The British heatwave continues! Usually our summers are disappointing and crap! But it has been more like Spain for the last two and a bit weeks. We could do with a bit of rain for the garden, but I hope the nice weather continues.

On with the story: Italics indicate that we have switched to Jonouchi's pov, deep inside his Room of the Soul.

Warnings: a bit of swearing.


Chapter 22.

Jonouchi.

With the memory of what had happened last time he was here still in the back of his mind, Yugi had warned his friends to be cautious about eating anything prepared by Mokuba. And while he was certain Mokuba had changed for the better, he was still not sure he trusted him fully – yet! He could also hear his other Self whispering in his mind, that it was always wise to be cautious where food cooked by a potential enemy was concerned.

Mokuba handed the plates round and took one for himself.

At first, each of them poked at it while they waited for Mokuba to start eating his. But, they were shocked when Katsu tucked in without any concern or hesitation. "Mmmmm..." she mumbled, shovelling in a big mouthful and nodding in satisfaction.

Yugi looked at her with wide eyes. How could she be so relaxed and at home at the Maiba Mansion after what had happened to Jonouchi, here in this very room?

Mokuba was a little bit upset that they were not eagerly tucking in. "Don't you guys like cake?" He pouted. "This is my all time favourite!" However, he was not a stupid kid and it did occur to him that Yugi might have good reason not to trust him after their earlier encounters. It made him sad to look back at how he had behaved towards Yugi and he was desperate to show him that he had changed.

Keen to prove that the cake was not laced with poison, he took a big bite of his own portion and nodded happily as he ate.

Yugi glanced at his other Self, hovering beside him, waiting for his reaction. He was watching intently.

Reassured that it was safe to eat, Yami Yugi nodded. "I believe that Mokuba is now trustworthy, Aibou."

Meanwhile, Anzu was very quick to reassure their host. "Yes! Of course we love cake Mokuba." She glanced sideways at Yugi who was just scooping some cake up with his fork, preparing to eat. So she did the same.

Unlike Katsu, Honda had always preferred to weigh up a situation before rushing in. His ability to persuade Jonouchi to 'think before reacting' was the reason they had become best friends. But he felt powerless over Katsu, who was almost halfway through her large lump of cake – at least she was not turning green and convulsing! It worried him how willing she was to trust the Kaiba brothers after everything they had done.

But Honda also felt himself a pretty good judge of character too, and from what he was seeing, Mokuba was definitely a better person from the one they had first encountered at Death-T. He still remembered how Mokuba had turned off the falling blocks and let him out of that room. If the kid wanted him dead, then he would have left him in that room to be crushed to death.

Carefully picking up his fork, he scooped up a small amount from the corner of his cake and looked it over. "You can't really blame us for being nervous Mokuba. But I do think you have earned our trust," he gave the boy a friendly wink.

Mokuba blinked and looked down for a moment, before looking back up with a guilty but relieved expression. "I'm sorry for what I did to you guys in the past. If it helps, I feel really bad about poisoning Jonouchi and wanting you all to die in Death-T. If Jonouchi was here, I would say sorry to him."

Katsu's head snapped up to look at him. "I'm pretty sure he would accept your apology Mokuba," she said, with sincerity.

"Thanks," said Mokuba, sheepishly. "Maybe I will get a chance to tell him how sorry I am, when he gets back?"

"Yeah, he would like that. I will let him know," Katsu replied, with, in Honda's opinion, too much sickly charm.

Even though his cake was clearly not poison, Honda felt like gagging at the display – she should not be so friendly towards Mokuba. If he grew too fond of her, he would be upset when she vanished.

Mai did not really understand what all the fuss about. Poison cake?! Fattening, yes, but poison?! Okay, so she barely knew Mokuba. But from what she had seen of the kid, he did not seem like a poisoner. A lonely rich brat, who had been through a lot of hurt in his young life and had anger issues. But to imagine him lacing food with poison and deliberately feeding it to Jonouchi, was scary.

However, despite this revelation about the kid, she nibbled at her cake anyway. Not through fear of being poisoned, but more through fear of eating so many empty calories – she had a knock-em-dead figure to maintain.

Thankfully, no one collapsed with convulsions or turned green, and everyone was able to relax. The cake was delicious. Mokuba certainly had a talent for making deserts.

::::::::::::

Deep inside Katsu's heart and mind, Jonouchi was feeling totally imprisoned.

At first, he had been able to see, hear and feel everything that was going on with his 'female' body. However, his awareness and control had gradually diminished, until all that remained was this... this prison.

Sure, the room was full of all the things that defined Jonouchi as a person, but he was completely trapped!

He was not sure when it had happened, but even the window had completely disappeared! And now the door had vanished too – there was no way out!

Was this similar to the the sort of room Yugi had been trapped in when the other Yugi took over? Is that why he had experienced blackouts? Yugi had mentioned something about everyone having a soul room. Was this his?

Unless the evil spirit decided he wanted him to remember, Ryou often had vague recollections of events too. So he must also become trapped.

Did this mean that Katsu was deliberately blocking him from his own mind? Or did Katsu have no knowledge of what had happened to Jonouchi? Since she did not hold a Millennium item, it was possible that she was at the mercy of Bakura and the Millennium Ring.

He sat on the bed and rested his head against the headboard – which luckily, rested against the brightest corner or the light wall – and looked around at the things in his room: there was certainly enough here to keep him busy if he so wished. He had also discovered he could use his mind to change some of the items!

At the moment, there was a set of dumbells in one corner, and there was a punch bag hanging from the ceiling above; a pair of boxing gloves lay discarded underneath it. Clothes also littered the floor, and drawers were haphazardly left open; some of the clothing hanging out of the drawers where he had been too lazy to tidy it away. There was also a lot of other sporting equipment: such as a rugby ball, a football, football boots, a tennis racquet and a baseball bat – which he remembered had only ever been used as a weapon.

One of the walls was optimistic and very bright: it was covered with pictures of his friends. There were also pictures from happier times with his little sister, before his parents divorced.

The opposite wall told a different story: it told of darker times in his life, and was full of reminders of former gang mates and his arrests for minor, and some rather more serious offences.

If he listened closely to that wall, he was sure he could hear the sounds of knuckles cracking and his father yelling drunken expletives. It was not a nice wall and he preferred the brighter one as it gave him hope.

The two adjacent walls marked his transition, from a happy little kid with a great family life, to a disturbed adolescent from a broken home. The wall that lead him away from that dark period in his life, showed his transition from gangland thug and bully, to duelist extraordinaire and good friend to Yugi – the boy he had bullied. And yes, one corner of the dark wall made a point of reminding him just what a bastard he had been to the small lad that had never once done him any harm, and yet he had still felt the need to steal his lunch nearly every day, call him names and shove him to the ground during PE lessons, because he had thought he was a wimp.

Outside of this room, he had no idea what Katsu was getting herself into without his permission.

The whole dating Kaiba thing had started out as a huge joke: he had planned to string Kaiba along for as long as possible and make the tight bastard spend his money on Katsu.

But that had started to backfire immediately, when Jonouchi had been able to sense the feelings Katsu was developing for Kaiba. He dreaded that she might act on them; using his body – no, not his body, but the female body that had been inflicted on him.

But, he knew he could rely on his friends to prevent her doing anything stupid:

Yugi; the boy he had once bullied but was now his best friend.

Anzu; the feisty, outspoken girl who would go the the end of the world for her friends. Even though he had often bad mouthed her, and had humiliated her in class by lifting her skirt to see her panties, she had still taken Katsu under her wing without hesitation.

Honda; the boy he had been friends with since grade school and had always taken for granted. If ever he needed someone to cover his back, reliable Honda would be there to help out when the shit hit the fan.

Or... would his friends remember all the shitty, nasty mean things he had done to them over the years, and cut him loose? He would not blame them if they did!

He got off the bed and trudged over to the punch-bag to knock the stuffing out of it. But after five minutes of punching and kicking and generally trying to murder it, he realised that hitting something just for the sake of it was pointless. He needed to be constructive with his use of energy; find a way to beat or tear down these confining walls, by using his brain.

There was a way to beat this spell, there had to be!

::::::::::::

"I thought Mokuba was a very good host," said Anzu, positively.

"Yes, he was," Mai agreed. "Especially after his brother bailed as soon as he knew we were invited!"

"That's typical of Kaiba," Yugi added.

Everyone piled into Mai's car. Honda took the front passenger seat, and Yugi found himself sandwiched in the back between Anzu and Katsu.

"Are you all going back to Anzu's?" Asked Mai, as she waited for her rear seat passengers to fumble around with their seatbelts and fasten them.

"Yeah, thanks," Honda was the first to reply. "I left my bike there."

"Yes, I will go back to Anzu's house too," Yugi answered. He was keen to find out what had really happened between Katsu and Kaiba. He was pretty sure there was more to it than a conference call that caused Kaiba to skulk off to his room. Katsu was keeping quiet; but he did wonder if they had argued over her trying to break up with him.

Being polite, he did not ask. She would tell them in her own time.

Honda was less concerned about politeness. He was keen to get the truth out of her. Twisting in his seat, he looked at Katsu over his shoulder. "Did you tell him?"

"Tell him what?" Katsu replied, feigning ignorance.

"Tell him it was over you idiot! Is that why he went to his room?"

"No, I didn't tell him. We did have a bit of an argument over something stupid, and I was just about to tell him, but Mokuba came in with the cake so I never got chance." Honda was glaring at her in disbelief. "What?! It's the truth!"

"Is that the only reason he went to his room?" Anzu was a little less accusing in her tone than Honda had been. "Only, it's not like Kaiba to run away from an argument."

Katsu knew they would wheedle the truth out of her so she confessed. "He got angry, smashed a glass and cut his hand. He didn't want none of you to see him with it bandaged up, so he went to his room," she replied matter of factly.

"He did what?!" Yugi gasped. What must she have said that made him lose his temper and cut himself? It must have been bad. "You didn't tell him who you really were, did you?"

Katsu's eyes went wide. "What da ya take me for Yugi? I ain't that stupid!" She snapped.

"Sorry," Yugi responded meekly. "I wasn't implying you were. I just wondered why Kaiba would lose his temper like that?"

"Yeah, sorry Yugi," she nudged him with her shoulder. "I didn't mean to bite ya head off. But he annoyed me. He tried to say he was the only one who had it tough growing up. I pointed out that other people have shit lives too, but they don't get rich and turn into arrogant bastards."

Mai let out a loud, unladylike snort of laughter. "Yeah, that would do it," she chuckled.

Beside her, Honda also snorted with laughter. If that didn't put Kaiba off her and help her to end the relationship, then nothing could! Well, nothing except turning back into Jonouchi in front of Kaiba.

"So, I'm guessing you won't be seeing him again?" Asked Anzu, hopefully.

Katsu shrugged. "I have no idea. I'm just gonna leave it and see what happens." In her heart, she wanted to run to him, apologise and make it up to him. She was sure that he would be apologetic towards her as well. But her common sense told her that was a selfish, futile thing to do. She needed to remind herself that no good would come of her forming more than just a platonic relationship with him.

::::::::::::

The next day, Katsu awoke with a strange feeling of anxiety. She felt hot, irritable and her head hurt. It felt like a small person with a baseball bat was pounding inside her head. Don't say she was about to have another period already!

::::::::::::

Since becoming friends with Yugi, Jonouchi had seen a lot of weird shit.

Yugi had talked about playing Shadow Games, where the loser would face a Penalty Game. From what he had seen, the punishment dished out to the loser played on their worst fears and darkest thoughts.

The first one he had seen was when Shadi turned that nice professor Kanekura into a zombie. The guy had been a complete basket case and had not even flinched at being kicked in the face and sprayed with the fire extinguisher. Most guys would have been knocked out cold by all that!

Bakura had also turned their game of Monster World into a Shadow Game, by placing their souls in their game pieces. And more recently, he had seen Yugi play Shadow Games at Duelist Kingdom. That player killer, Panik, had really thought he was being sent to the gallows and had appeared to choke to death on... nothing!

Pegasus had also started one when he played against Yugi in the final. The two duelists had been shrouded in a dark, impenetrable fog, which had shielded them from view.

But on that occasion, Yugi had not inflicted any punishment on Pegasus, so the winner definitely had control over the loser's fate.

Yugi had also done something to Kaiba when he defeated him at Death-T. It hadn't looked like a Shadow Game, but from their close view point, they had been able to see a strange aura being emitted from Yugi, and he had yelled 'Penalty Game' and then 'Mind Crush' .What was it Yugi had said? He could not remember the exact words, but it had been something about removing the darkness from Kaiba's heart.

Jonouchi did not understand how it all worked, but one thing was for sure: the Millennium items were riddled with scary, voodoo magic shit.

If what he understood from the things Yugi had mentioned, the dark wall of his room was made from the darkness in his heart. Jonouchi told himself to think: what was it Yami Yugi had said?

It was something about controlling the shadows. He could manipulate the darkness and the shadows that lurked within, and bend them to his will.

Then, if that was the case, Bakura could do the same. He must have called upon the dark magic voodoo shit and put Jonouchi in this room. The dark wall was meant to terrify him into submission and stop him escaping.

The way out had to be through the one wall he was afraid of – the dark wall.

Steeling himself, he got off the bed and picked up the baseball bat. If any monsters were in that wall, he would beat the crap out of them!

Stealth attack, or full out assault? Jonouchi always preferred the latter.

Letting out a war cry, he raised the bat, ready to strike and charged the wall. He did not know what he expected to find, but it was not a solid wall. His shoulder slammed into the hard surface and he slumped backwards onto the floor, in pain.

"Ow! Fuck you! Damned wall!" He shouted.

Rubbing his bruised shoulder he recovered his dropped bat and stood up. There was one option, fumble around in the dark and look for the hidden door.

Reaching the wall, he found himself shrouded in complete pitch black darkness. It was also hard to breathe – like a thick smog trying to invade your lungs. Undaunted, he carried on searching for his way out.

::::::::::::

Shuffling into to the dining room, Katsu sat down and gazed at her food. Her chest hurt and she wasn't hungry.

"Are you okay Katsu? You look very pale." Anzu was very concerned for her.

"Yeah," she offered a weak smile. "Must be all the stress. I will be okay."

"Are you sure you want to come to school?"

Katsu shrugged. "Might as well. Better than dossing round here on my own."

"I guess," Anzu frowned. "But don't overdo it."

After eating some breakfast, Katsu felt a little better and was ready for the walk to school.

Putting their shoes on, they grabbed their bags and headed outside, into the muggy air.

"I think we're due a storm," said Anzu, more to make conversation than to inform her friend.

"Yeah, I hate this kinda weather. We should hurry before it starts raining."

They picked up the pace a little, but had not gone more than twenty yards when the Kaiba limousine

came around the corner and pulled up alongside them.

They both stopped walking and watched as the window rolled down. Katsu walked over and peered inside. She could see his wounded hand resting in his lap, neatly bandaged.

"Hi!" She muttered, dumbly.

"Get in Katsu. We need to talk," Seto ordered, blandly.

Anzu grabbed her arm. "You can't..."

Katsu turned to her and patted the hand that was holding her arm. "I will be okay. Seto is right, we do need to talk."

Anzu was still worried. "What if he won't take no for an answer?"

Katsu winked at her. "He might be a jerk, but he has values that would surprise you. I will talk to him and get him to drop me off at school, okay?"

"Okay, I will see you there." Anzu kissed her friend on the cheek. "Please leave your phone on, and ring me if there's any problems."

"I will. Bye!" She waited while the chauffeur opened the door for her, and then slid into the back and settled beside Seto, on the plush, white leather seat.


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