eh...sorry bout the long wait. i got stuck on a certain passage for awhile, and then just got lazy. for some reason i feel like this chapter is really short, but here it is! i hope i don't start a habit of updating once per month. >. oh, yeah, the chappy title is really stupid, but i couldn't think of anything better. although i have figured out one thing: i don't NOT write well when obsessing over another cool story, which i've been doing lately.

okami666: heh, i've never seen kill bill, so i'll just have to take your word on it.

oh, yeah, and the disclaimer: i don't own YGO, the only thing i do own is the troubled character Nanashi. well, i DO own other things, but i'll just get on with the story.

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Chapter Eight – Destination: Philippines
-

Nanashi dropped a sheet on the blue and grey carpet, covering up the dark bloodstains. There. She was finished. She'd shoved the body into a small, janitor like closet she'd found, hopefully nobody was going in there any time soon. Yugi hadn't been the only one to offer help, but she'd firmly refused. Of course, Seto had never offered.

She turned and walked to the back of the jet. There was a small kitchenette, next to what looked like a flight attendant's quarters. She popped her head in the door. "It's gone," she told Yugi and Solomon.

"Thanks," they answered in unison. Solomon motioned to a cup sitting on the counter. "That's for you. It should help your throat."

She entered and picked up the plastic cup. She swirled the milk like liquid around, staring at it suspiciously. "What's in it?" she asked before taking a small sip. A warm, smooth liquid slid soothingly down her sore throat.

"Family secret." Solomon winked at her.

"In other words, you don't want to know," Yugi added with a laugh as his grandpa elbowed him.

Nanashi took another, longer drink, and then eyed them curiously. "Well, thanks anyway." It was helping, her words didn't scrape across her throat so hard. She slowly made her way to the cockpit.

"Took you long enough," Seto commented as she walked in. She glared at him, but didn't reply. A tangle of different colored wires branched out the back of his laptop, the other ends buried in the control console.

Mokuba sensed the tension snapping between the two, the air seemed to almost crackle with a psychic energy. It made him feel uneasy, and he didn't feel like being caught in the middle of another fight.

His stomach rumbled, bringing something else to mind. "I'm gonna go get something to eat," he bubbled, jumping up and running to the back.

"You have two choices of where to land." A transparent map appeared on the windshield, two areas highlighted. Seto was getting fairly fluent with the controls.

She studied the map. They were more or less surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, interspersed with a few unnamed islands. At the edge of the map a larger land mass contained the two highlighted areas, next to the name – Philippines. The areas were…"Beaches? Isn't there an airport we can reach?"

"No. Too far away," he answered.

"Have you tried radioing anyone?"

"The radio's been destroyed. In case you haven't noticed, our choices are pretty limited. So make your pick."

Damn. What happened to all their fuel? Must've been dumped, or there wasn't much in the first place. "That one." She set her finger on the larger beach. "How far away is it?"

"About an hour."

"Can you print out a map?"

Her response was the soft hum of a printer as a sheet of paper spat out of the instrument panel. It was soon followed by a detailed map of the Philippines. The map on the windshield disappeared, and she leaned forward, staring out blankly. The first hints of dawn were casting away the shroud of night, lighting up the blue ocean below. She tried to bring back everything she knew about flying, but a body interrupted her. The one she'd just cleaned up. Not now, she pleaded in her mind. That was the last thing she needed to think about. It doesn't count, he was going to kill all of us.

"Ready?" Seto voice interrupted her, and she was glad for it.

"Yeah." Ready as she'd ever be.

Seto's blue eyes focused intensely on the screen before him. His fingers began to fly over the keyboard as he began.

The plane took a nosedive.

"Holy shit!" Nanashi exclaimed as Seto yelled at her. "Get your elbows off the controls!" She jumped back and grabbed the yoke, yanking it back. The plane jerked for a few seconds, as auto-pilot tried to take back over, but eventually she managed to level it out. She hoped those in the back were okay.

-

Yugi, who was sitting sideways, was flung out of his chair. Solomon was in a more fortunate position, as he was merely pressed back into his seat.

"What's going on?" Mokuba exclaimed as his Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich became airborne.

Moments later, Seto's cool voice came over the intercom. "If you value your life, I suggest buckling your seatbelt."

"You can say that again," Yugi groaned, rubbing his now doubly sore back. He crawled over to a row of chairs with seatbelts against the back of the plane and strapped himself in. Solomon and Mokuba did likewise. Then they were resigned to wait in suspense.

-

Nanashi eased the plane into a gradual descent. She'd brought the plane in line with the beach, and now was heading straight towards it. At some point in time it occurred to her that it was a good thing this beach was uninhabited.

"I overshot," she said evenly, even as she realized that this could be a fatal error. They were committed to landing now, they'd never make it above the trees if she tried to pull up and circle around.

"What?" Seto demanded tersely, glancing up from his laptop for the briefest of seconds. He was slightly surprised to notice she was entirely calm, but then he realized she'd spent her whole life learning how to survive an emergency.

She jabbed the intercom button. "Brace for impact!" she ordered, moments before bouncing off the beach. Plumes up sand shot up as the wheels dug into the beach for a second, then they were airborne again. Nanashi tried everything she knew to slow down. They bounced again, and then on the third time stayed down.

The beach was rapidly running out and would soon give way to the dark and menacing jungle. Nanashi cut the engines, and there was nothing left she could do.

The Kaiba Corp. jet slammed into the Philippine jungle.