Notes – For the gx_100. Set just prior to Fubuki's duel against Ryo in season two.

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There was not much in the mortal world that could stir Darkness. The ongoing lives of those simple creatures, bustling around and making their flawed mistakes did not concern him. Which was quite fortunate since he was in no position to do anything about these creatures.

He existed powerlessly, but he existed. That was all that was important to him. As long as he existed he could wait countless centuries for humans to summon him and for him to take a shape in that world. The last chance he'd had at existing was not much more than a year ago, which as far as he was concerned might as well have been but a moment. He dwelled in a mask used to possess a youth by the name of Fubuki Tenjoin, a host he had lost in a duel against the Juudai child. But 'lost' was not an accurate term. As Darkness still had a hold on Fubuki as long as he existed, though he was too weak to make an impression on the boy's life right now. Fubuki had been foolish enough to keep the card of Darkness's mask. And Darkness watched through the mask.

Though learning about the host was optional Darkness had found himself glancing occasionally at the life this host ran. He found it rather droll. The boy spent most of his days engaging in pointless activities such as riding on water, creating music and bonding with other human beings. Some cause seemed to spur Fubuki on to crave the affections of others, and he always seemed to smile when he could. But that was not to say he was without worry. Darkness noted that Fubuki frequently thought of the girl Asuka and the boy Ryo with much concern.

This concern grew after the one called Ryo left the academia. The loss of contact with the other boy seemed to worry Fubuki greatly, particularly in light of some apparent changes that had occurred to the boy.

But Darkness did not care. He had observed the boy known as Ryo and found him to be even less interesting than he found Fubuki. This stoic creature seemed to crave perfection and the respect of others in life, which Darkness did not sympathise with. A mortal life was the rush of adrenaline; this was the one thing Fubuki got correct. Forcing back this human urge showed that Ryo was wasting his life as far as Darkness was concerned.

He listened vaguely as Fubuki discussed Ryo's return to the academia with the former holder of the keys, Samejima. But his interest was stirred more by Fubuki's thoughts afterwards.

Fubuki wanted to use Darkness to defeat Ryo.

This was more than Darkness could have expected from him and the thought of returning so soon brought on the feeling of anticipation, or as close as he could get to it, in his presence.

It didn't matter to Darkness at all about what Fubuki intended from the duel against Ryo, but in order to defeat an opponent Darkness wanted to go into the duel with an understanding of how that opponent worked.

So he searched Fubuki's mind.

The recent cards used by Ryo seemed different from the ones Darkness had established him to use beforehand. A cyberdark deck. A cyberdark deck that had being iforcibly/i taken by destroying his former superior and disregarding the cards that he had respected so well in the past.

Perhaps there was a bit of adrenaline to this Ryo after all.

So Darkness delved deeper into what Fubuki knew of the recent Ryo. It barely took skimming the surface to find out about the 'Hell Kaiser' persona that Ryo had adopted. To this new person respect meant nothing, only victory made sense.

It seemed that a mortal had finally come to understand what Darkness had known for so long: that the petty activities of life did not matter if you didn't succeed in your means at the end. Darkness could wait for millennia but he would eventually remove the flawed humans from their flawed existence. That was what he worked for.

This Ryo, who called himself Hell Kaiser, was starting to make sense to him.

And his methods of obtaining victory were something Darkness saw as correct too. You could not receive what you deserved by being nice to people and letting them walk all over you; to receive your means you had to crush people – to slaughter them. This was what victory was about. Knowing that your opponent ultimately accepted you had destroyed them.

Though Fubuki had only heard rumour of the underground duels the shock collars Hell Kaiser used had received more than enough media attention. Using them the loser would suffer, as one who would not succeed in their means should do. And through them the victors would learn to handle pain, to better themselves and become immune to what the unpredictable may throw in your direction.

Hell Kaiser made sense.

It had been a long time since Darkness had been able to say that about a mortal. It was a shame that the boy seemed to be so caught up in his own goals that he would never consider sharing victory enough to become a host to Darkness. As the duel between Fubuki and Ryo began it became clear to Darkness that Hell Kaiser had no caring for forces that controlled others. He wanted to exist as on own, as the sole winner in a world where other people relied on forces outside of their control to fight their battles. This was what Darkness wanted too - ultimately the hosts were only a temporary measure.

So a being that thought so much like Darkness did himself would only be wasted if Darkness was to take him as a host. Regardless Darkness approached the duel with much anticipation. To see this mortal work, that would be a duel worth participating in.

It was just a shame that inevitably Darkness would have to crush Hell Kaiser.