This one didn't take me as long to type up. The chapter was short . . . And I think the next one will be short too. :0 Not too short though. Next update will be sometime next week ^^

DISCLAIMER: ll kairi ll does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Nor any of its characters, just her own! ^^

Chapter ten:

"Well, I see you got this far," Coby said, standing with his arms crossed against his chest.

XxxxX

No one said anything, they all watched Coby walk towards them. The man wasn't smiling nor was he frowning; he just looked like he was stoic enough that they couldn't decipher what he was he was thinking.

Beside him, Yugi could hear Devin gulp and could almost picture the small boy's eyes twice their size. The look of fear, when he scanned the other guys, was on everyone's face, including Mark's. Even himself.

Coby stopped about a yard from the group. He didn't say anything or do anything. He just continued to watch them.

Finally, tired of the silence that stretched between them, mark jabbed his finger in Yugi's direction and shouted, "He's the master-mind of this!"

As always, (kind of) Alex quickly spoke to his defense, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Yugi's the one who came up with the escape plan. If anyone should get in trouble, it should be him!"

"What the fuck are you talking about? You participated in this, too!" Krissy glared at the copper-colored boy.

"Who cares? Just because we participated in this, doesn't mean we all have to get in trouble." Greg said, stepping in for his friend.

Dixie glared at the boy and crossed her arms against her chest. "What kind of man are you?"

Greg seemed a bit taken aback. "Excuse me? What the hell does that have anything to do with this?"

"Only a real man can take the consequences."

"Well, then I guess we aren't real men!" A boy with blond locks exclaimed.

Greg turned to TJ with a piercing glare. "Speak for yourself!"

As the group bickered, Yugi had kept his gaze on the un-moving Coby. Neither of them said anything, just watched each other.

"So you're saying you're a real man?" TJ's friend, Sai, said, stepping in.

"I am! But that doesn't mean I have to take consequences!"

"You're letting us go, aren't you?"

The bickering from the boys abruptly stopped and they all turned to Yugi.

Coby smiled. "Well, if I wasn't, would you still be standing here?"

"Then why are you here?" Mark demanded.

The man shrugged and let his arms fall down to his sides. "To make sure you get out okay, what else?"

"Why?" Alex asked, perplexed.

Once again, he shrugged. "You've been here long enough."

Yugi thought for a moment before dropping his hand from his temple. "You were expecting us to escape, weren't you?" Coby nodded.

"Then why didn't you help us?" Sokko demanded.

Before Coby could respond, Yugi did. "He wanted to, but couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Because," Coby said, "life's full of hard obstacle courses. And most of them, you have to accomplish on your own." When Sokko looked at him with a confused expression, he sighed and explained. "In a way, you can look at this as a test. No one can help you on a test; you have to do it yourself."

"Meaning, even though Coby was wanting to help us, he couldn't. We had to figure this out on our own." Alex explained to the dumbfounded boys.

Devin, however, still looked a bit confused. "So wait, are you saying you kidnapped us to test us?"

The man shook his head. "I wish it was that reason, but no. Cassandra wanted me to kidnap you to use as slaves, and the other part . . ."

Yugi raised an eyebrow at the statement but didn't say anything. He curled his hands into fists instead, as he tried to ignore the pain that continued to damage his mind.

What seemed like seconds passed by in silence. The teenagers watched Coby as they tried to figure him out still, even though Alex had tried to clear it up for them.

Finally, Marcus spoke up. His voice sounded kind of nervous and shaky. "So, uh . . . are you going to let us go?" He pointed his finger to the door, wondering if they were free to go.

"Does it look like I'm stopping you?" Coby asked and raised an eyebrow.

Everything happened so fast it was almost a blur. All of the guys, plus the three girls, ran to the door and then ran outside. All except for one. Yugi stayed where he was, his amethyst eyes never leaving Coby's blue.

"Why are you still here, Mr. Mutou?"

"Why Coby, why are you doing this for?" He asked.

Coby just smiled. "It began with Cassandra paying for my hospital bills. But, that's a story I'll have to tell you later. Right now, you need to get going before Cassandra wakes up and finds you gone. I'll try to buy you some time."

Yugi nodded and ran to the wide opened door. With the door knob in hand, the boy looked over his shoulder. "Thanks Coby." Then he ran out the door, closing it behind himself.

Coby kept his smile before turning around and he headed towards the kitchen. "Good luck, guys." He started to whistle a random tune that popped into his mind.

XxxxX

Outside was very bright, too bright to be only four o'clock. It looked more like it was either noon or one. The group of fourteen was standing on the huge porch, trying to get their eyes adjusted to the outside.

"Man, it's been so long since I've seen the sun," Krissy whispered, not wanting to ruin the moment. ((Like in movies))

"Admire the sun at a different time. Right now, we gotta go!" Leon said in haste. By now, everyone had their eyes adjusted.

"But there's one problem." A boy with golden brown hair said, speaking up for the first time. Everyone looked at Lee, curious but confused. "Where the hell are we?"

Mouths dropped opened, but then quickly closed. It was silent, the air filled with an intense shocked and surprised energy wave. Yugi frowned; mad that he forgot to ask Coby where they were at, much less looked around in Cassandra's room for information.

"How 'bout we just start running around and ask people where we're at?" Tiler suggested. Some of the guys mumbled in agreement, but Dixie shook her head.

"Coby said he was going to try to stall Cassandra, but we don't know for how long."

"We're in Yokohama, Japan." A soft voice sounded.

Yugi looked next to his dark haired friend. "Yokohama? How do you know that?"

"Yeah, how do you know that?" Sai raised an eyebrow.

Devin looked uncomfortable, hating being in the center of attention. "Well, the other day, I was on trash duty and was shredding some paper."

"Spit it out already!" Mark lashed out.

Devin sort of glared at the taller boy. "I found some of her mail and got curious. As of now, we're in the city of Yokohama, exactly two hours from Tokyo and two and a half from Domino." ((Not really, it's like an hour to Tokyo . . . but shhh! ^^))

Yugi's heart gave a little leap of joy.

"Okay, now that we know where we are, we need to find a bus station." Alex started.

Having been given a new objective, everyone nodded their heads before they started to run off the porch, onto the green grass, and took a [random] right turn down the street.

XxxxX

It took some time, but they managed to find a bus station. Some by-passers would look at them really funny, but kept walking. One even asked if they were okay. I mean, who wouldn't? A group of fourteen teens waiting for the bus, each basically wearing the same thing; guys had jeans and some color of hoodie, while the girls wore a pink (which could be seen clearly now) tank top and jean shorts; all of them shoe-less.

"We're fine," Mark growled at an elderly woman who had stopped. The lady rolled her eyes and walked off without another word. "Why is everyone asking that?"

Krissy rolled her chocolate-colored eyes. "Three words; our appearances, duh." A few of the guys counted on their fingers to see if it was right. "We look like orphans or some kids that got lost in the woods or somethin'."

Before Mark could reply, the bus sounded close, but not close by. Everyone that was sitting down stood up and watched as the bus came into view and rolled to a stop in front of them. The doors opened inviting the group in.

Yugi looked into the blue vehicle before someone grabbed his wrist, restricting him from going in.

"Yugi, I just realized something," Alex started. The tri-haired looked at her to continue. "We don't have money to ride the bus all the way to Tokyo!"

He smiled. "Don't worry; I sort of . . . borrowed some." When Alex gave him a questioning look, he turned around and took the steps up into the bus.

"Money," The bus driver automatically said, holding his hand out.

Yugi nodded. "Uh . . . How much? There's fourteen of us."

The driver raised an eyebrow and looked around the teen. The rest of the group smiled and gave him a nervous wave.

"You know that's going to be expensive, kid." He said, turning back to Yugi. "How far do you need to go?"

"We need to go to Tokyo and Domino."

The bus driver shook his head. "Sorry, but I don't go that far. And anyways, that's too far."

Suddenly, a presence appeared next to Yugi. "Please sir, we need to get back as soon as possible!" Alex spoke with such innocence. "You see, we were on a field trip without school to visit the . . . the . . ."

"- - to visit the museum when we got lost." Krissy came to the rescue when Alex seemed lost for words.

"You got lost? How?" The driver asked his expression unreadable.

"Well, we got bored at the museum, I mean who wouldn't?"

"So we took a detour, the group of us," Alex motioned to the guys (And Dixie) behind her.

"Well, when we took the detour - -,"

"- - we somehow ended up outside in the woods."

"We got really curious about the woods so we went exploring."

"And before we knew it, we got lost." Alex pouted and faked a small sniffle.

'Man, they keep finishing each other's sentences perfectly. And they just keep going! Best friends don't even hold up to them, they're more like twin sisters.' Yugi thought with amazement.

"We got lost for a couple of hours,"

"– because the woods were huge! Have you seen them?"

"When we finally got free from the woods,"

"- - and found the museum again,"

"Our teachers had already left, assuming we found our own rides home. They weren't really responsible teachers, let me tell you that."

The two girls finished their lie and looked hopefully to the bus driver.

After a moment of silence, "I don't believe you one bit, but fine. Big question here is how are you going to pay for it? You know it's going to be around a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars, right?"

Yugi breathed in a sigh of relief before reaching into his pocket. He brought out the wad of cash he stole earlier and presented it to the wide-eyed driver. "It's about two hundred, but keep it all; covering the mileage and everything."

The driver took the money, his mouth jarred in surprised, and nodded his head.

The grateful teens said their thanks as the filed onto the bus .No living soul was on the bus except for its driver.

Within fifteen minutes, the bus took off.

The group sat in the back of the bus, sitting together. As they settled down, the intercom came on and the bus driver said, "Sit back and enjoy the ride. Next stop, Tokyo."

Not taking the silence that had overcome them, Lee leaned across the aisle and asked in a hushed voice, "Yugi, so . . . how'd you do it? How'd you manage to escape?" A mummer of agreement spread around the end of the bus as everyone turned to their savior.

Yugi, who sat next to Alex on the seat, took a deep breath before he started his story. Knowing better, he kept the parts about being poisoned and the garden to himself, not wanting the others to worry. But, he told them everything else from Cassandra forgetting to tighten the hand cuffs to cuffing her to the bed post.

"I didn't really think of anything, but, that's how it happened." He finished and watched everyone's reactions. Some were surprised, others confused, one or two smudged grins about what Cassandra got. The rest, were not expressing anything.

Finally, "Wow . . .! " Devin exclaimed. "Even if you did come up with the idea, we're still very grateful." The guys and girls nodded in agreement. "We can finally go back to our family!"

With that one sentence, every one of them started to drift off into their own world, thinking about reuniting with their family and friends. Yugi leaned back against the seat, closing his eyes as he tried to ignore the pain in his head and now his chest. His hand curled into fists on his lap.

"Are you alright, Yugi?" Alex asked softly, only loud enough for him to hear.

Yugi cracked his eyes opened and gave her a reassuring smile. "Yup, just can't wait to see my friends and grandpa." Which wasn't a lie.

Alex nodded and leaned a bit into Yugi. "Neither can I. And what's weird, is that I can't wait to go back to school." Yugi could feel a blush creep up to his cheeks, coloring them light pink. Even through everything he's been through, he could help but feel a little nervous from being so close to a girl. ((Awww!)) "I can't wait to start learning about all the pointless math and chemistry, and about Japan's history. And I can't wait to see my dog, Dude." She let out a sigh.

"The only bad thing about going back to school is all the make-up work." Yugi frowned. He could feel Alex tense up then let out a groan.

After a few minutes of random chatter, Alex slouched down a bit and rested her head on Yugi's shoulder. Quietly, she whispered, "Next stop, Tokyo City." She closed her eyes and her breathing evened out.

Yugi closed his eyes as well. 'Next stop, Tokyo City.' Alex's words echoed into his mind. He smiled.

XxxxX

Till next time! ^^

Okay, I need major help!

Lisa: Yes you do.

*Ignores comment* Okay, I described Yugi's eyes to be amethyst but what color are Atem's? . I always thought Crimson but that's a red-ish . . . not a purple. Aaaagh!

Lisa: And why does it matter?

I need it for this story and my other! And I'm about in tears cause I'm frustrated at it!

Lisa: ….. Eat some gummy bears; they always seem to cheer you up. ^^ *Hands some*

*Eats whole bowl…* Now I'm fat again…. Though that did help *curious wonders* …. But…. I seriously need heeeelp! TT How do I describe them . . . :((