Ennead: For Those We Love: Sneak Peek

“How, exactly, did you get us lost in a forest the size of a postage stamp?” Anzu demanded of Jou and Honda, interrupting what had been a rather interesting and extremely loud argument.

“It wasn’t me,” Jou protested, guesturing towards Honda, “He was the one who said, ‘It’s this way, follow me’ if we’d just stuck to the path we’d probably be neck deep in Duelists by…”

“Don’t blame me!” Honda snarled back, cutting Jou off midsentence, “You’re the one who thought that this was a shortcut to the battlefield!”

“Will you two shut up?” Oneesan growled at the pair of them, ill amused by their arguing and the fact the fireworks signaling the start of the tournament had gone off at least ten minutes ago. She had been tempted to let the boys head off into the forest alone, but the there was little chance of them finding each other again when Anzu was the only one with a mobile phone and it had no signal. So she had followed them when Jou had jumped the wall and headed into the forest.

Honda and Jou went silent. Neither of them were foolish enough to continue their tirade when the spirit of the Puzzle had demanded otherwise. She was their friend, but they both knew she had her limits and that it was a bad idea to push them. Not only would it make her mad and put her off her game, but she was vindictive and creative in her payback. She would never hurt them, that much was true, but Jou’s reputation had taken weeks to recover after the incident in the boy’s changing room the day Imori had been causing trouble.

Anzu could not help but be amused. If it had been her who had asked them to stop fighting, they would have done so, but only after she had physically separated the pair. Poor Yugi would have been ignored entirely. For Oneesan however, they went silent and behaved like little angels. She needed to learn the long-dead Pharaoh’s trick.

“If it helps,” Amane spoke up, holding her hand up now that she could be heard over the others and trying to ignore the amusement of the spirit who lived within her own artifact. “My Millennium Ring can locate people and places. I could probably lead us out of here.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” Jou complained, wheeling on her as she pulled the Millennium Ring out from under her sweater.

“Probably because it was impossible to hear yourself think over the racket you two were making.” Anzu shot back, “I swear they could hear the pair of you back in Domino.”

Sneak Peek: Chapter 16: Yugi and Harry and the Shadow Treaty

Yes, I finally have this chapter with my beta reader!

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Joey was confused for the ten seconds it took for him to re-orientate himself and take in the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Then it hit him that they had been teleported away from the fight at the Ministry of Magic and dropped off here. Considering that they had been outmatched and outnumbered, it would not have been a bad thing but there was an issue. A rather big issue. Both Yugi and Harry had been left behind.

“Take us back!” Joey furiously demanded as he glared around at the pair of mages who had side-along apperated them to the school gates, far away from the battle.

“So you can do what?” Moody, the real Moody, asked derisively, “Stand around and get yourself and others killed because you tried to fight someone who’s older, better trained and sneakier than you? You’ve not even taken your fifth year yet and if you could summon those creatures of yours, you would have done by now. If you go back now, you’ll get killed.”

“But...” Joey trailed off when Hermione put a hand on his arm.

“Moody’s right. Even if Harry and Yugi are still there, we’d be in the way.” She murmured quietly as he glowered down her. Her expression told him that she liked it as little as he did, but as per usual she had a much more level head about the situation. “They’d never forgive themselves if we got killed going back for them.”

“The others will be here with your friends in a minute.” Moody’s accomplice, a young woman whose hair could not seem to make up its mind what colour it was, spoke up, trying to reassure them. “I’m sure they’re fine.”

Joey let out an irritated huff. No, they were not ‘fine.’ He knew that already. Even before Harry had nearly fallen, clutching his right arm, Joey had felt like someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed. Just for a moment, but the sensation and the lingering ache afterwards was worryingly familiar. There was nothing physically wrong with him, but he knew what had caused it.

It was a warning. An alarm call. A scream for backup.

Yugi was hurt. Badly.

Harry’s collapse and explanation had only confirmed what he had already known. On its own that would have been bad enough, but the discomfort had only intensified as time went on which was why he wanted to go back so badly. He did not need to though as Professor Lupin arrived in a stream of white and a swirl of white smoke which deposited the werewolf and Harry amongst their group.

Professor Lupin rushed past them, Harry in tow and carrying something in his arms. Hermione did not get a glimpse of what he had, but Joey did and he froze up in horrified shock for a moment before rushing to catch up, all thoughts of going back to the Ministry forgotten.

The trip to the hospital wing had never seemed longer as they raced through the surprisingly full corridors and Joey did not know what to do. Instead he hesitated by the infirmary’s door as the werewolf laid Atem on the nearest bed and called for the school’s healer.

“Yugi...” He breathed as he stepped into the ward, Hermione’s shocked gasp going unnoticed in the face of the reality of seeing his best friend led on a hospital bed, unconscious, deathly pale and bleeding profusely.

Sneak Peek - Ennead: For Those We Love: Chapter 2

Bakura paused as she stepped through the classroom door and looked over at her group of friends, who were gathered around a travel video player, chatting to the screen.

“Good morning?” She questioned, curious as Yugi looked up and nodded to her, then slumped back into her seat, while the others all gave her smiles that looked rather false. “What did my other self do now?” She asked as she moved over to the group.

“It wasn’t her fault.” She jumped a mile as the video player answered her, causing her to move around to see the screen. Yugi’s grandfather was on it, waving merrily at her, “Good morning, Bakura-chan.”

“G...Good morning, Mutou-san?” It was more a question and she glanced around at the others, noting Yugi had seemed to sink further into her chair. “Is he really...?”

“Yeah.” Jou nodded, his tone angry and his movement sharp. “Some prick with a Millennium Item challenged Yuge, cheated all the way through and sealed Ojiisan’s soul into the tape when she lost.”

Bakura could feel her other self shift at the back of her mind at Jou’s words and mentally grimaced. She was well aware of how close her other self had come to total victory just a couple of months ago. It was only the fact the she had sacrificed herself to halt the final blow that had saved her friends.

It had only been a miracle that had saved her life and the life of her Other Self, but they had been dead, at least temporarily, and while she was willing to do it again if she needed to, the spirit of the Ring had made it clear that she had no intention of dying again. Not for a long time at least.

This meant that, for the time being, Yugi’s Puzzle was firmly off the radar. Any other Items however were still fair game and Bakura couldn’t really bring herself to object considering that most other item holders seemed to be obnoxious prats.

“Can you get him out?” She asked, remembering how Yugi no Oneesan, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had seemed to have no difficulty in helping her free those trapped in the game pieces from her Monster World set.

“No.” Yugi shook her head, seeming calm, though Bakura could see it was just a mask. She couldn’t help but wonder if the others could see the dejection hidden underneath. “Anesan tried. We just ended up with a headache for our troubles.”

‘Of course they did.’ Bakura flinched as the voice of her other self echoed in her head, still not used to being able to hear the thoughts of the spirit of the Ring and mostly wishing she still couldn’t, ‘The Penalty was set against them. They will have to fulfil the ‘out’ clause before they will be able to free him.’

“Could we do it?” Bakura asked the voice, startling them both. “Could we free Yugi’s Grandfather?”

‘I don’t know,’ The voice replied after a moment of thought, sounding amused for some reason,‘And quite frankly I don’t care to try. The Pharaoh got herself into this mess and she can get herself...’

The Other Bakura paused, retuning into the conversation at the table in time to see Jou rolling his text book into a cone shape, pointing it at the Puzzle and yelling, “Hey Oneesan! If you can hear me in there, cheer up!” at the top of his lungs.

“Jonouchi!” Anzu shoved him away as Yugi tried to get some hearing back. “Seriously! I don’t think that’ll help.”

It had a little though, Bakura could see, as Yugi smiled for a moment, some of the despondency lifting a little in the face of her friend’s lunacy.