Disclaimer: Okay, everyone here class? Yes? Good. Now let us proceed. I will now write down some notes on the board. - scribble, scribble- and you, random person in the first row, read them out loud to me. RPITFR: "Remo Con is completely broke and living no where near Japan. She owns more books then necessary, but nothing pertaining to Yu-Gi-Oh. She merely borrows them to toy with them and cause them all misery." -glare- "I mean, make them all completely happy." Better.
CHAPTER 8: Finalize Title
"All right," Seto said as soon as they reached his car. He pulled out his keys and the car responded with the traditional beep as he pressed the open button. "Whose house is closer?"
"Ryou's, I'm pretty sure," Joey said, thinking back. "He lives on Marnac St. But I dunno which house is his."
"Don't worry," Seto said, getting in the car. Joey stood there for a moment, until Seto beeped the horn twice. Joey jumped. Ah. Right. Get in. "I do."
"What? How?" Joey asked, startled. This was new information to him. He hadn't thought that Seto was close enough to any of the gang to know where they lived- not that he hadn't tried to get them to like each other but certain people were stubborn asses who couldn't let old grudges go
"Last year Bakura was flunking, well, almost all his subjects," Seto admitted, stepping down hard on the gas. The car sped out of the parking lot. Fearing for his life, Joey gripped his seat tightly and briefly considered shutting his eyes. Then he wouldn't have to see what was going to kill him. "He was going to be held back unless he had a major improvement in a really short amount of time, so Ryou asked me to tutor him. Being the kind hearted person I am, I agreed. I even did it for free. Well- I didn't take any money at any rate." Joey's lips twitched. Kind hearted person? No money?
"What did ya take?"
"What? You don't think I did it for free?" Joey snorted. "Fine. I might have -borrowed- a few books from Ryou. And maybe I took a couple duel monster cards from Bakura- but only a couple so don't look at me like that!" Some people never really changed. Seto Kaiba was definitely one of those people.
"Anyway, that's why I know where he lives."
"I can't believe ya managed t' hide dis," Joey said, slightly impressed. "I never knew dat ya were doin' it."
"Well Bakura wasn't going to be telling anybody, and of course, he asked Ryou not to, and I certainly wouldn't admit to being even a little helpful. It was a very well guarded little secret."
Joey laughed a little. It was an amusing picture in his head. The three of them wearing long black cloaks and skulking around like spies, only in place of guns they all carried text books, notebooks, pens and pencils.
While Joey laughed Seto continued to drive, glad that Joey wasn't worried about his friends for a few minutes at least. Seto wasn't sure what they would find. Maybe they were simply having a day off, the rule "bending" yamis finally getting to their hikaris. Or maybe they would walk into the house and find body parts scattered- no. He simply couldn't think like that. Even if they did annoy the hell out of them, he didn't want them dead. Especially for Joey's sake. He knew there was no way his artist could handle losing his friends, and he didn't think he could bear it if he lost Joey. And if his friends all disappeared for goodor diedhe would indeed lose Joey. Please let everything be okay, he prayed fervently.
Beside him Joey stopped laughing. His tight grip on the seat lessened and Seto could tell his was sinking back into his panicking state of mind.
"Hey," Seto said softly, gently rubbing his hand on Joey's shoulder. "I'm sure they're fine."
"Both hands on da wheel!" Joey said firmly. "Because I would like t' be fine too!"
"You think I'm a bad driver?" Seto said, doing his best to sound hurt.
"Right now? Yes!" Joey exclaimed as they turned a particularly nasty corner. Seto chuckled.
"I'm not going to crash."
"I'll believe dat when we're parked," Joey muttered. Almost as if some lovely deity had heard him, Seto slammed on the brakes and the skid to a halt in front of what Joey could vaguely remember as Ryou's house now that he was seeing it again.
"And here we is where we enter hell," Seto said to himself as they got out of the car.
LETSCALLTHISTHEPRETTYLINETOSEPERATESCENES
"Excuse me!" she called out. "Excuse me! Hey! Could ya please stop!" There she was, back in the heart of Domino city, dashing through crowds, yelling out to a boy she didn't know- and yet, no one was looking at her. For once in her life, she wasn't being stared out, nobody was screaming in terror. It was really amazing, she thought, what a pair of colored contacts did, and it was amazing how much more freedom you had when you walked around not with red eyes but with brown.
The boy stopped and stared at her, obviously confused. He was an interesting sort of guy- tall, slim, with long black hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. He wore a plain black t-shirt and baggy black pants. Around his neck was a black dog collar.
"Hey!" she called again. "Excuse me!"
"Do I know you?" he asked as she jogged up to him.
"Ah, no, but I was wondering if you could give me directions."
"To where exactly?" he smiled at her now that he knew she wasn't some odd sort of stalker. He had a nice smileno, stop it, she scolded herself. There is only Seto. No one else- remember?
"Ah, Domino High," she smiled back at him. She hadn't really smiled in a long time. It feltnice. Ugh, she groaned inwardly, she was using that word a lot all of a sudden.
"You seriously don't know where that is?" he smiled even harder. But somehow, she didn't feel insulted in the least.
"I'm really, really new in town," she admitted. "I just, ah, moved here."
"Oh, well it's not too far and I don't have anything to do today so I'd be happy to escort you if you'd prefer."
"Really? You don't have school or anything?"
"Nah. I go to another school in Tokyo. Don't start 'til tomorrow."
"Well then, I'd really appreciate the help."
"Glad too. 'Sides, I'm horribly bored," he laughed a little. "I need the excitement." She laughed with him, really enjoying their little encounter so far.
"What's your name, anyway? If I'm going to be walking with a beautiful girl I need to know her name." She found herself blushing. She hadn't blushed in so long her hands flew up to her face to make sure it wasn't on fire.
"Oh, um, my name's Kira. What's yours?"
"The name's Myishi. Pleasure," he held out his hand and she accepted. They shook, still smiling at each other.
"So I guess you can lead the way," she said when they dropped hands.
"Follow me madam, and you shall not go astray," he said gallantly. Her gut wrenched. Far, far too late
LETSCALLTHISTHEPRETTYLINETOSEPERATESCENES
The doorbell rang loudly. Joey felt unwelcome shivers travel down his spine. The tone was a little too haunted house like for his taste. After all, nothing good ever came out of going into a haunted house. In fact, a lot of times people didn't come out alive.
Brilliant, he thought sarcastically to himself, now you're gonna t' die to. Stop thinkin'.
Seto impatiently rang the doorbell again. He did not like having to wait. He didn't care if they were holding a wake inside, common courtesy should make them at least come to the door and tell him to leave. He pressed the doorbell a third time.
"Maybe they're not here," Joey said, looking crestfallen.
"It's possible," Seto agreed, ringing it a fourth time.
"Ryou woulda answered by now."
"Perhaps," a fifth ring sounded.
"Could ya stop ringin' the bell! It's creepin' me out."
"Fine," Seto said, rolling his eyes. "I suppose no one's home. Let's go check the game shop."
"K," Joey said softly.
"They're fine, Joe," Seto said as he caught Joey's look. "I promise you."
LETSCALLTHISTHEPRETTYLINETOSEPERATESCENES
Inside the house, Ryou and Yugi sat like statues in his bedroom, hardly daring to breathe lest whoever was outside hear them and come barging in. They didn't care who it was. They didn't want to talk to them.
After a few minutes they heard a car drive away. Ryou released a sigh of relief.
"Let's call Malik now," Yugi said, abruptly standing up.
"Right, the phone's over there," he said, pointing.
"I see it. What's his number?"
"I don't remember it off the top of my head," Ryou snapped. "It's in the address book on the desk." Yugi glared at him and yanked the book of the desk, flipping it open. The pressed down the correct series of numbers. The phone began to ring. And ring. And ring. Then someone picked up.
"Marik? Marik is this you?" came Malik's frantic voice.
"I think we have our answer," Ryou said quietly.
Next Chapter:
The school wasn't as big as she had expected. After all, this was the legendary Domino High, lucky enough to have students like Joey Wheeler, Yugi and Yami Motou, and of course, Seto Kaiba. She had been expecting more. But still, it was a school, and in the end she supposed it did what it was supposed to do. Which, if she remember correctly, was to suck the individuality and confidence out of a person. Since she didn't have any left, however, she supposed she would fit right in.
"Kind of wish I went here," Myishi said, a somewhat wistful quality to his voice.
"Why don't you?" she inquired.
All right, first of all I want to again, thank all of my reviewers. Thank you so much for taking the time to care. I could thank everyone who simply clicked on it and left a pretty little number on the hit counter, but I'm trying not to get too desperate here. I simply hope you all enjoyed reading my little story. But again, THANK YOU TO THE REVIEWERS! And I'm also going to stop saying sorry for not updating every day or every week or even every two weeks. I'm just happy that I ever finished a chapter. And while the chapter isn't as long as I wanted it to be, I'm happy that I brought back Myishi, of whom I was very fond in AW. I don't know if anyone else liked him, but I really wanted to see how he was doing after two years. Anyway, now to answer to the reviews:
GoddessoftheWaters: I never did read your new chapter did I? Oh well...
mandapandabug: -blinks a couple times wondering exactly where she should start to reply to the biggest and best reviews she's ever gotten- Ah, how 'bout you tell me what your song means? I'd like that (mutters to self about learning Spanish) I loved the episode. Kaiba was so cute when he was all desperate to save Mokuba and then Yugi had a little breakdown, OMG best episode in that season (well, one of the best). And wouldn't you like to know what she's up to...and I can't tell you whose yami won't come back. That would be plain unfun, you have to keep reading and reviewing to find out...
Time-Again: Ah, but see if I doubt that I have talent then you have to reassure me that I do, which I like. And I like your positive attitude about updates, so long as they're coming its all good...right? (coughs nervously)
Kikari-Aoi: Ah, here's the next chapter only...a little over a month since you reviews -sweat drops- -coughs- anyway...hope you thought this chapter was worth the wait...
All right. I'm about to sound even more whiny than normal. Yes, I know you've all gone into comatose shock, how on earth is that possible, right? Well, here it is: I would really, really like to have 80 reviews before I update next time. I realize that is fifteen reviews, but while normally I wouldn't ask, my sister's story is kicking ass and I would like it to look like I'm getting about ten reviews per chapter, ya know, just to have a little candle to hold up to her blazing torch of about twenty reviews per chapter. God dammit and she's my little sister too! The world sucks sometimes, ya know? But anyway, PLEASE REVIEW I really really want at least 80 reviews before I update next. Thanks Remo