Of Gods and Lovers (Rei no Kaado)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato nodded at Anzu's question. These definitely seemed to be the same Jounouchi and Anzu after all. But Anzu had the Key tied around her neck, and Jounouchi had the Scales... that just seemed wrong. Not just because of how they both had items tied to Shaadi, but the fact that they had Items at all. He would ask about that later.

Souji had walked up to the three of them after Minato had ran over to Anzu and Jounouchi, managing to catch Anzu's question.

"We're friends of his," Souji stated. "He lives on the floor above us. Why are you looking for him?" Well, Souji was certainly straight to the point. On the other hand, he'd noticed the Key and Scales as well, and while the Key didn't look all that special, he had managed to spot the eye on the Scales, and coupled with how the Key was tied around Anzu's neck, he could make a couple guesses.

[mugenginga]

Jounouchi looked offended at Souji's comment, "Hey, no need to be so rude! We're his friends!"

"Jounouchi-kun, he wasn't trying to be rude! He was just asking a question!," Anzu turned away from a glare from the blond, "I'm sorry about that, but he's right. We're his friends, we live in the same city and go to the same high school. I'm Mazaki Anzu and this is Jounouchi Katsuya. Is Yuugi home?"

"It's fine if Atem-kun's the only one too. We know him as well," Jounouchi said.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato blinked as Jounouchi mentioned Atem. "You guys know about that...?" Who had told them about Atem and Yuugi being separate people? It was possible whoever had directed them to the apartments had mentioned it, but Atem and Yuugi didn't really talk to many people outside their group.

"Atem was out last time I checked, but Yuugi should be up in his apartment," Souji said. "And I'm Seta Souji. This is Arisato Minato." He indicated Minato.

"Nice to meet you," Minato said. He couldn't help but think what a bad time it had been for Jounouchi and Anzu to suddenly appear... nine days to live, and these two appeared on the island. That was... just cruel.

[mugenginga]

There wasn't a chance for any reactions to be had by the two new arrivals to that. As soon as Minato had said it was nice to meet them, the door Souji and Minato had been blocking less than a minute prior opened up. Jounouchi and Anzu both looked up at the sound and happened to look right into Yuugi's eyes. The short teenager's eyes widened in stunned surprise.

"Yuugi!" Anzu said, her slender build allowing her to slip between Souji and Minato and run over to the short teenager.

"Hey, Anzu, wait up!" Jounouchi said.

"......Guys?"

"Yo," Jouchi said with a smile, "Don't act like you've never seen us before! Jeez!"

"Yuugi, are you okay?"

"Wha-what are you doing here!?"

Anzu looked extremely concerned at his reaction, "Is there something wrong with us being here?"

"He's so happy to see us he's in shock!" Jounouchi said. However, his smile turned to a look of concern when Yuugi didn't laugh in response, "Hey, what's up? You look more like you saw a friend die or something."

Yuugi looked about ready to cry, "You shouldn't be here!"

"Yuugi, what's wrong?" Anzu said. She was now very worried.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji and Minato both wheeled around as Anzu ran past them and over to Yuugi. The moment they saw Yuugi's expression, they knew something was wrong. They exchanged a glance, knowing exactly what Yuugi was worrying about. These were friends of his, after all. And the imminent Fall wasn't making things any better...

"Things have been a little stressful lately..." Minato said. He really wasn't sure what else to say. It wasn't like he could say everyone was going to die in nine days and they just got themselves caught up in it.

[mugenginga]

Jounouchi looked up towards Minato as he spoke. Anzu was looking at Yuugi's expression. He looked almost horrified. That made absolutely no sense, Yuugi was the type of person who loved to see his friends. Something was very wrong. She shook her head and got a stubborn expression.

"Yuugi, you have to tell us what's wrong!" She insisted.

Yuugi winced as she spoke. She was right, he did. It was only fair. He looked past the two friends from his own world at Souji and Minato, and then back at Anzu. Neither of them might like that he was going to tell them, but he had to. It was their support that had helped him so many times before.

"I... that is... I know this sounds insane, but this world might be ending in nine days and anyone here when it happens will die..."

Jounouchi blinked, "Are you serious?"

Yuugi nodded. Anzu actually looked relieved of all things, "You said might be ending, right? So you just have to stop it, right?"

"Anzu...?"

"Come on, Yuugi! Cheer up! You've saved the world before, you can do it again! Aren't you always saying you shouldn't ever give up?"

Jounouchi jerked his thumb towards where Minato and Souji were, "Now that that's outta the way, these guys your friends? They keep looking at us funny."

"Jounouchi-kun!" Anzu said.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji and Minato both blinked at the ensuing conversation. Yuugi had told the truth... and then Anzu had just accepted it and encouraged him to stop the world's ending without caring about the specifics. Minato looked a little depressed at that, but at the same time, he seemed to understand why Anzu was thinking the way she did.

"Yes, we're Yuugi's friends," Souji said. "Didn't we already say that?"

Izanagi, though, was more focused on the dark energies coming from the Scale and the Key.

More dark objects like the Pendant and Ring... This cannot bode well, Izanagi said.

I saw that, Souji replied.

"Well, you two both have Millennium Items on you... I think that's plenty reason to be worried," Minato said.

[mugenginga]

Jounouchi seemed to ignore Souji. However, when Minato spoke up, the blond looked over in surprise. He blinked and then looked back at Yuugi. The short teenager had finally noticed the two items around the time Minato had mentioned them. He met Jounouchi's eyes when he turned back.

"How did you guys even get those?"

Anzu grabbed the Key and took it from around her neck, "I don't know either. I was told it was on me when I woke up in the hospital and-"

"You were in the hospital!?"

Anzu seemed downright touched at the reaction, "I'm fine Yuugi, really! Just a bit of a bump on the head!"

"Same here. This was on me when I found Malik an-"

"Wait, found Malik...?"

"You don't know?"

Yuugi shook his head, "I think Bakura-kun was with Malik! Jounouchi-kun, what happened!?"

Jounouchi looked serious again, "According to some Adachi guy, Bakura-kun stumbled to his apartment recently with the crap beaten out of him. If he was half as bad as Malik was when I found him...."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato blinked in surprise as Jounouchi said he found Malik. He hadn't been informed of the fact that Bakura was staying with Malik, or that Malik was even on the island. But things suddenly got a lot more serious as Jounouchi said what Adachi had told him about Bakura. But Souji looked most alarmed at Jounouchi's last comment.

"Did you say Adachi told you this?!" Souji asked. "I thought things had been too quiet with him. I thought Bakura wasn't staying with him anymore, too..."

Minato thought back. That morning, he had seen Adachi and Bakura, as he was closing his door behind him. Adachi had been supporting Bakura, and heading as quickly as he could down the hallway.

"Sounds like Bakura's in the hospital, then..." Minato said. "And whoever attacked him's probably the same person who attacked Malik."

"I don't like this..." Souji said out loud.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi looked over at Souji and Minato as they spoke. One could see the situation sinking in. Bakura had gone with Malik. He'd probably chosen to do so after the encounter that got the Rod to Atem. The group didn't know about that yet, actually. Then someone (or something, as much as he didn't want to think of that possibility) had attacked Malik or Bakura, and the other had gotten caught up in it. Why would anything attack them? Yuugi looked pained. If more people from his world were showing up, it was possible Bakura had been caught in some kind of crossfire. Still, Malik didn't strike him as the type to go down easily, so whatever had attacked them must have been strong.

Jounouchi had looked over towards Souji as he emphasized Adachi. Past history? Jounouchi noted the way Souji had spoken. While he was a bit daft at times, the teenager wasn't stupid. Past history, and rather negative at that. Jounouchi frowned as Souji went on. Wasn't staying with him anymore, huh? His eyes widened. If Souji knew Adachi, then...

"The guy said he knew the name of his attacker. Does the name Lucius Starr ring any bells to you?"

"Is Bakura-kun going to be alright...?"

Anzu looked worried, but managed a smile, "I'm sure he'll be fine. That hospital looked really state of the art, Yuugi."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji's eyes widened as Jounouchi mentioned the name of Bakura and Malik's attacker. Even with the possibility of it being someone with the same name, which Souji doubted, there was still that incident the Ring and Adachi to consider. Lucius had been a Persona user. He'd known about Takahashi getting thrown into the other side. Izanagi had sensed something off about him for a moment. And now it turned out that that Lucius had attacked Bakura.

But most importantly, how did Adachi know Lucius had done it? Without there being some other kind of interaction between Adachi and Lucius, that seemed to be a rather large leap for Adachi to make. There had to be some sort of other reason...

Souji nodded toward Jounouchi. "He's this American teenager we met once when chasing Adachi. Adachi had stolen Bakura's Ring... was trying to get rid of it, when..."

And it suddenly hit Souji why Lucius might have attacked Bakura.

"Yuugi! Where's the Ring now!?" Souji asked. He seemed a tad panicked.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi's eye widened as soon as Souji began tracing down the facts. It was when Souji somewhat flipped he realized they were going down the same train of thought. With everything that had been going on, he'd actually managed to forget about that. And while he hadn't met this Lucius person, he'd gotten enough of the information filtered through that he could make a similar leap. It really all came down to that somehow or another, Adachi could have gotten the Ring. Which meant...

"It got stolen from Atem and me! Some mindreading wolf eared guy that looked like Naoya stole it!" Yuugi shook his head, "It could have gotten back to Bakura-kun somehow!"

"How is that a problem though...?" Anzu stated, wincing as several people looked at her, "Yuugi, you defeated that evil in the Ring, right? And we helped Atem defeat that Zorc demon! Wouldn't the Ring be safe now?"

"There's another spirit inside it! Some survivor of a massacre Atem's dad ordered!" Yuugi shook his head, "He can mimic Bakura-kun and there's a chance that if something happened to the Ring, Bakura-kun is the one trapped inside!"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

And just as Yuugi explained Anpu to Anzu, things started to click in Souji's head.

"The Ring did get back to Bakura. There wouldn't have been a reason to beat Bakura or Malik up if it hadn't," Souji said. Minato looked toward Souji as he continued. "I don't know who that man who resembled Naoya was, but it's very likely if he stole the Ring, it somehow made it back to Bakura.

"I think Adachi got Lucius to get the Ring for him after Bakura ran off. And once he got the Ring... he probably did the exact same thing with it that he did to split Yuugi and Atem," Souji said. He looked rather worried. "And to make things worse, Yuugi's right. Anpu can mimic Bakura... it's entirely likely Bakura's trapped on the other side of the TV."

Minato looked up at the sky and paled. "And it's been looking like it's going to rain lately, too..."

[mugenginga]

"Malik might have enemies of his own," Jounouchi stated.

No one seemed to hear him, and the blond teenager looked annoyed as a result. Yuugi blinked as Souji mentioned the split and neither Anzu or Jounouchi reacted surprised. Anzu had focused her full attention on Souji as he said that Adachi had done something that had caused Atem and Yuugi to split. Jounouchi almost fell down when he heard "other side of the TV". It only got worse when Yuugi spoke.

"If Bakura-kun's in the TV World, we have to save him! Teddie-kun can find people if he has information on them, right? If it's going to rain soon we need to go now!"

"What the hell are you people talking about!? Yuugi, what's this TV World and other side of the TV nonsense?"

"Adachi-san caused Yuugi and Atem to split? How...?" Anzu stated.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato nodded as Yuugi spoke. "Yeah, we need to go, now. I don't want to have to wait for this. Besides, even if we're wrong, Teddie can at least get us out." Minato wasn't nostalgic for all of the times Kikuri-Hime had deposited them from the TV.

However, Jounouchi and Anzu's comments distracted Minato and Souji, and they both turned toward the two friends of Yuugi's.

"The TV World is another world on the other side of a television that only certain people can access. It's complicated," Souji said, not wanting to go into a long explanation. "As for how Adachi made Atem and Yuugi split... he stole the Puzzle and dropped it into the TV World. This eventually caused Atem to fully split away from Yuugi."