Yami
couldn’t sleep. He knew he had to, he had told Yugi as much many times over the
course of their adventures together.
Knowing
that didn’t make sleep come any easier though. He was too worried about Yugi’s
safety for that. Every time he tried to close his eyes and get a couple of
hours of sleep he was woken by nightmares.
He
finally gave up on sleep when the fourth nightmare of finally locating Yugi
only for it to be far too late, woke him up. Instead of wasting his time
staring at the ceiling again, he slipped out of his assigned room, locking it
behind him, and wandered the corridors, trying to clear his head.
He
was fully aware it was a waste of time, but then so was trying to sleep. The
ship was, unsurprisingly, almost silent. Most of the Duellists had given up for
the night and where trying to get some sleep before the beta kicked off.
That
was fine by him. While he was trying to keep his temper and not snap at people,
he was fully aware that he was walking a fine line. Yugi was, and always had
been the key to his sanity. He remembered all too well how crazed he had been
when he had first ‘awoken’ in the real world after his long imprisonment in the
darkness and how Yugi’s light had soothed his wounded soul and how the boy had
helped him maintain his sanity by refusing to let him fall to his dark desires.
Without
Yugi around, it was much harder to control his emotions and powers. Without the
lighter half of his soul, it was all too tempting to just give in to his rages
and destroy everything that was stood between him and what he wanted.
His
friends were trying to help, they really were, but he didn’t have the tolerance
he needed to be able to deal with them. He knew Joey and Tristan had been
playing up because it helped them not go out of their minds with worry for
their friend who was gods only knew where right now. However when they started
brawling in the corridors, that was the point he had to walk away, purely
because he knew that if he snapped at them, he might lose his fragile control
over his magic.
There
was a surprising lack of crew members roaming the ship as he headed up onto the
deck to get some fresh air. Though he wasn’t sure whether it was because there
was only a skeleton crew on during the night or whether there was something
else going on, it put him on edge.
He
wasn’t the only one moving around he discovered as he tried to find his way
onto the deck only to end up in the dining hall. There was someone else there.
It took him a few moments in the dim light to recognise the person.
The
young woman with bushy brown hair that kind of reminded him of Hermione’s, was
sat at a table, tapping something into a computer and working with her deck as
she did so. He recognised her easily as the reporter who ran something called a
‘website,’ one that was officially known as ‘Digital Duellist.’ Both he and Yugi
had given interviews with her before after tournament wins, both under the same
name of course.
He
was ready to just carry on walking and not in any mood for getting caught by a
reporter, no matter how reasonable D.M.G. had proved herself to be in the past.
However the sound of her talking to someone made him curious. He glanced around
trying to see if he could see anyone else around that she might be conversing
with, but there was no one and she didn’t appear to be on the phone to anyone.
He
edged forwards cautiously, not wanting to disturb her if he could help it. When
he got close enough he realised that she was chatting to her cards and she
seemed to think they were talking back to her.
Suddenly
she stiffened and wheeled around, brown eyes resting on him for a moment before
she let out a startled squeak, closed her laptop and started gathering up her
cards. “I’m sorry.” She apologised, “I didn’t realise there was anyone else
here.” She moved too quickly and knocked some of her cards onto the floor.
“Oops...”
“Let
me.” Yami chuckled, his mood lifted a little by the sudden insertion of normal.
He bent down and was just picking up the Dark Magician Girl that had fallen,
only to hiss with pain and pull his hand back quickly when it gave him a short,
sharp electric shock. “What...?” He demanded of Dani as she bent down to join
him in picking up her cards.
“Sorry,
Maddie’s always been a bit...temperamental.” She looked sheepish as she picked
up the card, “She’s one of a kind. Pegasus made her card for me specifically
when he first released Dark Magician Girl to the public.”
Yami
nodded. He remembered Yugi reading that particular article. It was one of the
only things that he would read that was in English and he had been excited to
see the new magician cards that were being released. D.M.G. was a huge fan of
them too. She had spent time and money gathering Dark Magician cards of all the
hues available. She’d shown off every time she had managed to get her hands on
one. Giving her the unique green Dark Magician Girl had been both a good
publicity stunt for the booster set, one that Yugi had chased like mad to try
and get a Dark Magician Girl for his own deck, and a good way to earn the
girl’s loyalty.
“Maddie?”
He couldn’t help but ask, amused that she had named her cards.
“Madelyn,”
Dani corrected herself, “I call her Maddie for short and why am I telling you
this? You’ll think I’m nuts and never give me an interview again.” She quickly
popped ‘Maddie’s’ card into her deck holster with the other cards that had hit
the deck, and backed up, “Ignore me, I’m just tired and babbling.” She gave him
a sheepish smile.
Yami
just waved her off with a slight chuckle, “I’ve known Duellists with weirder
habits than naming their cards. If you want to go back to work I can find
somewhere else to take my walk.”
“Now
it’s fine. My deck’s settled, I’ve got my post up about what’s going on so far,
and there’s not much more I can do for now. At least not until I get to speak
to some reps from Dimension or SharpShade.” She shrugged, turning to leave, “Oh,
Yugi?” She asked, glancing back over her shoulder at him.
“Yes,
D.M.G.?” Yami, who had been about to try and find his way back to his room,
frowned at her.
“I
don’t know what’s going on, and something must be because you’re you...I mean
the other you and you’re not normally the other you unless you’re duelling or
something’s happened, but be careful, there’s more going on than you know.”
Dani warned, turning to leave once more.
“Wait.”
Yami grabbed Dani’s arm, startling the girl who turned to look at him, worried,
“How do you...?”
“Everyone
knows.” Dani snorted, “You and the other Yugi haven’t been very subtle about
it. People think you’re possessed or have a twin brother or something.
Personally I’ve had a run in with the Shadows before so I can sense the
difference between you two and the magic you have. Your aura is much darker
than his. Plus I’ve never seen Little Yugi have a temper as foul as the one you
were running earlier.”
The
only part Yami actually took away from that was that Dani had had a run in with
the Shadows before and she thought something was going on that was related to
them. “How do you know about the kidnapping?”
“Kidnapping?”
Dani asked, confused, “I don’t know anything about a kidnapping. Though the
people I’m chasing have taken sacrifices from their homes before.”
“Sacrifices?”
Yami demanded, angry now, worried that that was the fate the kidnappers had
planned for Yugi.
Dani
frowned, glanced around and then made up her mind, “I don’t want to talk about
it here. I don’t like talking about it in general, but if you meet me in room
42 in about twenty minutes, I’ll tell you everything.”
Yami
nodded and gave her a head start. He had to go and get his friends. They would
need to hear this too. They already knew they were probably walking into a
trap, but if DMG had details of what that trap was, they needed to know them.
Tristan
and Joey had camped out in Joey’s assigned room, while Ombre and Tea had joined
Kari in hers so it didn’t take him long to gather his friends and reach the
reporters room. When they knocked on the door, they could head someone trip
over something and DMG swore before opening the door to them.
“In.”
She hissed sharply, glancing up and down the corridor. They piled into the
room, which was swiftly overcrowded, and Dani looked a little lost as she took
in the sight of all of them. Finally she looked at Yami and asked, “I thought I
was just telling you about it.”
“They
know about everything.” Yami informed her, realising that part of her hesitance
to talk was her lack of wanting to look like a lunatic.
“Okay...”
Dani nodded, pacing the small section of floor by the door, “First off I had no
idea a friend of yours had been kidnapped. So I’m sorry to hear about that.”
Yami
just nodded. They had been very careful not to let it get out about Yugi’s
kidnapping. Mostly because they didn’t want the bad guys to realise they had
the wrong Mutou and that it was Yami who was on the boat, not Yugi, just in
case they decided to enact their plans for Yugi before they could rescue him.
“Secondly
Dimension Software, the people running this VirtualNet demo, are financially
supported by SharpShade.” She continued.
“We
know that already,” Kari frowned at the girl, “I work for Kaiba Corp so...”
“What
you wouldn’t know, unless you’ve looked deeper,” Dani glanced at her,
interrupting Kari’s officious comment, “Is that SharpShade are a front for a
group of Mages who call themselves the ShadowSwords.”
“The
who?” Joey asked.
“No
that’s a band.” Dani snorted. “Sorry, sorry, when I get nervous I make bad bad
jokes.” She took a deep breath, “Right, as I was saying, they’re called the ShadowSwords.
They’re a group of mages who can summon monsters from their cards and create
illusions using the Shadows.”
“I
thought you needed to have a Millennium Item to do that.” Joey asked Yami and
Ombre, looking confused.
“A
what?” Dani asked, just as confused.
“Apparently
not.” Yami growled, “Please, go on.” He gestured to Dani.
“Okay,
but I want to know what a ‘Millennium Item’ is later.” The reporter informed them,
causing Ombre to glower at Joey. “The thing with the ShadowSwords is that they
have this Grand Gathering every other year where they get together, battle to prove
which group is better and at the end of it all they sacrifice a powerful
Duellist to the Shadows in order to keep their powers.”
“Which
is why they kidnapped Yu...Yami.” Kari realised, turning to Yami, “If they have
him, then you’ll do whatever they want and they obviously want to sacrifice
you.”
“Actually...”
Dani interrupted before Yami could agree, “They have a problem. Four years ago
I interrupted their ceremony and rescued the sacrifice before they could commit
their ritual murder. Two years ago it was held on Duellist Kingdom during a
certain tournament and they were going to sacrifice the winner of the
tournament, except their plans fell apart when Pegasus refused to hand you
over.”
“So
they want this year to go right?” Yami asked, thinking.
“This
year they’re not just planning on sacrificing one person. You,” She looked at
Yami, “Might be the main attraction, but they’re planning on offering every
Duellist on this boat to the Shadows.”
Dani
winced at the noise that statement earned and she quickly tried to hush them.
“Do
you know when? Or how?” The Pharaoh asked, thinking that maybe he should have
tried harder to make the others stay at home.
“Sorry,
no.” Dani admitted, “Pegasus sent me to try and find out their plans and steal
back the data stolen from Kaiba Corp. He promised me that backup was on the way
for when things went bad. An expert or two in Duelling and Shadow Magic who
would be able to halt their plans.” She paused and considered, “I’m guessing he
meant you lot.”
“Wait,
why would they be behind the break in at Kaiba Corp?” Tea asked, confused.
“It
drew Kaiba here, didn’t it?” Dani pointed out.
“She’s
right, he’s taking a private helicopter over to the island tomorrow morning,
but he thought there was a link between the break in and Dimension’s sudden
readiness to beta their systems.” Kari winced, “There were hints, apparently,
in the code that linked back to their network address.”
“So
they wrecked Kaiba’s systems and kidnapped Yu...Yami in order to get the two
best Duellists in the world on the island for their ritual thing.” Tristan
grimaced, “Plus they have about twenty something other Duellists on this boat
and us.”
“And
if I don’t work out when and where this ritual thing’s going to kick off,
everyone’s dead.” Dani nods, looking rather nervous.
“We’ll
save our friend and then we’ll help.” Yami promised, seeming more in control
now he had a better idea of what their enemies where up to and what they were walking
into.
“Still
it would have been nice if Pegasus could have given us a little warning.” Joey
grouched, glowering at the floor.
“Do
you guys have mobile phones?” Dani asked. When Tea, Tristan and Kari all
nodded, she took down their phone numbers. “Right, the moment I know anything,
I’ll pass it on to you guys, okay? Maybe I’ll be able to find Yami while I’m
looking for clues about their ritual.” She paused, “One question, who’s Yami?”
The
others glanced at Yami, looking as if they weren’t sure how to answer her. Yami
on the other hand grimaced slightly. “You remember those rumours going around
that I have a twin brother?”
Dani
nodded. She had decided that that was the most likely one, above Yugi being
possessed or abducted by aliens every time he duelled.
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