Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Star of Millenia ❯ Left and Gone Away ( Chapter 7 )

{Oh my lovely swan, where have you spread your wings to and flown now? In what cave or lake keeps you from my eyes? My sweet, lovely, dancing swan, whose feathers are darker than the voids of space, I can't sense your aura, not even a glimpse of you passionate soul is revealed to me. I wonder about this night and day. Do you know what pains you have bestowed to me by hiding? But yet..as you have vanished, I have felt the rays of your gilded cage reflect brighter than ever. Have you found a roost that suits you better than my castle of purest gold? Perhaps I should cast my eyes upon the vessel that has challenged me in my claims to your soul. Yes, I shall. Then, my black swan, you will roost under my watchful eyes for infinity.....}

Anzu tossed about in her bed again, tangling the satin sheets more intricately around her legs. The dark covers were kicked off feverishly as she sat up, wiping sweat from her face. The oscillating fan that aimed at her bed was useless, only serving to circulate the hot, sticky air. Summer in Japan was indeed one hell of a bitch.

{Some language you've put into my head, Kurina!} Anzu snapped to the sleeping Yami on the other side of the barrier. It was useless to talk to her at this time. Kurina had a heavy block on the barrier and she slept like the proverbial rock. Setting her feet on the floor, she stood and began to pace the hardwood floor. It too was warm. For some strange reason, she was so brilliantly wide-awake. Her eyes couldn't close if they had been taped with electrical tape. Every part of her was stretched to no ends, every cell alive with crackling energy. She was alive, burning, buzzing with a mysterious energy that came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time...at 3:15 in the morning.

Seeking solstice, she went downstairs; her parents were in Berlin this week, spreading the influence of Mazaki Software Communications across the globe. She never thought that starting your own company would have taken them away from her so much. Yet it served dual purpose, their absence had made this period of adjustment all that much easier. Taking a glass from the cabinet, she opened the fridge and pulled out the milk carton, after pushing aside the bottle of 550$ chardonnay wine. Her parents were hopeless when it came to gourmand wines.

She popped the top and poured the glass 3/4 full. She put the carton back and sat down, slipping it slowly. Tomorrow was school, so she should really be asleep. Nevertheless, something was keeping her awake. She knew what is was, she dreaded stepping into homeroom tomorrow and facing Yami and Yugi. In the wake of Yami Anzu's impromptu show of affection, she didn't know if she could even look him...them...in the eyes again. Taking another sip, she sighed.

Granted, it did feel nice. It gave her a nice, warm tingling sensation all the way down to her toes, ricocheting along the hidden area between her legs. Leaning back, she wondered how Kurina had been able to tap into her emotions like that, to know how she felt about Yami.

"But what about Yugi?" another voice pressed. Her conscience again, damnit. She didn't know what to do about herself. Was what she felt for Yugi love as well? Was it sisterly love? Or like the feelings, she had for Yami, only subdued?

Another sip.

What were to happen if she were forced to choose? Who would it be? The Pharaoh or her best friend?

Sip Sip.

"Maybe I should have got the wine instead" she mused.

As usual, it had taken fifteen cups of coffee and three bowls of sugar puffs to get Jouno out of his bed again. By the time he had eaten, and run to school because he had missed the bus from eating, the sugar was fully in his system, and he was wired. He celebrated this fact by running around the schoolyard like crazy and screaming at the top of his lungs. He covered about three miles before the first bell, and arrived in class in record time.

As Yugi looked at Jouno made a new breed of fool out of himself, he looked over to Anzu's vacant desk, and wondered. The recollection or last night was still strong in his and his yami's mind. He still didn't know what to make of the whole situation, just that everything had gotten more confusing than ever. The bell rang and he opened his book, and Jouno continued to bounce in his seat happily, counting down the moments to recess.

Anzu had finally fallen asleep last night; head down on her table, a glass of milk separating as it spoiled. Yami Anzu woke in her Soul Room around 11:30 in the morning, and proceeded to stomp into her abiou's Soul Room and kick her awake.

"Hey Brat, rise and shine! I missed "Days of Our Lives" because of you!" Anzu rolled over and stood up, leveling a bloodshot and weary look at her Yami.

"Whoa." She reeled back. "Nice impression of a raccoon your doing." Anzu huffed and woke her body up, crusts of sleep and exhaustion sealing her eyes.

"Lemme alone, Kurina." She groaned and rolled over. Kurina, very unsatisfied by that answer, shook her.

"I ain't taking no for an answer!! GET UP!!!" with one mighty heave, she hauled her abiou out of her mental recesses, and into the awareness of her own body. Anzu looked around, utterly miserable.

"Ugh…no school…no way…no how." She resolved.

{Then at least turn on my Soaps!!} Kurina demanded. Anzu just moaned in defeat and trudged to the living room, turned on the TV at the right channel, and shoved her abiou into bodily possession, and spent the rest of the day in her Soul Room.

Yami, now in charge, walked his way to the Turtle Game Shoppe, when he passed Anzu's house. He looked in his backpack, taking out some papers. He climbed the steps and rang the doorbell, waiting patiently.

Nothing or nobody came to the door. Yami waited several more minuets, foot tapping. He rung the bell again, and decided to look in windows when he still got no answer.

{Why isn't she answering?} Yami asked. Yugi appeared beside him in the common grounds between their Soul Rooms. He tilted his head in thought.

{Could it be she's embarrassed from last night?} He mused.

{Could be, I still find it strange that Yami Tea did that.} He replied

Both of them became distracted when the phone began to ring inside the house. Yami looked in from a window at the phone.

{That's the school calling, I bet.} Yugi said. {They always call when a student is absent from school without an excuse. If she doesn't answer, then I'm gonna be worried.}

The phone rang for several minuets afterwards. Eventually the answering machine picked up, and it was the school. An automated response left a short, concise message and then the house was silent.

{Yami, I'm worried. She should have answered that. I know where she keeps a key in case of an emergency. You need to get it.} Yugi spoke.

Yami nodded, and walked out from the awning that covered the porch. Stepping on a ledge, and reaching over, his fingertips touched something metallic and cold. He grabbed the end of it, and pulled back. He tossed the brass key up, and slid it into the deadbolt and turned. A soft click announced the door was unlocked. The door swung in and he looked around. Everything was normal, nothing unusual. He went through the door into the kitchen and froze stiff. Yugi popped out beside him.

"What the…?" he asked. The kitchen was in shambles. Glasses laid shattered on the floor, dishes dashed against the countertop, the cabinet doors flung open. Food from other cabinets and the refrigerator colored the walls and appliances. The breakfast nook in the back had it's table against the far wall, and chairs upended.

"Anzu!!" both Yami and Yugi cried, dashing for the stairs to the top floor. Yami cleared two at a time, while Yugi's shorter legs took him only one at a time, but at a faster rate than Yami. By chance, Yugi looked down as his shoe made a squishing sound. On the sole of his shoe, and on the dark carpet was something dark. The scent wafted to his nose, and he could detect the unmistakable stench of blood. He stopped and looked up. For the rest of the staircase, each step was dotted with the same liquid. Whoever had bled over these stairs had been running quickly, obviously being chased by something. His stomach clenched as he felt what would await him up the stairs…a body.

Finally reaching Yami, Yugi stepped into her room. To his surprise, and relief, there was no body, but definitely more blood. The walls had scorch marks everywhere, handiwork of Yami Tea's magic. Everything was in the same way as the kitchen, utter chaos. As if a horde of Vikings had came and pillaged the whole room, top to bottom.

"What happened here?" Yami asked silently, as he bent over to touch the floor, traces of the pool of blood clinging to his fingertips. He wiped it from his hands and looked around. For once, he was totally lost. The only thing he knew was that someone or something had come into the house, injured Anzu, and disappeared with her.

"Yami…" Yugi gulped, mentally kicking himself for even thinking this. "You think she's alive?" he asked softly.

Despite the fact that he wanted to assure his partner that she was okay, he couldn't. He couldn't even assure that if she was dead, that her body was in one piece. He just shook his head sadly.

"I don't know Yugi."

Kurina moved again, then stopped with a groan. The pain in her body was almost too much. Every muscle in her body screamed in violent protest at any little motion. Breathing hurt, blinking her eyes hurt, thinking about hurting hurt. She took some time for the pain to ebb before she looked up to the ceiling. Above her hung a magnificent roof, of black marble and gold plated facets. Tapestries hung there, each hand sewn, each stitch, down to the last millimeter perfect. They told stories, beautiful stories of lands far away, of people and places that find their posterity in imagination and legend.

She knew all this, because she had been here before. This had been her room, she needn't even bother to look around, she knew where every last article and object was. She had lived here, over 2000 years ago as a refugee from a violent civil war. She had been taken in, fostered by an elderly man who had taught her magic and the secrets of power. She had been only 17 at the time. Still young and battled scarred from the terrible sights of her home in Thebes torn asunder by the rebellious armies. His tutelage brought forth her hardened heart, consecrated in the heat of hatred and stolen innocence. Innocence ripped from her on the dawn of her 20th year, when her guardian sought fit to reap his reward for fostering her in her own bed.

But then, even so far away from Thebes, the dark tendrils of the Shadow Games reached them. Many turned to her foster father to stop the madness, and he came with a solution, sacrificing a soul inside a powerful vessel. She volunteered, and was made the offering to the Gods for peace. She slept inside the Star, carrying within her the lost knowledge of magic. She had slept forever…

Beh, there's Chapter Seven. In light of Xing's recent decision to cut all NC-17 fics from FF.Net, I wish to extend a big "thank you" too all the readers who supported "Flood" so well. Even the flamers, who gave me a good chuckle now and then. This decision couldn't have come at a worse time for me, since I have the outline for the Flood sequel sitting happily in my hard-drive.

I also frown upon the statement that lemons are nothing but plot-less fics that have no depth and no actual effort put into them. Flood proves them all wrong in every aspect. I am proud to have given the web a decent lemon. If you wish to protest Xing's decision, an online petition has been started to make the point to Xing that the fic-reading audience wants their hentai!!

www.petitiononline.com/KEEPNC17

There are already on the upper end of 17,000 signatures already. Add yours today!!