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

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Oh me, oh my. Slow updates, I know, but college is trying to kill me, I just know it is!

Ahem, ignore that last bit please.

Disclaimer: Authoress in question does not own Yugioh or other non-made-up-by-self stuff.

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They were almost all the way to Yugi's street when Yami felt something watching him again.

He knew for a fact that it couldn't be Yugi this time because Yugi was walking to his right side, in plain view. That meant that something had found them, and was probably following them as well.

A surreptitious glance around revealed nothing - but Yami had expected as much.

'It could be some stray animal,' he considered, 'We might just be passing through its territory…'

Or he could just stop deluding himself. The truth was, he had only allowed such a ridiculous explanation enter his thoughts because he didn't want to worry Yugi.

They were coming up to the last intersecting alley in their path. When Yugi paused, looking back at his companion in order to ask which way they should go now, he blinked at the expression he saw on Yami's face.

"What's wrong? Did you hear something?" Yugi asked.

"Maybe…" Yami said, turning around to face the way they had just come.

Yami extended his senses, reaching out hard and fast in the direction of the eyes in an attempt to take whatever it was off guard. Unfortunately, whatever it was had anticipated Yami's idea and was now completely concealed.

Annoyed, Yami blew a puff of air over his fangs. Then he blinked when Yugi jumped at the noise.

"Are we in trouble?" Yugi asked, when he had recovered from his little scare.

"Whatever I sensed is shielding itself," Yami replied, "Therefore I cannot read its intentions…however, I doubt it is friendly."

They started walking again, going slightly faster then before. Yami had moved all of two yards when he froze and whirled around, only to growl when he failed to identify their pursuer again.

And then, when he had stalked past his confused charge - only to feel their watcher's gaze from above and ahead of their position - Yami literally snarled.

"…Someone is following us?" Yugi inquired cautiously, wary of the anger flashing across Yami's features.

Because if there was one thing Yami hated, even more then he disliked a too-short hunt, it was being made a fool of. And whoever was watching them was purposely mocking him now.

"I know damn well you're there!" Yami yelled at the hidden presence, "COWARD! Come out right now or else!"

There was a moment's pause, as the echoes of Yami's voice faded and Yugi swallowed nervously, expecting an attack at any second now that Yami had courteously announced to the rest of the world where they were.

A new noise started up. It was exactly like the sound of something oozy and disgusting bubbling, and it took another moment for the two in the alley to recognize the sound as something chuckling.

"…I believe I may have missed the joke," Yami stated, turning to face the source of the sound and gently tugging Yugi behind him.

"That would probably be," replied a gurgling, throaty sort of voice, "Because you ARE the joke."

The voice's owner started climbing down the wall towards them. Yugi swallowed hard when he finally saw it - it was the most disgusting thing he'd seen in his entire life up to this point.

Something made up of dank and oily-looking blue slime was slowly slithering and oozing down the wall. The only thing that looked solid was the big round eyeball set in the middle of it. The slime-thing's eye was a sickeningly vibrant green color, and its pupil was a vertical slit, just like a cat's.

"Those are some pretty big words, coming from such a small stain," Yami countered.

"Judging me for my size, are you? You underestimate me, rogue mage," the slime-thingy gurgled as it drew closer, "Looks can be quite deceiving. Why, just consider your little human friend there…"

"Me?" Yugi blinked, "What about me?"

"It is you that my Lord seeks. Do you not wonder why? Out of all the mortals in this city, you are the only one that he wishes to have alive - preferably undamaged, one might assume, but alive first and foremost."

"Well then, you should go back and tell your master that he won't be taking Yugi alive OR damaged," Yami snapped.

"Perhaps he does not need to take him," the blue slime remarked, "Perhaps, with the correct persuasion, he shall go to my Lord himself. It is not the same as his own free will, but it is no matter -"

Instantly, the ooze-creature contracted into itself, before springing right off the wall. It was aimed for Yugi, but Yami was fast enough to shove the boy down and out of the way.

Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to avoid the creature itself.

Yami snarled as the slime-creature slithered all over him. Slashing with his claws proved ineffective. He tried yanking it off entirely but when he attempted to grab hold of the damn thing, it sucked in his hand and he couldn't pull it free.

Then it extended tendrils of itself to grasp and pull itself closer to his face. Soon Yami was looking at it right in the eye.

"Oh well," it laughed, "I may not get to control that human, but you will be a much more interesting mind-slave. I'll even find a brother Korikosos to control your human friend so you don't get lonely…"

Oh. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit! Yami had never encountered one personally before now, but he knew exactly what a Korikosos was! Now his efforts to rip the damnable thing from his body were laced with panic.

Futile panic.

It was on his head now - Yami jerked away, to no avail, as the Korikosos began inserting tendrils into his ear. Once it had finished the physical part of its infestation, Yami remembered, it would find a way to either trick him or force him to look at its eye, allowing it to enslave his mind.

Still trying to dislodge his unwanted passenger, Yami screwed his eyes shut, even though at this rate it wasn't going to stop the Korikosos. And when the Korikosos finished cementing its control, it would go after -

"Yami! What's going on?" Yugi cried out, as if on cue.

"Yugi! Run!" Yami yelled back.

"But -"

"No buts, you have to escape while you can RIGHT NOW!" Yami roared, risking squinting open one eye to make sure Yugi was actually listening.

The mortal was beginning to back away - thank the underworld for small favors - but before Yami could shut his eye again his view was blocked by a pool of lurid green.

"You make this far too easy for me," the Korikosos said as its eye began glowing.

And then Yami's mind and his world was left to drown in a sea of horrible green light.