Jaid: Sorry for the long wait! Well, I'm in Chicago now; interesting place but I miss home. Hopefully, next chapter won't take as long to get out…sigh
The sharp ringing of the bell was almost drowned out as students burst from their classrooms for recess. Yugi expertly weaved through the crowd and stopped in front of his locker.
He stuffed his books inside and closed it then turned as Ryou walked up. The white-haired boy's locker was right next to Yugi's. The smaller boy smiled up at his friend.
"I had a hard time in history class." He said. "Yami kept being sarcastic."
Ryou chuckled, but didn't say anything as he shut his locker. The two boys began walking towards the outside.
The sun shone brightly, but it still didn't penetrate the autumn coolness that had settled on the city. Ryou and Yugi walked up to where the girls and Duke were talking about something, while Joey and Tristan argued in the back ground.
"Hello!" Yugi chirped as they joined the group. Ryou gave a quiet smile and stood next to Rei.
From the bushes that lined the school's chain link fence, a pair of large gray eyes studied the kids. A soft hiss of surprise emitted from the person as Yugi turned and the Millennium Puzzle appeared in full view. This was interesting...
"How about you just shoot me now?" came a grumbled complaint from behind a stack of papers. Nami Urashira crossed her arms and narrowed her purple eyes. Why was she stuck with paperwork?
As if reading her mind, a tall woman with layered chocolate brown hair answered, "We didn't want a repeat of the zombie incident."
"So, nobody told me that it wasn't okay to chase them into the nursing home." Nami grumbled as she reached for the first sheet. The woman, Yoko Negai, raised an eyebrow, then stood.
"Call Ai if you need help. I need to go to the shrine." Yoko paused at the doorway and looked back. "Oh and Nami..."
The girl looked up. Yoko smiled. "Try not to burn them this time. Sai nearly had a heart attack."
Nami grumbled as a chuckling Yoko left the office.
"How about Swamp Punch? Or gelatin brains?"
A giggle. "That's so gross."
"That's the point!"
Seto smiled slightly as Serenity and Mokuba's voice floated in from the living area near his private home office. The two of them were having a great time planning this party. It was probably a good thing too. Mokuba had never really had a chance like this.
The CEO finished his document and closed it, then opened an accounting program. Serenity's giggles turned into a bout of full-blown laughter and he was momentarily distracted from the report he was supposed to be studying.
A knock on his door caused him to look up. Serenity stood there. He nodded a little and she walked in.
"Hey, Mokuba was wondering if you wanted to come and help plan." She stated. "I think he just wants some time with you."
Seto looked at his report, then back at Serenity's green eyes. It was very tempting...He sighed and closed it down. "Sure." He said, standing.
The Japanese branch of UNPI – United Nations Paranormal Investigators – had been a good job, Yoko Negai decided. A miko or shrine priestess, she was very well equipped to study strange things. And Japan seemed to focus a lot of oddness.
The miko rose from her kneeling position, her traditional garments rustling a little. Absently, she thought that cutting her hair had been a mistake; even if she had needed to go undercover. At least the brown dye would wash out soon and return to her inky black locks.
The sound of hurrying footsteps caused her to turn as a young woman, with pink hair and dark green eyes ran in, gasping for breath. "Hey, Yoko-san! You'll never guess what Kiya found!"
"Take a breath, Kimiko." Yoko said, smiling indulgently. "And what did Kiya find?"
Kimiko Urashira obeyed her sensei and calmed down. "Kayak just called from Domino. She said that a boy at a local high school as a very old Item. She sent a picture for us to look up." The pink haired girl held up a cell phone.
'Thank Kami-sama for modern technology.' Yoko thought, taking it. She blinked. "Looks Egyptian."
"Cool, huh?" Kimiko's green eyes were bright. Yoko smiled and handed back the phone.
"Take this back to HQ and have Li run it through his search engine." She directed. "And then hurry back. It's almost time for Setsubon and Halloween; we're going to be busy..."
Yugi rang up the cash register and handed the kid in front of the counter his change. The boy smiled and left the shop. Yugi ripped of the receipt and put it in the container for the day's papers. He sighed a little, resting his chin on his hand and looked at the clock. Grandpa had better be home soon; Yugi was supposed to leave to meet Tea and the others at the movie theater in about half an hour.
The bell above the door jingled and a man entered. Yugi sat up. "Hello." He said in a cheerful tone. "Can I help you?"
The man's eyes met his; pale blue and pupil-less. Yugi felt a sudden chill run up and down his back and his smile fell a bit.
"I just wanted some booster packs." He answered, then turned to look at the display cases. Yugi watched him for a moment, then let his eyes fall.
/I don't like the way he feels../
Nor I. Yami admitted gravely. Yugi...be careful.
Yugi mentally nodded then jumped a little when he opened his eyes and the man was before the counter. A few booster packs were dropped on the counter. Yugi picked them up and the money the man dropped on the counter as well, rang it up and then held out the booster packs.
The man's fingers stretched out and took them, inadvertently touching Yugi's hand. The teen gasped a little; the man's fingers felt frozen.
"It's chilly out today." The man's voice was soft and almost silky, but only now did Yugi hear the danger lurking underneath it. "And it's been a long walk."
"Y-yeah.." Yugi answered. The man took his pack and left the shop. Yugi let his arm fall, the chills receding. How weird...
Nami stormed from the office room, her teal blue locks bouncing with her stomping footsteps. Marching up to another office door, she gave a loud knock. It opened a moment later to reveal a slender, rather bishounen man with long black hair and violet eyes.
"Is something wrong, Miss Nami?" he asked, a slight hesitation in his soft voice. Nami gave a disgruntled look.
"Will you come tell Li to stop flicking popcorn into my hair?" she growled. The young man, Sai, made a slight face.
"I do not think he will listen to me-" Sai began, but was interrupted as Nami grabbed his arm and dragged him forcibly from his office.
"Yes he will, if you give him your famous battle glare. That makes lots of people back down!" she said brightly. Sai feebly protested as she dragged him towards the main office area, to a section where a young Chinese man sat at a computer, a half full bowl of popcorn on the desk next to him. Nami promptly pushed Sai forward. "Tell him!" she demanded.
Li turned, fixing his almond shaped black eyes on Sai. The man sighed, drew himself up to his full height and calmly stated, "Miss Nami does not appreciate the...er, popcorn flicking. Would you be so kind as to discontinue your activities, Li-san?"
"Yeah, sure." The Chinese hacker turned back to his work. Sai blew out a breath and turned. Nami was back at her desk, answering the phone. The dark look that came over her face prompted Sai to run over and grab the receiver before Nami scathingly grilled whoever was on the other side.
While placating the frantic female on the other end of the line, Sai sighed. Days like these made him wish that he was still a simple Go instructor...
There was no moon tonight. The lamp posts seemed to be lonely envoys of light as the shadows around them seemed to be as black and bottomless as the bowels of Hell itself.
Some said that Hell was hot, full of flames and heat. They were wrong. Hell was cold; an ice that slowly froze the heart and mind.
The man stopped at the edge of the circle of light the lamp-post created. A hand reached up and took the cigarette from his mouth and dropped it on the ground, where it was crushed by the man's black boots.
Wind blew by, caressing the man's grayish white locks as he smiled grimly, fangs appearing.
Tonight, for the first time in a long while, he would taste blood.
The sun had baked the sand all day, but amazingly, that night the sand would be delightfully cold thanks to the darkness. Isis paused to empty her sandal of the hot sand, realizing that it probably would have been better to come that night, but she had grown up with too many superstitions and too much proof that magic existed.
She entered the decades old courtyard, it's cracked pillars telling that it had once had a roof, although now it's painted and tiled floor was laid bare to the sun's face. She crossed to a small alcove, where in the carved rock, was a statue of a man and woman.
Here her mother had been laid to rest after an excruciating birth which had left the Ishtar family with an heir. And here their father had been laid after his murder. Isis placed her offering of food and drink on the altar below the small statues, knelt and bowed her head in a quiet prayer.
Rising, the Egyptian woman replaced her cowl and hood, which she had discarded before. Kohl lined eyes studied the seemingly endless desert that lay beyond her family's traditional burial ground and she briefly wondered how bad the sandstorms would be this year and if the ground would have to be dug out again.
Then she turned, gold anklets tinkling as she headed back to her home.
The next morning, school was abuzz. Yugi walked down the hallways, overhearing the quiet murmurs, but nothing concrete. He paused at his locker and looked up at Ryou, who was already there. The two exchanged brief greetings, before they headed for their classroom.
"Do you know what's going on?" Yugi asked curiously. Ryou nodded.
"I'm afraid I do." The boy said quietly. "Kurou-san was murdered last night."
Yugi stopped in shock. "What?" he cried. "How? Who would want to kill Kurou-san?"
Ryou shrugged, looking uncomfortable. Kurou had been the head janitor, an older man who had a grumpy exterior, but who had been friendly with the kids who were commonly bullied or teased. Yugi blinked back tears and felt Ryou's hand on his shoulder.
"We have to get to class." The white-haired boy quietly reminded. Yugi nodded and started to move again.
"It is Ancient Egyptian." Li stated, putting some papers on Yoko's desk. The miko picked them up and scanned them quickly. "Not much info on it though."
"No." Yoko agreed. "Oh well, it was just a hunch. Kiya's new and not properly trained."
"Still, she does have pretty good senses." Sai spoke up from the desk opposite Yoko's. His violet eyes were thoughtful. "There might be something in it, koishii."
Yoko blushed a little at the term 'beloved' but glared at Li's mischievous grin. "I can't really spare anyone from Tokyo at the moment, Sai." She stated, putting the papers down. "This is a busy time of year for us. Demons get loose easily this time of year, stupid kids performing rites or curses they don't understand...not to mention the kitsune and tanuki are especially rampant..." she sighed. "Jean'll have my head if we have a repeat of the Jakumon incident."
Sai shuddered; he wasn't fond of spiders. Much less spider-demon females. Li snorted. "Then tell Jean to get his French ass out here."
Yoko gave Li a flat look and Sai looked shocked at the hacker's language. Li raised his hands placatingly. "Fine. It was just an idea."
"Yoko-san!" Kimiko burst in with her usual breeziness. "Kiya has another report!!"
Yoko held out her hand and Kimiko promptly placed the compact, silver cell into it. "Negai here." The woman said in a crisp tone. The room was quiet as she spoke and remained so after she had hung up.
Yoko sighed and put her head in a hand. "Kiya said that there was a strong possibility of there being a vampire feeding last night in Domino. She still has to validate it."
Li blinked, while Kimiko gasped. Sai remained impassive, but his soft features had hardened and his eyes narrowed.
"That means someone has to go to Domino, right?!" Nami exploded from the doorway. Kimiko jumped and whirled as her older sister bounded in and stopped in front of Yoko's desk. "Right?"
"Nami, we've been over this-"
"Yoko-san, please!" Nami begged. "If I'm stuck with anymore paperwork, I'll explode!"
Sai looked alarmed, completely losing his "battle look" (as Nami had termed it). Yoko looked vaguely irritated, while Li grinned.
"Nami.."
"Please!" the girl looked about ready to go on her hands and knees.
"I'll take her." A young woman with chestnut curls and a sweet face said from the doorway. Yoko's face brightened.
"Ai! Come in."
Ai Touya grinned. "Besides, I have to go help Kiya with the forensic evidence anyway. And Akira is away for the week, so this is the perfect time."
Yoko looked at Sai. He shrugged, then smiled softly. Yoko sighed. "All right. Nami, you will accompany Ai."
"Yes!" Nami pumped a fist in the air.
"But no recklessness or else!" the miko threatened. Nami immediately became meek.
"Yes, ma'am."
Iris: Great…the one time you review you have to point out all my mistakes. Lol, j/k. Glad you did review for once, my oh most loyal minion.
Dr. Vorlon: Ah, the great motivator. Lol. Thanks for reading and reviewing!