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Cry of the Black Magician
Chappie Nine: Cry of the Black Magician
Atemu's mind whirred and buzzed. His senses were tuned perfectly in on the moment.
He was sitting with Yuugi at a card table.
Around them were Sogoroku, Anzu, Jou, Honda, Ryou, Mai, Shizuka, Otogi, Professor Hawkins, Rebecca, Isis, Malik, Rishid, Mr. Bakura, Kaiba, Mokuba, Igor/Karim, and Shaadii.
They were talking and whispering, chatting, horsing around, whatever.
No they weren't. They were all silent.
He was sitting not with Yuugi, but across from him.
He was Yuugi's opponent.
They were dueling.
Shadows enveloped the entire room.
Rebecca was crying.
Anzu was crying.
Isis was crying.
Yuugi had fifty life points left.
Atemu had a thousand.
It was Atemu's turn.
Yuugi had one Celtic Guardian on the field, nothing else, and no cards in his hand. The Celtic Guardian was in attack mode.
Atemu had just drawn the Black Magician. He had a Black Magician Girl and a Polymerization in his hand.
"Yuugi..."
"Just tell me what you drew. If you win... you win. It's an honorable duel, Atemu." Sogoroku, though it enraged him, knew it was true. The victor of this match was predestined.
Atemu slowly flipped his entire hand around. Black Magician, Black Magician Girl, Polymerization, Hane Kuriboh. One card face-down on the field.
Yuugi choked, seeing the cards in Atemu's hand.
"Just do it. Get it over with."
"I can't kill you, Yuugi. I won't." He was shocked as his hand moved for him, placing the cards on the field. Black Magician and Black Magician Girl fused together right before his eyes.
"What's going on? My hand!"
Shaadii answered him. "It is destiny that your five loyal High Priests should be present at your death. The soul in the Black Magician was one of your High Priests. It doesn't matter which you it is that dies; your five High Priests must be present. It is our wish."
"No! I can't kill Yuugi!" But the cards didn't seem to want to listen to him.
"Do not resist, Pharaoh! You are the victor," Isis shouted. Though they were all in the living room, they seemed miles apart.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as Atemu's monster attacked Yuugi's helpless Celtic Guardian.
"NO! YUUGI!"
"Atemu... goodbye." Yuugi closed his eyes as a blast of light issued from their dueling mats as the mini-monsters flew into battle.
"NO! YUUGI!"
YUUGI! He can't die! I have to save him! Atemu coughed hoarsely and phlegm filled his throat, suffocating him. If he dies, I live, but for how long, I don't know...
Suddenly, the shadows in the room grew and grew, the very house shaking with Atemu's rage.
"I WON'T KILL HIM!" he shouted. He shoved his hand over his deck. "I SURRENDER!"
But his monster didn't hear him. It was too late. The Celtic Guardian would be dead in a matter of seconds, along with Yuugi.
He saw Yuugi's form begin to shimmer across the card table, tears running down his shorter counterpart's cheeks.
"Yuugi!"
"Atemu, I'll miss you..." Yuug's voice cut off as the Celtic Guardian was nearly totally destroyed.
"NO!" Atemu roared. "DON'T DIE, YUUGI!" He did the only thing he could think to do. He grabbed his Black Magician card and ripped it up, a fraction of a second before the Celtic Guardian would have been finished off. The Black Magician Girl, now without her teacher, looked up to Atemu with huge, glowing orbs. He bent down.
"This is not honorable. Killing is not honorable. Black Magician Girl, attack me."
He heard Sogoroku gasp and Anzu scream as the Black Magician Girl attacked him directly. Yuugi's figure became more solid in its existence as Atemu slumped in his chair, his life points destroyed. Yuugi blinked. He was no longer sinking.
"Atemu!" He ran to the older boy, supporting his head and grasping one of his hands.
"Yuugi..." Atemu gasped, losing breath by the second as the shadows oozed away from everyone else, wriggling forward and swallowing him up.
It had been three months since Atemu predicted he would die in less than two months. Yuugi asked the burning question that filled up his entire being.
"A-Atemu... Are you going to die?"
"Yes," came his answer, barely audible. The others in the room had now rushed over, Ryou supporting a crying Shizuka and Mai hugging Anzu tightly as tears flowed freely down each of their cheeks.
Yuugi brushed a few bangs from Atemu's forehead. "Does it hurt?"
"No... it's wonderful... I've been waiting for it, Yuugi..."
Yuugi screamed in anger as Atemu's body gave a violent shudder.
"NO!"
"Yuugi, Jii-chan, Anzu, everyone... thank you all so much..." His face reddened as he wheezed and spluttered for air.
"ATEMU!"
"Yuugi... don't be scared... please don't be scared... for me..." Yuugi gulped.
"I'M NOT! BUT IT'S NOT FAIR!"
"Don't be... angry... Yuugi..." Atemu's eyes slipped closed and his breathing stopped altogether. He didn't try anymore, as the shadows working their way up his body slowly rode up his neck. It was the last time his eyes saw, and the last time they were seen. Their fierce crimson fire, once so commanding and regal, had disappeared, faded away to a dizzy, peaceful, accepting, resting lavender sea of heaven and dreams.
"Atemu... what kept you alive... so long? Was... was it worth it? WHAT MADE IT WORTH IT?" Yuugi screamed, desperately hugging Atemu to him. He didn't expect an answer.
"Yuujyou, Aibou. Yuujyou..." (1) Tears ceased to flow from Atemu's eyes as he gave a final sob and shudder, the hand holding one of Yuugi's squeezing the smaller hand a last time, before falling limp and icy. His face fell from Yuugi's grip, his body twisting and writhing around in the air, completely cocooned in terrible black silence. Then, slowly, the cocoon began to shimmer and rise into the air. Yuugi screamed as his puzzle shook and cracked into a million pieces, all rising to join the wave of terror floating about the middle of the room. Wisps of darkness separated from it and fled the place, breathing down all their necks, then vanishing into thin air. When the last of the black matter had dissolved, Yuugi spotted something, and stooped to the ground.
In front of him were pieces. Pieces of everything. The puzzle pieces had all shattered, but they were all there. Pieces of the moon shone in through a window, but pieces of setting sun came in through an opposite one. Pieces of all their hearts lay within all this, broken into thousands of pieces. Pieces, pieces, pieces. Everyone watched silently as Yuugi pieced the sennen puzzle back together, tears bubbling over the edges of his eyes. He completed it in a matter of minutes, his mind a blur, and held his old treasure up in the light.
It was then that he saw them. It was then that they all saw them. The pieces of paper that had been Atemu's Black Magician lay on the floor. Yuugi stooped down. He found a main piece, and set it before him. And another, and another, and another...
Until only one remained to set into place. He set the tiny piece that was the Black Magician's face into place.
Something shifted inside everyone in the room, and from all of their tears formed a glittering, shimmering, ghostly figure. The Black Magician, Mahaado, stood before Yuugi. They all watched as it bowed low to the short teen, then disappeared in a flurry of light, accompanied by a sound, a rasp, yet rounded like a bell's pitch, and high yet deep, like the voices of many mourners at a funeral blended together.
No one was ever able to place an actual, single thing to call that sound. So it lived on, to the world as the whisper of the disappearance of an unmatched Game King, to the world of gaming as a legend ending in silence, and to everyone present at that time, as the final battle cry of the Black Magician.
(1) "Friendship, Aibou. Friendship..."
So that's it, folks! Hope you liked it... I cried while I was killing him off... I'm a pathetic sap. If anyone wants an epilogue, I've got a idea. And it's not like, one of those walking-through-the-graveyard epilogues that everyone does either. So if y'all want an epilogue, just holler!
Angel-of-the-Apocalypse, you reviewed just as I was typing this last one! How cool is that? I completely understand about school. The heck with it, I say!
Thanks, Jadeyuy! Cool pen name, by the way.
Sorry, Ksaturn, but -sniff sniff- he had to die. It was the purpose of this story. -sniff sniff- I know, I'm evil. But... I'm glad you liked it nonetheless!
OMG, YOU'RE RIGHT, Electric Fire! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?! I'VE KILLED OFF THE HOT GUY WHO DRESSES IN LEATHER!!! ACK!!! Ah well. Life goes on, ne? And he's in LXHB, so I really don't have much to worry about... -drools- -drools- -drools- -drools-
Kaiba's speech made you cry, Ninqe? I HAVE FOUND A PARTNER IN SAPPINESS! Hehe, sorry... little speeches like that make me cry too... though I didn't cry when I was writing that one... but you know what I mean. Sappy stuff, like... Seto in Papyrus. Compassionate, sappy, fluffy, kind, and hot, all in one! My kind of tear-jerking speech! Poor Kaiba... I do believe we torture him... I make him nice... you make him blind (Don't you?)... we'd better run...
Sorry, YamiLoverGurlz. It turned out to be quite a long wait. Ah... heh heh... Gomen nasai.
No, 'his' was Yuugi, Jgal. Sorry if I confused you there. I hope you liked the ending!
Thankies very muchly, Black-Caracal!
Sorry, SonicYugiShadow, but I tried to fit Sonic in, and it was gonna be a humor bit, but then I realized that what I had down would totally mess up the flow of the story, and I already had this written, and I'd have to change everything about the ending to make Sonic fit in... and I didn't want to change this one. So gomen nasai, I goofed.
Thankies all so much, my wonderful reviewers and supporters through this story! Bye bye!
-BlackCharmgirl