Chapter 24

'So... what do we do know,' SK's tongue skated across his lips as he tried to move quickly past the weirdness of the previous couple of minutes.

'I'm not sure,' Jay kissed the top of Catilin's head, before lowering her back down and sliding off the bed. 'We could try talking to Dee, I guess or...'

He stopped mid sentence as his gaze focused in on something on the bed. For a few long moments there was silence and SK found himself starting to get more than a little concerned about the guy. After all this was the third strange occurrence with him that day. He was just about to say something to break the tension when Jay reached over and picked something up from the bed.

'There was a robbery at Nayta's store a couple of days ago,' he read from the sheet of paper he was now holding. 'Apparently only two items were taken; an engagement ring and a box of Elemental stones.'

'So?'

'So, the descriptions of one of the thieves matches that of our mystery blonde,' Jay laughed, 'well at least we know now how she managed to trap Joey; it would take a spell of some magnitude and a Huntay to pull it off,' his eyes lifted to meet with SK's. 'We can use this information to find them.'

'How?'

'By checking all of the active Huntays from the last few days. Since our criminals weren't smart enough to cover their faces whilst stealing from Nayta, I'm guessing they're also not smart enough to cover their magical signatures and Huntays give off one hell of a signature.'

'You make it sound like tracking them down now is going to be simple; there could have been a lot of Huntays used in the last few days.'

'Yes, but it's a good place to start, don't you think?'

'Maybe.'

'Don't tell me you're disappointed at how easily both Catilin and I have been ruled out as your number one suspects,' Jay rolled his eyes. 'I know you can be obsessive, but this is getting more than a little ridicules now.'

'I'm not... I mean... I'm just not sure how much of a lead this really is. I mean, how do you go about tracking Huntays?'

'And yet somehow you've still maintained the title of Helper,' Jay shook his head. 'Seriously, do a little bit of research into your own job sometime; it might help you out one day.'

'Give me a break, would you, it's a lot of information to take in and I've not been doing this job for a year yet. I never got the opportunity to learn anything before becoming a Guardian and then I jumped straight into being the Helper; I'm doing the best I can here.'

'Whatever,' Jay rolled his eyes, 'come on, it's time for a lesson in Huntay tracking.'

When the light cleared Kaiba found himself stood at the entrance to Kama Traydon. The Axe and his arm were no longer glowing as if to let Kaiba know there was no way he was getting home the same way he'd arrived. A growl of tired and agitated frustration made its way out of him; this wasn't what he wanted or needed right now. With little else he could do, Kaiba began making his way into Kama Traydon. With every step the weary paranoia washing over him got stronger and stronger; what if the youth or Yugi had brought him here just to get him out of the way so that he could get to Tristan and Mokuba? Or worse, what if the youth and Yugi were working together on this? It didn't bare thinking about, but no matter how many times he tried to suppress the thoughts they kept rising tauntingly in his mind.

The sound of music coming from the clearing around the Sacred Huntay brought him to a momentary stop. He then took a deep breath in, did his best to squash his paranoid inklings and forced himself into a more confident attitude. The last thing he wanted was for other people to see him unhinged.

His heart skipped a beat when he entered the clearing. The youth was dancing like some kind of maniac in the centre, whilst Yugi sat motionlessly to one side; this wasn't exactly what he wanted to see. Worse still it didn't take long for the youth to spot him. He immediately stopped dancing in order to fix his visible eye on Kaiba, whilst the waxier than a waxwork figure smile stretched further across his face. In a rolling movement the youth pointed towards the Axe.

'Do you really think I'm stupid enough to just hand it over to you?' Kaiba tightened his grip on the weapon. 'Your little hero act before didn't impress me that much.'

'Do you always have to be so paranoid rich boy; they're not going to hurt you.'

The voice was unmistakable and as Kaiba turned towards the source of it he wasn't sure if he was annoyed or amused by what he found. Joey was sat under a tree almost directly opposite Yugi; with the ash blonde girl Kaiba had seen a couple of nights before strewn across his lap.

'I wouldn't be so sure about that,' Kaiba gritted his teeth as his uncertain emotions quickly rolled into irritation, 'Tristan's unconscious because of that maniac.'

'You saw him attack Tristan?' Joey frowned at him.

'No, but he was standing over Tristan when I found him, so I'd say the evidence pretty much speaks for itself.'

'Paranoid much,' Joey cocked an eyebrow, 'all you have is circumstantial evidence. I've been around these guys for a while now and they've not done anything to me, so I really don't believe they're evil.'

'Just like you don't believe in monogamy right now,' Kaiba glared at him, 'or weren't you and Mai really the soul mates you're always claiming to be.'

'I... err...'

'With morals as loose as that how do you expect me to respect your opinion?'

As Kaiba was speaking, he felt his body go numb. Almost as soon as he realised what the paralysing feeling was, he was forced to lower the Axe to the ground. The youth slinked over to him, picked the weapon up and carried it towards the pedestal. Once there he placed it neatly on top and gave a satisfied nod in Kaiba's direction.

'I'm getting really tired of that,' Kaiba's lip curled as the paralysing hold lifted.

The youth spent a few minutes rolling his body in a series of rhythmic stretches as his visible eye curiously studied Kaiba. Once he was done with the stretches he slinked his way back across the Huntay.

'Stay away from me,' Kaiba backed away as his tired brain jumped to snappy assumptions.

The youth stopped in his tracks and the waxy smile dropped from his face. The expression which replaced it was just as mask like as the other one, only this time it was as though the guy were trying to imitate a puppy dog.

'Aww, I think he likes you,' Joey laughed.

'Shut up,' Kaiba's voice was harsher and more irritated than he meant it to be.

'Wait... he does like you, doesn't he?'

'Shut up Wheeler.'

'Is that why you don't trust him; because he has a little crush on you?'

'I thought I told you to shut up,' Kaiba balled his hands into fists. 'Shut up now or I swear I'll hurt you.'

'Wow, don't you think you're overreacting a little here?' Joey shook his head.

'I don't think it's possible to overreact in this situation,' Kaiba tried to sound calmer than he felt, 'you've no idea what that thing has put me through the last few days.'

'You shouldn't call him a thing Kaiba, he's a person you know,' Joey pulled a face. 'Just a very silent person.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'It means I don't think they're able to talk.'

'You're right, we can't,' Duke, accompanied by the dusty blonde, appeared out of nowhere in the centre of the Huntay.

'And just what's that supposed to mean?' Kaiba turned his attention towards them.

'We don't have voices,' Duke's voice was strangely wistful, 'we are Voices, therefore we can't talk.'

'Huh?' Kaiba's brain was too tired to comprehend what he was being told.

'We are Voices.' Duke repeated.

'Wait, do you mean Voices as in the Etean definition of the word?' Joey studied the dusty blonde.

'Yes,' as Duke said the word, the dusty blonde nodded, 'we are each the physical representations of a different Human Element.'

'Hold on a minute,' Kaiba tried to get his tired brain to focus, 'are you telling us your all parts of different people or different parts of the same person.'

'Both,' the word was strangely solid, 'we are Voices and we are Ids.'

'Wait, what?'

'We are Voices and we are Ids,' Duke repeated, 'so we are both.'

'I don't...' Kaiba shook his head. 'Whatever, just tell me something, why has he,' he pointed towards the youth, 'been stalking me?'

'Body simply wanted to protect you.'

'Body...?' Joey frowned. 'Is that his name?'

'He is Body, I am Mind and she is Heart.'

'I don't care who he is,' Kaiba felt more than mildly irritated, 'what I want to know is why he's been stalking me and why he attack Tristan.'

'Body hasn't hurt anybody.'

'See,' Joey gloated, 'I told you they were no threat.'

'No threat?' Kaiba snorted. 'One's holding Yugi captive and another is controlling Duke's mind and you're saying they're no threat.'

'Would you rather Body hadn't stopped Yugi?' Duke spoke as Mind took a step towards him.

'So one maniac stops another, am I really supposed to be grateful for that?' Kaiba glared at her. 'You can tell me he's innocent all you want, as far as I'm concerned he's still the reason Tristan's unconscious and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.'

'Maybe there is nothing we can say to convince you, but perhaps there is something we can show you.'

As Duke spoke, Mind nodded towards Body. He nodded back before taking a few steps closer to Kaiba.

'I thought I told you to stay away from me.'

Body looked hurt and sent a look in Mind's direction. She nodded again and he took another step forward, before pulling back the hair from the left side of his face.

'No, this isn't possible,' Kaiba took a step back, 'this... this can't be.'