Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to their respective creators. This particular YGO universe was developed by Ellen Brand, and is used with permission.
Chapter 13: In Search of Sanity
When Kaito made it into the darkness corridor, he found Riku waiting with his arms folded.
"Did he ask you something?" Riku turned and started walking, pausing briefly to let Kaito catch up. "You took awhile."
"Eh? No, I was just behind you." Kaito snapped his fingers as realization dawned. "Right. Relative time. One of the craziest things about this place, I swear. That must be why everyone at home thought I was gone six weeks, when I was sure I kept track of days and we'd been gone less than that."
Riku opened his mouth to respond, but before he could comment a faint 'thump' sounded behind them. Instinctively, they both whirled around with weapons in hand. And then Kaito swore.
Over fifty feet away, Hakuba 'I-wouldn't-know-spontaneity-if-it-bit-me-in-the-arse' Saguru unsteadily picked himself up off the ground, the portal to their home world closing behind him. He swayed, looking around in a slightly dazed manner.
"No, no, no," Riku suddenly declared with increasing vehemence, and started running.
Kaito looked behind Hakuba and realized with a sense of horror that heartless were quickly beginning to materialize around the other boy. From what he'd learned about how heartless sought hearts, the stronger the better, and the inner strength Hakuba must have been relying on just to stand in a corridor without any type of shielding from the dark… Hakuba had to be shining like a beacon to them.
"Hakuba-kun! Run!" He yelled, dashing forward. The command spurred Hakuba into action and he ran in their direction, but his jerky and uncoordinated movements did nothing to ease Kaito's peace of mind.
They met up halfway, just before Hakuba half-collapsed onto the ground again, panting heavily as he tried to breathe under the influence of the corridor. Before Kaito could start chewing him out properly, Riku grabbed Hakuba's wrist, ignoring the blond's twitch when he did.
"The darkness likes to eat people like you, Hakuba-san. This is why Kaito-kun didn't want you along. Come on, you're going home."
Hakuba's head jerked up to look at Riku, a flash of anger tinged with panic in his eyes. The next thing Kaito knew the detective had handcuffed Riku's wrist to his own, and grabbed the other so that Riku couldn't interfere.
The reaction was instantaneous and completely unexpected.
Riku let out a savage cry unlike anything Kaito had heard from him before, his tall frame obscured by a flash of dark fire that forced Kaito to back away, temporarily blinded. When he could finally see again, blinking away residual spots, he saw that it had momentarily driven the heartless back as well, but that gave little comfort in the face of the state his friends were in.
Hakuba was curled up in a fetal position on the ground, trembling violently. He didn't look hurt, but he'd clamped his eyes shut and the heels of his palms dug into his ears, trying to block out something Kaito could neither see nor hear. Beside him Riku stood gasping, eyes wild, one hand cradling his handcuffed wrist—which was no longer handcuffed—and there was a half-melted pile of twisted metal on the ground between him and Hakuba.
"Hakuba-kun!" Kaito temporarily ignored the heartless, stepping closer to the blond. Riku seemed to regain his senses and looked down, expression melting from fury to near-panic. He reached down a hand.
"Hakuba-san, did I hurt—"
Hakuba jerked away from Riku before the boy could touch him, though he failed to put any real distance between them. "Stay—the hell—away from me!" he snarled weakly, eyes still closed. "Oh, God—Kuroba-kun, get me out of here and away from those—things, dead zones…"
Kaito looked up sharply, to see the heartless were creeping towards them again.
Okay, don't panic. You've got a detective who's being attacked by the environment, looks something just went 'sproing' inside and is suddenly scared to be near Riku-kun. And he's so out of it that he's asking you for help.
You've also got heartless trying devour all of your hearts, and there is absolutely no way you can take on this many with flashbombs and a sword and still protect Hakuba-kun.
Under normal circumstances he might have been willing to try taking on such a massive swarm with just the two of them, but he and Riku simply weren't fast enough to defend Hakuba from all directions, and the blond was in no position to protect himself.
Not to mention the longer he's here, the more danger he's in from losing his heart to the darkness of the corridor regardless of what else has gone wrong…
Panicking!
Kaito desperately tried to think of a solution to their predicament as he stared the heartless down. His hand strayed to the inside of his jacket, toward the flashbombs that would be his best line of defense if they charged.
His fingers brushed against laminated cardboard, and he felt a pulse against his touch. Memory whispered suddenly, and he almost didn't dare let himself think as possibility began to solidify. There was no time to think it through too carefully, no time to warn Riku. They were outside the restrictions of home, now, and while his previous attempts hadn't exactly gone smoothly, this was Hakuba, dammit; he was not about to lose the infuriating detective when they'd just managed to discover that they could actually get along…
The top card slipped into his hand, and he was oddly unsurprised to find himself holding Luster Dragon, calling it forth almost before he'd flipped the card over.
Even though he'd been expecting it, the energy drain drove Kaito to his knees. This was going to have to work, because he was going to be pretty much useless afterwards. Flashes of light in the corner of his eye and the roar that accompanied them announced his ally's arrival, and he looked up in time to see some more nicely flashy explosions clear a decent sized perimeter around the trio, but it wasn't enough. The heartless still swarmed the edges and immediately began to approach again.
A glimmering muzzle nudged him. ::There is not time for sleep, young one,:: a calm female voice commanded. ::Stand.::
"Can't," Kaito muttered, looking up at emerald scales. Still curled in on himself, Hakuba twisted around to lean against their defender, pained expression relaxing by a fraction at the contact.
The dragon's tail curved around Riku as she crouched protectively over the three of them. ::I cannot remain here long on your strength.::
"We have to get out of here, but I can't find the king fast enough!" Riku protested.
Kaito stared bleakly at the heartless, hardly believing how quickly everything had gone sour. It hadn't been enough. They needed help and they needed it now.
::He is not the only one willing to give you aid.:: Abruptly the dragon ran a claw through the air, opening what looked like a tear in the normal fabric of reality, edged with oddly familiar, swirling, colored mist. ::Travel is safer this way. And you are not without allies.::
Watching the heartless, Kaito felt his deck pulse again in his jacket pocket. Luster had been Yugi's card, given as a promise and a memory.
He made his decision.
Then, considering that Riku currently seemed to be the only one of them currently capable of standing… he looked up at the dragon.
"Help?"
Despite the dragon's lack of a human face, Kaito swore she gave him a look of amused exasperation. A moment later, she had swung Kaito onto her back, taken Hakuba in her arms (forelegs? Did it matter?) and loosely draped her tail around Riku's waist.
::Consider yourselves lucky that once I'm home, I won't need you in order to retain my form.::
Kaito had no time to reply, only to wrap his arms around her neck and hang on for dear life as she ducked through the rip in reality, narrowly escaping the heartless into… somewhere else. Illuminated darkness—Kaito couldn't think of any other way to describe it, despite the inherent oxymoron—stretched as far as the eye could see, accented by swirls of blue, purple, and silver-grey.
"Where is this place?" Riku's voice held no fear, only a healthy dose of confusion.
::Haven't you guessed? This is where the shadows play, between the bounds of light and dark. These are not the wild shadows, though, where not even your rules of space apply. A long time ago a powerful shadowchild used the light and dark together to impose order and structure on a pocket of shadows, creating what we call the Shadow Realm.::
Wait a minute… shadowchild?
::The shadows are not safe for those not given the gift to know them, but you are both under Kaito-botchama's protection and consequently, under mine.::
"It's not hungry, like the other place." At Hakuba's whisper, Kaito had to reign in the desire to interrupt and demand to know what on earth was wrong with him. "But it's curious, prodding and poking and—ohGod—tasting, all the way down to the bone if it could, just to understand something it doesn't recognize…"
That does not make me feel any better! You're supposed to be staying safely at home, you idiot!
::They might with how vulnerable you are right now, young one, but you need not fear that. I could not take you directly from the darkness to where the Pharaoh is, nor can I leave this place myself, but I can open the way for you to reach him from here. Call upon me again when you have need of me.::
A claw rent the air in front of them, and she took a step forward. Abruptly, the real world replaced the Shadow Realm, and Kaito and Hakuba tumbled to the ground in the dragons' sudden absence. Kaito thudded onto carpeted floor with a wince, too exhausted still to catch himself properly, but he avoided anything beyond the promises of a few bruises later.
Hakuba wasn't so lucky. Not ready to regain his feet yet, he stumbled sideways, directly into Riku. Riku automatically reached up to steady him, hands wrapping around Hakuba's forearms. Hakuba yelped and jerked backwards, dropping heavily to the ground but immediately scrambling backwards into the corner of the room furthest from its other occupants, once more curling up in a ball with his hands over his ears.
"Grandpa!"
Kaito zeroed in on familiar tri-colored spikes, ignoring the blond American nearby who was now watching them with narrowed eyes.
"Yugi-kun! Listen, I don't know what happened, but something's gone wrong with Hakuba-kun. You guys know weird, and we don't have anyone else to ask, and Luster Dragon brought us here…"
"Luster? Yug', who are these guys?" The blond teen stepped in front of Yugi with a fiercely protective expression, traces of a Brooklyn accent edging his words. "Someone playing Shadow Games you never told us about?"
"It's okay, Joey. They're friends. I told you about Kaito-kun and Ansem-san, remember?" Yugi maneuvered around Joey towards Hakuba, looking concerned.
Joey followed behind, but he didn't make it more than a few steps across the room before Hakuba gasped out, "Stay away from me!"
"Everyone back away!" Solomon Mouto stood in the nearby doorway, taking in the scene in an instant. "You too, Yugi."
Hearing the tone of command and hoping that the old man knew what he was doing, Kaito picked himself up off the floor and grabbed hold of Joey. He half-dragged, half-leaned on Joey as he staggered to the far side of the room, not caring what the blond might think of him. Yugi and Riku followed, and they watched silently as Solomon knelt down beside Hakuba and calmly placed a hand on his arm. "It's all right, son."
Rather than flinching back like Kaito expected him to, Hakuba immediately turned towards the older man, one of his hands coming up to grasp Solomon's. A fraction of the tension in him bled away and he whispered, almost too quietly for Kaito to hear, "Help me."
Kaito stared, watching Solomon murmur something back and then take on a look of intense concentration."You know what's going on?" he blurted before he could stop himself.
"Of course," Solomon replied absently, focused on whatever he was doing with Hakuba. "This is hardly my first time seeing empathic overload, though rarely this dramatic. Most have the opportunity to grow into their talent as it strengthens over time. Is this his first time manifesting?"
Kaito nearly laughed. "Empathic? Hakuba-kun? The guy who defaults between smug, arrogant, and neutral?"
"Well, that would make sense." Solomon brushed the hair off Hakuba's forehead in a soothing motion. The blond had readjusted to lean against Solomon's shoulder with his eyes closed, seeming to ignore everything else but the man's presence. "If he's untrained, then I'm sure he locked down his own emotions to keep control of what he was sensing from everyone else. Does he avoid physical contact?"
"Yeah, ever since I met him," Kaito replied with a growing sense of dread. No longer feeling up to standing, he sat down on one of the nearby chairs; they'd managed to show up in what looked like the Mouto's living room. From the corner of his eye, he saw Joey flop onto the couch beside Yugi, while Riku continued to stand and watch. "I've been trying to get him used to the idea for almost a year."
Solomon sighed. "Here's your reason, then. Touch usually boosts the empathic signal. Depending on the sensitivity of the person, often exponentially."
Riku closed his eyes with a resigned expression. "I grabbed him twice, and the first time was when he overloaded."
Solomon gave Riku a considering look. "What happened?"
Riku hesitated, glancing at Yugi and Joey, obviously less than thrilled at the prospect of an audience. Yugi gave him a tentative smile, while Joey raised his eyebrows impassively. Riku crossed his arms, and Kaito sighed internally.
We showed up out of the blue, looking for help. I don't like it any better than you do, but I don't know if we can get out of this without having to explain a lot more than you'd want them to know.
He'd almost resigned himself to being the one to have to explain when the other boy finally spoke.
"Hakuba-san followed us when we left—home—"
Kaito caught the hesitation and the term, slightly surprised that Riku would use it in reference to himself. Good old mom… She would have picked up on that.
"We wound up in a place where magic manifests more easily than he's used to, and he wasn't expecting it. I grabbed him to take him back home and he handcuffed me."
Joey snickered.
"He's a detective," Kaito explained briefly. "I'm not exactly sure why he reacted like that, but his default response to a problem is 'bind and hold' until he's had time to think it through."
"And I… panicked," Riku continued.
"Which means?" Joey inquired.
Riku shifted uncomfortably, and Kaito decided to answer for him and get it over with. "Melty handcuffs."
Solomon's eyebrows disappeared beneath his spiky grey bangs. "I can see we're going to need some more in-depth explanations on this at some point, but that can probably wait. A response that explosive could easily rip through an inexperienced empath's shields, especially if what you said about a strong magic field is true."
He glanced back down at Hakuba, who seemed to have finally relaxed. Kaito couldn't tell for sure, but it almost seemed like the blond had fallen asleep. "Poor boy, you have no idea what you can do, can you? So you respond by throttling it down." He sighed. "I could hate the Japanese school system sometimes."
"But Hakuba-kun grew up in England. His mom took him there when he was six."
Solomon snorted at Kaito's reply. "They're just as bad. An odd time, though… do you know why?"
Kaito shook his head. "He didn't tell me about it. The newspaper mentioned that he'd been briefly hospitalized, because his dad's a high-up police officer, and then his school records show him in England right after."
Joey leaned forward, looking between Kaito and Hakuba incredulously. "You ran a background check on him? And he's voluntarily followed you into the wide world of weird? You guys have got one of the strangest friendships I've ever seen, and after Kaiba and Yugi, that's saying somethin'."
Kaito shrugged. "He's the detective. He knows things about me that I wouldn't have told him. I just returned the favor."
"Well, if what you said about the hospital is true, it's possible he had an early manifestation, and locked it away in response. Leaving aside whatever trigger incident he may have experienced, hospitals can be traumatic even for empaths with their gifts under control. If they took him there while he was still in shock… it would have been overwhelming."
"That… makes too much sense. Dammit, Hakuba-kun!" Kaito stood and took a few steps in Hakuba's direction, until Riku's hand on his shoulder made him pause. The blond stirred.
"Go 'way. Sleepin'."
"If he really is on overload," Riku said quietly, "he's probably better off not picking up on your worry."
Kaito immediately backed off, returning with Riku to the chair he'd vacated. "Right. What did you just do, Mouto-san?"
"Solomon is fine, lad. Empaths call it projection. The only way to hide an emotion from an empath is to consciously mask it behind a different one. You can't shield your emotions the way you can shield your mind. Usually, the best you can do is consciously regulate what you feel. Concentrating on a single emotion over all others is more easily sensed by an empath, so they call it projecting. I knew an empath in my younger days, and he taught me how to control my emotional state. I took advantage of that to calm…" He looked inquiringly at Kaito.
"Hakuba Saguru."
"To calm Hakuba-kun down. You'll want to learn how to do the same, for his sake, but I suppose I can try to teach you while I help him. He needs time to recover and adjust, and won't be in any shape to travel until he gets a handle on his gift."
A chuff of laughter came from Hakuba, and he opened one eye to look at Solomon. "Gift? Ha."
The eye drifted shut, and a few moments later a soft snore indicated he'd fallen asleep.
Solomon chuckled. "Heaven help us, another Kaiba Seto." Yugi immediately burst into giggles.
"Eh?" Kaito raised an eyebrow. "I know he's got a dragon and what looks like a grudge against the world, but…"
"He has an almost pathological dislike of magic," Solomon informed Kaito, "which is unfortunate because his own power is so strong. I'm inclined to say he only tolerates it because it allows him to protect Mokuba-kun in ways that conventional means can't. And with the trouble this group tends to attract, that's necessary."
"He's a control freak," Joey added, a warmth in his voice taking out whatever bite might have been in the description. "Magic's not logical or controlled. Why do you think the guy breathes computer stuff? He's hacked entire satellite networks, but he can't put magic in a box."
"Sounds about right," Kaito admitted, turning slightly to bring the couch's occupants into view without letting Hakuba out of his sight. "Hakuba-kun quoted Clarke's law at me earlier."
"What?" Yugi finally joined in on the conversation.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," Solomon explained, giving his grandson a wry smile.
Joey smirked. "Kaiba'd like this guy."
"More than he seemed to like Kaito-kun, from what Yugi told me," Solomon agreed.
"Wait a minute... Kaito-kun?" A smile slowly spread across Joey's face. "Of course! I'm an idiot. You're that guy who helped out Mokuba-kun—kid's gonna want to see you when he hears you're back in town again—and gave Yugi his lockpicks! He ain't half-bad, now," the teen declared with obvious pride. "Learned from a master."
"A skill which will serve him well later in life, I'm sure," Solomon said dryly.
"Aw, come on, Gramps," Joey retorted. "Like you couldn't do the same thing at his age?"
"No, I waited until a dig in college, when Dr. Jones insisted that all his students learn a few practical skills while in South America."
"Close enough." Joey turned back to Kaito. "Except for the whole appearing out of thin air with a bunch of Shadow magic and an afterimage of Luster Dragon, I like you already."
"He what?" Solomon exclaimed. "No, never mind, leave that for later. First…" Solomon glanced around the room and then pointed at the afghan draped over Kaito's chair. "Toss that to me, please."
Kaito complied, and Solomon wrapped the blanket snugly around Hakuba before turning towards Yugi. "I'm not as young as I used to be, and even though he's asleep he's best off not being carried by any of you, untrained as you are."
"But if Luster Dragon carried him here," Yugi said thoughtfully, reaching for his belt and pulling a card from the cardcase Kaito saw rested there, "maybe… Dark Magician!"
The grey-blue-purple mist that Kaito was coming to recognize as the trademark of the shadows' presence swirled in the middle of the room, leaving behind an oddly-dressed figure, even by Kaito's standards, kneeling on the floor facing Yugi. The purple robes weren't too bad, or the archaic staff, but the two-foot-high, pointed and slightly curved purple hat not only broke all the laws of fashion, but left them mugged and bleeding in the corner of a dark alleyway.
::I come.::
Though solemn and formal, the man's voice held a promise of laughter long-deferred. Kaito didn't know if even Yugi heard it, the undertone was so faint, but he knew voices. Were he to try imitating this one, he would have to remember that almost-laughter waiting for the right time and place to sound. It made him wonder just what needed to happen first.
Kaito shook himself free from his thoughts as Yugi pointed and said:
"Can you take him to…" he glanced over at Solomon.
"The study, if you would."
Yugi nodded in agreement. The Dark Magician inclined his head, carefully gathered Hakuba into his arms, and carried the sleeping blond out of the room. They waited in silence until Yugi spoke, eyes glazed over slightly. "Hakuba-kun's asleep on the couch in there now."
"He told you?" Kaito asked, curious.
::Of course.::
The female voice that seemed to echo from somewhere behind him was so sudden, so unexpected, that Kaito didn't stop to think. He whirled around, card gun out and aimed at… the family portraits on the back wall of Yugi's living room.
::Did you think we always have to manifest in your world to talk to our favorites?::
He blinked uncomprehendingly, and then reality sank in with a cheery little wave hello. He had a dragon talking in his head, apparently whenever she felt like it. Because he hadn't had the chance to relax since they'd come here, let alone feel safe enough to let his guard down, he'd drawn what was unmistakably a weapon without justifiable provocation. With Yugi watching.
And judging by the familiar presence behind Kaito, Riku had decided to guard his back and ask questions later. Riku was wielding a freaky sword that looked more like a stylized dragon wing than a blade. Brandishing serious weaponry at the people they'd been trying to get help from did not bode well for getting out of this situation without having to explain what was going on.
With a groan he dropped his arm and turned back around to stand beside Riku, staring at the wall between Solomon and the couch with Yugi and Joey. Riku lowered his sword from its position over his shoulder and opened his hand, letting the sword vanish into thin air. Holding Solomon's piercing gaze with an impassive expression, Riku tilted his head slightly towards Kaito.
"What was it?"
"I got surprised." Kaito looked at Yugi, who looked deceptively unconcerned. "You might have warned me that a side effect of using your cards was a voice in my head," Kaito said flatly. "I liked it better when my thoughts were my thoughts."
Almost unnoticed, Riku rippled in a suppressed shudder. Kaito tried to make a mental note to ask about it later, but he wasn't sure if he'd manage it.
"Not all Monsters choose to speak with those who summon them," Yugi replied, hand brushing the golden pyramid around his neck as garnet flashed in his purple eyes. Abruptly, his voice deepened into the baritone Kaito vaguely recalled hearing in front of the amusement park, before he'd gotten distracted by Seto's dragons. "You might have warned us that you have reason to fear being attacked." His eyes narrowed. "You ran here, to us. What were you running from?"
Riku shook his head. "You don't want to know. You shouldn't need to know."
"I don't believe you. If you're running, something's chasing, and that means following. Which means eventually coming here. I don't know what you can do beside a sword and 'melty handcuffs,' but anyone with battle instincts like yours can hardly be incompetent. Whatever you're fighting, I will not remain ignorant while you stand here capable of telling me."
His voice didn't rise, but a cold edge Kaito wouldn't have thought Yugi capable of had crept in by the end.
Of course… this isn't exactly Yugi-kun, is it? What do you call a nameless ghost who both technically is and isn't the teenage boy he's timesharing a body with?
Riku tried staring him down, but Riku's appearance didn't seem unusual on this world, which would have been his main advantage, and amnesiac or not, the spirit likely had a lot more experience making sure he got his way. Kaito doubted you could ever really forget something like that.
Riku broke first, covering his face with a hand and muttering, "The king is going to kill me…" Kaito winced slightly in agreement. As Riku had warned him when they'd first started traveling together, the rules of world-travel strictly forbade revealing the existence of other worlds for the sake of 'preserving world order'. This would make three times Riku had broken the rule, and twice for Kaito, both in the span of less than 24 hours.
King Mickey had been remarkably understanding about Kaito, all things considered, but Kaito suspected that was because the king had seen the way Riku'd been slowly starting to withdraw to the point of collapsing in on himself before Kaito came into the picture. He really didn't want to know what would happen if they managed to make Mickey, not only a keyblade bearer but currently the closest thing to a mentor-like figure in Riku's life, angry with them. Tiny and unassuming the King might be, but Kaito had no desire to ever face the business end of a keyblade.
….What would happen if a keyblade was ever used on a human heart? He filed the thought away for later. Much, much later, the way things were looking right now.
"You're in a fairly bad way yourselves, if you both go off that easily," Solomon offered quietly. "How far in over your heads are you?"
"It's not—quite—like that," Riku replied with a sigh. "It's complicated."
"Well, complicated sounds like my cue to leave," Joey stated abruptly, stretching. "I promised Mokuba-kun I'd cream him in Street Fighter tonight, and if I go now I can annoy Kaiba by showing up for dinner, too. Yugi'll fill me in on the high points tomorrow morning, since you can bet Mokuba-kun's going to come over and see you," he nodded towards Kaito, "before he heads to Kaiba Corp. Seeya, Gramps. Yugi, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
Joey grinned, clapped Yugi on the back, and headed out of the room. In his wake, Solomon shook his head with a smile. "That boy… well, with his appetite, this way we'll probably have enough dinner to go around. Come into the kitchen, boys, and we'll warm everything up. I was just about to call Yugi and Joey-kun when you dropped in, and long explanations are better with a full stomach."
Kaito shrugged and followed behind. Not much difference in the long run, but any reprieve was still a reprieve. While the food reheated, Solomon returned to the living room briefly and Kaito heard the words "a bit of a situation" in slightly muffled tones. Since Yugi was watching the stove and Riku seemed to have reverted to a version of his more withdrawn 'Ansem' behavior, Kaito slipped nonchalantly into the chair closest to the open doorway and listened.
"…latent and didn't know it for years, skeptic of the supernatural and possibly even blocked, and just had all his channels blown wide open. I think there was some pretty major trauma involved both times. I managed to calm him down enough to sleep and my study has the wards for him to feel like he's in soundproofing, but that's only a single room. I'm not exactly equipped to train a complete neophyte in this and still keep him sane in the meantime."
Kaito winced slightly. After a pause Solomon continued with a chuckle, "I run a game shop, not a magic store, and I haven't been in close contact with an empath for years. This is Japan, remember? Where would I have the room to store things on the off-chance I'll need them?" Another pause, and then he said, "Thank you. I'll be expecting it."
When Solomon rejoined them, he served dinner without mentioning the phone call. Kaito decided to focus on eating rather than begin the question-and-answer session any earlier than necessary, because his first extended summon had left him absolutely ravenous. Three servings later, he finally sat back and regarded Yugi from across the table. The Moutos had finished eating almost five minutes before, although Riku had continued to pick half-heartedly at his rice. Kaito suspected the younger boy didn't want to begin until he could have backup.
"So…" Kaito began hesitantly.
"Unless there is anything more fundamental for us to learn first, I believe I echo Yugi's desire to know what it is you boys are running from and why," Solomon replied, folding his hands on the table.
Kaito glanced at Riku. "This is your area of expertise."
Riku nodded. "First things first. My name is Riku, not Ansem. I was hiding my identity when we first met, until Kaito-kun rather forcefully pointed out to me that it was no longer necessary."
"Oh, so that's why your voice is different," Yugi commented. "You sound younger. Is this your real voice, then?"
"Yes."
You refrain from adding that Ansem's voice is just as natural as your own. You wouldn't have been able to keep it up so long otherwise.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Riku-kun, though I wish it were in better circumstances. Go on," Solomon prompted.
"We're running from what are called Heartless." The way Riku pronounced the word, Kaito could hear the capital letter fall into place. "You could say… they're darkness made real."
The Moutos exchanged glances and gave Riku a pair of unreadable looks, but didn't interrupt. Kaito noticed that Yugi's posture looked deliberately casual now, concealing a tension that had come up at Riku's statement and then vanished too quickly.
Riku sighed. "You have to understand, there's only so much I can say. Some things wouldn't make any sense, and some things aren't mine to tell. You already know that there are… other places, given your knowledge of what you call the Shadow Realm."
"Yes, but in our experience, what's out there is generally nasty," Yugi replied. "How can you be sure that these Heartless won't follow you and manage to come here?"
"We were traveling through one of those magic-rich places when they attacked us. There are barriers that they can't get through, but since you seem the paranoid type: your cards make an effective weapon against them."
"They can't follow using the same path you took?"
"They can't come unless someone guides them there…"
I sense a 'but' coming on, and I don't like where this is going.
To Kaito's surprise, Yugi interrupted Riku before Riku could finish. "But a guide can be from here, and call to them," he stated grimly. If Kaito hadn't known better, he would have thought the certainty in Yugi's voice was borne from firsthand experience.
"…Yes." Riku suddenly seemed fascinated by the kitchen table's wood grain. Kaito leaned across the table and smacked him in the side of the head.
"You didn't think to tell me that it was still possible for them to show up back home?"
"The possibility was so remote—"
"I don't care," Kaito gritted out through clenched teeth, ignoring the Moutos for the moment. "You could have—should have—told me. And all of the places we've been, there's still a danger to them too."
"If they haven't been found by now, all the odds are astronomically against it, and you know why it's no good to think of warning most of them," Riku shot back.
Kaito dropped his elbow on the table and let his hand fall into his palm. "Point." He looked up again. "But you could have at least told me."
Solomon cleared his throat. "While I understand that there may be things you'd rather not talk about, can you tell us how you came here? Joey mentioned that Luster Dragon was somehow involved, I believe."
Kaito turned his attention from Riku back to Solomon. "She took us… through the Shadow Realm, she said."
Yugi raised an eyebrow. "Travel through the realm? I've never attempted it, but it must be possible; Bakura-kun's returned from there so many times you'd think he'd installed a revolving door."
"Yes, that would account for what Joey described earlier, I believe—"
::I've been talking to Dark Sage,:: Luster Dragon's voice cut in, overriding Solomon's and causing Kaito to twitch slightly. ::He thinks that you can also learn to do the same thing, through your connection to the shadows.::
"…can you hear us at all, Kaito-kun? Don't worry, you should soon adjust to being able to process the occasional intrusion without tuning out everything else."
Kaito shook his head to clear it. "I can now," he replied. "That was… bizarre. Did any of you hear her?"
"No. Monsters rarely speak from the Shadow Realm to anyone but the Duelist who summons them, if they choose to speak at all."
"If this is going to keep happening, I had better adjust soon. I don't like the idea of zoning out with no warning."
::I am sorry. The closer a connection, the easier it is to multitask.:: These words were like a whisper in his mind, a breath of wind seeking to be unobtrusive. ::Motivation to practice, you might say. A hoard of raw talent connected to the shadows is only so helpful without the ability to control what you have. Unconscious instinct can only bring you so far.::
Kaito realized that the others were watching him patiently, waiting for him to speak.
"Your eyes lose focus a little when they talk to you," Yugi explained. "It happens to all of us; it's one way to tell if anyone is having a conversation you can't hear."
"Great." He sighed. "Luster—" he paused as a thought struck him, and let his mind shape the words with a sense of deliberation.
Do you have a name?
::Méraud, young one.::
Méraud. Emerald. Fitting, for a dragon who looked like she could have been carved out of one. Call me Kaito-kun?
Kaito had never considered it possible to have the sensation of a nod inside your head, but the feeling of assent he received in return couldn't really be described any other way.
"Right," he began again. "Her name is Méraud, and she just told me that someone named Dark Sage thinks I could learn how to do the same thing, although I've no idea how. And before we start playing question and answer by proxy," he added quickly, "is there any way to have this discussion a little more directly?"
"Well…" Yugi pulled out his deck and began sorting through it. "Dark Sage is a facet of Dark Magician: someone he could become in the right circumstances. If he's the one who suggested this—would 'shadow-walking' be a good term, do you think?—then it's probably best to just talk straight to him."
"If you wouldn't mind…"
"I think you told us the primary things we need to know, and it wouldn't hurt to learn more about this." Yugi finally found the card he was looking for, and pulled it out. "Dark Sage!"
::I come.:: The man who materialized standing behind Yugi's chair had the same clothes and build as the Dark Magician, but his face was shadowed by his helmet and a grey beard. He took one of the empty seats at the table, laying his staff across his lap and pushing up his helmet just enough for Kaito see his eyes as he regarded the rest of them. ::What is it you wish to know?::
Yes, the chapter ends here. The explications have gone finicky, so I figured a slightly shorter chapter was better than nothing at all. When Promenade returns, expect some answers to be forthcoming.
8/07