Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Devil's In The Details ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: holyllama 
Can you say "rampant paranoia"? I knew you could, and so can Yami, Anzu, and Jonouchi.
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Supernatural | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.11.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.7K | Visits: 125 | Status: Work In Progress
Can you say "rampant paranoia"? I knew you could, and so can Yami, Anzu, and Jonouchi.
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Supernatural | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.11.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.7K | Visits: 125 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I don’t own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Demon: the Fallen. Those belong to Kazuki Takahashi and White Wolf respectively. I’m just making the little characters dance for my own amusement.
Warnings: Some use of "four letter words", later some scenes of violence and dark occultism. Turn back now if either of these makes you uncomfortable.
Warnings: Some use of "four letter words", later some scenes of violence and dark occultism. Turn back now if either of these makes you uncomfortable.
Chapter 5
It was the next day before anyone could get in to see Ryo during general visiting hours. No one was quite sure of his condition, other than snippets of what Anzu, being one of the class representatives, had heard. Comatose, condition stable for now but ailment unknown.
Yami took “point” in his and Yugi’s shared body when he, Anzu, and Jonouchi went to visit. Something, he couldn’t quite tell what, was niggling at him when Anzu had suggested that the trio go and visit that day. Something just off that set off his protective instincts regarding his lighter half and made him insist on controlling their body. That, and the fact that Yugi hated hospitals for some reason that not even Yami fully understood. “I just do” wasn’t the most logical response in the world, after all.
“You okay, Yugi?” Anzu’s quiet voice asked once the three were in the elevator, a slim hand settling on his shoulder for a second. She shrugged slightly when Yami looked up at her, turning her eyes to the front of the elevator with a muttered comment about knowing how much Yugi hated hospitals.
“We’re fine, Anzu,” Yami replied after a moment. “Thank you for your concern.”
“Too bad Yuki couldn’t come with,” Jonouchi said.
“Why not?”
“Said she had something she needed to do.”
“I can’t help wondering, though…”
“Something about her doesn’t feel right,” Yami agreed with Anzu’s unfinished thought. “Yugi’s caught her sending a few looks at Ryo that could freeze the Sahara.”
“Do you think she has a Millennium Item?”
“No. They’re all more or less accounted for.”
Jonouchi‘s brow furrowed in thought. “They are?”
“Well, if I remember right,” Anzu mused as she ticked each off on a finger, “Yugi has the Puzzle, Ryo has the Ring although I don’t know why he keeps it, Malik has the Rod, Ishizu has the Necklace, Shadi has the Scales and the Ankh, and Pegasus had the Eye.”
“Which is still unaccounted for, but she hasn’t replaced one of her own eyes with it,” Yami agreed with a slight nod. “And that’s all of the items that were ever created. To my knowledge, only the Rod, the Ring, and our Puzzle have had the effects that they have on their owners.”
“Yeah, but Yuki’s fugue states…” Anzu paused a moment, sighing slightly as she gathered her thoughts. “I don’t think you’ve really seen one of Yuki’s fugue periods, Yami. They’re almost like you and Yugi before you two started communicating, or how Ryo and the spirit of the Ring work. She was an entirely different person in Yuki’s body.”
“One that doesn’t seem to hold Ryo in very high regard.”
“Whoa,” Jonouchi said, “you can’t be thinkin’ that Yuki could’ve had something to do with Ryo getting sick?”
“Anzu’s the only one who’s had any sort of close quarters contact with Yuki’s other half.”
“I don’t want to believe it either, Jonouchi, but there was just something…when Yami no Yuki told me to put my cell phone away or when she commanded Suzuki to let her go…I couldn’t disobey. I don’t know what it was, but I know that Suzuki probably wouldn’t have let her go as quickly as he did if she hadn’t told him to. Even then…it looked like someone took a crowbar and literally pried his fingers off of her wrist.”
“Not to mention that she was the last to be seen with Ryo before he collapsed yesterday. Yugi would rather not consider the possibility that Ryo’s illness is somehow her doing either, but it is awfully suspicious.”
The elevator stopped with a slight ding to signal their arrival, almost thankfully halting the conversation in its tracks before anyone else could respond. “Room 370, right?” Jonouchi asked absently, skimming the signs as the trio exited.
*************
“Yuki, what the hell are you doing?”
It was almost surreal, really. Anzu, Jonouchi, and Yami had walked to their friend’s hospital room in a worried silence, Yami being a gentleman and holding the door open for Anzu to pass through first. She supposed her gasp of shock was what drew Jonouchi and Yami’s attention to the bedside tableau which prompted Jonouchi’s outburst.
She could see the side of Ryo’s bed perfectly from where they had walked in. Ryo was still comatose, his almost white hair blending with the pillowcase and making him look more fragile than he probably was. Heck, he’d have to have some sort of tolerance for pain if he kept the Millennium Ring and its sadomasochistic prisoner around. But it was the sight of Yuki sitting so calmly on the bed, the tips of her toes barely brushing the floor when her legs swung back and forth slightly like a child dangling her feet in a swimming pool, with eyes fixed upon Ryo’s face and a single hand around his throat. It was especially eerie, when she turned at Jonouchi’s outburst. The expression on her face was one of curiosity, almost like she didn’t understand why the boys were snatching her hand from Ryo’s throat and almost forcibly plunking her into one of the plastic chairs out of reach of the bed. Silver eyes flicked over each of their faces in turn before the same cold veneer that Anzu had seen before settled over the Yuki-that-wasn’t-Yuki. “May I ask what you think you’re doing? And really, Jonouchi, such language.”
“What we’re doing? We weren’t the ones trying to throttle Ryo!”
“I think you’re exaggerating a bit.”
“And just who are you to tell us that?” Yami growled, his voice sounding almost as cold as this pseudo-Yuki’s and much less amused. “You’re as much Kobayashi-san as Jonouchi is.”
“Or as much as you are Yugi, little spirit.”
The four were silent for a moment, Yami and Anzu and Jonouchi stunned into silence by the fact that she knew what none of them could have told her, what Ryo wouldn’t have told her. When Anzu finally decided to break the silence, she couldn’t stop herself from stuttering slightly. “H-how did you know that? No one mentioned it.”
“No one needed to. I can feel the distortions in reality, I can see it in your friend’s stance, I can almost smell it. But little spirit, how is it that you and your other half are not whole?”
“It’s not your business. And I would much prefer that you cease calling me ‘little spirit’. I have been around long enough to put your age to shame.”
Yuki just looked up at Yami and smirked slightly, the look in her eyes one of a challenge that she knew she‘d win. “I very much doubt that. But very well. If I cannot call you ‘little spirit’, then what would you prefer? Hoka no Yugi? Yuurei-san? ”
“We call him Yami.”
“Thank you, Anzu. The name fits you, Yami, even if it is a pseudonym. Very intelligent, that.”
“Quit sidetracking!” Jonouchi growled. “Who the hell are you? What are you? And what‘ve you done with Yuki?”
The affected expression of innocence on the pseudo-Yuki’s face was enough to give Anzu cavities. “But Jonouchi, I am Yuki. She is as much a part of me as I am of her. But you wish another name to differentiate between us? As you wish.” She inclined her head with a mocking smirk. “You may call me Maharet.”
“You haven’t answered Jonouchi’s other question,” Anzu said quietly. “What are you? You’re not like Yami.”
“Ah, human insight. Very clever of you, Anzu.”
“Just answer the question.”
“Are you sure you wish to know?” For a second Anzu was reminded of Pegasus, just the feeling of having your soul examined by a single creepy glance from a mildly amused eye…well, eyes in this case. “Stubborn children,” Maharet sighed a second later after her eyes had passed over each of them in turn. “Before the Fall I was one who charted the progress of the stars in their courses and oversaw fragments of the Grand Design. I am one of the Fallen who rebelled against the One on High.”
“You’re a…demon?”
******************************************** *****************************************
Hoka no Yugi: “The other Yugi”
Yuurei-san: “Mr. Ghost”. I know, I have a few screws loose. I just think I’m funny.
*********************************************************** **************************
Author’s Notes
This chapter actually came together quicker than I thought it might. I’ll try to have Chapter 6 up pretty soon. If you’d like to get a better understanding of how Yuki and Maharet work, *insert shameless self-promotion* feel free to read Snow and Starlight.
As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed but not absolutely necessary.
Arigato gozaimasu, minna!
Holyllama
Yami took “point” in his and Yugi’s shared body when he, Anzu, and Jonouchi went to visit. Something, he couldn’t quite tell what, was niggling at him when Anzu had suggested that the trio go and visit that day. Something just off that set off his protective instincts regarding his lighter half and made him insist on controlling their body. That, and the fact that Yugi hated hospitals for some reason that not even Yami fully understood. “I just do” wasn’t the most logical response in the world, after all.
“You okay, Yugi?” Anzu’s quiet voice asked once the three were in the elevator, a slim hand settling on his shoulder for a second. She shrugged slightly when Yami looked up at her, turning her eyes to the front of the elevator with a muttered comment about knowing how much Yugi hated hospitals.
“We’re fine, Anzu,” Yami replied after a moment. “Thank you for your concern.”
“Too bad Yuki couldn’t come with,” Jonouchi said.
“Why not?”
“Said she had something she needed to do.”
“I can’t help wondering, though…”
“Something about her doesn’t feel right,” Yami agreed with Anzu’s unfinished thought. “Yugi’s caught her sending a few looks at Ryo that could freeze the Sahara.”
“Do you think she has a Millennium Item?”
“No. They’re all more or less accounted for.”
Jonouchi‘s brow furrowed in thought. “They are?”
“Well, if I remember right,” Anzu mused as she ticked each off on a finger, “Yugi has the Puzzle, Ryo has the Ring although I don’t know why he keeps it, Malik has the Rod, Ishizu has the Necklace, Shadi has the Scales and the Ankh, and Pegasus had the Eye.”
“Which is still unaccounted for, but she hasn’t replaced one of her own eyes with it,” Yami agreed with a slight nod. “And that’s all of the items that were ever created. To my knowledge, only the Rod, the Ring, and our Puzzle have had the effects that they have on their owners.”
“Yeah, but Yuki’s fugue states…” Anzu paused a moment, sighing slightly as she gathered her thoughts. “I don’t think you’ve really seen one of Yuki’s fugue periods, Yami. They’re almost like you and Yugi before you two started communicating, or how Ryo and the spirit of the Ring work. She was an entirely different person in Yuki’s body.”
“One that doesn’t seem to hold Ryo in very high regard.”
“Whoa,” Jonouchi said, “you can’t be thinkin’ that Yuki could’ve had something to do with Ryo getting sick?”
“Anzu’s the only one who’s had any sort of close quarters contact with Yuki’s other half.”
“I don’t want to believe it either, Jonouchi, but there was just something…when Yami no Yuki told me to put my cell phone away or when she commanded Suzuki to let her go…I couldn’t disobey. I don’t know what it was, but I know that Suzuki probably wouldn’t have let her go as quickly as he did if she hadn’t told him to. Even then…it looked like someone took a crowbar and literally pried his fingers off of her wrist.”
“Not to mention that she was the last to be seen with Ryo before he collapsed yesterday. Yugi would rather not consider the possibility that Ryo’s illness is somehow her doing either, but it is awfully suspicious.”
The elevator stopped with a slight ding to signal their arrival, almost thankfully halting the conversation in its tracks before anyone else could respond. “Room 370, right?” Jonouchi asked absently, skimming the signs as the trio exited.
*************
“Yuki, what the hell are you doing?”
It was almost surreal, really. Anzu, Jonouchi, and Yami had walked to their friend’s hospital room in a worried silence, Yami being a gentleman and holding the door open for Anzu to pass through first. She supposed her gasp of shock was what drew Jonouchi and Yami’s attention to the bedside tableau which prompted Jonouchi’s outburst.
She could see the side of Ryo’s bed perfectly from where they had walked in. Ryo was still comatose, his almost white hair blending with the pillowcase and making him look more fragile than he probably was. Heck, he’d have to have some sort of tolerance for pain if he kept the Millennium Ring and its sadomasochistic prisoner around. But it was the sight of Yuki sitting so calmly on the bed, the tips of her toes barely brushing the floor when her legs swung back and forth slightly like a child dangling her feet in a swimming pool, with eyes fixed upon Ryo’s face and a single hand around his throat. It was especially eerie, when she turned at Jonouchi’s outburst. The expression on her face was one of curiosity, almost like she didn’t understand why the boys were snatching her hand from Ryo’s throat and almost forcibly plunking her into one of the plastic chairs out of reach of the bed. Silver eyes flicked over each of their faces in turn before the same cold veneer that Anzu had seen before settled over the Yuki-that-wasn’t-Yuki. “May I ask what you think you’re doing? And really, Jonouchi, such language.”
“What we’re doing? We weren’t the ones trying to throttle Ryo!”
“I think you’re exaggerating a bit.”
“And just who are you to tell us that?” Yami growled, his voice sounding almost as cold as this pseudo-Yuki’s and much less amused. “You’re as much Kobayashi-san as Jonouchi is.”
“Or as much as you are Yugi, little spirit.”
The four were silent for a moment, Yami and Anzu and Jonouchi stunned into silence by the fact that she knew what none of them could have told her, what Ryo wouldn’t have told her. When Anzu finally decided to break the silence, she couldn’t stop herself from stuttering slightly. “H-how did you know that? No one mentioned it.”
“No one needed to. I can feel the distortions in reality, I can see it in your friend’s stance, I can almost smell it. But little spirit, how is it that you and your other half are not whole?”
“It’s not your business. And I would much prefer that you cease calling me ‘little spirit’. I have been around long enough to put your age to shame.”
Yuki just looked up at Yami and smirked slightly, the look in her eyes one of a challenge that she knew she‘d win. “I very much doubt that. But very well. If I cannot call you ‘little spirit’, then what would you prefer? Hoka no Yugi? Yuurei-san? ”
“We call him Yami.”
“Thank you, Anzu. The name fits you, Yami, even if it is a pseudonym. Very intelligent, that.”
“Quit sidetracking!” Jonouchi growled. “Who the hell are you? What are you? And what‘ve you done with Yuki?”
The affected expression of innocence on the pseudo-Yuki’s face was enough to give Anzu cavities. “But Jonouchi, I am Yuki. She is as much a part of me as I am of her. But you wish another name to differentiate between us? As you wish.” She inclined her head with a mocking smirk. “You may call me Maharet.”
“You haven’t answered Jonouchi’s other question,” Anzu said quietly. “What are you? You’re not like Yami.”
“Ah, human insight. Very clever of you, Anzu.”
“Just answer the question.”
“Are you sure you wish to know?” For a second Anzu was reminded of Pegasus, just the feeling of having your soul examined by a single creepy glance from a mildly amused eye…well, eyes in this case. “Stubborn children,” Maharet sighed a second later after her eyes had passed over each of them in turn. “Before the Fall I was one who charted the progress of the stars in their courses and oversaw fragments of the Grand Design. I am one of the Fallen who rebelled against the One on High.”
“You’re a…demon?”
******************************************** *****************************************
Hoka no Yugi: “The other Yugi”
Yuurei-san: “Mr. Ghost”. I know, I have a few screws loose. I just think I’m funny.
*********************************************************** **************************
Author’s Notes
This chapter actually came together quicker than I thought it might. I’ll try to have Chapter 6 up pretty soon. If you’d like to get a better understanding of how Yuki and Maharet work, *insert shameless self-promotion* feel free to read Snow and Starlight.
As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed but not absolutely necessary.
Arigato gozaimasu, minna!
Holyllama