(NOTE 3/8/06: Chapters have been restored to their original order! Assuming nothing ELSE goes wrong, here ya go!)
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Ah hah hah ha...let this be a lesson for all non-reviewer types!
For you see, if you don't let me know you've read a chapter, I can't tell if you've gotten a chance to see it.
Not wanting you to be confused by being left behind, I therefore do not post.
I'm too nice for my own good, I know...
Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.
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…Yami was having a very peculiar dream. Most of the time, he didn't dream, so having the dream at all was strange enough. But for some reason, he was dreaming that he was asleep.
Wherever he was sleeping was silent as an empty graveyard. And yet despite that it was warm, and he was lying on something comfortable…even before his being sealed away, there had been no material as soft and cushy as whatever he was lying on around…
A shift in his weight informed Yami, in highly painful headache fashion, that he was not actually asleep or dreaming. So where was he?
In the interest of discovery, Yami opened his eyes slightly.
Being awake seemed even weirder than dreaming. He was in some human dwelling, and despite it being well-lit, full of people moving around, and there being a 'television' on just across the room…everything was still deadly quiet.
That just screamed 'wrong' in Yami's book. He sat up…and was very surprised to find himself unable to keep from slumping into the back of the couch.
He might have fallen face-first to the floor on his next attempt to sit upright, had not someone grabbed his shoulder and steadied him. Yami blinked when he saw Jonouchi looking at him in concern.
The blond mouthed some words, too fast for Yami to even guess at. Then Jou grabbed something - a pen and a piece of paper - from the nearby table. After scribbling something, he handed Yami the paper.
The message was short: 'Can you hear anything?'
Yami waited, making one last assessment. The only thing he could hear was the thumping of people walking around, and that wasn't really hearing because he was just feeling the vibrations in the floor that traveled up to the couch. Yami doubted the blond would understand that explanation, though, and merely shook his head.
Jou said something else, and judging from his expression it was probably along the lines of 'God-damned-damn it-fuck!' Whatever it really was, it brought Yugi running.
As for Yami's charge, the boy looked absolutely miserable. And the second he spotted Yami looking at him - the mage-demon had needed a pitifully embarrassing minute to figure out what Jou was looking at before he even turned his head - Yugi started crying outright.
In that instant, Yami decided that he had discovered a brand new definition of torment and misery. Jou went over to his friend and gave him a sort of half-hug in support. But Yami knew that if his balance was bad enough that he couldn't sit upright on a sofa, there was no way he'd be able to walk over and offer any comfort to Yugi himself.
And that idea was annoying enough, because Yami had never felt a desire to offer comfort before in his entire life, to anything. In an attempt to control the rising surge of frustration, Yami examined his injuries.
The only parts that were injured, of course, were the insides of his ears. Which made perfect sense, considering he had brilliantly ripped out an embedded Korikosos. They connected themselves to their victims by tight physical bonds, and in theory if you killed the Korikosos first, the tendrils would wither, die, and fall out on their own within a few weeks.
Ripping out the tendrils also ripped apart whatever they were attached to, which in Yami's case were his eardrums. And the inner ear as well, if his total lack of balance said anything.
Too bad for his ears. He'd have done it again in a heartbeat. Yami couldn't actually recall anything from the time he'd spent being under the Korikosos' control, but he somehow knew for fact that he would willingly - heck, even gladly! - sacrifice any of his senses again in exchange for the safety of his charge.
His private musings were interrupted when something kicked the sofa.
Turning, Yami barely had enough time to gawk at the person he saw there, before said person rudely inserted a finger in each of his ears. The sharp cracking sensation that came from being healed with black magic trebled Yami's already magnificent headache.
Fueled by pain, anger, and shock, as soon as Yami sensed the magic finish its task he grabbed the wrists attached to those fingers and ripped them away from his head. Then he flung the owner of those wrists towards the nearest wall.
Said owner spent the entire ordeal laughing his head off.
"You haven't changed a BIT!" hooted someone Yami had been hoping never to see again, "Is that the thanks I get for fixing you up, after all your little mortal pals BEGGED me to do it? I ought to take your hearing away again…"
"I don't care what they asked you to do, Bakurah," Yami snarled back, "I told you never to touch me and that still stands, Grave-Digger!"
Bakurah, unfortunately none the worse for wear after his little trip into the wall, just got right up, walked back over, and waved his clawed hand perilously close to the spiked ends of Yami's hair.
"I'm not touching you," Bakurah sang mockingly.
"I'll touch you with a bolt of lightning in another second," Yami snapped, swatting Bakurah's hand away.
Bakurah merely snorted and sneered, flashing his fangs.
"At least I'm tall enough to ATTRACT lightning!"
Yami had his own claws and fangs fully bared, already moving to gut the insolent bastard in front of him, when someone blew a whistle. It wasn't that loud, but Yami and Bakurah both covered their ears as the sound amplified itself inside their heads to a painfully high-pitched shriek.
Even after the whistle was no longer being blown, their heads were still throbbing and their ears were still ringing. Or at least his were, as far as Yami knew, but judging from Bakurah's expression he was enjoying the same effects. The humans present, however, had experienced nothing but an ordinary whistle noise, including the whistle-blower, who was the pale-haired Bakurah-look-alike Yami had spotted going to Yugi's school.
Even now, he looked rather timid, but his eyes were set and his expression was completely serious.
"All right, Bakura, you go back into the kitchen and stay there."
"And what if I don't want to, whelp?" Bakurah challenged.
The human that was a nicer-looking version of Bakurah, proving that miracles were indeed possible (who knew?), brought the whistle in question back to his lips. Bakurah growled and stalked into another room.
"And don't touch anything!" the mortal yelled after him.