Rapunzel
By: White Rain
Disclaimer: I do not own Yuugiou.
Genre: Cracked out AU where everyone goes insane
Warnings: Ryuuji's dad is an abusive dick in canon and I go with that.
Summary: Let's pretend that Otogi won the Dungeon Duel Monsters game with Yuugi back in manga...
Chapter summary: A Clown, A Jester & A Pharaoh walk into a bar...

.prologue
Ryuuji heard his father snapping Yuugi's neck. The sound of it wasn't very loud, but its echo seemed to overwhelm the entire room. It also made Ryuuji want to throw up.

But not as much as the low laughter coming from his father.

"You've done it, my son." Ryuuji stared down at the Dungeon Dice board. Very suddenly, he wished he had lost. The thought crawled up through him and made him feel sicker. It didn't help when he felt his father kiss the top of his head.

Usually, that was something that would make Ryuuji happy. Now, he could only think of how his father's stupid clown nose was wrecking his hair.

Ryuuji shook his head sharply a few times before kneeling on the floor to pick up the pieces of the Puzzle. "I'm going get to work on this."

Before they moved, father burned Yuugi's body. He told Ryuuji about it in great detail while they drove to Tokyo.

Ryuuji listened attentively but his hands itched for the Puzzle.

Ryuuji dropped out of school. He didn't have any practical need for school. And it would just waste valuable hours he could be spending on solving the puzzle.

The only downside was his father was less careful about beating him. Ryuuji didn't interact with anyone, so there was no need for him to hide bruises and welts.

"You know," Ryuuji said, watching his father's hands carefully, a month after they'd moved to Tokyo, "it took Yuugi eight years to solve the puzzle."

His father took a step forward. "I believe you won when you dueled Yuugi."

At my own game when I didn't tell him all the rules Ryuuji didn't say as he watched his father uncoil his whip.

While Ryuuji never had any friends, really, he did enjoy being around people. He had liked flirting with girls, teasing people, and playing games.

He often wondered why he felt that way while he was locked in his room with the only light coming from the shine of the golden Puzzle pieces. It was probably, he reasoned, because it pleased his father that his son was good with people. His father no longer wanted that.

He certainly didn't hang out with people because it made him feel less lonely.

"Father made sure not to break my hands," Ryuuji told the Puzzle. Both of his legs hurt. "He knows I need them to solve you."

After he got another piece to fit, Ryuuji remembered to add, "He's also letting me eat again. I can't solve you very well when I'm passed out." He picked up another piece of the Puzzle and told it, "Though, between you and me, I didn't miss eating very much."

The Puzzle didn't have anything to say to that.

Ryuuji laughed. "The joke's on him, right?" He blinked several times at the shadows surrounding the Puzzle pieces. "I guess I should turn on the lights again."

He didn't.

Ryuuji sometimes wondered if he ever dreamed of anything but whips, dice, clown noses and golden Puzzle pieces with the echo of a neck being snapped over and over again.

Ryuuji was lying face up on the bed holding the half-way complete puzzle. "I used to think I was destined to solve you. I didn't really want the power, though. I just wanted to be part of a story that wasn't mine."

He rolled over, then he set the Puzzle on the bed. "I always thought I'd be glad to get revenge for my father." He grabbed one of the pieces out of the golden box. Even though it tried to stop being golden by surrounding itself with shadows, Ryuuji still remembered what it looked like. "Now I wonder what would have happened if Yuugi had won. I liked playing with him."

He snapped a piece into place. And another.

"It was fun."

And another.

"For my birthday," Ryuuji said, holding up a card, "I had Father buy me a Black Magician."

He took out the remaining pieces of the Puzzle - there were ten left - and set them on his desk. Then, he set the card carefully in the box. He sat down at the desk table.

"He asked me why," Ryuuji told the Puzzle. It was a good listener, so he confessed: "I said it was because it was Yuugi's favorite. He hit me. But he bought it for me."

He picked up a piece of the Puzzle and watched the shadows dance around his hand, wrist and arm. He smiled. "Does that mean he loves me?"

"One more to go," Ryuuji said, feeling giddy. "I hope we'll still talk sometimes."

He pressed the last piece - the eye that went in the middle - into the puzzle. The puzzle's light pierced through the shadows. Ryuuji's eyes colored purple. Then he took a deck of playing cards out of his desk. When he smiled, he showed his teeth, and they were sharp.

"Take off your mask."

Ryuuji's father froze. "You're not my son."

"I like to see the faces of the fools I chose to crush. Your son can't handle seeing the evil in your eyes."

"You must be the Pharaoh." Ryuuji's father attempted to take a step back. However...

"You'll find you can't walk away from this game," The Pharaoh said. "Take off your mask." He shrugged. "Sit down, if you like." He set four cards face down on the table. Then, he leaned over to grab something that was lying at his feet and slapped it down on the table.

It was a knife.

"We're going to play a game. Lying in front of me are four aces - "

"I know this game."

The Pharaoh continued as if he hadn't heard Ryuuji's father speak. "You are to turn over two. If they're not the same color, you lose and I crush your mind and soul forever."

"What if I win?"

The Pharaoh smiled. "Turn over two cards."

Ryuuji's father's hand jerked out, as if he weren't controlling it. He flipped over one card. Ace of Spades. His hand moved over to the one next to it, but before he turned it over, he slapped his other hand on top of it. "I didn't agree to this."

All the while a grin on his face, the Pharaoh grabbed the knife and shoved it through Ryuuji's father's uppermost hand. He brushed both hands away like they were offending papers on a desk and turned over the card. It was an Ace of Hearts.

The Pharaoh stopped smiling. "Mind Crush."

He watched the man fall to the ground. "You can finish him off, if you want."

Ryuuji's eyes shifted back to green. Then he stood up and walked around the table in order to look at the fallen form of his father.