Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Dangers of Silence: Chapter 4: Duel Him, Duel Me
Characters: Ryou, Juudai
Word Count: chapter: 1,000||story: 4,000
Genre: Drama, Angst||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Advent Calendar Challenge, Day #14 & Diversity Challenge, section H, #10, a multichap with at least six chapters.
Notes: This takes place in an AU. Details will come apparent in the story. Because other than a few basics, I don't know myself. Among those basics are that none of the other characters have ever met Juudai or even heard of him.
Summary: [4/8 chapters, Ryou & Juudai, Advent Calendar Challenge Day #14 & Diversity Challenge, au: other] Lost in a strange world and held captive by the mysterious Haou, Ryou must find out what's going on before he is broken.

One by one the 'applicants' fell to one another. Since his arrival in this world, Ryou had seen many duelists die as the result of losing a duel. He'd even delivered some of them into death's hands himself. Yet he'd never seen so many happen in such quick succession.

He wanted to duel. Every part of him ached to find his deck and duel disk and go out there himself. He wanted nothing to do with the so-called 'prize' of being Haou's champion, but to duel? How he wanted that.

Finally only one of them stood in the end, panting and gasping with exertion. He didn't look as if he should've been strong enough to be the final victor, his white tunic smudged and stained, his wings bent and not moving as swiftly or gracefully as they had when this had begun.

"Shine Angel," Chaos Sorcerer announced the victor's name. "You have won the right to duel Haou's chosen for the position of champion."

Ryou's attention flickered over the courtyard, wondering just who might that person be. Did this person also want to duel him, since Haou wanted him for that task as well?

An armored hand brushed against his, and he looked down to see Haou holding out a deck toward him. Almost by instinct he picked it up and turned it over to see Cyberdark Keel there.

My deck? This is my deck? Ryou's mouth dried up at the thought of being able to duel again. He glanced for a moment to where Shine Angel stood, a fierce light in his eyes no matter how tired he was. He wants me to kill him. The thought was not a pleasant one.

Someone else offered him a duel disk and he took it without thinking. He was a duelist; when someone offered him a disk, he took it. Then he found himself standing in the courtyard, a duel's distance away from Shine Angel.

"You're the one that Haou-sama wants as his champion?" For all of his beauty, Shine Angel's voice cracked with cold fury. "You wear a slave's collar. What could you know of dueling?"

Ryou's mind cleared of confusion in a heartbeat. His eyes narrowed. "I'll show you."

He drew his cards.

The duel wasn't the fastest that he'd ever had, and he had to admit that Shine Angel wasn't an untalented duelist. Not the best that he'd ever seen, but his talents had clearly been honed by fighting for his life.

But so had Ryou's, though his battles were different from the ones here. They struck at one another, biting into their respective life points with everything they had. One or two of Shine Angel's combos even came close to impressing him, as much as anything ever did.

But in the end there was only one outcome that Ryou would accept. The same one that he always accepted, the same one that he'd fought for since realizing respect did not mean nearly as much to him as victory did.

Shine Angel collapsed to his knees, wings folding around himself, trembling all over. "You... how could you...you're..."

"The winner," Ryou murmured. His gaze returned to where Haou sat on his throne, the silent spectator to all of this. All throughout the duel everyone else cheered both of them, urging them on to victory. Haou remained quiet, yet Ryou had felt his gaze the whole time.

As Shine Angel faded away, Haou motioned toward Chaos Sorcerer, little more than a wave of his fingers.

"Before you stands Haou-sama's chosen champion, Marufuji Ryou known in his world as Hell Kaiser!" Chaos Sorcerer announced. He glanced back and forth between Haou and Hell Kaiser before he continued. "While he has not yet formally accepted the position, Haou-sama assures us that he will, and any who seeks to become his champion will have to duel Hell Kaiser."

Haou rose up from his throne and gestured to Ryou. Ryou didn't want to go, wanted to find the exit and go in search of his friends. But even as his eyes found the doorway, he saw how many monsters stood in between him and it. That was not the death that he sought, not one by being overwhelmed and probably executed.

He would choose his own death, and he'd chosen to go out as a duelist.

I can challenge Haou. A light smile touched on his lips and he moved to where Haou stood, ready to do so.

Only before he could shape the words, the world spun around him. This had nothing to do with his health issues; he knew how those felt, and this was something else altogether. When his vision cleared, he no longer had his deck or duel disk, and Haou had once more clipped the length of chain to his collar.

It seemed that a challenge was not in the offing, not today.

"Duel me," Ryou issued the demand even as they drew closer to his cell. It had taken him until then to get his thoughts sorted out enough to say it at all.

Haou turned toward him as the door opened before them. Now Ryou could see that no one touched it indeed, and they weren't close enough for any of the automatic door types that he knew of to work. Haou shook his head, but there was no fear in his gesture. He simply turned it down.

"Why not?" Ryou wanted answers on this, above all. Every rumor he'd heard of Haou before his arrival here claimed that he was a powerful duelist the likes of which no one had ever seen. Even Juudai had agreed to this, though Ryou wondered how easily impressed a servant might be.

Haou again shook his head and guided Ryou into the cell. Once again he was chained to the wall and then left alone, a single glowing light illuminating the bare cell from above.

Ryou did not understand any of this. Haou wasn't like anyone he'd ever met before.

To Be Continued