Ranko: I have been getting so much love on the previous chapter, thank you guys so much!
Yami: But this chapter we are going back to business. The Game will kick off again so hold on to your seats!
Yuugi: Well, it was nice while it lasted but it seems like Ranko is ready to put me through hell again.
Ranko: So let's answer some reviews! Before I forget, a big thank you for getting me past the 100 reviews mark! You guys rock and I love you all!
CrimsonStrawberry17: There has been an idea floating around in my head that Suguroku will show up again in this story, but we'll see ;) Thank you and please continue to review!
YinYang MoonDragon: I know what you mean, I am a hopeless romantic! Please continue to review!
AmerillaRose: Oh my, goodness! Too much love! I can't handle it…Thank you so much and please continue to review!
Casade00: I know how it feels whenever you have a long day and you come home to something you have been looking forward too! Don't worry, no death…maybe ;) Yami can be a little bitch sometimes, but he loves Yuugi so I don't think he would let him die, no matter how angry he gets. I know, I am the cliffhanger queen! If you want more info about what happened last chapter go check out my one-shot 'What's In a Name?' Please continue to review!
TheWingedSunDragonofRal13402: Your penname is a mouthful, isn't it? I like it :) I am so glad that you like my series so much, thank you and please continue to review!
Zeladious: I'm sorry, it was a compliment though . If you want more info on some of what happened last chapter than please check out my one-shot 'What's In a Name?' it will be able to explain so much! You are very much on the right track when it comes to Yuugi's flashback ;) What do you mean when you can say someone can go crazy, I'm perfectly fine and I'm a puzzleshipper (eye twitches). (Yami: What do you mean when you say when will my role get deeper) (Yuugi: If you mean if I am…you know, a virgin, the answer is yes.) Please continue to review!
SincerelyChristina: Who's Harry? Lawl I have been telling Yami the same thing this whole time throughout the entire series. Yuugi seeing Yami for who he really is make me really happy. Yeah, Yami is still a bitch. Thank you and please continue to review!
LobaKarina15: If you haven't already, read 'What's In a Name?' it will make everything clearer :)
Dark-Huntress Sam: Well, since you said please :)
YugiFanP3: Oh, thank you! I love you too! (not in a weird way)
Great: Your review reminded me of the City of Bones movie trailer. "You are the key to our survival, Clary" (never mentioned in the book .) Thank you so much for reviewing and loving this story!
sea girl: Oh no! Don't faint! Thank you so much for the awesome review and I understand if you are busy, I'm busy too!
ak: It always makes me happy when someone who has read the original series has read my stories. Thank you so much, you have no idea how much your review meant to me! Oh, and I will be changing the ending, I think you'll like it ;)
lilpopsplash: Thank you for forgiving me!
Saskie: As you wish!
Seth the Inu: I know how you feel! Just let it all out, embrace your inner fangirl! The flashbacks were not in the book, that was my idea (I am so proud of myself)! Answer to your question, no I do not think I will be doing the fourth book (which I know about) I'll probably just read it and be a crazy fan. But the way this story will end will not leave anything open for something like that!
Amatsu Kurosaki: I know, I love backstories too! Why do you think I love this story so much!
Tyrant Dragon Knight: Well, you made my day, too! I know what you mean, I love an independent Yuugi! You'll be getting plenty of that in this story so hold on to your seat! Plot bunnies, you are so evil, but why do you have to be so cute! Thank you, I love you too (not creepily)!
hikari no senshi17: Nope, not a cliffhanger, just a cute little ending! You are very close (about right on the mark) when it comes to Yuugi's flashbacks. Thank you so much!
Ranko: You guys are lucky I love you; do you realize all of those reviews took up TWO pages? TWO! Now I'm dead, goodbye…
Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!
Yuugi: Enjoy? Ranko, are you okay?
Ranko: (grumbles)
-/-
"Yuugi…Yuugi, please wake up!"
Yuugi groaned as he heard someone call for him. He was so tired and cold that he didn't want to get up, but the person who was calling for him began to shake him. Yuugi sighed and peeled his eyes open. He saw Mai and the rest of his friends leaning over him, all of them stared at him in worry but he noticed Mai's eyes glisten from unshed tears.
"Thank God!" she cried in relief, grabbing her cousin and squeezing him.
"Mai…I can't breathe…" Yuugi choked out.
Mai relaxed her hug and after a moment more she let Yuugi go. "Where did you go? You scared us to death!"
Yuugi blinked at his cousin as Seto and Honda helped him to his feet. "Huh?"
"You've been gone for two hours, Yuugi. We've been looking around the park everywhere for you. Then suddenly, we found you lying on a park bench," Mai explained, suddenly her face was professional again; she was a big, bad Shadow Hunter now.
Anzu nodded her head. "Yeah, and when we looked back in the mines, it was just a ride again and there was still no sight of you."
"Yuugi," Mai said, her voice neutral. "You saw him, didn't you?"
Yuugi sighed tiredly; he remembered everything that had happened in the cave like it was a dream. He remembered hearing Yami's sad tale of what a Shadow Man's life was like. He remembered Yami telling him that Shadow Men were once humans. He remembered falling and Yami catching him…and the next thing he knew Mai was waking him up.
Yuugi's clothes were stiff from being dried against his skin. He shivered and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets while his friends waited for him to answer. He felt something brush against his hand in the right pocket of his jacket. He pulled it and saw a square piece of paper.
"What is that?" Seto asked.
Yuugi shrugged and unfolded the paper, reading a note that was written in elegant script that could only belong to one person…
Hello Yuugi,
the clock is ticking on the new Game that we are playing and if you want to see your friends again you should collect those three gold coins quickly. One more thing, you seem to have lost the one gold coin I gave you in the cave. Oh well, what a shame? Better hurry along, I'll be waiting.
Yami
Yuugi scowled and crushed the little note in his hand. That bastard! Right when he thought that he was changing. When Yuugi thought that he could trust Yami, that he was really good, he pulls this crap! If Yami wants a Game, Yuugi will give him a Game.
"Yes, I saw Yami," Yuugi said, grinding his words out through clenched teeth. "And I know what the new Game is."
"What is it?" Bakura asked.
Yuugi explained to them that the only way to save their friends was to collect three gold coins. Although, he left out the part about seeing the eyes of the Shadow Men as they tried to drown him in the cave, or how it had felt to die. Maybe he would tell his friends when they were all safe and they had a bit more privacy so he could cry and be comforted.
While they were trapped in this hellish amusement park, why worry them?
Besides, all he could think about was how bad Yami's mood swings seemed to be.
Honda sighed and ran his fingers through his spiked hair. "At least we got something out of that ride. We got some kickass weapons and now we know what we are doing."
Seto crossed his arms over his chest and turned to Yuugi. "So what do we do when we get these three coins?"
Yuugi chewed off one of his thumbnails as he thought about the answer to that question; did Yami tell him what to do after he collected the three gold coins? "I think that we go to the bridge, just like that kid said earlier today. The bridge must be on the other side of the lake, around back, when we get there, I guess Yami will let us across."
'I hope,' that little voice in the back of his head added in.
Yuugi could see the center of the island from where they were by the merry-go-round. It was illuminated by a tall structure that was a lot like the Washington Monument. Yuugi pointed to the tall, glowing structure that, after further observation, Yuugi saw was a lighthouse; he had not noticed the lighthouse earlier today.
"That is where our friends are," Yuugi said confidently; he knew it. Yami was the kind of person who would hang things you wanted just out of your reach.
"Where should be start looking?" Mai asked; everyone knew that she was talking about the gold coins.
Seto was the one who spoke up. "We could go left to the Kiddie-land, or right, back to the fish pond."
Everyone shuddered at the thought of that retched little pond.
"Or go around the front of the lake to some of the rides," Seto continued.
Bakura crossed his arms over his chest. "I say that we go around the lake. That is where we came in tonight, when we came through the door with the runes. There might be a clue back at the starting point."
Walking through a dark amusement park was as scary as walking through a school at night with no one else there. All of the attractions and booths that were so bright during the day and radiated positive energy was now gone and was strangely ominous.
They kept a close eye out for anything from before that had attacked Mai; they now had weapons and were prepared for anything. Except whenever they all heard a low mechanical purring sound that came from around artistically clipped bushes.
They rounded the corner and saw, sitting contently on a brick wall as it did this morning, his tail laying lazily across the wall, was the Cheshire Cat. He wore a mischievous grin, like the cat that had just caught the mouse. Also, unlike this morning, the machine's eyes were opened slightly and it looked as if that mechanical trashcan was looking right at them.
Yuugi heard Honda sigh a breath of relief from beside him. "Why did that scare me so much?" The brunet put a hand to his chest to calm his racing heart. Bakura shook his head at the other man.
Yuugi took a cautious step towards the mechanical trashcan; it kept purring and purring and purring, it was like the machine was broken. "This is freaky," Yuugi said to himself quietly.
"I bet this is just to scare us," Anzu said confidently, crossing her arms over her chest and moving to stand next to Yuugi. She shone her flashlight on the mechanical jaw that was programmed to drop open when someone pulled the tail; Mai was circling it at a safe distance.
Anzu squinted her eyes and leaned in closer to the hard plastic of the cat's mouth. "I think I see something in there, can you pull the tail for me?"
No one moved. "You're kidding me, right?" Seto asked.
Anzu didn't pay attention to Seto's questioning tone. "No, I'm serious, I think there is something in this thing's mouth." Yuugi hesitantly pulled the tail and the jaw dropped open. Anzu moved her flashlight to get a better look. "Yeah, something is in there, down by the throat; it looks gold."
Mai moved around the stare down the cat's mouth as well. "She's right, there is something down there."
"Couldn't it just be a gum wrapper?" Yuugi suggested, getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wanted his friends to get away from that thing.
"Well, I'm not getting it," Honda said; it seemed like no one heard Yuugi speak, either that or they chose to ignore what he said.
"Anzu can get it, can't you, princess?" Mai asked.
Yuugi fumed. "Don't tease her, Mai."
Mai put her hands out in front of her in a defensive manner. "I'm not, I mean that she has the longest and skinniest arms here so she can reach all the way back there. Plus," Mai said, taking Anzu's hand and holding it up. "Look at how long her nails are."
Yuugi was about to argue with Mai that he didn't want Anzu to do it; he didn't want any of his friends to do it, but then Anzu laughed and waved her hand in a dismissing manner.
"You know, Mai makes a good point, Yuugi," she said light-heartedly. "I have no problem doing it."
"But—" Yuugi tried, but was cut off by Mai.
"Yuugi, this is a quest game. We not only have to find the three coins, we have to get them too and that may be the hardest part," Mai said in a gentle voice.
"A quest game?" Yuugi questioned.
Mai nodded. "Remember that time I told you all about the different kinds of games? Different games fall into different categories. The first Game Yami played was a race game, then the second was a hunting game, and this is a quest game."
Honda tapped his chin in thought. "It is natural for humans to go on quests and find things, so I guess this Game is in our favor. We actually know what we are doing."
The Cheshire Cat purr sounded again; the machine's mouth got stuck and remained open.
While everyone else was discussing, Anzu stood in front of the mechanical trashcan, examining her long nails that had been chipped and dirtied during the mine ride. Without any more thought, she reached up and put her hand in.
Honda was the one who noticed first and shouted, which made everyone jump in surprise.
Anzu's face was set as she reached farther and farther down the cat's mouth, her arm disappearing as she reached and grabbed for whatever was back there.
Finally, after a minute or two of tensed silence, Anzu smiled in triumph. "I feel something. I think I've got—"
Then, before anyone could realize what was happened, the machine's squinted eyes shot open and glowed red. The tabby blue-gray fur became lifelike and the tail swished in a predatorily fashion. It purred again, but this time is came out more like a low roar, as if the grinning cat had become a lion.
The mouth that had been hanging open snapped shut, trapping Anzu's arm up to her elbow.
Anzu screamed.
"Anzu!" Honda cried, holding his pick high above his head, as if he was about to charge and attack the beast.
"No Honda!" Mai shouted to stop him. "That thing is not flesh, we can't hurt it. We're going to have to pull Anzu out!"
Anzu gave out a scream again as the cat pulled Anzu closer until it trapped her arm up to her bicep. "Ow! Help me, you guys!" It was dragging her arm further and further in. "This thing wants to take my arm off!" Tear were rolling down her cheeks.
Honda went up behind Anzu and hooked his arms around her waist, pulling her towards him. Anzu cried out in pain again. "No, stop it! It hurts; don't pull!"
"What the hell are we supposed to do?" Honda shouted to the rest of his friends behind him.
Yuugi took a moment to think this over in his head. It had its teeth clamped firmly around Anzu's arm and didn't seem to be letting go. When Honda pulled, it didn't help release Anzu at all. They needed to do something to unclench the machine's jaw…
"Mai!" Yuugi shouted. "Try and pry the cat's teeth apart with your pick. Honda, wait until my signal and then pull."
Anzu was still screaming and crying in pain.
Mai wedged the pick upside down between the cat's perfect white teeth, then pulled down on the handle. Yuugi helped too. Mai's face was red from the exertion and she put all of her weight against the handle as Yuugi prayed that it wouldn't snap in half.
Then Yuugi felt something shift and give way; the jaw was moving apart.
"Honda, now!" Yuugi cried.
Honda pulled and Anzu's arm slid out. Anzu shrieked again as she fell backwards and on top of Honda.
Mai and Yuugi fell too as the cat's jaw went completely slack and there was nothing to support the pick anymore. The cat purred once more, its eyes closed again, and the jaw snapped shut.
Mai grabbed her pick that had fallen to the ground and sighed.
Yuugi saw Anzu cradling her right arm and noticed that it was red, like someone had punched her arm repeatedly, and had giant bruises. She hissed in pain when Honda moved it to try and examine it closer.
Honda gave her an apologetic look and cast a glance toward Seto and Bakura, who had been staying back during that whole experience. "Got any aspirin?" he asked the other two men.
Seto sighed and reached into his large coat pocket and pulled out a simple white bottle and Bakura offered her his canteen. Anzu accepted both silently, her left hand shaking as she downed the pills and took a swig of water.
Honda shed his top layer jacket and made a make-shift sling for the girl; it turns out she couldn't move her right arm at all and after seeing the damage done, no one blamed her. Yuugi was afraid that her shoulder may have been dislocated.
"Are you okay?" Honda asked for the fifth time.
Anzu giggled and nodded her head. She passed something from her right hand to her left and held it up triumphantly, despite being injured. Held between her forefinger and thumb was a solid gold coin with a bow stamped on its side.
Everyone let out loud, joyous laughter as soon as they saw the gold coin. Honda swept Anzu up into a hug and she let out a stream of curses. "Oop, sorry," he said, then chuckling. "But you didn't let go of it, I'm so proud of you!"
Anzu laughed and turned towards Mai. "Thank you, Mai. It's a good thing that your pick wasn't flimsy."
Mai looked like she wanted to say something, maybe apologize. She just smiled and shook her head. "Well, if the celebrating is over, we should move. We're kind of exposed out here and anything could get us." She walked over to Anzu and plucked the coin out of her hand. "Thank you, I'll take good care of it and make sure we won't lose it."
"Where do we go now?" Seto asked.
Bakura crossed his arms over his chest as he thought. "Well, I say that we go to everything that is lit up and working; that seems like the obvious place to go and where we can find a coin. I mean, the merry-go-round was lit up and the demon trashcan was near it and it had a coin."
Honda picked Anzu up bridal-style. "So we just look for anything that is working?" he asked.
"I don't like this idea of being led around," Mai said crossly.
Yuugi was starting to worry about Mai. She has been acting really strange, and he hated to say this about his cousin, but kind of like a bitch.
"Well, what's that down there?" Honda asked, gesturing to tiny white lights that twinkled between dark trees; it was beyond the merry-go-round and past a stretch of greenery.
Yuugi squinted. "I think that's the arcade."
"I guess that is where we are going next," Bakura said with an air of finality.
Elsewhere ~
"Run, run, run."
The sound of pounding feet, or was that the sound of his heart thumping in his ears?
"Run, run as fast as you can."
His feet were bleeding and it hurt to run against the hard, rocky ground.
"Get away."
He felt the warmth of the fire burn his back and he realized that someone was running ahead of him; he was following him, trying to keep pace.
"They're right behind us."
Someone was holding his hand to make sure they wouldn't lose each other.
"Come on."
He fell and then the next thing he knew, he was on his back with large man hovering over him; grinning manically.
"Don't hurt him."
There was someone tied to a tree, but he didn't know who; he couldn't see the person's face because his eyes were swollen shut after being beaten. His whole body hurt and it felt like he was dying.
"Don't close your eyes."
His whole body was so numb from the pain that dying was painless. He felt searing pain, as if he was being branded again and then he felt the darkest feeling enter his heart. That is the last thing he remembers before dying. Endless pain and darkness; he screamed.
"Malik."
Malik jumped in surprise and pounced on the person who had snuck up behind him. He straddled them and pressed his palms down on his throat. His eyes were wild and unfocused and all he recognized was a pair of violet eyes similar to his own, staring up and him sadly.
Malik's vision cleared and he saw Marik pinned under him.
"What did you see?" Marik asked solemnly.
During his stay here in the Shadow Realm, Malik was no longer afraid of what Marik was or what he could do to him; Malik was afraid of who he was and what he could do. He had grown closer to Marik but at the same time had retreated into his own little shell.
"How many secrets do the Shadow Men hold?" Malik asked. Marik was quiet. "Who the hell am I?"
-/-
Ranko: Rawr! Why did I have so much trouble with the last part of this chapter? I loved it and if any of you are confused, it will all be explained, and trust me, your sweet little minds will be blown!
Yami: Took you long enough to get this chapter out.
Ranko: I know, right? And its so short…oh well.
Yuugi: Please review!