Disclaimers are the same throughout all chapters.
Vocab:
Faction: A group, or a player's standing with the group. A faction is NOT player made, and depending on what a player kills, which NPCs they speak to, and what quests they complete, some of these things can raise or lower faction with one or more groups. Generally, a faction is preset depending on race and class. Some can be altered, and some can't.
A strange note regarding uploads - in either the first or second chapter, we see the login screen. Originally I had five asterisks there to symbolize that a password had been entered - unfortunately due to the fact that for some reason, html uploads for don't like asterisks, what showed up was a bunch of empty spaces. So you'll see an inconsistency here with the login screen shown in the middle of the chapter. I'll probably go back and fix the first login screen and other minor mistakes later (aka when I feel like it or never). =)
Still wondering about Yami? Check out the A/N at the end of the chapter (don't spoil it for yourself, wait until you've read it of course!)
-hands out virtual tissues to those who were teared up by Chapter 9-
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"Where've you been all of this time?" Nymphe asked Joukatsu. They were in a zone filled with a swirling cerulean mist.
"Me? I've been right here," the human warrior answered.
"No you haven't. I've been waiting for you," she told him, her voice slowly becoming deeper and fading from its angelic tone.
Nymphe drew her weapon, which she rarely revealed. It was a spiky black mace. She readied it steadily in front of her.
"You're a liar. You're a dog. Why don't you just die with your pathetic friends?"
"What are you saying?" Jou shouted. He tried to unsheathe his sword, but for some reason his hands became tangled in his armor.
"You'll never be good enough for me. I have money and I have this ring. You're just a third rate player, Jounouchi." Nymphe transformed into Seto Kaiba and began cackling gleefully.
"Damn it," Jou muttered as he sat up in bed, "I'm so sick of that dream…"
"Whaddya mean Nymphe isn't coming?" Otogi shouted in the guildhall. Everyone, save Nymphe, was present.
"She can't come," Jounouchi lied, "She has a meeting that she can't miss." He waited for the rest of his guildmates to respond, hoping that none of them had spoken to the cleric, or that Yugi and Honda kept their traps shut.
Duke tells you, 'Don't fricken lie to me, Jou.'
"I'm not lying," Jou typed in response, "That's what she told me."
Duke tells you, 'You know, I just checked the online guild records. Only the leaders of a guild get this privilege. You know what? It shows that she removed herself from the guild three days ago. Care to explain?'
"No," was all he replied back with.
"Well, sorry guys, but unless we can come up with another cleric, or at least two subhealers, we will lose to Demise and they will be the first to clear the Tomb of the Scalekeepers," Otogi informed everyone. Jou's guildmates sighed dreadfully; they relied on Nymphe too much.
"We have two days," Bakura reminded everyone.
"I'm taking a break for a bit, guys," the bard announced, "I'll be back online in two hours if anyone wants to hunt. Maybe we can recruit some new players." As the half-elf sat down to set up camp and log out, he added, "Nevaeh, you have inviting rights when I'm offline." Everyone nodded in compliance with that, and several members logged off, Joukatsu being one of them.
"Jounouchi?" Yugi came into the room, "Why'd you log off? I thought you were going to take Anzu and I hunting."
"I don't feel like listening to everyone's crap today," Jou filled Yugi in, standing from the chair, "All Anzu does is whine about how many times she dies. Maybe if she knew how to play right she wouldn't keep dyin'. You keep overnukin' the hell out of stuff so then you die too. If you guys can't learn how to manage your aggro properly, why the hell should I play with ya?"
"Jounouchi!"
"I bet Otogi is on his way here right now to come bitch at me," Jou pondered out loud, "So tell him I said screw off. He's just a low life who likes to use people. Too bad that creep who used to take over Ryou all the time hasn't come back and punched him square in the face." The blonde snatched his coat angrily off the back of the chair and put it on.
"Why are you saying all of these things? Where are you going?" Yugi asked, terrified for a reason unknown to him.
"I'm getting outta here for a while," the angry blonde announced. He shoved Yugi out of the way, but quickly regretted treating his friend in such a manner. He looked back at the boy, feeling guilty, and said, "I'll come back tonight, I promise."
Zoerb tells you, 'I found you! Stay there, I need to talk to you.'
Seto just glared at his screen in disgust. He contemplated logging off, but decided against it since the wizard had already teleported to the same zone and caught him.
"What's this about?" he asked the human, wondering which one of the hate-filled blonde's friends was about to harass him.
"Why did you leave the guild?" Zoerb asked innocently.
"I wanted to." He didn't have to explain himself to some twerp.
"What happened with you and Jou? I know that's why you left," Zoerb accused him. Maybe that kid wasn't as much of a blabbermouth as he had previously suspected. After the way that he reacted, he was certain that he would have tried to smudge his name on the game, or at least within the guild, just for some sort of revenge for everything that he has done.
Was it because the kid was honorable, or because he loved him regardless of what he had said a few nights ago?
"He saw me, and then told me that he hated me," the brunette answered truthfully, "Satisfied?"
"Not really! My friend would never do anything like that!" Zoerb testified, "You must have done something." Perhaps it was time to figure out which one of the idiots had been sent in the coward's place. Then again, he knew in his heart that Katsuya was not a coward, but the thought of hating him made him forget that he loved him, at least for a single fleeting moment.
"How would you know, Zoerb? This is just an online game, how do you know that Joukatsu would never do something like that?" Seto taunted him, "I've done more hunting with him than you have, so wouldn't I know him better?"
"He's my best friend in the real world, Nymphe," Zoerb replied, "Maybe we haven't hunted as often as you two did, but we do everything else together! We've dueled in tournaments, right up to the finals, side by side."
It was Yugi; there was no doubt about that now. Seto typed, "Oh? And he hasn't told you what happened?"
"No," the wizard replied honestly, "I want you to tell me. We need you back in the guild. Jou hasn't been the same, and we won't be able to beat Demise to clearing the Tomb of the Scalekeepers!"
After thinking for a moment about everything that was said, Seto decided that he should probably try and use Yugi's personality to his advantage. He had to trust that Jounouchi would continue to keep his secret. It wouldn't be that big of a disappointment if he didn't, as he had already mentally prepared himself for that fact anyway.
It was time to do away with the pompous attitude, and try to repair everything. He had to take his own advice. He wasn't used to crying so often, and in his heart he truly didn't care who Jounouchi's friends were.
He loved him.
"Zoerb, just pass this message on for me. Tell Jounouchi that I love him." He wiped some tears away with the edge of his sleeve as he had been doing. It was hard enough to deal with the heartbreak.
"What about that raid? No one really knows that you left," the wizard looked down, "Jou lied and told them all that you had plans." He lied for him? Twice? Perhaps the fool really did feel the same way, and only said those things to him out of shock and anger.
"I'll come back if Jou speaks to me." It was Seto's last statement before logging off and going to the park that overlooked Domino Square.
The snow was falling gently to the pavement, and melting slowly on impact. Jounouchi stared down at the pavement in the square below, wondering if that crushed rose was still around or if the wind had taken it away. Night had already fallen, and it was going on eight o'clock.
"I should get going," he mumbled, glad that he cooled down. He needed to apologize to Yugi for the way that he acted earlier. It certainly was out of character of him to blow up like that, to a close friend anyway.
"Or you could stay," a deep voice suggested.
"K…Kaiba!" Jounouchi cried in surprise. What was he doing there? Had they thought alike again and come back to their meeting place?
"Come with me," Kaiba extended a hand, palm up. Jounouchi sniffed a bit, his nose was turning pink and starting to run.
"Get away from me!" the blonde yelled, dashing out of the park and heading back. The slender boy sighed, wondering if his actions were futile.
"Nymphe told me to tell you something," Yugi said as soon as Jounouchi burst into his room. The boy's nose was red and he was panting heavily from all of the running that he did, even though Seto never followed him.
"You…talked to Impy?" Jou asked, wondering how the hell that was possible, unless that was what drove Seto to the park to begin with.
"She was online and I managed to catch her. She didn't tell me what happened between you two, but wanted me to tell you that she loved you."
"Nymphe…said that she loved me?" Jounouchi repeated, clutching his chest. Kaiba must have figured everything else by now, so why would he willingly tell Yugi something like that? Maybe he was just using Yugi as a pawn, taking advantage of his personality to pass his little messages on.
"She said that she would come back to the guild and raid with us if you talked to her," the spiky-haired boy went on, "But I'm not sure if she'll be online or what. If you had her phone number, or knew where she lived or something…"
"I'm not going to speak to her, end of story," Jou flatly asserted. He looked at Yugi's amethyst eyes, and changed the subject; "Yug, I'm sorry about earlier…I'm not sure what got into me."
"It's all right, Jounouchi," he assured him, "You've been really worked up about everything since that night."
"Oh…you remember that night?" Jou blushed, recalling how Yami had shoved his tongue down his throat.
"No, I was blocked out, if that makes sense," Yugi blushed back, but not for the same reason Jou was.
"Good." The blonde breathed a sigh of relief; the imaginary awkwardness had weighed him down for almost four days.
"Good?"
Uh oh. He really needed to learn when to keep his mouth shut. He stuttered, "Umm, yeah, well you know how the other Yugi can be…" Yugi just blinked, waiting for more. Jou waved his hand in front of him nervously and said, "Never mind!"
"Okay, well I'm going to sleep now," the clueless boy announced, "I was up early today."
Jounouchi acknowledged that and figured he could log in to the game. Maybe he'd be able to pick up a cleric or at least a few healers for the guild.
Login Name: jouk01
Password: xxxxx
Loading world files…
You have entered Laen!
"Look at who decided to come to the defense of his town, Molt."
Jou spun his character around to load his surroundings faster, and saw Moltaenya and Heretyc standing at the front gate of Laen. As usual, their arms were crossed in a rather arrogant fashion. It was yet another one of the classic Demise run-ins.
"What are you two doing here?" he questioned. Dark elves normally had horrible faction with the Laen guards, and couldn't enter the town safely or else the guards would gang up on them and attack.
"Killing guards," Moltaenya churlishly answered. The guards were level sixty, and had a high defense rating, especially against magic. They were rarely attacked for several reasons. Each guard was linked to two others within their call range, so single pulling was difficult until the spawn times were broken up so much that only one guard of the triad would be up at a time.
"Just the two of you?" the human wondered, "What about the people in the town who need to run to guards when a monster is attacking them?" Joukatsu had to do this a few times himself; it always sucked when one of the guards was on patrol or stuck in a strange glitch.
"Of course," Heretyc rhetorically replied, "It isn't that much of a surprise. Besides…"
"The guards drop these great little signet rings that low level players would pay tons of money to have," the blue-skinned warrior twirled her sword around in a circle, "Too bad for Radiant Eclipse, though…Only the guards on the Laen Armory faction have them. You punks wouldn't be able to use your guildhall anymore." The two ladies snickered before Heretyc ran off to pull another guard.
Jounouchi sat back in his chair and watched them kill the guard. They boasted about finding yet another ring, then pulled another. However, this one, Guard Galen, was taking forever to kill. Moltaenya was landing every hit, and doing nearly two hundred damage per swipe. This was above average for warriors at level sixty, mostly because she was using a one-handed sword; usually only a two-handed weapon was heavy enough to cripple a monster so badly. However, this guard was being persistent in holding on to life.
"'Bout time they paid you guys back," he commented, "This bud's health ain't goin' down an inch!"
"Shut up," Moltaenya barked at him, wildly swinging her sword. She seemed to be at the top of the guard's hate list, as he was focusing on killing her.
"I don't understand, Molt," Heretyc stated, perplexed. She stopped attacking to summon a skeletal pet, then began casting another spell after that. She transferred some of her own life; little by little as she was only a hybrid; to Moltaenya. It was futile.
"I know," the leader remarked, "We killed this one three times already."
"Perhaps that's because I've been healing him," a female voice interrupted. Jou didn't bother to turn and see who it was as he already knew who could be behind something like this.
"How is that possible?" the dark knight wondered.
"Read the manual, wench," Nymphe suggested, "It states right there, that the only NPCs which may be affected by healing or other beneficial spells and effects are guards which protect the root towns that each player starts in." Jou expected as much from Kaiba, even though to him, it was a pretty cool thing to do.
"Why are you doing something like this?" the warrior flashed her crimson eyes at the cleric.
"To annoy you," the elf answered, "And also to make sure the low level players can be protected. It is my duty as a priestess of the dragon deity."
"Whatever, we have what we need," Heretyc retorted, casting a spell which caused many small skulls to appear around Guard Galen. He started running toward the town in fear.
"It's too bad that my jewel craft skill is high enough to make rings which are better than those measly signets you've been looting," Nymphe sympathized with them as they turned heel for the zone line. "I can create them for only a fraction of the cost…so good luck trying to find a player willing to buy your loot." The evil elves glared at the cleric in disgust and quickly walked for the zone line.
"Typical of you," Joukatsu muttered once they were alone.
"They were causing problems," the brunette defended.
"You're causing problems," he childishly spat back.
"I told Yugi that I would come back if we could talk."
"I knew that you had figured it out, and used him to play messenger boy," the blonde snarled, "You're just a high-class jerk."
Nymphe tells you, 'I'm sorry, Jounouchi.'
"Those words might mean something if you weren't using your computer as a shield," Jou replied, switching off the computer without even logging out. He didn't care if his progress hadn't been saved, it wasn't like he had done anything of importance when he logged in anyway.
The room was fairly dark now, so he got undressed as silently as possible. He climbed over Yugi, hoping not to accidentally crush any of his friend's tiny limbs.
"You're mad…" the other boy in the bed observed. Of course he was! Kaiba was a complete jerk; he couldn't make up for everything so easily. Maybe not at all.
"I thought you were sleeping, did I wake ya up when I climbed in?" he asked.
"Oh, you didn't wake me up. I was already awake." The innuendo in the voice tipped Jounouchi off. It was the other Yugi, and he seemed to be ignoring Honda's warning. The question was, did Jou care in his angry state?
It certainly would be an interesting way of getting back at Kaiba, even if he didn't know it. He tried to shake the thought out of his mind. It was Yugi's body, and using it as a pawn would be something Seto Kaiba would do, not Katsuya Jounouchi.
"Honda really doesn't need to find out, does he?" Yami seductively whined, placing a hand on his friend's exposed stomach. The touch caused Jou to flinch a bit, even though he expected it. The hand began sliding up and down his ribs, and eventually cupped him on his back.
"Yugi…" Jou whispered, "I don't think that this is a good idea…" He tried to turn over to his other side, but Yami forcefully held him down. He whimpered in his head, hoping that he would have the willpower necessary to withstand the advances.
"Oh, I think that it is a wonderful idea, Jounouchi," Yami insisted, "You're lonely, I want you, and here we both are in this bed." The spirit certainly did make a good point, backed by some really good persuasive moves. The manner in which his eyes spoke to him was rather convincing on top of all of that.
"Come on, Jounouchi…" Yami teased, unbuttoning his pajama top and casting it to the floor. He leaned back down and pressed himself against the blonde's chest, pushing him onto his back.
"It's not right, Yugi," Jou uttered. His body wasn't listening to his brain, so his words were contradicting what his busy hands were doing. He was holding Yami down instead of pushing him away.
"I told you before…" the anxious boy whispered, centimeters from the blonde's ear, "I'm not Yugi!" He swiftly proved that by nipping at the ear gently.
"Uhnn…stop," Jou moaned through the tense air. Much to his surprise, Yami actually complied and propped himself up, still lurking over him. He stared at him, waiting for a reason.
"You don't want this?" the multi-colored hair boy blinked.
"No…I do, but not for good reasons, and I am not even sure what 'this' is anyway…" He was hoping that it was only some minor groping and kissing, and not something Otogi-ish, just in case he did give in sometime over the night. The blonde slowly dropped his hands off of Yugi's back; "Can we just go to sleep?" He had gotten himself out of this one, hopefully. He couldn't just do something so immoral; it was his friend's body but not his friend in it, not to mention that for some unknown reason, he was still harboring feelings for Seto.
"All right, Jounouchi." Yami dismounted him, chest still bare, and went to rest on his side of the bed.
How would Jou explain the missing pajama top to Yugi in the morning?
I hope everyone enjoyed that little filler chapter. I'm curious to know if anyone has caught a running joke about patch fixes (and patches not always fixing a bug that they claim to be fixing). It may have looked like an inconsistency at first, but I assure everyone that it was definitely a jab at MMORPGs (those of you who have played these kinds of games should get it). =)
One chapter left.
Yami - I have to clear this one up here.
Throughout the story, we gradually learn that Yugi has feelings for Jounouchi, but we don't know how deep they run (unfortunately, this has nothing to do with Yami's own feelings). Somewhere in the beginning of the fic, Jounouchi makes reference to loving the confident look in Yami's eyes, of course we still don't understand why. It's -very- lightly implied that Yami has always looked at him in that way (very lightly). Now, in Chapter 8, there is a reference to Yami's true feelings. Jou is in the changing booth, and Yami pokes his head on. Jou scolds him, and Yami informs him that he wished that he had waited until Jou had his pants completely off.
All questions regarding my side story (referring to Yami) will be answered in third installment of said story. =)
-Zelia Theb