Take note – I am in NO way associated with Cartoon Network, Renegade Animation, the REAL Puffy AmiYumi or Sam Register. I do NOT own Hi-Hi PAY in any way, shape or form. Again, this is based off the ANIMATED Puffy not the REAL one.

Well, due to the content of this chapter and the next, the rating has been bumped UP to Mature. Don't be fooled though, this is probably the chapter you've been waiting for - the fall of Yumi! Angst fans rejoice! - Kyo

Chapter 3 – Dysfunctional Blasphemy

Silence. So silent you could hear Kaz's stomach gurgle. Maybe if he had something to eat rather than try his hand the hotel's casinos. 'Ugh, I should've gotten something to eat… but money makes everything all better,' Kaz then frowned, '… or a cheeseburger.'

Ever since that truffle from earlier that day, Ami and Yumi have not said a word to each other. Could you blame them really – one would be happy to punch her own 'friend' in the face just because she couldn't admit her faults. The other annoyed her 'friend' in the process of trying to cheer her up. Twelve minutes until curtain time, and the girls just wanted this over so they could do their own thing. The only time ANY of them spoke was during rehearsal, but only for their songs. (And… 'Helpful' advice, IF yelling and cursing and sarcasm is considered helpful, anywho.)

'All right, girls – remember these people are rich and have lots of cash! This means go out there and give them your best performance! Remember – Relax, look alive and GO GET ME SOME CASH!' Kaz's usual pep talk didn't get any response, just a nod from Yumi as she coldly stared at Ami. Ami countered her knife-like stare with her very own as their eyes met, probably making one of those weird anime spark thingies you see in the 'toons nowadays. Well then.

As the girls got to their positions, joining some guest keyboarders – Yumi on her 'axe' and Ami ever-so-eager to use her drums – the auditorium they were going to play in, which was almost half the size of a deluxe football stadium, was filled with the important elements – the huge crowds of Puffy fans, the noise of the people who finally got to see their idols walk on stage, and the lighting was perfect on them. 'Wow. Look at all these losers… sucks for them.' Yumi couldn't help but think that to herself, and then, like a certain half-demon from a video game that wears a red trench coat, she smirked rather cockily and quickly grabbed the microphone in one swipe. She dramatically posed and pointed out to her fans.

'YOSH! IKUZO TO ROKKU ON! PAAFII-SUTAIRU!'
(Author's note - This basically means 'Alright! Let's Go and ROCK ON! PUFFY STYLE!)

The people were cheering even louder now as Yumi smugly put the mic back on the stand, now feeding her ego which then her cockiness kicked her into overdrive! She started with the opening riffs to their first song. All Ami could do was roll her eyes and proceeded to start drumming.

Minutes became almost an hour, as they were finishing up their last song. To this point, the people in the crowd got into it, as you could see some people holding up glow sticks and some singing along with their favorite songs. As the song was coming to a conclusion, a thought dawned upon Yumi. 'If it's a show they want, I'll give them a damn show – DEMON STYLE.' The song came to a complete close. The keyboarders stopped composing and Ami stopped drumming, catching a breather. However, the auditorium was filled with one sound only – the insane riffing of Yumi. To describe it – it sounded like it came straight from Satan himself.

Yumi started going insane on the guitar, moving her fingers to speeds that'd probably catch her instrument on fire. As she gritted her teeth, enduring the burn that was starting on her fingers, she started rocking her head rather violently. Her pupils lost that shine in eyes, as if she were possessed. The people in the audience thought this was part of the show. Ami, however, became concerned once more. 'Y-Yumi?'

'KI-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUU!'

The way Yumi pulled back and screamed towards the ceiling was like the 1800-year-old spirit of Orochi flowing through her blood, possessing her. Whipping the guitar in break-neck speeds, she slammed her axe on the floor, creating sparks and debris flying from the area in front of her. The crowd cheered louder, not aware that Yumi's oft-mentioned dark side kicked in. Without warning she grabbed the nearest keyboard and smashed it at one of the keyboard players, breaking it on impact. She picked up the now unconscious keyboarder player and slammed him into the second one, picking up the corpse again and slamming him into the nearest pillar, drilling his chest with fast punches, each one hurting worse and worse, as more blood flew from the poor lad upon each impact. Just the site of the blood made Yumi's craving for violence lust for more of this. 'MORE…MORE…I WANT YOU TO CRY, SCREAM, THEN DIE!'

Ami was appalled. The facial expression she had was like a kid who just saw his favorite dog get hit by a car before their very eyes. 'This isn't Yumi! Y-Yumi wouldn't do this! Why, Yumi, WHY!' The crowd grew from excited to afraid, as the lot of them started panicking, a handful running outside the auditorium. The man Yumi held was barely still breathing after all this. It's a surprise really, considering that Yumi did something that would probably have killed an elephant. She held the guy up close to her, starting to choke the guy. 'JUST LAY HERE AND DIE!' Right there and then in the corner of her eye, she saw a pink-haired girl start crying in fear. All Ami could do was cry with the shocked look on her face, and not because she was afraid of getting killed next. No, she just felt like her whole world came crashing down on what should've been a nice evening. Right then, Yumi's eyes seem to have become more human-like again, looking at what she held in her hand – a bloody corpse of an actual human being, that she attacked herself! How he was barely alive is beyond anyone!

In a panic, Yumi dropped the body and yelled in fear backing away from it and then looking to the crowd. Everyone was silent, staring at who used to be their hero. The same girl who became famous due a band. The same girl whose rebellious attitude was part of her charm. Holding back from tearing up, Yumi darted straight off the stage and ran right out of the backdoor leading into the ally.

Ami was still stunned with the shock expression on her face. 'I don't know what got into Yumi, but please don't do anything stupid…'

Just then Kaz walked in with a chilidog. 'Hey why's everyone silent? Haha, you guys act like some person just got murdered on – ' Right before he could finish that sentence, he saw an almost-dead corpse on the floor, bathing lightly in a nice pool of blood.

'Great. So now I'M the jerk.' Way to shoot your mouth off at the wrong time, Kaz.

The dark alley was covered in a nice blue hue, given off by the moonlight. This would have been romantic if this were that situation. The figure of a woman can be found leaning against the wall that was outside the auditorium. She was in an area that no one would be able to find her. The arm-warmers that girl was wearing earlier is now off her arms, exposing the many lashes and cuts that populated her arms. You could hear a light crying from the girl as a fresh one was added by a small razor she kept in the latch of her boot.

'This…. this is what I deserve. I deserve this for what I did to them! I didn't want this to happen tonight! FOR BUDDHA'S SAKE, WHY CAN'T I JUST DIE!' Yumi just slid down there slowly, covering her face with her hands sobbing away at the monster who ruined their show, which happened to be her. 'I'm sick of my very joke of an existence! I'm just a damn puppet of God. God, Buddha, Ganesh, I don't freakin' care anymore! They are all probably up there, laughing it the hell up at my misfortunes!' She stands up still hugging her arms closely as blood leaked a bit. 'IF YOU ARE LISTENING, WHOEVER IS UP THERE IN THE BEYOND, I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW YOU CAN GO TAKE YOUR HIGH-AND-MIGHTY PRIDE AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR – '

What distracted her lust for suicide, however, was a purple gleaming light, not bright, yet bright enough to gather some attention from the 'creatures of the night' or the clubbers. The sign said 'High Tiger Club Ryo' and below it said 'ladies drink free!'

'That's what I need,' Yumi started putting the arm warmers on again to cover her wounds. '…A damn drink. Or two. Hell maybe three. I want to forget this night ever happened.' That said, Yumi walked inside the place.

Inside that club was a fusion of colored lights, pumping eurodance and house on the speakers, people giving themselves up to the music of the night, and of course the bar where people would enjoy alcoholic drinks. Usually for pleasure or usually for pain. Some would use it just to think they can talk to people better and have fun. Others would drown their miseries in a glass of schnapps or tequila. Tonight, that was Yumi. The hypnotic surroundings of the club not even fazed her once for the past 3 hours that she was there, 25 drinks later. Yumi looked a tad buzzed as she was holding a conversation with a few people around her.

'I, I, I'll tell YOU. I, I am a very, very, VERY awesome rockstar. I swears it, yo.' Her downing another glass of the hard stuff cut off her sentence of drunkenness. You know, the golden liquid that 'erased the memory of a 24-hour span'. Yup, she was smashed.

'A rockstar, eh?' The dark-skinned man she was talking to who wore the black leather and donned silver hair was just sitting at that bar. He made it a hobby to talk to the drunken morons who walked in. He was accompanied by his pal, a man with dark hair, bangs in the front and donning a white leather jacket with black lines all around. 'See that guy over there?' He pointed at a Caucasian male with a bandana and a jacket that said 'No Smoking'. 'Insane voice and his mad guitar riffs made him a reputation. As far as I'm concerned you're just a drunk loser who probably woke up from a dream.' The dark-skinned character was quite intolerant of stupid people. 'What is your name anyways?'

'My name, nyaa?' Yumi chugged a bit more before slamming the glass down on the bar. 'They call me the Legendary Goddess of Rock.' She stopped a second re-thinking a bit from earlier. Least it would've been easier if she didn't drink. 'Well, not so much a Goddess now…I'm a freakin' demon! RAWR!'

The one with the white jacket got up. 'Let's blow this clown-town. Let's see our pal, and while we're at it, get him to get us something to eat for free.' The dark-skinned character got up and put down his glass, followed by a twenty for the bartender. 'Well then, Miss Rockstar, don't let fame get to your head. You'll evolve into a monster or something.' He then started laughing a bit as he walked out with his friend. With that said, Yumi actually took his joke serious, as it had a lot of meaning to it. 'Fame IS the worst vice of them all…and she probably thinks I'm a jerk now… perfect, just frickin' perfect.' As she was about to ask for another drink, she was turned around on her barstool by some shady looking characters. They were wearing the rich fancy leather jackets, one of them with insane spiky blonde hair and a headband. He looked like their leader.

'If you're looking for a good time,' Yumi stretched a bit in that drunk, yet charming, fashion. 'I'm afraid to say that I'm not on the market, free or not…'

'Golly gee, hehehehe…' that weasly-like punk leader just stared at her up close… 'I thought so, yer that 'AmmyYammy', arencha?'

'Please, just call me Yumi.' She said with a slight hiccup. 'I don't want to deal with anyone right now, it hasn't been a good day…'

The creepy punk pulled out some sort of pill-like object and showed it to her. 'See this? It's a 'feel-good' candy. It makes you… feel good, gehehehe….'

Yumi sure as hell wasn't dumb. It was some sort of dangerous drug. 'Lecherous fool, he just probably wants me for some sort of sick group money shot.' Then she stopped and thought of something in her drunken state. 'However, it could be a good chance that the drug will kill me… I'm sorry, but after today I don't need to confront Ami OR Kaz. Death sounds good right about now….' She looked at him, and then back at the pill. She took it and then before actually taking it, she quickly said 'Here's hoping I don't wake up from this…GULP.' The second she swallowed that, she had the reaction of clenching her chest. Her vision went blurry, and her insides felt like she was going to explode. 'Ah…oh God, I can barely breathe! UHN – ' And like that the last she remembers was looking at the ceiling fade off to blackness. To say the least, her body fell like a sack of bricks.

'Ahh Jesus… Am I – am I dead? Have I finally hit the 'Great Concert in the sky?'

Her eyes re-opened, the first thing she saw was the cold blue night sky, the one that made her feel the sky was taking pity for her miserable existence. 'Ah god… my head… hm?' As she felt her forehead, she felt something, something… cold and wet. Perhaps sticky. She slowly lowered her hand to eye level to see what it was, kind of shivering in disgust. Right when she saw the following reaction came from this –

'Oh. My. GOD. T-THOSE SICK BASTARDS!' It seems those creeps had some fun with her before leaving the scene. Yumi quickly pulled her shirt off to wipe the white junk off her face; luckily it was easy, meaning it must have not been long ago. Just as she put her shirt back on she staggered up trying to get on her feet. Now stumbling out of the alley and on the lonely sidewalk towards the hotel, Yumi was going through some of the thoughts in her head. 'I'm a real idiot. I knew that taking that pill would be bad, but NOOO. I did it anyways. Buddha knows what they did to the rest of me, but giving them the benefit of the doubt, I will just say they were messing with my face. Ami would've prevented me from doing this…' It then dawned upon her, which made her stop, still staggering like a zombie a bit. 'Ami. No matter how I treat her, no matter what I say to her, she just never reacts violently like I do. Ami's been there for me for everything and I threatened to beat the crap out of her. I had the chance to mess her up right there, but I stopped. I stopped, because I cared about her. I want nothing more but to see her happy and let myself get in the way. I care about her way too much and I NEED HER SO MUCH RIGHT NOW…wait, what I just thought. It's official – this means I…I LOVE her. I think the reason I've been getting these random outbursts is because I've felt this way about her from the get-go and never built up the courage to tell her. YES. I was clouded with ambition just so I can move on and pretend it's something else. I can cope with that. I know my fault. I now know what I must do!'

And right as she was going to state what she was going to, without warning to her body, she found herself on all fours, followed by her mouth emptying the contents of her stomach right before her. She coughed a bit, and snorted a bit trying to get up and wiping her nose with her arm warmers. She took them off to completely wipe her cheek. She spat a little bit of bile as she coughed once more. 'That liquor sure as HELL didn't taste good going back up. But this taste is better than the way I feel right now…' As she pulled herself up, she was shocked to see what was right in front of her – It was Ami.

'Uhh… how long have you been standing there?' Yumi grasping her forehead in a tad spot of pain.

'Long enough to realize you'd rather get yourself drunk with these poisons then confront me with your problems.' Ami once more felt like crying, as she took a glimpse of Yumi's battle damaged arms. 'Well, at least I now know why you wear the warmers… if you wanted to kill yourself and not tell anyone… it's… it's …' She couldn't hold back from sobbing a bit as she witnessed the by-product of her friends sick self-destruction.

Suddenly a small carton of cigs was thrown next to Ami's feet. Ami picked them up and saw closely at them, just to be even more upset. 'Yumi… when did you start smoking…?' The way Yumi looked; she acted as if her mother was ashamed at a new boyfriend she brought home or failing an important test. 'I had… a lot of stress for the past few weeks and I just – '

Ami feel to her knees looking at the ground just ready to bawl. But she then changed gears quickly when she heard her own friend start crying. 'Y-Yumi?'

Yumi was back down on the floor sobbing her eyes out. 'Everything I've been through today was the cherry on top of this SUCK SUNDAE. First I get into an argument with you, then the show where I almost killed someone, then I started cutting myself and, and, and then I just popped in for a few drinks… well maybe 20… but still! Then these guys! They gave me this pill and…and…'

The thing Yumi didn't expect was Ami patting her back, looking at her with that concerned look she ever so often does. 'Not a nice part of town is it?' Yumi just broke down and cried on her friends shoulder, letting out all her angst and frustrations through tears. 'You came... all...this way…' Yumi tried talking between sobs. 'To try and find me…' Yumi, in an ironic twist of fate, felt a lot better, as it has been awhile since a good cry. Ami helped her get up on her feet, still holding on to her best friend. 'Yumi. I am asking you as my best friend, someone I see as a sister, if there is anything wrong or anything on your mind, ANYTHING, please feel free to tell me…'

Suddenly, Yumi let out a huge sigh and looked to Ami. She was shaking not because of the sudden weakness she got from vomiting, but for the fact that this was the perfect time to let Ami know... just how she really felt about her. This whole 'band' thing. What SHE really wanted out of it.

'Ami. There's… something I have to tell you. Do you… want to walk on the beach for a bit? That is, if you don't mind.'

Ami nodded, smiling a bit. 'Of course, Yumi. Come on, start talking.

END OF CHAPTER 3. NEXT – My Priceless Fame, My Priceless Decision

Wow! Just wow. I'll admit I kinda wrote myself into a corner with the bar scene, but maybe that's because this is my third sleepless night. Ah well, comments and constructive advice still appreciated. Thank you all who emailed me for your comments. I appreciate it. - Kyo