Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Devil's In The Details ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

I don’t own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters, they’re all Kazuki Takahashi’s. Likewise, I don’t own Demon: the Fallen. That’s old-school White Wolf all the way. As I said earlier (or in Snow and Starlight), I just make the little characters dance for my own amusement. *Watches llama-muse and Yuki fox-trot their way across the room*

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.

“You’re a…demon?”

Maharet resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the statement-slash-question, mostly because of the remaining fragment of Yuki’s soul figuratively smacking said urge into submission. Life would be so much easier once she was at her full strength again. “Yes, Jonouchi, I am. I prefer ‘fallen angel’ or ‘Neberu’, but ‘Fiend’ will do if it absolutely must.”

“But you’re not…”

“A frightening creature with horns, cloven hooves for feet, a barbed tail, red skin, and carrying a pitchfork?” She couldn’t help the derisive snort that image prompted. “That is reserved for Halloween, priests who enjoy scaring their parishioners with fire and brimstone, and bad horror movies, thank you very much.”

“The fact remains that you were strangling the life out of our friend,” Yami said, his reddish-purple eyes seeming to grow even darker. Well, they probably would have if that was possible, and Maharet wasn’t entirely sure that it was. But she was dealing with a spirit…

“So serious, little Yami. Even I smile more than you do.”

“You’re getting off the more important subject.”

“What cause do I have to wish him harm? He has done nothing to me, and Yuki seems to like him.”

“You’re a freakin’ demon!” Jonouchi sputtered. “Do you need a reason? Maybe you just wanted his soul for an afternoon snack.”

“I cannot believe that we are having this conversation.” The fallen angel exhaled heavily, massaging her temples in an effort to ward off the headache that was probably looming just from the volume of Jonouchi’s voice alone. “We do not eat souls. Well, there might be a few especially deranged individuals, but I can assure you that I am not one of them.”

“Then what were you doing?”

“I was trying to read the lines of convergence when you distracted me.” The perfectly blank expressions that greeted that statement were almost enough to make Maharet indulge in one of those comic pratfalls that the characters in Yuki’s stepbrother’s favorite animes were wont to do; the ones that resulted from someone else’s sheer stupidity or denseness. But Maharet was a dignified, elegant celestial being and that Just Wasn’t Done. Not as of yet at any rate, even if she was pretty well stuck in a mortal body. “Lines of convergence. Where various ties of Fate intersect.” She had to physically bite back a groan when Yami, Anzu, and Jonouchi just looked between each other and shrugged.

Then Yami turned a suspicious glare back at her. “You’ll forgive me if I’m not exactly inclined to believe you, Maharet. As Jonouchi stated, you are a demon.”

Why that pompous, puerile, patronizing little …! She stood and drew herself up to her full (somewhat unimposing) height, attempting to look down her nose at Yami with a haughty sniff. “Believe me or not, I would much rather unravel the mystery behind Ryo’s sudden malady than otherwise and I don’t have the time to waste in continuing this obviously pointless conversation. Good day.” Maharet took a moment to take Ryo’s limp hand in her own, squeezing it in a gesture of comfort that Yuki had definitely had to have prompted, then swept out of the room with only a slight incline of the head to Anzu and completely ignoring the presence of Jonouchi and Yami. That should irk him sufficiently.

*************


“Yes?”
< br> “Ano, is Yuki home, Kobayashi-san?”

“Who should I say is asking for her?” Kobayashi-san, a pretty woman in her mid- to late-thirties asked. Yugi was nervous, he’d admit it. Unlike Yuki’s almost always open expressions, her mother was a closed book. Almost Kaiba-esque, heaven forbid.

“Yugi Moto. I’m a classmate of hers at Domino High School.”

“Oh, so you’re the famous Duelist. Be warned, my son is a huge fan of anything and anyone Duel Monsters. Come on in, I‘ll let her know you‘re here.”

The second that Yugi stepped into the small living room he was mobbed by a bright-eyed seven year old who had a passing family resemblance to Yuki. The kid, Satoru if Yugi remembered right, was cute in that sort of obnoxious hero-worshipping way that only grade schoolers could be, chirping on about how much he loved to watch the tournaments and how he hoped maybe one day he could be as good as Yugi. When Yugi expressed a passing interest in the photographs on the wall, mostly family shots, Satoru gleefully filled him in on who each person was and his opinions of them, right down to “Yuki’s Uncle Dean who always looks like he just got outta bed.”

“Satoru-kun? What’s this one?” Yugi pointed out a simple black and white photograph on the mantle in which three middle-schoolers were grinning madly, looking like cats that ate the proverbial canary. “It looks like Ryo and Yuki?”

Satoru’s face seemed to fall slightly when he looked up at it. “Hai, Moto-senpai. That’s Bakura-senpai, Nee-chan, and Suzuki-senpai before Nee-chan went to the hospital. They used to be real good friends. Then Suzuki-senpai started getting all weird after Nee-chan went in her coma. He said that it was all Bakura-senpai’s fault, but I don’t believe him. Bakura-senpai was one of Nee-chan’s best friends. He wouldn’t do something like that to Nee-chan.”

“I know he wouldn’t, Satoru-kun.”

“Y’know what I wish sometimes, Moto-senpai? I wish things could go back the way they were before. Bakura-senpai, Nee-chan, and Suzuki-senpai could be best friends again, Nee-chan wouldn’t be so scary sometimes…sometimes when she’s in one of her moods, she’s kinda like a nice Naraku. Y’know, from Inuyasha? Me and Nee-chan used to watch it all the time before she went into the hospital, and she’d always look at me real serious whenever Kagome sat Inuyasha and she’d tell me that was why I had to be nice to girls.”

“Because otherwise you’d get sat,” Yuki said with a snicker. “I think Kaasan wants you in the other room, brat. Your turn in the bath, ya know.” She just pointed out of the room when Satoru looked like he was going to start whining, and the kid definitely took his cue to scurry off under a parting hair-ruffle from his elder sister. “Sorry I took so long, Yugi; you caught me just as I was finishing my shower.”

“It’s no problem. But, um, isn’t your hair normally straight?”

“What, this rat’s nest?” she said, taking one of the wavy almost-ringlets between two fingers and tossing it back over her shoulder. “I wish. I got my dad’s hair Haha says, so straight involves about half an hour, a lot of styling crap, and a hair dryer.”

“Your father’s…? But from the pictures Satoru showed me, your father’s hair looks straight.”

“That’s Satoru’s father, my stepfather. My birth father was American, US military stationed on Okinawa when he met my mom. Died in an accident during exercises when I was 6.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I barely knew him, and Chichi’s been a good parent for a stepparent. If that makes any sense whatsoever, which I’m not too sure it does. Hey, you wanna take a walk?”

“Huh?”

“You must’ve come to talk about something that we probably can’t talk about around Haha or my ototo-chan, right? We’ll walk out to the park and talk there or on the way or whatever.”

“That’s a good idea.”

*************

The park was definitely more quiet this early than Yugi would’ve thought. The walk from Yuki’s apartment building hadn’t been one of the longest treks Yugi had ever gone through (Duelist Kingdom came to mind), but it seemed like forever when the only conversation had been slightly strained small talk. Now here they were, seated on one of the small and relatively clean park benches, and staring at the fading sun in silence.

“Ne, Yugi?”

“Hai?”

“I want to apologize…”

“For what?”

“The way Maharet acted today. She’s still not entirely up to par when it comes to basic social skills, I think. I already called Jonouchi and Anzu and apologized to them, too. She really didn‘t have any right to treat you guys the way she did.”

“I think Yami kind of brought it on himself,” Yugi said. “He’s great, don’t get me wrong, but… I wanted to apologize to you and maybe Maharet for his behavior too.”

Yuki’s reaction started slowly, a hand clamped over her mouth and shaking shoulders growing into muffled giggles and finally erupting in laughter.

“Ano…Yuki?”

“I-it’ ;s just so f-funny, isn’t it?” she managed to get out through her giggles. “W-we’re apologizing t-to each other for their behavior and we’re s-so freakin’ serious about it…” A fresh gale of laughter started then, one that almost threatened to make her double over with the strength of it.

Yugi couldn’t help it. He joined in the laughter with a large smile on his face. “Th-they really are immature sometimes, aren’t they?”

“Y-yeah.” Yuki swiped at the tears of mirth rolling down her cheeks as her fit of laughter subsided. “Apology accepted, on both counts.”

“Likewise for my part. I think Yami’s still mad about how Maharet left today. So she heard me?”

“Clear as day.”

“So she can see and hear what you do, but you can’t do the same when she’s in control?”

“Pretty much. Doesn’t it work like that for you and Yami?”

“I don’t think so…it used to before I really accepted that he was there, but since then we pretty much share and share alike.”

“So desu ka? That’s pretty cool.”

“Do you know why it’s like that for you two?”

“She has an idea,” Yuki said slowly, reaching down to pluck a particularly long blade of grass. “She said once it was because I’m only maybe a fifth, maybe a quarter of what I was. My…Yuki’s soul, I mean.”

“I don’t think I’m quite getting it…”

“Think of it like…like being in a car. For you…you two…ugh, this always gives me a headache, you guys’re either in the driver’s seat or the backseat, but whoever’s not driving is big enough to look over the seat or over the shoulder to see what’s up ahead and whoever‘s driving is big enough to reach the steering wheel and the pedals. For me and ‘Haret, it’s like I’m a little kid sitting on someone’s lap. My soul is large enough to see and steer if I’m on her lap, figuratively speaking, but I’m not big enough to reach the pedals. She needs to be in the front to do that, so she can see what I see when I’m steering.”

“I think I get it. Is there a way to separate you two?”

Yuki tilted her head to one side, regarding Yugi with a cold eye that he had to double check to make sure it was still hazel. “Why would you ask that?”

“Yami wants to know.”

“Gotcha. You tell him that ‘Haret’s not going anywhere unless this body dies. She’d be sucked back from whence she came, not to mention that, like I just said, I’m not enough me to work this body. I’d probably go back into a coma.”

“So when did that happen? After…?”

“After my soul was sealed into a lead figurine?”

Yugi winced slightly at the blunt tone, although whether it was her tone or sympathy pain for Ryo he wasn’t sure. “Ah ha…so you, um, know about that.”

“You bet your ass I know. I know the who, what, when, and where. I’m still unclear on the why, but I don’t really care anymore.”

“But you let Ryo believe that you didn’t really know…?”

“Because he’s still a really good friend and I’d like it to stay that way. Whoever…whatever it was that sealed me in that thing, it wasn’t the Ryo Bakura that I’ve known since the beginning of middle school. Almost like the thing with Suzuki-senpai.”

“Your brother said something about that, that you three were best friends.”

“Which is why I don’t get what happened last week with him,” Yuki sighed with a troubled look at the fading bruises around her wrist. “The way he talked about Ryo, you’d think he hated him. And what was really weird was that he said he ‘tolerated’ Ryo until he put me in the coma. That’s complete and utter bullshit, if you’ll pardon my French. They were just as much friends with each other as I was with both of them. I just…I just don’t get it, Yugi.”

There was silence for a few moments before Yugi decided to break the silence again after a wary look around to make sure no one was within earshot. “So does she have any idea why Ryo’s so sick? I know Yami doesn’t think it’s natural…”

“He thinks it’s some sort of curse that Maharet put on him or her attempt to suck his soul from his body.”

“I wasn’t exactly going to say that…”

“I know. Don’t take this the wrong way, Yugi, but I think you’re too nice to be able to say something like that. And no, she’s not entirely sure. She said the lines are too twisted around him, almost like something either deliberately ripped them out or tangled them. But she did catch something…”

“What?”

“Ja-aku na kankaku. She thinks it almost felt familiar, but she’s not sure…” Yuki’s eyes flickered rapidly, the color settling on silver as her face seemed to drain of color and she stared off into space.

“Yuki? Daijobu desu ka?”

“Who are you?” she whispered, her voice carrying Maharet’s cool and cultured tones with an undercurrent of irritation and anxiety that almost seemed to rival his own when Pegasus had sealed Yugi’s grandfather’s soul into a videotape. “How do you know my name?” Her eyes seemed to grow even larger, if that was possible, and he could just about see her jaw clench before she hissed, “You bastard! Fine, I’ll play your little game, but if you don’t undo whatever it is you’ve done then so help me…”

“Yuki, Maharet, what’s wrong?”

“Damn it all to hell!” the self-proclaimed fallen angel in Yuki’s body hiss-roared, slamming an open palm against the wood planks of the bench. “He’s toying with me! The fucking bastard is toying with me and with Ryo’s life!”

/Yami, I think you should come out now…/

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Chichi: Term used to refer to one’s own father (or father figure) when discussing him with someone outside of the family

Daijobu desu ka?: “Are you all right?”, “Are you okay?”

Haha: Term used to refer to one’s own mother when discussing her with someone outside of the family

Ja-aku na kankaku: “An evil feeling”

Kaasan: Slightly less formal term of address/title for one’s mother than the normal “okaasan”

Nee-chan: Very informal term of address/title for one’s older sister

Ototo-chan: Little brother, either as a term of address/endearment or reference when discussing him with someone outside of the family

So desu ka?: “Is that so?”

Senpai - One’s senior at school or work. The term is often converted into a suffix, like “-chan” or “-san”

/…/ Yugi to Yami no Yugi

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Dragonlady222: Thanks for reviewing. I really like seeing your reactions to what you’ve read. Hope you’re continuing to enjoy the story!

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Author’s Notes

And the plot thickens. It now has the consistency of goulash.

A note about the reference to Maharet being “like a nice Naraku”: the way I picture Maharet in my musings and my character notes is as an extremely intelligent, elegant/distinguished being who prefers using her brain to her muscles. Very similar to how I see Naraku, except that Maharet isn’t going to make world-domination plans, use that irritating little “Ku ku ku” laugh (and yes, that is exactly how it is in the anime! Drives me up the wall!), or dress in a white baboon pelt any time soon or any time at all. She is, for the most part, a very benign creature with an extremely good grasp of most things intellectual, occult/paranormal, and perceptive. Too bad her social skills still need some polishing.

Thanks to reviewers and I hope all you readers out there are enjoying the show!

As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed but not absolutely necessary.

Arigato gozaimasu, minna!
Holyllama