DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)
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Kaiba Headquarters
"Well, this is bound to make Atem move." Instead of preparing strategies and tactics for their game, he was using strategies and tactics to make Atem come back. If 'friendship' reasoning got canceled out because 'I trust my friends' was enough, then it was time to pull it all closer to home. "Isis Ishtar. Deceased. Bullet. Marik Ishtar. Knife. Rishid. Ouch." All of them were dead. To make matters worse, it all happened days before Yuugi's own grandfather had been attacked in the Game Shop.
He didn't waste much time. From what he had squeezed out of Atem and Yuugi's Grandpa, it was apparent what was going on. Someone was after anyone who knew Pharaoh. "If somebody knows, then why was Yuugi left alone?" And why bother with Jounouchi's sister?
He left again. He was on a mission and he wasn't stopping until he accomplished it. For so long, ever since the Pharaoh left, he had a need inside of him to see and duel him. Enough that he went through any lengths to see him again. But it wasn't enough. There was more to it, he could feel it, like an itch he couldn't scratch. There was something inside, deep inside, that was trying to accomplish the impossible. Not just see Pharaoh. But to get him back. He needed him back and that need never changed.
<<<<"Scrape it. Scrape everything that you can with his name.">>>>
<<<<"No one must ever know. Get rid of it all.">>>>
Kaiba heard the voices in his head. His past life. It happened more and more as he visited the afterlife. "I know there's something I've got to do, but what? I have something I need to do, but what?"
Back to step one. Finding more information. Something would trigger Pharaoh to come back.
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Shizuka's Apartment
Kaiba went over by the door but heard struggling inside. ///Seto: Am I too late?/// He went toward the open door and went in. Two people had Shizuka on the ground. Not noticing his presence yet, he took the upper hand to get them off.
"No! Grab the gun!" The one who fought with him yelled. "Slay the Dragon!"
Slay the dragon? What were they spouting? Kaiba moved out of the way and prevented the man with the gun from using it. "I don't think so." The other man was on the ground, beneath the trigger he aimed, but the other one started to head out. "Now, you. Why are you messing with Shizuka Kawai?"
"We were here to slay the Dragon," the man repeated.
The Dragon? "What are you talking about?" Kaiba pushed the trigger closer to his head. "You really don't want to push me right now. Talk."
"The Blue-Eyes White Dragon, it's going to be reborn in her," the man said. "It's close. It's coming. It's the second most important!"
Kaiba searched him. He didn't make any sense. He looked at papers on him, trying to figure out what was going on. ///Seto: I knew it, this has nothing to do with trafficking. Second most important. Blue-Eyes White Dragon?/// He looked toward Shizuka, listlessly on the floor. She hadn't moved an inch since everything started. "Still can't see." Hm. He knocked the man out in front of him. "Fine then, you're coming with me." He picked her up off the ground by her arm, getting her to her feet. He moved her in front of him as they headed out. He closed the security back up.
"Hurry it up." He'd give Jounouchi a call and let him handle this mess for the information. Then he wouldn't have to get his hands dirty, which were kind of full anyhow. He took Shizuka downstairs but she started to whine. "Pull yourself together. This is no time to break down." He looked back at her. She was doing more than shutting her eyes, she was squinting like they were in pain. He needed to get her to the company's doctor. He kept moving her out toward his car. She didn't try to leave as he started the car.
He glanced back at her. "Be brave and face the world, even if you can't see it." He wanted to see her eyes.
"Jounouchi," she quietly whined. "I need my brother."
"He's going to be a little busy here." Kicking some ass for some answers that he was going to share if he wanted his sister back. "Open your eyes."
She removed her hands and tried to. It wasn't much longer than a couple of seconds, but it was long enough.
Blue eyes. Not just any regular blue eyes, light blue eyes. Cerulean, almost. The colors that stood out on his favorite rare cards that he never left behind. ///Seto: They are performing some kind of ceremony. Magic is coming back somehow, to create the Blue-Eyes. They want to kill her to stop it. Shizuka. She didn't act like her, did she? The woman in my dreams. In the visions./// They looked nothing alike. Kisara had been pale and fragile, an outcast with how she looked. Shizuka had brunette hair and different eyes. She was nothing like that. ///Seto" Damn, it's the closeness to the Pharaoh! Anzu's spirit. Jounouchi's sister. That means Jounouchi and Yuugi are both in trouble. Oh and that troublesome pregnancy.///
If the Pharaoh didn't come back, it wouldn't be just people killing his friends. It'd be monsters being reborn.
Honda and Jounouchi could have a ball with the intruder. Meanwhile, he needed to see more about this.
---
"You know, Honda?" Jounouchi pushed the intruder in Shizuka's Apartment over to Honda. "It's amazing how fast someone learns a native language when they've got inspiration."
"Yeah," Honda agreed, pushing him back. "Like getting their ass beat! What were you doing here?!"
"And why is Shizuka second most important?" Jounouchi had gotten the low down from Kaiba. As much as he wanted to go and get his sister, these were the scum that were after his friends and family. Kaiba called it right too, these weren't Skeezy's gang. He'd be glad to give the bossy rich guy information if it got rid of the threat. "Why you pretending to be something you weren't?"
Information was still slim, until Jounouchi pulled out something to change the tables. A knife. He grabbed him roughly. "Do I look like I'm playing? I shifted lives and might have created irreparable heartbreak to my friends to keep them safe! This isn't any game, I want answers, now!"
"He never thinks of consequences either," Honda backed him up. "That guy lives in the moment, and right now all he sees is you."
The intruder finally started to talk. "The bearers, if they are gone, then it's over! No more magic. Without magic, there can be no end of the world."
"There isn't any more magic," Jounouchi warned him.
"We didn't mean to hurt, we are trying to save," he tried again. "We aren't hurting anyone that we don't have to. The enemy will come until time runs out. We had to slay the dragon."
"My sister is not a dragon!" What was wrong with this guy?
"Yes, she is meant to be. The important chosen ones have remained around him, feeding their power."
"Most important chosen?" He couldn't be talking about Yuugi. Could he? He wasn't perfectly fluent in the language. "That's long over, nobody's with him and my sister doesn't have any power." This guy was not treading nicely.
"Please, we aren't responsible, we swear for it!"
For what? "Responsible for what?"
"The Pharaoh, the Pharaoh's return, it was destiny!"
What? "Atem is not coming back you freak!" Geez, it had been years . Didn't people give up already? "That guy was a good friend, so your mystic chanting and wannabe magic and dragons, it doesn't help your situation." It only made him more mad. Atem was at rest, and people still had to spread rumors and stir it all up. Ugh.
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Kaiba's Headquarters
"Sit there." Kaiba sat Shizuka down as he went by his laptop and phone. It shouldn't take long considering Jounouchi's reputation of handling things. He booted up his laptop and heard the phone. "What do you have, Jounouchi?" Kaiba listened to the obviously not happy man while he was getting the data on the one he found.
Yep, that wasn't a normal 9-5 street worker on the clock. "Hm." Then, as Jounouchi started to send him more information, he started to remember again. "Jounouchi, congrats on your little bastard. How far along is he?" Jounouchi complained some about the greeting, but he eased up and admitted it was a she. Oh, and it had a name? "Mana. Who the hell named her Mana?" ///Seto: Just what I thought. The Dark Magician Girl's summoner is being reborn./// "Come get your sister. I'm out of here. I'll leave her with Mokuba." He handed her a security pass, but looked at her oddly. Weighing options. "My guards will be coming to get you. Expect some ranting from my little brother, but tell him I will see him soon."
Real soon because he just did it. He just won against Atem. ///Atem: Preparing for the Pharoah. The Dragon. Mana. Yuugi and Anzu being pushed together instead of pulled apart? Oh yes. I know what's coming.///
There was no way he could say no now. Even Horakhty's recommendation wouldn't mean a damn thing once he knew.