MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL FAITHFUL REVIEWERS AND READERS!! I've decided to trash the reviewer seven strike deal (pathetic when you come up with a name for it) So I am in a holly-jolly mood and had some spare time on my hands (not).
So here it is! The next chapter!
In the Company of Wealth
Chapter 7 --- Regain
Yugi opened the cabinet door searching for something to eat. His grandfather had gone out and his mother was at the store buying groceries. There was nothing in the kitchen. Nothing.
The youth moaned and hung on the cabinet door limply for a moment, "Food. Must have food." Slowly, he overdramatically closed the cabinet door and shuffled to the refrigerator to be greeted by an empty milk carton and nothing more. Not even a single crumb. How cruel. This time, he whimpered.
The Spirit hovered over him, an amused smirk on his face. Aibou, can't you wait for another hour until your Mother gets home?
Yugi whined, "But Yami, I haven't eaten all day!"
Yami just shook his head as a knock came from the door. Spinning around quickly, he watched his light spring off to the front door in hopes for a savior with food. (a.k.a. his mother.) There was a sudden shiver down the spirit's spine, an uncertain, foreboding feeling. Something didn't seem quite right. He shimmered away into nothingness within a moment.
Yugi answered the door with a grin and looked to his guest. His face fell juristically. A man around the age of thirty stood in the doorway with ear length brown hair and glasses. He fashioned casually a brown trench coat and a fedora.
The man tipped his hat with a grin, "Yugi Motou?"
Yugi nodded shyly. Y-Yami . . .
Right here Aibou. Yami replied, and melted into view beside his other, protective hands clasp around his partner's shoulders.
"Ah, Mr. Motou, it's a pleasure to meet you. I've heard much. May I come in dear lad?" He asked cheerfully as Yugi nodded and let the man in politely. "Wonderful place you have here --- your grandfather owns this game shop, right?"
"Yes sir."
"Gorgeous!" The man laughed and invited himself into the kitchen. Yugi followed in befuddlement. This man was making himself right at home --- and Yugi didn't even know him! After a moment of inspection, the man turned, "I have a proposition for you, Yugi." His voice crackled a little, an old reminder of someone the pair used to know.
"A proposition?" Yugi asked blankly.
"Yes, well you see . . ." He thought for a moment, "My son has gotten into a bit of a jam and I need your help to get him out --- him and another fine fellow."
"Excuse me please sir, but who may I ask?"
The man grinned again, rocking back and forth on his heels. He seemed like a very cheeky and cheery fellow. Not a phony by any means. "I am very proud of him I daresay. His name is Seto Kaiba ---" Yugi and Yami both almost keeled over "---and also a chap named Noah Kaiba. Wonderful fellows, don't you think?"
Yugi stood for a moment, the name had brought back unwanted memories --- and this guy had just said his name as if nothing had ever happened to the ill-fated CEO. The short teen jutted a finger to the door, tears wielding in his eyes. "Please sir, will you leave? I don't want to discuss that at the moment. You think it's funny to joke about the loss of a dear ---"
"Lost? My dear boy, he is not lost by any means! He is found." The tall, simple man patted his heart, "He has found more now than he ever had in his life. He has found his worth. Now tell me this is not something to celebrate!"
Yugi closed his eyes as tears fell down his cheeks. He began to retreat to his room laboriously, and tried to muster up the energy to stutter his request again. "O-Out please sir. D-Don't kid about ---"
"Please believe me Yugi," the man caught fast to the small youth's shoulders. The spirit watched cautiously, another move like that and he would take over the situation. Yugi's eyes widened as he stared into the warm ice blue eyes. They seemed so . . . familiar. "Believe me. Miracles can happen! They have before and they can now. My boy has found himself and I want to cry for joy, not sadness Yugi. Now he needs your help . . . for someone tries to take them both to hell. My boy and Noah both."
"Y-You're Seto's father?" Yugi's eyes widened in incredulity and terror, "I thought you were ---"
"I am, dear boy. I am!" He straightened himself and slid the trench coat from his shoulders. Pearly white wings hid underneath, feathers matted and muffled from the confinement, but glimmering in sheer beauty, speaking of miracles as the rays of light cast a familiar glow onto their warm, shining surfaces. "I am an Angel dear Yugi, do you now believe?"
Utter astonishment. " . . . Yes."
"Thank you," the man wiped the tears from the youth's eyes freely, "now can you please assist me?"
"With what Mr. ---"
"Shaun, my name is Shaun, and I need your help with saving my dear boys, and thus saving all the poor souls which would be destroyed in their wake." He glanced to the spirit behind and nodded to him. "Both of you."
The spirit blinked in surprise. The man could see him? "You can see me?"
"Yes, why shouldn't I? As you I am a spirit too, yet also solid. Remarkable, isn't it?" He winked. "But at the moment, a plan is in order. My wife is suppose to be getting the other two . . . she probably did the dramatics. She is always soft."
Darkness. The dreary darkness which surrounded the middle-aged woman was unbearable. They spoke to her, they hissed into her ear frightening things she never wanted to recall. And yet there was a startling, eerie silence which held itself firm within her apartment. A mute sound which lasted for all eternity. Where was the light? Where was the laughter? Where was that beautiful boy?
Mrs. Kaiba, a lonely widow living in a one-room apartment on the west side of Domino, knelt silently near her bed. Not a sound was made. A gleaming death-written knife clasped shakily in her pale hands.
A lonely picture stood secluded from the rest of her earthly possessions. It was one of the few things the woman enjoyed, one of the few items which could still tell her stories of times with laughter and beautiful faces. Where did it go? Where did her wonderful life go?
She didn't blame the drunk driver. She didn't blame the car's dull brakes. She didn't even blame her late husband for tampering with his mind, learning him not to laugh and smile. Somehow though, somehow that broken smile had always shone through, and this was one of the few times it was caught within a timeless, ageless picture.
Mrs. Kaiba blamed herself for not arriving on time to pick him up from school. Just five minutes, if she could have left five minutes earlier she could have picked him up and prevented that terrible accident. If only she could have realized her son had more importance than her job, more important than her own life. And now she couldn't even prove that.
The darkness's tendrils curled lovingly around the figure behind the woman, the man who stared down in contempt. He loathed her. He loathed her with a passion. She was the reason he was dead --- she was the reason everything had happened. She didn't see him, and this made her loneness all the more pleasant. The poor pitiful fool. It was all her fault. His hands reached out when suddenly they stopped as she spoke.
"P-Please forgive me Noah. I can't live for you anymore. I can't go on knowing that this is all my fault." The knife inched closer, "My fault." She was talking to the picture of her long forgotten wonderful son, not the vile monster behind her. "I-I want you to know, honey, that I love you and I want you to know that I'll do anything for you. Anything." Her sobs became pitiful cries as the hands fell from behind her and rested beside him. He listened. "Please Noah, please forgive me." The knife inched closer to her neck blissfully, to end the poor woman's suffering. "If I could change that, I would. But I can't and I've lived with your death long enough --- I --- I won't let you suffer alone anymore my wonderful, wonderful Angel." The knife sailed without second thought towards her throat as arms wrapped around her and pulled her from herself. The knife dropped like it was poison from the woman's grasp.
She fell back as the arms vanished and loneliness seeped into the room once more. A solitary feather drifted into her lap. Black, melded with the essence of a wonderful white.
Ryou breathed the cold, moist air raggedly. The temperature had suddenly dropped from cold to freezing, and his yami cursing in the back of his mind wasn't much help either. Wrapping his coat around him tighter, he watched his own breath freeze before him and waited for Yugi to drag himself and his yami from the warm insides of the game shop.
"Yugi!" Ryou pleaded impatiently, the wonderful woman beside him, "Hurry ---" the game shop door burst open as Yugi skidded out, the man behind pushing the whole way. Yugi slewed on the frozen concrete and slammed smack into the stop sign at the corner. Bakura fell over laughing. "---Up . . ." Ryou blinked.
Shaun stood Yugi on his feet and brushed him off, then apologized dearly. "Sorry about that Yugi ---" He suddenly stood straight. "Something just happened."
Ryou paled, "What?"
The woman, Celene, nodded, "Something happened to Seto."
"Something . . . happened?" Yugi also paled.
Shaun smiled again, "He and Mokuba are reunited."
(Kinda behind time, ain't it?)
"M-Master?" The demon asked, glancing back to the open apartment door.
"Leave me be," Noah growled, and made his way down the steps. That annoying demon followed him along until he turned, eyes narrow. "I said: Leave. Me. Be."
"Yes sir."
Noah turned again and disappeared down the spiraling stairs, the pitiful wails of his mother still ringing clearly in his ears. She still loved him . . . even after these years. She would still do anything for him, the woman would still sacrifice her life for him. Why? It had been close to ten years if not more. Why hadn't she moved on?
Why was he such a fool not to notice from the beginning? . . . Not to notice the longing in her eyes and the guilt every other time he had visited her after his death. Why hadn't he noticed? Why?!
Noah raced out of the complex and down the street until he reached the park she and he used to always come to and sat at the bench she had always sat on and smiled on. His initials were still carved upon the bench, he could feel the indention of them as his nimble fingers ran across the carved wood.
"Mother . . ."
He remembered what his mother had said that day. He remembered it very well. There was no power greater than God. God was love, and love was eternal. Nothing could sever the fetters of such a powerful bind. Not even hate.
At least, not in his beating heart.
"F-Forgive me," the man sobbed, "I never wanted to hurt you." He could remember her wonderful smile. Her happy, wonderfully warm touch. "It was my fault. I stepped before the car because I had dropped a penny on heads. It was good luck, or so you said." The grains beneath his fingers pricked and scraped them. "I wish that I could have given that luck to you with the best of desires in mind . . . I wish I could have been there for you. I wish you could have seen me grow up. Mom . . ." His throat grew tight. "Mother."
And the grief broke with the fetters of blackness. The demon's hold shattered.
Noah Kaiba had regained his soul.
Shall I, or shouldn't I continue?
Your choice.
FWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE!! (passes out from anticipation)