Ranko: (crying)
Yuugi: What's wrong, Ranko?
Yami: It can't be that bad, you whiny bitch.
Ranko: Shut up! I have to leave all of you lovely readers soon. In the month of November I will be doing NaNoWriMo where I have to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days! I am sorry, but I will not be updating in that month, I hate to leave you all!
Yami: That's it?
Yuugi: Yami! Be nice!
Yami: She did NaNoWriMo last year too! Its not that big of a deal, besides, I don't know why she's telling people so early when there is still a few weeks of October left.
Ranko: Whatever, let's just answer reviews…(holds up list)
Inspiration's Wonderer: Oh no! "I've fallen and I can't get up, choose Life Alert!" (Yami: Ranko, you're an idiot). I'm not sure if Yuugi will be discussing about what happened to Soren, I haven't planned that far ahead ^^"
raindropdew: Thank you, I try my best. I just love to abuse Soren, it's so easy, but I love the character to bits! Then again, I love Ryou and I did kill him off…don't worry! No more character deaths…for now.
chesirecat1: Yes, Soren did take Anzu, but I guess you can count it as the Shadow Men since Yami is controlling Soren. Awesome pen name, by the way.
Ceaselessfall: It's okay, a lot of people haven't read the books. I think I might just have to add your suggestion, I like it ;)
Doragon-chan: I did look up the quote on your profile and I remember it now. That is one of my favorites! And yes, Yami is possessing Soren. I kind of made it obvious so I'm not worried about a spoiler alert.
Dinogirl: (tearing eyed) Thank you so much, your so nice. Yeah, Anzu/Tea seems to find a way to get herself into trouble -_- what are you gonna do? Yay! More puzzleshipping! And also, the way Yami got out of the closet was—
Yami: SPOILER ALERT!
Ranko: Oh yeah, right. Anyway, thanks for all the awesome reviews, as always. Yuugi, could you do the disclaimer?
Yuugi: Sure; Ranko twin does not own anything involving Yu-Gi-Oh or the Forbidden Game series. This is just for fun, she does not gain a profit from writing fanfiction.
Ranko: I wish I did. Anyway, enjoy!
-/-
Jounouchi thought about what Seto said to him as he walked the familiar path to the Game Shop.
"So you were once in love with the midget?"
Of course he loved Yuugi, he always loved Yuugi, and he still loved Yuugi. But was he in love with his best friend? He knew that if he truly was, he was certainly over with those feelings. He convinced himself that he was in love with his friend. He had mistaken "in love" with love.
Those kind, innocent eyes. His radiant smile. His childlike frame and smooth, porcelain skin. But that was just the outer image, his heart was just was beautiful as he was. His devotion and loyalty to his friends were strong and he always put others' needs before his own. But he certainly wasn't as innocent and weak as he looked, as Jounouchi had learned in the Game.
No wonder Yami loved the boy so much; who wouldn't?
But was Yami in love with Yuugi or did he just love him? Jounouchi didn't understand, his head started to hurt from all the thinking.
'Let's get this straight,' he told himself. 'When you first met Yuugi, you hated him but at the same time you loved him…just not "in love", right?' I don't even know anymore! Damn you, Kaiba! Why do you have to get inside my head?'
It's true, when Jou first met Yuugi, he loved him, but he hated the feeling of loving someone else. It was so different and new that he didn't understand it. That is what scared him and caused him to push Yuugi away. But when the two became friends, he was no longer afraid of that loving feeling and had mistaken it for being "in love."
And when they played the Game, he thought he would lose Yuugi forever, the only one who bothered to understand him and try and make friends with him even though the blond had been so cruel to Yuugi. He was afraid to lose Yuugi as a friend, as a brother, but never did he once worry about losing Yuugi's love.
He never loved Yuugi like he thought he did. His fear wasn't losing Yuugi as a lover to Yami; it was losing Yuugi, a great and loyal friend, to Yami.
Jounouchi felt a headache coming on.
"Mutt…Mutt? Jounouchi!"
The blond was violently snapped out of his thoughts. He realized that he had stopped walking in the middle of the street and Seto was a couple paces in front of him. The taller man was obviously annoyed but for a moment Jounouchi thought he saw a tinge of worry in the teenager's usually cold blue eyes.
"What is you problem?" Kaiba asked, walking back to Jounouchi.
Jounouchi should have felt insulted, but he didn't. "Nothing, I was just thinking."
Kaiba snorted, yes, that's right, he snorted. "Don't hurt yourself."
It took a moment for Jounouchi to register the comment as an insult and when he did his face turned bright red from either anger or embarrassment. "Hey!"
Seto scoffed and turned sharply on his heel and started to walk away, not waiting for Jounouchi to catch up. "Come on, mutt. Everyone is waiting for us at the Game Shop."
Jounouchi realized that he was about to be left behind again and ran to catch up with the taller man. "Hey, you asshole, wait up!" Without paying attention to his surroundings, Jounouchi bumped into an elderly woman walking down the opposite direction of the street. The collision caused them both to fall; Seto turned around at this and took long strides back.
"You stupid dog," Seto mumbled as Jounouchi quickly got back to his feet and began to help the old woman back up, stuttering out apologies.
The woman was crippled; a twisted wooden cane was the only thing that kept her standing. Her back was hunched and her face was ancient. She was wearing an old cotton dress that woman would have worn in the nineteenth century not the twenty-first.
The woman pointed an old, bony finger at Jounouchi and her eyes widened in disbelief. "You…you boy…" she turned around slowly to look at Seto, having to crane her head back. "And you also…you have seen them. Those from the Other Side."
Jounouchi's breath caught in his throat and he shared a strange look with Seto.
"I have a message for you and your friends."
At the Game Shop ~
Honda was pacing around the living room as everyone else that was there sat on the couch. Mai was sitting with Malik and Yuugi on either side of her, she was rubbing Malik's back soothingly and Yuugi was hugging his legs to his chest, resting his head on his knees. Bakura was not there, to everyone's surprise; Malik showed up alone.
No one had heard from Anzu after she had stormed off and everyone was starting to get worried. Yuugi thought of his run in with Soren, literally, and hugged his legs closer until it looked like he was going to fold in on himself.
Seto and Jounouchi were coming but they had no idea how long they would be and where there were, which was setting everyone's anxiety on high.
"Where the hell are they?" Honda asked, continuing to pace.
"Calm down, Honda, there is nothing to worry about," Mai said, mostly for Malik's benefit.
'Nothing to worry about yet,' Yuugi thought.
As if on cue, the door to the Game Shop downstairs was opened and the small group heard two pairs of footsteps climb up the stairs to the apartment. Jounouchi and Seto appeared from around the corner and both were surprisingly pale. Yuugi noticed this and shot up, rushing over to the two other boys.
"You'll never believe what happened on our way over here," Jounouchi said, making his way towards the loveseat.
"What?" Yuugi asked, following his friend over.
Seto leaned tiredly against the wall and ran his long fingers through his hair. "Jounouchi literally ran into an old woman and she told us that we have seen 'those from the Other Side.'"
Malik flinched and then leaned on Mai's shoulder.
"She said she had a message for us and our friends," Seto continued. "She said we had the look that we've seen the faery folk."
"Another name for the Shadow Men," Malik said just above a whisper. Seto nodded his head grimly; everyone was listening to the retelling of these events intensely.
"'Some people have the gift of seeing them where everyone else only see a wind in the grass, or a shadow, or a reflection of the light,' she said. 'They are the most beautiful things imaginable; creatures of light and happiness.'"
Yuugi smiled humorlessly at the old woman's description; he tried to fit Yami into the description and failed.
"Then she said, 'The message is: vanished. That is what they told me to tell you.' And then she just walked off mumbling something about vowel sounds. It was really strange," Seto finished explaining.
"So we ran over here as fast as we could to tell you guys," Jounouchi said.
'Vanished?' Yuugi thought. 'What could that mean?'
As Yuugi was thinking this, Honda went up to Jounouchi and asked, "Did you guys see Anzu at all on your way over here?"
Jounouchi shook his head. "No, why? Is everything okay? Did she get captured?"
"We're not sure," Mai cut in, hearing the hysteria rising in Jounouchi's tone. "None of us have heard from her since she walked off this afternoon. We haven't been able to reach her or anything; her cellphone is turned off."
"What about Bakura?" Seto asked.
"He decided not to come; he's at home," Malik said softly.
"So Yuugi," Jounouchi said. "What did you need to tell us."
Yuugi took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch. "I went looking for Anzu after everyone left, long story short, I couldn't find her. But I did find Soren; I bumped into him and he got really strange. He called Anzu a 'bubbling bimbo' and then he said 'I hope you find Anzu' but the strange thing is I never told him I was looking for her."
"This guy is starting to sound really suspicious." Mai said, her eyes narrowing to slits. Seto nodded his head in agreement. Mai rose to her feet and clenched her fist. "I'm starting to get really tired of this, Soren is popping up a lot lately the same time we learn the Shadow Men are free. I want to meet this Soren guy and straighten this out once and for all."
Mai stormed down the stairs, Honda and Seto right behind her. The other three boys left in the room quickly jumped to their feet and following the group down the stairs and out of the house.
Yuugi ran to catch up with his cousin. "Wait, Mai! We don't even know where Soren is! How are you going to find him?"
Mai's only response was, "Fuck it."
At the Domino City Park ~
The group of six walked around the park as children swung on the swings, played in the sandbox and hung on monkey bars as their mothers sat on benches by strollers, chatting with their own friends.
A group of five year olds ran around the grass, playing some kind of game; Yuugi couldn't tell if it was tag or a role-playing game that most children adored. Sitting on one of the benches next to a stroller was Miho.
Mai waved and jogged over to where the woman was sitting, the rest of the group following behind her. "Miho? What are you doing here?" Mai asked.
"I'm babysitting my sister's kid," she explained, pointing to one of the five years playing in the grass. As Mai and Miho talked, Yuugi stared at the little kids as they yelled and shrieked out laughter.
Miho's nephew, a small blue haired child with wide brown eyes was role-playing with a girl about his age. The boy was sitting on the grass and the girl had her coat draped across her shoulders and a bundle of weeds in hand that were mistaken as flowers.
"…Grandma, what big ears you have…" the girl said in mock wonder.
Yuugi's eyes widened; Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.
"…The better to hear you with, my dear…" the young boy said in a high pitched, withering voice as he pretended to be an old woman.
"…Grandma, what big teeth you have…"
The little boy grinned goofily and jumped to his feet, curling his fingers like claws and raising them above his head.
"…The better to EAT you with, my dear!"
The girl screamed and threw the weeds in the boy's face. The girl ran away giggling, still pretending to be scared as the Miho's nephew started to chase after her.
Yuugi gulped and started to feel dizzy. He remembered when he was in the Game; he was Little Red Riding Hood and Yami was the big bad wolf…and now he was chasing after him.
Miho noticed her nephew creating such a scene and rose to her feet in outrage. "Ryou! Get over here right now!"
The little boy flinched, in fear of his aunt's wrath and stopped chasing the girl, lowering his head in shame.
Everyone visibly flinched, including Mai.
"Excuse me, but is your nephew's name Ryou?" Malik piped in quietly.
Miho nodded and placed her small nephew on her hip after he had trotted over to her. "Yes, that's right. Say 'hi' Ryou."
Ryou hid his face in his aunt's chest and peaked out, smiling softly at the group of teenagers.
Miho giggled. "I'm sorry, he's so painfully shy but he really is a sweet boy."
Yuugi felt a lump forming in his throat; he couldn't breath. He felt tears sting the back of his eyes and took a few steps to reach Ryou. He held out his hand to the child and smiled softly; he tried to blink away the tears but when he did, a single tear rolled down his cheek.
"Hi Ryou, I'm Yuugi, it's nice to meet you."
Ryou looked up at Yuugi and the boy nearly broke down right there; the child's eyes were just like Ryou's. "Hi, Yuugi!" the child said happily, a great big smile breaking out across his face.
Miho laughed. "Well, I guess we should head home now before your mommy bites my head off."
Ryou pouted. "Can't I stay just a bit longer?" he whined. "We're gonna play lambs and monsters."
'That doesn't sound like a fun game,' Yuugi thought.
"What is lambs and monsters?" Honda asked.
"It's like cops and robbers," Jounouchi explained.
"Oh, so how do you play?" Yuugi asked.
Ryou spoke up. "If you're a lamb you hide, and then the monster comes looking for you. And if he tags you, then you're captured and you have to go back to the monster lair. And you have to stay there until another lamb comes and lets you out or you get eaten by the monster but he can't eat you until he's got all the lambs there. Every single one."
Yuugi gulped; that was a more savage take on the game cops and robbers.
Miho rolled her eyes and set her nephew back down on the ground. "Okay, go play." Ryou smiled and ran off to join his friends.
When he reached them Yuugi heard Ryou call, "I'm the monster!"
Later that day ~
The group of six decided to split up and search for Anzu or Soren. If anyone were to find either one of them, they were keep them there and call for everyone on their cell phones. Honda went with Jounouchi and Mai went with Seto. That left Malik and Yuugi all alone, walking down a dark street at night with only a few flickering street lights.
This strangely reminded Yuugi of the Game. Malik was the first one that he found when they were playing and they were the ones always together to watch each other's backs from the beginning. It was ironic, considering Malik went out of his way to avoid Yuugi before they played the Game.
They had been searching all day and it was already dark out. Both of them were drained of energy and exhausted from the day's events.
Also, Yuugi couldn't quite pinpoint it, but he felt this ominous presence hovering over him. It was like when you are alone in the house and you think you hear someone breaking in but all the doors and windows are locked.
Yuugi finally had enough.
"Come on, Malik, let's go back."
"Wha—? Yuugi what's wrong?" Malik asked.
"Nothing," Yuugi lied. "Let's go, hurry up!"
A warning was going off in Yuugi's head. A warning from when girls took skin bags to get water, a time when panthers walked in the darkness outside mud huts. When darkness was the greatest danger of all.
Malik was saying something about Yuugi always being the one to go off into bad parts of town, but he could barely hear the blond past the rushing of blood in his ears.
"And look where that got me!" Yuugi snapped. "Come on!"
"Yuugi, I hate to tell you but I can't run in these shoes, they've been hurting me all day and are starting to give me blisters!"
Yuugi looked down at Malik's shoes and saw that they were pinching the boy's feet. "Oh, Malik, why didn't you say anything?" Yuugi asked in dismay. Something made Yuugi jerk his head around to look behind him. Something rustled in the bushes.
Where everyone else only see a wind in the grass, or a shadow…
"Malik take your shoes off now!"
"What? Why?"
"Malik, there is something behind us. We have to get out of here fast! Now come on!" Yuugi took Malik's wrist and started pulling the taller boy along as Malik slid his shoes off his feet. Yuugi tried to walk as fast as he could without running. If you run, they will chase you, but how Yuugi wanted to run so badly.
'Don't turn around!' he thought to himself frantically.
Because something was behind them, Yuugi could feel it. It was watching them from the bushes and tracking them. It was making tiny sounds. Yuugi knew that it wanted to hurt them.
It was moving quietly and quickly, keeping pace with them twenty feet back.
"Malik, hurry…" Yuugi pleaded.
Instead, Malik stopped dead. Yuugi could just make out the look of fear on the boy's face.
"Oh, God, there is something behind us!"
The rustling was closer.
"Come on!" Yuugi said, taking Malik's wrist again and dragging him along. Don't run don't run don't run don't run, was hammering in Yuugi's chest like a second heart beat.
It was gaining on them.
Screw it.
"Run!" Yuugi said, taking off with Malik not to far behind him.
That thing was not a person—if it were a person their head would show above the hedges.
Yuugi could see the street to turn on to get to the Game Shop. They were almost there! The two boys pumped their legs faster and sharply cut around the corner. Yuugi could see the Game Shop! The lights were on and he could see Mai's silhouette.
But that thing was still right behind them, just on the other side of the hedge. It was going to go through the hedge. Right through it to grab him.
Yuugi tried to find his keys in his jacket pocket but he didn't feel them, he checked his other pocket and the pockets on his jeans.
No keys.
"Yuugi!" Malik screamed. "Get the keys!"
"I can't find them!" Yuugi yelled back hysterically. He finally heard the clattering of keys in his shirt pocket and pulled them out with shaky fingers.
"Hurry, Yuugi!" They were in front of the Game Shop now. "Get it open!"
But it was too late. There was a crashing in the hedge directly behind Yuugi. At the same moment a dark shape reared up from the shadows on the sidewalk in front of him.
Yuugi screamed.
-/-
Ranko: Yes, I'm ending it there, on a cliffhanger, because I am a bitch! Mwahahahaha!
Yami: Oh no, Ranko forgot to take her medicine this morning.
Ranko: Shut up Yami, I am not that crazy.
Yami&Yuugi: (silence)
Ranko: Okay, just a little bit. I love this chapter. There is a little bit of puppyshipping for you. I cried a little bit when I was writing that scene when Yuugi meets little Ryou. And I was literally shaking when I was writing that last scene. I hope you guys like it as much as I do.
Yami: You are such a wuss.
Ranko: Why are you so mean to me today? You are a little—!
Yuugi: (slaps hand over Ranko's mouth) Please review