Chapter Thirty-Five, Don't call it crazy

Malik dragged a hand through his hair, crouching in the alley, feeling more than a bit annoyed at this point in his venture. He had finally managed to shake off the two men that had been tailing him, but it seemed they had tracked him to this town, but were unsure of where he was. He had been watching them in the darkened alley for some time as they convened outside a bar. One of the men had his brow furrowed in obvious concern and he kept glancing around. The other one had just gotten on the phone with someone, who sounded like Rei. Malik glanced down at the small device in his hand. It was a miniature global system used specifically for mobile communications, but is commonly called GSM. For the longest time, wiretapping had required huge antennas in vans and laptops, but the technological advancement of recent years in Japan had created a smaller version that took a small antenna that came out of the device and would be able to hack into the radio frequency identification tags from afar. It was quite ingenious and while Malik had never had a reason for using it much before, it was certainly turning out to be rather helpful as far as this situation was concerned.

"Have you found him there yet, Akihiro?" Rei asked in a brittle tone.

"Not yet, sir. We're having trouble finding him. But we know that he hasn't left town yet. He's somewhere around here..."

"Hmm...I suppose this is what I get for dismissing Ishtar on hand. I never thought he and Yami were friends, but maybe there are other actors in this that I don't know about. And you're sure he never called anybody?"

"Not even once since we've been tailing him after Yokohama. I think he knows that we're following him. He's been stringing along around cities all over Japan. Maybe we should get some more guys since he's already aware of us."

"He's useless to us at this rate. He's obviously not going to take you to where Yami is and the Ishtars aren't known to break under pressure, there's no reason for torturing him for the information. I'll send more men to you there, try to keep him in the city for a few days until they get there. When they do, kill him and dispose of the body – discreetly."

"Yes, sir."

Malik's lip curled in a disdainful sneer as he removed the earpiece and tucked the device in his coat pocket. Yes, because your idiot men could actually manage to kill me, he thought. They best watch their back if they're smart. Malik knew that once Rei sent more men, it would be more difficult to get rid of the men without drawing the attention of the police. It would take the other men some time to get there and the rest of his traveling would have to be undercover just in case Rei had any of his other men stationed in Japan. He didn't take any issue with that, really, as he was accustomed to traveling thusly, but he would have to act fast. They'll have to die tonight, he decided, even if it's not as elegant or as planned as I would like it to be. I don't want to linger in this city for the longer than possible. Time to find an alternate route. He glanced around. He could watch them from the top of the buildings, but that was assuming they ended up going down an alley where he could make a move. Although, the buildings would at least give him the element of surprise and they would be less likely to see him up there. Pulling his hair back in a band and flipping his dark hood up, he sent a last glance to the two men that were talking to each other and then went to the fire escape, jumping up and grabbing onto it. After pulling himself up on the metal fire escape stairs, he took them all the way to the top of the building and slipped over the top so that he was standing on it. He looked around as he crept to the edge of the building and looked down. It gave him an excellent vantage point where he could watch Akihiro and his buddy.

Malik knelt at the edge of the building, watching them for some time and it seemed that they had come to some decision of what to do next because they turned around and started down the road. It looks like they're finally moving. He rose to his feet and jogged to the edge of the building and jumped across to the other one. Damn it, I really hate doing these leaps of faith. He moved along the buildings until he was a bit ahead of them and paused, watching the men thoughtfully for a moment. Where the hell are they going? He scanned the environment, frowning, but there was nothing that seemed out of place. He watched the men, but rather than do anything unusual, they went into a hotel, where Malik supposed they were staying. He pushed back the sleeve of his jacket to check the time. I suppose they have to sleep sometime, he thought with a grim smile. It was almost four in the morning. He hadn't even realized how late it was and, on the same thought, he couldn't even remember the last time he had slept.

He waited for some time on the top of the building to allow the men to get into their room and relax and also to make certain that they weren't trying to draw him out or were checking to see if he had checked into the hotel. When they didn't re-emerge after two hours, he decided to make his move and after finding the fire escape stairs, went down into the alley. Keeping his hood over his face, he dug around in his pocket as he jogged across the street to the hotel.

"Good morning," the woman at the front desk greeted him, smiling. "What can I help you with today?"

"Morning," he answered, flashing a suave smile. Even though he was worse for wear, he still had impeccably good looks that could instantly leave a woman blushing. As expected, she blushed at his smile and her eyes brightened a bit in interest. "I believe you had two men enter here over an hour ago, is that correct?"

"Hm? Oh...yes, we did."

Malik pulled out the fake ID and badge that identified him as a member of Naichō, saying, "I'll need to have a key and room number for them. They're involved in a serious government investigation and discretion is key. I don't want them aware that we're here."

"Oh my God," she gasped, putting a hand to her face. "Of course, sir! I'll get it for you right away."

Malik tucked the fake ID away and waited while she retrieved a hotel key card for him, quietly telling him the room number. He flashed her another smile and nodded before heading towards the elevator. He glanced at the key card thoughtfully. It looked as though it were a staff-use one, which meant that he could get into any of the rooms in the hotel. That would prove useful for his next stage of the plan. Once he arrived on the floor needed, he moved to the room and put a hand over the eye hole, glancing around. Nobody seemed to be around. He unzipped his jacket pocket and pulled out a long, sharp knife. After scanning the key card, he slipped into the room. Just as the door shut, one of the men was sitting up in men, grumbling groggily, "What the hell is this? Room service?" Malik didn't wait for him to become coherent, darting across the room and stabbing him in the gut. By the time he had done that, the other man was moving into action. Malik ducked as he swung at him with his own knife and then plunged the knife into the man's abdomen.

Malik kicked their weapons away from them and stood over them vigilantly, watching them bleed out. After he was convinced they were dead, he checked their pulse and, satisfied, he wiped the blood from his knife on the sheet. He quickly perused the room, but found nothing of use. He tucked his knife in his coat again and left the room, placing the Do Not Disturb sign on the handle so that it would be awhile before their bodies were found.

Not to take care of the rest of the evidence.

X

Yami woke from the feel of the sun on his face and blinked blearily for a moment, disoriented with his unfamiliar surroundings. After a few seconds thought, however, he smiled and shifted in bed, turning onto his side. Anzu was sleeping soundly beside him, her arm thrown up above her head. She had been delightful last night, eager to please and learn, but perhaps it was because of the realization of her innocence that gave him pause and when the moment came to perform, he chose not to and asked for her to wait. He could tell that she was confused and disappointed given that everything else in the bedroom had pointed to that, but she respected his choice and instead, they ended up lying beside each other, kissing until they fell asleep. He would have been lying if it hadn't been a little painful to turn away from her even though his entire body had been aching for her, but he didn't feel that it was the right time. He had both a noble and selfish attitude in him, but the noble side prevailed this time.

I don't want this to be a last, desperate act in the midst of chaos, he thought to himself, watching her sleep. If I'm going to be the man to take that from her, I want her to know that I'll be there for her to give her that pleasure every day after. Right now, it's too uncertain. I don't know that I will be able to do that for her.

He turned back onto his back and slipped out of bed, creeping out into the living room after pulling his pants on. Even though it had been a relaxing distraction, he had to attend to business. He picked up his phone from the counter and frowned, noticing a few Restricted calls and two calls from Kaiba. He saw the voicemail sign in the corner of his phone and leaned against the counter, dialing his voicemail. The latest one was from a voice he hadn't expected to hear.

"Yami, it's Malik. I'm just letting you know that I'll be in town by tomorrow. I've run into a few problems and haven't been able to contact anyone lately, but I wanted you to know because we're going to need to move fast. Rei already knows who's closest to you – or at least, people that he knows. I'll explain it in detail when I get there. Be on your guard and get prepared, you're going to need some equipment."

His brow wrinkling in a troubled frown, he deleted the message and went onto the next, which was from Kaiba.

"Yami, Bakura tells me you're at Anzu's. Come to my company as soon as you wake up, it's the safest place to talk right now. I've already got Bakura and Ryou here. Bring Anzu, she'll want to be here."

Yami deleted the message and then tapped his phone on his chin, staring at the ground worriedly. There had apparently already been at least two new developments. Malik must have had a run in with either his parents or some of their thugs and had to take extreme measures so that he would be able to return to Domino, he was certain. As for what news that Kaiba had, he could only guess. It was clear that things were snowballing rather faster than he had anticipated. Kaiba didn't feel secure talking outside of Kaiba Corporation, a sign that things had taken a turn for the worst and, Yami suspected, that someone had been in Domino already and Kaiba had caught onto it and dealt with it. Nonetheless, it was troubling. Most troubling, however, was Malik's last comment: "...you're going to need some equipment."

He wants me armed, so they must be closing in on us fast...There's no way we're going to be able to keep them from Domino now. Yami narrowed his eyes at the carpet, frowning harder. I have everything I need...but the question is how we're going to finish this without getting the police involved...A bribe, maybe? I'm sure that Kaiba will have figured that out, with his own secret police employed...

"Yami?" He glanced up to see Anzu standing in her doorway, rubbing her forehead. She gave a sleepy smile. "Is everything alright? You look concerned."

He smiled and pushed away from the counter, going to her and kissing her cheek. "It's fine, I have it under control. But we need to go to Kaiba Corp. It seems something's happened."

She yawned. "Alright. Let's stop for coffee on the way there, though, or else I won't be awake enough for this conversation."

By the time they got to Kaiba Corporation, Anzu was wide awake from the caffeine boost and Yami felt strangely calm. He ought to have been worried, but now that he knew that Anzu had some form of protection from her training with Bakura, he felt a little more at ease. It helped that he knew that Malik would be back, too. Both he and Bakura would be a good enough protection against anything and he was sure that Anzu would be fast enough to run if necessary. Either way, he didn't have time to worry anymore. Things were happening too fast for him to control or worry about one thing or another. He was reluctant to show Anzu the assassin side of him, but because of the circumstances...he supposed he had no choice.

"What do you suppose Kaiba wants to talk to us about?" Anzu asked him in the elevator, looking to him as she took a drink of her coffee.

"It could be about a number of things," he said slowly. "Honestly, I can only guess that one of my parents' thugs were here or something akin to that and Kaiba had to take care of it or learned of it somehow."

"Take care of it?"

"Kaiba has a lot of...well, resources, shall we say? He doesn't take chances."

They were waved to go in by the secretary. The doors were being guarded by two men in police gear with KC emblazed on their uniforms. They nodded curtly to them as one of them opened the doors. Yami could tell that Anzu was suspicious of the increased security, but in her usual fashion, she made no comment on it. Yami spotted Malik in the corner and blinked in surprise, but waited until the door closed. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked, not even bothering to mask his shock. Malik gave a grim smile and stood up, extending his arms outward.

"This is what happens when you don't have a chance to shower much or shave. I came straight here as soon as I got into town. It's the safest place at the moment."

"I wasn't talking about the ragged clothing," Yami said. "I meant your face."

"Oh, well, I haven't actually been able to sleep, either," Malik grunted, rubbing a hand over the blonde bristles that were growing patchily on his face. "It's been one hell of a trip, I'll tell you that much."

"I'm just thankful you're alive," Anzu spoke up in a relieved tone. "I was afraid you had died out there."

"Never underestimate me, my dear," Malik said with a spark of his teasing smile. "I've always got a trick up my sleeve. Anyway, I've told Kaiba the details of what happened to me while I was there, so he can relay anything interesting that he thinks needs to be discussed."

"Which isn't much," Kaiba intercepted from behind his desk, where he had been listening quietly. "The most important thing I got from this is that Rei knew that Malik was connected to you and knew your whereabouts, which is interesting in itself. Rei has a lot of information about you already. It could be from past experiences – like with Rebecca – or simply from observation. Either way, we don't know who he's aware of. He knows that I have financial connections with you, of course, but I've got companies set up all over the world and my movements can't be monitored, so I'm not worried about myself. But we have a few loose ends here that might lead him here." He glanced at the two brothers. Ryou's mouth was twisted into a worried frown while Bakura looked unconcerned.

"I'm just as hard to monitor as you are," Bakura replied smoothly. "I've got too many enemies to let me whereabouts be known. Otherwise, how would I sleep at night?"

"I'm not so lucky," Ryou said softly, sighing slightly. "It's easy to trace me and I'm sure Rei knows that I'm friends with Yami."

"And then there's Anzu, but she's known by Rei yet," Malik added.

"You're missing a huge chunk of loose ends, though," Kaiba told them in a slightly impatient tone. Everyone stared at them blankly. "Listen," he leaned forward, clasping his hands together, "you're forgetting that the people in this room are not the only ones close to either Anzu or Yami. We've got a handful of people out there, with only one even slightly aware of the type of danger that we're faced with right now." He tapped a stack of files. "The two Katsuyas, Otogi Ryuuji, Honda Hiroto, Miho Nosaka, and Mai Kujaku. Otogi is the only one with some of this information and he's already been attacked."

"But that can't have been related!" Anzu protested. "That was a long time ago. What purpose would there be in following Malik if they knew Yami was here?"

"Good point," Kaiba conceded. "I don't know if it's related, but I'm bringing it up as a possibility. Regardless, all of these people are close to Anzu – and Yami, to some extent. What worries me is that Jounouchi and Honda travel out of city and anyone could have overheard their conversations on accident. And those conversations could have been about Anzu and Yami. Mai occasionally goes out of town, too, for conferences and events."

"This is all good in theory, Kaiba, but it relies a lot on chance," Bakura spoke up, annoyed. "I'm not about to go based on such damn probability that one of the many times they've been out of town, one of Rei's men were nearby and heard it."

"He's right, Kaiba," Yami agreed, shaking his head. "It depends on too much. His men would have had to be in that city at that time, at the place they were at."

"It's not as unlikely as you two think," Malik said slowly, frowning. "When I intercepted one of the thugs calls, it sounded like Rei had some men at his disposal...if he was smart about it, he would have had men posted in most of the urban centers in Japan. He had said it would time some time for him to get men to the town I was in to help the two trailing me to get rid of me. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason for the delay."

"Mai's activity would have been primarily in urban cities," Anzu said, biting her lip. "Those type of events...they would be sure to go to those since it deals with real estate. Agents love to boast about selling to wealthy clients..."

"Exactly," Kaiba stated, straightening up. "Rei isn't going to waste his resources by sending his men to one city just to find out it's the wrong one. He knew that Malik was close to Yami somehow and wanted to trail him to get a definitive location. And, unfortunately, there's yet another problem that we have that I haven't told anyone yet."

"Might as well get it out now," Bakura grumbled.

"Anzu's mother was attacked last night – "

"What?" Anzu interrupted, starting in surprise. "By who?!"

"By Harumi. She's in the hospital now recovering from a stab wound in her thigh. Don't worry, your mother's quite resilient for a woman her age."

"What the fuck was she doing in Domino?" Malik demanded, taking the attention away from Anzu. Yami gently took her hand and she started again, turning to look at him with big, worried eyes.

"When I talked to Sakura at the hospital, she said that she wasn't sure what Harumi was doing there, but that she was working on some kind of lead and killing Sakura was her objective." Kaiba drummed his fingers on his desk while everyone absorbed this.

"You have some idea, though, don't you?" Anzu asked him after the silence lengthened. Kaiba, who had been staring down at his desk, frowning, glanced up at her. "Give us an educated theory, at least, Kaiba..."

Sighing, he said, "I don't think it was meant as an attack towards Anzu. Strangely enough, I think it was to be an attack towards Yami. If they had wanted to threaten Anzu, they would have gone after her father. Harumi and Rei knew that Jiiro regarded Yami as a son and that Yami, in turn, regarded him more as a father figure than Rei. I think they thought that Yami knew about Sakura and had come to see her as a mother figure. In this, at least, they were mistaken."

"Shit," Malik muttered, dragging a hand through his hair. "But then they have to know about Sakura's marriage to Seiji, right?"

"Yes..."

"If they get to Seiji, they can link everything back to Yami and find everyone else that's connected to him. It'd be too fucking easy for them."

"If they want that way," Bakura said, shrugging, "but we don't know that's how they're thinking. Why would they suspect that they would need her past for anything when all they're looking for are correlations to Yami through Jiiro?"

"Rei has all the information he needs there," Kaiba remarked, "but the question becomes whether he thinks he needs it or not." He paused, letting that sink in. "On a more optimistic note, this does narrow down our problems. With Harumi dead, we don't have to deal with her and only have Rei to contend with."

"Except he'll surely come to Domino because of her death," Yami told him mildly. "My father was never one for loyalty, but they were partners. He won't let Sakura stay living knowing that she killed her."

"It's a possibility. For now, we're going to work under the assumption that he's coming to Domino with his men. What I would suggest is that we gather up all of the people not in this room that can be potentially harmed. They need to be made aware of this. I'd like Ryou, Yami, and Anzu to work on this. As for Malik and Bakura, I'm sure you two know what's expected of you."

"Yeah, yeah," Malik waved a hand, "but I'm shaving and taking a goddamn shower before I do anything today."

"And you?" Ryou queried of Kaiba.

"I'll be meeting with the head of my secret police and I'll also need to talk to the Domino Police Chief, I suppose, in the event that something happens." Kaiba leaned back in his chair and glared at Yami. "After this, you better not ask me for anything else because if you do – "

"I can go fuck off," Yami interrupted in an exasperated tone. "Yes, I know, you tell me every time something like this happens."

X

Mai sat in the park watching Rena play with another little girl, running and laughing with each other. The mother, she suspected, was the one sitting with her friend on the other bench, chatting. It was still just cool enough to allow the children to still play outside. Even though she was keeping a close watch on Rena, her thoughts were wandering, weighing her down like a heavy fog. She had been spoiled, she supposed, by the personal talks she and Malik had when they had been meeting. Now that she hadn't been sleeping with anyone or even had a desire to do so, her mind was constantly wandering to Jounouchi, wondering if he was ever going to make a move towards her to restart their relationship. She had tentative opened the gates to that path and the wait was unbearable. She still saw him and they had friendly enough exchanges when they dropped their daughter off at each other's houses. She hated the feeling of hope and swoop in her stomach when she saw him only to feel disappointed later.

Anzu helped push us together last time, she mused, watching as Rena and the girl paused next to a tree, breathless with laughter. I wonder if it would take someone else's involvement to get us together alone again? She smiled faintly at that thought. Adults that can't even deal with their own relationship problems. God, when did I get so pathetic? Of course, she already knew the answer to that – when she stopped being with Jounouchi.

Sighing, she tucked a stray curl of blonde hair behind her ear and looked down at her phone, pushing a button in hope that she had a missed call or text from him, but the time stared blankly back up at her. She heaved another sigh and raised her eyes back up, feeling the horrible sensation to weep from frustration. Just as she was planning to stand up and retrieve Rena, someone came and sat next to her on the bench. In an irritable mood, she glanced sharply to the side and then her glare turned to a startled look when she saw who was sitting next to her.

"I was hoping you'd be here," Jounouchi said in his usual friendly, casual manner, flashing his crooked smile at her. "I stopped at the house, but you weren't home, so I figured you had taken Rena somewhere."

"Oh...yeah...but how'd you know we were here?" she spluttered, trying to collect herself after the initial surprise.

"Huh? Oh...well..." He suddenly looked uncomfortable and rubbed his chin, turning his eyes away from her as he answered, "We used to always bring her here in the fall...so she could get some time to play before winter came and it was too cold."

That's right, Mai thought, surprised that Jounouchi had been the one to remember instead of her. She had spent a lot of time on the bench watching as Jounouchi would trample around in the grass with Rena, getting his jeans all grass-stained and dirty. Any other woman would have been annoyed, but when she washed the stains out later, she would smile at remembering his ridiculous antics. People who passed by would always laugh at Jounouchi and the other children in the park would delight in joining in. Jounouchi simply had the carefree personality that was so appealing to children. Mai had often envied him for that.

"So, did you need anything in particular or were you just coming to say hi?" Mai asked, smiling at him slightly.

"Actually, yeah, there was, uh, something I wanted to talk to you about." He braced his hands on his knees and blew out a long breath. Mai watched him somewhat anxiously, recognizing that stance all too well. When he was preparing himself for a serious discussion, he would always plant his hands on his knees as though he were about to go on a roller coaster. "Listen, Mai...a long time ago, I looked at you and I knew that you would be the one I would marry. There was no way that I would take 'no' for an answer. I promised myself that I would make you see that I could be a good husband, a good father, and I wanted you to love me. I...I don't believe in fate or anything like that...but there are some things in like that you just...you just know it to be a fact. And...I mean..." He fumbled, glancing at her, suddenly appearing unsure. "I just...I can't live like this anymore."

"...live like what?" she asked quietly. She had thought that the conversation was going where she wanted it to, but now she wasn't so sure. Those words sounded ominous to her.

He rubbed his head again and looked away from her, staring at the ground. "The thing is...I love you. You're the only woman I've ever loved. I...I thought about what you said. And there's not another woman for me. I can't live in misery, wanting to hate you and not being able to...especially lately." He hesitated, glancing at her again. Her expression hadn't changed from it's neutral, polite expression. "What...uh...what do you think...?"

Rather than say what she had been thinking lately, she blurted out, "What took you so long?"

"Huh?" He stared at her blankly.

"I've been waiting for you to say something to me and you..." Before she knew what she was doing, tears started streaming from her eyes and she irritably brushed them away. His blank expression swept away to one of concern and slight panic, seeming to think he had done something wrong.

"I-I'm sorry! You know what, I shouldn't have said anything, I'll just – " He made to rise, but she grabbed his sleeve, halting him in his tracks.

Sniffling, she glared up at him. "You're so stupid, Jounouchi." When he looked even more confused, she laughed and released his sleeve, rubbing her tears away. Seeming uncertain, he sat back down and watched her wipe her face for a moment. "You didn't do anything wrong...for once, you actually did something right." She raised her eyes up to him and smiled at him. His eyes searched her face and after seeming to reassure himself that her smile was genuine, he appeared relieved and returned the smile.

"Daddy!" Rena had come running as soon as she spotted her father and presently knocked into Jounouchi, grabbing his leg. "Daddy, daddy! Where'd you come from? This is Hinata!" She pointed to the girl who had followed Rena to her parents. Hinata grinned up at them, revealing two missing teeth.

"Well hey there," Jounouchi said, bending over so he was eye-level with Hinata. "You two sure make a pretty picture." Hinata giggled and looked at Rena, who had released Jounouchi and spun around to take Hinata's arm in hers. Jounouchi smiled and glanced at Mai.

Sighing, she said wryly, "Go on, then." He grinned and stood up, taking the girls away from the bench. She watched them for a moment and then he gave a sudden roar of "Godzilllaaaa!" and the girls shrieked, running away from him as he marched after them, pretending to be Godzilla. After all, Mai thought, smiling to herself, we'll have time to talk later...now that I know we both want the same thing.

TBC

X

DIS: Way overdue, but better done then it would have been if I had tried to rush through the chapter to meet a deadline. Deadlines and I – we just don't mesh well, I guess! Anyway, thank you to all of the motivating and helpful reviews! I love every single one of you! And, as always, please leave a review on your way out, letting me know how you felt about the chapter, what you liked/disliked! Cheers!