O.O…over…100…reviews! Yay! I never thought I'd even get up to fifty with this stunt XD! (I didn't think I'd write more than five chapters either -.-u) But here we are at chappie ten! THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!
There is a short new bit with Yugi, Auru, and Rino while Yami and Bakura are battling in chapter eight. Nothing has changed plot-wise; it just reads better that way.
THANK YOU's to everybody who reviewed Sweet Surrender 1! I will try and write chapter two soon but I expect it will take longer. And as my weekend is as full as my closet…yeah. That's pretty darn full.
Review Responses:
YamixYugiforever: Thanks! Here's the update! agrees w/ your name!
Aquastar: Yay! Someone loves the story! hands you the update
KiaSapphire: Oh thank you! blushes I hope I continue to put good stuff in the story!
Sephrothlay: Thanks! is a big fan of YGO vampire stories too
Muffinsnail: Omg your reviews are so long and thorough! Yeah…with the italicized bit after "Go ahead"…I was trying to something and it didn't work out. Deleted that. Yay new word . Fixed the "gone he's gone" part. I'm glad you think the Y/Y part is good! I think by description you mean background? I'm adding a lot here and in the next chapter. Sometimes your review bites, but its better to know what I mess up on than to blunder along badly XD. Okay, the bit about Yugi letting Yami "close enough" to drink his blood…. I was thinking kind of like this: Yugi wanted reassurance that Yami was bluffing—to be closer to Yami. Yami was starting to pull away because he realized that Yugi was temptation waiting to happen. Yugi saw that Yami wanted blood; if Yugi gave him blood, Yami would stay. If Yami stayed it would prove to Yugi that he did care. reads last few sentences over Okay…that was odd. Ignore that, I guess. Didn't make much sense…sigh. Okay enough of that! No you don't write too much! It is very helpful! Um…hard question about the "blood" bit there. Yami is attracted to Yugi, and biting Yugi is a way for him to touch Yugi...to be kind of intimate with Yugi. Vampires don't normally care about their victims. Their drinking blood is sort of (very loose analogy here) like us eating food—it tastes good and it's nice, but it's not arousing. The reference to the reflection is not quite how I had thought about it…since the next to chapters are background/description-laden, I think I will explain it better soon. 70...that's pretty good…but keep helping me improve please! I'm glad the plot is easy to follow and it's moving along at a good pace. I am happy, and I hope you are too! Heh…my response is nearly as long as your review (sweatdrop). Okay bye!
Kisara-san: Nobody is slated to die anytime soon. Thanks!
DragonG1rl14: Thanks for saying that—it's nice to know which parts were written well! I will write more!
Kian: Thanks…blushes. You find out more about Bakura in this chapter, and there will be more new characters coming soon (to a fanfiction near you! XD) Yes you made sense! Thanks so much! wishes you sound sleep
Slave Of Darkness: Ooh…curious. Thanks and I will!
Ryou's Twin Sister: Yes lemon, no, not now. I read your story and I'm reading others to get ideas and pointers. Thanks!
Serena the Hikari of Love: Oh thank you . Lol…Bakura 'fixing' that.
Elisa Stonetear: Yay I made you use caps lock . Nope, definitely no forgetting Yugi! Thanks!
Dark Angel of Fire Ice: Thanks! YYxY is my favorite, but Bakura is one of my favorite characters too (he comes back…never fear).
Pharaoh'sEgyptianArabian-.-u…yeah. Just when it was getting good XI. Thanks for your help! hands you the requested update
AngelFalls: Oh, how delusional we are…I can stop writing this any time I want to…NOT. Hahaha okay denial! I can't stop writing this! Anyway…here's the update!
Alaquathesweetgumtree: Thanks! I have seen several good stories left hanging and if at all possible I will not do that to this story!
Kodaijin Hiei: No I will try very hard not to abandon this story! And here's your update!
Samurai Angel: Thanks for making me smile! I check my e-mail in the morning before I go to school…having a review to read makes my day that much better. I've converted you to a YYxY fan XD! Yeah I went through something similar lol. Now I love this stuff. You have an awesome day/night too!
TwinSanity: Just have to ask, first—is your name supposed to be a pun? Thanks you guys. hands you update
SoulDreamer: lol Thank you! Here's the update!
Inuyasha0001: Yay it's kawaii! Here's the update!
Chelley Angel: Heh yeah they do…thankfully, he seems to have forgotten about said notebook check. I just put that "pg" line in there out of randomness and ppl seemed to find it really funny lol. Rino is basically…a mage I guess. More about his powers later.
Kuramasgal: eep! Phew. Thanks—here's the update!
Unknown: Thanks! hands you update
Kristen89: Yay for button-clicking! Thanks! People seemed to like that "pg" quote even though I just stuck it in there out of randomness lol. Here the update for you!
ladywolfTerri: Yay! Thanks so much! Here is the update!
Pharohs-slave: Oh yes…tempting. Oh don't die of a cliffy! Here's the update—read it so you survive!
TheFalloftheDemon: Oh thank you! hands you update
Kameeko: Thanks…oh, Kamoray is so cute when not threatening to kill me! XD
On With the Fic Already:
Last time…
Rino's hands flashed white, casting invisibility over the lot of us. Yami and Auru ran a few paces and flapped powerful wings, launching us into the sky.
Yami kept his hands under my legs and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Once, during the flight, he turned to me and whispered, "Mine."
Dead & Dying
Tenth
Yugi's View
Much later, when all of this craziness was over, I realized that even in the most bizarre of situations, humans tend to revert back to habits they have always known. It gives one a sense of normalcy, even when everything around you is spiraling into the 'Beyond Strange' zone.
And so, as I was being flown to an unknown destination on the back of a vampire whom I had very mixed feelings for, accompanied by another vampire and a mage boy who was currently making us all invisible, I checked my watch.
It was one o'clock in the morning. The moon hung in the sky like a bubble, the stars around it mirroring the city lights below. No clouds cluttered the horizon, but mountains crowded together to my left. Dark, fuzzy patches farther ahead indicated forest. I hoped desperately that we could camp sometime soon. Draped over Yami, I felt exhausted—emotionally and mentally.
Rino leaned over and whispered in Auru's ear. Auru flapped his wings and angled over to Yami and me, skirting a radio antenna as he did so.
"Here, Yugi-kun, catch." Rino tossed me a little box, slowing it down in midair with magic so I could catch it mid-flight. "Open." I did. There was some candy in there. I smiled gratefully at Rino. The sugar would probably keep me awake enough not to fall off Yami's back. By the occasional flickers of light from Rino's hands—his invisibility charm—I could see a couple chocolate toffee things and some jawbreakers. I popped one in my mouth.
Auru looked over at Yami with a calculating glance. Yami was staring straight forward, and hadn't said hardly anything since our second flight began.
"Did you kill him?"
Yami didn't answer for a moment. "No."
I blanched. "What!"
"It wasn't his real body, was it?" Auru asked.
"No," answered Yami succinctly. "It was one of Bakura-san's copies." Neither Auru nor Rino seemed shocked at this bit of information, but I was now thoroughly puzzled. "One of you tell Yugi about necromancers." Yami resumed his straightforward stare.
Auru looked from Yami to me and back to Rino. "You tell him, Rino," said Auru.
Rino popped a jawbreaker in his mouth. "Okay." He considered for a moment.
"Necromancers are sorcerers specializing in magic dealing with the dead. They can take souls, make people—dead or alive—their puppets, and summon various denizens of hell."
I didn't think that sounded very pleasant at all. My thoughts evidently showed on my face, because Rino assured me that there were less than a hundred necromancers alive today. It occurred to me that someone in our party must have very bad luck.
"Vampires and necromancers generally hate one another because when a necromancer takes a soul, the body becomes useless to a vampire. When a vampire drinks the blood of someone, necromancers can't use the body."
I nodded. This was a lot of information to digest. None of it seemed to be at all possible anyway. Three days ago I had not believed in the existence of vampires, but now I was in the company of two. Life threw me a curve…more like a hairpin turn.
Rino cracked his jawbreaker in half. "Necromancers always have seven bells. Each bell has a purpose, but I don't remember them all."
"Doesn't matter," interrupted Auru. "The point is never to hear a necromancer's bell. If you do you're basically dead."
"Actually there's three types of death," said Rino, tugging on his cream sweater to straighten it out.
"Three?" I asked.
"Yeah. First, your body can die. Bakura-san's body is dead, but his soul still lives. Necromancers fear the death of their soul more than anything else."
I started chewing on a chocolate toffee. "That doesn't make any sense. Necromancers deal with death all the time, right?"
Rino smiled wryly. "Yeah…it seems very backwards when you think about it. But every necromancer has at least one copy of himself. Necromancers can live for thousands of years, just but transferring their soul to a new copy of their dead body."
"Uh…copy?"
Rino pursed his lips. "It's basically like—like a huge collection of spells that work together to act like a human body. Necromancers make lots of these and tie them to their soul. So when their current 'copy' dies, their soul just moves into the new 'copy' and continues on."
"That's…creepy." I swallowed the chocolate toffee, which had suddenly lost a lot of flavor. "Bakura-san sort of—dissolved when he—died. Was that his copy dying?"
"Yeah," said Auru. "His soul was instantly transported to a new body, wherever he put it."
Rino nodded. "The second type of death is soul death. That's what most people refer to as the 'undead'."
"Like Yami-kun and me," put in Auru. Said vampires flapped their wings to take advantage of a sudden updraft. Luckily, no planes had crossed our path.
"The third type of death is when both your body and soul die. Normal death," concluded Rino.
I swallowed my chocolate roll. "Where did necromancers come from?"
Auru made a derisive snort. "Some suicidal maniac opened the door to hell in this world. He died from opening the portal and left the rest of the early civilizations to deal with all the demons and dead people running about and destroying things," said Auru darkly.
"The mages made a set of seven bells to help in corralling the demons and dead people and to close the portal. It worked, but a decade later, some corrupt bastard stole the bells and used them for evil purposes. He was the first necromancer. He made more sets of bells, and to this day necromancers have been a pain in the ass," Auru finished. He obviously did not like necromancers.
Rino fished in Auru's jacket pocket for a moment and found a lollipop. "So…any questions?" Rino asked me. "That was a lot of info there—sorry." He unwrapped the sucker and stuck in it his mouth. Auru gave him a strangely nervous glance, but didn't say anything.
I thought about it for awhile. We flew over a freeway, headlights streaking by below. Rino was still careful not to look straight down, not being particularly fond of heights.
Basically, my thoughts came down to this: Bakura was still alive and was coming to kill us.
"How do you kill a necromancer?" I asked nervously.
"You find his body and destroy it," said Auru. "Usually you have to bind the necromancer and make him tell you when his body is hidden, 'cause they hide them pretty darn well. It's their one weakness—their physical body."
"Bind the necromancer?" I repeated. Rino licked his lollipop. Auru glanced at him again and quickly looked away.
"It's—complicated to explain," said Rino. "Basically, binding involves trapping his soul in a copy of his body and making him submit to a truth-spell."
"But necromancers can't be in more than one copy of themselves at once. There's just one of them at a time. They have to make copies in advance," said Auru, looking determinedly forward. He seemed stressed for some reason.
Rino sucked on his lollipop. "Any more questions, Yugi-kun?"
I shook my head no and thanked Auru and Rino for that informative spiel.
Wind from our flight nipped at loose sleeves and pant-leg cuffs. White light kept flickering about Rino's hands. The four of us were safely invisible. I had lost track of the number of cities we'd passed. Endless hours of flight had blurred together into one confusing blob of memory. I think I dozed for about half an hour.
I woke to the sound of Yami's voice. "Auru-kun? Do you see that?" Yami pointed to an oddly shimmering dome of air in the distance. It was on the edge of a cluster of lights—a city. Dark, blurry patches of forest surrounded it on three sides for a considerable area.
"I sense it—more than see it," said Auru, voice cracking in the middle. Rino was still sucking on his lollipop, making it last for quite a while.
"It's a shield over a mansion," Yami said slowly.
"Good!" Auru flapped his wings, instantly brightening. "We can stay inside the shield for the night."
Yami turned to his winged companion, his expression skeptical. "Are you crazy? That thing looks like it's protecting something more precious than—than—I don't know! It's foolish to break into it."
"No it's not." Auru sounded strained. He reached into an inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out another jacket. Evidently, he and Rino had shrunk their duffels like Yami and I had.
Rino licked his lollipop again. His lips were turning red from the dye in the candy. Auru tied the jacket around his waist backwards, so it hung down in front, pulling the knot in the sleeves unnecessarily tight.
"Yami-kun, let's just go inside it and camp on the edge." Auru managed that all in one breath.
"Last time you interrupted the flight it wasn't good and I don't intend to stop until we're very, very far away from that necromancer!"
"How do you know where his body is! For all you know we could be flying right to it! Inside the shield we'd be safe!" Auru snapped his wings crossly.
Yami's View
I glared at Auru. "I know perfectly well why you want to camp inside that shield, Auru-kun, and I wish I didn't." Inside the shield, extra magic would go unnoticed. Auru could conjure a shadow tent. A soundproof shadow tent. For two people.
"Come on, Yami-kun. Yugi-kun and Rino are—sleepy—already." Auru made the mistake of looking back at Rino, who was still sucking slowly on his lollipop. Auru tightened the jacket tied around his waist again, looking determinedly forward. I wondered if he would be able to get that knot undone. Auru glared at me. "Well?"
I paused. "We'll take a look. If the shield doesn't reek of necromancy we might stay."
Auru instantly dropped fifty feet and shot off in the direction of the mansion.
"I said might!" I snapped my wings irritably and took off after him.
It took a couple of minutes to get close enough to the shield. Auru and I flew around it a few times. Auru didn't sense any necromancy and neither did I. It felt more like the work of an alchemist or a priest than anything else.
"So are we camping here tonight?" Auru had a weird note of pleading in his voice. Rino kept sucking at his lollipop, quite oblivious.
The shield flickered blue-white every so often, like lightning. I made a decision. "Yes. We are. In the deep forest," I ordered.
"No problem," said Auru, obviously relieved. Oh please! I swear he can't go for twenty-four hours without—! Uh…never…mind. Bad mental image.
Auru and I landed more gracefully than before in a clearing on the outside of the shield. We approached the flickering dome cautiously. Chanting softly, I drew a rectangle in midair. My whole body tingled for a moment, but a door-sized hole appeared in the shield. The four of us went through quickly and I drew my hand sharply across the hole. It flickered and returned to like it had been before.
Rino was halfway done with his lollipop when he started sucking up and down the candy. Auru looked at him and shut his eyes. "Would you—stop that!"
"What?" Rino looked at Auru confusedly. "What am I doing?"
Auru fisted a hand in his black curls. "Augh! The lollipop! Quit—sucking on it!"
Rino looked at his candy and turned a shade of red that would make a ripe tomato jealous.
"No…don't—blush—either." Auru sounded very strained.
I took Yugi's shoulders and firmly turned him around. "We're leaving," I said, pushing Yugi in the direction of a grove of trees.
"Don't move!"
A tall brunette stepped out of the darkened trees, a glare on his face and a gun in his hand.
Another chappie. Another cliffy. Ahh…the self-imposed perils of being a fanfic writer XD.
You know the drill! Click that button and make me smile.