The Magicians' Realm Chapter 97: Flip You For It, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 96, everybody! In which I cuss out my potato of a laptop because my big computer had to go to the shop because the media player conked out (it's doing the same thing on this one I suspect gremlins) and when I tried to fix it the whole thing went blooey. So, for about a month I get to work on a slug of a computer. :P

"Mediocrum" is one of those words I'm certain exists but which Word disagrees and the Internet can't agree on—we'll pretend it means "A bit" to simplify things.

Movie this week is Thor: Ragnarök—been hearing good things about it, finally caught it on TV…I'm going to call it good stupid fun. ^^;

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! That actually kind of sounds like how I take my coffee. And no, there isn't…yes! I need to write up the next bit of Teana's timeline, but I've already started writing on the two Yamis' face time. ;D

References:

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

On the list of things Maxwell decided he didn't like, being ambushed by glowing blue lights was among them.

Maxwell wasn't fond of tempting fate, but she had been insistent—he owed her. It wasn't enough that he had broken all the ghost catchers and soul catchers and had to deal with all the irate ghosts in them. Now she wanted him to go fetch a blueprint from the Administrator-sealed vault—the vault that not even the Head Mage could enter unattended.

And upon unrolling the scroll she had indicated, he knew this wouldn't end well.

It was why he was walking down the hall in the Administrator Building in the middle of the night, maintaining a quickish pace and hoping he didn't run into any of the other Administrators—the death of Mesthil had gotten them stirred up, but they were trying to convince themselves that it was a natural death. Maxwell, meanwhile, was hoping he'd live long enough to die a natural death.

So he wasn't entirely surprised when he passed by a side hall and was beset upon from behind, bony arm wrapping tightly around his neck, another one pressing against his back to force the pressure on his throat.

"You couldn't wait until I healed up from the last time," Maxwell managed to choke out, clawing at the arm around his throat.

"I'm surprised you can still manage snark," Yami Skellington said dangerously.

"Me too," Maxwell coughed. "You know you don't have it in you."

"I'm sure Mesthil would contest that."

Maxwell managed to get enough leverage to give himself a mediocrum of air, enough to deliver his usual flip response. "You didn't kill him—the man died of a heart attack."

Yami tightened his grip. "Fine then—there's a first for everything."

Maxwell made a garbled gssk before forcing out "Can't I at least buy you off?"

"No."

"Fair enough."

But Maxwell did risk freeing up a hand to pull out a tightly rolled tube of paper and hold it up.

"Then I guess you don't mind if I set this on fire in my last moments," Maxwell said, waving the scroll slightly; he could see Yami looking at it in his dimming peripheral vision.

Yami let go, Maxwell sucked in a breath—

And then was flipped over so fast and suddenly that he cracked his head against the floor.

When the stars cleared, it was to find that he was hanging upside-down in midair, looking at Yami Skellington turning the scroll over before carefully opening it.

"Was this really necessary?" Maxwell asked, as soon as his breathing somewhat evened.

"Yes," Yami responded, not missing a beat. "I still haven't changed my mind about killing you."

"If you wanted me dead, you would have done it already."

"Maybe I want you to linger."

Maxwell snorted, but didn't push the issue—Yami Skellington had had a thousand years to stew over his death and banishment; that was long enough to work anyone into a frenzy. Oh wait…he hadn't been the only one banished….

He was going to kill her. He wasn't sure how, but he was going to kill her—make her an extra-concentrate ghost or something like that.

Trying to figure out how he was going to pull that off was cut off by being rudely dropped on his head—and then being treated to the sight of Yami Skellington looming over him.

"I'd just like to know," Yami said conversationally, like he wasn't some deadly spook tapping one of the most dangerous scrolls known to Magicians against a hand. "Why you did it."

"The short answer would be to go to my old office and sit in the new chair," Maxwell told him. "You don't have time for the long answer."

Yami turned to sense what Maxwell had felt in the floor—people were coming.

The dead Magician treated him with a surprisingly effective glare. "This isn't over."

"Woo," Maxwell noised. "My only request is that you not send Kineil to do it."

Yami laughed thinly. "Oh, I don't have to send Kineil—I have a whole selection. A doctor who rips a person's whole skeleton out in five minutes flat and Kineil's no-longer-scrawny friend Dr. Heller come to mind."

And with that lovely thought, Yami Skellington was gone.

Maxwell was as well shortly later, not wanting to be caught by whichever yutz was patrolling tonight—in pairs now, because Mesthil's death had shaken them up worse than they cared to admit.

It did Maxwell too, but not for the reasons they thought.

"So," he muttered into the night. "We've just given the strongest undead Magician in the town's history the strongest scroll in the town's collection and smashed all the items that might have stopped him. Any other suicidal plans in store?"

"No," she replied. "Now we wait."

"No," he replied. "Now you wait. I'm doing what I should have done ages ago and running for all I'm worth."

"Then you'd better park it, because you're not worth much."

Maxwell resisted an aggravated growl, but not an eye roll.

"Fine, you get the point—I'm still ahead."

"Whatever helps you cope."

That didn't really, but at this point beggars couldn't be choosers. He'd have to live with it.

However long that may be at this point.

*\*/*

She woke back up to the smell of coffee.

"Ngh," she noised, stretching—ah, bless, no more headache. And she could smell coffee, so that was good.

"Morning," Yami noised, bringing over a mug. "Feel better?"

"Much," she said, accepting the coffee and rubbing her face as she sat up. "I told you all I needed was a power nap."

"That was definitely a powerful nap, I'll give you that—you slept clean through to the next day."

She had just taken a sip of her coffee—nearly choked on it, held it in so she didn't splatter it everywhere, ended up making a mess anyway when the coughing fit took over.

"I kind of thought that'd be your reaction," Yami said, spelling the spilt coffee away as he took her mug back, handed her tissues a few moments later to wipe her face.

"Did the coffee have a bone in it?" Kineil called from the other room.

"Kineil, you said you weren't adding anything extra this time," Hephaestus complained.

"That long?" Teana rasped, wiping her face. "Agh, I missed work."

"Fortunately, Mitzi is much more understanding, she told me to check your temperature and to call a doctor if needed she knew quite a few who could work on short notice. I don't think that's necessary though?" he queried. "I mean, not for the headache—the choking, maybe."

"No, it's not necessary," she said, rubbing her eyes again.

"Oh good—because I'm almost certain that at least one of those doctors is a horse doctor, and I don't see how that would help."

"I've told you your friends give me concerns, correct?"

"That might have come up in conversation, yes," he said, before eyeing her with obvious concern. "Are you all right?"

Maybe—maybe she should just focus on the threads one day at a time. Or maybe she should have done what she had been doing and ignoring those aggravating prinkles.

Unfortunately, it seemed it was too late for that—she had been stupid and let them in, and now she had the problem of seeing them all much too clearly.

"I'm fine," she said, sitting up—saw his face. "Fine, I'm not fine, but I'm better than I was, okay?"

"I…guess that's an improvement?" he said, not looking sure.

"It counts, yes." Glance at him—keep him out of Delvaire. "And…I've been thinking, actually…maybe I wouldn't mind one of those long trips you said."

He perked up a little at that, but his expression was still concerned. "Tempting…except right now I feel like I'd be taking advantage of you when you're not at strength. Try again later?"

Figures. "I don't know, I might have changed my mind then."

"I'd still rather not risk taking advantage of you," he said, kissing her on the forehead as he got up. "Maybe after you see a doctor that isn't a horse doctor. Or Doctor Grouse or Doctor Finkelstein…Kineil, you have that doctor friend."

"Dr. Heller, and he's more of the theory doctor," she said.

"I'm not sick, I just had a headache," Teana protested. "Probably from your friends."

"Probably," Yami agreed. "But it'll be harder for them to argue with a doctor's note."

She sighed, resigning herself to this. Well…she just had to go with this for now. She could move forward from here while avoiding the bad threads.

She hoped.