Honda's Ghost Part 4

For all of that effort, we can be undone by the simplest things.

We traded letters back and forth, painfully polite but finally cordial. I don’t know what was going on in Honda’s mind, but then he probably felt clueless when it came to me.

I could sense emotion when he felt it strongly enough, but the pathways his mind trod down were closed to me.

That was probably a good thing, I’m too good at getting inside people’s heads as it is, if I could see Honda’s thoughts, or even get a clear picture of his reactions I could probably have manipulated him into just about anything. I wouldn’t have done it on purpose... at least, I don’t think I would have, but some things come naturally as breathing, and if he hadn’t been able to escape me at least partly...

I’m thankful for small favours.

But we were foolish and paid for that foolishness.

Cooperating as we were, we did not see any harm in trading back and forth.

The Honda’s mother came home.

I was in charge at that point, quickly tossed control back to Honda, he stood up and we passed out again.

At which point we spent several days in hospital as the doctors tried to work out what was wrong.

I never did get a clear understanding of what they thought was happening.

By the time we returned to school, a filming crew had been and gone, the gossips were buzzing about a dozen different stories, to my surprise a few were about Jonouchi and Yugi, I couldn’t get a straight story out of anyone, and Jonouchi was hunting for the school’s “star”.

Personally I walked into our classroom and froze upon seeing the puzzle.

It’s one thing to know Yugi had completed it, it is quite another to see it.

It is fortunate that Honda was clueless, and covered for me. My mind was whirling with the implications.

Despite my expectations I didn’t get immediately Shadow Gamed.

I was just very aware of the knife being held to my throat.

He wasn’t going to be happy when he noticed me haunting one of Yugi’s friends.

Most people had no idea what to make of Jonouchi’s sudden turn about, but he had thrown himself full heartedly into his friendship with Yugi, and was suddenly coming down hard on bullies.

That wasn’t to say he was a completely changed man, he was still a teenage boy after all. But I no longer had doubts about maintaining the friendship, and if he seemed a bit suspicious of me, well, it was up to Honda to tell him, I had left that in his hands.

I faded to the background, and I think Honda almost forgot about me at times, then he would see my handwriting in his books, or find himself somewhere he wasn’t expecting...

I couldn’t forget. We might be pretending to be ordinary, but things were going to start going wrong soon, and I needed to prepare.

I needed money. I needed a way to earn money, something not too time intensive that I could do for a couple of hours each morning. It’s a shame I couldn’t proof read... I turned to thought over in my head. Why couldn’t I? Other than my apparent age?

Well, maybe not proof read, but how about translate? I now knew English and Japanese. There must be...

I let the thought settle to the back of my mind as I focused on class.

I wondered who would be the next target.

I knew there would be another, Yugi was such a pretty target for those with bad intentions. A honey trap.

There were plenty of possibilities, from fellow students to various teachers, and I was starting to worry about this school. Who was hiring these people? I couldn’t be the only one to notice.

Then again, it could be a case of one bad apple having spoiled the entire barrel. The school needed cleaning out.

The best I could do was watch Honda’s back, and extend as much of my protection to Jonouchi, Yugi and Anzu as I could.

It wasn’t much.

I worried constantly.

Then Hanasaki came to school in a state, looking grateful towards Yugi and I realized I had missed a Shadow Game.

I had missed a Shadow Game.

How? Why? Who?

I sighed, and added Hanasaki to the list of people to watch over, the boy had a terrible habit of fading into the background.

And Yugi, if what I remembered was correct, had a terrible habit of saving people, completely changing their lives, and then forgetting them as someone else needed saving.

I didn’t want Hanasaki to turn into a Jonathon type, someone who knew about magic and would later turn against us because we forgot about him as we went on to deal with new and bigger threats.

But I was screwed, I couldn’t protect Yugi, I couldn’t deal with the Spirit of the Puzzle, and one day soon that Spirit was going to find out about me.

I could only hope that when that time came, I would be able to put up a fair fight.