Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ With and Without You ❯ Chapter 4

Whee! Another chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh. It belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me!
Chapter 4

 

Yami was quite impressed. Akunadin had opted not to fight, and so now, Mahaado was fighting Aishizu, but it was quite an easy win. Aishizu's powers lay in her ability to channel the foresight of the Tauk, not in battle. She was also a decent healer, but… now was not the time for this.

Mahaado helped her up and faced Seto with the coldest glare Yami had even seen, and as he was on the receiving end from those of Seto most of the time, that was saying quite a lot…

Seto flinched back uncomfortably, though he hid it well. It seemed the little mouse had grown up….

“Well, I suppose that will end our session for today. You are all dismissed.” Pharaoh spoke, and everyone scattered.

 

“Mahaado.”

“Pharaoh, Life, Health, Strength be to you for ten thousand years!”
Akunumkanon sighed. “I am appointing you as my son's personal guard. Do not disappoint me, Mahaado.”

Mahaado nodded and left the room. After the Pharaoh had gone, Yami snuck out as well. Well, that was different. But if Mahaado were going to be his personal guard, then at least they'd have time to talk and do… things.

But they were not kids anymore. All their childhood wasted…

It hurt. He looked at the young man in front of him and though he could still see the spirit of the boy he'd played with, it seemed different now. It'd been ten years after all, ten lonely years when he'd thrown himself into his lessons and nothing else. Waiting. Waiting to become Pharaoh and find Mahaado again…

But ten years out on the streets…

Did you honestly think he wouldn't change?

 

Mahaado found Yami in his room, petting one of the palace's royal cats. He raised a slight eyebrow but said nothing, preferring to remain silent until the Prince acknowledged his presence…

“Mahaado.”

“Yes, my Prince?”

Yami stood and the cat ran off. “I'm slightly worried…”

“Worried, my Prince?”

“Well, I know that you're brilliant, but…” Yami sighed. “Could you hold me?”

Mahaado blinked. “My Prince…”

“Please…. Mahaado, I don't want anything else, but…”

Mahaado choose not to argue and nodded as he sat down next to Yami, taking the younger teen in his arms.

 

Yami sighed. He wasn't sure what to do, but he knew that his friend would help him. He was… well, life was fairly easy, aside from his continuous lessons in kingship, but even so, he was worried…

His Father seemed to be getting weaker, although he had denied having any kind of illness…

“Mahaado?”

“Yes, my Prince?”

“I need your help.” There. And it was a request, not an order. Yami had no desire to do any ordering, at least not with Mahaado… with Seto though, that might be fun.

“Yes, my Prince.”
“My father seems to be ill, but he and uncle both deny it…”

“And you would like for me to unearth the truth, my Prince?”

“Yes.”

 

Mahaado nodded. That he could do. “Very well, my Prince. I shall not fail you.”

 

Yami watched, entranced, as Mahaado's eyes again began to glow that green color. Green was the color of magic, some types, he remembered… but was it darkness or illusions? Either way, it didn't matter so much….

A strange bar appeared before a misty image of his father. Yami took a look and recognized it as a… yes that was what he thought it was.

It was a Ba gauge, and his father's was less than half full. But he hadn't been doing any summoning for at least two weeks!

Was this the problem?

 

“I don't understand.” Mahaado whispered. “It isn't normal fatigue… if it were, within a night or two he would have been up to full health. Perhaps there is something keeping him this way…”

Mahaado's eyes glowed again, before he suddenly broke the illusion, making all traces of his magic vanish.

“Hide. Now.”

Yami did as told, diving underneath the bed and squirming under. Not seconds later, the door opened and High Priest Akunadin strode in.

“I've had enough of you, you arrogant upstart.” The old man seethed. “It's time to end this once and for all. How dare you spy on me!”

Mahaado smiled serenely. “And you were the one who suggested I leave the palace because I was an incompetent priest-in-training. Regretting your words now?”

“Such insolence! You will not stand in my way any longer!”

“My, my, have I been in your way? I'm terribly sorry, I didn't know. I was too busy trying to survive out on the streets.”

Akunadin grabbed the younger Priest by the front of his robes, spitting madly with rage. “We are ending this now.” The air around them darkened, and Yami instinctively knew what was going on.

A Shadow Game had begun…

 

Mahaado faced Akunadin across a river. The river itself had water red as blood, or perhaps rich wine, but it was not safe telling what it was. They were also holding swords.

Akunadin laughed inwardly. This mage was no fighter. This would be over in seconds. He stepped onto the weak bridge over the river and beckoned.

The younger Priest gave a smirk that would later become famous on a card and stepped onto the bridge.

“Begin.”

 

Blades clashed against one another, though Akunadin got a good look at what Mahaado was holding and swore inwardly. That was no sword of copper and tin, blade honed to lethal sharpness as his was, and there was no infusion of magic inside…

The sword itself was pure magic.

Mahaado did not flinch, even as he parried, ducked, cursed the loss of some of his hair, and then slid the Sword of Dark Destruction underneath the old man's grip and sent his sword splashing into the rushing water below.

Black pseudopodia ensnared it.

The Priest smirked as the Millennium Ring on his chest lit up in blinding glory. “It seems you've lost, my dear High Priest…”

Akunadin swallowed nervously, but a moment later, the mists peeled away and they were once again in the young Prince's room, as if nothing had happened.

“Let me give you a warning.” Mahaado said. “I could have taken your life. I chose not to. Cease your plotting for the throne and stay out of my way, and no harm will come to you. Good day, Akunadin-sama.”

The old priest practically bolted. Yami peeked out from underneath the bed after he had gone and looked worried.

“Mahaado, you threatened him?”

“He lost the Shadow Game, my Prince.”

“I see… well, just, be careful, all right? It's dangerous here at court… and you can't always see your enemies…”

“I understand, my Prince.”

Yami sneezed, then, covered with dust, and the two laughed as Mahaado began patting him clean.

 

End Chapter

Completed 10/18/05