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: Demonsbane
Characters: Yuuki Juudai, Kagemaru
Word Count: 1,765||Status: One-shot
Genre: Drama, AngstRated: PG-13
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section D, #30: write in the drama genre; Written for the Valentine's to White Day Advent, day 8, write a death!fic
Notes: This is set in an AU where Juudai's power is that of the Darkness of Destruction. So, he's not a good person and never actually has been.
Summary: The three Mythic Demon cards can drain the energy from any spirit within range. The Darkness of Destruction doesn't want competition.
Sun-warmed sand spread out from one end of the beach to the other. So far as Juudai looked, he couldn't see a single sign of life aside from the trees and grass and occasional dolphins leaping out of the ocean, chittering with joy.
This place is revolting. Life always annoyed him, except when it was bringing death to other life. He suspected the only reason he'd incarnated in the first place was to bring death more efficiently.
Well, if that was indeed the case, then he'd best get to it. He slipped his deck out of the holder and fanned it out in front of him.
"Evil Hero Hell Gainer! Evil Hero Hell Brat! Evil Hero Malicious Edge! Evil Hero Wild Cyclone! Evil Hero Inferno Wing!"
His named warriors appeared, kneeling before him, eager to hear their orders. He did not make them wait.
"You four," he said, indicating everyone except Inferno Wing, "search the island for the Mythic Demons or anyone else you might find. Come to me the moment you find anything or anyone."
In a single heartbeat, the four chosen separated, quickly being lost to view. He gestured to Inferno Wing to follow him and set off on his own explorations. He didn't know which of them would find his targets first, but he would leave no stone unturned.
The island showed no sign of inhabitants at all, though here and there he spied evidence that people had lived here once upon a time. Old buildings, or the ruins of such, slumped underneath coverings of wild weeds and encroaching vines. A battered boat lay half pulled onto the shore, full of seaweed and water, not at all trustworthy for sailing.
If the entire place hadn't reeked of the power of the Sangenma, Juudai would've thought it just another deserted island, at best holding a few loose fragments of humanity that thought they could hide from his encroaching armies here. But there was no hiding that power here. It thrummed from the rocks and through the air.
He stared thoughtfully at the volcano that rose from the center of the island, a faint thread of smoking coming from within. There? It wasn't a bad hiding place. If someone – like him - came to call, then whoever guarded those cards could threaten to toss them in and be done with them.
As if that would work on cards like this. Juudai knew the old stories well. Three demons, far beyond the ability of mortal man to control in any other fashion, bound in those cards to keep them from destroying everything else in the world. If unleashed under the right circumstances, they could drain the life from the world itself and all of those who dwelled within it.
There was no way he was going to let that happen.
Before he'd taken a handful more of steps, his warriors appeared around him, once more kneeling. All of their attention focused now on the volcano and he smiled.
"There?" He knew what they said, but seeing their nods confirmed it. With a bounce to his step, he headed up that way, finding the quickest and easiest path. He didn't want to stay here forever. He had too much work to do back home.
He didn't have to climb all the way up there. He'd scarcely reached the halfway point before an old, shaky voice broke through the silence.
"You! What do you think you're doing here? No one is allowed here!"
Juudai glanced around, spying at last a shape crouched behind a heavy boulder. He squinted; the sun cast enough shadows to conceal this stranger just a little. Seeing in the darkness wasn't a problem for him, but he still required a little effort to understand what he was seeing.
"And who would you be, old man?" Juudai wanted to know, holding back a gale of laughter by the skin of his teeth. Old man, indeed! This man looked as if he'd been around when the volcano itself rose from the earth. 'Ancient' would probably describe him better, and if it weren't for the life support system that carried him, he would probably have died years ago.
That gave Juudai a perfectly wonderful idea and he made certain not to lose sight of it.
The defender, if that was who it was, didn't move from behind his concealing boulder. "I am Kagemaru! And as I said, you have no business here! Begone at once!"
"Oh, I have every business here." Juudai took a step closer. "You guard the Sangenma, don't you?" He liked the look of shock in the other's eyes. "I'm here for them. Hand them over." He made no bargains about how slow or quick he would cause the other's death. He wouldn't have kept them anyway. Why waste his time?
Kagemaru scuttled backward, his life support system providing him with a means to move as well. Juudai wondered who'd made it for him. There weren't many around with that level of magical or mechanical skill. Perhaps they could be useful to him.
"You… you're him!"
Juudai smiled. It had been some time since he'd heard that level of terror associated with his name. He could get used to hearing it again. "And just who do you think I am?" Though it would be best to make certain Kagemaru knew who he was first. If someone else were spreading terror instead of him, he would have to take care of that as well.
"H-haou! The dark one! The foul beast who wants to destroy everything!"
Juudai's smile widened. "Stop flattering me, old man. I just want the Sangenma."
"You can't control their power! No one can!" Kagemaru looked ready to leap into the volcano himself to escape Juudai. The dark king strolled closer, tendrils of shadow weaving around his fingers.
"Give me the Sangenma." He would not take no for an answer. He'd come here for this purpose alone and he would not stop until he'd achieved his goal. And he had no desire to waste time bandying words with an old dried up fool.
With a flick of one finger to command them, his monsters surged forward, claws and fangs set to rend and tear. Juudai watched with satisfaction as Kagemaru's device scrambled backwards, the terror that reeked from him getting stronger with every moment. Juudai licked his lips in satisfaction, eyes glimmering as Inferno Wing slashed her claws into the device's legs, sending Kagemaru tumbling downward.
He strolled closer and peered into the broken glass to where the old man gibbered and stared at the approaching shape of evil.
"Sangenma?" Juudai would not be denied. When Kagemaru shook his head even harder, Juudai sighed. "You just had to make this difficult on yourself, didn't you?"
"I've devoted nearly a century to guarding them from people like you!" Kagemaru spat out the words. "You think you can just come here and take them?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Juudai eyed the old man for a brief moment, then turned to his monsters. "They're in the volcano. Bring them to me."
Kagemaru's startled gasp told him all that he needed to know about his guess. Leaving only Inferno Wing behind, the other four flew toward the volcano with all due speed. Kagemaru's device's legs scrambled brokenly, but he couldn't go anywhere, couldn't even get them to get underneath him to try.
Juudai savored the experience. It was just the prequel to the real pleasure about to come, though. He could feel that power drawing nearer, muted due to the seal, but still there, still humming with repressed energy.
Hell Brat knelt before him, the others lining up behind him. He extended his clawed hands and in them rested three cards. Those three cards.
Juudai took them, running his fingers over them with glee for a few seconds. "Well done," he praised his warriors. He didn't dismiss them; he knew they'd want to watch what was coming. Those he hadn't summoned observed as well, from that in-between place that was neither the deck nor the world.
That was fine with Juudai. He didn't mind an audience at all.
"What are you -" Kagemaru started to say before a slice of Juudai's eyes warned him to silence. Juudai would only take interruptions to a point.
"With these cards, an ordinary person could conquer a world," Juudai mused, closing both of his hands over them. "Someone could use them to destroy the spirit of every monster and probably most of the humans as well."
He smiled a slow and delighted smile. "But I don't need that kind of help. And I definitely do not need the competition."
Black fire leaped between his hands, scorching around the edges of the cards. Kagemaru made a sort of startled squeak, but that was only the beginning of Juudai's power. The flames increased, hotter and hotter, but remained the same coal-black shade. Screeches and howls rose up from the cards, which Juudai kept firmly between his hands. He tilted his head back, almost purring at the cries of agony.
Reducing the cards to ashes while making certain the demons trapped within didn't get a chance to escape was not an easy task. But it was one Juudai accomplished regardless. A tiny sliver of sweat trickled down the back of his neck as the cards finally collapsed into ash, the last cry of the demons hardly worth listening to.
He dusted his hands off, watching the ash blow away in the wind. Then he looked back toward Kagemaru, helpless and vulnerable if left there by himself.
It would be wrong to leave him like this, Juudai decided. He turned toward his warriors. "Finish him."
Once the task was done, Juudai turned his steps back toward the beach. He considered destroying the island once he left it, but thought better of it.
I'm not at my full power yet. I'll come back and do it another time. Besides, he thought he might like an audience for when he shattered what had been the Sangenma's home for so very long.
And he'd been gone from home for long enough. The last reports he'd had indicated there was some kind of 'resistance' starting up and he wanted to see if anything interesting had come of it while he'd been away.
He boarded his ship and gave the orders to return home before he settled down into his personal cabin. There was very little like a satisfying death to truly get him into a good mood, and those had been some very satisfying deaths.
The End