Brood: I'm......so.......sleepy.....
Brood: So sleepy....but I must keep working!
Zutsokaki: They why don't you go to sleep?
Brood: Can't talk.....writing.....
Zutsokaki: Uh.....*pulls out a watch on a chain* You are getting sleepy....sleepy....very sleepy...
Brood: It's a little late for that..................
Zutsokaki: Oh yeah.
Brood: Anyway, here is chapter ten....it took me sooo long because of this darned writer's block...........oh yeah, check out www.livejournal.com/users/Brood_mayran it is my online journal! My earliest entries are on the bottom, and the newest are on the top of the page!
CHAPTER 10 (Woo! It's the big 1-0!)
The small child wandered the forest, shivering and cold. She wrapped her small arms tighter around herself as the trudged through the forest, the trees shaking in the light and piercing wind. Her thin long sleeved t-shirt did little to keep her warm.
/Why did I leave Kebby-kun? I don't understand....why did I run away from him? I remember thinking that my sister was closeby.....but some small part of me knew that she wasn't anywhere in sight! Why did I keep running!? Why did I leave Kebby-kun!? I could hear him calling my name and chasing me.....and I remember him grabbing my sholders, but then I yelled at him and ran away again..../
Tears started to speckle the ground at her feet as she stopped for a moment. She didn't want to do those things....but something was making her. Sobs racked her small body as she began to move again. Kebby- kun wouldn't want her to stop at all. He personally would keep moving and get on with whatever he needed to do. She knew that. So Lisa had to keep moving, even if she felt like she couldn't.
Come to think of it, she needed to keep moving for her sister as well....her sister must be worried sick by now. Lisa hoped that her worries hadn't kept her from winning chips. And poor Jerry.....her sister's boyfriend....he had been invited also. He would be tearing apart the island right now......she managed a small smile at the thought of those two rampaging the island searching for her....but that small smile turned again to a frown and tears as she thought of them.
She walked lightly on the ground, then stopped, remembering something. She reached into her bag, and pulled out the long trench coat jacket of Seto's that she had won back from Rebecca. He had handed it to her and told her to keep hold of it, since he didn't have extra room to put it in his bag. Lisa put it on, the whole length of it hanging and dragging on the ground behind her. She grabbed up the ends and held them in her arms tightly. The trench coat was loose fitting on her, but at least she was warmer. She inhaled Seto's scent from the jacket and immediatly felt better.
Lisa decided to sit for a moment. She was cold, confused, bruised, and hungry. She had taken care of most of the cold.....she was still very confused, she had nothing for bruises, but she thought she had a bag of Gardettos somewhere.....
A certain Mister Crawford wandered the halls of his large mansion, deep in thought. He had his usual coy smirk and wine glass, navigating his passages. He turned down one corner, then the next, left here, right there, until he came to a stop in front of one portrait.
He considered this one of his best paintings ever. Someone had photographed him and Cecilia on their wedding day, holding eachother in absolute bliss. He had taken the photo and painted his own version of it. Pegasus took a moment, examining the piece. Cecilia looked like she was glowing with angelic beauty, like always, but that glow magnified by the happiness of that day. Pegasus himself seemed like he could float in his youthful elation.
Pegasus frowned. It was only two weeks later that his beloved succumbed to that horrible new disease. It was so incredibly rare that there had been only three reported deaths from it in the past two years. Maybe that is why scientists hadn't really tried to find a cure for that horribly quick murderer of young hearts. They hadn't even named it. When word got out that the newest member of the prominent Crawford family had taken ill with it and died, it was offered to name it after Cecilia, but Pegasus would hear nothing of it. He did not want his beloved's name tainted by such a horrible legacy.
He reached out his hand and stroked the side of the frame on that portrait. He found the switch he was looking for after a moment, and a faint click was heard. Pegasus heard a catch swing open. His hand reached out for the opposite wall, and it swung open on cleverly hidden hinges. Before him was a dark and musty spiral staircase made from stone. He began his descent down them.
At the bottom of these dank steps, he found his personal study and sanctuary. It was littered, like always, with portraits of Cecilia, and sketches of her as well. On his desk, he found a list of the Millennium Items and their current holders, as well as what they could do. This knowledge was based upon his.....personal....experiences, as well as native lore and legend. He was pretty sure that some of the data was incorrect, but all he really needed was the power from them. He scanned the list, frowning slightly, and put it back down.
There was another door at the end of his room. He punched in the twelve number code, and the door's metal catches slid away. The door opened to the most important part of his sanctuary. On a wall opposite the door, lay the plans for his machine. He had designed it himself, and examined the plans carefully. He must have had these plans drawn up for about a year now. He had everything planned for it. Meticulously planned for, yet there was still one major flaw....but it was unavoidable, so he had started construction on it already.
On one of the sides of this room, the whole thing was nearly done. He checked and rechecked the switches and the plugs, made sure the wiring was secure, and made sure that the Shadow Energy Collector was in proper working order. There were a few loose ends on it to tie up, but otherwise it was completed. But even after that, he was only missing the last, and most important eight items.......
He grinned and pivoted on his heels, leaving his room. He relocked his high security door and strode over to his desk. Pegasus sat down at the bolted chair and pressed a button underneath of the desk. A large screen descended from the ceiling, and Pegasus pulled a keyboard from under the desk. He typed in a few things, and the current statistics for the tournament. There were 1,348 duelists left out of the original 2,500. The first ship home departed yesterday, carrying a cargo of about 700 of them. The others, plus the others to get disqualified later today and tomorrow, would just have to wait until the day after tomorrow to go home, when the next ship left.
Pegasus punched in a few other keys and his table of champions came up. On it were notable duelists from different countries with the mug shots that were on the ID's. He looked over at Japan and America's duelists. All of the ones he was watching in particular were still in the tournament. Yugi Motou had nineteen chips, while his good friend Jounouchi Katsuya had seventeen. Seto Kaiba had only eighteen. Seto had seemed to slow down a little bit. He had less duels than the others, but the recorded bets were large. Seto obviously wanted to get the job done quickly, and had maybe even bullied the other duelists into betting large amounts of chips.
From America, Rebecca Hawkins had about fourteen chips with one loss to her name. Pegasus arched an eyebrow. Rebecca, lose? He brought up the information on her lost duel. She had lost it to some duelist with no notable accomplishments. He glanced at the name.
Lisa O'Kelly. Irish obviously. Pegasus, slightly curious, looked up her picture and statistics. She had sixteen chips and no losses. His eyes flickered up to her photograph. They widened a little bit in recognition. He glanced again at her last name. O'Kelly.
He then mentally kicked himself and summoned up the screen of Irish champions. Right in the middle of five duelists was a teenage girl with the same black hair and blue eyes as the smaller girl. Her name was Faife O'Kelly. She came in second in the National competition. The guy who came in first was Jerry McGowan. His name and face were up there as well. Faife only had about twelve chips, and Jerry had thirteen. They had no losses for either of them, but something was obviously holding them up. Pegasus slightly wondered why a couple of champions were slagging.
Pegasus shook his head and got back to looking at HIS champions. The last one to look at in America was Bandit Keith. Pegasus grinned. That slimy cheater had seventeen chips. There weren't many ways to cheat with the ID system, but Keith was a definite case. Pegasus thought there were things different with him lately, and that it was interesting that he would show up for this. He DID afterall disappear from sight after that whole fiasco in Domino City with the old warehouse. He figured that Keith may be a little bit off of his hinges after his title was taken by the young Hawkins, but he seemed stable enough to come out of hiding for this tournament.
Out of sheer curiosity, Pegasus brought up the whole map screen of the island and turned on his space sattellite heat seekers. They would make everyone on the island show up as small heat dots. Pegasus was doing this to see how the duelists were scattered. At least the screen and map were very large....
Once the sattellite was on and the screen reloaded, he saw that none of them were very close to his fortress. Everyone was still spread evenly on one side of the island. It was the side that had the ship docks. There was once slightly open area on the island, and quickly figuring up the scale of the map, thought that the clearing had to be about five square miles. In the midst of it was the largest clump of heat dots. There had to be, at the absolute most, ten people in that group. Pegasus had NO idea who would travel in that large of a group in the middle of a tournament such as this.
/Wait..../ He thought with a coy smirk. Yes he did know. But who on Earth would be with them? There were usually only five or six of them together....
One of the dots started moving away from the clump. The others must all have still been sleeping, since it was only around five in the morning over there on the island. It was about two in the morning where Pegasus was.
He simply had to check these things when he couldn't sleep. These moments came more often now, since he felt so close to realizing his goal. That empty place next to him in his bed felt more warm lately. He could almost feel his young wife beside him. Even after she died, he had stayed on his own side of the bed.
He grinned as he remembered Cecila on their first night together in the same bed. He held her tightly in his arms that whole night. She was nervous and shaky, but Pegasus always blamed that on the raging storm outside, beating on their windows. Cecila was never one to be shy around him.
Pegasus smiled to himself and paused at his keyboard as he recalled. She whispered his name lightly that night after an especially loud clap of thunder startled them both. He had kissed her forehead and pulled her closer, and she nestled her head into the nook of his neck and sholder. He then stroked her silken blonde hair until he felt her breathing lighten as she fell asleep. Pegasus had gotten barely any sleep that night because he wanted nothing more in that moment than just to hold her and watch her sleep.
Pegasus had to catch himself then, because he began to choke up. He held back a small sob of remorse, and switched off his computer. Then he ventured back upstairs to his empty bed.
Shadi stopped walking for a moment and looked up at the sky through the small break in the near endless expanse of leaves and branches. He thought it was a little bit dark. He just continued walking, hoping to find or feel some sign of the Key anywhere on the island. He hadn't felt anything at all since he had gotten there. He had seen many duelists, but his magic kept him unnoticed. For some reason, he had been drawn to the island with no pretense of where he might be headed. It seemed like he was supposed to find out something on his own.
At the next log he found, Shadi sat down and began to gather what facts he had. One. He was on the island that was hosting Pegasus's tournament. Two. His Millennium Ankh was missing, apparently on this island somewhere after seemingly abandoning him. Three. Knowing Pegasus, this whole tournament is somehow tied to the Millennium Items, therefore, his Ankh was in danger. Four. He had absolutley NO leads. This really wasn't convenient for him.
He sat thinking about fact two. If his Ankh had abandoned him, there had to be a really good reason. He tried remembering everything he had ever felt or known with that Item in his possession. It was infinitly useful in his task of determining the proper users of the Millennium Items. But there had to be something about it.....the items certainly had a consiousness of sorts, even if they didn't contain a spirit. Hey.....wait?
Shadi remembered suddenly, when he had first recieved the item, that he had felt something seemingly surround him. It was a warm enveloping feeling that seemed to welcome him. He didn't link it to something else because he simply thought it was the item itself accepting him. Now that he thought harder about it, it did feel like there was something else residing in the Millennium Ankh. Was it part of the reason why did it decided to leave him?
These were all confusing things to think about, and decided to rest. Shadi hadn't rested in awhile now, and thought that it was definitly time. He took off his cloak and set it down on an obscure place on the ground and went to sleep, dreaming of the places his Ankh could be....
Many miles away, Malik Ishtar's eyes fluttered open slowly, and he stood up hazily. His eyes scanned the landscape. Where was he? Then he glanced down at himself. He looked at his wrist and saw the dark green glove on his wrist. He examined it carefully. It had a square shaped cuff on it, and had many diamond shaped indentations along that cuff. There were twenty three diamond shaped chips in it. The chips themselves were shiny and iredescant, and they clipped neatly into the glove.
He stood up and looked at his surroundings. He was in the thick of a large forest, and didn't see anything he recognized. The last thing he remembered was going up to bed after saying goodnight to his sister, Isis. Then the thought of it. His Yami.
He tried contacting the spirit, but it had obviously severed their mental connection. He really wasn't happy right now. Here he was stranded on some wilderness without any pretense, and his Yami obviously behind all of it.
{You wanted something, Ishtar?}
It was his Yami. He had obviously sensed him trying to get to him.
[I'm just a little curious. WHERE THE HELL AM I!?!?!]
{Oh, you really shouldn't worry yourself over these small details. We are just on an uncharted yet massive island owned by Pegasus J. Crawford.}
[Hmm....interesting. Now tell me why the hell you dragged me to a place owned by HIM. I haven't heard very many flattering things.]
Malik's Yami started. He was surprised that Malik could take this kind of information in such stride. But having him as a Yami......he really shouldn't be surprised.
{I am here on....business of my own. There is a tournament going on, much like that Duelist Kingdom you read about. I am an eliminator in this. But you are a competitor. Before I reverted to you, I put on a different glove just for you, so you may be identified as one of the competitors. There is also one of those mechanical contraptions in your pocket. You may want to look at that. On it, there is a map. I don't see how Pegasus could fit a map on those small things, but on it, there are also points marked for every dueling station on it. When we find a duelist, you will challenge them and take them to one of those. I will tell you what to do. You will aquire the last two chips needed to fill that glove you wear.}
[I don't see why I have to do this....]
{What other choice do you have?} His voice was dripping with venom. He was losing patience with his aibou.
[I suppose I don't have another one, now do I?] Malik sighed. He really wanted some of his sister's amazing breakfast....maybe a nice hot cup of coffee. But NO. Damn Yami of his just HAS to go and drag him off to some island without any pretense whatsoever.
{I sense your discomfort. I don't care. Just do these things and I won't take your mortal self off of a cliff. Of course I could always find another aibou.....}
[And wait about another millennia for another reincarnation? I don't think you'd like that much.] Malik once again sighed. That Yami of his was completly impossible, but he HAS been worse.....
{Aibou.....hush your overlarge trap now. Just MOVE and find a duelist! You need those other chips! I have plenty of my own in your pack!}
[Why don't I just take some of yours then?]
{Earn your own. You need the practice.} With that, the dark side of Malik cut off the mental link again.
Malik was trembling in anger. His fists were clenched and his teeth grinding. Not ONLY did his Yami take him from his sister and his home, he was insulting his dueling abilities AND being stingy with those diamond chip thingies! He didn't even know what they were for! Why on earth would there be so many duelists in one place, much less a large deserted island!?
Wait a second. He had seen something on the news.....there was a large Duel Monster's tournament going on, but he never got much further than that.....he fell asleep on the couch. It was supposed to be on a large island.....so this must be what he was doing here....participating in the tournament. He really hoped his sister wouldn't get too worried. Isis was probably already worried sick about him.
He looked behind him, and just realized that there was a large bag on the dewy ground. There was a sleeping bag unrolled. That must have been what he was sleeping on. He rummaged through the bag and quickly found his Millennium Rod and a bit of food. He ate some of the food and sat down. If he was going to earn chips, he didn't want to have to duel for them TOO hard......
Honda stirred in his sleep, and Joey rolled over onto Mokuba's foot mumbling something about winning an eating contest. Mai was sleeping on a small mound of plushies, and Anzu was using one as a pillow. Bakura was stirring fretfully inside of his sleeping bag, and Amoura was breathing lightly, murmuring quietly in her sleep. Mokuba had his thumb in his mouth, strange for an eleven year old boy, and Yugi was clutching his Millennium Puzzle.
Seto stood and looked over the scene of sleeping persons, and checked his bags one last time. He silently moved his way through them, pausing beside Amoura. He looked down at her, and knelt beside her.
He placed a note near her head and scratched the ears of Yunet, who lifted her head and purred at Seto before snuggling back into Amoura's hair. His eyes passed over the kitten......over the wavy sea green hair.....and stopped on her face. It was light and calm, yet held more to it than it appeared. His heart skipped a beat and he thought that he even may be falling for her.
He paused at this and shook his head. No. He couldn't. He did admire her though. She was the only person ever to beat him at a straight game of poker. He lightly frowned, yet smiled, as he thought of the Blue Eyes White Dragon in his deck.
Seto stood up, and looked over at his brother. He walked over, almost treading on Joey's hand, even though the only thing that kept him from doing it was the fact that Joey would probably wake up, or at least yell something loud in his sleep, waking the others.
Mokuba's face scrunched up as Seto pulled the boy's hand from his mouth. Seto smiled and put his hand on Mokuba's head, his eyes clouded with regret. He wished he could take Mokuba with him, but it wouldn't be as safe. He actually felt better leaving him with Amoura and the others. Mokuba really liked all of their company anyway.
Seto stood one more time and stepped carefully out of the sleeping cluster of people. Then he turned his back and walked out of the amusement park, leaving them all behind.
An eye opened behind him.
Keith stumbled over one more rock, and caught himself. He paused in his journey and held his aching head. He felt as if something was beating his head with a hammer. It wasn't a pleasant thing. He had had this headache since yesterday, after he got away from that.....whatever it was.....
He didn't know why he had just now started to remember what had happened to him. He really couldn't remember anything from the interval where he aimed his gun at the twerp to about ten minutes ago. Nothing. His memory was wiped clean of that time.
The thing in his head beat it's hammer harder. Keith had to sit down, so at the next large boulder, he rested himself and set down his magnum. He lay back and tried to wait out the headache, but no avail. He turned his head to the magnum beside him.
Why did he suddenly want to carry that with him to this island? Security? No. Not security. He felt safe enough as he was. But then why.....?
Oh. That's right. Now he remembered. Revenge. On everyone who ever made him into what he was today. A laughing stock of his former proud self. His headache grew worse, but he had to keep thinking. Pegasus....oh Pegasus first. For handing him the most humiliating defeat he had ever had, much less even witnessed, and Joey, for his defeats then. Yugi Motou, for humiliating him in that warehouse.....even though Keith didn't know why he was there.....and Rebecca Hawkins, for stealing his title. Oh, the pounding inside of his head......since he had to leave, his title was up for grabs. And an eight year old girl took it. He figured she would be about nine or so now, but that made little difference. A pipsqueak is a pipsqueak. And that French girl who made a fool out of him on the ship. Flipping him over like he was nothing after his overly generous offer.
His head began to swim with the sheer pain, and his thoughts became muddled. Some part of him knew that he was losing it, but some things had happened to make it go faster. Things were happening inside of his head besides that God-awful headache of his.
Keith tried to think about what had happened after he pulled the gun on Mokuba Kaiba. But the second that he attempted to recall what had happened after he attempted to pull the trigger, the pain in his head, as horrible as it already was, grew tenfold, and too much for him to handle.
He spun over on the rock and retched over the side of it, the pain causing further nausea, and the his sudden turn making more pain in his head. He retched again, and then felt himself weaken as anyone does after vomiting. His knees turned to jelly, and he once again was glad that he wasn't standing.
Looking into the small warm pools before him, he swore he could see some swirling.....odd and disgusting.....yet he kept watching. Soon, the faces of everyone who had wronged him appeared, all laughing. They jeered at him and his failures, and his constant humiliation. They carried his pride with them in these grotesque images, torn and shred and passed between them. It was odd that his shredded pride looked alot like a torn up teddy bear with Pegasus-hair stuffing....
Keith groaned and rolled onto his back again, away from the unsettling images in the most obsence of vision pools. Some small corner of his mind that was maintaining his rational thought realized that he didn't REALLY see those things, but he wasn't paying any attention to that small quiet voice. Other voices were trying to speak also.
And they all whispered.....revenge.....vengance.....retribution....make them pay for laughing at you....you saw them.....they can't deny laughing at you, holding your broken pride....maybe if we kill them....you can get your pride back....and you can sew it back together again....and you will be as proud and as great as you were before. You will be the Champion of this tournament, and all others....
Yes, he agreed reluctantly. I do need to get my pride back from them. They have it, and you think we can get it back together? It may work. I will use their hair as the thread to sew it together again.....
Now that's the spirit, the dark voice said. Now you get it. You have to kill them. Show the world that nothing is in your way!
Keith started to nod, but a small, quiet, yet confident voice came up.
Do you want to do this? Is this what reclaiming your former title and glory would take? We all know that you are bad, but this will make it worse.....get better....
NO! The dark voice roared loudly, drowning out the lighter one and furthering Bandit Keith's headache even more. Do them all in and do it soon!!!
Keith nodded this time, and forced the softer voice back. When they argued, it hurt his head more. He reached his hand over to the cold metal of his magnum, and felt somehow relaxed and resigned to his duty. There was still a nagging in the back of his mind, but he needed to ignore it. If that softer voice had a face, it's bottom lip would be quivering in fright. That darned subconsciousness. It was of no use to him at all.
"GAHH!" Insector Haga tripped on a large root sticking out of the path ground. He fell over and landed hard on his face, and he weight of his bag smashed into him, making him hurt even worse. He groaned and sat up, and checked his glasses.
The wire between his lenses was a little bent, so he bent them back into place. He wiped the dirt off of them and put them back on.
Haga stood up and dusted off his long green coat, silently berating himself for such rookie behavior, and started off again.
/Only five more chips to go. I just need one or two more relentless duels, and I will be set! Only the fortress to find! Soon, I will be the undisputed champion of Duel Monsters! Nobody can stop me! I might as well have been an eliminator duelist!/
Haga grinned his odd grin, and patted his dueling glove. The twenty chips embedded in it glistened lightly in the sunlight as he swaggered along the forest road. He saw something out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see a duelist around the age of sixteen walking through some brush.
About twenty minutes later, yet another duelist had fallen to his abilities. Haga left this one in complete shock that he had lost to this small and meek looking person. They had only betted three chips on the match, so now he only had two to go.
Insector Haga snorted a little at the thought of him still being considered small. Sure he was short, but if anyone took the time to look closely, then they would see that he looked alot older than his height let on. He was almost sixteen, after all.
He grinned to himself. In his own personal opinion, which he always found to be reliable, he was getting to be quite the stud. Haga was certain that if....no. WHEN he won the tournament, that he would be able to get any foxy babe he wanted. Even that one at the dance that Seto Kaiba had his mitts on. She did look a little familiar to him. Oh yes. She hung out with that detestable Yugi Motou.
Well, he figured, that would only hurt the champion boys more. Take their titles, and their little babe. Total annihilation with a side dish of humiliation. That sounded good to him.
While he was immersed in his fantasies, he didn't take the time to look at the road ahead of him. Soon his face had become closely aqquainted with a large tree.
"SON OF A MOTHER!!! THE SECOND TIME TODAY!" He held his nose and massaged it tenderly. He opened his eyes a crack, and he caught something small etched on the treetrunk. Haga leaned in closer and realized that it was a small arrow. The arrow was sort of new, like it had only been there for about a couple of days. It was pointing in a direction shaded by the large trees and foliage, and Haga couldn't help but wonder where it led to.
After a brief moment of internal conflict, curiousity won out, and Haga began trekking through the trees to see what could possibly be in that direction.
Yugi stirred and sat up in his sleeping bag. He didn't want to wake up, but the small silver tabby kitten playing with his bangs had decided otherwise. He grinned and picked up the little squirming Yunet, scooting over closer to the side bag that held Yunet's food. He opened a pouch, and she sniffed at it, turned around, and began playing with Yugi's shoelace.
"Well, I suppose you want to play right now. You aren't hungry at all. I guess when you aren't sleeping, you're very energetic!" Yami smiled and pet the kitten on it's small head.
Yunet, who wasn't expecting a surprise attack from above, bounded backwards and landed on a piece of paper, crumpling it under her. She immediatly rolled over and bounced up on her paws. Yugi saw the paper and picked it up. It said on the front of it, "Amoura." It looked like it was in Seto's handwriting.
Yugi's eyes widened, and darted over to where he had been sleeping the previous night. He wasn't there at all. Yunet jaunted over to Yugi's lap and sat there. She reared herself up wobbily on her hind paws and put her front paws on Yugi's hands, as if she were looking at what he was holding.
He shifted one of his hands, and Yunet tumbled down back into Yugi's lap. Yugi looked at the sleeping Amoura. He didn't want to wake her just to read this right now, but he didn't want to read it for himself. It was made out to her after all.
Yugi wasn't given long to think on it, because Yunet had decided that she had been ignored long enough, and pounced into Amoura's hair, acting like she was digging in it. This sudden movement, plus the kitten yanking on her hair, caused Amoura to bolt up suddenly.
"Yunet! You shouldn't be avake at zis time! It iz much too early!" She paused from her scolding (which was having no affect on the kitten, who had just spotted Bakura's hair) and looked up at Yugi.
"Yugi....uh...vhat are you doing up right now?"
"Amoura. I really hate to tell you this. But Seto has gone."
"Zeto 'as left!? But vhy!?!?"
"I think the answer may be in here." And with that, he handed Amoura the letter. Amoura took it in her hands and opened it. She read it over, her eyes softening with more she read. When she was done, Yugi saw her eyes flick to the top again, and saw that she was reading it again.
When she was finally done, her hands dropped to her lap. "Zeto 'as zaid zat he 'ad zings to take care of elsevhere. He 'as left Mokuba in our care."
"Amoura.....would you mind reading this to the others when we are all awake?"
Her brown eyes drifted up to meet his purple ones. "I zink I can. I just don't know 'ow Mokuba is going to take zis......" Her eyes moved over to the serenely sleeping young boy. Yugi's followed suit.
Joey shifted position, and rolled harder onto Mokuba's feet. Mokuba wiggled a bit in his sleep, and Amoura crawled over and pushed Joey a bit off of Mokuba. The boy's face settled a little bit.
"I 'ope I did not disturb Joey...."
"Don't worry about that Amoura. Joey can sleep through anything. He has been known to talk in his sleep rather loudly also."
Amoura managed a small smile and gripped the note harder.
"YEEEOOOWWWW!!!" Amoura and Yugi's heads darted around in the direction of the yell. Everyone else stirred and woke quickly to look groggily over.
The yell had come from Bakura. He was holding his head with one hand, and in the other, he had pinned down a loudly protesting Yunet. "Why you little runt! How DARE you interrupt my sleep like that!!!"
Yugi's eyes widened in horror. Normal Ryou Bakura didn't speak like that. But he looked no different, either. It seemed to him that Bakura's resolve against his Yami was weakening.
Amoura, on the other hand, had narrowed her eyes at Bakura. "Let 'er go! She just vanted to play vith your 'air! She 'as alvays liked long 'air!"
Bakura's eyes widened quickly, and he looked back down at the kitten. His mouth opened like he wanted to speak, but nothing came out. He obviously felt normal again. His hand darted quickly away from the kitten, who bounded over to Amoura's lap.
"I'm terribly sorry, Amoura. I don't know what came over me.....it must be a slight morning temper...."
/Oh Bakura, you know what it was all right. You, me and our other halfs./ Yugi's eyes narrowed over at Bakura, and Bakura became suddenly focused on the carpeted floor they were on.
They had stayed inside of one of the large booths that had been nearly devoid of much else than space. The remnants of their fire was in an ashy heap outside. The sun was peeking over the edge of one of the farther away booths. Yugi looked at his watch. It was only about eight thirty.
Joey yawned and sat up. "Hey everyone, what's all the hubbub?" He scratched his back drowsily, his eyelids still drooped a little bit.
Anzu turned her also sleepy head over at Joey. "Nothing," she was interrupted by an incoming long yawn. "Uh...nothing except that Amoura's cat woke Bakura up by playing a little too rough with his hair. He didn't sound happy about it at all."
At this time, Mokuba had shuffled over to Amoura. He picked up Yunet, who mewed happily at the attention. He looked over at Amoura. "Hey, what is that paper you have there?"
Her head jerked up, and she forced herself to turn it towards Mokuba. "It's.....from your brother."
"Seto? But he's right over there........." Mokuba had turned his head to where Seto had been the night before. "Where is he? Where did my brother go!?"
"Please....calm yourzelf Mokuba. I vill.....read ze letter."
By this time, everyone else had become interested. Mai had propped herself up on another plushie, and everyone else's heads were turned towards Amoura. She cleared her throat.
"To Amoura,
I 'ope zat you are ze first one to read zis. I 'ad only found Mokuba last night with you and the others, but now I fear I must go already. I 'ave other zings I must take care of right now. Zese are prezzing and unavoidable matters zat must be rezolved quickly. Zince I now know zat Mokuba is zafe, I feel no guilt in leaving 'im vith you, Amoura. You 'ave proven to me zat you are quite reliable and can 'andle Mokuba well enough. I vill try to get in touch vith you zomehow. Just tell 'im for now zat he must not go off and look for me. I cannot 'ave him alone out zere.
I am zorry zat I could not tell you vhat zese matters I must take care of are, but I 'ope zat you vill understand zat I abzolutely 'ave to do zis. I am truly zorry.
Take care, Zeto Kaiba."
Amoura stopped reading there. Everyone was shocked into silence. Seto had to go because of some task. He didn't tell them what, or why, or where. Just that he was gone. Mokuba began to tear up. Anzu and Mai saw him choke up, and they went over to him and put their arms on the boy. Amoura was still looking at the note, and after a moment, put it in her backpack.
The boys just sat there in comptemplative silence. What on Earth could be so pressing and important that he would just leave his brother behind and go off in the night? What required such dire attention? He did simply state that Mokuba was safe in their care, and he was right. Mokuba would be safe with them.
About an hour later, the group had sullenly picked up camp and prepared to leave. Bakura was keeping himself slightly separate, and was a bit jumpier than usual. Yugi on the other hand, was talking to himself. Or his Yami...
//Aibou, you can't tell me that you don't suspect that odd things are going on.....//
/Of course I do! I mean, you did sense that the Shadow Realm had been opened....right?/
//The signal disappeared soon before we found Amoura and Mokuba....but Yugi.....I sense that all seven of the Millennium Items are on Pegasus's island.....//
/ALL SEVEN!?!?!!? What could this mean!?/
//Disaster. Simply put.//
/But does that mean that MALIK is here!?!?!?!/
//If the Millennium Rod is still in his hands, then yes. He is here. And we have the puzzle and tauk.....//
/But does that also mean that Shadi is here? He has the scale and key!/
//I don't think Shadi has both of them, Yugi. The Key has fallen from his grasp. There is something heavily amiss here. I fear for this world once again.//
/And we already know that the Ring is here! Bakura!/
//Yes, Bakura has the ring.....but the Eye....//
/Pegasus couldn't be here, could he? He isn't supposed to be here for another week or so.../
//He does not have the eye anymore. But it is on this island. I can feel them resonating from being so close together....there is one close to here, but I can't feel how far, or which one it is!//
/An item, closeby.....I think I can feel it also! But....you are right. I can't get a clear bead on it either!/
//What do you make of Seto leaving?//
/Seto? I just don't understand! His business he had to take care of.....I don't see what kind of business he could have in the middle of a tournament like this!/
//It was a personal matter. There is worry inside of him. I felt it last night while he, Mokuba, and Amoura were speaking.//
/You sound jealous./
//Of what? That Seto ran off? Why would I want to run off?//
/Nevermind. Anyway, doesn't the sky look a little bit clouded to you?/
//It does look cloudly. I don't think it's anything to worry about.//
/Alright. Hey, how close do you think that Millennium Item is, anyway?/
//It's fairly close......I just wish I could tell how far away it was!// This was definitly frustrating him. It wasn't very often that Yami was perplexed.
/What if we work together? If we pooled our powers, maybe we could get a better idea...../
//That's not a bad idea. The next rest we take, we will try that.//
"HEY GUYS! LOOK UP THERE!!" Yami and Yugi were snapped out of their conversation by Honda yelling suddenly. He was pointing ahead. They had been walking for around half an hour now, but were brought to a stop by what was in the path.
In their way lay a teenaged boy. They all rushed over to him, and Honda knelt down by him. He put his hand in front of the boy's nose.
"He's alive!" Everyone let out a sigh of relief. They didn't want to have come upon a dead person. Yugi and Joey sat him up, and Mai got out her smelling salts.
After a moment, his eyes fluttered open. He looked at them all, perplexed. Then he asked something in Italian. Since they couldn't understand him, they shook their heads, indicating that they couldn't comprehend. The boy reached for his pocket and took out his ID. He opened the back catch and took out the earphone. He then activated the translator function.
The others got the drift and did the same. Amoura shared an earphone with Mokuba.
Yugi looked at the boy, and they helped him onto a log on the side of the road. They all offered him some water, and he took it gladly.
"Can you tell us," Yugi started, "what happened to you?"
"Yes." The words coming out of his mouth were beyond all doubt Italian, but in their earphones, it was translated easily into english.
"An eliminator duelist."
Brood: YES! IT IS COMPLETED!! CHAPTER TEN IS DONE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zutsokaki: This is one of the few times that I am frightened of this girl. Anyway, don't you have some annoucements to make before I can go slack off again?
Brood: AAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!........oh yeah.
Zutsokaki: *sweatdrops* Then let's get on with it!
Brood: Ok! Since this is chapter ten, I will wait until I get SEVENTY reviews until I post chapter eleven! Seventy shouldn't be so hard to muster.....if you are at a loss, just tell me what your favorite line or part in my story was so far! You could also tell me why the story sucks or ROCKS!
Zutsokaki: I could tell you a few reasons why this story sucks.....*takes out a LARGE book from nowhere*
Brood: ...................................................................anyway... ...........That is all for now! I am now off for some well deserved rest!
Zutsokaki: Way ahead of you.....*runs off*
Brood: Hey! That's the direction of MY bedroom!
Zutsokaki: *calling fromt the room* Yeah, I know! You have the fluffier comforter! *hears a lock click*
Brood: HEY!! It's MY ROOM!! *suddenly grins* Voice activation! Lock deactivation Room six!
*the door unlocks*
Zutsokaki: *still inside* What the hell....
Brood: *runs inside and you hear lots of pleas for mercy, and you see Zutsokaki fly out of the room* Ahh...bed....*shuts her door, locking it*
Zutsokaki: Darn it......I suppose I shouldn't try and steal her bed anymore....oh yeah, she is very serious about the whole review thing. If it takes too long though, she may take it down to sixty five or something like that.....*goes into his room*
Zutsokaki: They why don't you go to sleep?
Brood: Can't talk.....writing.....
Zutsokaki: Uh.....*pulls out a watch on a chain* You are getting sleepy....sleepy....very sleepy...
Brood: It's a little late for that..................
Zutsokaki: Oh yeah.
Brood: Anyway, here is chapter ten....it took me sooo long because of this darned writer's block...........oh yeah, check out www.livejournal.com/users/Brood_mayran it is my online journal! My earliest entries are on the bottom, and the newest are on the top of the page!
CHAPTER 10 (Woo! It's the big 1-0!)
The small child wandered the forest, shivering and cold. She wrapped her small arms tighter around herself as the trudged through the forest, the trees shaking in the light and piercing wind. Her thin long sleeved t-shirt did little to keep her warm.
/Why did I leave Kebby-kun? I don't understand....why did I run away from him? I remember thinking that my sister was closeby.....but some small part of me knew that she wasn't anywhere in sight! Why did I keep running!? Why did I leave Kebby-kun!? I could hear him calling my name and chasing me.....and I remember him grabbing my sholders, but then I yelled at him and ran away again..../
Tears started to speckle the ground at her feet as she stopped for a moment. She didn't want to do those things....but something was making her. Sobs racked her small body as she began to move again. Kebby- kun wouldn't want her to stop at all. He personally would keep moving and get on with whatever he needed to do. She knew that. So Lisa had to keep moving, even if she felt like she couldn't.
Come to think of it, she needed to keep moving for her sister as well....her sister must be worried sick by now. Lisa hoped that her worries hadn't kept her from winning chips. And poor Jerry.....her sister's boyfriend....he had been invited also. He would be tearing apart the island right now......she managed a small smile at the thought of those two rampaging the island searching for her....but that small smile turned again to a frown and tears as she thought of them.
She walked lightly on the ground, then stopped, remembering something. She reached into her bag, and pulled out the long trench coat jacket of Seto's that she had won back from Rebecca. He had handed it to her and told her to keep hold of it, since he didn't have extra room to put it in his bag. Lisa put it on, the whole length of it hanging and dragging on the ground behind her. She grabbed up the ends and held them in her arms tightly. The trench coat was loose fitting on her, but at least she was warmer. She inhaled Seto's scent from the jacket and immediatly felt better.
Lisa decided to sit for a moment. She was cold, confused, bruised, and hungry. She had taken care of most of the cold.....she was still very confused, she had nothing for bruises, but she thought she had a bag of Gardettos somewhere.....
A certain Mister Crawford wandered the halls of his large mansion, deep in thought. He had his usual coy smirk and wine glass, navigating his passages. He turned down one corner, then the next, left here, right there, until he came to a stop in front of one portrait.
He considered this one of his best paintings ever. Someone had photographed him and Cecilia on their wedding day, holding eachother in absolute bliss. He had taken the photo and painted his own version of it. Pegasus took a moment, examining the piece. Cecilia looked like she was glowing with angelic beauty, like always, but that glow magnified by the happiness of that day. Pegasus himself seemed like he could float in his youthful elation.
Pegasus frowned. It was only two weeks later that his beloved succumbed to that horrible new disease. It was so incredibly rare that there had been only three reported deaths from it in the past two years. Maybe that is why scientists hadn't really tried to find a cure for that horribly quick murderer of young hearts. They hadn't even named it. When word got out that the newest member of the prominent Crawford family had taken ill with it and died, it was offered to name it after Cecilia, but Pegasus would hear nothing of it. He did not want his beloved's name tainted by such a horrible legacy.
He reached out his hand and stroked the side of the frame on that portrait. He found the switch he was looking for after a moment, and a faint click was heard. Pegasus heard a catch swing open. His hand reached out for the opposite wall, and it swung open on cleverly hidden hinges. Before him was a dark and musty spiral staircase made from stone. He began his descent down them.
At the bottom of these dank steps, he found his personal study and sanctuary. It was littered, like always, with portraits of Cecilia, and sketches of her as well. On his desk, he found a list of the Millennium Items and their current holders, as well as what they could do. This knowledge was based upon his.....personal....experiences, as well as native lore and legend. He was pretty sure that some of the data was incorrect, but all he really needed was the power from them. He scanned the list, frowning slightly, and put it back down.
There was another door at the end of his room. He punched in the twelve number code, and the door's metal catches slid away. The door opened to the most important part of his sanctuary. On a wall opposite the door, lay the plans for his machine. He had designed it himself, and examined the plans carefully. He must have had these plans drawn up for about a year now. He had everything planned for it. Meticulously planned for, yet there was still one major flaw....but it was unavoidable, so he had started construction on it already.
On one of the sides of this room, the whole thing was nearly done. He checked and rechecked the switches and the plugs, made sure the wiring was secure, and made sure that the Shadow Energy Collector was in proper working order. There were a few loose ends on it to tie up, but otherwise it was completed. But even after that, he was only missing the last, and most important eight items.......
He grinned and pivoted on his heels, leaving his room. He relocked his high security door and strode over to his desk. Pegasus sat down at the bolted chair and pressed a button underneath of the desk. A large screen descended from the ceiling, and Pegasus pulled a keyboard from under the desk. He typed in a few things, and the current statistics for the tournament. There were 1,348 duelists left out of the original 2,500. The first ship home departed yesterday, carrying a cargo of about 700 of them. The others, plus the others to get disqualified later today and tomorrow, would just have to wait until the day after tomorrow to go home, when the next ship left.
Pegasus punched in a few other keys and his table of champions came up. On it were notable duelists from different countries with the mug shots that were on the ID's. He looked over at Japan and America's duelists. All of the ones he was watching in particular were still in the tournament. Yugi Motou had nineteen chips, while his good friend Jounouchi Katsuya had seventeen. Seto Kaiba had only eighteen. Seto had seemed to slow down a little bit. He had less duels than the others, but the recorded bets were large. Seto obviously wanted to get the job done quickly, and had maybe even bullied the other duelists into betting large amounts of chips.
From America, Rebecca Hawkins had about fourteen chips with one loss to her name. Pegasus arched an eyebrow. Rebecca, lose? He brought up the information on her lost duel. She had lost it to some duelist with no notable accomplishments. He glanced at the name.
Lisa O'Kelly. Irish obviously. Pegasus, slightly curious, looked up her picture and statistics. She had sixteen chips and no losses. His eyes flickered up to her photograph. They widened a little bit in recognition. He glanced again at her last name. O'Kelly.
He then mentally kicked himself and summoned up the screen of Irish champions. Right in the middle of five duelists was a teenage girl with the same black hair and blue eyes as the smaller girl. Her name was Faife O'Kelly. She came in second in the National competition. The guy who came in first was Jerry McGowan. His name and face were up there as well. Faife only had about twelve chips, and Jerry had thirteen. They had no losses for either of them, but something was obviously holding them up. Pegasus slightly wondered why a couple of champions were slagging.
Pegasus shook his head and got back to looking at HIS champions. The last one to look at in America was Bandit Keith. Pegasus grinned. That slimy cheater had seventeen chips. There weren't many ways to cheat with the ID system, but Keith was a definite case. Pegasus thought there were things different with him lately, and that it was interesting that he would show up for this. He DID afterall disappear from sight after that whole fiasco in Domino City with the old warehouse. He figured that Keith may be a little bit off of his hinges after his title was taken by the young Hawkins, but he seemed stable enough to come out of hiding for this tournament.
Out of sheer curiosity, Pegasus brought up the whole map screen of the island and turned on his space sattellite heat seekers. They would make everyone on the island show up as small heat dots. Pegasus was doing this to see how the duelists were scattered. At least the screen and map were very large....
Once the sattellite was on and the screen reloaded, he saw that none of them were very close to his fortress. Everyone was still spread evenly on one side of the island. It was the side that had the ship docks. There was once slightly open area on the island, and quickly figuring up the scale of the map, thought that the clearing had to be about five square miles. In the midst of it was the largest clump of heat dots. There had to be, at the absolute most, ten people in that group. Pegasus had NO idea who would travel in that large of a group in the middle of a tournament such as this.
/Wait..../ He thought with a coy smirk. Yes he did know. But who on Earth would be with them? There were usually only five or six of them together....
One of the dots started moving away from the clump. The others must all have still been sleeping, since it was only around five in the morning over there on the island. It was about two in the morning where Pegasus was.
He simply had to check these things when he couldn't sleep. These moments came more often now, since he felt so close to realizing his goal. That empty place next to him in his bed felt more warm lately. He could almost feel his young wife beside him. Even after she died, he had stayed on his own side of the bed.
He grinned as he remembered Cecila on their first night together in the same bed. He held her tightly in his arms that whole night. She was nervous and shaky, but Pegasus always blamed that on the raging storm outside, beating on their windows. Cecila was never one to be shy around him.
Pegasus smiled to himself and paused at his keyboard as he recalled. She whispered his name lightly that night after an especially loud clap of thunder startled them both. He had kissed her forehead and pulled her closer, and she nestled her head into the nook of his neck and sholder. He then stroked her silken blonde hair until he felt her breathing lighten as she fell asleep. Pegasus had gotten barely any sleep that night because he wanted nothing more in that moment than just to hold her and watch her sleep.
Pegasus had to catch himself then, because he began to choke up. He held back a small sob of remorse, and switched off his computer. Then he ventured back upstairs to his empty bed.
Shadi stopped walking for a moment and looked up at the sky through the small break in the near endless expanse of leaves and branches. He thought it was a little bit dark. He just continued walking, hoping to find or feel some sign of the Key anywhere on the island. He hadn't felt anything at all since he had gotten there. He had seen many duelists, but his magic kept him unnoticed. For some reason, he had been drawn to the island with no pretense of where he might be headed. It seemed like he was supposed to find out something on his own.
At the next log he found, Shadi sat down and began to gather what facts he had. One. He was on the island that was hosting Pegasus's tournament. Two. His Millennium Ankh was missing, apparently on this island somewhere after seemingly abandoning him. Three. Knowing Pegasus, this whole tournament is somehow tied to the Millennium Items, therefore, his Ankh was in danger. Four. He had absolutley NO leads. This really wasn't convenient for him.
He sat thinking about fact two. If his Ankh had abandoned him, there had to be a really good reason. He tried remembering everything he had ever felt or known with that Item in his possession. It was infinitly useful in his task of determining the proper users of the Millennium Items. But there had to be something about it.....the items certainly had a consiousness of sorts, even if they didn't contain a spirit. Hey.....wait?
Shadi remembered suddenly, when he had first recieved the item, that he had felt something seemingly surround him. It was a warm enveloping feeling that seemed to welcome him. He didn't link it to something else because he simply thought it was the item itself accepting him. Now that he thought harder about it, it did feel like there was something else residing in the Millennium Ankh. Was it part of the reason why did it decided to leave him?
These were all confusing things to think about, and decided to rest. Shadi hadn't rested in awhile now, and thought that it was definitly time. He took off his cloak and set it down on an obscure place on the ground and went to sleep, dreaming of the places his Ankh could be....
Many miles away, Malik Ishtar's eyes fluttered open slowly, and he stood up hazily. His eyes scanned the landscape. Where was he? Then he glanced down at himself. He looked at his wrist and saw the dark green glove on his wrist. He examined it carefully. It had a square shaped cuff on it, and had many diamond shaped indentations along that cuff. There were twenty three diamond shaped chips in it. The chips themselves were shiny and iredescant, and they clipped neatly into the glove.
He stood up and looked at his surroundings. He was in the thick of a large forest, and didn't see anything he recognized. The last thing he remembered was going up to bed after saying goodnight to his sister, Isis. Then the thought of it. His Yami.
He tried contacting the spirit, but it had obviously severed their mental connection. He really wasn't happy right now. Here he was stranded on some wilderness without any pretense, and his Yami obviously behind all of it.
{You wanted something, Ishtar?}
It was his Yami. He had obviously sensed him trying to get to him.
[I'm just a little curious. WHERE THE HELL AM I!?!?!]
{Oh, you really shouldn't worry yourself over these small details. We are just on an uncharted yet massive island owned by Pegasus J. Crawford.}
[Hmm....interesting. Now tell me why the hell you dragged me to a place owned by HIM. I haven't heard very many flattering things.]
Malik's Yami started. He was surprised that Malik could take this kind of information in such stride. But having him as a Yami......he really shouldn't be surprised.
{I am here on....business of my own. There is a tournament going on, much like that Duelist Kingdom you read about. I am an eliminator in this. But you are a competitor. Before I reverted to you, I put on a different glove just for you, so you may be identified as one of the competitors. There is also one of those mechanical contraptions in your pocket. You may want to look at that. On it, there is a map. I don't see how Pegasus could fit a map on those small things, but on it, there are also points marked for every dueling station on it. When we find a duelist, you will challenge them and take them to one of those. I will tell you what to do. You will aquire the last two chips needed to fill that glove you wear.}
[I don't see why I have to do this....]
{What other choice do you have?} His voice was dripping with venom. He was losing patience with his aibou.
[I suppose I don't have another one, now do I?] Malik sighed. He really wanted some of his sister's amazing breakfast....maybe a nice hot cup of coffee. But NO. Damn Yami of his just HAS to go and drag him off to some island without any pretense whatsoever.
{I sense your discomfort. I don't care. Just do these things and I won't take your mortal self off of a cliff. Of course I could always find another aibou.....}
[And wait about another millennia for another reincarnation? I don't think you'd like that much.] Malik once again sighed. That Yami of his was completly impossible, but he HAS been worse.....
{Aibou.....hush your overlarge trap now. Just MOVE and find a duelist! You need those other chips! I have plenty of my own in your pack!}
[Why don't I just take some of yours then?]
{Earn your own. You need the practice.} With that, the dark side of Malik cut off the mental link again.
Malik was trembling in anger. His fists were clenched and his teeth grinding. Not ONLY did his Yami take him from his sister and his home, he was insulting his dueling abilities AND being stingy with those diamond chip thingies! He didn't even know what they were for! Why on earth would there be so many duelists in one place, much less a large deserted island!?
Wait a second. He had seen something on the news.....there was a large Duel Monster's tournament going on, but he never got much further than that.....he fell asleep on the couch. It was supposed to be on a large island.....so this must be what he was doing here....participating in the tournament. He really hoped his sister wouldn't get too worried. Isis was probably already worried sick about him.
He looked behind him, and just realized that there was a large bag on the dewy ground. There was a sleeping bag unrolled. That must have been what he was sleeping on. He rummaged through the bag and quickly found his Millennium Rod and a bit of food. He ate some of the food and sat down. If he was going to earn chips, he didn't want to have to duel for them TOO hard......
Honda stirred in his sleep, and Joey rolled over onto Mokuba's foot mumbling something about winning an eating contest. Mai was sleeping on a small mound of plushies, and Anzu was using one as a pillow. Bakura was stirring fretfully inside of his sleeping bag, and Amoura was breathing lightly, murmuring quietly in her sleep. Mokuba had his thumb in his mouth, strange for an eleven year old boy, and Yugi was clutching his Millennium Puzzle.
Seto stood and looked over the scene of sleeping persons, and checked his bags one last time. He silently moved his way through them, pausing beside Amoura. He looked down at her, and knelt beside her.
He placed a note near her head and scratched the ears of Yunet, who lifted her head and purred at Seto before snuggling back into Amoura's hair. His eyes passed over the kitten......over the wavy sea green hair.....and stopped on her face. It was light and calm, yet held more to it than it appeared. His heart skipped a beat and he thought that he even may be falling for her.
He paused at this and shook his head. No. He couldn't. He did admire her though. She was the only person ever to beat him at a straight game of poker. He lightly frowned, yet smiled, as he thought of the Blue Eyes White Dragon in his deck.
Seto stood up, and looked over at his brother. He walked over, almost treading on Joey's hand, even though the only thing that kept him from doing it was the fact that Joey would probably wake up, or at least yell something loud in his sleep, waking the others.
Mokuba's face scrunched up as Seto pulled the boy's hand from his mouth. Seto smiled and put his hand on Mokuba's head, his eyes clouded with regret. He wished he could take Mokuba with him, but it wouldn't be as safe. He actually felt better leaving him with Amoura and the others. Mokuba really liked all of their company anyway.
Seto stood one more time and stepped carefully out of the sleeping cluster of people. Then he turned his back and walked out of the amusement park, leaving them all behind.
An eye opened behind him.
Keith stumbled over one more rock, and caught himself. He paused in his journey and held his aching head. He felt as if something was beating his head with a hammer. It wasn't a pleasant thing. He had had this headache since yesterday, after he got away from that.....whatever it was.....
He didn't know why he had just now started to remember what had happened to him. He really couldn't remember anything from the interval where he aimed his gun at the twerp to about ten minutes ago. Nothing. His memory was wiped clean of that time.
The thing in his head beat it's hammer harder. Keith had to sit down, so at the next large boulder, he rested himself and set down his magnum. He lay back and tried to wait out the headache, but no avail. He turned his head to the magnum beside him.
Why did he suddenly want to carry that with him to this island? Security? No. Not security. He felt safe enough as he was. But then why.....?
Oh. That's right. Now he remembered. Revenge. On everyone who ever made him into what he was today. A laughing stock of his former proud self. His headache grew worse, but he had to keep thinking. Pegasus....oh Pegasus first. For handing him the most humiliating defeat he had ever had, much less even witnessed, and Joey, for his defeats then. Yugi Motou, for humiliating him in that warehouse.....even though Keith didn't know why he was there.....and Rebecca Hawkins, for stealing his title. Oh, the pounding inside of his head......since he had to leave, his title was up for grabs. And an eight year old girl took it. He figured she would be about nine or so now, but that made little difference. A pipsqueak is a pipsqueak. And that French girl who made a fool out of him on the ship. Flipping him over like he was nothing after his overly generous offer.
His head began to swim with the sheer pain, and his thoughts became muddled. Some part of him knew that he was losing it, but some things had happened to make it go faster. Things were happening inside of his head besides that God-awful headache of his.
Keith tried to think about what had happened after he pulled the gun on Mokuba Kaiba. But the second that he attempted to recall what had happened after he attempted to pull the trigger, the pain in his head, as horrible as it already was, grew tenfold, and too much for him to handle.
He spun over on the rock and retched over the side of it, the pain causing further nausea, and the his sudden turn making more pain in his head. He retched again, and then felt himself weaken as anyone does after vomiting. His knees turned to jelly, and he once again was glad that he wasn't standing.
Looking into the small warm pools before him, he swore he could see some swirling.....odd and disgusting.....yet he kept watching. Soon, the faces of everyone who had wronged him appeared, all laughing. They jeered at him and his failures, and his constant humiliation. They carried his pride with them in these grotesque images, torn and shred and passed between them. It was odd that his shredded pride looked alot like a torn up teddy bear with Pegasus-hair stuffing....
Keith groaned and rolled onto his back again, away from the unsettling images in the most obsence of vision pools. Some small corner of his mind that was maintaining his rational thought realized that he didn't REALLY see those things, but he wasn't paying any attention to that small quiet voice. Other voices were trying to speak also.
And they all whispered.....revenge.....vengance.....retribution....make them pay for laughing at you....you saw them.....they can't deny laughing at you, holding your broken pride....maybe if we kill them....you can get your pride back....and you can sew it back together again....and you will be as proud and as great as you were before. You will be the Champion of this tournament, and all others....
Yes, he agreed reluctantly. I do need to get my pride back from them. They have it, and you think we can get it back together? It may work. I will use their hair as the thread to sew it together again.....
Now that's the spirit, the dark voice said. Now you get it. You have to kill them. Show the world that nothing is in your way!
Keith started to nod, but a small, quiet, yet confident voice came up.
Do you want to do this? Is this what reclaiming your former title and glory would take? We all know that you are bad, but this will make it worse.....get better....
NO! The dark voice roared loudly, drowning out the lighter one and furthering Bandit Keith's headache even more. Do them all in and do it soon!!!
Keith nodded this time, and forced the softer voice back. When they argued, it hurt his head more. He reached his hand over to the cold metal of his magnum, and felt somehow relaxed and resigned to his duty. There was still a nagging in the back of his mind, but he needed to ignore it. If that softer voice had a face, it's bottom lip would be quivering in fright. That darned subconsciousness. It was of no use to him at all.
"GAHH!" Insector Haga tripped on a large root sticking out of the path ground. He fell over and landed hard on his face, and he weight of his bag smashed into him, making him hurt even worse. He groaned and sat up, and checked his glasses.
The wire between his lenses was a little bent, so he bent them back into place. He wiped the dirt off of them and put them back on.
Haga stood up and dusted off his long green coat, silently berating himself for such rookie behavior, and started off again.
/Only five more chips to go. I just need one or two more relentless duels, and I will be set! Only the fortress to find! Soon, I will be the undisputed champion of Duel Monsters! Nobody can stop me! I might as well have been an eliminator duelist!/
Haga grinned his odd grin, and patted his dueling glove. The twenty chips embedded in it glistened lightly in the sunlight as he swaggered along the forest road. He saw something out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see a duelist around the age of sixteen walking through some brush.
About twenty minutes later, yet another duelist had fallen to his abilities. Haga left this one in complete shock that he had lost to this small and meek looking person. They had only betted three chips on the match, so now he only had two to go.
Insector Haga snorted a little at the thought of him still being considered small. Sure he was short, but if anyone took the time to look closely, then they would see that he looked alot older than his height let on. He was almost sixteen, after all.
He grinned to himself. In his own personal opinion, which he always found to be reliable, he was getting to be quite the stud. Haga was certain that if....no. WHEN he won the tournament, that he would be able to get any foxy babe he wanted. Even that one at the dance that Seto Kaiba had his mitts on. She did look a little familiar to him. Oh yes. She hung out with that detestable Yugi Motou.
Well, he figured, that would only hurt the champion boys more. Take their titles, and their little babe. Total annihilation with a side dish of humiliation. That sounded good to him.
While he was immersed in his fantasies, he didn't take the time to look at the road ahead of him. Soon his face had become closely aqquainted with a large tree.
"SON OF A MOTHER!!! THE SECOND TIME TODAY!" He held his nose and massaged it tenderly. He opened his eyes a crack, and he caught something small etched on the treetrunk. Haga leaned in closer and realized that it was a small arrow. The arrow was sort of new, like it had only been there for about a couple of days. It was pointing in a direction shaded by the large trees and foliage, and Haga couldn't help but wonder where it led to.
After a brief moment of internal conflict, curiousity won out, and Haga began trekking through the trees to see what could possibly be in that direction.
Yugi stirred and sat up in his sleeping bag. He didn't want to wake up, but the small silver tabby kitten playing with his bangs had decided otherwise. He grinned and picked up the little squirming Yunet, scooting over closer to the side bag that held Yunet's food. He opened a pouch, and she sniffed at it, turned around, and began playing with Yugi's shoelace.
"Well, I suppose you want to play right now. You aren't hungry at all. I guess when you aren't sleeping, you're very energetic!" Yami smiled and pet the kitten on it's small head.
Yunet, who wasn't expecting a surprise attack from above, bounded backwards and landed on a piece of paper, crumpling it under her. She immediatly rolled over and bounced up on her paws. Yugi saw the paper and picked it up. It said on the front of it, "Amoura." It looked like it was in Seto's handwriting.
Yugi's eyes widened, and darted over to where he had been sleeping the previous night. He wasn't there at all. Yunet jaunted over to Yugi's lap and sat there. She reared herself up wobbily on her hind paws and put her front paws on Yugi's hands, as if she were looking at what he was holding.
He shifted one of his hands, and Yunet tumbled down back into Yugi's lap. Yugi looked at the sleeping Amoura. He didn't want to wake her just to read this right now, but he didn't want to read it for himself. It was made out to her after all.
Yugi wasn't given long to think on it, because Yunet had decided that she had been ignored long enough, and pounced into Amoura's hair, acting like she was digging in it. This sudden movement, plus the kitten yanking on her hair, caused Amoura to bolt up suddenly.
"Yunet! You shouldn't be avake at zis time! It iz much too early!" She paused from her scolding (which was having no affect on the kitten, who had just spotted Bakura's hair) and looked up at Yugi.
"Yugi....uh...vhat are you doing up right now?"
"Amoura. I really hate to tell you this. But Seto has gone."
"Zeto 'as left!? But vhy!?!?"
"I think the answer may be in here." And with that, he handed Amoura the letter. Amoura took it in her hands and opened it. She read it over, her eyes softening with more she read. When she was done, Yugi saw her eyes flick to the top again, and saw that she was reading it again.
When she was finally done, her hands dropped to her lap. "Zeto 'as zaid zat he 'ad zings to take care of elsevhere. He 'as left Mokuba in our care."
"Amoura.....would you mind reading this to the others when we are all awake?"
Her brown eyes drifted up to meet his purple ones. "I zink I can. I just don't know 'ow Mokuba is going to take zis......" Her eyes moved over to the serenely sleeping young boy. Yugi's followed suit.
Joey shifted position, and rolled harder onto Mokuba's feet. Mokuba wiggled a bit in his sleep, and Amoura crawled over and pushed Joey a bit off of Mokuba. The boy's face settled a little bit.
"I 'ope I did not disturb Joey...."
"Don't worry about that Amoura. Joey can sleep through anything. He has been known to talk in his sleep rather loudly also."
Amoura managed a small smile and gripped the note harder.
"YEEEOOOWWWW!!!" Amoura and Yugi's heads darted around in the direction of the yell. Everyone else stirred and woke quickly to look groggily over.
The yell had come from Bakura. He was holding his head with one hand, and in the other, he had pinned down a loudly protesting Yunet. "Why you little runt! How DARE you interrupt my sleep like that!!!"
Yugi's eyes widened in horror. Normal Ryou Bakura didn't speak like that. But he looked no different, either. It seemed to him that Bakura's resolve against his Yami was weakening.
Amoura, on the other hand, had narrowed her eyes at Bakura. "Let 'er go! She just vanted to play vith your 'air! She 'as alvays liked long 'air!"
Bakura's eyes widened quickly, and he looked back down at the kitten. His mouth opened like he wanted to speak, but nothing came out. He obviously felt normal again. His hand darted quickly away from the kitten, who bounded over to Amoura's lap.
"I'm terribly sorry, Amoura. I don't know what came over me.....it must be a slight morning temper...."
/Oh Bakura, you know what it was all right. You, me and our other halfs./ Yugi's eyes narrowed over at Bakura, and Bakura became suddenly focused on the carpeted floor they were on.
They had stayed inside of one of the large booths that had been nearly devoid of much else than space. The remnants of their fire was in an ashy heap outside. The sun was peeking over the edge of one of the farther away booths. Yugi looked at his watch. It was only about eight thirty.
Joey yawned and sat up. "Hey everyone, what's all the hubbub?" He scratched his back drowsily, his eyelids still drooped a little bit.
Anzu turned her also sleepy head over at Joey. "Nothing," she was interrupted by an incoming long yawn. "Uh...nothing except that Amoura's cat woke Bakura up by playing a little too rough with his hair. He didn't sound happy about it at all."
At this time, Mokuba had shuffled over to Amoura. He picked up Yunet, who mewed happily at the attention. He looked over at Amoura. "Hey, what is that paper you have there?"
Her head jerked up, and she forced herself to turn it towards Mokuba. "It's.....from your brother."
"Seto? But he's right over there........." Mokuba had turned his head to where Seto had been the night before. "Where is he? Where did my brother go!?"
"Please....calm yourzelf Mokuba. I vill.....read ze letter."
By this time, everyone else had become interested. Mai had propped herself up on another plushie, and everyone else's heads were turned towards Amoura. She cleared her throat.
"To Amoura,
I 'ope zat you are ze first one to read zis. I 'ad only found Mokuba last night with you and the others, but now I fear I must go already. I 'ave other zings I must take care of right now. Zese are prezzing and unavoidable matters zat must be rezolved quickly. Zince I now know zat Mokuba is zafe, I feel no guilt in leaving 'im vith you, Amoura. You 'ave proven to me zat you are quite reliable and can 'andle Mokuba well enough. I vill try to get in touch vith you zomehow. Just tell 'im for now zat he must not go off and look for me. I cannot 'ave him alone out zere.
I am zorry zat I could not tell you vhat zese matters I must take care of are, but I 'ope zat you vill understand zat I abzolutely 'ave to do zis. I am truly zorry.
Take care, Zeto Kaiba."
Amoura stopped reading there. Everyone was shocked into silence. Seto had to go because of some task. He didn't tell them what, or why, or where. Just that he was gone. Mokuba began to tear up. Anzu and Mai saw him choke up, and they went over to him and put their arms on the boy. Amoura was still looking at the note, and after a moment, put it in her backpack.
The boys just sat there in comptemplative silence. What on Earth could be so pressing and important that he would just leave his brother behind and go off in the night? What required such dire attention? He did simply state that Mokuba was safe in their care, and he was right. Mokuba would be safe with them.
About an hour later, the group had sullenly picked up camp and prepared to leave. Bakura was keeping himself slightly separate, and was a bit jumpier than usual. Yugi on the other hand, was talking to himself. Or his Yami...
//Aibou, you can't tell me that you don't suspect that odd things are going on.....//
/Of course I do! I mean, you did sense that the Shadow Realm had been opened....right?/
//The signal disappeared soon before we found Amoura and Mokuba....but Yugi.....I sense that all seven of the Millennium Items are on Pegasus's island.....//
/ALL SEVEN!?!?!!? What could this mean!?/
//Disaster. Simply put.//
/But does that mean that MALIK is here!?!?!?!/
//If the Millennium Rod is still in his hands, then yes. He is here. And we have the puzzle and tauk.....//
/But does that also mean that Shadi is here? He has the scale and key!/
//I don't think Shadi has both of them, Yugi. The Key has fallen from his grasp. There is something heavily amiss here. I fear for this world once again.//
/And we already know that the Ring is here! Bakura!/
//Yes, Bakura has the ring.....but the Eye....//
/Pegasus couldn't be here, could he? He isn't supposed to be here for another week or so.../
//He does not have the eye anymore. But it is on this island. I can feel them resonating from being so close together....there is one close to here, but I can't feel how far, or which one it is!//
/An item, closeby.....I think I can feel it also! But....you are right. I can't get a clear bead on it either!/
//What do you make of Seto leaving?//
/Seto? I just don't understand! His business he had to take care of.....I don't see what kind of business he could have in the middle of a tournament like this!/
//It was a personal matter. There is worry inside of him. I felt it last night while he, Mokuba, and Amoura were speaking.//
/You sound jealous./
//Of what? That Seto ran off? Why would I want to run off?//
/Nevermind. Anyway, doesn't the sky look a little bit clouded to you?/
//It does look cloudly. I don't think it's anything to worry about.//
/Alright. Hey, how close do you think that Millennium Item is, anyway?/
//It's fairly close......I just wish I could tell how far away it was!// This was definitly frustrating him. It wasn't very often that Yami was perplexed.
/What if we work together? If we pooled our powers, maybe we could get a better idea...../
//That's not a bad idea. The next rest we take, we will try that.//
"HEY GUYS! LOOK UP THERE!!" Yami and Yugi were snapped out of their conversation by Honda yelling suddenly. He was pointing ahead. They had been walking for around half an hour now, but were brought to a stop by what was in the path.
In their way lay a teenaged boy. They all rushed over to him, and Honda knelt down by him. He put his hand in front of the boy's nose.
"He's alive!" Everyone let out a sigh of relief. They didn't want to have come upon a dead person. Yugi and Joey sat him up, and Mai got out her smelling salts.
After a moment, his eyes fluttered open. He looked at them all, perplexed. Then he asked something in Italian. Since they couldn't understand him, they shook their heads, indicating that they couldn't comprehend. The boy reached for his pocket and took out his ID. He opened the back catch and took out the earphone. He then activated the translator function.
The others got the drift and did the same. Amoura shared an earphone with Mokuba.
Yugi looked at the boy, and they helped him onto a log on the side of the road. They all offered him some water, and he took it gladly.
"Can you tell us," Yugi started, "what happened to you?"
"Yes." The words coming out of his mouth were beyond all doubt Italian, but in their earphones, it was translated easily into english.
"An eliminator duelist."
Brood: YES! IT IS COMPLETED!! CHAPTER TEN IS DONE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zutsokaki: This is one of the few times that I am frightened of this girl. Anyway, don't you have some annoucements to make before I can go slack off again?
Brood: AAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!........oh yeah.
Zutsokaki: *sweatdrops* Then let's get on with it!
Brood: Ok! Since this is chapter ten, I will wait until I get SEVENTY reviews until I post chapter eleven! Seventy shouldn't be so hard to muster.....if you are at a loss, just tell me what your favorite line or part in my story was so far! You could also tell me why the story sucks or ROCKS!
Zutsokaki: I could tell you a few reasons why this story sucks.....*takes out a LARGE book from nowhere*
Brood: ...................................................................anyway... ...........That is all for now! I am now off for some well deserved rest!
Zutsokaki: Way ahead of you.....*runs off*
Brood: Hey! That's the direction of MY bedroom!
Zutsokaki: *calling fromt the room* Yeah, I know! You have the fluffier comforter! *hears a lock click*
Brood: HEY!! It's MY ROOM!! *suddenly grins* Voice activation! Lock deactivation Room six!
*the door unlocks*
Zutsokaki: *still inside* What the hell....
Brood: *runs inside and you hear lots of pleas for mercy, and you see Zutsokaki fly out of the room* Ahh...bed....*shuts her door, locking it*
Zutsokaki: Darn it......I suppose I shouldn't try and steal her bed anymore....oh yeah, she is very serious about the whole review thing. If it takes too long though, she may take it down to sixty five or something like that.....*goes into his room*
