Ryou: *blink* Why?

WSJ: Oh, a lot of reasons... *sigh* Sometimes I wonder if he's really out to make my life hell... *snickers* Most probably. ANYWAY... I've started another contest. Called 101 Ways to Snog En Route to the Game Shop ^^v Rules are simple!

1) Pick any strait couple. No yaoi excepted.

2) Write a story in 500 words or less that ends with those two characters "snogging" (kissing/making out) on their way to the Game Shop. This is actually surprisingly easy to do.

3) Send the entries to brood_sj@hotmail.com and make sure that your story is in the body of the e-mail, since my computer can't open attachments right now. Actually, for some reason I can't get into hotmail at all, and I have to go to the library to check my e-mail. And the library's computers can't open attachments. So please just make it easy and put the story in the body of the e-mail.

4) Only the first 101 entries will be accepted.

5) The winner will get the honor of saying they won, as well as being able to request a fic, which me and my two judges (Kage NoTenshi and Brood Mayran) will then collaberate on. ^^v

6) Do not post your story on FF.N. All 101 contestants will be put into a 101 chapter story/collab under my account (although obviously you'll all get credit for your fic). ^~ You'll see what I mean...

7) HAVE FUN!!!!

And that's pretty much it. ^~ So get typing ya'll!

Disclaimer: You know the drill. And I ain't listing all the OCs again...

WSJ: *singing with Pat Benatar* It's all so confusing, this brutal abusing... They blacken your eyes and then 'pologise, 'Be daddy's good girl, and don't tell mommy a thing.' 'Be a good little boy, and you'll get a new toy, and tell grandma you fell off the swing.'....

Ryou: *sweatdrop* Hell Is For Children... With SJ listening to music like this, why do I wonder why she writes abuse fics so much???

WSJ: Oh, HCG-chan? ^^ Sorry for the bit of similarity to your Bakura/Kawari fight. v_v I couldn't help it, really I couldn't...

Ryou: *grumbling* Suuuuure...

()()()()()

Yamis of Tokyo U: Freshmen

Chapter 12: Parental Supervision

Scott didn't even pause in running as his cell phone went off. He just yanked it off his belt and put it to his ear. "Moshi moshi."

"Anything?"

"Nope, sorry, there's no sign of her anywhere Chloe! I'm worried."

"You and me both kid. But then again, Miz Mai's done this before."

"I know. That's what worries me. I'm going to go to the Game Shop and recruit some help. We need to scour the whole city."

"M'kay. You keep in touch, you hear?"

"You bet. Ja."

"Ja."

Scott hung up, but didn't even take the time to put his phone back on his belt. He just held onto it as he sprinted the last few hundred yards to the Game Shop. It was just after six in the morning, and he was running on adrenaline. After Mai had slapped her mother, Mrs Valentine had called her daughter some rather unflattering names, and hit Mai back, although considerably harder. She would have leaped on her stunned daughter, had a couple men nearby not held her back. Mai had taken the opportunity to run off, and she hadn't been seen since. Chloe, Scott, and several others had been searching all night. Mrs Valentine had locked herself in her room and refused to come out.

Scott hurled himself at the door and began to pound on it, yelling at the same time. A minute or so later it was opened by a bleary-eyed Hiro, Mako yawning behind him. Some people had gone home after the party, but several, Mako and Duke included, had simply fallen asleep in the Game Shop. "Scott?" Hiro asked muzzily, "Wha-"

Yami and Yugi came downstairs, Joey behind them. "Scott?"

Scott didn't waste time on pleasentries. "Wake everyone up. Get dressed! Now!"

"What's wrong?" Yami asked in that sort of pharoah-y voice you can't ignore. Soloman was at the top of the steps now, and Duke was awake on the couch. Malik and Ishtar were poking their heads in from the kitchen, where Malik'd fallen asleep on the kitchen table, for reasons unknown. Serenity was beginning to come to from where she'd curled up in an armchair.

"Mai's gone missing." Scott said, still slightly breathless. "We've been looking all night. She got in a fight with her mom and then just ran out." He went weak in the knees suddenly and sat down rather hard in the entry way. Serenity ran forward and helped him over to a chair, which he sank down into gratefully.

"We'll take over from here." Yami said, Yugi having already run upstiars to get dressed. "You get some rest." Scott nodded thankfully, and the last thing he heard before sleep claimed him was Yami throwing around orders.

"Malik, call everyone you can think of. Mako, make us some coffee, breakfast, whatever. We'll make this the base of operations. Everyone have a cell phone? Good. Let's go, and keep in touch."

"Shouldn't someone go back to Tokyo U in case she went back there?" Duke said, standing up as most everyone moved for the door.

"I will." Hiro volenteered. "I'll get Gwen to come with me."

"I'll stay here with Scott and Mr Moto." Mako said. "In case she comes here."

"Right," Yugi said, nodding as he came back downstairs, buttoning up his shirt. "Everyone else, let's get searching."

"Hold it a second," Ishtar said, coming out of the kitchen. Malik could be seen behind him, talking rapidly to someone over the phone. "Wait at least until everyone else gets here. Then we can organize things, at least."

Serenity snapped her fingers suddenly. "And since this is base of opperations, Ryou can stay here and keep track of and in touch with everyone."

"Huh?"

Mako, Duke, and Grampa looked at her, clueless. She blinked, and then gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "Oops..." Everyone else looked at each other uneasily.

"They'd find out anyway," Yugi said eventually. "But it's not really our place to tell them..."

"What are you talking about?" Duke asked, putting his hands on his hips. "Shouldn't we be out looking for Mai?"

"That we should," Bakura said as he pushed open the already half-open door and stepped inside, Ryou and Shen close behind. "So why are we all standing here?"

Everyone just stared at him for a moment, until Mako ventured to ask "How'd you three get here so quickly? Malik just now started calling everyone..."

"I'm sorry Ryou!" Serenity said, looking away from her now-official boyfriend. "I... Let it slip."

"It's okay." Ryou said, giving her a hug. "They'd find out anyway." He turned back to the puzzled trio, one arm still around Serenity's shoulders. "I am, in fact, a telepath. A psychic, if you want. I teleported the three of us over here as soon as Malik called. Here, watch." He dropped his arm from around Serenity, and turned to face her. She began to glow faintly white, and then rose into the air. She giggled, and Ryou let her fall, catching her in his arms and giving her a kiss that made Joey growl.

Grampa, Duke, and Mako just stared at him, and Duke blinked, then blinked again. "Wait, so... You're not a girl?"

Ryou face-faulted. "No. We were just messing with you that day. Sorry Duke..."

Duke went pale, then turned hurridly to Ishtar. "You don't have a sister... Do you?" It was more a statement then a question, and Duke looked as if he'd just been sentenced to death row.

"No-o... None other then Isis..." Ishtar said carefully. "Just Malik." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the open kitchen door, where Malik could be seen, still making phone calls.

Duke sweatdropped. "I kissed a guy." he said in perfect Heero Yuy monotone.

"Attempted to kiss," Yami corrected. "Malik bit you, remember?"

Duke reached up to his gauze-covered nose and frowned. "Yes... But still, I attempted to kiss a guy..."

And then the Dice Master promptly fainted.

There was a round of sweatdropping, a lot of tugging as Duke was hauled onto the couch, and by that time everyone else had arrived. They gathered in the den, leaving Scott and Duke in the livingroom, and held a council of war.

"Can't you just find her aura Ryou?" Shen asked once everyone was settled down.

Ryou sighed and shook his head from his place next to Serenity. "Not as such, no. There's too many auras in the city. Trying to pick one out is like looking for the one black grain of sand at the seashore; it should be easy but isn't. But if you guys all went out searching, I could 'tag' your auras and be able to keep track of you. It's a lot more complicated then that, but that's about as well as I can explain."

"You can keep track of us if you know where we are to begin with, but not if you don't." Tea translated, and Ryou nodded.

On arrival, Amoura and Gwen had been informed of Ryou's powers, and were dually impressed. Lisa and Rebecca, however, had not been included in the search, since Ryou was nervous about letting too many people know. Mokuba had wanted to let everyone know about Seto still being alive, but Seto, Yugi, and Yami had managed to convince him otherwise, thankfully.

"So what're we going to do?" Joey asked. He was pacing nervously at the back of the room, too concerned about his former flame to sit. He was so concerned, in fact, that he wasn't even bristling at the fact that Serenity and Ryou were holding hands, and were sitting practically joined at the hip. "It's almost ten degrees out there! If Mai ain't someplace warm she could freeze!!"

If that statement hadn't been so true, Yugi might have ribbed him about still caring for her. But this was too serious for joking.

"Hiro and Gwen are already on their way back to TU." Bakura said. "I say we split up the city and take it sector by sector, in teams of two."

Ryou nodded. "Two auras are easier to sense then one. Plus, you'll be able to cover more ground that way."

"Where would she be most likely to go?" Yami asked. "We should start with those places first." Grampa had pinned a big map of Domino Cito to the wall, and now Isis got up to go stand next to it, grabbing a marker from the desk as she went.

"The park," she said, circleing it on the map. "And downtown. When Mai gets mad, she shops." She outlined those areas too. "So there's two sections right there."

Joey was suddenly beside her, and he took the marker out of her hands. "The cemetary." he said unexpectedly. "She told me once that whenever she gets really upset, she goes and visits her sister."

"And the waterfront." Kaiba spoke up. Seto and Mai had been good friends for a long time. "She likes to watch the water."

Everyone who knew him well was rather shocked to see Joey just nod and circle the docks. Usually he'd make some sort of comment or insult aimed at Seto, but he was too preoccupied even for that.

"He's really worried," Serenity whispered to Ryou. "I can see it in his eyes."

Ryou nodded. "Hai. He's really tense."

Joey drew up the rest of the map into about three mile square sections. "Right then, there we go. Who's going where?"

"Ryou, Scott and I are staying here." Grampa said. "Everyone else should be out searching. Including Duke, who should be woken up."

Everyone agreed and split into pairs, and one by one they were asigned sections of the city. Grampa wrote their names on the sections of the map so he'd be able to remember who was where. While Ryou was keeping track of everyone mentally, Grampa would be on the phone keeping up with them by cell and taking notes on their possitions and anything they found.

But things were looking bad.

By noon, Scott had woken up and gone out with Chloe, who'd stopped by to check in about that time. Ryou had practically exhausted himself keeping up with everyone and, dispite his claim that it was impossible, sifting through crowds of auras in an attempt to find Mai's violet-red aura. Every hotel had been checked, every bording house scoured. Nothing. No sign of Mai.

At one, Hiro called to say that Mai was nowhere to be found at Tokyo U but that he and Gwen would keep searching the area.

At two, just as Joey and Serenity came back from the shopping district with another negative report, Grampa got a call from one of the servents at the Valentine's house, whom Chloe had told to call Grampa if anything happened. The servent said that Mrs Valentine had gone into a rage, and was tearing up Mai's room and would someone please come quick because no one could get her to calm down.

When Joey heard this, his face went red and his eyes narrowed. "Serenity, stay here with Ryou and Grampa. I'm goin' to see Mrs Valentine." He started to leave the Game Shop, but paused and turned to look at his sister. "And no hanky-panky with Ryou, telepath or not!" And then he stormed out.

Serenity passed Grampa, who was on his way upstairs to the bathroom, and entered the den. Ryou was sitting on the couch pretty much limp, his eyes closed and his breathing deep and even. For a moment Serenity thought he was asleep, until he held out a hand. "Serenity," he said in a hoarse voice. "Come here. I can't hold it much longer and I want to be sure of what I'm seeing."

Serenity's eyes widened, but she nervously stepped closer to him and kneeled down by his feet. He took her hands in his and leaned forward so that their foreheads met.

And then the sky exploded.

~*~

When Joey knocked on the Valentine's door, it was opened by Chloe's daughter, Michelle. She was about fifteen, and looked very worried. Joey remembered her from the days of when he'd been dating Mai. Apparently, she remembered him too, because her eyes lit up when she say him. "Mister Joey! Oh thank kami! Mrs Valentine's gone crazy!"

"She's up in Mai's room?" Joey asked, but didn't wait for an answer as a crash was heard from upstairs and, indeed, the direction of Mai's room. He broke into a run, taking the stairs two at a time, and threw open the door so hard that it slammed into the wall behind it. The noise startled Mrs Valentine, who dropped the vase she'd been holding, allowing it to smash on the floor, and whirled around.

She was dressed in a bathrobe, her long hair a shade lighter then Mai's tangled into a frizzy mess. Her eyes were wild, and became more so when she saw Joey.

"You!" both of them shouted at the same time, and Mrs Valentine growled. "I don't know what Madeline sees in you..."

"Yeah? Well I could say the same."

"How dare you-"

"No," Joey said, his temper snapped. "How dare you. She's your own daughter, your own flesh and blood! Yet you treat the servents better then you treat her! Why?"

"Because," Mrs Valentine growled, her voice low. "Because Charles always loved her more then he loved me! And then after he left, Madeline went around thinking she was all high and mighty. Even Cece loved Madeline more then she loved me!"

Charles, Joey thought. Oh yeah, Mai's dad. And Cece's her sister. I remember now. "Well you don't need to treat her like crap." he said out loud. "I can see why they loved her more. Mai's sweet, and kind, and everything you're not."

Mrs Valentine screamed at him then, and a moment later Joey's head had been whipped half-way round with three deep scratches from artificial fingernails across one cheek. He stayed like that a moment, and then slowly turned back to look at Mai's okaasan, his face impassive. Almost lazily he reached up to his cheek, and the tips of his fingers came away bloody. "Ah. That was nice of you. That's why no one ever loved you then. Do you always try to push people away?" He looked at Mrs Valentine's shocked face. "I thought not. You dye your hair, and wear coloured contacts and too much make-up and clothes that adhere to your body like tape. But that's not you. That's just a mask. Sure, Mai does all that too, but there's still Mai underneith. So who's under your mask?" He watched her sink down to the floor, her eyes staring at nothing. And then he turned and left, leaving Mrs Valentine weeping on the floor for the love she never had.

~*~

Serenity gasped, and tightened her grip on Ryou, feeling his fingers tighten in responce. It's okay his voice arrived in her heart I'm still here. I'm always here.

They were no longer sitting in the den of the Moto house. In fact, even though Serenity could still feel Ryou's arms around her, his hands holding hers, she couldn't see him beside her. Images rushed by at amazing speed, leaving her with a strange sense of vertigo, like she couldn't tell which way was up, and which was down.

Almost there. Hold tight.

And now, instead of the images flicking by on either side, it was like she was running through them head-on. She could see them, but only for a second before it disappeared and was replaced with another.

But that wasn't a good way to describe it. It wasn't just pictures, but sounds and smells and tastes and feelings, all in one, all at random. Or seemingly at random.

She saw herself in a wedding dress, and Mai helping her adjust her veil. And then a door opened and Gwen stuck her head in, laughing and telling them to hurry up...

And she saw the pyramids of Egypt and what had to be a scene of the past, Bakura running over the sands with a woman clothed in rags, sacks heaping with gold thrown over their shoulders. They were laughing, and for a second Serenity could feel the scorching sun in her face...

Cold ice creame was in her mouth, and she and Tea and Amoura were walking along what appeared to be the edge of some woods, with a row of cabins on the other side of them. Amoura was saying something in French, and Tea was trying to translate in between the bursts of laughter...

And then it all turned sad. She saw Joey kneeling on the ground, a dragon of some kind in front of him, obviously dying. He looked over his shoulder at her and there were tears in his eyes...

She saw Ryou, crying his hardest, sobbing as he kneeled next to a bed, his face burried in the sheet on top of a body...

And the same scene, except he was younger, so much younger, and there was a little girl who looked like him by his side, and both of them were crying, and Serenity could taste the tears.

There! That one! Look!

And there was Mai, curled up in a ball in some forgotten corner. She was still dressed in the tattered remains of her gown, but didn't have so much as a shawl over it. Her breath formed haze in front of her, and there were trails of frozen tears down her cheeks, and her lips were tinged blue, and there was snow all around her...

The image slipped away, and Serenity felt rather then heard Ryou curse.

No! That gives us no clue as to where she is!

Then they were back in the Moto's den, and Grampa was coming back from the bathroom.

Serenity fought back a sudden wave of nausea and looked up at Ryou, whose breathing was shallow. He looked completely worn out. "Is it always like that?" she whispered. She wasn't sure why.

"Hai," he said after a moment. "Always. Just snatches of past and future, and possible futures. But it gave us no clue as to where-" He fell silent suddenly, and after a moment said, half to himself, "I must. It's the only way." And there was a sense of the universe expanding, and Serenity's eyes widened. "Ryou NO!"

But of course, he did it anyway.

~*~

He'd been here before, although only once before. He was vulnerable here. Anyone or anything could take advantage of him. But here, he knew everything. Here, his mind encompassed the whole world. He knew who and what and where everything was.

Everything.

He saw her, sitting alone on top of Tokyo Tower. He knew that she would die. But he refused to let her give in to that destiny.

He wasn't supposed to interfere while he was here. To interfere meant that anyone who was like him, could sense like him, would know where he was.

But he had to take that chance. He would not let her die.

And so he found them, his friends, and he took their thoughts and twisted...

And then they knew. They knew where she was and were going to save her.

But They knew too.

And They were coming for him.

And he would not be able to resist...

~*~

Bakura froze in his tracks, his eyes wide. Yami stopped and looked back at him. "Bakura, come on!"

"No..." Bakura said, half to himself, half to Yami and half to his aibou. "No Ryou, you can't!" He turned on his heel and sprinted for the Game Shop, a bewildered Yami trying his best to keep up.

Even with no mental link, no power in the Ring, no connection to his hikari, a Yami always Knows.

~*~

Gwen blinked and looked at Hiro. "Did you just say something?"

The two of them were sitting in the lounge of the Tokyo U freshmen dorms, waiting for any word on Mai. They'd scoured the entire campus and the surrounding area, and had found no sign. Besides, it was beginning to get dark, and the temperature was dropping.

Hiro shook his head, just as muddled. "No, but I heard it too. It said-"

Go to Tokyo Tower. She is there...

"....Yeah, just like that."

The two sat and looked at each other for a moment, and then as one got to their feet. "Come on," Gwen said, grabbing her coat and some extra blankets off the couch. "Ryou's never been wrong before!"

"Or so Bakura says..." Hiro muttered, but followed her toward the car.

~*~

"They are coming..."

And then he went limp in Serenity's arms.

~*~

Jalila grinned, and beside her the True Pharoah laughed. This was, indeed, good fortune.

()()()()()

WSJ: ^^;;

Ryou: OO;;;;;; What the crap!?!?!?!

WSJ: ...... Um....... No comment....... ^^; Anyway... I want to know who everyone's favorite OC is! I personally like Chloe, for some reason, and I like Amoura a lot too, even though she isn't mine.

Also, who should Mai end up with, Joey or Scott? I already know, but you guys do have a say...

Chapter 13: Ryou's fighting for his freedom, and finds out that maybe he has friends in high places after all. Because he has to win quick; without his soul, his body will eventually die... And meanwhile, Mai's in the hospital with hypothermia, and neither Joey nor Scott will leave her. Sheesh, this isn't sibling rivalry, it's cousin feaud!

God bless minna-san!