Chapter 15: - MAZE Daze
"No, Yugi." The small Shadow Mage froze as his friend approached, her tone icy and her eyes glaring, "You can't expect me to hang around with him. It's not fair!"
Tea had almost missed school on Saturday, but she'd managed to talk her mother into letting her go.
Now, as she faced down Yugi, she wished she hadn't. Not when Yugi wanted to bring Bakura into their group of friends. After everything the spirit of Bakura's Millennium Ring had done to her, she didn't want to be within a few hundred yards of the boy.
Yugi probably would have bowed to her request too. He was so unsure around his friends that he tended to follow what they wanted rather than risk fighting with them. After he'd helped Bakura free the other souls that had been trapped within the game pieces of Bakura's Monster World RPG however, he'd made a promise to help Bakura with his magic and the spirit of the Ring who apparently shared a name with his host.
As Tea knew far too well, Yugi didn't break his promises.
It didn't help that while she was letting her thoughts on the matter clear, none of the others were getting involved in the row. A row that was less like a fight and more like her shouting at Yugi, who looked a little lost, as if he didn't know what to do or say.
"But it wasn't..." Yugi tried to defend the other boy but she didn't give him a chance.
"I know it wasn't!" Tea snapped back, noting the way the others glanced around as the pair spoke, hoping there was no one around to hear them, "But Bakura's ghost isn't like Yami! He doesn't play nice with his host!" She glowered at him, "He just takes control whenever he feels like it!"
"But…"
"And he wants your Puzzle!" Tea continued, "He tried to kill you! How can you trust him?"
"It was the spirit of the Ring, not Bakura who tried to kill me." Yugi replied, "And I promised I'd help Bakura stand up to the spirit."
"You didn't think the rest of us might object?" Tea demanded.
"Hey don't drag me into this." Joey held up his hands in protest. "As long as Yami can trounce the spirit of the Ring, I don't care."
"What about you two?" Tea wheeled around to look at Sakura and Tomoyo.
"Well… it is safer for everyone if Bakura sticks close to Yugi…" Sakura started.
"Fine." Tea glowered at her friends. "I'm going home."
"But Tea…" Yugi took a step forward, almost pleading with his first real friend.
"No, Yugi!" Tea shook her head, shifting her bag on her back, "I'm not hanging around with him until he has some control over his ghost. If you're going to hang around him, then I'm not sticking with you either!" With that Tea left, leaving a crushed looking Yugi behind.
"Sorry." Bakura said, his voice quiet. "Maybe I should…" He turned to go.
"Don't." Joey shook his head. "She probably needs time to think. She'll come around." He left off 'I hope'.
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It wasn't like Tea was oblivious to what had happened last night. Sakura had filled her in on the fact that Bakura was possessed like Yugi, and it had been the spirit of the Ring that had challenged her to a Shadow Game, not the boy himself and she was fully aware that Yugi had risked his life last night in order to save her and Li.
She even knew that Yugi had pushed himself too far by helping Bakura free everyone that the Ring spirit had imprisoned in those little Monster World figurines, hence why he'd been late to school this morning.
Tea had just had enough.
She just couldn't understand how Yugi could be so calm around the other item wielder when the spirit of the Millennium Ring, who was apparently also called Bakura, had challenged and almost killed him last night.
And though she had been informed that Bakura wasn't the one who had challenged her to a Shadow Game and trapped her Soul in a figurine for some board game, it didn't help Tea's nerves at all that the person who had done it was the spirit of the Millennium Ring. The spirit who could take control of Bakura at any time he wished, since Bakura never took the Ring off. Now Bakura was, at Yugi's insistence, hanging around with her and her friends. Yugi was convinced that he and Yami could handle the other Millennium Spirit if he got out of hand again.
In theory she understood that Yugi was right, it was better for Bakura to be friends with someone who could stand up to the spirit of the Ring then for him to make all new friends and have the other spirit steal their souls too, but it was too much for her.
She had had a nice, if slightly boring, normal life before Yugi had completed the Puzzle and Sakura had released the Clow Cards and, though she didn't want to stay away from her friends, the fact of the matter was that she couldn't handle this any longer and she didn't know how Tomoyo did it.
Joey she could understand. He hadn't been around as long as she had so he hadn't been through as much as she had, and he lived with Yugi so he didn't have much of a choice other then to put up with it unless he wanted to go back to his father's flat in Domino (assuming that his father still even had a flat).
Sakura had little choice. She'd accepted that weirdness was going to be a part of her life when she'd agreed to capture the Clow Cards and as long as Tomoyo could record the weird events she seemed perfectly happy to be involved.
Not that Tea hadn't wanted to be involved. She liked her friends, she really did. But when she'd signed up to their brand of weirdness there had been no mention of anyone having their soul stuffed in an inanimate object.
If she was honest she was just sick of it all.
Sick of magic. Sick of trouble. Sick of everything.
As much as she would miss the adventures, she just didn't want to deal with this stuff any more.
It wasn't like Yugi needed her anymore. He had the others - Sakura, Tomoyo, Joey and Yami to look after him. Just last week Yami had dealt with a bully that had caught Yugi unaware and Joey never left Yugi's side when he could help it, half out of nervousness about being in a new town and half out of loyalty to the boy who was a good friend and who had taken him in when he'd been in trouble.
So what use was she to Yugi now?
The thoughts running through her mind as she left her friends were not reassuring ones.
The others left the school grounds soon after her. Sakura had heard from one of their classmates that Tsukimine shrine sold charms that were supposed to help in romance and she was going to pick one up on their way to Yugi's house, where he was planning on showing Bakura some of his books on meditation. He figured that if they had helped him become more aware when Yami was in control of his body, there might be something in them that could help Bakura.
No one really knew what to say as they headed down the road. Tomoyo and Sakura felt a little awkward around Bakura, but hadn't wanted to say anything, Joey wanted to reassure Yugi but didn't really know Tea well enough to be certain of anything, Yugi was miserable, since it was the first real fight he'd had with his friends and Bakura was wondering if he should just tell Yugi to forget about helping him, since it seemed to cause trouble for the other Millennium Item wielder.
Not that it really mattered once they reached the shrine, since the moment they stepped through the archway the world warped around them and a bright light temporarily blinded them.
When the light died down, they were in a maze with odd green wall that were slightly springy.
"A Clow Card?" Tomoyo asked as Sakura called her staff.
"Obviously." A voice behind them caused them to jump.
Yugi wheeled around, only for Yami to complete the action and glower at the speaker. "Li." He said with bare hostility, unsurprising considering that Li had been causing trouble for Yugi all day.
"Where…?" Joey asked, surprise obvious.
"He was following us." Yami tensed up at the second voice, looking at Bakura quickly, and swiftly getting between his friends and the boy who wasn't Bakura any longer. "He has been since you had that argument with Gardener." Ba-Khu-Ra smirked at Li who took a step back.
"Leave him alone, Bakura." Yami growled. "Getting out of here is much more important then your petty schemes."
Ba-Khu-Ra gave the Pharaoh an insulted look. "You think I'd be stupid enough to start something here?" He asked, ill amused.
As the two of them descended into a glaring match Sakura, warily, turned away to consider the maze.
"We should just blast our way through." Li commented, wanting to get away from the crazy item wielders as soon as possible.
Sakura nodded, calling on the SWORD card, which could, supposedly, cut through anything.
Both Yami and Ba-Khu-Ra wheeled around as she slashed at the wall, "Don't cheat!"
It was a little late for that as Sakura's blade slashed through the wall, cutting a path temporarily, until the wall joined back together with an odd squelch and the world around them started shifting.
"What the…?" Yami demanded as both the Ring and the Puzzle started glowing of their own accords.
He didn't get an answer as the floor shifted under them and the group was split up. Li, Tomoyo and Yami were dragged off in one direction and Sakura, Joey and Ba-Khu-Ra another.
"What did you do?" Li demanded of Yami once the world had stopped moving around them.
Yami, rather than answering, examined the world around them. It was uncomfortably familiar to the Pharaoh, with its sandstone stairways and hundreds of doors. It was both his prison while Yugi wasn't wearing the Puzzle and it wasn't at the same time.
"A replica." Yami mused aloud, confusing Li. "I suppose if anything the Millennium Items could come up with that's maze like it would be this place, but it does give me the advantage."
"What are you talking about?" Li demanded, looking around, "What did you do?" He asked again, glowering at the nameless Pharaoh, who scowled back at him.
"I did nothing." Yami replied, watching his temper only because Yugi asked him to. "The Ring and the Puzzle acted on their own. Probably because you and Sakura tried to cheat your way through the maze."
"You're telling me that the Millennium Items warped the MAZE card because they objected to taking a short cut?" Li gave him a disbelieving look.
"Shadow magic has always been closely tied with games and battle." Yami snorted back, uncaring if Li believed him or not but wanting out of this replica of the inside of the Puzzle as soon as possible. "It's quite possible that the Millennium Items considered The MAZE a type of challenge and when you advised Sakura to cheat her way through, they changed the game."
"Using a Clow Card to beat a Clow Card isn't cheating." Li objected.
"If it allows you to do something that breaks the rules, like breaking down walls, it is." Yami pointed out.
Li just scowled at him and stomped off. Tomoyo looked between the pair, unsure what to do or what to say. Yami just waved her concern off and went to follow Li, if only to stop him doing something else stupid, only to pause when Yugi's mental voice reached him.
"Yami? Let me take over."
Yami paused, a little confused. 'Aibou?'
"I'll switch with you if it gets dangerous, but I can sense how much Li irritates you." Yugi sounded amused, "Let me deal with him for the time being."
'He dislikes both of us.'
"He doesn't know there's two of us." Yugi pointed out, "The person he dislikes is 'Mutou Yugi' which can refer to either of us, since we both use my name. Besides, Li doesn't irritate me as much. I can handle him for longer and we need to find the others before we make our own way out of here."
Yami snorted, 'If he kicks up any trouble, or we run into the Thief King...'
"Don't worry. I'll switch in an instant." Yugi promised.
Yami switched over with Yugi and the eleven year old caught up to Li, who had stormed off ahead and was now considering the doors that were embedded in the walls, and Tomoyo, who was still watching the pair of them as if she expected them to start brawling at any second.
"Where do they lead?" Li demanded of Yugi who passed the question on to Yami, only to get a really helpful reply.
"I have no idea."
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"If you..."
"I would suggest, unless you plan on fighting me, that you stop right there, Wheeler." Ba-Khu-Ra growled, ill amused by the world around them, easily able to sense the way that the Shadows were interweaving with a darkness that wasn't part of them, but a separate power that was being boosted by the older, stronger magic, rather than being absorbed by it, and wondering if he should have paid more attention to the nameless Pharaoh's friends since they seemed to know what this magic was.
The Thief King wheeled around and glowered at Sakura as he realised that the same darkness that weaved among the Shadows was supporting her Stars as well, "What is going on?"
Joey considered Bakura carefully as he put himself between her and the Thief. He didn't like the spirit of the Ring and, understandably, he didn't want to tell the spirit anything about the Clow Cards in case he decided he wanted those as well as Yugi's Puzzle.
Sakura put her hand on Joey's arm, moving to his side as she did so. Joey was acting brave, but he had no magic, he couldn't fight Bakura as effectively as she could, "We get magical events happening all the time." She offered, "We," And by that she meant her whole group of friends, "Normally deal with it."
"Your magic uses the same darkness this," Bakura gestured at the maze surrounding them, "Don't tell me you don't know what it is."
Sakura took a step back as the Ring glowed dangerously, but it was Joey who answered, "Your magic's the same as Yuge's does that mean you know everything he does?"
Ba-Khu-Ra scowled at him but acknowledged his point, the glow from his Ring dying down.
"There's lots of magic in Tomoeda." Joey continued, "Sakura's Stars and your Shadows are just two of them." The blonde shifted into a defensive stance, glancing warily at the Ring, not really wanting to get on the wrong side of the spirit of the Ring but, at the same time he didn't want the other Millennium Spirit to target Sakura, "Things like this happen often. We end up dealing with it. As far as we know, no one else can." Joey shrugged it off, trying to distract the thief.
Ba-Khu-Ra snorted and turned away from the boy to consider the girl again, becoming amused when she gained a scared look.
Spending time around the group in the guise of his host, he had gotten a feel for the group and the magic that weaved around them, especially since, now he didn't need to attract other Shadow wielders in the area since he knew and went to school with the only one around here, he had no need to waste magic by letting it run rampant through the city.
As the tide of Shadows receded it was easier to sense other brands of magic within the group of friends, be it the Puzzle holder's Light, the blonde boy's Chaos or the brunette with the green eyes' Starlight, not that he was convinced that the other two girls involved in the group were completely non magical, in fact he was certain that he'd known someone whose aura was very similar to the black haired girl.
He had no concern about the group as a whole. There was plenty of powerful mages in the group, but the only one that could possibly have matched the power of his Millennium Ring didn't have the knowledge necessary to tap into the full power of his own Millennium item.
Not that that meant Ba-Khu-Ra thought that he had the advantage over the Pharaoh by any stretch of the imagination. 'Yami' may have been missing the knowledge to draw on the incredible, unmatched power of the Puzzle, but the spirit's instincts were sharp enough that he could protect both himself and his host from anything.
That was fine. The spirit of the Millennium Ring was more than happy to stick around and keep an eye on the Puzzle, waiting for the other Millennium items to show up. Now the Pharaoh had reincarnated they would be drawn to the Puzzle, finally completed after five thousand years. He wouldn't even have to leave Tomoeda. He could stick around, letting his host play nicely with the Pharaoh's own and the other items would come to him.
And, once he had the other five Millennium Items, he would challenge the Pharaoh again.
And he would win.
However he couldn't do anything until he got out of here.
"Neither of you have anything I want." The Thief King smirked at the pair, amused when the blonde blanched slightly and the girl took a step back, "So unless you get in my way, I won't challenge you. However I suggest, if you like your souls where they are, you won't challenge me either."
"I won't let you harm Yugi." Joey growled at the Tomb Robber.
Ba-Khu-Ra's only response was to snort at the boy in amusement, then started making his way through the maze, using the Millennium Ring to locate the Pharaoh.
Joey pulled at face at the thief's back, not trusting him as far as he could throw him, then followed him, if only to make sure that he didn't challenge anyone else either.
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'Yugi!'
Yugi relinquished control momentarily, allowing Yami to yank Tomoyo and Li back just in time to prevent them from being squashed by the huge block that had landed just inside the doorway they had been about to walk through, before taking the lead again and backing up quickly as Li advanced on him furiously.
"Maze isn't supposed to be an offensive card!" Li snarled, his fraying temper completely unravelled after the latest of the traps that seemed to be behind almost every door, "No traps! No staircases that leave you on the ceiling! None of... of this!" He emphasised every statement with a poke, pushing Yugi backwards, towards the edge behind them, "And this is all your fault!"
Yami seized control as Yugi's foot slipped on the edge of the ledge and panic coursed through the boy when he glanced over his shoulder and saw how far it was to the floor below.
"This is not my fault." Yami shoved back, moving away from the edge, "You're the one who tried to cheat!"
"Li-San! Yugi!" Tomoyo got between them, "Now's not the time."
"Yes, it is." Li pushed past her. "There's no exit to this maze, we're trapped in his 'Game'."
"There is an exit." Yami snapped back, catching Tomoyo's arm to stop her stumbling too far, "And this isn't my Game. I have no control over what's going on."
"It's your focus that caused this! This has to be your fault!"
"This is not my fault." Yami growled, his tone low and dangerous and the Puzzle glowing, "And if you... Aibou?"
Yugi, sensing Yami's intentions, had taken spirit form and put himself between the Pharaoh and Li.
"No, Yami." Yugi shook his head, nervously standing up to his guardian, "You mustn't."
'He would have pushed you over the edge.' Yami growled, causing Yugi to realise that the Pharaoh's anger was more due to Li's attitude towards him rather than Li's insistence that this was their fault. 'And a fall like that...'
Yami didn't need to elaborate but Yugi didn't move.
"Yugi?" Tomoyo asked when she worked out that it wasn't Li that Yami was frowning at, raising her camera and looking through the viewfinder only to see that Yami was looking at Yugi who was stood, arms spread wide, between Yami and Li. "Yugi?"
The second time she asked the way she said it, her tone full of concern and surprise, made both Yami and Yugi look at her, then Yami's frown softened.
'Alright, Aibou.' Yami said, turning back to the boy who allowed him to share his body, 'But if he does it again...'
"Thank you Yami." Yugi slipped back into control and Tomoyo breathed a sigh of relief.
Li, who was completely oblivious to just how close he had just come to losing his soul, however was just confused and angry that he was being ignored and stomped off, opening one of the nearby doors and stepping through it, only to fall through the floor.
Yugi was there in a heartbeat, slamming into the ground as he dove to the floor, managing to get a hold on Li's wrist, both boys letting out a pained yell as their shoulders wrenched.
"Hang on!"
Fear coursed through Li as he dangled in mid air, the only thing stopping him from falling to his death was Yugi's hand on his wrist.
"Li!" Yugi tried to reach for Li's other hand, "Take my hand! Please!"
The strain in Yugi's voice was evident as Li stared at him, confused.
When the floor had given out under him he'd thought that was it and now the one person he'd constantly maligned and pushed around was saving his life?
"Li please!" Yugi pleaded, unable to reach Li's other hand, his grip slipping.
"I've got it." Relief coursed through both boys as Tomoyo, who had discarded her camera, grabbed Li's other hand. The pair pulled and, once Li managed to get his hands on the edge, he pulled himself up. The three children retreated to the ledge, where they sank to their knees.
"Are you alright?" Yugi asked, pain darkened amethyst eyes watching him as their owner's hand went to his side where he'd hit the floor.
"You saved me?" Li asked, shocked, his shoulder killing him, "Why?"
"Because you were in trouble." Yugi blinked at him.
The pair stared at each other for a few moments, as Tomoyo recovered her camera but didn't get to talk further as the others came around the corner.
Tomoyo rushed over to her friend, the pair hugging each other, as Joey darted over to Yugi's side.
"You ok, Yuge?"
Yami took control as soon as Ba-Khu-Ra came into view. He winced as he got to his feet, ready to fight, but was quickly surprised when Li got between him and the Thief King.
"You..." Li practically radiated fury, but whatever he was going to say was drowned out by a ringing bell.
Everyone froze as it rang again.
"Where's that coming from?" Joey demanded of everyone.
"It's not a sound you'd normally hear here." Yami scowled, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. 'And I would know.'
His aibou sent reassurance over the link but it didn't help much. Yami lived here, or somewhere that looked very much like here, and he'd always, always known where the door out of this maze and into the corridor between his and Yugi's mind had been.
Such knowledge had always helped him relax when he'd wandered the halls of the Puzzle when Yugi was in school and kept him from going crazy when Yugi had to take off the Puzzle and he was locked inside the maze.
Now however, he didn't have it and it was making him nervous. It didn't help that Ba-Khu-Ra was here and the last time the two of them had met the Thief King had tried to kill Yugi. If you added Li's actions earlier to the mix, it was enough to have the Pharaoh rather irritable.
"If it's not a sound you'd normally hear here," Sakura spoke up, "Then maybe we should find out where it's coming from. The exit might be close."
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"Kaho?"
When Kaiya had phoned him to say that none of the children had made it to her house and had they arrived there instead, Toya hadn't known what to expect, but it hadn't been to run into Mizuki Kaho at the Tsukimine Shrine.
"Toya. It's been a long time." Kaho gave him a brilliant smile, only serving to confuse Toya further, his eyes falling to the bell in her hand when she rang it. The sound echoed in a way that seemed to reach him on a whole different level.
"It's called the Moon Bell." Kaho explained, "It should be able to pierce that," She gestured to the wall behind her which looked like it was built of sandstone and whose doorway was full of swirling shadows, "But there's something in there that shouldn't be and..." She shrugged helplessly.
Toya's mind was refusing to move past the fact that Mizuki Kaho was in Tomoeda. "You're back?"
The woman chuckled. She could understand Toya's confusion. They had been a couple a couple of years back, before she had gone to England to study, however now was not the right moment for the pair of them to talk, "I am. I have a teaching job nearby that I'm due to start soon, at Tomoeda Elementa..."
Kaho trailed off as a group of six children piled out of the door, the group wheeling around to face it as one of them pointed her staff at the wall and cried out, "Return to the guise you were meant to be! MAZE Card!"
The wall turned into white smoke which drained into a card at the end of her staff, which then floated into Sakura's hands.
"Kinomoto Sakura!"
Sakura winced at her brother's tone and the other children jumped a mile. Toya's eyes swept the group and he found himself unsurprised when he spotted everyone, except... "Where's Gardener-San?"
"She and Yuge had a fight, so she didn't come with us." Joey spoke up, trying to ignore the glowering contest that was going on between Yami and Ba-Khu-Ra. A glowering contest that ended when the Thief King decided he'd had enough and left, stalking past Toya and leaving.
"Mutou." Toya called, distracting him, "Your mother's worried sick."
Yami nodded and relinquished control to Yugi, who was about to phone his mother when Li grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the others.
"Mutou, I need to tell you something."
Yugi nodded, well aware that Yami was watching what was going on, just in case Li tried anything.
"The man who attacked my family, he's an American called Pegasus, he's collecting Millennium Items."
"Thanks for the warning." Yugi nodded, about to dial his mother's number when Li spoke again.
"That's not all." Li said, "He knows where you are."
"What?" Yugi's yelp attracted the attention of the rest of the group, who turned their way, "What do...? How?"
"I told him."
"Why?" Yugi, who was stunned by Li's words, didn't hold Yami back any longer, the furious Pharaoh demanded an answer the moment he took control, the Puzzle glowing brightly, the Shadows dancing. "Why would you hand another family to him? Do you hate us that much?"
"Yu..." Joey went to try to calm Yami down, only to find he couldn't get to the pair, "Oh boy."
Li backed up, having seen the Shadows before and panicking. "He swore he'd release my family if I told him of any Millennium Item holders I came across!"
Yami scowled deepened but he ushered away his Shadows, "And you believed him." It was a statement rather than a question and Li looked miserable as he nodded, stating clearly that 'Pegasus' hadn't kept his word.
Yami just turned away from Li, unsure how to feel and wanting nothing more than to get home and check on Yugi's mother, a feeling that was backed up by his aibou.
"Go." Toya told Yami as he stalked over to Joey.
"Kinomoto-San?"
"I understand, just go. I'll explain everything."
"Thank you." Yami nodded.
"Toya? What is going on?" Kaho asked as Yami and Joey raced back to Yugi's house.
"It's a long story." Toya warned her.
"I have nowhere to go."