Return of the Wild Gang Chapter 06
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Disclaimer: I don't own YGO.
The doctors rushed Yugi into the emergency room, one doctor holding his IV above his heart-level, another taking his pulse, and another pushing the bed. They lifted him onto the table and put his hair in a sterile cap. One doctor put on gloves and insisted to reopen the incision they had recently stitched up, to check and see if Yugi had internal bleeding. One nurse was ordered to call and inform Solomon about his grandson's condition, but she hesitated to do so.
"He's bleeding under the large intestine," declared a doctor. "this is probably the deepest stab we've ever had to treat!" Even the highly-trained doctors at Domino Hospital could not tell that Yugi had been shot.
"Doctor, I think part of his abdominal tissue has a slight infection!" said another doctor as she pulled a light into Yugi's body. When Joey had dug into Yugi's body to remove the bullet his hands had been dirty. Sweating, the doctors continued to work on their patient.
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"I've got to give you props, Joey's old shack of an apartment makes a great temporary-hideout for us," said Hirutani to a gang member. They had abandoned his house when the cops arrived, and now they needed a new place to chill.
"So, here's what we do; I've got plans for us to meet the prep school's jerk gang on their soccer field, a perfect place to rumble."
"Uh, they don't even have a soccer team," commented one member.
"Don't you think I know that?" sighed Hirutani, breathing cigarette smoke into the guy's face. "That's what makes it so perfect. They may as well not even own the property anymore! Anyhoo, I chucked a brick with a note on it through the boys' locker room. If those fruits want to fight, they'll be there at dawn this Saturday." The other gang members licked their lips like mad dogs. Hirutani's eyes seemed to glow in the dark and smoke curled up around them as he uttered a sinister cackle.
"Don't you worry about the dweeb and his ho. I'll catch her," said Bandit Keith.
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Joey was walking back to Mai's apartment, still carrying his suitcase. He was unnerved to find her apartment door open. He let himself in, and poked around. "Mai, you home?" he called. No answer. He shut the door, as not to lead anyone else inside, and looked in her bedroom. "Mai?" still nothing. Then Joey noticed that there were some strange markings on her carpet near the window. He kneeled down and examined them. Boot treads he thought. Then he spied a Duel Monsters card, face down on the floor. He turned it over, and it was Machine King. Mai doesn't have dat cawd in her deck. De' only duelist I know of who has it is Bandit Keith. Joey put the card in his pocket. Figuring that hanging around an empty apartment was not going to help his case, he left and decided to go to Tristan's.
"Oh, it's him," said Tristan in a disgusted and somewhat haughty voice when he opened his door. "You know, you're a dumb-wad half the time and the other half you're just plain psychotic! Do you even know that Yugi's in the hospital? All because you got involved with Rintama again!" Joey looked down.
"Tristan, I know I've been acting like a total lunatic, but I never meant for Yugi to get hurt," he said.
"I know that, Joey," Tristan admitted. "but have you even seen him? His gut's busted up from a stab from whom I assume was Hirutani."
"Tristan listen, I quit working for the gang and I'm going to make good and fix all da problems I've caused. So don't
go after Hirutani, he's mine," said Joey.
"Then what did you come all the way over here for?"
"…can I stash this suitcase at your house? I've been carrying it all day." Tristan smacked himself in the face, and then agreed to let Joey store his things at his house.
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Mai, at the time, was not a happy camper. Bandit Keith had kidnapped her, and dragged her to Joey's old apartment, AKA Hirutani's new hideout.
"Bandit Keith? What do you think you're doing?" she huffed as soon as the bandana was removed from her mouth.
"You're a crucial part of our plan. We need the dweeb to fight a gang, and he won't refuse if we threaten you. Know what I mean?" Keith took off his sunglasses and looked at Mai with his cold, blue eyes.
"What do you want with Joey?" she demanded. "Are you still miffed about losing to him in Duelist Kingdom?"
"No, it really doesn't matter what you know or don't know. I'm going to find the dweeb, and when he hears his little girlfriend is all tied up in a chair, I'm sure he'll do as I say. Oh wait…what's this?" Keith sneered, lifting up Mai's hand…the one that had the ring on it. "Fiancée, even better!" slamming the door to the apartment, Keith left Mai all alone in the dark.
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The next day at school, Tea and Tristan were assigned to each other as partners in health class. Tea had been with Yugi and Tristan had been with Joey, but under the circumstances, they ended up with only one another to turn to. The class was learning how to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and the Heimlich Maneuver.
"Tristan, you're going to kill that poor baby," said Tea. Tristan was smacking the baby's back extra hard.
"He's not even real, Tea!" he grumbled, staring into space.
"You know what I mean!" Tea rolled her eyes and took the plastic baby away from Tristan. "What if you had to save a real baby from choking? If you were that rough with it you'd kill it much quicker than something caught in its
windpipe would."
"Well, I can't concentrate! Yugi's freaking in the hospital, Joey's engaged and possibly on the run from the law, the
Rintama gang is running loose and graduation is less than a week away! How can you expect me to mind what I'm doing?" shouted Tristan. Tea sighed.
"Let's just try to get your mind off of things," said Tea. "Here, hold the dummy like this…and…in and up! In and up! In and up!" Tea instructed Tristan to save the foam human being.
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Saturday came, and the weather mimicked the anguish Tristan had been feeling. The skies were so gray they were almost green. Purple clouds roamed in from the east, and the wind blew so hard it hurt.
That did not faze Hirutani, or his gang. They confidently marched to the soccer field for Domino Prep's non-existent soccer team, to await the arrival of their opponents. Hirutani stepped hard onto the dirt, making sure his shoe treads made a mark. The wind blew thick, gray dust across the field, and then, out of the shadowed distance came the silhouettes of the prep school's gang. The leader smirked. Hirutani glared. The first raindrop was their bell.
Hirutani came at the leader fast with a left-hook into the stomach, but suffered a knee in his own stomach. Member vs. member, leader vs. leader, and soon the feuding gangs began sinking into the mud that was forming in the pouring rain.
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At the hospital, Yugi was well enough to walk around. He'd recovered from his internal bleeding, and had been cured of his infection. But now he was worried. He leaned his elbows on the windowsill in his room, and watched - as best he could- the storm through the thick raindrops that pounded on the window.
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Bandit Keith let Mai eat and go to the bathroom and all that, so she wouldn't get restless. But just to be sure, he tied a rope around her waist, so that she couldn't go very far.
"You've got a lot of nerve, Keith," she growled. Keith only laughed.
"Heenh! As soon as I get the news of the gang fight I'll let you go. If Joey died fighting you're a free harpy. If he's still out there, or he sells out on us, you're a Harpy's Pet Dragon in chains," said Keith. Mai scowled. Just then, Keith got a call on his cell phone. "Yeah?" he said.
"Keith, you still got the girl?" came Hirutani's voice.
"Yeah."
"Alright, listen. Bring her to the grocery store parking lot. I've got one final way to make Joey pay!" Keith laughed and hung up.
"What are you planning in doing with me?" Mai demanded.
"Relax, Valentine, I'm not interested in…that," said Keith. "But your role as Pawn just got an extension!" he tied the rope completely around her so that she couldn't move even her wrists. Then he blindfolded her, hoping to keep her absolutely silent. "Chill. If you scream, I'll snap your neck!" Mai fell quiet.
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Joey, who had been staying at Tristan's house for the time being, decided to get up and find Hirutani. The rain that Saturday evening soaked Joey to the bone, but he could not have cared any less. He barely made it a block from Tristan's house when he felt a pebble get pelted at his head.
"Hey!" she shouted, turning around. A shadowy figure ran down the street into the fog, leading him somewhere. He dashed off after it. The foggy mist seemed endless…Joey could run right into the harbor and never even know it. Suddenly, streetlights appeared. Beacons of a destinations. They lit up the sky and Joey found himself in a huge parking lot. There were cars everywhere, of course, but Joey knew that there was something else…someone else.
"Show yourself!" he shouted. He looked up to see Hirutani standing on the edge of the rooftop of the supermarket…with Mai, blindfolded, standing by his side.
"You can't escape from my gang, Joseph," warned Hirutani. "And now you and your girlfriend are going to pay!"
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END OF CHAPTER 06