Disclaimer and legal crapsies: Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters,
names, paraphanalia, monsters, and so on and so forth, are © Kazuki
Takahashi. This is a cross-over fic between the most holy high Yu-Gi-Oh!
and the most dementedly cool game, American McGee's Alice.
American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev- erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items.
Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character, Aira Marashima. Like I said before.... Aira Marashima is © to me, myself, and I. She's based on me, and she's cool and she's mine. So if anyone wants to take her and say that you made her up, I will NOT hesitate to send Bakura, Kaiba, and Yami after you!!!
Enjoy Chapter Four, Kiddies.Muahaha..
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chapter IV: Welcome To The Village of The Damned
Rutledge Mental Institution
Case #46986414
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee
Date: October Tenth, Two Thousand and Three
Odd happenings in Mutou's case have occurred over the past couple of days. The first happened on the morning of the seventh of October involved a skeletal black feline which had somehow gotten into the Institution. The cat, which was found by one of my nurses on duty, had perched himself on the boy's chest almost as if claiming him for his own.
The straggly feline refused to leave his place, even when threatened with a very large rolled Sunday edition newspaper. The only thing that managed to budge the cat from his spot was when one of the nurses swatted at him with a broom. Even then, the cat leaped to the sill of the open window, gave a sharp yellow glare at the nurse and hopped into the bushes below. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him since.
The second odd event which occurred involved the palm of Yugi's right hand. While administering his medication one evening, I noticed that the sheets around the boy's hand had turned red with blood. When I turned his hand over, there was a single gash across the width of the palm of his hand. Seeing as the boy is in constant restraints, there is no possible way he could have inflicted this injury upon himself.
The only thing I can speculate is that one of the nurses or other physicians may have purposefully or accidentally cut the boy and kept it to themselves. I intend to take this matter up with the board, as I do not wish to be held responsible for injuries to patients which I did not inflict.
His screaming fits have seemed to increase in frequency as of late. He thrashes against his restraints, screaming 'BOOJUM!' repeatedly. While this nonsense talk is baffling to say the least, I can't help but wonder what type of demons he's fighting within himself. . .
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"A pleasure, I'm sure..." I said, eyeing the cat critically. The cat's grin stayed fixed on me, fanged and gaudily shiny for the bleak surroundings. "You know," began the cat, "The people of this land have been waiting quite awhile for you to land..."
Waiting?
"Why would they be waiting for me exactly?" I asked. I don't really want to know, because the more you know the more dangerous your life becomes. Yet I asked all the same, regretting the answer the moment it came from the cat's over polished mouth.
"Didn't your partner tell you?" mused the cat, its pearly white eyes staring at me. "Tell me what?" The voice which resided in my own mind seemed irritated at having been beaten to his own explanation. "I was about to tell him when you arrived." Yami said shortly. Obviously I was not the only one who could hear him speak.
"Oh well then, shall I do the honors or do you want to?" the cat said in a slick tone. "By all means, allow me," said the spirit of the puzzle with a cool tone of politeness.
"Well then please get on with it, I haven't got all day and the villagers are rather restless to be freed from their pikes."
PIKES?!
I blinked nervously at the mention of that word. One does not simply sit on pikes... usually one must be...
"Are you listening, Yugi?" snapped my Yami spirit, who seemed to be growing impatient with our lack of progress. "Hai!" (1) I said, trying to keep my train of thought on the path ahead instead of the hypothetical pikes of the village in my imagination.
"Good. Because this is rather important. You were brought here to be - -"
"The savior of this land," finished the cat. Yami shot him a sharp look. "Appologies, dear spirit... " The spirit cleared his throat. "Like he said, the savior of this land. In order to both return to your own world, and save this one, you must defeat the Black Dragon Emperor."
"Black Dragon Emperor?" I thought to myself. I imagined a horrible ruler of terrible power who looked like a man but had the face of a fierce black dragon with crimson blood eyes. I sank momentarily into the depths of my own thoughts about what this Black Dragon Emperor must be like to be so dominant and feared. I wished I hadn't tuned Yami's explanation out as I felt the sharp rap of a paw across the back of my head.
"Pay attention, boy! Your partner has valuable information..." the Cheshire Cat chided me like a schoolchild. "Ahem...The Black Dragon Emperor has enslaved Wonderland, turning it into a land of death and ruin. He controls this land through the fear his mighty dragons inflict upon the oppressed people of Wonderland. He has even renamed Wonderland to fit his own conceited and dark nature. Yamino Wonderland. Meaning, Dark Night Wonderland. Quite the pleasant fellow isn't he?"
I stared oddly at the spirit. What did he exactly expect me to do about this Dark Dragon fellow if I didn't even know where I was? Much less if I didn't have any weapons? Not to mention the fact that I'm not exactly the most brave person in the world...
"Either way," said Cheshire Cat in a smooth, almost mocking voice as he seemed to have read my thoughts, "Your starting destination will be the Village of the Damned, just down this road. Seems they've been oppressed by a few of the Emperor's minions as of late. Nasty creatures they are..." he said, seeming pleasantly amused that the creatures, whatever they were, were haunting about and torturing the villagers.
Securing the puzzle firmly around my neck, I stood up. I may be short, and not exactly the strongest person in...what was it Yami had called this place? Yamino Wonderland? I may not be the strongest, but I'll do whatever it takes to get home. My eyes remained glued to the village as I ran down the patchy cobblestone road towards it. The cat remained behind me, vanishing more quickly the further I got from him; the last thing to vanish was his black gummed pearly grin.
As I had expected, the first thing I saw as I ran through the outskirts of the village was an upturned cemetery. Coffins protruded from the ground before their headstones, or as was the case in some, the remnants of their headstones. Some of the caskets hung open, revealing corpses in various stages of decomposition. Some still had hair, skin, eyes which were peeled open in expressions of utmost terror, while others were just skeletons in tatters of cloth. The stench of death carried on the dull breeze as I finally arrived in the center of town.
In the distance, I could hear the distressed, miserable moans and screams of what I could only guess were the victims of the pikes. I heard a lone creak of a window shutter opening a crack, and a bloodshot eye look out to stare at me. It widened, then vanished, as the claw slashed door to the small house opened, and someone emerged.
I could've wished for a better welcome into town than what I got. The someone that emerged was a squat old man that creaked at every joint when he ran or rather, hobbled over to me, embracing me in his boney arms. "THE SAVIOR IS HERE! THANK THE GODS, HE FINALLY IS HERE!"
I wished that he hadn't opened his mouth the instant that he did. His breath stank of a mix of rotten teeth and eggs, and I was pretty sure I saw a bit of tobacco leaf stuck in between his old crooked teeth. The man had a hump-back, and was dressed in tatters which barely covered the more crucial parts of his prune-like body. I wrenched from his relatively weak grip.
"Keep it down old man!" I said, trying to make the old fool be quiet. I didn't want to attract any attention, at least not yet. The old man's single bulgy eye welled up in tears while the other shrunken, sunken in eye seemed to float in its socket amidst the tears. "Its just that you're here! Now you can save us!"
"I'm not here to save anyone!" I said, coughing at the rank scent the old man gave off before turning and running in the direction of the moans. A bad idea, Yami assured me, yet I just wanted to get the hell away from this creepy old man. As I sprinted through the rundown huts and small houses, the eerie moaning grew louder, and I knew I must be getting close to the rest of the villagers.
I came to a screeching halt at the very edge of the village, and the sight that greeted me made me want to vomit. Hundreds of men, women, and even a few children, dangled miserably from bloodied pikes which were stabbed in the grey earth. Each individual body reached its arms out in my direction, chanting, "Save us..."
I could feel my eyes widen to an impossible size as I doubled back, my knees buckling under my own weight. I fell in a heap on the ground, a cloud of dust gathering around me then falling as the only sound audible were the growing moans of "SAVE US!" filled my ears.
"Get up." Said Yami suddenly, his tone urgent and holding a note of sensing impending danger. I climbed to my feet, my stomach churning. Suddenly the chorus of "SAAAAVE US!!!" had come to a halt, leaving the wall of pikes silent, frozen in reverent terror. My head swiveled around, trying to find the cause of their sudden silence.
Behind me, in the distant sky over the village, I saw tattered, near transparent apparition looping in flight, nearing closer to me at an alarming speed. As it grew closer, I heard a sound which chilled my blood to ice. A shrieking like no banshee could ever hope to produce. My eyes were transfixed on it, my limbs suddenly unable to move a single atom.
Closer and closer it flew, making waving loops over my head as it finally faced me. A grotesque skull with eyes glowing the red of evil stared me down a short moment before opening its skeletal mouth and took in a breath, readying itself for a deafening attack.
"MOVE!" shouted Yami from the confines of my mind. My muscles rigid, my voice paralyzed in terror, it was all I could do to think meekly, 'I cant...' The monster shrieked, I could feel the air vibrate as the sound sliced towards me. "BAKA! (2) Are you trying to kill BOTH of us?!" said Yami, as I suddenly felt my body become no longer my own.
I was now a spectator outside my own body, watching in terror as my body grew sharply upwards, and heard my muscles stretch to match the new strength and height. My eyes, once widened in terror now narrowed in flaming anger and will to survive as I dodge rolled to the side out of the way of the attack, which blasted past and connected with an unfortunate outcropping of rock which was reduced to gravel on impact.
I blinked from the view above my own body as I...It was still me down there wasn't it? I recovered from my roll and began sprinting at a speed I knew my body was incapable of reaching back into the village, the creature in hot screaming pursuit. "My body can't do that..." I thought to what I believed to be myself. However, Yami had heard. "Maybe your body can't..." he said panting as his stamina began to dwindle, "But mine can."
We reached about mid-village before my other self began to slow down and the creature began to get closer. Up until now, he had been dodging shrieks, weaving left and right, leaping over rubble which now fell in his path. Now the creature grew dangerously near, his attacks becoming more accurate with each bellowing assault.
I feared that maybe it would be the end for my other self and I. One more scream... One more blast...Once more and they'll be dead...This was surely what that horrific creature was thinking, if it even was able to have such thoughts. Sadly, that was all it took. Just...One....Shriek....
The last thing I felt before blacking out was the white hot air raking across my cheek, and the entire right side of my body crush and collapse in on itself, the sick sound of snapping of bones and shredding cartilage the last thing registering in my ears. I saw a hand jerk from out of a door and then the only thing I saw was darkness.
I told you that darkness had always brought bad things to my door...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hai: Japanese word meaning 'Yes' Baka: Japanese word meaning Idiot, Stupid, or Fool
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A note from the Author:
*pant pant, cracks her knuckles* Woo...long chapter! Lots of action! Who knew the Village of the Damned was such a dangerous place? Heh. Riiight. Well, needless to say my keyboard got a workout from this chapter, and I bet you cant wait to see what happens next chapter, ne? ^_^ Anyway, hope you are enjoying the story so far, I sure as hell am enjoying writing it! Yeaaah...So. Next chapter, Yugi gets a way to protect himself! You Alice fans probably can guess Yugi's new weapon, but for all you non Alice- y peoples out there, I'm gonna leave you hanging for an evening XP Next Chapter: Back to Skool, The Rabbit's Second Coming
Duelists (and Alice-ites) On Standby!
Ja ne minna-san!
Lara
American McGee's Alice is © to EA Games ((*whisper* Challenge Eev- erything)) and the original Alice in Wonderland and below mentioned alternate title of the same story is © to the long dead yet still cool Lewis Carroll. I take no credit for creating any of the characters in this story which are related to these three items.
Only thing I take credit for is writing the story and for my own original character, Aira Marashima. Like I said before.... Aira Marashima is © to me, myself, and I. She's based on me, and she's cool and she's mine. So if anyone wants to take her and say that you made her up, I will NOT hesitate to send Bakura, Kaiba, and Yami after you!!!
Enjoy Chapter Four, Kiddies.Muahaha..
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chapter IV: Welcome To The Village of The Damned
Rutledge Mental Institution
Case #46986414
Patient Name: Yugi Mutou
Physician in Charge: Dr. S.K. Lee
Date: October Tenth, Two Thousand and Three
Odd happenings in Mutou's case have occurred over the past couple of days. The first happened on the morning of the seventh of October involved a skeletal black feline which had somehow gotten into the Institution. The cat, which was found by one of my nurses on duty, had perched himself on the boy's chest almost as if claiming him for his own.
The straggly feline refused to leave his place, even when threatened with a very large rolled Sunday edition newspaper. The only thing that managed to budge the cat from his spot was when one of the nurses swatted at him with a broom. Even then, the cat leaped to the sill of the open window, gave a sharp yellow glare at the nurse and hopped into the bushes below. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him since.
The second odd event which occurred involved the palm of Yugi's right hand. While administering his medication one evening, I noticed that the sheets around the boy's hand had turned red with blood. When I turned his hand over, there was a single gash across the width of the palm of his hand. Seeing as the boy is in constant restraints, there is no possible way he could have inflicted this injury upon himself.
The only thing I can speculate is that one of the nurses or other physicians may have purposefully or accidentally cut the boy and kept it to themselves. I intend to take this matter up with the board, as I do not wish to be held responsible for injuries to patients which I did not inflict.
His screaming fits have seemed to increase in frequency as of late. He thrashes against his restraints, screaming 'BOOJUM!' repeatedly. While this nonsense talk is baffling to say the least, I can't help but wonder what type of demons he's fighting within himself. . .
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"A pleasure, I'm sure..." I said, eyeing the cat critically. The cat's grin stayed fixed on me, fanged and gaudily shiny for the bleak surroundings. "You know," began the cat, "The people of this land have been waiting quite awhile for you to land..."
Waiting?
"Why would they be waiting for me exactly?" I asked. I don't really want to know, because the more you know the more dangerous your life becomes. Yet I asked all the same, regretting the answer the moment it came from the cat's over polished mouth.
"Didn't your partner tell you?" mused the cat, its pearly white eyes staring at me. "Tell me what?" The voice which resided in my own mind seemed irritated at having been beaten to his own explanation. "I was about to tell him when you arrived." Yami said shortly. Obviously I was not the only one who could hear him speak.
"Oh well then, shall I do the honors or do you want to?" the cat said in a slick tone. "By all means, allow me," said the spirit of the puzzle with a cool tone of politeness.
"Well then please get on with it, I haven't got all day and the villagers are rather restless to be freed from their pikes."
PIKES?!
I blinked nervously at the mention of that word. One does not simply sit on pikes... usually one must be...
"Are you listening, Yugi?" snapped my Yami spirit, who seemed to be growing impatient with our lack of progress. "Hai!" (1) I said, trying to keep my train of thought on the path ahead instead of the hypothetical pikes of the village in my imagination.
"Good. Because this is rather important. You were brought here to be - -"
"The savior of this land," finished the cat. Yami shot him a sharp look. "Appologies, dear spirit... " The spirit cleared his throat. "Like he said, the savior of this land. In order to both return to your own world, and save this one, you must defeat the Black Dragon Emperor."
"Black Dragon Emperor?" I thought to myself. I imagined a horrible ruler of terrible power who looked like a man but had the face of a fierce black dragon with crimson blood eyes. I sank momentarily into the depths of my own thoughts about what this Black Dragon Emperor must be like to be so dominant and feared. I wished I hadn't tuned Yami's explanation out as I felt the sharp rap of a paw across the back of my head.
"Pay attention, boy! Your partner has valuable information..." the Cheshire Cat chided me like a schoolchild. "Ahem...The Black Dragon Emperor has enslaved Wonderland, turning it into a land of death and ruin. He controls this land through the fear his mighty dragons inflict upon the oppressed people of Wonderland. He has even renamed Wonderland to fit his own conceited and dark nature. Yamino Wonderland. Meaning, Dark Night Wonderland. Quite the pleasant fellow isn't he?"
I stared oddly at the spirit. What did he exactly expect me to do about this Dark Dragon fellow if I didn't even know where I was? Much less if I didn't have any weapons? Not to mention the fact that I'm not exactly the most brave person in the world...
"Either way," said Cheshire Cat in a smooth, almost mocking voice as he seemed to have read my thoughts, "Your starting destination will be the Village of the Damned, just down this road. Seems they've been oppressed by a few of the Emperor's minions as of late. Nasty creatures they are..." he said, seeming pleasantly amused that the creatures, whatever they were, were haunting about and torturing the villagers.
Securing the puzzle firmly around my neck, I stood up. I may be short, and not exactly the strongest person in...what was it Yami had called this place? Yamino Wonderland? I may not be the strongest, but I'll do whatever it takes to get home. My eyes remained glued to the village as I ran down the patchy cobblestone road towards it. The cat remained behind me, vanishing more quickly the further I got from him; the last thing to vanish was his black gummed pearly grin.
As I had expected, the first thing I saw as I ran through the outskirts of the village was an upturned cemetery. Coffins protruded from the ground before their headstones, or as was the case in some, the remnants of their headstones. Some of the caskets hung open, revealing corpses in various stages of decomposition. Some still had hair, skin, eyes which were peeled open in expressions of utmost terror, while others were just skeletons in tatters of cloth. The stench of death carried on the dull breeze as I finally arrived in the center of town.
In the distance, I could hear the distressed, miserable moans and screams of what I could only guess were the victims of the pikes. I heard a lone creak of a window shutter opening a crack, and a bloodshot eye look out to stare at me. It widened, then vanished, as the claw slashed door to the small house opened, and someone emerged.
I could've wished for a better welcome into town than what I got. The someone that emerged was a squat old man that creaked at every joint when he ran or rather, hobbled over to me, embracing me in his boney arms. "THE SAVIOR IS HERE! THANK THE GODS, HE FINALLY IS HERE!"
I wished that he hadn't opened his mouth the instant that he did. His breath stank of a mix of rotten teeth and eggs, and I was pretty sure I saw a bit of tobacco leaf stuck in between his old crooked teeth. The man had a hump-back, and was dressed in tatters which barely covered the more crucial parts of his prune-like body. I wrenched from his relatively weak grip.
"Keep it down old man!" I said, trying to make the old fool be quiet. I didn't want to attract any attention, at least not yet. The old man's single bulgy eye welled up in tears while the other shrunken, sunken in eye seemed to float in its socket amidst the tears. "Its just that you're here! Now you can save us!"
"I'm not here to save anyone!" I said, coughing at the rank scent the old man gave off before turning and running in the direction of the moans. A bad idea, Yami assured me, yet I just wanted to get the hell away from this creepy old man. As I sprinted through the rundown huts and small houses, the eerie moaning grew louder, and I knew I must be getting close to the rest of the villagers.
I came to a screeching halt at the very edge of the village, and the sight that greeted me made me want to vomit. Hundreds of men, women, and even a few children, dangled miserably from bloodied pikes which were stabbed in the grey earth. Each individual body reached its arms out in my direction, chanting, "Save us..."
I could feel my eyes widen to an impossible size as I doubled back, my knees buckling under my own weight. I fell in a heap on the ground, a cloud of dust gathering around me then falling as the only sound audible were the growing moans of "SAVE US!" filled my ears.
"Get up." Said Yami suddenly, his tone urgent and holding a note of sensing impending danger. I climbed to my feet, my stomach churning. Suddenly the chorus of "SAAAAVE US!!!" had come to a halt, leaving the wall of pikes silent, frozen in reverent terror. My head swiveled around, trying to find the cause of their sudden silence.
Behind me, in the distant sky over the village, I saw tattered, near transparent apparition looping in flight, nearing closer to me at an alarming speed. As it grew closer, I heard a sound which chilled my blood to ice. A shrieking like no banshee could ever hope to produce. My eyes were transfixed on it, my limbs suddenly unable to move a single atom.
Closer and closer it flew, making waving loops over my head as it finally faced me. A grotesque skull with eyes glowing the red of evil stared me down a short moment before opening its skeletal mouth and took in a breath, readying itself for a deafening attack.
"MOVE!" shouted Yami from the confines of my mind. My muscles rigid, my voice paralyzed in terror, it was all I could do to think meekly, 'I cant...' The monster shrieked, I could feel the air vibrate as the sound sliced towards me. "BAKA! (2) Are you trying to kill BOTH of us?!" said Yami, as I suddenly felt my body become no longer my own.
I was now a spectator outside my own body, watching in terror as my body grew sharply upwards, and heard my muscles stretch to match the new strength and height. My eyes, once widened in terror now narrowed in flaming anger and will to survive as I dodge rolled to the side out of the way of the attack, which blasted past and connected with an unfortunate outcropping of rock which was reduced to gravel on impact.
I blinked from the view above my own body as I...It was still me down there wasn't it? I recovered from my roll and began sprinting at a speed I knew my body was incapable of reaching back into the village, the creature in hot screaming pursuit. "My body can't do that..." I thought to what I believed to be myself. However, Yami had heard. "Maybe your body can't..." he said panting as his stamina began to dwindle, "But mine can."
We reached about mid-village before my other self began to slow down and the creature began to get closer. Up until now, he had been dodging shrieks, weaving left and right, leaping over rubble which now fell in his path. Now the creature grew dangerously near, his attacks becoming more accurate with each bellowing assault.
I feared that maybe it would be the end for my other self and I. One more scream... One more blast...Once more and they'll be dead...This was surely what that horrific creature was thinking, if it even was able to have such thoughts. Sadly, that was all it took. Just...One....Shriek....
The last thing I felt before blacking out was the white hot air raking across my cheek, and the entire right side of my body crush and collapse in on itself, the sick sound of snapping of bones and shredding cartilage the last thing registering in my ears. I saw a hand jerk from out of a door and then the only thing I saw was darkness.
I told you that darkness had always brought bad things to my door...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hai: Japanese word meaning 'Yes' Baka: Japanese word meaning Idiot, Stupid, or Fool
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A note from the Author:
*pant pant, cracks her knuckles* Woo...long chapter! Lots of action! Who knew the Village of the Damned was such a dangerous place? Heh. Riiight. Well, needless to say my keyboard got a workout from this chapter, and I bet you cant wait to see what happens next chapter, ne? ^_^ Anyway, hope you are enjoying the story so far, I sure as hell am enjoying writing it! Yeaaah...So. Next chapter, Yugi gets a way to protect himself! You Alice fans probably can guess Yugi's new weapon, but for all you non Alice- y peoples out there, I'm gonna leave you hanging for an evening XP Next Chapter: Back to Skool, The Rabbit's Second Coming
Duelists (and Alice-ites) On Standby!
Ja ne minna-san!
Lara