Blood Only Glows in the Dark Chapter 26: 26, 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!)

Thanks for the reviews. Will try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but with the strain and stress of doing absolutely nothing, who knows whether I'll be able to manage it...

Don't look at me like that, being lazy is hard work!

Disclaimer: I own what belongs to me, and that don't include Yugioh

Honda was quickly filled in on the situation - he even had the nerve to give Yami a sympathetic expression when he heard about the various states of injury the mage-demon had gotten to experience during his absence, something Yami countered with a fierce glare - and they decided to head out now while the nasty monsters were lying low.

Getting out past the barricades seemed harder than getting in, at least for the others - misguided humans trying to protect other humans.

Still, even during the daytime, there were ways to sneak in and out, and soon they were all several streets away and trying to determine which way they should go next.

Bakurah reappeared out of the blue, sneered how "Pathetic it was to waste time like this, because monsters don't kill themselves, you know…well, not that often anyway," and had a great time being introduced to Honda, especially since the brunette had been scared witless by the fiend's surprise arrival.

"While you and the humans were having your little love-fest," the necromancer-demon next said, this time talking to Yami, "I was able to trace the source of all these little difficulties. And they're all coming from this dinky little hovel on the other side of town -"

"- That's painted blue and has a slanted gray roof, two chimneys, wall-length windows on the east side, is directly across its street from a condemned parking garage, and that just so happens to reek of a negative demonic aura for exactly ten square feet on all sides, am I correct?" Yami interrupted.

Bakurah blinked at him, gaping like an idiot, for almost an entire minute, much to Yami's surprise and delight. This exquisitely rare expression was going to be carved into the depths of Yami's brain for permanent recollection.

"…How…" the fiend managed to force out next.

"It was nothing special - except that I traced that house several weeks ago," Yami smirked.

Even though this was the greatest moment of Yami's life - as far as he knew, anyway - the impeccably accurate description of the house in question had been recognized by some of the other people present.

"…Shit," Jou cursed, "Dat's Anzu's house."

'Double shit,' Yami mentally cursed, seeing how Yugi's face went as the boy also remembered that little tidbit of information.

An ominous air of quiet hung over the group for a bit, while this information was mulled over by its various members. Surprisingly, it was Bakurah who broke the silence, and not as viciously as he could have done so either.

"Whatever reason the damn hut was put there for," the white-haired one said gruffly, "That's where the stuff letting monsters in is. I figured you people MIGHT want to keep 'em from finishing off the rest of the defenseless humans in this city and all, but if you would rather not…"

"No argument there," Honda said, "First things first, we need to get rid of the monsters. I'm not gonna be some overgrown bat's chew-toy again."

"You said it," Jou agreed, although he was watching Yugi carefully as he spoke.

"Well then, if there's nothing else to talk about, then let's go," Yugi said, his face currently composed and decidedly neutral.

"…As a matter of fact, there IS one more thing that I ALMOST forgot to mention," Bakurah mentioned as the others started to walk past him and towards the street corner - that street being their planned route to the other side of town and Anzu's house.

"What now?" Jou groaned, continuing to walk to the corner.

"YYYYIIIII!" the blond squealed next, as he sprang backwards and out of the way of several small, sparking projectiles.

Those projectiles - like enormous needles the size of arrows - continued onwards to hit a car. Said car was soon sizzling, flashing white and blue with electricity as thousands of volts were pumped into it.

"Nothing much, just the small matter of the way ahead being a bit of a lethal gauntlet and all," Bakurah finished, grinning his head off at the sight, "But hey! Don't let me stop you going on with your merry little quest!"

"Shut up and get your ass over here," Yami snapped.

Walking close enough to casually drape his arm across the shoulder of a slightly confused Ryou, the necromancer-demon saucily replied, "And it is such a very NICE ass, isn't it Pharaoh?"

Ryou's face went a very dark shade of red, while the other mortals made startled choking sounds. Yami did his very best to block the words from his mind and counted to five as slowly as he could. If only they didn't need ALL the help they could get…

"Worship it some other time, Tomb Pillager," Yami finally retorted, "We're going to be a little busy over here."

Bakurah's frown did nothing to ease Yami's disgust with him. By the gods, he was vainer than a woman, that one!

The lightning-filled needle-arrows were the work of Crawkers. Crawkers were amusing to look at - like an oversized and overstuffed toy shaped like a purple monkey - but they had wicked tempers and sharp claws to go with the needle-arrows.

And they were fast little devils - not a second after sticking his head around the corner to see how many they'd be dealing with, Yami was yanking it back hard enough to give a human whiplash.

"Three in the road, two on the buildings on each side," Yami reported, rubbing his neck, "Any suggestions?"

"I'll take the high road, Pharaoh," Bakurah said, jerking his head towards the fire escape of the building they were standing next to, "You can go the front way and the mortals can stand right here in the back and scream for us to be careful."

Muffled sounds of annoyance came from Jou and Honda at Bakurah's sarcasm, but Yugi and Ryou looked honestly worried. They had a right to be, since Bakurah had basically just said that Yami was going to be bait and draw the Crawkers' attacks away from the others.

Sure enough, the second Yami showed himself around the corner, four needles-arrows were flung his way. Instead of ducking back to safety, Yami sprang in the opposite direction. The Crawkers took great offense to this and Yami was soon breathing hard and VERY glad he'd always been nimbly athletic enough to keep his hide intact.

Except that Crawkers were smart enough to work together. They fired needle-arrows from all sides, and with all avenues of escape temporarily blocked, Yami had to hastily raise a barrier to keep himself undamaged. The Crawkers hooted and lunged towards him the instant they saw his magic - Crawkers were by design to be ravenous magic-sucking leeches. A pack such as this could drain a wizard dry in minutes, and the flesh of the exhausted spell-caster would make for a fine dessert afterwards.

They scattered, though, when their pack of six became a pack of four. Old pieces of metal, if long and thin enough, made excellent throwing spears…and the fact that Bakurah enchanted all such weapons with his finest flesh-dissolving curses made them all the more deadly.

The Crawkers moved around as fast as they could to avoid being targeted, which was pretty fast. One was actually heading towards Bakurah, on top of a three-story building no less, no doubt attracted by the white-haired fiend's aura of powerful black magic.

The other three, though, used their evasive maneuvers as a distraction, until they had a clear shot at Yami. Then they stretched out their needle-adorned tails and fired! And Yami spotted the attack only in time to blindly duck under one, roll clumsily away from another, and nearly get skewered by the third. Not a hit but still too close, close enough to -

Yami bit his tongue and held back all but a single sharp cry of pain as electric agony raced through his body. Admirable enough in itself, since Yami had never actually been electrocuted before…and now he could quite clearly say he didn't like the experience one bit.

Already tasting their victory, the Crawkers wasted no time in springing for the downed mage-demon. So eager were they, they completely missed seeing how not only was Yami still conscious and aware, he was waiting for them to get into range.

A quartet of snakes ripped the trio of Crawkers into bloody pieces swiftly enough. The one that had tried to attack Bakurah directly squealed like a stuck pig as the fiend went about sticking it like a stuck pig.

"Well that was pleasant enough," Yami muttered to himself as he scrambled to his feet, a little stiff and sore but otherwise fine.

It took a little longer to reassure Yugi of that fact, though. The mortals looked relieved that it had gone off so easily, but Honda and Jou showed signs of frustration that they couldn't be more helpful.

"Face it, mortals," Bakurah snapped at them as they continued warily down the street, "You're too weak. Must I spell it out for you?"

"I'll spell a fist in yer face one'a these days," Jou muttered in response.

Before anything more could be said, an ominous hooting sound came from above them. The hoot of a Crawker, but how could that be if Yami had killed three and Bakurah had killed three - even as the fat purple creature sprang from hiding, lunging straight at Yugi and Ryou, Yami belatedly recalled counting seven.

Before Bakurah or Yami could do a thing, but also before any harm could come to the mortals, a low snarl came from a nearby alley mouth as a black thing appeared. It intercepted the Crawker in midair and easily shredded him.

It was a strange-looking thing, a sort of wolfish creature…all black vines and black thorns. And as soon as it killed the Crawker, it turned to face Yami and plopped itself down at his feet, as an obedient dog would treat its master.

"CRAP!" Jou screamed, "I know dat thing! It tried ta eat us at da Plant Shop!"

"Seems to like you, Pharaoh," Bakurah chuckled as the plant-beast sniffed around Yami's feet.

Warily, Yami placed a hand on the beast's head and examined its magical signature. Then - to everyone's surprise, including his own - Yami let loose a bark of laughter.

"I thought one of them looked different," Yami smirked, "This one was 'born' altered by my own magic."

"How cute, he has a pet plant," Bakurah sneered, turning so that it looked like he was talking to Ryou and Honda exclusively, "To go with his pet human and pet mutt."

Jou blinked and thought about this for a minute. Then he yelled "HEY! WHO YA CALLIN' A MUTT?" while everyone else sweat-dropped, except for Bakurah, who was laughing, and the black plant-monster, who was nosing Yami's and now also Yugi's feet.