Life Starts Now

Chapter 3.) Mercenaries Play Chess

It had been two days since Yuugi was abducted. It wasn't that Argost was cruel or negligent of him- quite the opposite in fact- he gave Yuugi food and water, but truthfully, he was still stuck in a small cell. The boy rarely saw Argost, since his food was given mostly by his employees. Abby Grey tolerated him. She sometimes spoke with him, even with it being difficult with the language barrier between them.

The other masked figure was a puzzle to Yuugi. He almost never spoke, but when he did, Yuugi couldn't help but notice that he spoke Japanese flawlessly; without the slightest hint of an accent. When he had spoken previously, while infiltrating Yuugi's house, he had sounded like a foreigner and spoke choppily, appearing as if he knew very little Japanese. Yuugi was very curious about the man and all the mysteries he held.

At the current time, Van Rook and Yuugi were playing a rousing game of chess. To the Pharaoh's great delight, Van Rook was very clever and quick witted, at one point almost beating the Pharaoh at his own game. With that kind of intellect, Yuugi wondered how he had ended up as one of Argost's flunkies.

"May I ask you a question?" Yuugi asked politely after moving his rook several spaces.

"You already have," Van Rook replied after a moment of preparing his move.

Yuugi gulped at the blunt brush off, before quickly blurting out, "Why did you try to hide how well you speak Japanese?" He couldn't do it. He couldn't pry into the man's past.

"Think why you? Speak well I not Japanese," the man replied, deliberately messing up his sentence structure and letting his Russian accent seep into the words.

Yuugi couldn't hide his slight smile. Even if he worked for Argost, Yuugi couldn't help but feel that Van Rook wasn't a bad man.

Yuugi and Van Rook sat in a somewhat comfortable silence; the only sound heard being that of the chess pieces clicking against the board.

"Ninety nine Duel Monsters cards on the wall, ninety nine Duel Monsters cards! Take one down, trade it around, ninety eight Duel Monsters cards on the wall," Clairissa and Zenia sang obnoxiously.

Zak groaned melodramatically. "This is the sixth time you've sung this!"

"Eeshiwah!" Fiskerton agreed. In response, the girls sang louder.

"Whoa, what's with that terrible noise? Is someone dying?" Doyle asked, entering the room with one hand covering his ear.

Clairissa stopped singing long enough for a quick, disappointed, "Mr. Blackwell!"

"Mr. Blackwell…?" Doyle repeated, a little taken aback.

"She must be mad at you," Zak assumed.

"Sheesu huua?" Fisk questioned, shaking his finger at Clairissa's father.

"Uh, what? I didn't do anything!" Doyle defended himself.

Zak and Fisk shared a glance, traded evil smirks, and were about to torment him more, when the airship suddenly gave a violent lurch, sending Doyle to the floor, Fisk and Zak falling on top of him.

"Mini-man, Gorilla-cat. Get off. I can't breathe," Doyle wheezed.

Zenia and Clairissa were also thrown off their seats. The more girly of the two let out a surprised yelp. Clairissa raised her head from the floor, a positively murderous look on her face. "That threw off my beautiful counting song! Whoever did that… I'LL KILL THEM!" she yelled, leaving the room and starting down the hall. Everyone still in the room let out a collective sigh of relief. "Doyle! I'm taking your jetpack!"

"Uhh, no you're not!" he responded, propping himself up on one elbow, still trapped under the Saturdays.

Clairissa's voice turned low and deadly, and the top of her head, and her eyes, appeared around the doorway. "If you don't allow me to take your jetpack, I'll hate you forever. I'll never forgive you." Doyle gulped, and allowed himself to fall back on the floor in defeat. "Thanks, dad!" she chirped.

Doyle shook his head from its position on the floor. "What am I going to do with that girl?" he mumbled.

CZR: Welp. Been a few months since I updated. In all honesty, I've had this chapter written since about the same time I posted the previous four. Ehh, my bad. Life just snuck up on me and started now.

Zak: That was a horrible pun even by my standards.

CZR: You know what, Zak! Just go bad to your leeches and your potions, it is after 1 in the morning and I'm really tired and I should be sleeping right now! _

Anyway huge thanks to thetimewalker2237 for following, favouriting, and reviewing. And reading the first draft! Goodness, I love you~ (/ouo/)

Thank you so much! The first draft was kind of awkwardly written, and I really wanted to fix a lot of it. Sadly, not a lot of people noticed the re-write, I think ^^; Actually, the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom seems kind of dead lately. Maybe that's just me? (And the SS fandom has been dead for years :/) I'm really glad you found it funny! It was one of my favourite parts from the original story~ Aww you don't have to thank me, I'm really glad you like it, though! Could you possibly tell me what you think of my OCs, though? I'm a bit worried about how they're turning out u.u'

Sorry for the wall of writing, I just want you to know that I really liked your review. It definitely made my day ^u^

To all the silent readers, I also adore you all too :3

Yuugi: Clairissa-chan doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh or the Secret Saturdays! Please read and review :)

CZR: So a little about this chapter: Zenia (the creator of her, at least) and I actually sang that Duel Monsters card song... for about 656 cards, or so. In the car. On the way to my vacation house. With no escape for the rest of them trapped in the car with us. Besides real life experiences, Van Rook is really fun to write ^^ I was so upset that he was killed off *Gross sobbing*, so I hope to write more of his back story and such later~