บท 13: It Should Have Landed In the Dirt (Part 2)
DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)
Jounouchi arrived back home, safe and sound. Since he had to leave the duel competition more on account of authorities bugging him instead of losing, he went ahead and spent some time in Italy. Seeing the sights. Trying the wine. Good food. Now, he was back where he should be.
Skeezy got busted big time. Shizuka and Honda were back too. It all seemed fine. Then, he got something. On the way to the store to pick up some groceries to enjoy some good (okay) cooking again, he got something.
Something big. Something bad. Something that made him drop his food.
Shizuka was safe. As safe as could be. Skeezy was busted, jailed and locked up, awaiting trial. But one of Skeezy's men.
Jounouchi immediately dialed her. "Come on, come on." Nothing. "Aw, come on, this isn't funny!" He dialed again.
"Hey, Jounouchi." Honda came over to him. "Didn't know you were back already." He paused. "Shizuka wanted to know if you wanted to go out with us tonight? Not that you have to. Looks like your covered there."
Jounouchi didn't answer right away. "You expectin' me to get mad 'cause I already got all this food so you can forget hanging out with me? I'm not, Honda." He handed him the phone.
Honda checked out the message. "Greetings, she's pretty in blue?" He looked back at Jounouchi. "Who's this?"
"I don't know but I bet it's a guy of Skeezy's. You know, the guy who wanted to go after Shizuka, and he clearly knows my phone number." Jounouchi would have raged, but he was in such a moment, all he wanted to do was get to his sister.
"Man, she's all the way across town." Honda dialed her phone. "No answer."
"Damn. Keep trying, I'll get some closer help to her."
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Yuugi's Place
"Hello?" Yuugi answered the phone as he was concentrating on his new game. "Hey, Jounouchi, you're back in town. Great. Huh?" Yuugi stopped playing. "Someone's after your sister?" Yuugi popped up right out of his chair. "The person you just put away said what? A goon of him you think?" Yuugi grabbed his jacket real quick. "Yep, I'm going now. She's where exactly? Got it."
Not too far. Yuugi hung up and started to run outside, looking around. Where could she be at? If only he had assistance. She was supposed to be out with some friends at a movie theatre, a couple of blocks away. Then, she was supposed to be going to a nice dinner place with Honda.
Yuugi looked all over the area she was supposed to be window shopping. Walking down the streets and just enjoying her friends' company. Yuugi rarely window shopped, but he did remember his friends. ///Yuugi: Where did we used to hang out all the time as teens? Has anything changed in the area?/// "Shizuka," Yuugi called out as he ran around. He asked others in the area if they knew and had seen her.
Jounouchi had Honda take Shizuka far away for a whole week, just in case this guy named Skeezy tried something. This guy was bigger than Jounouchi predicted if he was still having someone come after his sister. "Shizuka!" Hmm. Of course, it was someone in charge of human trafficking. That wasn't a light thing, it was serious. With something so vile, Jounouchi couldn't just ignore it either. ///Yuugi: Skeezy's in custody, this must be someone doing this as a favor who works for him. Connections could be dangerous./// "Shizuka!"
He got a call again. From Jounouchi.
"We got a hold of her, Yuugi. She's not even wearing blue so I guess it's just a false alarm. Um? Hey, since you're over there, you wanna come eat with us?"
Yuugi gave a big sigh of relief. "Sure. I guess I'll be the first to reach it." Still, he kept his eyes out. "I haven't seen anyone, Jounouchi."
"Running scared," Jounouchi answered. "Don't worry, Yuugi. We'll be there soon. We'll have a big old family meal." Yuugi heard Honda mutter in the background 'supposed to be just us'. ///Yuugi: Aw. Those two will never change./// He hung up and walked casually to the restaurant. He kept looking around. ///Yuugi: It used to be so much easier when danger arrived and I had a second hand to help me.///
He didn't dwell long on it as he went inside. He took a seat and waited for his friends. He kept checking in different directions, but everything seemed fair. Not long after, Shizuka arrived.
"Hi, Yuugi." She didn't look half as good. "You came searching for me?"
Yeah. It wasn't a good feeling to be in. "Your brother got a spook."
"A text message, I know." She sat down. "I'm not even wearing blue, I'm in red. I don't really own much of anything blue. I thought this was over."
"Jounouchi's back. I'm sure nothing can happen now," Yuugi tried to comfort her. Wrong color means wrong number.
"Of course not, he's too commanding. There were no details, and Honda and him just went nuts. I get the feeling that this Skeezy wasn't someone Katsuya should have messed with so they are going overboard." Shizuka looked at the menu. "Honda doesn't help, he's been watching over my shoulder just as much as my brother. It's getting really annoying having them play knights."
It wasn't about playing knights. It was about making sure she didn't end up in . . . "You want to start off with drinks?"
"There you are." Honda came over and hugged her politely. "Good to see you're fine."
"Off the sister right now," Jounouchi said as he pushed him back. He made him take the next seat over while he sat next to his sister.
Yep. Yuugi could see what Shizuka was talking about. Yuugi knew Honda and Shizuka were doing a lot more in their 'casual dating' than Jounouchi knew. He was surprised Shizuka didn't say something about that motion just then. ///Yuugi: Really, it shouldn't be too hard to tell Jounouchi to back down./// He opened the menu and looked at the food. ///Yuugi: Gonna have to back down someday, Jounouchi./// Especially since Honda already had an engagement ring to give her one day. He'd been holding onto it for three months now. ///Yuugi: Boy. I hope Jounouchi doesn't beat up Honda too bad when he finds out about that.///
If he ever found out. If Honda ever worked up the nerve to ask.
"You should stay with me until things get safer," Jounouchi told Shizuka. Honda choked on his water, but Jounouchi paid it no mind.
"I'm fine," Shizuka insisted. "Really, Katsuya. I know you've probably got your next duel to go to soon anyway. Why bother?"
Honda cleaned up the water and held his finger in a 'shh' toward Yuugi.
//Yuugi: How are you ever going to propose if you can't even tell Jounouchi your living with her right now, Honda?/// Yuugi shook his head but kept quiet. It was their lives to live and Honda already forced him into this secrecy. Just showed up with the ring, told Yuugi how happy they'd be when he did it, and that he better not tell Jounouchi or else. A long sigh.
"I'll be fine. Honda said he'd stay with me until this was all over, and he's been a perfect gentleman." Shizuka said. Well, it wasn't a total confession, but it got Honda in the clear when Jounouchi found his stuff at his sister's place.
Jounouchi glared at Honda. "You've been living with my sister?"
Honda sipped on the water. "Yeah, man, well you said be careful. When we got back, I figured moving in would be extra careful. I already got my stuff there and everything."
Jounouchi didn't give him kind eyes. "That's a real pal of you." He looked toward Shizuka. "You okay with that?"
"Yeah. He's been great," Shizuka said. "Once everything's safe, he can go again. However long that takes. Weeks or months."
///Yuugi: Ouch. Shizuka's really giving it to Jounouchi./// She really didn't enjoy both of them trying to watch out for her. It probably felt like they were running her life. "The food looks good."
"It won't be too long," Jounouchi said to his sister, ignoring what Yuugi said to throw him off the subject. "With photos and audios and an eye witness? We got this guy pinned down so hard that no one's going to mess with you again. Promise. Then, you won't have to have a simple boyfriend living with you anymore. Be free again." He looked toward Honda. "Wish I had heard about this earlier."
"Doing what I can to protect her," Honda said. "It's fine, no worries. Besides, Yuugi's right. Look at that food. Yu-mmy. Don't you think so, Shizuka?"
"I guess."
As they ate, everyone kept watch. No one had seemed to come anywhere near her. The next day, it was the same thing. A week later, it was the same thing. Jounouchi went off back to his next dueling tournament and Honda continued to stay with Shizuka.
Then Jounouchi broke the good news.
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