Disclaimer: Technologically not mine.

A/N: This is a crossover between YGO and Battle Angel Alita. It's set early in the Alita manga, since I haven't read that far yet, and transposes the character of YGO to fit into the world created by Yukito Kishiro. So I guess it's really more of a fandom-merge than a crossover, but that's just semantics. On to the ficcage, and don't forget to leave feedback at the end!

In the Belly of the Beast

© Scribbler, August 2010.

It was called the Scrap Yard, but most called it Hell. You either lived or died in the world below Tifares, and nobody much cared which. Dog eat dog didn't even start to cover it. The dogs were all served by street vendors or torn to shreds and eaten raw by hungry down-and-outs. They were the lucky ones. At least their suffering was over.

Yuugi opened the sack while Jounouchi and Honda stood over him, making sure nobody shoved or tried to grab more than their fair share. He was often attacked in the street because he was small and looked like an easy mark, and though the children weren't exactly desperados, they were still desperate. Together, Yuugi and Anzu passed out food to the grabby little hands thrust towards them. Not one orphan they'd gathered in this fleapit was over eight years old. They numbered eighteen at last count, and it looked like more had joined while he'd been out today. Yuugi worried that his contacts soon wouldn't be able to provide enough work for him and his friends to feed so many hungry mouths.

"Thank you," said a girl whose eyes looked huge in her emaciated face. She should have been plump with baby fat. She sucked on the bread to make it last longer. Only four and already an expert in fooling an empty belly so it didn't cripple her with pain.

"It's not enough," Anzu hissed out the side of her mouth. The sack was nearly empty.

They had worked like stink all day to buy, scrape and gather this food, and it still wasn't enough. Like most street kids, Yuugi had raided garbage cans before. After the things he had found there, he didn't want to resort to it again. He opened his mouth to reply, but the door slammed open and a figure stood silhouetted in the maggoty light from outside. The kids cowered. Honda and Jounouchi moved instinctively in front of them.

"Who are you?" Anzu demanded. "What do you want?" Her hands were balled into fists. Like it would do any good. Yuugi knew she had sneaked her own share back into the sack to dole out to the little ones. At this rate, a fly landing on her ear would cause Anzu to unbalance and topple over.

The intruder came forward. "Are you the people who have been harbouring orphans?" The way it was phrased made it sound like a criminal offence. The speaker had the tone of someone who knew the law, and not just so they knew the loopholes.

"Yeah." Clearly seeing there was no point in lying, since he was standing in front of the kids in question, Jounouchi squared his shoulders. "Wanna make something of it?"

"Oh, brilliant, Jounouchi," Anzu muttered. "Be aggressive. That always helps."

A shaft of light from the leaky roof allowed Yuugi to see the advancing intruder. He blinked in surprise. It was a girl, not much younger than them to look at her, with dark hair and eyes fringed by even darker lashes. She looked well-fed but not bloated, like pickpocket kings who demanded tribute, had more food than they needed, but never shared with their underlings. Her skin was pale, but not sickly, and she took in her surroundings with a quick, efficient glance.

"You're just a kid!" Jounouchi spluttered.

"So are you," she said with equal surprise. She looked at him, Honda and Anzu, the tallest in the room by far. "You're all just kids. I was expecting …" She shook her head. "Never mind."

"What's your business here?" Yuugi asked quietly.

She looked at him last. He knew she was registering his tone. People often didn't realise he was sixteen. He looked much younger. Malnourishment and baggy hand-me-downs had robbed him of at least six years – maybe eight. Sometimes it worked in his favour; sometimes it didn't. He wondered which it would be this time.

"I'm a hunter-warrior," she admitted.

"You?" Jounouchi was even more incredulous.

"Yes. I'm looking for information on a certain man, and I'm willing to pay for it."

"That depends." Yuugi glanced at the others. "Money isn't worth it if we give information on the wrong person and his friends come looking for retribution. You can't spend money if you're dead, and we have responsibilities."

"I can see that." The girl bit her lip; an immature action. "How about I tell you his name and you decide whether to help me. If you can't, I leave, and no hard feelings."

"Just like that?" Honda's voice was laced with suspicion.

She shrugged. "I have other bounties I can collect; ones that won't endanger innocent lives."

"You're not like the other hunter-warriors."

"You have no idea."

Yuugi sensed there was more behind her words, but decided to ignore it. Everyone had secrets in the Scrap Yard, and it rarely benefited anyone to stick their nose in others' business. "What's the name of this man?"

She held out a printout of today's bounties. It was updated daily and gave vital information, a recent picture, and how much each criminal was worth. The name listed him as 'Blue Dragon' but that was obviously a pseudonym. Yuugi stared at the photo.

"Oh no."

The girl was watching his expression. "You know him?"

There was no point in trying to lie. Yuugi nodded. They had all worried what would happen, considering how desperate he had been when they last saw him, but they had never thought he'd go far enough to get a bounty on his head. Then again, considering what was at stake, maybe it wasn't surprising. Medical bills were astronomical, and re-outfitting someone with cyborg parts after they had been injured enough to need them was –

"Yuugi?" Anzu's voice brought him back.

Yuugi nodded and swallowed. "Yeah, we know him." The printout said he was wanted for grand larceny. That could mean anything from fencing stolen goods, to stealing spinal columns and selling them on the black market, to going after the coffers of the factories themselves. Yuugi wouldn't bet it wasn't the latter, even though it was crazier than crazy. "His name is Seto Kaiba. If he's mixed up in anything illegal, it'll be because he needed money to save his little brother, Mokuba."

"Mokuba was attacked a while back," Anzu explained. "He needed limbs replaced, and those don't come cheap. Not if you don't want questionable stuff from suppliers you'd be better off avoiding." Her eyes and voice dropped. "Seto would do anything for Mokuba."

"Anything," Yuugi agreed. Jounouchi and Honda nodded too. There was no love lost between them and the Kaibas, but they couldn't fault Seto's devotion to his brother.

The hunter-warrior girl looked thoughtful. Things flashed behind her eyes like coins tumbling from one hand into another, too quick and subtle for Yuugi to guess at. She lifted her head and gave a bright smile. He couldn't imagine her doing the things hunter-warriors were famous for – kicking the crap out of criminals and cutting off their heads to claim the bounties. Fear clutched at him. Just as Seto relied on Mokuba to keep him sane, Mokuba wouldn't last five minutes without Seto. If was good enough and claimed the bounty, that was a death warrant or both of them.

"Oh well," she said cheerfully. I" guess I'll go after the next name on the list."

"You don't seem all that disappointed," Jounouchi accused. Anzu elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!"

The girl shrugged. "I can afford to be choosy. Hey, how much does it cost to feed all these kids?"

The non-sequitur left Yuugi lagging for a second. "Uh, it varies. Our numbers don't always stay …" He glanced at the eighteen faces, noting the eighteen sets of ears listening in. "… constant." As well as gaining kids, they also lost them, whether through death or because they decided living together like this just wasn't for them. "Mostly we buy food straight away with whatever money we have. There's less chance of losing it that way. It's not like we keep detailed financial records or anything."

She nodded and turned to leave. Then she turned back. "Which one of you is Yuugi?" She looked at Jounouchi, naturally assuming he was the leader. His stance and height would make anyone assume so, plus he was the most aggressive. In this neighbourhood only the strongest survived, so it was natural to mistake hostility for leadership.

"I am," said Yuugi.

She showed less surprise this time, but it was still there. "Huh. I thought you'd be taller. You're getting famous, you know."

"I hope not. When you get famous, the wrong sorts of people hear about you."

He had decided to protect these kids after his grandfather died. Grandpa Mutou had raised Yuugi and instilled the kind of old-style values and sense of responsibility that was rarer than gold dust in the Scrap Yard. Yuugi, in turn, was trying to give those younger and less fortunate than himself a better shot at life – or just at survival – and his friends had come with him. He would never stop being grateful to them for that. He would also never stop worrying about all the things that could stop him achieving his goals. A gang or pickpocket king deciding he and his orphans were a good way of beefing up their ranks, whether they wanted to join or not, would be as much a death warrant as a bounty. They needed to stay under the radar as much as possible.

The hunter-warrior looked at him askance. "Hm. Well, thanks for your help." She dashed out the door faster than Yuugi could track.

It took a few seconds for anyone to react. Predictably, Jounouchi came out of his trance first.

"Weird."

"You said it," agreed Honda.

"I hope Seto leaves as soon as possible, if he hasn't already," Yuugi murmured. "He could make it in the wilderness, if Mokuba's fit to travel."

"Don't worry about him. That guy's a survivor," Jounouchi said grudgingly. "Like a cockroach," he added under his breath.

"That girl seemed awfully young to be a hunter-warrior," Anzu cut in.

"Maybe we should try it," said Jounouchi. "I hear there's a lot of money in bounty-hunting."

"A lot of ways to get dead, too," Honda snapped. "Do you know what the mortality rate is amongst those guys? Most become cyborgs just to keep up with the advances in the criminal community. Even the unenhanced humans carry hardware we can't even dream of. Forget it, dude. We're better off sticking to trading and hard labour."

Jounouchi's expression darkened. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Know your place and all that cr-" He glanced behind him. "Uh, baloney."

Honda slapped his hands together. "Right. Get in line, all you pipsqueaks who haven't eaten yet."

Somehow, they made the last of the food stretch. Even Anzu got something; Yuugi made sure of it. Nobody got much, but it was better than nothing. Barely. Everyone went to bed hungry, but not as hungry as they could have, and at least they had each other to huddle against for warmth. Some people didn't have the luxury of companionship and knowing someone else had your back if necessary. Trust was a rare and valuable commodity down here.

In the night, Yuugi woke to a scraping noise. He was instantly alert. Another figure rose from the gloom.

"Yeah, I heard it too," Jounouchi whispered. He had what he called his Clobberin' Club ready – really just an old baseball bat with nails through the end. It would probably shatter the instant it made contact with anything tougher than overripe fruit, but it might give an opponent pause before they ripped his face off. Maybe even a long enough for him to kick them in the crotch first.

Yuugi held a finger to his lips. Together, they went to the window, where the noise had come from. Tarpaulin stretched across the opening, since there was no glass and barely any frame left. One corner had been pried up and a small brown paper parcel shoved through. There was writing on it.

"Get Anzu," Yuugi murmured. "She knows how to read. Don't touch it."

Anzu came over, still fuggy with sleep, but woke up fast when she saw what was written there. "Payment for services rendered and information provided," she whispered. After poking the parcel with a stick, she unwrapped the paper and they all stared at the chips inside. None of them had ever seen so much money before.

"There's gotta be thousands there," Jounouchi breathed.

"Ten thousand," Anzu corrected, looking again at the writing. "The bounty from someone called Bandit Keith. It says so right here."

"Who the hell would give us bounty money?" Jounouchi demanded. "We didn't help anyone find this Bandit Keith character. I never even heard of him."

Yuugi looked out under the tarpaulin, but the street was empty. Whoever had left the parcel was gone. Still, he had a good idea who it was. They all did. The better question was why she had left them this generous gift?

"Does it say anything else?" Yuugi asked.

"There's another note with the chips." Anzu unfolded it. "'Thank you for not sending me after the wrong man. I hope this helps keep you off the wrong people's radar a while longer. Signed, Alita.'"

"Alita." Yuugi ran a hand through his hair. "So that was her name."

"Yuugi, this'll help." Jounouchi's throat bobbed from emotions he wasn't used to. "I mean, this'll really help."

"We have to be careful," Anzu warned. "If we start spending too much too fast, it'll raise suspicions. We don't want thieves following us back here. If they think we have nothing, they'll leave us alone."

"Well, sure, of course we'll be careful. I'm not an idiot." Jounouchi pouted. "Killjoy."

"I'm a realist."

"Like I said: killjoy."

Yuugi tuned out their bickering. His shoulders felt suddenly lighter. He closed his eyes and sent up a silent thank you to the hunter-warrior girl with the dark eyes. Whatever your reasons for helping us, and for not going after Seto, thank you, Alita.

Fin.

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