Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Vampire Hunter D.

I can't even explain how apologetic I am for anyone who is waiting for this. Life really...life'd me.

Please enjoy what I hope is somewhat of a return to a semblance of form. As in...at least a chapter a month...

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Turn Three

The night that they had settled into their small cots—their hard padding barely a better substitute than a sleeping bag on debris covered ground—Bakura had smoothed the boy's hair, kissed his forehead, and swore that all would be well. That things would turn out better than before. They finally would be able to rest and feel safe for a time.

D remembered those words and thought the concept to be pretty ironic. Bakura was more of a dream eater than he intended, it would seem. The expectation of leaving at once was met with the reality of an additional three weeks of boarding in a wing far below ground. An additional three weeks of Bakura fighting battles that were not his own, for the sake of what D would have called a 'distant' friend. Oh, and once every week, the man participated in the very games they had originally feared and could very well put him out of commission for a time.

Rest his ass.

The boy wondered, as he sketched out the line of Claire's nose—as she, for once, quietly perused a book on edible plants—if his distaste for the place came from some deeper concern. Some issue he had within himself.

Bakura had attempted before to acclimatize him to a city, and the boy had failed spectacularly. While they had suffered hardships on the road, most of it had not been D's fault. He did not want to believe it was his own building anxieties around his existence, but rather that he was a wandering individual at heart.

That was not to say that this place was entirely uncomfortable. The tomblike atmosphere with the comforts of the earth around him often led D to touch or lean against the natural walls. Their carved arches smelled of peace, the cool sensation they offered making the day take on a dreamlike quality. His left hand mocked him for this, but for once the jests were good-natured. As good-natured as his finicky hand could ever be, at least. He was not going hungry, even with how careful he had to be. Bakura, forever resourceful and astoundingly clever, managed to feed D enough to sustain the boy—and even though there was no need—the child also enjoyed sampling the foods of this place at least once…when it was not canned.

A familiar friend also provided comfort. Claire, ever constant, ever boisterous, fluidly slid into place in this society—as if she were made for its eccentricity. She had argued she had little interest in the town before, but even D could not ignore that the eclectic extravagance suited her. And it was not just because she had a bizarre choice in clothing, either.

Claire made her personality known right away to the children they had to associate with and fit in in every way he did not. She did not even have to try. Her newfound connections followed her every word, her budding charisma and confidence a key in developing friendships. His own interactions were a stark contrast. He remained polite but reserved, something the adults found palatable but did not seem to strike a chord with children his age. It had been the same in Domino with his singular friendship, so it came as no surprise to him. He had accepted this with a comfortable indifference. Claire had not.

He had told her not to worry and that it was not as if anyone were picking on him. Not that he would need her help then, anyway. For a few days, she backed off. Not three days after this he found himself surrounded with new "friends", brought on by the girl's very own taunting (a heavy weight since she was considered cool amongst their peers) that they were too afraid to be friends with the spooky, quiet, smart kid. He had figured these had been their reservations about him, and he had had no intention of dispelling such concerns for their own safety, but he had no idea how Claire managed to manipulate them so easily into viewing him in a positive light. Usually it was easier to promote the negative. Nevertheless, it did make the days he waited for their departure more fun. A begrudging admission on his part.

And since children did not leave the confines of this underground society, they were safe here.

But…for how long?

"What are you drawing?" Claire asked, her eyes flicking up from an image of a particularly abhorrent looking fungus. They were in a room with a multitude of children their age; the city's version of a classroom. It was quiet activity time and many of the children were attempting to follow the rules with varying degrees of success. As D and Claire came from a world that required the skill of silence, the ability meaning the difference between life and death, they were better at the concept and thus they were left to their own devices by the two teachers in the room. Those adults were trying to convince another pair of children that they could either follow directions or spend time in the time-out room. Claire rolled her eyes upon hearing that and poked him with her foot, demanding an answer.

"You."

"You're so weird. Why me?"

"Because I'm bored and I'm facing you."

"Why don't you read something?"

"I've read all of the books they have in this room already," D confessed. She might have turned, but he still recalled the angle of her eyes. They appeared on the page as expressive as they were now; her brows furrowed in focus. "Aside from the one you're reading."

"You're joking!"

"No."

She knew from that tone he was not. "So why don't you read it with me?"

"Didn't want to bother you."

"Come on, D. You're bugging me when you just stare at me all weird."

"I'm not staring at you weird."

"When you do this," she said, facing him with a look of severe concentration that felt like she was peering into his very soul, "for like a full minute, it gets weird." She paused, craning her neck to look at his progress. "Lemme see."

D flipped the pad to face Claire and looked down, embarrassed, although his face did not portray it. He supposed she was right then. That was a strange look.

Claire took the pad of paper from him, tilting her head as she assessed his work. She flicked the page with a self-satisfied grin. "I'm pretty!" she boasted.

"I guess?" D replied, shrugging. He did not want to make a big deal of it. Some other kids were beginning to concentrate on their conversation and he did not want to get in trouble. "I was just drawing what I saw."

She tapped the top of his head with the sketch before passing it back to him. "Yeah, yeah. I'd say, I know you're jealous…but you're even prettier than me." She sighed. "Some of the girls have been talking about you, you know. But…I'll tell you later, The Terror is coming. Come sit with me and read about deadly mushrooms."

He scooted up to her with a swift kick and turn of his leg, so fluid that no one would have assumed that he had been sitting any other way. The teacher that Claire referred to as The Terror walked by with a sharp, hawk-like stare upon the two as they focused on the book. She was a kind woman, one that D enjoyed talking to, but Claire did not care for as she had the sharpest eye when it came to the adults that they knew. It was thanks to this particular teacher that Claire had been placed in the same room they had been left in on that very first day and had to suffer through what she deemed "the most stupid time-out in the world." D had agreed, considering it taught the girl nothing, but he had reflected that if she had just listened to the teacher's directions in the first place, and not decorated her arms with the glitter glue, none of that would have happened.

The woman caught D's eye and smiled at him; he returned it before returning his focus on the book, analyzing the differences between the cap of an edible and inedible mushroom. She left quickly after that, back to where she had been standing previously as a burst of laughter created a distraction that could have thrown the class into disarray if left unattended too long. Claire discreetly stuck her tongue out at the woman before leaning against D, her eyes drifting from page to page with slight disinterest. It was no fun for her when it was something she "had to do."

D thought she was ridiculous but could not help but be content sharing the book with her in their corner of the classroom even as he longed to be outside again.

He found out later on what she meant by the girls talking about him while he was tutoring one of the friends Claire had wrangled up for him. The girl beside him was a little older than he, with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. He believed her name was Emily. D was attempting to memorize everyone's name in the city as his own personal test, since once again he was mostly unchallenged with the assignments provided to him (even the ones they set up for 'high schoolers'). This led to him coming up with little games for him to pass the time, albeit they became rather dull when he constantly satisfied his own stringent requirements. He was only missing those within the maintenance department, and that was because he rarely ever saw them at work.

Trapped in his own thoughts, on autopilot as he repeated the method of finding proportions, he did not initially notice how the girl was staring at him. It was only when her pencil did not move when he asked her to show him what she was supposed to do to achieve x that he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. With his displeased expression, he expected some contrition when he caught her eye. Except…that was not the reaction he received. She smiled at him, looked down, and doodled a comic book character face on the edge of her paper rather than completing her task. The boy was at a loss.

"Are you okay?" D asked, legitimately concerned for the girl. It was unlike her to be so off-task, especially when he was helping her. Being younger, he was not supposed to be smarter than her, at least according to the strange society that had manifested amongst the children and young adults residing in this ant-like civilization. While normally amicable on a social level, she paid close attention during these moments, if only to catch him in a mistake. A mistake that had not happened yet.

And here she was, giving him the dopiest look he had ever seen from someone his age.

…To be fair, he did not have much to compare with in that respect.

"I'm fine," she replied, blinking as if she had been snapped out of some stupor. "What were you saying?"

"You can't be serious," D huffed, rubbing his temples. "I've already repeated myself."

"I don't remember."

"Well, what do you remember?"

"Uh…" she gave her paper a cursory glance and shrugged. "I remember…I remember…I don't know. Hey, is Claire your girlfriend?"

The mental whiplash stunned him like ice water to the face.

"What?!" D exclaimed, the intangible backhand by the statement nearly making his response incoherent. "No!"

"Oh…you've never thought about it?"

"I'm ten!" His rarely expressive body language moved in full force. "I don't even care about those things in the first place! I…You… What even brought that up?!"

"I dunno," she replied, seeming almost embarrassed. D waved the conversation away in an attempt to salvage her opinion of herself, but before he could return to the simplicity of numbers, she spoke again. "It's just…a lot of girls like you, D."

"Why? Hardly any of you know me." It was blunt. Direct. True. He was still baffled by her admission, and it was through his enhanced critical thinking that let him connect this instance with what Claire meant. They all had wanted nothing to do with him originally. What had changed?

"You're all cool, and mysterious n' stuff."

'What does that even mean?' he wondered to himself and forced the conversation back to her assignment after he did. He wanted nothing to do with such a discussion. It frightened him that it even had occurred.

'It can't be that time, yet. Not yet. I don't even feel anything. Father said that…'

'To be fair, your father didn't know when you'd start hitting puberty, if you ever did,' his left hand mentioned, a whisper in his mind. Thankfully. 'But you know what that means.'

He did.

It signified the end of the beginning, of a new chapter in his life that would vex him for ages to come. Yet just how tired of it he would become could not even be fathomed in his young mind. Nevertheless, the thirst for blood, originally brought on by an insatiable hunger, soon would have another trigger. D hoped that that aspect did not hit him until later in life. This sort of thing took years to fully be realized…right?

He found himself pacing in the darkness of his shared living quarters later on, his nerves a mess. The city outside buzzed with its lights, alive and full of a fevered energy. A 'so long' to the solemn silence that they had taken to honor the dead those few weeks ago. He could tell it was nighttime up above, but not so late that children were required to return home to sleep. Claire was out at the playground by the school, making even more friends, and probably getting into even more trouble. She was good at that. Bakura was performing another favor for the Counsel (the boy refused to see his aid as a job he had willingly taken) and would not be back for a few more hours.

D had left the school in a bolt of unmeasured speed as soon as tutoring ended for the day (his responsibility in it being something designed to keep him occupied, of which he was well aware) yelling a hurried goodbye to Claire, unwilling to be trapped in another uncomfortable conversation like the one he had with Emily. Unfortunately, doing so had not soothed his anxiety, and neither were the confines of their temporary sleeping quarters. He wanted outside. He had to be outside—if only for a little bit.

He twisted at his fingers as he took to the halls, a minor enough action that no one passing him took notice. He walked until he found one of the entrances, rarely used, but definitely patrolled. There were miniscule trenches dug into the ground by the pacing of at least two guards. With a quick assessment, D could see the latch that would send him to a place of peace, freedom of his pressing fears of growing up too quickly. Why had he ever wanted anyone to see him as something adult in any sense? He reached for the latch and flipped it.

Yet, he did not open the door.

His hand hovered over the handle and quickly darted away as he heard the guards he had seen traces of making a return round to the door. He stepped to the side, out of their way and perfectly hiding his handiwork. They passed by him a few steps, and then one turned in his direction. The boy recognized them, an easily distracted sort. Perhaps he could make use of that trait and urge the two to move on. The overwhelming urge to leave, even for a moment, was building to an unreconcilable point. He had to distract them from what he was doing. He had to make them leave, in order for him to leave. He would deal with the consequences later.

Time to fire up the old guns…if they even worked.

Before the guard even spoke, D let his face fill with an expression of wonder. He took a step forward, which made both adults focus on him, and not the door. "Didn't I see you play in one of the games last week, sir?" he asked the guard in an olive-green shirt. The boy ensured he was using the most curious expression that he could muster, utilizing the remnants of his cherub-like nature before puberty ripped it from him for another skill. One that he did not want. He hoped it was enough.

"Uh…Yeah!" The guard seemed a little confused and flattered at the recognition. "You were watching, kid?"

"You were actually paying attention" was what D heard. This might be easier than he expected. This was both preferable for the moment—and worrying for the general populace's safety.

"Yep! I actually had a few questions…"

"…How are they controlling the weather?"

The man before him looked exhausted, but Bakura knew all the prisoners were allowed sleep and enough nutrition to function properly. He, recalling what he had went through—his fingers wavered to the scar on his face—had argued for it. Honey attracts more flies and all that…and they had been so helpful in sharing what they knew, as if many had awoken from a dream where they had watched their bodies commit atrocities upon innocent people and their own. The bags under the prisoner's eyes must have been the nightmares he confessed to having, nightmares where he was back in their control. Bakura empathized.

"You mean how it's all dry, right? I don't know how it works, but it has something to do with their technology. I didn't think much on it because we had water and well…It was also something I wasn't allowed to think about."

"Do you think it could have a wider effect?"

"Only if they moved. You guys are the closest targets."

"And this is because they are trying to claim new land. Eventually everything?"

"Yeah."

Bakura sucked in the air between clenched teeth. This was not anything that he was prepared for. No one could possibly be prepared for such a thing. Aliens. Advanced technology. This underground populace was lucky; they had many who were able to provide the comforts of what the world used to be like. The lights above hummed as if to agree with Bakura's mindset. Elsewhere, in the vast wasteland of the world, technology had either been forgotten, or put on the backburner. There were too many other issues that humanity was dredging up to even try to bring anything to rights again. Even if, somehow, they could all communicate again…

He doubted they would have the type of manpower to combat such a foe.

Looking at the palms of his hands for an answer, Bakura recognized he was one of the few with any ability to stop them from future attacks—and all of that only because he had Diabound and an ancient magic on his side. D, if he were older, might have been able to as well, although that was because—

An idea that left him sick slid into Bakura's mind. With a visible gag, he let his head rest on the tips of his fingers. The person who he was interrogating looked at him with concern. Even as he tried to shake the selfish idea from his thoughts, he could recognize how backwards the situation seemed.

"You look like you've been through hell," the prisoner reflected, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his thighs.

"Oh, it's nothing," Bakura replied and let out a laugh. "It's actually been much easier for me since I've found this place."

The prisoner grunted in response. A few more questions left them both with the same dissatisfaction. A slew of repeated questions in hopes of jogging an exhausted memory—weary replies of amnesia. It left them both in the same place as the previous days, only with different people. No real answers were to be found regarding the establishment that those of The Arid Sea.

After a moment of silence, the prisoner motioned to the door with a little nod of his head. "You know, you're one of the ones that…my people I guess…talk about?"

"Oh?" The change in conversation piqued his interests. Bakura leaned in, just as the other leaned in further. They sat huddled, two outsiders of a different sort. There was something secretive about the subject, and although secrets were something Bakura could not be expected to uphold as such, it seemed the prisoner knew that this would be something he would keep close to the chest.

"There's the usual," the prisoner began. "You're nicer than most of the others here. Even if they feed us, we can tell they don't give a shit about us."

"What is the phrase? Do what you'd like others to do for you?"

"Something like that…Well, I can't say I blame 'em. I'm sure if it was reversed, even I'd be an asshole. I don't know what strings you're pulling—"

"I have really no strings to pull. I'm pretty new to this place, myself."

"Huh…I don't know about not having strings, but it's nice to be treated with some real respect. That's not all, though. Some of them…some of them are saying they saw you do something…"

"Do what?" Another laugh escaped him. It felt very unlike him, this odd calm—confidence—but the action did make him feel better.

"I dunno. They aren't very specific. They just say that you—"

"Bakura," a sharp voice rang from the other side of the door. Bakura stood in response, aware the time for questioning was up. He turned to leave, as it was not his job to return the prisoner to his cell, but before his fingers touched the metal of the door handle, the prisoner's voice made him pause with their one last response.

"Anyway…thanks. For everything you might have done."

"I really didn't do anything," Bakura replied. Still, he turned and gave the tired individual a hopeful smile before exiting.

Letting the door click back into place, he faced a pair he was familiar with. "Good evening, Chris…and Jael."

"Evening," Chris replied, as she entered the room to prepare the prisoner for transport; not that anyone had performed any escape attempts. Formalities had to be upheld, however. Jael threw her arm over Bakura as she guided him along. At this point, Bakura was so used to her antics he just let her drag him to their destination.

"Any luck today?" She asked, popping a piece of gum in her mouth with her free hand.

"As much luck as any other day," he said. "Although, we did get a little information regarding the water issue."
"Oh?"

"Yeah. No way to solve it, though."

"Well, shit." She chewed and blew a bubble.

"Going up?" Bakura inquired.

With a snap the bubble disappeared. "How'd you guess?"

"You seem nervous."

She sighed. "Is it really that obvious?" When he nodded, she shoved him good-naturedly.

"We aren't leaving yet," she said, as she continued to chew in an almost mechanical fashion. "But I'm not going to lie. The more we do get out of them, the more freaked out I get."

"I don't blame you."

"I mean, it's hard enough to believe in aliens. They've been telling us this whole time, but it just feels so real now. Either way, what the hell are we going to do about super-advanced, weather changing motherfuckers? We can barely keep the lights on in here."

Bakura remained silent. His feelings were obvious enough about the subject, with the way his eyes flicked to the floor. Dusty patterns littered the hard-packed earth, and he kept his mind busy with imagining who had walked here before the influx of "new residents".

"Always this up to offering advice for the worried?"

Bakura snorted. "I've never been great at that. If you wanted a pep talk, you should have met my friend Yugi, or Anzu."

"Oh yeah? One of those names sounds familiar. Mai might have mentioned them. What were they like?"

Just saying their names filled him with heartache. "Oh, just very positive people. Not perfect by any means, but they were definitely the kind of people who would have some motivating words for you if you needed them to." He sighed. "I hope they're okay."

"What happened to them exactly?"

Bakura's lips quivered. He had told Mai the truth of it; was there any point in complicating the situation by telling others? There was still no intention on his part in staying underground for any longer than necessary. For all he knew, He might have reached this area already. Yet, if that was the case, certainly—

"Hello?"

"I'm not risking it!" Bakura snapped then clenched his jaw when he realized what he had just spouted.

"Risking it?" Jael laughed. "Risking what?"

"It's nothing. We just left on some difficult terms."

She turned on him and wagged a finger in his face. "Nuh uh. Council Member Favorite or not, you're not keeping any secrets from me. I'm a CMF, too. For two of them, in fact. You could pull this shit on Jim or Beau, but not me."

Bakura rolled his eyes. "It's not about that."

"Then tell me what it's about."

Knowing it was just going to devolve into a back and forth with the woman, Bakura's shoulders slumped. Cool air breathed through the tunnel as they neared the Counsel chamber. Once again, Bakura thought he could smell the sea, but wondered if part of it was from holding back the stinging in his eyes. He just wanted everything to just stop. To have some peace. Peace like they had when they thought they were safe; when D's father had been across the ocean still.

"You think it's hard to believe in aliens, when there's so much out there. You don't even know the half of it. What it's become…what it might have been the whole time."

"The best way to know is to be told about it."

"Do you believe in the supernatural?"

They paused in the hallway. Jael looked to the left, and to the right, ensuring that no one was passing by them. Bakura kept his eyes trained on the ground. When the woman was satisfied, she folded her arms, and nodded at Bakura. Her jaw was rising and falling a mile a minute.

"Used to not believe it but sounds like I'm going to have to."

"There might be a chance to get rid of these aliens…but either way it means we'd probably have to move the whole city."

"What?!" Jael cried with a sardonic snort. "Move the whole city, of which we're trying to protect from doing that very thing? You're crazy!"

Bakura let his gaze meet hers. She looked incredulous, her muscles tensed. Just another nervous tic he had noticed about her. "Probably, and to be fair, I suppose it might not ever matter. They might get here first, before we even have a chance at combating The Arid Sea."

"They?"

"You want to know why the three of us were on the move, when it's generally far safer to stick together with other people? You want to know why it would be better if we left, at the very least? You really want to know?"

She did.

Bakura contemplated on his choices, and then shook his head. "I don't know if I trust you enough, yet."

In an instant, he was shoved against the wall. Eyes flaming with rage bore down upon him as Jael pinned him there with a strength born of fury. Bakura winced at the pressure, and the ache from his lungs as the air was ripped so unceremoniously from them.

"Don't you fuck with me," Jael hissed, her teeth clenched in the way she greeted her enemies. "And don't you fuck with this place. If there's something we need to know—"

"Those who need to know, do," Bakura responded, shifting with discomfort in her grasp. He could probably have attempted to fight back, but he knew her actions were born of the best intentions for her home. The young man could not blame her. "It's honestly safer if people don't know."

"Why?!"

"Be quiet!" It was Bakura's turn to snap back. "Our voices echo!"

"I don't give a shit if they do! People deserve to know if something is being hidden from them!"

"Generally, I'd agree. But…what if their knowing hurt the children?"

The pressure from her grip lifted a little. Her voice lowered. "Children? What do you mean?"

This time, Bakura shoved himself from where she pinned him, his hands encircling her wrists with equal force. "I don't say anything because it could endanger the very lives of those I promised to protect." 'Both of them,' Bakura thought, 'because Claire would not let D be taken away so easily.' The pair were getting closer by the day, and even when afraid, the girl could be reckless. It made Bakura's stomach turn to think of what trouble she might get into because of her friend.

Yet, how had he and his friends been any different?

Jael's look of frustration would have been comical under a different situation. At present, Bakura felt the heat from his own irritation crawling up his neck, just seeing that obnoxious snarl. "Fine," she whispered. "Then at least tell me. I care about this place; I care about those kids. You can at least believe that, right? Even if you still 'don't trust me'."

Bakura eyed her cautiously. Three weeks was not a long time. But in this world…and with what honesty she had shown before—he could not just ignore her wish. With a sigh, he spoke, the whispers losing themselves in drafts of wind that occasionally eked into the halls.

When the doors swung open to invite them into the debriefing meeting, it was Jael's face that seemed ashen and ill. She might not have been told the whole of it; his powers, or D's weaknesses, but it was enough. It was now up to her to make those who held her in high regard work with Bakura on the best course of action. While much of the council did not need to know Bakura's dealings with the forces above, they needed to know of their existence, and of the true strength of the foe that they had made in The Arid Sea. The young man stood beside her, ready to lend her aid. They stood together as bastions for a city poised for a fight; a fight that should never have been their fight in the first place. They were like lightweights in a heavyweight boxing match, waiting for the announcer's call for the real damage to begin. However, they had options. They had not stepped into the ring just yet.

They could let those of the same weight class go at each other. Maybe use the hellish distraction to find safety.

Or leave before it ever happened.

Only the remnants of the spirit within could feel the turmoil that never reached Bakura's expression as he listened to the Counsel's deliberation. Even with the added information on their side, and even with Mai and Jael's insistence that an escape route was the best option, it sat at a clear stalemate by the end of the meeting, with the council members leaving in a huff. Their first bitter argument in ages.

"Prideful assholes," Jael snorted, slamming an open door to a nearby supply closet. "Maybe we should have told them about how they're after you, since it seems you only told one other person…that would have changed their tune."

Bakura found himself again peering into the palms of his hands, looking for some guidance and finding none. Just the scar from an incident that happened from long ago. He could feel the protective nature of Diabound around him, but it only reminded him of what he kept close to the chest.

"I don't think that would help," he replied with an introspective tone.

"Neither do I," Mai concurred, following them to the split where they would separate and head to their respective rooms. She appeared measured even after the useless and volatile meeting. To Bakura, Mai seemed to assess Jael for something as they walked. "It could turn people against him. At any rate, don't make so much noise. You'll get people's attention."

"Yeah, yeah…" Jael provided a wide smile and winked at a citizen who passed by. It dropped just as quickly when they found themselves alone in the tunneled halls again. "It's just, after what we've seen, you'd think vampires might be a little more believable? It's not like we'd have to tell them you were experimented on, got out, and then picked up a couple of kids along the way—"

Mai gave Bakura a poignant look, which he offered the response of a minute shake of his head.

"—but we could fib it…like you found out they existed and then like…they got mad about it and chased after you, or something."

"Or something." Bakura laughed. "Your scenario sounds very convincing."

"I don't hear anything useful comin' outta your mouth," Jael said, bumping him with her hip as she walked a few paces ahead of them.

"I understand where they are coming from…that moving the place is impossible," Mai said, tapping her chin in thought. "Telling people that they need to leave their home isn't going to go over well, either. Scaring them is only going to make them panic."

"How exactly are we supposed to fight if we stay, though?" Jael questioned. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to run—"

"I wasn't saying you wanted to," Mai replied, and for a moment her face betrayed her calm front. Bakura saw a flash of panic in her eyes, and empathized. Even if Jael did not wish to, Mai wanted out of there just as badly as he did. Then again, she knew more of the truth, and just how sought after Bakura's group might be.

"We will solve this," Bakura said with a confidence he did not feel. "One way or another."

Jael seemed relieved to hear someone's comforting words. "Well," she joked, "I guess whoever solves it could take someone's place on the Counsel. Your time might be a'tickin' Mai." She then left the pair in silence to contemplate the conversation.

That silence hung over them for a second too long for comfort.

"Do you really buy that?" Mai asked after a time, crossing her arms. The way she clung to herself, it was like a winter chill had filled the air.

"It will be solved," Bakura said. He then switched to Japanese. "Whether we make it out okay or not isn't something I am sure of though. But better to stay positive."

"Act like Yugi, huh?" she said with a chuckle.

"He did make things seem better," Bakura said, smiling a little. "Both him and Jounochi."

"And Anzu."

"Of course."

"Hey!" a small voice with a large volume came crashing against the walls. The two turned to see Claire looking baffled walking over to them. "Have you seen D?"

Bakura's eyebrows furrowed. "No, wasn't he tutoring?"

"Ah...duh," she replied, grinning. A pocket of darkness near the back of her mouth noted that she was losing the last of her baby teeth. That and the slight smudge of red on her cheek; she had done the deed herself it seemed. "I already looked. Emily said that he left a while ago. But then I went to our place and he wasn't there either. Then I asked more people, and they said they hadn't seen him. I was gonna ask him a question about his teeth, and y'know…" She shrugged. "Thought he might have been with you."

Bakura kept his face straight, but his mind raced with hundreds of concerns. Memories of the boy's disappearance in the ocean town resurfaced. The maw of a strange creature prepped to murder two boys in its hunger. No matter how hard he tried, he could not push the memories or the fear of that time away.

"Don't panic," Mai whispered to him, as she walked past him to give Claire a high five. How she knew that Bakura was already near the panicking point shocked him. "Way to go on the tooth, there. You're really growing up!"

Claire, against all her personal attempts to hate the woman (in her perception for D's sake more than anything), returned the high five with a hard smack of her hand. She could not hide her excitement. "Yeah, I am! But really, where'd D go?"

Mai smiled. "I'm sure we will find him. He's probably just wandering around." She looked to Bakura for backup.

The pale man nodded. "I'll go and look for him. I'm sure he's just curled up somewhere with a book or something."

"And I'll come with you!" Mai said, a grand smile on her face. "You should go and wait for D back at the room. Curfew is almost here."

As Bakura turned heel, aiming for the security room, he had to bite his lip to silence a cry of frustration. Mai hurried next to him, her face tense.

"It's probably nothing you know," she tried to reason.

"He could be sick somewhere, or something. Stuck somewhere he doesn't belong because he got curious. It wouldn't be the first time." Bakura shook his head. "He's been acting a little distant to everyone lately."

"To you and Claire?"

Bakura paused and thought on it. "No. But—"

"But nothing. He's rational for a kid. I doubt he would do anything crazy. He really seems to value your judgement of him."

"Wonder if my father would have felt the same…" Bakura wondered, more to himself than anyone else.

"Thinking about that is just going to make it worse, you know."

"I can't help it. I know what I got into, and I wasn't anywhere as smart as him. Sometimes his intelligence leads him to think he's ready for things he's not."

'Intelligence does not equal wisdom, after all,' Bakura thought to himself.

As they discussed the possible places the boy could have gone, they missed the sound of careful steps behind them. So lost in thought the duo were, they never noticed that the more rambunctious of the younger pair followed. Claire had no intention of being left out of anything related to her friend, and the girl was affronted that Bakura would assume she would do anything else. Silent, she shifted into the quiet step of a hunter, and waited to see what her next move should be.

Mai was no different. When Bakura scrambled to head outside after realizing what had transpired—after viewing the tapes and speaking with security—she had waited until he had left and then grabbed a weapon of her own to follow him out. Claire viewed all of this and waited—just like she was taught. Then she went back and grabbed what she could carry. She grabbed what she perceived as the essentials, unsure if they would be returning any time soon. The girl knew that it might be harder to escape the guards' notice now, thanks to D's thoughtless actions and the bulky pack she wore, but she would not be left behind. It was just a wait for the guard to change in order to do the same.

But…just how long had it taken them to notice his disappearance…and how far could the boy have gone?