The Magicians' Realm Chapter 72: The Morning After, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 72, everybody! Yes, finally! After a stinking three-month hiatus—sorry all. Most of my writing juice/time was being taken up by school, and then what was left was being demanded by another couple of stories. Fortunately, some of the mojo has recently returned to this story, so I can supply you all with another much-needed chapter. Now if only the rest of the mojo for this story was on the sections immediately following this one….

On a much sadder note, our beloved Umbrella Cockatoo, Sammy Jo, died at the end of February—in lieu of flowers, please take a moment to hug your pet. They're just not around for as long as we'd like.

Movies of note during that hiatus are A Monster Calls, Monster Trucks, and Yu-Gi-Oh!: Dark Side of Dimensions:

A Monster Calls – you will cry during this. I'm sorry, but you will. We didn't know what we were getting into, hadn't read the book, and ended up clinging to each other and sobbing. But it has Liam Neeson in it, so….

Monster Trucks – mindless little fun film that felt more like it ought to be a midsummer flick instead of airing during the winter, and was most likely sponsored by Dodge. And we're pretty sure the lead guy is the new MacGyver.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Dark Side of Dimensions – this movie is probably what restarted my Yu-Gi-Oh! writing mojo—my local theater had a single showing, and I went dressed as Kaiba; appropriate, considering it could be titled The Kaiba Movie. Not that I'm complaining—after reevaluating the series from a writer's perspective (utilizing what I learned at Full Sail University), Kaiba is technically the strongest character due to his active rather than reactive nature (and yet I don't write a whole lot for him—must fix...). And boy, did this movie have the (full) theater going—it felt like a long Saturday morning cartoon and knocked me back to being eleven. :D Best Yu-Gi-Oh! movie yet, and gave a lot more closure to the series than the last season did. :D

FluffyIdiotIsI, thanks for the review! Eh, Maxwell probably deserves what he gets. Yes….And yes and yes—Yami Skellington is currently skin and bones and clothes and hair (nothing destroys those follicles) with magic filling in the gaps (and his eyes are still there, so it's not just sockets). If you've read the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Yami's currently operating on the same basic principle as the Hollow Men: skin, bones for structure, and magic keeping him looking like he usually does with mass and the like—except, of course, without muscles, there's nothing keeping his smile stopping where it's supposed to, so we have that Skellington grin going on there. Yes, like a lobster! But the Administration Building has no lobster door….Yes, that would be interesting….Thank you! Although my problem seemed to be a combination of block on this one/no block on another one (I've got over three hundred pages written on another fic that isn't remotely close to being ready for posting on here—ah, me…).

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Indeed! Mom saves the day again (she told me to start saving on that). No he's not—twelve. There are thirteen Administrators, counting the Head Administrator (on Greg's side, there's twelve Grand Mages and one Head Mage). No, but Yami has a plan….Yes! That came out of nowhere (I didn't really have it planned in the initial scripting, but in writing it came and I just went with it). Possibly….

FicReader, thanks for the review! When I get my cell phone working again, I will (now I wonder if Dr. Oz has that as his answering service…). Mine too! Wore the tape out and am now working on wearing the DVD out….Yes…and maybe. :) Oh my goodness yes—vengeance will be theirs!

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes….Don't worry about it—considering how hard I fell off the wagon….Merry Christmas, happy New Year, happy Valentines, happy Mardi Gras, and happy Ash Wednesday (and Lent and Daylight Savings Time, for good measure). Yes…it works in real life, because real life is like that, but in fiction people expect things to be related somehow (I think part of what made Cloud Atlas such a hit was the fact that all the disparate stories had little connections—don't watch that movie, by the way). We've been having hot weather too—and now it's snowing. Go figure. Yes, well, Mom hasn't been overly fond of spiders since one bit her in the middle of the night, so….Colorado is generally arid and dry, being mostly desert and mountains, and the weather changes in a heartbeat—from freezing cold to boiling hot in a day. Just really odd weather in general. Yes, now that it's finally here….

References:

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

He couldn't quite bring himself to visit her grave. In the end, it just seemed so…final.

So he spent the night in Hagsfiend form, roosting in the pecan tree next to Teana's old apartment. It had been shorter than he was back in the day, but now it towered over the building.

And as he roosted, seeing as how he didn't need to sleep anymore, he reflected on the events of the night. Relatives. He had surviving relatives. Or at least, he thought they were related to him—if they weren't then it was just unfortunate choice of haircuts, and he doubted their parents would have stood for that.

He wondered if his sisters were all right.

He ruffled his feathers, tried to gloss over the meeting with Mesthil and Max—but Mesthil would be getting whatever reward he deserved now. And Max….

He really truly could have killed the man.

Okay, feather-ruffling wasn't doing it—full-body shake. Okay. A little better. Now. Main focus for the day—evade all attention whatsoever. Bird form would probably do it—if not that, then a cat, because after all, who ever gave strays a second glance? And then tonight, sneak into the Delvaire library—because the Delvaire library was run by one China Sorrows, whose collection beat all and ended all.

And included one very particular blueprint for a very particular magical construction—one that would override whatever seal the Administrators put on that dimension.

Ruffle his feathers, look around—in a few hours the sun would rise.

He heaved a sigh—this would be a long day.

*\*/*

Teana woke up feeling much refreshed.

It took a few minutes of disorientation to realize that she was not in her dinky apartment, that yes, the room was supposed to be this big, and no, she had not shrunk in the middle of the night. Nice four-poster, fluffy pillows, soft sheets…and daffodils honking at her from the bed stand.

"I suppose," she said to them, regaining some of her faculties. "Now that we're here, I ought to plant you two back with your family."

The daffodils honked again.

She sat up, wiping the sleep from her eyes and taking stock of her situation. She was technically living in Yami Skellington's house. There was nothing weird about that, nooo….She was a renter. Who happened to be dating the person she was renting from. And if Yami tried to eke out of her paying rent, he had another thing coming.

Meantime—stretch, get out of bed, go freshen up in the bathroom…important things. Which were needed to get started with the day. Which, she noted, was taking longer now that she had finally bowed out of her other two jobs (which had fortunately been genial and had, at worst, had Mr. Tern complaining that he'd have to teach someone new how to mix drinks) and was now working solely at the Revue. Granted, working at the Revue had her up nights due to the hours, but she was used to working that hard and not getting a whole lot of sleep—maybe her body was finally working on catching up.

When she finally exited the bathroom, feeling properly awake and dressed and freshened up, she crossed over to the balcony and threw open the French doors. Not raining. Yay, she didn't pull a Yami. And look at that sun shining! What a glorious day, and she was not mentally singing "The Sound of Music" in her mind nooo….

Chirp.

She looked to see a very familiar Starling alight on the balcony railing.

"Lil' Stevie," she greeted, smiling broadly as she walked gently over to the balcony. "What are you doing here?"

Lil' Stevie chirped, which could either mean that Yami had escorted him over, or why do you not have donut?

"I don't have a kitchen in my room," she explained. "Apparently, there were incidents."

Lil' Stevie chirped again, which probably meant that is not my problem now where is my donut?

"I'll get some breakfast and meet you on the lawn, how's that?" Teana asked.

Lil' Stevie tipped his head, as though considering this, before chirping again and flying down to the lawn. Teana translated that as a yes.

Now here was hoping the kitchen was not currently occupied.

*/*\*

Yami and Yuki Montgau sat on the porch swing, frantically trying to deduce where Skellington could have gone. There had been no sleep last night.

"Maybe he went to the Administration Building?" Yuki supposed, blearily rubbing his eyes.

"Or a hundred other different directions," Yami muttered, his voice muffled by his hands, where his face was currently buried. "I personally wouldn't want to be anywhere near the people who killed me."

Yuki thought on that, reflecting that Yami had a point. Skellington was probably on the Western Chaos Coast by now then.

Yami suddenly looked up in horror.

"Unless—" Yami blurted, then swallowed the rest; their father, Greg Montgau, had come out onto the porch.

"Oh, there you two are," he said, continuing off the steps and down the street. "I'm off to work—"

"NO!" Yuki and Yami both yelled, leaping to their feet—Yuki had pieced two and two together as well—causing their father to stop, startled.

Yami recovered first.

"It's just that—well," he hedged, sounding like he just grasped at the first thought that occurred to him. "We were just thinking how we don't spend enough time together as a family, and when exactly was the last time you spent some quality time with Mom, like a whole day—"

"Sunday," their father said, staring at them. "Are you two feeling all right?"

"Um," Yuki noised, thinking.

"We're fine," Yami said; something in his tone told Yuki that he had hit on a plan. "Go on then—we'll just be here, quietly growing up at an unbelievable rate, never spending much quality time with our dad, who's always working."

Their father chewed his lip for a bit. "You've been talking to Grandpa Montgau again, haven't you?" he asked finally.

"Maybe a little."

"Fine, fine," he said, turning around and walking back in. "Let me call the office."

Yuki turned to Yami, who was busy heaving a sigh of relief as he collapsed back onto the swing. "Now what?" Yuki asked.

"I have absolutely no idea at this point," Yami admitted. "Right now, I'm making this up as I go."

"We need a better plan than that."

"Tell me something I don't know."

Yuki honestly wasn't certain what would qualify for that—wherever Skellington was would be nice, except Yuki didn't know either. And Yami's plan was temporary at best.

This was so not good.

And then their father was suddenly running out the door and down the front steps.

"Hey! Wait!" Yami exclaimed, back on his feet. "Where are you going?"

"Sorry guys, but I have to get to work," their father called over his shoulder as he dashed down the street. "They just found Administrator Mesthil dead."