Border Between the Afterlife (Part 2)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

Night Time

Yuugi was sharing with Anzu now and Hikaru. It looked like Anzu was over the hump about keeping Yuugi back a distance. Jounouchi kept Mana with him in his room. The other room had Malik and Isis sharing. Rishid had taken to sleeping downstairs. Bakura and Mokuba went to their own place. As long as everyone else was gone before the morning sun, it should be okay.

Yuugi tried to offer something to Atem. His other self knew that Masika's fate hadn't weighed well on him. Atem assured Yuugi that he and Anzu could share rooms and have Hikaru with them. Jounouchi offered that Atem could help with Mana if he wanted to feel more involved, since he was such 'a great friend'.

Atem's confused feelings right now, didn't mean he wasn't happy for Yuugi. As he once said to himself, as soon as Anzu came back, he announced that she belonged to Yuugi. She understood the importance of it, and she didn't rebel.

///Atem: Perhaps after this whole fiasco is over, Anzu will stay married to Yuugi. They might have a real wedding besides just 'Pharoah saying it is to be so'./// Yuugi's dream come true? Yuugi never spoke of children, only Anzu in the past, but he seemed to be okay with the thought of fatherhood. He did well with Hikaru.

Which, in that grey day, was about the only thing Atem could focus on to keep his concentration. There was something good to fight for. His friends. Jounouchi to get back to Mai. Honda to be brought back. Yes, he tried to concentrate on the good. The positive. Otherwise, if he didn't think of those things . . . his mind drifted toward . . .

///Atem: I'll set him on fire, I'll sting him with scorpions, I'll electrocute him, I'll cook him alive, and he will experience the sensation of death so many times that his soul will be shattered to pieces!/// Everything, every blasted punishment or curse he had ever dished out! It was Set's fault, he rushed everything! He rushed Mai, he rushed Anzu, and he turned a blessing that would have been given in nine months regardless, into a curse killing Masika!

His mind was in a terrible state. He hadn't known Masika extremely well but, Yuugi seemed to always call it right. There was someone like him, suffering like him, that he could bond with. They understood each other, whether Bakura liked it or not. Even coming back to life, so many things others couldn't comprehend. They both moved through it. Now, the thought . . . on the whole . . . that she had been dragged to a hell as a sacrifice, it just . . .

He wiped his eyes. This display of emotion wasn't something he often did. Being alive, things always hit so much harder.

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Border Between the Afterlife

"Whoah. That was a scream." As Honda wandered around on the horse. He watched as out in the distance, just a short ways, there was a vivid light that seemed to emerge. He did his best to make it over there. He used to deal with extraordinary things in his youth just about as well as he used to fight. He was ready for anything coming at him.

Except that. Honda looked back away. "No, I have to help. Get over it." He went into a little stone area. It had large stones that were like headstones but nothing was on them. Then there were smaller stones on the ground. ///Honda: Not helping man, gotta look.///

Beside that, was the big dilemma. "Poor Anzu." Honda went to her aid. "Hey there. Don't worry, I'm here too." He took off the strange cloak of his outfit and put it over her. She was glowing oddly, she probably needed it more. "Anzu?" Her hands started gripping the sand. "It's okay. I'm here. You don't have to go through this alone."

The world falling apart from around him. Them inside something that looked like Atem's memories. It wasn't hard to figure out. "We just gotta be brave until this whole . . . death thing is figured out." He tried to use the outfit to bring her closer. ///Honda: Am I ready for this? I don't think I get a choice./// Anzu was extremely weak. "Boy. Yuugi would be freaking out right now if he saw me with you like this."

Literally. Besides that cloak outfit, he was naked. Since he gave it to her, he was completely naked. He could even feel parts of her bare body against him. But. He didn't care. At this rate, bodies were just that. Bodies. If they even were bodies. "Are we just spirits, imagining our bodies now?" Well, at least he wasn't alone. "Huh. I didn't even get to challenge Jounouchi once for Shizuka. How lame." Yet, his words were breaking up slightly. ///Honda: Nah, nah. I can be brave. I can be-/// "What the-?"

He felt movement of Anzu. "Coming to? Sorry about this."

"I'm not Anzu. I'm Masika." She propped herself up higher and looked between them. She seemed to have absolutely no qualms about her being naked in front of him. "I mean Satiah . . . what?"

///Mysterious Voice: Figure it out. Worthless.///

Honda heard voices. Strong but soft. Two of them, separate. One male, more demonic. The second, gentle. More feminine. He looked at the small statues on the ground.

Honda felt the strange woman that looked like Anzu, holding onto him as the whispers came again. Deeper. Faster. Haunting. "I can't stand. I'm so weak, what happened?"

She couldn't stand, and she leaned against him. In her current condition.

"You're not . . . properly dressed." Man! Honda knew Anzu was stacked, but she was a friend. This was like Anzu stacked, with a woman that was not shy about herself at all. Satiah wore the outfit like a cloak around herself, with less than perfect precision to hide anything. "I'm trying to propose to someone at the moment. Well, I mean I was." Yeah. ///Honda: Maybe it was a good thing this happened. A pretty woman still turns my head, even from Shizuka. I'd be loyal no matter what but there's only one that I ever . . ./// "Funny. How the oldest memories seem now." He stood up while she held on. "Now what do we do?"

Satiah looked at the outfit around her. "You should wear this. Most likely I am gone. Set must have done something to me. There is no humanly body to protect."

"Set?" Honda didn't know who that had been.

"The Pharaoh who destroyed Dominic City," she said. "I mean Domino City."

///Honda: Set? That's the name of the guy, huh? Rotten name. Is that the voice I hear? Man, this thing just gets worse./// "Take it," he insisted. "I don't care who might be alive or might be dead. Maybe both or maybe none. I'd never leave a woman out here in this condition." She just had this strange look. Anzu had given him that look before. "I'm not being stupid, I know I might be blowing some chance. Truth being, it could be either one, but I'd rather you be covered like a lady."

"Modern men are strange," she said. "That didn't come out right. Thank you. Huh." That 'huh' was less of a question, more catching her breath, which was practically glowing. "Something is wrong. I still have breath and feeling." She tried to shrug off the cloak again.

"Whoah, easy," Honda warned her. "That's grade A support right there."

"I suppose I'm not gone. Strange, why am I here then?"

They both heard the sound of cackling, demonic, while a nicer voice rose through the other side. The whispers though, it didn't make sense. "You'll die without this cloak, Honda," Satiah pointed out. "The gentle voice keeps saying it."

"Then I go, but you can't. You are going to keep it," Honda declared. "If I'm here, then it's either my time, something else will come along, or I have some kind of duty to perform. Maybe even just keeping you alive. That's the final word."

She placed her cloak back on better again. He didn't even know her, and he was doing this for her, even at the sound of the words. "Thank you." It was said with much more sincerity.

The voices. Indecipherable sometimes, clear at others. One laughing and invigorated at her confusion and sadness.

Now. She was at a bridge between the afterlife and Anzu's dimension. A bridge that Honda had crossed over into. What has Set pulled? Is Anzu okay?