Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fanfic unless I created it myself. Anything that I did create was inspired by something owned by someone else. This is done for fun and entertainment, not for profit.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Scenes From a Reversal: Bloodpaths: 29-50: Last Smile
Character: Marufuji Ryou
Word Count: 604
Genre: Drama, Supernatural||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: 50scenes: Marufuji Ryou: smiles
Summary: Fifty scenes from a story unwritten, with one fact reversed: what happens when the Gentle Darkness is not gentle? Ryou has his own dark tale to live in this world.


Momoe remembered Ryou's smile from years earlier. It didn't appear often, but when it was, it was something that could warm hearts. She thought Fubuki teased him just to make him smile around other people. Though truthfully, for all of Fubuki's efforts, Ryou still only smiled when he chose to.

Sometimes I wonder if he forgot how. There were other smiles, of course, such as the ones on his lips when he crushed Haou's warriors. Or when he defeated some young upstart who thought because Ryou abandoned the path of respect that he wasn't as good a duelist as he used to be. Like that one girl. Momoe couldn't remember her name anymore, Daisy or something like that she thought, but Ryou had taught her a lesson in record time.

She'd seen him from a distance when he'd been on Haou's side, spying to uncover the truth about Johan. He grinned then, much as he had before, but she'd always thought there was a fainter, darker edge to it now, worse than when he had first become Hell Kaiser.

No one she knew had seen him since his capture, however. Or at least, no one had seen him smile who also lived to tell about it. Teeth. Fangs. She knew every rumor that had passed through the ranks of the rebellion. Vampire. More than rumor, truth. A grin that held death in it.

She shuffled her deck and turned her thoughts toward her current mission. A portion of Haou's army was encamped near here and she needed to take out as many of them as they could. For three nights Ayanokouji, Takadera, and Gokaido had been out there setting up a duel ring, so anyone she challenged would face the ultimate penalty when she won.

A grin tugged at her own lips for that. How many had she killed now? At least twenty, edging onto thirty. The innocent girl she'd once been couldn't have imagined that. But war changed everyone.

Momoe settled into a branch of a tree where she could get a good look at the forces arrayed out there and try to figure out which one to cut out from the group first. The army appeared to be settling in for the night, which would allow her a few chances to make up her mind. Human or Duel Monster? Or perhaps she'd take potluck and see who crept into the bushes for a call of nature. She'd done that more than once. Something about jumping down in front of someone just finishing their business put her opponents off their guard.

There was someone now. She leaped through the trees, her duel disk tied to her back to keep it out of the way, landing on each branch lightly, and clinging with all of her strength to keep herself from falling. By the time she arrived at the tree he was busy watering, it was much closer to full night. She dropped down behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Duel!"

Ten minutes later, she dusted off her hands and started back up into the trees to search for another victim. Started, but never made it, as someone else laid a hand on her shoulder.

She whirled at once and her eyes widened to see lips parted in a grin that betokened only death. "Hell…Kaiser…"

"Hello, Momoe." Regret tinged his voice, but only for a moment, as he knocked her duel disk aside and bent her head to expose her neck. There were no more words, just a flash of pain, and the memory of that grin followed her into oblivion.

The End