Okay, fine. I know this hasn't been updated for months, so none of you figured out that the last chapter was the end of the hiatus and let me know you were still alive or whatever.
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After this chapter, though, my standard policy on reviews and updates goes back into effect. Basically, if you don't review, I don't update. I know reviews are optional and all, but I can't tell how I'm doing if you don't review, which means I don't know if I should keep writing because the story's decent or stop writing because the story's terrible...you get my drift, I hope.
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Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is not owned here
Claimer: I own the made-up stuff that I invented!
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"That's three down, with only four to go," Duke said, eyeing the Millennium Items that rested on the table before them.
The Eye, Ankt, and Tauk gleamed almost innocently golden as the group stared at them.
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"Wait, what about dat scaly-thing that demon-lady wanted ta use on us?" Jou piped up after another minute.
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Briefly, they thought back to the disastrous end of their last plane trip: Demons hijacking the plane, Yuugi's idea of tricking the demoness into lying, her last-second throw of the Scales before the explosion of golden magic light…
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"Hey, maybe that means the demons don't have it anymore!" Mokuba grinned, "Maybe it even sank to the bottom of the ocean forever!"
Despite the happy mood this idea created, Yuugi reluctantly held out his hands and signed, (No not good. We need all seven remember)
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Mokuba - whom Jou and Yuugi had been teaching how to read some JSL over the last couple of days - blinked at the gestures before groaning, "I forgot…that guy Mori did say we needed seven…shoot!"
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"Well, no sweat!" Jou said next, "C'mon Mokuba, you guys must have submarines or something, don't ya? If its in da ocean, we can go get it!"
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"Unless the demons have recovered it by now…which I wouldn't put past them, to be perfectly honest…" Duke mentioned, drawing an annoyed glare from Jou.
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Completely ignoring all of this petty squabbling, Kaiba kept staring at the Items sitting on the table. He was feeling very weirdly conflicted about everything now, a feeling that he kept hidden with a flawless poker face. Okay, Ban-Ile might be real, and these artifacts might be at least valuable if not actually - even mentally Kaiba still stumbled over the word magic - and demons might be real, bad, and most importantly extremely dangerous…but there was still something Kaiba wasn't getting, something that would push all these unrelated facts into their proper places so he could figure things out.
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"What…powers…do these…things…have, again?" Kaiba asked, speaking in the brief second of space that everyone caught their breaths at.
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Duke rolled his eyes, irritated at losing his train of thought in the middle of an argument that he was winning, and pointed to each item in turn.
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"The Eye can read minds to see past deceptions, the Ankt can unlock souls and open pathways to different parts of reality, and the Tauk has the power to see the future and past," Duke recited, "…Oh, and they can all do various unpleasant things to people's souls. Did I miss anything?"
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"…You once implied that the necklace was created by a person who had that same ability, did you not?" Kaiba continued, following an vague idea that had occurred to him when Mokuba had mentioned this part of their Jungle Survival story.
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"Well, yeah," Duke shrugged, not seeing where this was going, "The Tauk was created by a powerful Seer. Each of the human magic-users gave their Item similar abilities…what's your point?"
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"So, the Eye was created by a telepathic guy or something?" Mokuba piped up, curious.
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"A Crafter," Duke corrected, "Old word for those artists and such who could make anything, as long as their clients could think up exactly what they wanted…very perceptive people, probably all at least a little bit telepathic I guess. I think the Ankt's creator was some sort of Shaman…now the Scales, those are really dangerous, since they were made by an Arbitrator."
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"You mean it was a judge?" Jou asked.
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The blonde proceeded to glare and growl at his companions as almost everyone else in the room goggled at him in pure astonishment.
"HEY!" Jou snapped, "Just 'cause I don't use some words a lot don't mean I don't know what dey are and what dey mean an' all!"
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"Well, whatever the reason, Jou's actually right," Duke continued, earning a full death-glare from the now very pissed off teen, "Basically, the most powerful Arbitrator of the times made the Scales. He was very well-known for having absolutely no patience for people who tried to pervert justice by lying…whether it was about a crime or about anything else whatsoever."
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(Lots of very different people made these items) Yuugi observed.
((Lots and lots of crazy dirts to make bad shadow-dirt powers.)) Kikki agreed.
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Duke and Yuugi were the only ones to understand what Kikki said - though Yuugi pretended he hadn't and Kaiba gave the bird a very odd look - but the Ban-Ile only chuckled and said, "Well, I suppose in that first war we needed all the help we could get - no matter where it came from."
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"That's four," Mokuba said, "What about the last three? Seeing what these can do, I wonder if there's anything cool left for the others!"
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"I only know about two of them really well," Duke admitted, "The final item is the most powerful and mysterious, so no one really knows that much about it at all…but the other two are pretty straightforward. One was created by a powerful warrior, so its basically a weapon. The other one was created by a thief."
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Kaiba scoffed at this notion, apparently by accident because he next looked angry that any part of this little bit of story-time interested him enough to think about disproving it. Duke seemed to take the interruption in stride, though.
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"That's exactly what I thought when I first heard about this," the Ban-Ile admitted, "But this was no ordinary thief. He was something like world-renowned for his amazing heists, and how he could somehow find anything valuable and take it, no matter how well it was hidden, and how he could beat any traps, no matter how clever and dangerous they were."
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There was another minute's pause, before Duke, his face carefully expressionless, continued, "I just said he could find anything, didn't I."
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"Oh yeah," Jou laughed, "Dis is great - now we can find everything we need!"
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"We still need to find this thief's item first," Duke protested.
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"At least that will be easy," Kaiba said unexpectedly.
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(How do you mean) Yuugi asked.
"A thief as good as that must have been a masterful strategist," Kaiba explained smugly, "Which means he would have personally arranged this item's hiding place himself…in the most obvious place possible that no one would even consider checking first because of its total lack of secrecy."
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"…Meaning what exactly?" Jou ventured asking when he couldn't figure it out after another second.
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Kaiba rolled his eyes and snapped, "That means its in Stonehenge, you idiotic mutt."
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Jou stared at Kaiba with narrowed, angry eyes, before apparently shrugging it off as not being worth fighting over when Kaiba still had a bandage on his head and grinning, "All right, I'll go make da travel arrangements den!"
The blonde sprang to his feet and charged out of the room, set on his self-appointed mission. Duke groaned, grabbed and shoved the Tauk and Eye into a pocket, and ran after Jou with a cry of "Wait up Jonouchi, you don't speak Spanish!"
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"Dat's fine, we're in Mexico, dey speak Mexican here!" the blonde retorted, causing the people still in Kaiba's hospital room to sweat-drop.
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"I'd better keep an eye on those two," Mokuba sighed, slinging the Ankt on and hiding it under a shirt as he jumped up and ran out to follow the other two.
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"That fool is so clueless, it's a miracle he's even still alive," Kaiba smirked, mostly to himself.
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Apparently it wasn't enough to himself, because the next thing the brunette heard were Yuugi's hands slamming down on the table, the short mute's face clearly showing his mounting frustration and exasperation.
"What?" Kaiba said, suddenly feeling oddly defensive, "He's clearly a gutter-born-and-bred idiot."
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(As if Y-O-U know) Yuugi retorted, fingerspelling the word 'you' for greater emphasis, (What do you know about his situation or even his family)
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"You appear to believe that I know less than you do," Kaiba countered.
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This brought on a new sight for Kaiba, and would have been such for many other people in the world as well: Yuugi was actually visibly angry, for a full minute, angry enough to keep himself from signing anything in case he said something he might regret later.
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Finally, Yuugi very carefully signed (I can tell you his life and family didn't start this bad off at least) before getting up and walking out of the room, signaling the end of the conversation.
…