If at all possible, the girl's smiles only grew with the Hikari duo's revelation…the word "revelation" used loosely as nothing was really revealed. In fact, from the moment they laid eyes on the two females, their life had never been so confusing!
"Well…that…is quite nice of you to care -er, care enough to guard us. But really, we don't need angels, and we…we actually should be going now, shouldn't we? Yugi?" Having a been a generally docile boy all his life, Ryou considered this forward (for him) movement to be a personal accomplishment, even if he could not keep the rising hysteria out of his voice when trying to snap his friend out of his stupor. The smaller boy had actually gone a rather unappealing green colour, and his eyes so bland it seemed he was looking in himself.
Snapping back to action at the shrill call of his name, the tiny porcupine-esque boy caught on quickly, "Yes! My grandfather! He needs me home to work in our shop. You see he owns-"
"A game shop and is a fanatic with almost any type of amusement known to man." Cut in Findel, who had now thankfully calmed and seemed amused with the boys' escape attempts. Yugi however felt like his stomach had bottomed out.
"Er…yes, that's right, he does. And he-"
"-doesn't need you to help because Yam has more superiority in games as well as the authority necessary to handle a shop of Japanese youths who spend more time gaming than copulating."
"Yes, but really, he wor-"
"He doesn't worry, Yugi" The aura of cheer that had pulsated around the girls dimmed, and Findel's eyes dimmed to soft sobriety. "In fact, he wouldn't even notice if you came home tonight at all, would he?"
Yugi's hand trembled on the chair that he was now grasping like a life line. At first, when she had been pointing out his lies with intimate details of his life, Yugi feared he had some sort of stalker who would use him to get to Yami or his grandfather. Now however, he felt the same sorrow and shame he always felt when reminded of his current lifestyle. Slipping into the chair, Yugi nodded his head, suddenly to tired to run and too tired to care.
"Sit down, Ryou" The albino brit raised his eyes to meet the suddenly old eyes of Naya's, his instinct to run also dulling. "You have no one waiting either." Does the truth ever hurt when there is no way to deny it. Ryou slumped next to his friend, staring at his hands in a way that resembled a person who just lost their job, their spouse and their dog in all one dizzying moment.
The two glittery girls turned to each other and shared a look, and then with the same freakish symmetrical choreography they displayed earlier, sat down across from the two boys, and grasped their hands tight. When this failed to elicit a response, Findel finally spoke. "I'm sorry, we didn't want to be harsh, it's just we didn't want you running off without hearing us out."
"We have come a very long way to find you two," Joined Naya, who had taken to trying to catch Yugi's downcast eyes "we know that your life has grown miserable, and that you have lost yourselves entirely to those who once loved and cheered you." Naya watched as something catching the light slid from Yugi's cheek, weighing her words carefully before jerking on the boys arms to meet his eyes, "and we know why it has happened."
To say that got their attention would have been a bit of an understatement. There was a resounding crack as both boy's head flew up in surprise, wincing after the pain of cracking their neck so harshly set in. "Why? There's a why?" Ryou asked, rubbing his neck and watching the two warily.
Findel smiled in the way that stiffed their neck's back up again, "You make it sound like everything does not happen for a reason. There is ALWAYS a reason. Haven't you ever read CLAMP?"
Ryou frowned. He liked to consider himself a patient guy, but he really couldn't follow their babbling clues, "You make it sound like its some big thing. I would think that the reason-" here, he paused his eyes tightening with building moisture as he felt his friend's shoulders stiffen beside him, "I would think it was obvious. You however make it sound like some cosmic phenomenon."
Naya threw back her head and cackled, actually freaking cackled! And the two boys grabbed on to each other, sure that if they were going to die, they had someone with them at the time. The sound of her laugh, would forever be ingrained in their heads as the sound that death makes on acid. Findel shot her an annoyed look, before her familiar uncomfortable grin pulled her cheeks back, as she leaned in conspiratorially. "Well actually…it is."
And then they stared. Waiting for some kind of reaction that expressed glee, or joy or relief I'm sure, their expressions practically screaming " I did so good, you should be bowing to me now"! They were disappointed to find that the only reply was a look that explained, "You crazy AND stupid, yo"!
Findel rolled her eyes and sighed, "Alright first shut up, we are not crazy. We are perfectly normal, don't oppress us with your mortal logic, it's irrelevant here. In fact," now Findel dispensed her own look of "You're quite slow, ne?" "why are you so surprised? After being possessed by spirits old enough to be the birth and death of a lost civilization, you find the fact that two angel's are watching over your cute little asses impossible? I mean, Really."
"Really." A sagely nodding Naya agreed.
"Really really!" Findel tried again.
"So really." Naya agreed once more, leaning across the table to level that oddly old look on the hikari's again. "Do you want to hear why we know so much about you and why we want to help you, or would you really like to go back to the way things are now? The choice is yours, but…really" and with this really, Naya cocked her purple topped head, a look of "You see what's the right choice here, right?" crinkling her eyes.
Yugi and Ryou stared at the girls claiming to be angels. They turned and stared at their laps. They looked up to stare at each other. Then they turned back to staring at their laps. Slowly, hesitantly their hands slid out and found each other, grasping; both squeezing in question and tightening in answer. Finally, the two pairs of doe eyes met the arched, strangely set pair in the female's faces, determination set. "We choose to listen" Yugi voiced out, softer than he would of liked, but stronger than before. "We want to stop being invisible."
A smile that seemed to hold pride carved across Findel's face, while Naya whooped and slapped the table " That's great! Not like you had a choice anyway, but great all the same!"
And that was when Yugi and Ryou face-vaulted to the floor.
The sun was setting on the cheery architecture that was the KAME game shop, Sugoroku calmly swept the tidy floor, of the tidy shop, years of gaming having honed his obsessive-compulsive tendencies to a sanity-dependent need to have clean work area at the end of the long, busy days. Yes, he with his trusty broom, moved across the floor in a waltz befitting another time, and another reality. Women come and go, but he always had his broom.
It was on days like these that Moto Sugoroku, A.k.a. "Grandpa", felt that their was a karma in the world that gave men who worked hard all their lives, quiet moments in which to inspect and glorify in their lives. Let them know that they did a good job, and somewhere, somebody appreciated the hard work they continue to give life.
This was about the time the front door slammed into the wall, door knob denting and crippling the abused wall paper, the vibration of the brief "door to wall" meeting reverberating carelessly through the shop, quivering everything within the area precariously.
"GRANDPA, HAS YUGI COME HOME YET?!" A very irate and panting dark pharaoh asked, eyes so red, mouth so snarled and hair so…pointier…
"Um…no. He hasn't." Sugoroku stood with his broom in front of him, having been ready for an attack from some escaped killer, he was taken off guard to see Yami looking like a demon in his doorway, the man usually walked with grace and dignity befitting a royal. All the same…Sugoroku continued to stand with his broom.
"THANKS" and BLAM! Went the door as it was rammed back into its frame, the abused bells which had been ringing frantically throughout the entire exchange, finally fell with a tragic ringing scream. Half the other shop items followed. With a miserable groan, the door followed it's beloved bells, the indignity of it all and the loss of its loud companion too much for it to take.
Then silence.
And Sugoroku continued to stand with his broom.
"Alright, well my name is Findel, and this here has been my partner for longer than I reckon necessary, Naya. We are here, as your guardian angels- NAYA STOP EATING MY SOUR BELLS!...to get your lives back on track, because really, they are a bit messed up."
"Ah." Yugi had taken to asking most of the questions, as Ryou seemed to twitch every time the two moved too suddenly. He wasn't fairing much better himself, but he was somewhat more used to raucous types from a past of lunch breaks spent with Jou and Honda. "But why us in particular? I mean, are you handed out assignments, are you with us from the time we are born to when we die? How does this angel thing work?"
"Oh. Um. Yes, good question. You see, Naya and I are…somewhat new to this."
Once again what should have been a reassuring smile, made Yugi pee himself a little. "Okay. So then you are young angels or something?"
"No, we were there bout the time God was like, "I want a kid". Awkward that, really, though he was really cute…"
"…."
"…."
"You're kidding, right?"
Naya rolled her eyes and pushed off the ground to tilt precariously in her chair, glaring resentfully at Findel "This is our first time as GUARDIAN angels. We used to minion about for Gabriel and perform most awesome bouts of death dealing to the unworthy…and then we left."
"You left?"
"After about a millennia or so you get bored, but then you stay because you don't know if you'll have that job when you leave and you don't want to step on anyone's toes, yadda yadda yadda, so this is a trial run basically."
"So…you guys were…?
"Apprentice death dealers to the archangel, Gabriel. He actually cried when we left, said he had never had types as terrifying and radical within the field as us before. Made us feel terrible, but we had to move on, you know?"
"Ah." Both boys answered this time, nodding their heads in seeming agreement, while actually concluding in their heads, "That explains a lot".
Findel kicked the leg of Naya's chair, effectively toppling the angel to a graceless heap on the floor. Sparing her companion a bored glance, she focused a look that was far wiser than her young face ought to hold "Now we were assigned to you because we have dealt with souls often in our work of taking them. The problem here you see is, your souls and your yami's souls are over crowding the spiritual pool." Seeing the adorable confused looks on the hikari's faces Findel grinned in her own special Findel way and explained. "Essentially, at one time, there is supposed to be a certain amount of souls, and certain types.
"When souls from other times or dimensions get mixed around, it creates a gap that confuses the rest of the pool. Think like…an underwater hurricane."
He couldn't help it, "A vortex you mean?" Ryou really wished his British side wouldn't make it instinctually responsible to correct a moron.
"Yes, vortex, whatever! Either way, the souls all get caught up in this confusing never ending pattern, causing chaos within the pool. The pool does not like chaos. It hates chaos. Don't piss off the pool."
"So what does it all mean? What happens when the pool is pissed off?" It sounded ridiculous, but at the same time, Yugi felt that what they were saying was the absolute truth. They may be psychotic yes, but there was definitely something other worldly to these girls. And those eyes…
"The pool begins to find ways to even out the current, even if it means drowning a few souls." Findel leveled a very grave look on them now, and suddenly, though nothing changed, it seemed the rest of her was as ancient as her eyes. Even Naya, who had manage to set herself right again, looked subdued and powerful. Yugi and Ryou really didn't like those looks.
"When you say drown…" Yugi really didn't want the answer. Knew in his heart what it would be, and yet he would have given up even the Mennen puzzle not to hear it confirmed.
"It means young ones, that the other half of your souls were never meant to be here, and are warring with you to exist. Considering that they are yamis and more aggressive it is only natural that you have lost so much." Findel answered, her eyes never leaving Yugi's face.
"That's why we are here. We are going to make sure that you win. We are going to keep it from happening!" Naya piped up, and she seemed to be straining for a smile, though it came off as a cheerful grimace.
Doe eyes met each other frantically, fears similar and painful clashing in brown against violet for a moment before Ryou asked, continuing to stare at his friend. "To-to keep what from happening?"
Findel face smoothed out, and then she closed her eyes before asking, "You mean you really haven't noticed Ryou? Neither of you see what is happening to you both?"
When she opened those strange eyes again, Yugi and Ryou saw their pale faces glaring out them. They didn't like the way they looked in those eyes.
"You are both disappearing. Your yami's presence here is killing you."