It had been threatening rain above Domino all day, but three teens heading towards the Game Center (as they often did after school) figured they could take their chances. And so it was that Mutou Yuugi and his friends Jounouchi Katsuya and Mazaki Anzu were running down the streets of Domino, sacrificing math textbooks and backpacks in order to preserve ridiculous hairstyles and attempt to stay dry. Ish.
"There's got to be somewhere around here to wait this out, doesn't there?" Anzu called as they ran down the mostly empty street- devoid of people who had better timing and any building that looked open. Jounouchi glanced side to side (if anyone knew the streets around there, it was him), dirty blonde hair steadily losing its usual volume and sticking to his face in an irritating manner. After a minute or so, he skid to a stop on the corner, where an otherwise dark store front was illuminated with a couple neon signs, proclaiming it to be the Totally and Completely Innocent Corner Store – Fresh Baked Goods Daily! And more importantly, open.
"Nyaha, knew there had to be something around here somewhere." Jounouchi said as they entered.
"Doesn't seem like anyone's here, though..." Yuugi noted after studying the damage done to his textbook. It wasn't too bad, really. ...well, at least he never really used it that much. He shoved it back into his bag and looked around. Despite the sign on the door, the store appeared dark and... Not really like a "corner store," exactly. A mishmash of posters covered the walls, bands, game promotions, movie posters and so on. There were a few shelves stocked with books, some shelves of non-perishable food items, a fridge for drinks, a bakery looking section of sorts, with a few café tables painted shades of pink, green, and beige that seemed disjointed with the mood of the rest of the place, and a random shelf of small bonsai plants.
"'Ello? How can I help you?" The only way to describe the man who shuffled out from a dark doorway behind the register counter was 'slouchy.' He might have been somewhat tall if he stood up, his dark hair seems to lean to the side under its own weight, or the weight of all the hair gel in it, and he wore a wrinkly grey t-shirt that might have had a print on it, once upon a time. A pair of yellow and orange headphones hung around his neck. Yuugi glanced over at Anzu, who was picking through a magazine rack he'd missed before, and Jounouchi seemed to be somewhat confused, his brows bunched slightly as he studied the man. Shrugged, he turned back to who he assumed was the shopkeeper.
"Uhm, we were leaving school when it started raining and we just ducked into the first open place. I hope it's not an inconvenience-"
"You're Kitazawa! Kitazawa Kenji!" Jounouchi interrupted, pointing at the man and gawking like it was the discovery of the century.
"Who?" Anzu and Yuugi asked at the same time, Anzu arching a disapproving eyebrow at Jounouchi's over-excited antics. The shopkeeper (or maybe not) seemed to straighten up a bit, the ghost of a smirk crossing his face.
"Only one of the most skilled, the most genius, the most artistic DJs to ever grace the air waves of Japan! Where do you guys live, man?" Jounouchi answered empathetically.
"That's right." Kitazawa said, suddenly more focused than before. "And if you're a fan of mine, you want to hazard a guess as to where you are?" Yuugi found it somewhat unnerving that the man's demeanor had changed from that of a not-much guy who'd probably just waken up to slick and confident, like a panther lounging about.
Even if Anzu might have claimed Jounouchi couldn't possibly spazz in place anymore, she was wrong. His eyes growing wide, he gaped wider for a moment more.
"Oh man, this is the Haunted House? I've got to call Honda, he's gonna be so jealous!" Jounouchi pulled a beaten up silver cellular out of his pocket and rushed to the back of the shop, snickering openly. Yuugi turned back to man who was apparently Kitazawa Kenji.
"A haunted house...? In July?" Yuugi said, a slight frown on his features.
"Not just any haunted house kid," Yuugi opened his mouth to protest to that, but the shopkeeper continued without noticing, "The Haunted House, as your friend knows. Every year-"
"Whaddya mean you can't come? This is a once in a lifetime chance, man! And anyway there's no way you'll get anywhere with her." Kitazawa frowned with displeasure towards the back of the shop, but Jounouchi was arguing fiercely with his phone and ignoring anything else, so he huffed somewhat and turned back to Yuugi.
"Every year, a haunted house is built in the most secret of secret locations. ...which is really to say that it's completely random," he added, winking at Anzu, who had the fact that she was about to interrupt with a quip on a random corner store hardly being a particularly discreet location written all over her face. "And at that location we create the most challenging and epic of haunted houses! A tale of fright, woe, risk and reward! There are thirteen floors to the challenge, each one more terrifying, more horrifying than the last. And of course, you've got to know your scene like your friend to even know we exist- we get some actual customers here too, who are totally clueless."
"But the best part is, if you get to the top floor, there's a one hundred thousand dollar prize!" Jounouchi burst back into the conversation. Turning to Yuugi and Anzu, he continued. "Honda says he has to go on a date he made with some girl in another class. He's missing out, but we are so doing this!" He finished, shoving his phone back into his pocket.
"So it's like a giant game, basically?" Yuugi asked, having perked up a bit at the idea of a challenge. Anzu looked out the door and grimaced at the pouring rain.
"I suppose it's better than just waiting for the rain to stop." Kitazawa was grinning now.
"There's a three hundred yen entrance fee each, but that's nothing compared to the riches that await you if you meet and beat the challenges. Oh and also you'll have to sign this." He shuffled a bit under the counter and pulled out three sheets of paper. Jounouchi signed his without more than a glance at is, Yuugi skimmed it a bit more. Anzu frowned.
"This is a waiver- guys! You really should read something like this!"
"It's not a huge deal." Kitazawa shoved his hands in his pockets. "Just gives the house permission to shove you around a bit- it's never really been a problem." He tried to smile reassuringly, but it didn't work very well with his angular face.
"You heard the man, it'll be fine." Jounouchi said flippantly, handing his signed paper back, along with the yen he'd dug out of the abyss of his bag.
"It'll probably be okay." Yuugi volunteered somewhat weakly, and then looked towards the door. "It's still better than trying to run in the rain some more." He added, somewhat more firmly. Anzu sighed.
"I'll just hold you responsible if anything too weird happens, Jounouchi." She teased as she pushed the paper back across the counter.
"Hey, you gotta be responsible for your own decisions! Face the dragon!"
Meanwhile Kitazawa had slid out from behind the counter and knocked on a part of the wall covered with a door sized poster of Aliens From Somewhere Beyond Earth 2; Revenge of the Poorly Established Side Villains! causing a click as though someone had turned a handle from the other side, and that section of the wall to open out. He coughed, causing Jounouchi and Anzu to stop bickering and all three teens to look over. "If you'll just step this way, the first floor of the Legendary probably not deadly Haunted House of Modern Music Incorporated awaits!" He bowed overdramatically and motioned towards the dark doorway.
"Alright!" Jounouchi crowed, rushing through the door.
"Probably?" Anzu looked less enthused than previously.
"Come on, we don't want Jounouchi to get lost." Yuugi said, smiling.
"Maybe you don't..."
When the door clicked shut behind them, Kitazawa went back into the room behind the counter he'd emerged from, idly flipping a switch on the wall. As he grabbed a magazine and settled on a beat up looking couch an intercom buzzed to life, a cold voice uttering only two words.
"Game start."
The door wasn't exactly slammed behind them, but it was rather startling to suddenly find themselves in what appeared to be total darkness.
"Hey , nobody said anything about not being able to see what we're doi-" there was a dull thud, followed by Jounouchi's brassy voice trailing off into muttered cursing.
"Jounouchi, are you okay?" Yuugi called, having prudently decided not to move very far until he felt his eyes had adjusted somewhat.
"I just ran into a wall, but sure."
"Eek! Something touched me!" Dimly, Yuugi could see Anzu's form forward and to the right of him, urgently looking from side to side.
"I don't see anything..." He responded, frowning. Now that their eyes were adjusted, a series of rough hewn walls could be seen arrayed in front of and around them. "Looks like this place is a maze?" He glanced about, but there wasn't much else of note immediately in front of them.
"Ack! There it is again!" Jounouchi and Yuugi both snapped to look in Anzu's direction, and saw... nothing.
"Relax Anzu, will ya? There's nothing there." Jounouchi said, wandering a bit more to the left. "I'd say- mmf!"
"Jounouchi!" Anzu cried. What looked like a tasseled rug a foot wide and who knew how long had ensnared the blonde's arms and looked like it was trying to suffocate him, moving of its own accord.
"Ittan-?" Yuugi started to name the demon cloth, a relatively common figure in horror stories featuring Japanese demons and whatnot, but decided rushing forward to grab at the fabric was a better use of Jounouchi's oxygen. Anzu yanked at one end of it and shook her head.
"We need something... sharp." She looked around quickly and frowned, glancing back at Jounouchi again.
"Sharp?" Yuugi asked, pausing in his attempts.
"To cut it!" Anzu said, then swung her bag off her back, shoving a hand in and emerging with a metal cased pen. She frowned. "Well, I guess I'll have to try..." She grabbed a fistful of fabric and hacked at it, managing to make a long, thin rip in the smooth fabric after a moment of trying. The scroll of paper instantly recoiled, leaving Jounouchi gasping for air.
"Wait- follow it!" Yuugi cried, running after the retreating trail.
"Guess we'll have to chase it!" Jounouchi said, having apparently regained his breath and springing forward in an appropriately gung-ho manner.
"Don't you think we should try to be a bit more stealthy?" Anzu hissed as Jounouchi sprinted down random turns, occasionally skidding to a stop on the floor.
"Why?" Jounouchi asked, turning his head. "I doubt that thing can hear."
Yuugi would have agreed with this, but could also see Anzu's reasoning. Up until that point, the maze had been almost silent. In the background there seemed to be some faint static like noise for the sole purpose of making sure it wasn't dead quiet, but it was more than soft enough that they had certainly been making more than enough noise to disturb other, possibly worse things than a homicidal length of cloth.
Possibly like the thing that suddenly, from a distance not immediately near them but close enough that it was worrisome, emitted a low combination of a roar and a growl.
"Well apparently that thing can-!" Anzu yelled as they took off running again. Jounouchi's only response was to mutter 'holy shit' repeatedly as something thumped steadily towards them.
"Whatever that is, its footsteps are huge," Yuugi managed to get out in between gasps of breath, being, well, he could admit it, significantly shorter than his two friends and having a bit of an issue keeping up with them.
"Thanks for the update, Captain Obvious." Jounouchi looked frantically between two forks in a path and swung a right and stopped short, causing Anzu to crash into his back, and Yuugi into hers, like characters on a Saturday morning cartoon. "Guys, what's that thing!" He raised a wavering finger at the figure in front of them.
A vaguely feminine figure was bent at the waist, her long white kimono pooling around her and her arms hanging limply at her side. Her features were obscured by long, knotted black hair, and her eerie figure was clearly illuminated by two green flames that seemed to be floating in the air. In something of a delayed reaction, she swung her head up.
It didn't have a face.
"It's a ghost!" Jounouchi yelped in an extremely manly way and took off in the opposite direction, only to stop short in that direction a moment later. About twenty feet down, a huge figure was crouched, a long snout gleaming emerald in the dim light below glowing red eyes. The rest of its body was an unidentifiable mishmash of a big cat and something with a thick grey hide.
"Wow, that's impressive." Yuugi noted, not quite having Jounouchi's weakness for all things otherworldly and spooky.
"Hey, it looks like that thing from-" Anzu was interrupted by another bone shaking roar.
"Don't have time for that!" Jounouchi said, looking back and forth and debating which figure to take his chances with. The ghost had rolled its featureless head the other way and raised an arm, and though its hand hung limply it was clearly pointing to the left. "I'd rather go with that thing though. Objections? No? Good!" He finished quickly and swung around the corner.
"Hey, wait up!" Anzu demanded.
"Ack-!" When Yuugi turned to follow he was shoved in the back, once again sending all three tumbling down apparently a ramp no one had seen before they were sliding down it. It left them at a dead end, and they could hear growling again, though a bit fainter.
"Aw man, we're not going to lose here, are we?" Jounouchi almost whined. Yuugi rubbed the arm he'd landed and turned back to Anzu.
"What were you saying? It might help to know what that is." Anzu bit her lip thoughtfully.
"It looks like that thing we saw on one of the papyrus things at the Egypt exhibit we went to! That was a really weird couple of days; I don't really remember them that well. Ugh, what was it? You guys were there too, you know." She elaborated, sounding mildly frustrated by the end.
"I didn't look too closely at anything." Jounouchi said. "Didn't wanna be cursed." He mumbled. Anzu sighed and turned to Yuugi.
"Um." To be honest, at the time he'd been distracted that day thinking of his puzzle... Another growl. His eyes slid shut as he tried to concentrate. He could recall the papyrus Anzu meant in his mind, but he couldn't recall the name of the thing. At his chest, the relic known as the Millennium Puzzle flashed golden light for a moment- or maybe it was only ones imagination. The shadows at Yuugi's side seemed to begin moving in a way they shouldn't naturally as Ammut bore down on the ramp.
That was it! Ammut! Yuugi's eyes snapped open.
"It's Ammut the Devourer!" He proclaimed. The beast had been halfway bounding down the ramp when Yuugi spoke, forcing itself to a stop less than ten feet from the trio. It didn't move any further.
"...okay, so we know the name of the freaky crocodile thing, what now?" Jounouchi murmured out of the corner of his mouth.
"I... I don't know." Yuugi said, standing very still and trying to avoid looking at its glowing red eyes or the outlines of dagger like teeth. Suddenly, Ammut roared again, causing them to reflexively jump back just in time to avoid a wave of heat. In an impressive display of pyrotechnics, it simply disappeared. Dark vision ruined, no one moved for a moment.
"Uhm, okay?" Anzu said, testing the silence.
"Man, I guess it was just supposed to scare us." Jounouchi said, heaving a sigh.
"I was kind of hoping there'd be some sort of puzzle there, since its name seemed to stop it." Yuugi sounded vaguely disappointed. Still, he glanced down at the puzzle, mentally thanking it. "Anyway, an Egyptian monster isn't really what I was expecting of any 'haunted house.'"
"Yeah, but they work really hard to make this place unique! And it's different themes each year, though I hear it's always various mythologies. So I guess Egypt's in with the cool kids this year." Jounouchi said, once again at ease and for all the world like a parent detailing a prided child's exploits. "Though... this just seems like fancy schmancy ways of scaring people, an' I can get enough of that elsewhere." He added, deflating a bit.
"Hm." Yuugi vocalized as far as agreement, but didn't get much farther than that because it was at that point in time that the floor opened up from under them, causing all three to make cries of exclamation that weren't quite screams because they didn't fall for long until they landed not particularly gracefully. Facing two tall red doors framed in dark wood, that and the rooms neutrally painted walls were vaguely reminiscent of the entrance to a temple, or a palace.
"Well, at least this room is lit." Anzu said, grimacing at the thought of a couple bruises that would be forming in the morning as she stood up.
"And there's only one way out." Noted Yuugi after glancing around- the other three walls were decorated but devoid of anything that was obviously an opening.
"Well, I know what I'm going to do about that-" Jounouchi started to swagger up to the door with the intent of breaking it down with brute force.
"HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" A shrill cry rended the air as a shadow fell upon Jounouchi, who was faced with the zombie like face of a figure in Samurai armour, katana aloft. Jounouchi yelped and jumped back a bit before seeming to decide on something.
"I am so sick of these stupid scare tactics!" He roared, suddenly advancing and punching the descending figure squarely in the face. The Samurai crumbled to the floor clutching his nose, katana clattering uselessly to the side.
"Ow man, what's your deal? Owww..."
"Huh?" Jounouchi eloquently replied. "Oh. Hey guys, it's not another animatronthingy!"
"Animatronic, man. And no, I'm not. Geeze, even if I was, you don't punch expensive machinery, okay!" The Samurai had apparently gotten over his pain in favor of anger.
"Yes well, Jounouchi's a bit dense sometimes, sorry." Anzu said, shooting a look in Jounouchi's direction.
"I was just tired of stupid spooks jumpin' out at me..." He grumbled. Yuugi had to keep himself from laughing, settling for smiling.
"Anyway..." The Samurai coughed, then continued in an over exaggerated tone. "I see you've braved the Maze of Darkness! But beyond those doors," he made a grand gesture to the red doors. "Lies the true beginning of the game! Mwuhahahaha!"
"Yeah, whatever, buddy." Jounouchi said, yawning. "Just open 'em up already."
"Geeze, you guys are no fun at all..." The figure muttered under his breath, voice back to normal. "Whatever, go on through then." He waved, and the red doors started to swing inwards. All three started forward before an afterthought struck Yuugi.
"Thank- huh?" When Yuugi had turned to thank the Samurai, there was no trace of him. "That was fast..."
"He seemed kind of bummed someone ruined his role." Anzu said, teasing Jounouchi.
"Hey, what's done is done! All I have to say is, that first floor's tech stuff was impressive, but it was really just typical Haunted House stuff- like ya could get anywhere. The next floor better be more interesting!"
"I dunno, you seemed pretty scared at points, Jounouchi..."
"What are you talking about, Yuugi!"
Floor One Complete! Standby!