Story Title: Late Night Visitation
Focus: Yubel, Juudai
Notes: This takes place in the early part of season four, shortly after episode 162. If you squint, you might see a small piece of Juudai x Johan.
This was going to be the easiest job that Kawano Hibiki had ever pulled off. He couldn't see why they'd given it to him. He was one of the best in the Ghouls, after all. He deserved work like finding the long-missing God Cards, or even attempting to go after the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Not something like this. Evading the security at the Kaiba mansion would be something worth doing, not this silly creeping into a school.
Sure, it had a little security. He'd had to hide for a day or two, and there was always the chance that someone would find the little boat that he'd hidden in the brush near where he'd arrived. But he wasn't really putting any serious money on it. The lazy guards they had around here weren't going to go out of their way to hunt up anything out of the way.
He did wish that he'd been able to wait about two weeks. It would've been the full moon then, and he would have been able to see his way around a lot easier. He was creeping up on the school buildings through the back way, which meant he wound up putting his foot into holes, tripping over branches that lay haphazardly everywhere, and once in a while getting something smacking in his face.
If this was getting 'back to nature', then Kawano would be perfectly happy if he got back to the city and never set foot on grass that wasn't in a park somewhere.
All of this work for a card. Not that it was very surprising, since stealing cards was what he did for a living. But he generally went after rare cards. Maybe not quite as rare as the God Cards or the legendary Blue Eyes, but surely there were other cards he could've been sent after other than this Hane Kuriboh.
It isn't the card, he remembered his boss telling him. It's the fact it belongs to Yuuki Juudai.
That sure hadn't meant much to him. One kid was much like any other kid as far as he was concerned. He didn't have any, he didn't want any, and he really didn't want to be around here in the first place, where they were all over the place.
At least he was here late at night, when they would be in their safe, soft beds, and he wouldn't have to look at any of them. If this Yuuki kid was like any other kid he knew, he'd have his deck near him. Probably on his bedside table. Kawano could go through it, pick out Hane Kuriboh and any others he saw that looked worth taking, and get back to his boat and on his way back to Domino City inside of an hour, maybe less. If the kid showed any signs of waking up, he had a nice vial of chloroform and a handkerchief that would take care of that in a heartbeat.
He had to find the Osiris dorm. That was the one farthest from everything, or at least his sketchy knowledge of the Academy told him that. It was also supposed to be where the worst students lived. Why the guy who owned a card that the Ghouls were after would be in that dorm was yet another fact that baffled him. If he were all that great, shouldn't he have been in Obelisk, the really ritzy dorm? Kawano had seen pictures of that one. Sweet didn't even begin to cover it. Maybe the kid was crazy, one of those awesome duelists who didn't have a grain of common sense. That was about the only reason that made any sense to him.
The brat would live out there, though, now that he thought about it. Virtually on the opposite side of the island where he'd landed. He'd done that on purpose, but it didn't stop him from grumbling about it to himself. If his boss hadn't wanted that card now, before the kid graduated from the school and went off to the Pro Leagues or whatever it was he was going to do, and got surrounded by real security all the time, he wouldn't have been here at all.
At least he wouldn't have to worry about being challenged to a duel while he was here. He didn't have a duel disk and he didn't have a deck, either. Not that he couldn't play. There was no such thing as a Ghoul who couldn't duel. But it would have just been his luck that he'd wake the kid up and he'd be one of those 'let's duel to settle this' types. Not what he wanted or needed.
Besides, one of his buddies had run into one of those a couple of months ago. Kawano thought that his friend had said the kid had come from this Academy too, and had been referred to as 'Kaiser' or 'Hell Kaiser'. At least those were what Miyake had been babbling when they'd picked him up from the hotel room he'd been found in. The guy hadn't spoken a single coherent word since then.
So if the kid woke up and did try that before Kawano could get the chloroform on him, he'd just have to cut and run and try again another time. Maybe he could stow away on the ship that would take the graduates away from this place and do it then. He'd have to keep it in mind if something went wrong.
Though he almost did want to talk to the kid, to find out why this one card was so valuable. His boss would most likely never tell him. He'd just get his cut of the cash when the card was put up at the underground auctions. He doubted whatever he got would cover anything he'd had to put out for this. But this was what he did, and he lived with it the best that he could.
Kawano crept past the buildings as carefully as he could, keeping his attention peeled for anything that looked like trouble. He froze in the shadow of one large building as a dark-haired kid whistled his way past, a towel slung over his shoulder, and what looked like swim trunks on. Kawano could only watch in shock as he headed down towards the beach. Who in their right mind went swimming at that time of night?
At any rate, he wasn't where he could see Kawano, and that made all the difference. The thief kept on his way, and soon was at the edge of the bridge that led to the Osiris building. Geez, they really want to make those guys feel bad, don't they? That impression only got stronger as he drew nearer there. He couldn't see why anyone wouldn't want to get out of there as quickly as they could. This Yuuki kid had to be a nut. Three years in a place like that? Completely wacko.
But, whatever. He had a card to steal.
Kawano crossed the bridge quickly and firmly, taking every step as if he were used to this, and did it every day of the week. If someone was looking for a thief, they'd look for someone who was being furtive and skulking, not someone who acted as if they belonged there. That was one of the first lessons that he'd learned, and he'd learned it well. He set foot on the other side and stared up at the building. Now all he had to do was find out which one Yuuki Juudai lived in.
Speaking of the young duelist, he was currently wrapped up in his blankets, mumbling something that sounded vaguely like instructions to Duel Monsters. None of his roommates, had they been there, would have been surprised by this. They had all grown used to it.
But for now, Juudai was alone. At least as far as humans were concerned. He was the only one in the Osiris dorm, which meant no one was going to be bothered as he rolled and thrashed in his sleep. That was just as fine by him, too. His active dreaming habits had gotten him yelled at more than once by Manjoume. Shou had never cared, even when Juudai had smacked him because he was dreaming of dueling and drawing cards.
He sat up suddenly, his large eyes wide and shocked. "Give it back!" he yelled at nothing, then blinked a few times. "Oh. Nightmare." Well, that had been annoying.
A soft chirp told him Hane Kuriboh was there, and he petted his partner gently, knowing the other was asking what the problem was. "Just a silly dream. Kenzan would never eat all of my fried shrimp."
He laughed some and rubbed the back of his head. He couldn't believe how much better he felt compared to what he'd been just a few weeks ago. The only thing that would really make it better would be seeing Johan again. But he was sure that he would. He could go visit him once he graduated, if nothing else, and they'd kept in touch with e-mails already. Not that he didn't want to see the other exchange students, the ones that were still around, but there was something extra special about seeing Johan again. He wasn't sure of what, but it didn't make that much of a difference. Maybe they'd get to duel each other again. The mere thought sent happy chills down his spine.
Juudai. Hane Kuriboh trilled again, and Juudai looked up, hearing a slightly different note in his partner's voice this time. Someone is around the dorm. Someone different.
Well. Juudai's eyes narrowed briefly. He didn't think it would be one of his friends. They were probably all asleep at this hour of the night. He glanced at the clock just to be sure. Yeah. They should be asleep. Maybe it could be Manjoume, if his deck were keeping him up again, but that hadn't happened in a while. Or he'd just gotten used to it. Juudai wasn't sure which, and in either case, Manjoume would have just barged in. He wouldn't be lurking around. And Hane Kuriboh knew Manjoume and would've called him by his name. The same went for all of his friends.
Which spelled out one thing in Juudai's mind: trouble. Quite probably big trouble.
Juudai decided what to do in a heartbeat. His hand slid over to his deck and he picked out a particular card that he tucked into his pajama pocket before he got out of bed, leaving the rest of the deck there. Then he simply stood in the darkest part of the room and waited to see what would happen. He didn't need to turn on any light. One very pleasant side effect of being who he was, was that he didn't need a light to see in the darkness now. It didn't look quite like sunlight, but he still knew where everything was.
Kawano entered the dorm carefully. The kid hadn't even locked the door. He was practically begging to be robbed by someone. It was probably a miracle he hadn't lost everything already.
He looked around, making a face. This was why he'd never wanted to come here as a student himself, even if he'd been of the right age. He'd be stuck in here, and it was way too small for his taste. Even if his current apartment wasn't much better.
And there was the deck, by the bed. Perfect. He couldn't see the kid anywhere. He was probably in the bathroom or something. Yet another stroke of luck for him. He stepped over to the deck and started to sort through it. "Hane Kuriboh, Hane Kuriboh," he muttered under his breath, trying to find it. Oh, there it was! Excellent!
"Before you go," a young male voice spoke from behind him, "you might want to tell me what you think you're doing."
Kawano whirled around, not seeing anyone there for a moment. Then Yuuki Juudai stepped out of the darkness, which almost appeared to cling lovingly to him as he did. That had to be a figment of his imagination, though. He'd seen pictures of the kid; his boss had provided them so he'd know he had the right person. But the pictures honestly didn't do him justice. Even wearing nothing but pajamas, he gave off a sense of presence that was at odds with what Kawano had heard about him being just a goofy duelist kid. And his eyes…there was something really, really wrong with his eyes…
No one human had eyes like that, one of turquoise blue and one of orange of all things.
"I…" Everything he'd intended to say if he were caught went out of his head, and he blurted the first thing that came to mind. "Nice contacts."
Juudai's smile was on the verge of sinister. Or at least highly amused. "They're not contacts."
"Oh." Maybe they should have avoided this place. Yeah, that was what he was going to tell the boss. "Well, I'll be going now."
"Put the card down first." Kawano did so at once, and Juudai nodded slightly. "You really shouldn't try to steal cards. They're precious to the duelists who chose them. There's a bond between a duelist and their cards that can't be broken or imitated." His smile widened slightly. "Let me show you what can happen when you love the cards enough."
He pulled a card out of the pocket of his pajamas, and Kawano could have sworn those really screwy eyes glowed or something. And after that, he could've sworn that somehow or other he'd been drugged, because there was some kind of thing standing there next to Juudai, and glaring at him like he'd committed every sin that had ever been created, and even thought up a few new ones just for fun.
And as if she were going to be the one to make him pay for all of them.
Yeah. He was also going to tell the boss if he wanted something stolen from Academy Island or from Yuuki Juudai, then the boss could damned well do it himself. Just looking at her made him want to go straight.
"This is Yubel," Juudai introduced her, and she smiled a wicked little smile. The very first thing that Kawano noticed was that their eyes were exactly the same.
"You've tried to take something my Juudai loves," Yubel purred, eyeing the thief much the same way that Juudai eyed fried shrimp. "I don't like that. No one should ever hurt my Juudai like that."
Kawano shook his head quickly and wondered if there was a way he could get to the door. They were much closer to it than he was. "No. No one should." He would've likely agreed if Yubel had stated that he should swim back to Domino City without stopping for his boat. "Can I go now?" She hadn't done anything threatening, really. She didn't need to. Just the way she was looking at him was all that was necessary.
Yubel and Juudai exchanged a look, then Juudai turned his attention back to him. "You're one of the Ghouls, aren't you?" Kawano nodded quickly, willing to admit to anything if it got him out of there in one piece. "Give it up. Duel Monster cards aren't just cardboard and paint. They're not just things you can steal."
Kawano nodded a bit desperately and Yubel smiled a slow smile. "I don't think he really believes you, Juudai."
"I do!" Kawano burst out, taking a step away from them. He wanted out of this living nightmare. He wanted to be in his crummy apartment with a beer and his feet up, watching the evening news, and that was all he wanted. Ever again. He'd even get that job down at the grocery store to make ends meet if he needed to. He had enough stored away so he could still live decently. He'd never have to do this again…and even if he did, he wouldn't.
"I don't know, I think he might," Juudai said at last. Then he took a step towards Kawano. "But if I hear about you doing this again, I will let Yubel deal with you. Understood?"
Kawano jerked up and down, a cross between bowing and praying in gratitude. He didn't know who he was praying to, but he was grateful they were listening tonight. "Yes! No! I won't do it again!" Please, just let him out of here in one piece…
Juudai motioned for Yubel to stand aside, which she did without looking very happy about it. She draped her arms around Juudai's shoulders and watched Kawano from there as he started towards the door.
"You're lucky my Juudai is so generous," she said as he crossed in front of them, and he froze in his tracks. "I would have done much, much worse if he weren't. You should say thank you."
Kawano swallowed briefly. "T-thank you. Sir." He would never have called someone a good five or six years younger than he was sir: before tonight. Juudai grinned back at him, a cheerful grin at odds with everything else that had been going on that night.
"If you ever want to have a duel, let me know. I always like having a new opponent!"
Kawano swallowed again. "Uh…sure…" He had no intentions of touching a Duel Monsters card again for the rest of his life. Without waiting for anything else, he fled out the door and across the bridge, not caring anymore if anyone saw him. He was certain he could hear that monster and the kid laughing at him all the way.
Juudai watched him go, then turned to Yubel. "Think we'll ever see him again?" he asked curiously. His guardian shook her head, grinning most mischievously.
"No, I don't think we will."
Juudai shrugged some, then slid her card back into his deck even as she vanished from his sight. He straightened his blankets out, tucked himself back under them, and was sound asleep in moments once again.
And even he did not hear Yubel's soft whisper of, "Sleep well, my Juudai."