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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 12, 2010 22:30:12 GMT -5
Souji did facepalm as Teddie made the bad pun. He should have expected a bear pun to show up in there somewhere. Ugh.
Minato smiled only a tad bit as Teddie made his point. He still looked rather depressed. "...Yeah," he finally replied to Teddie.
Souji looked down the hallway. It was dawn. "...The others don't know about Ryoji yet. We should probably tell them."
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Post by mugenginga on Mar 12, 2010 22:32:53 GMT -5
Teddie looked over to Souji as he turned. He then looked down the hall. It would probably be better if they split up to do so.
"Who should go where? I could tell Naoto-kun and Kanji-kun if you wanted..."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 12, 2010 22:43:21 GMT -5
"That would probably be best," Souji said. "Me and Minato can tell Yuugi and Atem."
He looked toward Minato, who gave a slow nod. "Yeah... that works..."
"Alright. I guess we'll go see them now, then," Souji said. He and Minato started heading toward the stairs to head up to Yuugi and Atem's apartment.
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Post by mugenginga on Mar 12, 2010 22:55:51 GMT -5
Teddie nodded and ran off towards the stairs. His general enthusiasm meant he'd reach there far ahead, especially considering the possibility Minato was dragging his feet. He turned to flash a reassuring smile towards Minato again before heading down the stairs. He walked over to the apartment he remembered Naoto was sharing with Kanji and gave a rythmic knock on the door.
"Naoto-kun, Kanji-kun, hello?"
No one had ever accused the bear of being patient. He found himself being nervous, too. It wasn't exactly easy news to share. He was convinced they could save Ryoji in his blind optimism, but it was possible it wouldn't be taken well. Both Sensei and Minato had been rather depressed about it. Well, it wasn't like he didn't understand death... but seeing someone laying in a hospital bed was rather different then them just "walking off" in the middle of the night.
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Yuugi pushed open the door to the bedroom. He winced as the light hit his eyes and covered them. He gave them a painful rub. A few sparkles danced in front of his closed eyes from the pressure before the pain subsided.
"Partner, I'm glad you're awake," Atem said.
"It's bright out here..."
Atem let out a sigh, "Yeah, sorry. Didn't feel like sitting in the dark, won't do either of us any good."
"What's up, Atem?"
"Pretty much everything. Partner, with four of the Items here, I'm positive the other three will show up. For all we know, they're already here," he reached into his pocket and put his fingertips on the Ring. It was cautious, at least until he was sure it wouldn't burn him, "We can't just wait for them to find us. People could get hurt."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 12, 2010 23:10:54 GMT -5
Minato and Souji had reached Yuugi and Atem's room long after Teddie had reached Naoto and Kanji's. Minato was lagging a fair bit behind Souji, but Souji had gone slowly enough that Minato hadn't gotten left behind. Souji stopped in front of Yuugi and Atem's door and looked toward Minato for a moment before lightly knocking on Yuugi and Atem's door.
"Yuugi, Atem, are you awake?" Souji asked through the door. "It's important."
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Kanji was the one who ended up opening the door to his and Naoto's apartment that morning. He wasn't wearing much other than a pair of penguin boxers. Well, he had just gotten up before Teddie had knocked on the door.
"Huh? Teddie? What are ya doin' here this early in the morning?" Kanji asked.
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Post by mugenginga on Mar 12, 2010 23:19:09 GMT -5
Teddie smiled for a moment when Kanji opened the door. Then he remembered why he was there. His smile frowned and he looked a bit worried about something. He nodded as if Kanji had asked if he had something to say and looked past the bleached blond.
"Is Naoto-kun up? She needs to hear too."
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Yuugi hung his head, "Y-yeah... Atem?"
"What?"
"Will it do any good?"
Atem sighed, "I don't know. I'm still most concerned about-"
Atem had paused and looked towards the door. Yuugi had looked towards the door at the knock as well. Souji sounded really serious. The two teenagers exchanged glances. Yuugi broke it first and headed towards the door, pulling it open. His mouth was open to ask what was up when he saw Minato behind Souji. Wearing Ryoji's scarf. Looking crushed. His eyes widened. Some had called him gullible, but Yuugi wasn't stupid.
"Oh no..." he whispered.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 12, 2010 23:42:53 GMT -5
Before Kanji could answer, Naoto walked out of the small hallway leading to her bedroom. She was similarly underdressed, wearing not much more than a bra and some underpants, but she'd at least had the decency to pull on the white shirt she wore underneath her uniform before leaving the room. It was still unbuttoned, though.
"I'm awake, Teddie," Naoto stated. She yawned and walked toward the door. "What is it?"
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Souji looked pained at Yuugi's reaction, while Minato buried his face into the scarf.
"...It's just what you're thinking. Ryoji left last night, during the Dark Hour," Souji said. He decided not to go into the details of what happened. Not yet, anyways. "He's at Tartarus now."
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Post by mugenginga on Mar 12, 2010 23:56:53 GMT -5
Had it been Souji... or pretty much anyone else in their group, they might have had the decency to be embarassed. Or suddenly very interested. In Teddie's case, he just noted Naoto was there. He looked a bit nervous before taking a deep breath. How would Sensei have said it?
"Ryoji-kun's gone," he winced. Even he was aware that might have been a bit blunt.
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Atem had come up behind Yuugi. While Yuugi was still in his full pajamas, Atem was actually dressed. The faint outline of the Ring could be seen in his left pocket. He frowned as Souji confirmed what Yuugi had guessed. The frown wasn't judgmental. In fact, it looked rather pained. He looked away.
"Do... Do you think we can chase him?" Yuugi said. He turned before he got an answer, "Atem, what's wrong?"
"I doubt he blames you, Minato-kun."
Yuugi blinked and looked back at Minato. That seemed an awful random statement, but Atem was good about catching things like that. Still, he would have expected criticism from the former Pharaoh, not pity.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 13, 2010 0:09:40 GMT -5
It took a moment for Naoto and Kanji to react to that. Naoto just looked to the side. Kanji looked shocked, and almost pissed.
"...I... see," Naoto said. That had been a little blunt, but it was probably the easiest way to say it.
"Dammit! He just ran off, didn't he!" Kanji growled. It wasn't much of a question.
"...Most likely. He said before that he'd try to hold on as long as possible... it seems that his will finally gave out," Naoto said. "I suspect Minato-kun is not... taking it well."
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Souji had been prepared to answer Yuugi's question, but Yuugi had turned toward Atem and Atem had spoken up first. Souji looked toward Minato, who was trying to avoid looking at any of the three in the group.
"It doesn't matter if he blames me or not... he's still gone. I don't think we can do anything about him until the full moon," Minato said. He was still speaking quietly.
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Post by mugenginga on Mar 13, 2010 0:20:19 GMT -5
Teddie flinched as Kanji ranted. Actually, yeah. It had kind of looked like that to him. And Sensei had let him past, so he had too. But Kanji hadn't seen his face. He'd looked broken. Pretty similar to how Minato looked at the moment. Sensei had said something about the guy he'd gotten his emotions from. He wasn't sure what to do with that. Teddie chose to focus on the one thing he felt he could give a decent answer too.
"He's really really depressed. He and Sensei are talking to Yuugi-kun and Atem-kun. I went to Minato-kun's apartment this morning because I thoght he'd need someone to talk to. He was really depressed last night too..."
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"Don't lie to yourself, Minato-kun," Atem stated, "It does matter to you."
"Atem...?" Yuugi said.
"Partner, maybe you should go check on the others with Souji-kun. I want to talk to Minato-kun alone."
Yuugi blinked. Where was Atem hea- his thoughts cut themselves off. He knew exactly where Atem was headed with it. Had Atem... even then? According to what Jounouchi and the others had said, Atem had taken the mess with the Orichalchos Boundary really hard. He looked at Minato for a moment before turning to Souji.
"Come on, Souji-kun," he smiled. His eyes were asking Souji to just listen to Atem.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 13, 2010 0:38:17 GMT -5
That fit with what Naoto was thinking. Minato and Ryoji had seemed really close. Really close. And Ryoji had just run off in the middle of the night like that. Based on what Teddie was saying about Minato having been depressed the previous night as well, Minato had been present when Ryoji had tried to run off, and most likely had failed to stop him.
"If he's that depressed, then perhaps we should try to cheer him up a little bit," Naoto said. Not that there was much cheering up she could do. She wasn't very good at these kind of emotional things. It was something she tended to do very badly at. And the world was ending soon. It was hard to cheer someone up with that hanging over their head.
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"But..." Minato started, but Yuugi had spoken first. Souji looked over at Minato and Atem and nodded. He'd honor Atem's request.
"Yeah, let's go," Souji said. He started heading toward the stairs, leaving Minato alone with Atem.
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Post by mugenginga on Mar 13, 2010 0:47:04 GMT -5
Teddie nodded, "Yeah, that's what I was trying to do! Minato tried to chase me off but Sensei helped me talk to him. Wanna go upstairs? I bet they're talking now!"
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Yuugi waited until they were on the second floor landing again before speaking up again.
"Sorry about that, Souji-kun. I think Atem wants to talk about... oh, you don't know. Um... it's something I don't think he's ever really forgiven himself for. He basically played this evil card and then lost this game. Not a Dark Game, but the wager when the game was lost was the loser's soul. I pushed him out of the way, it's kinda complicated, and Atem had to go through a bunch of stuff to save me. I'm not really quite sure what all of it was, he really doesn't like talking about it."
Yuugi looked towards the third floor again, "I'm really surprised he's talking about it now, actually..."
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Atem watched his Partner and Souji walk off. He seemed a bit relieved. He stepped out of the apartment. He closed the door and took in a breath before finally refocusing on Minato.
"You do blame yourself, Minato-kun. I know that look," he rubbed one of his cheeks, "Jounouchi-kun punched me over it. I was so depressed I probably wouldn't have done anything... are you familiar with the events surrounding my Partner and the Orichalchos Boundary?"
(OOC: Minato only would be if he knew the anime. It occurred during the Dooma filler arc. The famous beserk button almost killing Haga with holograms scene occured in that arc. Don't worry, I can answer any questions you have about it from fuzzy memory. Anime only, though, and Minato has shown more familiarity with the manga.)
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 13, 2010 1:07:38 GMT -5
Naoto and Kanji exchanged a glance. "Um, in a moment. We need to put on some decent clothing first."
The two of them retreated back into the apartment, where Naoto got to work pulling on some pants and buttoning up her shirt while Kanji found a shirt and some actual pants to wear.
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Souji smiled. "Maybe he thinks he can help Minato by talking about it. Use it as an example or something like that."
He continued walking forward. They were going to go check on Naoto and Kanji, after all.
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"A bit," Minato said. He'd seen that part of the show in passing, but he only knew the basic plot details. This guy had been using these Orichalchos things to take people's souls to revive Leviathan... or something like that. He remembered when Atem had used it on the show. It had been a bit creepy. And he'd spent the rest of that part of the show depressed.
"...I should have stopped Ryoji, though. I just let him leave. This is different," Minato said.
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Post by mugenginga on Mar 13, 2010 1:24:29 GMT -5
Teddie blinked at Naoto as she mentioned decent clothing. Actually, Chie had nearly had a heart attack at the thought of him taking off that suit when he'd first shown his human form. He didn't really get any of that. Girls did tend to seem worse about it than guys, too. He nodded and waited for them to finish up.
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"I just hope he doesn't get depressed again... he blames himself for the whole mess with the Millenium Items, too," Yuugi looked towards Souji, "Oh, nevermind. Naoto-kun and Kanji-kun, right?"
Yuugi seemed a bit overenthusiastic to change topics. He ran past Souji and would reach the bottom of the stairs first.
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"How? He's gone because of something you did, or in this case didn't do, right? And now you're so depressed that you hardly look like you're willing to do anything."
Atem noticed Minato wasn't maintaining eye contact. To be precise, the teenager was going out of his way to avoid it. The former Pharaoh had a cross expression cross his face. He crossed his arms.
"You know a bit. Let me tell you the full story. I got pushed into a corner in a Duel by a man named Raphael. This was well after I'd seen what that damn Boundary did to people who lost in a game, but after I'd also seen the way it seemed to increase the power of those that played it. Double the monsters, the attacking force if you will. Each of those individual forces got a power boost as well, but the cost was a taint of their souls as a reflection of the person using them."
"And the effect on the user? A complete disregard for anything other than winning. Under the influence of the Orichalchos Seal, I would have gladly killed just to win a game. I treated the monsters that I even then instinctively knew as souls as worthless trash. I was worse then before my Partner was able to acknowledge my presence, let alone before we began working together. At least then I acted on some semblance of justice."
"My Partner tried to stop me, Minato-kun. He put every ounce of his ability into it. I could feel him pulling on me, trying to force some kind of dominance. This might sound crazy, but at one point I would have bet my life that he was grabbing my arm and preventing me from playing that Orichalchos Boundary card. I threw him off and played the damn thing. I proceeded to lose the Duel, the first time I'd ever lost a Duel due to my own actions. I should have paid the price for that, but I didn't. Because Partner expressed himself so strongly he managed to shove me out of the way of the receding Boundary."
"I'm not saying to stop blaming yourself. I'll even go so far to venture that you probably never will. But if you give in to this depression, you will lose Ryoji. Even without Abel's words, I can tell how much... and how you care for him," Atem let out a sigh, "You have to do what you can. If you think it has to wait until the full moon, I'll take your word for it. But I refuse to accept there isn't something you can do before then. I'll tell you this. I doubt Ryoji blames you for any of it, and he'd probably blame himself if he saw you acting like this."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Mar 13, 2010 1:44:38 GMT -5
Naoto came out wearing what was essentially her school uniform just without the jacket and Kanji came out wearing his black skull sleeveless shirt and some black pants. The typical.
"Sorry we took so long," Naoto said. "We should go on ahead now."
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Minato continued avoiding Atem's eye contact as the tanned teenager gave his explanation. Minato hadn't known things to that detail. He'd just seen a bit of that duel, so he knew about some of what had happened, like the parts where Yuugi tried to stop Atem from playing the card.
He continued looking down at the floor as Atem finished up. Atem said he'd lose Ryoji if he didn't get out of this depression. He did care for Ryoji. He cared for him a lot. He wanted to save him somehow, or he'd die trying. Not like they weren't all going to die anyways.
"...Yeah," Minato said. He still didn't really seem to have heard Atem, though.
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