Jounouchi walked back towards the subway station from his father's house. The route unfortunately went right past J.Z.'s, the cafe that was still the headquarters of Hirutani's gang. The guys from Rintama were surprisingly resilient, and had bounced back even after their warehouse had caught fire when Yami had figured out that they had kidnapped Jou.
At least he only had to contend with memories when he went past the building. They were too chickenshit to do anything to him again, but it didn't stop them from terrorizing the rest of the community.
A yelp attracted Jounouchi's attention, and he noticed a group of Hirutani's thugs, and Hirutani himself, standing in a circle around a dog. It had patches of gray and brown fur, but a white belly. He didn't look like any recognizable breed, though he he seemed like he would grow up to be very large; he still had puppy paws but was already bigger most small breeds.
The distressed noises continued, as Jounouchi was a bit too far away to do more than watch as the dog was tortured. As soon as he had approached, however, he was punching the nearest one, in his anger hardly noticing that the puppy had gone silent. The first punch caught the other boy off guard. But immediately the circle of six teens rounded on Jounouchi, the unconscious dog dropped unceremoniously on the ground.
Jou faced Hirutani with hatred in his eyes. He noted the bloodstained knife as he dodged the blows from the two nearest boys, landing an uppercut on a third, and charging the gang's leader.
Hirutani faced Jou with the knife in hand, attempting to stab Jou in the chest as his momentum carried him forward. Jou blocked with his arm, the knife slicing into skin, pushed aside from the vital areas. His block left a bit of a gap in Hirutani's defenses, and Jou tried to press his advantage by swinging with his right fist. Hirutani blocked in response and pulled the knife back, both taking up defensive postures and waiting for the other's next move.
Unfortunately for Jou, it was more than just Hirutani he had to worry about. A burly teen with a shaved head attacked him from behind, picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder. "Boss, we've got two mutts to deal with now," he chortled, before Jou hit him on the head, hard, and he crumpled.
Hirutani flicked a second knife open in his left hand and started approaching Jou. "You dare attack us and defy our truce?" he demanded, even though no such thing had been decided.
"You dare tell me what to do?" Jou questioned back, his fist swinging for Hirutani's eye. Hirutani tried blocking, but was a bit slow, and Jou's blow connected. The follow-up to the leader's gut connected as well, and he doubled over.
Jou was not going to last much longer, however. He could feel the pain in his arm and knew adrenaline would not last forever. So he searched for the dog, hoping it had gotten away, and saw it's unconscious form. He had to supress rage as he picked it up carefully and began to run. Getting the dog to safety was more important than getting revenge on the thugs.
Hirutani's gang began to give chase until a winded "stop" sounded behind them. "It's not worth it." Who needed the chance of burning alive over a dog?
When Jounouchi finally slowed, he was in the district west of his dad's place, far from the subway station. Currently he was on a block full of houses and not much else. He needed to find a stip of stores so that he could try and get the dog some medical attention. It needed it badly.
He headed in a direction, not entirely familiar with this part of town, and ended up on a strip full of diners and clubs. He was attracting weird looks, and the pain in his arm was becoming more and more persistent. He bit his lip for something else to concentrate on, and pressed on. Finally he reached what seemed to be a doctor's office. He glanced at it in surprise, grateful for its existence, walked up the short sidewalk lined in flowers, and reached to pull the door.
It was closed.
He sighed and leaned heavily against the door, sliding down until he was sitting on the sidewalk. He clutched the dog to his chest and closed his eyes, unable to keep the pain under control now that he was no longer in danger. His grip on the dog loosened and he fainted. He barely heard the footsteps of the first employee arriving as he went out.
Darkness. "Anubis!" an accusing voice shouted. And then sand. Blowing, a storm was brewing and the particles made it hard to see.
Jou became aware of his own form, present in the middle of the storm, but somehow untouched.
"My son made a mistake. My namesake is not a problem. He is a wrench in plans, as terrifying as the wind, and as stubborn as an ox. But he is not a disgrace to my name, nor as Seto's reincarnate."
A figure appeared, shadowy against the sand, humanoid, a head like no animal Jou had ever seen before. "You shall help my namesake escape my son's curse. I give him another chance."
The puppy from before appeared and Jou saw it's breath rising and falling. A long rod, appeared in Set's hands, touching the dog on the head and a flash of light engulfed him.
"Learn to differentiate when chaos is yours, and you shall return to your true form."
The sands faded and the figure disappeared. Everything was blackness.
Stinging. It was the first thing he was aware of. The second was the softness he didn't expect under his body. The third, bright light as he opened his eyes.
He sat up rapidly. "Where's the dog?"
The nurse changing his dressing looked at him and shook her head, bemused. "He was taken to the animal hospital. We haven't heard anything since then."
Jounouchi's throat felt dry. "Please, he has to be ok."
The nurse shook her head. "I can't give you any more information about the dog. You need to worry about you right now. The doctors had to give you a blood transfusion and several stitches. You fainted due to blood loss. You need to focus on your recovery."
Jounouchi's face fell. This all sounded expensive and time consuming. Was he at Domino General? He growled, taking his frustration out on the nurse. "That's not good enough!"
The nurse smiled sadly at him. "We'll let you know as soon as we hear something about him. For now, try and get some rest."
With a last bit of tape, she let go of Jounouchi's arm and let it fall gently to his side. Then she walked away and closed the door, turning off the light in the room to make a point. Jounouchi sighed in frustration.
He wasn't ready to fall asleep. He wasn't ready for much of anything, honestly. He just knew he had to get back to that dog. Left alone to his thoughts he began to ponder the dream, and hoped more than anything that the dog was alright. The dog was important in his dream, he justified. It was cursed unfairly, and had a chance at redemption. Even if it did seem that Kaiba was the person treated unfairly in this instance, he felt he still deserved a chance.
It was with this thought that he decided he needed to leave the hospital as soon as possible. He stood and stalked over to the door, poking his head out. He was still hooked up to an IV machine, and he groaned when he saw no one there. He at least wanted to sign the papers to get discharged early.
He began to wander down the hall, looking for someone to help him.
