Yoh slid off Amidamaru, his feet landing gently on the floor. The samurai sat up and watched as Yoh made for the door.
"Well, see you later, Amidamaru." The young shaman grunted as he stretched. "Anna wants me doing 3 miles before breakfast, I think. Not as bad as usual, huh?"
Amidamaru nodded once, smiling.
"Actually," Yoh said, turning round at the door. "Come and meet me downstairs after I've finished training at about dinnertime. I've got something to show you."
Again, Amidamaru nodded once and Yoh departed, Anna's angry calls ringing in his ears.
The ancient samurai stretched and sat on the side of the bed, fastening his sandals on. In less than an hour he had gone from being terrified of any sexual touch to desperately wanting more – what was Yoh doing to him? The boy had complete control; Amidamaru was a slave to the shaman's kisses and caresses.
Amidamaru headed downstairs.
---
If there was a bad thing about being alive apart from the ability to feel pain, it was called Anna. Anna was happy in her own way of showing no emotion that Amidamaru was at last able to properly hold the toilet brush. She had been working the samurai like a slave, only letting him stop for the occasional drink. Now Amidamaru truly knew how Manta felt.
There was one big difference between Manta and Amidamaru, though. While Manta complained almost non-stop, Amidamaru never uttered a word in self- defence. He went about his tasks without protest.
His mind was elsewhere, engrossed in what Yoh had told him earlier that morning. What could the Shaman possibly have to show him? Offhand, he could not think of anything – unless it was some sort of katana? He shook his head slowly. No. Maybe that was the sort of thing Mosuke would have been eager to show him 600 years ago, but this was a different life, a different time. It was not likely to be a katana.
He inspected the spotless room scornfully, picked up his mop and bucket and moved on to his next assignment, the master bedroom. It was relatively easy, as no one ever slept in it. It was supposedly being saved for Anna and Yoh when Yoh became Shaman King. Amidamaru was glad to see that there were two single beds. After what Yoh had done to him that morning, he felt sickened imagining the young shaman with a girl.
He made the bed and fluffed up the pillow, pausing momentarily, leaning over the bed, taking a rest. He gasped in surprise as two hands snaked their way around his waist and down the inside of his robes to his hips.
"Guess who?" Yoh grinned from behind.
"Yoh!" Amidamaru exhaled. "You scared me, I thought you were..."
"You thought I was him, didn't you?" Yoh frowned as he realised his mistake. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you."
Amidamaru turned round, his thin face tender and gentle.
"It's ok, Yoh." He managed a half-smile. Yoh returned it before suddenly brightening up.
"Anna working you hard, huh?" He asked. Amidamaru nodded. "Look, there's time before dinner. Come with me, I have to show you something."
"But Anna..."
"I'm Yoh."
"No, you misunderstand me. Anna hates it if I leave a job unfinished."
Yoh sighed and rolled his eyes. When Anna had introduced herself to Amidamaru way back in the beginning, her way of saying "hello" was to tie him up in her necklace multiple times. It was hardly a wonder that the samurai had some sort of deep-rooted fear of her.
Yoh led Amidamaru to one of the unused rooms in the house, producing a key. Amidamaru's face was contorted in bewilderment; he did not know what was coming.
Unbeknownst to Amidamaru, after Yoh had knocked the voodoo priest out, Ren and Bason had dragged him back to the Asakura residence. He was imprisoned in the very room that the shaman and his guardian were standing outside, secured by the very same chains that had bound Amidamaru. Yoh called that justice.
Yoh opened the door slowly.
"I think you should go in alone." He whispered. Amidamaru frowned and walked in hesitantly. There was a sneering chuckle from the corner of the room on his entrance.
"You." An all too familiar voice mocked. "I should have known you'd be back for more."
Amidamaru stared impassively down at the man who had made his life hell, at the face which haunted his dreams, tormented his life. The voodoo laughed.
"You think you are strong? You are weak! You are weaker than the smallest newborn baby! I can break you as easily as a twig. I can rip through your mind, I can tear you apart! No one cares about you. You belong to me. I will always be able to manipulate you, to command you to do my bidding. You are, and always will be, my slave."
The voodoo finished his short, scathing speech, but it did not have the desired effect. Amidamaru remained emotionless.
Then, the sinister man drew his arm back and punched Amidamaru in the face, the chains barely reaching the limit. Amidamaru did not flinch and his eyes barely flickered as he brought his hand to his nose. It came away bloody.
"You may regret doing that." He said tonelessly before turning on his heel and exiting the room.
Yoh closed the door after him, locking it. The young shaman looked worriedly up at his friend.
"Yoh... you do not mind if I spend some time alone?" Amidamaru asked suddenly. Yoh smiled and shook his head.
"Go ahead – you want me to bring dinner up?"
"No. I am not hungry."
---
Amidamaru kicked his sandals off and flung himself on to the bed. Meeting with his torturer again had just succeeded in confusing him even more and he wondered vaguely why Yoh had taken him down there in the first place.
He dozed off for a while, semi conscious, still exhausted from nights of insomnia. It was a most amazing feeling, like that of all his troubles and cares being locked from his mind. He knew, on some subconscious level, that they would bother him when he woke fully up, but he was floating on a transparent sea of nothing.
Footsteps from somewhere snapped him out of his state of perpetual fantasy. He looked sleepily at the clock on the table by his bed – fuck! It was already 11.pm! How had the time passed so quickly, he had surely only been asleep for ten minutes...?
His mind wandered back to the speech given by the voodoo priest, short and mocking. As the cutting sentences relayed themselves in his mind, he answered them out loud.
You think you are strong? You are weak!
"I know."
You are weaker than the smallest newborn baby!
"I know."
I can break you like a twig.
"Yes."
I can rip through your mind.
"Yes."
I can tear you apart.
"Yes."
No one cares about you.
"No. You are wrong. Yoh cares."
You belong to me
"I belong to Yoh."
I will always be able to manipulate you, to command you to do my bidding.
"I belong to Yoh."
You are, and always will be, my slave.
"No. I will not let you control me any more."
There was a sudden, timid knock at the door. Amidamaru gave it a puzzled glance as it swung open, revealing a dishevelled, tired looking Yoh.
"Amidamaru? I thought I heard voices." The shaman yawned. "And, being as talking to yourself is the first kind of madness, I came to check if you were ok."
Yoh paused as he opened his eyes, which widened with surprise.
"Holy...! What are you wearing?"
Amidamaru looked sceptically down at himself. He was wearing the clothes he slept in: some baggy pants that were loosely done up at the waist, and an old, ragged Hawaiian shirt that revealed his torso right down to his navel. He frowned, remembering Yoh had never seen him out of his samurai robes. How different he must look!
"Anna picked them out for me." He explained. "I sleep in them. Admittedly, the buttons of the shirt do rub sometimes."
Yoh raised an eyebrow.
"Why don't you do up the shirt then?"
Amidamaru blushed.
"It does not fit, I am too fat for it."
"Fat?" Yoh asked incredulously, placing his hands on the warrior's torso. He felt the lean, sinewy toughness of the muscles underneath the skin, felt the ripples as they strained and tensed when Amidamaru moved or breathed.
Amidamaru smiled.
"I am merely quoting Anna."
"If that's fat then I'm the Queen of England!"
"You are?" Amidamaru asked, looking quite alarmed. Yoh grinned.
"No. Well, anyway. If it's the shirt that annoys you, you could just take it off, you know."
Amidamaru paused and then slid the dilapidated shirt off his shoulders. Yoh's eyes widened as it fell to the floor; he had been joking when he said to take it off. The young shaman was momentarily tongue-tied.
"...wow, Amidamaru..."
Amidamaru became uneasy under the boy's lingering gaze. Yoh's fingertips were tickling his sternum. Tiny jolts of electricity were firing from each contact point, and they had the distinct intention of gathering in his nether regions. He shifted uncomfortably and Yoh blinked, shaking himself.
"I can see you were just about to go to bed, so... I'll bugger off now." He flashed one of his contagious smiles and started for the door.
"Wait..." Amidamaru began, not entirely believing what he was planning to ask. "Yoh..."
Yoh turned. Amidamaru hesitated momentarily.
"Stay with me, Yoh... please... it hurts to be away from you... please stay, I..."
Yoh grinned and placed his finger on his lips to show that Amidamaru need say no more and that he would stay. Amidamaru visibly sagged with relief. He slumped on the edge of the bed and Yoh moved to join him.
Amidamaru slipped under the covers and beckoned Yoh to join him. The two of them snuggled together, body heat mingling, chasing away all the cold.
Amidamaru remembered the last time he had been in this position, back in the cell. It seemed so long ago, he was so tired, so intoxicated...
Yoh felt Amidamaru fall asleep next to him and breathed a sigh of contentment. Two weeks ago, if someone had told him he would be sleeping in the same bed as his guardian, let alone being held by him, he would have dismissed them as either insane or just very very perverted. Now, though...
For the first time in days, Amidamaru slept peacefully. The same cannot be said for Yoh.
---
The stench of decay was overpowering. Yoh opened his eyes. He was back in the cell, that little room where he had spent almost a week, though it was different to how he remembered it. Blood smeared the walls; puddles of it stained the floor. It had not been like this when he had been in there last. What had happened?
There was a movement from near the wall. Yoh's stomach knotted, unknotted and convulsed several times as he vomited at the sight of Amidamaru, who was shackled to the wall, as before. Every inch of the great warrior's bare skin was bruised, or else it was torn and bloody.
Amidamaru's face, stained with mingled blood, tears and dirt, was creased with pain as the voodoo slammed into him from behind. Yoh's stomach convulsed again. He could hear the ragged, laboured breathing from his samurai; the long, drawn out moans which escalated into full-fledged screams of pain. Amidamaru's gaunt, emaciated body jolted with every one of the other man's violent thrusts.
Yoh knelt down by his friend's head, stroking the matted hair. Amidamaru's eyes shot open, filled with terror and pain.
"Yoh...?" He gasped. Yoh nodded, biting back the tears that were already threatening to fall.
"I'm here, Amidamaru." He muttered. Amidamaru's head lolled to the side, his eyes suddenly sightless.
"Leave me, Yoh..." He inhaled agonisingly. "leave... me..."
"Never." Yoh said defiantly. Amidamaru struggled to continue breathing and suddenly Yoh knew; Amidamaru was dying before his very eyes, he was watching his friend die... then he would do what Mosuke never could – he would not let Amidamaru die alone. Not again.
There was another shuddering breath from Amidamaru, who now seemed completely oblivious to Yoh. Every time he drew a breath now, it was to plead for release from his torture.
"Oh, let... let me die... let me die... please... let me die..."
Yoh smelt something, something new, something apart from the overpowering stench of rotting flesh and blood. It smelt strange, like a new roast meal out of the oven. There was a crackling sound, one that was vaguely familiar but he could not place.
Amidamaru's whimper of relief drew him back to the voodoo, who had withdrawn. The man looked angry and scared; he was looking up at the door to the basement. Yoh glanced up and saw the reason.
Fire. A chemical spill, the flammable material was even now seeping into the dungeon, liquid flames. Yoh sighed in relief – when the fire services broke through they would surely find Amidamaru. He would be saved and the voodoo would be brought to justice.
The same thought seemed to have occurred to the voodoo himself; he was dragged Amidamaru's limp, unresisting body towards a large puddle of the leaking chemical. The samurai was drenched in it; the tattered remains of his clothes were saturated. With one final heave, the voodoo shoved Amidamaru into the advancing flame.
Amidamaru's final despairing cry rang in Yoh's ears, as did the laughter of the voodoo as he fled through the back door to the basement.
Yoh was stunned, but he had realised what this reality was – and it was indeed a reality. It was what would have happened if he had not turned up to save Amidamaru. Could... could the samurai really have been destroyed in the way he had been, consumed by flame, with only the memory of rape to take with him to the other side? Yes. Yes, that was how the voodoo would have ended Amidamaru's suffering, if Yoh had not turned up.
Yoh felt himself losing consciousness, the smoke blinding and choking him as he sought for Amidamaru's body in the flames. He could feel his skin smouldering, scorching, burning away... almost bubbling and melting... but he did not care. It had ended.
Yoh woke up, panting and sweating. It took a while for his breathing to go back to normal, the nightmare had been so... real, so vivid. He felt a pang of guilt. In that reality, the one he had just come from, he had never had a chance to say goodbye... was this how Mosuke had felt? Not having a chance to say goodbye...
He looked to his side. Amidamaru was still sleeping, undisturbed by Yoh's movements, unaware that the shaman had witnessed his ultimate destruction.
"Well, see you later, Amidamaru." The young shaman grunted as he stretched. "Anna wants me doing 3 miles before breakfast, I think. Not as bad as usual, huh?"
Amidamaru nodded once, smiling.
"Actually," Yoh said, turning round at the door. "Come and meet me downstairs after I've finished training at about dinnertime. I've got something to show you."
Again, Amidamaru nodded once and Yoh departed, Anna's angry calls ringing in his ears.
The ancient samurai stretched and sat on the side of the bed, fastening his sandals on. In less than an hour he had gone from being terrified of any sexual touch to desperately wanting more – what was Yoh doing to him? The boy had complete control; Amidamaru was a slave to the shaman's kisses and caresses.
Amidamaru headed downstairs.
---
If there was a bad thing about being alive apart from the ability to feel pain, it was called Anna. Anna was happy in her own way of showing no emotion that Amidamaru was at last able to properly hold the toilet brush. She had been working the samurai like a slave, only letting him stop for the occasional drink. Now Amidamaru truly knew how Manta felt.
There was one big difference between Manta and Amidamaru, though. While Manta complained almost non-stop, Amidamaru never uttered a word in self- defence. He went about his tasks without protest.
His mind was elsewhere, engrossed in what Yoh had told him earlier that morning. What could the Shaman possibly have to show him? Offhand, he could not think of anything – unless it was some sort of katana? He shook his head slowly. No. Maybe that was the sort of thing Mosuke would have been eager to show him 600 years ago, but this was a different life, a different time. It was not likely to be a katana.
He inspected the spotless room scornfully, picked up his mop and bucket and moved on to his next assignment, the master bedroom. It was relatively easy, as no one ever slept in it. It was supposedly being saved for Anna and Yoh when Yoh became Shaman King. Amidamaru was glad to see that there were two single beds. After what Yoh had done to him that morning, he felt sickened imagining the young shaman with a girl.
He made the bed and fluffed up the pillow, pausing momentarily, leaning over the bed, taking a rest. He gasped in surprise as two hands snaked their way around his waist and down the inside of his robes to his hips.
"Guess who?" Yoh grinned from behind.
"Yoh!" Amidamaru exhaled. "You scared me, I thought you were..."
"You thought I was him, didn't you?" Yoh frowned as he realised his mistake. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you."
Amidamaru turned round, his thin face tender and gentle.
"It's ok, Yoh." He managed a half-smile. Yoh returned it before suddenly brightening up.
"Anna working you hard, huh?" He asked. Amidamaru nodded. "Look, there's time before dinner. Come with me, I have to show you something."
"But Anna..."
"I'm Yoh."
"No, you misunderstand me. Anna hates it if I leave a job unfinished."
Yoh sighed and rolled his eyes. When Anna had introduced herself to Amidamaru way back in the beginning, her way of saying "hello" was to tie him up in her necklace multiple times. It was hardly a wonder that the samurai had some sort of deep-rooted fear of her.
Yoh led Amidamaru to one of the unused rooms in the house, producing a key. Amidamaru's face was contorted in bewilderment; he did not know what was coming.
Unbeknownst to Amidamaru, after Yoh had knocked the voodoo priest out, Ren and Bason had dragged him back to the Asakura residence. He was imprisoned in the very room that the shaman and his guardian were standing outside, secured by the very same chains that had bound Amidamaru. Yoh called that justice.
Yoh opened the door slowly.
"I think you should go in alone." He whispered. Amidamaru frowned and walked in hesitantly. There was a sneering chuckle from the corner of the room on his entrance.
"You." An all too familiar voice mocked. "I should have known you'd be back for more."
Amidamaru stared impassively down at the man who had made his life hell, at the face which haunted his dreams, tormented his life. The voodoo laughed.
"You think you are strong? You are weak! You are weaker than the smallest newborn baby! I can break you as easily as a twig. I can rip through your mind, I can tear you apart! No one cares about you. You belong to me. I will always be able to manipulate you, to command you to do my bidding. You are, and always will be, my slave."
The voodoo finished his short, scathing speech, but it did not have the desired effect. Amidamaru remained emotionless.
Then, the sinister man drew his arm back and punched Amidamaru in the face, the chains barely reaching the limit. Amidamaru did not flinch and his eyes barely flickered as he brought his hand to his nose. It came away bloody.
"You may regret doing that." He said tonelessly before turning on his heel and exiting the room.
Yoh closed the door after him, locking it. The young shaman looked worriedly up at his friend.
"Yoh... you do not mind if I spend some time alone?" Amidamaru asked suddenly. Yoh smiled and shook his head.
"Go ahead – you want me to bring dinner up?"
"No. I am not hungry."
---
Amidamaru kicked his sandals off and flung himself on to the bed. Meeting with his torturer again had just succeeded in confusing him even more and he wondered vaguely why Yoh had taken him down there in the first place.
He dozed off for a while, semi conscious, still exhausted from nights of insomnia. It was a most amazing feeling, like that of all his troubles and cares being locked from his mind. He knew, on some subconscious level, that they would bother him when he woke fully up, but he was floating on a transparent sea of nothing.
Footsteps from somewhere snapped him out of his state of perpetual fantasy. He looked sleepily at the clock on the table by his bed – fuck! It was already 11.pm! How had the time passed so quickly, he had surely only been asleep for ten minutes...?
His mind wandered back to the speech given by the voodoo priest, short and mocking. As the cutting sentences relayed themselves in his mind, he answered them out loud.
You think you are strong? You are weak!
"I know."
You are weaker than the smallest newborn baby!
"I know."
I can break you like a twig.
"Yes."
I can rip through your mind.
"Yes."
I can tear you apart.
"Yes."
No one cares about you.
"No. You are wrong. Yoh cares."
You belong to me
"I belong to Yoh."
I will always be able to manipulate you, to command you to do my bidding.
"I belong to Yoh."
You are, and always will be, my slave.
"No. I will not let you control me any more."
There was a sudden, timid knock at the door. Amidamaru gave it a puzzled glance as it swung open, revealing a dishevelled, tired looking Yoh.
"Amidamaru? I thought I heard voices." The shaman yawned. "And, being as talking to yourself is the first kind of madness, I came to check if you were ok."
Yoh paused as he opened his eyes, which widened with surprise.
"Holy...! What are you wearing?"
Amidamaru looked sceptically down at himself. He was wearing the clothes he slept in: some baggy pants that were loosely done up at the waist, and an old, ragged Hawaiian shirt that revealed his torso right down to his navel. He frowned, remembering Yoh had never seen him out of his samurai robes. How different he must look!
"Anna picked them out for me." He explained. "I sleep in them. Admittedly, the buttons of the shirt do rub sometimes."
Yoh raised an eyebrow.
"Why don't you do up the shirt then?"
Amidamaru blushed.
"It does not fit, I am too fat for it."
"Fat?" Yoh asked incredulously, placing his hands on the warrior's torso. He felt the lean, sinewy toughness of the muscles underneath the skin, felt the ripples as they strained and tensed when Amidamaru moved or breathed.
Amidamaru smiled.
"I am merely quoting Anna."
"If that's fat then I'm the Queen of England!"
"You are?" Amidamaru asked, looking quite alarmed. Yoh grinned.
"No. Well, anyway. If it's the shirt that annoys you, you could just take it off, you know."
Amidamaru paused and then slid the dilapidated shirt off his shoulders. Yoh's eyes widened as it fell to the floor; he had been joking when he said to take it off. The young shaman was momentarily tongue-tied.
"...wow, Amidamaru..."
Amidamaru became uneasy under the boy's lingering gaze. Yoh's fingertips were tickling his sternum. Tiny jolts of electricity were firing from each contact point, and they had the distinct intention of gathering in his nether regions. He shifted uncomfortably and Yoh blinked, shaking himself.
"I can see you were just about to go to bed, so... I'll bugger off now." He flashed one of his contagious smiles and started for the door.
"Wait..." Amidamaru began, not entirely believing what he was planning to ask. "Yoh..."
Yoh turned. Amidamaru hesitated momentarily.
"Stay with me, Yoh... please... it hurts to be away from you... please stay, I..."
Yoh grinned and placed his finger on his lips to show that Amidamaru need say no more and that he would stay. Amidamaru visibly sagged with relief. He slumped on the edge of the bed and Yoh moved to join him.
Amidamaru slipped under the covers and beckoned Yoh to join him. The two of them snuggled together, body heat mingling, chasing away all the cold.
Amidamaru remembered the last time he had been in this position, back in the cell. It seemed so long ago, he was so tired, so intoxicated...
Yoh felt Amidamaru fall asleep next to him and breathed a sigh of contentment. Two weeks ago, if someone had told him he would be sleeping in the same bed as his guardian, let alone being held by him, he would have dismissed them as either insane or just very very perverted. Now, though...
For the first time in days, Amidamaru slept peacefully. The same cannot be said for Yoh.
---
The stench of decay was overpowering. Yoh opened his eyes. He was back in the cell, that little room where he had spent almost a week, though it was different to how he remembered it. Blood smeared the walls; puddles of it stained the floor. It had not been like this when he had been in there last. What had happened?
There was a movement from near the wall. Yoh's stomach knotted, unknotted and convulsed several times as he vomited at the sight of Amidamaru, who was shackled to the wall, as before. Every inch of the great warrior's bare skin was bruised, or else it was torn and bloody.
Amidamaru's face, stained with mingled blood, tears and dirt, was creased with pain as the voodoo slammed into him from behind. Yoh's stomach convulsed again. He could hear the ragged, laboured breathing from his samurai; the long, drawn out moans which escalated into full-fledged screams of pain. Amidamaru's gaunt, emaciated body jolted with every one of the other man's violent thrusts.
Yoh knelt down by his friend's head, stroking the matted hair. Amidamaru's eyes shot open, filled with terror and pain.
"Yoh...?" He gasped. Yoh nodded, biting back the tears that were already threatening to fall.
"I'm here, Amidamaru." He muttered. Amidamaru's head lolled to the side, his eyes suddenly sightless.
"Leave me, Yoh..." He inhaled agonisingly. "leave... me..."
"Never." Yoh said defiantly. Amidamaru struggled to continue breathing and suddenly Yoh knew; Amidamaru was dying before his very eyes, he was watching his friend die... then he would do what Mosuke never could – he would not let Amidamaru die alone. Not again.
There was another shuddering breath from Amidamaru, who now seemed completely oblivious to Yoh. Every time he drew a breath now, it was to plead for release from his torture.
"Oh, let... let me die... let me die... please... let me die..."
Yoh smelt something, something new, something apart from the overpowering stench of rotting flesh and blood. It smelt strange, like a new roast meal out of the oven. There was a crackling sound, one that was vaguely familiar but he could not place.
Amidamaru's whimper of relief drew him back to the voodoo, who had withdrawn. The man looked angry and scared; he was looking up at the door to the basement. Yoh glanced up and saw the reason.
Fire. A chemical spill, the flammable material was even now seeping into the dungeon, liquid flames. Yoh sighed in relief – when the fire services broke through they would surely find Amidamaru. He would be saved and the voodoo would be brought to justice.
The same thought seemed to have occurred to the voodoo himself; he was dragged Amidamaru's limp, unresisting body towards a large puddle of the leaking chemical. The samurai was drenched in it; the tattered remains of his clothes were saturated. With one final heave, the voodoo shoved Amidamaru into the advancing flame.
Amidamaru's final despairing cry rang in Yoh's ears, as did the laughter of the voodoo as he fled through the back door to the basement.
Yoh was stunned, but he had realised what this reality was – and it was indeed a reality. It was what would have happened if he had not turned up to save Amidamaru. Could... could the samurai really have been destroyed in the way he had been, consumed by flame, with only the memory of rape to take with him to the other side? Yes. Yes, that was how the voodoo would have ended Amidamaru's suffering, if Yoh had not turned up.
Yoh felt himself losing consciousness, the smoke blinding and choking him as he sought for Amidamaru's body in the flames. He could feel his skin smouldering, scorching, burning away... almost bubbling and melting... but he did not care. It had ended.
Yoh woke up, panting and sweating. It took a while for his breathing to go back to normal, the nightmare had been so... real, so vivid. He felt a pang of guilt. In that reality, the one he had just come from, he had never had a chance to say goodbye... was this how Mosuke had felt? Not having a chance to say goodbye...
He looked to his side. Amidamaru was still sleeping, undisturbed by Yoh's movements, unaware that the shaman had witnessed his ultimate destruction.