STORY ARC TWO: THE PARTING OF LOST SOULS
Chapter Five: The Search Begins
The Eye on the other Yugi's forehead illuminated as he sensed a dark shadow looming over him and Emrys. As he abruptly looked up at the ceiling, the room suddenly became cold.
Something brushed against the other Yugi from behind, prompting him to turn around and making his heart race faster.
Scanning the room, the other Yugi confirmed that nothing unusual was there.
The other Yugi deeply breathed in as the Eye on his forehead dimmed and disappeared. As his eyes scanned the perimeter, he then glanced sideways once he noticed shadows from the corner of his eye.
Kaiba, Mokuba, and Jonouchi - the owners of the shadows - approached the other Yugi.
"Are you ready?" Kaiba asked with impatience laced in his voice.
"Just a minute," the other Yugi responded as he held Emrys' hand and kissed it. He stroked her hair while thinking, "Hang in there, Emrys. We'll find out who's responsible for all of this."
After placing Emrys' limp hand back on her side, the other Yugi's attention now diverted to his three companions. "Jonouchi, please stay with Mokuba while I go with Kaiba."
Kaiba shifted his intent gaze from Emrys to Jonouchi. He looked at the blonde-haired teen with hawk-like eyes, saying, "You better watch my brother with your life. If someone ever lays a finger on him while I'm gone, I'll hunt you down!"
"Yeah, yeah," Jonouchi noted with annoyed dismissal.
"We'll be fine, Ni-sama," Mokuba reassured Kaiba. "Just promise me that you'll be careful..."
The elder Kaiba gave his brother a slight nod and a light smirk and then turned around.
Side by side, the two duelists walked out of the ICU.
The other Yugi and Kaiba went back to the latter's loft to go through paperwork, both hoping that a clue may arise.
After two hours of sifting through files of paperwork regarding the Kaiba-Land project in North America, Kaiba slumped on his chair.
"What about enemies? Do you have any projects pending at Domino City?" the other Yugi inquired as he walked around Kaiba's home office.
"The last one was Domino Arena. Other than adding a couple more Kaiba-Land locations, there's nothing unusual or extraordinary..." Kaiba responded as he leaned back on the chair and wracked his brain for possible suspects.
"Did you step on someone's toes during those last transactions?" the duelist with the tri-colored mane asked. After moments of silence, he noticed the pile of periodicals on the corner. He picked up the top magazine, skimmed through its pages, stopped on particular pages, read a few pages, and placed it back in the pile. He kept silent and non-reactive to whatever questions, or speculations he formed in his mind.
Glowering at his rival, the sable-haired CEO spat, "Look, Yugi... Kaiba Corporation has many rivals. I don't run Kaiba Corporation as if I was a dog with its tail behind its legs. Being a scared puppy is your friend's department, not mine."
The other Yugi remained silent and non-reactive.
An irate Kaiba rose from his chair and said as he walked down the stairs, "I'm getting something to drink."
A couple of minutes passed since Kaiba went to the kitchen.
The other Yugi then went downstairs to look for the CEO. After searching the entire loft and realizing what just happened, he mused in frustration, "It figures. He slipped away..."
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Shadows loomed like ghouls waiting to devour an unsuspecting soul. The darkness, the void, and the many specters inhabiting the realm called, taunted, and haunted its victim. The never-ending, deafening voices of moans and pleading increased its volume...
... Until it jarred the tormented awake from the seemingly endless nightmare.
Emrys drew in a painfully deep breath as she looked at the ceiling. She then lifted her arms and looked at the needles, horrifying and confusing her even more. Feeling a foreign object on her face, she groped until she discovered that she was wearing an oxygen mask. She yanked it off from her face.
Emrys' head spun and throbbed.
Emrys repeatedly tried to get up, but intermittently stopped as she felt the sharp jabbing pain from her right side. Instinctively, she groped for the button that would raise her bed to its seated position. After finding the button, she pushed it and acquainted her body to the pain as the bed's upper half rose.
Emrys' eyes scanned the room once more and thought in shock, "Hos... Hospital?"
Emrys turned her face sideways to the right. Her hazel-brown eyes then focused on Jonouchi and Mokuba, who were seated by the right side of her bed.
The young boy and teen slept soundly on the chairs they sat on.
Although it physically pained her to do so, Emrys smiled as her gaze fell on Mokuba. Once her focus shifted to a sleeping Jonouchi, her eyes widened in fright.
Emrys then felt something brush against her left arm before a looming figure stood by her bedside. She felt her hairs stand up in terror as she saw that looming shadowy figure at the corner of her eye.
Turning her face sideways to the left, Emrys confirmed that no one was there.
A shadowy arm buried itself in the middle of Emrys' chest, squeezing out the life from her heart.
No voice came out from Emrys as she gasped for breath and cried in excruciating pain. Little snippets of memory played in her head like splices from a movie. Her vision blurred from the lack of oxygen.
The pain suddenly stopped, but the terror that already built within Emrys did not. That fright even escalated when she gazed into Jonouchi's sleeping form once again.
Emrys pulled out everything that was attached to her body. No matter how agonizing it was for her, she got up as quietly as she possibly could from her bed and walked out limping from the ICU.
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Kaiba drove back to the hospital to check up on Mokuba and Emrys, purposefully leaving the other Yugi behind at the loft and still seething in anger.
Once Kaiba got out of the car and walked towards the hospital building, he noticed a disoriented figure wearing a scrub uniform, a surgical mask, and a doctor's lab coat. That figure bumped into Kaiba in the middle of the two-thirds filled hospital parking lot.
"Idiot! Watch where you're going!" Shortly thereafter, the CEO's flaming sapphire eyes narrowed as he recognized the disoriented wanderer's eyes. Peeling off the surgical mask from the the other, his eyes widened in shock.
"Emrys?"
A car sped up.
Before the car could hit them, Kaiba grabbed Emrys. On his lead, they dove to the side and rolled on the concrete.
Kaiba recognized the car for it was that nearly killed him and Emrys the other night. He then bolted up and ran towards her.
Emrys was still on the ground a few feet away from him, agonizing in pain.
With a mixture of concern and frustration laced in his voice, Kaiba spat, "What the hell are you doing here? Go back in the hospital!"
Emrys' eyes were wide from pain and terror. "No! Someone's trying to kill me back there! Please don't take me there..."
Kaiba heard the loud screeching of tires. "Shit! He's going to try again!"
Emrys, on the other hand, remained transfixed from where she stood.
Kaiba wrapped his arms around Emrys and served as a human brace to cushion her from the pain as they ran towards his car. His blood froze as he heard loud clicks from behind. He turned around and then confirmed what was about to happen.
The mysterious driver stepped on the accelerator.
"Duck!" Kaiba screamed at Emrys. He then dove face down on the concrete seconds before the rain of bullets hurled towards them.
The sound of breaking glass surrounded them. Both of them closed their eyes, trying to keep the flying slivers away from them.
The car then sped off as quickly as it came towards them.
Kaiba abruptly stood up and quickly brushed the slivers of glass from his trench coat. He helped Emrys secure her seatbelt and then told her, "We're going somewhere safe...away from here."
"Thank you..." Emrys then winced as pain shot and throbbed throughout her body, particularly her torso. She shut her eyes tighter each time she took a painfully deep breath. Tears intermittently streamed down her cheeks.
Glaring at Emrys, Kaiba demanded, "You still haven't answered me. What are you doing out here? Weren't Mokuba and Jonouchi there with you?"
Emrys took in a deep breath upon hearing Kaiba mention those names. She crinkled her forehead and opened her eyes. Her mind was still in a nebulous haze as her head throbbed and spun.
"Are you deaf?" Kaiba asked with such irritation. "Weren't Mokuba and Jonouchi with you?"
Emrsy continued to ponder on the response to Kaiba's question for many more minutes. "I..."
Realizing her reply, Emrys' intermittent tears flowed more freely as she answered him with regretful certainty, "I don't know... I don't know who they are..."
Author's Note
Although this story arc stands independently from The Encounter of Lost Souls and There Will Come Soft Rain, the three stories are inter-connected. This fact will also apply to subsequent Yu-Gi-Oh fan fiction that I will post in the future.
Normal Disclaimer
Yu-Gi-Oh is the copyrighted property of Kazuki Takahashi. This fan fiction, as well as the original characters, is the author's property.
Enjoy reading!
PJ Zatken