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 38 – Game Over

All six Duelists along with the Spirit Detectives and their combined friends fell back a step, jaws hanging in unabashed awe as nine incredible energy attacks exploded forth, converging overhead where Dark Bat hovered, meeting and spiraling together high out of sight. Dark Bat was obliterated, none even able to see the Solid Hologram's destruction, but a terrible blackness erupted in his wake, engulfing the whole column from the inside out, flowing back along the attacks to invade the Armors. One after another, the attacks quickly ceased as the warriors' concentration was broken, and the Nine staggered once again under the struggle. Light flared on each Ronin's forehead, shining from under the helms – Righteousness, Trust, Justice, Wisdom, Grace, Loyalty, Obedience, Endurance, Piety. The Armors themselves began to glow, throwing off the choking Evil once and for all.

Nine stances straightened and relaxed. Nine pairs of eyes blinked and cast about, meeting one another with assurance and gladness. Once again, the Ronin Warriors had triumphed.

8 8 8 8 8

Laughing with relief, Ryo turned to Yusuke, who had backed up even with Kaiba. "Hey, Urameshi-kun, tell Koenma-sama the next time you see him that he won't have to worry about it after all. The Ronin Warriors have taken care of the shard of Arago."

Before Yusuke could respond, a huff of annoyance off his left shoulder made him jump. "Dammit, Botan! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that?"

Kaiba, too, startled at the sudden appearance of the azure-pigtailed girl beside him, but Botan ignored them both, hands on her hips as she glared at the fighters. "Well, that was really bright, Ronin Warriors. I'd expect a stupid stunt like that from Yusuke but not from you guys."

"Hey!" Yusuke yelped in protest.

"Well, Botan," Shu retorted, "it's not as though the damned thing gave us much of a choice."

Anubisu growled. "It tried to take us over again, more directly than ever."

"Only this time its energies were too far scattered to be effective," mused Rajura.

"Well, if you guys had just let me take it like Koenma-sama sent me to do, instead of attacking it like that – !"

"What exactly did you guys do?" Anzu called, interrupting the argument.

Shuten silenced his companions with a wave, and Elementals and Seasonals alike quieted to let their scholar explain. "We attacked it as we did hoping to transfer a portion of each of our Virtues into it. It dissipated and followed our attacks back to us in turn, but then our Armors were able to absorb and neutralize it. It is no longer a threat to anyone." To Botan, he added, "Forgive us, but it is for the best. The shard was a lost splinter of our whole. It belongs with us."

" . . . it was still risky," the ferry girl grumped.

8 8 8 8 8

Kaiba looked at his watch. "Hn. Well, since Yugi has declared 'game over,' I'm powering down. I've wasted enough time here with you people and your magic talk. I still have a tournament to win – and you, Yugi, still have a Duel to fight." The spirit nodded solemnly.

Keiko gave him a sidelong glare. "Well then, don't let us lowlifes keep you waiting."

"What?" Urameshi smirked at the same time. "Not gonna stay for the after party?"

Kaiba ignored the caustic young woman and favored Urameshi with a mirthless grin. "I think I'll pass, Urameshi. I've no desire to tarry with you miscreants any longer than I must to ensure my own endeavors, namely confirming a certain Duelist doesn't try to abandon his destiny with me a second time over something meaningless."

Urameshi's fists clenched. "You mind repeating that in elementary-level vocabulary so we both know exactly what I'm pounding your face in for?"

"Yusuke, no." Keiko caught his arm, pulling him away from the arrogant young millionaire. "He's not worth it, Yusuke. Just let it go."

Urameshi relented with a huff, and Kaiba smirked before turning to the Duel Monsters he still had on the field, Lord of Dragons and two of his triplet signature wyrms. "Blue-Eyes, return! Rest up for the real battle still to come." The trio might have nodded faintly before vanishing, though no one could be sure, as Kaiba switched off his Duel Disk, gathering and shuffling his Deck to replace in the case on his hip as the holographic projectors retracted.

Jonouchi and Otogi followed suit, Little Wing Guard and Gearfried the Iron Knight dispersing in sparks as their brethren had. Anzu and Mai were next, bidding silent farewells to Fairy's Gift and the surviving Harpie Lady Sister. That left only two Duel Monsters on the field.

8 8 8 8 8

A young woman in jeans and close-fitting top, black hair caught back in a loose braid, stood near the outer edge of the gathering, having successfully avoided the notice of most, but very little escaped the attention of the ancient spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. As he stood studying her, she turned bright brown eyes on him. Stiff with battle-readiness, he never took his gaze off her as he reached up to brush his fingers through Kuriboh's fur, an unspoken thank-you for his service, then switched off his Duel Disk. He was testing, knowing that he could have it powered back up in a heartbeat. Kuriboh vanished while the young woman only offered a mild tilt of her head. By this point, the rest of the company had followed the spirit's attention to her as well.

Suddenly, the woman's form shifted and blurred, erupting in shadowy tongues of flickering Darkness. Twin points of glowing crimson were the only features in an otherwise formless face, and misty wings of particulate shadow spread from the backs of her shoulders.

"What in the – ?" "AHH!" "What's that?" came the yelps from the company.

The spirit snarled, hyper aware again in that instant of the burn that itched on his aibou's bodily chest. "YOU!" His Duel Disk hummed back to life with a flick of his thumb.

The figure's stance remained neutral for a breath longer before it held out a hand. A sword materialized, the blade glinting black in the starlight. The figure brought the sword up vertically before its face, then swept it downward in a wide, graceful arc – a warrior's salute. "Excellent test of your abilities, young Powers," came a feminine voice, soft and thickly accented. "You have won this day. Be sure to protect that which has been claimed." With a slight incline of the head, she was gone.

The spirit cursed under his breath that he had not moved fast enough to detain, or at least question, her. From the grumbles and scowls of the rest of the company, he knew he was not alone in that sentiment.

8 8 8 8 8

"N-no, leave me alone! Get it off! HELP!"

Everyone turned at the screams to see the formerly-possessed teen squirm and twist to his side, then up on his knees, sobbing and shaking as he looked about in miserable confusion and horror. He was surrounded in an instant.

"Sohma-kun!" "You're going to be all right." "Yeah, it's over now." "N-no . . . i-it's . . . not all right . . . " "His temperature is unusually low. We should get him to a hospital."

"Don't bother." That was Kaiba.

"What?" Jonouchi growled. "Listen, you stuck-up – !"

"Quit your barking and sit!" Kaiba snapped, shaking Jonouchi's grip from his arm. Several others were reacting as well, but held off as Kaiba tapped the logo pin on the collar of his duster. "Suori, call Kaiba Corporation's Emergency Response Division and send a nursing vehicle to my present location. Have the patient taken straight to the Kaiba Mansion and order a full systemic work-up on him. No one is to ask any questions, and he is to be kept under quarantined care until I say otherwise."

"Understood, Kaiba-sama," returned a feminine voice over the mini-speaker.

The rest of the group just stared at him for a moment. It was the one named Kurama, knelt with a comforting arm around Sohma, who spoke up first. "Kaiba-kun, thank you very much for your help."

Kaiba only snorted, arms crossed. "Don't. I'm not doing this out of the kindness of my heart." He turned to his rival. "Yugi, we have less than a half-hour to the deadline for being disqualified for the Battle City Finals. I'll not have you miss our appointed Duel because you're off in some emergency room somewhere."

8 8 8 8 8

The spirit nodded, carefully retaining from his lips the amused grin glinting in his eyes. "I understand, Kaiba." More than you know.

Beside him, Yugi gazed up at his friend, contemplating. -Kaiba-kun keeps claiming that no one and nothing else matter to him . . . but he doesn't have to go so far as to take Sohma-kun into his company's personal care like that.-

-Exactly, Aibou.-

Yugi frowned at the weariness he could sense from the spirit. -Other Me, why don't we switch and let me handle things for now while you get some rest. We still have a long road ahead of us.-

The spirit grimaced inwardly, knowing Yugi was right as he thought about that – the road to reclaiming some of his own shards, the fragmented and stolen shards of his memory. He relented with a nod, retreating into his labyrinthine soul room deep in the mystical energies of the Millennium Puzzle.

8 8 8 8 8

Shu was turning to them just then. "Hey, Mutou-sa-AH!" He flinched away as Yugi's ghostly form faded from sight, the palpable energy signature of the body changing with the shift in posture, and Yugi – body and soul – looked up at Shu with a grin.

"Actually, my friends just call me Yugi. You can too, if you'd like."

Shu recovered his shock at the warm openness on his classmate's face, so different from the guarded expression of a moment ago when the spirit was in possession. "Yeah, I'd like that! Hey, listen . . . good luck, man. In the finals, I mean. All of you guys!"

Mai gave a mock huff, flipping blonde locks over her shoulder. "Hn, no love for the women, I see." She gave Anzu a wink.

Shu backpedaled verbally, not having meant to slight the cunning Duelist whom he had watched play herself into finalist positions in every tournament he had followed to date. "Ah! N-no, no! Sorry, I-I didn't mean – !"

Mai laughed. "Relax, kid. I know what you meant."

8 8 8 8 8

Kaiba rolled his eyes, striding off for the apartment building. "Come on, Yugi."

Yugi hesitated, eyeing his new friends in concern.

Kurama pushed back to his feet as Keiko and Yukina took his place to comfort and reassure Sohma. "We'll stay here and make sure Kaiba-kun's people find him. Mutou-san – "

Yugi shook his head with a modest wave of his hand, his glance saying that his comment went for all of them. "Please, just 'Yugi'."

Kurama grinned. "Yugi-san. I know that you are indeed Yugi and that the pharaoh's spirit has withdrawn. Can he still hear through you?"

"Yup."

"Good." Kurama looked around at the remaining Duelists. "All of you, please – be careful. I have a feeling that what lies just ahead for all of you will prove dangerous in ways you cannot even imagine."

It was Mai's turn to roll eyes, but Jonouchi's jaw and fists clenched in fury as he nodded and looked at Yugi. "Yeah, I bet. You know that bastard Malik's gonna be there." Anzu only shivered in horror.

Ryo nodded as he and the others shed their Armors before anyone outside of the immediate company arrived to witness their secret. "I'm sure the Finals will be televised, just like the rest of the tournament has been. We'll be watching and rooting for all of you."

"Thank you very much!" Yugi bowed with a grin.

Jonouchi gave them a thumbs-up. "Don't worry. We'll make sure it's somethin' worth watchin'."

"Well, if it's anything like the past two days have been," Urameshi laughed, "I'm sure it will be."

"Does anyone have a pen and paper?" Nasutei put in.

Otogi pulled a pen from his vest and offered one of his business cards from the Black Crown. Nasutei wrote on the back, then offered the card to Yugi. "We've not properly met. My name is Nasutei Yagyu. Pleased to meet you. This is my home phone number and my number at Sengoku University, where I'm a research assistant. As soon as you guys are ready, we all need to get back together. There's far more going on than that shard, this tournament and the person responsible for your most recent troubles."

Yugi's brow knit in concern – more going on than Malik? – glanced at his friends, receiving nods from all, then gave Nasutei a small bow. "Pleased to meet you, too . . . and yes, thank you. I'll give you a call probably sometime tomorrow, then." He frowned, taking in the company one last time. Without a doubt, he had seen Rain of Mercy work real healing on his new friends, but some of them had worse injuries than the magic had been able to erase completely. Overall, the lot of them still looked pretty worn. "You guys are all going to be all right?" He looked especially at Kurama.

The redhead grinned at him. "Thank you, but we'll be fine. For myself, I have been much worse off, and I recover very quickly." He nodded silent forgiveness at Shin, who stood gazing at him with deep apology in his eyes. Yugi could almost hear the thought behind the look: there would be time later to talk.

"Well," Mai interjected, "I don't know about you boys but, as Kaiba said, I've got a tournament to win."

"Oh, yeah?" Jonouchi rejoined, the glimmer in his eyes matching the friendly competition in her smirk. "Well, we'll just see about that!"

Yugi chuckled. "None of us are going to win if we get ourselves disqualified! Come on, guys! Take care, Urameshi-kun, Hashiba-kun, everyone!"

"Be careful and good luck, you guys!" "See ya later!" "Don't forget to watch your backs!" The chorus of warnings and well-wishes rang across the field as Yugi, Jonouchi, Mai, Honda, Otogi, Anzu and Shizuka bolted from the sports park.

8 8 8 8 8

Standing at the door of his soul room in the Millennium Puzzle, the spirit could not shake a clichéd phrase from his mind in spite of his best efforts as he thought about the task ahead, and the roadblocks he knew he could anticipate.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire . . .

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