Gomen! Last chapter's title is my friend Abby's idea. I'm just borrowing it!
Kheh heh heh. –pant– they'll never find me here. –hooks comp. to extension cord leading away from under a very thin bush yards from the mental institute– mmm....pineapple pork. So sweet. Don't own ygo, but that doesn't matter when you've got meat this good on your birthday (19 Aug.) –looks around nervously– must start storie. MY MEAT! MY PRECIOUS! –gollum, gollum!– kheh heh heh. enjoi my ficcie, yes precious meat....mwah hah hah.
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Chapter 6: Truth Be Told
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"YIIIIIIEEEEEK!!!" Willow screamed, flying over the railing, catching hold of it at the last moment. 'Oh, kami-sama, what did I do? Eh? The bird is glowing—?' Willow watched the vanishing bird and promptly lost grip on the rail in one of her hands. "Ahh! Help!"
Of course, Ryou was already there and reached out for her hand, and pulled with all of his strength (not much) but wasn't able to pull her up far before she started slipping. (yiee....scary harry potter music....making me do this to poor Willow-chan....shivers down my spine)
'Yami....' Ryou began in his mind 'a little help here....'
'What am I s'posed to do?' Bakura inquired.
'I dunno—switch places with me' Ryou strained, panting with the effort, and instead of waiting for a reply, shoved Bakura into his body, relinquishing control for the moment. 'Don't drop her!'
Bakura nearly did, though, but caught her before he, too, went over. "Damned hikari, so weak" he muttered, bringing Willow to safety with ease. Before he could switch back she noticed the difference.
"Ryou, thanks.... Is your hair spikier? How'd ya do it?"
'Oh, shit. Ryou, switch back now' Bakura panicked.
'No! She'll notice that! Just fake my voice and say that it was the wind or something.'
"Umm...." Sweatdrop. "Spiky? More than usual....?"
She nodded. "Yup."
"I-I don't know...." His best impression of Ryou's voice was completely convincing. "Maybe it was the wind?" Bakura started to settle his hair down a little bit.
"Maybe, but...." She paused.
"But what?" more subtle hair settling.
Willow pointed up toward his nose; she had him caught! "Did the wind also make your eyes narrower and more....evil looking?"
'Ack!' they chorused.
'Ehhh....eh....just turn away, and change back completely' Ryou ordered. 'Kura did as told. (Whoa!)
"I don't know what you mean." –niku– "We should get back inside. If we can, that is" (niku is smile)
"Sure...." She turned to the door. "Maybe if we run?"
"Heh. That might work." He got ready to run. "Let's go on three, alright?" 'Heh. Completely distracted her.'
"Kay. Ichiniisan!" she rushed and ran off.. "Hayaku, Ryou-cha–n!" 'Not gonna fool me that easily. I'll just bring it up later....' (ichi-nii-san is one-two-three & hayaku is hurry up)
The door handle firmly in her grasp, Willow yanked on it. A bit harder than was needed. She ended up toppling into Ryou (behind her) and losing her shoe (?).
"The wind did stop, y'know."
"Ha—yeah." She straightened quickly, trying to find her shoe and blushing a deep crimson, glad that it was somewhat dark. "Go ahead, I'll catch up"
"Okay. Remember—it's 201."
"Right. I don't think I'll be that far behind, though." She turned to find the shoe, having a hard time of it in the semi-darkness.
Finally she did locate it, close to the fire escape and as she stood back up the wind (oh, not again) regained it's earlier strength (first part was only a distraction), blasting her onto the steps, which she slipped on due to yesterday's rain.
All the way down she went in a tight little ball, having enough momentum to go around the turns and not enough time to grab the rails. By the time she was near the bottom she was nearly soaked through and had flakes of rust and grime all over her. Naturally, it was the new uniform that she was wearing still.
She didn't dare shout, or even open her eyes because she could feel the chips coming off. Her eyes popped open, however, when she started to go into a free fall, and frantically started flailing her arms to catch the ladder, which, due to the way it was built, shifted and lengthened to reach the ground when she caught it.
Ryou, meanwhile, was still going down the stairs, humming to himself, as not two minutes had even passed yet. And Yugi, the little klutz (not really) was piecing the puzzle back together in his room at the top of the game shop as he had slipped and dropped it getting out of the shower. Of course, we can't forget Malik-sama, at the supermarket, buying some Midol for Isis, to be dropped off shortly.
Poor Willow, so ignored and forgotten, now dangling at the end of the ladder, three feet above the ground.
She let go, only to land rear-first in some mud, the rustflakes falling like snow all around her. And to make matters worse, (sorry Willow!) when she stood up she noticed a couple of muscly-looking thugs at the end of the alley. She backed up instinctively and when they started to follow she turned and darted past a third creep, running with all her strength to get away, hoping they weren't very fast on their feet. At the road she turned left, not knowing where to go, but keeping to the side of Ryou's apartment building.
When she didn't find another alley on the other side, Willow dashed across the street (no cars) with the thugs close behind her. She found another alley and went in, coming out near a brightly-lit store. But without even glancing up to catch the name of it, instinct kept her running faster and faster to an unknown destination.
Willow found another alley and went down it, hearing the footsteps hot on her heels, until she came out at a very busy street, even at this time of night, turned right and ran off, the thugs' footsteps dying out instantly.
She then turned and saw that the guys were a few blocks away and one of them was holding something up, whatever it was, it looked like a gun, so Willow tried to run again. Out of exhaustion, she failed to see the can in front of her and tripped over it just as the thing went off, lighting the street blue and further allowing her uniform to become a colorless mess from the street scum.
Willow stumbled to her feet, knees and hands scratched up and bleeding. "Oww.... I need to wash-" she looked up. "Crap. Now I'm lost." Willow looked around sleepily, trying to find a road marker, even though it wouldn't help her any. "What were they chasing me for anyway?" she started jogging sloppily in her former direction. "Should find a phone book.... So tired –cough–"
She closed her eyes for a moment and crashed into someone. "aah. Sumimasen. Sorry bout that." She stumbled.
The person caught her and said, "no, it's ok. Are you alright, though?" he said setting her down on a front stoop, looking at one of her hands.
"nnn.... 'ts nothing...." She looked at his face, her vision blurring. "Malik?"
"Wha-- how-?" he caught her again as she passed out. "How did you know my name?" he asked the unconscious form, picking her up and carrying her up the stairs and up to his sister's apartment, where he was going.
"Ooooh.... Isis is really not going to like this...."
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I shouldn't have ended it that way. I let myself get into a three and a half week long block.
Shame on me.
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Up on the wall was a clock. It was an unfortunate clock, however, because for the past few minutes it had been stared at incessantly by one Ryou Bakura.
After five of those treacherously long minutes Ryou snapped, rising with a muttered "where could she be?" to find out why Willow was taking so long. He left his apartment and went up the stairs and back up to the roof, slightly more frustrated at each step higher without her presence.
When he got to the top, he clearly saw that she wasn't there and began worrying. Ryou walked out a few steps, pulling out the millenium ring from under his shirt, calling on its power to find Willow. Two of the spikes rose and pointed toward the fire escape (where else?). Just as the ring activated the ladder clunked back into its place after its slow ascent post-Willow-fall. (not a real word/phrase. nothing else would fit)
He rushed over to the steps and swung himself onto them, trying to not slip on the wet rust. At the bottom Ryou saw the indentations in the mud and followed the prints out of the alley, keeping to the trail based on the ring.
Ryou paused to get his bearings and found that he was outside of the supermarket that he normally shopped at. Even though it was relatively late, there were a couple of rough-looking types outside eating marshmallow peeps. Ryou shivered in disgust. Easter was months ago, so those things had to have been ancient.
Bakura, asleep in his soul room, would've grossed Ryou out further by saying that peeps got better with age.
Either way, peeps are gross.
Turning back to his quest, Ryou noticed that he was being led in the general direction that was somewhat familiar to him.
He let the ring settle down on its string and continued on to Malik's home.
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Tihs is jsut for the hlel of it. I tnihk it's cool taht, no mtetar waht oerdr the ltretes are in, as lnog as the fsrit and lsat ltretes are in tiehr crecort pclae, the mnid is slitl albe to raed the wrod as a wlhoe, lneavig it comhsipenreble.
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Ah, warmth. What a blessing it can be, slipping into a heated consciousness after a long, hard day of running around and falling down. But alas, with the warmth of the waking world also comes the cold, and the pain. Wait....pain? That wasn't in the deal.
Willow attempted sitting up, now fully awake and aware of every scrape, nick, and scratch of last night's 'adventure'. Or was it still the same day?
She quickly noticed a few bruises as well and groaned, gaining the attention of the room's occupants.
Isis rushed over with a pack of ice, saying, "you shouldn't move around, it might make matters worse." She put the ice over what seemed to be the worst of the injuries: a large abrasion on Willow's right arm with a medium-sized gash in the middle that had been cleaned up and dressed while she was unconscious.
"How long've I been out?" Willow asked groggily.
Malik came forward chuckling. "About ten minutes, give or take. Surprising, since you were in really bad shape." He paused to think about something. "By the way, how did you—"
'Ding-dong!' the doorbell rang out, not a second too soon.
"Who could that be?" Isis asked.
Malik turned. "Dunno. I'll go check." He left the room.
Willow strained her ears, trying to hear, but the insulation was installed too well. Isis looked back at her. "You must be hungry. I'll go make you something." She said and took the same path as her brother.
All alone now, at least for a few moments, Willow decided to check herself over, looking to see just how badly she had damaged her flesh. Aside from her arm, everything else wasn't very serious, just skin deep. By now Willow was very glad she'd gotten her tetanus shot recently.
"—So you think it might be her?" That was Ryou's voice, gaining in volume as he came closer.
Now Malik spoke: "Well, she fits your description...." They entered the room. "Hi, there! D'you recognize him?" Malik thrust his thumb at Ryou.
"Yeah, I—" Willow began.
"Willow!" Ryou shouted. Malik started rubbing the ear closest to him in 'pain'. "What happened? You're a wreck!"
"Yeah, I noticed. I kinda fell. Several times."
"That doesn't tell me how you ended up here, of all places, and not on the roof, finding your shoe." Ryou sat down next to her.
"What?" Malik asked. "Shoe?"
"Well I clearly found my shoe," she said, holding up her foot and pointing, "but then I ran into some trouble—" She went on to tell them about the thugs and the light. "I have no clue what they were after, though."
She looked up just as Isis came in with a plate of some random Egyptian food and Malik had a confuzzled look on his face. "But—" he started, "how did you know my name?"
Just as the question mark left his mouth, the door was torn off its hinges by none other than Rubeus Hagrid! Noooo.... That's just silly. But it was knocked down and when Malik-chan went to investigate he found that nobody was there. (Sorry! I have to stop for a moment to stop laughing! The 'Noooo.... That's just silly' thing isn't mine. My new English/history teacher does that at least once every class period about random things and he does it almost subconsciously; everyone can't help but laugh)
"What on earth was that?" Willow asked. She and Ryou had gotten to their feet and were following Malik's path to the entranceway.
"I don't know.... Whatever it was, it's disappeared." Malik went to look just outside the door.
Willow started to shiver. "It must have had a lot of energy, that thing, or person." She pointed to the now useless hinges. "The hinges are completely snapped in half. It's kinda scary."
'Rrrrrrrrrr....' (this would be 'go go go go' in Japanese)
"What's that?" Willow asked.
"It's—" Ryou started, then sensing a problem shouted, "Malik! Get down! It's a backlash!", grabbing Willow and pulling her down just as the room and hallway beyond were engulfed in a bright azure glow. The wreckage that resulted was worse than when the door was knocked down. At this blast the floor cracked and Ryou, Willow and Malik all went tumbling down into the basement air. Malik managed to catch hold of the remains of the floor, but Ryou and Willow had less luck.
Ryou grabbed hold of her to keep the injuries down on her part, and not wanting to get hurt any more than she already was, Willow started panicking.
Then all of a sudden, the two of them stopped falling.
They weren't on the floor —they were close, though— and Malik hadn't caught them, but rather they were floating. And now Willow was holding Ryou instead of the other way around.
Ryou looked up. "Willow, what—" He blinked. "You—you've got—"
Willow opened her eyes. "We didn't fall?"
"Yes. But—you—"
By now Malik had hoisted himself back onto what was left of the floor. "Hey!" he yelled. "Daijobu!?!" (are you ok?) "Wha-! You didn't tell me she was a tenshi!"
"What?" Willow turned her head to look up a bit. "Angel?....Kyaaaa! I've got wings!?!" At this she lost any concentration and plopped with Ryou onto the hard floor, a couple of feathers flying loose.
"You're dead?" Ryou was confuzzled. "Was this before or after that creep took your bags?"
"No—it's—"
"What is going on?" Malik called out. "I feel like I'm missing something important. Hang on—I'll come down there."
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"Well, you see....um," Willow started. "I wasn't really completely truthful when I told you about the guy that mugged me, Ryou."
"Wha—? Then what actually went on?" Ryou asked.
"You were mugged?" Poor Malik, so uninformed. "I wanna know what happened!"
Willow ducked her head. "Well, you don't get to know what happened, since it never happened in the first place!" she looked up again when Ryou repeated his earlier 'Wha—?' and Malik shifted to a more comfortable position, knowing an explanation was coming.
"Yeah....there was no mugger, no stolen baggage, in fact, I didn't even get here on a bus."
"So," Ryou started, "everything is a lie?"
"No! Not everything." She corrected. "My name is the real deal."
Malik cut in. "Speaking of names...."
Willow turned. "Sorry about that, I was kind of out of it, but maybe it was a good thing I let that slip. I've been a bit of a bad person lately."
"What are you, a spy?" Malik asked.
"No, I'm just not from around here. Like this city, country, or this general world."
Jonouchi must've been rubbing off on Malik. "So now you're saying that you're ET or something?"
"I think..." Ryou guessed, "that she means another dimension," he turned to Malik, "like the shadow realm, you know?" He stopped. "Oh Willow, there's something we need to tell you, too."
"Well, you don't need to." To their confuzzled looks she added, "I already know about the millenium items and all that."
Malik and Ryou both looked even more alarmed than at the discovery of the wings that Willow knew about 'all that'. So Willow explained herself a bit more, "where I come from, my 'world', let's call it, Magic doesn't completely exist, nor does Kaiba Corp, or Industrial Illusions, or any of you, for that matter."
"That must be a pretty shitty world, then."
Willow and Malik turned to Ryou, who was now Bakura, who then shrugged and said, "Eh, you already know about us, so what's the point in staying inside?"
"I guess you're right." Willow shrugged too. "Oh, but wait. Oh no! Now I can't freak Ryou out by mystically 'knowing' about all the weird things you did, Bakura! Crap. Oh," she replied to the questions that she was asked silently, "In my world, you two and Yuugi and everyone else are just characters in the story, and, judging by the way you've acted, the story followed the actual events accurately...."
"Okay, so then, how come you've got these wings if you aren't dead?" Malik asked.
"Well...." Sweatdrop. "I have no idea." Willow tried moving them and found that she could, then brought them in close so she could look at the feathers' colors.
"We can try to figure it out at school tomorrow." Ryou looked at his watch. He'd gained control again a few minutes ago. "It's already way past midnight. We should get home."
"If you're sure that's ok?" Willow stood up. "Should I really go to school with these? I don't think they tuck in or disappear or—what?" At her word the Wings went out of sight and Malik was looking at the spot where they just were. "Well."
"Yeah, let's go now. See you tomorrow Malik." They started leaving the basement.
"Uh huh." Willow said. "Thanks for putting up with all this confusion."
"It's ok. Things were crazier during Battle City. Bye guys." Malik stayed at the top of the basement steps as Ryou led Willow out of the house. He stared down to the semidarkness. Something had seemed very strange about the color of those feathers. It just reeked of something ancient, like the Sennen items.
That strange, bright white and blue had left a void when it disappeared.
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finally done! This chap. took me from 19 Aug to 13 Sep. Sorry for procrastinating so much! R&R if you still love me at all! Ciao!