Thank you very, very much for the reviews! \o/
See chapter 1 for disclaimer.
Chapter Two
(In which Kaiba is contacted, and being one of the normal people is stressful.)
"Kaiba-kun? Yes, it's me. I'm sorry to bother you this late in the evening, but I really need your help with something. Oh, no, I'm sorry, I didn't think of the – did I wake you – oh, right."
The others came closer, surrounded Yuugi while he explained what had happened and what they needed from him; Jounouchi reached forward to push a button that would enable all of them to hear what Kaiba was answering:
"... break into the database," Kaiba's angry voice was coming from the phone, "find your information, and all of it until tomorrow morning. You must be crazy."
"I'm s – " Yuugi began, Jounouchi angrily snatched the receiver from him and screamed into it:
"Ishizu and Rishid have lost their brother you selfish bastard! How would you feel if –"
There was a 'click', and then the long uninterrupted sound from a dead line. Jounouchi stared at the receiver in his hand as if he'd never seen one before.
"He hung up on me!"
"Maybe you should let Yuugi deal with this," Honda suggested.
"Sorry," Jounouchi muttered, letting his arm fall down, and Anzu had to take the receiver from his hand to replace it were it belonged, cutting off the sound.
"Let me speak to him," Yuugi – the other Yuugi, this time – demanded. "Alone."
"Are you sure he'll even take your call?"
Yami just smirked.
"Leave it to me."
The other three returned to the living room with Rishid, where Jounouchi absently began to munch on the last snack. Isis was still absent; she could be heard talking on her cell-phone through the door, but they couldn't make out her words.
"What if we have to give them the rod?" Jounouchi asked, glancing at Anzu who was now sitting next to him: she too had experienced its power first-hand.
And she seemed to understand, because she took his hand and squeezed it, if in search for comfort or to give it, Jounouchi couldn't tell. He suddenly missed his sister.
"Yuugi would get it back," Anzu said confidently.
"Yeah," Jounouchi agreed, and looked up to cast Rishid, still standing behind a chair motionlessly, a smile. "We'll get him back," he said. "Yuugi always wins."
As if to give his words more weight, Yuugi appeared in the doorway at that exact moment, and gave them a quick nod.
"He's calling back as soon as he has something," he explained, and let himself fall into the closest empty chair. Yuugi again, Anzu noted.
"How did you manage that?" Jounouchi asked.
Yuugi drew a comical face.
"He's organising a tournament in America this year."
Anzu groaned. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Jounouchi couldn't help grinning.
"He never lets go, does he?"
Yuugi shook his head.
"He's not participating – and he said something about us only being in the last duel." He shrugged. "We agreed."
"Oh," said Jounouchi, only now realising that the plural was for Yuugi and the puzzle spirit. "I'll be there too!" he added.
Yuugi gave a court nod.
"Kaiba said you'd be invited, actually."
There was a pause. Honda coughed loudly.
"Seriously?" Jounouchi asked, unbelieving. Yuugi grinned and nodded, and decided not to mention the comment about duelling monkeys the invitation had come with. "Whoa, finally!"
"What did you bribe him with for that?" Honda asked, in the same astonished voice Jounouchi had used a few moments earlier when learning that Kaiba was willing to help.
Isis' arrival cut the following argument short; the four of them turned to her guiltily, their good spirits vanishing again, though there was nothing accusing in the woman's attitude.
"I couldn't reach anyone this late," she admitted, in her usual even voice. "But I have a number where I should be able to reach Bakura. I'll try again later."
Her tone bore no argument, so the others just nodded; Rishid quickly briefed her on the latest progress. She seemed to be the only one who wasn't surprised by Kaiba's offer to help.
"There's no reason for you to wait this whole time," she just said when Rishid finished. "You should go to bed. Anzu, you can sleep in my room; you others can have Malik's."
The three boys exchanged looks – there was something insensitive about accepting to getting assigned the missing person' room, but it was only practical, and Isis looked undisturbed.
"I need to sleep," Anzu declared decidedly, and gave the other three a pointed look before standing up. "Thank you, Isis."
The other woman smiled at her.
In her dream, Anzu was running though a maze; everything was dark, but from time to time, familiar shapes flashed up, frequently visited corners of Domino, in complete disorder; she knew she was looking for something, no, someone, Yuugi, or was it his other? Then she saw a flash of his tri-coloured hair behind a chew-gum dispenser, and wanted to run, but her body had stopped obeying her orders: instead of running after her friend, she turned around a corner, and found herself in a brightly lighted street, in the middle of a crowd. She tried to turn away, something about it frightened her, but despite this she made one step forward after the other, in an automated way, and slowly, every single member of the crowd turned to look at her: on each of their foreheads, they had the eye of Ra and then – without touching her, they began to tug at her, wrestling for control of her mind, she was jerked back and forth and could do nothing to stop them, and a giant penguin boxed his way through the crowd into her direction and screamed: "No, she's mine!" and she couldn't step away from his grabby hands...
She woke up with a start.
The room she was in was dark, but still she noticed that her surroundings were unfamiliar; Isis' room, she remembered, rubbing her eyes, and switched on a lamp on the bedside table; there was the muffled sound of a phone ringing, then Isis' voice, with interruptions, though too quiet for her to understand anything; then Rishid, and Isis again.
She took a look at her watch: she hadn't slept for too long, a few hours; the phone had woken her up.
When she made her way back to the living room, Yuugi and Rishid were already there, and Yuugi was quickly gulfing down a sandwich, and somehow managing to look solemn despite of that.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"They called," Isis said, having just entered the room from behind her.
"No-one we... know?" Anzu asked cautiously, even as she let herself fall onto the couch next to Yuugi.
"I don't think so," he said.
"The voice sounded like it was mechanically altered," Rishid added, in a blank voice.
Anzu exchanged a look with her friend.
"I'll go wake the others," she said, standing up. "Did you call Kaiba to –"
"No!" Yuugi stopped her, and she turned, confused. "I mean, yes, we did, but don't wake them. We're leaving right now."
He stood up.
"Then –"
"Just Rishid and me," Yuugi said, looking at her pleadingly. "They said they want Rishid to bring the rod, you can't come."
"But –"
"Please, Anzu. I'm not alone, you know that," he added.
Anzu bit her lips; she found that this, letting him leave alone into danger, was harder on her than the contrary.
Their argument was cut short when the phone rang once again; they all turned to Isis as she picked it up, and they could hear an impatient voice on the other end interrupt her before she had even finished her greeting.
"It's Seto Kaiba," she said, turning towards Yuugi and holding out the phone to him. "He says it's important," she added, that bit for Rishid, who stood by the door, completely motionless, but who, Anzu realised, might just be hiding his impatience well; she was debating whether she should go wake Jounouchi and Honda anyway while Yuugi was occupied – together, they could convince him to let them come, and help him – when her attention was brought back to her friend.
"Are you sure?" Yuugi was saying in his soft voice, and again, they could hear Kaiba's angry voice, though without being able to make out the words. "No, that's not – yes, he wanted my millennium puzzle, but he promised – I can't think of any – I – yes, thank you, but I have to leave now, or they might do something to Malik – can you tell Isis?"
He let the phone sink, turned back to them, and smiled weakly.
"He'll call back," he told Isis.
"What did he want?"
"He found out where the call just now came from."
Anzu stared; she knew little about databases of phone-numbers and -calls or hacking, but this was absurdly fast...
"Already? How's that possible?"
"He recognised the number. The call came from Duellist Kingdom."
"That doesn't – Pegasus?"
Yuugi shrugged.
"I don't know." He glanced up at Rishid, who gave an imperceptible nod. "I have to leave now."
"I'm coming," Anzu declared.
"No. Look, no – Rishid is supposed to go alone, every other person will only make it worse."
Anzu sighed, because she knew what he wasn't saying: that his other would be able to protect him, but she would only be someone more to protect, and she should feel insulted, only she didn't want to add to the pressure he was already under.
"All right," she said weakly, and went to hug him; when she stepped back, Yuugi was blushing furiously, and dashed to the door as soon as she let go.
Anzu slumped into the nearest chair when they door closed; she wasn't looking forward to explaining to Jounouchi and Honda why she had let Yuugi leave without them.
"I managed to reach your friend's father," Isis said, even as she sat down on the sofa; Anzu glanced up at her. "But he was no help – he says his son is spending the vacation on a tour of interesting sites back home. He doesn't have a way to reach him. But Bakura called him a few days ago."
"Thank you." Anzu nodded. This didn't prove anything: if the spirit was back, he had fooled them, he could fool Bakura's father over the phone as well; and he might only have changed his plans, but the fact that he might have lied to them about his vacation was not reassuring.
"They should be back in three hours," Isis added gently. "Assuming they're there for one hour."
Anzu followed her gaze to the clock above the kitchen door, and waited.
(end of chapter two.)
Yeah, that was Yami bribing Kaiba with his participation on his tournament. It would work!
Again, all comments are greatly appreciated!