'Leanne: *looks around nervously* I wonder what will happen in this nutty a/n this time...
Ryou: *walks in with a copy of Demon Diary* *starts to read*
Me: Hey! Gimme my manga back!!! Whaaa! *runs in shortly after carrying a pyrotechnics machine*
Bakura: Damn you, stupid authoress! Idiotic flame-snatcher!! *also runs in and immediately notices something wrong with the way Erin-chan is holding his flame-thingy* Ahhh! You'll hurt it! Gimme it back!! \o/
'Leanne: *sighs* I knew it...
Ryou: *flips page* ...
Me: Ack! You'll destroy the binding, Ryou!! *glares murderously at Ryou who is ignoring her antics* *turns to Baku-kun* I'll give you your bucket of (flaming) bolts back if you'll get my shonen-ai manga back.
Bakura: T-T that's blackmail...
Me: *shifty eyes* so?
Disclaimer: she no own Yu-Gi-Oh! *points at Erin-chan* Ga ha ha!
Warning: this have no explicit language or yaoi incorporated. Some shonen-ai.
Me: *uses amazing power yet again to split into two people: one haggling with Bakura and one standing sanely beside the Warning*
'Leanne: whoa...scary...
Me: *coughs* for the people who are not familiar with the cards, The Dark Scorpions are a group of five people, the leader being Don Zaruug. They will be mentioned in the story, if not encountered. But just to let you know that they are all cards and not OCs.
*
Bakura had spent the first hour or so of the morning wandering around the temple of Osiris, getting re-acquainted with the structure of the buildings. Now he was standing outside, leaning on the same obelisk he had seen coming into the town. It was alongside another of the 36-foot tall erections beside the towers.
"Eh..." he sighed. Nothing new. Just the same old mudbrick and people. The King of Thieves raised his right arm to shield his eyes from the harsh Egyptian sun as he strode out towards the town square.
Walking up to a man apparently quite old selling wheat and assorted trinkets, Bakura smiled and proceeded to engage the old-timer in a heated discussion about the current political happenings. The man picked right up and started to dominate the conversation.
An odd glint seemed to reflect in Bakura's eyes for not even a fraction of a second before the goods closest to the theif were now in his possession and well hidden under his cloak. Nodding at something the merchant had asked, he swiftly dove his hands into the depths of his newest victim's pockets and retrieved what little copper pieces he had. Judging by the weight of it, they weren't worth much. That's one thing about the deben system, you could always tell how much a chunk of copper is worth by its weight.
Bakura smiled once again as soon as the old man stopped talking to regain his breath. Tipping him off by placing his fore and middle finger to his temple and bowing his head even in the slightest, the refreshed thief took his leave.
A torn piece of papyrus with some hieratic script scribbled on rolled along the ground and hit the former demon's feet.
He kicked it off and snorted. "People really should be more careful." However, Bakura continued on his search for vitals.
*
The small group of angels burst out of Malik's skylight. Tepemkau perked its head at the sight of his master and his friends. Stretching his wings, the ka took to the air from its post on the cloud gardens.
"Come, Tepemkau. We have a long journey ahead of us this time." Malik flew over to his golden dragon and wrapped his slender fingers around one of his 'ears'. "We're going past the golden gates this time." The spirit nodded his head curtly and twisted his body so to let his master take his seat at the base of his neck, the first rider's spot.
Malik smiled and hugged Tepemkau for his unwavering loyalty. "Thank you." Jumping on, he waved the rest of the group over, all of whom where a little on the nervous side.
Jonouchi climbed on after Malik, taking the second rider's spot, which happened to be directly behind the first. After him came Yuugi who took the calmer's place, on the base of the right wing. It was called such because underneath this wing was one of the dragon's pressure points and by stroking it; Tepemkau would loose any emotional stress for the moment.
Honda took his place opposite Yuugi, the defender. Here, dragons were the most vulnerable, for their heart was near the underside of the left wing. And of course, Honda was the warrior of the band.
"Hyaa!" Malik kicked Tepemkau with the rim of his heel and the massive winged lizard took off towards Heaven's gates. Their first look of true freedom lied beyond those titan barriers, and nothing could prevent them from obtaining that.
As the metallic gate entered Yuugi's vision, he gasped. "It-it's beautiful..." Jou smiled grimly.
"Yes, and such beauty can only balance out ugliness equal to it. Don't forget that everything was created with a balance, a rival, you could call it." The blonde gazed out to the intoxicatingly blue sky. "With land came water. Light and shadow. Humans and animals. Angels-" He turned back to the younger boy. "-and demons."
Honda had been listening to the two and he knew exactly why Jou hated demons so much. His first encounter with one had jaded him.
*Flashback*
A younger version of Jou skipped along a riverbank. One of the rare streams that ran through the canyons, in fact. He had heard that an infamous demon fledgling was caught and was being held captive somewhere near here.
"Oh, hello there, Jonouchi! What brings you here today? I'm afraid Yuugi isn't with me today." Suguroku lifted his cap to Jou.
The blonde rocked back and forth on his heels with his hands behind his back. "Naw, I didn't come to see Yuug today, Gramps." The elder smiled. "I wanna see the demon that ya caught. He sounds cool!"
A solemn expression filled Suguroku's face. "Now, Jou. You know that everything is in balance. Angels are good, and, well, demons aren't. They're evil for the most part." Little Jou looked crushed at being denied the chance to see a real, live demon.
"But Gramps, I really, really wanna see one! Please? I'll be careful!" he pouted.
Suguroku rolled his eyes. "All right, all right. I still have some work to do here, so you'll have to go alone. Don't go near the cage, all right? He's around those trees."
"Oh! Thank you, Gramps! You're the best!" And so Jonouchi skipped off into the area marked off with tape. Ducking underneath, he crawled to the foot of a gigantic, cube-shaped holding area. Ignoring the warning not to get close, the angel walked right up to it and held onto the bars. "Helllooooo.... Anybody home? Demon, where are you?"
Nothing.
"Hey! Ya in there??" Little Jou started to shake the bars.
A lightning-quick shadow passed over the trees enclosed and rested in the canopy of a birch close to the angel's spot. "Come to harass me, little one?" He dropped out of the tree and landed on all fours in front of the astounded holy-child, his wings folded carefully over his back.
"What, haven't you ever seen a demon before?" He shifted uncomfortably under the young one's intent stare. "How old are you?"
"T-ten..."
"I see. Just a youngling then." Jou gulped. The demon...he didn't look evil at all... Brownish hair falling around his pale nape and flopping over his brow, covering part of his ice-blue eyes. If only his wings weren't so dark, he would be an angel.
"What's your name, boy?"
"J-Jou, sir...who are you?"
"Seto. I'm thirteen"
Jou reached through the cage to try and touch his demon. "Se-to..." The demon smiled.
"If you open the door, we can play together, Jou. Won't you let me out?" Seto sighed whimsfully. "I've been so lonely here with no one to play with..."
The angel perked up. Someone to play with? Suguroku's voice echoed in his head. /They're evil, Jou./ Naw, this one couldn't possibly be evil. He was too...perfect...
So Little Jou happily opened the lock to a hidden door and swung it open. "There you go!" He smiled. His demon was going to play with him!
Seto walked calmly over to him and smirked. "Idiot. Don't you know never to trust a demon you don't know?" The jovious expression of the angel disappeared. "Fool." The demon harshly backhanded Jou and took off into the air.
*End Flashback*
Honda shook his head. What a thing for a fledging to go through. Ten ethereal years (a/n: about fifty years in our time) after Jou was reborn into Heaven. He hated all demons after that.
Tepemkau dove underneath the clouds and out of Heaven.
"We're coming, Ryou." Yuugi murmured. "Hang on."
*
The prince of the undead exhaled sharply. "Tell me again why you couldn't locate Nahkti?"
A wraith was bent down on one knee before his liege. "He-he has seemed to have dissipated from our realms, s-sire. We have searched the entire earth and Hell equally, but to no avail. Unless he's in Heaven, your demon doesn't exist in this plane anymore. G-gomen, sir, Yami-sama..."
The vampire rubbed his temple tediously. "Alright, Freval. You and your team are excused." He glared murderously at the shuddering wraith. "But never, /ever/, fail me again. Or your core will be replacing Nahkti's. Got that?" Freval muttered a frightened understanding and ran off.
Yami sighed in exasperation. "If they were any stupider..." 'But never mind that. I need to find Nahkti.' Like they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself.
So the vampire lord took off in search of his sub-prey.
*
~Everyone, this is Ryou. He will be joining our class today, so treat him as a guest. Here, you can sit over there beside Honda, Malik and Yuugi. Jonouchi in front of them will be able to answer any questions you may have." The ArchAngel had a hold of the timid, albino's shoulder and pushed him off towards the small group of friends.
"Hello, Ryou. My name's Yuugi." A short boy with multi-coloured hair stood up and led Ryou back to his seat.
"H-hi."
"Wow. You shy or what? My name's Malik. Welcome to the Eleventh-year class." An Egyptian boy extended his hand to the new angel, who took his hand uncertainly.
"Why are you only here for a day?" The blonde whom the teacher had called 'Jonouchi' jerked his thumb to the seat behind him. "That's yours."
Ryou felt his face burn from all the attention and took his seat, folding his pale hands over his robed lap and folding his wings over his back. "I was transferred from the sixth heaven to the first to see if it would suit me better..."
"Ah, I see." The final angel of the group sat behind everyone else. His hair had been gelled into one, massive spike near his forehead. "My name's Honda, by the way. Will you fly with us at break?"
"I-I guess, if that's what you want..." Ryou turned in his seat so he could face all of them.
"Hey, no need to be so scared, Ryou. We're your friends now." Yuugi cocked his head slightly to the right and smiled. ~
Ryou's memory flickered then, and finally disappeared into to never-ending darkness.
The sixth heaven was where they trained their DeathAngels. He had been shunned and pushed around for not even being able to lift the soul of a deceased bird from its body without throwing up. Ryou couldn't stand corpses of any kind. That's why he had been transferred. He was too...weak. The teachers just gave up on him after a while and sent him to the disciple's heaven so they could see if he could study to be something else.
But unknown to them, there was another reason besides a weak constitution Ryou couldn't have been a DeathAngel. It seemed to him that every time he had touched something dead, he could almost see whatever it was move again. Blinking, a stray tear, it didn't matter. It was not quite so noticeable to others, but Ryou was sure that they had come alive for even a moment before he had to rush to a washroom.
The angel sighed. Much good it did him now. Stuck in the 'shadow realm' with next to no energy.
The darkness inside of his spirit was growing. It was slowly consuming everything the small being had left. Memories disappearing with every once of energy he used up, isolation from the worlds. But what hurt the most was being so far away from his lover. Ryou had decided that Nahkti hadn't meant for this to happen, for if he did, he probably wouldn't have bothered to save him from the clutches of that other demon to begin with.
He was so confused, though.
Something had struck him as odd earlier. When Yami had awoken him from his exhausted slumber and trapped him here at the beginning, he said he had taken away everything that made Ryou an angel. That would have meant that he shouldn't have /any/ energy left, but that wasn't the case. Though a miniscule amount, there was still some there. He really did take his wings away, that was apparent, and the last bit, energy, depended entirely upon the first two requirements of an angel. Wings, of course, and innocence. Since the first one was broken, the second part was all he had left.
Ryou smiled for the first time since he last saw Nahkti. Yami hadn't raped him, he couldn't have. The angel let out an eerie and hollow laugh.
"Yami! I know you can hear me!" Ryou felt a sear of vitality spread through his weakened body. "I want to let you know that I still have hope!" He flicked his snowy hair out of his tear-stained face "You can't destroy me, not like this!" The white tunic he was left with started to bellow, as if pushed by an invisible wind. "I STILL HAVE HOPE!!"
Though it went unnoticed by the screaming angel, a ripple of light tore through the intense darkness.
*
Me: and so ends the chapter. Oh, and if anyone's confused about the 'sixth heaven', I decided that there would be seven in total, and that the sixth one was associated with death. Please don't tale offense if it's entirely wrong, I just made it up. ^^;;
'Leanne: ...yeah...
Ryou: ^^ Erin-chan couldn't add this in the beginning author's note, but this chapter is dedicated to UnknownDarkMystery for being so supportive! *glomps* Arigatou!!
Me: what he said. Thankies for the great review(s) (wow, 2!!)
Ryou: *walks in with a copy of Demon Diary* *starts to read*
Me: Hey! Gimme my manga back!!! Whaaa! *runs in shortly after carrying a pyrotechnics machine*
Bakura: Damn you, stupid authoress! Idiotic flame-snatcher!! *also runs in and immediately notices something wrong with the way Erin-chan is holding his flame-thingy* Ahhh! You'll hurt it! Gimme it back!! \o/
'Leanne: *sighs* I knew it...
Ryou: *flips page* ...
Me: Ack! You'll destroy the binding, Ryou!! *glares murderously at Ryou who is ignoring her antics* *turns to Baku-kun* I'll give you your bucket of (flaming) bolts back if you'll get my shonen-ai manga back.
Bakura: T-T that's blackmail...
Me: *shifty eyes* so?
Disclaimer: she no own Yu-Gi-Oh! *points at Erin-chan* Ga ha ha!
Warning: this have no explicit language or yaoi incorporated. Some shonen-ai.
Me: *uses amazing power yet again to split into two people: one haggling with Bakura and one standing sanely beside the Warning*
'Leanne: whoa...scary...
Me: *coughs* for the people who are not familiar with the cards, The Dark Scorpions are a group of five people, the leader being Don Zaruug. They will be mentioned in the story, if not encountered. But just to let you know that they are all cards and not OCs.
*
Bakura had spent the first hour or so of the morning wandering around the temple of Osiris, getting re-acquainted with the structure of the buildings. Now he was standing outside, leaning on the same obelisk he had seen coming into the town. It was alongside another of the 36-foot tall erections beside the towers.
"Eh..." he sighed. Nothing new. Just the same old mudbrick and people. The King of Thieves raised his right arm to shield his eyes from the harsh Egyptian sun as he strode out towards the town square.
Walking up to a man apparently quite old selling wheat and assorted trinkets, Bakura smiled and proceeded to engage the old-timer in a heated discussion about the current political happenings. The man picked right up and started to dominate the conversation.
An odd glint seemed to reflect in Bakura's eyes for not even a fraction of a second before the goods closest to the theif were now in his possession and well hidden under his cloak. Nodding at something the merchant had asked, he swiftly dove his hands into the depths of his newest victim's pockets and retrieved what little copper pieces he had. Judging by the weight of it, they weren't worth much. That's one thing about the deben system, you could always tell how much a chunk of copper is worth by its weight.
Bakura smiled once again as soon as the old man stopped talking to regain his breath. Tipping him off by placing his fore and middle finger to his temple and bowing his head even in the slightest, the refreshed thief took his leave.
A torn piece of papyrus with some hieratic script scribbled on rolled along the ground and hit the former demon's feet.
He kicked it off and snorted. "People really should be more careful." However, Bakura continued on his search for vitals.
*
The small group of angels burst out of Malik's skylight. Tepemkau perked its head at the sight of his master and his friends. Stretching his wings, the ka took to the air from its post on the cloud gardens.
"Come, Tepemkau. We have a long journey ahead of us this time." Malik flew over to his golden dragon and wrapped his slender fingers around one of his 'ears'. "We're going past the golden gates this time." The spirit nodded his head curtly and twisted his body so to let his master take his seat at the base of his neck, the first rider's spot.
Malik smiled and hugged Tepemkau for his unwavering loyalty. "Thank you." Jumping on, he waved the rest of the group over, all of whom where a little on the nervous side.
Jonouchi climbed on after Malik, taking the second rider's spot, which happened to be directly behind the first. After him came Yuugi who took the calmer's place, on the base of the right wing. It was called such because underneath this wing was one of the dragon's pressure points and by stroking it; Tepemkau would loose any emotional stress for the moment.
Honda took his place opposite Yuugi, the defender. Here, dragons were the most vulnerable, for their heart was near the underside of the left wing. And of course, Honda was the warrior of the band.
"Hyaa!" Malik kicked Tepemkau with the rim of his heel and the massive winged lizard took off towards Heaven's gates. Their first look of true freedom lied beyond those titan barriers, and nothing could prevent them from obtaining that.
As the metallic gate entered Yuugi's vision, he gasped. "It-it's beautiful..." Jou smiled grimly.
"Yes, and such beauty can only balance out ugliness equal to it. Don't forget that everything was created with a balance, a rival, you could call it." The blonde gazed out to the intoxicatingly blue sky. "With land came water. Light and shadow. Humans and animals. Angels-" He turned back to the younger boy. "-and demons."
Honda had been listening to the two and he knew exactly why Jou hated demons so much. His first encounter with one had jaded him.
*Flashback*
A younger version of Jou skipped along a riverbank. One of the rare streams that ran through the canyons, in fact. He had heard that an infamous demon fledgling was caught and was being held captive somewhere near here.
"Oh, hello there, Jonouchi! What brings you here today? I'm afraid Yuugi isn't with me today." Suguroku lifted his cap to Jou.
The blonde rocked back and forth on his heels with his hands behind his back. "Naw, I didn't come to see Yuug today, Gramps." The elder smiled. "I wanna see the demon that ya caught. He sounds cool!"
A solemn expression filled Suguroku's face. "Now, Jou. You know that everything is in balance. Angels are good, and, well, demons aren't. They're evil for the most part." Little Jou looked crushed at being denied the chance to see a real, live demon.
"But Gramps, I really, really wanna see one! Please? I'll be careful!" he pouted.
Suguroku rolled his eyes. "All right, all right. I still have some work to do here, so you'll have to go alone. Don't go near the cage, all right? He's around those trees."
"Oh! Thank you, Gramps! You're the best!" And so Jonouchi skipped off into the area marked off with tape. Ducking underneath, he crawled to the foot of a gigantic, cube-shaped holding area. Ignoring the warning not to get close, the angel walked right up to it and held onto the bars. "Helllooooo.... Anybody home? Demon, where are you?"
Nothing.
"Hey! Ya in there??" Little Jou started to shake the bars.
A lightning-quick shadow passed over the trees enclosed and rested in the canopy of a birch close to the angel's spot. "Come to harass me, little one?" He dropped out of the tree and landed on all fours in front of the astounded holy-child, his wings folded carefully over his back.
"What, haven't you ever seen a demon before?" He shifted uncomfortably under the young one's intent stare. "How old are you?"
"T-ten..."
"I see. Just a youngling then." Jou gulped. The demon...he didn't look evil at all... Brownish hair falling around his pale nape and flopping over his brow, covering part of his ice-blue eyes. If only his wings weren't so dark, he would be an angel.
"What's your name, boy?"
"J-Jou, sir...who are you?"
"Seto. I'm thirteen"
Jou reached through the cage to try and touch his demon. "Se-to..." The demon smiled.
"If you open the door, we can play together, Jou. Won't you let me out?" Seto sighed whimsfully. "I've been so lonely here with no one to play with..."
The angel perked up. Someone to play with? Suguroku's voice echoed in his head. /They're evil, Jou./ Naw, this one couldn't possibly be evil. He was too...perfect...
So Little Jou happily opened the lock to a hidden door and swung it open. "There you go!" He smiled. His demon was going to play with him!
Seto walked calmly over to him and smirked. "Idiot. Don't you know never to trust a demon you don't know?" The jovious expression of the angel disappeared. "Fool." The demon harshly backhanded Jou and took off into the air.
*End Flashback*
Honda shook his head. What a thing for a fledging to go through. Ten ethereal years (a/n: about fifty years in our time) after Jou was reborn into Heaven. He hated all demons after that.
Tepemkau dove underneath the clouds and out of Heaven.
"We're coming, Ryou." Yuugi murmured. "Hang on."
*
The prince of the undead exhaled sharply. "Tell me again why you couldn't locate Nahkti?"
A wraith was bent down on one knee before his liege. "He-he has seemed to have dissipated from our realms, s-sire. We have searched the entire earth and Hell equally, but to no avail. Unless he's in Heaven, your demon doesn't exist in this plane anymore. G-gomen, sir, Yami-sama..."
The vampire rubbed his temple tediously. "Alright, Freval. You and your team are excused." He glared murderously at the shuddering wraith. "But never, /ever/, fail me again. Or your core will be replacing Nahkti's. Got that?" Freval muttered a frightened understanding and ran off.
Yami sighed in exasperation. "If they were any stupider..." 'But never mind that. I need to find Nahkti.' Like they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself.
So the vampire lord took off in search of his sub-prey.
*
~Everyone, this is Ryou. He will be joining our class today, so treat him as a guest. Here, you can sit over there beside Honda, Malik and Yuugi. Jonouchi in front of them will be able to answer any questions you may have." The ArchAngel had a hold of the timid, albino's shoulder and pushed him off towards the small group of friends.
"Hello, Ryou. My name's Yuugi." A short boy with multi-coloured hair stood up and led Ryou back to his seat.
"H-hi."
"Wow. You shy or what? My name's Malik. Welcome to the Eleventh-year class." An Egyptian boy extended his hand to the new angel, who took his hand uncertainly.
"Why are you only here for a day?" The blonde whom the teacher had called 'Jonouchi' jerked his thumb to the seat behind him. "That's yours."
Ryou felt his face burn from all the attention and took his seat, folding his pale hands over his robed lap and folding his wings over his back. "I was transferred from the sixth heaven to the first to see if it would suit me better..."
"Ah, I see." The final angel of the group sat behind everyone else. His hair had been gelled into one, massive spike near his forehead. "My name's Honda, by the way. Will you fly with us at break?"
"I-I guess, if that's what you want..." Ryou turned in his seat so he could face all of them.
"Hey, no need to be so scared, Ryou. We're your friends now." Yuugi cocked his head slightly to the right and smiled. ~
Ryou's memory flickered then, and finally disappeared into to never-ending darkness.
The sixth heaven was where they trained their DeathAngels. He had been shunned and pushed around for not even being able to lift the soul of a deceased bird from its body without throwing up. Ryou couldn't stand corpses of any kind. That's why he had been transferred. He was too...weak. The teachers just gave up on him after a while and sent him to the disciple's heaven so they could see if he could study to be something else.
But unknown to them, there was another reason besides a weak constitution Ryou couldn't have been a DeathAngel. It seemed to him that every time he had touched something dead, he could almost see whatever it was move again. Blinking, a stray tear, it didn't matter. It was not quite so noticeable to others, but Ryou was sure that they had come alive for even a moment before he had to rush to a washroom.
The angel sighed. Much good it did him now. Stuck in the 'shadow realm' with next to no energy.
The darkness inside of his spirit was growing. It was slowly consuming everything the small being had left. Memories disappearing with every once of energy he used up, isolation from the worlds. But what hurt the most was being so far away from his lover. Ryou had decided that Nahkti hadn't meant for this to happen, for if he did, he probably wouldn't have bothered to save him from the clutches of that other demon to begin with.
He was so confused, though.
Something had struck him as odd earlier. When Yami had awoken him from his exhausted slumber and trapped him here at the beginning, he said he had taken away everything that made Ryou an angel. That would have meant that he shouldn't have /any/ energy left, but that wasn't the case. Though a miniscule amount, there was still some there. He really did take his wings away, that was apparent, and the last bit, energy, depended entirely upon the first two requirements of an angel. Wings, of course, and innocence. Since the first one was broken, the second part was all he had left.
Ryou smiled for the first time since he last saw Nahkti. Yami hadn't raped him, he couldn't have. The angel let out an eerie and hollow laugh.
"Yami! I know you can hear me!" Ryou felt a sear of vitality spread through his weakened body. "I want to let you know that I still have hope!" He flicked his snowy hair out of his tear-stained face "You can't destroy me, not like this!" The white tunic he was left with started to bellow, as if pushed by an invisible wind. "I STILL HAVE HOPE!!"
Though it went unnoticed by the screaming angel, a ripple of light tore through the intense darkness.
*
Me: and so ends the chapter. Oh, and if anyone's confused about the 'sixth heaven', I decided that there would be seven in total, and that the sixth one was associated with death. Please don't tale offense if it's entirely wrong, I just made it up. ^^;;
'Leanne: ...yeah...
Ryou: ^^ Erin-chan couldn't add this in the beginning author's note, but this chapter is dedicated to UnknownDarkMystery for being so supportive! *glomps* Arigatou!!
Me: what he said. Thankies for the great review(s) (wow, 2!!)
