Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 4,071 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

I guess I should have been expecting to see Mai the minute I got back home. I should have been, yes, but I wasn't, for some reason.

Okay, I wasn't expecting to see her because, while I was checking the church, she was finishing up in the business district: getting behind those doors I couldn't quite pick (damn it) and stuff like that. I thought it would have taken her longer to get done. I thought I might have the rest of the night to myself, now that I'm done with Chono duty.

( I guess that's what I get for thinking. )

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 6,167 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

Patrolling Domino for any sign of Chono is actually really dull, I muse to myself. There are a few places a leopard could hide, even this close to the full moon, only one night away.

I've already exhausted the warehouse district, checking inside each and every one of them for any sign a cat was ever in here with Mai's help.

I've checked the business district. I've even broken into buildings it seemed likely that she might try to hide in. It was actually rather refreshing. It's been a while since I've committed breaking and entering. I was worried that I might have been getting rusty, and to some extent, I was. It took me nearly fifteen seconds longer than it should have to pick some of those locks. I'm going to have to get myself back into practice.

( I'm running out of options on places to look. )

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 7,137 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

I think I got my wish, and I got it in spades too.

I find myself waking up with the worst headache I have ever had, short of a demon attacking my brain. That's saying quite a bit. I'm not sure if I want to groan or throw up or possibly both. I do know, however, that I don't want to move.

( To say I feel like shit would be the biggest understatement of the century, if not the millennium. )

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 6,023 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

When I wake up again, the first thought that goes through my head is that something is wrong here. I can't immediately place it, though, and that's a bit distressing. Not a whole lot, mostly because I still feel so damned tired, but I can tell that something is subtly off and I should not like it. No, I don't like it.

I'm still lying across my bed lengthwise. I give a moment's thought that perhaps that's what pinging wrong to my senses. It's not like it's the first time I've fallen asleep like this. It's not even the fourth or fifth time I've fallen asleep like this. All the other times, I have never had this sense of wrong like I do now. I'm still laying most of the way across the bed, my sneakered feet dangling on the floor. Whoops, guess I neglected to take off my shoes when I got home last night. It wouldn't be the first time I've done that before. Kisara has given up on scolding me for it.

( I used to not be so bad at that. )

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 7,913 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

It didn't take me nearly as long in Tokyo tonight as I thought it would. I manage to catch the ten o'clock train back to Domino, and I step off in my city and just before eleven at night.You know, I've always had either Akito or Kaiba with me when I come back from Tokyo. I don't think I've noticed before just how much livelier it's gotten in Domino since Kaiba took over as Master. It's like a lot of new vampires are moving to town. Maybe it's not just vampires, though; there might be new shape shifters in the city too.

( Domino has changed a lot since I first moved here. )

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 4,546 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

I wake up to cold.

Something absolutely frigid is touching my skin, and it feels like it's chilling me straight to the bone.

Without a thought, I jump straight up, bypassing sitting up from where I was slumped across a bench to instead be on my feet, a hand already on one of my knives ready, just in case. It's still easier to go for a physical weapon than my powers, and it's what my instincts have me immediately reach for first.
 
( It's laughter, happy female laughter in a tone I recognize, that stays my hand, though. ) 

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 4,893 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

And I think my eyes might have just popped out of my head. I can't see Marik there. Hell, for that matter, I can't really see Malik or Jounouchi there either, not unless a lot has changed over the last ten or so years. Maybe it has. Maybe a lot has changed for everyone else over the last decade. Maybe they have changed that much. 

Kaiba reads me easily, figuring out exactly what I was thinking before I have a chance to say anything. "It's not what I was expecting when I got the notification. It... doesn't seem like it would be their type of place."

"That's phrasing it very diplomatically. I can't even begin to picture any of them there."

"Prior to three years ago, I wouldn't have been able to picture you there, Bakura."

( And that's certainly true. )

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 51,502 (total); 10,747 (this part)
Chapters: Master Post
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

---

"Bakura, you're an idiot."

The room is completely empty except for me. That's not exactly a big shock. The sun's up, so most of the people who live in this house are dead to the world. No surprise there, I guess.

Maybe the surprise should have been that I was halfway expecting there to be someone else here. It sometimes seems like I'm never quite alone. I seem to have picked up a few dozen ghosts in the last few years, usually more than enough to keep me company on a day to day basis, but for once, they seem to have all wandered off. Wandered off? Whatever it is that ghosts do when they're not standing right on top of me, I don't know.

( Most of the time, even during the daytime, I can pick up Seto in the back of my mind. )

Series: Tin Man
Word Count: 200

---

The first five annuals were the worst.

( Watching the recording play over and over and over again... Trying every way he could think of to escape his iron prison... It took everything he had not to go completely mad.  )

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Extended Series: Endless Loop
Word Count: 2000
Chapters: Master Post
I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | Epilogue

---

I had to jump through way too many hoops to get where I am. I had to actually ask Pegasus and Cynthia for permission to enter their city. Apparently, normally it wouldn't be a problem, even with me representing Seto in the daylight hours, but the specific purpose for my coming here this time, meant I needed them to give me the 'okay' vote.

( They did, of course – and quite quickly too – but still, fucking politics. I can't just kill someone in peace. )