MP: Hello, I'm baaaack! I'm sorry for taking so long to update the story. But it's back up, and you can read on. For any Kaiba fans reading this story, he'll make his appearence in this chapter, but probably only this one. So don't get too used to him. None the less, the story continues, so read on!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of it's characters

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Chapter 7

Yugi sat on the bed in his room. He was looking at a picture of Joey and himself after Battle City. Yugi stood there, giving a 'v' sign, with his fingers, for victory. He was smiling brightly that day. And beside him was Joey. His arm around Yugi's shoulder, grinning at the achievement of his friend. Yugi stared at the picture intently. Good memories of the friendship he and Joey had shared went through his mind. Tears hit the photo. The thought that Joey was gone, and was never coming back, was sinking in again. Yugi didn't want to think that way. Although, he knew it was true.

Yami appeared next to him.

Aibou... Yami called.

Yugi snapped out of his trance of depression.

Yes Yami? he asked, wiping his eyes.

Now that we know about Kutana, we must find him.

But how? We don't have anything the police could use to track him. And without something like that, I'm afraid they don't have the right technology to find him.

Then we have to find someone with better technology than the police.

But, who has better technology than the authorities?

Yami was silent, but gave Yugi a look. It told him that whoever this was; he wouldn't be too thrilled to ask for their help.

Yugi looked at the pharoh. He tried to think about this for a moment. Finally, it came to him.

Oh no...you don't mean? Him...

-

Joey lay on the couch in the living room. He stared up at the ceiling. He thought about the funeral he had followed Yugi to. His funeral. All his friends were there. All his family too. Well, maybe not his dad, but then again, maybe he was. Joey didn't get much of a chance to see everyone. But he'd seen his mom, Serenity, Tristan, Tea, Duke, Mai, even Kaiba and Mokuba. He'd assumed that Kaiba only came because Mokuba dragged him down there. Either that, or he was going to challenge Yugi to another duel, but didn't get the chance. Joey laughed a little at his own sarcasm.

Joey heard mumbling upstairs. Either Yugi and Yami were very loud talkers, or the floor/ceiling wasn't very thick. Joey was bored. Just sitting on a couch all day wasn't his idea of fun. He walked around the house. Soon, he found himself in the kitchen. Joey wanted so badly to taste food again. But since he was a spirit, he wasn't able to eat. It would freak more than a few people out to see chewed up food floating in the air. Suddenly, Joey bumped into the phone on the wall. He accidentally knocked it to the floor. He instinctively leapt for it. He caught it before it could hit the ground. The blonde sighed in relief. The clank from the phone might have drawn attention downstairs. And Yugi knew that his grandpa was out. It was then that Joey noticed a faint noise coming from the phone. It was ringing.

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Yugi picked up his phone. He dialed a number and waited. The phone rang for a long time. He glanced over at Yami, unsure about this. Yami looked serious. Though he wasn't happy about this, the pharoh knew what needed to be done. Finally, the ringing stopped. There was a female voice on the other end. "Hello, this is Kaiba Corp. How may I help you" it asked. Yugi thought that it must have been a secretary. "Hello. This is Yugi Mutou. I need to speak to Seto Kaiba please." "Just one minute Mr. Mutou." said the secretary. Yugi waited for a while. He was a little uneasy about calling Kaiba. Especially for help. And especially when he was asking Kaiba for help that concerned Joey. The silence was broken by a deep voice. "Hello, Seto Kaiba speaking."

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Joey put his ear to the phone. There was silence now. He wondered if he had accidentally disconnected the line. Finally, a voice came. "Hello, Seto Kaiba speaking." Joey's eyes widened in surprise. Kaiba? Why was Yugi talking to Kaiba? The teen listened in on the conversation. He just had to find out what on earth Yugi was doing.

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Yugi sighed in relief. Kaiba had taken his call. "Hi Kaiba. It's Yugi. I wanted to ask you something." He replied. He heard Kaiba groan on the other side of the phone.

"...What is it" Kaiba asked, sounding annoyed.

"I need your help." Yugi said sternly.

"With what"

"It's...about Joey."

"What? Wheeler? No way"

"But Kaiba, I know you are upset about his death! You where at his funeral" Yugi reminded.

"Listen, the only reason I was at that funeral was because Mokuba dragged me down there! I couldn't be happier that the mutt finally rolled over and played dead"

Rage was boiling up inside of Yugi. He couldn't stand the way Kaiba still insulted Joey, even after his death. Joey had done nothing to deserve such disrespect. "KAIBA! Joey didn't do anything to you! Why do you have to keep insulting him" the small teen yelled. Yami looked at Yugi confused. He never saw him this emotional, well, at least not over the telephone.

Kaiba was a bit taken aback. Yugi never yelled at him. At least not like that. "I" he wanted to say something, but Yugi interrupted. "Listen Kaiba, I'll admit that Joey wasn't the nicest guy to you, but you could at least try to show some respect to him! So drop the cocky jerk-off act and listen to what I have to say" Kaiba was silent.

He sighed. "...what do you need from me"

Yugi smiled. He had finally gotten through to Kaiba. It had only taken the death of a close friend to do it. "Ok, I need to use your technology. I have some guys I need to track."

"Fine. You can come over in about an hour...never thought I'd be saying that..." Kaiba murmured the last few words.

Yugi nodded, though he knew Kaiba couldn't see him. "Kaiba...thank you..." he said softly.

"Whatever..." Kaiba muttered. He hung up the phone.

Yugi stood holding the phone. "That's odd." he stated. Yami stood up and walked over to him. What's odd? he asked.

There's always a dial tone when the other person hangs up. But there isn't anything. Only silence.

Yami froze. That meant someone else was listening on the phone. But Yugi's grandpa was out at the time. But then, who was on the other line? He heard Yugi's voice, it seemed a little overly concerned.

Yami...you don't think...there's another person on the line, do you?

Yami looked at him. He was silent. Suddenly, he sensed something. He could sense a presence. That presence from before. It was here. In the house somewhere. And Yami had a feeling that it was behind this little telephone mystery. He got a stern look. Stay here. he commanded. With that, Yami walked out of the room.

-

"WHAT" Joey yelled. "Kaiba? Why da heck is Yug asking Kaiba for help" It was a good thing that he couldn't be heard. There was a sudden silence. He listened in and heard Yugi's voice. "Yami...you don't think...there's another person on the line, do you" Joey froze for a split second. He heard a reply from Yami. "Stay here." Now, he was in trouble. Joey heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He frantically fumbled with the phone.

Yami was moving closer. "Spirit! Where are you" he called. Joey was in big trouble if he didn't get out of there. He eventually gave up on the phone and let it fall to the floor. Hearing the clank from the phone, Yami came running. Joey stood up as fast as he could and desperately tried to get out of the kitchen. He managed to get up and dashed out just past Yami. Joey made it out of the house, just barely.

-

Yami stopped in the kitchen. He had heard the phone clank from here. But when he looked, he saw not a soul. The phone lay on the tiled floor. Yami could hear Yugi's voice. "Yami, Yami are you there? Is everything ok" he asked. Yami sighed in defeat. He had lost the spirit again. He (somehow) picked up the phone and set it back on the wall. Then he talked to Yugi through the mind link.

Yami, are you there? Yugi asked.

Yes, I'm here. Don't worry, everything's alright. Yami answered.

So what was with the phone? I heard a clank, and then someone hung it up.

I don't know what happened. I think the phone just fell off the wall. Then I hung it up. Everything looks okay from down here.

Okay. Come back up to the room. We have to get ready to go to Kaiba's in an hour.

Yami sighed. Oh right...we have to go see Mr. Sunshine. Well, we'd better get this over with.

Yugi giggled at Yami's sarcasm. Yami made his way up the stairs and back to the room, leaving Joey to wait for them to come back when they were ready to leave.

-

It was an hour later. Yugi was in the limo that Kaiba had sent. At least when you went to Kaiba's, you went in style. 'well, this should be interesting.' Yugi thought. He was still uncomfortable getting Kaiba's help. But he knew it's what had to be done. The limo halted in front of KaibaCorp. Yugi got out of the car and walked into the large building. Inside, he met with Seto Kaiba himself. "Hi Kaiba." he said, nervousness in his voice. Kaiba said nothing, and stepped onto an elevator. Yugi looked at him confused. "You coming" Kaiba asked sternly. "Oh, yeah." Yugi joined him in the elevator. The doors closed, and it began to rise.

-

Joey followed Yugi into the building of KaibaCorp. Inside he saw Kaiba. He glared at him, though Kaiba couldn't see him. He and Yugi stepped into an elevator, and Joey joined them. He listened as the two conversed.

"So Yugi, what on earth are you trying to do" Kaiba asked. "Well.." Yugi answered. "Joey was murdered. And, I think I might have some leads as to who killed him." Kaiba glanced at the spiky-haired duelist. "So what do you want from me" he asked coldly. "Well, the police can't find them without some item with fingerprints or something." Yugi said. "So, you want to use my technology to do the seemingly impossible, and find a possible criminal with no hard evidence to help whatsoever" Kaiba asked. Yugi looked at the floor shyly. "Uh...yeah..basically." The young CEO gave a confident smirk. "Alright. I can do that." The elevator stopped, and the three got off. They walked into a dark room, filled with blinking lights and curious sounds. Joey looked around. "Where are we"

-

Yugi was asking the exact same question. "Where are we" "I call it the technology room. I'm not big on fancy, creative names" answered Kaiba. The lights were various computer, and television screens. The noise was downloading, copying, clicking, and several other technological sounds. Kaiba lead Yugi to a large computer. "This...is the best searching computer I have. It's possibly the best in the world. Input any data, and if your criminal has a police record, this computer will give you all access to it. The only problem is that it's not specific. For example, if you enter a hair color, you'll get everyone with a record that has that hair color." Yugi examined the computer. Besides it's size, it looked like any other computer. He wondered if what Kaiba said was true. Then again, the brown-haired boy did seem to have a thing for undermining the laws of technology. "Alright, I have a name and a face. That should be enough." Yugi sat down at a chair and typed on the keyboard. He entered; Kutana.

He was surprised when he only got 13 matches. Apparently, it was a unique name. He tried narrowing it down by choosing; Kutana, green hair. Only one file was left. Yugi opened it with the click of the mouse. It opened up to a screen with a file photo and data, such as age, gender, height, and record. He read the text carefully, hoping to find an answer to this mystery. "Here we go. This is the guy. Kutana Yukazuma."

Yugi summarized what he read out loud. "Looks like he's been in jail three times. Twice for theft, and once for attempted murder. He escaped prison, and is still on the lose. He's been at large for three months." "I'm surprised he wouldn't have left the country by now." Kaiba said, sounding interested. Yugi continued scrolling down the page. "About seven months ago he tried to rob a local museum, but got caught. Four months ago he was caught trying to steal from the same place. But that time he tried to kill one of the museum workers. He was suppose to be in prison for life, but three months ago he escaped." Kaiba looked over the record too. "Looks like there have been a lot of murders and thefts around town linked to this guy." he said. Yugi nodded. "Yeah. I just wish I knew where this he's hiding. He's been avoiding the cops for three whole months now. He sure is persistent."

About an hour of searching later, Yugi decided to go home. After that discovery, he and Kaiba couldn't find much else. Yugi thanked Kaiba for his help. Now he was at home, sitting on his bed. He was going over what little information they had. He had found that the most recent attacks occurred around the park on dark nights. He shuttered a bit at the knowledge that such horrible things were happening in a place he went to so often. Yami spoke up.

So, any luck? he asked.

Well, I found that most of his attacks are near the park at night.

Hm, we could use that to our advantage..

Yeah, but it might be too risky. I mean, this is a killer we're talking about! He could, well, kill me!

Good point. Yami sighed for a moment. Aibou, I'm starting to lose faith. This seems unsolvable.

Yami sighed for a moment.

So did the Millenium Puzzle...

Yami looked at over to Yugi. What do you mean?

Well, it took me years to solve the Puzzle. But I never lost faith, and finally, I was able to solve it. And that's how I made friends with you and Joey.

Yami smiled. You're right. We can't give up hope.

Yugi was flipping through papers when the doorbell rang. He stopped and hesitated before getting up and going downstairs. "This is odd. We never get visitors this late. And the shop's closed." he said quietly. He reached the bottom and looked around. The doorbell was heard again. He walked to the door, and opened it. He poked his head outside, and saw that there was no one there. "That's even odder." he said. Then he looked down and noticed a small envelope.

He picked it up and ripped open the top. Glancing at the back, he noticed that there was no return address. All it said was To Yugi. He walked back inside and slumped down on the couch. He carefully pulled out the letter and read over it.

Yugi Mutou,

I'm aware that you are in search of information on a murderer. As you probably know, his name is Kutana Yukazuma. He's wanted for several counts of both murder and theft. I'm very sorry for your recent loss. I too have been effected by that scumbag Kutana. If you want more information on him, please meet me in the park at 9:00 PM tonight. It would be a great benefit for everyone in Domino if you could catch this man. Best of luck, and please meet me by the largest tree in the park.

Yugi blinked in confusion. Yami appeared and looked at the note.

What's this? he asked pointing to the letter in Yugi's hand.

It's a letter.

From who?

I don't know. There's no address or name.

Well, what's it say?

It says that someone wants to meet me in the park at 9 o'clock.

What? Why?

The letter says that whoever wrote this has information on Kutana.

Hm...this sounds suspicious. I don't think you should go.

But, what if this person really does have news on him? I mean, it couldn't hurt to at least see, could it?

Actually, yes, it could.

Well, I think we should at least give them a chance.

Yami sighed in defeat. Fine. But I'm taking over. I don't want you to get hurt.

Yugi smiled and nodded. Thanks Yami.

The Millenium Puzzle glowed brightly. Yami took over Yugi's body. The glowing stopped, and Yami looked up at the clock. It was 8:40 PM. It would probably take about 15 to 20 minutes to get to the park on foot. He grabbed his jacket and walked out the door, leaving the note on the coffee table. The door slammed shut, and he was off to the park. He prayed, for Yugi's sake, that this wasn't a trap.

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MP: Well, there you go. Chapter 7. And I hope you all enjoy the suspense, bwahahaha-ahem- Anyway, thank you for your support. Keep it up, and don't forget to review!

P.S. This preview should keep you guys on edge for a while...

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Preview for Chapter 8

Kutana pulled something out of his coat pocket. He pointed it straight at the side of Yugi's head. Yugi could feel tears flooding down his face. He was trembling, and his heart was racing. Yami was being taken away, Joey's death would be in vain, and he was going to die. All Yugi could do was whimper, and brace himself for death. Kutana smiled in amusement. "Say hello to your little friend for me." He pulled the trigger. A loud shot was heard. And a scream of pain echoed throughout the park.