Negative Chaos

by High Crystal Guardian

*Sequel to Shadow Turned Light* The Shadow Realm's power is growing too high for the Realm to hold, and now it's magic is overflowing into Yugi's Realm. He tries to stop the magic, but can't...so a few old friends come through from the N. Realm to help...

7. Light's Blade

HCG: *stares at computer*

Kaze: o_O What is it?

HCG: I...I...I've beaten "Shadow Turned Light" in review amounts and word counts!

Kawari:.....Hey, you just made rhyme.

Kaeru: ¬_¬;; Everybody just take note of how observant my hikari is.

Kawari: Watch it _;;

Kaiba: *sighs* So how exactly have you beaten "Shadow Turned Light?"

HCG: I have almost 70 reviews for this story....and I'm not even HALFWAY through the fic! And as for length, well, I know at this point I'm a little past 100 pages on the computer...translating that to your average paperback, that's more than 200 pages....and I'll say again, I'm NOT EVEN HALFWAY through this story!

Kaiba:......woah.

HCG: ^_^ I haven't scared any of you readers off now, have I?

Kawari: *blinks* *looks around* Nope....don't think so. They're hooked, now.

HCG: Good! *looks at Kawari* Oh, by the way, what'd you guys do with NR Yami?

Kaeru: Well.....after some resistance from him--

Kawari: -_-;; In which I managed to get almost Mind Crushed again!

Kaeru: *continues* We managed to chain him up in the corner until Yugi could heal him again.

Kawari: NO THANKS TO YOU, HCG!

Kaeru: Yeah, but we did have help from Trinity Star, who beat the crud out of NR Yami with a frying pan in her review o_O;;

HCG:.....I see......

Kaze: Well, introduce your guest, HCG.

HCG: Oh, right! We've brought Bakura in today, just for the hell of it.

Bakura: *glares angrily at Kaeru & Kawari* For the HELL OF IT?! This chapter sucks! I demand you re-write it!

HCG: No.

Bakura: YES!

HCG: No. Shut up. I'm starting to answer reviews now.

Bakura: *wanders into a corner and mutters angrily*

Silver Angel ~ ^_^ You liked my action scene? Sweet! I was hoping I wrote that whole "Swordstalker attack" correctly, and apparently I did. Wheee! I'm glad you're getting used to the names, too--I told everyone they'd sink in after a chapter or two. As for your "will the clues follow the same format?" question--if you mean the same poetic rhyme scheme/style, well, yeah. The Challenges may not necessarily be the same, though. And I did list each and every scroll's Element in chapter Five, though you may not have known that yet. Anyway. Yeah.

Daricio ~ Ah, I understand why you write a lot now. I don't mind anyway; I enjoy the more involved reviews more than the simple, one-sentence "repeated phrase" ones. (Though any type of review is accepted, XD) Yup, Ryou has a sister, though only mentioned in the manga (and I think she was dead too x_X don't trust me on that though). She's not coming into this story, though perhaps I'll write a side-thing about her later. Okay, changing gears. Sure you can use the "Yami/Yugi/Puzzle separating concept." I don't mind at all; it's just a little idea I came up with and threw in at the last moment. As for Ryou, I understand now--nope, not a chatterbox, but he'll be important later, don't worry. And I understand about your lack of useful vocabulary so late at night--in fact, I'm honored you'd stay up that late to read my story ^_^ You've got spring break? Damn, I don't have it for another week -_-;; I'm glad I write in an easy-to-visualize way as well ^_^ And my homework has not gone away, but there is considerably less, so....yeah. *looks over everything she's just said* o_O Looooots of woooooords....

Silver Fang ~ Kaiba: o_O;; MY BANNERS! NYAH!

HCG: o_O;; Oookay...you liked my combat scenes too? Most people that reviewed have seemed too...weird *blinks* You like the longness? ^_^ Goodies!

Trinity Star ~ Why, thank you for beating the snot out of my adorable psycho Negative Pharaoh ^_^ And the Plot Tranquilizer should come in handy too. And WOW, that's a strong frying pan....o_O;;

Wingleader Sora Jade ~ Okay, I'm gonna answer both your review for "Shadowed Souls" and your review for last chapter here. Firstly, chapter 6's review. Yup, this would be the Kawari-centered chapter, and I think you're going to enjoy it. A lot. ^_^ As for which Scroll comes next, you'll see in a minute. And...Kawari fan-art? ^___^ Yay! Unfortunately, I have the same scanner problem...but I still enjoy the idea of having other people drawing Kawari fan art, even if I can't SEE it. (x_X and remember that "Ryou-in-a-ponytail" piccie I said I was gonna draw for you waaaaaaaay back when? I STILL don't have a scanner for me to get it online with -_-;;) Now for your other review--you brought up an interesting point, about Amane. Yes, she is still alive. So is Kawari's mother, like you said. His dad, as pointed out in "Shadowed Souls," is most likely dead. Now, remember in some chapter in Shadow Turned Light, when the whereabouts of Mai, Tea, and Serenity are explained? Kaeru/NR Bakura explains that Kawari/NR Ryou sent the girls to Great Britain, where he had acquaintances. Guess who those "acquaintances" were? Bingo! Mother and sister ^_^ And on the side--Kawari and Amane don't get along very well o_O;;

Kawari: *grumbles irritably*

HCG: -_-;; As for your side-story idea, well, I'm actually debating whether to do a "sequel to the sequel" after this, (a trilogy, you might say), but I'm not sure. If I do, though, I was planning to incorporate those ideas in there--so once again, we think alike ^_^;; And yeah, the characters nobody knows about are always fun to like--especially when you give them the spotlight. That's always a plus.

HCG: ANYWAY. That would be the end of the individual reviews. A general note to all--the next clue is nearly at the beginning of this chapter, but that doesn't mean you don't get to guess and try to figure out what it is! When you review (which you will, of course, be doing), tell me if you got right or wrong, and what your idea was if it's the latter. I love to hear each person's ideas! ^_^

Kaeru: Okay, okay, just get to the story.

HCG: Fine, but you must do the Disclaimer.

Kaeru: *sighs* HCG does not own Yu-Gi-Oh or it's characters, plots, etc. Neither does she own the Seven Elements, which are actually Wingleader Sora Jade's (though the Scrolls are HCG's). The personalities of the Negatives, as well as the plot and histories, belong to HCG. Do not take them unless you have ASKED first. Or HCG will unleash the Almighty Keyboard on you. And believe me, that thing is hard and it hurts.

HCG: Woot! Okay, people, on to the chapter!

Notes:

Kaeru ~ NR Bakura

Kawari ~ NR Ryou

Kaze ~ NR Kaiba

Saguru ~ NR Joey

Italicized words are thoughts or dreams/memories

'word' ~ Thought-link words between a Negative and a True

Do I have anything to say? Hmmm....nope. *watches readers cheer happily at not having to listen to HCG babble on* *sniffs* I'm hurt...*sticks out tongue at readers and stalks off*

Negative Chaos

Chapter 7: Light's Blade

For a good ten seconds after Yugi's announcement, the entire group was silent, the only sounds filling the air consisting of the birds chirping happily in the air. After those few seconds had passed, however, the air erupted into boiling, intermingling sounds of chaos.

"Well? Read it!" Tristen yelled over the roar of the group, though others asked nearly the same thing in softer tones. The thought-links between Negative and True beings were buzzing rapidly, with strong emotions crashing through the Realms' block to settle firmly in their opposites' heads.

"Quiet down!" Kaze managed to roar over the crowd, his commanding tone strong and steady. The rest of the group slowly fell into a silent state once more, jaws clamped shut so as to allow Yugi to read.

Taking a deep breath, the young Hikari scanned the clue once more and spoke, though slowly. "It's a riddle, like the last clue. Here it is:

The Second you seek, my clue you hear,

I alone breed death and fear

Weapons chime and slash and scare,

Terror builds upon the air.

Blood is spilled and falls unchecked

Onto ground, battered and wrecked.

Grass once green and standing tall

All along the fields, now falls.

The woodland watchers--my pain they spy;

In desperation they bend and cry."

Yugi fell silent, but no voice broke the stillness to volunteer an answer. Finally, after several minutes, Mokuba spoke slowly. "I don't have a clue what it means. Anybody else have any ideas?"

The others, save Joey, nodded slowly. The blonde teen, however, was running over the speech that Kaze had made earlier without understanding what he had spoken. Thinking quickly, he thought over one of the last of the Negative Seto's sentences. Desire, War, Passion, Hatred, Fate, Death, and Time. We've already gotten Desire, so this Scroll has to be pointing out one of the other six Elements. Slowly, he ran over the clues given in the poem, comparing each of them to the Element they might be indicating.

After several minutes, he thought he came up with a match. "I think I've figured out the first part, guys," he muttered quickly, breaking the silence with his strong Boston accent.

Kaiba looked as though he was trying hard to suppress an insult, but he did it, with some difficulty. Instead, he asked slowly, "Really, Wheeler? What is it, then?"

The True blonde thought carefully before speaking. "I think the first half of the poem is pointing out which Scroll we're searching for. And I think it might be War."

Yami's face held a look of confusion, but also one of deep thinking. "How so?"

"Just look at the descriptions," Joey said quickly, waving his hand in the direction of the slip of paper. "The descriptions seem to fit War perfectly. The first line is just a give-away saying we're looking for our second Scroll, but here," he added enthusiastically, tapping the small slip of parchment, "is where it begins to become important. 'I alone breed death and fear.' What else but a War could cause such things?"

"Quite a bit could, Joey," Kaeru said calmly, "But you're right, a war is the most wide-scaled spread of terror and death that I could think of. What about the next lines?"

Saguru answered for his True self, catching on quickly. "Oh, I get it. 'Weapons chime and slash and scare, terror builds upon the air.' It makes sense, when you think about it--slash and scare, those are definitely blades, so it's not a high-tech war, but still....and in a war, terror will build, the terror that you could die at any moment. Or that you could kill others at any moment." He frowned slightly before adding, "Us Opposition agents ought to know that."

Joey ignored the cold statement with a slight shudder as he continued. "Right. And the next lines fit the Element too--'Blood is spilled and falls unchecked, onto ground, battered and wrecked.' In a war, blood does fall without anybody caring to stop it; they're too busy. And the battle ground would be destroyed as well from so much movement on it."

"It does seem sensible," Tea said carefully, though not without a bit of shame at the prospect of war in her voice. "Any ideas about the last four lines?"

"Well..." the blonde teen muttered, drawing out the word as his mind sought an answer. After a few seconds he finished his sentence slowly. "No, I've got no ideas for that."

Kaze sighed, shifting on the hard ground as he walked. The group had taken to one of the many hikers' paths, and were currently traveling down the mountain back to his opposites' two helicopters. "Well, anybody else have any ideas? Because I sure don't."

"Er...well..." Ryou muttered slowly, glancing around at the rest of the group. No one had noticed his zoned-out look a second before besides Kaeru, so therefore no one but the Negative spirit knew that he had gone into a deep concentration to use his mind link.

"What? Have an idea?" Kaiba asked, whirling on the white haired teen quickly.

"Um...well...not me, exactly," the True Ring bearer murmured, almost too quiet to hear. He took a deep breath before speaking rapidly. "Bakura knows the answer."

Kaeru focused a level, emotionless gaze on his opposite Light. "Bakura." He spat his own name as if it was a curse, glaring at the Ring on Ryou's chest with distasteful anger.

Ryou nodded weakly in reply. "Yeah. He's been bonded with me for a while now--seeing and hearing everything I do. He listened to the second Verse, too."

"Really." Kaeru's voice took on a rather cold tone, and his eyes intensified to frozen orbs of fire and ice. "And what, may I ask, are you doing letting him bond with you?"

The True hikari blinked in surprise and stuttered in his reply at the spirit's inquiry and harsh tone, despite the fact that he knew the thief was kinder. "I...I thought since...since he's part of this world too, I figured....that he should be involved in the search. So he could help if he had to."

'Yeah, right,' Kawari's strong thought muttered, crashing abruptly into his head. 'More like so he could destroy it if he wanted to.' Ryou shot his opposite a quick look, to which the Negative cringed apologetically.

Kaeru, meanwhile, had replied in a regular tone, removing the harshness from his voice as he heard Ryou's stammering. "You trust him too much. Then again, you can't hear his thoughts either, or know nearly as much about him as I do." He shook his head irritably before continuing. "Still, the answer to the riddle isn't an opportunity to pass up, no matter where the information comes from. So, what's the answer then?"

The white-haired teen frowned in reply. "Well, see, that's the problem. He....won't tell me."

"What?!" Eleven other angry voices yelped at the same time. "Why not?"

Ryou shrugged in reply. "He does that....I don't know why."

Kaeru, however, hissed the answer. "He's trying to be difficult," he snapped angrily. "Trying to get back at me and my aibou." He snarled slightly as he spoke again. "I'll fix that. Get him out here."

The True Ring bearer blinked, confused. "What?"

"Get him out here. I want to talk to him. Now."

The teen looked a little surprised, but nodded quickly. "Right." He closed his eyes and concentrated.

At first, nothing happened, and the wind slipping through the trees could be the only sound heard. However, after several more seconds, the Millennium Ring began to glow; the air, soon after, began to solidify, and in less than a minute a new figure stood there. It was Bakura, undoubtedly, from his devil-horned silver hair to his sinister grin and haunting, deadly eyes.

"Why, what on earth would you want with me, Kaeru?" He asked tauntingly, his grin widening as he faced his opposite.

"You damn well know," the Negative thief snapped back, ignoring the mocking way in which his new name was said. "You're playing a dangerous game, you idiot, and you're dancing with cobras. If you don't look out, you're going to get bitten."

"I'll take the chance," Bakura replied lazily, not paying attention to any of the other people around him besides his opposite and the two versions of Ryou.

"You're really willing to?" Kaeru hissed, his voice low.

"Indeed."

The opposite tomb robber took a step forward, cracking his knuckles in reflex. "Well then, let me tell you this--we need the answer to that last half of the riddle, or that venom will be flowing through your veins so fast you won't know what hit you." The command in his voice was obvious, and there was no hint of begging whatsoever.

The True Ring spirit, however, simply laughed. "Really? But what would possibly want to make me help you?"

"Perhaps saving the existence of this Realm would be a good enough reason?"

"Do you think I really care about all of these pathetic mortals?"

Kaeru growled, and changed his direction of attack lightning quick. "Okay then, you want to be tough, let me put it a different way for you. You want the Millennium Items, yes?" Bakura nodded, dark grin spreading on his face, and his opposite continued. "And you want to rule the world once you have them, am I correct?" Another nod. "Good, I thought as much. It was easy enough to figure out--if I want to protect the world, then you very well would want to control it. Fine then." He leaned close to his True self, bringing his face so close that the spirits' noses nearly touched, and hissed angrily, "If you do not give us the answer to the last half of that riddle, there will be no Millennium Items for you to capture. There will be no world for you to rule. And there will be no you to control with. So I would advise that you aid us without question. Got it?"

"Do you think you intimidate me?" Bakura hissed back, a growl forming low in his throat. "Let me change your mind for you then--you don't." Kaeru looked as if he was ready to leap at the True thief's throat, but before such an action could happen, the tomb robber continued. "I'll help you, but only because I'd like to have enough time to destroy the Pharaoh and all of his pathetic friends myself. I don't want the Shadow Realm doing it for me." His dark grin widened, showing his pointed teeth, and he stood with his arms crossed, looking completely laid back.

Kaeru, in response to his opposite's statement, snorted loudly but said nothing. Ryou, instead, stepped forward, coming to stand between the two yami spirits somewhat nervously. "Okay, Bakura....so what's the answer?"

The tomb robber stepped back a pace, as if withdrawing in disgust from his lighter half, and answered the question while glaring disdainfully at the other two spirits present. "The last four lines talk of a field surrounded by a forest."

"Good," Kawari said easily, arms crossed in a near-imitation of the True Ring spirit, his darker clothes and right-handed black glove giving him just as much a powerful air as the yami. "Now explain how you got it."

"If you need me to explain it to you idiots," Bakura said with a sneer, "then I will. 'Grass once green and stretching tall, all along the fields, now falls.' The answer to that is right within the lines, you fools--the word 'fields' is obvious there, and the rest of the two lines give one the idea that it is a larger field than most." His dark eyes glittered in triumph as he gazed at the others around him. "And as for the line after--'The woodland watchers--my pain they spy.' Woodland watchers obviously indicates a forest; what else could describe trees?" He spoke as if he was the superior and the rest of the group consisted insignificant weaklings that should have known better. "The last line doesn't make sense to me, but it's not as if it matters. You idiots will probably stumble on the answer just like you did last time with your pretty stone dragon." Explanation finished, the spirit snapped his mouth shut, satisfying himself by glaring daggers at the others around him--particularly Kaeru, Kawari, and Yami, though Ryou received quite a few burning stares as well.

Yami nodded his agreement slowly, after a second's hesitation. "He's right. It does make sense; even better is the concept within the location. A field is often the scene of battle."

Kaiba spoke up slowly. "There's one problem," he said carefully, frowning.

"What?"

"There are at least three forest-surrounded fields located around Domino city. One is to the South, the other West, and third Southeast. All three are relatively close to Domino, but still, it may take a while to search out each area."

"We have to search all of them, though, at least until we find the location of this next Scroll...the Scroll of War," Kaze argued.

"And how do you expect to go about doing that?" his opposite snapped back irritably.

"Simple," the Blue Eyes replied. "We'll split up into two groups again. One half of us will take one helicopter and fly to one of the fields. The other half will head to another field. If either of us finds something, we'll radio the other group and tell them to meet up at the designated field. If nothing is found, we'll both head to the last field at the same time. Make sense?"

"I suppose," Kaiba muttered back. "It's a plan, anyway, and it's more than I've got."

The group returned to their travel down the mountain-side, eagerness restored now that they had some idea of their next destination. Twelve of them clustered together in various groups; Bakura, however, walked behind the group, separated and a little off to the side, and nursing his newfound hate for Kawari. The spirit had decided not to return to his soul room, but rather to follow the rest of the group around, hoping eventually to find some point in which to gain his revenge.

After another ten minutes had passed, Yugi suddenly stopped, frowning. "Wait a minute," he said suddenly. "What do we do with the Scroll we already have?"

Yami stared down at the rolled parchment clutched in his fist, also frowning. "An interesting question. We should designate someone to be in charge of carrying the Scrolls, so as to be sure we won't loose them." Yugi nodded in agreement, as did the rest of the group, and so the Pharaoh began to speak again. "If no one minds, I could always carry--"

Kaeru broke in quickly. "No offense, Pharaoh," he said, voicing the title respectfully, "but I would have to object to that." Yami raised an eyebrow, and the Negative tomb robber continued, explaining his interruption. "You see, though I understand that we are allies, and that we're starting to get along...I cannot ignore my memories of you in my Realm. I still can't trust you with such a powerful magical object, no matter how kind you are in any Realm."

Yami sighed. "I understand," he said, his tone low. Seeing the question in Kaeru's eyes, however, he spoke again. "I, however, share the same distrust. I do not think either of us should be the keeper of the Realm Scrolls."

"Agreed."

Kawari broke in abruptly. "Well," he said evenly, giving his own suggestion, "Why don't you give the Scrolls to the old Scroll Keeper?" He jerked his gloved hand in the direction of Kaze, who grimaced slightly. Kaiba, suddenly realizing what the sentence meant, widened his eyes in shock and blinked quickly to return his face to it's normal, emotionless expression. Yugi and Yami, too, seemed to know the meaning of the statement, as both wore twin expressions of understanding.

Kaeru, however, nodded. "Not a bad idea," he said calmly, turning to Yami again. "If you have no objection....?"

Yami shook his head. "None."

Kaze sighed, rolling his eyes slightly. "Fine then. If it's what the group decides on, I will personally look after the Scrolls while we search for the others." There were no other arguments among the group, so the Opposition leader accepted the Scroll of Desire from Yami and placed it in a deep pocket within his trench coat. Those not used to him stared in shock at the fourteen-odd knives thrust in small sheaths on the insides of his coat, but the Negatives--and Yugi--thought nothing of them.

The group continued walking, and a few minutes later, they reached the clearing that the helicopters had been left in. After some talk, the group split up into two; Kaze, Joey, Saguru, Yami, Yugi, and Tristen headed in the direction of one helicopter while Kaiba, Mokuba, Tea, Ryou, Kawari, Bakura, and Kaeru moved off to the second.

Within moments, the two flight units had lifted off once more, rising high into the air with destinations in mind. Kaiba, after some conversing with his opposite, headed in the direction of the Western field, while Kaze's helicopter split off and headed to the Southeast one.

The rides were uneventful, each roughly forty-five minutes long, and eventually both groups radioed each other to let the others know they had landed. Soon after, the search began, with each group spreading out it's members and searching amongst the fields and the edges of the trees.

Roughly ten minutes into the search, Kaze's group began to chatter absent-mindedly as they looked. They weren't exactly sure what they were searching for, but nevertheless went at it with a will, glancing around carefully for any unusual details that would give away the Scroll of War's location. Kaze soon found himself in a conversation with Saguru, Yami and Joey listening on as they looked.

"I can't believe how long this has been taking," Saguru muttered, looking around the fringes of the trees. "I mean, it took us more than two hours just to find the first Scroll, and we've got six more to go."

"I'm more worried about how the Opposition will be running without me," Kaze muttered darkly, sighing and rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache. "They're bound to notice we're gone soon."

"I don't think it's that bad. A ton of good agents were left behind, remember. Just because I'm second in the whole organization doesn't mean they won't turn to others if they discover you're gone."

"Only because you're gone too, you know." Kaze sighed again, sweeping the field with his eyes as the wind brushed his silver-and-blue flame pattered trench coat, making the fire look as if it was really dancing. He frowned slightly. "No, I wouldn't be worried if it was a regular day, but since we left during a raid....there'll be chaos back there, and it's usually hard to handle."

Yami frowned in concern. "It's really a hard life over there, isn't it?"

"That's an understatement, Pharaoh," Kaze muttered. "Look at me. I'm seventeen, not even out of high school yet, and I'm running an organization that is the only block between the entire takeover of Japan. I could be preventing a World War III in my Realm. So I'm not too happy about leaving the Opposition, even for a little while."

Joey looked shock. "World War III?" He hissed, surprised. "It's that bad?"

"Very much so." This was Saguru. "But don't worry, Kaze, the agents that'll be temporarily in charge are good at this kind of thing. So relax as best as you can; we've got a mission here first."

Kaze, however, frowned. "Wait. Who is being put in charge over there?"

Saguru tilted his head slightly as he thought. "I think Duke's in the next level after me; he's a pretty high agent, started in the Opposition early after he heard the Game Master Yugi died." He frowned slightly, glancing at Yami before continuing. "I think Keith Howard might have a pretty high status too, he might help--"

"Bandit Keith?!" Joey practically yelped, whirling to face his opposite. "What's he doing in the Opposition?!"

Saguru raised an eyebrow at his True self's reaction, but gamely answered the question. "Is that what he calls himself here? Funny. Anyway, Keith's an excellent strategist, and knows how to hit an opponent where it hurts. He's on Kaze here's War Council of Twelve; half the raids and battles we organize have some input from Keith."

Joey looked shocked. "Who's in the rest of the Council?"

Kaze sighed. "Normally, I couldn't tell you, but since you're from a different Realm...I don't count in the council, but the Twelve consist of Saguru here, Kawari, Kaeru, Malik Ishtar, Isis Ishtar, Rishid, Duke Devlin, Keith Howard, Pegasus, Rex Raptor, Weevil Underwood, and Mako Tsunami. A gathering of the greatest strategists that's ever been brought together, and each has won us a stunning advance in our fight against the Hand of the Shadow."

The True blonde looked shocked. "Wow. And half of those guys were our enemies, too." His thoughts dwindled in particular over Malik and Pegasus, though he forgot them soon enough.

Kaze opened his mouth to respond, but at that moment Yugi and Tristen trotted up. "No good," the taller, brunette teen muttered, shaking his head. "There's nothing here."

The Opposition leader sighed. "Very well," he murmured, though slowly. "I'll radio the other group and tell them about our findings...or rather, lack of them." This said, he detached a small communicator from his belt and spoke into it, following through with what he had said.

Some miles Northwest of them, Kawari received the message on the other end of the communicator, sighing as he heard Kaze's relation of events. He delivered it to the rest of the group, which had gathered around him (with the exception of Bakura) when he had turned to speak into the little mini-radio.

"They didn't find anything. They're going to hang around that field until we radio them back with our own findings."

Kaeru shrugged. "One down, two to go."

Becoming more determined at hearing this phrase, the rest of the group split up again, searching the fringes of the forest and looking over the meadowy field for some unusual sign. Ryou, in particular, seemed to be getting deeply involved in the search; it looked as though he was trying to be useful in some way, no matter what. Bakura walked along behind him moodily, not bothering to search at all, but rather keeping an annoyingly firm gaze at the useless sky above him. Kaeru, suspicious, followed along behind his True self, and Kawari therefore found himself tagging along behind the long chain of white-haired beings.

Talk soon began to grow within the field as it had in the first group. Kawari and Kaeru followed along with their spy-like movements, listening to Ryou muttering the verse over and over slowly, and Bakura growling under his breath. The Negative tomb robber, narrowing his eyes, muttered to his black-clad hikari that his opposite's thoughts were becoming more angry--his temper was rising. Apparently, so Kaeru said, he was stewing over his two slightly humiliating losses, both to his Negative and Kawari.

At first, however, this growing temper didn't seem to do much. The True tomb robber seemed to have a fine time stomping several daises out of existence, but eventually he grew bored--daisies didn't fear you when you attacked them, and they rather lost his interest soon enough. His eyes began to focus on his own aibou, his temper rising even more until it was a wonder the nearby trees and bushes didn't catch fire.

His anger soon came into effect, not ten minutes later. As Ryou was running to examine a twisted tree, looking for unusual marks in the bark, he tripped over a tree root. He fell and landed on his stomach, the wind knocked out of him, and he coughed hastily, trying to regain his breath. Bakura, only a few feet away, strode forward and leisurely kicked his aibou in the ribs. "Stand straight, you imbecile," he hissed angrily. Driving another kick into his lighter half's side, he waited impatiently, sharp fingernails digging into his arm from frustration and anger.

Ryou curled up in a ball out of reflex, but after the two kicks had passed and nothing else happened, he looked up at his darker half quizzically. Slowly and shakily, he brought himself to his feet, staring with a mix of fear and confusion at his yami.

Bakura grinned. "Good." Ryou wasn't sure what to think, but suddenly found his thoughts snapping into a firm decision as the tomb robber's hand slapped across his face. It was light, by the thief's standards, but it still hurt considerably. The white-haired teen yelped in pain and recoiled slightly, snapping his eyes shut.

Another blow landed across his other cheek, forcing his head painfully in the other direction. Ryou took a step back, yelping in pain once more, and stared in shock at his yami. He was doing this in broad daylight! Where other people could see!

Bakura must have picked up on his thoughts, because he grinned suddenly. "I know anyone can see. That, my weak hikari, does not matter. I need to vent my anger, and you are perfect to receive it." He smiled darkly again and drew back his fist. Ryou groaned and closed his eyes again, preparing.

The blow never came, however. With an angry shout, someone yelled, "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Stop!"

Whipping his eyes open, Ryou stared in surprise. His Negative was running full-tilt across the meadowy field, black leather jacket flowing out behind him as he ran. He was only fifteen feet or so away, and still yelling angrily. Kaeru was only a few feet behind him, his face harboring steely twin eyes that practically screamed, "outrage!"

"What on earth do you want?" Bakura asked moodily, turning to face the others and leaving his shuddering hikari for the moment.

Kawari came to rest only a few paces away from the True tomb robber, but he showed no fear whatsoever. He snapped angrily, "I told you to stop. Don't argue with me."

Bakura laughed. "Or you'll what?" he sneered, his malicious grin widening. "That yami of yours....my Negative...can't fight me, or we'll both be destroyed. And I doubt that you could do very much to me, you pathetic little mortal."

"I'm telling you right now, nice and simple. Stop. It."

The True Ring spirit laughed. "Hah! Do you think I would listen to you?" still grinning, he turned back to Ryou, drawing back his fist once more and letting the clenched hand fly.

Ryou squeezed his eyes shut, praying that the spirit didn't hit to hard, but he never felt an impact--only a slightly windy feeling, as though someone had run past him quickly. He opened his eyes and stared in shock.

Kawari stood in front of him, back to his True self and facing Bakura with an icy stare. His right, gloved hand was up, wrapped around Baker's wrist with ease and holding the attack at bay, his muscles showing hardly any strain. With a quick jerk, he snapped the spirit's hand down and out of harm's way, twisting it slightly. He spoke, and his voice came out as a hiss. "I said to stop, Bakura. I won't give you another warning."

The spirit growled slightly, though managed to hide his surprise, even keeping it from going through his thought link to Kaeru. The Negative spirit still stood behind him, unable to do anything, but still at the ready.

Growling, Bakura stepped back a step, averting his eyes from his hikari to show his surrender. Or, he thought with a grin, his supposed surrender. Still, he felt angry at having to retreat again--his pride had been wounded, and it only caused his temper to grow stronger. Oh, that upstart hikari was going to get it.

Still fixing him with an icy stare, Kawari turned and led his True self towards his own yami, who was still bristling angrily at seeing himself act in such a way. "You'll hang out with us for now," he said easily, though his distrust for Bakura was evident in his voice.

Ryou sighed, nodding. "I suppose I should."

The rest of the search was uneventful, though Kaeru became increasingly worried for his aibou--or both of them, he thought with a slight grin--as he listened to his True self's dark thoughts. That tomb robber was out for blood, he thought uneasily, and he was determined to get it.

Sighing, Kawari radioed the first group, stating their failed search. Kaze, voice full of static, replied, telling him and the rest of the group to head to the final forest-bordered field in the Southern direction.

That was how, almost a half hour later, the group found themselves landing in the largest field out of all three, glancing quickly over the first helicopter that had reached the field before the others. Piling out of the flight unit, the remainder of the large group moved to meet with their friends in the center of the field, grinning slightly.

"This one has to be it, then," Mokuba said, grinning brightly. Both Kaze and Kaiba grinned at the enthusiastic young one before moving off to search for themselves.

The search didn't seem to be producing anything other than wearing patience, but the group kept at it. They examined trees, bushes, the ground, and several other things besides, though it was hard work. This field, by far, had the most trees surrounding it--even a Weeping Willow, planted at the opposite side of where they stood and swaying slightly in the breeze.

Kaeru and Kawari made sure to stick close to Ryou, though they noticed with a mix of unease and anger that Bakura was never far behind. They were determined not to separate from the True hikari--unfortunately for them, however, this determination was soon broken.

It began when Kaze called the white-haired Negative pair over to examine an unusual detail he had found in the bark of an oak tree. Kawari had nodded quickly, motioned that he would be there soon, and turned to his opposite.

"Come on, let's go."

Ryou nodded. "Right."

The two had started off, Kaeru already halfway to the Opposition leader, when Ryou stopped. He had noticed a scribble in the sandy dirt at his feet, and wondered if it was a symbol to search for, or just a child's doodle. Curious, he knelt down to examine it, Kawari continuing on without noticing the separation.

It was then that Bakura pounced. Moving forward quickly, he lashed out heavily and kicked Ryou square in the chest, knocking the boy over onto his back without the hikari having time to yell out. Without waiting, he snapped a strong punch into the boy's stomach and sent a second to the head before kicking the teen in the ribs again, growling viciously the entire time.

Too late, Kaeru realized his mistake. He whirled, sensing his True self's darkened emotions, and stared in shock as he saw the tomb robber forcefully slapping the defenseless teen before him around. There wasn't much he could do, but....

"Kawari!" he hissed, even as he ran towards the boy already too far away. "Kawari, he's at it again! See if you can stop him!"

Kawari whirled, eyes widening in surprise as he focused on Bakura. He was still too far away to do anything, but he ran back gamely, shouting. "Bakura, damn you! I told you to stop! How hard is it to get that one word through that thick skull of yours?!"

Bakura laughed, staring Kawari down in hatred. "You have no place ordering me around. I am a yami; I am more powerful than you, invincible, immortal. You are lowly, weak, pathetic. So back off."

Kawari had neared the tomb robber and hissed angrily, "You're a fool. You shouldn't make such judgements until you know the person you're dealing with. And you have no right to abuse your hikari! Never!"

Bakura did not take lightly to being insulted in such a way. He growled angrily, pacing forward a few steps towards the Negative hikari. Others, seeing Bakura's actions, had begun to run forward as well, encircling the tomb robber in hopes of stopping him. However, they had no way to predict what would happen next.

With an angry roar, the True Ring spirit lashed out with his hand, slapping Kawari clean across the right cheek and drawing three thin bloody lines with his fingernails.

There was a hushed silence for a few moments, during which nobody moved, or even breathed, beyond Bakura in his temporary form. Kawari kept his head in it's recoiled position, facing left and downward, it's direction caused by the True tomb robber's attack. His bangs blocked his face, but his hands were clenched--whether from fear or anger, one could not say.

All at once, however, Kaeru reached the tight circle. With an angry yell, he leaped forward, hell-bent on beating Bakura to a bloody pulp. He never got to touch the spirit, however--for Kawari shot out his gloved hand, stopping his yami in his tracks. The spirit's eyes glazed slightly as he received what was obviously a mind-link message from his hikari, and what was most likely an order not to attack Bakura. And still, Kawari's head had not come back up.

Then, quite suddenly, the attacked hikari moved. Slowly, ever so slowly, his head raised, coming to a strong-looking, set back position. His bangs had returned to their original places, and his eyes were visible. And his eyes...his eyes were no longer friendly, or innocent. No, they were perfect reflections of the fiery anger in Bakura's own orbs, a focused, deadly anger that, once released, would bring hell on the one facing him.

Very, very slowly, his voice struck the air, cleaving the silence like a knife. "You," he said, his voice harsh, yet ultimately calm, as if he hadn't yet noticed the blood running down his cheek, "have just crossed the line there...Bakura."

The True spirit growled angrily in reply, annoyed at the Negative hikari's unusual reaction. Nevertheless, a slow, grim smile spread across his face, dark and causing his brown eyes to glitter with a malicious light. "Did I?" he asked mockingly, cocking his head to the side lightly in an almost jaunty fashion.

The teen he was talking to, however, had already begun to ignore him--but not the same way that Ryou did. Kawari had raised his voice to a loud, powerful level, and he spoke as his own dark eyes swept over the crowd of eleven around him. "Everyone," he announced calmly, still ignoring the small cuts slashing down his cheek, "I want you to back off. Right now. In a circle; I don't want myself or this idiot here getting out of what's well deserved. And snap to it." This said, he leaned back on his heels calmly, crossing his hands in front of his chest in a completely casual position and fixing Bakura with a perfectly level, emotionless stare.

Saguru and Kaze, both Negatives who knew Kawari quite well, followed the given orders almost instantly, ignoring the fact that they both held a much higher rank in the Opposition than the white-haired teen did, and knowing that the opposite hikari did not really have the authority to give orders to them. They stepped back a good ten paces, forming the small beginnings of a wide circle and standing at the ready. The rest of the group, after a second's hesitation, followed their example and stepped backwards as well, though they fidgeted as if they weren't sure what to do. Only Kaeru did not move, standing at his aibou's side and shooting a dark glare at his opposite.

Kawari didn't even look over his shoulder, but spoke with a strong, ordering tone. "That means you too, yami," he said evenly, no doubt speaking to his darker half. Kaeru growled again, but finally sighed and slid backwards to complete the wide circle, coming to rest only a few paces from Yami.

Kawari now stared across at Bakura, both of them trapped within the ring formed by their friends. His stance was casual, but only a fool would take him for being lazy; he was obviously ready to move at the drop of a hat. "Now," he said calmly, "for you."

Bakura chuckled slightly. He didn't have a clue what this idiot hikari was up to, but he was absolutely certain that whatever it was, he would win. He was already interested, and vaguely curious, at the white-haired Negative's immediate actions, and his eyes flickered momentarily to the ring of teens surrounding him before returning to the Light across from him.

The Negative Ryou continued speaking easily, the ghost of a grim smile playing over his face. "Now," he said easily, "I understand from my True Realm self that you give quite a few 'lessons.'" Though he gave no accusations, it was obvious what the word 'lessons' was supposed to imply.

Bakura grinned sickeningly in reply. He laughed with an almost evil tone, throwing back his head slightly before returning his gaze quite suddenly to his opposite hikari. "You could say that."

"Ah. I see." The words were said with a simple tone of understanding, but Kawari's eyes flashed with anger, unhidden. "Of course. Well, I've never been one to pass up an opportunity at education." He stood straighter, staring Bakura challengingly straight in the eye. "So start teaching."

The True tomb robber raised an eyebrow before breaking into full-throated laughter. "Do you even know what I teach, you fool?" he asked, cracking his knuckles threateningly.

Kawari's eyes glittered brightly, but he only shrugged. "I know quite well," he said easily, showing not one hint of fear, "but if I'm such a weak hikari as you've so often said, then you'd want to fix that, yes? So start teaching." As if giving an invitation, the teen spread his arms wide, his coat rustling slightly as he moved.

Again, the dark spirit laughed, sending shivers down the watcher's spines. Each and every teen, with the exception of the Negatives, was absolutely shocked at what Kawari was saying; Ryou, in particular, was horrified at what his opposite was doing. Bakura, however, was quite interested.

"Very well," he snapped, a growl forming low in his throat. "If you're such a fool, perhaps you do need a lesson." Without warning, he leaped forward, his fist clenched tightly, sharp knuckles at the ready, and with hand drawn back to deliver a full, painful blow.

Kawari did not move, even as he watched the spirit close the distance between them. He kept his position, arms spread, quite calmly, though the confident, grim smile on his face left the stunned watchers quite confused.

Bakura's hand shot forward, lashing out dangerously at Kawari's head--and it was then that the hikari moved. His black-gloved hand plunged into the insides of his dark leather coat, clenching something quickly and withdrawing with lightning speed.

There was a sudden flash of silver steel, a yelp of startled pain, and suddenly Bakura was recoiling backward a step, staring at Kawari with surprise and clutching a shoulder with stiff fingers. A reddish liquid seeped underneath his hand, and farther down his arm another cut sliced cleanly through his skin, allowing blood to pour forth sluggishly.

Kawari, on the other hand, was completely unharmed. His gloved hand was wrapped easily around a long, sharpened blade; on first sight it looked almost like a sword, but after several seconds one would recognize that it was far shorter. The blade was hardly longer than fifteen inches, with the entire weapon a few inches shy of two feet. The hikari's glove--obviously recognized as a fencing glove, now--held a black grip with silver lining in a practiced manner, and the pommel of the blade--a Dirk [1]--formed the shape of that of a cobra's head. Kawari's stance, too, had changed; he no longer looked defenseless and weak, but instead had his feet placed firmly, his weight distributed evenly and his face cold and calculated.

His speed, too, had been quite impressive. Those watching had not had the chance to completely register Kawari's set of moves upon Bakura's attack; they only just now, during the sudden lull, had a chance to pick apart the moves and recognize what the hikari did. The results, when what they had seen had caught up with their minds, were quite impressive. Kawari had jerked out his dirk with remarkable speed, slicing clean upwards to parry the darker thief's punch; once the attacking fist was successfully out of the way, the lighter teen had stabbed outward, thrusting his blade deep into the spirit's shoulder.

Quite evenly the Negative hikari began to speak, as he raised the double-edged blade in his gloved hand to chest level easily. "Tut, tut. Not a very good teacher, are you?"

Bakura growled angrily in response, whipping his bloodied hand away from his stabbed shoulder. It had hurt at first, but now he was far too angry to care about a bit of pain. He said nothing, though, only glared at the hikari across from him in pure hate.

The Light, meanwhile, had continued speaking. "Perhaps the student should give the teacher a few pointers?" he asked, his tone a perfect mask of innocence, though the mocking words stabbed far deeper into the spirit's pride than any dirk ever could. The spirit, as before, hissed his hate, but Kawari ignored him and kept on speaking. "Ah, of course, thank you, oh teacher. Lesson one: never attack an enemy until you know of their weapons and defenses, or you could very well end up dead or injured. 'The Cobra's bite is deadly because one does not notice it's poison until it is too late to be countered.'"

Bakura practically shook with rage, but even in his anger and hate he focused on the blade in Kawari's hand for the first time--in particular, on the silver cobra pommel, the creature's hood flaring out dangerously, with it's fanged mouth open. His efforts to hide his approval of the blade and it's glittering, sharp edge were in vain; he almost nodded as he stared at the perfect little blade in the Light's hand.

Kawari had noticed the spirit's stare, and laughed darkly. "Ah, so you've noticed my little beauty here, have you?" He fingered the cross guard at the base of the blade absent-mindedly with his gloved hand, which was beautifully carved with the coils of the cobra that formed to pommel. He continued speaking, his own pride evident in his voice. "It's a very useful blade; it has earned it's name--Gin Hebi." The name seemed to interest Bakura, but the spirit wisely said nothing. Kawari now took to stroking the cobra-pommel's silvery head, even as he hissed his next words. "My yami gave this to me, you know. He gave me a very interesting bit of advice on the day I received it. Do you know what it is?" The tomb robber opposite him shook his head, still glaring darts at the lighter teen, but Kawari seemed to be enjoying what he was saying and continued, ignoring the spirit's glare. "I'll tell you, then. I believe his exact words were: 'This is your protection, your weapon, the cobra your blade guide. It enjoys the taste of the blood of it's enemies. Feed it well.'" His grin grew wider, his eyes darker. "I think I'll follow his advice right now."

Bakura's eyes hardened. "As if you even know how to use a blade of that strength. You may have gotten a lucky attack in on me before, but you won't last five minutes against me now."

"Do you doubt my skill with a blade?" Kawari asked quietly, not once dropping his ready stance.

"Very much so."

"You'll just have to see for yourself what I know and what I don't, then."

The ancient thief grinned. "Very well."

There was almost no movement for nearly ten seconds as the dark spirit and his lighter opponent faced each other; Kawari stood perfectly still, his ready position having dropped to that of a guard stance, the blade held out in a ready fashion, but also close enough to defend should he have to. Bakura, too, stood still, only flexing his muscles in readiness as he prepared to attack.

Abruptly, the stillness was broken as the ancient thief began to move forward swiftly. He had to be careful, he knew; though he doubted his opponent's ability with a blade was very great, he still had no intention of being cut by accident. He planned to only test this Negative Ryou's abilities first, to search for a weakness, and then to strike there.

Without warning, he snapped his fist outward, aiming straight for the opposite's head. Quick as lightning, Gin Hebi rose, it's flat blade pressing hard against the side of Bakura's wrist. With a flick, it batted the momentum-propelled arm to the side, moving it completely off course with ease. Kawari's face looked quite calm, as if he hadn't yet noticed that somebody had just tried to attack him, yet from his movements he obviously did. With another swift movement, the blade flickered again, and it's point was aimed quite suddenly at Bakura's forehead.

Wanting to avoid being skewered through his head, the spirit quickly backed up a pace, thinking carefully. From the looks of it, this Negative light had quick reflexes and some defensive skill--that, and he knew how to reposte [2] at the right point and time, valuable knowledge. Still deep in thought, the spirit turned his point of attack, this time forcing his opponent to move so as to see how well his cadence [3] was--something that could well be taken advantage of, if it lacked proper even weight distribution and equal steps.

Moving forward with quite a bit of speed and momentum, Bakura tried menacing his opponent quickly, forcing him to move and keep his guard in all directions at once. He was annoyed to find that Kawari's guard stance was perfect, as was his movements, and he kept an eye on his attacker at all times. Growling, the ancient tomb robber found himself coming one step to close.

With absolutely no sound at all, Kawari lunged forward, propelling his front leg towards his opponent while keeping his back leg still. His dirk sliced forward through the air, slashing rapidly and skillfully across his opponent's chest; within seconds, a gash in both fabric and skin had opened across Bakura's upper torso, shallow but painful. Before the spirit could even retaliate, however, the Negative teen had already withdrawn, sliding back into his guard stance gracefully, Gin Hebi's point aimed directly for the darker being's chest once again.

With a hiss of pained surprise, the spirit pulled backward as well, not allowing himself to press a hand to his newly-bloodied chest for fear of showing signs of weakness. His temper began to rise; when Kawari spoke, it only added to his anger.

"And here's lesson two: don't step into you're opponent's territory when they have the Right of Way [4]--you're bound to get hurt, in that case." The Negative smirked slightly, his blade still held levelly and without one hint of fear.

Bakura growled angrily as the words seeped into his registration. He had been insulted, again...this hikari was going to pay tenfold when he lost. He's seriously starting to piss me off. I think I might just have to teach him a little lesson of my own....

His next actions decided, he slowly reached into his back pocket. The knife he'd been using on Ryou earlier should have still been there, and he could end this little fight fairly quickly with the aid of a weapon. But he blinked in surprise as his hands clenched around empty space in his pocket--the knife was gone.

"Looking for this?" Kawari asked smoothly. Bakura snapped his head up and stared in surprise at the pocket-knife held in the opposite teen's non-gloved hand. It glittered slightly in the sun-light, it's blade quite noticeable.

"How did you...?" The spirit began, staring at the blade unblinkingly.

The white-haired teen shrugged in reply. "I figured you would try to fight dirty against somebody here eventually, so I took the liberty of removing it from your pocket when I forced you to give up your hold on Ryou in the mountains." He grinned slightly. "You have to learn to fight with honor, you know. Planning to stab me in the back?" He shook his head mockingly, tutting, before tossing the blade over his shoulder to his own yami. Kaeru, surprisingly, grasped the blade and began sharpening his fingernails on it in an almost bored fashion.

Bakura growled. "It doesn't matter. I can rip you apart with my own two hands."

"We'll see."

"We will indeed!" With a roar, the ancient spirit bounded forward, hoping to catch the hikari he faced off-guard. The teen, however, was quite prepared; as Bakura charged, he jammed his weaponless arm and sharp elbow into the darker being's chest, slamming it straight into the already-painful cut. As the thief hissed in pain, Kawari whirled the blade in his hands so that he held it pommel-forward and rammed the silver cobra's head forcefully into his opponent's stomach.

Bakura rocked backward at the force of the blow, the air completely forced from his lungs. Even as he recoiled, Kawari gave him one last attack; Gin Hebi's shining blade slashed lightly across his shoulder, not doing much damage but certainly serving as a warning.

The ancient tomb robber panted as he regained his footing, coming to stand only a few feet from his opponent, but decidedly out of reach. That young light had caused him some pain, of course, but he had found what he wanted--a weakness. The boy's slashes with the dirk all held a certain rhythm; good to have in most blade-fighting cases, but certainly not when it could be timed. And furthermore, the boy left his side open and vulnerable when he lunged with his dirk, a dangerous opening that could very well end him.

"Are you done warming up?" Kawari asked, his voice sounding nearly lazy, but his eyes contradicting his tone.

"Quite," Bakura snapped back angrily, coming to stand tall once more.

"Good. Then perhaps we shall begin the real fight."

"Perfect. And perhaps you'll stop taunting me and fight like a true blade master." Kawari's eyes betrayed his momentary shock, but they quickly recovered. Not, however, without Bakura seeing. The spirit grinned. "Yes, I can tell you were using a few taunting attacks. Fool. You are far too obvious. You are going to show me your true strength--if you've got any!--and you are going to do it now."

Contrary to the reaction the ancient thief thought he was going to get, the Negative Ryou raised an amused eyebrow and asked calmly, "You sure you want me to do that? You might get hurt, you know." The last sentence was said mockingly, but it was an interesting phrase to hear--the hikari delivered the line with a straight, innocent face and a calm tone.

Bakura hissed angrily, his temper boiling at the mocking tone. "I'm going to have to kill you for that."

"Just try it."

Both fell silent at the same time, and, as if agreeing, suddenly began to circle. Their eyes were locked, observing each other carefully, cautiously. Kawari gripped Gin Hebi tightly, his gloved hand fitting in with the blackened handle and silver lining. Bakura was cracking his knuckles constantly, so hard that they were turning somewhat white as he moved. Both held smooth, steady paces, Kawari looking as if he were a ghost gliding over the ground, his opponent moving with the grace of a seasoned thief.

Abruptly, the Negative spoke. "Well," he commented dryly. "This is no fun. So I think I'll just go ahead and attack." The blade he held lowered slightly, resting by his side, but his grip was tense, as if he was already planning on where to attack with it.

The tomb robber across from him frowned slightly. Open declaration of an attack? That is quite possibly the worst bluff I've ever heard...or perhaps a trick? Had he been in his normal frame of mind, he would have questioned the hikari's choice of words and tread cautiously; however, the lighter being had craftily built up his opponent's temper, and his anger got in the way of his judgement and reasoning, throwing him off-track.

Kawari quite suddenly jerked forward, advancing a pace and drawing his dirk up higher, it's point glittering in Bakura's direction threateningly. Reacting quickly, the spirit shot out a fist in hopes of driving off his opponent or deflecting an attack--and it was then, he noticed with a sense of startled anger, that he realized Kawari had not attacked at all. A feint! He used a feint on me!

Angry, the spirit started to withdraw, but he was too late. The hikari, seeing the thief off-balance with all his weight thrown in one direction, darted forward quickly, blade drawn and at the ready. Knowing the spirit had no way to defend himself in his current position, he slipped around the outstretched fist and slashed outward forcefully, drawing a deep, grating gash in the darker being's right hip as he blazed by. He allowed himself to move forward a few paces out of harm's way, mostly with his momentum carrying him, before sliding to a halt and freezing, blade still outstretched and still half in a lunging position.

Bakura allowed himself another hiss of pain that came perilously close to a shriek, and whirled angrily, facing his opponent. He's going to die. He's going to die.

The spirit darted forward quickly, taking advantage of the fact that his opponent's back was to him as he ran. Kawari, hearing Bakura behind him just in time, whirled and managed to parry a strong downward punch with the flat of his blade, pressing the cool metal to the darker being's inner forearm and pushing it upward and out of harm's way, standing up as he did so. The tomb robber, without hesitation, punched outward with his second fist, hoping to draw the hikari off guard, or perhaps even landing a blow. Unfortunately, it didn't work quite as well as he had planned; the lighter being managed to block the second punch with his own, weaponless left arm, hitting it upwards and throwing the attack off-target as well. Reposting quickly, the white-haired teen tried to slash out at his opponent, but missed, only succeeding in driving his attacker slightly away--the two parted in a stalemate for that particular round.

Hissing angrily, Bakura's anger rose again. He wasn't in the mood to come to a stalemate against this hikari; he wanted to defeat him mercilessly. He decided to use the weakness he had discovered to his advantage at that moment, and quickly set out a plan to do so.

Ideas in mind, the tomb robber slipped forward quickly, moving to the hikari's left side and darting forward as if he meant to attack. Reacting quickly, Kawari slashed after his opponent with Gin Hebi, hoping to cut another wound into his opponent's flesh; however, Bakura had planned on such an attack. With a mighty roar, he broke off sideways, half-sliding, half-rolling beneath the dirk and coming to a stop at the Negative teen's right side--a side that was open, completely unprotected, with the blade so far away. Grinning triumphantly, Bakura's fist slammed outwards, colliding with a sharp thud into the side of the opposite Ryou's head.

Letting out a muffled, hissing yelp of pain, the Negative's head snapped to the opposite side under impact, and he staggered left, his grip loosening slightly on his blade but not dropping it. Seeing his chance, the ancient thief darted forward, ramming another fist deep into Kawari's stomach and throwing the boy's oxygen from his lungs in a loud "ooof!" The teen fell back a few more paces, his stance no longer even, and his movements jerky. Grinning, Bakura's fist pulled back for a third blow.

As the deadly hand hurled through the air, Kawari's senses abruptly returned to him. Seeing the attack coming, he did the first thing he could think of--he dropped to his knees, allowing the attack to sweep harmlessly over him...and, at the same time, bringing him within the spirit opponent's defenses.

With a deadly hiss, the Negative grasped Gin Hebi firmly, and quite suddenly jerked his hand, and the blade, upward. He stabbed cleanly, sweeping over the skin of his opponent in a rush; the blade slid it's razor edge underneath Bakura's arm, sliding up and around to his back and slicing over the skin of his shoulder blade. A definite scream erupted from the ancient being, and he recoiled hastily, a few of his own steps staggering and uneven.

Kawari rose to his feet swiftly, regaining his guard position within moments. He spoke, too, his voice cold and harsh. "I saw that exact same cut on my True self, undoubtedly from you," he said calmly, flickering his dirk and allowing several flecks of blood to shiver off of it. "Now I'm giving it back to you."

Bakura growled angrily in reply, hissing in vexation. He had underestimated his opponent, a fatal move in most cases, and it was already catching up to him. He bit his lip to keep himself from clutching at the new gash scissoring across his shoulder blade and ran over his options slowly.

Quite suddenly, he grinned. Despite the opponent facing him, the dirk at ready and the cocky grin that had spread over the light's face, the tomb robber smiled, an insane light seeming to glitter in his eyes. There was more than one way to win a battle, he had learned from experience, and he was just going to have to turn to a different tactic.

Turning slightly, Bakura began backing up towards the edge of the surrounding ring of teens. To most watchers, it looked as if he was retreating. He, however, knew quite well that he was doing nothing of the sort; on the contrary, his plan consisted of being close enough to the outer ring to snatch a hostage. He grinned in delight as he saw his own aibou standing in almost perfect alignment with the direction he was going. A perfect hostage, indeed.

He was only a few feet from the True Ryou when he felt something slash painfully at his calves through his jeans. He turned in surprise, finding Kawari facing him with a dark glare.

"What the hell?!" Bakura spat in frustration. The feeling doubled as Kawari slid around him with lightning speed, standing between the spirit and the True hikari with his dirk drawn and glinting dangerously.

"You do not take hostages in a battle such as this," the Negative Ryou spat disgustedly, frowning, and with a bit of a growl in his voice. "You fight with no honor, thief."

"Does it even matter?" the tomb robber hissed back angrily, temper rising, fists clenching.

"What the hell do you think? I, at least, fight with a few morals in mind. You, however, have a darker outlook on how one conducts a fight, and one that I look down on. Fools with no honor win no battles."

That sentence had hit a mark, scoring it deep in the ancient spirit's mind. With a roaring yell, he leaped forward, fist slamming outward dangerously. Kawari tried to parry, but the blow was too sudden, and it hit him forcefully in the shoulder. The Negative rocked back, stumbling, and Bakura seized the moment to double his barrage of punches. He lashed out; Kawari stumbled backwards further, clutching his stomach. Another wild lash; the opposite hikari groaned as he was hit at the base where his chest and neck combined, knocking the wind completely out of him. Snarling, the tomb robber's fist snapped back for another blow, and with a roar it rocketed forward, colliding squarely with his opponent...and stopped, hissing his pain, as a sharp jolt in his knuckles caused him to withdraw.

Cursing, the spirit glanced quickly at his fist, still shoved painfully into Kawari's chest as if his attack had frozen, and swore in surprise. His fist had collided with the Millennium Ring hanging around the Negative Ryou's neck and onto his chest; his knuckles, therefore, had rammed painfully into the hard, cold metal that formed the Eye of Horus in the little point-up pyramid at the Ring's center. He jerked his hand back, growling deep in his throat like a wounded dog--that damned Ring, and that Gods-damned opposite of his, was getting in the way. How had the stupid thing managed to get in his way after his victory was so close?

But he had no further time to speculate on that point. Kawari, though still doubled over slightly in pain, had felt his opponent hesitate for a few precious seconds, and had taken full advantage of the pause. He slashed out, completely at random, with Gin Hebi, cutting the spirit deeply in his attacking arm and forcing the tomb robber to retreat. Free of immediate attack, he forced himself to stand, though somewhat raggedly, and faced his opponent through a screen of silver-white bangs.

Kaeru, meanwhile, had been watching the entire battle without one hint of fear or worry. He stood with arms crossed in a casual position, his dark brown eyes following his aibou every step of the way. Yami, beside him, showed no such lenient air. He was frowning in concern, his eyes flickering noticeably as the Negative Ryou within the ring of teens took the long string of punches. He glanced at his fellow spirit, asking sharply, "Aren't you going to do anything?"

Kaeru glanced at the spirit next to him calmly. "Like what?"

The Pharaoh had to concentrate not to let his mouth fall, and said coldly, "Your aibou is out there taking a massive beating from your other half! Aren't you going to help him?"

"I would, but my aibou," the Negative Bakura said easily, emphasizing the word with importance, "has requested that I not join the fight. This is something he has to do on his own, and I will not stand in his way and make it worse for him if he does not want me to."

"But--" Yami began to protest, but Kaeru cut him off.

"Just stop talking, Pharaoh, and pay attention."

Kawari and Bakura, meanwhile, had fallen apart and were still staring at each other coldly, as if daring the other to attack. Bakura, finally loosing his temper completely, exploded, "Fool! Always attacking and retreating, never standing your ground! Why don't you truly fight me, unless you are so terrified you can do nothing but fight me as you have?!"

The Negative Ryou's face never changed, but his voice took on a sharper tone, a more deadly one. "Do you really wish for me to attack you outright? No waiting, no toying, no retreating?" At Bakura's nod, he hissed softly, "Very well, but I think you're asking for more than you can handle. My yami." The last two words were said in a tone almost dripping with sarcasm, though the speaker's face never once changed.

The tomb robber facing him growled menacingly, now like a dog that was about to attack--but he never got the chance to. In a flurry of black, grey, and silver-white, Kawari had dashed forward with unimaginable speed, his long black leather jacket trailing out behind him, his baggy pants hardly making a sound for all the fabric in them. Moving as though lighting, no, as though liquid steel, the Negative brought his blade to bear and slashed outward.

Bakura had no time to react--within seconds, he felt a biting, sharp sting along the sides of his left ribs as the blade sliced along them; the cut was not deep, but it stung in an annoyingly painful way. Before he even got the chance to react, however, a stronger, more powerful sting stabbed through his shoulder as Gin Hebi plunged deep, scratching at bone, before retreating. The spirit roared in pain, but before the sound had had hardly two seconds to rip out of his throat, Kawari had whirled gracefully and was slicing at the tomb robber's shins, trying to force him to fall. The spirit leaped backwards, but the white-haired hikari moved with him, now slashing with quicksilver speed at his opponent's upper arm. Again, not allowing Bakura time to react, he slid evenly into a new stance, slashing out at his opponent for the fifth time in a row and drawing a new bloody line along the thief's back, nearly matching his earlier wound over his shoulder blade. Five attacks each successfully connecting and completed, he leaped gracefully backwards, landing easily with one knee on the ground in a crouching position and his blade resting, still in his grip, in front of his upright leg. All five attacks had been preformed in less than ten seconds, each being preformed with deadly perfection and with a smooth delivery that made them seem almost like an art, and less of an attack.

Finally allowed to completely react, Bakura hissed in full-felt pain, blood now streaming from his new wounds rapidly. He couldn't die, of course, and he knew it, but the realization of such a thought did not keep him from registering his very real pain. "You little..." he growled softly, staring at his opponent with unchecked hate.

"I did warn you," Kawari replied in a level tone, not flinching even slightly on seeing the burning rage in the True spirit's eyes. "That fact that you did not choose to listen to me would be your fault, not mine."

Bakura roared in all out rage as his temper finally and completely snapped. He had grown tired of his opponent's constant games and taunts, and he was going to end it all right now.

With another deep-throated roar, the spirit launched himself forward towards Kawari. The hikari thrust Gin Hebi out quickly, but Bakura took the blade's punishment without caring, not even feeling as it sliced deeply into his side, leaving another bloodied gash above the first along his ribs. Instead he blazed by the dirk, lashing out with one powered fist and hitting the Negative square in the side of the head. The opposite's vision exploded into stars, and Bakura took advantage of his opponent's sudden, frozen movements and temporary lost sight to shove forcefully into him, knocking him painfully down onto the ground on his back.

Kawari felt himself land with a dull thud, and a shivering chill of pain shot up his spine. He hastily assessed any damage done to him; he knew he wasn't badly hurt, but he was on the ground now, and open to any attacks that might come from the spirit he fought. Hastily he blinked the bright stars out of his vision and stared up at his attacker, eyes narrowed in anger.

Bakura stood over his opponent, bleeding freely but not seeming to care. He was breathing hard, his chest heaving with the effort of finally grounding his opponent despite his wounds, but a grim smile played over his face at the same time. Standing straight-backed and almost proudly, the spirit hissed, "For all your talk, you're nothing but a little weakling. Disappointing, really; you did show some skill with a blade, and I would have thought you had learned more." He snorted disdainfully, flicking a speck of blood off of his face as he spoke.

Kawari's face was as hard as stone, but he waited patiently. His non-gloved hand, not wrapped around the hilt of a weapon, curled defiantly in the dusty ground beside him, as if he planned to plunge that fist deep into the opposing spirit's stomach. "Well?"

The tomb robber laughed. "Ah, but of course--you need your punishment, now, don't you?" He began to pace forward slowly, only a few feet from his fallen opponent, not noticing the ghost of a smile curling around the corners of Kawari's mouth.

The Negative Ryou, meanwhile, seemed to be counting the thief's steps, as if waiting for something. When the spirit was not even a foot away, he suddenly flowed into action, moving with breathtaking speed.

The hand that had curled angrily into the dust suddenly shot up, and for the first time the watchers realized that it was clenching a fistful of dusty, sandy dirt. With perfect aim, Kawari released the earth in his hands, flinging it with force into the startled tomb robber's eyes. The spirit, now temporarily unable to see, reared backwards, cursing, and scrabbled at his eyes, trying to clear away the particles impairing his vision.

It was all the invitation Kawari needed. With absolutely no sound, he curled his legs upward, bringing them tight to his chest before kicking upward and outward. They connected squarely with Bakura's already-bloody chest, and the thief, unable to counter due to his lack of vision, fell backwards and landed on his back painfully. The Negative, however, wasn't done; the momentum of his kick had jerked him upright, and he landed on his feet smoothly, stance ready and blade raised.

Without hesitation, Kawari dashed forward, moving only two paces before reaching his opponent. With more force than may have perhaps been necessary, he slammed his left foot down on Bakura's chest, holding the spirit carefully in place so that he could not get up and escape.

The True tomb robber, meanwhile, had managed after some difficulty to blink the extra sand out of his eyes. He had started to raise himself to his feet from his position on his back when a hammer-like force slammed him back down, and quite suddenly there was a heavy amount of pressure on his chest, holding him so that he could not get up. Growling, Bakura stared up into the eyes of his opponent; they still had no gleam of their original friendly innocence, only a dark, knowing, deadly look. The spirit, unsure of how to react, tried instead to rise to his feet, attempting to shove Kawari off of him; that is, he tried until he felt cold steel tickling his throat gently, and hastily pulled back to force his head to the ground.

Kawari kept his foot calmly on Bakura's chest, holding Gin Hebi's sharpened point calmly to the tomb robber's throat. He, too, knew the spirit couldn't actually die, but he could still feel the pain of what would have meant death for him, and he doubted that, for all his boasting, Bakura would enjoy feeling such a thing. Very slowly, he spoke.

"I believe," he said calmly, only showing the slightest signs of fatigue, "that I have just out-maneuvered you." A hissing growl of hate was all that replied, but he ignored it, instead continuing. "And I believe," he said slowly, sounding almost lazy, "that that would mean I have won against you."

"Think what you want," Bakura snapped back, the hate in his eyes unmatched, "but you're still far weaker than I. You used that sand, after all, to attack me, so therefore you couldn't defeat me on your own."

"Is that what you think?" Kawari asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you fight dirty--which you did, just to clarify--then I, in return, will fight dirty, just so that I am evenly matched against you. You brought it upon yourself, you fool."

"What did you call me?!"

"I called you a fool," the Negative Ryou said evenly, "and you very much deserve the title. Now," he added slowly, his eyes narrowing and his voice dropping to a hiss, "this all began when you attacked me. I would advise you not to do such a thing in the future, or you will find yourself in very real pain once more."

Bakura grinned despite himself. "Hah, but that scar on your cheek will go nicely with the rest of your idiotic self."

"And so will yours."

"What?"

There was a quick, silvery flash as Gin Hebi's blade sliced three deep lines in the spirit's right cheek in imitation of the three sharp marks on Kawari's own face. Bakura was so shocked he didn't even have time to react properly, and hardly felt the pain so much as his surprise.

Kawari continued speaking, his voice harsh and angry. "That's for attacking me across the face, you idiot," he hissed. "I always give back gifts given to me. So there you go, and I hope you're satisfied." With that said, he listened to Bakura roar in anger before bringing his dirk slicing down out of the air at his opponent's face.

At first, it looked as though the blade was going to pierce clean through the tomb robber's forehead; however, at the last second and with remarkable speed, Kawari reversed the dirk's direction so that the silver cobra's head lanced down instead. With a sharp crack, the hood of the snake pommel slammed into Bakura's forehead; he looked a bit surprised for a second, but his eyes quickly rolled to the back of his head as he was knocked unconscious.

Standing slowly, Kawari glanced around at the others staring him. He seemed not to notice their wide-eyed expressions of shock, however, as his attention was soon drawn to his blade. The razor-sharp ends were scored with his opponent's blood. With an annoyed snort, the Negative light bent down to crouch next to the unconscious spirit's temporary body, hissing, "Bloody bastard," in the direction of the True thief as he wiped Gin Hebi clean on the sleeve of his fallen opponent.

As he stood again, the Negative teen seemed to notice the stares he was receiving for the first time. He blinked in confusion, not quite understanding the reason that nearly all of the teens save the Negatives were goggling wide-eyed at him. He particularly noticed Ryou's amazed expression, and raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Geeze, you look like you've seen a ghost. What's wrong?"

Ryou, stammering slightly, hastily responded. "You...you just....I can't believe I--I mean, you--just..." he didn't seem capable of finishing his sentence, which made Kawari's grin only grow.

"Hah, he deserved it." He glared disdainfully at the unconscious form of Bakura before continuing, his grin fading and being replaced with a frown. "You really don't stand up to him, though, do you?"

Ryou only shook his head in reply, still too shocked to speak.

The remaining teens moved forward hurriedly, each wanting to ask Kawari a question after marveling at his amazing blade skills. Only Kaze, Saguru, and Kaeru looked as if it was completely natural, which, to them, it was.

Before they had a chance to speak, however, the Negative hikari suddenly winced and placed his non-gloved hand to his temple, rubbing an area where he had received a painful blow gingerly. "Damn it, yami, I forgot how strong your left hook was."

Kaeru looked at his aibou out of the corner of his eye, muttering calmly, "I can't very well help that, can I?"

The lighter half sighed, taking Gin Hebi carefully and replacing it into his coat as he spoke; those watching him could see that there was a long, sturdy sheath worked into the insides of the coat, just long enough to hold the stunning cobra blade while still remaining hidden. "I know, I know," he muttered irritably, in response to his yami. "I just get more irritable in a fight, that's all."

"As I well noticed," the Negative spirit muttered dryly.

Kawari simply rolled his eyes. "Look, can you take over for a while? I need to rest, and that took more out of me than I thought it would."

Kaeru nodded in agreement. "If you want me to," he said simply, "though your fatigue comes from never facing me before." This said, in a surprisingly calm manner, the spirit faded away into non existence. A few seconds later, the Millennium Ring on Kawari's chest glowed brightly, and the body swayed slightly before gaining the distinctive features of the yami possessing it.

"Well?" the spirit asked easily, once his control was firmly taken and he had seen his charge to his soul room to rest. "What are you all staring at me for?"

"Erm...well..." Joey muttered, words escaping him as his eyes flickered from the unconscious yami only a few feet away to the far more kinder Kaeru. "Nothing," he finally answered, sighing.

Kaeru shrugged. "If you say so," he said calmly, though he obviously understood the group's uneasiness. Sighing, he turned to Ryou, saying calmly, "you might want to return him to the Ring." He indicated his True self with a slight tone of disgust in his voice.

"What? Oh, right," Ryou murmured softly, jerking out of his thoughts hurriedly. He concentrated, and his own Millennium Ring glowed; Bakura, still unmoving, seemed to fade away, and after several seconds his hikari assured the rest of the group that he was in his soul room.

There was an uneasy silence that stretched on for some time; finally, however, Kaze cut through the quiet, saying with an air of command, "Very well. Let's get back to our search."

For nearly an hour they did so, broken up into groups of two or three and scouring every inch of the field and the surrounding, fringing forests for some sign that would indicate the Scroll of War. And still, nothing happened, nothing was found. The only think that kept them going was the knowledge that this had to be the right field; there was no other option, no other choice.

After another half an hour had pasted, Kawari woke and re-took possession of his body, Kaeru forming a new temporary physical form and walking alongside his aibou calmly. They seemed to be talking about the fight; apparently, Kaeru was the one who had trained his charge in short-blade fighting, and therefore was pointing out different mistakes and complimenting well-executed moves from his quick battle against Bakura. Despite such a talk, however, both continued to look for the Scroll, and both failed miserably in locating it.

Eventually, the group of twelve re-gathered in the center of the field, each muttering their lack of findings dejectedly. None seemed to have any idea as to how to find the Scroll, or where it could possibly be in such a huge area.

After several seconds, in which most of the teens lapsed into silence, thinking, Kawari suddenly spoke. "Wait," he said slowly, stroking his Millennium Ring thoughtfully. "What if we used my Millennium Item--or Ryou's--to seek out another magical item?"

Spattered murmurs of approval fluttered through the group; Kaeru, however, frowned slightly. "I don't think it works that way. The Millennium Ring can locate other Millennium Items, but not other magical objects--it's not powerful enough."

More murmurs passed through the gathering; this time, however, they were unhappy, defeated ones.

"However..." the Negative tomb robber muttered slowly. He frowned, but then his eyes began to glitter with a thoughtful light. After a few seconds, he turned to Yami, asking calmly, though respectfully, "Pharaoh, may I use your Millennium Puzzle for a few minutes?"

Yami's eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch, but he quickly recovered, staring with his usual emotionless face. After a few seconds of measured silence, he answered slowly, "That is not my choice to make. The Puzzle belongs to Yugi; it is his choice, not mine."

Yugi blinked in surprise at the quick exchange of words; it seemed unusual, to hear such a conversation between Yami, the Pharaoh, and the tomb robber he once despised--though the Negative of that thief. It startled him to hear Bakura, albeit the opposite Bakura, asking respectfully whether he could use the Puzzle; even more surprising was Yami's reaction--not a sharp "no," but rather, handing the decision to his aibou, trusting him entirely.

Sighing, the young Hikari looked between the two ancient spirits, frowning softly. Finally, he spoke, his words directed to his darker half. "I know we can trust Kaeru, Yami. He's saved my life before, and he returned the Puzzle to me during that fight against the Swordstalker. We don't have to worry about him making a break for it." He glanced at Kaeru, who had not moved, before asking his own yami, "you don't mind being separated for a few minutes, do you?"

Yami shook his head, though slowly, and watched the Negative spirit out of the corner of his eye, almost suspiciously. Kaeru, seeing the look, quickly explained his reason for the request.

"Rest assured, I have no intention of taking the Puzzle from the two of you. I simply want to use the energies of your Millennium Puzzle to strengthen those of my Ring. That way, the searching abilities of the Ring will be considerably stronger, and I should be able to locate more powerful magical objects not related to the Millennium Items."

Yami nodded quickly, suddenly understanding, with his suspicious look vanishing from his face. He disappeared into the Puzzle quickly, and Yugi, after a few seconds, removed the metal chain supporting the Puzzle from around his neck and handed it to Kaeru.

After a quick nod from Kawari for permission, the ancient tomb robber vanished into his own Item and took possession of his host. He carefully took the Puzzle in one hand, being sure not to disturb any of the pieces making the pyramid-shape, and held his own Ring, still hanging from around his neck, out next to it. He touched the middle pointer of the Ring to the Eye of Horus on the Puzzle, concentrating carefully; after a few seconds, the two auras from the items, a sea-green from the Puzzle and a light blue from the Ring, gently mixed together, forming an aqua sort of color that was almost beautiful. The new aura spread quickly to the other four pointers on the Millennium Ring, making them glow almost eerily and with the polished, worn gold reflecting the deep, pretty color in an interesting looking fashion. Finally, the two right pointers rose, coming together to form a harmless, thin beam of aqua-colored light, which looked much like it could be from a Shadow Battle. The beam sliced through the air easily, coming to rest, much like a laser pointer, at the center of the old weeping willow tree at one end of the field.

Feeling successful, Kaeru quickly returned the Puzzle to Yugi and separated from his own hikari, standing calmly to his charge's right as he observed the spot the Ring had indicated. It had pointed to the weeping willow...

Quite suddenly, the spirit felt an answer hammer into his head, and yelled almost angrily, "Why didn't I see it before?"

"See what?" Mokuba asked, looking confused.

"The last line in the Verse! 'In desperation they bend and cry.' It's talking about the trees, or woodland watchers--and it's talking about a weeping willow!"

The others quickly understood, equally feeling annoyed that they hadn't discovered what now seemed like such an obvious answer earlier. They muttered to themselves slowly, but had begun to move off towards the drooping tree, hoping to find the next Scroll quickly.

After several minutes, the group had come to stand at the base of the tree, encircled by it's sagging branches and feathery leaves as they stared at the trunk in confusion. There was nothing there, or at least, nothing that could be seen, so where was the Scroll of War?
Tristen pointed out an idea eventually. "Hey," he muttered, thinking, "what about checking out where that beam of light indicated first? It was pointing right about here," he added, indicating an area on the trunk by circling it with his hand.

Kaeru, nodding his agreement, moved forward carefully. Being experienced in the field of hidden entrances and disguised switches from his past life as a tomb robber, he knew what to look for, and ran his hands quickly over the bark. After a few moments, his hands encountered a small piece of bark that, though peeling, stuck far too firmly to the tree to be natural. Thinking quickly, the thief pressed it, then stepped back as a soft rumble reached his ears.

The wide trunk of the massive tree shook slightly, it's branches wavering around the teens almost as if it was trying to brush at their hair with abnormally long, soft, feathery fingers. After a few minutes, a section of the tree's trunk pulled backwards, forming a round, hunched doorway. And within the doorway, a dim room became visible, formed from the hollow of the old willow. Glowing slightly within the darkened room was a Scroll, sitting gently on a pedestal within, seemingly untouched by the gloom around it.

Kawari grinned, staring around at the rest of the group eagerly. "Can you believe it? Our second Realm Scroll....the Scroll of War." Still smiling, he stepped forward into the darkened chamber, hand outstretched to remove the Scroll from it's pedestal.

All at once, another huge, terrifying, powerful voice reached their ears. As with the last, it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, sounding awe-inspiring and strong, yet humble and small at the same time. "AT LAST, ONE COMES TO SEEK THE SCROLL OF WAR. DOES MANKIND HAVE NEED OF IT ONCE AGAIN?"

Kawari started slightly at the suddenness of the voice's speech, but quickly replied. "Yes, we do indeed."

"YES, OF COURSE, LITTLE ONE. BUT YOU MUST EARN THE RIGHT TO TAKE THE SCROLL. WHO SHALL THE CHALLENGERS BE?"

Blinking, the Negative Ryou quickly recalled the rules that had to be followed in order to obtain the Realm Scrolls. "Challengers? How many are required in order to take this Scroll?"

"TO FACE THIS CHALLENGE I SET BEFORE YOU, AT LEAST TWO MUST COME. THE LIGHT MUST ENTER. MORE MAY FOLLOW IF THEY WISH, BUT NO MORE THAN FIVE."

Kawari frowned slightly. "The Light? Oh, as in a Hikari?"

The voice stayed silent, but the opposite white-haired teen guessed that he had hit the idea right on the mark. Turning, he said calmly, "If we need at least two hikaris to enter, than I'm automatically in this Challenge."

"Why?" Tea asked, frowning slightly.

"Because," Kawari explained easily, "I'm the only Negative Hikari here, and that means I have to enter, just to represent my Realm. But who's going with me?"

Yugi stepped forward a pace. "I'm a Hikari, as well, so I'll go to represent the True Realm. That way, we'll have an even amount of Challengers from each Realm, and so our chances at winning will probably be greater."

"That's all well and good," Yami said seriously, "but you're not going into this Challenge alone. I'm coming with you, and I doubt that Kaeru will choose any differently from me." The white-haired spirit nodded his agreement, and Yami continued. "That's four Challengers out of five. Do we have enough?"

Ryou stepped forward quietly. "I'd...I'd be willing to go."

Kaeru, however, stomped on the idea instantly. "No."

"What?" Ryou frowned at the commanding tone in the darker spirit's voice. "Why not?"

The Negative Bakura shrugged. "Let me put it this way," he said evenly. "We have no idea what's in this Challenge yet. If it's anything like the last one, that means there'll be plenty of danger involved. I already have one aibou to look after in there, and protecting him'll be hard enough to manage as it is. If I have two to look out for, one or both of you is bound to get hurt. I can't risk it."

Ryou blinked slightly, but nodded. "I understand."

Yami, too, nodded. "I think I'd have to agree with him there. In fact--we four will be the only ones to enter this Challenge. The rest of you can wait; we don't want to risk everybody."

"ARE YOU READY?" the voice asked suddenly, crashing into their heads with painful force, and yet feather light at the same time.

"We are," Yugi, Yami, Kaeru, and Kawari replied, each with a face set and determined, ready for anything and everything.

The voice instantly began to speak, adopting the same formal, ritual-like tone that the first voice had. "YOU SEEK THE SECOND REALM SCROLL OF WAR. WARS ARE CAUSED BY GROWING FEARS AND LASTING TERROR. TO GAIN THE HONOR OF OBTAINING THE SCROLL OF WAR, YOU MUST EACH FACE WHAT YOU FEAR MOST. YOU MAY HELP EACH OTHER AS YOU WISH WITH WHATEVER ABILITIES YOU MAY OWN. BEGIN."

* * * * *

HCG: ^_^ Heh heh heh, I'm such an evil author, ending the chapter like that. *snickers*

Bakura: x_X you ARE evil! EEEEEVIIIL!

Kawari: ¬_¬;; Really? How so?

Bakura: _;; NYAH! I DO NOT LOOSE BATTLES!

Kawari: ^_^ I believe you just did.

Bakura: Don't tempt me or I may have to kill you. _;;

Kawari: *raises eyebrow* *sits in corner and sharpens/cleans Gin Hebi*

HCG: Okay, notes-ness!

[1] Dirk ~ Okay, I'm aware that some of you are probably not weapons/swords/blades experts, so you probably don't know what a "dirk" actually IS. Well, here's the answer. A dirk is a type of weapon, a bladed sword-like one; it's longer than a knife but shorter than a sword, so it's a "in the middle" kind of blade. It's particularly designed for strong attacks, decent defenses, and lots of speed. Kawari's particular dirk is based off of a Scottish dirk that I saw online; Gin Hebi is roughly 21" from pommel to blade tip, while the blade itself is about 14 7/8". That means that it has a wide variety of uses, being small enough to hide but large enough to seriously do some damage--I mean, it's MADE for deadly attacks.

[2] Reposte ~ This is a fencing term that's actually quite simple to understand. When your opponent attacks you, a reposte is when you parry (or block) their blade and immediately "stick out" your own blade so as to be ready to attack them at any moment. It's a way to ensure that they don't attack, but that you yourself can also have a perfect opportunity to get'em, if you want.

[3] Cadence ~ A fencer's movement. It's steady, without much bobbing up and down, and usually very even. When you walk or move, too, your weight should be evenly distributed. When Bakura was talking about how he could take advantage of Kawari's cadence if it wasn't that good is actually something you do in a regular fencing bout--a fencer with "off" cadence can be thrown off balance and attacked easier.

[4] Right of Way ~ Yet another fencing term. The Right of Way is when your blade is extended fully, and it means that you can attack at any point and time and get a point. Right of Way usually means your blade is both extended and on-target, or pointed towards your target, so you just have to lunge forwards and you can nail'em (if they don't fight back). In normal fencing, if you don't have the Right of Way, you can't get a point....but it a battle such as this one, I don't think it matters much, other than you could walk into the other person's blade when they HAVE the RoW (which I've done in bouts, XD)

Okies, now side notes. The name of Kawari's dirk, Gin Hebi, is actually Japanese. According to my dictionaries, "Gin" is silver and "Hebi" is snake, so the entire thing means "Silver Snake." An appropriate name, no?
Also, I apologize to those who do know about blade fighting and the like. I myself don't' know much about short-blade fighting, as I've only ever used foils, so I incorporated some long-blade fighting styles into Kawari's attack style simply because I couldn't think of anything else to do. *shrugs apologetically*

And finally...to those of you who are currently goggling at the Kawari/Bakura fight scene and staring at Kawari in particular with shock...well....all I have to say is, what'd you think the opposite of Ryou'd be?!

HCG: w00t, notes are done!

Kawari: ......that was weird......*polishes Gin Hebi more*

HCG: Okay, I think that's everything...oh, wait...*takes a ticket out of her pocket* Here ya go, Kawari.

Kawari: o_O;; *takes ticket* What is this?

HCG: A free ticket to an African desert of your choice.

Kawari: *blinks* What for?

HCG: Well, you see, after reading this chapter, Bakura fans are going to hate you, and Ryou fans (and your own Kawari fans, of course) are going to love you and hug you endlessly. *pointed glare at Aibou and WSJ*

Kawari: o_O; *hurriedly dashes from room, waving ticket madly* Must leave!

HCG: ^_^;; Okay, well.....yeah. Um, I believe that would be it...

Kaze: *pouts* Kawari has his own fans?

HCG: Yeah.

Kaze: *whines*

HCG: Aww, I'm your fan! ^_^

Kaze: -_-;; Goody

HCG: *blinks suddenly* Oh, hey, people, quick question! Who's your fave Negative Character? I'd love to know; feedback is good, and I'd like to see what character people seem to like the most. I developed a different style for each person, so I'd like to see what "section of how I think" people like.

And hey, WSJ, here's a random question I came up with when reading your fic and learning about the "aura-less guy." What colors would the auras of my Negative characters be? I mean, at first I thought they'd be the same as the characters in your fics, but then again...*grimaces* Kawari doesn't exactly have that "pure heart, shining white aura" thing going for him.

Kaeru: *laughs*

HCG: Well anyway. Just wondering. *shrugs* Anyway, peoples, review! Now I've become greedy for reviews!.....well, not really, I'll still write for you guys...but reviews are a good ol' kick in the motivation section of me'ol brain. So review, and I'll get started on Chapter 8! WITH THAT CHALLENGE! *insane laughter*