A/N: Oooookay. A bit of an explanation is in order, I suppose. XD Firstly, this is not the entire chapter. But I've had major writer's block lately, so I decided to put what I did have of the chapter up and simply make it two parts. Better than nothing, yes?

Secondly... This chapter sucks? XD I've been having a hard time getting the storyline to move right; there are things that were supposed to be introduced earlier that got forgotten, things I've decided should be put in, and an entire sub plot was taken out. So... I've been a bit discouraged. But I'm working on it. XD

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed; I don't have time to do responses right now, but I might post a link to them in my bio if I do them later. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and I'll try and get this moving again. I wanna write Fumetsu! XD

Oh, one last thing, go check out Ahmar's fic. It's excellent, and she writes the same genre as these are, so... Yes. And she's my friend. XD

On to the chapter!

Itsumo; chapter 9
by: Amiasha

Yami ran his fingers through his hair, yawning widely. This seemed to be how most of his days started, always tired and bored, as he listened to the morning meeting. This day was particularly special, as Seth and Bekhura were yelling at each other across the table yet again. Yami wasn't quite sure what they were fighting over, but it seemed most of the other priests didn't either judging by the baffled looks on their faces. Of course, what the two had been originally fighting over was probably lost forever, because all they were doing now was yelling insults at each other.

"Go drown yourself in the Nile!"

"That would be an option if I didn't know you were near it yesterday. It's contaminated for at least another week."

"Even if that was true, you should be honored to be anywhere near me!"

"Careful priest, if you get too much hot air your big-ass hat might fly away."

Yami just sighed and hid his face in his hands.

The Pharaoh was now fifteen years old and a grand four foot ten inches tall. He'd been Pharaoh for seven years, and had finally gotten everything under control. Day to day operations ran as smoothly as possible even with the random fights that broke out, the priests all had gotten used to their jobs and were easily handling them and still finding time to help Yami with other things, and there had been no hostile actions taken towards Egypt by any other countries. Everything was going relatively well.

Seth was almost seventeen years old and the second most powerful priest in terms of magic, coming in right after Mahaado. He was the best Shadow Gamer of them all, and was in fact, with Akunadin, the one who oversaw the documenting and registering of kaas, and also dealt with criminals. He was officially High Priest, and most of the other priests turned to him as their leader even though they didn't want to admit it.

Bekhura was almost eighteen, and he had been a priest for almost a year. It was more of a title than anything else; the thief rarely attended any of the priestly matters, and he certainly didn't act like much like a priest. He mostly accompanied Yami around; fulfilling a combination of friend, advisor, and bodyguard.

Mahaado was twenty-two, and in addition to the tomb guards, was in charge of the army. It was an odd position for him, considering Mahaado specialized in magic and not fighting, but he was one of the best strategists in the kingdom.

Kalim, also twenty-two, helped Mahaado with the army. He was good at both magic and sword fighting.

Aishizu was twenty-two as well, and both the top healer and the best seeress in the kingdom. She was exceptional at her two fields, and she was also the head of foreign diplomacy. She was officially the High Priestess and the most revered woman in all of Egypt. Girls and young women from both Egypt and other countries traveled to the palace simply to meet her and try to follow in her footsteps. She had a small group of women she had taken on to teach to become priestesses that lived in the palace.

Shaadah, like most of the other priests, was twenty-two. He, along with Seth and Akunadin, helped in dealing with criminals.

Akunadin was more or less Seth's helper and advisor; he tended to avoid Yami as the priest and the Pharaoh had been on somewhat bad terms for almost a year.

Simon was still acting as Yami's main advisor and, more importantly, the supportive adult figure. Yami was coming to him less and less with problems, but Simon still did his best to be there when needed. Of course, he also helped Yami with the official decisions for the kingdom.

Jouno and Honda were both sixteen and still Yami's personal guards, though much of the time they weren't needed. Yami could protect himself well enough, so they mostly just wandered about the palace, goofing off until Yami needed them for something.

Anzu was sixteen as well, and just under Aishizu in healing. There was talk of her possibly becoming a priestess. She mostly stayed with the girls Aishizu was teaching, giving them lessons and information while the seeress was busy.

Ryuuji, also sixteen, was the official scribe for Yami. Though, like the others, he had a lot of free time due to Yami's efforts to cut down on meetings and official things that needed scribing. He mostly wandered the palace with Jouno and Honda, fighting with Honda over Jouno's younger sister Shizuka, who was fourteen.

Mokuba was ten, and proudly doing his best to follow in his older brother's footsteps. He followed Seth around all the time he could, trying to learn more about his brother's job.

Mana, fourteen like Shizuka, was another aspiring priestess. She was quite advanced in her magic, considering she was training under Mahaado in sorcery. She and Shizuka were friends, and often did things together. Mana had a love for causing mischief, and tended to get Shizuka into a lot of trouble.

Rishid, now twenty-five, and Malik, now sixteen, were both still in charge of overseeing the various temples around the palace. Yami didn't see either of them often, though they did come to bother Aishizu a lot.

Mai was eighteen, and she was a great help around the palace. She knew a small amount about almost everything, so she was often called on to be an extra person when a little more support was needed.

Pegasus, now twenty-two, was an excellent vizier. He was able to give helpful input and advice for many situations, much like Mai. He was also relatively good at magic.

"Why don't you go back to whatever hovel you came from?"

"Why don't you both be quiet?" Mahaado asked in a display of rarely seen annoyance, complete with an eye twitch. "If I have to hear you argue over nothing for any longer, I'm going to try out the new spells I've been working in with the two of you as my test subjects. Understand?"

Bekhura and Seth both sweatdropped, then sat back in their seats and looked off in different directions. Mahaado's eye twitched again, and he turned towards Yami. "I think we've discussed as much as we can this morning."

Yami nodded at him. "I agree." He got up from his chair and stretched lazily, as the rest of the court got ready to leave as well. He turned to Simon. "I don't have anything I'm supposed to be a part of for a few hours, yes?"

Simon nodded. "This evening there's going to be the usual meeting, but no, nothing before." He looked at the boy suspiciously. "What are you planning?"

Yami smiled at him. "Nothing, Simon."

Simon sighed, knowing better than to believe the boy. But considering he was the Pharaoh, there was only so much Simon could tell him he couldn't do. "Whatever hazardous thing you're going to do, please be careful." He said, sighing again.

Yami nodded once. "Of course. I always am." He said brightly. He turned towards Bekhura and Seth. "Are you coming?"

"As always." Bekhura responded, crossing his arms. Seth gave an expression that clearly meant he wasn't too interested in the whole thing, but nodded anyway.

Yami nodded at them and then wandered out of the room, turning down the hall and ducking into the secret passage that lead towards his room. Seth and Bekhura followed right after him.

"So, where had we planned on venturing?" Bekhura asked, as they entered Yami's room and were greeted by the cats.

"Down into the city." Yami responded, summoning up a cloak and digging for his less expensive shoes. "I wanted to see how everything was going in the city itself."

"You have scouts to do that for you, you know." Seth responded, summoning a cloak for himself as well and tucking the Rod into the back of his gold plated belt.

"Yes, but they're less than helpful." Yami said, finding his sandals, putting them on and beginning to lace them up.

Seth shrugged, and Bekhura snorted as he changed into his long red coat, turning slightly to speak to the Pharaoh. "I told one of them to go down to the Nile to look for something, and he asked me where the Nile was."

"Remind me to fire him." Yami replied calmly, finishing lacing the sandals and putting on his cloak.

"Mahaado already did it." Bekhura replied, petting Spot. "I'm not sure why, but Mahaado didn't look especially happy. I think the scout may have insulted him, either on purpose or directly."

"Mahaado takes things too seriously." Seth responded, crossing his arms.

"Oh, you're one to criticize on taking things too seriously." Yami added in, pulling his hair down to fall around his shoulders and then casting a spell to turn the gold and red locks black. "Alright, no more bickering; lets go."

"Lead the way, your highness." Seth said, rolling his eyes.

"You know," Bekhura spoke up, sounding distinctly evil. "I'm not sure if 'highness' is-"

Yami elbowed him hard in the stomach, making the thief double over, wheezing. "Don't you dare finish your sentence."

Seth snorted in amusement, striding out of Yami's room as the other two followed, Yami looking annoyed and Bekhura looked pained.

A few minutes later they exited the palace and mingled into the crowd of people in the city. Bekhura quickly moved so close to Yami he was almost stepping on his heels before the teen could get separated from him, and Seth stuck close to both of them though it wouldn't be hard to spot the high priest even if they did stray from him; Seth stood a bit taller than most of the citizens around them.

Yami smiled as he looked around. He loved going out to see how everyone in the kingdom was doing. People seemed to be in generally good spirits; there was lots of talking, trading, and general activity around them. He began drifting over to a shop, when he felt a tug on his hair. "Ah!" He yelped, more from surprise than anything else, and turned around.

"Don't you dare stray away from, boy." Bekhura said, looking ticked off. "I am not going to save you if you get kidnapped."

Yami blinked at him, but nodded. Bekhura was always protective, but he seemed a bit overly so at the moment. Yami tilted his head slightly and reached out with his magic, trying to see if the thief was sensing something he wasn't, but he got nothing.

Bekhura blinked as well, looking around. "Oh, lovely. Where has that idiot priest gotten to?"

Yami looked around as well. His earlier assumption that Seth would be easy to spot seemed to be untrue. The priest was nowhere to be seen.

"Am I the only one with a brain?" Bekhura asked, sounding angry.

"You might be." Yami replied, slightly worried. Seth could easily take care of himself, but it was unlike him to just walk off.

"Well, damn." Bekhura said, scowling. He grabbed Yami's arm. "Let's look for your idiot high priest."

Yami nodded, beginning to feel apprehensive. He hadn't sensed anything earlier, but was now aware of the feeling of dread that never meant anything good was happening. He cast a glance at Bekhura, who's begun leading them through the crowd, and noted he looked concerned as well.

"Something has to have happened to him..." Yami said quietly. He would have thought the priest has simply walked off and gotten lost, even if that was out of character for Seth, but everything was telling him otherwise. And he'd learned when he was a child to trust what he felt.

Bekhura nodded, obviously feeling the same. "This wasn't a good idea..." The thief said, glancing around. "Why can we never wander out of the palace without it being a disaster?"

"The gods hate us?" Yami ventured, beginning to reach out his magic for the priest. He felt nothing, which meant that Seth wasn't closer than several hundred yards. "How did he get so far away so quickly?"

Bekhura looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. "How do we know he's far away?"

"Magic." Yami responded, as if it was obvious. "I can cast a larger spell, but it'll take a few moments. I can't do it while being drug through a crowd of people."

"Any strong magic, even as cloaked as you make yours, is easy enough to sense by most of the people here. You don't really want to attract that much attention, do you?"

"Not especially, but I want to find Seth." He paused a moment. "Why is it HE'S the one we always have to look for? And he acts like I get into so much trouble..."

"Because that's his job." Bekhura responded, navigating towards a slightly less crowded street. It was obviously a less high class area, as well. He stopped, and Yami stopped right beside him. "If you want to cast your spell, do it. I'll watch over you."

Yami nodded, closing his eyes and beginning to concentrate. As he'd said, it only took a few moments for it to begin working. The Pharaoh felt the tendrils of the spell radiate out, reaching through the city as he directed them to look for Seth.

But as soon as they'd made it halfway across the city, they all hit walls. Yami blinked and opened his eyes, looking horribly confused. "Something blocked my spell."

"That can happen?" Bekhura asked, incredulously. "I thought you were too powerful?"

"Well, usually that's true." Yami responded, slightly annoyed. "Most people alone can't stop my spells. But a few competent people working together can."

"Lovely." The white haired thief responded, crossing his arms. "So, any guesses who? Think it's that ring of bandits we saved the priest's ass from a few years ago? I've heard they're still around, even after you defeated their leader so easily."

"I'm not sure," Yami responded, sighing, "I mean, it could be; the majority of them had some magic, at least. But even all together and with their leader, I don't know if they could block me. They'd need someone specifically trained in magic."

Bekhura sighed as well. "Just wonderful. So, shall we return to the palace, grab Mahaado, and have the three of us knock down that barrier?"

"That'd probably work well, but I'm worried about loosing time..." Yami responded. "Why don't you return to the palace and find Mahaado, Jouno, and maybe Aishizu, and I'll continue looking for Seth."

Bekhura gave him a look. "Do you really think I'll leave you in the city alone?"

"Magic, remember?" Yami responded, rolling his eyes. "Anyone bothers me, and they'll find themselves deeply regretting it."

Bekhura's expression didn't change. "It's not happening."

Yami frowned. "I'm going to look for Seth, right now. Come or don't." He replied, turning and beginning one direction.

Bekhura growled and jogged after him. "How do you know this is the right way?"

"Because my divine instinct tells me so." Yami responded, picking up his pace slightly. "Don't complain; you can always go find Mahaado and have him locate Seth with the Ring. But you're insisting on following me."

"I swear, I will knock you out and carry you back to the palace." Bekhura muttered, still loud enough for the other boy to hear. "Must you be so stubborn?"

"Of course." Yami replied. "And don't even try it."

The thief sighed quite loudly. On one hand, he could follow the other boy around the city, looking for the priest who could be anywhere. On the other, he could leave Yami alone, find some more priests, and they could actually locate Seth. And then Bekhura could feed him to some sort of monster for getting himself into trouble.

"...If you get killed I will read those notes you've made about attempting to figure out resurrection, put together a spell, and drag you from the afterworld just so I can kill you again." Bekhura threatened, earning an amused look from Yami. "I'll be back as soon as I fetch your other idiot priests. BE CAREFUL."

Yami smiled at him. "I will, of course." He responded, looking over his shoulder, before he changed to running as Bekhura turned around to return to the palace.

A while later the Pharaoh frowned, stopping running as he reached edge of a cliff. It was one of the areas of the bank of the Nile that was far higher than the actual river; about thirty feet above it. Yami looked around, walking down the bank warily. Something made him nervous, though he also felt this was the right spot. He was a bit confused however, because there was barely anything here. Lots of sand, a few rocks, and some sparse small plants. Since this area of the bank was too high to be reached by the Nile's flooding, it wasn't as green as the banks usually were.

He looked back and forth as he continued, the feeling of something being off continuing to nag at him. He seemed to sense someone other than himself being here, but saw no one. He stopped, concentrating on reaching out his magic again to see where the barrier was and if he could feel anyone else close by.

Yami's spell was abruptly cut off as he felt something hit him hard in the back of the head. He fell to his knees in the sand, his vision tilting wildly and blackening around the edges, growing many shades darker throughout. He gasped in pain, trying to reorient himself, before he felt someone grab him by the arms and pull him to his feet from behind. The Pharaoh struggled, attempting to gather enough magic to send it at his assailant, but suddenly he realized he wasn't standing on solid ground anymore. It barely registered that he'd been shoved off the cliff before he hit the water.

The murkiness of the water combined with his failing vision lead to quite a problem in determining the way up. He somehow managed to surface, gasping for air and worrying about keeping his head above the water, not noticing that the current was dragging him further down the river.

'I've got... To do something...' Yami thought hazily, feeling almost detached from what was going on. It was as if he wasn't actually there in the river; he was watching something happening but wasn't quite a part of it himself. His eyes fluttered a few times, his vision so bad he barely noticed when they closed. He vaguely felt something cool cover his head, but didn't have the strength or the desire to wonder what it was. He was tired; he wanted to fall asleep and then sort everything out when he woke up. A small part of him protested, but soon fell quiet, along with all other thoughts.

Yami's eyes snapped open and he gasped, rolling onto his side and beginning to cough violently. He shuddered from cold and pain as he tried to clear his lungs, his forehead touching the sandy ground as he continued to fight for air. When he felt someone touch his shoulder he panicked, turning onto his back and scrambling ungracefully backwards as far away as he could be before his strength gave out and he fell back to the ground.

"Calm down, I won't hurt you." It was a woman's voice, and Yami sensed her moving towards him though he couldn't see her. "It's alright."

She stopped right next to him and looked down into his eyes. "Can you see me?"

Yami gasped a few more times, trying to regain his voice. He could see her hazily; she had long golden curly hair, and greyish blue eyes. She looked to be around Mai's age.

The woman smiled gently at him. "Can you even talk?" She asked, gently brushing some of his hair back. "It's okay, just relax. You're out of the river; your priests are looking for you. They've been pointed in the right direction."

Yami wondered slightly how she'd known he'd even had priests, but decided he didn't care too much.

"Unfortunately, I have to leave you now." The woman said, smiling softly at him. "Please take better care of yourself."

What? She was going to just leave him here? Yami blinked a few times, coughing again as he attempted to speak. This time though, he managed to form words. "...Who are you?"

The woman smiled a last time and stood up, bringing her out of the Pharaoh's vision. Yami heard he begin to walk away, but after a few steps she stopped. "My name is Ahondra." She said, before resuming her steps and eventually disappearing into the desert.

Yami sighed softly, coughing again. Bekhura was going to kill him. At least he wasn't dead yet, though; how he'd survived the whole ordeal was unknown to him, but he figured it was the strange woman's doing. Not that he minded being saved, of course.

The Pharaoh rolled onto his side and slowly began to try to get to his knees. Pain lanced through his skull from the wound on the back of his head, and he slowly raised a hand to touch it. It was incredibly unpleasant to touch and he flinched, drawing his hand away, unsurprised to see blood on his fingers.

'Who attacked me?' He wondered idly, trying to think back to what had happened. Whoever it had been had somehow managed to hide until he'd injured the teenager. The only thing Yami knew was that it had been a male, who was significantly taller than he was. He snorted at that. Everyone was taller than he was. But the person had been taller than Bekhura as well, maybe almost even Seth's height. They had to have been well versed in magic; if they hadn't been, Yami would have been able to locate him immediately.

He sighed. He'd find no answers where he was. He needed to find the palace and his priests and friends. But that seemed almost impossible at the moment.

Yami closed his eyes, trying to hold back tears that had suddenly made themselves present. He was cold, tired, in a lot of pain, nearly blind, and very worried over Seth. That, and he was lost in the middle of nowhere, and someone had tried to kill him and nearly succeeded. He'd always faced down and defeated his enemies before; never once had someone nearly killed him and then just disappeared, leaving no clue of who they were or if they'd come back later to finish. It was horribly unsettling, and he desperately wanted someone he trusted near him, protecting him.

"Yami!"

Yami's head snapped up at the sound of his name, nearly causing him to pass out as his dizziness increased at the motion. The voice had belonged to Mahaado, he was sure of it; and the priest had to be either alone or too worried to care about formality, or both, because he'd called him 'Yami' instead of 'Pharaoh' or 'Atem'.

A moment later the concerned face of Mahaado came into view, the priest kneeling in front of him. "Yami, what happened? Bekhura said that you two and Seth had gone out and that Seth disappeared; that you'd gone to look for him while Bekhura got us, but when we tried to find you the Ring wouldn't work and Superia couldn't locate you and I couldn't sense you and everyone thought the only possibility was that you were dead." The blonde rambled all in one breath, ending with wrapping his arms around the smaller boy and hugging him tightly but gently.

Yami blinked a few times, more than a little surprised by the show of emotion. Mahaado was usually very reserved. He must have been incredibly worried. "Ma... Mahaado, I'm alright..." He said, his voice weak.

"No you're not." Mahaado responded, releasing him. He ducked his head slightly to look levelly into Yami's eyes. "You look horrible. What happened to you? Do you need help?"

Yami shivered, giving a small nod. Mahaado's expression quickly changed from worried to almost terrified. "How badly are you hurt?"

"I'm... Not sure." The Pharaoh replied quietly. "I... I was upstream, on one of the high banks... Someone hit me from behind and then threw me into the Nile."

Mahaado's expression changed again, this time to barely controlled anger. "Do you know who?" He asked, moving out of Yami's view as he went to kneel behind the smaller boy so he could check the injury.

"No, I didn't see." Yami responded, sighing. "He never came in front of me, and after the first hit... It's hard to see. I can't make out anything more than twelve inches away..."

Mahaado hissed in obvious anger. "Don't worry. Aishizu will figure something out." He assured the teenager, gently continuing to examine the boy's head.

Yami nodded very slightly. "...Have you found Seth?"

Mahaado sighed. "Unfortunately, no. Not yet. We needed to gather you first because your magic is needed to help break down the barrier." He stood up, and walked back around to sit on his knees in front of Yami. "I'm not a healer, as you know, but I'm going to do my best."

Yami nodded again, feeling Mahaado's magic began to wave as the other sorcerer began his spell. He closed his eyes and attempted to relax for a few moments as the spell took affect, and when he opened his eyes again he was pleased to be able to see relatively well, with only a small amount of blurriness. "You're getting better at this, Mahaado."

Mahaado laughed. "I'm not as good as Aishizu." He said, standing and then helping the smaller boy to his feet, holding him steady when he wavered slightly. "Are you alright?"

"Enough." Yami responded, nodding. He looked around, noticing where they were for the first time. It was very flat and rocky, and seemed to expand for a long distance. He turned back towards Mahaado and frowned. "Where are we?"

"The other side of the Nile from the palace." Mahaado responded. "And north."

Yami sighed loudly. "I hate today." He muttered, running his fingers carefully through his wet hair.

Mahaado chuckled. "I second that."

A/N: Alrighty, that was terrible, but whatever. At least Ahondra got introduced again, for those who remember her. She may show up once more or so throughout the fic, but maybe not.

So, next chapter, it's off to rescue Seth. And Nebenkharu will be back. Yay for him.

Please review the horror that was this chapter? XD