...Okay, so this started out because I was bored and needed a time-waster. I emailed my friend, Maria Elena, that first time in story-mode, and... it quickly morphed from a story to a roleplay-type thing, then to a fanfiction ;; So it starts off really randomly, with no real point and abysmal writing skills. But as it went on, we both started getting really into it and it's become a great story; at least from our point of view. We'd like to know what you think too!
I don't know when it'll end, if ever, so I'll just keep posting it up whenever we gather enough new material for a new chapter.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, Yu-Gi-Oh! doesn't belong to us. If it did...well, you'll see.
Some Japanese words you may or may not want to know:
bakamono - stupid person
che - shit
urusai - shut up
ahou - fool
aibou - partner
gomen - sorry
(Wow, that almost sounds like some kind of conversation XD)
OH. The chibis - my friends and I have a joke that we all have chibis of our favorite manga characters living in our heads, and that's why we're all insane. Excuses, excuses.
ON WITH THE MADNESS!
--
Hannah
"GOOD MORNING!" she yelled, jerking Maria Elena out of a sound sleep. "Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" (I'm really bored, can you tell?) "Well, I'm off to do my math homework before my parents get home from grocery shopping. Talk to ya later!" She waved and grinned nonchalantly then got up, tripped over the chair leg, then strode quickly out of the room blushing furiously, trying to recover her dignity.
Maria Elena
Maria Elena laughed, very confused as to why they were writing a story through email. She grinned, thinking about how she had already done her homework, and then a dark cloud descended upon her as she remembered that she had to go along to her brother's early birthday party and make sure that five 3rd grade boys didn't get out of hand. At least she'd had enough sleep though, since she had slept in until 10:45 that morning, and she was getting paid in songs. She did not show any of misgivings, though, and called, "Have a good time with your homework, Hannah!" although Hannah had probably already done her homework by now, and scurried away so one, she might be able to talk to Hannah in the hall and two, so that her mother wouldn't get mad at her. Hannah was already far away, though, so she muttered to herself, "Ah, perhaps I'll catch her in the elevator."
Hannah
"We're in a hotel?" Hannah wondered. "Ah well. Whoo! Continental breakfast!" she cried as she ran off after Mari-El-san, saving her from said 3rd grade boys by throwing them Danishes and donuts and pulling her away while they're busy stuffing their faces. She then grinned and tried to show Maria Elena the picture she was working on (since he had finished her math), only to remember that she had left it in her hotel room. She then assured her friend, quite unnecessarily, that it was emotional, cute, and Yu-Gi-Oh! fanart. Remembering that she had had an idea for a comic earlier, she dashed off to finish it, leaving a windblown and confused Maria Elena in her wake.
Maria Elena
Mari-el-san wondered who had finished Hannah's math homework, since it said he had finished her math homework, and then decided it was a typo. Also wondering how Hannah had gotten behind her, scared off all the 3rd grade boys, and run off again, without her even getting to the elevator, she did a double take and hurried after Hannah, not realizing that she had gone the complete wrong direction. Not finding Hannah, she retreated to her room, which apparently was now in a hotel, to clear up the last bit of the introduction for her portfolio because she didn't like it very much.
Hannah
Hannah scowled at the typographical error, which she had only noticed after she had sent the email off. She then decided she had forced her brother to do her homework for her and happily forgot all about it. Knocking on Maria Elena's door, she burst in without any acknowledgement and said, "I'll bring that picture that's 'still in my hotel room' to school tomorrow, if I manage to finish it. The likelihood of that is actually quite high, since I have a lot of homework to do tonight." She grinned devilishly, turned on her heel, and tried to leave the room--tripping over the scattered remains of rejected portfolio pages. "Agh. Falling--over," she grunted, and picked herself up from the floor. "Oh, yes!" She seemed to remember something. "Didn't I tell ya Yami looked freakish in the first volume? Didn't I? Hah!" She grinned and bonked Maria Elena over the head with Volume 2. "You get this tomorrow. Bakamono." And, giggling insanely, she sped out of the room, bits of paper trailing in her wake.
Maria Elena
Maria Elena rubbed her head, wondering how Hannah could be such a bad person that she would tease her like that. She started crying, but laughing through her tears at Hannah's clumsiness. Then she wondered what bakamono meant, and started crying again since she felt left out. "Hannah, if you have homework, then how are you going to draw your picture...?" she called out. Hannah did not answer, so she went out into the hall. Hannah had apparently done a disappearing act again, so she decided to visit Hannah's room. She got in the elevator, at which time it decided to stick between floors. Not knowing what to do, she pressed a bunch of random buttons, and managed to make an alarm go off. She burst into tears for the third time that hour. "What will I do?" she cried. "First I forget my sock book, now this! I'm going to die! WAHHHHHHHH! Now Hannah's going to make fun of me when she finds out, too! HEEEELPP MEEEE SOMEONE!"
HannahHannah, hearing Maria Elena's disparaging wailing, felt tears come to her own eyes, grabbed her trusty ax, and immediately rushed down the stairs to help her friend. She started chopping wildly at the wall, tears forgotten in her rage against all things technological. Finally managing to break a hole in the wall large enough to slip through, she then realized she was on the wrong floor. Jumping down through the crack, she opened the conveniently placed hatch on top of the elevator and motioned to Maria Elena, reaching down a hand to help lift her up. "Mari-el-san! Up here!" she said, as the sobbing girl lifted her tearstained face to look upon the face of her savior. (This is getting emotional, eh?) Realizing it was only Hannah; she stopped crying and hit her with the medieval mace she had stored in her pocket. "Che..." Hannah mumbled as she went unconscious from both head trauma and shock. Yugi and Yami, two of the chibis in her head, suddenly came into being, rubbing their heads and grimacing. "That hurt, ya know," Yugi squeaked, and the two near-identical boys started chanting. The chant was Egyptian, one used for a magical healing ritual. The gash on their mistress's head healed as the light from twin Millennium Puzzles faded, and the chibis glared at a bewildered Maria Elena one last time before fading back into the realm of thought. Hannah sat up and muttered, "I owe them one..." before offering a hand to Mari-el-san once more and helping them both to escape. "I was just teasing, you know... bakamono means stupid person. I just like to mess with ya." She winked and continued, "Remember, how I said I do most of my best art while I'm supposed to be doing something else? That's how I'll get it finished. Hn. Sorry you forgot your Sock book. The homework's not that hard, you'll be able to get it done before class." She smiled happily and said, "Good luck. I need to get going now..." and sauntered down the hall, waiting to see if her friend wanted to talk more...
Maria Elena
Mari-el-san said "Hey! Wait up! You shouldn't swear, you know. Not that we're not going to hell anyway...OOO! Double negative!" Hannah giggled at the very little that was needed to make her friend happy, and soon they both were lost in laughter. Gasping for breath, the two made their way down the hallway. "Anyway," said Mari-el-san, "I was just coming to see you. The elevator doesn't work, though! tear I wonder if there's monsters in the stairs..."
"Of course not, silly," said Hannah, walking over to the stairwell. "We're in a hotel, for goodness sake." She opened the door to the stairs, and the two girls both saw the total lack of monsters. "But- what if the monsters are farther down?" asked Mari-el-san. As Hannah could find no comeback to this, the two started down the stairs. As they got farther and farther in, however, they found that it became harder and harder to see where they were going. The staircase coiled around the elevator shaft, so even going down the staircase was dizzying. "If only I had a light," said Hannah. "You mean you don't?" said Mari-el-san, reaching into her bottomless pocket and and pulling out a flashlight.
"No, why else would we be walking in the dark?" said Hannah sarcastically. "Oh, is it dark?" asked Mari-el-san. Hannah hit her over the head. "Of course it's dark, you dummy! Can't you see?"
"OW! Hannah hit me..."
"Did she really, now?" said a voice from the shadows. Mari-el-san promptly turned on the flashlight that was still in her hand. Standing there was a figure clothed all in black. Above them and below them, shadows just like this one were standing, cutting off the escape. They were trapped.
Hannah
"...Holy. Crap," Hannah breathed. "You... you wouldn't happen to be bishies brought to life from the pages of books, would you? Or just our friends, playing a joke on us?" In the light from Maria Elena's flashlight, the teeth of the shadowed figure closest to them glimmered as he grinned evilly. "That could mean either one... but I'm guessing you're not our friends." She gulped, then mind-cast, Chibis! I need your help! Maria Elena, if... But it was no use. The tiny, child-like versions of beloved manga characters manifested momentarily, hanging off both girls' hair and clothing, hugging their ankles and gently comforting them, but all squeaked softly, "Gomen." Sorry. "There's nothing we can do against them," and faded out of being.
The three figures lowered their hoods simultaneously. Hannah caught a glimpse of spiking white hair before an undeniably evil voice growled, "Urusai, ahou." The light of the flashlight went out with a spark of deep purple light, and red eyes glinted evilly in the remnants of the shadow magic before everything went dark...
Maria Elena
Mari-el-san's head hurt. That was all she knew. " Where am I...?" she said groggily as she sat up slowly, her vision blurred. An evil voice echoed around her head. She had to be in an enclosed space, then. It felt like she was lying on a floor somewhere. How had she gotten from a stairwell with a bunch of chibis saying they couldn't help her to here? Chibis. Hannah. Where was Hannah? Stupid blurry vision. She lay back down, being careful with her head.
"Heh heh...looks like our prisoner's awake." Trouble. That sounded like that evil voice she'd heard earlier, and the voice on the stairs.
"Where...am I?" Mari-el-san repeated her request through cracked lips, sitting up again. It was only then that she realized that she needed something to drink. How long had she been unconscious, anyway?
"Don't. Ask. Questions." With the last remark, the voice punctuated his remark by punching Mari-el-san in the face. He then yanked the now rather bloody Mari-el-san to her feet.
"But-I can't...see" protested Mari-el-san
"That's the point. If you could see, you'd know where you were. The spell I put on the two of you in the stairwell should last for quite a while." The evil voice and Mari-el-san walked in silence for a while.
"Where's Ha-"
"Do you want a broken nose? It would go nicely with the rest of your face. I wouldn't worry about your friend. She's just fine." Mari-el-san was now officially worried. Something in that voice suggested sarcasm to her. She kept walking. There wasn't much other choice, unless she wanted a broken nose.
"Ah, here we are," said the voice, snickering. Mari-el-san heard a door open. At that moment, her vision cleared. Across the room, Hannah was lying on a stone tablet as if dead.
Hannah
(Oh my gosh! I knew I was going to be sacrificed to the demon overlord!) (Kidding, just kidding...)
Pain. Indescribably burning, the inferno of pain that was Hannah's broken body somehow managed to lift her head at the sound of the man's voice. "Whrr... Mari...?" She grimaced, and called weakly to her chibis as her head fell back onto the tablet. "Y-yu..." The boy's tri-colored hair almost seemed to droop as he materialized and saw her condition. Although unmarked, he knew that powerful shadow magic was oozing slowly through her body, eating away at her very essence. He knew he needed his yami's help for this, and called him forth worriedly.
As the two set to work on banishing the shadows, the man turned to Maria Elena. A flash of recognition raced through her mind, and she knew who the man was. "B-Bakura! How did you get out...?" Her voice trailed off as she searched his face. This was most definitely not the nice Bakura, though she could sense some goodness wavering out of his crimson eyes, a flash of Ryou as he tried to retake control. One of Maria Elena's own chibis, Ryou, hid himself behind her hair and murmured comfort softly. "D-don't worry... he... I'll find a way..." he lilted, somehow putting truth behind the words.
"Y-you're... supposed to be a manga character...!" Maria Elena shrieked.
Rage registered in the deep pools of bloodlust that shone from the thief king's face, and he slapped her again. Hard. "Silence, impudent mortal," he hissed, and turned away. "Marik. Tie her up as well."
Another sinister laugh echoed around the room, and this time lavender glinted in the purple light of shadow. "Keh keh keh... with pleasure." The Millennium Rod flashed, and Maria Elena couldn't move a muscle. A strange light flowed through her, and the dark powers binding her body were gone. "Che! She has a resistance! ...Yami. Take care of her." The way he put emphasis on the word scared her, but not as much as what she saw then...
Maria Elena
The third shadow stepped out of the shadows at the side of the room. He had been waiting for just this moment. "You require my services, lord?" he asked. Without waiting for Bakura's answer, he turned to face Mari-el-san. She gasped. Gone from his eyes were any traces of the Pharaoh. They were black, as black as the shadows that Yami hid in. Around his neck hung the Millennium Puzzle that she had seen before, but this too was tarnished with darkness.
"You...you..."
"Urusai, ahou." Yami seemed to grow darker. The darkness that she had sensed in him at first seemed to be growing, and she knew he was calling dark magic from the Millennium Puzzle. All Mari-el-san could do was watch, terrified and frozen with shock as Yami called forth dark spirits. Yami's dark magic came spiraling towards her in a purple blast, knocking her to the ground but otherwise doing nothing.
"nleh..." Mari-el-san gasped for breath, wondering how she had survived.
"Lord, she has a resistance. I can do nothing," said Yami. A resistance? How? This was black magic. How could she have any magical talent whatsoever? It wasn't as if she belonged in their story, anyway. That couldn't have anything to do with it, though, since Hannah was still lying on the tablet.
"Then our magic can do nothing to her. I had thought that she would not be taken that easily; after all, their spirits are not like those of others. Is that not what we came for?" said Bakura. Is that not what we came for...
"You were looking for us?" asked Mari-el-san.
"Silence, child," said Bakura, punching her in the face yet again. To the others, he said, "After all, we only captured the other girl with the strongest shadows there are. There are no more of those, then?"
"No, lord," said Yami. "Would you like me to use other methods?"
"Yes, do," said Bakura. Yami's dark eyes stared into Mari-el-san's. She felt as if she were falling into a pool of darkness, but then something pulled her back. It was the sound of Hannah's voice.
Hannah
"Ahou," she snapped, "you'll never bind her that way. You're only stalling. To catch a girl, you'll need the quick intellect of another one..." Yami and hikari, the chibi pair, had been silenced: their small bodies dissolving into purple and white sparks, respectively, then fading out.
"I knew she'd be like this," Bakura snarled in a whisper to Marik, "Powerful women are always full of themselves!"
"I heard that," Hannah purred silkily, and left it at that. Bakura sneered in a characteristic grimace, and Hannah giggled maliciously. Suddenly, something caught her eyes, and her head snapped to the side.
Yami's large, dark eyes wavered, and he looked positively frantic as he clutched his head and moaned, trying to keep something... or someone at bay. The darkness faded and was replaced by flashing amethyst as the light forced his way out. Only for a moment, but the damage was done. As shineless, sheened jet-black again quenched the hikari's bright eyes, Hannah twitched, jerked, then slumped back against the tablet. A dark mist rose from her body, flew about the room restlessly, then separated and settled back into the three shadows. Hannah's eyelids fluttered open, and saw Maria Elena's battered face. "My... friend. The shadows... tell me... b-bring out their light... or be... ex...tinguished..." Her head fell back with a dull thump, and with bright flashes of opposing light, the two chibi almost-twins came to sit on her shoulders and lay their palms on her cheeks.
"She'll be fine," they assured her, "and regain consciousness soon. We'll do what we can to hurry her along." Two identical pendants began to glow, and they closed their eyes to begin the healing.
"...My Lords." Yami was repentant. "Gomen. Such a blunder won't happen again. My... other half has been sealed away."
"How... good of you to remember that, you fool." Marik spat, the end of his sentence turning into an ugly snarl. "If it happens again, we'll be sure to... remove the impediment..."
Fear colored the ex-Pharaoh's features, though his eyes remained painfully blank.
Maria Elena, meanwhile, was puzzling over how she was expected to... what was it? 'Bring out their light?' If, by that, the shadows had meant to bring their hikaris back in control, she knew she couldn't bring Yugi back first, though he would undoubtedly be the easiest to find. They would only kill him. That left Marik and Bakura to work on. She was bewildered as to how to do it for a moment, then remembered her chibi Ryou. What were his powers? Maybe he could help her somehow...
Maria Elena
There was not much time to ponder this, however, as the three menacing individuals were soon fixated on Hannah. Without thinking, Mari-el-san rushed to protect her friend.
"You can't-"
"Says who?" asked Bakura menacingly. "You honestly think you're going to stop me? Urusai!" Black light shot from all three of the dark figures, the darkness that had been freed from Hannah. It slammed into Mari-el-san, knocking her head back against the tablet with a crack.
"Ry... ou..." gasped Mari-el-san, and then gave in to the darkness. Chibi Ryou appeared around her head. This time he could see the shadows of immense power that had been used to bind her soul. "Oh, dear." he said.
Bakura looked around. Seeing the chibi, he swatted him out of the way, or at least attempted to. The moment his hands touched the chibi, he froze. Trapped in between time and space, he was unable to move.
Meanwhile, Hannah was waking up. She saw Mari-el-san's body and the figure of Bakura frozen. She put two and two together and came up with five. Such was the nature of this puzzle...
HannahShaking her head to clear it, Hannah immediately thanked her two little friends, smiling worriedly on her shoulders. Chibis could get testy if not treated properly. She then turned her mind to the task at hand and swiftly assessed the situation. One friend (out cold), one evil bishounen, one frozen evil bishounen, and a bishie under a spell. With only her and a handful of chibis to combat the darkness, the odds didn't look good. She figured she had a while before the shadows completely took Maria Elena over, so she'd be out of the picture for a couple of minutes, at least.
Ryou, still hanging on to Bakura's finger to keep him frozen, had both of the remaining villains' attention. The time for action was now!
"Yugi! If you can hear me in there, break free!" yelled Hannah. Yami's face contorted in a mixture of pain, rage, and confusion. What to do... what do I do about Marik? He doesn't have a light side! Hannah thought frantically.
"Why, you--!" Marik snarled, and surged forward, arms outstretched. Knowing he couldn't use his shadow power on her, he unsheathed the lethally sharp knife kept in the handle of the Millennium Rod and tackled her, pinning her to the ground. The knife was at her throat, drawing the merest drops of blood when, without warning, a golden light flashed and Marik was thrown across the room, cloak rippling and golden adornments jangling together. She raised her head and propped herself up on her elbows to see... an amazingly short high school boy with interestingly star-shaped, tri-coloured hair, his sharp purple eyes glinting dangerously.
"Your souls... are my prey," he cackled, an amazingly out-of-place noise coming from such an innocent face. His irises darkened, flashed red, then lost all colour and emotion.
Hannah dashed to where Maria Elena was still lying, and shook her by the shoulders, willing her to wake up and help her. She turned to chibi Yugi and Yami, but they were still lying where they had landed when Marik had threatened her with his knife. They panted hard, magic exhausted, and managed to shake their heads. They couldn't help anymore. Yami got up and helped Yugi to his feet. They hugged briefly, then faded out.
What... what do I do now?!
Maria Elena
Yugi, his red eyes dangerously flashing, turned toward Hannah. The shadows in his eyes were as fire as he slowly called up magic that would incinerate her. Hannah covered her face with her hands, hoping that this action would somehow protect her.
There was blood on her hands. Her own blood, she realized, as she could feel the gash on the side of her head. It was simply blood, however. Inconsequential. It was not as if it mattered how much blood was on her hands. There had been much of that, over the years... Eyes, now stained black, flickered open. Seeing the scene at hand, they turned darker with shadow power, and their owner released a blast of magic that knocked Yugi across the room to join Marik against the wall. She felt no emotion. After all, he was only a small villain that thought he could hold the power of the shadows in check. The only person besides her in this room with any real power was the girl lying beside her covering her face. "Che..."she muttered. This girl had incredible powers of light. She did not appear to know it, though. Perhaps that would come in handy later on. She could always kill her now, of course, but perhaps she could make that power her own.
"M-Mari-" Hannah said, realizing that the blast she'd been expecting wasn't going to come. She faltered, seeing the shadows in her friend's eyes. The shadow girl that had once been known as Maria Elena snickered, and extended a hand to help her up. This girl was stupid, the shadow girl realized. She had no idea of the power that dwelled within her, and yet she expected to beat these figures strewn around the room. These figures were only wisps compared to the shadows' power, and yet if she hadn't woken up, this girl would be dead by now. Bakura and his band, these figures all out of commission, were a joke. They expected to harness the power of the two girls, one that she was currently possessing, and the other that girl in front of her, and still keep the shadows in check. Well, she had proven them wrong. Now she had been released into the world, and two plus two would always add up to five.
HannahHannah saw the flames of darkness burning in her once-friend's eyes. She dodged under the outstretched hand, knocking it upward with the top of her back. Now running across the room, she slid to a stop, heels skidding on the rough floor. She knelt beside the prone form of Yugi, hoping against hope that he could be awakened and, somehow, convinced to help her. The shadow of Maria Elena watched her coldly, but with a flicker of twisted amusement. This could be interesting, she thought, let's see what she can do...
Hannah grasped the boy with tri-coloured hair roughly by the shoulders and shook him. "Wake up! Get up! I need your help! No..." she trailed off, tears coming to her eyes as he stayed unconscious, head lolling limply from side to side. "N-no... No! I won't let you do this!" she shrieked, turning to the last shadow left. Her eyes burned gold, and a light gathered at her fingertips, now outstretched to the dark figure across the room. "Hika- ri!" She uttered the word like a spell, and the light stretched, growing at her voice. She held it first in one palm, then grasped it in both hands as it continued to swell.
Behind her, two sets of eyes, amethyst and lavender, flickered open as the mere presence of the light cleansed them of shadow. As one, they rose and stood behind her; shining gold artifacts adding to the near-blinding light Hannah was conjuring. "We're with you... arigato," Yugi murmured to the teen, now struggling under her own power. His other half appeared beside him in spirit form and added his own considerable power to the mix, purple darkness intermingling with the gold. "It takes a touch of darkness to make darkness disappear," he intoned, and all turned their gazes to the ever-so-slightly quavering shadow girl across the room.
"That's all well and good, but there's one here you haven't cleansed,"she snarled, and stretched a hand to the still-frozen Bakura. A faint, purple mist started to steam from his body, but a sudden glow banished it as Ryou, a determined scowl on his face, regained control of his own body. The tiny chibi still in his hand, he went over to stand with the glowing group, though he could not help since he had no control over his Millennium item.
"I... I'm not sorry," Hannah managed to gasp, and finally released the globe of light. It blazed across the room, leaving cinders and glowing patterns in its wake, then hit the girl and absorbed into her body. An incredible battle raged behind her closed eyelids, and finally an inky-black cloud rose from her and simply hung, ominously.
Looking for a new host! Yami realized first, and switched out with his partner to shield him from harm. The shadows recognized him as the strongest and most versed in shadow power in the room, and surged toward him, surrounding and blocking him from view. The light of the Millennium Puzzle pierced the darkness, and the shadows' unearthly, hollow shrieking was like knives being driven through all within hearing range. The darkness, broken to shards, clove the air and flew directly into the Pharaoh's skull.
He blinked. Blinked again. "Oh, Ra..." he groaned, "my head..." and promptly collapsed onto the stone floor.
--
Oh noes, the cliffhanger! It buuurrnnssssssssss -melts and dies-
More of this coming soon; we've enough stuff already to do at least two and a half more chapters...I just need to get around to editing them. There are so many typos...