“The ‘other Yugi’ is Yami.” Yami explained, half lying in order to avoid having to answer questions that she would never believe the real answers to, “He’s my brother. He doesn’t tend to get out much because he’s shy and people mistake him for me all the time so he’s given up arguing it. He’s been ill recently so he was home alone when they kidnapped him.”
“How long ago was he taken?” Dani asked, thinking about what she knew of the ShadowSwords and how they treated their captives.
“Last night.” The Pharaoh paced the room again, not liking to be reminded of how long ago it had been since he had last seen the other half of his soul.
“Then he’ll probably be hungry and thirsty by now, but he’ll be okay.” Dani reassured him.
“How can you know?” Yami’s gaze was sharp and wary, as if he wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not.
“Because I’ve been their guest before.” She informed them, “They tend to neglect to feed their prisoners or offer them something to drink, but once they’re locked up they tend to leave them to their own devices. Yami’ll be okay until they need him for something.”
She could see the relief settle in the group at her words. She wasn’t entirely sure of the truth of them. She remembered her own captivity well, she had been held prisoner for almost a week before the ritual had very almost taken her life. In that time she had gone hungry and had only been offered water thrice, but she had at least been left alone in her cell.
However her capture hadn’t exactly been gentle. She had been battered and bruised when she had escaped from the cave system in Sennen Cove. She didn’t doubt that Yugi’s brother would be in much the same state.
“If you find him while you’re investigating...” Yami started.
“Don’t worry. I’ll let you know straight away.” Dani promised, “Now, if you don’t mind, there’s nothing else we can do tonight and I need some sleep.”
With that dismissal, Yami and his friends headed back to their rooms with a lot to think about. Yami knew he should be more concerned about the insane cult that wanted to sacrifice everyone who was on the boat, but his hands were tied. Interfering with their plans could cost Yugi his life and Yami refused to take that risk.
Later, once he knew Yugi was safe and sound, he was going to ruin the ritual they had planned and tear the idiots who had decided that stealing Yugi away from his home was a good idea, into tiny little pieces. Slowly. And he would enjoy every moment of it. And if Yugi was hurt, their end would be beyond painful. He would make sure of that.
In the meantime he had to hold his temper and wait for further instructions. He hated it. Absolutely hated it but there was nothing he could do.
“Yami...” Joey started, causing the Pharaoh to turn to look at him, “I know they’re watching you, but we could start trying to hunt these guys down, see if we can at least find out where they’re holding this ritual thing?”
Yami grimaced. He didn’t want his friends getting themselves into trouble, but they were already there. Everyone on the boat was in danger if they couldn’t stop the ritual that was taking place on the island during their stay. “Do it.” He nodded finally as he reached his door, “But be careful, I don’t want to have to be the one to tell Yugi you guys got hurt.”
“You got it.” Joey grinned, pounding his hand with his first, “And don’t worry, it’s our turn to save the day for a change, you focus on getting Yuge back.”
“Right.” Yami nodded, grinning back, “I’ll leave the hard work in your hands then.”
“Eh, it’ll be a piece of cake for a real man.” Joey postured, causing the girls to roll their eyes, Tristan to slap him upside the head and Yami to shake his head in amusement. “Hey!”
“Before we split up we have three phones between us,” Kari pointed out, “So we need to work out who’s with who. Really we need at least one phone per group.”
“I’ll go with Joey.” Tristan said before anyone else could say anything. “If he’s chasing the cult members, he’s going to need the backup.”
“I’ll go with Yami.” Tea spoke up next, “And Kari and Ombre can work together.”
“Two per team.” Kari nodded in agreement, “That way we have even numbers.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Yami shook his head, knowing what he was about suggest was likely to get him shouted at, “The teams aren’t balanced. Tea and I will make up one team, Tristan and Kari another and Joey and...”
“What?!” Yami winced against the noise they were making and ushered them into his room so they didn’t wake up the other players on the boat.
“If you’re all quite done?” Yami snapped at them once the door was shut and he had had as much of the noise as he could tolerate. “With the teams you’d decided on we had all of our muscle in one group and all the mages in another.”
“I have magic.” Joey protested.
“And you’re not exactly built like a brick outhouse.” Kari sniped at the Pharaoh.
“I don’t need to be.” Yami shot back, “I’m the distraction, remember? There’s nothing I can do about anything without getting Yugi killed, so I can’t do anything until he’s free. That means it’s going to be mostly up to you lot and neither Kari or Ombre have self defence training. Not only that but yes you have magic,” He turned to Joey, “but you have barely any training and it’s not in Shadow magic, which is what we’re up against.” He looked at Ombre, “I know you want to stick close to Kari, but I’m asking you to help Joey, please?”
The room went still. There were words that Yami didn’t use unless they were aimed at Yugi. ‘Please’ was one of them. It wasn’t that the Pharaoh meant to be rude, they just didn’t seem to be in his vocabulary. So for him to say it now underlined how frustrated and worried he really was by the situation.
“Sure.” Ombre nodded, realising now how badly Yami was affected by all of this. She knew he was slipping, she had been on the receiving end of his temper enough times to know that. However knowing it and actually understanding it were two different things. “I’ll cover him. Don’t worry.” Yami nodded, grateful to her, before she turned to Tristan, “But if you let them harm one hair on Kari’s head...”
“Dead meat sandwich. Got it.” Tristan nodded.
“Good.” Yami let out a slow, calming breath, “Now we should all try and get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a nightmare.”
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