Light Amongst Shadows Part 5

Anzu was the first to react when a figure in the robe moved around the corner, accompanied by a beast of some kind and a ball of black energy that seemed to be pulsing rapidly. It kind of looked like a panther, but walking on its hind legs. If you squinted at it hard enough it could even be mistaken for a Panther Warrior. Not that it was properly formed. It seemed half summoned, like it was more a shade than a real creature.

“Who’re you?” Anzu asked as she instinctively stepped back till she was at Oneesan’s side, well aware that being next to the spirit of the Puzzle was either the best or worst move you could make in a situation involving magic.

The figure ignored her, they couldn’t see his face but somehow it was obvious who his attention was on as the black ball darted over to Oneesan and hovered at her shoulder until she batted it away.

“My friend asked you a question.” Oneesan spoke, warily but subtly watching the creature with him and reaching for her deck as she mentally grimaced at the oily feeling the ball of black energy had left behind on her skin.

“You?” The figure asked, it’s head moving up and down as if looking her over, “You’re what screwed up our spell?”

Confusion coursed through the group. Oneesan had done nothing magical when the wave had hit, so she couldn’t have been the one screwing up whatever they had tried to cast.

“What if I was?” Oneesan asked, the Millennium Puzzle glowing, the Shadows around them surprisingly willing to let her use them to obliterate this man. Not that she intended to go that far but she could not help but wonder what the man had done to tick them off this badly.

Before Oneesan had an inkling of what was about to happen, the panther like creature burst into action, going to attack her. Jou managed to get between it and her, blocking the assault with a pipe he had picked up from the ground.

“That wasn’t very nice.” Jou scolded the robed goon, even as he strained against the shadowy blade of the creature.

“Move aside.” The man growled at him, “I need to remove the light from the equation.”

Anzu heard Oneesan let out a low growl at those words but it took her a moment to realise that that meant he was not actually aiming to erase Oneesan. Instead the target of his actions was Yugi.

Jou planted himself more firmly. There was no way he was going to let the guy harm his girlfriend, especially not the lighter half of the equation. It was not going to happen. Not if he could help it.

“Excuse me.” Oneesan spoke, her tone dark and every movement sharp. Jou noted the fact and when the creature he’d blocked moved back, sensing the Shadows swirling around the pissed off Pharaoh, he swiftly got out of the way. There was nothing on this world as terrifying as a fully souped up Oneesan when Yugi was in danger and he was not stupid enough to get in her way.

If this moron wanted to ‘remove’ Yugi, Oneesan would destroy him. It was really that simple and he couldn’t bring himself to argue considering the circumstances.

Honda, shockingly was the one who moved before Oneesan could take control of the Shadows reacting to her anger and set her game in motion. Instead, while the creature’s attention was focus on the spirit of the Puzzle, he took advantage of the distraction to punch the guy so hard he went sprawling.

With his concentration shot, his conjuring dispersed and the creature vanished, leaving him all alone with four highly irritable teens.

“Honda.” Oneesan snapped, annoyed at being interrupted even as she found the idea of the guy being whacked satisfying, “He’s mine.”

“No. Not really.” Honda shook his head, “You’re not supposed to be wasting magic and we can get him to talk without burning energy you don’t have.” He dragged the mook up by the collar, the hood falling as he did so. With the cloth gone, they found the threat was an angry looking young man with odd tattoos down one side of his face.

For a moment Oneesan thought he might be from a Tomb Keeper tribe, she did have Marik and Odeon as examples after all. However the markings were not Egyptian in nature and if she was correct, the tattoos looked like they were henna, not permanent. She could not help but wonder if the mark was the reason he was still awake and able to burn magic without risk.

“I’m not telling you nothing.” The mook snarked, still glowering at Honda while trying to pull the teen’s hand away from his robes.

“Oh good. If you’re not telling us nothing, you must be telling us something.” Anzu grinned, a look that only widened when he looked confused by that logic.

“I’m not telling you anything.” The robed youngster corrected himself when he got what she was getting at, “No way, no...” Oneesan felt the Shadows shift but before she could react, the kid had summoned another Shadowy creature and Honda had had to leap away, “How!”

The second creature attacked, forcing Oneesan to call upon her deck to defend herself. The Dark Magician was more than willing to answer her call, blasting the creature into smithereens before threatening the youth.

“I don’t suggest you tick him off any further.” She spoke, noting the overly arrogant look on the young man’s face had been replaced by a wary, nervous smile. “He doesn’t like it when people threaten me.”

“Sure, keep burning magic.” The young man shrugged, “You can’t keep summoning forever.”

He had a point, pulling a seven star monster out of her hat without even actually drawing his card had drawn from reserves she was really not supposed to be using. However she refused to let him see the fatigue that was settling in even as Jou shifted to let her lean on him if she needed it.

“Just tell us what’s going on already.” Jou growled, bored of playing with the mook and just wanting to move on.

“It won’t matter even if I tell you. Soon this entire city’ll be gone and we’ll be the owners of seven shiny new trinkets.” The youth gloated, “All we need to do to finish our plans is erase what’s stopping our spell from working.” He glowered at Oneesan, who easily outdid him in the ‘death glare’ department at the threat to her Imoto-chan.

“Well since we’re not going to let you do that,” Honda growled, “How about we get some real answers?”

“How about fu...” The young man did not get to finish his sentence as something burst from the Shadows and struck him in the back. The mook let out an agonised scream as a new centaur like creature’s blade tore through him, only for silence to fall as he did. The new monster didn’t stick around, taking one look at the Dark Magician before legging it.