WSJ: *laughing hysterically* I love it when ideas come to you in the middle of the night!!!
Kaze: *blinks at the chapter* Well, at least it's not me getting humiliated most of the time...
WSJ: *grin* I know, Naosu's a little OOC, but he's really surprisingly hard to write for...
HCG: *cheery* But it's well worth it, is it not? Naosu rocks!
Kaze: My head is hurting already just thinking of adding him to this mix…ugh…
Disclaimer: YGO does not belong to us. HCG owns the Negative Realm and its occupants. WSJ claims Damon and Horus, and Nozomi and Naosu are Ebony Kuroneko's. Understanding of this chapter might help if you've read Tarnished Soul, by Ebony Kuroneko.
()()()()()
Kaze sighed and rubbed at his eyes in frustration as he reached into his coat pocket, pulling out the key to Yami's prison (or rather, Nozomi's prison, as he'd taken to calling himself now). As soon as Kawari had figured out where they were going, he'd practically jumped into Pegasus's arms, hiding in the millionaire's hair and whimpering. Apparently, chibi-Kawari wasn't as good at hiding his fear of the pharaoh as grown-up Kawari was. Damon was hiding behind Saguru, who was hiding behind Kaeru, who was behind Kaze. Sighing and wondering if it was too late to send the chibis back to the rec room, Kaze unlocked the door and pushed it open.
The room was dismal, as always, but there was one distinct difference. The short figure lounging on the bed wasn't Nozomi. Naosu sat up and waved. "Loffu, Kaze!" he said cheerfully, resting one hand absently on the gold Puzzle around his neck. "Mou hitori no boku felt you coming, and he thought it would be better if Naosu-" he stopped as Pegasus stepped inside with Kawari in his arms, the other chibis trailing restlessly after him. Once he saw that it wasn't Nozomi sitting on the bed, Kawari squirmed until Pegasus let him down.
"Loff..." Naosu said wonderingly, hopping off the bed to find that Kaeru was about his height, although the others were actually shorter (if, indeed, it was possible to be shorter than a Yugi). "Kaze, they're kawaii! Naosu didn't know you had children!"
Kaze groaned and resisted the urge to face-palm himself as Pegasus snickered. Being around Naosu tended to be like being around another chibi. One who'd been given sugar. In large amounts.
Saguru giggled. "Silly Nao! We's not Kaze's kids!"
Naosu giggled as well, delighted with the new name of 'Nao'. Then he stopped, blinking at the chibi-agents. "Wait... You're Saguru, loff! And Kawari! You're my size now!"
"Ding ding ding, I think he's got it." Kaze said sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest. "Now could you please ask your yami what he did to my agents and how we can get them back to normal?"
Naosu pouted slightly at Kaze suggesting that Nozomi had done this, but obediently cupped his hands around the Puzzle, closing his eyes and cocking his head to one side as he conversed with Nozomi. The chibis began to get bored, and Damon, Saguru, and Kaeru started up a game of leap-frog that took them three times around the small room before Naosu looked up again. Kawari just stayed by Kaze, keeping a firm grip on the Blue Eyes's torn coat.
Suddenly Naosu's eyes flashed open, something Nozomi had said startling him into speaking out loud, and in the first person to boot. "Mou hitori no boku, I don't think-" The Puzzle began to glow before Naosu had finished his sentence, and a moment later a slightly smirking Nozomi was standing next to his hikari.
"This is most amusing." he said, grinning at Kaze. "And besides Worthy Light, I mean them no harm. I need to see them to try and figure out what has done this to them because it certainly," he looked pointedly at Kaze. "Wasn't me. And they are just children," he concluded matter-of-factly. "What could they possibly-"
And then things began to happen very fast.
Upon seeing Nozomi appear, towering over him by almost two feet, Kawari screamed and dove behind Kaze, curling up in a ball and throwing his hands over his head like a disaster was about to strike. Kaeru growled at Nozomi and then leapt at him, head-butting the startled pharaoh to the ground before he could do anything. Naosu jumped away before they could land on him, stumbled, and fell into Saguru, both of them going down in a heap. Pegasus tensed and Kaze's hand darted inside his coat, grabbing for a knife as Nozomi tried to get Kaeru off him in a non-threatening manner. Damon, his green eye wide in fright, pointed a trembling finger at Nozomi and screamed a spell. Kaze shouted a warning, having no idea what Damon might have done, but by then it was too late.
Time slowed down again. There was a sticky-sounding thunk, like a wet seed pod exploding, and instantly Nozomi and Kaeru were both tangled up in a thick, sticky substance that was half-way between rubber and bubble gum, and a sickly green in color. Damon sat down on the floor and began to cry, and Naosu, who couldn't help but giggle, ran over to comfort him. Kaze had already retrieved Kawari from behind his ankles and was cradling the bawling white-haired boy in his arms, trying to get the little swordless swordsman to calm down.
Pegasus snickered then, and it spread. Naosu started giggling louder, and Kaze chuckled a little as he watched the pharaoh and tomb robber struggle against the enchanted goop. Nozomi gave Naosu a distressed look, which only made the Negative Yugi laugh harder. "Worthy Light..." he whined. Then he cursed as he tried to move his head and the stuff pulled at his hair.
Apparently, this seemed like a good idea to Kaeru too, who began to recite a very colorful vocabulary ranging from Egyptian to modern Arabic to English and Japanese. Pegasus snorted, trying to hold in more laughter at the sound of so many curses coming from so small a mouth and at so high a pitch. Well, that was one thing at least. While they had the bodies of toddlers the agents obviously still had the minds of adults. At least that part of their minds, anyway.
Kawari stopped crying, twisting around in Kaze's arms to look at Kaeru with wide eyes. "You stuck!"
"No shit!" Kaeru yelled back, trying to jerk his arm free and only succeeding in falling over onto Nozomi. "Aibou! Quit laughing!"
"I sorry!" Kawari giggled as Kaze let him down, his fear of Nozomi for the moment overpowered by the sheer hilarity of seeing his yami stuck to the floor by green goo. Saguru joined him, both of them laughing and pointing at Kaeru, who was growing increasingly distraught, which only made his curses become that much more colorful.
Pegasus could stand it no longer as he sat down on Nozomi's bed, leaning against the wall as he howled in laughter. "I haven't seen anything this funny since Kaze-boy got his boxers run up the flag pole!" he chortled, earning a pause and a curious glance from Nozomi.
Kaze snorted, dipping his head to hide a cruel smile at Nozomi's predicament, when suddenly he realized that Damon was still howling. Worried, he kneeled down next to Naosu, who was trying without success to calm the little falconer down. "What's wrong Naosu?"
Naosu shrugged helplessly, his eyebrows drawn together in worry as he petted Damon's hair and patted his back. "Naosu doesn't know! Damon hasn't stopped crying long enough to tell me!"
Kaze picked up the one-eyed chibi, pulling him onto his lap. "Damon, what's wrong? Are you okay? He might have just used too much energy at once casting that spell," he said as an aside to Naosu, who nodded with wide eyes.
"I di'nt mean t' hit Kaeru too!" Damon wailed, burying his face in Kaze's shoulder. "Jus' stupid Nozomi! Now Kaeru'll get eated too!"
Naosu and Kaze exchanged wide-eyed glances, and Pegasus wasn't laughing anymore. "'Eated'?" Kaze echoed. "Damon, what do you mean?"
"He summoned something!" Pegasus realized, franticly darting his remaining eye over the webbing that encased Kaeru and Nozomi, trying to find out what Damon may have brought out of another realm (not necessarily the Shadow Realm, Damon was known to summon creatures from other dimensions as well, most notably when he'd summoned a Chinese dragon for he and Saguru to escape on when a raid had once turned particularly nasty). "Something to eat Nozomi!"
Naosu frowned. "Not loff! No eat mou hitori no boku!"
Kaeru was beginning to panic, thrashing around in the webbing again. "Lemme out! Kaze, I want out!"
"Damon, can you make it go away?" Kaze asked, shaking the chibi a little without meaning to. Damon looked up at him with a tearful eye and shook his head 'no'. "Too sleepy..."
Nozomi screamed suddenly, a sound that was so unusual it made everyone stop and stare at him. The pharaoh had gone completely still, and the reason was very obvious. Climbing over his head was a long-legged, furry, fanged, probably poisonous...
Saguru squealed and hid behind Kawari.
"SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!"
()()()()()
WSJ: *snickers evilly* I couldn't help it. I just couldn't. ^^; Let it be known that I hate spiders more than anything else, and if I was in Nozomi's place right now I'd probably be screaming and running in circles, webbing or no webbing. ^^;;;;
HCG: I, for one, do not blame you. Spiders are EVIL in physical form! Gah! *shudders*
Kaze…it's just an arachnid. What's so bad about it?
WSJ & HCG: *both glare at Kaze*
Kaze: *sweatdrop* Ignore me…
God bless minna-san!