Companions (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

Yuugi had taken his time getting to the mall. He was spacing out a lot today. He couldn't figure out if he'd been wrong the night before or if Atem had been. Or either of them. Or both of them. He shook his head as he reached the Mall. That really wasn't the issue right now. He was meeting Atsuro. As much as he wanted to call it hanging out, they had issues to deal with here. He had to ask about K1.

It was a serious conversation, but Yuugi found some relief in it. He wanted something to distract him from the situation on his mind. Anzu would be perfect to talk about that with, he realized. Well... if she didn't have the world's most blatent thing for Atem, anyhow. He wondered if she'd fall for a hypothetical situation? Then again, even she'd probably twitch over him liking a guy. He found a pained smile tugging on his lip as he thought of his grandfather. Man would support it once he got over the shock. Yuugi sighed and brushed a bang out of his face. Atsuro. He'd taken some time to get there, maybe the other teenager would be at the food court already.

He wasn't. Yuugi hoped he hadn't gotten lost. He tugged at the vest he was wearing. While Yuugi's memory wasn't this good, it was actually almost frighteningly similar to what he'd worn when he first met the members of Dooma directly under Dartz. The main difference was the vest was a bit lighter. He sat down at a table and stared at a watermark. He was back in his own head processing worries again quickly. Anyone that came up on him and knew him would see an uncharacteristic bit of worry straining his face. At least his hair made him easy to pick out of a crowd, even on the Island.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro had gotten to the food court earlier, but upon finding that Yuugi wasn't there, had decided to go occupy himself in the nearby electronics store. They had a whole slew of COMP related accessories. Apparently they also did repairs. He opened his bag, and looked at his long broken laptop. It had stopped turning on all together about a month ago. Not that you could get an ethernet feed in the Demon Realm, or even charge the thing, but he doubted it had to do with the charge.

He looked up as he caught sight of a rather unique hairstyle out in the food court, and pushed the laptop further toward the clerk before running out of the store and toward where he saw Yuugi sit down.

"Sorry, Yuugi! I was busy, and... are you okay?" Atsuro asked. There was an odd worried expression on Yuugi's face. Which told Atsuro that something must have happened.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi had drifted into his own mind again. He didn't hear Atsuro's footsteps. The short teenager was actually observant about his surroundings. Many people though him weaker or less observant than his psat life, but it came down to Yuugi just didn't say anything about his observations most times. However, his mind was in enough of a turmoil that he missed the steps, and he jumped when he heard Atsuro. He gave a blank stare as he played back the words in his head and screwed on a smile. It was weak.

"I-I'm fine, Atsuro-kun. Was I early...?"

He could have checked his own COMP to make sure. But it would have been rude, especially now that he'd asked. He looked back down at the table, breaking eye contact. The teenager was pretty clearly not okay, but he was sending signals that he didn't want to talk about it. Atsuro had freaked a bit over it. Besides that, it wasn't fair to involve Atsuro in a situation that really wasn't that important. At least he was trying to convince himself it wasn't. K1 was more important, he was almost sure of that much.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Okay, something bad had definitely happened. But Atsuro could tell Yuugi didn't want to talk about it, and dropped the subject. He shook his head and sat down across from Yuugi. Even sitting down, he was still taller than him... which made sense. But still.

"Haha! Nah, I was the early one. I got bored of waiting for you, so I was hanging out at the electronics store over there," Atsuro said.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Atsuro finally asked after a minute.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi looked up. Really, now that they were here like this, he wasn't sure. He had a million questions. He didn't know where to start. It wasn't like Atsuro could give a rundown of the past three months in any reasonable time frame. Yuugi turned his eyes upwards without moving his head, thinking. He was worried about Keiji, or Seth as he went by now. He really seemed to be on the periphery of the group. There was Kaido, who had handled Minato with frightening ease. Nao...Cain, too. Yuugi finally settled on something he thought might have an easier answer.

"You mentioned the moon phases in the e-mail. What was that about?"

As soon as it came out of his mouth, it seemed like a stupid question. Well, it had been asked. Yuugi adjusted in his seat, causing the metal chain that held the Pendant around his neck to hit against itself. It was a very slight kind of metal clacking sound.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro looked to the side as the first question came up. Well, that hadn't been one he'd expected. Probably should have expected considering what he'd said in the emails, but...

"Alright, I really don't understand too much of this myself, but apparently a demon's emotions and their strength is effected by the phases of the moon. After K1 absorbed Babel and became more demon than human, he started having the same kind of thing going on," Atsuro explained. "Most of the time, the Abel side is dominant, but the closer it gets to a new moon, the more of K1 shows through. It's just about the only time I can really talk to K1, not Abel. But it works the opposite way too. The closer it gets to a full moon, the harder it is for K1 to show through. On full moons, there's hardly any K1. It's all Abel. It takes a lot to get K1 to come out on a full moon... usually something really bad."

The last time K1 had really shown himself during a full moon had been that incident with Alice, where she had forced them into that demonic checkers game while all the while tricking Abel into believing his brother had been killed by Cain. It had worked too well, Cain had nearly been killed, Abel had nearly had a nervous breakdown, and all in all, it had been a bad day.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi noticed Atsuro turn away. Shoot, he'd hit a sore point somehow. Atsuro looked back towards him and tried to find a way to explain it. The part that concerned Yuugi the most wasn't the bit about the moons, wasn't the answer to his question. More demon than human. Yuugi tried not to look concerned and failed. Still, though, the moon was waning. So if K1 was this bad now...?

"He's... not human anymore, is he?" Yuugi bit his lip, "I mean... aside from... well, you know...."

The short teenager trailed off. It was a hard question, a really hard question. He still believed K1 was there. If it hadn't been for Atsuro's insistence before, Yuugi would have said he was clinging to a false hope. But both Seth and Atsuro had insisted K1 was still there. So he had to be, right? He wouldn't go around killing people for no reason, right? Yuugi looked down at that prominent stain on the table again. He was afraid of how Atsuro would answer.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro nodded. He didn't like saying it either, even if it was the truth. There wasn't denying the demonic pupils, or the way Abel acted. Atsuro rubbed a still sore spot on his arm. Or the injuries. K1 understood why he reacted the way he did to some things. Abel did not.

"He's better than he could be, though. You know Keiji... er, Seth. Me and him are pretty sure that if it weren't for him, K1 would be a lot worse than he already is. Probably be like he is during the full moon all of the time," Atsuro said sadly. "I think Seth's the only one who could probably calm K1 down if he ever went berserk... on the other hand, if Seth died, K1 would probably completely lose it."

He had once. Again, that had been a bad day.

[mugenginga]

"...Do you think you'll succeed?"

Yuugi had noticed Atsuro rubbing his arm. "Abel" was probably why. The short teenager really wasn't used to being this depressed. He was usually the happy one, the one that told the group to cheer up. He knew somewhere in the corner of his mind people tended to rely on that "genki" nature of his. When he wasn't, there were usually members of his friends who were. Now everyone was depressed. Atem was depressed too, and Yuugi knew even Atem doubted they could stop the Fall.

He hoped Atsuro understood what he was talking about. What it was, of course, was the War. Abel had made it clear that it hadn't started yet. Yuugi had carried some trouble processing things in relation to 'God'. Best he could figure is it was something like polytheism, with God just being so powerful everyone thought he was omnipotent. Still, it seemed a longshot for Abel to win. And if he did...

Yuugi looked down again. If he did, would the world be better off? It was unkind to think like this, but was it really any good for one tyrant as Abel seemed to think of him to be replaced by another? K1 had made his decision to save the world, but would it be saved? Yuugi had looked at his COMP's messages before reaching the mall. Atsuro-tachi weren't even getting decent food. Did that mean the state of the Human Realm had collapsed, too?

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro dropped his hand from his arm as Yuugi adressed him again. Did he think they could win? He believed in K1. He thought it was entirely possible Abel could defeat God. Was that the ending he wanted? No. He'd always thought this was a stupid idea from the start. But he had made the decision to stick by K1 to the end, and he was going to stick with it.

"I think so, yeah," Atsuro said. He looked down at the table again. "But I really don't support it."

This conversation had hit depressing pretty quickly. No, it wasn't just that. There was a bit of a heavy air hanging over them. Atsuro had a feeling it had something to do with this fall thing. It wasn't easy knowing you were going to die. It hadn't been during the lockdown, and Atsuro doubted it was easy for Yuugi too. At least K1's group would be safe. But Yuugi would die here like everyone else. Dammit, this wasn't right...

[mugenginga]

Yuugi rubbed the back of his hair and looked up. This was a really hard conversation to have. He could probably lighten it for Atsuro if he switched the topic. But what was there to talk about? Atem wasn't a good topic. If it was a girl Yuugi was sure he could have brought it up, but it wasn't. It was a fact those kinds of relationships were really frowned upon in Japan. Even an American would have been better, but Atsuro?

He decided to just keep with the painful conversation. It hadn't even occurred to Yuugi that Atsuro might find it odd he was by himself. Not only no Atem, but he wasn't with any of his other friends either. Yuugi backed off on his questions about the war, an icky feeling in his chest about what Atsuro was doing. Atsuro was really strong. Yuugi didn't think he could have done what the black haired teenager was doing if the situation was reversed. After all, it didn't look like K1 would ever really return.

"I did notice Seth hanging near..." Yuugi closed his eyes, ".....Abel. Is it because of what you mentioned? I mean, you said he knew..."

Yuugi didn't realize there wasn't a simple answer to his question. Seth didn't like to leave Abel alone, but before that "bad day" he'd been willing to. Now the "Prince" wouldn't leave Abel's side for anything. The reprimands had increased to the point of physical abuse at times because Seth was all but a growth to Abel since the occurance. So it was, but how it was now was because of the events a month and a half past.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro looked away again. That was a painful subject. There were a lot of reasons Seth hung around Abel now, but the main one was that day over a month ago.

"...It's complicated. Until about a month and a half ago, Seth was actually willing to leave Abel alone if Abel let him. But now he doesn't even like putting a room in between them," Atsuro said. He clasped his hands together. "Seth's literally Abel's last link to his humanity... about a month ago, we got to see what Abel would look like without K1. It wasn't pretty."

He looked back up at Yuugi. "Oh, I should probably explain exactly what happened then, huh? It was a full moon, and things were already pretty bad. Abel was trying to get help from this demon, Alice, and she called me and Seth out to negotiate with her. What we didn't know was that she'd sent some demons she controlled out to the palace, including this one shapeshifter that had taken Seth's form. Alice decided that she was going to use these demons as part of some crazy messed up game of checkers, and had me play checkers with her. I was starting to win when she apparently made that weird doppelganger pull out her final plan. She had it kill itself and make it look like Nao... Cain did it.

"Abel apparently lost it at the sight of Seth's body. Cain managed to calm him down, but Cain nearly died as a result of the injuries he got from Abel. Kikuri-Hime actually did die. Er, I don't know if you knew her, she was one of K1's old demons," Atsuro added on. "But because of what happened that day, Seth decided he wasn't going to leave Abel alone anymore. It's just Abel doesn't like that too much. He usually deals with it, but the last time a full moon came around, Seth ended up with a broken arm because Abel got tired of him sticking so close."

[mugenginga]

Yuugi winced as Atsuro looked away. It really wasn't fair that Atsuro had to be put on the spot like this. Thing was, the short teenager doubted Abel would answer. He was pretty positive Cain wouldn't, and he didn't trust Kaido that much either. Seth might, but Yuugi didn't think he would unless Abel gave him full permission. It was a really terrible set of circumstances. All because K1 had become a demon, it seemed.

He nodded as Atsuro answered the question. He had no intentions of prying over that incident about a month ago. Atsuro had referenced it a few times, albeit indirectly. When Atsuro looked back up, Yuugi made sure the black haired teenager knew he was giving his full attention. He didn't stop as Atsuro began to explain the situation. It seemed like something Atsuro wanted, possibly needed to get off his chest. Yuugi couldn't hold back a grimace at the description of the "game" though. It reminded him far to much of the Dark Games for any kind of comfort.

His eyes widened as Abel mentioned Kikuri-hime. This wasn't like the others. He, Atem, and everyone else had known her. Even at the worst, she had been kind. Yuugi had seen what he could only guess had been sadness as K1 had begun his discent. She had helped them in and out of the TV World so many many times. At times, she had seemed more human than K1. And she'd been killed? Yuugi looked down and closed his eyes. Some things were just hard to process. Like the scars on Malik's back, Yuugi just couldn't imagine having something like that carved into your back as a kid. The wounds kept open so the pattern would remain.

He didn't hear a lot of what followed the announcement about Kikuri-hime. Or couldn't process it. He jerked his head back up when Atsuro mentioned Seth's arm had been broken. More damage by Abel. If Seth wasn't there, Abel would lose it. It was worse than his early relationship with Atem, although he supposed comparisons could be made. Small ones, because Atem would have never targeted someone as kind as Kikuri-hime or caused injury to K2. Yuugi swallowed a lump in his throat as Atsuro finished up. This wasn't fair to Atsuro, they needed to stop. Yuugi was a bit sudden about standing to his feet.

"We don't need to talk about this anymore," Yuugi's tone was more of a plea, "You mentioned you wanted real food, right? I'll pay."

He turned to walk off, but paused. Atsuro had been forced to bare so much. About a close friend, too. Here he was just taking, forcing Atsuro to do all the giving. He glanced down at the familiar weight around his neck. He bit his lower lip and turned, all of this taking place in seconds and not giving Atsuro a chance to react.

"Hey, Atsuro-kun... what... what do you know about relationships?"

He winced as he said it. Somehow, he was relieved as well, though. He'd gotten it asked, and now he couldn't back out of it. Right now he felt like such a girl, though. He was seventeen years old, and he was asking for relationship advice. About another guy. From a guy who probably didn't know anything about it. Yuugi looked vulnerable right now, probably making Atsuro nervous he'd say the wrong thing. Still, Yuugi found himself thinking, he wasn't sure he could talk to anyone else about this right now. And it was a way to draw the conversation away from the painful subject of Abel...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro was grateful Yuugi had listened to his whole story. He'd needed to get that off his chest. There wasn't really anyone he could talk to about it. It had been a bad day, and no one in their group wanted to talk about it all that much. He looked up when Yuugi stood up, and stood up after him when he said he'd pay for lunch.

"No, it's okay, I can pa--" he stopped as Yuugi unloaded his next question on Atsuro. Atsuro blinked.

"Er, relationships?" Atsuro asked. Oh this was awkward. He'd never even had a girlfriend, so he didn't even know how to help Yuugi with his relationship with Atem. Oh, that was awkward to think about too. Those kind of relationships weren't exactly all that common outside of anime. Atsuro really didn't know what to say here.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi felt his cheeks get a little warm. To the outside world he'd have a very slight blush. Okay, he probably should have expected that trapped look from Atsuro. Yuugi turned away and hesitated. Each of his hands seemed to be grasping each other. It was pretty clear he was nervous. He took in a deep breath and after a few seconds let it out. He turned back towards Atsuro. The blush had faded.

"Um... yeah.... I mean, its okay if you don't know... and such... um..."

Well, at least it wasn't depressing. At least not on Atsuro's end. Yuugi was worried that Atsuro would say he couldn't help. He couldn't think of anyone to talk to about this. It sucked that the one person he'd normally talk to about things was the person causing the problem. A lot. Yuugi sighed and continued looking nervous as he waited for an answer.