‘Are you alright, Imoto-chan?’ Oneesan sent the moment she was certain the
thief had left the corridor and, most likely, the premises.
“Yes, no,”
The spirit of the Puzzle felt the mental equivalent of a shrug from her little
sister, “I don’t understand her.”
‘No one does.’
The Pharaoh replied with a small, rueful smile, ‘If we did life would be so much easier.’ Though she was still
fuming over Bakura’s threat to her little sister, she could not deny that the
thief was complicated. And she owed the woman a debt. If it had not been for
the thief, Imoto-chan would still be shattered and either the city would have
still been in darkness or she would be dead. Either were unfortunately viable
options.
“Yen for your thoughts?” Yugi asked once she had calmed a bit, sending the mental equivalent of
a smile and a hug over the link to her elder sister.
‘It’s nothing.’ Oneesan replied, feeling the exhaustion that had claimed Yugi earlier
beginning to settle in again, trying to drag her off to sleep, ‘It’s not important, not at the moment.’
“If you need to talk, I’m here, okay?” Yugi offered as Oneesan let her slip into
control and she started drifting off. “You
don’t have to be alone with your troubles.”
‘Thank you.’
Yugi could sense that Oneesan felt a little reassured at that as that helped
her feel better as, unable to fight her body’s exhaustion any longer, she
slipped into sleep.
When she awoke again, it was dark and she was
all alone. The Puzzle was not with her and her friends had either not been
allowed in or had been sent home. She was hooked up to a couple of drips, one
of which she was pretty sure contained painkillers since she could not manage
to bring her train of thoughts to any sort of sensible station. The other one
was a deep red, which suggested it was a blood bag.
Confused as to what had happened while she had
been ‘lost’ but unsurprised that she required both bags considering what she
did remember, she looked around the room, trying to work out where her Puzzle
was. The item was out of reach on the table across the room and while she knew
she should stay in bed, something was telling her she would need it and soon.
She slipped out of the less than comfortable
hospital bed, still confused as to why something was screaming at her to grab
the Puzzle and keep it close, and wobbled carefully across the room. The moment
she slipped the chain over her head Oneesan took control.
The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle glanced
around warily. Having sensed Imoto-chan’s nervousness, she was not about to
leave her little sister in control until she understood what had caused it.
It was not an easy thing to work out, not with
the drugs pumping through their shared system and dulling their senses and
reflexes. Before too long she realised what it was that had set her little
sister off. The Shadows curling under the door frame were growing steadily as
she heard something stalking the corridors.
“Do you think they sent something to finish the job?” Yugi asked her elder sister,
worried as the Pharaoh moved the stands with the bags to a place that allowed
her to hide behind the door.
It was not outside the realm of possibility.
Between her and Bakura, everyone who had been at the main base of operations
had been dealt with on a more or less permanent basis. However the rest of the
mooks, and there had been quite a few, had still been at large when the
injuries had finally overtaken them.
She was willing to silently wait it out and
ambush it when it entered the room. Though she disliked the idea, she was fully
aware that in her drugged and weakened state it was highly unlikely that she
would survive a frontal assault and she did not want to get her Imoto-chan
killed.
However when a nurse screamed and the creature,
whatever it was, let out a monstrous bellow and charged towards something,
Oneesan could not wait, she exited the room swiftly and threw a blast of Shadow
magic at the huge minotaur like creature. It stumbled, causing it to fall and
tumble into the nurse’s station.
“Wha...?” The nurse demanded.
“Run!” Oneesan snarled at her, warily watching
the creature who was getting to his feet and watching her with a mixture of
caution and hunting instinct. As much as she had hoped Imoto-chan was wrong, it
was obvious she was the creature’s prey and she had just leapt into the open.
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