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: 37-50: From Out Of The Past
Character: Marufuji Ryou
Word Count: 917
Genre: Drama, Supernatural||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: 50scenes: Marufuji Ryou: benevolence
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.

Haou's cooks seldom, if ever, used garlic in any recipes. As his reign extended more and more, such items became less common. But more importantly, it reeked to Camula and Ryou. Not to the point it would drive either of them away, Ryou himself noted as he prowled the dark reaches of the castle, but it wasn't a pleasant odor.

Which was why catching that aroma now alerted him to the fact someone who shouldn't be around was there. He moved deeper into the shadows, each step taken with no more sound than the falling of snow.

Upon the turning of a corner, the odor grew stronger and he saw where it had to be coming from. Or more precisely, who it had to be coming from. Given the half-light of this area, most people wouldn't have been able to see more than a jerkily moving figure. Ryou saw more than that. Much more. Halfway down the corridor there scuttled an old man, draped with sharp stakes and strings of garlic.

A vampire-slayer. He didn't think any of them would actually dare to slip into the castle, much less someone this old. From the way what little light there was gleamed off his skull, the man was all but bald.

Ryou knew his orders well; if there was any chance that an intruder could bring harm to himself, Johan, Haou, or Camula, he was to kill them in whatever manner pleased him the most and report the intrusion to Haou. This wasn't the first situation he'd ever had to deal with and he doubted it would be the last. All he had to do was decide which method that he wanted to use.

The stranger crept down the hall and Ryou walked along, his silent tread and the enclosing shadows keeping him safe from detection. He wondered just what had led this old one here. Had they killed someone who he cared about? Or was he just trying to get rid of the horrible demons that lurked here?

He moved a little closer; something about the shape of the man's head and what features he could see stirred at old memories from when he was human. He tried not to pay much attention to those for the most part, but this caught at him. Flickers of images of a building on a snow-covered mountain whipped through his mind, as did a warm, caring voice instructing him…

"Ryou." The vampire stopped at the sound of his name and saw the other had turned enough to look at him. "It is you."

Now he could see the other's face and the pieces of memory fell into place. "Teacher Samejima." How long had it been since he'd seen his old teacher? Ten years, perhaps more.

"I heard about what happened." Samejima held himself apart from the other, though his eyes warmed with compassion. "I came to find out if what I heard was true." Ryou refused to take another step. Every other person he'd encountered on his duties was someone he held no emotions for or didn't know at all. No one like Samejima had ever come here before. "It is." He bit the words off with as little emotion as he could manage. "You shouldn't be here." "I came for you." Samejima's hand, strong despite his years, folded across the stake at his waist. "I can end this for you, Ryou."

Old age. If he leaves now, I can choose to grant him death by old age. It was a stretch of his orders, but he thought he could play with them enough to make it work, at least this once.

"Leave." If Samejima made so much as a threatening move, Ryou knew what his instincts would lead him to do. The stake didn't bother him, nor did anything else Samejima had on him. As fast and as strong as the old man was, Ryou had no doubts that he was faster and stronger.

Samejima's answer was to bring the stake out, driving it toward Ryou. For someone of his age, he was fast, and a human could not have seen him in time to stop him. Ryou, on the other hand, saw the move and countered it, one hand closing on Samejima's wrist and squeezing until the stake clattered to the ground.

"I told you that you shouldn't be here. There is no saving me." Ryou kept his grip on his old teacher's wrist, refusing to let him move an inch. He watched the other hand, knowing that Samejima would try something. When the old man made a move for the garlic, Ryou pinned that arm as easily as he had the first. "Leave and I won't have to kill you." Samejima struggled, jerking back and forth, sweat dripping down his cheeks, but all of his struggles meant nothing against Ryou's unnatural strength. He sagged back at last, twitching, and Ryou pulled him forward, sensing his defeat.

"Better this than having found Camula first, teacher." Ryou murmured as he dragged the old man back to the nearest exit he knew of. Camula would've taken a vicious glee in shredding the old man to death, in front of Ryou himself if she knew of their past.

"Better being dead than what you are you, Ryou." Samejima struggled to catch his breath as Ryou pulled him to the door. "Someone will end it for you if I can't."

Ryou's smile held no shred of joy in it. "No, they won't."

The End