Right. Anything recognizable as belonging to someone else, isn't mine. This particular YGO world belongs to Ellen Brand, and went through the events of Shade and Shadow within the last week or two.

Returning readers will notice that all of Promenade now includes honorifics in any spoken Japanese. English simply is not nuanced enough to properly reflect the relative levels of distance and familiarity held by the various characters. However, if a conversation or significant part of an interchange has no honorifics at all, it's usually safe to assume that they're speaking English.

Many thanks to Snickerer and Ellen for their continued support, ideas, and nitpicking.

Chapter 14: Unstable Equilibrium

::What is you wish to know?::

At Dark Sage's inquiry Kaito paused, trying to organize his thoughts, but before he could formulate a question Solomon interrupted. "Since this might take a while, why don't we move to the living room? I'm sure the couch is more comfortable than kitchen chairs."

Yugi immediately looked to Dark Sage. "If you don't mind…"

::Not at all.::

With the Duel Monster's agreement, the group adjourned back to the living room. Kaito and Riku took the couch, while Dark Sage and Solomon settled into chairs and Yugi sprawled slightly on the floor in typical teenage fashion.

Kaito took advantage of the interlude to think, and once they were finally seated settled on asking, "Well, first of all… what are Shadows, anyway?" He glanced over at Riku, then at Yugi and Solomon, and added, "And how do they relate to Light and Dark?"

Don't kill me if they find out everything because of this, Riku… We need to know.

"Light and Dark?" Yugi asked, curiosity roused.

::Hmm.:: Dark Sage regarded them intently for several moments, his gaze unsettlingly knowing. ::An interesting question, and one few would know to ask. But an important one, as it happens.::

He shifted slightly in his chair, looking between the four of them consideringly. ::As you may or may not be aware, Light and Dark are, on a fundamental level, the forces that make up all of reality. The nature of Light is to bring things into being. Darkness… takes. It is hunger, and the need to make things its own. The balance between them, give and take giving rise to ordered patterns, makes up everything you know as reality. The world and its people are composed mostly of Light, with the Dark maintaining balance and the boundaries between things.::

And from the way you're looking at us I'm willing to bet that you know about there being other worlds out there and I should be glad you're apparently inclined to help keep it under wraps. Because otherwise, I get the feeling you just might have started talking about Darkness making up the boundaries between worlds as well. Which… would actually explain a lot about how we've been traveling and why we need to go through Darkness corridors to get between worlds when they're so dangerous in the first place.

::Beyond the world, where there is mostly Darkness… well. The Dark in itself is merely hunger, no more, no less. But when it is manifested through a living being, rather than merely inanimate forces and matter, the interpretation of that hunger is up to the individual—as is any decision to act on it. Obviously no creature would survive without knowing that it had to eat, and the world would be a poor place indeed if no one ever felt the need for companionship, or the drive to succeed. But sometimes, when filtered through a will and a mind… Dark can be twisted into the need to possess everything and bring it under dominion, by any means possible.::

Out of the corner of his eye Kaito noticed Riku's hands, half-buried in his trenchcoat where the others could not see, slowly clenching to white knuckles as Dark Sage spoke of the nature of the Darkness.

Riku… I know you didn't tell me all the details of what happened to you before. What the Darkness did to you… We really need to catch up with Sora soon, because there's a limit to how much I can really help you when it comes to this stuff.

::As for creatures composed mostly of Darkness…:: Dark Sage continued::…Well. I'm sure you already know how they tend to regard things of Light.::

He paused, watching them again—not only him and Riku, Kaito realized, but also Solomon and Yugi. Putting that together with Yugi's odd air of personal experience from earlier… Kaito decided he really didn't like that line of thought much. Nor did he like the scrutinizing looks he and Riku received when the Mutous, for their part, apparently put together Riku's earlier mention of having traveled through a magic-rich environment with 'beyond the world'.

"Does that mean Light and Dark are pretty much creation and destruction?" Yugi's expression as he turned back to Dark Sage could only be described as utterly fascinated.

The Duel Monster shook his head. ::It is more complicated than that. Light can be used to destroy as well, for one—think about the effect of bringing a fireball into existence in the middle of an object. But there are some fundamental differences. When Light destroys something, it tends to do so by breaking it; the form and structure may be lost, but the matter remains. The Dark, on the other hand, tends to remove the essence of what it attacks from existence entirely; consuming it, or altering its nature. It is not limited to destruction, any more than the Light is barred from it. Especially when it has been twisted into covetousness, the Dark can steal, or conquer, or corrupt.::

There was a moment of silence, and trading of thoughtful glances.

"Then… where exactly do the Shadows fit in?"

::Ah.:: Dark Sage smiled slightly at Yugi. ::That is where things get interesting. For while Light and Dark are eternal and make up the very substance of existence, Shadows stem from the the conflict between the two.::

"…Conflict?" Yugi tilted his head, his brow furrowing slightly as the Dark Sage nodded. Riku showed no such confusion. Given what they'd been through, Kaito was somehow unsurprised that he seemed to find it perfectly natural to think of Light and Dark as inherent enemies.

::Light and Dark are of opposing natures, after all, and so when they meet…:: The Dark Sage gestured slightly with one hand.

"They destroy each other," Riku said quietly. The Dark Sage glanced at him briefly, enigmatically.

::Yes. But the conflict does not always go smoothly, and sometimes things… twist. And sometimes what is thrown off is not of Light, nor of Dark, nor even a mixture of the two. And this, the tertium quid…this makes up Shadow.::

"Tertium quid?" Riku echoed.

Dark Sage glanced at him again, this time with a faint smile. ::It means "third thing" in a language that was once commonly used, though I believe it has fallen out of favor these days. It is used in the context of a third choice that offers escape from choice between the two absolutes of a dichotomy. For instance. If I were to ask you to choose between black and white, and you did not like either option, what would you choose?::

Riku was very, very still. "…Grey?" he said lowly, after a moment.

Dark Sage shook his head, still smiling gently. ::Grey would merely be halfway between the two, still subject to the dichotomy you were given.:: His gaze shifted to Kaito. ::And if I were to ask you the same question? What would you pick, if I offered you black and white and you did not feel you could be comfortable with either?::

Kaito blinked, and said the first thing that popped into his head. "Blue?"

Dark Sage smiled at him. ::Spoken like a true child of Shadow. That is the essence of the tertium quid, you see,:: he continued, returning his attention to all of them. ::Rather than being constrained between the choices given, the third path takes a different direction entirely. If you were in a maze, and your path to the exit was blocked by a wall forcing you to turn left or right and travel farther away from your goal…::

"You'd go up," Kaito chimed in, starting to grin.

"Or point out that both the jerks are lying…" Yugi muttered under his breath, then blushed and ducked his head when Dark Sage smiled proudly at them both.

::Exactly.:: The Duel Monster's gaze turned distant, contemplating things that Kaito increasingly suspected normal languages lacked the proper words to accurately describe.

::Shadow has been called the essence of paradox, and with good reason. By its very nature…:: He trailed off for a moment. ::Light and Dark are strongly defined in being what they are, and this constancy manifests in the order and rules of the reality formed by their interaction. But it is Shadow, that which has no set definition of its own, that allows them to interact to make up that reality. For even as Shadow belongs to neither Light nor Dark, it also opposes neither, so when thrown off by a clash between Light and Dark it pools between them, separating the warring forces. Without Shadow to act as a buffer against direct contact, the meeting of Light and Dark would have produced nothing but a single great flash of annihilation. And yet because it belongs to neither Light nor Dark, Shadow has no place in the rules of either, no proper hold in the ordered framework of reality. And so it slips through the cracks and lies around, beneath, and creeping along the edges of everything, whispering in the edges of the boundaries carved by Darkness.::

Against all logic, a bizarre tone of fondness crept into Dark Sage's voice as he continued.

::Even as they have no form or rules of their own, the Shadows tend to mimic the pattern of the structure formed by Light and Dark simply because that is the path provided for them to follow, just as water conforms to the shape of its container or ivy will grow along a trellis. But just as roots will crack stone and ice can shatter glass, they can break other rules by imposing the ones they follow.::

That… that bit about the mimicking sounds almost like what King Mickey was talking about, that chameleon thing. But not quite. There's something more to it…

If you take away an ivy plant's trellis after it's finished growing into an arch…

As Dark Sage continued, Kaito carefully squirreled away that spark of thought for later consideration.

I really ought to start making a list.

::Having no form but making it possible, needed for it to be possible, taking and making and breaking the rules… the nature of Shadow is flexibility and contradiction. It only makes sense that the Shadows also catch and become home to whatever else may fall between the bounds of Light and Dark, unable for whatever reason to adopt the nature of either. They are home to the unique, the mistakes, the exceptions; those to whom the usual rules of existence do not apply, whether involuntarily or by conscious choice. We Duel Monsters are among those who make their home among the Shadows, though we are somewhat unusual in that we are a group bound by common characteristics. Such groups are not common, for it is rare for there to be enough beings of the same kind to form one; the majority of the individuals who wander the Shadows do so precisely because they are utterly unlike anything else that exists. Part of what distinguishes Duel Monsters in particular is that we are bound to our place in the Shadows, unable to leave the Shadow Realm unless we are summoned.::

"Méraud-san said something like that earlier. You take the energy necessary to become embodied from your summoner, right?"

::In part. We also draw upon whatever Shadows may be present near our summoner to grant us a space, a part of the universe whose rules allow us to exist. This is why some places are easier to summon in than others.::

Kaito nodded, thinking about Himura's world as opposed to his own. "She also mentioned a 'Shadowchild'. …Is that what I am? What Yugi-kun is?"

Dark Sage looked around at the four of them for a moment, and then nodded.

::In some people, Light goes beyond its role in making up the foundation of reality. It can manifest as extra gifts: high intelligence, natural aptitude, heightened senses or abilities, psychic gifts, even—:: Dark Sage inclined his head toward Riku::more traditional ideas of magic. My colleagues and I, who study the Shadows and as much of your world as we can, have yet to discover why some people have these abilities while others do not. Nor can we determine why certain people possess a link to the Shadows regardless of what other gifts they have. You and your friends all possess gifts of the Light, yet Riku-san, Hakuba-san, and many of your other friends cannot draw upon the Shadows.::

"That link… that's the Heart of the Cards, isn't it?" Yugi asked.

::That is a part of it, yes, but it is more specific than simply being a favored child of the Shadows. What we call the Shadow Realm is only a sub-pocket of the Shadows, stabilized from its chaotic nature by the imposition of powerful patterns of Light and Dark and closely tied to this world through some ritual even I am not old enough to remember. All that we have been able to discover is that it must have taken unthinkable power to manage. The cards act as a link to that place, a focus that allows Shadowchildren to call a more complicated incarnation of the Shadows than would otherwise be possible. This is why you can call not only upon the Monsters, but on the magic and traps from the game as well.

::Beyond the Realm lie the untamed Shadows. Those with the affinity and proper control can use them for things other than summoning… such as traveling through them. All Shadows are connected to each other, which allows for instantaneous crossing to an intended destination, provided that you know how to reach for it. To pierce the Shadows haphazardly… it is so very easy to become lost.::

"Oh. So that's what Méraud-san meant about traveling." Kaito thought for a moment. "What did she mean that unconscious instinct could only go so far?"

From beneath his helmet, Dark Sage's eyes suddenly glinted with amusement. ::I believe I will allow her to tell you herself. If you decide you wish to better master your gifts, which do indeed extend beyond Shadow-walking,:: here Dark Sage's beard twitched in what Kaito realized was a smile as he used Yugi's term::and summoning, Méraud has volunteered to be your teacher.::

::I have?:: Méraud's voice echoed in the back of Kaito's mind, but the intrusion was already less startling than before. ::Sage!::

Kaito bit back a grin. Apparently he wasn't the only one who liked to keep people on their toes.

::You can't hide your amusement from me, Kaito-kun,:: Méraud murmured in the back of his mind, in a tone of voice that reminded Kaito of Hakuba plotting suitable revenge for a prank at school. But what kind of (hopefully) harmless retribution could a disembodied dragon achieve?

…I probably really don't want to know.

::Now is the time and place to begin learning, young one,:: Dark Sage continued. ::Here the shadows are everywhere and easy for those connected to them to draw on, unlike your home, where the ambient magic is nearly stifled.:: His head tilted slightly as he regarded them. ::Remember, the Shadows follow the patterns of the manifestations of Light and have access to this world around their edges. Where there is less Light, there will also be fewer Shadows to work with.::

Kaito nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense. And I do want to learn."

::Then I shall allow Méraud to answer any further questions you may have.::

Yugi seemed to take that as his cue to end the summon, and after Kaito thanked Dark Sage the Duel Monster faded out of existence.

"I suppose that's enough for now." Solomon stood. "You both look exhausted. The guest bedroom is always made up; Yugi can show it to you upstairs while I clean up the kitchen."

"Thank you," Kaito said. "For all of this. You didn't have to help us at all."

"I'm hardly going to throw an untrained empath out of my house," Solomon replied. "Quite aside from the fact that I'm not heartless and you need a place to stay, Hakuba-kun has no one here besides the two of you. Taking everyone familiar to him out of reach could be just as bad as throwing him into a crowd. More about all that later, though. Get some sleep."

After exchanging goodnights, Kaito and Riku settled down to sleep. Riku started snoring almost immediately, reminding Kaito with a twinge of guilt that he'd prevented the other boy from getting almost any sleep the night before. He waited for a while, listening, to make sure Riku stayed asleep and the Motou's had also gone to bed, then slipped out of bed and headed downstairs towards the back room. The door was open, but remembering what he'd heard Solomon say about soundproofing over the phone, Kaito elected to stop just outside the doorway. He didn't know if the room's wards would still work if he joined Hakuba inside of them, and he didn't want to risk them not.

The light from the room dimly illuminated Hakuba's sleeping form. Grabbing a nearby chair, Kaito sat on it backwards with his arms folded across its high back and his chin resting on his arms. Watching Hakuba be alive all night was an infinitely better prospect than the possibility of falling asleep and murdering the blond in his dreams for a second time. Either that, or when he reached his limit for lack of sleep, he'd be too deep under for dreams for most of the night. He'd managed to distract himself for most of the day, but here in the dark the possibility was far too real. Tomorrow currently felt a long way off, however, and he fought the weariness seeping into his bones as he waited through the silent night.

Though he'd tried hiding the fact from Riku, Kaito'd been up all night two of the nights they'd been back home, and then gotten no more than two or three hours of sleep the rest of the time. There'd simply been too much to do. He hadn't had much energy reserve to draw on even before that, what with a month straight of traveling at Riku's obsessive pace… he felt his eyes slip closed of their own accord for the third time in less than a minute, and this time it was too hard to force them open again.

He slept.

Kaito scrutinized the massive ruby critically. The Boss had said it showed promise of being the gem they sought, but he said that every time. If they didn't think there was a high chance of successfully obtaining Pandora, the job would never have been commissioned in the first place.

A muffled sound caught his attention, and he glanced around. One of the security guards—

"Kuroba-kun?" The disembodied voice pierced Kaito's sleep-fogged mind, jerking him awake before the dream could go any further. He raised his head quickly, taking stock of his surroundings, and realized it was already morning. Beyond the doorway, Hakuba sat up on the couch on the far side of the room with a faintly bewildered expression.

Kaito gave him a wan smile, letting his chin drop back onto his arms. Apparently he'd won the gamble with his dreams, at least for now. Although why the exact same nightmare had returned for the second night in a row, or why both times it had felt so real as to be more like a memory than a dream… he deliberately stopped his mind from wandering down that pathway for the moment, and refocused on Hakuba.

"Morning."

"What… happened?"

"How much do you remember?"

Hakuba ran a hand through his hair. "I followed you, but things went decidedly odd. Yuushi-kun…" he trailed off, eyes losing focus. "He did something, and it felt like the universe exploded. Or imploded. Something. It's difficult to describe… like… like burning water, and slipknots of barbed wire, pulled into crushing pressure…" he shuddered, but quickly regained his composure.

"Then you did something I'm still not sure I didn't imagine, and it muted for a minute, before everything went haywire again. A voice I didn't recognize, and it sort of grays after that." He glanced back at Kaito, eyes haunted. "Tell me that what I suspect happened, didn't. Please."

The last plea was so quiet, Kaito barely heard it. He shook his head helplessly. "I can't. Besides, you'd know better than I would, with the amount of fantasy you read."

"How on earth do you know that?" Hakuba blurted, startled and temporarily sidetracked.

"Um… I'm very thorough? The Discworld novel in your briefcase a month or two after you first came to Japan made for excellent English practice and was extremely entertaining." He grinned disarmingly, trying without much hope to continue distracting the blond. "Should I call you 'Binky-kun' now?"

Hakuba smiled slightly. "Somehow, I can't bring myself to be surprised that you not only kept track of the contents of my school bag, but did so without my noticing. I always felt sorry for the poor horse, stuck with a name like that. But you're trying to change the subject."

"Yes, I am," Kaito conceded. "Because if you want to be on topic, I'm mad at you for being such an idiot."

Hakuba gave him a tired look. "I woke up two minutes ago and my head feels like it's been stuffed with cotton. I'm not having this conversation with you right now." He subtly clenched one of his fists, unaware either that he was doing so or that Kaito could see the motion. "I had my reasons. That still doesn't explain where… this… came from."

…Okay, that's a bad sign when you're unwilling to call your newfound empathic ability by name. On the other hand, it's still a step up from rejecting magic's existence even in the face of undeniable empirical evidence.

Kaito sighed, trying to determine a good way to approach the issue. "Psychic abilities seem to be the… default, I guess, for the insanely gifted people on our world. The stuff beyond heightened natural talent."

Hakuba was silent for a long moment. "I don't know whether to be flattered or horrified."

Kaito shrugged as well as his position, slouched over the chair back, would allow. "Well, I know of at least two other people whose abilities are probably not quite normal."

Whether that's a comforting thought or just makes it worse, I don't know.

Almost despite himself, Hakuba looked intrigued, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, chin resting on folded hands. "Who?"

"Kudo Shinichi and Hattori Heiji."

Hakuba's expression turned thoughtful, and Kaito was willing to swear that the detective was mentally pulling out a file folder and rifling through an index, searching for the profiles that matched those names.

"Hattori-san… Rather easily provoked, but he remembers what's important."

Kaito blinked. He'd obviously missed more than he'd thought, if Hakuba had met the Osakan detective during his absence and whatever events they'd survived together had inspired such a cryptic comment. He'd have to ask about that later… one more thing for that list, which was growing with disturbing rapidity.

Hakuba continued, "I've yet to have the pleasure of meeting Kudo in person."

Yes, you have, but you didn't hear that from me. Stifling the comment, Kaito stated instead, "I have. Hattori, you probably didn't get the chance to notice, but he's damn near unkillable."

At least when it comes to situations where he should have fallen to his death. …I wonder if that has any relation to why half the cases he and Kudo have solved together involved dead bodies falling from great heights.

With some effort, Kaito pulled his mind back from wandering and finished his train of thought. Sleep deprivation, when it finally caught up with him, always wreaked havoc on his already-short attention span. "Kudo has a psychic link to his girlfriend, although I don't think either of them are quite aware of it."

And a magnetic attraction to dead bodies. I don't know how he can live surrounded by that much death and stay sane. Although… that could be why he's always so focused on solving a case. "Bringing Criminals to Justice as a Form of Therapy"…

"I see," Hakuba responded after a pause. "And yourself? I don't quite know if dragon-summoning classifies as psychic."

"No, that's because of something else. Remind me to give you the magic-and-metaphysics lecture later, or ask Solomon-san. I think I saw him taking notes. As for what I can do…" Kaito closed his eyes. He'd never really acknowledged it before, but in light of what he'd learned recently, it made sense. When he really thought about it, especially given what Dark Sage had said about Shadows and their relationship with normal rules… "Probability manipulation, I think. Odds always play out in my favor, even when logic or the laws of physics say they shouldn't."

Aoko'd always said he had uncanny luck growing up, and as time passed he couldn't really deny it, particularly when the odds he defied started going beyond plausibility. Even given the location of the hidden pocket in the suit, only preternatural luck explained how both times he'd been shot in the heart without a protective vest the heist had absorbed the bullet's impact, leaving him with nothing worse than bruised ribs when he knew he should have received cracked or worse; how he'd had just the right equipment in his suit to survive falling from a high-rise without a working glider, the first time Snake had attempted to kill him; how Scorpion had shattered his monocle and injured one of his doves, yet the bullet and broken glass had left nothing but a small scar across his cheekbone when by rights he could have easily lost an eye; how the inevitable bullet from Nightmare two days ago, when nothing protected his heart, had been interrupted by Kenta-kun's timely shout.

…I should probably be highly disturbed that my more spectacular cases of defying of the odds all involve bullets and assassins at some point or another.

"Having seen the Kid in action," Hakuba interrupted Kaito's unspoken train of thought, "I suppose I can't say I'm particularly surprised." Kaito opened his eyes again, to see Hakuba looking down at his hands. "But if the three of you have had your… talents, why would mine decide to show up only after we left?"

…There really is no easy way to put this. "I'm not sure it did. You were hospitalized at age six. Brief coma. No record as to why."

Under any other circumstances, Kaito would have found Hakuba's astounded expression amusing. "I… what?"

"Right before your mom moved you to England full time."

"I remember moving," Hakuba said pensively, "but I don't remember anything like that."

"I'm not surprised. If you reacted at six the way you reacted yesterday…"

Hakuba closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to ward off a headache. "…Denial. If I overloaded that badly as a child, I would have tried to suppress it just to become functional again. And if I succeeded…" he trailed off. "But I couldn't do that this time."

"No. But then again, you didn't need to. Because this time, you've got the strength and support to deal with it." Solomon, to teach you… and no matter how ticked off I am at you, I won't leave you hanging out to dry.

Hakuba gave him a half-smile. "Thank you… I think."

Kaito smiled back. "Not just me, of course, since I'm out of my league—"

"Will wonders never cease?"

"—But luckily, we landed in a pretty good place for you to learn to get control."

"So I gather, if our hosts have a room like this." Hakuba waved a hand at the warded study.

"To be honest, I'm not sure there's much of anything Solomon-san doesn't know about. It's kind of scary."

It actually reminded Kaito vaguely of Jii, and the way his father's old assistant had a list of contacts a mile long, a large chunk of which the older man had used to ensure Kid had access to whatever he needed, when he needed it. Solomon exhibited a similarly insane level of competence and connections.

"What about our current taboo?"

After a moment's pause, Kaito realized Hakuba was referring to the knowledge of other worlds, and their current status as travelers between them. "I think they've got some experience with that sort of thing, coming from another angle." And I'm really not sure I really want to know what that particular angle is.

"…That is mildly disturbing."

Hakuba: King of the Understatement. Creatures that might not be Heartless, but that are close enough in nature to merit being lumped in the same category…

"No kidding. Especially since I have a feeling that whatever they've run across from out there is on a par with Heartless."

Gentlemen, start your wibbling.

Hakuba, however, merely seemed to be confused. "Heartless?"

…Right. You missed the , well, never actually got any.

"Those things you met in the corridor when you followed us. Remember them?"

Hakuba's brow furrowed briefly, before he abruptly went wide-eyed and ashen.

"Apparently you do."

"Not what they look like, just…" Hakuba shuddered slightly, eyes closing and hands clenching the blanket still pulled over his legs. "Imagine being surrounded by a mob of mobile black holes, nothing but terrible, aching ravenousness—and they're closing in on you."

Kaito shivered in sympathy. He could only imagine what Heartless would feel like to an empath, and he had absolutely no desire for firsthand experience. Ever. "Yeah, I'd figure that's how they'd come across. They're pretty much living Darkness."

"That entire place, the corridor, it was the same thing Yuushi used to go to Trafalgar Square, wasn't it? Just… larger, because of relatively greater distance. And it wasn't empty and blank… it was hungry, like the Heartless, only less focused and everywhere. How do you stand it?"

Kaito winced at the reminder of how close the Darkness had come to eating him, and immediately resolved that that was on the list of Things Hakuba Will Not Learn, Ever. "I'm… a little different."

"I never would have guessed," Hakuba interjected dryly. Kaito felt a faint sense of relief at the dig, because it meant the blond was closer to his usual sarcastic self than he'd been before.

"I've learned to shield myself…"

"So that it doesn't try to eat you, or so that you just don't notice?"

"So that it doesn't manage to eat me. It does keep trying." Unfortunate, given Hakuba's state. Unless the detective could manage some spectacular shields, he would probably remain vulnerable to the Dark, and unable to travel anywhere through the corridors, even simply back home.

As Kaito watched Hakuba, the other boy seemed to come to a decision. "All right. Is it possible for me to learn how to do the same?"

"I don't know. Yet."

Hakuba sighed. "This apparently isn't going to go away… but I'll be damned before I let it control me."

Kaito grinned. "Yeah, I thought you'd say that." However it started, your life seems to revolve around control. No reason this would be any different. "We'll find something." Because even if he managed to leave Hakuba back at home… given Riku's admission that Heartless could potentially show up there someday, he did not want him to be left so vulnerable to them.

"Good." Hakuba nodded. "I need to be able to face those Heartless creatures without feeling like I'm being stalked by a pack of hungry predators while being able to feel exactly how hungry they are."

"Not to mention the nearly passing out," Kaito added, still slightly unnerved over how quickly Hakuba's strength had drained.

"That was the corridor. I could feel it eating at me, and I couldn't stop it…" He shuddered again.

"Yeah, and that's going to be a problem too, when we try to leave. We'll find a way around it." Kaito would tell Yugi about other worlds and get him to make a way home through the Shadows before he'd let Hakuba into another Darkness corridor or leave him stranded on Yugi's world. If Kaito could learn to start traveling through the shadows himself, so much the better, but…

Hakuba smirked faintly. "And here I thought you were vehemently opposed to my tagging along."

"I am," Kaito growled, glaring again. "We'll talk about that later."

If I didn't want you coming along when all I had was my imagination's images of losing you or Aoko or mom to the Darkness… Now that I've seen what it does to you, I don't want you anywhere near this.

To Kaito's surprise, Hakuba became quietly thoughtful rather than pushing the argument. He felt too relieved that Hakuba was willing to let the matter drop to look very hard into why.

"I trust you gentlemen slept well?" Kaito barely suppressed his startle-reflexes, not having heard Solomon coming up behind him. The old man carried a breakfast tray in his hands, complete with both tea and coffee.

"Well enough, thank you," Hakuba responded politely. "You're… Solomon-san? I remember your voice last night, I think. I apologize, it's all a bit fuzzy."

"Yes, that's me. Don't worry about last night—an overload that severe you might be better off mostly forgetting. I believe I can help you avoid such episodes in the future, though. But first, breakfast. I wasn't sure if you preferred tea or coffee, so I brought both." To Kaito, Solomon added, "If you're up to company, Yugi is downstairs making breakfast for himself and Riku-san."

Kaito glanced at Hakuba. The blond looked willing enough to be left in Solomon's company, so he bade them goodbye and headed for the kitchen. When he was nearly out of earshot, however, the sound of Hakuba's voice made him pause out of habit and listen.

"Solomon-san… I will do whatever it takes to master this. Please. Help me."

"Given your reaction last night, I have to say I'm surprised. May I ask why you changed your mind?"

There was a pause, and Kaito strained to hear Hakuba's voice when he spoke again, quiet but determined. "If I could, I'd be rid of this in a heartbeat. Since that's apparently not an option, given that I can't deny it into non-existence, I refuse to let it dictate my actions. I will especially not let it be used against me as an excuse to leave me behind."

"Very well," Solomon replied, and Kaito could hear his approval. "Today is Sunday, my day off, so I can spend quite a bit of time working with you today. Why don't you start eating, and we'll begin. As a friend of Kaito-kun's, I suppose you've never heard of Duel Monsters either?"

Hakuba's reply seemed to be nonverbal, because a moment later Solomon began the same explanation Kaito remembered from his first visit, and Kaito decided to continue on to the kitchen. He found Yugi once more by the stove, this time supervising Riku in the art of doctoring a bowl of raw eggs with vanilla extract, milk and cinnamon.

"What is this, a chemistry experiment?" Kaito picked up the open bottle of vanilla and inhaled, wondering for the thousandth time why the dark brown liquid never tasted the way it smelled. (He'd been remarkably persistent in testing this when younger, one of the few instances where he'd displayed a low learning curve. The other such curve, of course, had been in teasing Aoko.)

Riku smiled in the way Kaito'd come to recognize as faint embarrassment. "Yugi-kun said I should know how to cook something. My mother used to make eggs this way, and apparently it's something Solomon-san picked up on a visit to the United States, so…"

"Right. Smells… interesting. Carry on." Kaito leaned against the refrigerator, watching in amusement while Riku scrambled the eggs in a frying pan and narrowly avoided scorching their breakfast. The three of them settled at the table with their eggs and some generous helpings of rice, and ate in hungry silence interspersed with conversation, mostly centered on the safest topic available: what Dark Sage had told them the night before.

"I'd never heard most of what he said before now, but it makes sense, everything about Light and Dark and Shadow," Yugi said eventually, between bites of rice. "How did you know to ask about it like that?"

Kaito glanced at Riku, wanting to let the other boy decide how much to reveal.

"Kaito-kun and I both have some magical talent. Our previous teachers were fairly knowledgeable about the Light and Darkness, especially as it relates to magic, but we all only recently learned about the existence of Shadows, let alone what their nature might be."

No kidding. King Mickey and Diz-san really don't understand the Shadows much at all, if Dark Sage is right. And I think he is. Like Yugi-kun said, it makes sense.

"What exactly can you do, Riku-san?" Yugi gave Riku an inquiring look.

"I… fire. I can summon fire. That's it, really." Riku glanced down at his nearly empty bowl. Seeing the younger boy's reluctance to talk about it, Kaito found himself wondering for the first time if Riku's purple-black flames were due to his experiences with Darkness and might otherwise have been traditionally colored. "Unless you count swordsmanship as magical."

"Well, maybe not magical, but impressive." Yugi smiled. "I just started self-defense lessons last week, and it's harder than it looks. I can only imagine how complicated using a sword in real combat would be. Everyone I know uses barehanded martial arts."

"Ah, that would be Hakuba-kun's area of expertise," Kaito replied.

Yugi turned, eyes wide in an innocent curiosity that should have been impossible for someone his age to pull off. Not that impossibility had ever stopped Kaito from using it himself once or twice in the recent past…but still. It was highly disconcerting to be on the receiving end. "What about you, Kaito-kun? You pulled out a gun last night, I thought, but it looked a little odd."

Kaito couldn't be certain, but he suspected Yugi's other self was behind that question. Guests though they might be, the three of them were still relatively unknown quantities, with the potential to be dangerous.

He shrugged and pulled out the card gun, pushing it across the table towards Yugi. "I'm a decent marksman, although my ammunition is selectively non-destructive."

"Selectively non-destructive?" Yugi examined the gun with fascination. "I've never seen a design like this before… did you make this yourself?" Not waiting for an answer he fiddled some more, faint surprise appearing on his face when he realized what the ammunition was. "Cards?"

"May or may not explode, and you can play poker with them too. I got tired of practicing card tricks one afternoon, started wondering what else you could do with them… spent a few weeks cobbling it together, and liked it too much to give it up." And there's no chance of me telling you that dad helped me troubleshoot it, getting the weight and the firing mechanism just right, the month before he died. "To be honest, I think they're an example of me accessing the shadows before I knew what they were."

Yugi nodded. "It's not very strong right now, but I can feel the residue on them. This is why you bought solitaire cards last time, isn't it?"

"Yeah. They work as projectiles, and occasionally more, when I have the time and components to get creative."

Kaito knew he was being more ambiguous than was probably necessary, but the habit of not revealing his secrets was too ingrained. Before Yugi could ask more specific questions, the bell over the entrance to the game shop jingled, heralding the arrival of visitors.

"Knock, knock," Joey called from the shop's front area, still out of sight. "Yugi, you up yet?"

"In the kitchen!" Yugi replied, handing Kaito's card gun back. A few moments later Mokuba preceded Joey into the kitchen, expression brightening at the sight of Kaito.

"Kaito-san!" he beamed, waving a little. "It's good to see you again."

"You too," Kaito replied as the pair slid into empty chairs at the table. "How've you been?"

Mokuba grimaced faintly. "We've been okay. Things never stay quiet for very long, but maybe this time we'll get a break before something else happens. Nii-sama always tries to overcompensate with normality for a while whenever we have to deal with things that… aren't." He looked back at Kaito. "How about you? Yugi said you and Ansem-san were traveling, and Joey-kun said you brought a friend with you this time…"

"Well, firstly, Ansem-kun's going by Riku-kun, now—long story, not important. Hakuba-kun came with us this time, yeah. Did Joey-kun tell you what happened when we got here?"

Mokuba nodded. "Is he doing any better?"

"A little. Solomon-san's talking with him right now, but you could probably meet him later." Kaito glanced at Joey. "And you can meet him properly. None of us were exactly at our best last night."

"Eh, no big. I've seen worse bad days."

"Well, if Hakuba-kun is busy and you don't have any big plans, you have to come with us to Kaiba Corp., okay?" Mokuba cheerful smile gained a distinctly mischievous edge.

"Um… sure? What are we doing?"

Joey grinned. "Since you gave Yugi those lock picks you got an automatic induction into The Conspiracy to Make Seto Kaiba LIGHTEN UP. We're founding members."

"Riku-san's a member too, of course," Yugi added thoughtfully, gathering the dishes and taking them to the sink. The memory of Yugi and Riku's last conversation rose up in Kaito's mind, and he assumed Yugi was also remembering Riku's admonition to watch out for the teenage CEO.

"So… we've got a mission?" Kaito felt the grin creeping onto his face, and decided to go with it, gears already turning in his mind. Darkness, shadows, nightmares, the mess with Hakuba—the lot of it could take a hike for the next few hours.

"Nii-sama skipped dinner last night," Mokuba said seriously, folding his hands on the table and looking for the world like a miniature executive conducting a business meeting. "He's been putting in long hours since we got back from New York last week, but yesterday was the first time he just stayed at the office all night. If we don't do something he's probably going to work through lunch, too, and Nii-sama hardly ever has anything for breakfast besides coffee."

"Which means it's up to us to kidnap him. Holding his laptop for ransom is optional, but we're more likely to get him out of the building that way." Joey looked thoroughly cheered by the prospect.

"It worked last time, after all," Mokuba added with a smile.

Kaito glanced at Riku, who shrugged in acquiescence, then turned back to Mokuba. "Sounds like fun. We're in."

"Great!" Seemingly satisfied, Mokuba settled back in his chair. "It's at least 20 minutes to drive to the main office—it's a different building from Kaibaland, more in the heart of the city—so if we're lucky, we'll make it in time to grab him for an early lunch."

Kaito looked out the window again, since he'd forgotten to get a watch while they'd been back home and world-travel threw continuity out the window anyway. "Isn't it a bit early for lunch?"

A shrug. "Late breakfast, early lunch… it probably depends on the restaurant we end up going to. Either way, Nii-sama just gets worse as time goes on and it'll probably take at least half an hour before we can get him out of the building. And even though we ate before we came here and I guess you just finished breakfast, Joey-kun at least will be eating again so that makes it lunch…"

"Hey, I'm a growin' teenager," the blond defended himself. "Nothin' wrong with a little snack."

"Joey-kun, I've seen you call a three-course meal, a snack."

"Details, details," Joey replied airily, tipping his chair back to balance on two legs. From his place nearby at the sink, Yugi surreptitiously knocked his foot against the nearest back leg, causing the other boy to fall backwards with a yelp. Kaito noticed, however, that the blond took the impact with the ease of someone who'd learned how to fall, immediately standing and righting his chair with a good-natured glare directed at Yugi (and then Mokuba, for laughing). "Very funny."

"What?" Yugi's didn't even try for genuine innocence, the amused smile on his lips belying his otherwise ingenuous expression.

"All right, wise guys, let's go before this becomes Pick-On-Joey-Day."

"But Joey-kun, we're going to see Nii-sama," Mokuba responded as they vacated the kitchen. "Isn't that kind of self-defeating?"

Joey's answer was unintelligible and, in Kaito's opinion, quite possibly bordering on unprintable.

Yugi's comment during Dark Sage's explanation of the tertium quid references anime episodes 19-21.

The Discworld Death's pale white horse (he tried skeletal steeds for a while, but they kept falling apart) is, indeed, named 'Binky'. Luckily for Hakuba, he is not a werehorse.

Yes, this chapter took three months. There's another one just about ready to post, and my nitpicker went over the metaphysics in this one with a giant wrench to make sure it made sufficient sense. Several times. A LOT of work went into this chapter. Please take a few moments and review.

11/07