Blood Only Glows in the Dark Chapter 7: 7, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

(NOTE 3/8/06: Chapters have been restored to their original order! Assuming nothing ELSE goes wrong, here ya go!)

Here is the next chapter. (Obviously) Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, just this idea and made-up stuff

Yami enjoyed a certain sense of irony that what Yugi and his blond friend Katsuya were talking about on their way home after school was none other than himself.

"I don't think talking to him was such a good idea, Yug'. He seemed pretty ticked off!"

"He didn't seem that angry to me, Jou. Just a little uncomfortable - he's only been here a week, you know!"

It was very amusing, listening to their theories on why he was so unfriendly as they walked along. After they reached Yugi's home, they settled in to watch a 'movie', one that was to last at least two hours.

Yami, perched out of sight on the house's roof, found himself with a glorious opportunity for the sleep he couldn't quite fight off anymore.

And…perhaps he could take a short doze, until the boy's 'movie' was over…if something happened he'd be right here to take care of it, and having some rest would make him better able to function…a sudden burst of magical energy rushing screaming over his senses woke Yami up with a start.

He'd only been asleep an hour plus a few more minutes, which was a little more than he had anticipated. But the magical wave, which was now subsiding, seemed strangely familiar to him.

Before his senses could identify it, it faded as if it had never existed and Yami found himself detecting two new signals.

These ones were close, and coming closer, and soon Yami could see them from his rooftop perch. Two hooded skeletal creatures, one from each direction of the road, were approaching the house. What really interested Yami was how the people walking and driving down the street failed to notice them at all.

He, of course, recognized them instantly, and his suspicions reached a whole new level as the pair situated themselves on each side of the door to the house. As Yami watched, the skeletal beings sank into the shadows, and vanished from even his sight into them despite how little shadow there really was.

'Dammugs,' he noted silently, 'But who in their right minds would summon those things? Sure, with the right spell they stay invisible to humans, but… If they're here to fetch someone, it's just a waste of magic - even a weakling human could defeat one of those brainless rejects…'

As he extended his senses further, Yami realized that these two weren't the only Dammug Beasts in the area. At least another dozen were slinking around the general area, and it wouldn't have surprised him if there were another two score more outside of his range.

Now he was getting worried. Even though he could still sense their presence, the Dammugs had vanished from sight. And looking deeper, he could sense the intentions of whoever had summoned all of them. They were all waiting for something. But what?

Well, no matter what these things were after, there was a more pressing problem for Yami to tackle first. With all these things around, he was currently outnumbered 30 to 1. And as weak as Dammug Beasts were, you could defeat anyone with them if you had enough of them to throw into the battle. He'd used the tactic himself, ages ago, and knew first-hand just how effective it was.

'What are they after,' he thought, referring of course to the girl and her shadowy partner.

But the answer still eluded him, as it had countless times in the past few days. He was certain he knew the answer, but it refused to reveal itself. And now Yami was about to run out of time.

Questioning all the while about his current level of sanity, Yami left his charge alone as he searched the city high and low, trying to find places the Dammugs hadn't infiltrated yet. Sure, they hadn't noticed him at all, and he could easily move around via rooftops, but if someone else, say a certain human boy, were trying to hide from the Dammug Beasts, they would have considerably less options available.

The back alleys provided a solution - the Dammugs were all on main thoroughfares, and there were plenty of alleys honeycombing the city. There were even old warehouses and abandoned buildings back there that the humans had completely forgotten about as well.

That taken care of, Yami made it back to Yugi's house in time to see the boy and Katsuya deciding to head out. He waited, focusing his senses so hard on the pair of Dammugs by the boy's door that he was almost confused about why they hadn't noticed him, as the two exited the house.

The Dammugs…did nothing. Apparently they were not here to abduct the boy…at least not yet. Yami trailed Yugi and Katsuya closely, keeping a very wary eye out for every Dammug Beast he sensed hiding along their path.

He also kept his inner eye peeled, in case whoever had arranged all this noticed him after all. It wouldn't protect the boy any better if his only protection was eliminated…although Katsuya and the brunette Yugi called Honda might be able to help out in a pinch. At least until they had their necks broken and their souls eaten, which wouldn't take more than a few minutes.

It was dusk now, and to Yami's relief - not that he would ever admit it - the boy and the other two humans in question were sleeping at what appeared to be Katsuya's home. That was located in the middle of the human slums, where only four Dammugs were lurking, and the area provided instant access to the alley network.

Yami had barely found a perch to watch the house from when his instincts sent him diving into the nearest hiding place. It was a minute before he figured out why - a gargoyle with huge leathery wings landed in the very spot he had just vacated.

It was watching the house as well, but what was worse - if he moved out of his hiding place it would see him instantly. Secrecy happened to be Yami's sole advantage; he couldn't afford to be found.

His current position was inside a air intake vent for the old tenement building he had been standing on top of. He could just barely see out the top, and could clearly see the horns that adorned the back of the gargoyle's head. Something moved in the skies overhead - two, three more - Yami swallowed a particularly venomous curse.

There was no way Yami was going to get out the way he had gotten in. Not with four of those gargoyles patrolling the skies. And the rooftops were off-limits now for him, whether by accident or design. He slid down the vent as quietly and as quickly as he could. It was another five minutes of crawling through the vents until he reached one that opened into a empty room.

The apartment he was in now was not only unoccupied but also had a window which opened to the back of the building. Hissing under his breath at the window's squeaking while he pried it open, it was a simple matter for him to drop the three stories to the ground and flatten himself against the side of the building.

This was just getting worse and worse, he decided irritably as one of the gargoyles passed by overhead. Yami crept to a position where he could see the dilapidated house across the street while still keeping an eye out for gargoyles. It was going to be a long night.