Chibi: Okay, so as I was reading some manga I found a three chapter story called 'School Mermaid' and an idea popped into my head as I re-watched some of Season 0. Also, I wanted to try out writing some horror for once that isn't humorous like the Halloween one-shot I did for Megaman.
Hestic: There will be some romance in this, but more blood and violence than romance…and it will have revenge-
Chibi: I swear if you start singing Bad Romance…ugh, never mind. Please read School Mermaid first before reading this in order to understand what is going on, it will help you a lot!
Hestic: Hope you all enjoy reading!
Chibi: Please note that we do not own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh series or School Mermaid.
Yuki Judai sighed as she got ready for a day at the bane of her existence, Domino High. Domino High was a prestigious private school and the closest one to the small apartment that she lived alone in. After the death of her parents, she was taken in by the Board of Directors and became the first scholarship student in the last twenty years. She had dual-toned brown hair and dark brown eyes. Unlike the rest of the girls at her school, her usual uniform consisted of a red sleeveless hoodie with a black sleeved shirt underneath, white shorts, black knee length socks, and red tennis shoes. Despite the position her guardian held, she was still responsible for purchasing her own books, uniform, and supplies.
I don't really see the point of wearing a uniform that costs an entire month's worth of allowance. Judai thought bitterly as she packed her favorite plushie dolphin backpack for the day. I would rather wear what I am wearing now than the girl's uniform anyway.
Domino High was the most prestigious and most expensive private school in the area. Only people who were well off with money or had the right connections could get in. While there were rumors about how one person or another would get accepted, the teasing was merciless when it came to people who did not fit in i.e. wear the uniform. The girl's uniform consisted of a pink coat, a white oxford shirt, a blue tie, brown shoes, and a blue pleated skirt. The boy's uniform consisted of a blue blazer, a white shirt, and brown shoes. (1)
The teasing wasn't as bad after people got to know Judai, but the worst of the worst was a red haired girl named Himakoji Kaoruko (2). Kaoruko basically ran the school. Her father was a powerful CEO of a successfully rising company and her mother was the head of the Parent-Teacher Association who believed everything that her daughter told her. Whatever Kaoruko wanted, whether it be at home or at school, Kaoruko got.
Judai yawned as the bell rang, signaling the end of study hall and the beginning of the student's lunch break. She grabbed her bag and started to walk to the door when she heard the familiar heckling of Kaoruko and her followers.
"It's ridiculous," Kaoruko sneered and she flipped her hair back "that such trash is allowed to walk the same halls as the elite."
Judai raised an eyebrow as Kaoruko's groupies started snicker. The brunette merely shrugged. "If that's ridiculous, then it must be deplorable that the high and mighty have to sink lower than scum and fling around second rate insults every day to make them feel better. Have you finally realized that all that plastic surgery you got over the summer makes you look like a low quality Barbie and was just a waste of time and money, Kaoruko?"
Judai couldn't help but smirk as Kaoruko turned red with anger. One of her groupies, a girl with short wavy hair and glasses, stepped up and slapped Judai across the face.
"That's Kaoruko-sama to you, filthy rat!" the girl replied with a smug grin.
Judai wasn't fazed. "This says the girl who probably wouldn't even breathe without the say-so from your Queen Bee. If your mighty leader is so perfect, why doesn't she get off her high horse and actually do something about things she doesn't like instead of hiding behind her rich daddy and oblivious-to-reality mother." She turned back to the door and resumed walking. "Later drone bees (3)."
With that last comment being said, Judai walked out the door, leaving a group of embarrassed girls behind her.
Kaoruko was just about ready to follow the brunette when a glimmer of metal coming from said girl's desk caught her eye. She casually walked over to the desk and opened it, smirking widely as she discovered the secret treasure inside.
Judai anxiously squirmed in her seat as she waited for the final bell to ring. After she had returned from her lunch break, she discovered that someone had stolen her most precious treasure, a large tin of Duel Monsters cards. Inside the tin were various 'Elemental Hero' themed decks and at least a couple hundred other cards her parents had given her before their accident. In its place was a note for her to come back to the school after hours if she ever wanted it back.
Due to the increase in ante dueling and gambling duels, the game and anything related to Duel Monsters was banned. If anyone was caught with them, they would be suspended, or in her case, she would be expelled since she was only a scholarship student.
Judai carefully snuck onto the campus, the light of the moon being her only guide in the dark. As soon as she was in the clear, she sprinted to the pool area. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the thief had come, but grimaced when she saw that it was none other than Kaoruko.
She started to slow down from her sprint before she stopped a few feet from the red head. She groaned. "Out of all the girls in the entire world, I just had to run into you. What do you want now?"
Kaoruko smirked at the shorter girl. "You brought what I told you right? All of your mother's jewelry?"
Judai nodded grimly and pulled out a rather large music box full of expensive jewelry. Judai narrowed her eyes. "You can just buy this stuff with your father's money, why did you want me to bring it?"
Kaoruko smiled and shrugged. "I was looking over your cards online. The prices you could sell them for would plus the dough you could rake in for all those jewels, it would roughly equal the summer home my family has in Milan. If you got all of the money, then you would be rich like the rest of us. Who knows, I might even invite you to join me and my friends."
"Thanks, but no thanks." Judai put the box away and massaged her temples. "Did you call me here for that?"
"No." Kaoruko tossed the tin back. Judai caught it an immediately started to go through the cards inside. She gasped as she found one missing.
"Where is Hane Kuriboh?" Judai growled as Kaoruko pulled out her most treasured card.
"I don't know why you even keep this card. From what I heard, it was given to you by some stranger the day before your parents died. Some sort of comfort object?" She held the card in front of her and grabbed it with both hands. "Maybe I should just rip it. No good can come from some cursed object."
"Don't you dare!" Judai snarled. Kaoruko blinked at the sudden change in personality, but shrugged and put the card away.
Judai seemed to calm down a bit. "Now, why did you call me here?"
Kaoruko crossed her arms and gave her signature 'I'm the Queen and you will listen to what I have to say' smirk. She pulled out a tattered notebook from her pocket. "I was hanging out in the storeroom a couple of days ago and found this little thing. It contains a rumor about our school."
Judai raised an eyebrow. "So what?"
Kaoruko shook her head in pity. "The rumor of the school is that at night, mermaids appear in the school's pool."
"So?" Judai had a bad feeling welling up in her stomach.
"If you catch one, kill it, and eat its flesh, your true love will come true."
Judai's eyes widened in horror. "You want me to-"
"-Help me catch one, yes. From what the notebook says, they seem to be attracted to shiny things like fish are, so your jewelry will be bait."
"And if I refuse?" Judai's eyes narrowed in defiance.
Kaoruko chuckled. "If you don't, I will rip up your Curry-thing and report to the Headmaster that you had forbidden items in your desk...don't to get out of this, I had Haruka plant some...'other' forbidden items that wouldn't look out of place in your type of neighborhood before we left today."
Judai seethed. "Fine, I'll help, but I want Kuriboh back first."
Kaoruko gave the fakest sweet smile and handed back the card. "Thank you for your help Judai-chi!"
Judai snatched the card that was offered to her and put it back in her treasure tin. When she looked up she saw Kaoruko extending out the now-opened notebook to her.
"Read it!" she demanded. Judai muttered some curses under her breath and took the notebook as Kaoruko went through the jewelry box and pulled out a necklace with a rather large emerald pendant.
Little does she know that emerald is actually glass. I should know, it was the last gift I ever made for my mother. Judai thought. She looked out to the pool and then back to the notebook.
"Sorry, but I'm not in Italian class." Judai deadpanned.
Kaoruko nearly screamed and snatched the notebook back. "IT'S IN FRENCH YOU IDIOT!"
Judai shrugged with a smarmy look on her face as she put on a sterling silver charm bracelet. "Italian, French, unless it's Japanese, English, or Spanish, it's all Greek to me."
Kaoruko snarled and read from the notebook.
Sirène Sirène
Pourrait vous plaire ?
Réaliser mon amour vrai,
Donner pour moi votre chair et de sang (4)
The two girls waited for a couple of minutes, but nothing happened. Judai sighed, knowing that Kaoruko would still report her, no matter what the outcome. She turned back to the school and gave it one last look and froze.
In the window of the first floor was a girl with blonde hair.
"Hey Kaoruko, take a look!" Judai shouted as she pointed to the window.
The red haired teen whipped around to the window and gasped. She turned to the smaller girl and pulled her to a window. "I broke the lock on this one earlier. Get up there and distract them with the bait!"
Judai groaned and climbed through the window. When she got inside, she came upon a sight she never thought she would see.
In the hallway were multiple teenagers of all shapes and sizes. The girls were wearing what looked like school-issued bathing suits while the boys wore one piece wetsuits you would find surfers wearing that they were each wearing a nametag, their names written in the Latin alphabet. The strangest part was that some of them appeared to be coming right out of the walls and floor as if it was water!
Judai shivered and read some of the names out loud to herself. "Marafuji Shou, Marafuji Ryou, Tenjoin Asuka, Tenjoin Fubuki, Edo Phoenix, Makurada Junko, Hamaguchi Momoe, Misawa Daichi, Maeda Hayato, Saotome Rei, Tyranno Hassleberry, Manjoume Jun, Austin O'Brien, Jim Cook, Johan Anderson-"
Judai was cut off by a loud clanging noise. She turned to see that Kaoruko had come in, a large kitchen knife in one hand and a crowbar on the ground.
Kaoruko nudged the crowbar with her foot. "This is your weapon."
Judai slowly picked up the crowbar and turned around as Kaoruko charged passed her. The merteens all smiled and started to either run, jump into the walls, or jump into the floor.
Kaoruko was furious. She rounded on Judai. "We have to one with an 'S' in its name! If I eat one with the letter in its name and it is the first letter of the name of the guy I like, my love will come true! Now move it!"
"Why do you need to do this when you have all of those admirers?"
"I want to do this because it will force the boy to be bonded to me and never get tired of me or leave me, now get going!" Kaoruko threatened, pointing the knife at Judai.
Usually, Judai wouldn't obey Kaoruko and snap back with some witty retort, but she was intimidated by the knife. She nodded and ran in the opposite direction.
Judai had been running around the school for the last three hours. She checked the small clock charm on her bracelet only to find that it read 3:59. She was about to panic but calmed down.
"That's right...it stopped the time Mom and Dad got into that car accident."
Judai leaned up against a wall and sluggishly slid down so she was sitting with her arms around her legs and her head on her knees.
"Breaking into school and murdering innocents, just what would they think about me?" she mused.
She sat up in shock when she heard something land in front of her. Judai looked up and saw that the ceiling was bubbling slightly. Her eyes traveled down to see that a small merteen had landed in front of her. He had wild cyan hair, grey eyes, and glasses. He also had a fresh wound on his leg that was oozing blood. His tag read 'Shou Marufuji'.
"Squee…" he whimpered as he tried to move. Judai stood up, crowbar in hand. Shou cowered in the shadow of the teen girl and closed his eyes in fear.
A resounding clang was heard.
Shou opened his eyes and saw that Judai had thrown the crowbar to the side. She had knelt down beside him and was wrapping up his wound.
"I'm pretty clumsy myself." Judai confessed. "Have to keep a first aid kit on me all the time just in case something like this happens."
Shou waited until the brunette was done with nursing his leg before latching himself to her. Judai was taken aback slightly but pulled the small boy onto her lap. "I won't let anything happen to you."
She stood up and started walking, carrying Shou bridal style. "From what I remember, you have a brother name Ryou, right?"
"Skree!" Shou cheered as he nodded. He then turned his attention to the charm bracelet and started to play with it. Judai laughed at his antics.
"So that's how you communicate with each other. It's pretty cute! I just might take you home with me if you keep this up!"
Kaoruko snarled as she leaned up against a wall. It was nearly sunrise.
"If I don't…get out of here…soon…without eating…one of those monsters…" she panted. "I'll become one of them myself…" she smirked. "This is why I brought Judai. She does all the work, I get the reward, and she gets taken instead of me." Kaoruko started walking again. "Even if she escapes, nobody will believe her and she might be sent away, that little piece of- "
Kaoruko turned a corner to see Judai. From what she could see, the brunette was carrying an 'S' merteen. She broke out into a bright smile.
"Good work, Judai-chi. Now give me the boy!"
Judai turned around and back away from the red head, shaking her head. "I won't let you hurt them, Kaoruko. Not you, or anyone ever again!"
Kaoruko raised an eyebrow and saw a small pile of smoking ashes a little behind Judai.
She started shaking. "You burned the notebook! How did you get a lighter?"
"I found your hidden cigarettes, booze, and lighter in the storeroom you love to hang out in. You really got to keep that stuff off campus. So as you know, alcohol plus lighter equals no more note book. You and your friends won't be able to hurt them anymore. No matter how much magic you use, no boy would ever love a spoiled brat like you."
Kaoruko was silent for a while, the knife slipping from her hand. She looked down, her bangs covering her eyes. The heiress then slowly bent forward and grabbed the abandoned and forgotten crowbar. She stood up just as slowly as she had bent over and snapped her head up at Judai, who gave a small scream and started to run away with Shou in her arms.
Kaoruko screamed in rage and ran after her new brunette target, the merteens long forgotten.
Judai frantically rounded a corner and ran down the emergency exit stairs. She was at least four flights ahead of Kaoruko so she had a good head-start. As she rounded the corner to the next flight, she spotted a familiar navyette coming out of the floor.
"Hey Ryou!" she called out. Said merteen snapped his head in the human teen's direction as she tripped over a stair. He gave a shriek of hate when she landed and saw that his little brother was in her arms. He was about to end the girl when she held the small cyanette out to him.
"Some psycho-chick is after him! Take him and go!"
Ryou was about to respond when he heard various curses being screamed from a couple of flights above them. He gave a grateful nod and picked up Shou, the two of them disappearing into a wall.
Judai sighed in relief. Shou was safe. The peace was broken by a shriek of rage, causing Judai to perk up and run down the rest of the stairs.
"I WILL GET YOU YUKI! I WILL KILL YOU!" Kaoruko screeched. Judai looked up and saw that Kaoruko had only three more flights before she caught up to her.
"Legs, don't fail me now!" Judai whispered breathlessly as she ran. She ran into the cafeteria and towards the kitchen to find a place to hide.
So this is how I'm going to die. Judai thought as she ran. Then she started to laugh, tears coming down her face. Mom and Dad in Heaven, I saved someone and lived my life justly. Now, I'm going to die by the hand of a psychotic murderer.
True to her word to Shou earlier, Judai tripped over a stray vegetable that the cooks dropped while making lunch that day and sprained her ankle. She looked back at the offending vegetable and slapped her forehead. "Sweet Legume Ex Machina!"
Judai attempted to stand up when she felt a hand grab her wrist. She looked up to see a slightly taller boy with wild blue hair and sparkling green eyes. His nametag read 'Johan Anderson'. He smiled as he lifted her hand and started playing with her charm bracelet.
Judai mushroom sighed and slapped her forehead again with her free hand. These people literally had the attention span of goldfish!
Her train of thought was broken however, by the swinging doors being thrown open by none other than Kaoruko. She gave a venomous hiss in Judai's direction, raising the crowbar. She stopped when she saw Judai with another merteen, and this one also had an 'S' in his name.
Kaoruko lowered the crowbar, a smirk making its way onto her face. "So you found another one to appease me? That's a good girl. Don't know why this necklace doesn't work in drawing them in like your bracelet. I mean, look at the size of this rock."
"That rock," Judai spat "is actually glass. I should know, I made it after all."
Kaoruko narrowed her eyes and ripped the necklace off before lobbing it to Judai. "Then you can take this piece of trash back!"
Judai protectively held the pendant to her chest. "Kaoruko, let's just get out of here. You don't have to do this!"
Kaoruko walked up to Judai and grabbed her by the hair. "I know I don't have to, but I want to."
Judai's eyes widened as the crowbar came in contact with her ribs. Soon, screams of pain and cries of help could be heard coming from Domino High.
Kaoruko panted as she let the crowbar drop from her hand. She smiled at her latest work. In a puddle of bright red blood and barely clinging to life was Yuki Judai. After breaking some of the brunette's ribs, she tried to go after a gob smacked Johan, but was stopped by Judai clinging to her legs and yelling at the boy to run. Naturally, she had to be punished.
"I could call an ambulance, but then I would get in trouble." Kaoruko sneered. She grabbed a stray knife from the kitchen rack and turned to where Johan had been, only to see that he was sitting in a corner, crying over what had happened. She smirked as she sauntered over and was about to give him the same fate as Judai when a new hand caught the crowbar.
Kaoruko followed the hand to see that it was attached to a Johan-clone, only he had piercing orange eyes and darker hair. 'Heru Anderson' was written on his nametag.
Another merteen followed Heru out of the wall. She looked exactly like Judai, but she had golden eyes and her nametag read 'Haou' but no last name.
She felt the air around her get thicker as more merteens started to come out of the walls and floors. Soon, adults were joining in with them, their eyes bleeding red as they appeared.
Kaoruko screamed and ran out of the kitchen, the new arrivals chasing after her until she was able to exit out of the main gate.
Unfortunately for her, someone had been woken up by the screams from earlier and called the police. The officer saw Kaoruko with blood on her clothes, yet noted that none of it was hers. She was brought to the police station for questioning.
When the police went to check out her story the next morning, Judai's body was gone. All that was left was a dried puddle of blood.
Himakoji Kaoruko was institutionalized later that day.
Judai groaned as she woke up. She faintly noted that she was only an incredibly soft bed, so she couldn't have been at home or in a hospital. She yawned and sat up, noting that she wasn't in pain anymore, but for some reason she was aware that she was still alive.
She looked around her new surroundings. It had traditional bamboo flooring and sliding doors, like in a traditional Japanese household. She now realized that she was actually laying on an incredibly fluffy futon and not a hospital bed.
"I see that you are well." Judai whipped her head to the source of the new voice to her left. She saw a man with spikey black hair that was lined crimson with bright gold bangs and red eyes.
"I remember you. You gave me Hane Kuriboh…" she trailed off.
"Yes I did, and he was very worried about you. We all were actually. Your heart stopped beating for about a minute before we were able to bring you back to the plain of the living."
Judai tilted her head to the side before she was forced back onto the futon by a certain winged furball. She looked at the purring creature before screaming in shock.
After the man now identified as Yami calmed her down, Judai was introduced to the other monsters of her deck. It was so much for her to take in that Yami took her outside for some fresh air. He was currently escorting her to the beach right outside the house.
"So Yami, does anyone else live in that big house? I mean, it looks like it can house at least half the kids from school."
Yami chuckled. "Actually, other people do live in that house. The adults that live there are me, Yugi-chan, Anzu, Honda, Otogi, Mai, Jonouchi, his sister Shizuka, Malik, Marik, Ryou, Bakura, Ishizu, Rishid, Seto, his brother Mokuba, Rebecca, Bolt, Saiga, Yanagi, and Martha. The younger kids that live here are Crow, Aki, Yusei, Jack, Carly, Kiryu, Bruno, Sherry, Blitz, Nerve, Taka, Rally, and some babies named Hikari, Taiga, Kokoro, Ginga, Takuya, Miccan, Jun, and Daichi. You met the rest last night. Well, the kids that is. By the time the adults got there to help you…"
Judai looked a little downcast. Then she remembered something. "Is Shou okay? What about Johan?"
Yami blinked a couple of times before smiling. He pointed to a small alcove of rocks. "They should be over there with the rest of the kids."
Judai smiled and nodded. She then started to pick up the pace from a walk to a steady jog.
Yami smiled and shook his head. Judai would definitely spice some things up around here.
Judai sat on a rock closest to the water, perplexed why she couldn't find anybody. She leaned back slightly and looked up into the night sky only to find it had three different colored moons. Judai sat back up straight as she groaned and massaged her temples, recounting the events that had transpired.
"Okay, I nearly get killed, get brought to some strange dimension with three moons and survive, and now I am all alone with some guy named Yami who told me that people would be here."
"Well technically, we aren't human."
Judai yelped as she was pulled into the water. After a couple of seconds, both she and Johan came up from the water.
Judai turned to the green eyed boy, eye twitching. "You have five seconds before I swim after you and drown you."
Johan smirked as he pointed down. "I don't think that will be possible."
Judai looked down to see that everything waist down on Johan was a blue fish tail.
"… Okay, point taken."
"You're taking this surprisingly well."
Judai smiled. "When you come back from legally being dead, nothing really shocks you that much anymore."
Johan rolled his eyes but smiled none the less.
(10 Years Later)
After the 'murder' of Yuki Judai, Domino High had been closed down and reopened in a new location. Most of the things were still in their original places. All the desks and chairs were stationary. The books in the library where now collecting dust. A knife which had been dropped by a raging teenager was still under one of the kitchen appliances, some blood dried on it. The tiles were stained a brownish red in a spattered and pooled pattern. A crowbar also covered in blood was haphazardly thrown onto the floor of the supply closet, hidden under a fallen tower of lunch trays, was slightly rusted. The only sound filling the halls now was the running of the newly escaped Himakoji Kaoruko.
However, she wasn't the one chasing after her prey.
She thought that if she tried a second time, then she would be successful, but instead, her supposed 'prey' was more vicious than any animal she had seen.
That's the one. She hurt mother. Mother's pain came from her. Mother almost died because of her. She must PAY!
The voices were getting closer and Kaoruko was almost at the school's old pool area when she felt multiple hands grab her leg. She tripped and fell face first into the unkempt concrete. She looked back to see an orange haired boy with multiple yellow markings, a red haired girl with a silver hairpin, and a muscular blonde boy latched onto her leg. She looked past them to see a girl with long black hair, a boy with silver hair, and a couple of other teens and some kids behind them. Kaoruko tried to reclaim the feeling in her leg when she looked towards the pool gate. In front of it was a girl with spikey black and gold hair with a pair of twins, each twin having teal hair and brown eyes. Her eyes widened when she saw the boy wearing a green glass pendant and the girl was wearing a sterling silver charm bracelet.
Kaoruko almost choked on her breath when she saw their names: Lua and Luca Anderson.
The police would find her body the next morning. Himakoji Kaoruko had literally been scared to death.
"Lua, Luca, where were you and the others last night? Your father wouldn't tell me and you have no idea how worried I was!"
The twins looked up from where they were sitting and into the worried brown eyes of their mother. They pouted slightly and padded over to her, hugging and cuddling her.
"You don't have to worry Mom; we were just having some fun!" Lua chirped.
"What kind of fun?" Judai asked skeptically.
"You know, just running around and stuff." Luca reassured her. "Just ask Aki and Yusei, you know that they never lie to you."
Both kids looked pass their mother and to their father, who gave them a smile and thumbs up.
Chibi: Okay, spur of the moment one-shot I decided to do after reading a manga called School Mermaid. It is loosely based off of the manga, but I added some stuff and gave it a happy ending. Sure, it looks and sounds rushed and cheesy, but I actually enjoyed writing this. Please review, and if you are confused about anything, please send me a PM about it and I will clear it up.
References:
(1) Think the school uniforms from YGO DM
(2) Character from Season 0
(3) Drone bees only obey the orders of the Queen bee and basically can't do anything without her
(4) Taken from the manga and translated into French via Bing Translator