Monoshiri: Actually, Chihiro knows very well Ryuunosuke likes her. Unfortunately, as stated in Chapter 6, the more romantic feelings aren't mutual.
Alex Warlorn: Half of Lake Tahoe is in California, and half of it is in Nevada. From what I know about Kuriboh, they're like living grenades. Grenades can kill people. And I never said Toons were cute; I said their eyes were big.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. I do, however, own an Upperdeck duelist account (whether I'm going to use it is another story). I'm officially Lady of DragonFaith, and judging from the fact that my previous two attempts were rejected, there's apparently another Lord of D. fangirl out there. And I thought I was being original.
WARNINGS: Religious references, yaoi/shounen ai (no sex here)
"The what dragon?"
-Mai
Twelve: A Matter of Mathematics
November 6-7, 2003
Danny walked up. "Isn't it time to go yet?"
Esper looked at the clock Danny shoved in his face and started. "Yeah, you're right, it is."
***
Dar was there when the last so-called bell rang (or,
rather, wailed) and Rex left his last class of the day. They walked back
to the house, first stopping to buy a large bag of assorted candy from
a store having a Halloween clearance sale. This was carried out after Dar
explained why Scale had gotten up in the low numbers of the AM and ransacked
the kitchen cabinets (fortunately, the damage hadn't been too severe).
"I think," said Dar, producing a fistful of quarters
and pennies, "this is the last of it." Rex briefly considered asking him
where the rest of it had gone, but decided against it. Maybe Dar had just
been really generous to that cousin he'd mentioned.
Scale grabbed the bag and tore into it. He did not
say thank you; Rex hadn't thought he would. Dar began to read one of the
paleontology books with Ran and Sora crowding near him, while Rex started
on his homework, or tried to. There were so many other things to think
about. Such as what was going to happen on Friday, and that seemed a lot
more relevant to his life than geometry could ever be.
Just when he was giving it up as a lost cause, he
noticed the floor swirling like there was a drain right there. Only- insert
incredulous blink here- he thought things were supposed to go down a drain,
not up a drain.
And he'd never, ever expected an entire, living, breathing person to
come up a drain.
***
Shadi got his bearings and began to speak when he
hadn't quite completed the ritual. "I hope we haven't come at an inconvenient
time."
Scale threw some mutilated candy wrappers (the smears
around his mouth were a testimony to where the candy had gone) at him.
"Get lost, fish eyes." Serpent Night Dragon promptly dropped the book he
had apparently been engrossed in and scrambled to catch the wrappers; even
so, a few of them fell through the not-quite-solid floor.
Shadi wondered briefly whether the wrappers would land in Pegasus's
hospital room or be flung about the Shadow Realm. "I trust you are doing
well?"
"Well?" Scale consumed another handful of candy
before responding. "This is perfection! Then again, compared to you two
twits, just about anything's perfection."
One of the heads of King Rex looked up. "Two?"
Shadi sighed. "Allow me to explain…"
***
Seto stepped out of the limousine, first previewing
his messages to see if anything of note had happened at Kaiba Corp. between
lunchtime at the high school and his arrival (nothing had). Then he set
about completing his homework- not doing, completing. Considering his distinct
lack of friends, there was little else he could do with the free time allotted
by the school.
It took him less than an hour. He checked the last
mathematics problem (of course, everything was laid out nice and neat just
as the teacher wanted; they could not abide people who worked out the entire
problem mentally and still had few to none errors) and went to visit Jane.
"Welcome back."
"Don't 'welcome back' me."
"Ah, so I shouldn't say that?"
"This has gone too far."
Jane sighed; if it hadn't come from the speakers
and been programmed in by himself he would have been convinced of humanity.
As it was, he was only irritated further. "You went too far. Now
you
stop. If you dare."
Okay, this is a really bad movie. I've already
gone through the part where I design the most advanced computer in the
world and get famous. Now's the part when the computer tries to take over
the world.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to attempt world domination
just yet. Far too much competition. I just wanted to tell you what an idiot
you're being."
Seto typed instructions prohibiting automatic shutdown.
If he was going to have an argument with the computer, he was going to
make sure the computer wouldn't bow out. "Tell me who sent that message.
Voice identification, not user."
"Tell me, what message?" Jane countered. "I'm just
a stupid computer, you know."
Seto consulted the printouts from Mokuba's mini-computer and recited
the specifics. "Ah. That would be Ryuunosuke."
He'd expected to hear Haku (Occam's Razor said the
simplest choice was most likely), Chihiro, maybe even Sapphire using his
siblings' accounts. If the amount of surprise had been translated to physical
action, then Jane would have shoved him straight out of the room. Ryuunosuke
the so-called Lord of Dragons? Who, all observations indicated, had no
spine?
Then again, it wasn't so preposterous. There was
that locked file. And still waters ran deep; Seto had himself as living
proof of that statement.
"He thought he was doing the right thing," said
Jane. "And he was."
"What do you mean, the right thing?" Seto had to
take several deep breaths to keep himself from yelling. "Mokuba won't talk
to me anymore, and you think that's a good thing?"
"Wouldn't you rather," said Jane, "live in a not-always-pleasant
world built on truth than a pleasant world built on lies? He's growing
up, he's getting smart. He won't idolize you, and, to be frank, you won't
deserve to be idolized, if you behave like a stubborn donkey."
Seto noted with a sort of rueful delight that the
programmed blocker preventing Jane from using profanity was still in place.
"I'll choose the latter, thank you."
"The problem with lies is they're not usually good
building material. Lies snap all too easily, and where will you be then?"
Jane laughed. "Your original set already has, and I am not going to let
you build them all over again. This time you're going to go with more reliable
stuff. It might not be as comfy as you want, but it's good for you. I swear."
"And what do you want me to do?"
"First things first- go find Haku and say sorry.
That can't be so hard."
"You have no idea," Seto muttered after he was a
somewhat-safe distance from the computer. "You have no idea."
***
"So he's always been like this?"
Shadi sighed. "I hoped you would never have to experience
him after consumption of chocolate."
"It can't be any worse," said Dar, "than experiencing
him before consumption of chocolate. Can it?"
"I believe," said Shadi, "he is currently dismantling
one of your books."
Rex grabbed the Millennium Scales. "Well, I'll have
to stop that-"
Scale was, to his obvious consternation, clobbered
over the head with his own set of Scales and drawn into them via ownership
privileges. Rex gathered the mangled remnants and gave them a solemn burial
at wastepaper basket, buried under a stack of candy wrappers folded into
shapes superficially resembling origami.
"At least it was just the record book." He frowned
and touched his forehead. "Am I schizo-whatsit, or is he really yelling
inside my head?"
"He is really yelling inside your head," Shadi told
him. "But it should improve in a while. Either that or it will worsen.
It depends on how you perceive it."
Rex frowned as he sensed the change, then shrugged.
"At least he's not yelling anymore."
"Some people," said Shadi, "find his laughter more
disturbing."
"Well, I'm not one of those people."
"That's good. It should clear up in several hours.
Tell me," and here Shadi fingered the Ankh, "how do you intend to use the
Millennium Scales?"
Rex shrugged again. "I guess I'll use it to get
back the card."
His tone was entirely too casual. "Are you aware
of what the Scales can do?"
"I think if someone is bad they don't get to Egyptian
heaven. Right?"
"Anyone who fails the test," said Shadi, "is sent
straight to Anubis. Anyone and everyone."
Eyes widened. He obviously hadn't expected that.
"Right then and there?"
"Right then and there."
"How bad do they have to be to fail it?"
Shadi contemplated this for a moment. "I am not
quite certain. However, if they pass the test, then we must honor any requests
they may have, according to the goddess whose power the Scales contains."
Serpent Night Dragon grinned in a curious manner.
"So they're real? Real-real-real? Not just in stories of what they'll do
to you when you do wrong?"
"Of course," said Shadi. "Anubis appears whenever
someone fails the test. You did not know this?"
Serpent Night Dragon threw his head back and laughed;
it had no malice, just the fact that he thought something was funny. "No
wonder I didn't get an answer! Wait till Geoffrey hears about this! Least
he won't have to worry about going to hell anymore."
"If you don't mind my asking… Serpent Night Dragon,"
said Shadi, "who is Geoffrey?"
He'd stopped laughing and now the grin was back.
The red eyes didn't look so disturbing anymore. "Oh, please, call me Dar.
Or if you insist on being formal, DelaSangre. That would be Geoffrey Giltia,
known to many as the aspiring Dark Magician, and he was somewhat worried
because he's one of those people who thinks there's only one god, who thinks
a lot of things that went on Before are wrong." Dar DelaSangre leaned against
a convenient wall, hands behind his head. "So according to Geoffrey he'd
probably be up on two counts. One, last time I checked, we're friends."
Shadi resolved to find some sort of dictionary to
look up the meaning of both first and surname; he was sure they held some
significance. "I see. Go on."
"Two, he's… well… an aspiring Dark Magician. Even
if his spells don't always work out."
Shadi found himself mentally defending Dar DelaSangre
from the charges of what he had in all likelihood done to the children
and the crew of Lady of Fate. He was sure there was some kind of rational
explanation for it; the subject did not seem like someone who would do
this for no reason at all, or for recreational purposes.
After all, the subject had befriended the Dark Knight
(though how the latter had received the title when his attribute was light
and his hair was anything but dark, Shadi could only guess at), and according
to Ankh his thoughts were not on revenge. Ankh had sensed humiliation meted
out by Esper Roba; no stereotypical impure soul would not fantasize of
revenge for such a thing.
Actually, Ankh reported, I think he has doubts
about whether the Scales should be used at all.
Considering their spirit's nature, Ankh, I can
see where he's coming from…
It hasn't got much to do with Scale. He's worried
about Roba's younger brothers- he's wondering who'll take care of them
if Roba is sent to Anubis.
Brothers…oh yes, the ones involved in the deception,
correct?
And he thinks that Roba is in possession of another
locator card.
He is what?
"Excuse me?" said Rex.
Shadi apologized to Ankh and withdrew his attention
from that area. "Tell me, how many locator cards did you lose to this cheater?"
Rex held up a finger. "One."
"And how many did he bet?"
"One, of course. Plus his Jinzo."
"And how many did Joseph Wheeler win from him?"
"One- oh, I see!"
"What?" said the King Rex heads at the same time.
Then they turned and glared at one another. "Stop that!" "Cut it out!"
They tried again. "Stop being such a copycat!"
Dar explained before they could bite each other's
heads off- pun intended. "Roba had two. He only lost one. So he has another
one somewhere."
One of the heads stated the obvious question. "So
why isn't he still in Battle City?"
Scale emerged once more. "Perhaps," he said with
a glint in his eye, "he suffers a crisis of conscience?"
Shadi counted to three before the other occupants
of the room (except for Dar) burst out in hysterical laughter. Then he
apologized for the intrusion and sank into the floor.
Shadi?
Yes?
I'm not sure the cheater deserves to go to Anubis,
either.
You are not alone, Ankh. You are not alone.
With that, Shadi rose up from another floor. By
the time he was completely out, three children with sea-green hair had
gathered around him with wide eyes.
"Excuse me," he said. "Do you know where I can find
your brother?"
***
Joey Wheeler was not in a good mood. Someone had
noticed his father's new sleeping location and come over to inquire about
it. Joey had given them a half-baked excuse about his father trying to
get back to nature or something; they had obviously not bought it.
He didn't think they had seen Sandy the Baby
Dragon running around, waving Geoffrey's spear and shrieking with laughter,
but in all likelihood Murphy's Law would make its presence known.
Not to mention the neighbor's arrival had interrupted
his train of thought on a math problem and now it had to be thought out
all over again. And Joey despised starting things over.
His return to the damned problem had been delayed
once more by an extremely concerned-sounding Yugi calling and telling him
that Jade had vanished. Joey promised to keep an eye out, meaning it as
he said it, and then promptly hung up and focused both eyes on the math.
"Excuse me?"
Joey looked up. "Yeah, Geoffrey?"
"Could I please use the phone?"
"Ya do know how to use it, right? How to dial, how
to hang up, stuff like that?"
"Of course."
"And ya won't rip the cord or anything, right?"
Geoffrey brushed back yellow hair and replied in
a somewhat more irritated tone. "Right."
"And it's not long-distance, right?"
"It shouldn't be."
"And ya won't be on too long, right?"
"I won't."
"Are ya sure ya know how to hang up?"
"Joey," Geoffrey yelled, "If I hadn't known I wouldn't
have asked!"
"Oh. Right. Sorry." Joey grinned sheepishly and
motioned in the direction of the phone. He returned to his math problem,
keeping one ear focused on the sound of Geoffrey looking through the phone
book, dialing, the doorbell ringing-
"I've got it!" he yelled, warning the others away
in case it was the neighbor again. He boxed the answer to the problem and
then made for the door. He pressed his face close. "Yeah?" he shouted.
"Joey?"
Joey promptly opened the door. Jade smiled in a
way that advertised his current emotional state as "I'm so nervous I'd
scream when a frog croaked."
"Did they turn out okay? Because… I counted the
sounds later and I figured the count wasn't what it should have been. There
were six in the last line and there should have been five-"
Joey reached out and pulled him inside, shutting
the door immediately afterward; he only considered the possibility that
the neighbors might have been watching after the deed was done. Damn the
neighbors, he decided. Besides, they just might have thought Jade was a
girl. "The poetry stuff was fine, far as I could tell," he said. "What
were you doing, running off an' freaking out Yuge like that? He thought
maybe the Rare Hunters caught up with ya."
"If they tried," said Jade, "I'd blast them. And
tell them exactly where this Merrick person can stick his Rod-"
"Dar? Is that you?" Joey kept himself from reflexively
turning to the source of the sound; Geoffrey apparently was as competent
with the phone as he had claimed, much to Joey's relief. "Yes, it's me."
Pause. "That must stink." Longer pause. "Really? The Millennium what?"
Still longer pause.
By now Jade had noticed Geoffrey's current activity
and was obviously watching it, so Joey felt safe in turning around and
doing the same. Geoffrey looked straight at them and continued. "That's
good! So he'll get your card back? Really and truly? Yes… well, that's
even better! No, I don't think that was his fault." Sandy and Brendan had
entered the room as well. Sandy pulled down the shades as he passed them;
Joey felt himself color as he berated himself for not thinking of it. "Dar,
I'm certain he at least skimmed the rules. It's just that old habits die
hard and all that."
Joey knew exactly what Geoffrey was referring to;
he knew exactly who Geoffrey was talking to, and he knew that he himself
had had an exchange with that person in the boys' bathroom that Monday.
And he felt very much like breaking something. Taking a plate and dashing
it against the kitchen floor, tearing apart the phone cord, something to
that effect.
"Hey," said Jade, "ya didn't expect all of us to
agree with you 'bout everything, did ya? Did ya? I know ya didn't expect
Brendan to like the kinda stuff he does." Joey nodded (because of course
it was true), having no clue about which direction Jade would turn next;
in the meantime Geoffrey was laughing at something. "Geoffrey and Dar go
back a long way, and it's really not at all fair for 'em to stop now, just
'cause of something like this. It's just like what happened with Sandy
and Sapph…"
"Sapph?"
"Short for Sapphire. One of the Blue Eyes."
Joey sensed the direction in which this conversation
was headed and he didn't much care for their destination. "They're friends,
too?"
"Yeah. I didn't see a lot of it 'cause I didn't
get in the deck for a really long time, but I could tell. Then that battle
came… and they just… stopped. Like it had never happened. And I'd rather
that didn't happen here."
Joey thought on this for a moment. He'd never thought
Baby Dragon would befriend one of the Blue Eyes, but then again it wasn't
as preposterous as Flame Swordsman loving poetry. And that had happened.
Besides, if he judged all Duel Monsters based on how they looked in the
holograms, how they executed actions not determined by themselves, and
of course the duelists who used their cards, then he'd have quite a different
picture of Jade.
"So, ya see my point?"
"Yeah," said Joey. "I see your point."
At that point, Geoffrey said, "All right, goodbye,"
and hung up. He did it correctly, too.
***
One of the children looked him over, then responded
to his query. "He'll be back in 'round an hour. Are you an angel or something?"
Shadi had to smile at that. "No, I have a warning
for him."
"Don't tell me you're here about taxes or something
like that!"
"No, it's not that kind of a warning." Shadi saw
a Duel Monster, Reflect Bounder he thought, taking care of a baby. "How
long have you had Duel Monsters living with you?"
The first child responded promptly. "Since Sunday.
But he wasn't there then. That would be Dar. Oh, and we haven't
been introduced properly." He stuck out a hand. "I'm Tom Roba. Nice to
meet you."
Shadi gave his own name and lightly shook the proffered
hand. "By Dar you mean-"
"Oh, you want his last name?" Tom considered this
for a moment. "I think it was- Angry or something. Dar De-La-Angry."
"No," said one of his brothers, "it was DelaSangre.
It's Spanish. Something to do with blood. Oh, and I'm Charlie."
"Actually, I meant to ask, which Duel Monster?"
"The Serpent Night Dragon Esper won in Battle City,"
said the third brother. "And Rigel, something stinks in here. I think Kyo's
got something to do with it." The Reflect Bounder, newly labeled as Rigel,
hastily picked up the baby and made for another door, apologizing along
the way.
"Ah, yes. I wished to warn you about something concerning
him."
"What," said Charlie, "he really is evil like Danny
kept on saying at the start? I don't think so…"
"No," said Shadi, "not that. Do you recall the duelist
your brother- ah- won him from?"
Charlie nodded. "Oh yeah, second in this year's
regionals. The one with all the dinosaur cards. You do mean him, right?"
"Yes, that would be Rex Raptor. You see, he has
recently come into possession of a very dangerous object, the Millennium
Scales."
Tom scoffed. "How dangerous can scales be?"
"You'd be surprised."
That was apparently the wrong thing to say. Tom
crossed his arms and frowned; for a moment Shadi thought of Kaiba. "I might
not be in double digits yet, but I'm not stupid. Lots of things are more
dangerous than scales! They're only dangerous when you hit people with
them! And they're not made for hitting people!"
"True enough," said Shadi, "for most scales. But
the Millennium Scales are different. They have the power to send people
to Anubis."
Charlie's eyes expanded. "Say what?"
Shadi, he told himself, remember, you're
not speaking to the Pharaoh. Knowledge of necessary information cannot
be assumed. "In other words, using the Scales is often fatal. And I
suspect whom he intends to use the Scales against. Your brother."
The third one- presumably Danny- spoke again. "What
the- but he was looking out for us! That's all! He shouldn't ought to die
for that!"
Shadi recalled some of the other news reports he
had gone through and felt somewhat disturbed that they were opening up
so quickly; apparently, in this modern world, for children to speak so
openly to strangers was inviting trouble. Then again, Ankh's powers probably
had something to do with it; Ankh often had that effect on people.
"I know. That's why I'm here. I'd like to see if
there's a way to carry out justice before he is put in immediate danger."
"Well," said Charlie, "I really do hope he doesn't
go into immediate danger until past seven. That's when he ought to get
back. I hope he never gets into immediate danger."
"So do I. I hope you don't object if I stay here
and wait for him."
Charlie grinned. "Not at all. So, you want some
potato chips? I've got half a bag left over from the lunch cart. They're
the sour cream kind. You want some?"
Shadi politely declined, sat down in the proffered
chair, and waited for Esper Roba.
***
It's a matter of mathematics. One in the duel
disk box. That's one. One from Rex. That's two. One to Wheeler. That's
one. Where did it go?
He had discussed it with Geoffrey. Fortunately,
the Dark Knight (though how he had gained that title Dar had no idea, unless
it was via association with Dar himself- Michael Gaia was the one whose
skin had turned ebony under the Egyptian sun) bore no grudge towards him
for his behavior that Monday. Geoffrey was very understanding, and laughed
at Dar's recounting of several of the tactics he had employed. He had been
a friend.
But Geoffrey, too, was mystified as to what Esper
Roba could possibly have done with that locator card.
I guess we'll find out on Friday then.
***
Seto was not accustomed doing to this sort of thing;
he blanked out. Haku waited a good sixty seconds for him to continue from
his initial greeting, whereupon he said, "Some of my accusations were unfounded.
I apologize for the inconvenience." He took several deep breaths
while trying to think of an appropriate method to end his attempted apology;
he settled for, "Now get out." Haku got out. Somewhat insensitive for his
intended purpose, but effective.
Once the door had shut, he went for his deck. Obelisk
was on top, where he had placed it after the incident on Wednesday. He
picked it up, admiring how the fluorescent light seemed to make it glow,
seemingly with power waiting to be unleashed. Guess I'm a poet and didn't
know it. Seto smiled. Then he looked for a paper shredder. The simple rip
that had finished off the fourth Blue Eyes simply would not do for his
purposes. Maybe some Scotch tape was all it took.
Seto Kaiba was not stupid. You did not become the
CEO of a major corporation by being stupid. He had watched movies, though
Mokuba had had to shove him into some of them. He had read books.
And in the movies, whenever someone had a near-omnipotent
power that could take over the world, that power would generally turn on
them. This isn't a movie, he argued with himself, but sometimes
with all the corporate shenanigans and virtual reality and Egyptian mythology
running together and all seeming to revolve around Kaiba Corp. (but then
again, perhaps from another perspective it revolved around something or
someone else, say, Yugi Motou), it definitely seemed like a movie.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. He'd read that
somewhere.
There was a shredder in the computer room. He turned
it on, then held the card over it. He looked at it again; then he switched
off the shredder (just for now, he told himself) and scanned an image of
the card into the computer. Several images, in fact.
Then he looked up a name in the phone book and made
a call.
"Hello, Ishtar residence."
"Isis."
"Seto Kaiba. What is so urgent that you must contact
me at my house?"
"Did that Millennium contraption of yours predict
that at roughly seven PM Pacific Standard Time I will be shredding Obelisk
the Tormentor into unrecognizable strips?"
"…"
"Well, did it?"
"… no, it did not. Why do you intend to do such
a thing?"
"Because I did just fine without it, that's why.
Unless you want to come over and take it off my hands."
"… at seven, you said?"
"Exactly. Be there." He hung up before she could
have replied and placed Obelisk in one of those sleeves people used to
keep rare cards that they didn't intend to duel with. Then he waited. He
didn't wait long.
Several minutes before the set time, a taxi approached
the Kaiba house. Seto sent a command to open the gates; the taxi drove
through them when they were half-open. Isis Ishtar got out and ran the
last twenty feet or so to the front doors; Seto took the opportunity to
run to them as well after sending another command, this time to open the
doors.
She was waiting for him. He pressed Obelisk the
Tormentor into her hand, then added fifty dollars for the taxi fare. She
lifted an eyebrow. "Is this your idea of a joke?"
"I never joke."
Isis frowned at the card. "I did not know you were
one to give up so much power."
Seto managed a smile. "Do some research. Don't you
know the attack power of a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon?"
She got his point; without another word, she ran
back to the taxi, holding Obelisk close to her like she was a child and
it was her imaginary friend. Seto watched her climb in and watched the
taxi go back into the street. He watched the lights from it dwindle and
finally disappear when it went around a corner before he closed the gates
and the doors.
***
At precisely seven o'clock, it was officially illegal
for Zachary Roba, Jr., to continue work. However, he bent the law in order
to finish ringing up the last customer's purchase. Once that was carried
out, Mai turned to him and said, "So, you want a ride?" He accepted.
Several minutes later, they were in the elevator,
on their way to the twenty-first floor.
A minute or two after that, he opened the door and
started.
The stranger regarded him with a deadpan expression.
"Do you use the name of Esper Roba?" He continued without waiting for Esper's
reply. "My name is Shadi, and I must warn you of something."
***
Joey made a collect call in order to assure Yugi
that yes, Jade was fine, and would it be all right if he stayed for the
night? Yugi was very obliging. After that, a long time passed and then
the phone rang. Joey grabbed it; it was Tristan.
"So, Joey, you done it yet?"
"Tristan?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Gee, lighten up already!" He could see the head
shaking in amusement. "Just go have some fun, okay?"
Jade made a motion; the phone was promptly handed
over. "Hello, guy-with-Lava-Battleguard. Yeah, it's me. All right, Tristan
then. No, he didn't." Pause; he sighed. "Did you see me with the Dragon
Nails? Okay, how thick do you think your skin is? Okay, long do you think
those claws are?" Long pause. "I'm glad we understand. Goodbye." He hung
up, then turned to Joey, in hysterics on the floor. Jade grinned, jumped
on top of him, and began to tickle mercilessly.
"Hey! That's- no fair!" Joey managed as he struggled
into a half-sitting position, then degenerated into crazy laughter as he
succumbed to the tickles. "No fair- no fair! Damn you!" More laughter.
"I'm gonna- break my neck!" A chance kick freed his arms. "I'll show
you what tickling's all about!"
With that, the tables were turned on Jade, who also
began to laugh, even harder than Joey had; they went completely down in
a tangle of arms and legs and faces and fingers searching for just the
right spots.
Geoffrey, Sandy, and Brendan were treated to a good
three hundred seconds of the tickling war before they finally pulled away
from one another, gasping with leftover laughter.
"Oh god," said Joey, "that was fun. Let's never,
ever do it again."
"I second that," Jade managed, before he relapsed
into another fit.
***
Shadi had gone after repeated assurances that Esper
would watch his back, be careful, et cetera. And Esper could tell he wasn't
convinced.
He locked the doors and went to sleep early; his
dreams were troubled.
***
After the incident, Haku approached Ryuunosuke and
demanded a match. This time, chess. "You know how to do it, right?"
When Haku and Chihiro were being taught the basics,
he had watched, listened, learned. Just in case. "… yes. A little bit."
"Then in the name of Tiamat, do it!"
A summary: Ryuunosuke proceeded to soundly thrash
Haku in two out of five games. One of the remaining three was a long, ferocious
battle that still ended with Ryuunosuke saying, "checkmate." Another one
was a draw, and the one loss happened to be the first game.
"I thought," said Haku in the middle of the third
game, "you hated challenges."
Ryuunosuke looked straight at him for the first
time since he-didn't-know-how-long. "Some things, even if you hate them,
it helps if you know how to do them." Haku nodded as if Ryuunosuke had
just stated the meaning of life.
Mokuba went to bed at nine. Around ten, in the early
stages of the fourth game, Chihiro and Sapphire and Seto Kaiba all retired
as well (Chihiro asked everyone to keep out of her room; they knew it was
not a request).
***
"You can have the bed," said Chihiro. Cassiel's objections
were cut off with a motion of her hand. "You're a guest here. Guests have
priority. And I did think it was a little too soft, anyway."
He called Aaron to tell him why he wasn't returning
for now (Aaron sounded very knowledgeable about where Cassiel had gone,
and kept on hinting at something. Cassiel hadn't thought the difference
in knowledge between seventeen and twenty was so large) and proceeded to
sleep extremely well; for once he had no nightmares.
***
At the end of the fifth game, it was perhaps an hour
after everyone else had gone (Neither one of them seemed inclined to look
at a clock). Ryuunosuke yawned in spite of himself as he slid his bishop
diagonally and knocked over Haku's king.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm all right." Judging from Haku's expression,
that wasn't what he had wanted to hear. "Really, I am."
"I would be a bit more inclined to believe that,"
said Haku, "if I hadn't heard it so many times. I need to talk to you."
"What were we doing for the past hour?" Ryuunosuke
would have tried very hard to make his tongue bleed if he had made that
statement earlier. But somehow he couldn't look at Haku the same way once
he had defeated the latter (of course he had gotten all the imitations
of Exodia when they had been playing Master, but that wasn't the same thing).
"This time it's talking about something different.
I promise in the name of Tiamat that nothing will take place that would
offend even Michael Gaia and his nonexistent deity." Ryuunosuke had to
smile at that. Haku still had a modicum of respect for Gaia, even if the
latter now refused to refer to him by name (after all, who had taught Haku
chess? Michael Gaia), but that didn't keep him from poking fun at the Fierce
Knight's religious beliefs.
Haku's room was large but generally empty. What
was space, Ryuunosuke wondered, without something to fill it with? Due
to lack of other convenient articles of furniture, they both ended up seated
on the bed.
"You know," said Haku, "how Sapphire is now. And
you know we all said it was because of Pegasus and that stupid card." Ryuunosuke
nodded. "Now… I'm not so sure about that."
"How do you mean?"
He frowned. "Ryuu-chan, promise you won't laugh."
The promise was duly made. "I think a lot of it was because of me."
"Why," said Ryuunosuke, "would I laugh at that?"
"Do you remember Sapphire's best friend?"
"Alexander Sang?"
"Yes, that's him."
"Are they still friends?"
"… I don't think so."
"Do you remember I spoke to Black Jade like he was
an oversized Kuriboh? You know what I thought about Kuriboh back then,
don't you?" It wasn't a question proper- the answer was already known,
and as such, he didn't wait for it to be articulated. "Do you know what
Jane would say about that? She'd say I was acting like a donkey."
No pause for exclamations of incredulity considering
his hypothesizing about the reaction of a machine; Ryuunosuke, too, had
experienced Jane's sentience and Haku knew it and went on. "And Ryuu-chan,
I was. I really was." Ryuunosuke started to say that no, he was not, but
thought better of it. Haku just wanted to be heard; he wasn't looking for
false assurances. "So you see, Pegasus didn't have anything to do with
it. It was me."
"Haku," said Ryuunosuke, "you told me not to blame
myself for everything. So why do you do it to yourself, if I'm not to?"
Pause, then laughter. "You're right, Ryuu-chan. But none of that
was your fault. You have to admit some of it was my fault."
"Maybe some, but definitely not all of it. You
didn't make that card."
"I know." Ryuunosuke yawned again, quite unintentionally.
"I think it is time this discussion ended, don't you?" A nod. "Good night."