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Chapter Nine: Fleeing Forward
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It was simple to move her legs. Hermione was used to running while her mind was lost in thought. She had moved through the first part of the summer in a desperate haze, when all but her spell creation had been a distraction, nothing but her goal had mattered.
But ever since she saw the cards come to life, the lingering drive had been shaken off. What she had played had not been a game with highly advance technology, but a foreign, dangerous magic.
It was easy, easier than Hermione would admit to run away. The plea still rang in her ear, giving her some faint justification. "Find Yuugi."
There was only one Yuugi that he could of meant, she decided. Yuugi Mutou, the king of games.
She was beginning to think that the title she had first thought to be a publicity stunt by the creator of Duel Monsters had a deeper meaning. The game did, so why not the master of it?
A shiver worked down her spine and she stepped again into the grand ballroom, where the unofficial tournament had begun. Duelists now littered the dance floor and the chandeliers where blocked from sight by hovering monsters, waiting for commands.
Taking a tighter reign on her emotions, she looked for Mai or Kajiki. When she had dueled Kajiki early, he had told her that Yuugi was holed up in a room with other duelists. It was possible that he knew where. If she saw Mai, she could ask her as well.
A feminine cry cut just above the roar of the crowd and Hermione concentrated on it. Threading her way through the crowd, she lost the sounds of Mai yelling several times, but found it again. She dashed though duels, ducking under monsters, as she told herself that they weren't real, that her duel hadn't been the same as these. However, she did not try to pass though any monster.
She found Mai dueling someone she thought she should recognize from the magazines she had read in England, but she couldn't put a name to the face.
Mai waved at her absently, before sending in her Harpy Lady to attack her opponent's life points directly.
Her opponent hissed an insult at her and drew, but Hermione could see who the duel was favoring very easily. Mai needed only to attack one more time--
--Or use a trap card to reflect his attack right back, as she just had, to win.
Mai looked like she was about to say something to her opponent, before she saw Hermione's face. Abruptly, she waved away him away and took Hermione's arm, tugging her to the door.
"I--"
"Not here!" Mai hissed, in English, a plastic smile firmly in place. "Wait."
Hermione blinked at the change, but the memory of a sharp cry haunted her. "I need to find Yuugi."
Mai stilled and turned to face Hermione. Her eyes bored into hers and then, as Hermione fidgeted, she looked away, even as her grip tightened.
Hermione barley made out a low, shaky sigh over the din and she wondered what Mai had seen.
"Not here," Mai repeated again in English.
Hermione now nearly had to run to keep up with Mai's pace. She stumbled several times with Mai's hand was still wrapped tightly around her wrist, dragging her forwards. It was a desperate pace, but Mai's lips were thin and the faint blush on her cheeks looked fake, like a bad make-up job; Hermione realized how pale Mai had turned.
The empty elevators were a welcome sight to both of them.
"Talk."
The command was in Japanese, Hermione was almost relieved to note, even as she struggled with grammar in her mind.
"I dueled someone," Hermione paused as they passed a floor, mind racing as she tried to figure out what to say. "I... he acted very odd, especially near the end. He told me to tell Yuugi, so I will." She met Mai's eyes, challenging her to say something more. Anything could become her next hint now. All she knew of Yuugi Mutou was from articles in a magazine. Experience had already taught her just how truthful journalist were.
But Mai remained silent.
The ding of elevator doors opening startled both of them, but Mai stepped out and Hermione followed. The elevator closed and Mai stopped.
"Do you remember the room number?" asked Hermione, when she move again after a moment.
"Yes," Mai finally said. "It's six-twelve."
Hermione looked to the plaque on the wall. Left then, she saw. "Are you coming?"
"I'm debating," Mai said at last. There was something almost broken in her eyes, a far cry from the steely determination Hermione had seen before, from the woman who wanted her as a rival. Mai then blinked and it was lost as she raised her chin. "Come on, let's go."
Hermione trailed after her, the only noise in the hallway was their footsteps, hers in sneakers, barely making any noise and Mai's heels resolute clicking on the hard floor.
There was no sound leaking around the door to room six hundred twelve, nor any sign that anyone was awake, but Mai knocked on the door anyway, rapping harshly until it opened.
A young woman stood at the door, her pajamas rumpled and her stick-straight hair falling at odd angles away from her face. "Mai? What are you doing here" she asked tiredly, coming out into the hall, leaving the door only cracked behind her.
"It's Mai?" Another person asked, still within the darkened room.
Their greeter turned to open the door further and whispered confirmation.
A few rustles later, Yuugi Mutou stepped into the corridor, closing the door behind him. The other woman began to protest, but when he held up a card key, she fell silent.
Hermione seized on their distraction to study Yuugi. He was shorter than he had looked in the photos, much like Harry had been. His hair really was like it looked in the pictures, though some strands were out of place. Also, the gold pendant that he had worn in all the pictures was around his neck, even though he was in sleep clothes.
He seemed to sense her curiousness and meet her gaze, smiling.
"So," said the woman, "What's going on? And your friend, Mai?" Her yawn belied the almost snappish tone of the question and she looked sheepish as she punctuated the sentence with the yawn.
"This is Hermione Granger and she says she needs to talk to Yuugi," Mai said.
Hermione nodded her head awkwardly in greeting, trying to remember if she was supposed to bow according to Japanese custom or not, before deciding that manners went out the window this late at night. "We should probably go in. This isn't something that should be talked about in the halls," she finished, trying not to blush at how melodramatic it had come out.
"Are the others here?" Mai asked quietly as Yuugi slipped in the key card
"Yeah. Jounochi said he saw you earlier. He and Honda finally dropped off about an hour ago."
"And Kaiba?"
Yuugi looked at Mai and then Hermione as he opened the door. "He payed for the room."
"Oh."
The statement obviously meant more to Mai then her, but Hermione could not understand the full importance. Footing the bill probably did confirm that Kaiba was here, though the undercut in Mai's tone suggested it meant a lot.
In one of the two beds, Hermione heard a low groan as light from the hallway spilled into the room. A vague silhouette rolled of the bed and stood, as the young woman turned on a light. In the dimness, she faintly made out the person who had greeted Mai before --Jounochi, she realized faintly.
Another lump in the bed moved, tugging the abandoned covers over and then rolling over to hog the bed, which in comparison to the almost made bed, was a mess of tangled sheets and tossed pillows.
Hermione stopped herself from dissecting the sleeping habits of the four in the room. She knew herself well enough to realize it was another distraction technique, letting her mind float in useless information to ignore terror.
"Yuugi, right?" she forced herself to say.
Yuugi nodded.
"I was dueling earlier. It was this guy, about your age... He talked of many strange things," she temporized quietly, not really sure of she should and shouldn't say. The Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was international. "In the end, he told me to find you and tell you."
"Tell Yuugi what?" asked Jounochi.
"Just to tell him. He never said what and since he was in great deal of pain, I didn't ask more. He told me to run." She debated letting the unspoken assumptions to grow further and then decided against it. An informed decision could only be made with all information available. "It was like he had been possessed before."
Mai froze at her side, unnatural stillness tightly controlled.
Hermione's eye narrowed and she glanced at the others. Mai knew. There was no denying her reactions had been almost frightening in their intensity and that seemed to be the most logical explanation.
Yuugi bit his lipped, looking pained, as the woman wrapped an arm around one of his shoulders.
The lump in the bed moved and sat up.
"Honda--" hissed Jounochi, in a hurried whisper, obviously not meant to be overheard by her, "Bakura hasn't said anything, has he?"
The blanket cocoon shook its head.
Hermione couldn't help but stare at the point of hair sticking out.
"White hair?"
Hermione blinked at the question and forced her gaze away from Honda's hair, onto his worried face. A flash of memory, the whispered promise that she would duel him, the smirk, and the bone-white hair. "Yes."
A soft string of curses was all the warning Hermione had before she was nearly tackled as Jounochi dived for his shoes. He jammed his foot into one as he tried to tie the other.
"Where is he?" asked Yuugi, uncanny eyes pinning her.
"Last I saw, he was outside, a back entrance of the grand ballroom."
Yuugi nodded. "Good enough, we can start there. Anzu, get Kaiba up. Bakura might know something."
Anzu nodded sharply and left the room at a near run, shoes dangling from one hand.
Tugging absently at her hair in thought, Hermione watched Yuugi. He gave the orders so easily, not seeming to worry about the feelings of his friends, like she might or Harry had, but fully expecting them to obey. However, oddly enough, Anzu moved, without a question or a backwards glance.
Yuugi took a duel disk from the table and slid it on, letting it warm up as he put on black boots with too many buckles, that only shared an unrepentant black color scheme with his pajamas, with no other dress-sense coordination.
As Yuugi moved away, Jounochi snatched his duel disk and slipped it on, He booted it up and placed the deck in it. All he needed was a challenge, he was ready to duel.
The movements looked easy and fluid to Hermione, motions that had been repeated again and again until they were second nature. There was purpose and meaning in each muscle and not a gesture was wasted, unlike her own fumbling.
They put on duel disks like with same ease and familiarity as she drew her wand.
Hermione swallowed her words before they could begin, wishing for a second that Ron was behind her and that she felt she could ask. But there was a jumble of emotions that told her not to and at the center of the tangle, worming around all the others, was fear.
A deep breath in, a deep breath out, and Hermione straightened, as she heard pounding at the door.
A muffled voice came through a second later, "Back."
Honda, who had just finished, dressing stood and opened the door.
Anzu came back in and just at her heels, almost stepping on her in haste was another man, in a long trench coat, with wrinkled pants. A stern, ice gaze swept through the room, to settle on Yuugi.
"Well?" Kaiba demanded.
"Bakura's show up and seems to be up to his usual tricks," Honda said quickly. "He was up to his neck in things in Battle City, he might..." he trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
"He might have kidnapped him himself, you mean?" snapped Kaiba.
To his credit, Honda nodded firmly, but there was something almost pleading in the tilt of his eyebrows. "Yes."
"And her?"
Hermione drew herself up. "I brought the information here on a request," she said simply, trying to figure out the latest arrival.
Kidnapping, well... that puts a whole new spin on things, she thought, biting her lip. Cold eyes met hers, burning with determination, but dark circles underneath showed tiredness that the rest of his body didn't.
Hermione kept eye contact with him, until he broke it off, to turn to Yuugi again. She let him judge her, as she tried to glean more, as almost invisible emotions flickered across his face.
"Where?"
"Near the ballroom Granger--" Yuugi began.
"Hermione," she interrupted, testing, watching Kaiba's expression carefully. And, yes there it was, instead of irritation at the interruption, there was a flash smugness as he knew her full name.
"Hermione said," Yuugi finished.
Kaiba nodded sharply and stalked to the door. It banged on the door stop, after he yanked it open, the metal letting out a pealing ring.
Choices raced through her mind, but Yuugi made it for her.
"We're coming," was his unadorned announcement, with slight arrogance and challenge to it.
Kaiba was silent, already striding to the elevators.
They followed, Yuugi almost running to keep up on short legs and Hermione knew how odd a group they must seem. Jounochi had yet to put on his shirt, but his duel disk was on. Anzu was wearing heels and pajamas and Yuugi's clothes and shoes were equally at odds. Mai trailed behind, looking more like she was dressed to cruise bars, rather then the almost slumber party look of the rest.
Hermione put a hand to her own hair and knew it was a fright.
Of the two elevators serving the hotel, only one was working. The other had been out of order since Hermione had arrived at the hotel. It was on the the tenth floor, according to the dial above the elevator and still moving upwards.
"I need to be off now," Mai said quietly. "I'm pretty sure that I might have been put into one of the first duels. It's almost two now. I should rest."
Her announcement was met with quiet acceptance, but Hermione saw the look of disdain smothering desperation that Kaiba shot her, the pleading, but resigned eyes Jounochi had.
"Hermione?" Mai asked.
Mai was giving her the perfect out, not leaving her with the strangers Hermione barely knew. If she wanted, Hermione could leave. She could not follow and find out what was going on. She wouldn't find out why the others were so jumpy and why she had the feeling that they were more than just Muggles.
"I'm fine."
Mai pursed her lips.
"I'm sure."
"Catch you later," Mai said, after taking a deep breath and giving her a crooked smile. "Remember, I'm still waiting for your answer."
Hermione gave her a smile she was sure was just as crooked, "I know."
Mai waved. "I'll see you all tomorrow." She turned and went to the stairwell entry. With a flash of blonde hair, she was gone. The clicking of her heels faded long before the elevator arrived.
The almost expected feeling of loneliness welled up as she stepped in after the others, chased by barely acknowledged fear, but Hermione forced it down with her usual fervor. She was a Gryffindor; she would not let her fear dictate her.
...Even if she did feel like a purebred dog that had just been dropped in among wolves.
Why didn't Hogwarts have a class on this?
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