I just went through my story alert list. Wow. I didn't know how many stories I had there! Haha- I had some that hadn't been updated since 2004, some that had been completed years ago, a few that were stupid as dirt and a good number of them I have no memory of adding. Needless to say, I spent quite some time cleaning up.
But, I found such a large number of amazing stories that I left about twenty on there. Know why? Because that is my collection of the greatest stories I have found on this site. Or, I know the author and wanted to be nice, so I left her stuff on there. And there were just a few that hadn't been updated in years, but I just can't give up on them. I loved them so much that I'm certain that some day, the author will decide to complete them.
j bear- Haha- getting deep into this aren't you? I'm going to say for now, (this may change) that they can be killed with normal weapons. I'll go into more detail on that later I'm sure. And I don't want to have too many unnecessary characters, so they will only come in if I need them for something. Haha- I don't know if you've read From the Dead-Arose Power, but I killed Malik off in that. . . you may not want me to bring him in.
BlueFox of the Moon- I know right? That would freak me out, and it certainly will come into play, in just about all of the following chapters. I think. I haven't written them all yet, so I don't even know! Are all the monsters evil? Haha- well, all of the monsters are concerned with themselves. . . does that make them evil? I think it may, just to make the story interesting. God cards. I have thought about that, still not sure if I want to include them. I may, just not sure yet. And I added you on AIM, don't forget, I'm LendingDreams!
Teal Phoenix- Haha- thanks! That was so the only reason I did those two. And you know it is true. Monster. . . Lore? Haha- I have no idea what you mean by that, but I'll try to do some explaining on the whole transforming concept. Don't fret, I will bring it up. Many more times. I still hate AIM talking. I won't be doing it again. Haha.
Sarah The Queen- Why thank you. I'm glad to know that you enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy this update just as much as the last.
MyChemicalDarkness- Haha- Kisara. Yeah. . . I haven't decided if she is the Blue Eyes or not, but I have another chapter to decide. (Hint!) And it won't eat him, where is the fun in that? Haha- Pegasus would be amusing, but he doesn't live in Domino, so I don't know how I could logically get him in the story. Keep Reading!
GryphonWonder14- Thanks! And I completely agree, chatrooms are the devil. Or very similar. I'm not going to be using it again. Unless I absolutely have to, but I think I would rather my character just teleport over to the person they need to talk to. And they are doing their best to hide, but never fear, they will get chosen. Or at least, most of them will. Haha- I've picked out monsters for all most all of them. Actually, all but one.
Looking for a good read? Real 2 Radical by HiKari Mokuba's Guardian
Seto's POV
The door stayed shut for the next three days. The only times Mokuba left was to go to the restroom, and even then, Kuriboh followed him there and back. The beast never took his eyes off me when I was in sight, and occasionally threatened me with my blood, which was still coated on his claw.
Mokuba couldn't even look at me without the beast reacting to it. I knew that I had lost any ground that I may have gained with the beast, any trust was now gone. Kuriboh had lost all patience with me.
There were many times during the days that I could hear Mokuba talking. I tried to listen, but he was just talking. He wasn't really saying anything, just random words and stories that came into his head. Maybe that was a way for him to let Kuriboh know that he was paying attention to him. Whatever it was, I didn't get the chance to ask.
I was lying on the couch, waiting for the sun to go down. I had to go out tonight, business on the other end of town. The people of Domino had monthly meetings to talk and discuss the beasts, and I had to attend. After all, I'm still Seto Kaiba, people expect things out of me.
But since the meetings last for so long, I have to leave immediately after sun down, which I didn't like doing. It was too much of a risk, some of the day creatures still wandered the city, but there were also the night creatures just coming out. These meetings usually went all through the night too, so by the time I got back home, the sun was nearing its rise.
If I didn't have to go, I wouldn't. Unfortunately, I couldn't let my fear keep me from responsibilities.
Before I left, I had to give Mokuba his dinner. I did this by grabbing the food, laying it by his door and knocking. Then I walked away so Kuriboh couldn't see me. I didn't say anything or stay to try to talk to my brother. Keeping him fed was more important than my emotions.
As I left the house, I made sure to lock the door behind me.
The walk to the meeting place took me a while, and I had to cross a few streets to get there. That required walking out into the open where I could easily be seen. Staying near the buildings gave me the illusion of cover, all though I knew that even there I wasn't safe.
As I walked, a disturbing thought came into my mind. How would we know that everyone there was human? If the beasts can change into us, why wouldn't they try to sneak into our meetings?
I wasn't sure if the beast would care enough, but the thought was nerve racking. We had no way of identifying who came in and out. The meeting location was kept a secret, but if anyone let it slip, we could be in trouble. There were thousands of beasts who had yet to chose someone, and if my theory was correct, all the ones in Domino that wandered around were getting close.
When it came time to cross the first street, I took my time doing it. There weren't any creatures walking around, and I checked the sky to ensure that nothing was flying above me. I didn't move until I was completely sure that I was alone.
And that was how I traveled to the meeting location. It didn't take more than ten minutes to walk there and as I grew nearer, I could see others coming too. They walked in the same manner that I did, head down, steady pace, quietly; nothing to draw special attention to themselves.
The location of the meeting was a basement off a side street. It use to be a shop of some sort, but I never figured out what they sold. We used it mainly because it was hidden and it had a gate over the door. Nothing had ever interrupted a meeting, but caution was a key factor.
I entered quietly, taking a seat in the back of the room. If it had been any other type of meeting, I would have walked boldly to the front and taken the best seat there, but this wasn't a normal meeting. This wasn't something that I wanted a part of, and I only gave them my presence.
"Kaiba!"
The hushed voice of Ryou was easily recognized. There weren't a great many British people living in Domino.
He took the seat next to me, placing his hands in his lap.
"So, did you have any difficulties getting here?"
Small talk was one of my least favorite activities in existence. It is basically another way of saying that you don't know the person well enough to carry on an actual conversation, so you talk about the most basic topic that comes to mind.
I didn't answer.
"Sorry, I'm not good at starting conversations." Ryou said.
The attempted conversation stopped at that point. Which left the two of us with an awkward silence. We watched people slowly file in the room for a while before I came up with something to say.
"There aren't as many people here as last time. I'd say we have less than half the number that was here last time."
Ryou looked around the room, standing up at one point to count everyone.
"You're right. There are only thirty-four people here. We had eighty-one last month. You don't think that they were all chosen, do you?"
"I doubt it." Then I reconsidered. "I'm not saying that it isn't a possibility, but there are other reasons that people can't be here. Some of them probably did get chosen, but others might be sick, or couldn't get out of the house. I'm sure a few just decided that these are pointless and didn't want to come."
"I believe that I will just assume they couldn't make it. Let's go for the positive outlook, that is really all that we can do." He said with a determined tone.
Just as the meeting was about to start, Wheeler came walking down the stairs. He slid into the seat beside Ryou seconds before the gates were locked. He was panting for breath as Mr. Lincoln stood in front of the group.
"Attention! I'm glad to see that you all could make it out tonight. It hasn't passed our notice that many of our usual members couldn't make it out tonight. Ruth emailed saying that her sons were all sick, so she had to stay with them tonight. Henry had his family staying at his house and didn't want to risk leaving them there. Harmony-"
I wasn't interested in the exact reason that everyone didn't show up. I only listened closely enough to count the number of people who had an excuse. Ten people had a reason for not being here. Running the numbers quickly in my head, I found that thirty-seven people were unaccounted for. That was a good majority of people that might have been chosen.
"Harrison here is going to quickly do an attendance check while I continue with the meeting. First thing on the agenda, the south side trading route has been shut down. This is a temporary situation, and we are currently looking for a new location for it. Do any of you have a place in mind?"
Voices popped up around the room. I didn't pay particular attention to them because something more important had caught my eye. Harrison seemed to be having a problem with attendance. He was staring across the room at something. I followed his gaze to a face that I didn't recognize.
Why was there someone here that I didn't know? For the past few months, it had been the same group of people, and now there was someone new?
Apparently, Harrison was having the same dilemma as me. He was staring at the new man intensely, as if trying to recall his name.
"People! It is just a market location, please don't get so worked up over this. We are looking for a central location. No one is getting an advantage in this arrangement." Mr. Lincoln exclaimed.
"Do either of you recognize the man over there?" I whispered to Wheeler and Ryou. I gestured subtly across the room to the unknown member of the meeting. They both glanced over.
"Nah, has he been to a meetin' before?" Wheeler whispered.
"Not that I can recall. You know him Ryou?"
Ryou shook his head. I then noticed how we were all leaning in so we could speak without being overheard. I leaned back immediately.
"Does it matter who he is?"
I was amazed when Wheeler understood my thought before I spoke them.
"Wha' if he isn't a real man?"
Ryou looked at me with confusion printed on his face. He obviously didn't understand what Wheeler was talking about, and I remembered that he hadn't been at Tea's house for our discussion a few nights back.
"I saw a beast transform into a human last week. I don't know if all of them can, but it is a possibility."
Ryou's expression suddenly shifted from confusion to shock. It was more a mixture of shock and extreme interest.
"That is possible? How can we tell them apart from the rest of us?" He asked, voicing the very question I had been debating in my mind for days.
"I still haven't figured that out, I've only seen it happen once. The few I saw might be the only ones who can." I said.
We stopped talking there, occasionally glancing up at the man across the room. He seemed to be the only person here truly listening to Mr. Lincoln speaking. The man was sitting perfectly straight, staring with an interested expression to the front of the room, nodding in agreement with all Lincoln's statements.
I couldn't figure out what it was about him, but something was off. My first instinct was to blame it on paranoia, which would make sense. Why would it be odd for me to watch for people who I thought might be beasts?
But something wasn't right about him. I immediately ruled out his posture since I took sat in a similar manner. And it wasn't that he cared about the meeting. I usually listened to them too. Something was different and I couldn't decide what it was.
"Now that the store's location has been decided upon, we can move to the next matter. Has anyone heard about this battle going on between the creatures of day and night? Any new information?"
We discussed that matter at each meeting. It was a well known fact that the day and night creatures didn't interact with each other, and people were certain that something would come out of it.
I watched the man's reaction to the information given. He carefully examined each face of every person who brought out new information. No one had anything substantial, just various times and places they had seen different beasts.
"Shouldn't we be writing all of this down?" A voice asked.
"That is a good idea. Mr. Kaiba, there is a box with pencils in it behind you, can you bring them to me?"
I turned around to look for the pencils. There was a shelf up against the wall a few feet behind my chair. I stood up and walked over to it while the discussion continued on.
The shelf was nearly bare. There were just a few items on it, including the pencils. It was apparent that it wasn't used often, and the thick layer of dust that had collected on it served as a reinforcement of that fact.
When I picked up the pencil box off the shelf, dust flew into the air. I found myself holding my breath as I walked to the front so I didn't breath any of it in.
Lincoln gave me a nod as I handed the pencils to him, keeping the meeting going.
When I felt the sharp pain in my eye, I knew that dust had settled on it. As I reclaimed my seat in the back of the room, I tried to remove the dust. I blinked rapidly until the pain stopped.
Blinking.
As inconspicuously as I could, I looked back to the man across the room. That was what was wrong with him, he didn't blink. I examined him for a few minutes until I was certain. He didn't blink. Not once during the entire time I was watching him.
Of course I knew it was possible to go lengths of time without blinking, but people normally didn't just sit around during meetings and try not to blink.
But not blinking wasn't a sign of anything. Maybe I just didn't notice, or he blinked at the same time as me. It could mean nothing at all. I could just be making things up in my head, trying to make more of the situation than there actually was.
I just needed to be rational. That was something that I could do, if I put effort into it. I couldn't lose focus right now. I had to consider the facts.
There was a new man at the meeting. Did that mean anything? He could just be the husband of one of the women who usually attended. Maybe one of the had gotten sick and sent a replacement. That was one explanation that didn't involve beasts. Or he could just be a new member who couldn't make it to a meeting before now. Either of those are logical answers.
He didn't blink. At least, I hadn't seen him blink. Could it be that he just didn't have to blink as much as other people? Perhaps he had some disorder that kept him from blinking. There were other logical reasons for not blinking that didn't include beasts.
For now, those answers would have to do. I refused to jump to ridiculous conclusions just because I was nervous about my situation.
"Kaiba, what happened to your face?" Ryou whispered, bringing my attention back to the room.
"Just a problem at home." I responded, hoping that he would just let it drop. I never really felt like talking about Mokuba and Kuriboh, it just made me angry that I couldn't do anything about it.
"Next on the agenda, the homeless center is getting crowded and we need to move to a larger space. Has anyone seen an available location?"
The homeless center was for all of the people who had been run out of their home by the beasts. It wasn't a safe place to live, especially since there were so many people who hadn't been chosen. If a group of beasts found were the center was located, it could be a disaster.
The man across the room seemed very interested in the new topic. His expression appeared to be one of excitement, like he was learning privileged information.
I fought off the urge to announce my thoughts. Without proof, or even somewhat substantial evidence, it would be foolish of me to try something like that.
But I couldn't stop thinking about the man across the room. I knew something wasn't right about him, but I had no proof. Could I get proof without actually doing anything? I certainly couldn't just walk up to him now and start a conversation with him.
"Uh- Kaiba? Wha' are ya starin' at?"
I brought my gaze to Wheeler, who was leaning over Ryou so he could whisper.
"Nothing, pay attention to the meeting." I answered.
"You still watchin' the new guy? He isn't gonna change here." Wheeler stated.
He was right. Not something that I said too often, but Wheeler had a logical point. If that man was a beast, he wouldn't transform in the middle of the group. He would have a purpose for being here and wouldn't unveil himself so everyone could see. If I wanted to prove anything, I would have to follow him after the meeting, which I knew that I wouldn't have time for. About an hour had passed and Lincoln was barely beginning. This meeting most likely wouldn't be over until several hours had passed. By that time, I had to run to get home before sunrise. Could I risk sneaking around during the day?
The more I considered it, the worse of an idea it became. I couldn't possibly take any serious risks, and going out during the day was the biggest one I could make. My curiosity wasn't nearly as important as Mokuba, and he needed my help.
"Has the west side meeting location opened up yet? Or is it still being used by the Knight family?" Lincoln asked.
I leaned my head back in disgust. This was the worst use of my time I could possible imagine. And I wasn't just wasting my time, I was spending it with Wheeler and Ryou. I didn't even like these people, when did my life come to this?
The meeting went on for another eight hours. The only break lasted around ten minutes, during which time we all stood to walk a few laps around the room. After that, the meeting went on.
I never did figure out how Lincoln came up with enough topics to last all night. Yet, the meeting went on and on. I had sat through the most boring meetings that I could have ever thought possible, but I would sit through all of them over again if I could leave this torture.
To make it even worse, Wheeler insisted upon passing the time trying to start up the worst conversations he could think up.
"Kaiba, ever run a mile in under seven minutes?"
"Moneybags, do ya know how many numbers are between eighty-one and six-thousand seven-hundred and three?"
"Where is Tibet?"
"Do ya still have your deck or did ya ditch it when this crap happened?"
I didn't answer any of his questions. I stared forward at Lincoln and tried to block out Wheeler's voice, to focus on anything else. The bricks on the walls, the ratio of men to women, the number of chairs; anything but Joey Wheeler.
I made a mental list of all the things that Lincoln thought important enough to talk about. Stores, homeless center, dangerous streets, beast sighting, chosen friends, beasts moving, groups leaving Domino, and others that I wasn't listening to carefully enough to remember them. There was a clock on the wall that I found myself staring at to pass the time. Each shift of the smallest hand reminded me that I had one less second to be here.
The thought was only vaguely comforting.
The most interesting part of the meeting was when Lincoln revealed a startling revelation to the group.
"Mr. Parkson killed a beast last week. Martin, can you come to the front and explain what happened to everyone here?"
One of the men in the room got to his feet and strode proudly to stand next to Lincoln. He took his time before speaking, looking across the room to make eye contact with each person. Placing his hands in his pockets, he began to speak.
"I don't normally go out during the day. But when I do, I bring my gun with me. One of those beasts spotted me and chased me down, but I wasn't scared of it."
His story may have been the most interesting part of the meeting, but that wasn't saying too much. The only part that I cared about was how he killed the creature.
"I turned around when I chose my location. I took aim right between that demon's eyes and fired. That seemed to do the trick. That thing fell to the ground and I shot it again, just for the sake of it."
That was all of the story that I listened to. There had been a few rare reports of people who had managed to kill a beast, and from what I had heard, they were all very similar. A shot or hit to the head appeared to be the only way to kill them.
I didn't have any interest in killing the beasts. Maybe Kuriboh, but I wasn't going to go hunting them down. It was just useful information to store away.
When the meeting was over, I didn't waste any time in leaving. All that I could think of was getting home, checking on Mokuba, and going to sleep. Maybe a good nights sleep would make me forget about this horrible meeting.
The man across the room acting naturally as the members of the meeting talked to each other. He joined in the conversations and didn't seem to raise any suspicions with anyone else. Maybe I had just been paranoid the whole time.
Deciding to let the subject drop, I offered a quick goodbye to Wheeler and Ryou and went out before anyone could stop me to further discuss the topics in the meeting.
The walk home seemed to take longer than the meeting itself had taken. I knew that it was just a wave of exhaustion coming over me, but I only could think about getting home. That and sleep.
The streets were crawling with beasts. I had never seen them so packed and busy. What were they doing?
It took me longer to get back home than it had ever taken. I had to wait in hiding until the path was clear, then quickly jump to the next safe location. Most of the time I spent in waiting, the streets being so full I didn't have confidence in my odds to move without being seen.
None of the creatures scared me in particular, none of the more powerful ones were near me. But I still tried to be cautious, even if they weren't the stronger of the beasts, they still had the ability to kill me. And in a group, they were even more lethal.
By the time I got back to my street, the sun was just beginning to make its way onto the horizon. By that time, the night creatures had left, and the day creatures were beginning to come out. I jogged to the door and reached in my pocket for the key.
I froze in horror. There was nothing in my pocket. I never left the house without my key.
I quickly checked again, feeling through all of my pockets, hoping that I might have put it into one of the other pockets by mistake.
But I didn't, there wasn't a key.
I turned around to examine the sun. It was moving quicker than I thought possible, and I knew that I didn't have too much time left. Any minute now, I knew that more beasts would arrive. I had to get in the house.
Doing the only thing I could think of, I began to knock loudly on the door.
"Mokuba! Can you open the door?" I shouting, while continuing to knock.
There was no answer. I kept knocking, shouting louder and louder. I wasn't going to give up, not now. There was still a chance that Mokuba would hear me and open the door.
After a few minutes, I stopped knocking. He had to have heard me by now, so why wasn't he coming?
The thought that Kuriboh might have been keeping him back only occurred to me when I saw movement inside one of the windows. Since I wasn't inside, the curtains were still open and I could see through the windows.
Kuriboh was near one of them, staring at me. I didn't see Mokuba, so I assumed that he was in the back. But Kuriboh just stood there, watching me through the window.
"Can you unlock the door?" I called out, certain that he could hear me. A corner of his mouth twitch slightly, as if he was holding back a smirk.
That demon was keeping me locked out. He moved over to the table where I keep my keys and pointed to them.
"Yes, I realize that I left them there. Can you please just open the door?"
Kuriboh gave me one final smirk and closed the curtains. I stood there in shock for a brief moment. I knew that the beast hated me living there, but I never considered him going out of his way to keep me out.
I leaned my head against the door, trying to decide what to do. I could get angry later, now I needed to find a place to hide during the day.
Before I could come up with a decision, I was spun around quickly as a sword was pressed to my throat. A hand came forward quickly and pushed me into the door.
I examined the monster that attacked me. It was one that I recognized, the Flame Swordsman. I considered myself lucky that his sword wasn't on fire, but that was the extent of my good fortune. He didn't speak to me at first, we just stood in the same position. Me with his sword to my throat, and him examining me carefully.
This situation couldn't get any worse.
Or at least, that is what I thought initially. In the distance, I heard a familiar roar that proved me wrong.
Ta Da!
Sorry for the gap in updates. Classes just started back, and I'm still adjusting to my new schedule. The next chapter is going to be fun to write, I hope, so it shouldn't be so long in the making.
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