Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ No Mercy ❯ No Mercy ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

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Bakura stopped short of the stairs. One of his senses - a kind of sixth sense he picked up from thieving, enhanced by the Millennium Ring - had his muscles tightening in response to a danger he had no other perception of. Adrenaline coursed through his body. He looked around, a trained gaze settling on a book on the coffee table. It had been two inches to the right when the thief had left the house half an hour ago.
A hastily-scrawled note inside the novel read: 'p. 3, lines 1-3'. He flipped through the pages and read the top line.
"Alas! Neither by day nor by night knew I the blessing of rest anymore! During the former the creature left me no moment alone, and in the latter I started hourly from my dreams of unutterable fear to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight - an incarnate nightmare that I had not power to shake off - incumbent eternally upon my heart!"
As his eyes scanned the end of the line, something in him went off and he spun around, blocking just in time to avoid a hit to the back of the head. Something in his arm cracked as it came in contact with the lamp. He grabbed the lamp with his other hand and wrenched it away from his attacker. He barely had time to register who it was before a knife buried itself in his shoulder.
"R… Ryou!" He retreated backwards, clutching his bleeding shoulder. "What are you -" he was cut off when he had to dodge the knife again. Bakura accidentally hit his injured arm, wincing. His split-second hesitation cost him his chance to flee and was struck in the head. The world went black.

"Wake up."
Bakura opened his eyes slowly, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of pain as he came to full consciousness. "What… What are you doing?" he said, the normal growl in his voice replaced by shock and muted suffering.
"Nothing you don't deserve," piped Ryou in his soft voice. He smiled and looked Bakura straight in the eye.

~ Flashback ~
"No! I won't let you do this! It's wrong!" said Ryou, rather forcefully for such a quiet boy.
Bakura, embodied since they were both inside the Sennen Ring, looked at him somewhat curiously and smiled, locking his gaze with the 'host'. "And how will you stop me, Yadonushi?" He watched his host's expression with a malicious glee, noting the fear and realization that an undefeatable power controlled his body and, essentially, his life.
~ End Flashback ~

Ryou had never looked Bakura in the eye again, until now. What the spirit saw chilled him to the core. Soft eyes and a smile hid a secret… one Bakura was about to experience. He had come to the realization that Ryou had grown stronger, too late.
"Untie me," growled Bakura, in a doomed attempt to assert his authority. The tomb robber was lying on a bed, both of his wrists and both ankles tied to the bedposts. He struggled, but the pain warned him against further injuring his arm.
"I don't think so." Ryou was prepping a needle with some kind of liquid in it. When satisfied, he faced Bakura and got on the bed.
"What do you think you're doing, Yadonushi?"
"Watch." Ryou stuck the needle into his Other and injected the contents into his bloodstream.
Bakura soon found it becoming much harder to breathe. His voice failed him completely. He looked to Ryou for a explanation.
"When we first met, you made it clear that whoever held more power, held all the power." Ryou brought out the dagger - it was actually Bakura's, with a handle shaped like a serpent - and cut away Bakura's shirt. He then began to carve into the exposed flesh. Bakura gave a strangled cry and tried to struggle again. Ryou continued speaking. "You thought you held all the power. You were so cocky about it, stealing my life and body and abusing both whenever you pleased." The knife did not go deep enough to do fatal damage, but enough blood flowed to cover the work. "Even after you gained your own body, you acted the same, rifling through my thoughts. You always underestimated me and overestimated yourself." Bakura gasped for air past the pain of the knife and the stiffness in his lungs. Ryou worked more feverishly now. "You said that you were the darkness and could never be stopped. I even believed you for a while. But now…" He stopped to wipe away the blood. "… I know that Darkness runs from the Light, and can only be strong by deception. I know the truth." He paused, looking over his work. "Would you like to see what I've done?" Without waiting for an answer, he retrieved a mirror from the nightstand and held it so Bakura could see the grotesque 'art'. It was the image of the Millennium Ring, but it was missing the eye in the center. Bakura felt his heart clench as he realized what Ryou would do next. He looked up at his hikari, eyes scared and imploring, begging for the madness to end.
The tainted light leaned in close to the darkness, whispering, "You have no idea how long I've waited for that face." Their lips touched briefly before Ryou pulled away. The younger male held the dagger high.
"… Goodbye." He plunged the dagger deep into Bakura's chest, carving out the rest of the deadly design. Bakura watched Ryou with a mix of shock and grief until his soul fled from his body and his eyes closed, sending a few tears down his face post-mortem.
Ryou held the dagger tightly for a few moments. When he let go, he was shaking. Tears ran freely down pale cheeks. When he dared to look at the face of his victim, he was caught in the emotion locked into the corpse. It was so sad, so pained… a fresh sob broke the overbearing silence. Ryou lay next to the body of his yami and cried.