Separation
Chapter 8
Notes: I went on a Manga run on Sunday to Kinokuniya books in NJ. It was so cool! They had a Beyblades Manga, plus the latest Shonen Jump. The Beyblades Manga was an AU of the show. Instead of Tyson they had Ryo Tatsuniya as the main character. When Dragoon first came out of Ryo's Beyblade it was SO funny! His reaction was approximately, "A body! I have a body! Yippie!" When my Japanese Teacher translated it for me I started laughing! It was so funny, because in the TV show Dragoon either doesn't talk or says something really serious, but here was Dragoon, acting like Veemon when Davis lifted the digiegg of courage!
~Ryou~
The movie was almost over when I spotted them. Three girls were sitting in the row ahead of us. The first of them had long silver hair, pale like mine. The second had long, silky green hair, kind of like Weevil or Espa Roba. The third had hair exactly like Yugi's!
I nudged my Yami. "Yami-kun." I whispered in his ear. "Do you see that group ahead of us?"
He looked. "Yeah."
"See what the girl in the middle looks like? Her hair looks like Yugi's!" I hissed.
"Think we should follow them?" He asked.
"We'd better do something, the movie's almost finished." I hissed.
Marik and his Yami were too busy making out in their own seats to notice or care. That left finding out who these three were to the two of us.
Just then the credits began to roll. My Yami started thinking hard. "Hold still Ryou." He hissed. He slipped the Millennium Ring off of me and held it over my head. Then my other murmured some words in Egyptian that I couldn't catch. I looked down at my hand. It had disappeared! Yami Bakura handed the ring back to me. "I made you invisible, follow them." He whispered loudly. "I'll tell the other two what happened when they're finished making out. I'll be listening with your ears."
The ring had also become invisible, but I found that if I unfocused my eyes, I could see my outline vaguely. The three girls got up, and I followed them, listening to a very interesting conversation. "Aren't you worried that Shadi will target you while he's tracking Marik?" The green haired girl asked the white haired one.
She shivered. "I hope not Selene. I don't want to lose an eye."
"But Natari, if it comes down to it you may not have a choice." Said the little girl. "I couldn't stop the reflection puzzle from activating once I'd solved it, and once she'd touched it Nyassa couldn't stop the Millennium Crystal." Said the girl with Yugi like hair.
"Yes, well, your artifacts have spirits in them, mine doesn't." The white haired girl answered. "I'm not going to end up like Pegasus, and that means that I'm not going to activate the reflection eye."
Reflection Eye? My other half wondered.
"Hey, do you know when Maeko is picking us up?" Asked the green haired girl. "I want to go shopping, and besides, weren't you invited to the prom back home Fera?"
"I'm not going unless Battle City finishes before then." The spiky haired girl answered. "Battle City is way more important than some silly Prom. So Prom shopping is out."
"But you'll still need a dress for the concert." The pale haired girl answered. "Come on, shopping, PLEASE?" She begged.
"I suppose. Tonight, after dinner then." The spiky haired girl relented.
"Okay, I'll see you guys then. I've got places that I have to go. I promised Weevil that we'd get him the part that he needs to fix our amplifiers." The pale haired girl got up. That was when I saw them clearly. The spiky haired girl wore a silver version of the Millennium Puzzle, and the pale haired girl, who bore a striking resemblance to Pegasus, wore a silver version of the Millennium Eye on a pendant around her neck.
My other half tailed me at a distance as I followed the girl into one of the music shops downtown. She came out with a bag and a frame that allowed a person to play both the harmonica and the guitar at once. We followed her down an alley. That was when I saw him.
Shadi blocked the girl's way. "Shadi!" She gasped.
Yami-kun! Help!
"I told you what needed to be done." Shadi growled at her. "Why do you continue to defy me?"
What's wrong hikari?
"I don't want to end up like my brother did!" The girl begged. "Please! I beg of you! Shadi… just… just leave me alone…" She begged.
Shadi has cornered the girl that you had me tail. She's got some silver version of the Millennium Eye on a pendant around her neck. She's afraid that she'll end up like Pegasus if she activates it.
Shadi took a step closer. "I cannot allow you to shirk your duty as Pegasus' reflection. The eye must be activated, despite your fear of personal sacrifice."
I'm coming.
The pendant around the pale haired girl's neck began to glow with silver light. "P… p…. please no Shadi! I beg you!" The girl's eyes widened as she sank to her knees in the dirty alleyway.
The shit is going to hit the fan in less than five seconds Yami-kun. I warned him. If you can help me now's the time!
The pendant detached from it's fastening. The girl screamed as Shadi thrust his hand forward.
Almost there! My other half cried.
The pendant shot forward, having transformed into a ball of light. Natari's scream of fear became a scream of pain. The place where her eye used to be oozed blood. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She cried.
TOO LATE! I cried. I don't know what came over me then. I picked up the nearest blunt object, a large dowel, and swung it at Shadi.
Shadi raised his hand, firing a blast of energy that knocked me back against the wall. "Do not interfere."
How had he seen me? I demanded to nobody as I started blacking out. I heard people running and shouting…
"Natari!"
"She's out cold! And her Reflection Eye!"
"Shadi must have done it."
"Shadi will pay dearly!" A slightly deeper voice growled.
"Yami Fera don't do anything stupid! We can't remove it now without causing Natari permanent damage, like what happened to Pegasus! That would be her worst nightmare."
"I did not intend…"
"We can't challenge him to a Shadow Game either. It's in the rules of engagement." Said another voice.
"Yami… the pharaoh can."
"Yes, but WILL he?" Asked a voice I recognized as Rex. "After what Nyassa did to him."
"Yami is a fair man." I vaguely heard Maeko say. "He'd help people in trouble if he thought that one or the other party was in the wrong. As long as you don't cheat he'll be fair."
"Maeko, Yami is very likely out of the question." Said the first voice. "After what Nyassa did to him he's not likely to be very happy if we come to ask for his help."
"Where does he LIVE anyway?" Asked Weevil. "I know he hangs out at Domino Park and Domino Square. I've seen him around at Domino High School, Domino Museum, and Kaiba Land. Other than that I have no idea how to find him."
"Wait a minute! I can't believe we're talking about this! We're not some gang! We're not Kaiba! We don't contemplate revenge! The best we can do is help Natari get used to having the eye! I won't allow revenge! I won't!"
"Selene we've been through this and through this! Shadi needs to know that he can't run all over us! He's not our boss! The best way to do that is to strike back! We can't take this lying down!"
"Weevil do what you want, but do YOU want to mess with a Millennium Item Holder…" The voices were moving off.
"Hikari?" I heard my Yami's breath in my ear. "Wake up Hikari!" I felt a warmth in my limbs. My eyes opened.
"Huh?" I asked softly.
"Wake up Hikari. Shadi knocked you out." My yami said gently. He pushed the matted bangs back from my face.
"I can't believe I was so stupid." I said with a sigh.
"What did you do?" Asked Marik.
"I attacked Shadi. I mean, when he… he forced the girl I was tailing earlier to accept some kind of silver Millennium Eye."
Marik and Yami Marik looked at each other. "No way. There is NO way, I thought that was just a myth!" Marik protested.
"It's real. I saw them being made." Yami Marik told him. "I just thought that they'd never become active."
"Well according to Bakura-kun they did!"
"And that's not all!" I said as I wiped the blood from my nose with a tissue that my other handed me. "You'll never believe who came looking for her; Maeko, Weevil and Rex, and at least three other girls that I've never met in tournament play, and there was a fourth that I'd recognize anywhere, Shelly Oakley!"
"Shelly Oakley?" The two Yami's asked.
"Oh. My. God." Marik stated. "I stole a card from her once, her gate guardian. She wasn't exactly pleased about it, but I'd beaten her and won it from her on a bet, that was before I started the rare hunters."
"Who is this Shelly Oakley?" My other demanded.
"She's easily the most powerful Duelist in Great Britain." I answered. "She was also an Eliminator at Duelist's Kingdom, one of Pegasus' favorites. He let her actually make up cards! He style is so mercurial that nobody can keep up with it. If she makes it to the finals Marik, you'll have your hands full with her!" I told him, spitting blood from my split lip. I blinked. "Then again, how did Shadi see me?" I asked.
"The answer is simple, he shouldn't have." Marik answered. "I think we need to pay Yugi a visit."
I nodded. "Shadi vowed not to stop until he's defeated Yami in a Shadow Game. If Shadi is in town, in Battle City, then you can be sure that Yugi is a target."
So we walked over to Yugi's house. It wasn't far from the theater actually. I found Yugi, exhausted, on a patio chair behind the shop with Seto, Joey and Yami. "Yugi!" I called, jumping up to try and reach the fence. My hand showed over the top. That was all. "Yami!" Jump. "Yugi!" Jump. "Let me in!" Jump. "It's important!" Jump.
Yugi opened the back gate to let the four of us in. "Ah! Marik! What are you doing here!?"
"I believe that if you wait five seconds that your friend Ryou will TELL you the whole story." Marik said wryly.
"This had better be good Marik, Tomb Robber." Yami growled in annoyance.
"Oh it is. You're NOT going to believe this." Yami Marik said with a smirk.
I told them the whole story, how we'd thought Fera was Yugi. How my yami had put a spell on me to make me invisible to everybody except him. I told them about how I'd tailed the girl with white hair. I told them about how Shadi had intercepted her. I told him about the attack that Shadi had made on her. "And you're not going to guess who came to her rescue! Maeko, Rex, Weevil, THE Shelly Oakley, and three other girls that I don't recognize."
"So?" Yugi asked. "Who is this Shadi guy anyway?"
"We met him while you were still having blackouts Yugi." Yami explained. "He challenged me to a Shadow Game. He nearly killed you, Joey, and Tea in the process."
"And since then he's been obsessed with defeating Yami in a Shadow Game." I finished.
"Sounds like somebody else we know." Joey smirked at Seto.
"Shut it puppy dog," But I noticed the tone no longer held the hatred and disdain that Seto usually put in it.
"This isn't good." Marik hissed at him. "As long as Shadi is in Battle City Yugi and his friends are at risk!"
"And you'd care why?" Joey asked.
"Well, that would make two targets." Yami Marik said, wrapping his strong arms around his Hikari's waist. "After all, according to the rules of our clan we are in exile because we attacked the Pharoh." Yami Marik rested his chin on his Hikari's shoulder, burying his face in Marik's hair. "Of course the Tomb Robber and his Hikari may or may not be Shadi's targets."
"Afraid Yami?" Seto asked.
Yami jumped, and I realized that Seto had correctly interpreted his reaction. "I fear only the damage that Shadi may do to my friends and to the Tournament Participants if his wrath were loosed upon Domino City." He said stiffly.
"No, I think that you're afraid of this Shadi." Seto smirked. "And if you're afraid of this Shadi he's got to be powerful."
"Not as a duelist, but as a Shadow Gamer yes." Yami answered. "Seto, you have little to no understanding of the consequences of a Shadow Game, or a Penalty Game. These are not powers to be taken lightly. If Shadi wanted to he could kill you. He could kill Mokuba, and me, and Yugi, and Joey, and Tea, Bakura and his yami, Marik and his Yami, Otogi, Tristan, all of us. And he doesn't hesitate to kill anybody who gets in the way of what he wants." Yami said, turning to face Seto.
They looked into each other's eyes. I saw, I felt the presences of the two of them. I realized that this was Seto's subtle way of probing Yami for information. I saw that Yami was truly afraid, not of Shadi, but the damage that he'd do.
"Yami, that's always been the problem with you." Seto said, "You have limits, you never push them, and you're never willing to do whatever it takes to defeat your enemy. The only person you'd ever sacrifice for the sake of victory is yourself, and even then, if it meant hurting Yugi, you'd never even do that."
"Yes Seto, I believe that there is always a way out without people getting hurt." Yami acknowledged. "I believe that there are limits and that they should be respected, for good reason. You have a God card in your deck Seto. Do you know anything about that card beyond it's statistics in battle? No? Yet you insist on using it, a card that could turn on you and kill you. I have not used Slypher once since I got it, because I know nothing about that card beyond it's statistics, and that is never a good sign. I fear, like I do Shadi, the damage it could do, the consequences of presuming that I could ever control that card. Look what happened when I dueled Marik for it."
"Hubris, that's what it's called." Yami Marik agreed. "I'm sorry Seto, but that's your greatest psychological weakness and we all know it."
"What's Hubris?" Joey asked, looking from one to another.
"Hubris is the belief that you can even hope to control what you don't understand, pure arrogance." Yami explained. "Remember the Galveston Hurricane that we learned about in History? That's an example of hubris. If the weather bureau hadn't been so determined to prove the weather casters in Cuba wrong, scientists who understood way more about the weather of the area around the Caribbean than the Americans did then Galveston could have been evacuated. Instead, they insisted that they, and only they, knew how the weather worked and the result was lives lost."
"Oh. Hey wasn't that the story that we heard where the Walmart was built over an orphanage that was knocked down during the hurricane?"
"Yes, it was." Yami told him. "The point is Seto, that you presume to control what you can't control and the result is that you end up in serious trouble. Let me handle Shadi, because when you duel with him you're playing with fire."
"You, Yami, need to learn a little bit about sacrifices, about suffering, and then you can call me arrogant." Seto snarled.
"Okay break it up!" I told them. "The point is that they might want Yami to go after Shadi for them. The point is that we're needed. And the point is that we don't even know where we're needed!"
"I can find them." My other half said smugly. "The ring Bakura?"
I hesitated. "Oh alright keep it! I'll show you how to find things with it though." He stood behind me, guiding my hands along the edge of the Millennium Ring. "Hold it here, and focus on a picture of the person or thing you want to find. Try Shadi as an example."
I pictured the balding, tanned Egyptian. But part of me was afraid to know. If Shadi could do that much damage, if he could see me no matter what, would he know I was spying on him? Would he… be angry?
As if the ring had read my mind, it flashed once, and did nothing.
"Hikari you need to abandon your fear." Yami Bakura told me. "Your fear of Shadi is blocking the magic. I'll protect you…" He thought for a moment. "Tristan, try locating Tristan."
I closed my eyes, held out the ring, and imagined Tristan, his hair, his face. Then a picture came to mind of Tristan, ridding his motorcycle towards the hospital.
"Where is he?" My Yami asked expectantly.
"He's riding his motorcycle. I think he's going to visit Serenity at the hospital." I said, shaking the image out of my mind.
"Good, now try locating Rex." He said calmly. "If we're lucky he's still with the others. We'll run down the list of people that we saw at the battle site until we find out where they've taken their friend, and we'll follow."
I imagined Rex. The image came, much easier this time. "He's with Weevil, they're working on some kind of project. Natari, the girl we were following, said something about buying spare parts for a guitar amplifier, that's probably what they're doing."
Yugi scratched off both Weevil and Rex's names on the list. "Okay, try Maeko now." My Yami said calmly.
"I've never seen Maeko."
"But I have. I was watching him while he went to rescue Natari. Close your eyes and focus on our link. I'll show you what I saw and you can use that to locate him." He answered patiently.
"You're awfully patient." Yami commented.
"It's magic Pharaoh." My other answered. "It takes focus and patience to learn how to use it, or to teach others to use it." He closed his eyes, and I closed mine.
My yami projected an image into my mind. I saw what he looked like. Maeko had a sailor's tan. His hands were callused from hauling nets. He had wild hair, stiff from all the wind and the salt of the sea. I knew from rumors that he usually wore just a pair of shorts. However, in this image he was wearing a pair of cargo pants, converse sneakers, and a Thunder Cats T-shirt. He had a powerful build, which probably came with the profession.
I focused. "Find Maeko." I murmured. "Find Maeko."
Maeko was currently at Domino hotel. He was speaking with Nyassa. Both of them looked very worried.
"Open your eyes hikari, and don't move a muscle." My other whispered.
I did. I couldn't believe my eyes. My yami had moved back, and the dangle points of the ring, the ones that show where a person or place is, were not only glowing. They pointed somewhere to my right. "Woah!" I gasped. "I did that?" I demanded, looking at first Yami, then my other, then Marik for confirmation.
Marik chuckled. "That was my reaction when I first started using the rod. Yes, you did it by yourself Bakura."
"What did you see?" Asked Yami Marik.
"Maeko is talking with Nyassa. They're at Domino Hotel. They looked concerned, no, they were upset!" I shivered. "I think they've heard about Natari." I said with a sigh.
"Can you try one more?" Yami asked. "You know what Natari looks like, do you think you can find her?"
I closed my eyes, focusing on the image. Natari was lying on a bed in the hotel. She was unconscious. Dried blood from her bleeding eye dotted her face and neck. I could still see a ring of blood around the edges of her eye, showing that the wound hadn't healed yet. I opened my eyes, panting lightly and told the others what I'd seen.
"Seto." Yami said calmly. "I suggest that we go pay them a visit."
"I could help you find the way." I offered.
"No," My Yami said. "No more magic Hikari. Didn't you notice?" He asked, wrapping an arm tenderly around my waist. "Your hands are trembling and you're panting. Your first magic takes a lot out of you. You'll get stronger with meditation and practice, but now is not the time." He said.
The Tomb Robber extended a hand. "Yami, I'd like to offer my assistance."
"As would I. As long as Shadi is in town, Battle City can wait." Marik said, looking up at his Yami. "Much as I'd like to conquer the world, it wouldn't help if a psycho clansman of mine started attacking us. I'll work with you as long as I can be sure that Shadi is still around."
"Sounds fair." Yami agreed.
"To the Escalade Seto!" Joey said with a wicked grin. I laughed. He was imitating Batman saying, 'To the Batmobile Robin!'
Unfortunately, the time for joking was past.