IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!! - This is the Yu-Gi-Oh! Yaoi portion of the Shipping List in order. Be forewarned. Some "pairings" will not be fluffy and cute. But they will all, hopefully, be believable. Rating's will vary.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi
Author's Note: Isn't it funny how inspiration can strike like a bolt of lightening from seemingly nowhere? I've been stuck on the latest fic for the shipping list and then BAM!!! I walked in on a stereo playing a certain song and there it was, after two failed attempts and weeks of frustration, just like that. Anyway, there are so many wonderful reviewers I'd like to thank that really help to keep this going. Thank you, guys! I think this one may surprise some people...
- Incidently, the "blade" refered to are the blades used during Pandora/Arcana's duel with Yami that were meant to slice off the loser's legs. I dont' know why I used the "Arcana" name in here instead of "Pandora" but, having done it, it seems kind of pointless to change it now. Also, I refered to Arcana's Black Magician as "Black Magician" and will generally refer to Yugi's Black Magician as "Dark Magician" to differenciate.
Rating: T (low)
Yu-Gi-Oh! Shipping List #29 : "A Debt Repaid"
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Bladeshipping (Pandora x Yuugi)
It is not often that a soul sent to the Shadow Realm survives beyond a handful of days. If the miasma-rich air itself does not eat away at the soul, the creatures there will. But there are those rare occasions when one such creature may take pity on the soul and defend it against its fellow monsters. It may be that the soul was a duelist who formed a deep bond with the creatures with whom it battled or, as in the case of Arcana, a creature such as the Black Magician may have reasons all its own for its actions.
Regardless of the circumstances, while searching the Shadow Realm for souls after the events of Battle City had passed and settled, Arcana's soul was among those recovered by the King of Games.
* * *
Yugi had started to notice on one particular Saturday afternoon, after parting from his friends for the day, that he was being followed. Yami noticed it too. In fact, Yami had had the feeling that someone had been watching them for several days yet only now did he catch a glimpse of a figure from the corner of Yugi's vision; a hooded man several paces behind them ducked around the last corner when he urged Yugi's body to turn back. When the man looked for his target again, Yugi was gone from the sidewalk ahead of him. Yami had got behind him instead and reached out, tapping the man at the center of his back.
"Is there some reason that you're following me?" he asked, putting forth an effort to remain neutral.
The man whirled around and Yami could tell from his posture that he was frightened. His face was hidden well in the shadows of his oversized hood but he made an effort to pull it down some just the same. Yami tilted his head curiously as the man stumbled back a step.
"I'm sorry." he mumbled. "It's not what you think."
From within, Yugi pleaded for control. He seemed to recognize the man's voice and Yami sifted through his own memories in search of what connection Yugi might have found but nothing clicked into place immediately so he stepped back for Yugi, watching through his aibou's eyes for the answer.
The stranger seemed to notice the change. "I know what you did." the man said, soberly regarding Yugi's much shorter frame. "I know it was you."
Yugi nodded understandingly.
"I will do the same."
It was almost a suggestion and Yami cocked his head metaphorically, using what pieces he'd been given of the puzzle to try and solve the man's identity.
"You know…I don't…really blame you." Yugi said, testing the words for truth before actually saying them. They were true, Yugi decided. Blame lay with Marik for the most part in that particular incident.
"I will do the same."
It was a declaration this time, given with a nod of acknowledgement and Yugi smiled awkwardly, not knowing how to tell him no.
By now, Yami had placed the voice and he wasn't sure that he liked the idea of Arcana following his aibou around all the time. True, he was there also, but there were times he slept too; times that his awareness was regrettably not at one thousand percent and times that Yugi might be vulnerable. As much as he tried to reduce that time span, inevitably, he could not protect Yugi from everything and was forced to simply trust in fate that no ill was meant to befall him. Unfortunately, by the time he had come to this conclusion, the matter had already been settled and Yugi was again on his way home for the evening.
Yami did not approve but Yugi believed in second chances and so Yami let the matter drop.
Three days later, while Yugi was at the bank depositing money for his grandfather, a suspicious looking man entered through the doors behind them (suspicious in the way he resembled Arcana, all oversized sweater with the hood up, and yet was obviously not) and, having caught sight of him Yami took over, easing out of sight just slightly and into a better position to do something from but he never had to, because Arcana noticed the man too and sent him to the floor with one well-placed hit to the back of the neck. A gun skittered across the floor just far enough to tap against the polished black shoe of the on-duty security guard.
Yugi told Arcana later that he had saved the day and had more than made up for his evil deed with all of the other people he had surely saved but Arcana had merely shook his head and smiled, showing enough of his face so that Yugi could see and said; "My debt is not yet paid." There was no room for argument and he bent over, taking Yugi's hand and raising it to his face, not pressing his lips to it, but still giving the impression of doing so in a gesture that Yami was sure he had seen in some medieval-set movie somewhere and turned from them and left.
Three months passed and Yugi learned to live with Arcana's never-intrusive constant presence. Sometimes, he invited Arcana in for food or for a practice duel on paper fields at the kitchen table. Whenever Yugi had settled someplace for a time, he would catch Arcana carrying on quiet conversations with his own Black Magician - or with its unresponsive card anyway, he never actually saw the magician appear before Arcana, so he was never actually quite sure of the man's sanity. Over time, Yugi became, if nothing else, accustomed to his presence. Even Yami grew less suspicious of him. He seemed lost somehow, as though he were clinging to Yugi for something, and in that respect, Yami could understand.
It happened on a Monday. All bad things happen on Mondays, or so Yami had heard somewhere, though it probably wasn't true. Yugi was on his way home after school. A new shipment of a new TCG had just come in that morning and Ji-chan had asked that he come straight home to stock it for the after-school customers. Since Sugoroku hadn't been feeling well lately, Yugi had been helping more around the store than usual.
Yugi was on his way to the bus stop, taking the same route he had taken that morning, crossing the street, passing stores and a small construction project that was under way to remodel one of the buildings on the main street, when a deafening snap startled him from his thoughts, sounding like cannon fire overhead. Yugi did not even have the time to look toward the sound in shock before a heavy figure collided with him from behind, sending him crashing to the sidewalk several feet away, his schoolbag flying from his grasp to scatter across the sidewalk and the street. A loud crash sounded behind him, car breaks squealed and there was screaming. Yugi pushed himself to his hands and knees and looked back at the same time that Yami appeared incorporeal at his side, far too late to spare Yugi the sight.
A load of bricks had fallen from a crane nearby, their support rope snapped and waving back and forth, reaching for the ground. The bricks had spilled over into the street, covered the sidewalk, and beneath the dull red of them, a much deeper red was spreading outward. Yami could feel the wave of Yugi's emotion strike him physically, rooting him where he stood, speechless and struggling not to scream from the very pressure of it.
Yugi moved slowly at first, jerking one hand forward leaving a faint bloody handprint on the cement from his scrapped hand, then one knee, shaking uncontrollably until finally something snapped and he bolted forward, slipping in the warm blood and injuring his hands further when they caught his weight against the bricks which he began to fling aside, heedless of bystanders or parked cars, tears streaming down his face, too shocked to scream.
Finally, he found Arcana, face down against the sidewalk and pulled until the older man lay awkwardly in his lap. Everything was soaked in blood; the dull red sweater Arcana had worn, and Yugi's school uniform, Yugi was kneeling in it. He shook Arcana desperately, called to him amid the strangled sobs and the tears, and impossibly, Arcana's eyes opened to slits, not seeing, but knowing just the same. The scars he had tried to hide did not even register to Yugi. Weakly, the former "master of magicians" raised his hand to Yugi who took it tightly between his own, and smiled. The gesture tore something inside Yugi and Yami fell to his knees, knowing he had to remain conscious for Yugi's sake and trying desperately to do so.
"My debt is paid." The raspy, faint voice was followed by the hand within Yugi's slackening and Yugi let it fall to grasp at the body in his arms as he cried loudly, too loudly for him to even hear the approaching sirens.
***
Yami sat in the chair at Yugi's desk, watching over the boy long after Yugi had cried himself to sleep. There were no stars visible through the skylight overhead, nothing but the moon, lighting and dimming the room as it appeared and disappeared behind thin clouds that offered no rain. Morbidly, he wondered if the stars had been visible on the night of his own departure. He could not remember. Sitting on the desk at his side was Arcana's deck. He thought perhaps it should be buried with its duelist. Yami looked up as the stillness in the room rippled and Arcana's Black Magician appeared silently before him.
"I want Yugi to know," he said after a time "that Arcana was saved by him."
Yami looked to Yugi, curled into a ball alone on his bed and how he wished he could be of more comfort to his other half, his better half. "What should I do with your card?" he asked eventually, his solemn and quiet voice filling the space between them heavily.
Again there was silence.
"Burn it."
Yami nodded solemnly, his soul weighted by duty in the heavy atmosphere. And satisfied, the Black Magician vanished, fading away into the darkness.
Yami was left alone once again, feeling oppressed by not only Yugi's pain, but his own inner turmoil and unable to do anything about either one.
Post whatevers: Next up is Jounouchi x Shogo. Shogo is the boy from the little half hour "movie" that was never translated to English. Don't worry if you haven't seen it and don't know Shogo. Having actually seen the "movie" shouldn't be necessary. As always, if you liked, please review.
