The Magicians' Realm Chapter 76: Heard It Through the Grapevine, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 76, ladies and gentlemen! In which we reference the song by Marvin Gaye (although the Creedence Clearwater Revival version has more awesome), have some product placement, and once again experience a delay….The elder Yami is being recalcitrant. On the positive side, about seventy percent of the rest of the younger Yami's story for Book I is written out, so we just need to light a fire under a certain boney butt.

And for the record—when I wrote the section in the consignment shop, I was slogging through Mercedes Lackey's Owlflight. There is a definite difference in how fast I can read Lackey's work compared to how fast I can read McCaffrey's work. :| And I really do have an owl thimble that matches the one in this chapter.

One more thing! Fair warning: the last section of this chapter was one of the bits I wrote early on, so it may lack the amount of polish later pieces have. ^^;

Movie this week is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales—like The Fate of the Furious, easily one of the better movies of the series. Nice, quick, clean, hits all the major beats without dragging, and with the promise of a sequel (don't believe what you see about this being the end of the series—the kid who plays the young Turner signed on for five more sequels, I heard). Although I admit Captain Jack's drunkenness and the cast's opinion of one female character might grate on you.

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Ah, so that's what it is….And why we on this side of the pond voted for Trump (fun fact: the Administrators are based on real people—the ones who ran my first college. Needless to say, that's why it's my first college). After following politics more closely since I've been able to vote, that's unfortunately not an uncommon narrative. Hopefully! Yes, they might throw a parade in his honor….

FluffyIdiotIsI, thanks for the review! I see. Haha, glad I could make you laugh. :D Maybe. And maybe next chapter. I think twice—don't forget ol' what's-his-face that made Yami break all the lights in the bar. Hmm…interesting….Maybe. And yes—the bird speaks the truth! Well, we were at the store, so it wasn't hers to burn. And now I have to look that up….

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes….Agreed. :D And true—and here it is finally! Took me long enough!

FicReader, thanks for the review! Yes, unfortunately—I'll try to get this one back on track. You can thank FluffyIdiotIsI for that idea—I was a little stuck there until they suggested that. :D We…have yet to delve too far into that…but rest assured, we will be getting to it before the end of Book I. Don't tell me that! I take too long otherwise. :|

References:

Ultimate Spider-Man (comic) © 2000 Marvel Comics ("Need to lay off the sugar there, sparky")

Malice © 2009 Chris Wooding

Home Improvement © 1991 Matt Williams, David McFadzean, & Carmen Finestra ("How many times do I have to bury you?")

Balto © 1995 Simon Wells ("You said what!?")

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

Okay, considering he was operating on no steam right now, Yami figured he was going to need his friends' help for this—send Yuki to the Administration Building, since he wasn't banned, while Yami went and drummed up his friends.

Mrs. Klendaniel informed him that Kels was over at Balthazar's consignment shop again, so—after politely declining a haircut and sit down you didn't run all this way did you?—he ran all the way back into town and into Balthazar Blake's consignment shop.

"I need Kels!" Yami said quickly upon banging into the shop and startling Balthazar out of his book.

"Back here!" Kels said, putting a hand up.

"I was about to say that I don't have her on the shelves," Balthazar said, patting his chest. "You need to cut back on the sugar there, sparky."

"Yeah," Yami said, glancing at Balthazar's novel. "Still working on that?"

"Yeah," Balthazar sighed. "I'm thinking I need to give up on Mercedes Lackey and go back to Anne McCaffrey."

"If she'll have you back," Yami said, heading for Kels.

"True. Hey, did you hear? One of the Administrators died last night."

"I heard," Yami said, managing to keep his voice above a growl.

"You should be glad," Kels said, glancing at him as she picked up a trinket. "You're no longer top billing anymore."

Which probably wouldn't last very long if he didn't get ahead of this. "That's a little morbid," he felt compelled to point out in the meantime.

"Yeah, well, go figure," Kels said, picking up another trinket and weighing it. "Ooh, I like this one," she said, actually looking at it—a squid-thing holding what looked like a quartz egg with a spark of magic in it. "Excuse me," she said, ushering past Yami and over to Balthazar.

"How much?" she asked, holding the squid-thing up.

"Hey!" Balthazar said, taking it and shaking it mildly. "What have I told you about wandering off? Sorry, this one's not for sale," he said, putting it next to the register.

"Not that it ever listens to you," Yami observed drily—Balthazar randomly scolding an item was up there with Yuki chatting up birds. Okay, so maybe it could listen to him.

"Not hardly," Balthazar said, still giving the little statue a look.

"What is it, anyway?" Kels asked.

"Something I'm holding for a friend—it's supposed to be keeping something safe."

"Ooh, what sort of something?" Kels asked.

"A big something. Can I help you find something else?"

"My owl rock is wanting a buddy."

Balthazar looked around before picking up a tiny orange thing. "Owl thimble?" he offered.

"Let me hold," Kels said, hand out. Balthazar plunked it into her hand, and she held it for a minute. "Yes, I think so. Sold. And a Pepsi."

"On it," Balthazar said, reaching over and pulling a soda out of the steel freezer against the wall. "So how about that Administrator dying?"

"The grapevine is on fire," Kels said, fishing in her pockets.

"No kidding. I bet your dad's working overtime," Balthazar continued, glancing at Yami.

"Yeah," Yami said, trying not to sound anything other than noncommittal. "Kels, when you're done, can we talk?"

His attempt at noncommittal obviously didn't work, considering the way the two of them suddenly looked at him. And were quiet for several beats.

"Oh boy," Kels noised. "That tone of voice is not good."

"Agreed," Balthazar said. "Is this something I don't want to know?"

"It may be something the grapevine doesn't survive," Yami admitted.

"That bad," Balthazar said, glancing at a suitcase on a shelf.

"Hopefully not that bad," Yami said.

"Is it something I don't want to know?" Kels asked.

"Let's just say there were developments yesterday."

"Developments? What—right," Kels said abruptly, paying Balthazar and taking her purchases. "I may be right back to buy that suitcase, so don't go anywhere."

"And the day started off so well, too," Balthazar sighed as they left.

*\*/*

Breakfast had been a relatively calm affair, seeing as how it was only one half of the dynamic duo and they kept the topics to benign subjects, like the weather.

That had changed as soon as Hephaestus and Vulcan came in, so Kineil and Teana had ended up excusing themselves and going on with their respective days.

For Kineil, that involved going on one of her walkabouts and investigating areas she hadn't expressed much interest in before. Usually, she'd be tooling around in Yami's wake, following him around on his misadventures instead of striking off on her own.

Boy, had that changed.

She frowned as she followed a path into the woods, past the farms and into the cool shade—summer was lasting longer, it felt like.

But that wasn't her main beef. Sure, she had taken the high road and bowed graciously out of the whole thing (at least, she hoped she did), but now it was just getting stupid. Those two were getting all goofy now and….

And she simply didn't like being ignored.

Which was why she was off wandering through the woods, her feet silently finding their way to a place they had traced a few times before, eventually arriving at a ramshackle cabin with an open window.

"Yo, Jake!" she called, sticking her head in—which caused the artist within to start so badly his paintbrush went flying.

She made sure to grin broadly when 'Tall Jake' Hemlock turned to glare at her.

"What do you want?" he demanded, already dismissing her and looking for his missing paintbrush.

"It went under your desk. And what, I can't swing by and see how you're doing?"

"At this point, I'd rather you just take a sledgehammer to Skellington and get it over with."

"I would, but that would just hurt the sledgehammer," Kineil said, leaning in and looking at the desk. "Say, what happened to that rock you had? I liked that rock."

"I liked it too—unfortunately, it ended up being an egg, and hatched recently."

Jake pointed, redirecting Kineil's attention to a frying pan on the stove, a flame heating it and a little coil of red sitting in it, head up and mouth open.

"Is that a dragon?" she had to ask.

"It is—I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in days. I'm worried it thinks I'm its mother."

"You could do worse than having a pet dragon—you could have a Yami skulking about. How about we trade?"

"Very tempting. Why don't you take it, and when it grows up it can eat Skellington and die of indigestion?"

"That would be cruelty to animals. And I don't think you can separate a baby dragon from its mother."

"I'm not its mother."

"I can tell—it's mother would have fed it by now."

Jake grumbled as he dug into a cupboard. "This thing is eating me out of house and home. And I'm not looking forward to emptying my bank to feed it."

"I'll go make a grocery run for you," Kineil said. "I'm in need of something to do today."

"Don't do me any favors."

"It's more doing myself a favor—I need the distraction."

"I can't pay you."

"I'll put it on Yami's tab—he won't notice. And if he does, he won't care."

Jake was glaring at her now.

"You're welcome," she said.

"Do what?"

"The words you're looking for are 'you're welcome.' I'll be back."

She was already off and running before he recovered, laughing at the sound of him yelling "This doesn't change anything!"

But at least she knew what she was doing today.

*/*\*

There was some haste in running down Balthazar's steps and out onto the street.

"So what are you so upset about?" Kels asked as she pocketed her thimble and took a swig of her soda.

Yami hesitated for a beat before telling her. "I brought back Yami Skellington."

It had the effect he expected: she gasped, her mouth still full of soda, then spewed the liquid out of her mouth and nose as she tried to expel it from her lungs. She sputtered and hacked, and finally got out "You did what?!" in a high-pitched shriek.

"Not so loud!" Yami hissed, looking around. He waved away the one or two onlookers and leaned in close. "Okay, so it was a bonehead move—"

"You think?"

"But now I need your help. I have to find him before he causes any havoc."

"Didn't one of the Administrators die last night?"

"Any more havoc," he corrected.

"Uh-huh. For the record, this isn't just a bonehead move. This isn't even just a disaster—this is a catastrophe! Whatever awaits a person whose bones were banished—" here Kels froze. "What awaits a person whose bones were banished?"

"I don't know," Yami said. "What I do know is that when I summoned him back, he was all in one piece, clothed, and walking, talking, and magicking."

"So we're screwed."

"I'd like to think that we're getting ahead of this before we are."

"Uh-huh. Why, pray tell, did you even summon him in the first place? That, to my knowledge, is the very definition of stupidest thing you could possibly do."

Yami started to answer—hesitated. Why had he done that? To gain knowledge, to be sure, but….

There had been a moment—just one—where he had hoped to find out more about his family.

Boy, was that backfiring.

He noticed Kels had her hand tilted; her soda was pouring out.

"You're losing your Pepsi," he pointed out.

She nodded. "I know," she said, a strained grin on her face. "I want it to be empty before I break this bottle over your head!"