Me: WOO, BARELY MADE IT PAST LAST ROUND. Damn Klepto… well, okay, here's the super-easy-and-bland pairing in Compy's third round. I… really need to think of something interesting with this plot. I mean, c'mon now, ardentshipping's in like every YGO story ever. Okay… like half. It's been in at least two of my contest stories for this and last season – out of eleven, that's like OO – and now that I need to focus on it, I'm pretty much going, "Shit."
Switches between various first POVs. Siblingshipping (MokubaxShizuka) but major pairing is ARDENTSHIPPING – HondaxShizuka. Uses a lot of nursery rhymes.
Disclaimer: Hikari Daeron does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any affiliations. She also does not own the multitude of Mother Goose rhymes in this story. This work was written exclusively for the aforementioned contest.
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Kawai Shizuka was dead.
Not metaphorically dead. She wasn't "dying-on-the-inside" or emotionally hardened. She was as-a-doornail, stone-cold, never-to-reawaken-not-even-with-true-love's-kiss dead.
Kawai Shizuka was dead.
And Honda Hiroto had killed her.
#
Once upon a time, there was a duelist and his sister, and she was beautiful.
Once upon a time, there was a best friend, and he loved this sister.
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time, there was a story that could never be told, but then someone decided to open his big mouth and tell it.
I am that person. What's my name? Let's just say that I'm the fly who saw with my little eye the sparrow that killed Cock Robin.
Tell yourself that this is just another fairy tale, just another nursery rhyme, just another story to tell to your children. But every story must have a moral, and the moral of this story isn't so much a lesson but a message.
To the fish who caught her blood in his dish, and to the beetle who with his thread and needle made the shroud, and most of all to the sparrow who with his bow and arrow killed Cock Robin:
Love will destroy.
#
Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?
Three years ago, one of my best friends, Honda Hiroto, went crazy.
He'd been admitted to the hospital after an ugly motorcycle accident. His legs had been crushed under the weight of his bike and he'd skidded for at least twenty feet before smashing into a tree. I'm was blessing everything I could think of when I heard that he had lived.
If I'd know that when he was released he'd lock himself up and then go completely psycho, I'd have never been so thankful.
There was no other word for it: he snapped. The pressure of having a broken body and being constantly pitied was too much for him. To escape it, he isolated himself almost completely from the rest of the world. But that's no damn excuse for doing what he did.
He maybe already be dead in one way, but I'm going to kill him in another.
#
Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, that lamb was sure to go.
Two years ago, my best friend, Jounouchi Katsuya, committed suicide.
Honda got some sort of cabin fever and killed Shizuka. As a result, Jounouchi went mad with grief and killed himself.
I found him. When he didn't answer the door, I got the spare key and went in. I found him lying on a kitchen floor littered with whiskey bottles and spilt nearby, cocaine.
Without Shizuka, Jounouchi felt that he had no meaning in his life. I understand that. I understand that he blamed himself for Honda and for her death. But somehow, something inside of me doesn't understand.
If he knew what this cost me, he'd have never have done it.
#
Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run, see how they run.
One year ago, someone I greatly admire, Motou Yugi, disappeared.
Honda was driven mad by loneliness and self-pity, so one day he called Shizuka up with a plan. She pitied him, and came over. He shot her in the dark.
Over the course of one year, Jounouchi decided to exact his revenge. His grief drove him to drugs and drinking, and then eventually, an overdose before he could finish the deed.
One year after that, Yugi disappeared. No one knows where he went. No one knows if he followed his best friend's footsteps, or simply decided to leave Domino forever.
In either case, I'm sure he'd be happy to learn that I avenged his best friend's death.
#
Once upon a time, Honda Hiroto had an accident and placed himself in confinement to escape.
Once upon a time, Kawai Shizuka felt bad for Honda Hiroto and went to visit him when he asked.
Once upon a time, Honda Hiroto killed the woman he loved, Kawai Shizuka.
Once upon a time, Jounouchi Katsuya became an addict after his sister, Kawai Shizuka, died.
Once upon a time, in the midst of his revenge, Jounouchi Katsuya overdosed and died.
Once upon a time, Motou Yugi, the best friend of Jounouchi Katsuya, disappeared.
Once upon a time, Kaiba Mokuba loved Kawai Shizuka.
And once upon a time, I took a gun and shot Honda Hiroto as he lay on the bed of a mental ward.
#
Who killed Cock Robin?
"I," said Honda Hiroto. "With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin."
Who saw her die?
"I," said Kaiba Mokuba. "With my little eye, I saw her die."
Who caught her blood?
"I," said Motou Yugi. "With my little dish, I caught her blood."
Who will make the shroud?
"I," said Jounouchi Katsuya. "With my thread and needle, I will make the shroud."
All the birds of the air fell a-sighing and a-sobbing, when they heard the bell toll for poor Cock Robin.
Me: So it's short, but I like it anyway. The ardent's completely twisted, but yeah, I do like it. It's weird a hell, but… wow, I sound like I'm trying to convince myself. XD Huge thanks to Kelpy who keeps chanting nursery rhymes at me, which in some weird way helped me. And also, props to The Cain Saga which introduced me to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" in the first place.