Chapter 4: An Aggravating Encounter

The following night, Yami was making his way through the dimly lit streets, having just left Joey's residence. Yugi's birthday was coming up, and so Yami was trying to organise a surprise party for him. So, as far as Yugi knew, he was at the shops getting them a movie and some snacks for the night, which was where he was heading now. He decided to take a quick short cut between an alley between two buildings, knowing it lead out behind the shops he was headed for. Despite being concealed between buildings, the night time wind still managed to sneak through, making Yami wrap his jacket around himself.

He turned the corner and stopped when he saw two figures down the end of the alley, and one of them looked painfully familiar. So familiar in fact, he could have been looking in a mirror; a dark, twisted mirror that is. His dark half was holding a man against the wall of the building by his shirt, as the man struggled against his grip. He'd obviously received some sort of beating from the darker Yami, and the man tried to retaliate, sending a punch through dark Yami's jaw. Yami then felt a stab of pain in his own jaw, and he reached his hand up to his face with wide eyes, as dark Yami did the exact same.

"Now now, that's not very nice," Dark Yami sneered with a shake of his index finger. He decided that the man hadn't received enough of a beating because of his defiance, and after a few blows to the man's jaw and stomach, he gave up. Dark Yami smirked at the man, and after he mumbled something weakly, dark Yami simply threw him to the ground with a sound of disgust. Yami's dark half then picked up a few things that had fallen out of the man's pockets, before turning to leave.

"Pathetic," he spat, looking through the items he had obtained. A deck of duel monster cards, a wallet and a phone. He looked up when he saw Yami standing at the end of the alley, his arms crossed and a defiant look upon his face.

"Why hello there, oh creator," he said with a chuckle, "What brings you to the dark side of the streets?" his crooked smile just made Yami even angrier.

"What the hell did you do to that man?" Yami demanded, stepping forward to block the other's path.

Dark Yami looked over his shoulder at the figure lying on the ground, having not gained the strength to get back up yet. "He was in my way," he said blandly. He then put on a twisted grin. Well, anything he did seemed to have some sort of evil, twisted nature, even if it were a genuine smile. "So how is life back on earth? Enjoying yourself?" he asked.

Yami just growled at him, balling his hands into fists at his sides.

"Ooh, someone's had a bad day," he noted, "trouble in paradise?" he raised his eyebrows, knowing that his antics were pissing of his counterpart even more.

Yami narrowed his eyes at the man, "The only thing making it anything but a paradise, is you," he spat. "There is only room for one Yami here, and I'm going to make sure that it's me," he articulated.

"Pshh," his darker half almost laughed, "You don't even deserve the name Yami," he retorted. "I mean really, it stands for darkness for goodness sake, that thing that you oh so despise apparently." Yami was getting sick of this man's attitude, it was certainly getting on his nerves. "So even though the name would suit me much better," he continued, "It seems to have stuck to you, so you may as well call me Shin no Yami," he said with a confident nod. "Yes, it has a ring to it."

"True darkness..." Yami rolled his eyes, "Yes, well, you got that part right."

Shin no Yami grinned, "Indeed," he said, "But I assure you I would make a better Yami any day."

"Well I don't care," Yami retorted, "And I intend to dispose of you before you cause any more damage," he said with a confident nod.

"I see..." Shin no Yami pretended to be in thought, "But you still haven't noticed that every time I experience pain, so do you...?" He smirked when he saw Yami's expression change. "Ah, so you have noticed," he said, a devious glint in his eyes. "Then how do you intend to 'dispose' of me if we are linked in such a way? You would need to destroy yourself before you can destroy me," he smirked down at the man, and Yami just growled under his breath. After Yami didn't reply, Shin no Yami laughed in triumph, "So I win, yes? tremendous!" he cheered, grinning as he turned to leave, having had his fun for the time being. After only taking a few steps however, he turned back around with one last thought.

"Oh and that boy of yours...what's his name? Yugi..." he smirked, a devious glint in his eyes, "He's quite the catch, isn't he?"

Before Yami realised it his hands were already clenched into fists at his sides once again, "You leave Yugi out of this!" he roared, his protectiveness over the boy quite evident.

Shin no Yami laughed in amusement, "Now don't be so hasty," he said with a chuckle. "After all, I am you. And that means what's yours is mine..." before Yami could throw back another threat, he was gone, having disappeared into the shadows. Yami growled under his breath, glaring into the shadows where his dark counterpart had disappeared.

I mustn't let him get within ten feet of my Aibou, he thought, unable to relax his fists that were clenched at his sides. His thoughts were then interrupted when he heard voices behind him. He turned to see that two men had come to the aid of the man that Shin no Yami attacked.

"Who did this to you?" one of them asked. The weak man struggled to get into a sitting position and he turned, seeing Yami standing at the end of the alley.

He raised a shaky hand and pointed straight towards Yami, "That's him! That's the guy!" he announced. The two men then turned and looked straight at Yami.

"Oh shit," Yami instantly turned on his heel and started running in the opposite direction. He could hear the two men start to pursue him, calling out for him to stop, but there was no way that was going to happen. Yami ran through the back alleyways between streets, hoping that he could shake the two men that were still chasing him. Luckily, he had gotten a slight head start, otherwise they'd probably already be on him. He ran between two tall buildings, knowing that if he kept running in this direction, he'd run straight past the police station, and that would get him a lot more attention than he would like. So when he broke into a clearing and saw a hole in the fence beside him, he instantly ducked through the hole and continued to move his legs at a swift pace, looking over his shoulder to see if he was still being followed.

Apparently he had been too far in front for the men to see him slip under the fence, and he saw two figures run straight past, continuing to run towards the police station. Thank goodness for that, Yami thought as he slowed to a walk to catch his breath. It wouldn't have been a good idea to turn around and head back to the shops where he had been planning to go, so instead he carefully but quickly made his way back to Yugi's house, hoping that Shin no Yami hadn't beaten him there.

Yami burst through the front door, seeing Grandpa sitting on the couch watching the daily news. He took no time to run straight up the stairs towards Yugi's room, willing the uneasy feeling in his stomach to go away. If Shin no Yami has done anything to Yugi-

He stopped with a sigh of relief. Yugi was sitting on his bed reading the same book he had been when Yami left before, and he looked up with a smile on his face.

"Hey Yami," he said brightly, before noticing that the man was breathing heavily, with sweat dripping down his forehead, and he wasn't holding a bag full of snacks like he had intended to bring back. Yugi placed his book down and quickly jumped off of the bed to go straight to Yami, "Is everything alright?" he asked, his eyebrows creased with worry.

Yami just wrapped his arms around the boy, sighing in relief. He may have panicked a little too much at Shin no Yami's words. Maybe he intended to show his real plan later on. Yugi happily welcomed the embrace, still wondering why Yami was acting so strangely. After a moment, Yami pulled back, looking down at Yugi with a smile.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," he said, "I was just worried about you."

Yugi looked up at him, still confused, "Why were you worried?"

Yami sighed, looking past Yugi to the window where they had first encountered his dark half. "I ran into my dark counterpart, Shin no Yami he calls himself."

Yugi raised his eyebrows, "And what did he do?" he asked curiously.

Yami then looked back down at Yugi, "He didn't say it directly, but it sounded like he wanted you," Yami admitted, tightening his hold on the boy protectively. Yugi didn't know what to say, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. After a moment, he spoke.

"Well, I know that you'll be able to get rid of him," Yugi said encouragingly."I trust you," he smiled up at Yami, who tried to return the smile, but his mind was plagued by the piece of information he was told earlier.

"How do you intend to 'dispose' of me if we are linked in such a way? You would need to destroy yourself before you can destroy me..." Shin no Yami's words echoed through his head and he tightened his arms around Yugi's waist even more.

How can I destroy something...that's a part of me?

Hello everyone! I'm sorry i kind of dropped off the face of the planet there for a few days, it was my birthday so i had to have a social life :P terrible i know! anyway, I hope you enjoyed chapter 4, I'm really happy with how Shin no Yami's personality turned out, its so amusing writing when he's just so arrogant and joking and just messing with Yami's head :P so i hope you like him, too!

Also, as for Shin no Yami himself, according to google translate Shin no Yami means 'true darkness' so that's where i got the name from, I do apologise if it's inaccurate, as i said i got it off google translate so it may not be completely right, but hey i tried :P

Anyway, i'd love to hear what you think!

PharaohsThrone :)