The Beast Underneath: A Yu-Gi-Oh! Fanfiction

Chapter Forty-Five: An Evening of Blood Cookies

When they finished dinner, the two girls served it at the dining table. Shizira, remembering her magic, dutifully closed and moved the book and her tools to the counter. Everyone sat in frosty silence, eating the delicious food. Of course, since Kiria did most of the cooking, it was bound to be good. The plates were gathered and cleaned, and then everyone converged onto the couches and stared at the television looping the Welcome Screen for Shizira's movie-viewing program.

"Shi, you have a gaming console?" Asuiri suddenly asked, leaning forward and staring at the light-blinking box at the bottom of the TV stand. She nodded slowly in response, which led to, "Why didn't you tell us about that?"

"I don't play video games much, I just use the movie program," Shizira stated. "I tend to find books and magic and art occupying enough, you know, beyond you four."

"We should get some and play!"

A heavy, resigned sigh. "Really, Asuiri?"

Everyone seemed to agree to an extent.

That was how, forty minutes later with a dark sky out, Shizira found herself playing Dance Dance Revolution console edition in a Dance Competition. There was certainly never anything boring when the others were around.

———————————

Asuiri had gone home. The three stood on the roof, having also said their farewells, and without hesitance took off into the murky clouded night. Shizira sat at home, under the table light, working once more upon the book. Izira was quiet for once. The entire house was quiet, which unnerved the girl a tiny bit as she brushed the pen along the lines of text, restoring the ink to a smooth black.

As much as it surprised her, sometimes it was boring without the others around. She always found out something new about her own house, or they broke down her door, or they all did something interesting. For a second, she wished she had a sibling, someone to occupy the house with her and cause a whole rabble of noise and mess and just be a bother.

And then Shizira remembered the photo, and she burned the wish into ashes and threw them right out of her mind. She closed the book, done for the night, and went to bed.

Meanwhile, Kiria sat at home, in her bed. A book was propped up on her knees, and a flashlight was held against her side underneath her arm to light up the pages. The room was otherwise dark, and Axel was snoring softly. It was a book she'd borrowed from an enthusiastic Shizira, and it was basically an explanation on magic. She found it interesting, how much of this was a good chunk of theory with a heavy dose of evidence and even scientific research. There were diagrams, explanations, footnotes - if Kiria didn't know any better, she'd think she were staring a science textbook in the face. Most scientists would completely dismiss magic, but this book seemed to answer any questions science might have.

Kiria had a problem with sleeping, and she knew that. Sleep came few and far between, which she guessed made her an insomniac, but didn't insomniacs not sleep what-so-ever at all? At least she had books to tide her over until she finally got drowsy enough to try and sleep.

She gently turned the page, holding the corner with a pause before letting it settle. Her soft, gentle voice - the one she used when she spoke to herself, which she did often - murmured in the dark and silence (besides Axel's snoring, of course).

"Magic - to what extent do you believe in good and evil, snow and soot, white and black, light and darkness? You'd be surprised that your perception of evil differs from another person's. There are thousands of views in this world, and every single one is different. As such, the concept of 'good' and 'evil' fluctuates as the population does.