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Post by mugenginga on Aug 23, 2009 20:25:00 GMT -5
"Oh..." Yuugi also had not missed the similarities of the early situation and the incident with Keisuke. He stood up, "We... probably shouldn't leave her alone right now, then. Friends are the best thing for when you're depressive, even if you're trying to push them away..."
Yuugi waited for K1 to respond. In actuality, the way he felt over the story made him want to leave the area. Not to run away, really, but to do something. Doing things was almost as good as friends when one got down. He was also worried what Midori would "do" in her grief. At the worst, she could get killed, and Yuugi didn't want to see the look on K1's face get worse.
Atem remained silent, but he actually didn't agree with Yuugi. The best thing when you felt depressed was time to yourself as far as he was concerned. But Yuugi... all of their friends, really, had this way of getting through to people. He glanced at his deck. He'd have to pull the God Cards out if he wanted to do this, but duels were also good for venting frustration. He chose not to suggest that to Yuugi, at least not for the moment.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 23, 2009 20:42:00 GMT -5
K1 looked back in the direction Midori had gone. "Yeah, let's go." He left his plate where it was and got up to look for Midori. Since she'd gone the direction of the entrance of the hotel, he assumed that she'd left to go somewhere.
"Looks like she left the hotel... dammit!" K1 ran out the door.
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In truth, she'd run up to her room and was crying in there. She had the screen of her COMP open, and was staring at it.
"Zero-sama... you said you'd watch over me, right?" Midori asked. She didn't know if he could hear her or not. She didn't even have the COMP open for him; she was waiting for the next morning to see if another Laplace Mail was going to come.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 23, 2009 20:57:01 GMT -5
Zero was aware of Midori's presence, but not throught he COMP. The system had protections that weren't computer based around it. It reminded him of some things... legends like Giratina and Darkrai, actually. But it certainly wasn't electronic. He of course knew about demons from his world, and if he didn't know any better would have sworn that's what the protection aroun the COMP was.
But he was aware of Midori's general location, just through the island's network. At some point the program that connected over half the island had all but blown up. Some virus had been inserted in the system and he had chosen to let it run its course. It had actually tried to attack him, but he had deflected it with some effort. More from underestimating it. Whoever had programmed it quite knew what they were doing. At least he had enough data to jump over the holes in programming and keep track of Midori. He had no intention of appearing before her.
Yuugi had paused in the hotel's doorway and sent a thought to Atem, "The other me, you think you could use the Puzzle? I know it helped us find Jounouchi-kun once..."
"I consider him as good of a friend as you do. You might not take this well, but I find that girl rather annoying. I can't use the power for that. If we had the Millenium Ring...
Yuugi mentally shook his head, "It's alright. I'm gonna tell K1 we're staying here."
"K1-kun! We're going to check in the hotel!" Yuugi said through cupped hands, "You go ahead and check out there, okay?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 23, 2009 21:22:56 GMT -5
Midori was still crying. Even though she wasn't sure if Zero was listening or not, she at least had someone to talk to.
"Zero-sama, lately it's just been one thing after another. Even on the island. Finding out I really was Magical Dolly was cool and all, but it's just a small spot of hope after everything that's happened this past week." She wiped away a tear. "I hate it. And I don't even know what my being here did to my home. No one was supposed to escape the lockdown. If we did, horrible things were going to happen. But I'm still here."
She let out a sob. "Keiichi-kun's such a jerk. He probably thought that was funny too. Making jokes about Keisuke-kun, even though he's dead... Keisuke-kun was always so nice to me though... I got so mad at him when he started killing people. I even thought to myself 'He needs to be punished', and was even going to tell Kaido that he's the one who killed all of those people. But in the end... I couldn't do anything to help him."
She gave a small laugh. "I'm such a hypocrite."
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K1 nodded to Yuugi, then ran off. He headed for the places he thought she'd go. The bookstore. The video store. The arcade. Anywhere.
Nothing. She was nowhere to be found.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 23, 2009 21:31:31 GMT -5
Yuugi actually had the sense to figure that if Midori were in the hotel, she'd been in her room. He wasn't all that great with girls, but he knew Anzu or Mai-san would have stomped off to their rooms if they got angry. Although Mai would have likely smacked someone upside the head first... and Anzu would have done her scary rage thing.
"Excuse me!" Yuugi said, making a point of walking to the back of the counter to be sure he'd be heard.
The hotel clerk bumped his head as her jerked up from surprise. He sighed and turned to face Yuugi, "Yes?"
"I'm looking for a girl named Midori. Uh, she's fifteen, dressed in this really outlandish outfit, got glasses... uh..."
"Oh. The cosplayer? Yeah, I know her. But why should I give you her room number. That's confidential you know."
Yuugi wasn't sure what to say, so he panicked a bit and flapped his arms up and down, "It's really important!"
The hotel clerk shook his head, "Never mind. But if she asks I didn't tell you. Her room number is ###."
"Thank you very much!" Yuugi quickly bowed. He pulled out his COMP as he ran towards the hotel rooms, quickly typing in a message.
Yuugi slammed the COMP shut. The long time he had taken to type the message had allowed him to get to the room. He was baffled as to how people could write messages on mobile phones so quickly and had no clue as to what abbreviations could be used. Upon reaching the door, he took in a deep breath, fearing that she'd fangirl on him again. He made three heavy knocks on the door.
"Midori-chan? Are you there? K1-kun's really sorry!"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 23, 2009 21:44:22 GMT -5
The beeping of the COMP caught K1's attention, and he immidiately pulled it out. Upon reading the mail, he breathed a sigh of relief and sent a reply message.
After hitting send, he turned around and ran towards the hotel.
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Midori didn't respond to Yuugi at all, and instead stared off into space.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 23, 2009 21:50:17 GMT -5
Yuugi was about to hammer on the door again when he heard the COMP beeping. He jumped, still not used to the device. He flipped it open and read the message, letting his shoulders sag. Well, there wasn't really anything he could do anyhow.
He walked to the side of the door and slid into a sitting position using the wall as a guide.
"She's okay, right? She's just ignoring us?"
"I'll be honest. For all we know the hotel teleported her somewhere else," Atem paused, "Don't worry though. I'm sure she'll be fine."
Yuugi managed to grin, "You aren't that sure. You're lying through your teeth. But thanks," he paused in his thoughts, "You seem more annoyed at her teasing earlier than I'd expect. Is there something you wanna say?"
Atem found himself turning away, "No," It was short and sweet.
A person more observant than Yuugi would have caught the hesitation in Atem's voice. But it went right over Yuugi's head, "All right. I guess we wait..."
The entire conversation had taken place in Yuugi's head. Probably a good thing, as even a depressed Midori might have had a field day with that conversation. And for once, she would have been on the right track. Not that Atem would admit to that...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 23, 2009 21:58:17 GMT -5
It took K1 less time to get upstairs this time, because it ended up that she was somehow on the same floor as their rooms. Some luck.
After a few minutes, he stopped next to Yuugi. "She's in here?"
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 23, 2009 22:02:09 GMT -5
Yuugi had gotten to his feet when he saw K1 materialize. And for once, he wasn't surprised, "It's the room the clerk said she had. I haven't gotten a response though... The other me thinks she might have been teleported to another part of the hotel," he paused, "Actually, I'm not sure she's in there... but Anzu and Mai-san would have gone to their rooms after something like that, so I kind of assumed..."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 24, 2009 5:13:41 GMT -5
Deciding it was better to try at least, K1 knocked on Midori's door. "Midori? Are you in there?"
There was finally a response from inside. "Keiichi?"
There was a pause on K1's end. "Midori... I'm so sorry. It just slipped out, and... I feel horrible about it, and it's just..." He sighed. "I'm sorry."
She didn't respond.
"Midori?"
The door opened showing a red-eyed Midori. "I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."
She slammed the door on K1.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 24, 2009 8:27:27 GMT -5
Yuugi winced as the door slammed shut. When he was sure Midori wasn't going to come out to say anything else, he walked over to K1, "At least she's okay, right?"
Yeah, well... Yuugi wasn't always the greatest at finding the words. But the effort was there. And Midori had been there, in the hotel. And the hotel had behaved. So it really could have been a lot worse.
"Are you going to be okay?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 24, 2009 18:57:17 GMT -5
K1 looked at Yuugi after staring at Midori's door for a bit longer. "Huh? Oh, yes. I'll be just fine."
He looked back at the door. "I'll be just fine. We should leave her alone anyways."
The teen then started heading back downstairs. He wanted to ask Yuugi about himself. If Midori was going to be hanging around (if she wasn't still mad at him), then it would probably be helpful to know about Yuugi's past.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 24, 2009 21:02:59 GMT -5
Yuugi hung there for a second, looking at Midori's door. He had put up a good front, but he was worried. K1 was even more worried, that was more than a little obvious. And the story K1 had told... Yuugi shook his head. He couldn't deal with it to have friends die like that. He realized K1 was halfway down the hall and ran after him.
He made sure to smile when he caught up with him. Most he could do know was be there. Atem glanced at K1's pose. The teen was trying to find the words for something, and Yuugi was trying a little too much to be strong for the other teen. But he kept quiet. The brunt of the situation was over and there was no need to make things complicated by speaking.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 24, 2009 21:14:00 GMT -5
After walking for some time, K1 looked at Yuugi. "So, who is Atem, anyways?"
That looked like it would be a good start to the conversation. It would take the topic off of Midori for now, and it would help K1 get to know Yuugi better. Most of all, it would help K1 take his mind off of all that had happened in the past week or so.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 24, 2009 21:21:07 GMT -5
Yuugi seemed to space out for a moment, althoguh a lot more was going on in his head than could be seen by most people.
"Shouldn't you answer this?" Yuugi thought to his other self.
"The only thing I could add that you don't know are details of my growing up. Does it make you feel uncomfortable talking about me?"
Yuugi shook his head, "No, I just thought you'd like to answer. You're sure, right?"
"I wouldn't have said so if I wasn't. Go ahead," Atem responded.
Whatever had caused Yuugi to space out for a moment went away. He turned towards K1 as the pair reached the stairs, "He's an Ancient Egyptian Pharoah who sealed himself so that this really nasty evil known as Zorc couldn't take over the world. Actually, this puzzle," Yuugi lifted the puzzle a bit, "is what he sealed himself into. Although it got all broken up so its powers couldn't be accessed. It took me eight years to solve it, actually."
Yuugi paused at that point. He was sure K1 would have questions now. Oddly, he didn't think of the biggest question being why on earth Yuugi spend eight years on a puzzle. Or why any puzzle would take that long to solve, for that matter.
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