BH:I know, it's short. Please don't kill me. The next chapter's gonna be super-long, then there's gonna be one or two chapters after that. I wanna get through this story and get to Bloodstained Messiah and the ones after. Well, you guys have waited long enough, so I won't keep you.
Disclaimer: You know the drill
Into The Night Chapter 3: Everything They Must Learn
Day 15
Suguroku Mutou stared warily up at the figure sitting in the open window above him. Even if she wasn't looking directly at him, her eyes seemed fixed somewhere far away, he knew she was watching him. She watched everything. Kuro, Yugi called her, black, like the skirt she wore, like the dark mist that had come out of her eyes the day she'd woken up, like her skin had been when she was in the shadows. Dark like the sky above them.
Suguroku stopped at this thought and looked up. Yes, the sky really was getting darker. Much darker. The sun itself seemed to be fading out of existence. "What on earth is happening?" He looked up at the window again. Kuro was staring down at him, eyes dark and, he allowed himself to think, even a little afraid. Inside, her eyes told him, Get inside. He did as he was told.
Day 30
"Move."
Jou cracked an eye open, taking a moment to take in the blurry shape leaning over him. Kuro was leaning over him, arms crossed, and tapping a long, deadly-looking hunting knife against her dark arm. "Whaa?"
She turned and pointed over the edge of the dingy roof they were currently camped out on, "Move."
Jou grumbled something inaudible and crawled across the room to peer down at the ground below. A large pack of silver-grey wolves were stalking around the building, looking for a well-hidden entrance. Jou looked back at Kuro and found her quickly shoving their little remaining supplies into a worn out bag. With a sigh he got up, dusted himself off, and walked to the opposite edge of the roof to see if they could jump to the next one. He felt Kuro join him, amazed at how quietly she moved. "Think we can make it?"
Without answering, not that he expected her to, she knelt on the roof's edge and leapt across the gap. She knelt on the next roof and picked up a long pole, tossing it at Jou without looking at him. Studying the long pole, Jou gave a long-suffering sigh and vaulted across to the next roof. Kuro was already two roofs away.
It was how they had existed for the last two weeks, since Yugi had disappeared and the sun had vanished. With a shudder, Jou remembered seeing the Sennen Puzzle shatter and Yugi dissolve into a shadow that eventually spread as far as he could see. By the time he had made it back to the Game Shop, monsters had begun appearing and he found Kuro in front of the shop, knives in hand, with a pile of dead monsters around her. Suguroku was nowhere to be found. They had fled not long after, and had remained on the run since.
Kuro had managed to learn a few, broken words since then, and had used them to lead Jou from shelter to shelter, just a few steps ahead of the monsters. It was just enough for Jou to understand they were searching for something, maybe someone. He was still wondering why he trusted the crazy girl who had tried to kill him. Maybe because she seemed to be the only other human left alive.
"Kuro?" Jou asked uncertainly. She had suddenly stopped, crouched at the edge of a roof overlooking a burned out building. It took a moment to realize that it was the Kame Game Shop. Jou made a small, strangled noise.
A hand touched his arm, "Go-go...men."
Jou looked down at the small, black hand rested in his arm and sighed, "I really liked him, you know." He tapped the white go stone she had tied around her wrist, his way of telling her he was talking about Yugi.
"Liked him," Kuro repeated, making a face that said 'I think I get it', the slowly said, "Kalil, your Kalil."
"Ka...lil?" Jou repeated uncertainly.
Kuro nodded, "Kalil..." she tapped the black go stone on her wrist, only a little darker than her skin, which meant she was talking about herself, "Liked your Kalil. Your Kalil," she tapped the stone again, "Nadidah." My Nadidah.
"Nadidah?" She made another face, a thinking face, then held up her wrist with the two go stones on it and pointed to both of them, then to the knife attached to her ankle. The knife meant fight, the stones represented Yugi and Kuro, Enemy? but she had a slight smile, not the serious face she usually wore. "Rival? He's your rival?"
"Rival," Kuro echoed, "rival."
It was just another one of their makeshift, along-the-way-to-where-ever-it-is-we're-going Japanese/whatever language Kuro spoke lessons. They traveled for another two hours, eventually taking to the ground before Kuro lead him into a bank, picked the lock on a vault, and quite plainly announced, by way of beginning to unpack, that they would be staying here for the day. Since the sun had disappeared, day was darker than night, and Kuro refused to travel outside during the day. Jou had questioned this, and her only reply had been to show him what appeared to be claw marks from something grabbing her shoulder.
Kuro was sitting cross-legged on the floor, sharpening her knives (she had seven, hidden in various places, that Jou had seen) when Jou laid down on the floor next to her and began, not for the first time, to study the ebony-skinned girl. No one he knew had skin that dark, and it only seemed darker in the shadows of the vault. Even though she was bent over here knives, Jou knew she was watching him, too. Her dark eyes studied him curiously. Finally, she set down the knife and turned to him, one eyebrow arched. 'What?'
"What's your name?" Jou asked suddenly. He didn't know why he asked, but he did. She gave him a confused look. Jou pointed to his chest, "Jou. My name's Jou," then tapped her white go stone, "His name's Yugi." He pointed to her and gave her a question look.
Kuro shook her head and went back to her knives, "Sleep."
"Your name's... Oh!" he sighed and shook his head, "Fine, don't tell me."
"Sleep," she repeated, "Jou."
Jou stared for just a moment before shaking his head again and pulling off his jacket to use it as a pillow, "'Night."
Kuro ignored him, but a small, tight smile tugged at her lips when he began to snore. Before it got farther she shook her head and muttered to herself.
Day 31
Jou was brought out of sleep by something cold and wet pressed to his face. 'I got into another fight,' he thought blearily, 'and that's Yugi cleaning up my cuts again.' Then, something licked him. He sat up with a yell and crab-walked backwards as fast as he could until he hit a wall. Trying to calm his racing heart, he found himself staring at a large, black werewolf. It was crouched down on all fours, but it's head still brushed the ceiling, and it was staring at Jou with... was that a hurt look?
"Bastet."
Jou leapt several feet in the air as Kuro walked out of the shadow next to him. "What?"
Kuro calmed walked up to the monster, who obligingly lowered its head and nuzzled it against hers. Jou was amazed to realize that she was smiling. He slowly got up and, carefully, carefully, approached them. "Bastet," she repeated, touching the side of the monster's long snout, then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a Duel Monsters card, holding it up for Jou to see. She had, apparently, stolen more than just a go board from Suguroku.
"Silver Fang?" Silver Fangs were the monsters that had been chasing them. Jou looked up at the werewolf again.
Kuro smiled up at her monsters, "Sil...ver... Fang... Bastet, Silver Fang."
And it finally clicked. Jou took a step back, "Whoa... you're tellin' me this guy's some kinda powered up Silver Fang?" Kuro gave him a blatant 'I can't understand you, dummy.' Look. "Never mind. Are you sure he's safe?"
"Safe," Kuro repeated, "Bastet safe." She reached for Jou's hand. He took another step back, and she followed. Finally, she caught his wrist and led him to stand in front of Bastet, "Bastet safe."
Slowly, he placed his hand on the wolf's huge muzzle. Immediately, Bastet began to nuzzle Jou the same way he had Kuro and soon he found himself laughing. Kuro stood back and watched, arms crossed with her head tilted just slightly to the side. Finally she sat down on Bastet's huge hand and said, "Bastet likes Jou," making Jou freeze on the spot. There was a steady, trusting smile on her face, "Safe."
They ate the best breakfast they'd had since this whole ordeal had begun, thanks to two slabs of steak and what looked like a horse carcass Bastet had brought them. Kuro cooked the steaks over a fire she built in the middle of the vault with spell while Bastet munched contentedly on his kill, leaving Jou to contemplate exactly how weird their situation was.
Finally, it was time to move again. Kuro lead the way, without hesitation, out of the bank and right into a waiting back of monsters. "Bastet," she called, and the huge werewolf reared up to its full height, almost as tall as a three story building. She said something in another language, and Bastet charged. He began tearing through the monsters, ripping them open with a single, deft movement of his hand and biting them in half. Blood sprayed in all directions, raining down on them in a storm of flashing claws and pained howls. Mercifully, Kuro muttered something and a translucent white barrier appear around them, deflecting the downpour.
'Man, I'm glad that thing's on my side,' Jou thought, watching Bastet take down a large dragon, something that he had never seen o a card. When the last monster was destroyed, Bastet loped back over to Kuro to be scratched behind the ears. 'From fluffy pet to killing machine and back again in zero point two.'
Kuro pulled Yugi's dueling deck out of her pocket and held it up to Bastet, giving him another one word order. Bastet leaned down and sniffed a few times, eyes steadily glowing bright gold. Kuro said something and Bastet turned his nose to the sky, sniffing the air.
"Um," Jou muttered intelligently.
Suddenly, Bastet went rigid. Kuro gave another smile and, without so much as a warning, Bastet picked Jou up around the middle and deposited him on one hairy shoulder, then placed Kuro on the other. Jou immediately grabbed a fistful of fur in each hand and held on tight. Bastet took off running on all fours down the deserted street.
Cold. Dark. So cold.
'Wake up, Yugi,'
Cold.
Gold eyes. Gold eyes and brown hair, a concerned look.
Dark again.
'You have to wake up, Yugi.'
Too cold.
'They need you, Yugi.'
Blue eyes, white hair. An angel wing tattooed under one eye.
'Help them find you.'
'Too cold.'
'Try, Yugi, please try.'
'I... I can't...'
'You're his light side, aren't you? You've got his power.'
Cold.
'The Puzzle's broken...'
So Cold.
Day 32
"Well..." Jou looked over at Kuro when she spoke, then back at the ocean in front of them, then back at Kuro when she said, "shit." Jou would have laughed.
They both slid down Bastet's arms and looked tiredly at the ocean spread out before them. Kuro stepped up the cliff's edge and stared down at the water, giving a long-suffering sigh. Finally, she sat down on the ground and began to unpack. They would be staying here for the night.
While Jou and Bastet feasted on yet another dead monster, Kuro once again walked to the cliff's edge, then vanished. Jou gave a small shuddered when he saw this. He would never be used to her doing that, and who knew how long she'd be gone this time. As he was curling up against Bastet's side to sleep (that wolf made a GREAT pillow) he heard a voice muttering something from the direction Kuro had vanished. He couldn't make out the words, but a few minutes later the muttering became singing and Jou soon found himself lulled to sleep.
He dreamed about a girl with white hair. She was sitting on the ground, knees pulled up to her chest and crying. He reached out to touch her, and found a sword in his hand instead, flying down to cut her.
A crash of metal, and startled yell, and a furious snarl. A small girl with wild black hair was in his way, a gold dagger in each hand, blocking his sword. A black-furred Silver Fang was standing next to her. Nearby he could see another girl with glowing gold eyes holding a dog-sized white dragon and wearing a panicked expression.
When he awoke flying over the ocean on the back of a large bird, the dream vanished from his mind entirely.
Day 65
"Kureiza,"
"Night," Kuro repeated, "Kureiza, Night, bad."
"No kiddin'," Jou muttered. They were somewhere near Africa, he thought, it was hot enough. They were sitting in a makeshift tent around another of Kuro's magical fires, guarded by Bastet. Little by little, he and Kuro were learning to understand each other.
Kuro held her hand out over the fire before it went out again and muttered an incantation. It was obvious she was tired. There was a gash on her arm from a monster attack that looked infected. On impulse, Jou put his hand on top of hers. When she looked up he asked, quietly, "Can you teach me?"
"Teach?" she repeated.
He pointed to the fire, then to the knife at her side, "Teach."
She nodded in comprehension. She took Jou's hand and positioned it over the fire as hers had been, "Terra indulgeo,"
"Terra indulgeo,"
"Unda tutela,"
"Unda tu...tutela,"
"Ego excito incendia,"
"Ego excito incendia,"
"Superum ut expello,"
"Superum ut expello,"
"Nox Kureiza,"
"Nox Kureiza,"
The fire suddenly exploded to life and turned deep blue, knocking Kuro and Jou backwards. When it finally died down, Jou found Kuro staring at him with wide, stunned eyes. It was then that Jou realized two things: one, Kuro had one eye that was red and green, the other dark purple, and two, she was afraid of fire.
Day 66
They were in Egypt. Cairo, according the postcards Jou had found in the museum. As he watched, Kuro stopped in front of a glass case full of Egyptian swords and knives. She punched through the glass with her bare fist, setting off alarms everywhere. Completely ignoring them, she reached into the case and first pulled out several deadly-looking curved knives, removing each of her original ones from its hiding spot and replacing it. Then, she withdrew two, equally evil looking swords and handed out to Jou.
She grinned," Teach," and led the way outside for his first fighting lesson.
The black haired girl was older this time, and her hair was tied up in a spiky ponytail. She was sitting at the foot of a large throne with the two girls Jou had seen before. The white haired girl was using the black Silver Fang as a pillow, fast asleep. The other two were whispering to each other, hunched over a large scroll.
Jou looked down and found a throwing knife in his hand. With a smirk he pulled back and threw, aiming for his black-haired enemy. He heard her scream with a satisfied smirk, but when he looked back, his blood ran cold.
His knife was protruding not from her chest as he expected, but from the back of her companion. Then, all hell broke loose.
Day 75
Rule number one when fighting monsters: let your body fight for you. Jou had learned this very quickly the first time he and Kuro had been cornered by monsters waiting from Bastet to return with dinner. By now, he barely had to think about what he was doing. Seven times out of ten, Kuro ended up saving his sorry butt anyway, but he was still good, if he did say so himself. Kuro, who muttered what were probably her language's version obscenities every time she had to save him, probably disagreed.
Currently, she was trying, and failing, to teach him a barrier spell in hopes of not having to save him so much. Apparently, barriers didn't come as easily to him as elemental spells. (He had managed to summon a thunder storm when he accidentally mixed up two words in his campfire spell.) Kuro nearly died laughing.
Jou's barrier's kept vanishing before they became solid and Kuro was muttering a steadily louder and more dangerously-sounding string of obscenities in several languages. Bastet was sprawled across a sand dune, making noises that sounded oddly like snickering.
"This is so not fair," Jou grumbled, trying to hold up his most recent barrier attempt without success. Kuro glared and, without even the slightest hint of shame, kicked him in the shin and stalked off, leaving Jou hopping up and down on one leg and howling in pain.
Rule number two when fighting monsters: do not hop up and down on one foot, for any reason, howling in pain. It attracts them.
Day 80
Rule number three: Don't piss off your teacher. Especially when said teacher is already moody.
"C'mon!" Jou whined, "I killed it!" He waved around his bloodstained sword as proof. Kuro glared. Jou hid behind Bastet. "How much longer is she gonna be like this?"
Bastet gave a helpless werewolf shrug.
Day 83
Rule number four: Swords do not work for shish kabobs.
Jou stared despairingly at his ruined meal. Kuro and Bastet shook their heads sadly.
Day 96
Rule number five: If Kuro says move, you jump. If she says rest, then sleep until she wakes up you. Kuro's word is law, and she's usually right.
"Why am I standing guard up here again?" Jou grumbled, sitting down on the sand outside the temple. Bastet shrugged and continued to chew on a dragon bone. "I mean, what could be so bad down there?" At that moment a horrible, ear-splitting shriek and the sound of metal tearing erupted from the temple.
Bastet set his head on the sand and covered his ears. He gave Jou a look that plainly said 'You SURE you wanna go with her?'
Another shriek. Jou eeped and hid under Bastet's arm, "Kuro's a big girl, she can take care of herself."
Down in the temple, Kuro sneezed.
Day 100
Four days. Kuro had been down in that temple for four days. Jou was on the verge of panic.
Four days. Kuro had been fighting her way through this godforsaken tunnel for four days. She was starting to get mad.
The brunette had survived getting knifed in the back! That was impossible! But there they were, all three of them. She even had priestess robes now! And that dumb prince and the white-haired brat, they were both soldiers!
She had to die.
Day 101
Jou was jarred out of his dream by the ground shaking. He scrambled to his feet and looked around wildly. Bastet was nowhere to be found and Kuro was still down in the temple. Black lightning struck the ground near him and he toppled backwards.
Warm. Warm arms, warm touch.
Purple eyes, like mine. No dark eyes, not like mine. Dangerous.
No, not warm. Cold, so cold.
No.
Don't touch me.
Get away.
Don't touch me.
Kuro gave a relieved sigh and placed her hand on the gold door in front of her. The lock dissolved into dust and the door swung open. Something slammed into her stomach with enough force to knock her to the ground and began tearing at her stomach, but not before she spotted the boy lying on the temple floor, a gold dagger held tightly in one fist.
She wrestled with the white beast for a moment, trying to avoid sharp claws and teeth and shut out the grating sound of its angry shrieks. She cursed in her language and the languages she'd learned as a child, even the curses she had picked up from her companion. She had not expected this.
Cold.
The thought struck her with enough force to freeze her on the spot. Three sharp claws raked across her cheek.
So cold.
"Yugi?" she breathed, ignoring the pain.
Cold.
Help me.
Kuro roared and threw her attacker off. It gave a pained shriek and fell limp when it hit the wall. On hands and knees, she approached the small form hunched against the wall. With gentle hands, she tilted Yugi's face up to hers. His skin was freezing and his eyes were completely empty, lost within their own amethyst depths.
"Yugi," she whispered. He shrank away from her voice, from her touch. "Yugi," she called again. She'd seen this before. Gently, she wrapped her arms around Yugi's body, resting her chin on his head. He needed warmth. He had to wake up.