A/N: Okay, a whole lot of talking and huge chunk of explanation… Not for people with little time or short concentration spans… Thankyou to Willowwind as usual, but I think I've more or less replied via E-mail. Oops. Fancy treating my one and only reader in such a way…Yup, still mourning my lack of readers. And my dignity. Oh, Yami and Yugi's convo. last chapter. In the original, Yami's 'speech' was indicated by a double slash. But the website seems to be morally opposed to them, so they didn't show up. Sorry if it confuzlled anyone.
(Insert disclaimer/usual warnings here)
Chapter Five: Angels With Broken Wings
Having managed to talk her way into the house, Azreal seated herself on the sofa in a space that no-one had noticed before or that hadn't previously existed. Yugi and his friends looked at her warily. No-one seemed to want to say anything, so it was Azreal herself, clearing her throat, who started the conversation.
"So." She said slowly "I suppose you're all wondering who exactly I am…"
Nods.
"Ah." Azreal wondered if coming here had been such a good idea after all, and if she could tell them without breaking every rule in The Book. She closed her eyes, trying to think the best way to tell them, or a feasible excuse if she did not. It was only several seconds later, at the sound of surprised exclamations, that she re-opened them.
"What the!"
"Woah!"
"Huh! What…how did she do that!"
"And…and where is she now!"
Azreal blinked, momentarily confused, then was struck by a sudden thought. Slowly, she looked down at herself, and, surely enough, she had reverted to her ethral form somewhere along the way. She shrugged her winged shoulders. It was one way to tell them… Only Seto- or whoever's turn it was to help her- could see her in this form. Sure, she could materialise and take a human form, just as she had when she had first met with Seto, but it took energy and concentration to keep going for more then a few minutes- one of which she had evidently lost while trying to figure out how to explain herself. Taking human form was undoubtedly useful, but it was hard to do and she lost all her skills while in it. This was why those muses who preferred to work alone and amongst the humans had to get a special permit that would allow them not only to keep their powers in human shape, but that would let them withdraw the energy they needed to keep it up- almost like a Earthly Bank Account. Naturally, one of these visas were hard to get- Imagine what would happen if one was given to the wrong person- so usually the various Musing Branches had a special licence to give them to their employees on the strictest of confidence that it was for their work. All the other normal NIPs (Non-Inspirational Persons) as the government called them and Ethrals as they were known by everyone else had to apply straight to the government to get one in a long and tedious process that usually took several months and was usually denied. It took an incredible amount of side tracking to get references and character reports, so the process wasn't unknown to take years. And speaking of side-tracking… Azreal groaned mentally. Stupid short attention span…
As the others panicked around her, Azreal sat calmly and considered her options. Seeing as she was already de-materialised, she'd probably screwed up any chances of them trusting her anyway. She should just abort the mission, and hang around as the invisible, winged, glowing girl for a while. Yes, find out their plans and then make a quick exit. Straight through a wall. Yes, that was the smart thing to do. It would really annoy Seto if she told them what he was doing. Although… perhaps that was an incentive…Excuse coming ready-formed into her mind, she grinned in a very non-angelic way and dived over the back of the sofa. As she landed, something small and cylindrical slipped through the palm of her hand. She grabbed hold of it as her skin became more solid. Taking a deep breath, she stood up, smiling.
"Sorry." She said "Dropped my pencil." She held up her found item and then gave what she hoped was a confused look. "What's all the fuss about?" There was silence, till Joey pointed at the 'pencil' in her hand.
"That's not a pencil." He said. "That's an old Cheese Puff."
"Oh…" Azreal trailed off looking at the thing that was indeed a Cheese Puff in her hand. Then she continued, in a falsely bright tone of voice. "My mistake! Hold on!" She leapt back behind the sofa again. She'd have to De-materialise, wish up a pencil and re-materialise before they noticed anything. However, before she could do so, five heads peered at her over the settee- looking, if possible, even more suspicious then before.
"It must have rolled under the…" Azreal started weakly, then gave up. "You're not gonna buy this, are you?"
Several more firm head shakes.
"Oh…" Azreal climbed sheepishly over to them and resumed her previous position. Again, although the sofa didn't seem to get any bigger, there suddenly seemed to be more room. It didn't half make your eyes go weird. "Then I guess I better tell you all the whole story… at least then I can make sure you won't get me fired…"
So that's exactly what she did. And when she had finished, she was once again greeted with a deathly silence. She had hoped they would believe her… After all the stuff they'd seen and been through, she was pretty par-for-the-course.
"You wanted to set me up with Téa!" Joey repeated eventually, nearly chocking on the words. Now, the muse thing he could believe but… "And you wanted Kaiba to help!" Azreal nodded glumly.
"That's about the size of it, yeah. But now we just hafta go along with it I guess…" A shrug. "I'll just have to hope we succeed in getting Ryou and Téa together or I'm gonna be outta a job…"
"They're going to fire you?" Duke asked, still blinking in confusion.
"Yeah… see, there was this thing… I was meant to be Inspiring…A Casserole…and…" She coughed. "Anyway, it's good to see ya again Duke. How's the Dice game going?" He blinked at her. "Oh, right, you don't remember that… Nev'r mind, nev'r mind… Forget it. Again." More blinks. They decided to move the conversation on for the benefit of all those involved.
"Anyhoo…" Azreal said "I guess the next thing to do is to decide what we're going to do next." There was a collective sigh of relief. They were back on safer ground again. Unfortunately, no-one had any bright ideas.
"Well, I guess we could ask The Mutt…" Azreal said eventually, gesturing in Joey's general direction. She seemed rather surprised as the blond jumped her.
"What was that for!" she yelled, scrambling to her feet as Tristan and Duke pulled him off. Joey continued to scream obscenities until Azreal managed to figure out he thought she was calling him a mutt. But why…?
"Hold on…" Azreal reached into a pocket that was a lot deeper then it looked, and pulled out a note book with Joey's name and the number '69901a2' on it. She came to the 'Anger' page in the character notes and read.
A laid-back human, there is not much that will get Joey Wheeler angry. However, he is constantly at arms with one SETO KAIBA (Character ID. 017796y) and the derogatory term of 'Mutt' that Kaiba has labelled him with. He is also known to be very over protective of his family and friends, especially his younger sister, SERENITY WHEELER. (Character ID. 69902b3)
Azreal raised an eyebrow, surprised. Joey had seemed rather quick to temper to her… She hadn't read this page when preparing for this mission, but it was so small it was easy to see how she had missed it. Unlike Seto, who had a whole chapter. After all, Muses weren't fooled by those who chose to hide emotion.
It was then she realised that everyone was attempting to read over her shoulder. She swatted them away.
"C'mon! You're not supposed to see these! You're gonna cost me my job…" She screamed. The others shrugged and went back to their original seats. It's not like they could read the language anyway.
"I'm sorry Joey…" Azreal said. "I didn't realise. Actually, I was just referring to The Book."
"The Book…?" Tristan asked, tired of sitting in silence. Azreal nodded.
"Uh-huh. The Muse's Ultimate Tutorial and Tips. MUTT, see?" Noises of revelation echoed round the room. "I've been following it to a T, ever since I got here." Azreal sighed "Fat lot of good it's done me…Looks like I'm back to…Unorthodox… again."
"Well, who's fault is that?" Joey sniffed "If you hadn't tried to set me and Téa up…"
"That's what it told me to do!" Azreal replied miserably, waving the book that had come out of a pocket that appeared way to small for it. "Besides, if you think about it, this is all your fault!"
"How do you figure that?" Joey asked looking more amused and curious then anything else.
"Well, if you hadn't run out of ideas for your stupid drawings…" Azreal irritably, then she realised what she had said. "Whoopsie…" She gasped. There went a couple more rules.
"Drawings?" Yugi asked curiously, glancing at Joey. He'd never known him as much of an artist…
"Don't. Say. A. Word." Joey growled, glaring at Azreal. Azreal looked between them.
Joey.
Yugi.
Joey.
Yugi.
Joey…
Yugi.
Won every time, in Duel Monsters and everything else.
"The fact is Joey…" Azreal began carefully "If you don't finish your webcomic…or start it… whatever… there's going to be a lot of disappointed people. And that'll have a knock on effect 'cause your work inspires a lot of other people and…" Joey shoved a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. His friends were already demanding to know about his supposed 'webcom'.
"It's really no big deal…" He tried to assure them "Just a hobby…"
"And a pretty popular one…" Azreal said, escaping from Joey's hand and going to hide behind the protective wall that was Yugi's hair. Pity he was so short… "Hey, everyone! Ever heard of a webcomic called 'Angels With Broken Wings!" She felt a surge of satisfaction when ripples of surprise echoed around the room.
"Heard of it!" Yugi practically screamed "You can't go online without hearing about it! Joey! You're the elusive AngelAuthour! The one Internet Junkies the world over have been searching for! There was a rumour going round that you were Kazuki Takahasi for heaven's sake! But it was you the entire time!" (A/N: Heeheehee… We all like a good name drop!)
"Um…yeah…" Joey shuffled uncomfortably. What else could he say? Yugi looked about ready to blow up in his face (He had no idea anyone would take a comic that seriously) but luckily Tristan interrupted.
"I read that." He said, sounding like he was only admitting it because he had to.
"And me." Duke said. "And Ryou, for that matter."
"It was the whole reason I registered to an ISP in the first place." Mai sniffed "And you'rethe idiot behind it!"
"One of the character's had a dream about being a Magician…" Yugi said slowly "That's when I first added the Dark Magician to my deck." Suddenly Duke laughed.
"Remember that trick I played on you, with the dice under the cup?" He spluttered "I got it from your comic! And you fell for it!"
"Well, that was silly." Mai commented, as Joey went red.
"Not as silly as you spending a week looking for boots like that MOTD wore…" Tristan muttered, earning a wack upside the head.
Meanwhile, Joey couldn't believe it. He never thought he had that many readers, let alone his friends… Still, at least he knew for sure now who 'Madame Butterfly' was on the forum… He just wished they'd shut up as they began to compliment his art. It was nice to the point of embarrassing.
"But recently he's run out of ideas!" Azreal cried. He'd almost forgotten about her… She wasn't exactly helping. Then this lead to a long and involved discussion about what should happen to his main Characters- Phoenix, Maya and Lira- next. As such, it was almost two hours later when Yugi twigged that Azreal had left. And so had the space on the sofa that she had sat in. But that was beside the point. You'd have thought they'd have noticed the levitating piece of paper she'd evidently left behind though… Yugi plucked it out of the air, unfolded it and read it aloud to the others. With some difficulty, I might add, as the 'writing' was more of a scrawl then anything else.
If you're reading this, you've finally noticed I've gone. Took ya long enough! Anyhoo, I'm gonna go and talk to Seto… I have a plan of what to do next. You'll see… Just leave it to me, Kids!
Your Musing friend,
Azreal Kiyoko,
Muse 3rd class, Young adult, 2/5, Multi-task, 79268, West Block North, OPS (Optional Paid Service) (Minimum wage), Qualifications: Minimum, LIVR and bored of having to put all this junk every time I want to write my name….
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"I thought I told you to leave."
"I know. But I can't…"
"Why? Your conscious getting to you?" He snorted, it didn't seem very likely.
"Partly. But it's not just that."
"Then what is it?"
"I…well, as long as you're my Earth help…"
"Yeeeees…?"
"I kinda… That is… I… I have to stay with you to be able to stay on Earth! I can only leave for an hour or two at a time!"
"Then why don't you go back to…Wherever the hell you came from, Azreal!"
"I can't go back to 'wherever the hell' I came from till I complete the mission. So you can see how this could be a little bit of a problem…"
"..."
"Please, Seto… if you kick me out I'll… well, I'll simply cease to exist." No answer. "Seto… I know you don't like me, but please…"
"Stop being so bloody pathetic, Azreal!"
"…Does that mean you're not kicking me out?"
"…Yes. I suppose. Yes."
"Seto…You're the best! I don't care what people say about you and you're emotional constipation, from now on I'm gonna stick up for you! And I am totally going to withdraw my bet on how long till you snap, Seto!" She felt ecstatic, and hugged the guy, who was at least a foot taller then her, around the waist. No big deal for her… But for Seto… For a moment he did nothing, but as his arms started to move of their own accord to hug the small temporarily-solid-not-quite-human back, he got a hold of himself and tried to pull away.
"Get off me, you idiot!"
"Ahh… You know you like it really, Seto…"
"Azreal!"
"Fine…" She let go, and Seto could breathe again. She had a surprisingly strong grip.
"Why did I ever let you stay…?" it was not the last time he'd ask himself that.
"Because… No matter how hard you try Seto, under all those layers of coldness, there's a heart somewhere in there. It doesn't matter whether you're a human or a muse…Everybody has one. And, no matter how hard you try to lock it away, occasionally it's going to break out. Or maybe even just break."
"…Do you have any idea what you're talking about?"
"Probably not… But also more then you know."
"…Have you been hanging around with Téa?"
"No, yes, maybe, possibly, anyway!"
"Hmmph. Just tell me what you have planned."
"Enthusiastic, aren't we? Besides, what makes you think I have a plan?"
"As to the Latter, I'm not going to dignify that with an answer. And the former…the sooner we get this over and done with, the sooner you're out of my life!"
"Heh. You'll miss me when I'm gone."
"I doubt that. Currently, Azreal, you have overtaken Yugi and Wheeler as the bane of my existence."
"Really, Seto?"
"Yes, really, Azreal."
"Then…why have you suddenly become willing to use my name, eh?"
"I…I have to call you something, don't I? Now how about you stop asking questions and try answering some?"
"Whatever. Using my name is a step up from trying to ignore my existence, is it not?"
"Azreal?"
"You did it again!"
"If you're not going to tell me what you have planned…"
"Which I totally will. Um, at some point."
"Then just shut up, okay?"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
A/N: Another chapter done and dusted. This was incredibly long winded and the explanation was terrible I know. Still, living up to my name, eh? Even more so if my name happened to be 'Mindless Dribble'. Oh well. R and R anyhoo, flames hated, laughed at then ignored (Like on Mutual Understanding) but feel free to waste your time and send them anyway. Or even send good comments! You've wasted enough time getting here anyway, no?
And if a certain Scooby2408 is NOT reading this, Waffles4eva will not be a happy bunny…. Looks Vaguely threatening
Sneak Preview:
"Urrghmmph…"
"Huh. You're awake. And here was me thinking I'd got rid of you for the night."
"Nah, I only need two or three hours a night."
"You've been asleep for almost five, Azreal."
"I…Well, unlike you. What are you doing up at this hour?"
"Work. You take up too much time."
"My brain's too floppy to argue."
"Not a morning person?"
"I wouldn't call this morning. You need to get some sleep, Seto. No-one can just survive on caffeine."
"I can take care of myself."
"Seto…"
