Phoenix: Okay, I just hope I get one review. And I'm sorry guys but the deadline thing is coming to an end now. I'm not that kind of girl yet. But I promise I will work on these stories. On my anniversary I'll say how many years I've been on but nothing fancy. Unless I've got only one story that's not YuGiOh the Other Side. And one more thing: I will not be doing deadlines anymore. I can't stand it. And the last time I had a deadline some of my work wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I will get to my other stories but I want to do that on my own terms. And I really want to finish a few more stories first before I start another. On another note…
Cerberus: I'm back!
Phoenix: And we're all so happy for that. Cerberus has been getting an attitude adjustment while he was out. He might be funnier or he might not be any different. I really don't know and I have no control over this yami.
Cerberus: You bet you don't!
Phoenix: Please review while I keep this guy under control. Oh, almost forgot. Did you guys know that the only Yu-Gi-Oh stuff on iTunes is abridged stuff. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying I'd like to watch other Yu-Gi-Oh stuff (hopefully some Japanese dub with proper subtitles) even if I don't have WiFi. I doubt that I'm the only one who gets tired of lagging and subtitles that make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Parting
By Sailor Phoenix1997
There were only a few times that Seto had been at a loss for words. Holding Kisara outside their bloody classroom door knowing – hypothetically - the teen who his rival and the whitette's baby brother was on the other side was one of those times.
"How can you be so sure that Yugi's there?" he asked. "For all we know, the Kuriboh's just trying to get in to find something."
"Trust me," Kisara sobbed as she stood up, Seto following her movements, "I know. And I knew I should've approached him instead of waiting for him to approach me. If you want to open that door and make me see what I could've avoided, be my guest!" A cold laugh echoed up the hall.
"Please do Seto, I'd love to see that great dragonic spirit of hers crushed by the lifeless shell of her brother." The hall lights turned on, revealing the dragon hunter at the end of the hall holding a Duel Monsters card in his hand. On the side of his head was a long bloody scratch.
"You!" Kisara half spat, half snarled. The dragon hunter shook his head, clicking his tongue in a scolding manner.
"Tsk tsk Kisara. Did no one teach you manners?" Thin tendrils of white energy snaked around Kisara's clenched fists and arms as she snarled again.
"I'll show you manners." The dragon hunter smirked.
"Very well dear dragon. Turn both myself and your brother's soul into a pile of ashes." A loud series of pops echoed up the hall as the energy around Kisara's arms turned into a shower of shining dust on the floor.
"What did you say?" The dragon hunter remained silent as he turned the card around. The picture on the paper showed the child-like teen in a hunched over position with his head in between his knees. Kisara stood completely stunned for a moment before she clenched her jaw and her crystal glowed, sending shadows dancing on the walls. "You animal!" she accused, sparked flying from her crystal as her hair and loose bits of clothing became caught in an unfelt wind.
"Care to have him back dragon? All it will cost is your Kaa." Kisara released a feral snarl as Seto took hold of her elbow and stepped next to her. He shot a glance at the girl next to him and his muscles tightened when he saw the look of defeat and despair in her eyes.
"The day you get your hands on her or her dragon is the day I turn over cold in my grave!" he heard himself shout, surprising not only himself but the other two occupants of the room. Kisara's look of shock turned to one that looked a lot like flirting whilst determination shone in her sapphire orbs.
The dragon hunter's grip on Yugi's soul card released. Kisara lunged forward but the dragon hunter moved at the last second and headed up the stairs.
"Come back here you coward!" the whitette screamed as she ran after him. Seto walked over to where Yugi's soul card had been dropped and picked it up. It was heavier than a regular card, much heavier.
"If this card holds a soul, then it makes sense that it would weigh roughly the same as a human soul," Seto figured. The Kuriboh floated over and tapped his shoulder with his claws. "What is it?"
"Kuri! Kuri!" the creature squealed. Seto sighed.
"I have no idea what you just said. But I'm guessing you want me to put Yugi's soul back where it belongs." The Kuriboh bobbed itself in a nod. "There's just one problem. I have no idea how to do that." The small furball took hold of the should or Seto's shirt and tugged towards the door. "Alright, alright. I'm coming," he said following the creature into the room.
Other than the blood on the window, the room didn't seem to have been touched. The only other occupant was the child-sized teen in the corner sitting with his arms wrapped around his legs so his knees were tucked under his chin and his blank, lifeless eyes were locked on the tiled floor.
The Kuriboh bobbed over to its master and cuddled into the teen's shoulder.
"Yugi," Seto breathed as he walked over to the boy. He looked from the card to the Kuriboh.
"Kuri! Kuri!" The Kuriboh said as it bopped its head against Yugi's forehead.
"There? I put the card there?"
"Kuri!" Seto sighed and shrugged.
"Well, I guess there's nothing to lose," he said as he pressed the piece of paper against Yugi's forehead. The card suddenly became hot and Seto jerked his hand back as it started to glow. The soul card stayed put. "What's going on?!"
The dragon hunter bolted onto the roof, followed quickly by Kisara. The girl raised her palm towards the hunter and a bolt of white lightning shot out, striking his arm. The hunter screamed in pain and rage as he gripped his wounded limb.
"Give it up hunter!" Kisara yelled as she summoned her dragon to her side. "I'm going to end this here and now." The hunter turned chuckling and holding his somewhat smoldering arm.
"I've always admired that dragon." Kisara's scowl deepened.
"Good because she's a gift," Kisara said as she stroked the pearly-white brow of her dragon. "Well, more like she's a parting gift. You know. As in she'll part you. Part of you here, part of you there, part of you way, way over there, staining some wall on the other side of town!" The dragon roared and the dragon hunter chuckled.
"You've obviously forgotten what's going on nowadays my dear," he said as he pointed to the skies as a flash of deep violet lightning arced across the sky. "Your dragon's only so powerful when there's light for it to feed on. However, my Diabound grows stronger in darkness!" Kisara and her dragon snarled. Suddenly the Kaa was ripped away from her mistress with a roar.
"Blue Eyes! No!" Kisara yelled. The dragon struggled against its attacker but the creature of light was held in a vice grip behind the head and at the base of the tail in such a way, the claws couldn't reach the body of the creature of darkness below it. Diabound twisted its hand so it was chocking the dragon. Kisara fell to her knees, grabbing at her throat and trying to pull in desperate gasps of air as if she were the one being chocked instead of her dragon.
The hunter laughed as he walked over and took Kisara's chin in his hand, forcing her to look up at him.
"You said it was over. You said you were going to end it. Isn't that right?" he taunted.
"You sick, depraved-" Kisara chocked out. The dragon hunter chuckled.
"Diabound! End this now!" The dark creature roared as it released the dragon's throat and resumed its original position and started pulling the dragon's head and tail towards each other. The Blue Eyes roared in pain as Kisara mirrored the agony in screaming.
"Leave her alone!" Seto barreled out of the school and hit the dragon hunter on his bad arm with his shoulder, sending the both of them tumbling. Kisara fell to the ground, grabbing at her back and screaming.
Seto snarled as he pushed himself to his feet. He'd hoped that by knocking away the dragon hunter, Diabound would've dropped the Blue Eyes but the creature of darkness was taking its sweet time in bending the dragon in half slowly.
"Sorry to tell you this Seto, but Diabound and I are connected in a far different way than Kisara and her Kaa." Seto grabbed the hunter by the throat and lifted him off the ground so his feet were dangling.
"Listen here you, I don't know how you got out of the Shadow Realm – which is where I suspect Yugi sent you after your duel with him – but I know one thing: I'm going to grind both you and your Diabound to dust!" Seto's eyes sparked and a dark gold aura surrounded his form.
"Wha-what?" Seto chuckled darkly.
"Perhaps you missed it during your time in the Shadows. But apparently, I'm the present-day incarnation of an ancient Egyptian priest. The same priest who originally met and found the first Blue Eyes White Dragon thousands of years ago. I intend to keep this one safe, no matter what I have to do." The dragon hunter gulped. The glow around Seto's body faded away and the brunette threw his darker half face-first into the ground before stepping down hard on the hunter's hand, trapping it to his back. "Call off your Diabound before I really need to get violent." The dragon hunter scowled at the man standing over him.
"Never!" he spat. Seto raised an eyebrow.
"You think I'm giving you a choice? I'm giving you a chance to stop this before you suffer further damage." To demonstrate his point, Seto landed a sharp kick to the darker half's ribs not even blinking when the body responded with a loud CRACK! and a cry of agony from the hunter. "Final chance. Call off your Diabound before I make you."
The hunter pushed himself up somewhat off the ground, cradling his ribs and spitting blood from his nose out of his mouth. He opened his mouth to speak when a ball of magma-orange fire blasted into Diabound's side, causing the creature to drop the white dragon and put an end to Kisara's screaming.
"Yea, that's right! No one messes with my Nee-san without getting me too!"
"Curses!" the hunter screamed. The Diabound broke a fist through the chicken wire fence and the dragon hunter leapt on and ran to the creature's shoulder as it pulled its hand back. Kisara pushed herself up, arms trembling somewhat as she sat up and rubbed her temple. Seto walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Is that…"
"Katsuya," Kisara said with a weak smile. Seto rolled his eyes and helped the girl to her feet. She swayed somewhat but managed to keep her balance as she looked past the fence and down at her blonde brother as his Red Eyes Black Dragon helped her own dragon to her feet. "Atta boy Katsuya!"
"How are you doing up there Nee-san?!" Kisara shrugged.
"Could be worse!" she called. "Seto and I will be down in a minute! Keep firing on them!" Katsuya nodded but his grin was quickly replaced with a look of pure horror.
"Why did you not use anything at the end of his individual name?!" Kisara gulped and quickly stepped away from Seto as her face turned somewhat red.
"Never mind that!" Seto called. "Just keep that thing busy until we come down understood?!"
"You're not the boss of me!" Seto rolled his eyes and took hold of Kisara's arm.
"We better go before he gets anymore questions."
"R-Right," she agreed with batted breath. Seto smiled lightly before the two took off back into the school.
By the time Kisara and Seto left the building, Katsuya's dragon stood at the edge of the grounds, growling and roaring at the Diabound that was walking down the street in a form of retreat with its chest and arms covered in major burns.
"Are you alright?" Kisara asked as she neared her brother.
"Yes, I'm fine." Kisara let out a breath of relief. "How's Yugi?" Kisara opened and closed her mouth like a fish gasping to breathe while being pulled out of the water.
"He'll be fine," Seto assured, more to Kisara than Katsuya. Kisara nodded.
"Right. And right now we need to focus more on stopping that thing before he gets away." Kisara leapt onto her dragon's neck. "Katsuya, go home and tell Nee-sama we'll be back soon." Katsuya blinked at his sister as her dragon's muscles tensed. "Seto, if you want to help us take out the trash hurry up and jump on." Seto quickly jumped behind Kisara on the dragon's neck as the white-scaled beast leapt into the air and let out a trumpet of a roar, twisting her head and turning the roar into something like a howl as it ended and lightning began forming in her mouth.
The Diabound snapped around just in time to receive a blast of white lightning to the chest, sending it crashing down into the street. The white dragon hovered in the air, her body trembling and rumbling in what must've been a draconian laugh.
"Good shot girl," Kisara said, rubbing her dragon's neck. "Few more like that and we'll have this battle in the bag." The Diabound roared in frustration as its master held his hands a few inches apart, forming something in between the palms.
"Watch yourself, I've got a bad feeling about what he's doing," Seto warned. Kisara nodded and patted her dragon's neck.
"Don't worry. She's got a good sense as to what to do during battle." The dragon snarled and rose higher into the air as the Diabound rose. A sphere of darkness shot from the master's hands and barely grazed the dragon's wingtips.
Kisara hissed a curse under her breath as the Diabound leveled a hand, but not at the duo on the white dragon. Instead, its target was the blond boy riding a running black-scaled reptile down the street.
"Katsuya!" The Blue Eyes roared and dove for the Diabound's arm. "Hang on," she warned as the Blue Eyes bit into the Diabound's wrist and yanked back, redirecting the blast into the clouds.
Kisara took hold of her crystal as it started glowing.
"I'm going to put an end to this one way or another. You stay here. I'm going after the hunter," she ordered as she leapt onto the Diabound's arm.
"Wait a minute!" But Kisara didn't listen. Instead she ran up the arm to the hunter. "Great," Seto muttered.
The hunter smiled as Kisara drew near.
"Have you enjoyed yourself so far my dear?" he asked.
"First you threaten my home, then my friends and then my family goodness knows how many times! You have some gall to call me your darling?! Have you any idea what you've put me through?!" The hunter shrugged.
"Collateral damage. Every hunter must use bait to reel in their prey." Kisara's eyes sparked.
"Well, I bet no hunter ever expects for his prey to fight back. And trust me hunter, once I'm done with you, there won't be enough of you left to fit in a matchbox!" she yelled as a blast of white energy shot from the crystal and hit the hunter square in the chest, sending him flying into the Diabound's neck.
"Must you be so violent when this can all end with one word?" Kisara nodded as the hunter stepped closer.
"You're right. And it does end with a single word." She lunged forward and grabbed the hunter in a headlock. "Blue Eyes!" The dragon released the Diabound's arm and took to the skies. "Attack!" Kisara ordered.
"Wait!" Seto shouted. But the dragon paid no heed as she released a stream of white power from her maw. The dragon hunter screamed as the blast engulfed both him and Kisara. The power split into several tendrils the second it touched the Diabound's skin and started wrapping around the beast, causing it to roar in pain. The tendrils grew thicker and thicker until the entire body was covered.
The dragon pulled away as the tendrils began spinning together faster and faster.
"Wait a minute!" Seto shouted. The tendrils condensed before shooting up into the skies, parting the clouds and for the first time in weeks, letting the sun shine through on the now empty street. "Kisara!" he roared as the dragon began a steep descent into the school grounds. She landed heavily, almost tripping over herself as she did.
Seto leapt off her and ran right to the street but both ways were void of all life.
"Kisara!" he called. No answer. The Blue Eyes bayed mournfully. "Don't do that! I'm sure she's fine. If you're here she's alive at the very least."
"Who's alive Kaiba-kun?" Seto whirled around to face his smaller rival, blinking and rubbing his eye as if he'd just woken up from a nice, long rest.
Seto took a few deep breaths before taking a few steps toward Yugi.
"Er…Yugi. You know, your sister-"
"Needs some help getting down," said a cheery voice from the trees next to the wall. Both boys whirled to see the whitette hanging upside down from the nearest tree. Her long hair touched the ground from where she hung.
"Nee-san!" Yugi cried, half with joy half with relief. Kisara chuckled as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Kisara, how did you-"
"Survive?" Kisara finished as Seto helped her get onto her wobbly legs. She held a tight grip on his shoulders and smiled at her brother. "Well, I call it aiming-for-what-seemed-softest-in-the-range-of-which-I-was-being-blasted-and-living-to-tell-my-baby-brother-how-I-royally-saved-his-sorry-behind." Yugi chuckled as Seto lifted Kisara into his arms and headed down the street.
"Never do that again, am I clear?" Seto said. Kisara wrapped her arms around his neck and chuckled. "It's not funny. You seriously had me thinking you were dead." Kisara took hold of his chin and made him look her right in the eye.
"You are crystal clear," she said before she pressed her lips to his, stopping the brunette in his tracks and almost making Yugi run straight into Seto's backside. The tri-haired boy opened his mouth to speak, only to get tongue-tied at the sight of his older sister giving a little tongue to his rival.
"Oh come on you two, not in public, please."
Phoenix: Well, that ends it. And I don't know if I've said this before, but I'm gonna say it now. I'm not doing anymore deadlines. When I do deadlines, my work becomes shotty and I want to make my stories grab hold of you the same way your favorite authors do.
Cerberus: What? I just got back and this is the ending?!
Phoenix: Yes. Please review everyone. And please vote on the poll I put up!