Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Heccubus ❯ Chapter 7

I refused to accept the wordless offer of support that Bakura was made as we walked to Yugi's home. I wasn't that weak, not yet anyway, and it was just a short walk once we'd got off the train.

 

“Kurerunano-san.” I didn't like the formality Mutou-san used with Bakura, it was so different from the informality he insisted on with the rest of us - to the point of insisting that we call him Jiisan - and so in response I made a point of being formal with him myself. He seemed to have noticed that, but he hadn't understood my reasons, even if it didn't bother Bakura that he was being singled out like that it bothered me. I mean even Kaiba, the cold businessman who'd build a theme park for the sole purpose of killing Yugi merited a -kun, but Bakura didn't? Bakura had helped Yugi far more than Kaiba had, and he'd had much better reason to go after the Millennium Items than Kaiba had for his actions - giving rest to the souls of his people, as opposed to soothing wounded pride. “We've got your Dark Necrophia in stock now. Did you want a box to keep your deck in as well? Considering the size of your order...”

 

“No, that won't be necessary Mutou-san.” Bakura twisted to pull a ebony box out of his bag - I knew that he'd created it using Shadow Magic, but that wasn't apparent, so he'd made it look like as much of an antique as the gold box Yugi kept his extra cards in. “Just give me the cards please.” I thought he was being too polite to the old man, but he'd told me that he saw Mutou-san in the same light he'd seen the less honest merchants back in Egypt. The ones who weren't above dealing in slaves they'd captured by ambushing other merchant caravans on the road. The box was the perfect size for Bakura to store his cards inside, even with the red velvet lining it he could fit them into the box in three piles side by side and he quickly sorted them by type.

 

“Thank you. Yugi mentioned that you had some new occult type cards? I think Yadonushi-sama might enjoy looking at them while I go somewhere private to work out my deck.”

 

“Come on, I'll show you where you can work. Do you need some paper as well, to make notes or something?”

 

“That might help Yugi. Thank you.” I smiled as I watched the small teen lead my yami away. His docility since he'd regained his own body still had the power to surprise me, but I pushed that thought away, since I had to make sure Mutou-san didn't realise Yugi was still with him.

 

“By the way Atemu, when are you going to let Bakura cleanse the evil from the rest of the Millennium Items? So far he's been able to do three, Shadi has two, and he'll only answer to you, and you keep the last two, even if you never touch them.” I wouldn't have said anything, except I could sense my yami's constant low-level pain at the knowledge that some of the souls of his people were still suffering, and there was nothing I'd allow him to do.

 

“What are you talking about Bakura-kun?” I stiffened at the way the old man addressed me and the astonishment in his voice.

 

“If you are going to be formal with my yami then I expect you to be equally formal with me. Are we clear on that Mutou-san?” I didn't know why his unthinking insult to Yami had set me off, and made me angry enough to actually do something, but it had and I wasn't going to back down.

 

“Very clear Bakura-san. But you haven't answered my question.”

 

“The Millennium Items were created by genocide of course, how could they be anything but evil? Bakura found a way to remove the evil from them, that's why he was trying to collect them all, and I agree with his assessment that any price was worth it to set his people's souls at rest. Oh, you didn't want to acknowledge that you handed an ancient evil over to your grandson, giving it power over him, did you Mutou-san?”

 

“And who told you all of this? Do you really think that tomb robber is a reliable witness?”

 

“He's already proven that by the age of seven he knew more about Shadow Magic than your precious Atemu ever learned. And he can't lie to me, our link prevents that.”

 

“That much is true Jiisan. I cannot lie to Yugi, any more than he can lie to me, and if my link with him works as Ryou's link with Bakura does then nor can Bakura lie to Ryou.” So he could think after all. Not that I was going to say that aloud, not since he was actually supporting me, and indirectly supporting Bakura. On the other hand...

 

“You haven't answered my question Atemu.”

 

“What? Can you promise me that he won't try to steal the Millennium Items if I let him try that spell on them?” I wasn't going to interrupt him to check, but he'd said that he only wanted to free the souls of his people, and that in Egypt he'd thought the only option was to destroy the Millennium Items or he'd have found a way to cleanse them without going to the bother of actually stealing them.

 

“Yes, I can. He only ever wanted to get his hands on them for long enough to cast that spell, at least since he learned it.”

 

“What about Pegasus? You never said how he got the Eye from him? Didn't he kill for it?” I shouldn't have been surprised by Jounouchi's attitude.

 

“Are any of you going to claim that the bastard deserved the Eye? And Bakura didn't kill him, he just challenged him for the Eye, and Pegasus lost.”

 

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I'd known that Yadonushi-sama would be powerful if he ever stopped denying what he was, but I hadn't expected him to defend me as if I belonged to him, not yet anyway. Or to argue to get me what I needed to grant my people, the people I would always feel that I'd failed, rest. But as I learned later he had, and it even seemed to have helped his condition a little, not much, but he wasn't looking as tired as I'd come to expect him to be by this time of day when I came back from pleasing Yugi.

 

Atemu immediately left the room, and I joined Ryou in looking through the new occult cards, asking if there were any he'd recommend to me, because I knew I couldn't leave at once, that would have been suspicious. And Ryou did turn out to have some pretty good ideas about what cards I might like, even if they weren't entirely what I might have chosen without his influence. He wasn't aware of the strategies I favoured, not really, even though he'd seen me use them from inside my head, they were too manipulative to come naturally to him. But I thought I could build a new secondary strategy around the cards he suggested, cards that made good `champions' or good support for champions, so it wasn't a loss.

 

“Here.” I couldn't think of anything to say when he thrust the Millennium Necklace and Millennium Rod at me, so I just raised an eyebrow. “I can't sense any difference in the Puzzle from that spell you cast, and Ryou convinced me that it's important to you, even if there isn't any real effect, so you can cast the same spell on these, as long as you do it now.”

 

“You really can't sense the difference?” I'd always thought the difference would be obvious since I'd learned how to cleanse the evil from those things, Ryou could sense it even though he was still pretending to be just human as hard as he possibly could, but apparently only demons sensed the pure evil surrounding those cursed things. Humans must not be sensitive enough or something like that, and I dismissed the issue, rather than ponder that particular wrinkle.

 

“There isn't a difference, not to anyone but you or Ryou. But I saw you cast those two spells on the Puzzle, and you didn't do any harm.” I didn't like his dismissal of our perceptions, but it didn't really matter as long as I got the chance to set my people to rest. I put the Necklace to one side as I cradled the Rod in my hands, focusing my mind and heart on my need to free the souls of my people to move on, whether to reincarnation, or to whatever afterlife would accept them, and channelled the purest Shadow Magic I could, freeing their souls. If it hadn't been right after I'd been with Yugi I don't think that I could have cast the spell again on the Millennium Rod, and afterwards I felt light headed, almost as if I would faint, and I recognised the warning signs from Egypt. At least I wouldn't annoy Yadonushi-sama again by offering to help him back to his house, I was too exhausted to risk making the offer, in fact I wished there was someone who could help me get home.

 

I sighed and tapped into the Shadow Realm, drawing energy from it, even knowing that doing so was a temporary expedient at best. I couldn't get as much energy from the Shadow Realm as I'd just used to free my people's souls, and my body didn't respond to or retain that energy as well as it did the energy I got sexually. Atemu looked shocked by my actions, without any reason, and he called his own Shadow magic defensively.

 

“Relax, I just used up a bit too much energy doing that. Now at least there's only two Items I need to cleanse. Yadonushi-sama, I think we should leave soon, it takes a while to prepare a meal after all, and we don't have anyone at home to cook for us.” I turned to the old man, and paid for my new cards, as well as the ones Ryou had chosen while he picked up his bag and we left.

 

“Do we really need to get home now? I'm not that hungry, and we can always order something in, can't we?” At least he hadn't protested before we left, although it did surprise me that he didn't just want to get home so he could go to sleep or something.

 

“There's that, but I want to get home while w-you still have the energy to do your homework.” He didn't catch my slip, or at least it didn't seem that he had and I was grateful for that, my purpose was to take care of him after all. We took far longer than I would have liked to get home, and I couldn't blame that on Ryou, because if I hadn't been so exhausted I'd have been able to offer to carry his bag, or force a faster pace. And then there was the problem of a pair of thugs we almost ran into. I knew that I wasn't up to protecting Ryou, and that he wouldn't realise that he could protect me, so I made sure we hid before they saw us, and that cost us more time.

 

Once we got back I set up a simple stew, something I could just leave to simmer while I did my own homework, and asked Ryou to do his own while I did mine, even knowing that he'd take longer. Except he didn't, because I was helping him when he had problems, the way I was used to doing. While we were eating I frantically tried to figure out a way to recover my energy, but I knew I was pushing the limits of what I could safely take from my `friends', and so there was only one real option.

 

Ryou didn't question it when I left the house, and went hunting, looking for a paedophile, focusing my magic to draw one to me in my child's form, since paedophiles and rapists were the only people I was comfortable killing that way.

 

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Bakura'd prepared a somewhat more Western breakfast when I came down from bed, bacon, egg-fried toast, and a huge fried mushroom were laid out for me, and he was kneeling beside the table.

 

“Bakura, what?” I couldn't believe the way he was behaving, and I didn't understand why he was doing that.

 

“Yadonushi-sama, will you make a promise to me?” He hesitated then added a single word before pressing his head to the floor. “Please.”

 

“Get up Bakura!” My voice was harsh with shock, and my yami rose to his knees immediately, then set his jaw and stayed like that.

 

“Sit down and start eating, I'm staying here until you've made that promise and given me some sign you'll abide by it.” He was trembling faintly, and I could feel his fear through our link, and that was enough to make me do as he asked. I took a bite of the bacon before saying anything to him, because I had the feeling that would make him feel better, even though I wasn't very interested in eating at the moment.

 

“What do you want me to promise?”

 

“That you'll eat what I prepare for you. It won't be enough to make you throw up or anything, but please, you're starting to lose weight, and at least if you eat l-normally, or close to normally, your condition won't deteriorate quite so fast.”

 

“I...” That wasn't a promise I could make, and I didn't know how to say that to him, not when he sounded so desperate for me to agree. “I can promise to try, nothing more. Will that be enough?”

 

“It will have to be, won't it?” Bakura stood, head bowed slightly, a slight bitterness in his voice. I felt guilty for putting that there, but at least he was standing, and it was only then that I realised there were no dirty dishes, just the dirty pans he'd used.

 

“What about you? Have you eaten anything today?” He looked shocked that I'd asked. Had I given him reason to believe I didn't care about him or something?

 

“No, I forgot. There's a good reason, and it's why I'm going to ask everyone if they can deal with taking a week long break from the schedule, to let them recover a bit, but eating helps reduce my need to feed.” I didn't want to know what that `good reason' was, I really didn't, but I'd seen how much everyone was obsessed with bedding Yami.

 

“Do you think the others will like that idea? I mean they all want you so much...” Bakura was breaking two eggs into a bowl and beating them with salt and pepper as I spoke and he moved on to filling the frying pan as he replied.

 

“I know, but...you know that I'm feeding on them, draining their energy every time I satisfy them sexually. My kind kill humans if we feed that way too often for too long, and it's a slow lingering death.”

 

“I thought that you had enough lovers that you didn't need to worry about that so much.” Not that he'd ever explicitly discussed how he fed with me, but I was pretty sure that he would have said something if he had reason to worry about our friends before now. Bakura glanced over at me before he responded, then he frowned when he realised I wasn't eating. I hurriedly cut another bite of the egg-fried toast and began to chew it before he could say anything about my breaking my promise already. That seemed to be enough to let him relax a bit as he slid the first slices of toast done out of the frying pan and onto his plate, adding some more slices to the pan.

 

“I'm not entirely certain about that. I think I can manage without hurting them, at least while they're all so young, but...this was never covered in my education, it was assumed that I'd end up belonging to a demon powerful enough not to worry about that, and there isn't any useful information in the Ring either. Most heccubi either belong to a powerful demon, or feed on lots of humans and often kill them anyway. I don't think there's any records of what I'm trying to do.” He looked just a little lost as he explained that, then he cut a bite of his toast, chewing on that as he continued working on his meal. I shouldn't have been surprised that he cared more about humans than most of his kind did, he'd put himself through hell to free the souls of his kin, even if they had been human, and he'd never been as uncaring about human life as Atemu had, even if the Pharaoh didn't want to acknowledge that.

 

“I'm sure you'll be able to cope, and you'll know if you're hurting them. Have you seen any signs of that?”

 

“No, I haven't.” He sounded a lot more cheerful when he realised that, and I was glad to have made him feel better about doing what he had to so he could survive. He finished putting his food onto his plate, a bit larger than my own I realised and far more crowded, and came to sit opposite me, eating swiftly, but still neatly, something vaguely sensual about his actions. “You aren't eating Yadonushi-sama.” His voice was quiet, no accusation in it, just a little disappointment, but there didn't need to be, his disappointment cut more and I began eating again, taking a few bites before I said anything else.

 

“What about those tricks you said could be used to draw power from the Shadow Realm?” He'd mentioned that as an alternate source of power after all.

 

“They were great for providing me with power when I was still a spirit, and I thought they'd work as well now, but they don't. I can't retain that power for very long, although it works fine for me to draw on it and then use it all in healing someone instead of using my own power. But...I might be able to teach some of our friends how to use that trick, so they can draw power before...” His voice fell away as he mused on his new idea, and I felt confident enough to press on one matter.

 

“Then you won't tell the others that they have to give you up for a week?”

 

“If you say I shouldn't.” He looked a little resigned, then he smiled as he looked at my plate. “I knew you could finish what I'd given you. Do you want some more?” I just shook my head, and he looked upset again. “Will you try to get in some sort of argument some time today? I think it might help you a little.”

 

“I'll try.” If that was the price for him not refusing my friends...

 

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I made a point of leaving Ryou to talk with his friends by himself during the lunch break, since I was sure he'd eat the sushi I'd prepared for him this time at least, especially since I'd given the bento to him in front of his friends. He seemed to understand that I was feeling sort of crowded by him and his friends, since he'd persuaded me I wasn't harming them by bedding them so often. Of course that wasn't the only reason I wanted to be away from them, I also wanted to establish enough of a reputation as a fighter that I'd be left alone mostly, and I wouldn't be able to do that hanging around him, since most people left them alone now. Besides, even if Ryou didn't notice, I was well aware that I was just barely tolerated, and more because of what a great lay I was than any other reason, the others didn't really care about me the way they cared about each other, and they even tended to exclude Ryou a little.

 

“Eating all alone pretty one?” Not very original, I scowled up at the teen, he wasn't even one of the more dangerous or well-known bullies, but dealing with him would do for a first step.

 

“Yes, I wish it so. Now leave.” I didn't really expect him to, so it was no surprise when he insisted on sitting beside me, putting his arm around my waist.

 

“I'm sure you don't really want to be left all alone. You're so gorgeous.” I set my bento aside and tried to move his arm without hurting him, but when that didn't work I went for a nerve cluster at the inside of his elbow. He screamed and pulled away from me, and I smiled at him cruelly.

 

“I said I wasn't interested in company, now I will give you one last chance to leave.” He was weak enough that he didn't question that, just nodded, and ran away from me, leaving me to get one with my meal. At least the next idiot who came after me would be stronger, and dealing with him would give me more of a reputation.

 

But that wouldn't happen just yet I thought which left me with the problem of what to do now. It was easy when I was with Ryou of course, all I had to do then was give him my company and do whatever else he wanted or needed of me, but now I didn't have anything with me to entertain myself, and the idea of going back to the classroom to work on my homework early or on figuring out classical Japanese wasn't appealing for some reason. But when I thought about it I realised that even though doing my homework now would free me up to help Ryou more it would also make him more reluctant to do his, I had a feeling that it was only because I'd been doing mine at the same time that I'd succeeded in having him do his homework yesterday. I hadn't had any real practice with my knife for far too long though, and the way I felt at the moment I could easily afford to waste energy on a spell to find someone to spar with.

 

I went with my impulse, setting the parameters of my Shadow Magic searching spell as narrowly as I could, someone who could face me with a knife without putting me or any other in danger, someone who would do so, without asking any price I would be unwilling to pay, and someone inside the school grounds. If no one fitted those criteria...and no one did, so the spell just dissipated instead of guiding me to the one who satisfied my requirements. I shrugged mentally and pulled out the cards I'd selected to make up my deck for now, pulling it from its thinly carved `ivory' box and unwrapping the cards from the virgin silk I used to shield them from magic of any sort. I needed to attune the cards to my magic, Shadow and Heccubus alike, and this would be the best time to do so, while it was still strong, and the Heccubus aspect freshly fed so I could devote more energy to calling Shadow Magic. I'd connected my deck to the rest of my cards when I selected it as well, using a spell I'd worked out a few weeks ago, so all my cards would become more attuned to my magic as my deck became more so. Just holding my deck, and letting my magic flow around it, letting it bathe in my aura strongly enough to cut it off from all other influences was helping to attune it, but there was more I could do, and so I made my way into the school building, looking for the classroom dedicated to duelling during students' free time.

 

I didn't bother to approach any of the students already there for a duel, if they wished to duel me they could easily do so simply by asking, and duelling would not do so much to attune my cards to my magic as other options would. I shut my eyes and began shuffling my deck, then laid it out across the table in an almost random pattern, determined by what felt best to my magic at the time. When I opened my eyes I saw they were all face down, and began turning them over one by one, again as my magic guided me, focusing the while on the thought of the future with no end in sight. I couldn't interpret everything, or even most of it, but I could see there were spots where the pattern faltered because I hadn't possessed the right card or just not had enough cards in my deck for this, and there were some indications that I'd succeed in my aim to free the souls of my people bound to the final two Millennium Items and that I'd belong to a powerful, but strange, demon eventually.

 

“Do you want to duel with me?” It was just a kid, but it would be suspicious to refuse, so I agreed and duelled first him, then others until we had to get back to class.

 

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