The Magicians' Realm Chapter 101: Silver Threads and Golden Needles, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 101, everybody! This number makes me happy too. :D

The chapter title comes from the song "Silver Threads And Golden Needles" by the Springfields, which is a song in my Magicians' Realm playlist. It helps me get in the mood, so it pleases me to be able to include it. :D

More of the letting the characters do what they want in this chapter—might not have any more updates in August for feeling out the next several chapters, sorry. Mostly it's figuring out Teana's side of the story from here, but also keeping the kids from just collectively tackling Yami Skellington for want of a better plan. :\

Movie this week is Spider-Man—still love the original Raimi trilogy don't me.

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! That was a valid concern. D: And good question! We shall see….

References:

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

"So what's the plan? There is a plan, right?"

"That is why we're here," Yami responded testily, glaring at Kels. "We come up with an actually solid plan for taking down the strongest Magician in history, and then we act on it."

"Sounds unlikely but okay," Bakura said, toeing the rocker he was sitting in back and forth. Currently, they were all gathered in Larry's rocking chair farm with drinks and snacks supplied by Abby (the kale chips were currently sitting ignored). The Hippies had really only required the explanation that they were plotting to stick it to the man, which got a "righteous" from Larry and a general stamp of approval from both. Abby had patted him on the shoulder, told him "We'll leave you to it then," and then dragged Larry off to work on the garden.

That had been about ten minutes ago, and they still hadn't come up with something more concrete than Jonouchi's plan, which still had the hiccup of catching Skellington unawares for long enough to rip him apart and stuff him in a bunch of pre-addressed boxes.

"What about one of those magic-dampener spells, like the ones on his house?" Anzu suggested after a few minutes of ponderous silence. "Cutting him off from his magic probably addresses the one big issue."

"And after that he's just a skinny bony guy," Jonouchi pointed out. "I mean, he's still undead and that's creepy, but still."

"So what you're saying is, we could take him," Honda said.

"Totally, so long as you don't think too hard on that."

"Guess who's thinking too hard on it," Bakura said, pointing at Jonouchi.

"Excuse you, you didn't see the dude."

"The main problem with that is he'd see it coming," Yami countered. "If we could blindside him, maybe, but right now I'm probably the only one who can do that spell and he'd know to look for me."

"So we use you as bait," Kels said—when she noticed the looks she was getting: "Is there a way to make the spell stick to a thing instead of just sending it zinging to a person?"

Yami considered this. "There must be—Skellington's whole house is under effect…but usually it's a room done, not a specific person."

"How do you do it?"

"Writing it out on the walls, usually."

"What if you, say, etched it into a bullet and then shot it into him?"

Yami froze, turning this idea over. "There's a chance it could deform on impact, but…if the bullet itself were strong enough…."

"Mine would work," Honda said, before looking at Kels' gun. "And I think yours is the same caliber—we can have you as backup."

"Like you'd miss," Jonouchi scoffed.

"There's always a chance."

"So we do up a couple of bullets," Yami said, warming up to the idea. "I distract him, you shoot him, and then we go with Jonouchi's plan."

"Told you it was solid," Jonouchi said.

"That still leaves the little problem of finding him," Anzu pointed out.

"Now that's where I come in," Bakura said, shoving himself up. "I think it's about time I go fetch my old family heirloom—I'll be back in about an hour."

"Good," Yami said, getting up and going to the bundles he and Yuki brought. "We should be ready by then."

*\*/*

"You know, if we're going to ride in silence I'd at least like the radio on."

"My apologies, Miss Kineil, but I've found myself with quite a lot to think about," Skulduggery said, fingers drumming on the steering wheel.

"Please keep it to yourself," Teana begged, not glancing over from the side window. Trying to clean her mind out hadn't helped much.

"I'll try, but at some point I have to verbalize. A badge and a hat…well we've already eliminated myself as a suspect—"

"And how did we do that?" Kineil asked.

"My dear Miss Kineil, if you ever drive me to murder understand that I will make it up close and personal. So that potentially leaves the rest of the Branch—or the Civil Branch from the Capitol. Marr is out, since she's a woman, and Crux is out because he's incompetent. Which bears asking the question of just what you did to prompt an intervention from the Civil Branch, Miss Wicks."

"I misbehaved on a properly epic scale. Heph and Vul probably helped."

"They did—Miss Teana just twitched at that."

"Do you mind?" Teana snapped. "I have a headache."

"This makes the third or fourth one in a week," Kineil said, tucking her foot under her leg and scootching up. "Are you okay?"

No. Apparently trying to keep all those threads straight was rough on the mind. "I just need to lie down."

"Well I'd offer the backseat but I think you might be too long for that," Skulduggery said. "So instead I shall offer my couch and then some tea—tea does wonders."

"I thought you were taking me back to Yami's."

"Ah, no, you said you wanted to go home—you didn't specify who's. Plus my house is not frequented by such ruffians as Marik and Bakura Necromancer."

"Sold," Teana said, flopping a hand.

"I thought as much," he said, nodding and smiling at her before looking back out the front window—"Hogeez!"

Considering she had never heard such a noise from Skulduggery, that would have been funny if it hadn't come with him standing on the brakes—she flung her hands out, slamming them against the dash just as she heard Kineil go oof! behind her, got a good glimpse of a bunch of kids running across the road, one snapping from her frozen deer-in-the-headlights moment to slam her hands against the hood, skittering back frantically as the car skidded to a halt. The impact sent her tumbling—she was righted by a friend and dragged off.

"Hey!" Skulduggery barked, launching himself out of the car as soon as he yanked it into park—the kids had already long taken off by the time Teana followed suit to look down the side road. Small, skinny, barely enough room for one car.

Devoid of kids too.

She looked back at Skulduggery, surprised they had disappeared that quickly—blinked at his confused look, watched as he rubbed at his spotless hood. No sign someone had slapped their hands against it.

"You saw a bunch of kids run in front of me, right?" he asked her, pointing down the side road.

"Yeah."

Still that confusion—check his clean hood again, look up and down the road, noting the lack of footprints, finally went back to the car.

"Maybe I need some tea," he muttered, buckling in.

"It's dry," Teana pointed out. "The ground won't really hold any footprints right now."

"But there wasn't even a smudge—there should have been something. She didn't even disturb the road dust on it."

"You're actually complaining because your car is clean?" Kineil asked.

"I am when I and a car full of witnesses can attest to someone actually striking my car," he said, scanning the area. Kineil and Teana did too. Still eerily peaceful.

Like the orchard had been.

"Can we go now?" Kineil asked finally.

Skulduggery hesitated, looked around again….

"Yeah," he said, putting the car into gear. "Let's go."

*/*\*

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Kels said, looking at her shaking hands before looking back. "Nicest car I ever got run over by."

"Can you still shoot?" Honda asked her.

She unshouldered her gun, tried to aim—the tip wobbled before she dropped it. "No—my wrists hurt."

"Let me have it then, in case I need a second shot."

"Gladly."

"Jonouchi, I don't think that's a good idea," Anzu called, looking to where the teen in question was backtracking. "That guy sounded awful mad."

"That guy is awful gone too," Jonouchi called. "Him and the car—and I never heard him drive off!"

"I did not nearly get run over by a ghost car," Kels said flatly.

"I think you did."

"We'll deal with that mystery later," Yami assured them, turning his attention to Bakura. "Now are you sure this will work? Because we tried tracking Skellington before and it didn't work."

"Ah me," Bakura sighed, sounding amused as he spun around what looked like a gold dreamcatcher by its rope necklace. "Unlike you, I'm actually aware of what the Millennium Items are capable of. The Millennium Ring will track anything, no matter what enchantment has been placed on it. It can find him."

"Fine then—wow us."

"With pleasure."

Yami watched him slowly turn in a circle for a moment, looked down at Yuki.

"You know, maybe you should stay at Abby and Larry's while we do this," he said quietly.

Yuki shook his head. "This is my fault too, kind of—I should help."

"How do you figure?"

"I was the one who suggested bringing back all of Skellington."

"That doesn't make it your fault," Yami said, scowling a little as he looked away.

"Ah-ha!"

Everyone started at Bakura's triumphant bark—looked—

The needles of the Millennium Ring, before dangling loosely, were now all pointing in the same direction—down an overgrown side road.

The thief was grinning madly as he turned to face them.

"Now, who wants to go bury a dead guy?"