Light Amongst Shadows Part 25

Sugoroku took charge. “Jou, put her on her bed, I’ll phone an ambulance.” With that the elderly gentleman left the room.

“Jou, what the hell happened?” Honda demanded as the pair followed Jou and his load into the corridor. “The last thing I remember I was falling into the lake of darkness.”

“How did we get to Bakura’s house, and how did Yugi end up like...” Anzu gestured to the exhausted and injured Yugi in Jou’s arms.

“I don’t know the full details.” Jou replied, “I don’t even know who those pricks were or what they were up to. I just know it has something to do with Oneesan’s past and freaked Yugi out badly.” He carefully set her down, “I mean she was pretty beat up the last time I saw her, even with Bakura trying to heal her, but they never actually told me what was going on.”

“So we’re in the dark until Yugi comes round. Great.” Honda deadpanned, ill amused with the situation. “Just once I’d like the full details before the next problem in the chain hits.”

“I don’t think there’s going to be another problem with these guys.” Jou offered in reassurance, laying Yugi on the bed, “Not with what happened to Yuge. Oneesan would have destroyed them.”

“She doesn’t do that anymore.” Anzu corrected him.

“Only because Yuge’s watching her.” Honda replied thoughtfully, “You all remember what she was like when she first woke up.”

“Should we be worried about someone finding bodies strewn everywhere?” Anzu asked, worriedly.

“Possibly, but there’s no way to link it to Yuge.” Jou shrugged, “Not without an eye witness and what’re they going to say? A girl played a game with the goons and they all collapsed?”

“It does sound ridiculous.” Anzu sighed, “But then we’re used to ridiculous. The police aren’t, they’ll probably think the person they’re speaking to is high.”

“Either that or Yuge has some kind of biological weapon. And they could find her off of a description, she’s pretty unique looking after all.” Honda grouched.

“Well if it comes to it Yuge’s gunna be in hospital and no one is going to believe that someone who looks as beat up as she does managed to take down a horde of bad guys.” Jou pointed out.

“Let’s hope not.” Honda agreed as Sugoroku entered the room, a frown on his face. “Ojiisan?”

“They’re on their way.” Sugoroku explained, “Domino’s under quarantine and they want to look at the heavily wounded and the sick first. Apparently there’s been a lot of deaths.”

“But there’s so many injured, why’s Yuge being bumped up the list?” Jou asked, confused, “Not that I’m complaining but...”

“Someone already reported her to Domino General and offered a large amount of money and supplies to get to her sharpish.” The man who was like a grandfather to the entire group replied, “I suspect Kaiba.”

“Wait.” Anzu looked confused, “Quarantine? The entire city?”

“I don’t know the full details, but considering what just happened, there’s bound to be fallout.” Sugoroku replied, “I think they’re trying to ensure what happened here can’t happen anywhere else.”

“They’re going to be looking for answers for a really, really long time.” Anzu winced.

“Unless a magical branch of the government suddenly pops up,” Sugoroku nodded, having serious doubts that any such thing existed if they had not shown their heads already, “Yes, yes they are.”

Light Amongst Shadows Part 24

“Oh not now.” Honda growled as he realised he recognised the voice and that it belonged to Kaiba Seto. The brat had changed drastically after recovering from the Mind Crush that Oneesan had inflicted on him, but that did not mean the majority of the group liked him. They tolerated him, for Yugi’s sake, but he was not normally welcome in their group.

The only two who really knew how to deal with him were Yugi and Oneesan. One of whom was not available to deal with the stuck up, arrogant prick. The other of whom really was not in any fit state to play nicely.

Still, for some reason Ojiisan invited the elder of the Kaiba brothers in, and Kaiba shot up the stairs, passing Honda without a word and glowering at everyone in the living room until he spotted the person he was looking for.

“Yugi.” His posture gave away nothing, but the irritation in his tone was obvious, “I would appreciate it if you kept whatever insanity you’re dealing with at the moment away from me, away from my company and out of my office.”

“Oh I’m sorry, Kaiba.” Oneesan replied, sarcasm obvious, “The next time a group decides they want to sacrifice the city, I’ll let you know in advance. Is twenty-four hours enough time?”

Anzu frowned slightly as Kaiba’s hands clenched for a moment, having not realised before this point how much of Oneesan and Kaiba’s civility towards each other was induced by Yugi.

“I don’t care about what was going on.” Kaiba snapped, shoving a box at her, “Just take this and keep your crazy out of my workplace. It’s bad enough when you let it invade my tournaments.”

Oneesan blinked at him and took the small box, opening it carefully. The glow was obvious the moment that she lifted the lid and she could not help the huge grin that spread across her face as she pulled the final piece out of the box.

In hind sight it was obvious. Yugi had wanted to be Kaiba’s friend from the very start, it had been the boy’s own actions that had prevented it from being a possibility. However Yugi had never seen Kaiba as anything but a friend after the fiasco with Pegasus J. Crawford. The elder brother himself might deny he needed friendship, but Oneesan knew that he often looked after her in his own way too.

She should have realised that a fragment of Yugi’s soul would go to the other estranged friend of the group. After all if Bakura had had one, it should have been obvious that Kaiba had one. They had been or were both enemies of the group who occasionally aided them and Yugi had insisted that Kaiba was a friend for almost as long as she had known him.

“Thank you.” She breathed as the orb of light that had been floating around the living room came down to her hands and she merged the last fragment with the orb.

A bright light exploded out with a roar, blinding and deafening everyone in the room, then just as quickly as it appeared it was gone.

“Yuge!” Jou bellowed as he tried to clear his vision, “Yugi!”

“Look!” Anzu’s exclamation forced him to open his eyes, despite the sunspots clouding his vision.

There, stood in front of them, was Yugi.

She looked exhausted and ill and the bruises that had been inflicted by the bad guys on the way to their hideout were beginning to come up, along with the injuries Bakura had not been completely able to heal, but it was Yugi. Completely, unmistakably Yugi.

“H...Hi guys.” Yugi stammered, embarrassed and a little shocked.

“Yugi!” Anzu reacted first, glomping her friend and holding tight for a few moments. “Oh thank Kami you’re alright.”

“I’m oka...” Yugi did not get to finish her sentence before Jou had swooped in, dipped her backwards and kissed her. When they came up for air, Yugi smiled gently and chuckled as she asked, “I thought we weren’t doing the kissing after near death experience thing?”

“I’m leaving if this is going to get mushy.” Kaiba growled in the background.

“No, wait.” Yugi yelped, her gaze shooting over to the CEO of Kaiba Corp, who had turned his back on the scene, “I wanted to say thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Kaiba’s growl was hiding something and his posture was deliberately rigid and unreadable, but she could not understand what was wrong with him.

“I’m serious.” Yugi tried to reassure him, “You didn’t have to come down here, so thank you.”

“I can’t claim to have beaten the Queen of Games if half of her isn’t there.” Kaiba retorted, “You don’t get out of a rematch with me that easily.”

“Tomorrow?” Yugi offered, understanding he was ticked off about something and wanting to make it up to him. “After school?”

“I’ll find time.” Kaiba’s reply made the gang grin amongst themselves. Yugi could have named any time of the day or night and Kaiba would make time for a rematch with her. Jou was tempted to try and get Yugi to demand a midnight match just to see if he would go for it. “See you tomorrow. I’ll send a car to the hospital to get you.”

“Not outside the school?” Yugi asked, confused, trying to work why she would be at the hospital.

“No, you’ll see why in about ten seconds.” With that he left. Before the ten seconds were up Yugi let out a pained groan, her eyes rolled back in her head and the collapse that Jou had been expecting since Oneesan had gotten to her feet, happened.

Jou caught her before she fell too far, letting out a heavy sigh as he did so.

Light Amongst Shadows Part 23

Ojiisan paled slightly at the implications of Oneesan’s words but Jou was confused as he asked, “Oneesan? What do you mean?”

“No Imoto-chan.” Oneesan replied, still glowering at the item, “Shadows want me back. Can’t have. I’m Imoto-chan’s, not theirs. I won’t let them take me.”

It took Jou a moment to decipher what Oneesan was talking about and then he paled too. Without Yugi around the Shadows were trying to drag Oneesan back into the Puzzle and if there was no soul in the body, it could die and they would lose Yugi for good.

“Keep fighting just a little longer.” Jou reassured the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, “We’ll have Yuge back soon, okay?”

“I know.” There was utter faith in Oneesan’s tone and gaze, “Just hurts.” She clutched her hand to her chest, just over where her heart was.

“It’ll be okay.” Ojiisan was the one who reassured the steadily slipping spirit, though he was not entirely sure he was not lying to her. “Jou.”

“Right.” Jou heard the underlying order in Ojiisan’s tone and nodded sharply. Oneesan was hurt, Yugi was gone, someone had to take their place in the ‘chain of command’ as Marik had once sneeringly called it. Ojiisan was a lot more level headed about this than Jou could bring himself to be, so it was to Yugi’s grandfather that he turned to for advice and orders. He slipped into the house first, carefully but quickly moving up the stairs to find Honda and Anzu were waiting by the door.

“Yugi! Jou!” Anzu yelped, panic obvious in her features as Jou moved around her to lay Oneesan on the sofa, “What happened?”

“Before we tell you guys anything, give Jonouchi those puzzle pieces.” Ojiisan answered, looking between the pair sharply. Both of them had had enough experience with the weirdness that followed Yugi around on a bimonthly basis to know better than to ask questions when one of their own was hurt and they both handed over their soul fragments.

With six of the seven restored to it, the light settled on Oneesan, who held it close. It’s light seeming to ease the tug on her soul somewhat. “One more.” The spirit of the Puzzle breathed, “Just one more.”

“One more what?” Honda demanded, “What’s going on?”

“That light?” Jou asked with a frown, wondering where the hell they were going to find the last piece. “It’s Yuge’s soul.”

“WHAT?” Both yelped.

“Imoto-chan gave herself.” Oneesan explained it again, still hugging the orb like a teddy bear, “Her whole self. To save everyone.”

“Remember Pegasus?” Jou asked, “When Yugi nearly killed herself in order to give Oneesan a fighting chance?” When the other two nodded he carried on, “As far as I can work out, same deal, except this time we were snoozing instead of helping and her soul shattered.”

“It did what?” Anzu squeaked, watching the ball with a lot more concern and fear now.

“That’s what those lights were.” Honda realised, “They’re Yugi. Or parts of her.”

“That’s right.” Jou nodded, shaking Oneesan when she nearly fell asleep again, “Not yet, ‘Neesan. Need that last fragment first.”

“Last fragment?” Anzu asked, seeming confused and relieved, “You mean you’ve almost found all the pieces of her soul?”

“Only broke into seven.” Oneesan replied, her disorientation getting worse for the constant shaking which was keeping her awake. “All with friends.”

“Which is where we have a problem.” Jou admitted, “We’ve already gotten Bakura’s piece and the ones with you guys were no brainers, but I have no idea where the last piece of Yugi is and Oneesan...”

“Is fruit looped.” Honda frowned, understanding.

“Not.” Oneesan protested, managing to sit up in order to glare at Honda, “Just tired. Really tired.”

“If you can’t get off the sofa, you can’t come with...” Jou face palmed as at his ultimatum, Oneesan forced herself off of the sofa and to her feet.

“No resting. Not until Imoto-chan’s safe.” The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle growled at him, even as she had to lean on the back of the couch to stay upright, “No matter what it takes, I won’t fail her again.”

“You have about as much clue as we do.” Jou snapped back, “Sit down before you fall...” The doorbell rang, causing Jou to let out a frustrated, furious snarl, “Can I finish talking?” He asked Honda as Sugoroku headed down to answer it.

“Apparently not.” Honda shrugged, moving towards the door to the stairs. Jou might have a bit relaxed now that they were in the safety of the Game Shop, but until Honda knew for certain that Yugi would be alright and all of the mooks had left the city, he would not.

He could hear Ojiisan talking to someone. Someone who was loud and irritable.

Light Amongst Shadows Part 22

“Jou, I can walk.” The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle protested, feeling embarrassed as some of the people who were awakening pointed them out as they passed.

“You can, but you shouldn’t.” Jou informed her with a teasing grin, “Now shut up and let me have a ‘Prince Charming’ moment. I don’t get them very often.”

“No, you’re normally the damsel in distress.” Oneesan teased back, “Now you see how much effort being the royal is.”

“Eh, it’s not so bad.” He grinned down at her, “The view is good and you’re not heavy. I don’t think Yuge’s eating enough.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Oneesan shrugged, lethargy seeping in as Jou carried her. “I don’t know how much we should be...”

Jou frowned as Oneesan’s words steadily slurred together worse and worse and he looked down in time to see her eyes closing and her breathing evening out, “Hey, don’t go to sleep.” He shook her slightly, causing her to give him a sleepy and irritated look, “I refuse to let you sleep through explaining this whole mess to the others.”

“But I’m so tired.” Oneesan complained. Now she was off of her feet the pain and exhaustion was catching up to her, muddling her thoughts and causing her to say things out loud that she would not normally even say to Imoto-chan.

“I know.” Jou sighed softly, seriously worried about Yugi and Oneesan. The spirit of the Puzzle never let herself slip like this. She had to be seriously injured in order to be in this state. He had thought this would happen, that when the adrenaline had worn off she would collapse, but he had expected to have gotten Yugi back before then.

He had to make sure Oneesan stayed awake. He recognised this lethargy and he knew that letting her sleep now would be a huge mistake. He had been the ‘part time medic’ for Hirutani’s gang for long enough to have seen people die from blood loss. As long as she stayed awake, would stay alive. If he let her sleep, there was a risk she would not awaken again and then they would lose both of them. “But it’s your mess. You don’t get to skip out that easily.”

“Lemme walk.” Oneesan complained, “I walk, won’t sleep.”

“No.” Jou shook his head again, “Your legs won’t hold you up, watch.” He tried to put her down, only for her legs to give out underneath her. “See?” He asked as he scooped her back up again.

“Oh.” Oneesan considered the body in a hazy, concerned yet amused way, “I thought I had more left than that.” She glanced up at Jou, “I think Imoto-chan got really beat up.”

Jou snorted at the huge understatement. He had been seriously concerned about their health when he had seen them after Bakura’s rescue and she looked worse now then she had then. It was more than plausible that Yugi had gotten them so hurt that the pair of them would need a long hospital stay.

They were not that far from the shop and Oneesan was not heavy enough to cause him any distress as they reached the shop. Ojiisan was waiting at the door for them, fear crossing the elderly gentleman’s features as he rushed over to them.

“Hi.” Oneesan smiled at him weakly. “Jou, put me down.”

“What happened?” Ojiisan worried at them as the blonde refused to drop his friend.

“’Neesan’s hurt.” Jou shrugged, “And...” He trailed off as the ball of light that had been following them settled in Ojiisan’s hands. “You can see that?”

“Why...why does this light feel like Yugi?” Ojiisan’s voice wavered as he asked the question, not entirely sure he wanted an answer.

Oneesan reached for the light, not entirely coherent, “Imoto-chan. You’re scaring him.”

The ball of light almost jumped out of his hands and hid itself in Oneesan’s jacket.

“Do you got a puzzle piece made of light?” Jou asked, wincing as he did so. He did not want to be the one to explain this but Oneesan’s mental state was worsening and he was beginning to think it was not just because of the blood loss. “Would have flown over to you before you woke up?”

“I wasn’t asleep.” Ojiisan frowned at him, “The rest of the city was but yes,” He pulled it out of his pocket, “What does...”

“Give me.” Oneesan demanded, her focus completely on the glowing puzzle piece as the ball of light peeked out from its hiding place.

Warily, carefully Ojiisan handed it over. Within moments it had merged itself with the ball of light, which, now it was over halfway restored, seemed brighter and, somehow, happier.

“Where is my granddaughter?” Ojiisan demanded of Jou, watching Oneesan’s reaction to the light growing. “And what is that?”

“Imoto-chan said goodbye.” Oneesan replied, sorrow obvious even in her confused and befuddled state, “Saved the city. Shattered.”

Ojiisan’s eyes went wide for a moment, then Jou had no choice but to put Oneesan down. The Pharaoh fell straight to her knees as Jou caught the elderly old gamer who had to sit down, his hand going to his chest as his heart skipped a beat at the news.

“It’s okay.” Jou promised both of them, “We can get her back, we just need the other pieces.”

“And how many are there?” Ojiisan did not sound reassured by Jou’s statement.

“Seven.” Jou explained, “We have four and I think Anzu and Honda should have two more. That just leaves the last one.”

“The others are already here.” Ojiisan informed him, accepting the hand Jou offered when he tried to get back to his feet, “And yes, they have glowing puzzle pieces too. We figured it had something to do with the Millennium Puzzle, not my granddaughter being murdered.”

“Wasn’t murdered.” Oneesan tried to explain as Jou scooped her up again, “Gave own life.” She shivered and glowered down at the Puzzle that rested on her chest, “Not yet.” She growled at it, “Not going back yet.”