Shadows That Bleed

by YamiYugiPuzzleshipper

Pure-Bloods are said to be myths, not even well-known within stories. "A specialized genetic coding of the moon and the dire," their spoken lore proclaims. They are creatures beyond the power of mortality, gifted by the gods themselves. Known as the Eternal Ones, their existence once extinguished, resurrection foretells a powerful omen.

24. ATEM

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Update schedule: Every other day (no update on June 2nd)

Chapter Warnings: Mentions of Kidnapping, Mentions of Torture, Mentions of Experiments, COPIOUS Amounts of Blood, Character Death, Description of Wound Cleaning

Okay, guys, so the death in this chapter is really kind of brutal. I apologize, but it was necessary. It comes up several more times throughout the story, because it's actually got a rather large impact later.

Also, one of the experiments mentioned is that they have been attempting to see if male wolves could support an implanted uterus in an attempt to see if the body could possibly somehow allow the pups to be born. The shortest answer is this: NOPE. The lycanthropy attacks the foreign presence as it would a virus of some kind, and viciously destroys it.

As for the females who are pregnant and malnourished, the lycanthropy will fully support the health of the pups over the mother's in an effort to ensure they have a chance of survival. It can very often destroy the mother upon birth due to stress. When the mom is completely healthy, however, the entire event would go almost painlessly.

One thing I will admit to? I could not find anything in my research (which I admit could be because I didn't use the right phrases) to say that there would be another classification beneath subspecies. So that's why Yugi calls the bloodlines (Pure-Blood, Full-Blood, Half-Blood, Quarter-Blood) another set of subspecies beneath the lycanthropes. And you will find out later what the hellhounds' lower subspecies are.

Chapter XXIV: A.T.E.M.

Work Log Entry XXIV: May, 1998

May 1

PB-A 26's body has given no signs of changing into his wolf form again. None of his internal systems have changed and there are no symptoms that it will come about any time soon.

The boss wants him to be tested constantly for the next two months.

But that is only if he can remain stable for that period of time.

Anzu had dance practice and Honda had gotten detention for falling asleep in class. Between their absence and Jonouchi's unusual behavior, Yugi could find no reason to not follow him. He was, for the most part, lazy about the action. He came upon the decision at the last moment as the blond began to leave, then chose to remain several steps behind him. He kept him more in his peripheral than he did straight ahead of him. His eyes were not glued to his form. He felt like Jonouchi would most definitely notice if he had chosen to do such a thing. And for him to catch him doing that, following and staring blatantly, Yugi was not sure he would ever be able to mend their friendship.

He didn't suppose following him now as he was would help any either, but it seemed preferable for some reason. He kept his head down for fear of reprimand, his stomach churning as he continued to shadow him. It seemed stupid of him to do as he was now. Something was incredibly wrong about the act of following a friend as if he was a stranger.

Yugi shivered as the thought continued in his head. His stomach jerked and twitched. His fingers clenched within his pockets as he bunched the material in his palms. The warmth it offered him was slightly comforting, but he did not fully understand it for the smallest of moments. He shivered again, pulling his shoulders up to shield his neck somewhat as they continued down the street.

There seemed to be a clear line between the sections of the city, as if the buildings themselves were painted and equally left forsaken of repairs in order to pronounce the difference. It was definitive, one house clearly well taken care of and the one right beside it almost appearing abandoned with the destruction of paint and the weathered expressions they all wore. He looked at them with a small frown, but they had been standing there for longer than he had ever been alive so his own impression was the mimicry of a thousand others. And no one paid them any attention, as they would fail to do so in their place.

He supposed in all reality that it did not matter. It was simply that the difference was rather scathing. He shrugged it off, however, stepping forward again and nearly missing the alarm that went off in his head. His eyes snapped forward, his arm rising to block what he knew to be a punch coming for his temple.

It was pure reflex.

Yugi's forearm blocked the blow away. Then his other flexed. In an instant his fist snapped against flesh. The sound made his ears ring. He backed up a step. His breath came out in confused pants. His eyes were wide, dilated. He blinked stupidly, then panted harder.

It took him several moments for the puzzlement to wash away.

His mind struggled to comprehend.

He'd never truly been one for violence and his small stature made the mode of flight much easier. He was used to ducking, cowering, and fleeing the moment he found the opening. And the moment he found it, he was gone before his bullies could truly blink. To lash out with a counter strike had seemed meaningless each time he'd been picked on.

Yet, this time, somehow, a new instinct had overridden his former impulses. Somehow he had wound up lashing out. He'd landed the blow. And they were still recovering from it.

He could have laughed out loud with excitement. He hadn't even considered fighting back and yet his body had.

If his lycanthropy bestowed him this new ability of swift and powerful retaliation then he was thankful. The thought of self-defense was a riveting one.

The only issue staring him in the face now was just who he had clocked in the nose.

He cringed. "Shit, Jonouchi!"

He was sniffling behind his cupped hands, at first absorbed in the bloody mess he'd made of his face. Then he reacted to his name, blinking in confusion and then practically gaping at him with his widened eyes.

"Yug?" he sputtered.

Yugi scratched the back of his head. "Uh, yeah…" He let out a small, sheepish laugh and offered a schoolboy grin that he hoped would alleviate some of the tension he knew was to blossom. "You okay? I didn't mean to actually hurt you…"

He hadn't meant to hit him at all.

Yet he had.

It was exhilarating.

A curse of such terrible magnitude had brought him a clear and precise power to defend and attack as he might need. He felt that small bubble of laughter in his lungs again, a cushion of joy that he felt slightly guilty for experiencing.

"Holy shit, when did you learn to do that?" Jonouchi demanded, all frustration wiped from his tone but his eyes shining with it and a similar sense of excitement. "Did Honda teach you that or something? Cause I've never seen anyone react that fast before!"

Yugi felt his cheeks flush, but it was not the compliment. It was the startling realization, instead, that while his body had reacted so swiftly, it had probably seemed far from human capability in all respect.

Jonouchi threw punches too fast to block. It was one of the reasons he had made it for so long on the streets as it was. He'd been okay to kick butt and take names and never truly be concerned with it all. He opened and closed his mouth, then pursed his lips. What was there to say?

He truly had no means to explain it away. He sighed quietly.

"I guess my reflexes just got better," he said in a tone that sounded greatly pathetic to both of them. Jonouchi studied him for a moment, with such excruciatingly blatant disbelief that it made his stomach twist even harder. Yugi flattened his tongue against the roof of his mouth for a moment, then wondered at what more words he could put in the air between them. And then, how much damage would they reap? "I honestly don't know. I just reacted."

The blond studied him a minute longer. A while back Jonouchi had assumed he was seeing things. He had thought himself to be naming emotions in his eyes that were just there by the trick of his own mind. But there was something there.

It held the smaller boy's entire frame with a new and more noticeable strength. It was not the mere straightening of his back and shoulders which caused this manifestation of power. But even that could not explain the shadows which made his eyes appear darker or the keenness which existed there as well, with great strokes of unimaginable intelligence. The very way his head was tilted to the side as he asked if he was okay was not natural for the smaller boy.

Jonouchi would not push, however. Instead, he muttered, "Yeah, I'm fine. The bleeding will stop in a minute. So, what exactly are you doing following me anyways, Yugi?"

He had cut the chitchat in half. Yugi could talk him in circles that way. The smaller teen realized it as well, because his eyes grew slightly troubled and the curl of a moue appeared on his cherubic features.

For a moment Yugi didn't speak. The taller boy watched the gears churning behind his eyes. The small teen would rather lie than admit he'd been too nosy to think better of the action. Jonouchi didn't blame him, in all honesty, because he would be doing the same in his place, but it still made him want to roll his eyes and call him out on it.

But, again, he bit his tongue. It wouldn't do any good. And he would possibly risk alienating Yugi because of it.

Yugi scratched the back of his head, that pouting grimace still firmly in place, and then sighed loudly. "I was worried about you. You've been acting weird the last few days and I thought this time, since Honda and Anzu aren't around, I would try following you." His blue-violet eyes were ashamed as he looked at him from beneath his lashes, ducking his head in embarrassment.

Jonouchi raised a brow. "And you didn't think to just ask?"

"Would you have told me?"

"Probably not."

They fell into a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. A person wandered by, starting to go between them, but ducked aside to give them a wide berth on the sidewalk. Jonouchi glanced at her as she walked away from them without a single look back or even a momentary hesitation. They must have appeared intense.

Or, perhaps, the blood on his face had scared her.

He almost grinned at the thought. But then he took notice of the long, soft brown hair, and his breath grew harsh with embitterment. He could have screamed with all of the rage which unexpectedly crashed through his chest at the moment.

He turned his head away again immediately. But he could not face Yugi, either. Because he knew he had noticed his sudden attention directed towards her, and his sharp frustration as well. So Jonouchi settled for looking at the patch of brick which was completely chipped away on the corner of the building behind the smaller teen.

"If it's…I mean, if you don't want me to know about it, I can turn back around and go home instead."

The words startled him for a moment. He blinked, then looked at him. As ashamed as he was to admit it, he was thinking about the brunette who had disappeared around the corner.

He hesitated. Yugi was peering at him with that gentle, patient, reassuring expression he always seemed to wear when he offered someone an out. He was too quiet and small and kind with people who didn't deserve it and never could.

And Jonouchi couldn't help but think that, despite his best efforts, he did not deserve it.

He frowned and bit his tongue so hard that it began to bleed. He swallowed roughly and the taste flooded the tip so that he almost could not think straight but for the hideous sharpness of copper there. He reached up, wiping at the warm liquid which was quickly cooling against his lip in preparation to freeze in flakes. He peered at him for a moment. If he told him, he didn't have to tell the others.

And Yugi could keep a secret.

He knew that. He was good at keeping his mouth shut about things.

He hadn't even known about Ushio attacking him almost every Friday for two months until it was already done with, after all. By the time he had even caught wind of it, the mammoth boy had found someone else to try to strangle the life out of. He'd chosen a new victim and gotten around to letting Yugi slip completely under the radar.

Whatever had happened to make his house the last place Ushio's body was ever seen beyond the morgue was another question entirely. He had kept so tightly lipped about that, not even allowing Anzu to ask a question as Jonouchi had thought he would. Yugi had crumbled in on himself, giving them something of a horrified look, and then quickly glanced away again.

But, maybe, if he opened up some about his secret Yugi wouldn't feel as if he were still only prying for his own sake if he brought it up again. And besides, maybe if he shared about it, the burden of it might lessen some, right?

Wasn't that why people shared things in the first place?

"Here, come with me. I'll tell you about it when we get there."

Yugi blinked wide eyes, his expression both delighted and extremely confused. "When we get there?" he muttered in a soft tone, furrowing his brows with discomfort. "Jonouchi, we're in the bad part of Domino. How much further do you think we need to go?"

"It's another block," he stated matter-of-factly, ignoring the owlish expression which awoke on his best friend's face. He shook his head slightly. "And nothing is going to happen. Especially with reflexes like those."

The smaller boy almost cringed. "You thought I was some kind of homeless person looking to take your money or something, didn't you?" he demanded indignantly. "That's why you swung at me!"

He shrugged. "You can never be too careful around here."

"But you could have looked at my hair! I mean, no one has…" His voice trailed off. Yami had hair like his. It wasn't exactly like his by any means, but at first glance he was sure it could be mistaken as such. "No one has hair like me."

Jonouchi raised a brow, cocking his head slightly to the side. "Well, yeah, but it was in the moment," he decided to say instead of ask about his all-too-obvious hesitation. "I wasn't going to check someone's hair when I think I'm being followed. That's kind of suicidal, Yug."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You didn't even think about it," he scoffed. They fell into step together the moment they began walking again. The sound of their footsteps as they wandered through the shadows of the rundown buildings was slightly comforting. "You can definitely notice someone's hair before you take a swing at them. Especially when it looks like mine. I mean, who else has gravity-defying hair?"

Yami did.

He nearly cringed at himself.

So Yugi had chosen to follow Jonouchi today instead of show up to the house on time. What was the big deal? He shouldn't feel guilty about it just because of Yami. Sure, the other boy would need his bandages changed again, but that could easily happen when he got home.

And maybe…maybe he was selfish for thinking he even needed his help to do it. He was sure if Yami were to try, he could figure out very easily what he needed to do. He was home, he was able to sneak out and hunt if needed, and when Yugi got home, he'd give him half of his food and a protein shake and some meds again. It wasn't that big a deal.

But it was somehow a very important thing to acknowledge that he'd chosen a friend over the lycanthrope. That meant, perhaps, that maybe, by some miracle, should he be able to heal Yami again and the other taught him what he thought he needed to know to survive, he could find his way to Anzu.

Then, perhaps, he could figure out how to deal with the full moon and all of which happened when it arrived, and work around it. Then, maybe they would have fun together and be as a couple should. They could be self-involved together as much as they wanted, go out at any time they wanted but for that single day, and be the couple that he really wished they could. He was so tired of putting his own desires aside…

He frowned.

Yami had never asked him to do that for him. He'd probably even point out that he wasn't stupid and say that he could very easily take care of himself. And Yugi would be forced to see this again, acknowledge it fully, and feel the liberation of no longer putting aside his own wants and focusing on another altogether.

"Where are we headed?"

Jonouchi pointed casually ahead of them. Yugi almost fell over his own feet for a moment, blinking wide eyes in confusion.

"The hospital?"

"Yep."

His eyes immediately snapped to his face. "Shit, is your dad okay? Did he get hurt on the job? Did he fall over again while he was drunk—?"

The blond snickered, shaking his head. "Dude, Yug, relax. Nothing happened to him."

"What about your mom? Is she sick? Is—?"

"Dude! I appreciate the concern, but I'll explain everything when we get there, okay? It's something that I have to show you before I tell you anything about it."

Yugi frowned, tilting his head to the side in clear confusion. His teeth worried his bottom lip for a brief moment. Then he looked at the tall building, the red symbol on the side flaking and the white a stained yellowish shade from all of the outside exposure. He shivered slightly.

This hospital seemed so much worse than the one within the better part of the city. It was like a gigantic yellowed building with a gaudy red plus sign on the side which had peeled halfway into nonexistence on the bottom, its former design of white and red like an enlarged first aid kit.

The one he had been emitted to those many times his mother had demanded a refill or a higher dose of his medication was much better. The outside condition was marvelously maintained, with fresh paint coats every other season. The windows were always shiny, without any streaks. The staff was always sweet, though he was sure they stood around and gossiped endlessly.

The walls were a soft cream color that faded into white only within the rooms themselves, as was mandatory. The tiles were bright white and blue and red and yellow and green. There were pictures on some of the walls, though not many. The canopy on the outside was a gorgeous blue-green that bordered turquoise and teal in some manners. The door handles were basically the only thing he thought he could name that were not well-maintained.

Yugi frowned as he licked his lips and looked towards the hospital, following Jonouchi across the street towards it. Even the air seemed almost foreign to him for a moment. It was only a mere heartbeat that he got such a sensation, but still it was there. He shivered and glanced over his shoulder for a split second.

This part of the city, unlike the one they both lived in, would definitely be where a hunter would come without fear or second thought to snatched him off his feet. He didn't think anyone would even respond if he were to yell for help.

They were hardened here. They would most likely turn tail and hurry on their own way to avoid confrontation.

The inside of the building was almost colder than the air out there. It was funny, but the inside was pristine, cleaner than even the hospital he had gone to for his refills and new prescriptions. The walls were perfectly white but for the fresh stripes of blue or red paint along the bottoms. It was, in all reality, somewhat surprising to see such standards in a building that outwardly appeared abused and all but cast away from attention and repair.

The nurse took one look at Jonouchi and offered him a wide smile. "She woke up earlier asking for you again."

Yugi tilted his head curiously. Was Jonouchi seeing a patient? Was it some kind of clandestine live affair between them? He supposed it would make sense why he would keep that to himself if it was. Honda would tease him relentlessly and by his own shock and confusion, he didn't think he'd give the most supportive of impressions had he told him that. He frowned slightly, studying him sideways.

"Really?"

The hope that shone on his face made him nearly cringe.

Who was it that Jonouchi could have possibly met who would cause such childish glee to come across him? The girl would have had to be a miracle worker. The blond had told him so many times that he planned to never settle down. Then again, he didn't know how he managed to make such a bold statement when he had never been with anyone in the first place, but he supposed he could overlook that.

"Yes. She's awake now. I checked on her a minute ago. She's exhausted, though, so try not to excite her too much."

The way she said it was nothing like an innuendo. She said it so simply, with such tenderness that Yugi was slapped with abrupt clarity that there was, by no means, a relationship to be pursued between this girl and his best friend. He frowned, nibbling his bottom lip.

What was it that he was meant to be shown, however? It seemed so odd to walk to this particular hospital for days on end like this if he was not going to be rewarded in some way. Jonouchi may have been a great many admirable things, but altruistic was not one of them.

He normally knew and planned around goals. It kept him driven and motivated and, oftentimes, it also gave him enough patience to deal with people he hated. Good grades, project scores, things of those natures, were planned studiously in his mind to allow him to get ahead. They were his end goal. And, if there was a girl involved, his reasoning was the most obvious.

So, then, what was he doing in visiting the hospital as he was? It'd been several days he'd been doing this. There had to be some kind of amazing reason for him to do this. This girl had to be someone spectacular for him to do so, especially without the idea of having her feel somewhat slightly indebted to him…

Jonouchi was not altruistic. But Yugi didn't know of anyone who was. He had been described as such several times, but he knew better. He knew himself well enough to recognize that even he himself had moments that he thought of such things as well. His first thought was often what it might get him at the end of it all. Even when he had helped Yami, he had figured he would get answers at some point.

And he had, for the most part.

He had gotten several answers, though not as many as he had initially assumed he would.

He shook his head slightly, following Jonouchi down the hall once he had come up with just answering the woman as he needed to. He was now also going to get his curiosity sated. And that was more selfish than even hiding the fact that Yami was the reason that he was sidestepping Anzu completely as far as dating went.

"You smell of them."

He stiffened, frozen in place. His eyes widened, his attention snapping to the form laying on the bed there. The white sheets made them appear paler, although their skin was already lifeless, nearly pallid. The hair fell in long strands of stringy dark brown, greasy where they fell along her cheeks. Her face was heart-shaped, her small frame withered as if the lack of color washed her out completely. Her shoulders were narrow, scrawny, and her body clearly too thin to be healthy. But her voice was small, ragged and frailer than even her small skeletal form.

He looked at her, then at Jonouchi. She had spoken too softly for him to hear…

"Shizuka, this is my best friend, Yugi. Yugi, this is my baby sister Shizuka."

He stiffened somehow further. His mouth opened and closed. His voice sputtered out a confused, "Baby sister?" that sounded as if he were choking on his own tongue.

Jonouchi raised a brow. "Yep, she's a couple of years younger than me," he said easily, but there was something of a brotherly warning there. It was a clear and well-delivered threat even in its unspoken status.

He would kick his ass if he so much as looked at her a certain way.

Yugi couldn't remember even once hearing that he had a sister. He furrowed his brows, then turned to her again. "Nice to meet you, Shizuka."

It was only as she raised her head a little bit further and their eyes locked that he realized she could not see him. Her gaze was glazed with a filmy white, so pale her pupils looked as if they were made of porcelain glass. He shivered. She looked like an elderly dog with advanced cataracts.

"It's good to meet you as well, Yugi."

He peered at her, slightly unnerved. It was not the blindness. It was her statement. She had said he smelled of someone. She had said it so softly that her brother could not hear. But she had known he would. He wouldn't have been surprised by the idea that her senses were powerful enough to somehow catch him, as they would be attempting to make up for her loss of sight. It was the way she spoke so softly, in that brittle tone, that made him feel sick.

"He's the one who works at the veterinary clinic with his mom and grandpa. They have the main one and then the emergency one under the house." The blond frowned slightly as he looked between them slowly. Both of them seemed a little tense. Had he somehow missed something?

"It's the bottom level of the house. It's not exactly beneath. That would suggest a basement or something." Yugi wasn't truly sure why that was important and, judging by the look Jonouchi shot him, neither was the blond. He reached up and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Anyways, I didn't know you…"

The taller boy looked oddly disgruntled as he turned and pulled a stool from its resting place against the wall. He immediately took a seat, folding his long legs and bracing the heels of his shoes against the metal. His eyes narrowed slightly and his lips pulled into a grimace.

"She, um…"

"It's okay, I don't need an explanation." He hesitated. He kind of wanted one, but he had no right to demand one by any means. "I mean—"

The brunette leaned forward and his head turned immediately to her again. Alarm made his back rigid and his breath halt in his lungs the smallest of moments. He opened and closed his mouth again slowly. But she could not see him. And he realized with a sickening feeling that she was truly scenting him.

She did it exactly as a dog would, short breaths and all. Then she sat back more firmly against the pillow behind her shoulders.

Yugi wondered if puking in a hospital room was considered indecent. Did Jonouchi realize that she was a werewolf? Surely he didn't assume that smelling things was normal for a human, blind or not. He stared at her hard for a moment, struggling briefly. Was it hereditary like Yami claimed his own was in part? Or was she bitten like he was?

He wondered which he classified more as, however. Yami had said he was born with a strain of it somewhere in his lineage. He had also bitten him in the alley to save his life…

Yugi wanted so desperately to ask if he knew. But he turned such impulse away. Jonouchi would probably freak out. Well, no, he would definitely freak out. He had a pretty healthy fear of most things unnatural. He hated ghosts and mummies and flipped out sometimes when someone mentioned zombies and vampires. Reanimation and the dark and clowns scared him for the most part. He would definitely freak out if he found out his sister turned into something large and fluffy every month.

But, at the very least, this explained his sudden need to visit the hospital so often. His malnourished, blind little sister was a patient. That explained a lot.

"How long have you been here?"

There was a brief moment of silence and her head tilted as she stared at him with those sightless eyes. He thought it must have been her other senses which allowed her to face him with such unwavering clarity. Not once did she appear to be confused as to which direction he was or anything of the matter.

"The last couple of weeks," she said calmly, but he swore she shivered just slightly, as if she were horrified by even this admittance. "Two weeks ago on Wednesday?"

Jonouchi looked away and scuffed his sneaker on the floor for a moment. He had initially assumed the call he had gotten was a prank. He'd hung up on her. He'd done so six times before she'd managed to say his childhood nickname. And even then he'd been skeptical. Upon seeing her again, he'd initially tried his hardest to deny that the skeletal creature lying on the bed had anything to do with his sweet, innocent little sister.

Yugi glanced at him sideways but turned back to her quickly. He wondered if she could sense him as he could others, his body reacting with rigidity and the harsh flare of energy throughout his bones. He tilted his head and stared at her more pointedly for a split second. Would she call him an angel of death as well? Would she follow in Valon's footsteps?

He furrowed his brows. But then…what was she, exactly? She was a wolf, clearly, but what kind? A lycanthrope or a hellhound?

"Big brother," she suddenly murmured; Jonouchi jerked to attention as if he had been scalded, head snapping up and eyes locked on her, "can you get me something to eat? I'm very hungry."

He was on his feet immediately. But his eyes cut towards Yugi with a sense of anxiety that made his heart clench. He offered him a weak smile. "I'll stay here with her. Don't worry."

The relief in his eyes made his heart shudder.

"I'll be right back. Anything in particular you want?"

"Anything that isn't chicken parmesan or the pizza. The red sauce makes me puke." She said it with such flourish one would have initially thought her to be healthy had they not seen her clearly. She flipped her wrist and Yugi swore the cartilage had to have worn away completely for it sounded like rocks grinding together. He clenched his teeth together, jaw aching with the force of it.

"Okay, got it. No red sauce."

He was gone a second later and Yugi felt himself beginning to bristle with clear distress. The loneliness of the room seemed abruptly to surge forth and slam within his small body, attempting to push him until he folded in two. He swallowed thickly. There was something acrid in the air, burning and strong in scent, and it made his head spin for a moment. He pressed his lips together.

"Would you be opposed to coming to my side? I'd like to learn your features…"

Yugi shivered. He had nearly forgotten that blind people liked to map one's face out to imagine them in their head. He hesitated, but it was more his own embarrassment and anxiety than anything else. He licked his lips, then moved towards the bed.

Shizuka reached her hands up towards him, long brittle fingers and skin pulled too tightly. He blinked stupidly down at her, eyes studying the brutal calluses which covered her palms. Yet he leaned forward, allowed her to press her palms against his cheeks and cup his face.

Yugi resisted the urge to flinch away. "What happened to your hands?" he whispered, voice weak and desperate for reassurance of some kind.

She moved her hands along the frame of his face and he closed his eyes to allow her to touch the lids and ghost her fingers over his long lashes. Her skin was harsh, bumpy in the centers, and he shivered slightly. Had she been burned? Or was it a side-effect of some kind? Because her palms felt like the very surface of a dog's pad.

"For lack of a better explanation, I was burned until my skin would struggle to repair itself." Shizuka was quiet for a moment, then leaned forward slightly, breathing in more deeply. "They wanted to know how long it would take to heal. When the skin would shed, they would be the first to know…"

"Who?" he demanded, eyes wide and horrified.

Who would do that to someone else? It didn't matter if they turned into a wolf once a month; a human being should never be treated that way. The thought made him want to be sick. He reached up to touch her wrists lightly, skimming his thumbs over her pulse gently.

He didn't want to scare her with any sudden movements, but he had the overwhelming impulse to pull her into his arms, to hug her tightly. He wished he could protect her, that he could say something to help her somehow.

"Who did this?"

She was silent for a moment, then she pulled her hands away from his face. But she did not remove herself from him completely. Instead she allowed him to keep his fingers on her thin wrists. She settled more comfortably in the bed, eyes narrowing for a moment almost as if she could see him. The movement was eerie but her blindness was far too apparent to be ignored.

"You are lucky, Yugi, to never have crossed paths with them. I am sure they would have captured you the moment you ran across them."

"Captured me?"

"As they have countless others." Shizuka blinked and her eyes became hooded. Yugi could not tell what she was thinking about, but the sorrow that shone so greatly in her gaze made his belly feel hollow. "What color are your eyes?"

He hesitated for a moment. "Around the pupils, the color is called royal sapphire. It's a darker shade but definitely not the darkest. Beyond that, it mixes up with a purple called African amethyst and the rest is regular blue-violet."

She smiled. She imagined they were breathtaking, like a galaxy without the darkness. "And you just happened to memorize that?" she teased softly.

"A lot of people ask," Yugi murmured quietly, peering at her curiously for a moment. "And, I like knowing what colors they are when I look in the mirror. It's…kind of nice to know that they don't change and it's basically absolute."

Shizuka fell silent for a long moment, then, in a small voice, she whispered, "What color are my eyes, Yugi?"

His stomach knotted. Her voice was quivering. He bit his lip until it bled. The coppery scent made his stomach roll angrily. "They're…gray, almost silver." He hesitated. "And your pupils are milky white."

She nodded almost as if she had expected it. "They used to be hazel, bright brown like Katsuya's around the pupils and emerald green as the second color." She sounded more pained about this than even the thought of her palms being burned so terribly. "I'm not surprised that my eyes changed color. What they did to me and the others… Their eyes were already shades away from what they were originally."

Yugi looked at her with his heart aching in his chest. "What do you mean? What did they do?"

There was an excruciatingly long minute of silence in which the air seemed too thick and the smell of chemicals made their noses burn. He shuffled his feet, swallowing thickly. His eyes flickered towards the sheets, the threads worn bare at the edges. She pulled her hands away from him for the most part, but caught his fingers and pulled them towards her stomach with hers. He shivered, confused and unsure now. It felt almost horrifying to be this close. Why was she keeping him there?

"I was walking home from school a few minutes late during the summer. I was twelve at the time." She moved a nail to trace along the back of his palm. She had lowered her head but her tone held enough urgency to trail to his ears without straining them. "A car was parked at the entrance of that little garden that I walked by every day. I was so used to seeing people get out of their cars in order to walk the trails in the flower beds. I didn't think anything of it."

Yugi felt sick to his stomach. This sounded oddly like what that man and Bakura would have done had he not taken the wrong turn and headed for the woods. Was it the same person?

"I was walking by them when I noticed the door slide open. Again, it was an attraction. I didn't think anything of it. Until, in a blink, there was a massive animal in front of me. It was a large, dark gray canine. I'd thought it was a dog. It would have been the largest dog I had ever seen."

He shivered. "It was a wolf."

"Yes. Who I later came to know the name of as Bakura."

He flinched and trembled. "He cornered you?"

"No, he tried to scare me off. He kept snarling and snapping and he lunged between me and the car. He tried a few times to push me out of the way." She hesitated. "He kept trying to make me run. But I was taught not to run from dogs and that's what I thought he was. When he kept lunging and scaring me, I tried to run too late. The human who was in charge of him caught me and used his shock collar to throw him into a seizure so he wouldn't interfere anymore."

Yugi blinked stupidly. A shock collar? He hadn't noticed one in the woods. But then, why else would a werewolf bother to listen to a human? He'd obviously been shocked so many times that he could not withstand it any longer. Had his snarling been a warning to him as well? Had he been trying to tell him to run?

He knew the man had been cursing and screaming when he had been fighting with Yami. He'd messed up his shot several times. He remembered that. Bakura had constantly thrown himself at Yami, had constantly kept them loving…

"The man… What was his name?"

She was quiet, recalling for a moment how the ground had rushed up to her and Bakura had choked on his own vomit and convulsed so violently as to make the earth quake. For a moment she was lost in the agony of that dark brown gaze, the way he sputtered and choked and hacked so hard his tongue splayed across the asphalt.

"Pegasus. His name was Pegasus." She traced another comforting trail along his skin. Her fingers were trembling and Yugi felt like he was going to be sick. "They took me…to a place. It's somewhere…underground. It's…along the sewage line but further into the mountains as well. It's a long trail of tunnels with cells for wolves that they torture and run experiments on."

He quivered. "Run experiments…?"

Shizuka lowered her head a little more. A low, noiseless sob escaped her throat for a moment. Her body heaved with the immensity of it, quaking pitifully. He wanted both to hug her and to flinch away.

"They were testing the limitations of lycanthropy." She trembled harder and his heart lurched. "They wanted to know how well it healed certain wounds. We were burned, cut open. They experimented on our eyes, spliced them and surgically impaired vision. They wanted to know if it would reverse and how often the body was able to do so. They tried gutting wolves to see if the body was capable of withstanding the torture and even mend it later. They did neurological experiments. They drowned them. They tried to see how long one could swim before giving up. Then they tested how long it took to revive them."

He shivered, moving to wipe his mouth against his shoulder. He tried to force the queasiness away by squeezing his eyes shut. He trembled. His stomach rolled and clenched.

How could anyone do that?

"They tried to breed, pushed at the boundaries of genetics to see if a male wolf could conceive pups through implanting the uterus. They constantly attempted to push the existence of another subspecies of lycanthrope."

He narrowed his eyes. "Subspecies of lycanthrope?" he whispered. There were subspecies beyond the lycanthrope and hellhound? He felt pathetic for a moment, stomach coiled with disgust. He knew nothing. When it came down to it, whatever he had managed to yank from Yami was almost meaningless. He gave him answers, but not enough. The big picture was fragmented and he offered him only the tiniest of pieces to fit the puzzle.

"The Pure-Blood… They're trying to bring back the Pure-Blood." Her voice had grown raspy. He wasn't sure if it was stress or the strain of saying so much for so long. His heart quivered and his stomach heaved slightly in a painful dance. It was only as he looked at her that he remembered that man—Pegasus, she had said his name was—calling him that. He had said it when he had chased him. "They're…chasing myths and legends and something that just… It can't exist, Yugi. It just can't!"

The power of her tone, as brittle as it was, made him look at her more closely. She was clearly distressed, to the point that she was shaking finely, and her eyes looked as if they might fill with tears at any moment.

"Why…? Why can't it exist?"

"Because it's…" She fell silent for a moment. Then, with such swiftness it startled him, her head snapped to him. Her eyes, though she couldn't see him, bore into his skin and made him flinch. She was agonized, yet enraged all at once. "Because an immortality like that could only be a curse!"

He stared at her, horrified and somehow fascinated. "Immortality?" he whispered.

The very thought made his head spin. Were the werewolves immortal?

"You kill them. And they come back. They are reborn again," she spat in distress, shaking her head sharply back and forth. Her eyes were still somehow focused on him. He wondered if perhaps her senses did this or it was just innate knowledge of some kind, an ability that he too probably possessed but did not need. "And they are more and more volatile than ever the moment they died before. They are weapons. The Pure-Blood is a weapon, Yugi. It's an immortal force of nature! As long as the head and the heart stay intact, it will come back!"

Yugi barely resisted the urge to jerk his hands away. Immortal? Weapons? He could have puked again. Was that what Pegasus had assumed him to be? A force of nature which came back to life when it was killed? His breath caught. Had he…?

No, there had been close calls. But he had never truly died.

He thought he would know if he had.

"And they heal so quickly. When the weaker areas of its body are penetrated, it heals instantaneously. It heals without delay. So you can never truly decapitate them or stab them to death or…or… They're just…they're the only truly immortal creatures in the world, Yugi."

He shook his head, voice cracked. "Then why don't people know more about this? Shizuka, humans crave this kind of stuff. It's in stories everywhere—vampires are considered the most immortal because they came back from the dead and—"

"Vampires? Yugi, vampires are nothing compared to a Pure-Blood. And there is a mention of them. It's in the movie myths and lore. It's just misconstrued." She shook her head again. Her hands clenched around his. "In the movies, the wolves only change on the full moon. The Pure-Blood is the only lycanthrope truly forced to change on the full moon. And the size of wolves in movies—the ridiculously large sizes? That's them. They're larger than regular wolves, thicker in build. Oh, Yugi, they're creatures of unimaginable strength and healing. Their only known legend says that their DNA is laced with moonlight and that of the dire wolf."

Yugi froze in place. The dire wolf? They were long extinct. And there was no living relative of them. So how could one make a Pure-Blood without an essential part of their genetics?

"How could they possibly breed them? Shizuka, that's impossible." Her head shook sharply, her face contorting with pure rage. "That doesn't make any sense whatsoever."

"The lycanthropes begin with the Pure-Blood. Every lycanthrope in existence has some of its DNA in them. That's what allows them to change. It's what allows them to heal." Shizuka fell silent for another long moment. "It's in them, buried deep inside of their genetics."

His eyes widened. His stomach twisted. "They de-evolved them."

"And many of them didn't survive. They were constantly shoveling bodies into an incinerator." She stayed quiet for another long minute. "But…there was one. They managed to mate two wolves who had survived it. They…they recreated a Pure-Blood, Yugi."

Yugi shook his head slowly. "There's no way. Shizuka, that's impossible. The strain all of that would have put on them and the kids would have been stillborn from the stress—"

"No. The lycanthrope body is amazing. When a woman is pregnant, the body tends to work overtime. It attempts to nurture the growing pups even without the mother's cooperation. It will cushion the womb, oxygenate the blood further by preserving it inside the cells and cycling it where it's most needed. It will supply more blood and energy to the growing pups than it will the mother…" She shook her head. "The disease will heal and rejuvenate the most vulnerable parts of the body before it will anything else. When a wolf is pregnant, it's the pups that matter…"

Yugi shivered. "That's…"

"Amazing. And disgusting." Shizuka shook her head again and this time when she clenched her hands he mirrored the movement. Her lips twitched faintly. "Regardless, the project's code name is A.T.E.M., the Apex Timeless Evolutionary Mutation. And the subject which survived was the only of five pups. He was named after the project, called Code Name Atem."

He nearly choked. "Code Name Atem?" he mumbled. He shivered. "Why would they…?"

"Because they bred him into existence. And if he was proven as smart as they theorized, he would be able to learn and figure things out. He would be able to form more of a standing free will if he was not degraded enough. They had to stunt him somehow. Because the incisions and the experiments did not truly harm him. They did nothing to slow him down. So they did one of the easiest things they could. They forced him to respond to the name of his project rather than give him one of his own."

He felt as his tongue had dried and shriveled in his mouth. How could anyone be so cruel as to want to take another's identity away so fully?

"That's disgusting," Yugi spat, eyes wide and mouth twisting into something almost like a snarl. "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard!"

"Yes…" She hesitated for a moment, then lowered her eyes. "And, if he truly exists, he is not in the lab anymore."

If he existed? Yugi blinked in confusion. She had been speaking to him as if the wolf were the most solid existence the world had to offer? She had seemed for a moment to believe in him even more than she did her own life. To hear her say if now was something that made him feel sick.

"If?"

"He…I never saw him. Many of us never saw him. There were stories that Bakura had crossed paths with him several times. And there were mentions of his cell mate who was constantly being experimented on and often attacked anyone who came close to him. But so many of us only heard rumors. And that's all he might be, Yugi. He could just be a rumor, a story to keep hope that our existence was worth something." Shizuka fell quiet for a moment, then curled her lip. "But, if he isn't real, then those hundred wolves died for no reason. The ones who turned on the humans and allowed the rest of us to escape with the promise that Code Name Atem had to survive… They would have all made sacrifices in vain."

Yugi stiffened. "Why would they all be so concerned with just one wolf? Isn't their survival greater than just his?"

She looked up at him with those blind eyes again. "No. To a lycanthrope, the Pure-Blood is an entity they all must bow to and ensure the survival of. If he should truly be real, as so many of them said and so clearly believed until their dying breath, then any wolf would do the same for them now. Should he ask it, every lycanthrope in existence would lay their lives down for him."

He shook, eyes wide, heart pounding. "But why? That doesn't make any sense!"

She fell silent, then tilted her head. "You were bitten…weren't you?" she whispered quietly. "That's why you don't understand. Because it's not ingrained in you like it is the ones born with it."

He shook his head. "What do you mean? How is someone born with the idea that they need to sacrifice themselves like that?"

"It's because… It's the loyalty of the werewolves. If the original hellhounds, the Harbingers, were ever to be reborn, the hellhounds would follow them as well." She hesitated and then reached up to scratch at the IV drip in her arm. "It's just something in them that responds to them. It might be the idea that they came from them or maybe it's some innate strength they possess that they can't resist the call of. But, with Code Name Atem, a thousand others escaped and fled. And they've been up here somewhere, hiding, possibly waiting for the beginning of a war that they all whispered about when they were still underground."

Yugi glanced over his shoulder at the sound of Jonouchi's voice down the hall. "A war?"

"When the Pure-blood returns, the Harbingers will too. And with them, a war will be fought. That's the story that's been passed down each generation through the werewolves. The purpose of it is lost to anyone living, but it's said to mirror the Lunar Ascension."

"Lunar Ascension?"

Shizuka fell silent, instead turning her head toward the door and giving a brilliant smile. "What did you end up getting?" she asked in a voice that was oddly childish for the weight it had held mere moments before. "I hope it's chocolate!"

"Chocolate, peanuts and caramel." Jonouchi trotted into the room with a massive grin on his face. Yugi pulled his hands away from the girl lying in the bed. He felt sick again, beyond what he had felt anytime before. His throat was choked and his mouth dry. The blond noticed the action, how close they had been moments before, and his eyes narrowed at the shorter boy, but he did not comment. "And, the best news? You should be able to leave within a couple of days, Shizuka! You can come home."

Yugi's heart ached. Jonouchi was so happy and the moment so private. He looked down, then glanced at the brunette and away again. The girl herself looked far from happy with this response, but the smile had not left her face. It looked more plastic than ever, however. He lifted his own head, smiling at Jonouchi gently, and headed for the door.

"Are you going?"

He could have puked for the way his body seized up with tension. "Yeah," he said quietly, eyes widening as he looked towards her. "I need to get home. And you guys have things to talk about."

"Oh."

"You could stay if you wanted," Jonouchi offered, but it was obligatory and his eyes were harder than before.

"You could say that with less enthusiasm," he teased, shaking his head slightly, and frowned with a small tilt of his head towards his sister. "Besides, my mom is expecting me."

Jonouchi gave him a grateful look. "Okay, I'll see you later then, yeah?"

"Yeah. Bye, Katsuya, Shizuka."

He had turned to go into the hallway when he heard her voice again, a distant echoing whisper of raspy breath.

"If Code Name Atem is real, he is the only one who is capable of stopping them."

---

He looked up when the door began to open. He had drifted downstairs out of boredom, because the little clinic was closed. Yugi's mom and grandpa were long gone as well, for whatever reason. And Yugi was still somewhere that wasn't his house, so he assumed it was the arcade that had captured his attention this time. He thought now, that perhaps it was the other boy, but instead a head of spiky brown hair appeared as the door closed behind the newcomer.

Yami stiffened visibly, stomach flipping harshly. His mouth was dry, his body rigid with a wave of confusion and horror. Oh gods, he should have ducked and hid before someone noticed—

Yet, as he breathed in, a new thought occurred to him.

He had smelled this person before.

He blinked.

He had smelled him on Yugi.

He frowned, staring at the boy in front of him. They stood at nearly the same height, Yami staring with wide eyes as the other watched him with an amused look. His shoulders were a little broader than his own, but his frame was just as lean and compact, with muscle taut and hidden from display. His face was more of a heart shape than even Yami's own, with finer definition as if to fall in the perfect medium of his and Yugi's features.

His hair fell to cover his forehead with long bangs, the first lying towards his nose, the other two curling outwards like wings. It rose in spikes that looked almost limp because of the color, though he noted that should his own or Yugi's been a uniform shade, it too might look like that.

He didn't like the look in his eyes. Or maybe he didn't like the look of them. The golden color made them far too piercing. But they were familiar as well, as he looked into them.

He flashed him a smile, something smooth and friendly, but the predatory edge did not leave his face. "Hello."

Yami hesitated for a moment. He wondered how badly his voice might crack. So instead he nodded curtly, unwilling to speak and potentially show any weakness. He was not willing to have a fight in the middle of Yugi's own home with a stranger like this. He was already alarmed and he was only lucky to have grabbed his jacket and thrown it on before he'd left the room. At least his arms were covered…

He tilted his head. "I wanted to thank Yugi for something he did for me a little while back," he commented, studying his face. His eyes were sharp, a vivid and powerful red which captivated and terrorized all at once. He searched his eyes, unnerved by the sharpness and seemingly eternal energy which pulsated there. He gazed at him with equal intensity, and then he abruptly lowered his eyes to the floor. Meeting this wolf's eyes in what seemed to be shared territory was a terrible idea. Who knew if he might lash out?

Yami chewed his lip, then glanced through the glass window. He should never have come downstairs. But what could he do now? He was caught. He narrowed his gaze, studying the submission in this boy's frame. "He's not here," he stated calmly. His voice was oddly strong with tension but the fractures were still there and it made him snarl low in his throat with distress. An unknown wolf was standing in front of him and his voice continued to break like this? He could have bit through his own hand with frustration.

The wolf glanced up, eyes flickering with wonder. "Hmm… For some reason I thought he was." He glanced over his shoulder, then turned back. "Do you mind if I wait here? Or should I leave?"

The other boy stared at him silently, red eyes boring into his skin, and then looked away for a moment to study him in his peripheral. Would Yugi be upset if he sent him away? Had they been planning something? He drew in a breath, turning to him.

"What was it you had to thank him for?"

His eyes were a striking and vivid golden. It made him nauseous. He swallowed hard, resisting the urge to growl and raise his shoulders in a bristle.

"He helped me out with something. And I wanted to thank him for it."

Yami tilted his head, more than a little unnerved by the idea. What had Yugi helped him with? Was it important? Was it a secret he wasn't meant to know? Fuck, did Yugi have any idea that he was here? What would he do if he found Yami standing there talking to him like this if he was actually a threat?

"Who…?"

He blinked, frowning faintly. "Valon," he stated, at first with the human impulse to shake his hand and then the werewolf instinct to step away. Instead he blinked a few times, then cautiously, his tone gentle, he spoke again.

"I ask of you Lupa's Blessing."

Yami froze in place, eyes widening for a moment. Lupa's Blessing was a way of wishing for safe passage through another wolf's territory, which always pertained to the lycanthrope and never the hellhound. Should the situation have been reversed, Yami would have asked Fenrir's. It was a greatly respectful notion to use the blessing of the other subspecies.

He blinked, watching him for a moment longer. Then he looked away. "I am not permitted to give you such rights. This is not my territory. It is Yugi's."

Valon studied him. "But it smells of you as well. You have been here for quite a while, haven't you?" he murmured in a soft and no less respectful tone. "The house is almost as much yours as it is the Motou family's."

He looked as him with wide, startled eyes. His home? No. This was not his home. It never would be. The house was and always would be Yugi's home, regardless of who was in it for any amount of time. He was nothing more than his alpha in truth, a companion who had bitten and infected him. He glanced away, then towards the window over his shoulder.

"I've been here. But this isn't my home."

Valon watched him with a brilliant stare, eyes wide and startled. He seemed almost feverish as they looked about each other for a long minute and a half. Both of them were frozen in place for the moment, watching with mirroring expressions of curiosity and bewilderment.

"Are you a loner?"

Yami blinked wide eyes. His cheeks felt hot then seemed to grow cold with confusion. He tilted his head, feeling sicker than even before. He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"A loner?"

They looked at each other.

"Perhaps."

Valon blinked.

"I am."

Yami tilted his head.

"Why?"

He studied him and tilted his head further to the side in wonder. "When are hellhounds ever known to run in a pack?" he asked softly, giving him a small grin. "Only lycanthropes really do that. Hellhounds are loners by trade, remember?"

Yami frowned slightly. Yes, he remembered. The lycanthrope and hellhound were different from each other in more than just terms of strength. Their physical forms and their own mentalities were more than slightly varied. Lycanthropes were extremely pack-oriented like wolves and the hellhounds ran more on their own like stray dogs would.

He stayed quiet for a moment, eyes flickering towards the window and back. Someone was approaching again, though this time his heart pounded as he noticed it. He tilted his head up, eyes wide, and Valon himself spun around in confusion. The door opened in front of them and they both watched with wide eyes.

"Hey, Yami," the newcomer said with a yawn before stopping short, smile dropping from his face. His blue-violet eyes shot to the golden-eyed teen next to him. "Valon?"

Yami blinked as the brunet glanced at him sideways. "So that's your name? Yami?" he murmured softly, giving him something of a small smirk before turning to Yugi quickly. "I came over because I wanted to tell you thanks for helping me before. When your mom—"

His eyes widened drastically. "Valon, there's nothing to thank me for. Or my mom." His eyes flickered to Yami quickly for a moment, then back to the other boy. They looked back and forth between each other for a moment. "We thought you were a stray. We operated like we would have any other time. But I'm really glad that you're okay. And that everything turned out so well afterwards. No one had ever considered you were a hellhound."

Yami tilted his head, then looked at Yugi slowly. "You and your mother operated on him?"

He felt his cheeks heat. The taller teen frowned faintly. "We thought he was just a stray. He got hit by a car so we stitched him up. He would have died otherwise," he muttered, glancing at Valon and giving him a small grin of amusement.

Yami nodded only slightly, looking away. Yugi had a habit of saving people, it seemed. He touched at his arms lightly with his hands, shaken by the thought. By the gods, he'd never needed so much assistance before in his life. At least, not when he had come to be on his own.

"I see."

Yugi awkwardly scratched his cheek, face heating slightly once more. He frowned faintly, staring at Valon now. "So, what else is up?" he muttered, tilting his head. "Coming over to thank me can't be the only reason you're here."

The brunet blinked, then frowned at him slightly in return. His eyes flickered towards Yami, but the lycanthrope seemed to have forgotten either of their existences. His gaze had grown distant, focused on the fabric which lay across his wrists.

"Well, I also came to determine if you had ever found your alpha." Valon again spared a sideways glance at the red-eyed wolf. "And you have."

"Yeah, well…actually, he found me, but yes. He's helping me learn more about all of it…helping me adjust some," Yugi stated, nodding slightly. He went to grin at Yami but found himself only feeling sick. The taller teen was almost stroking his own wounded arms as a lover might, with gossamer fingers which lightly danced upon the bandages beneath. The look in his eyes was too far away for Yugi to ever hope to follow. "Why? Did something happen?"

The brunet was not truly willing to admit that the third reason for this visit was something he had been attempting to avoid. But, as he looked at Yugi, he knew the smaller boy had grown physically stronger, even if his mind was still weaker and more innocent than ever before. He frowned slightly as he studied his small frame.

"No," he said in a tone that was almost cautious. It roused Yami from his musings, the darkness leaving his eyes as they shot to his form. They looked at each other for a moment. Then Valon quickly glanced away. The other wolf had sensed something and it had caused him to bristle… "I just…I meant to check in around saying thank you—"

"You're not as shaky as you were last time," Yugi interrupted with a tilt of his head, "and you look a lot better. What happened? You said something about the weather."

Valon blinked, then looked at him curiously. "Hellhounds are spurred into the Change on the coldest day of winter when the gene is triggered. The cold snap was coming."

Yami looked at the floor for a moment, studying the immaculate tiles. He was sure Yugi's mother often swept and mopped it when she was bored and had no patients.

"Oh." Yugi looked at him with wide eyes. "The coldest day of the year has already passed?"

Valon pulled his lips back into a smile, shaking his head. "No, actually, it hasn't." He paused, his eyes flickering uncertainly towards Yami who glanced at him sideways from the corner of his eye. "This year, the winter is going to be much longer and far more brutal than any other. There are…several events which have set this in motion."

His red eyes flashed and his teeth clicked loudly when he chomped them at him. The hellhound backed up a step, but did not move further. He watched him with a cautious look and the two of them stared for a moment. Yugi glanced between them uncertainly.

"What do you mean? How would you know what the weather is going to be?" he muttered, frowning faintly and tilting his head. "Does it have to do with being a hellhound or…?"

Valon blinked, then glanced at him, but his peripheral was locked on the other lycanthrope. He did not think Yami would truly lash out, but his aggression set him on edge regardless.

"I sense the weather patterns when it comes to winter, yes, but I can't tell how long they will last or if the snow will stay and fall," he commented, shifting his weight. "I meant only to say that I have suspicion that it will be unlike any of the others you two have ever experienced. Almost…like ancient times."

Yami was bristling now. "You dare bring up the Lunar Ascension like this?" he spat. "You attempt to scare him by way of using that old legend?"

"It's not an old legend. You know that as well as I." He paused. "Otherwise you two wouldn't exist."

Yugi recoiled, eyes wide. "What?" His head snapped towards Yami. "What is he talking about?"

The red-eyed wolf studied him for a moment, then looked to his beta with slight uncertainty. "I am not sure. And I do not suppose it truly matters."

Valon gave them both a withering look. "Do you not understand that neither of you are meant to exist?" he snapped. "Fuck. I was trying not to say it again, but I think I need to reiterate. Death walks at your heels and no amount of good you ever do will change that. You both are death."

Yugi froze, startled, and his eyes shot immediately to Yami in fear. What was Yami going to say to that? Would he lose his temper? Or was he going to turn on Yugi in response? What was he truly meant to say if he did? He had no idea what he would do or how he would deal with it if he did.

But the red-eyed teen hardly seemed to care much for the statement or Yugi's reaction.

Instead he stared readily back at Valon with a look of dismissal.

"Aren't we all? Capable of killing as we are, it would not be surprising to me to find death stalking all of us," he stated with a slight sneer. "Besides, what does it matter? Death is as death always has been. It comes and goes, whether by natural causes or not."

Valon bristled more visibly. "Is that such a true statement?" he sneered with darkened eyes. "Most people consider when someone causes another's death to be murder."

Yami rolled his eyes. "That is not what a murder is considered. It is when one truly decides to kill a person by their own hand that they are considered to have murdered someone." He scoffed softly, baring his teeth in open disdain. "Is there more you wished to say or are you simply just here now?"

Yugi looked between the two of them, feeling almost sickened. His stomach twisted and his heart felt as if it might burst. Awkwardly, with a faltering tone, he asked, "Why do you keep saying that? That we shouldn't be here or exist?"

The golden-eyed boy looked at him for a long minute and a half. His gaze narrowed faintly. His head tilted to the side. He watched him, then bore his teeth in disgust. "Yugi, you both are unnatural. There's something…innately wrong with you both. And the fact that you exist is a question of which I have no answer. I don't know why any god would allow you to be born."

He gaped, mouth open and eyes wide with terror. Beside him, Yami looked at first unimpressed, and then pissed. But it was only after his eyes fell on Yugi that he reacted.

"You say such words as if they do not apply to you as well," he said in a calm tone, leaning forward with darkened eyes. "Yet, if I should recognize your scent correctly—"

"I am well aware. None of us should exist. Yet I have existed longer than either of you have." He bore his teeth in disgust, then looked to Yugi for a moment. "Listen to me, Yugi. As much as I might wish to disagree, the fact is that neither you nor Yami nor I are meant to exist. The three of us are unnatural, beyond the stretches of supernatural order. Regardless, here we all are. The point, however, is that it is what it is. And I apologize for the fact that I am the one to tell you."

---

He had called him unnatural.

He had called Yami unnatural.

He had even called himself unnatural.

Yugi sat on his bed, looking at the sheet of homework in front of him, and felt sick but somehow more focused than he had been in a while. The math work, despite his usual hatred of it, was oddly comforting, grounding him there in his room. His mind could not wander if he was anchored there with a task of some kind. His stomach tossed, even as his thoughts continued other directions that he did not fully concentrate on.

His lips curled faintly, a sneer of frustration crossing his mouth, and his eyes narrowed slightly as he flipped the page of his textbook. It was with boredom that he studied the numbers, answering as he knew he needed, and that kept him somehow further grounded. Yet, as Yugi wrote another answer, the drifting musings in the back of his mind amplified.

He licked his lips. He needed to speak to Shizuka again. He had to. She might have answers to the millions of questions in his head. He had never done anything of the nature of which she said Code Name Atem was said to mean to the wolves.

And, besides that, he was already sure it could not be him. He had grown up with his mom and dad and grandpa. His night terrors may have been abundant, a constant phantom upon his growth, but they did not allude to such horror as the experiments Jonouchi's sister had so hatefully spoken of.

And he did not think that Yami, with his more submissive, calmer, temperament could match a creature by the definition of the story she'd told him. He tilted his head and cut the other boy a sideways look. Then again, he had killed Ushio. He had crushed his skull in with his very teeth. He had also torn Tomoya's throat out. When one took those into account, he wondered if there was a possibility. But he'd clearly said on several occasions that he had watched his parents die from a hunter.

He had said his mom had even turned her teeth on him in the vain effort to save him from the humans. Yugi grimaced, watching him with that same sideways glance, and then looked away again. He had said she'd tried to save him by killing him.

Yami glanced at him. "Are you upset?"

He startled. "What?"

"By what he said."

Yugi felt his mouth draw into a deeper grimace. His eyes shot down to the text in front of him. "Not really," he admitted uncomfortably. "I was just…thinking about something else…"

He raised a brow, dubious of the idea, and then shook his head slowly. "What is it then?" he asked softly, voice breaking again around the edges. But this was the first time the smaller teen had noticed it since the time that Valon had left. The idea made his stomach turn. Had he upset him somehow?

Yugi focused on scribbling an answer in order to avoid giving a response of any kind. He licked his lips again, flicking his tongue over his teeth. With a somewhat frustrated expression he pressed his pencil more fully against the paper with dark eyes.

"I just…I was told something today that I don't know what to do with," he admitted, flipping the pencil around in his hand a few times before narrowing his eyes slightly. "Someone told me that there's a werewolf called the Pure-Blood… That they're truly immortal and that humans managed to recreate one…"

Yami was silent for a moment. Then he raised his head to study him more pointedly, eyes sharp and face irritable. "Humans recreate a Pure-Blood? Yugi, that's not possible. By any means. They are and have been extinct for years now. For generations, even." He furrowed his brows. "Which, in itself, proves that the Pure-Blood is but a myth as well. An immortal creature by their definition cannot go extinct as they have."

Yugi looked up at him. "But you know what they are, then?"

The other boy raised a brow. "Was I not meant to? Yugi, I was born a lycanthrope. Lycanthropes born with the disease are always told those stories even when they're pups." He frowned, hesitating. "What would humans be doing recreating a beast of that magnitude anyways?"

He bit his lip. "My guess would be to harness the immortality. Or maybe they want nothing more than to change into a wolf. Or maybe it's the healing capabilities which make them want to breed them back." He frowned, looking at the red-eyed boy more closely, eyes sharpening faintly. "But then…regular werewolves… We can heal quickly and everything as it is, right?"

Yami nodded. "Yes, so if they wanted to experience the wolf or the quick healing, they could have simply found anyone infected. Then, when they themselves were infected, why should they have to attempt to raise a beast long gone like that?"

He shivered, tilting his head further. "I can't answer that. But my closest guess would be the promise of that kind of immortality." Yugi looked away again quickly. "I mean, lots of people wish they could be immortal, that life would never pass them by because it would be easy for them to adapt and experience everything as it happened. There wouldn't be any pause for them. And I think that probably attracts a lot of people."

He blinked, watching him calmly. "I agree with you that immortality of such proportion is what must drive a human crazy enough to think to reverse nature and laws older than their own kind. To do so for the other reasons listed would be beyond even basic human foolishness."

Yugi frowned at him faintly, then looked away again. "Yami, do you know anything about a project called A.T.E.M.?"

The other boy stiffened faintly, then looked at him with an expression of extreme distaste. "I've heard whispers every now and then. In the woods, when the others do not think that there are people around to eavesdrop, they tend to do speak of it. But it's a story. And nothing more. No human engineering could ever bring them back into existence."

His frown deepened. "So, then do you think they ever could come back? And, if so, then by what means?"

His lip curled. "Yugi, if they were to be brought back into existence, it would be as they were once created. And, according to our legends, that was divine intervention from the goddess Lupa. She gave them the ability to heal from any wound." Yami paused, falling silent for a long moment, and then looked at the smaller teen once more, thoughtful and curious. "She allowed them to recover from any mortal injury, giving them breath the moment their body could heal itself. And it was only her intervention that allowed them to exist. So, unless the humans could somehow draw upon her favor, never will they be able to bring back the Pure-Blood."

Yugi closed his eyes for a moment. He felt almost winded with the idea. He'd been generally very accepting of any religion in the world, any divine figures which were worshipped. He was keen to do so, in order to avoid offense of any kind. And because he thought it far more respectful than otherwise.

So the idea of there being gods among werewolves was something that he could accept. But the idea that one of them interacted with the species long enough to create a creature like that? To give them immortality and power of such magnitude? He could have rolled his eyes.

There was no possible way.

He shivered.

The entire idea was preposterous to him. A supernatural animal created by a goddess of some kind? He almost laughed. It was a sharp barb to have such desire, but he could not ignore it. Impulse died hard, but he still forced it away without further issue.

He opened his eyes again. But he could not look at Yami. His sincere voice as he spoke of it had made it impossible to look at him and not want to laugh again.

It was the same as when Jonouchi had told him one time he was being stalked by some kind of ghost. And he'd been unable to keep from guffawing, mouth covered and heart pounding. His sides had ached and burned by the time that he finally stopped his laughter. And Jonouchi had been offended, but Yugi had made it up to him by pretending to help him with an exorcism of some kind. They never really spoke of it again, but it still gave him giggles when he thought of it.

But he doubted Yami would get past it as simply as Jonouchi had. Yami was a werewolf. And if that was the story passed down from generation to generation, then he would be mocking an entire species. He would be mocking his own species.

The thought sobered him, if only slightly. He laid his hand on the page in front of him. "Then I guess that would have to be impossible then."

Yami studied him. There was something wrong with the statement, but he decided not to press.

---

There was so much blood splattered across the walls, drenching the bed, and spots of it lined the ceiling, arcs of bright and gleaming red. The kill was fresher than he had ever thought imaginable, a hideous and heart pounding realization which made his stomach burn violently.

His body was frozen, his blood cold in his veins even as it roared through his body. His limbs felt numb and his fingers frozen. He could not breathe properly for a moment.

The waves of blood which had splattered upon the white paint were beyond any amount he had ever seen before in his life. Even animals bleeding out had never seemed to produce so much. He felt dizzy, sick, and he nearly collapsed for how shaky his legs had become.

But he held himself somehow, on his feet, shaky and soon trembling. So much blood…

He looked at her and his heart shattered for Jonouchi. Dear gods, what might he do when he found out? He had just found his sister. He had just been able to come to know her somewhat. Yet, now she was gone, forever stolen from him. He would never be able to make amends with her in any fashion.

There was so much blood…

He shivered, heart stuttering in his chest.

Her body laid there lifelessly, entire torso drenched. The sheets were shiny with the new color. The pillow was soaked. The metal bars on either side were slick. The smears of red were that of handprints. Sinew and muscle and spikes of white bone poked upwards. The thin frame of her shoulders held nothing. Her collarbones were bare of weight.

Her head was lying several feet away, against the wall. The window was smeared, the glass scarred bright red. The world beyond it was blocked away by crimson. It had violent rivulets beneath, dripping towards the sill. There it pooled together in a puddle large enough to encompass the entire right side of the window.

He trembled. And then he froze again.

The nurses were coming, he realized, shaking. By the gods, they were going to come in there. And they were going to see him. And then they would see her body. They would see the blood. And his figure standing there. And they would think—

They would assume that he had…

Yugi scrambled, mind racing. His body sought the window by instinct. His own mind sought comfort in that moment, a refusal that it was real. He didn't think he could deal with the truth of such harsh reality.

He moved, hands at first reaching for both sides of the window. His sneakers were probably slick with blood. But he ignored it. His heart pounding, body numb, he snatched the metal frame. His hands had moved of their own accord. The small berth of space from the rivers and pools of blood was only large enough that his hands were pressed completely together.

He shivered, then tossed his arms upwards. It creaked and groaned. Then it jumped with his chaotic movement. He was panting. The blood sloshed and dripped off the end beside his fingers. He hissed. The panting grew.

He threw himself forward. His heart was racing faster. His stomach tossed. He landed on the small ledge, mere inches of brick. Then he threw himself forward. He launched himself forward and landed on the asphalt.

At first his legs felt weak. Then he stiffened and straightened. His stomach dropped. He made to move across the street quickly, but it did not stop him from hearing. The nurse was screaming. The others were racing down the hall.

He panted, racing forward. He thought he was going to puke. His stomach twisted and coiled. He doubled over. He could have fallen on his face for all the terrible pain he felt within his legs. He groaned, hissing, then panted harshly. Oh gods, she'd been killed…

Her head had been cut off.

Why though? What had she done? What had she ever managed to do to offend someone so heavily that they would seek revenge of such proportions? Was it their conversation? Was it because she had spoken about the Project A.T.E.M.? If they had killed her, would they come for him next?

But who would have heard them? He had not known of anyone being there to hear. And even if he himself had not managed to hear them, her senses were keener than his own. So why would she have not managed such a feat? The compensation of her senses to make up for her eyes should have done her much better.

Yugi slowed somewhat, but he was shaking violently. And, as he looked about himself, he found his feet moving towards the forest of trees nearest him. He was running again the moment he spotted them.

He doubled over beneath the foliage, gasping for breath. She was dead. She was truly dead. She'd been decapitated. She'd been left with her head across the room, her blood across almost every inch of the room. He gasped and hissed, trembling. He'd stumbled across her carcass.

And he'd most likely been the one to cause it. He was the one she had spoken to. And he was sure it had to do with Code Name Atem that she was dead. It had to be something to do with him. There was no other explanation to him. It didn't make sense that someone would attack and kill someone as defenseless as she unless they had stumbled upon their conversation.

Because, she herself, had not been a threat. She had been emaciated. She had been blind. She was gentle in spirit, even if it was somewhat soured by bitterness. She was not a threat by any means. No definition of the word would ever point towards her.

So it was their discussion. It had to be.

He panted, pain coursing through him, and felt as if his entire body were vibrating with his grief. He shuddered, gasping, and closed his eyes tightly. It was scary to him, how powerful such a feeling was despite their mere minutes of conversation. He was not sure if it was because she'd held answers, she was Jonouchi's sister, or something to do with his disease. But it was there and he supposed to question it was not truly worth it.

The fact remained that he was grieved by the sudden loss. That was all that mattered in the end, that it was happening and he would have to go through the course of it as he needed.

Who was he to deny what his mind declared was necessary of him?

Yugi forced himself to start moving again. It was more fear than anything else which made him start walking. It was irrational and he felt sick to his stomach but he could not stay there. It was selfish that he felt the need to run for it when he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that no one would be following him.

They had no reason to. They had no connection to him. Even if someone were suspicious, they had no leads.

He shivered and shook his head. His feet felt heavy as he continued forward. His stomach felt disgustingly harsh now. His heart stuttered behind his chest again. He felt like he was going to vomit now more than ever before.

He remembered the heat from the river he and Yami had fallen into in their dream. The smell had been just as terrible then as it was in his best friend sister's hospital room. He remembered how sticky it'd felt. Thank the gods he hadn't touched it when he'd opened the window. He remembered drowning in it, swept beneath a wave of red which clogged his nose and filled his lungs when he breathed. He felt just as choked now as he had then.

Yugi glanced about himself once, then hurried forward again. The coppery smell was fading somewhat, though he still felt as if he had drenched himself in her blood. The whole room had been practically assaulted with bright red. The image behind his eyes made them water. But it did not stop him. He was relieved, at least, that he had not looked into her eyes when he had fled.

At least that would be one less thing to haunt him.

Yugi paced through the trees but his anxiety did not leave him. And he couldn't completely push away the harsh scent of blood in his nose again. Even the hard-packed earth and the chill of snow as it began to slowly fall in shallow swoops of bright white did nothing to stop it. His stomach dropped even as his heart began to pound further. He licked his lips, then drew his teeth across his tongue for a moment.

But there was something repulsively sweet and yet decayed now as well. It was a harsher scent, making him stop short, though his mind flashed again with her mangled corpse. He didn't think he would ever see it away.

But it tore through his senses again, drawing him forward further. His eyes flashed with bewilderment, his mouth opening and then closing again. Something about the scent was alluring yet repulsive all the same.

He padded forward another step. Then he halted and breathed in deeply again. His heart was hurting when he looked about himself once more. The trees were somewhat denser, the undergrowth more abundant, and his stomach ached. Some of the leaves knotted against the fabric of his jeans and he felt even more harshly the urge to heave. He glanced around once more, then began to move again.

His senses hadn't alerted him to a threat. His eyes narrowed slightly, scanning the trees. Despite his experience of reacting instinctively and hitting Jonouchi in the face after an effortless block, he could not stop himself from checking again. He had not fully sensed Valon when he'd walked in on him and Yami the day before. So why should he not be keen about it now?

Yugi slowed his steps to minimize his noise, though in his ears the snow crunched too loudly and the blanket of white on the leaves around his sneakers did nothing to shield it. He shivered but did not fail to follow his plan of investigation. Curious and frustrated, the small teen drew in another deep breath to sort through the scents in the air. The dead frost did well to preserve much of it. He wondered if the lack of wind and the new snow had allowed him to smell things further off.

The flakes were but a mere dusting at the moment, a light flurry of white against the air. He frowned slightly, tilting his head. Valon had said the winter would be longer and harsher than he'd ever experienced before. He had…

He shook his head sharply. So it was snowing. But it always snowed in winter in Hokkaido. Especially in Domino. They were so close to the mountain range that it made it impossible for the snow to miss their city.

Yugi had seen a couple of bad winters as it was. The idea of it being so much worse than them was chilling. He remembered his mom one time telling him that the year he was born, the entire city was shut down for a month. The snow had fallen in such abundance that it was impossible to clear the streets for cars. The electricity had gone out for the entire duration. And the snow had piled up beyond a foot high.

He wondered if they might be more prepared for such an event now. It had been sixteen years. And the certainty which Valon had spoken with still put him on edge. How was he meant to ignore it if he could almost feel such a thing in the air now as well? He had even said the coldest day of the season had not come yet…

He shivered, but his slow movements had not ceased. Something soft, like a trace of cologne almost wispy like the scent of a candle, came to his nose. He halted, eyes widening. It was definitely a cologne of some kind. The scent was something spicy with a kinder edge like burning wood. He bit his lip, eyes flickering about rapidly as he turned his attention toward the trees surrounding him once more.

That smell was disturbingly familiar. He knew it somehow. But still he could not fully grasp what it was that he was meant to do with such knowledge. Where had he smelled it before? Who had worn it? He narrowed his eyes and drew the scent deep into his lungs, holding it for several minutes.

Yugi knew it. He recognized it from somewhere.

He shook his head slightly. He turned and started forward as the scent became clearer to him in his mind. The cold air preserved the smell well. He shook his head as it burned his nasal passages for a long moment.

Yugi paused at the edge of the trees. There was displaced dirt, a pile thrown about within the virgin snow. It had been flung about, the ice colored with dark brown and red. He shivered, swallowing hard. Someone had been digging.

He stepped forward again. Why would someone be digging in the woods? It made no sense to him. Why do such a thing in a seemingly random place such as this? It was one miniscule-looking clearing, with a clear ring of trees.

He halted at this thought, head snapping around once. No, the trees towards the middle were lower to the ground. Some were still growing, but others were but several years old, only half the height of the older. He glanced at the branches for a moment, then stiffened further.

He pressed forward one more step.

His mind ached with a sudden pulsing violence. His stomach dropped harshly and his heart began to race with bewilderment. He knew this place. He had made a point of avoiding it for years. Since he was twelve, he had never set foot in it. Yet, somehow, for whatever reason, his nose had led him here.

He shivered, a disdainful snarl forming in his mind. How fitting that he should find his way there. Shizuka had just died and he had come into the abandoned area of the most memorialized graveyard in Domino City. There were, of course, only two cemeteries in the first place, but he knew this to be the one too heavily populated to hold anymore. They would have been cutting into the national park had they failed to stop using it and so they had made another, closer to the border of the neighboring city.

Yugi hesitated, eyes flickering about once more, and then grimaced. His head was still pulsating with pain but it was second to the declaration which shot into his mind.

Ryuzaki Dinosaur was the one who wore that cologne. He was the only one Yugi had ever encountered with that particular scent.

The thought made him somewhat anxious.

He had never considered that someone he knew might be digging through the graveyard. The idea of someone he knew digging up a grave made him want to be sick. Why would anyone think that was something they needed to do? It seemed idiotic to him, unless it was truly somehow necessary for them. And he couldn't think of why it ever could be. Yami had mentioned something about hellhounds needing to eat the brain and heart in order to gain the ability to change into them. But…why change into someone long dead? And did it even work like that?

Yugi felt as if his insides were withering. A new smell, deep and woodsy, like dampened leaves and soaked moss, had come to reach his nose now. He stiffened, shivering, and his heart felt as if it were going to dissipate altogether. He backed up, a harsh tremble coursing through him now.

Oh gods, wolfsbane…

There was someone with wolfsbane nearby.

He was shaking so hard the trees had become feverish blurs. His mouth opened and closed and he swallowed back a choked noise. In front of him, several yards away, was Ryuzaki, crouched beside the scar of a desolate grave.

Yugi felt as if his hands might fall off at any moment, his fingers shaking rapidly. He backed up another step and nearly fell backwards on his own feet. He clamped his jaws, pressing his tongue into the roof of his mouth tightly. He couldn't breathe…

His body felt like it was burning and stretching and—

He turned tail and fled.

---

He looked over as Yami stretched and shrugged his shoulders lazily. He had just woken from a nap; that much was clear without even thinking twice. His eyes were glazed, his expression sloppy with disheveled hair, his bangs wild, a few wrinkles of hideous red across his cheeks where he'd laid his head against his arms. He was still in the corner, but he'd moved to bring a blanket at some point, that same deep red one that Yugi had grabbed him that night. The small teen tilted his head as they took each other in, and wondered vaguely how terrible he looked as Yami immediately sat up with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" the taller boy asked instantly, eyes sharp and sleep erased from his features. If not for the slight knotting in his hair and the grease which made his bangs stringy and his reddened cheeks, he would have looked as if he had never been asleep. Yugi almost wanted to smile but the sensation felt foreign to him.

He felt shaky, and the idea of sharing with him the newest fear which had come upon him was a relief, but he faltered. He could not think of anything to truly say. Instead he blinked and stared at him, his heart leaping to his throat. After all of the trauma he felt too exhausted to explain. And he thought Yami might become too alarmed to relax.

And he had only just begun to make him relax again in the first place. He shivered, then looked away again quickly, voice slightly dismissive as he whispered, "Nothing is wrong, Yami. Nothing at all."

The other boy almost opened his mouth to snap at him in disdain. But then he stopped. Something about the way Yugi seemed almost crushed and too terribly small made him hesitant. He bit his tongue, staring at him intensely for a moment, and then looked away as well with dark eyes.

Fine; if Yugi would not tell him, then that was his own decision.

"So, did I wake you?" The question was spoken with something like acute pain towards such a thought. Yami blinked wide eyes, then looked up again. The smaller boy was watching him, head slightly bowed, peering at him through his long lashes.

"Not entirely. I was already waking. You just gave me reason to truly do so," he stated after a moment, studying his face further. Yugi looked crestfallen even with this gentle lie, as if he knew too well to listen to such words, and the very thought made him sad. But Yami had no idea how to comfort him, if he should ever truly wish for that, so he glanced away instead. "I was sleeping off some medication I took earlier."

The statement made Yugi pause, eyes growing wide. "What about your arms? How do they feel? Do you think we should clean and redo the dressings?" he asked, voice almost somehow hopeful. His tone made the taller boy blink and raise his head again, attention immediately caught on him once more. His eyes flickered about once or twice, then narrowed faintly.

"We can, I suppose, but I do not know them to be truly necessary," he admitted after a moment, lowering his gaze to them slowly. He was not sure how well they'd healed, or whether it would be a wise idea to mess with them now. He was not sure he had put enough food in his belly to help them along. The past two days had been so stressful that sometimes he was amazed he had not succumbed to fear and hidden himself away. Sometimes he wondered how it was that his body even continued to function.

He lightly trailed a finger over the layers of fabric wrapped around his skin. He wondered if his flesh would be wrinkled and shriveled… "Yes, let's go ahead and do that. I wish to see how far they have progressed in recovery."

Yugi wondered if that would even slightly hint towards his mental recovery as well. If his body was healing well, did that mean the stress was leaving him yet or would it simply be a singular form of some kind? He could not fully comprehend the way the disease worked, however, so he vowed to himself that moment to take note of his words, his tone, the way he moved when he had him join him on the bed. That way, he could maybe gauge it somewhat.

He was not sure Yami would allow him to if he got an idea of what he was doing, but he still thought to do it. He had to. If Yami wasn't recovering from the horror of that dream, he did not know what he would do. He did not know what he would do to fix it. He did not know if he would become sick from it all. What if the burden of it weighed him down until he nearly snapped beneath the pressure?

And then, what happened if he truly did snap beneath it all?

He thought he was going to puke again. His head was swimming with terror. What would happen to him? Would he lash out at all of them? Yugi did not know that he could fight him off. He did not know if he would manage to get away from it all…

Yami joined him on the bed when he pulled the kit back from beneath the bed. Both of them ignored that blood was smeared across both sides, their fingertips formerly drenched in the bright red liquid. The smaller boy could have flinched before then. But now he merely flipped the lid open and looked at the tools inside with studious attention. His focus was unrivaled, beautifully so, and the taller boy appreciated it more than he thought himself capable of putting into words.

He bit his lip and kept his teeth pressed against his tongue as he watched Yugi draw the scissors from the kit. Neatly he ran his nails over the blades, an unspoken attempt to clean dried blood away, and slid the tip beneath the tape of his bandage on his left arm. Yami kept still but his stomach tossed brilliantly at the display, the measured and methodical light which entered the other boy's eyes. He had the beautiful determination needed for a steady hand in surgery and Yami felt sick to have stolen that possibility from him.

Yugi snipped away the tape along his arm, down to his elbow. He was amazed to see that it had hardly risen upwards from where he had bent his arm and folded it as many times as he had. In fact, he was almost unable to recall a point in the last two days in which Yami had not had his arms crossed.

He frowned faintly at the idea, but began to gently pull the tape away. He slid his fingers along the sticky adhesive, tugging it softly away from his skin. The red-eyed teen did not even fully pay the action attention.

It was a relief to him at the moment. But still it made him queasy. Despite hiding it away from his features, he could not shake the feeling of intense disbelief and growing sickness. The hot smell of coppery blood from where he tore the edges of the other's skin open along his arms made his head spin and the stench of glue made him want to puke. He suppressed a shiver, focusing entirely on the wound as he needed. There was no puss, but the stench made him nearly flinch away in confusion.

It smelled as if all of his cells had died where they were exposed to the air, as they had before. And he saw that the edges were lined with black almost like stripes of kohl, though half of it seemed also to appear like used glue that had been stripped and flattened there. He shivered, looking into the kit for a moment before pulling out the scalpel he had stuffed inside a while back.

He stared at the sharp blade, the smooth silver surface of it, and felt vaguely unnerved and discontent with the idea of using it again. But he knew as well that Yami would never mind it. He would put up with whatever it took in order to survive an ordeal, no matter how large or small it was.

Yugi wished he himself could do the same. But his first instinct was to run to someone else with a problem when he could not understand it or face it head on. His first thought had been to tell Yami exactly what had upset him so much on his walk back. He wanted to tell him why he had doubled back several times, repeatedly changing directions each time, scared that there really was someone watching him. He had been so terrified that someone was following, that they meant to do what Bakura and Pegasus had seemingly failed to.

His heart felt sick as he reached over to touch his arm. It occurred to him only then that he had not sanitized his hands. The thought made him falter. His heart raced for a moment, his hands halting halfway towards the bare flesh. He blinked, looking up when Yami very quietly, asked, "Is it bad?" in a calm voice underlined with confusion.

Yugi shivered. "No, I just…I just realized that I hadn't washed my hands or anything before I started," he admitted with a small sigh. "I'm thinking I might need to go back and do that before I do it again."

The taller boy watched him, eyes sharp and calculating, and then shook his head. "It does not matter," he stated simply. "You cannot infect me with anything. The lycanthropy will burn away any illness I might gain from lack of proper preparation. Although, I doubt that you would have anything that could do that as it is."

He hesitated only a moment longer, tilting his head before leaning forward to look at the wound more closely. The smell came in waves, the stench of decay and dead cells which needed to be scraped away for new growth. He licked his lips and moved his hand to grasp his palm, flattening it further and tilting his arm slightly. The other boy blinked at him, but Yugi hardly noticed as he shifted the scalpel closer to his skin.

"You sure you don't want me to go wash my hands first? I haven't touched the wound yet," he reminded him gently. "I can always just do that and come back after—"

He shook his head sharply. "No, I do not see a point in wasting any further time in this. Please, just begin as you must. I want to see how well it is healing."

Yugi wished he could say that he could just look at it then and there and consider that to be it. But it was clear that was far from the case. The cells would have to be scraped and he'd have to wash the wound and let him see from there. It was obvious, however, that, unlike last time, Yami was not healing enough to push the gauze outwards and nearly completely away from the wound altogether. Unlike then, Yugi would have to pull it out himself, then discard them and eventually repeat the action so that it could mend itself properly.

He nearly sighed but bit back the reaction. It would be stupid to grow irritable with such a task. He couldn't ask for someone more patient and willing than Yami as it was. He couldn't fault him for anything because he was so willing to let him do as he needed because it ensured his survival.

"Okay," he mumbled softly, ignoring his initial response to say that he was really far more inclined to do that than anything else. But there was no argument he could come up with to make it seem more urgent. And he was sure Yami would fight him if he had to. He was not going to let Yugi waste more time than necessary. "Then, I guess I'll just start scraping and then we'll bandage you right back up again."

Yami let out a small hum in response.

Yugi worked on the task of using the scalpel blade to sheer away gently at his dead cells, eyes sharp with wonder for a moment. The layer was larger than he'd initially thought and the moment he scraped away the decayed cells, the blood began to swell upwards in rivulets and beads. He blinked thoughtfully at the concept, but his mind was also traveling elsewhere.

Had someone truly been following, wouldn't they have tried to catch him?

Wouldn't they have attempted to cut him off and attack him?

He thought of the wolfsbane and nearly puked again. He didn't know what they had done with it, but he was sure it had to have been used on Ryuzaki if it was. And he felt sick knowing that he had left him to his fate, whatever it might be, but the thought of rescuing him was far from anything he ever could have done. There was no way he could have gone in there—not with that smell.

Yugi was not sure he would have gone to help Yami with such a situation, either. And, if she were infected as well, he did not think he would have even been able to save Anzu. The thought made him nearly quiver, but he suppressed it in order to keep from alarming the boy in front of him. Instead he drew in a deep breath, holding it within the pit of his lungs, and kept his gaze on the wound in front of him.

How sickening.

How pathetic.

He kept his eyes there. The wound had to be the most truthful thing in his bedroom at the moment. Because his reluctance to explain felt like a betrayal. And Yami's silence was suffocating. The blood, however, bright red and swelling, could not lie. It spoke of health beneath this dried death of black skin atop it. It whispered of healing.

He closed his eyes for a moment, relieved, then went about using the tips of his nails to dig into the serrated flesh and pull away the soiled dressing. Yami, as always, failed to flinch.

Yugi could not imagine what one must have gone through in order to lack the ability to react to pain of such magnitude. And he knew it had to be something powerful to have caused a wound to oneself and then ignore it when it throbbed and ached and grew inflamed with heat.

He let out a breath, then turned to grasp the needle set, pulling out the necessary ones and the sutures with it, eyes sharp with familiarity. He knew this well enough not to even think much about it anymore.

It was a powerful and well-ingrained skill to be able to shut away the rest of the world to figure out what had to be done. His mother had taught him that ability well. He wondered how he would ever thank her for that when his original goal in life was no more.

Yami watched him for a moment, eyes sharp and dark, and then looked away as the needle entered his skin. Yugi kept it there for a moment, then pulled his hand away to grasp at the spray bottle to soak through the fissure of flesh. The taller teen watched him dab it with a cloth, a soft sting greeting him which he easily ignored, and stared with wide eyes as Yugi gently wiped at the blood he'd so easily gathered from the scalpel. With easy and sure flicks of his wrists and caresses of his fingers he'd managed to wipe away whatever little bit of debris rested in there.

Yugi licked his lips again as he began to sew the wound shut again. A few layers had healed, so no more bone showed bright white in between the pale pink of muscle and the red of fresh blood. He closed his eyes for a moment, then turned towards the bandage tape. "Thankfully, you don't need to have the gauze put back in there again. You're healing too fast. It'd just end up being a burden like it was the last time."

Yami tilted his head. "I do not recall it being burdensome."

Yugi smiled faintly and worked to cut at the tape which confined his right arm. "I just meant the way that your arms had healed so well that it began to push them out, remember?" he said softly, glancing at him in amusement from beneath his lashes. "Anyways, we'll get this one sorted out too and call it a night, okay? I'm pretty tired."

Yami studied him for a moment, frowning deeply. "Yes," he stated calmly, "you look exhausted. Are you sure you are all right?"

He nodded almost lazily, reflexive in action. "Yeah, Yami, I'm fine. But thanks for asking. It's all okay though." He paused, giving him a bigger smile that was both friendly and slightly distracted. "Let's just go ahead and put on a movie and see who falls asleep first, okay?"

He studied him only a moment longer. Then he nodded his consent towards such a plan. "Yes," he answered in that same tone. He kept his right arm angled for him to continue his work, but lowered his left towards his lap. He barely noticed that Yugi had not had to put as much tape or wrapping around as he had before. The wound had even receded an inch from his elbow, and he could see no damage or even a scratch remaining there on his arm.

Yugi picked at the gauze between his skin, dropping it away on the bed as he had the other. He narrowed his eyes slightly but did not bother any further with a display of discomfort. His mind was elsewhere again.

It would not leave the grave alone. That one grave that Ryuzaki had dug up…

Did it hold some kind of importance?

Or was it just something that defined him as a hellhound?

Yami said that hellhounds would eat corpses sometimes. Did that mean that a starving lycanthrope would not resort to the same or was it something else? He couldn't tell.

He snipped away the last suture, then got to his feet as he began to put everything away again. "Here, you go ahead and pick out a movie, okay? I'm going to put this up. I'll be back in a minute."

Yami watched him with an expression that bordered somewhere between cynical and confused. Then he wandered off before Yugi could say a word, headed for his closet as he had asked of him.

Yugi packed away the items in a more organized manner, then picked out a bottle of pills for the other wolf. He pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth and swallowed thickly as he wandered back towards the bed. He ignored the smears of blood on the canister as he dropped it to the floor gently and pushed it away lightly with his foot.

If hellhounds ate dead bodies, then was that a staple of their diet? Was that something that they relied on steadily? Did that allow them to change and take on their incorporeal form regardless of how long they had been dead? Or was it something else entirely? Did they truly eat the corpses in order to gain their forms? And, if so, was there not a time frame for which to do it before the ability was nonexistent?

He remembered that Yami had said otherwise, however. He had written on that note that the chemical the hellhounds needed to become incorporeal was only there in fresh corpses. And he'd said that they would need to eat the heart of a corpse to gain that form. But the graves within the forest were not fresh. He knew that.

Yugi didn't understand what it was that made them want to dig them up from this certain graveyard.

But then, he also didn't know if Ryuzaki was a hellhound in the first place. And the thought of hellhounds all eating human bodies at some point disgusted him. Did Valon eat them too? Did the same boy who had helped him when he had yet to find Yami…did Valon truly eat them too?

And, did that mean, at some point, that lycanthropes did it as well?

Was he doomed to eventually end up devouring a corpse too?

Yami was seated on the bed when he went around the other side to plop down. He had, for a small moment, the overwhelming urge to reach out and touch his arm. He had the urge to touch him and make sure he was there, to maybe see if the thought made him unrecognizable to him somehow.

But Yugi failed to do so, and as he looked at Yami again, he realized somewhere in the back of his mind, that despite it all, he knew and recognized nothing of the other boy.

Yami was not his friend. Or, at least not in a way that implied knowledge of each other.

There was only the emotional loyalty which tied them together.

There was only a matter of survival between them.

And there was nothing for him to recognize in Yami because he lacked the knowledge of what it was that made him Yami.

As mentioned in the chapter, Lupa's Blessing is a term used predominantly by the lycanthrope to ask safe passage through another's territory. The hellhounds use this phrase to show proper respect to a lycanthrope and, in turn, the lycanthropes will ask a hellhound for Fenrir's Blessing.

So, for this case, Valon asks Yami for Lupa's Blessing in order to seem less opposing so as not to provoke a challenge from him. And, if the situation were ever to be reversed, Yami would then ask Valon for Fenrir's Blessing to show proper respect and seem less threatening.

As for the Lunar Ascension, you'll find out what that event pertains to later on in the story. It gets discussed several various times, with different characters, and all of them have certain thoughts on the event. You'll understand later why it is that small details were changed in this manner later as the story goes on.

I should be back on track with updates, but in case I'm not, don't worry. I'll try to update again the next posting date on my schedule.