The Magicians' Realm Chapter 60: Transference, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 60, everybody! In which Teana is relocated against her will and Anzu sees a little bit of magic….Mom sneezes like Anzu, by the way—which made it odd for me the first time I heard someone do the 'mouse sneeze.' :\

Movie this week is Disney's Mulan—love Mushu and Crick-ee and those three male friends of Mulan's...and the grandmother. And I love the fact that Mulan uses her brain to get out of situations, which seems like a good message to have squirreled away in such a fun and ofttimes intense movie. :D

FicReader, thanks for the review! Yes, it was a ton of fun! I saw the Ghostbusters and classic Batman and Robin running around—and about halfway through Spider-Man was busted by Hydra and Spider-Captain America. :D Maybe….Bird puns are best puns. :D

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes, it took them long enough….It was! We went to Niagara Falls…and either Disney does a good job of replicating this sort of thing, or Niagara Falls is the biggest con this side of the Mississippi. Walking around the town in the middle of the night had to be the highlight, though, because it wasn't crowded and we got to see a lot—and we ran into some people playing Pokémon Go, which I found awesome for some reason (I don't know why…).

References:

Original characters, + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

Teana tried to put the earlier conversation entirely out of her mind, which was more than a little difficult when she passed Mordecai Heller on her way out of the bookkeepers.

"Mrs. May wishes for me to inform you to not forget your scheduled appointment," he said on his way in, not breaking stride.

Teana did break stride. "Do what?"

Mordecai didn't look up as he put his briefcase on the counter and opened it. "She asked me to remind you about some meeting you have with her. That was the entirety of the conversation. I didn't press for details."

"I—"

"That means I really don't want to know."

Teana blew out an irritated breath of air and left, and didn't give it a single thought until roughly eight-fifteen that night, when someone knocked on the door of her apartment.

"Someone knocks at my chamber door," she told the pair of honking daffodils. "That can't possibly be a Magician."

The daffodils simply honked at her.

Another knock, this time giving her the impression of irritability. She gave in and crossed over to pull it open.

Doing so revealed Mordecai Heller and a large one-eyed brute she vaguely remembered from the Lackadaisy Revue—Viktor, maybe.

"Is this the part where you break my kneecaps and throw me into the Thesdell?" she asked.

"You read too many pulp novels," Mordecai declared. "And apparently Mrs. May was accurate in her assumption that you'd try to quietly brush off a meeting with her."

"So she sends you two to muscle me over there."

"Be glad the relentless eyebrow is out of town."

"Who?"

"Roark Rickaby—goes by Rocky. Apparently takes notes from Skellington."

"Oog."

"So you see, this was the better option."

"I look like I ticked off the local crime boss."

"It worries me that you think we look like Administrator goons."

Oi. And double oi for the fact that no one she talked to seemed fond of their government. "I am disinclined to acquiesce to a meeting at this time," she informed him. "Or any other, for that matter."

"I told her you might say that."

Viktor—who had been silent and glaring at nosy neighbors up until this moment, turned to them and finally spoke. "This is it? I climb stairs for this?"

"Yes, that was very rude," Mordecai said. "Viktor has bad knees—you've caused him undue suffering."

"Knees are bad because you break them."

"Enlighten me as to a better way of reasoning with you then."

Teana felt this was probably the best time to start easing the door shut.

No dice—Mordecai's hand shot out, stopped it.

"Tell Mitzi I'm sorry, but I'm not interested," Teana said.

Mordecai's expression didn't really change, but something about the shadows of his face seemed to get darker. "I have news for you," he declared. "I'm not a messenger boy—I'm a delivery boy."

"You wouldn't dare."

"It's why I brought Viktor."

"Touch me and I scream bloody murder."

"I'll take my chances," Mordecai said, nodding to Viktor. And before Teana could reply, she suddenly found herself slung over Viktor's shoulder and heading down the hall.

"Hey!" she hollered. "Hey! Put me down! Someone call the police!"

Mordecai rolled his eyes, ducked into her apartment, came out with her shoes and closed the door behind her.

"And lock my door!" she hollered at him, figuring there was nothing else for it.

Although to be honest, her night probably couldn't suck much worse than this.

*/*\*

Yami entered the Delvaire Public Library and took a deep breath. Ah, old books. It was a nice smell.

Unfortunately, it smelled too much of his attic. He hastened to find Anzu.

He did, finding her with a girl about their age with blonde hair tied back with a yellow ribbon. It didn't take much effort to come up behind them quietly.

"Excuse me," he said, causing the blonde to squeak in alarm. "But I'm looking for some books on how to be a better boyfriend."

Anzu didn't miss a beat. "Did you check the For Dummies section?" she asked.

"First place I looked. Howzit, Anzu?"

"Poorly. We're dusting. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to sneeze in a library?"

"It can't be that bad."

"Let me clarify: I don't do this nice mousy sneeze like Miho here."

"It's ladylike!" the blonde—who must have been Miho—insisted.

"Are you saying I'm not a lady?"

"Ladies aren't supposed to sound like cannons going off when they sneeze."

"Mrs. Klendaniel will be so disappointed then," Yami said drily. "Now if we can move this along—Anzu, can I talk to you?"

"I don't know," Anzu said, sitting on the ladder. "Can you?"

"May I then?"

"I stand by my original question."

Oh. "I'm sorry for dropping off the face of the earth—how many times do I have to say that?"

"Until you stop dropping off the face of the earth and realize that there are people who can and will help you."

"Right. Which brings me to why I'm here."

He looked pointedly at Miho.

"Me?" Miho asked, startled.

"Miho, go see if Miss Binder needs some help," Anzu said.

"Oh. I see. Fine, I know when I'm not wanted," Miho said, waltzing off with her nose in the air.

"She'll go hide in the next aisle over to try to hear what we're talking about," Anzu told Yami.

"I will not!" Miho called.

Yami shook his head—he didn't need that. "Miho, get back here."

She came back. "Yes?"

Yami held up a finger, doffed Horus, and tossed him up to the ladder steps above Anzu. The hat bounced once on the rung before morphing into Horus.

"Want to learn how to do that?" Yami asked.

"Yes yes oh goodness yes!" Miho said, bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Perfect. First, we're going to need that ribbon in your hair."

"My ribbon?"

"Horus was a hat."

"Okay," Miho said, pulling her ribbon out of her hair.

"Now hold it in your hands—both hands. Bundle it up, fold it, hold it….Okay, now picture it folding itself from a ribbon into a bird. Visualize every last moment, every last feather. Do you have it?"

"I think so."

"You'd better know so. Otherwise, you'll have a royal mess on your hands."

"How bad?" Anzu asked.

Yami grimaced. "Let's just say I went through a few hats trying to get Horus."

"You went through two," Horus protested.

"It was still a mess."

"And you were ten."

"It was still a mess."

"You were ten?" Anzu asked.

"I was a precocious child. Are you still visualizing?" he asked Miho.

Miho's eyes were screwed shut in concentration. "Nnh-hnh."

"Now focus also on how it'll go back to being a ribbon. Go through the cycle."

"Right…."

Yami waited a few moments to ensure she was definitely picturing it. Considering she was so focused, he saw no issue in casting the spell himself—mostly so he wouldn't have to hear how he was somehow responsible for ruining her ribbon.

A tiny yellow head poked out from between her thumbs.

"AAA! It's so cute!" Miho exclaimed.

"Isn't it? You should go show Miss Binder," Yami suggested.

Miho wasted no time in running off.

"That was low," Anzu informed him.

"How do you figure?"

"You showed her that to get rid of her."

"And here we are. Your point?"

"I suppose I have none," she sighed, looking up at Horus, who peered down at her. "So why are you here?"

"Remember how you mentioned researching genealogy?"

"I'm surprised you remember."

"Ouch," Yami muttered, before pulling the picture out and waving it under Anzu's nose. She jerked her head back, peered at it, took it to more closely examine it.

"Is this a relative of yours?" she asked. "It has to be, with that hair."

"I'm thinking it is. I found that in our attic." With the help of an odd sphere of blue light, but he wasn't about to add that.

As he expected, she flipped the picture over, read the writing—

"Oh wow," she breathed.

"That was my reaction also."

"This is…not good," Anzu decided finally, holding the picture up so she could look at it and him at the same time. "You've got a similar facial structure—your features are a little sharper, though."

"Probably from Dad," Yami said. "Anyway, as you can probably guess, I'm in need of a little help, and when that happens, I tend to go and get my friends for that."

Anzu smiled slightly before handing the photo back to him. "Is that what I am now?"

"Girlfriends get precedence," Yami said, accepting and quickly hiding the photo.

"And how many would that be?"

"Just you. I'm heading to Skellington Manor tomorrow—you want to come?"

"Why there? Isn't it haunted or cursed or something?"

"It has to be something—otherwise it would have been torn down by now. But I figure if I want answers about Skellington, that's the only place to look; his window was taken out of the hall, for Pete's sake, and that happens to no one."

"I wonder why," Anzu mused.

"That's one of the things I aim to find out. Are you with me?"

She seemed to give that some thought before looking up at him and smiling—somewhat grimly, he thought.

"Absolutely."