Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Winter Solstace ❯ Shizuka on a Rampage! ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Well… thanks for reading… then… ja. This chapter has a little bit of Shizuka-bashing and Anzu-bashing in it, but it's not intentional. It just… happened. Hayashiba-chan doesn't have anything against either girls. You can take it as shoujo-ai if you want, but Hayashiba-chan is NOT a fan of shoujo-ai and yuri (but she isn't close-minded either, so no flames! She's only just getting used to this whole… you know… yeah..?). Wee, this chapter is undeniably short, anyway. Gomen, gomen nasai na! don't hurt Hayashiba-chan! Hurt her evil muses! *points mainly at Mr. Crackers and then runs away*

…oh, yeah, and a special special thank you to all Hayashiba-chan's readers on all the sites she's posted this story on! DOUMO ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!!!!!! *passes out cookies*

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"Winter Solstice"

03/20

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- Third Person POV -

Mariku sighed, staring out the window from his desk. He twirled his pencil, poked at the problem he was supposed to be solving, stared out the window again and sighed once more.

"Ishitaru-san, do you have something you would like to say?" Yagawa-sensei, the math teacher, asked from where he was grading papers in the front of the classroom.

"No, sensei."

"Then I suggest you pay attention to your assignment."

"Whatever you say, sensei."

Bakura snickered from his spot next to Mariku. Our spiked-and-blond-haired hero responded by throwing his pencil at him, and successfully hit the tanned teen in the head. Bakura, of course, swore loudly and threw his own pencil at Mariku; it missed and hit the person in front of Mariku, who just happened to be Yami. Yami in turn grabbed *his* pencil and flung it at the person he had thought had thrown it (not suspecting Bakura or Mariku, of course) and the class immediately broke out into a pencil-throwing fight.

Then they all had to stay thirty minutes after school writing `I will not throw sharp pointy stabby things at my classmates' one thousand times in English. Everybody kept grumbling and shooting Mariku evil looks.

And, of course, Yami and Bakura couldn't help teasing him about it as they walked home from school.

"I do NOT have it bad," Mariku insisted as they rounded a corner, leaving school grounds.

"Yeah, sure," Bakura snickered from Mariku's left. "So is she the new chick from work or that tall blond with big boobs?"

"I SAID-" Mariku began for the umpteenth time, but was unable to finished as he walked into something that only came a few heads above his waist and tripped.

He *tripped*. Yami and Bakura howled with glee, loving the blackmail potential this had.

"SHUT. UP." Mariku snarled, scrambling to his feet. This only made Yami and Bakura laugh harder; although Yami sobered quickly enough when he realized the thing that Mariku had tripped over was actually a person. And he couldn't have been more than eleven. Also, Yami was quick to note, that the kid had HIS hairstyle and HIS neck belt and HIS tight black tank top and HIS… no. Yami never wore baggy army jeans.

Still, the kid could have been Yami's little brother, except he had peach skin instead of sun-kissed.

"Whoa, sorry, little guy. Didn't see you there." Yami said, bending down and reaching out his hand. "Really, kid, sorry about that. Mariku-kun is always tripping over something, though this is the first time it was a someone."

The seemingly grade-schooler took Yami's hand, albeit rather hesitantly, and Yami hauled him lightly to his feet.

"D-daijobu…" the kid murmured, gazing down at his feet. Despite the fact that he was standing up now, he didn't let go of Yami's hand; instead, he threw himself against Yami's chest (Yami was kneeling) and burst into tears.

This shocked Yami, Mariku, and Bakura into a moment of silence. Then…

"OH MY GOD, MUTOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO THAT POOR LITTLE BOY?"

All four boys started as a girl with longish red-brown hair that looked to be in her early teens came rushing forward out of nowhere.

"Jounouchi Shizuka," Yami muttered distastefully, then in a louder voice, "I wasn't… I mean, I didn't-"

But `Shizuka' swept a still sobbing Yuugi out of Yami's arms (not that Yami had been holding him) and hugged the tri-colored boy consolingly to her chest. "There, there," she cooed, "I won't lwet mean owld Yami and his big fwat stupid-ass fwends hurt you, it's okay, don't cwry, now…"

Then a golden-blond boy that looked to be around Yami-tachi's age came jogging up.

"Ne Shizuka," he gasped, leaning on his knees to catch his breath, "don't run off like that!" he noticed Yuugi. "Aw, man, what did you do THIS time, sis?"

"It wasn't me," Shizuka snapped, "it was Yami, and Bakura and Mariku. They were molesting this poor little boy, I CAUGHT them, red-handed!"

"We did no such thing!" Bakura burst out. He'd always hated girls. They were incredibly annoying. Not to mention loud, pissy, funny-smelling and weird-looking. "The brat ran into Mariku and started crying!"

"Yeah! I didn't even fall on him or step on him or anything, either! Yami was just hugging him!" Mariku put in.

Both Mariku and Bakura *strongly* disliked kids. Stupid brats. Yami didn't really seem to care about kids (or girls, for that matter. Then again, Mariku was bi-sexual, so there ya go…)

"You don't expect me to believe that!" Shizuka snarled. She hated Yami and his friends. Yami, because Anzu was always getting wishy-washy over him, and Shizuka was undeniably jealous. Bakura and Mariku because of the simple fact that they were Yami's friends.

The golden-haired boy, obviously Shizuka's older brother, sweatdropped.

"Shizuka… I really think that this is going a bit too far…"

"What are you talking about, Katsuya?" Shizuka asked in her coldest voice with her coldest look. Katsuya gulped and took a step back. "I SAW them, dammit! Look at this poor little guy!" picking the little boy up, Shizuka practically shoved him in her brother's arms. The little kid sniffled against the Katsuya's shoulder, and hiccuped slightly.

Sniffing haughtily, Shizuka snatched the boy back and stomped off, murmuring an occasional "There, there" and "it's okay, sweetie" and "I'm sure your mommy is nearby."

Yami, Bakura, Mariku, and Katsuya watched her go, all sweatdropping.

"My GOD, Jounouchi," Bakura hissed, "how do you put UP with that thing?"

-

Malik and Ryou both cursed as they watched their carefully planned plan go haywire.

"Well, crap," Ryou murmured, frowning as the girl hauled Yuugi off.

"We'll get him later," Malik muttered back. "For now, while they're holding still, can you sense the Shadow Powers?"

Ryou frowned, and closed his eyes, concentrating. Truthfully, he'd been trying to sense the Shadows in the three older teens ever since Yuugi had stepped out in front of Mariku purposefully.

"I'm not close enough." He sighed, opening his eyes again. He couldn't even tell if the four boys across the street and down a ways were really Mariku, Yami, and Bakura. They weren't near enough for Ryou to make out any details based on Malik's descriptions; although Ryou knew that direct descendant(s) had passed by the way as he could feel the soft, barely noticeable trailing darkness in the air.

Malik gave a soft, almost frustrated sigh.

"Let's go get Yuugi, Malik," Ryou murmured, turning away.

"… Fine… fine…" Malik turned away as well. It only took a little bit of searching to find Yuugi and the girl at the entrance to a park.

"My big brother is in there waiting for me. Thank you very much Mrs. Stranger," Yuugi was saying in his cutest voice with his cutest look.

"Oh, it was nothing," Shizuka replied, patting him on the head. "Make sure to stay away from those evil perverted freaks, okay, Yuri-chan?"

"Yes ma'am!" Yuugi said, just as Ryou and Malik came up behind them.

"Yuri-chan!" Ryou cried using Yuugi's made-up name. With fake relief, and he threw himself dramatically at the shorter boy. Once his arms were wrapped around Yuugi, Ryou wasted no time in springing tears of fake worry and pain and relief to his eyes and kissing his partner all over the face, somehow managing to berate him and tell him how worried he was at the same time.

Yuugi caught on easily enough, and, fully enjoying himself, started to cry again and let Ryou have his kisses. Malik came up behind Shizuka, panting as though he had just run a marathon. He, too, had fake tears of worry in his eyes.

"Oh, thank you so very much, stranger-sama!" he cried, bowing as low as possible without looking ridiculous. "After Yuri-chan got lost in the store early this morning, Ryou and I thought we might have to call the police, or, or…"

"We thought-" kiss, kiss, "that you were-" kiss, "hurt, or even-" kiss, kiss, kiss, "dead, Yurii-chan!" Ryou managed.

"Oh- oh, it was nothing," Shizuka said, surprised at the emotional outbursts she was experiencing.

It was then that Katsuya caught up with her.

"Shizuka! Come on, we're going to be late!" he scolded, and, grabbing her by the elbow, proceeded to drag the younger girl off.

"B- but Katsuya," she stammered, "the family--!"

"Hell with `em," Katsuya snapped, successfully dragging her away.

Malik, Ryou, and Yuugi still waited a moment (just to be safe) before bursting into laughter.

"Oh, that was rich!" Malik gasped after a short while, getting to his feet. "The look on her face! My God, it was priceless!"

"Ne, Kitten-chan, I think that was our best performance yet!" Ryou cheered, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Oh yeah," Yuugi agreed wholeheartedly. There was another moment of humor between the three of them, and then Yuugi's smile faltered.

"Malik… Rabbit-kun… I think we have more than just three direct descendants here." Yuugi murmured, getting to his feet and brushing himself off.

Malik groaned softly. There obviously hadn't been any hunters in this area for some time.

"The girl?" Ryou asked, also getting to his feet.

"No. the golden-haired boy, her older brother… Jounouchi Katsuya his name is, I think," Yuugi said, frowning at a distant bush. "He must be around fifteen... Because he looks around Yami-tachi's age, but I thought I'd sensed the Shadow Powers buried within him, deep. It could have been a mistake, too, but just to make sure… maybe we'd better keep an eye on him, too…"

"Oh, damn," Malik grumbled, and rested his chin between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. "You guys, this place is probably crawling with direct descendants. Apparently we're the only hunters present at this time, for SOME time, so a complete overview would be a wise thing to do."

"This place is humongous," Yuugi moaned, "it'll take us forever…"

"Better to get started soon, then," Ryou sighed, throwing his head back elegantly and gazing at the sky. It would start to get dark in a few more hours.

"How are we going to do this?"

"Start with the schools," Malik ground out, going into command-o-mode. "We'll have to split up and register ourselves. Yuugi, take that Jounouchi boy. I'll handle our original three. Ryou get a job at one of the grade schools or childcare. In our spare time, we'll need to comb through the town for sixteen-year-olds and older. Then we can focus on fifteen and under as a group.."

"…where will we start combing?" Yuugi asked as Ryou tore his eyes wistfully from the sky.

"There's a water tower over South of here. It marks the boundary between Domino City and whatever's over there. Load of country and fields. Either way…"

"Then we'll start there. This place is pretty big…" Ryou paused. "If it takes us longer than six months, I'm going to start getting scared."

"Don't start worrying yet," Yuugi supplied gently, "there are other hunters out there. We still have one year till Solstice. One year…"

"How time flies." Malik sighed, and tossed his head to remove his bangs from his eyes. "I guess this means only I will get the job at the trio's club or whatever it is. You guys had better come visit me!"

Ryou smiled a little. "Oh, I don't know why we would… Kitten-chan and I have both seen the real thing, after all, so it wouldn't be any fun…"

Yuugi laughed slightly as Malik glared.

"But seriously," they all sobered, "let's double check Jounouchi."

"No problem no problem!" Malik said with a shrug. "Yuugi's assigned to him. Fetch, Yuugi! If you aren't back, er, home, then, by nine p.m. I'm setting your boyfriend on you."

"Yes, master," Yuugi replied sarcastically. He paused a moment to nuzzle Ryou, then started jogging after Katsuya and Shizuka.

"Ryou-sama comes with ore-sama to get a job. I am NOT stripping alone if that's what the boss requires. We just need to get close to those boys."

"Yes, master," Ryou said in the same voice Yuugi had used, and they both smiled wryly before straightening out and then jogging away from the park. "So where do they work?"

"A place fairly far from the high school. It's called `Ecstasy.'"

"That's suggestive."

"Ryou, if you caught every sexual innuendo sent your way you'd be a voyeur. Anyway," Malik paused at a bus stop, "people go there to get drunk and watch performers strip. Of course the name is suggestive."

"What about the twenty-one and over rule?"

"Aw, you've played a thirty-five year old woman before and you're worried about pretending we're twenty-one? If it's the fake IDs, I've got them here. And make-up. Malik-sama always comes prepared, so we'll find a bathroom beforehand, or an alleyway, or something."

"Okay, okay. Fine, fine."

"Then it's all good?"

"All good."

"Good."