I'd Do Anything

by Kestrel

Another disclaimer for those vultures: I DON'T OWN YUGIOH AND I KNOW IT... although sometimes it makes me sad. *sniff*

Ch. 5

A/N: Time is messed up in this fic. When we are with Yugi, it is 3 days after Yami sent the letter. When we are with Yami, time is normal. Right now, it is the day after he sent the letter.

Yami fidgeted in his seat during Elaina's geometry class. She wanted to sleep, so he had agreed to take over. But his worry about the letter he'd sent Yugi showed through, and so far three people had asked 'Elaina' what was wrong.

One, a freckle-faced girl named Emili, had attributed the stress to something Yami didn't understand. Emili had called it a 'crush', but Yami didn't see how being crushed by a falling object had anything to do with stress. Perhaps it was fear of falling objects? At any rate, he didn't want to wake Elaina to ask her, so he just smiled at Emili and insisted that 'she' was fine.

But his mind kept playing over memories of Yugi, and wondering what the boy's—now man's—reaction would be to his confession.

*****

"I wrote this letter after so many years, not to chat about the everyday goings-on of my vessel, but to tell you something I've waited too long to confess. First, though, I'd like to tell you a story."

Together we broke all the rules

Dreaming of dropping out of school

And leave this place to never come back

"Do you remember when we first met? You were much younger then, and weaker too. Bullies would flock to your locker just to slam it in your face, to your street after school just to throw a couple of punches to your sweet jaw, to your classes just to rip your assignments and ruin your work."

Yugi clenched his fist slightly. Yes, he remembered…

"Moto!" Gonza Mutako snarled, slamming the small boy up against the wall. "where's my homework?"

"R-right here, Mut-tako-san!" Twelve-year-old Yugi whimpered, holding out the slightly crumpled paper. Gonza's eyes widened furiously.

"It's ruined! I can't hand this trash in!" He slammed Yugi's small back to the wall again, harder this time. "Moto, you're going to do this again."

"But, Mutako-s-san…"

"What?!" Gonza yelled, backhanding Yugi across the face and drawing blood. "Don't you dare talk back to me, runt! You're doing it again, understand?!"

Yugi slid to the floor, utterly and completely broken. "H-hai, Mutako-san…"

With a sadistic grin, Gonza planted a kick to Yugi's fragile ribs. He laughed at Yugi's huff of pain, and left the boy lying there. Yugi's amethyst eyes widened as he tried to keep from crying.

Somehow he managed to get up and walk home, despite his hurts. On his way, to keep his mind from the pain, Yugi worked on solving the Milliennium puzzle his grandfather had given him.

"Maybe if I finish it, something magical will happen," Yugi mused.

He'd just slid the second to last piece into place when a snarling voice interrupted his exctited thoughts.

"Magical? 'Fraid not, shrimp."

Gonza stepped out from behind a tree beside the sidewalk, and was quick to grab the puzzle. He studied it with a greedy gleam in his eyes.

Surprisingly, Yugi felt no urge to protest. A slow, ugly hatred was coming to a boil within him. Suddenly and with surprising speed, he lept forward and slipped the puzzle from Gonza's grasp. Placing the cord around his neck, he felt the final piece click into place with a touch from his sure fingers.

"Help me!"

Gonza's fingers had grasped his slender throat when he felt the change. Yugi felt another, ancient presence deep inside him, and his hand shot forward seemingly of its own accord to tear Gonza's own hands from his neck. A rich voice snarled from his throat, searing Gonza's ears.

"Touch me again and I will make you feel pain such as you have never imagined."

Gonza recovered quickly, striding forward and laughing. Yugi wasn't afraid. He let the new presence deal with the bully.

"What say we play a game, Gonza?" The tone of the voice was sardonic, challenging. Gonza was quick to accept, taking the tone as a shot to his ego.

"What kind of game, Moto?"

"It's a simple challenge, something even you should understand. We both draw a card from that deck in your belt. Whoever draws the more powerful card wins. Whoever loses, loses more than just the game."

Gonza was confident. He swaggered a bit as he came closer. "You forgetting this is my deck? No way you can fix it. No way you can win."

A hint of a grin touched the mysterious boy's lips. "We shall see." He was suddenly serious, seeming to glow with dark energy as he commanded, "Draw!"

Gonza whipped out his deck and slid the top card into his hand. "Ha!" He barked, showing it to his opponent. "Ha! Barrel Dragon! It has 2600 attack points!"

Yugi's hands shuffled the deck and drew the top card. Silently he showed it to the astonished bully.

Gonza's jaw dropped. "Wingweaver—2750… I'd forgotten I even had that in my deck…"

Seeing the dark flame in 'Yugi's' eyes, all color fled Gonza's face. "Shit…"

Yugi's hand came up in the bully's face, palm inches from Gonza's nose. "You have lost the game, therefore you will also lose the privelege of living in this realm! Mind crush!"

Gonza's scream was cut abruptly short as his body fell lifeless into pieces and vanished.

"What did I do?" Yugi asked, looking fearfully at his hands.

"You did nothing," the spirit answered. "I sent his mind to the Shadow realm. He will harm you no longer."

Yugi smiled, the first real smile he'd smiled in days. "Thank you…"

"That day, I realized for the first time that I could help people regardless of lacking a substantial body. You gave me the first hope I'd experienced since before my time as Pharaoh."

"And that brings me to my second story. This is something I've never told anyone, because I did not feel it was necessary. This is a story of my past."

()()()()

Do I have to say it? NO! But will I say it again?

Sigh.

Of course! REVIEW!!!!!