Lily: Wow.... This is getting... a lot longer than I thought... Hey, not that I mind that though!! ^^ I'm getting so many reviews, and this is so fun to write, that I don't mind it at all!! ^^
Iris: Yup... and seems the reviewers quit threatening you...
Lily: *sweatdrops* Eh... true *thanks Ra for that*
Flowers: *starts poking Lily* Continue alreadyyyyy...
moonnymph: Yeah, pleaaaaaaase!! *puppy dog eyes*
LADY D: CONTINUEEEEEEEE!!!
Kinsako: Please, do it nownownownownownownow!!
Lily: *sweatdrops* *thinks she might hide the sugar* Relax, just wait a lil more...
Pretenna: We want it now!! *pouts* *pokes Yami* Who were you talking about in last chapter.... teeeell me....
Yami: *sweatdrops* *points down* It's down there, read the fic
Pretenna: You're really sweet, aren't ya?
Lily: Yamis' specialty, sweetness...
Yami: --;; What, I AM a dark spirit, aren't I?
SelenaFury: *glares at Yami*
Yami: *glares back*
Both: YUGI IS MINEEE! MINE! STOP COPYING ME! I'M NOT COPYING YOU! SHUT UP!! MAKE ME! HEY! HE'S MINE! MINE! MIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!
Lily: *big sweatdrop* Huh... *hugs her Duo and Chibi Duo plushies in fear* ^_^ *realizes they're too cute, and keep hugging non-stop*
Iris: *bigger sweatdrop*
Jade Tatsu: *sniffing* *hugs a Ryou plushie*
Lily: *blinks* ^^;; So some people are still curious about what I'm going to do about Ryou-kun... you'll have to wait, people, ok? I'll do a whole one-shot about Bakura/Ryou situation, you'll just have to wait... the beginning will be kind of sad, though...
Tenshi: Sad? ;_; How bad...
Lily: ^^;; Gomen... sometimes I write too much sad stuff for my own good... O.o ^^;; hahahahahahaha...
Iris: *sweatdrops* $50 bucks my hikari is worse, Kerra-chan. She talks to herself, she laughs in front of the computer, she hits her head on the monitor when the idea doesn't want to be typed, she pouts while writing a story thinking about the Radamned plot, she squeals when she sees a YY/Y picture, she's suicidal, getting on net during weekdays to read fanfiction...
Kerra: *impressed whistle* Long list, huh?
Iris: --;; You betcha... there's a lot more, unfortunately... You shall name yours now
Iris&Kerra: *keep talking about the bet*
Tenshi&Lily: *sweatdrops* Geez, no love...
Crouching Tigress: *waiting impatiently for the fic to begin*
Lily: ^^;; Oh, sorry about that...
NekoWingzero: It's okay... Just start it already
Dancergirl009: Yup yup ^^
Danski: *nods* I want mooooooore ^^
Lily: Alright, you people ^-^
meagen: I just hope Anzu doesn't annoy my skull...
Carmen5: *ahem* I agree, Anzu must be punished if she comes too much into the story....
Meagen: She has Relena complex...
Lily: *winces* Yeah, SO TRUE!!
Relena: *passes by* (why the heck she mistook her fandom??)
Iris: *smirks* *runs after her to kill her*
Lily: *sweatdrops* *smirks anyway =P*
Everyone: *sweatdrop*
Lily: *nods* *smirks at a thought* Falling down stairs won't be Malik's job anymore.... bwahahahahhahaha...
Radfel: *laughs maniacally along*
Wolfspeaker1 (I LUV your story by the way... KEEP GOING!! ^^): *pouts* So, will you take long to start??
Princess Strawberry: *sweatdrops* Uhh... Lily?
Lily: *turns to her* Yes?
Princess Strawberry: Try controlling the situation *points to Selena and Yami, who are still fighting, Radfel who started chasing Anzu around along with meagen and Carmen, LADY D and Kinsako who found her sugar and are eating it non-stop...*
Lily: *big sweatdrop* I guess bringing you guys in this room with me wasn't a pretty good idea?
Babygurl1: *sitting very silent and not a bit hyper* Oh no, you just kind of have a whole bunch of reviewers ^_^
Lizzalo: Yup ^^
Lily: Oh well, if it's like that ^_^
Tenshi: ^__^ *gives everyone a Yugi plushie* Lily told me to give you guys these plushies
Everyone: YAY!!
Tenshi&Lily: *giggle* Time to start at last
Disclaimer: Boys, what do you think?
Yami&Bakura&Marik: NO WAY!!
Lily: I guess not today, ppl ^^;; come back next week
Warning: Yami/Yugi shounen ai, and Anzu bashing. Please, if you don't like, don't read. "Anzu" fans keep in mind this is "Tea"... that's a whole 10000x worse
Keys: "__" means talking, '__' means thinking and Italic means Flashback
Note: Sorry if the notes were too long, but I thought that it'd be funny to rant with you guys... do you mind? I mean, it's funnier than just little notes... what do you think? Oh well, if you think little notes are smaller and better, please tell me...
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Shades of a soul - [ Act IX ]
By: Lily Maxwell
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Yami sat in the couch in the living room, in his mansion. Though it seemed unusual, he wasn't the only one in the room. Seto, Mai, Malik, Ishtar and Bakura were there too, but they weren't the only ones.
Standing beside Seto, there was a girl with long dark-gray hair, almost black, but with a beautiful grayish shining. Her eyes looked like Yami's, a monotone crimson color, and her skin was very pale. She was wearing a very beautiful long black dress, though it was semi-open in the front. Her hair was also tied in a low ponytail, with a crimson little bow. (A/N: anyone knows Kanako, from the manga Love Hina? It's basically her)
Beside Ishtar there was another young woman. She too had long black hair, but her eyes were of a bright blue color. She had tanned skin, and right now, wore a gray school uniform, with a wine-colored skirt, that came to her knees, and a wine-colored thin bow on her shirt.
"You wanted to talk to us, right Yami?" the girl beside Ishtar asked, tilting her head to the side in a slow motion, blinking slightly.
"Yeah, thanks for coming Isis... and Chris." He said, looking at the two girls. The girl with blue eyes, Isis, smiled, and the other one, Chris, just nodded.
"Why exactly did you call us, Yami?" Chris asked, in a slight deep voice.
"I... suppose Ishtar and Seto told you about... what happened to me?" he asked, not really able to look at the two girls. Isis smiled, really happy for him and answering his question silently. Chris nodded, and then walked to sit beside him. Yami looked up at her, and she nodded again, hand lying on his shoulder.
Yami was thankful that they didn't really comment anything. One thing was that he really didn't like to babble around about his personal life. Also, he didn't know what the others' reaction would be. Basically, no one really minded the fact that he loved the boy, and apparently, they were happy for him.
"So... you two know about... what the problem is?" He asked in a very low voice, but the room echoed with his voice. The two girls shared glances, then nodded.
"We know your problem, Yami, and we have thought about it already." Isis answered, and Yami looked up at her.
"That place where you met... Yugi wasn't it?... you know about what it really is, right?" Chris asked.
"Yes, Bakura told me." he frowned. "May I add, in a situation that really didn't do me any good." He said, and Bakura shrugged.
"Hey, I was trying to help." He said in his defense, and Chris sighed.
"Yeah, Bakura's helps don't really help at all." she said, and Bakura stuck his tongue out at her in a not-too-mature manner.
"Anyway... We think that it was actually possible for Yugi to meet you there, even though he wasn't a spirit at all." Isis said, and Yami raised one eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"You don't suppose that everything was a dream, right?" Chris asked, and Yami shook his head.
"It was real. I know it." Yami answered, and the girls nodded.
"So, if it wasn't a dream, then he was really there, and then there is actually an answer for your doubts." Isis continued, smiling.
"Yugi was in a coma, right?" Chris asked, and everyone nodded. "Basically, he was in the line between life and death... he had no conscious, and he could either live and die. In that state, it was like a part of Yugi's soul, the one that longed to live, left his body."
"Then again, it couldn't just walk around normally. To have a material body, be able to think and such, it's required... that there is indeed a special place. Yugi's soul then went there." Isis continued.
"That place is that path in the park..." Seto said silently. "But why would a part of his soul want to walk around?"
"Because of his past." Yami said, and everyone looked at him. "Yugi had a horrible past... he lost his friends, lost his parents, and he thought he was alone. The day I met him... he was crying, saying he was alone. Maybe, even unconsciously, he longed to have friends. In that state, his soul looked for a friend. He felt too alone..." Yami said. The two girls looked at each other.
"It's highly possible, unconscious feelings are the key to everything. Since the place is special, it was like Yugi was dead and his spirit walked through that place like any other spirit, in special occasions. That explains the rainy evenings." Chris said. Yami smiled.
"He likes the rain... that's why..." he breathed, and Isis smiled.
"Yes, Yami." She said, and Yami smiled back at her. "That's the answer to how he could be in two places at the same time, being in a coma. It wasn't as if you didn't meet the real Yugi... you just meet shades of his soul."
'Shades... of a soul...' he thought. It was incredible, but it was the answer. It sure explained his inner questions, clearing his mind and heart from the pain he was going through... but...
"What about his memory?" Mai asked. She was so worried about this all... Being so emotive, she was about to cry if everything didn't turn out ok for Yami. Chris looked at her, then at Yami.
"Well, we can't not consider that he was in a coma. Probably the day Yugi said goodbye, was the day he woke up. He has no idea of what happened, because he wasn't really there, so there isn't really a way that he remembers it." Chris answered, and Yami's face fell.
"You mean to tell me that there's no way for Yugi to remember?" Bakura asked.
"I think..." Ishtar began, and everyone looked at him. "... that maybe he can. A part of his soul knows, at least. It's just up to us to find a way to make his mind absorb his soul's memories, buried deep within his self. He couldn't really be there, but he did talk, walk and act and everything else. Yugi himself knows about what happened that day... but he doesn't know it was real. He's stuck to the present, when he was actually in a coma, in the hospital." He said.
"You messed up with my mind, Ishtar." Bakura said, one eyebrow raised in wonder.
"He said that Yugi knows and at the same time doesn't know about what happened. Because he knows that he was in the hospital, while everything happened while he was there... he's stuck to the present. Maybe he thinks it was all a dream, or an hallucination, and must realize that it really wasn't like that." Malik said. Everyone froze.
They blinked. Once. Twice.
"Malik..." Mai said.
"You..." Seto began.
"Really got everything?" Bakura said.
"Wow." Ishtar mused. Malik pouted and crossed his arms. Ishtar giggled, and hugged him. Isis, smiling, turned to Yami.
"Well Yami, back to topic, the only way to try and make Yugi remember is talking with him." She said. Yami smiled and nodded.
"Thanks Isis, Chris." He said to the girls. "I knew I could count on you about this kind of thing..." he bowed slightly. Isis smiled and bowed to him. Chris, for the first time, smiled, and patted his shoulder.
"You were just lucky to have someone who likes this kind of supernatural thing as much as those two near, Yami." Seto said, sitting on the couch's arm near Chris, placing an arm around her shoulders. She leaned against him slightly, the ghost of a smile still on her features.
"Yeah. No wonder sis and Chris are best friends there. They like the same strange things." Ishtar said, and Isis just shrugged, smiling.
"Hey, I have a question." Mai began, and everyone looked at her. "How come both of you go to the same school, came from the same school just a couple of minutes ago together, and Chris doesn't wear the uniform?" she asked. Isis giggled, and Chris smirked.
"Oh well, Chris-san has bribed the principal into wearing her usual clothes to school, and is still trying to convince them that black is a better choice for uniform." Isis said, still giggling. Everyone laughed.
"Can't help it." She said. Oh well, Chris Daisuke really wasn't a Goth, she was the Goth. Seto really didn't mind it at all, he was the one who gave her the silver crucifix she was now wearing, and he pretty much liked her clothes.
"Well, as I'm still trying to convince the principal of our school into letting me using my precious leather, I'll say nothing about that." Yami said, and everyone laughed again.
Outside, the day was as cloudy as all the other ones from the past months had been. Yami smiled, thinking about Yugi, and how he was going to make him remember.
'I'll do it... I'll do everything to make him remember about those days. And then...' the touched the cool surface of the window. '... we'll be together again.'
~^:^~
Sugoroku stood behind the counter, taking care of the nearly opened Kame Game Shop, while his grandson was upstairs, in his room, finishing his homework. When he had came back, Yugi was so brightly happy, that it amazed Sugoroku.
Since this past times were so hard for Yugi, with no friends and all those bullies picking on him and beating him up almost every day, the elderly man thought that his grandson would never smile again.
When he went into coma, Sugoroku thought that he would lost the only one he had left in the family. (A/N: as someone would say, this guy really needs a shorter name...) Yugi had no reason to want to survive, and the doctor had said that besides the physical conditions, it was also up to Yugi to continue living. After a whole month unconscious, the elderly man thought that it was over, when Yugi opened his eyes. He still remembered that day, 3 weeks ago...
~^: Flashback :^~
Sugoroku sat beside the bed, in the city's Municipal Hospital. He held tightly to his grandson's hand, praying silently for him to wake up. He never thought he would be there... wishing to the gods that his grandson would live, after being beaten up to a coma because of a boy from school.
If he had only known... If only he had done something about it, when he noticed that Yugi was being used as punch-bag from the very beginning... Now, he feared Yugi could... he could...
Suddenly, he felt Yugi's hand move slightly. His eyes lit up immediately, and he looked at Yugi's face, waiting for an answer. Yugi's hand moved again, and slowly, his wide once cheerful lavender eyes opened, nowadays sorrowful and blank. But Sugoroku almost jumped out of his skin, when Yugi looked at him. His eyes held... something... he had never seen in them before...
"Grandpa..." Yugi said, his white lips curling up into a smile.
"My grandson... Yugi, how are you feeling...?" Sugoroku asked in a very weak voice, fearing it would crack at any minute. Yugi breathed in and out weakly, with the help of a mask, but he still smiled.
"I...I..." he tried to say, but was still weak. Placing both of his hands on Yugi's, Sugoroku made a shushing sound.
"Save your forces, Yugi. I'll call the doctor." Sugoroku said, while standing up, never letting Yugi's hand go. The small hand then held a little tighter to one of his hands, and his grandfather looked up at him questionably.
"I... had... an amazing... dream, Grandpa... Someone... really loved me. He.. really did..." Yugi said, then leaned back on the bed, letting go of his Grandpa's hand. Sugoroku (A/N: I'll die if I have to write this 5 more times!) leaned over and kissed Yugi's forehead, just in time to hear him whisper something under his breath, before closing his eyes, not really going to sleep.
"Yami..."
He didn't understand, but really didn't ask. Instead, he left the room, in search for the doctor.
~^: End of Flashback ^:~
Sighing, Sugoroku leaned against the counter. Yugi said that Yami was the one he met in his dreams... What did he really mean with that?
All he knew was that Yugi was insanely happy since he came back from school, 2 hours ago.
Just then, the short teen walked through the door behind the counter. Smiling up at his grandpa, Yugi leaned against the counter beside him.
"So Grandpa, didn't you tell me you had to go to the market buy some supplies?" Yugi asked, yawning a little. "Go ahead, I take care of the shop. Just don't take long, you know when we close." Yugi said, pointing his index finger to Sugoroku as if he was the older one. Sugoroku chuckled.
"Okay, Yugi. Be back in a few then." With that, he left. Minutes later, Yugi was there, bored out of his mind, with nothing in special to do. At that time, he was thinking about the probable people that could enter the shop...
As a bell in the front door rang, Yugi looked up to greet the costumer (A/N: sp?). Amethyst blinked when met ruby.
"Hey Yugi." Yami greeted, as Yugi recovered from the mild shock. Seeing Yami walking into his life so easily like that was so great to be true...
Looking from one side to the other, Yami looked down at Yugi again. "Where's your grandfather?" he asked, blinking. Yugi smiled, leaning against the counter once more.
"He went out to the market to buy some supplies... I'm stuck in here alone." He said, pouting. Yami chuckled, then sighed. Without warning, he leaned against the counter in front of Yugi, looking directly into his eyes.
"That's bad. I was thinking on challenging you to a duel, but I guess today's not my lucky day." Narrowing his eyes a little, he continued. "Then again, with Anzu stalking me around every single day, which day is a lucky one in the miserable life of Yami Muoto?" he asked, and Yugi giggled, shrugging.
"You have a point there." He said, and Yami smiled.
"What about this: we go to my house tomorrow after school, and then we finally duel?" he asked, and Yugi blinked. He was... going to... Yami's house...?
"What... what about your parents? You barely know me..." Yugi said somewhat sadly, but Yami straightened up, and kept smiling.
"They aren't in town, and even if they were, they wouldn't mind it. Besides..." he ruffled Yugi's hair. "I know you well enough." With that, he waved, and left the shop.
Yugi blinked again, slowly taking in the information that he was going to Yami's house... just... the two of them!!
'Oh dear...' Yugi blushed. 'At least... I'll be able to tell him... about my dreams...' with that thought in mind, Yugi smiled, barely able to wait for the next day.
[ To be continued... ]
Lily: ^__^ Now, you guys have it!! It's ALL explained!! Hopefully... clear enough... *blinks and sweatdrops* If you guys STILL have doubts about anything, please ask me, ok? ^^;; It was kinda hard explain everything, and I just hope it was good enough and not some stupid meaningless crap... --;;
Iris: ^^;; Anyway, please review. Lily does not know well... but maybe next chapter may be the last one. Yay! Another finished story!!
Lily: Maybe I'll do a sequel, I've been thinking hard on that probability... and plus, there's still the B/R one-shot from this story, so you guys won't have what to complain about. So, I'll see you guys later!! *waves*
Tenshi: *hugging a newly Yugi plushie Lily just gave her, wearing a kimono* ^_^
Readers: *sweatdropping at Selena and Yami STILL fighting*