WSJ: ;_; *is tied up with a gag stuffed in her mouth*
Chiot: *grin* Right! It's about time we got her to shut up!
Yami: *snickers in agreement, as he and Chiot are still rather ticked off about HSH 15 as well as the first chapter of sophomore*
Unmei: *sweatdrop* Well then, that leaves notes to us...
Sekil: Yep. It's recently come to SJ's attention that some readers have not read Tarnished Soul for various reasons, so they're wondering who I am. Ebony Kuroneko, that ultra-crazy authoress that gave birth to me, *pauses and grimaces at how wrong that sounds* has taken the time to write out a summary of me and my two siblings, so read:
Lark, Sekil and Arca are from the True (canon) Realm. They're tomb keepers who protected a tomb belonging to the Pharaoh who came after Pharaoh Atemu (SJ: *sticks her nose in* It wasn't Seto in that realm). Sekil looks like the Red Magician as seen under Arcana's control in the series, (but without the robes, obviously and he's not the crackpot). Lark looks like the Dark Magician and HE acts a lot like the Mahaado who almost killed Ryou, so they don't get along well AT ALL! Arca looks like the Dark Magician girl (again without the robes). Sekil is a telepath who is--currently--stronger than Ryou, thus why he could hide his presence from him. He has his vision and so obviously doesn't see auras. Ryou and Bakura had to go by Unmei and Chiot in the True Realm because like they said in Home Sweet Home, there were three of them around, so they needed to tell each other apart and adopt different names. Unmei means destiny and--sometimes--fate, and Chiot is simply puppy in French. Because Sekil knew Ryou and Bakura by those names, he's going to call them by those names, at least at first.
Unmei: *eyes the summary* Eh, that covers it.
Sekil: *snickers* And for the reviewer who asked, the red light district is the bad side of town. *winks*
Unmei: *blushes* Oh my...
Chiot: *rolls his eyes and pokes SJ with a stick* Well, who's doing disclaimer?
Unmei: I've done it plenty of times.
Sekil: Guess it's my turn, huh? WSJ does not own YGO or Sailor Moon (which won't be mentioned much). Gwen, Hiro, and various OCs belong to her. Arca, Lark, and myself belong to Ebony Kuroneko. Amoura, Lisa, Yunet, and various others belong to Brood Mayran. Nozomi, Kawari, and any other Negative Realmers mentioned belong to High Crystal Guardian. And... I think that's it.
Unmei: For now.
Sekil: *sweatdrop* On to the chapter!
The Yami's of Tokyo U: Sophomore
Chapter 2 -- Mage Minded
Quote of the chapter:
"Who do you think you
are?!"
"You, stupid."
(Bakura and Kaeru; High Crystal Guardian; Negative Chaos)
Major thank yous to
Ebony Kuroneko,
for her massive amounts of help
and multiple role-plays concerning this chapter. Loff!
For several moments Ryou just stood and gaped, surprised beyond words at seeing (in a manner of speaking) the True Realm mage in his dorm. "S-Sekil?!"
"That's me," the Egyptian grinned. "Close your mouth, Unmei, before something flies into it."
"What are you doing here?" Ryou asked, kicking the door closed behind him and tossing his backpack onto the bed Sekil wasn't sitting on. "This is Fates Realm, you don't belong here."
Sekil chuckled. "Sure I do, for now. You could say I've been brought in to help settle the balance."
"Balance of what?" Ryou asked, frowning slightly. "I'm not going to find Malik rooming with Kawari, am I?"
Sekil laughed. "No, no, Allah help their sanity if that happened. I'm here to fill the gap your Mahaado left behind."
"What gap?" Ryou asked, sitting down on his bed and cocking his head at Sekil curiously. "People die all the time and don't need other realm fill-ins."
"Yes, but most people haven't been around long enough for their death to leave a dent. Mahaado and Mana were around for millennia, from their death up until....well, you know. That's a long time and it left a hole that needed to be filled, at least for a while."
"Oh." Ryou blinked. "Hold on, are you the only one here?"
"Of course not." Sekil smiled. "Lark's here too, and our little sister Arca. She was sick when you guys came through before."
Ryou made a face, clenching hands around bunches of bed sheet at the mention of Sekil's twin brother Lark. "Just peachy..."
The week before, when Ryou and Bakura had gone into the True Realm to help heal a dangerous imbalance in the forces of light and dark, they'd entered a tomb in Egypt and met two spellcasters who, like the Ishtar family, had been guarding that particular tomb since the time of Yami's reign as pharaoh. The twin boys, Sekil and Lark, were also the True Realm Mahaado, split into two souls by a very old curse. Sekil was also a telepath, and he and Ryou had hit it off right away. Before Ryou had left the tomb, Sekil had mentioned that he was a student of the Elemental, Time, and hinted that he and Ryou might meet again. It seemed like that prediction had come true.
"I'm also here as a fellow telepath, though. We didn't get much time to get to know one another before, but now we'll have much longer." Sekil added, leaning back against the pillows on his bed.
Ryou smiled widely. "I'm looking forward to it already. Having a sane telepath around will be a treat."
Sekil chuckled. "Being around someone other than my siblings is great."
Ryou coughed slightly. "Uh, speaking of that... What's Arca like?"
"She's not at all like Lark, if that's what you mean," Sekil said. "And Lark is not coming to university, so don't worry about that. At the moment he's looking around for a job. Arca and I enrolled in classes here because I wanted to see familiar faces, and Arca wants to see more of the outside world. We really owe your mother a lot, she's the one that got us in."
Ryou smiled. "I'm glad she did, but what's stopping True Realm from missing its mages?"
"No one, we don't play that big a role in the True Realm, so it can handle itself without us."
"Oh." Ryou blinked.
They were interrupted as the sound of loud bickering drifted down the hall to them. Ryou twitched and smacked himself on the forehead, while Sekil got up to look out into the hallway curiously. "What in the worlds...?"
Yami, Yugi, and Bakura were coming down the hall. Yami was holding his head with one hand and yelling at Bakura in rapid-fire Egyptian. Bakura was yelling back at him, and staggering almost as if he was still drunk. Yugi followed along behind, carrying several suitcases and resigned to the fact there was nothing he could do about the yami's.
Ryou sighed and joined the wide-eyed Sekil at the door to his dorm. "If you two don't shut it I'm going to send you both to the Shadow Realm, and you'll never have to worry about getting drunk again."
Bakura just scowled at him, but Yami focused his eyes on Ryou and gave a rather unsteady bow, nearly overbalancing and falling onto his face as a result. Yugi just sighed and grabbed him by the back of the shirt, hauling the hungover pharaoh upright again. Yami didn't appear to notice. "Gomen nasai Ryou, but Bakura..." his eyes drifted, and he caught sight of Sekil. He blinked, blinked again, and then turned to calmly smack Bakura on the back of the head.
"Ow!!" Bakura yelped, spinning to face the pharaoh with an enraged look on his face. "What was that for?!"
"Damn you for getting me drunk!" Yami scowled, gesturing toward Sekil. "Now I'm hallucinating too!"
Bakura blinked and focused in on Sekil. "Bwah? Since when do you randomly summon duel monsters, baka pharaoh?"
"I didn't," Yami scowled. "Obviously what looks like the Red Magician is really just a hallucination brought on by the hangovers."
"...Oh."
Yugi sweatdropped as the two yami's continued to argue and edged his way around them to stand next to Sekil and Ryou. Sekil was still staring at the two bickering ex-spirits, a rather stunned look on his face. "Sorry about them, they've got massive hangovers at the moment. Boku wa Yugi Moto."
Sekil nodded at him, a slightly lopsided grin finding its way onto his face. "Nice to meet you. I'm not surprised at Chiot getting drunk, but pharaoh?"
Ryou chuckled. "Bakura and Yami are friends in this realm Sekil-san. Sometimes a little too good of friends. Bakura turned 21 last night, so they went out drinking."
Sekil smirked. "Ahh, I think I'm going to like this realm," he chuckled, then put his palms together and bowed to Yugi. "I'm Sekil Mahaado. Pleasure to meet you."
Yugi blinked, as did Bakura and Yami, who'd heard Sekil's introduction through a break in their fighting. "Mahaado?"
Sekil grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, it's a long story. I'm from the True Realm, but Fate-sama brought me and my two siblings here to fix a balance problem. My twin brother Lark and I make up the True Realm Mahaado. I met Unm - Ryou and Bakura when they came through my living room a few days ago."
Bakura scowled. "Aw hell, Lark's here too?"
"Yes, but he's not coming here, the lazy bum." Sekil said, shrugging. He blinked at Yami, then smirked. "Whoa pharaoh, how drunk were you last night? Or did you get in a fight with a piercing gun?"
"Both, I think," Yami said sourly, glaring at Bakura. "At any rate, I'm pleased to meet a sane version of my old friend. Hopefully I can get to know you better once this damn headache passes..."
"Wooo..." Sekil whistled quietly as Yami and Bakura turned to go into their room, arguing again. "Never thought I'd hear words like that come from a pharaoh..."
Ryou chuckled and clapped a hand on Sekil's shoulder. "That's Fates Realm Lesson One, Sekil. Our Yami's quite a bit looser than yours or Nozomi-san."
"No kidding," Sekil said, still blinking. "A pharaoh friends with a tomb robber? And rooming together? This year's going to be fun."
Yugi laughed. "Oh no, I think I'm dreading April first already."
"Of course!" Sekil grinned. "Unmei and Chiot both have bright white hair, perfect for dying. What's not to dread?"
"Your hair's of dyable shade too, you know." Ryou said, glaring unsuccessfully at the other telepath. "Bakura told me so."
"Uh uh, you have no proof!" Sekil said, wagging a finger back and forth under Ryou's nose.
Yugi giggled. "Oh boy, this year's gonna be fun. Are you a mage, Sekil-san?"
Sekil blinked, looking surprised. "Huh? Well, sorta. I'm a mage and a telepath. I can switch from one to the other, though it hurts like a mother to do it."
"Someday, I want a look at your family tree," Ryou said dryly, poking Sekil's shoulder. "It shouldn't be possible for you to have mage blood and telepath."
"When has 'possible' ever had anything to do with anything?" Sekil snorted, and Yugi nodded his agreement, fingering a corner of the Millennium Puzzle.
"Anyway, what did pharaoh mean, 'a sane version of my old friend'?" Sekil asked, scratching his head.
Yugi and Ryou looked at him in surprise, before Yugi looked warily at Ryou in an obvious 'should we tell him?' expression. Ryou just shrugged, his face impassive, and a moment later Yugi spoke up, though he sounded reluctant. "A month or so ago, Ryou-kun encountered our realm's Mahaado... and it wasn't really pretty."
"We got into a fight," Ryou said softly, fingering his earring. "He'd gone completely crazy over the thousands of years he was sealed in his staff. He had a grudge against Bakura, and when we fought, I ended up swallowing some of his blood..."
Sekil whistled softly. "Ouch, mage poisoning."
Yugi and Ryou both nodded. "Luckily, Fate was there to give me the antidote." Ryou continued. "Otherwise..."
Sekil winced slightly, but chuckled. "Well, after scaring Fate-sama into nearly ripping all her feathers out..... Goodness, that was a fine thing to hear about later, part of the whole 'this boy will be coming, expect him and don't kill him' speech I got before you showed up in the tomb with the others."
Ryou sweatdropped. "Yeah, that sounds like mother..."
Yugi grinned a little and nodded. "It does, actually. Well, I'm gonna go put my stuff in my room. You two have fun. We're pretty early, but the others should be here sooner or later."
Ryou nodded and waved to Yugi as the slightly shorter boy picked up his bags and headed for his own assigned dorm down the hall. "We're meeting at the Rec at six this afternoon Yugi!" The hikari nodded, and once he was out of earshot Ryou turned to Sekil with a strange look on his face. "You're not really dressed as the Red Magician, are you?"
Sekil smirked. "Of course not, I'm not a crack head, thanks. Just jeans and t-shirts for me."
Ryou chuckled. "Good. Well? Impressions?"
Sekil seemed to think for a moment. "The pharaoh's laid back to the point of being scary, and your Yugi's way too tall."
Ryou laughed. "Well, not that I'd know..."
"Really 'mei, he's nearly as tall as you are. I thought Yugi's were short by definition."
"Ours was descended from the Kaiba side of the family, so that probably has something to do with it." Ryou said, chuckling as he imagined the look on Sekil's face. "Our Pharaoh Atemu never had any children, so Yugi has to be from the Priest Sethos side."
Sekil smirked. "Really now? I'll have to taunt them about that later."
Ryou laughed and shook his head. "You're horrible!"
"I know," Sekil grinned. "So what now? I was kinda hoping we could go find Arca and see how she's settling in."
"Sure," Ryou nodded. "We've really got nothing going on until we meet the others at the Rec at six."
"Rec?"
"The campus cafe," Ryou explained. "Last year we all met up and introduced each other to our roommates, caught up on our summers, that kind of thing. We're doing it again this year."
"Ahh..." Sekil locked the dorm door and pocketed his own copy of the key, and they started down the hall. Tokyo University was a very prestigious school, and there were quite a few freshmen every year who realized they weren't up to standard and dropped out. There were barely two-thirds as many sophomores as there were freshmen, and therefore the sophomores roomed two to a dorm instead of three and were all housed in the same large dorm building. The bottom two floors belonged to the guys, with an RA for each floor, while the top two floors were the women's. According to what Arca had told Sekil, her dorm was on the fourth floor.
By unspoken agreement, Sekil and Ryou both bypassed the two elevators and headed straight for the stairs. As soon as Sekil noticed this, he chuckled. "You hate elevators as much as I do?"
Ryou made a face. "Probably more. Metal actually dampens my telepathy, and being in an elevator effectively cuts me off from anything around me. Plus, I can't "see" metal, and it gives me the really horrible sensation of standing on absolutely nothing. What about you?"
"Technology doesn't like me." Sekil said, making a face of his own. "Knowing my luck, if we got into that thing it'd probably break down."
Ryou made a face. "Noo thank you."
By the time they reached the fourth flight of stairs, Sekil was wheezing slightly and Ryou was barely winded. "You're out of shape." Ryou commented blandly, and Sekil scowled at him.
"Of course I'm out of shape, I've been living underground all my life doing nothing more strenuous than chasing scorpions for Arca."
Ryou laughed. "Oh boy. Any interest in learning the martial arts? Yami's joining Bakura and I in our sparring sessions this year, and you'd make an even four."
Sekil nodded thoughtfully as he pushed open the door to the fourth floor stairwell. "Maybe I will. I know a little bit of the Middle East variety, though I'm more used to fighting with a bo staff. Good Allah, is that music?"
The two boys stepped out into the hallway, and Sekil immediately clamped his hands over his ears. Ryou tried to resist the urge to laugh again. Gwen's Celtic jigs did take a little getting used to, and she was playing them awfully loud today. Ryou grabbed Sekil's sleeve and dragged him down the hall toward where the music was coming from, chuckling a little as the other telepath whined at him. Coming to a stop in front of the door, Ryou rapped on it with his knuckles. He chuckled quietly as he sensed what was going on inside. "Gwen, turn it down!"
Ryou chuckled again when there was no answer and, finding the door unlocked, pushed it open. Behind him, Sekil sputtered, and Ryou barely managed to suppress a grin. Gwen was teaching her roommate how to two-step, and was singing along with the music, holding a hair brush up to her mouth like a microphone. Her roommate, a girl with blond hair barely a shade lighter than Gwen's and big blue eyes, seemed to be in danger of falling over in a giggle fit. She looked a little young to be a sophomore in college, maybe eighteen on the outside.
When Ryou opened the door, Gwen and her roommate had both had their backs to the door. Now they spun, and Gwen started laughing when she caught Ryou "watching" her. The other girl squealed, diving past Ryou to latch her arms around Sekil's neck. "Sekil! Hi! Gwen was just teaching me to dance!"
Sekil sweatdropped a little and pried her arms off of him, placing one hand on her head. "Have you had sugar?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically and pointed to the desk, where a large bag of Pixi Stix and a somewhat smaller mound of wrappers lay. "Gwen gave them to me! Isn't she nice?"
Sekil suppressed a groan and looked at Ryou. "This is my little sister, Arca. Arc, this is my roommate, Ryou."
Arca grinned widely and waved at him. Ryou smiled weakly, but inside he was slightly dismayed. Ra, but she was hyper. Maybe, hopefully, it was just the sugar. But the thought of something that energetic sharing a room with Gwendolyn Kennady, who was generally that hyper without sugar... The mind recoils from the very thought.
"I'm Gwen Kennady," Gwen said, managing to overcome her American roots for once and bow to Sekil, who returned the gesture. "It's nice to meet you. Your sister's great! We're going to have so much fun!"
Arca nodded. "Yeah! Gwen's not Japanese, Sekil, and she says she'll teach me English and all about her home in Amanica!"
"Oy..." Sekil put a hand to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on already. "Arca, that's America."
"Same difference," Arca waved her hand negligently. "And guess what! Gwen has a boyfriend!"
Sekil nearly face faulted. "Allah preserve my sanity..."
Gwen blinked at the mention of Allah, and suddenly Arca looked a bit more hesitant. "Umm... Sekil? Gwen's not Muslim... Is that okay? I mean, am I allowed...?"
Sekil raised an eyebrow. "You should probably not mention that to Lark, but I don't have a problem with it. And as far as I know, there's nothing in the Quran against having non-Muslim roommates."
"Yay!" In an instant, Arca was back to her bouncy self, and threw her arms around her big brother again. "Thanks Sekky-poo!"
"Gaaah..." Sekil tried without success to pry her off again. "Off! Down! Down girl!"
Arca giggled and detached herself, hopping back to stand beside Gwen. "Dance with us!"
"Ra, no!" Ryou darted for the door, Sekil close on his heels.
Gwen stuck her head out the door to call after them sweetly, "See you at six!" Laughing, she and Arca gave each other a high five and then went back to their dance lesson.
*
Amoura Letazaut sighed as she pulled herself out of the car, flipping her long green hair over her shoulder. As usual when she was in Japan, she'd been staying at the Kaiba Manor over the past week or so with Gwen and Hiro, but the two of them had decided to drive up to Tokyo U early, leaving Amoura with a broken leg and no ride. Thankfully, she'd been able to get a hold of Tea, who was able to give her a lift to the campus.
Tea came around the front of the car and handed Amoura her crutches. Technically, Amoura should probably be in a wheelchair for another week or so, but the French girl had flatly refused. As Amoura got herself settled onto her crutches, Tea shouldered a backpack and picked up another two bags from the trunk. The two of them were rooming together again this year, with the obvious exception of a certain American.
There was a plaintive meowing from the back of the car, and Tea giggled. Leaning around Amoura, she managed to get the plastic cat carrier out from where it was wedged on the floor. "Sorry Yunet," The white kitten just meowed again, giving Tea an indignant look through the wire front of the cage.
Loaded down with bags and cat, Tea turned to start toward the dorm building, Amoura just behind her. Just as they reached the door it opened, and Tea found herself nose-to-chin with someone she'd never seen before. She tilted her head back, regarding the tan, white-haired man curiously. Finally she asked, "Are you from Egypt?"
The man blinked at her, surprised. "Uh, yes, actually. Why?"
Tea grinned and shook her head. "That's the way it seems to work around here. Do you know someone named Malik Ishtar?"
There was quiet laughter from behind the man. "Not yet, but he knows me."
Sekil stepped back and turned, allowing Ryou to get past him in the doorway. The blind man was grinning, his clouded eyes twinkling slightly in mischief. "This is Sekil Mahaado, my roommate and a telepath that Bakura and I met last week. Sekil, this is Tea Gardner."
Sekil blinked. "Oh. Her? I didn't recognize her with her hair so long..."
Tea and Amoura both gave him a 'what?' expression, and Ryou chuckled and explained. "Sekil-san is from another realm. The version of Tea Gardner that he knows has chin-length hair." He grinned and shook his head, holding up his hands to forestall further questions. "Bakura and I are going to end up telling that story a million times, but I don't have time right now. I was just about to take Sekil on a tour of the campus. Ah, and Sekil-san? This is Amoura Letazaut."
Sekil raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if he was supposed to know who that was. He took another look at the pretty green-haired girl on crutches. She looked about nineteen, with long green hair pulled back from her face. She was dressed like any other girl he'd seen since coming here, except for the fact that she was leaning on crutches and had a big pink cast on one leg. Hold on...
Sekil looked closer at the cast. He wasn't very good at reading proper name kanji yet, and the English letters were too small to make out at this distance, but the hieroglyphics running down one side were plain as day. " 'Bakura loves Amoura'?!"
Amoura blinked. "Oh, is zat vhat zey zay? Yami wrote zem, and vouldn't tell me vhat zey meant."
Sekil turned toward Ryou, and if the demi-god had been able to see he would have laughed at the expression on Sekil's face. "You mean, this is...!?"
Ryou grinned, trying hard not to break into full laughter. "Yes Sekil, this is Bakura's girlfriend."
Sekil's eyes threatened to pop out of his skull. "Oh man! That's one sentence I never thought I'd hear!" Taking one of Amoura's hands, the Egyptian bent to kiss it. "You must have a will of iron, my lady, and I compliment you on putting up with such a loud-mouthed drunkard."
Ryou slapped himself on the forehead, and Amoura frowned. "Drunk? Bakura?"
Sekil's eyes got round. "You didn't know? In that case, you didn't hear it from me. And you didn't hear about the tattoo from me, either." He had to hide a grin as the expression on Amoura's face darkened. "It's nice to meet you."
"Et tu, (1)" she muttered, taking a firmer grip on her crutches. "R'ou, do you know vhere I may find Bakura?"
Ryou coughed to hide a chuckle. "I believe he and Yami are in A-20, suffering from hangovers."
Tea frowned and exchanged glances with Amoura. "Yami too? Great. Those two need chaperones or baby-sitters or something." Amoura nodded her agreement and the two girls went inside, leaving Sekil and Ryou chuckling by the front door. A moment later there was the sound of a door slamming open, followed by female yelling and a pair of male screams of absolute terror.
Sekil grinned widely. "I think you said something about a tour, Unmei?"
Ryou nodded, leaning against the building as he laughed. "Poor Bakura. I'm glad I'm smart enough not to do anything for Serenity to chew me out over."
Sekil quirked an eyebrow at the mention of a name he didn't recognize. "Yeah, I almost feel sorry for them. Let's go before Amoura and Tea tell them how they found out."
"Hai," Ryou straightened up, still chuckling, and the two started out across the campus. Every so often Ryou would point out a building or landmark. After awhile, they came to the recently rebuilt theatre and drama building. "...And this is the building I blew up last spring."
Sekil gave his new roommate a startled look. "You actually blew up a building?"
"I didn't mean to! One of the True Pharaoh's minions attacked Serenity, and then it all just kinda escalated. Fate and I had to erase everyone's minds and make them think that the boiler room exploded."
"Time-sama briefed me about the True Pharaoh before I came, but who's Serenity?" Sekil asked, cocking his head. "You mentioned her once before."
Ryou smiled, a slight blush coming to his pale cheeks. "I keep forgetting that you're a tomb keeper in your realm, and don't know everyone I do. Serenity is Joey Wheeler's younger sister, and my girlfriend."
Sekil smirked. "Girlfriend, eh? You do realize that I'm going to have to meet this girlfriend of yours as soon as possible and conduct an evaluation."
"Go right ahead," Ryou said, grinning. "It might be awhile. She's a senior in high school this year, so she probably won't get the chance to come up until Christmas."
"A sophomore in college dating a senior in high school? You've been hanging around Bakura too long, cradle robber."
Ryou wrinkled his nose and smacked Sekil lightly on the shoulder. "Stop that. I get too much of that from her big brother."
"Hey now!" Sekil grinned. "It's my duty as a roommate to tease you whenever possible!"
Ryou pretended to pout and rolled his eyes. "Oh joy. Come on you twit, I have to pick up my schedule from the main office. Braille's hard to send through the mail."
Sekil saluted mockingly as Ryou started off. "Twit hears and obeys."
Ryou just rolled his eyes again and snorted playfully. "Idiot."
*
It was a couple hours later when Yami and Bakura stumbled out of the dorm building, still griping and moaning. Yami was wearing a pair of sunglasses to attempt to hide his eyes from the bright sunlight, and Bakura was scowling in a way that put his True Realm self to shame. The former thief shoved his hands into his pockets, growling under his breath about nosy girlfriends and no respect.
Yami, despite his own bad mood, had to chuckle at Bakura. "You know you don't mean that."
Bakura sighed, still scowling. "You're right. It's just really annoying and really, really humiliating when the entire dorm sees you getting chewed out by a girl on crutches that's half your height."
"Ah yes," Yami said, nodding sagely. "The girls should have at least had the courtesy to close the door. Who was it that snickered something about 'whipped'?"
"That was Hiro," Bakura growled. "Or Duke, one of the two. It doesn't matter, I'll kill them both later. Ugh..." the white haired man buried his face in his hands. "She practically tore my shirt off me! Any other time I would have been turned on, but not when she's busy yelling about what a stupid man I am and how I'm going to regret getting a tattoo for the rest of my life, and garbage like that. I can only be thankful Malik and Ishtar weren't around to see that!"
Yami frowned slightly, glancing down at his watch. "They are rather late. I hope nothing's wrong."
Bakura rolled his eyes. "If something was wrong, we'd know about it, and not just because otouto has built-in radar." He groaned as he heard a familiar roar from behind them. "Speak of the afrit..."(2)
Yami blinked at him, before he too recognized the roar. "Aw hell, just what we didn't need..." With a sigh, the two Egyptians turned to face what had to be their doom on wheels.
It was just what they'd thought. Malik Ishtar was bearing down on them, his expression invisible under the tinted face shield of his motorcycle helmet. He turned the bike and leaned on the breaks, sliding to a stop a few scant feet from Yami and Bakura. Ishtar was sitting behind him, his arms locked around Malik's waist and his terror easily visible, helmet and all. Behind Ishtar were several bags strapped down to the back of the motorcycle.
Malik killed the bike's engine and jerked off his helmet, glaring at Yami and Bakura as he tried to pry Ishtar's hands from around his waist. After several fierce tugs the Rod spirit came unstuck, and Malik pushed him off, dismounting the bike in one smooth motion. He stalked toward the two ex-yami's, anger radiating off him in waves. He got to within a few inches of Yami and Bakura, glaring at them mercilessly, teeth bared in a feral snarl. "You... you..."
"Me, me." Bakura mocked, looking down at the shorter man calmly and crossing his arms. "You're late, Malik."
"The hell I'm late!" Malik snarled. "I had to send Joey on ahead with our stuff because I spent all day scouring my apartment for my credit card!"
With Isis away in Egypt, Malik and Ishtar were living alone in their apartment. That was one of the only reasons Isis had ever let him get a credit card, the boys had to eat somehow.
"So where did you find it?" Yami asked, plastering an innocently curious look on his face.
Malik just scowled. "I didn't, because one of you has it."
"Us?" Bakura asked, as innocent as the pharaoh.
"Yes, you! Who else would rack up a bill like this?!" Malik thrust a piece of paper at them. "This came in the mail this morning."
Yami's cocky smirk vanished and the color slowly drained from Bakura's face as they read the paper Malik was waving in their faces. An eyebrow piercing and two deluxe tattoos, and it even listed what the tattoos said! Damn!
"And something tells me I'll be getting an alcohol bill too!" Malik added, his eyebrows twitching slightly. "What do you two have to say for yourselves?!"
Yami stammered an attempted reply, but Bakura just shook his head. "Malik Malik Malik... Have I taught you nothing?"
Malik looked wary at this sudden change of topic. "What are you talking about, tomb robber?"
Bakura sighed dramatically. "I mean, have you forgot my lessons so quickly?" He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, flipping it open and handing Malik his credit card back. "It was all in harmless fun, my friend."
"Harmless fun that cost me a hundred and ninety-six U.S. dollars!" Malik scowled. "How'm I going to find that kind of money?!"
"We'll pay you back, of course," Yami spoke up before Bakura could, and the former thief smacked himself on the forehead.
Malik looked suddenly much more appeased. "Really now? You two, getting actual, paying jobs? This ought to be fun." He smirked, and Bakura groaned, resisting the urge to strangle him and/or the pharaoh.
It was about then that Ishtar managed to stagger his way back to his feet. "Gaaaah... And you say Gwen's driving is bad..."
Yami and Bakura could only sweatdrop as Malik started laughing hysterically. After a moment of staring, Yami leaned over to whisper to Bakura out of the corner of his mouth.
"Which one's the sane one again?"
Bakura just shook his head and whispered back. "Whoever said there was a sane one?"
*
Lindsey MacIntire hummed quietly to herself as she set about straightening up her classroom, preparing for another year of teaching at Tokyo University. Classes started tomorrow, and there was still so much to do. Not to mention the fact that she still had to look over the script samples she'd been sent to try and find this year's winter play and spring musical.
Still humming some random Broadway show tune, the drama teacher wandered over to her desk and picked up her attendance sheet, absently scanning the names of the students that would be in her first semester drama class.
Abruptly her humming stopped, and the color drained out of her face as she stared at the list of names. "Oh lovely..."
*
Yugi walked in on a scene of utter chaos. Yami and Bakura and Malik were growling at each other, Duke had Joey in a headlock, and Sekil and Ryou were sword fighting with their chopsticks. The Puzzle Hikari sighed and shook his head as his roommate, Takeo Tomia, walked in behind him and stopped dead.
It was six o'clock at Tokyo University's cafe, known to all the students as the Rec. The food was actually decent, the coffee even more so. Like last year, a large table had been reserved for all of them, and it was about three-quarters of the way occupied now. Some had even ordered their food and were already eating, and socializing abounded on all sides.
At one end of the table Gwen was talking animatedly about Pegasus Con to Arca, who was wide-eyed at the very thought. Nearby Ishtar and Hiro were discussing something about surfing, while Malik, Yami, and Bakura tried to glare holes in each other. Duke seemed to be attempting to strangle poor Joey, and Tristan was standing nearby ready to help. Both of them were shouting something about Mai. Ryou crowed in triumph as he managed to steal a piece of sushi from Sekil's plate, and the mage scowled at him. Ryou only grinned and popped the food into his mouth.
Yugi just shook his head and sighed, used to the antics of his large group of friends. Takeo just laughed and went to sit near Hiro and Ishtar, while Yugi attempted to break up the fight between Joey and Duke and Tristan. He'd just managed to wrestle them into their seats when the doors opened again, admitting the last trio of their group.
Amoura looked slightly annoyed with her crutches, but her face cleared when Bakura hopped out of his seat and went to help her. Mai and Tea were right behind the green-haired French girl, giggling something about Mai's summer experiences in Kyoto.
As soon as he saw Mai come in, Joey got out of his seat as well, going to give her a brief kiss as he escorted her to the table. Yugi just grinned and sat back, waiting for the inevitable outburst. Though they'd all been together at the Game Shop day before yesterday, Mai'd been in the kitchen most of the time, and Joey had been tangled up in the miniature dueling tourney that had sprung up, so no one besides Yugi and Serenity and Yami really knew that Joey and Mai were back together again.
Duke jumped out of his seat with a cry, pointing a finger at the snickering couple. "You... you... Joey, I thought you were kidding when you said you and Mai made up!"
Joey smirked and wrapped one arm around Mai's waist. "Obviously not, Devlin."
Everyone else made muted cries of surprise and pleasure, and Gwen slapped Tea a high five. Mai laughed and Joey grinned, and they took seats at the table. Amoura managed to settle herself between Bakura and Malik, and the back-to-school party got underway.
Thankfully this year there was nothing spilled, no flying soup, and instead of fighting Mai and Joey kept sneaking kisses. Whenever they did, Bakura pretended to gag. Finally Amoura just rolled her eyes, grabbed her boyfriend by the collar, and shut him up in a very effective way.
Sekil smirked, pushing his sushi around his plate with his chopsticks. "You have weird friends, 'mei."
Ryou grinned. "I know, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Probably not." Sekil agreed. He looked down at his plate and blinked. "How did I manage to get sushi?"
Ryou smirked. "You made the mistake of letting me order."
"Oh yeah. Note to self: never do that again. What is sushi anyway?"
"Raw fish."
There was a moment of silence. "Oh." Spearing a piece of sushi on one of his chopsticks Sekil stuck it in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "Huh. Tastes like cobra."
Ryou just laughed.
*
(1) et tu - As most of you probably have heard, "et tu" is French for "and you". Technically the correct grammar here would be "toi aussi", which is "you also", but meh.
(2) afrit - Arabic - devil or demon
WSJ: *has managed to chew through her gag* Eeeeeeee!!!
Chiot: X_x Ow! What was that for?
WSJ: We got a puppy a few nights ago!!! She's sooo cute. Her name's Angeline.
Unmei: *pokes the puppy, who yips* 0.x This is just beyond bizarre...
WSJ: ^^ Well, hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. It better not. -_- Until then!
Chapter 3: WSJ: (V/O) Classes have started.
Ryou: *drags Sekil out of bed* Come on, lazybones.
WSJ: (V/O) And some people are not pleased.
Bakura: How in hell's name did I end up in this class?!?
WSJ: (V/O) But he doesn't exactly have a choice. :p All this and more, next time!
God bless minna-san!
