Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Call of Pain
Characters: Ryou
Word Count: 500||Status: One-shot
Genre: Drama||Rated: G
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, A78, randomly generated word (lethal) appears in the story, Written for GX Flash Bingo, #021, opioid; Written for the One Character Boot Camp, #43, flash
Notes: One of the meanings of 'opioid' involves endorphins: those things that get flowing in your bloodstream due to adrenaline. The more excited you get, the less pain you feel.
Summary: There is a point at which pain can become pleasure. There is a point where the pain just isn't there anymore. Hell Kaiser wants to reach that point, over and over.

Electricity arced through Hell Kaiser, pulling a scream of pain from him.

Not just pain, though. Yes, it hurt. The shock collars had been designed to draw the most agony out of whoever wore them. After the last few weeks, Marufuji Ryou knew that intimately.

He loved it.

He hadn't thought that he would. He'd genuinely never thought he would thrill to pain the way that he did.

But it wasn't the pain, not by itself. It was what the pain meant to him.

The pain meant life. It meant that he hadn't lost the duel yet. It meant that he had a chance and that meant he could win.

Pain meant victory.

The shocks could get to lethal strength. He knew that; he'd seen it happen on one of his earliest duels in the underground.

He'd felt something else then. Or to be precise, he hadn't felt something. He hadn't felt the pain, but he'd enjoyed that he hadn't felt it. The pain coursed beyond itself, reaching to a point where he couldn't feel it.

I wonder if I could do that again. Oh, he liked the thought of that. To fight and feel on such a level teased and taunted him. He wanted more of it. Wanted to feel every nerve that he possessed set afire.

Only then would he feel truly alive. Only then could he feel alive.

This opponent didn't stand a chance of satisfying him. There weren't that many who could push him to his utter limits.

He wasn't going to find someone like that in the underground. He doubted that he would find them in the Pro Leagues, either. His chances of finding someone there were worse than in the underground. The duelists from the underground at least understood and expected pain. Ones from the Pro Leagues… he wouldn't call them all soft – his thoughts lingered for a moment on Edo Phoenix – but they didn't understand pain like he was growing to.

If not here, where?

Despite having gotten one good hit in, this opponent of his wasn't that much of a threat. Not someone who could give him pain on the regular basis that he craved. Part of his mind could focus on the duel, while the greater part of it contemplated where he might be able to go and who he might be able to fight who could give him what he wanted.

It would have to be a magnificent duel. Only such a thing could come close to giving him what he wanted. A small, piddling duel that had no risk of his life not only wouldn't be what he wanted, it would be worthless.

He didn't know yet who he would have to fight. But he would find this person, no matter what it cost him, and he would fight them. Only then could he feel good again. Only then would the pain sear through him and the pleasure buoy him up once more.

Only then would he be whole.

The End

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.