02 : Harpy Lady on the Run (Had I Not Fallen)

By: Kokoro Kakera HP

Disclaimer: Yugiou, (Manga, anime, products, etc.), belongs to Kazuki Takahashi

Author's Notes:
I am definitely having fun poking mischief into this fic ^^
Oh ya, and with the issue of Yugi and his other self's name... 'Yami' isn't the guy's name; the dub just made it that way. In the Japanese version, everyone just refers to him as 'Yugi' or 'the other Yugi.' For simplicity's sake, I'm arranging it so she will refer to the pharaoh as 'Yami.'

* * *

I stood up and walked to the mirror hanging on the far right wall. I screeched again - on purpose this time - and watched the mirror with a fascinated horror. No way... there's was just no way-

A bewildered looking harpy lady stared back at me from the mirror.

* * *

I'm a Harpy Lady. I'm a Harpy Lady. I. Am. A. Harpy. Lady.

Nope. No matter how many times I say it, I still can't believe it. I don't know why I'm having so much trouble. Weirder things have happened. For instance, how many times does one encounter a guy like Malik (his evil side), a guy who takes pleasure from the thought of ripping out a person's soul and has enough power to do it whenever he wants?

I think I'm in shock.

"Anzu! Open the door! Anzu! Answer me!" Oh ya... Yugi. The nuance of his voice sounds different. It must be the other Yugi making an attempt to get me to answer.

"I'm fine!" I called back. It came out sounding more like an unintelligible scream.

"Anzu!" He shouted even louder. Great. All I managed to do was make him even more worried. I guess screaming isn't exactly the way to comfort someone, even if it's the only freaking thing you can do.

"Anzu! Hey, what's wrong!?" It was Jounouchi this time.

"I tried calling to her, but all she did was scream."

"I'll break the door open then!"

Crap! I panicked and without thinking, blindly kicked at the wall behind me. Then I watched, wide-eyed as the structure immediately broke down. Oops. I doubt this'll do much for the relationship I'm trying to pursue with the other Yugi in the long run. In fact, it may as well be one of the factors that repel him from me. That and the fact that I'm a Harpy Lady. Confessing anything was impossible now. Even if I could figure out a way to talk, I couldn't imagine that there would be a happy ending waiting for mes. I could pretty much see how it would go:

* * *

Me: Yugi... the truth is, that all this time I've been deeply in love with you.

Yugi: Oh. ...Sorry. But, I'm kind of into people, if you know what I mean.

Me: (Sadly) Oh. Well, that's okay. Makes sense I guess. By the way, about your game shop's wall that was broken a few days ago? That was me.

Yugi: I knew those bad feelings I got around you weren't just a mixture of fear and paranoia induced by your new appearance.

* * *

I shuddered.

The door rattled threateningly and spurred by the daydream from hell I'd just had, I did the only thing I could. I opened the wings attached to my abnormally long and white arms and took off.

* * *

Maybe it was the hot air from summer, the lack of wind, or the fact that I've never been a Harpy Lady before. Or maybe I'm just an idiot. The fact is I TRIED to fly, but I found that I couldn't quite leave the ground. In other words the second I jumped, fully expecting to be happily soaring high above the city without a single care, I fell flat on my face.

Mai would be so disappointed with me for making such a fool out of her favourite duel monster like that.

So after falling, I'd picked myself up along with the remains of my tattered dignity and just ran - which isn't easy to do with bird feet. In fact, trying to run led to the second time I fell flat on my face. My abnormally long toe-talon things got in the way a lot and I unwillingly smooched the ground a few more times before realizing that

A: I looked like a moron, getting up just to flop back down right away and
B: Yugi and Jounouchi had already bypassed the door and were staring at me with their jaws agape.

So much for my quick getaway.

Yugi regained his composure first. "Who are you?" He demanded. "And where's Anzu?"

I opened my mouth and promptly closed it again. There was just no point. All I'd end up doing is screaming. Instead, I concentrated on getting back on my feet.

Jounouchi stepped forward, looking very hostile as I slowly got up. "Are you the one who-" I stood upright and Jounouchi choked in mid sentence. I frowned. What? Yugi looked disgruntled as well. What were they staring at? I followed the path of their eyes and...

Ugh, men!

They were ogling my costume! Or lack of anyway. I cursed the weirdo who'd designed the Harpy Lady's outfit - a blue one piece: pants that were very low on my hips, held up by a pair of narrow suspenders that only covered anything vertically in line with the center of my exceptionally large breasts. Said enormous breasts were currently being observed very intensely by two of my best friends.

I let out a screech of anger and folded my arms so that my chest was completely covered. This seemed to wake them up - if the sudden simultaneous bouts of uncomfortable coughing were any indication.

"Where's Anzu?" Yugi demanded angrily once more. I sighed. Then pointed at myself.

"Oh my god! She ate her! I don't know why Mai likes those things so much! They're so vicious and-" Idiot. I glared at Jounouchi, shaking my head and very deliberately, jerked my pointer-talon at myself again, stomping in frustration. Me! I'm Anzu! ME!!!

Both boys blinked.

I held back a shriek of annoyance and got down on the ground. I flipped my 'hand' so that my palm was facing up and my claws stretched out. Both boys tensed. Instead of shredding the two as they'd expected though, I grimaced as I bent down and with my dangerously sharp nails began to write a message in the dirt. When I was finished, I took a few steps back so that Yugi and Jounouchi would come forward to read it.

Yugi was the first one to take a step toward the message.

"Woah, hold on there!" Jounouchi grabbed his arm. "How do you know it's not a trap?"

"Yugi tells me that he trusts her. I trust his judgment." Jounouchi let go of him then and he was able to make the rest of the walk.

I held my breath as he looked over the writing, while Jounouchi glared at me distrustfully behind him. Yugi blinked, looked at me, blinked again and stared, this time at my face.

"...Anzu?"

YES! I gave a squeal of joy and ran to him, fully intending on wrapping my long, scary, pale arms around him in a great, big hug. In reality, all I did was trip on my big bird feet and fall on my face.

* * *

"How the hell did this happen!?" Jounouchi, after being convinced of my identity, demanded. I shook my head and shrugged. Actually, I'm pretty sure that the gold-obsessed, bad breathed, rotund man who bit me was to blame for this, but didn't feel like going through the trouble of finding a way to say that.

The three of us were sitting upstairs the game shop in Yugi's room. Jounouchi was on a chair, Yugi also on a chair, and I was comfortably settled on Yugi's bed. I honestly did get weird thoughts about sitting where I was, but not the type I expected.

I wanted to make a nest. I twitched as I ignored this impulse, just as I ignored the bed sheets, the various clothes hung up in his closet and everything else that looked like prime nest-making material. I need help.

"Why don't we focus more on how to turn her back?" Yugi said seriously, thankfully distracting me from my bizarre train of thought.

"Is that possible?" Jounouchi asked. Um, not making me feel better here, Jou!

"Of course there is." Yugi said sternly. "This can't be permanent. It would take far too much power."

One of the reasons I love the other Yugi so much is that he's always had a knack for making me feel safe, even in the most perilous of situations.

"Unless the energy for this spell is being derived from Anzu, in which case it'll last until you die of exhaustion." He said grimly.

And this is not one of those times.

"But I doubt that's the case." He said quickly, noticing my alarmed expression.

Good save. Not.

* * *

To be continued!