Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Visions of the Heart ❯ Hikari Shadows ( Chapter 5 )

Unmei: WSJ doesn't own YGO. Jonathon and the creature posing as Jonathon are hers.

WSJ: Sorry this chapter's so short. Trust me, they'll be getting longer the farther along you go. Unfortunately, that also means they take me longer to edit. Hopefully I'll be able to do one a day, but I'm not promising. School's hell right now.

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Visions of the Heart

Chapter 5 -- Hikari Shadows

~Ishtar's POV~

My jaw went slack. The only way that a hikari and yami wouldn't be able to feel one another psychically was if one or the other of them was dead or dying. I didn't want to think about what this meant for Ryou.

In my arms he was beginning to tremble violently, and his eyes were closed tightly in pain. I swore softly and lifted him onto the couch, rubbing my hands over his face and neck. "Come on Ryou, stay with me! Keep your eyes open, damnit!" I felt Malik's hand on my shoulder and I half-turned to look at him.

"I'm calling Yugi," he said quietly. He was stating the fact, not asking my permission, but even so I opened my mouth to protest. Under my hands Ryou gave a particularly hard shudder and I snapped my jaw shut and nodded, heaving a sigh.

"Alright. Go ahead. But make it quick!"

Malik nodded and headed for the kitchen to get the cordless phone, while I continued to try and keep Ryou awake. Falling asleep now could prove disasterous for him.

--~Yugi's POV~--

Granpa was out running some errands, and the shop had already closed for the evening, so Yami and I were just sitting around the livingroom. I was trying my best to wade my way through my algebra homework, and Yami was pouring over an ancient scroll he'd found in some obscure corner of his soulroom.

"Hey Yami," I asked, chewing on the end of my pencil. "If x=17 and y=-22, then what does (y+x)2y-(-36+6x)/2+y equal?"

He looked up at me, a slightly amused, slightly amazed look on his face. "You're asking me? I had to use an abacus to count anywhere above ten."

I chuckled. "And you could only count to ten on your fingers, right?"

He opened his mouth to answer, then shivered and hunched over the coffee table we were sitting at. "Yami, what is it?" I asked, leaning over to make sure he was all right.

"I-I felt a disturbance in the Shadow Realm. Something's happening."

My eyes widened in terror. "Do you think it's Bakura? Ryou was acting really strangely at school today."

"I do not know aibou. But I can feel that someone has cast a Shadow Spell."

The both of us nearly jumped out of our skins as the phone rang. We sat staring at each other, trying to get our breathing back down to a normal level, before I rose to answer it. "Turtle Game Shop, this is Yugi Moto speaking."

The voice on the other line was high-pitched and sounded a little frantic, so it took me a moment to place it as it began to babble about Ryou and yamis. "Whoa, whoa, slow down Malik, now tell me what's wrong."

Apparently Yami had senced my distress, because there was a click as he picked up the upstairs extention. He could be completely solid in his own body now, though only for short periods of time and only if I was nearby. "Tell us what is wrong." //It must be pretty bad if he is calling us.// he added mentally.

I agreed as Malik began to try to explain the day's events. He got no farther then finding Ryou in such poor condition, however, before my yami interrupted. "We will be there as soon as we can."

"There's more..." he said, rather weakly.

"We'll figure it out when we get there." I said, and Yami and I hung up. We met at the foot of the stairs on our way to the front door.

"Do you think this has any connection to the Shadow Spell you felt earlier?" I asked.

He frowned. "I'm afraid it does. I can sence a lot of negative energies spiraling around Ryou's house, like buzzards waiting to swoop in as soon as their prey is dead. I am very afraid for Ryou right now, as well as Bakura."

I gasped as we sprinted down the street in the direction of my friend's house. "You mean they're in real danger?"

Yami's frown deepened. "Yes." he said, half to himself and half to me. "It's getting far too near the time of the Locking Rituals..."

"The what?"

Yami blinked, as if suddenly remembering I was there. "The Locking Rituals. Once every 200 years the Shadow Realm choses a pure heart to be sacrificed to it in exchange for staying out of the affairs of the mortal realms. And if the spell I felt is what I think it was, then Ryou's in a lot of trouble."

I staggered and almost fell as the realization of what Yami was saying hit me. "You mean the Shadow Realm wants Ryou!?! But why? How?"

"The spell I felt was a Switching Spell, for lack of a better translation. I have most of my memories from my days as Pharoah back, and I remember that Bakura had, or rather, has, a brother. Bakura locked him in the Shadow Realm. I think the spell was Jonathon switching places with Bakura, which leaves Bakura in the Shadow Realm, Jonathon as the Spirit of the Ring, and Ryou very, very vulnerable, because that would break the link between yami and hikari."

I yelped in dismay and increased the speed of my sprint without even realising it.

"Ryou!"

~Ryou's POV~

The pain was too great for me to handle. It was a thousand times worse then any beating Bakura had ever given me. It ate through my heart and seemed to be burning my very soul. I felt strong arms lift me onto something soft (the couch?) as I twitched in agony.

I got a vague sense that someone was rubbing my arms, neck and chest, trying to keep the circulation going, all the while muttering at me to stay awake.

I can't... It's just too much... I try to reach out to Bakura. He's always there, even if he hates me for it. But I only run up against a blank wall. No link. No mental ranting. No Bakura.

I feel myself beginning to dim, and I know I'm losing conciousness. I welcome it, hoping it will bring relief from my pain. But it does not. In fact, it only intensifies.

I scream, locked in the confines of my own head as the agony washes over me in waves. I can feel the darkness creeping closer, waiting to take me. Take me where? For what? I do not know, and I'd rather not care to find out.

But it seems I really don't have much of a choice.

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WSJ: Ahh, and the plot thickens. (smiles)

Unmei: (eyes her) ...You know, you do a lot of really horrible things to me...

WSJ: (sweatdrops) Yeah, I know. And there's more to come.

Unmei: (groan) Great...

God bless minna-san!