his lunch.
Nizuki glowered slightly at the boy, her protective instincts slowly whirling into gear, and turned to Nero. "What is going on?"
"…Atsushi-san is …having troubles with bullies of school," Nero explained timidly. "And Atsushi's problems are becoming…all club members' problems."
"What do you me-" Nizuki began to ask, Yugi interrupted with a sharp 'shush' directed towards them all.
The auditorium doors burst open and who should walk in the door but the red-head punk-god himself, as well as the freshman club member Watashito.
Watashito was practically draped across Atsushi's shoulder, his nose bleeding so much that even the front of his jacket was stained. Atsushi's face was unhealthily pale and his knuckles were bruised and bloodied. As they walked forward Yugi and the group had a hard time deciding which of the two boys looked to be in worse shape.
"Atsushi," Yugi said, jumping off the stage where they had all been seated and running up to meet his sempai. "Atsushi, what the heck is going on? Why aren't you taking Watashito to the nurse?"
"I can't," Atsushi responded through gritted teeth. "The Nurse will report this if I do, and you know that our club can't get entangled in another serious injury report. Councilor Harrison probably wouldn't blame us but all the other administrators would use this as an excuse to get rid of the club completely."
Yugi understood Atsushi's decision immediately and nodded in agreement. He didn't miss, however, the curious look boring into his back from his gathered friends. Yugi mentally promised himself he'd explain the situation to his friends more clearly after this little episode was finished.
"Eside id nud da baa, I beel bine, welly," Watashito mumbled, giving a supportive smile filled with blood-stained teeth.
Up on the stage Nero looked ready to dive at the freshman and help heal his wounds despite the witnesses. Nizuki, luckily, held the boy back just in time.
/Yugi-sama! Yugi-sama! You gotta help him! He bleeding so bad!/ Nero begged.
//I'll do my best// Yugi responded immediately. Out loud he said: "what can I do to help?"
"There's a first-aide kit with the rest of the club stuff in the storage closet," Atsushi said pulling the door keys out of his pocket single-handedly and tossing them awkwardly at Yugi. "Get it out and check to see if we have a nose-brace. It's a little metal thing with padding on the bottom. Also get out some medical tape, gauze and disinfectant."
Yugi nodded and swiftly went about his duties. In the meantime Atsushi led Watashito down to the first row of seats and settled the boy into the first one.
Nizuki elegantly leapt off the stage and walked over to Atsushi. Her expression was just as pained as Nero's, but she tried harder to contain her impulse to heal.
"What exactly happened to him?" the blonde angel asked, sweeping her hand over the young boy's shoulders to send as much relief as she could, without being obvious, into his body.
"Hmmph, I'll tell you what happened to him, Shogi and his army of goons happened. That jackass has some sort of …vendetta against me, and he's taking it out on me and all those in the club. I don't know what the hell I did to piss him off, I mean it's not like I've ever DONE anything to the guy, but he's just really devoted to ruining me. You know he has some of his minions keeping tabs on me. Ashahara and Megumi. Ashahara I don't mind so much, I mean at least he's straight about it; he ACTS like a minion and leaves no room for questioning his allegiances. But Megumi, God give me strength, I don't know what's WITH that chick! I think she's probably one of Shogi's girlfriends and she's using this opportunity to get closer to him or at least make him jealous or something, but sometimes the way she acts around me…it's disgusting really. Damn it, I should have worked out a better system for us all."
"Ou do enub bor us aweady," Watashito mumbled.
"Wait…what system are you talking about…does this have anything to do with why Yugi has been spending so much time with the Karaoke Club after school?" Nizuki asked curiously. She'd been curious about why Yugi hadn't been hanging out with his friends but she'd thought it had something to do with Joey's wintry attitude.
Nizuki couldn't believe she'd let something like this happen. She was a guardian angel for silver cloud's sake! She was supposed to be ONTOP of things like this. After this was over she was going to make sure she had a nice long chat with Yugi.
"Yah, that's why. I know Yugi has pretty strong friends and all but…from the way he talked about them I figured that they wouldn't notice Yugi was in trouble until the kid showed up in an iron lung. So I did some creative rescheduling and figured out how to get everyone together. There is safety in numbers after all," Atsushi explained, pulling out his handkerchief and putting it against Watashito's nose.
"M bine! Ou dun need da baby me," Watashito pouted.
"I'm feeling guilty, humor me," Atsushi frowned at the boy. He then turned back to the angel. "I found poor Azuka here surrounded by about five of the biggest, meanest SOBs you'll ever have the privilege of meeting as well as Shogi. They were badgering him about the club, saying how only faggots sing in a school club and how they were going to crush him if he didn't leave the club right then.
Watashito actually threw the first punch if you can believe that. Of course it didn't do anything, but it was pretty hilarious seeing Shogi-bakayaro's eye twitch like it did. I dove in to save him, and because the sicko is demented, he had his thugs back-off without touching me."
"He wants you to feel guilty," Nizuki frowned.
"No shit, and it's working too. Damn it! Why the hell is he doing this? If I just knew THAT I-"
"Here's the stuff, Atsushi," Yugi puffed, passing the supplies over to his club president.
Atsushi thanked him dismissively and then pulled his handkerchief back from Watashito's nose and dosed it with disinfectant. Then with all the tenderness of a father with his first child he began to fix up the boy's nose.
"…Are things like this a common occurrence?" Nizuki asked.
"No, thank God. Shogi loves to mess with us, picking fights one day and then leaving us to hang in suspense for weeks before striking again. And he doesn't do the same things all the time either. One time it will be rumors that he spreads, another time it with be vandalism of our locker-room. Bastard must have spies all over the place because he never gets caught and always know when one of our members is vulnerable. I HATE not knowing what's going to happen next and the jerk-off knows it," Atsushi said as he popped Watashito's nose back into place –not without a miserable groan from said boy- and placed the brace on the injury.
"Why don't the teachers do anything?" Yugi asked. "I mean, this has happened enough times. What are they waiting for, a death?"
"Shogi has influence over some of the teachers. He's got blackmail material on at least four. And he uses those teachers to control all the rest," Atsushi informed.
"…This kid sounds pretty impressive," Nizuki scowled.
"Yah…Shogi definitely is impressive," Atsushi said, his face squinted as if he'd just taken a large bite of lemon. Nizuki got the distinct impression that Atsushi was hiding something, but because he wasn't her protectorate she couldn't directly sense if he was lying.
Ryou took Nero's hand and lead the angel over to the seat, keeping his grip tight enough to keep Nero from doing anything irreversible.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Ryou asked the club president politely.
Atsushi warily shook his head and slumped into the empty seat beside Watashito. It was obvious that things were really bad if the guy Yugi had more than once described as the 'single most energetic person I have ever met' was this drained.
Nizuki smiled encouragingly at the fake red-head and put a hand on his shoulder. It took everything she had and more to not make the touch a healing one. Atsushi was a truly brilliant person, he was even a more or less Christian (the less part coming from the fact that he was bi-sexual and therefore church pariah) and it pained Nizuki to see him pained.
"I thought…Hayashi I thought…after all that…" Atsushi began to speak. Unfortunately, whatever revelation the teen was about to share was lost because just then the auditorium doors burst open again and the rest of the Karaoke Club came charging into the room, led by none other than Mitsuko herself. The blond looked half ready to snap someone's neck.
"AT-SU-SHI!! What the hell is this I hear about one of our members being attacked, AGAIN?" Mitsuko screeched, her usually lovely voice warped with rage.
"A-ah h-hello Kichi, I was wondering where you were," Atsushi smiled weakly. "Perhaps you and the others would like to sit down and then we-"
"Stuff it," Mitsuko hissed. She shoved her clipboard at the nearest group-member to hold then stomped over to Atsushi and pulled the poor boy's jacket down so that he and she were nose-to-nose. "I trusted you to get the club started safely. I gave up my precious spot in the Uekoyuchi Cram School to be your co-captain. I did NOT do ALL that just to be risk my life, fighting the children of the yazuka! You TOLD me, after what happened with Yugi; you wouldn't let things get this bad again!!"
Yugi once again felt the uncomfortable burn of his friend's eyes upon him. He hadn't mentioned any violence at the club and had sworn Nero to secrecy as well. He was definitely going to get grilled after this was all over.
"Mitsuko, how was I supposed to know that Shogi had an ambush waiting in the bathroom? It's not like I can predict the dick's ever movement! And as for the risking life part, I will work something out, okay? I'll see if Sh-Hayashi can't be appeased with a bribe or something. Just have a little faith in me, okay? We've dreamed of this club for such a long time, and now that we've got it, I don't want to see it crushed," Atsushi pleaded, not even flinching at the anger in Mitsuko's eyes.
The blonde co-captain stared Atsushi down for a few long minutes then sighed heavily and let the boy's jacket slip from her fingers. Atsushi fell with a thud, face-first onto the carpet.
"All right, all right! You've convinced me! But I just hope you understand that, things are very precarious for us right now. If we don't stop this abuse and find a way to get more members, dream or no, our club will be shut down!" Mitsuko told her collapsed partner.
The blonde then twirled around, snagged her clipboard back, and stomped out of the auditorium leaving behind the other karaoke members.
"Atsushi…do you really think you can get Hayashi to stop?" Trickster asked imploringly. Atsushi pried his head out of the concrete and raised his head enough to give the girl a smile.
"I don't think so, I know so. You just be ready to sing your heart out this afternoon, okay little bird?" the rock-star-in-making winked. Trickster flushed and nodded, the rest of the club members seemed to be satisfied with this statement as well and (after giving a few encouraging words to Watashito) filed off to go back to their lunches.
The auditorium doors creaked shut, seeming louder now that so many people had left.
Atsushi got the rest of his way to his feet and brushed down his clothing. He looked at Watashito then nudged his head towards the door: "Come on, I'll take you home."
"Oday," Watashi agreed. Atsushi patted Yugi on the shoulder, told him to not be late to practice, then took his friend to the front office to tell the administrators Watashito was going home early.
The auditorium doors creaked even louder this time, almost as if it sensed the dark aura that now filled the room.
"Well…I guess there are some things I should explain," Yugi sighed, turning back to the others.
CHAPTERENDCHAPTERENDCHAPTERENDCHAPTERENDCHAPTERENDCHAPTERENDCHAPTERENDCHAPTEREND
Masaka: sighs heavily and collapses I almost thought my writer's block had come back
Yugi: So I'm in trouble again, huh? Sighs Why am I not surprised?
Nero: Not to worry self, Yugi-sama! I have it on goodest authority that Ryou gets it much worse than you do soon enough!
Yugi: jolts in shock And I should be happy about that?
Jason and Yami Masaka continue to fight on, regardless of all the damages they've caused so far
Masaka, Nero and Yugi: Please read and review, thank you very much!