The Magicians' Realm Chapter 6: A Conversation With Kineil, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 6, everybody! In which we have one of the rare chapters that have no back and forth between timelines….It also unintentionally apes Maid in Manhattan—which is weird, considering I wrote this long before even watching part of the movie. Ralph Fiennes is actually pretty handsome when he's not trying to off Daniel Radcliffe….

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yup—don't worry, I have to do the same thing too; writing this has picked up tremendously now that I'm writing the two timelines separately and then splicing them together. Don't worry, I won't flood you with puns (pff—assaulted)—this story is actually one of my more…what's the phrase….Well, TV Tropes calls it bathos—we'll have some terribly serious moments, but I'll try to keep it balanced with light moments too (otherwise I'll just depress myself—ick). Yes….And yes—there's these writers here on FanFiction that write really good Shadow novels, but it's all in one big submission, so it requires a time commitment. Yes! Success! And if you want sleep at graduate level, I recommend campus college—I took two years at a campus college and had way too much time on my hands (to the point that I was bored to tears). I started writing this story there, as a matter of fact—it was useful for working things out.

References:

Kineil Wicks © myself (in an odd moment...)

Yami felt like pulling his hair out.

Why, why, why in the name of all things magical and otherwise, were the Administrators wired the way they were?

A handful of them had posed some notions about running things more "effectively," and had wanted Yami's approval—basically, for him to okay something that hadn't even been explained to him. When they refused his suggestion to wait until the next day, and not make decisions during a holiday, he promptly shot down the suggestions and excused himself. He could see the expressions they were hiding, and figured the sooner he excused himself, the sooner they could talk amongst themselves about him.

He didn't mind. Besides, he had other, more pressing things to think about. Like talking to Teana more—finding out her likes, dislikes, last name….

He could see her now, in the middle of a tableful of his friends. Detective Skulduggery Pleasant and his wife Idgy were now next to Teana, wearing Mehjican skull masks that clacked open and shut when they talked. Bakura Necromancer was in the seat that Yami had vacated, wearing a very Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque costume with a skull mask covering the top half of his face.

Yami strode over to his old chair and placed his hands on the back, causing conversation to pause for a moment.

"I hope my friend here isn't causing you any trouble," he said to Teana. "He has that habit."

"You cut me to the quick," Bakura complained melodramatically. "I have never caused any trouble in my life. I may have prompted others to cause trouble, but I have never done so myself."

"Bakura, why don't you share what kind of magic you do?" Idgy suggested.

"I'm a necromancer—it's the sort of thing you pick up in the area Kul Elna's in," he said to Teana, lowering his voice in a conspirator fashion.

Teana nodded, not quite comprehending. "He raises skeletons to do his bidding," Yami explained.

Teana grimaced. "Oh," she said in a flat voice.

"That never impresses anyone," Bakura sighed, propping his head upon his hand.

"It certainly leaves something to be desired," Skulduggery informed him in his velvet-smooth voice.

"So what do you do?" Teana asked Yami.

"As little as possible," Yami replied smoothly. "Bakura, why don't you pull up another seat?"

"I like this one," Bakura replied.

"But it doesn't have your name on it," Yami said, indicating the small placard in front of the position.

"So you want me to get up, is that it?"

"I would."

Kineil was suddenly by Yami's side. "Before you sit down, may I talk to you?"

"Sure," Yami began, and then was forcibly dragged away from the table by Kineil. "I'll be right back," Yami called, noting Teana's bemused expression. He reasoned he must look comical, long limbs flailing as someone much shorter than he was dragged him over to the wall. Bakura began talking again, obviously thrilled that he didn't have to get up, and Teana turned her head to listen to him.

Kineil stopped beneath one of the bare windows and finally let him go. Yami stood up, straightening out his clothes huffily, more for show than anything else.

"So," he said finally, moving his head as little as possible as he glanced around. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Have you lost your marbles?" Kineil asked.

Yami paused. "I can always trust you to be blunt, Miss Wicks."

"Firstly, I want to know when—exactly—you walked in the door."

"As late as I possibly could."

"Then you missed the part where your dear date is part of the waiting staff."

"So?"

"SO?" Kineil fairly burst, then subdued herself; Yami gave a little wave to a few nearby mages, who promptly went back to their dinner. "So, she's below you."

"Now Miss Wicks," Yami said, using the honorific because he knew it would irritate her. "You are the last person I would expect to hear that from."

"And I'm not like that," Kineil assured him. "But they are."

She pointed across the room, directly at the largest cluster of Administrators. Yami brought her hand down before too many people noticed. "Your point?" he asked.

"My point—they don't like you."

"And?"

"And they're looking for any reason to get rid of you. They have been ever since you became Head Mage."

"Politics," Yami said, deciding to use a statement he had heard used before. "You know I hate them."

"Listen, I'm talking to you, not BJ over there."

"You're being terribly serious for this being a holiday."

"You don't pay attention to how people act around you," Kineil hissed. "They hold their tongues when you make a decision, but they're very opinionated when you're not around."

"And how do you know this?"

"They talk in front of me—they don't think I'm a magician, and therefore I'm not worth their time."

"I've talked to them about that."

"I don't care. I'm not in any sort of important position. You are. You need to consider how they react to you."

"Why?" Yami asked. "They can't make any sort of decision without consulting me. The public knows this; the public loves this. They know I consider them before I consider the wants of the Administration."

"Yes!" Kineil exclaimed, throwing her arms out and up. When she noticed the sudden lull in conversation, she returned to her conspirator hiss, bringing her arms back in. "So the masses love you. Big whoop. The point is, the Administrators outnumber you. You've been making friends in all the wrong places."

"Your suggestion?"

Kineil tapped her fingers together thoughtfully. "Find some people that would be willing to run for the position of Administrator—that actually like you—and suggest to some of the older Administrators the option of retirement."

"But the older Administrators like me as well."

"They do because you're nice to them."

"And that doesn't work for the other Administrators?"

"No, because your decisions are not nice to them."

"Kineil, we've gotten off-subject—the original point is you don't approve of Miss Teana."

"No, I like her just fine," Kineil clarified. "My original point is, you have to consider the effects your decisions are having. You keep this up, and I foresee a lot of misery."

"Think positive, Kineil," Yami said, clapping her on the shoulder. "No matter what the effect I have on the Administrators, they can't do a thing without me."

Kineil paused at that, and Yami could guess where her mind was going. "That would be outright murder," he told her. "And they would never risk that—they need public opinion to be with them just as much as I do."

"You are going to think about what I told you, right?"

"Of course!" he said, steering her back to the table. "But for now, let's enjoy ourselves. This is a holiday, after all."