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.”
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