Bakura: *rolls eyes* Uh huh.

WSJ: See! *unrolls a huge poster of a blue-haired bishonen in aviator's glasses and a Veritech flight uniform*

Ryou: Okay, who is that?

WSJ: *grins* Maximillion Sterling, Max for short, from Robotech. *tacks poster up over her computer* I recently bought the first six novels in the Robotech series and fell in love again. Not just with Max, with the whole Robotech universe. I used to watch the anime a long time ago, but it got cut. I'd sorta forgotten until I found the novels and blew all my money on them. *sweatdrops slightly* I've been reading them non-stop.

Ryou: Riiiiight... So where's Ying-Yang and Alex? I haven't seen them around.

WSJ: That's the other reason I haven't updated. I have no clue where they are.

Ying-Yang: *walks in* Here we are! We've just gotten back from out honeymoon in the Voltron universe!

Alex: *comes in behind Ying-Yang, carrying the bags* Yup. We may have only been gone a week or so in this world, but we've spent five years on the beaches of Arus. *grins*

WSJ: Honeymoon? Five years...? *pales* Oh no...

Without warning, a small chibi runs in and clings to Ying-Yang's legs. She's dressed in a pink dress, and her long auburn hair is held out of her eyes by a pink headband. She looks remarkably like a chibi Sonic Maid.

Chibi-Sonic-Maid: Mommy! Is this SJ?

Ying-Yang: *smiles tenderly* Yes dear, this is SJ, our itsuji. Introduce yourself now.

Chibi-Sonic-Maid: *smiles sadisticly and pulls her Note-Scythe out of HammerSpace* I'm Harmony, with the emphasis on HARM! Mommy and Papa said you needed a muse for the VotH universe, so here I am!

Alex: *nods* Yes. Our little one will now muse all your VotH-universe stories, including this one, leaving us free to give you other story ideas.

WSJ: *gulps and backs up as Harmony's sadistic grin widens* L-lovely. Is anyone else reminded of Bakura? Or even worse, Brood's co-host, Zutsokaki? *shudders* Heaven halp me...

Ryou: *smiles weakly* Itsuji doesn't own YGO. Hiro, Takeo, and Gwen belong to her. Amoura and Yunet are Brood's.

()()()()()

The Yamis of Tokyo U

Chapter 3 -- Flu Bugs on the First Day of Classes (Rather convienient that I'm writing this while I have the flu. *grumbles*)

Hiro was awakened the next morning by a retching sound coming from the tiny bathroom that was connected to their dorm. In the next building, Amoura, Tea, and Gwen weren't awakened half so nicely, but we'll get to that in a minute. Hiro groaned slightly and rolled over to look at the clock, then sighed and decided it was time to get ready for his first class.

Through the partially open door of the bathroom, Hiro could see Ryou leaning over the toilet, with Bakura helpfully holding his long, thick locks out of the way. After his initial fainting spell, poor Ryou'd been up most of the night getting sick.

Hiro was dressed and ready to go when Bakura helped his stumbling aibou back to his bed. "Will you be okay while I'm at class Ryou?" Bakura was asking. Ryou nodded weakly, waving Bakura's concerns away as he settled back against the pillows.

"If I need anything, I'll call."

Bakura chuckled, and Hiro wondered breifly what was so funny. He shrugged it off, and then left for his advanced physics class after bidding Ryou farewell and get-well-soon. Bakura too departed, giving his aibou's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Once they were gone, Ryou yawned, and leaned back, wondering what the rest of his friends were doing this morning...

Tea, for one, was attempting to get knots out of her hair. "Does Yunet do this often?" she asked Amoura, who giggled slightly and nodded, cradling the silver tabby kitten in her lap.

"Oui, unfortunatly. She really likez zee long 'air."

"I can tell." Gwen chimed in dryly, running a comb haultingly through her own blond locks.

All three women had been awaked rudely by a certain kitten making her presence known (and felt). Yunet did, indeed, have a 'thing' for long hair. She'd pounced her mistress first, waking Amoura by pawing and batting at her hair. Once the French girl had been successfully gotten up, Yunet had moved on to Tea and Gwen before Amoura could stop her. Now all three had rather substantial tangles in their hair. None of them could really be mad at Yunet though, she was only a kitten after all.

"So what's your first class of the day?" Gwen asked, cinching her hair back into a pony-tail, now knot-free.

"English," Tea replyed at the same time Amoura said "Japaneze." They laughed, and Tea said they'd have to help each other with their homework.

"Jinkies!" Gwen said suddenly, glancing at her watch. "I'm going to be late for physics!"

Amoura and Tea exchanged puzzled looks. "Jinkies?"

Gwen stopped half-way out the door, then laughed. "That's right, you guys wouldn't get that joke, would you? It has to do with an American cartoon called Scooby-Doo. It's about a dog who solves mysteries." The blond left, and Amoura and Tea exchanged glances as if to say 'Americans, go figure!'

"I 'ad better go too." Amoura said, setting Yunet down on the bed next to her. "Are ve still going to meet at zee Rec for lunch Tea?"

Tea nodded, gathering her own things. "Yup. You, me, Gwen, Yugi, Tristan, and Joey. I don't know where everyone else'll be, but they'll probably all wander in at one point or another. 'Cept Ryou, of course."

"Poor R'ou," Amoura agreed, pronouncing his name 'ree-hou'. "Iz 'ee still zick?"

Tea nodded. "Probably. He usually has fainting spells like he did last night right before he gets the flu for a day or so."

"I may go vizit 'im later, zhen." Amoura decided as she locked the dorm door behind them. "Zee you later?"

"Sayanora." Tea said, headed down the hall in the opposite direction of Amoura.

Gwen arrived at her physics classroom just as Hiro did, and they walked in together. "So, do you like physics?" Hiro asked as they took seats together near the front.

Gwen made a face. "Definately not. Give me a literature class over science and math any day! You?"

"No way, I love science and math." Hiro told her. "But I like reading too. What's your favorite book?"

"Hm..." Gwen had to think about that for a minute. "Probably Avalon: The Return of King Arthur, by Stephen Lawhead. But pretty much any fantasy book is game for me."

Hiro shook his head. "Mystery thrillers for me! The Eye of Horus was fantastic!"

(WSJ: *laughs falsely* Would you believe it if I told you that coincidentally, those are my fav two books?)

They were jolted from their conversation by a muffled squeak from the door. They turned to see Tristan, his eyes wide as he stared at someone behind them. He didn't even seem to notice that Gwen and Hiro were there. "Dude, what's up with him?" Hiro whispered, and Gwen shrugged. As one, they turned around, but all that was behind them were a few girls, talking and laughing with each other.

Tristan seemed to snap out of whatever trance he'd been in, and took a step forward, one hand up as if to lay it on one of the girls' shoulders. The girl in question, a short, lavendar-haired chick, started to glance toward him, and he froze. As soon as the girl's green eyes came into view, Tristan's face broke into a wide grin.

"Ribbon-chan!" he said excitedly. "I thought it was you, Miho!"

Miho, who had transferred away from Domino High just before Ryou had transferred in, forced herself to smile at him. "Tristan... Hi..." Miho had changed over the years, though still sporting lavendar hair and green eyes, her hair was a little shorter then it had been. She was dressed in a long black skirt and black ankle-boots, with a clingy black tanktop. A silver chain belt was wrapped twice around her slim waist. Her long, two-inch nails were painted black, as were her lips and eyes. Everything about her screamed goth.

"Yo, Miho," one of the other girls, also very gothic-looking, asked. "Who's the chump?"

"No one," Miho said, flicking her fingers at Tristan in a bored manner. "Just a guy I knew from high school.

Tristan didn't seem to notice her dismissal as he all but floated to his seat, his brain somewhere up on Cloud 9. "Ah, my wonderful Ribbon-chan," he sighed happily. "I have found you again, and you will be mine..."

Gwen and Hiro, meanwhile, just stared at him, their mouths slightly ajar. "Is he for real?" Gwen asked after a moment.

"Either he's so in love that he's blind to what she thinks of him, or he's just plain stupid." Hiro answered.

The two of them exchanged glances and said in unison, "He's just stupid."

Further comment on Tristan's mental capacity was delayed as the professor entered the room, ready to start class.

An hour-and-a-half later, first classes for the day were over, and Tea and Yugi were gathering up their things from their English 101 course. "So what'd you want to talk to me about Yugi?" Tea asked. Yugi had slipped her a note just before class started, that he'd wanted to talk to her about something important.

"Well," Yugi said, glancing around as they exited the classroom and dropping his voice. "It's about Mai and Joey."

Tea sighed. "Oh, those two! They are so... frustrating!"

Yugi smiled. "I know. We've tried just about everything to get them to stop fighting, except one thing: a group match-maker attempt. We're all going to give it a go."

"Count me in!" Tea said enthusiasticly. "Joey and Mai should stop fighting and fall in love once and for all!"

"Er... S-speaking of l-love..." Yugi said, looking down bashfully. "Would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight? Somewhere off-campus, I mean?"

"Of course!" Tea said, looking delighted. "We haven't had a chance to go out just the two of us for a long time!"

"Yup!" Yugi said, smiling happily.

Two steps behind them, around a corner of the hallway, Mai was seeing red, and trying not to charge out there and demand an explanation from the two of them. "How dare they get involved in my personnal life!" she muttered, slowly breaking a pencil she was holding in half without realizing it. "Hmph. If they want to play match-maker, I'll give them something to play match-maker about!" And with that she tossed the two ends of the pencil over her shoulder and angrily strode off to find Joey.

Before she could locate him, however, she felt the feather-light touch on her mind that she'd come to identify over the years as Ryou checking up on his various friends. 'Hi Ryou,' she thought in his direction. 'Feeling better?'

The white-haired boy's answer was sheepish. (Yes, a little. Did I desturb you?)

'No, not at all! I'm between classes at the moment.'

(Oh, okay then, I'll leave you to your next one. Bye Mai.)

'See ya' later Ryou.'

Over the years, with his friends getting into trouble so often, usually because of him, Ryou had taken to checking up on them mentally whenever he had a free moment. And, at the moment, being stuck in bed as he was, keeping tabs on them gave him something to do.

Something should probably be explained here. When a telepath like Ryou scans, probes, or otherwise peeks into a person's mind, he would encounter one of three things. The first, and most common, was akin to a 'closed door'. Ryou could search the person's mind all he wanted, and they would never know he was. If he chose, he could send them a message telepathicly, but they wouldn't be able to answer.

(Of course, Ryou never did fully search a person's memories and thoughts. He was too polite, and not powerful enough, for that. Sometimes he would get a general reading on a person's emotions and surface thoughts, but that was about it.)

The second thing he might find was a 'half-closed door'. The person with this sort of mind-set had enough psycic abilities to know when someone was reading them, and could converse with Ryou telepathicly. Mai had this sort of mind, as did Yugi and Bakura.

Ryou had never encountered the flung aside, wide open 'door' that would indicate another full telepath.

Until now.

He had finished poking at all his friends, Yugi and Bakura saying a quick 'hi, how ya' feeling?', like Mai had. Now he was just letting himself "float" lazily over the campus, looking down idly at all the various auras moving around through the buildings and classrooms. One aura, a steel blue one, seemed to draw him, and he came closer to it.

And suddenly Ryou was face-to-face, or, more appropriatly, mind-to-mind, with a wide-open door.

Another telepath.

The steel blue aura seemed as surprised as he, and for a moment neither did anything. Then the blue aura suddenly shrank, hiding itself behind mental barriers so strong that Ryou wasn't even sure he'd senced another presence at all.

Moodily Ryou withdrew himself back into his own body, laying in bed in his dorm, and reflected on what had just happened. There was another telepath at Tokyo U. But, for some reason, he'd hidden himself from Ryou.

Ryou was ready to think further, couldn't wait for Bakura to get back so that he could tell him, but his experience had left him sleepy, and his body was demanding rest to get over his flu bugs. So, instead of staying awake to greet Bakura like he'd planned, Ryou found himself drifting off to sleep.

At first, he thought it might be a flashback sort of dream. He and Bakura and Serenity and Joey were standing back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the Shadow Realm, their monsters forming a protective ring around them. The Flame Swordsman for Joey, Petite Angel for Serenity, Doma, the Angel of Silence in front of Bakura, and the Change of Heart guarding Ryou himself.

But it wasn't a flashback dream.

Ryou was watching the scene in a strangely detatched way, seperate from his body, watching the proceedings from some point away from the foursome and their creatures. Standing in front of them, about ten meters away in the shadows, stood four silhoettes that Ryou couldn't make out.

Joey took a step forward, shoving both Ryou and Serenity behind him, and shouted something that Ryou, the real Ryou watching, couldn't hear. It was as if the Shadow Realm swallowed all sound. The Flame Swordsman leaped forward to attack, and one of the figures stepped forward to meet it.

The figure met the Flame Swordsman's charge head-on, bringing up its own sword to knock the Flame Swordsman's out of his grasp. The figure then slashed the Swordsman across the chest, causing it to stumble back.

To Ryou's surprise and horror, Joey went down on one knee, clutching at his chest, where a long, deep wound had suddenly appeared. Another of the figures laughed, and leaped into the air, able to either fly or levetate herself. She dove at the Petite Angel, and Serenity's eyes widened in fear. Bakura tried to bring Doma around, but he wasn't quick enough. The Petite Angel was gone, and Serenity was falling. Ryou caught her, but she was already gone...

Ryou jerked awake with a brief scream, his face sweaty and his chest heaving as he gulped in air, wondering at how real the nightmare had seemed. But even as he tried to pin down the details, it faded from his mind, leaving only a voice, which rung in his ears.

Found!! Ryou Bakura, beware! You have been found!

And then that, too, faded away.

Ryou became aware of three familiar and very comforting presences in the room with him, all looking at him with concern. Ryou got the vague feeling that they'd been talking before his awakening had interrupted him. Just what had woken him so terrified, he couldn't remember now.

Ishtar, his lavendar glow a pastel contrast to the other two, was sitting cross-legged on Hiro's bed. Yami, his aura as gold as the Puzzle itself, sat on the desk chair nearby. Bakura, his blue aura shining in concern, had left his seat on his own bed, and was now perched worridly on the edge of Ryou's own.

(WSJ: Small note here. During one chapter of SoS, I got Ishtar's and Yami's aura colours mixxed up. :p Sorry. Lavendar and gold are the correct colours.)

"Aibou?" he asked. "Are you all right?"

"Y-yeah," Ryou said after a moment and a couple more deep breaths. "I had a dream..."

"A vision-dream?" Yami asked. "The three of us were just discussing the vision you had last night."

"I..." Ryou paused. "I don't know. I can't remember. It might have been..." Another thought drifted past his mind, and he sat up. "Bakura! There's another telepath here! I felt him just before I fell asleep!"

"Another psycic?" Ishtar asked, he and Yami coming to sit on the edge of Ryou's bed with Bakura. "News indeed! Do you know who he is?"

"No," Ryou said, shaking his head. He drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them to make room for the three men to sit on his bed with him. "He put up mental sheilds. But I know I could identify his aura again if I saw it."

"Okay then," Yami said. "Be on the look-out. Until then, just what was it you saw yesterday in the Rec?"

Ryou paused and thought back. "I saw the Shadow Realm, and then this huge army of dark and shadow Duel Monsters rose up out of no where. Yami," he said, nodding at the Puzzle's spirit, "Was there, but he was dressed as a pharoah."

"You also said you were ready to die to protect someone." Bakura pointed out. "Who?"

Ryou wrinkled his brow. "I don't know. I remember feeling protective over someone, but I don't remember who." He paused. "What time is it, by the way?"

"Um..." Yami glanced at his watch. "About one o'clock. Which reminds me, I've got a class at two, so I'd better go."

"Alright Yami, see ya'." Bakura said, standing up to give Yami a slap on the back.

Ishtar had a strange look on his face, and he too stood up. "I think I'd had better go too, before that hikari of mine sends his geometry professor to the Shadow Realm."

Yami and Bakura groaned in tandem, and then Yami smiled wryly. "I suppose it is a temptation at times..."

Bakura snorted. "Get used to it, this is only the first day."

The four of them groaned, and the three yamis took their leave. Ryou settled back against the pillows, then flipped on some music to keep himself occupied. But it was really more for a distraction.

He couldn't help but wonder who this telepath was, why he hadn't had any fore-warning about him, and whether he was friend, or foe...

()()()()()

WSJ: Phew! Chapter three, done at last! Sorry it's taken so long! And updates are going to keep taking longer too, because we've now started practice for this year's school play: The Sound of Music. *sweatdrops* I'm a nun...

Ying-Yang: *looks at her, then bursts out laughing* You! A nun?! Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! That's a riot!

WSJ: Grrrrrrr...

Alex: *sweatdrops*

Harmony: *giggles*

Ryou: *sighs* R&R onegai...

Chapter 4: Amoura and Yunet pay a visit to Ryou, and Yunet immediatly takes a fancy to his long, pointy hair. *sweatdrops* The first day of classes draws to a close, and Yugi and Tea head off-campus for their date, and encounter Gwen and Hiro doing much the same thing. Tristan excitedly tells Malik about his beloved Miho, and Malik, unconvinced, goes with Tristan to follow her around all night. Joey and Mai make plans to foil everyone else's matchmaker attempts. Skip over to Domino High, where a commitee is being put together for the home-coming dance. Ishtar makes plans for a late-night "raid", and Yami wonders about whether or not he should warn the others.

God bless minna-san!