Light Amongst Shadows Part 8

Jou had been spitting mad when he had emerged from a portal only to be dropped in the viaduct near his school. The same one, in fact, that he had dropped the piece of the Millennium Puzzle in a couple of years ago. In fact he had been so pissed off that he had been seriously considering hunting down whoever had split up their party and beating them black and blue. Then asking Oneesan to see if she could heal them so he could do it again.

Not that he knew where Oneesan was. Or any of his other friends. He was hoping that the bad guys had just spread them out across the city, but their luck was not that good. In fact he had been expecting a trap when he had surfaced from the water and had not been disappointed. Luckily they had underestimated how much damage an irritated teenager could do so he would not be worrying about them again for a good while.

That didn’t mean he was not worried though. He knew Honda could hold his own but while Anzu had a mean right hook, she was the one who was taken hostage the most. It didn’t help that not long after he had lost his tagalongs, a sharp pain in his chest had hit him. It had died down to a dull, steadily throbbing ache but he had felt it before and he had known the moment it had hit what the cause was even if he did not know how it had happened.

Yugi was hurt. Badly.

The last time he had felt this ache it had been because Marik had been using the Shadows to trap Oneesan in a Shadow Game where every time she lost life points, Yugi had a part of her soul ripped away by the Shadows. The time before that had been when Yugi had put herself between them and Ra’s attack, subjecting herself to the attack of the most powerful Egyptian God in order to protect them. And before that, the very first time, Yugi had died, or come so close as made no difference, while fighting Pegasus J. Crawford for the souls of Ojiisan and the Kaiba brothers.

If his heart was aching now, it meant that Yugi needed him. Needed his support and needed him to get her out of whatever mess Oneesan had not been able to protect her from. And he did not have much time. Somehow he knew she was still alive, some gut instinct was telling him as much, but that could change at any time.

He did not want to think about what would happen if the bad guys came back to finish the job and Yugi did not have one of her friends around to protect her.

Which was why he was running back towards town. He could not know where she was now, but his best bet was to start where he had last seen her and work from there. He knew the Dark Magician had saved her from the trap that had opened at her feet, so he hoped she would still be near the area when he got there.

He was so intent of getting back to his friend’s side that he nearly missed when a Duel Monster, properly formed, stepped out of the shade to his left, revealing itself to be a Dark Necrofear.

It stepped into his path when he moved to dodge the creature, not really wanting to get into a brawl with a Duel Monster when he was seriously beginning to tire from whatever was slowly draining his strength, forcing him to stop.

“Can I help you?” He snarled at it, planting himself in a defensive stance as he waited for an attack.

“My Duellist requests your presence.” The monster seemed pleased when Jou jumped a mile when it spoke plain Japanese. “She says it’s urgent.”

Jou frowned as he considered the creature carefully. The only Duellist he knew who ran Dark Necrofear in their deck was Bakura and he was not sure he trusted her. Not that he had a huge range of allies to pick from right now. He had no idea where Honda and Anzu were, Yugi was lost and badly hurt and he needed someone with magic if he wanted to go up against their adversaries.

He’d tried going up against magic by himself before. It did not work. If the bad guys had Yugi, he would need someone with an item at his side to get through their lines and Bakura had always been intent on making sure that Yugi survived. At least when it was not her doing the attacking.

Still it could have been a trap and after what had just happened, Jou was wary of walking into it blind. “And what if I say no?” He asked, watching the creature for any signs of moving to attack.

Instead its posture shifted into one of irritation as it glowered at him, “My Duellist said you’d say that. She also told me to tell you to get your lazy ass in gear and come with me, the runt needs you.”

That sounded like Bakura. That sounded a lot like Bakura.

He had to make a decision. He did not have time to play guessing games. Either he was going to trust the Duel Monster to take him where he needed to be, or he was going to search aimlessly for his friends. At least if he followed Dark Necrofear, it was a lead. Good or bad, it was a lead.

“Alright.” Jou nodded, “Take me to your Duellist.”

Light Amongst Shadows Part 7

Low, vindictively pleased laughter caught her attention. She wheeled around and glowered at the group of robed figures who had appeared out of nowhere.

“Well, well, well.” The leader, who she could only pick out because of the ornate markings on his robes and the fact the body language of the other goons seemed to turn to him, “I intended only to split up your little group and leave the light undefended.” With a gesture his mooks spread out to circle Oneesan. “I didn’t expect to find one of those.”

When he gestured to the Puzzle Oneesan’s hand covered the front of it protectively. “The Puzzle’s mine.” She snarled, “You can’t have it.”

“I suppose with everything it takes to make the blasted things, I can understand you not wanting to hand it over.” The leader snorted, “But you see, I can’t let you keep it.”

“Dark Magician!” The spirit of the Puzzle snapped, not needing any more words. The Spellcaster type monster knew what she wanted, launching an attack on the goons in order to clear a pathway out.

It didn’t work, the Dark Magic Attack bounced off of a mirror like shield that rose to protect the goons and struck both the Dark Magician and Oneesan. The Spellcaster shattered with a screech, while Oneesan was sent flying by the blast, crashing into another mirror like wall before slamming into the ground, her head smacking the ground so hard that she blacked out.

With Oneesan unconscious, Yugi had no choice but to take control of a pain riddled, concussed body. Her mind could not function properly as she tried to make herself get to her feet to face the leader, who was approaching. Even thinking in full sentences was a huge problem.

“I...I’ll never...” Yugi forced out as she managed to stand up, pushing back at the Shadows, who with Oneesan’s loss of consciousness were trying to dig their claws into her, “Let you have... my Puzzle.”

“You honestly think you can fight me in that state?” The leader sounded like he was smirking.

He knew she was beaten, Yugi could hear it in his tone and if Yugi was honest with herself, she did not stand a chance of winning in a fight or a game right now. But she had to try. That was all there was to it. She could not and would not just let them take Oneesan away from her. “It’s mine...you can’t...ack!”

Yugi’s attempt to stand up to him came to an abrupt halt as the man slapped her hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground, her ears ringing and stars dancing in her vision.

“You don’t seem the type,” The leader said as he examined her, amused by the fact she still glowered at him even though pain was etched in every inch of her body language, her eyes didn’t focus properly and she looked more like a hissing kitten than a viable threat, “To do what needs to be done. Not to get one of those.” He gestured to the Puzzle, causing Yugi, whose ears were still ringing, to cling to the item, “Who did your killing for you?”

“Wh...What?” Yugi gasped out, not understanding the question.

“To create a Shadow Set, you need to sacrifice human lives. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.” He explained, “But you’re light, you don’t have the darkness within you to do what it would have taken to create that item you wear.” He smirked as realisation and horror, along with a healthy dose of disgust settled in, “Oh? You didn’t know?”

“N...No...” Yugi stammered, staring at the golden object that was now cradled in her hands. She did not want to believe his words. If it was true, had Oneesan been the one who had committed the same massacre that these men now wanted to commit? She did not want to believe it of her other self, not of the brave and proud Pharaoh who shared her mind, but was it true?

“Don’t worry.” The leader sounded highly amused, “You won’t have to worry about it much longer.”

“Wha...?” Yugi did not get to finish her question before something hit her from behind and yet more pain rushed through her causing her to scream in agony.

Then everything went black.

Light Amongst Shadows Part 6

The gang shot after it. Whoever had summoned it had not wanted the young man to talk to them, and he had been willing to remove the goon from the situation. If they wanted to understand what hell was going on they needed to find a new lead. Chasing the creature to its’ summoner was their only chance.

It was not easy, the half summoned creature flitted in and out of the shadows cast by the odd overbearing gloom, which was becoming more and more obvious even to Jou and the others, who still could not see the Shadows that had swarmed the city. They finally lost the creature as they reached the clock tower fountain in the city centre, causing Jou to start cussing.

Yugi emerged cautiously from the safety of her soul room, glancing around the area as she took her place at Oneesan’s side. “Anesan?”  She asked, confusion obvious on her features, “How could I have stopped their spell? I didn’t do anything.”

Oneesan turned to look at her little sister. She was not sure what the young man had meant either. All she knew was that Imoto-chan’s light was somehow a threat to whatever they had planned. “I don’t know.” She spoke aloud without thinking, causing the others to turn to look, “But considering they want to wipe out Domino, we have to work it out so you can do it again.”

“Yuge?” Jou asked, squinting at the point Oneesan was looking at, “You’re talking to Yuge, right?” He asked the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. When Oneesan nodded in reply, he waved to the spot just to the left of where Yugi was stood, making the worried girl giggle.

“So you two don’t know how Yuge stopped whatever they were trying to do either?” Honda asked, looking a little irritated.

Oneesan opened her mouth, paused and switched with Yugi in a flash of light from the Puzzle.

“I don’t know what he meant.” Yugi replied, mentally grimacing slightly as she felt the Shadows tug on her, even with the wards up on her mind and the fact the light of her soul burned away the weakest wisps before they could reach her. “I didn’t do anything when the spell struck so I don’t think it could have been me who stopped their spell.”

“But you’re the only soul of pure light in Domino.” Jou scowled, “So who...”

“No I’m not.” Yugi shook her head, realisation striking, “Where was Bakura?”

“Bakura? The Thief?” Honda didn’t understand.

“No, not the thief. Bakura no Imoto.” Yugi tried, “The other half of the Thief. Our friend.”

The others paused to think. “She wasn’t in class.” Anzu said finally, “She’d gone to the nurse’s office sick, remember?”

Yugi noded. Bakura often tried to go off sick before P.E. so she was not surprised to be reminded of that.

“So what, you think Bakura’s the one who stopped the last wave?” Honda frowned, still wondering how she had managed that if she had.

“I’m not sure.” Yugi admitted, “It could be but just because he said it was a source of light that interrupted their spell, doesn’t mean it was us. We were both in school, we didn’t know that wave was coming. Something else must have interfered and I’m getting the blame for it.”

“Hey, there’s one good thing about this whole mess.” Jou tried to brighten up the mood, “While they’re trying focused on wiping us out, they’re not nuking Domino.”

The Dark Magician, who was still nearby, moved closer to Yugi as the Shadows swirled around the feet of the group members. The girl glanced at him in confusion but did not have a chance to say a word before the Shadows at their feet suddenly turned into whirling pools of darkness beneath them. The Dark Magician, who was hovering rather than standing, managed to snatch Yugi up and away, but the other three fell into the maelstrom below.

“Jou! Anzu! Honda!” Yugi squirmed in the Dark Magician’s arms, trying to reach her friends as they let out a collective yelp and vanished beneath the surface of their individual pools. She could not escape the protective grasp of her summoned creature though and he refused to let her down until the puddles had vanished from the floor, taking her friends with them and leaving Yugi alone in the Shadows.

“Jou!” Yugi fell to her hands and knees in shock, “Anzu! Honda!”

Rage coursed through the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. She seized control of the body, shooting to her feet and bellowing up into the Shadowlaiden skies. “Bring! Them! Back!”

There was no answer from the powers that encircled the city, no clue of where the darkness had sent their friends. No way to tell if they were still within the city’s limits or whether they had been dragged deeper into the Shadows.

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.