A/N: It's cold out here, -17 Celsius degrees. So I'm freezing my ass off, and I love it. I'm such a winter person. Now, here is the first chapter of my hopefully long story. :D There will be darkshipping, (YAY!) but there will be no Ryou abuse, 'cos I don't like it. So even though Bakura is gone he is no Ryou abuser.
Warnings: There will be violence, swearing and yaoi (man/man). Yup, that's probably all, oh and dark themes, maybe, I'm not sure what they are.(?)
Disclaimer: Every person who tries to sue me for owning Yu-Gi-Oh, will be very disappointed, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. And all you will get from suing me is a frozen ass.
1. chapter: A beast, an island and a phone call
Near the coast of Japan stood a lone rocky island, though it was more like a bunch rocks together than an island anyway. There were nothing but rocks, and water, rocks and water as far as the eye could see.
This place was isolated. Ships avoided island. Fishes didn't swim near these waters. Birds didn't fly over it. Even the gods had turned their backs to the island. Nobody wanted to come near this place. Why? Because...
A beast lived in there. Horrible beast, full of anger and spite, towards everything, everybody. A beast who could kill without mercy in blink of an eye. It was prisoned here, so it could hurt no one, no more. The beast was immortal, so it couldn't die. It lived here and it hated.
How was it like to be an immortal on a isolated island?
Obviously there was no food in this island, and only water was undrinkable, salty seawater.
You could die from hunger and thirst thousand times, only to find yourself praying for food and clean water once again.
You could throw yourself against the rocks thousand times, until every bone in your body was broken, only to find your wounds healed by the morning.
You could try to drown yourself thousand times, only to be washed back to shore unconscious, and throwing up seaweed.
Hardly nobody knew that beast lived here. But sometimes when it stormed, when wind was blowing you over, when rain soaked you to the bone, when it thundered and it was lightning with blinding force, you could hear a scream. Scream louder than thunder. Scream filled with anger. Scream promising revenge.
For the beast was alive. And it waited.
"See 'ya guys!" Yugi waved to his friends.
They waved back.
"Bye Yugi, bye Yami!" Jou yelled.
"See 'ya tomorrow!" Ryou shouted. "And thanks for everything!"
Yami and Yugi walked towards home. Another school day was, thank god, over. It was late April, summer was just around the corner and you could feel it. Weather was unusually warm for April, it almost felt like it was summer already, minus the vacation. No matter how warm was, you still needed to go to school.
Life for Yami and Yugi was peaceful nowadays. They both went to school. To their disbelief everybody had believed the twins-crap, they told everybody, when Yami entered the school in his own body. Yami had successfully got rid of his greatest enemies. No more needed he to dodge assassins, knives or random objects thrown at his direction. No more needed he to worry about if someone was waiting in his house with a gun, when he came in. No more was he chased by a person wielding a kitchen knife, and screaming for revenge.
Marik and Malik lived in Egypt now. They moved in there about eight months ago. Malik was studying and his psychotic yami was causing havoc and terrorizing the poor citizens of Egypt and tourists who got in his way.
And finally about half year ago, Yami had got rid of Bakura for good. Sending the ancient thief to Shadow Realm had been proved fruitless, for Bakura always found some kind of a loophole, and bang, he was back in business. So instead of just sending him there for a little while, Yami sealed Bakura away with Shadow magic. Now Bakura was half in this world, and half in Shadow Realm, stuck between two places. Getting a body of his own, was the worst mistake Bakura ever made, because of that Yami could get him. Apparently the plan had worked. Nobody had heard of Bakura since that stormy day of October.
"Ain't that cute?" Yugi asked. "Ryou still thanks you."
"Yeah," Yami said, "He seems a lot happier than before."
"Yeah, a lot. But letting Bakura go wasn't easy for Ryou. His and Bakura's relationship was always complicated. They didn't exactly hate each other, but neither did they like each other," Yugi told. "He chose between his soul half and his friends. In the end he chose us, and I'm not saying he chose wrong. But it's never easy to give up something. And Ryou gave up his other half, for us. I appreciate him. He deserves to be happy. "
" I know. Ryou knew it's better for all of us if Bakura's gone," Yami said. "He made his decision and he can't change that, no matter how much he might regret it. Now it's better. So much better."
"I'm not so sure," Yugi whispered to the wind, when his yami wasn't hearing.
First the beast stopped wishing. After few months came the realization. It could not escape. Nobody was letting it escape. Nobody was going to come and get it out of there.
Then it stopped dreaming. Its usual vivid dreams, even its nightmares were replaced with plain darkness. It could dream no more. Its ability to dream was taken, and it got nothing in return.
In the end, it stopped sleeping. And when it couldn't sleep, it wanted the darkness to come back. Dreams or no dreams, it needed some way out. It needed to escape, through sleep, through this darkness. Now only way to do it was to become unconscious. And every time it passed out, the next time was harder and harder. It took it several hours of self mutilation to pass out. It was awake, it was aware of everything; pain, blood, its life. The worst thing was that the beast knew why it couldn't pass out easily anymore, it was becoming strong. For the first time, the beast cursed its own strength.
It lied awake, watching as the days and nights passed by, and turned into weeks. It lied awake, until it lost track of time and every day was the same. It lied awake and was slowly losing its mind.
"Yami will you help me with my history homework?" Yugi asked.
Yami, who sat on the couch, and whose bored eyes scanned the TV screen, sighed.
"You should do your own homework," he replied.
Yugi tilted his head, holding his history book close to his chest.
"You don't wanna help?" He asked.
"No, I don't wanna," Yami confirmed.
"You sure?" Yugi waved his book in front of Yami's nose, "It's about Egypt," He said, his voice tempting.
"Well, okay, since I got nothing better to do," Yami said, defeated. Yugi let out of small squeal of success and happiness. "But only if you stop waving your book in front of my face," Yami continued. "Geez Yugi, you're gonna hit somebody someday, if you don't stop that. I'm gonna make myself coffee first. Want some?"
Yugi shook his head.
"Nah, I'll pass."
"Ok, try to get something done before I come back, will you?"
"Of course," Yugi grinned, obviously lying.
Yami just turned the TV off and headed to kitchen, shaking his head in amusement. Humming softly a song he heard on radio yesterday, Yami started making coffee.
Something odd happened when was taking his mug from the cupboard. Yami was deep in thought, as his fingers wrapped around the mug...
And went right through it.
Yami pulled quickly his hand from the cupboard and stared at it, frowning.
'What the hell just happened?' Yami thought, still staring at his perfectly normal-looking hand. He just shrugged it off, decided not think about it too much. He was probably just imagining things. He tried to take the mug again. This time nothing weird happened, Yami got the mug and poured coffee into it. He took a sip. Warm liquid filled his mouth. Ah, black coffee, the best kind of coffee he could think of. Now, maybe he really should go and help his hikari with his homework.
Yugi was sitting on the living room cough, giving a blank look to the cartoon, currently running on the TV.
"Yugi," Yami growled, not really angry, more like teasing, startling the smaller teen. "You were supposed to start doing your homework, while I was gone. How can I help you if you don't even try?"
Embarrassed Yugi turned to face his yami.
"Sorry Yami, I was just..."
Suddenly Yami's coffee mug hit the floor and shattered into pieces. Yami flinched. He had felt it. He never lost his grip, he never dropped the mug. The mug had gone through his fingers. He wasn't imagining things. No, he certainly wasn't. Something was going on. Something was terribly wrong. And he wanted to know what the hell it was!
Yami stared at the pieces of the white mug. It was his favorite mug. It was simple and white mug with two blue stripes. He had got it from Yugi last Christmas. Now pieces of his mug lied on the floor, in poodle of black coffee. White and blue striped piece and back liquid.
Yami could almost hear him screaming into his ears.
Yami kicked one of the striped pieces over. It's funny how one's mind could turn something as simple as coffee into blood and how pieces of mug could remind Yami about him.
"Yami," Yugi whispered.
"Just a second aibou, I will clean my mess. Don't worry about it, " Yami answered, absent-minded, not really listening.
"It's not that," Yugi said, his voice quivering. "Yami, I can see through you."
Yami's head jerked up.
"What?!"
Yugi, still sitting on the cough, just nodded. Yami blinked. He looked at himself. Yugi was right, he could see through himself. Yami turned around and said, his voice shaking:
"I'm gonna call Malik and ask if he can tell me what the hell is going on. Yugi will you please clean this mess?"
Yugi nodded again, not really knowing what to say, or do.
Yami headed towards kitchen.
"Yami!" Yugi yelled after him. "Just one more thing!"
"Hmm?"
"You're also floating!"
...
"Fuck!"
Yami dialed the number. It had took him ten minutes to make the phone not to drop through his fingers. He had to focus solely to his fingertips in order to keep the phone in his hands. Yami tapped his foot against the air.
'Pick up, pick up, pick up.' He mentally orderer whoever was near the phone he was trying to connect with. By the time someone finally picked up the phone, Yami was ready to pull his hair out.
"Hello," answered the voice, speaking Arabic.
"Marik, I'm so glad you answered!" Yami practically shouted.
"Oh, pharaoh. Did you just call to say hi or do you want something?" asked the psycho, in the other end of the line.
"Marik, I need help! Something is happening..."
" I figured out that much," Marik said. "Nobody ever calls just to say hello. But pharaoh, Malik is not here. He went out to find some fucking book and locked me up here." A pause, in which Yami could almost hear Marik smirk. "He doesn't want me to run around freely."
"Yeah, yeah. I don't really need Malik, you do just fine."
"Yami-problems?" Marik suggested.
"Yes."
"Well then, tell me pharaoh."
And so Yami told Marik everything. About the mug. How his fingers went through it. How Yugi could see through him. How he started floating instead of walking.
"...Feels like I'm losing my body and becoming just a spirit again," Yami concluded.
"That's probably exactly what's happening," Marik said sifting his position, judging by the rustle of the clothes Yami could hear through the line.
"So this has happened to someone before?" Yami asked
"Yup," said Marik, with a tone that implied that the person talking was staring at his fingernails, like they were the most interesting thing in the world, possibly in the whole universe. "Sorry to tell you this, but if you don't do something, fast, you're gonna disappear entirely. It was nice to know you, pharaoh."
Marik was hanging up, but Yami stopped him.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Yami screamed. "I'm gonna die? Just like that? C'mon Marik, there must be something I can do!"
"Well, I don't have the answers, and neither does Malik, but hey you can always ask Bakura. He knows. See 'ya!"
Marik hang up. The phone dropped through Yami's fingers.
'Ask Bakura, he knows.'
Yami could hear his angry screams.
A/N. And that's the first chapter of Soul halves. Hope you enjoyed it.
