GAHH! You know, there are disadvantages to relying on the anime and writing a fanfic before the manga has been released up to the point from which you are drawing your material. As much as I love him, I have not been dealing hardly at all with Bakura Ryou because, in the anime, he was not with the others for the Duels before their capture and Dark Bakura's meeting with Malik, but in the manga he was right there by their side, just as he was in Duelist Kingdom! Plus, Honda was /not/ alongside Jou and the others, he and Otogi having left by train to another town entirely to go get Shizuka. YGO: Duelist, Vol's 12 & 13 have been released since I wrote this material. ((meh)) Maybe one day, I'll go back and re-write certain parts of this fic to make up for the inconsistencies between YGO canon anime and manga . . . but not any time soon. ((sheepish grin)) In the meantime, Bakura's . . . erm, around and Otogi (who did not go to America) met Honda when he split off from the others to pick up Shizuka at Domino City Hospital. Um . . . yeah. ((nodnod)) That'll work. ((sweatdrop))

Disclaimer – Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Ronin Warriors (a.k.a. Yoroiden: Samurai Troopers) and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to their respective owners. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters. If you recognize him/her/it, I don't own him/her/it. If you don't recognize, I might still not be the owner but it'd be best to ask. I'd appreciate it, anyway. ((grin))

"The Spellfire Saga – 1: Shards"
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 29 – One by One

"Hey, isn't that Otogi Ryuuji from school, the kid who owns the Black Crown gaming store with his dad?" Kuwabara pointed at the tall, slim third-year whose taste in clothing made him stand out from any crowd, descending the stairs at the front of the Domino Station amid scores of other people.

"Hey, you're right," Ryo nodded. "And Honda-san. I thought he'd still be with his buddies."

Nasutei frowned in concern. "Well, that means those Ghouls haven't gotten to him yet. I wonder who the girl with them is. Looks like she's sustained a head injury of some kind." She studied the white bandages over the upper half of the girl's face that she could see even from this distance, covering her eyes.

Yukina looked down at her hands, as though wondering if her modest healing ability would do the young human any good.

Shuten laid a gentle hand on the small youkai's shoulder. "Come, let us follow them. Our own enemy has yet to make an appearance this day, but theirs has made several now. I suspect it will only be a matter of time before these three find themselves under attack as well."

Shuten's words proved too true as, several moments later, a group of black-clad thugs – the style of their robes matching the purple-attired Rare Hunters even now facing Mutou and Kaiba – emerged from the crowds. Otogi was ready to stand and fight, but Honda would not risk anything happening to the girl with them. Before Ryo and the others could catch up and make themselves known, Honda had the girl on his back, and he and Otogi took off down an alley, the half-dozen-plus thugs in hot pursuit.

8 8 8 8 8

The groups chased one another along narrow walkways and into an industrial portion of town. Otogi followed as Honda turned and ducked into a pedestrian tunnel under an overpass, only to skid to a stop as more Ghouls blocked the other end.

"Lovely," Otogi grunted. "Now what?"

"Honda-san?" Shizuka quavered, clinging to him.

Honda retreated into the wall, sliding the girl off his back. "Shizuka-chan, stay here. Otogi!"

"Gotcha." Otogi stood angled shoulder-to-shoulder with Honda, Shizuka between and behind them sandwiched to the wall. He looked at the collected dozen-plus people closing on them from either end of the tunnel and shook his head, muttering over his shoulder, "Damn! Honda-kun, there's too many. What's going on? What do they want?" He had yet to get an explanation out of Honda as to who these people were that were after them – or why.

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Honda recognized them from descriptions of the thugs who had assaulted Jonouchi on the eve of the tournament's beginning and could guess well enough whom they were after next. "Jou told me they call themselves Ghouls, and they're after Yugi – both Yugis. Probably wanna try to use us to get at them."

"Yugi-kun? Other-Yugi-san?" Otogi growled, bracing down for a desperate fight. "Oh, like hell, they will!"

"Surrender, and no one gets hurt," the foremost Ghoul demanded.

Another leered. "Yeah, don't want anything bad to happen to that pretty flower you got with you, eh?"

Shizuka gasped in fright. "N-no! Honda-san!"

The Ghouls dove in. Honda yanked off his jacket, throwing it over the head of one attacker to blind him while he blocked and kicked the next nearest. Behind him, Otogi had palmed a handful of dice and was flicking them at enemy eyes and temples with surprising accuracy, slowing a few down before he was forced to meet the rest in hand-to-hand combat. A cry from Shizuka distracted Honda long enough for one Ghoul to catch him with a punch to the jaw, dropping him to the ground. He twisted to glimpse his best friend's little sister struggle blindly against the iron-strong grip on her wrist, pulling back with all her slight weight and begging to be let go.

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Otogi yelped in pain as a thug grabbed his hand and wrenched the arm up behind his back. He sensed movement coming at him from another direction and twisted to block the new attack, only to duck down and to one side as a huge fist smashed the nose of the thug holding him. Otogi blinked up in surprise at a face he recognized from school. "K-kuwabara Kazuma-kun?"

"Yep, the one and only!" Kuwabara grinned at him, helping steady Otogi as the thug fell unconscious.

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"Shuten, get the girls out of here," one of the newcomers ordered. "We'll take care of these guys."

Honda readily accepted the hand up from the little girl with mint green hair and wide ruby eyes, but frowned at the strangers surrounding Shizuka – a man with long straight hair the color of ruddy cinnamon and the young woman now holding Shizuka's hand with a hastily-murmured, "You'll be all right now. We're friends. Come on!"

"N-no. Who are you? Where's Honda-san, Otogi-san? Where is Katsuya-Big-Brother?"

"No deal, Sanada," Honda growled, recognizing the captain of the school's soccer team, even as he eyed the robed men who had backed off and were murmuring among themselves, revising their own attack plan in the face of their targets' newly-arrived reinforcements. "Shizuka-chan stays with us."

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Ryo nodded, understanding completely even if he did not like that plan. However, for the same reason of protecting the women in the group, he was no longer willing to stand and fight any more than Honda had been before. "Then run!" He helped Honda get the blind girl up on his back once more as Kuwabara did the same with Yukina and Shuten grabbed his wife's arm. The group bolted, breaking through the slightly thinner blockade of Ghouls to the opposite end of the tunnel, down another alley and out into the open, aiming to disappear into a crowd crossing a busy intersection.

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The Ghouls did an admirable job of keeping the group in sight until they scattered into a parking structure, where Nasutei, Shizuka, and Yukina hid in the bed of an oversized pickup truck while Ryo, Honda, Otogi, Kuwabara, and Shuten doubled back to deal with their pursuers. The Ghouls were quickly knocked out and bound up, left for someone else to find and deal with.

Honda dusted himself off, mentally washing his hands of that mess. "Thanks for the help. So, any idea who those guys were?" He hoped they would believe that he and Otogi knew nothing of the men who had been after them. He did not want to have to try to explain why the thugs might be after Yugi and his oversized necklace.

Ryo met Honda's eye with a hard gaze, not fooled. "You probably know more than we do. They're targeting your buddies, after all. Where are Jonouchi-san, Anzu, and Mutou-san's grandfather."

Honda stiffened, and Otogi eyed them with suspicion. "What the – how do you know – ?"

Honda put a hand on Otogi's shoulder. "Cool it." He turned to Kuwabara. "You're Urameshi Yusuke's buddy, right?"

"Yeah. Kuwabara Kazuma." They shook hands. "This is Sanada Ryo and Shuten Doiji."

Shuten offered a bow. "A pleasure to meet you."

They had returned to the truck by then, the girls overhearing the introductions being made. Nasutei helped guide Shizuka. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Nasutei Yagyu."

"Yukina." The girl hopped nimbly to the ground before offering a deep bow.

Honda nodded. "Honda Hiroto. Otogi Ryuuji." He jabbed a thumb at Otogi. "And this is Jonouchi Shizuka."

"My brother is Jonouchi Katsuya. He's participating in this weekend's tournament. Please, have you seen him?" Shizuka queried, fear coloring her voice. With her poor eyesight, Honda realized that her hearing was sharper than most realized – she had likely heard the comments leading into the introductions, and Honda's words to Otogi back in the tunnel could not have been lost on her, either. "Those men might be after my brother and Yugi-san?"

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Ryo sighed. "Yeah, we think so. Look, Honda-san, we know some of our buddies were with you a few hours ago. Touma called earlier, when he remembered that they were supposed to meet up with us and parted company with you guys." He was vague on purpose. As a Ronin Warrior, and of the virtue Righteousness, it went against his nature to lie outright. He would just have to let Honda fill in the blanks he left in his explanation. Cell phones were not completely uncommon items these days, for instance.

8 8 8 8 8

Honda was nodding. "Yeah, they took off pretty suddenly. Everything all right?" The expressions of deep alarm had not been lost on him, no matter how nonchalantly they tried to play it off after the fact.

Kuwabara laughed. "Yeah, nothin' to worry about. Just that Urameshi knew I'd pound his ugly face in if he was late."

"And you think something's happened since then?" Otogi murmured, thinking. He glanced at Honda, then shrugged. "Honda took off shortly after your buddies did to meet me at the train station to go pick up Shizuka-chan at the hospital. She just had eye surgery a few days ago and has been given the go-ahead to take off her bandages."

Shizuka nodded with great enthusiasm. "The first thing I'm going to see is my big brother dueling in Battle City! It's only because of him that I was able to have the surgery in the first place, and I want to be there to support him in return."

Nasutei smiled at her. "That sounds wonderful, Shizuka-chan." The girl's responding grin beamed brightly from under the bandages.

Honda frowned. "Anzu called Otogi's cell phone to let us know that something had happened to another friend of ours, Bakura Ryou. He'd been assaulted and left for dead or something. Mutou-Grandfather was taking him by taxi to the hospital, and Anzu wanted to know if we could meet them, but we were already on the train heading back here."

"I've tried calling Anzu a couple of times since then," Otogi put in, "but her cell's been busy. Weird." He shrugged.

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Ryo and Shuten exchanged furtive glances, recalling the report from Touma about the failed phone call by Mutou's pharaonic spirit friend, and the older Ronin pulled a deep breath. "If something has happened and Jonouchi-kun and Anzu have already been taken, that may explain why she's not answering." Deeply dismayed gasps sounded in reply.

Shizuka choked. "Big Brother . . . "

A moan sounded from a few yards away as one of the Ghouls began to regain consciousness. Ryo saw Honda give his new companions a quick glance before withdrawing from among them, striding angrily up to the man bound to a support column by a fire hose. "All right, you. Where's Jonouchi? You know him, right? Where is he?"

The man looked up, bleary-eyed, and tried to focus on the face before him. "J-jonou-chi? Jonouchi K-katsuya? Malik-sama . . . D-domino Pier . . . duel . . . " He passed out again.

"Malik? Who's Malik?"

Ryo had come up beside Honda. "The one who's behind these Ghouls – and I think that answers that about Jonouchi-san. Come on!"

The group sped out of the parking structure, hitting the street at a dead run – only nearly to get run over by an expensive, blue European-style convertible. "Hey, you people! The crossing light's red!"

Yukina gasped, recognizing the blonde human female. "Kazuma-san, that's the woman from the plaza we saw with Mutou-san and Jonouchi-san this morning!"

8 8 8 8 8

"Mai!" Honda gasped, thanking every local and national Shinto god he could recall just then. "Kujaku Mai! Man, am I glad to see you!"

"H-honda? What's going on? You look all freaked out."

"We've had a few run-ins with a group of creeps called Ghouls – "

"The Ghouls?" Mai scowled. "I've heard of them. They're an underground crime ring that preys on Duelists for rare cards."

"Yeah?" Sanada snorted. "Well, they do more than that."

"They've got Jonouchi!"

Mai rolled her eyes at Honda. "That knucklehead! How could he fall for – ? Do you know where he is?"

Otogi nodded. "Domino Pier. We gotta get there now!"

Mai looked the company over. "Sure thing . . . but I can't take everyone." Her car could fit three more, four if they got really friendly in the back seat, but there were eight people standing there.

8 8 8 8 8

Just then, Ryo and Shuten stiffened, gasps of horror wrenched from throats gone suddenly dry. "Urameshi-kun . . . " the Warrior of Fire moaned.

Kuwabara frowned in concern. "What about Urameshi?" Honda and Otogi could only stare at them in confusion.

Shuten shook his head, refocusing to meet Honda's questioning gaze. "Honda-kun, take your friends and go to the pier. Jonouchi-kun is in need of your help. Mutou-kun is already on his way – "

"Or will be as soon as he gets his butt in gear," Ryo muttered, listening to Touma's frustrated inner dialogue about Pharaoh-sama getting the hell out of dodge and taking Kaiba-san's offer of a lift.

Honda gaped at them. "What the hell – ! How could you possibly – ?"

"Never mind that!" Ryo barked. "Get to your friend. He needs you. We have our own mess to deal with. Go!"

"Come on, Shizuka-chan. Up and over." Nasutei was already guiding the blindfolded girl into Mai's back passenger seat. Otogi bolted around the car to jump in beside Shizuka from the other side.

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Reluctant to abandon them, Honda climbed in next to Mai before turning back to Sanada, recalling Urameshi's words to Jonouchi right before he took off after his buddies. He caught Sanada's arm, squeezing briefly. "Good luck, Sanada, everyone. Be careful. And thanks again!" He let go and waved as Mai revved the engine and raced off at high speed.

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Another group pounded the sidewalks of Domino City, the little commuter airport now several minutes behind them as they raced to reunite with their companions. Yusuke had been taken, and they had just lost contact with Touma.

"Kurama!"

Kurama scowled, skidding to a stop. "Yes, Hiei, I sensed it, too."

Behind them, Naaza scowled. Kurama guessed that he had felt a flare of power but could not identify it. "What is it?" Beside him, Shizuru looked about, a frown of concentration on her face.

"A periphery portal just opened only meters from here . . . in that direction. It felt much like the armor's teleports that we witnessed yesterday."

"Sohma-kun," Shin murmured. "It has to be." The Warrior of Trust led the way down the alley.

The group stayed close together, the four fighters keeping their non-combatant friend behind them. The air was absolutely still here – Kurama initially missed the scent – and instinctive skill passed from armor shard to host made it nearly impossible to hear as it prowled up behind them. Hiei and Naaza were the first to sense the threat, but they turned too late to keep a thrown shard of glass from slicing across Shizuru's arm. Echoing laughter retreated along with the agitated danger sense as another periphery portal opened somewhere very close, the armor teleporting away yet again.

Shin caught Shizuru as her legs buckled, her face contorting in pain and struggle for a moment before going blank. "Shizuru-san? Are you all right?"

Kurama dropped to his knees next to them as Naaza and Hiei shifted to guard their flanks. "Shizuru?" His eyes flicked to the glass shard as he realized that his supernaturally heightened sense of smell caught not only Shizuru's blood scent on it but Sohma's as well.

Dazed, Shizuru touched the wound, blood seeping down over her fingers. She lifted her hand in front of her face to regard the sight for a moment, then focused past it to find Shin's eyes. Without warning, an ugly grin twisted her lips and she lashed out, raking Shin's face with her nails, drawing blood. Shin dropped her, reeling back with a cry. Shizuru smirked at him. "Gotcha!" Her gaze shifted to Kurama.

"Damn, no!" Kurama backpedaled with an awkward lurch, poorly positioned in that moment for defensive maneuvering. Naaza grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away as Shizuru and Shin both climbed to their feet, a terrible look in their eyes.


Author's Note: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!