Discliamer: I do not own Yugioh or The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Author's notes: Let to let you know, Clopin is now Pegasus, not Duke. I just thought he was better suited to the character.
Key:
"Text" - normal speech
"Text" - Singing
YuGiOh does The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Chapter 2 -One duel out there
20 years on from when Bakura was assigned to take care of the hunchback, which he named Ryou.
The boy was forced to live in the bell tower, and given the job as bell-ringer, in the cathedral called Notre Dame. Up there, his only friends, beside from Bakura, were three gargoyles which came to life when ever Ryou was left alone in the bell tower.
That morning, after Ryou had finished ringing the bells, he jumped down and walked out onto the balcony. On there were two gargoyle statues, gargoyle no.1 had hair shaped as stone which was sticking out to point at the front. While gargoyle no.2 had Spiky shaped stone hair. Gargoyle no. 1 had it's month open and in it was a nest. In there was a small duel monster named Petit Angel.
"Good morning," Ryou whispered as it woke up and chirped happily. Will today be the day? Are you ready to fly?" It chirped sadly. You sure? Good day to try. Why, if I picked a day to fly, oh, this would be it! The Festival of Duels! It will be fun, there will be battles and competitions and games…"
Petit Angel began to flap it's wings as hard as it could, not realising that it lifted off Ryou's hands. When it did realise, it chirped happily. Suddenly a flock of the same duel monster flew past them. Petit Angel looked back at Ryou.
"Go on! Nobody wants to be cooped up here forever!" Ryou replied before it flew off. He sighed as he watched it join the flock. Suddenly, gargoyle no.1, also called Tristan spat out the nest that was in his month.
"Oh, man! I thought he'd never leave!" Tristan said. I'll be spitting' feathers for a week!"
"Well that's what you get for sleeping with your mouth open!" Gargoyle no.2, also called Yugi, said as he came to life.
"Heh, heh, heh...go scare a nun!" Tristan replied as he gave a sarcastic chuckle at Yugi and then turned to Ryou. "Hey, Quasi! What's going' on out there? A fight? A flogging?"
"A festival!"
"You mean the Feast of Duels!"
"Yeah," Ryou said not sounding to excited.
"All right, all right! Shuffle and cut the decks!"
" It is a treat to watch the colourful ceremony of the simple duellists," Yugi replied.
"Oh Boy, nothing like balcony seats for watching the old F.O.D."
"Yeah, watching," Ryou said, again not sounding to excited, before going back into the tower.
"Hey, look--that's Weevil Underwood," Tristan said before he hocks up a phlegm in his throat, and is about to spit, when Yugi covers his mouth. Tristan is forced to swallow his prize. They both turn and watch Ryou go back inside in confusion. "Hey, hey, what gives?"
"Aren't you going to watch the festival with us?" Yugi asked. "Maybe he's sick?"
"Impossible. If 20 years of listening to you two hasn't made him sick by now, nothing will," the third gargoyle, also named Tea, said as she came up them.
"But watching the Festival of Duels has always been the highlight of the year for Ryou!"
"What good is watching the party if you never get to go hear it?" Tea said as a load of birds kept on landing on her. She angrily shakes them off. "Get away from me! Go on, you bunch of buzzards!" she yelled before they all went followed Ryou into the tower. "He's not made of stone, like us."
Tea, Yugi and Tristan finally caught up to Ryou, he was sitting in a room filled with models and crafts that he made. The was leaning on a table which had a model of Notre Dame, houses and wooden people on it, including a small wooden version of himself sitting on the of the Notre Dame model. Ryou was staring at his deck, which contained duel monster cards that he either found in the church or weaker monsters that Bakura discarded. Tea sat down next to him.
"Ryou, what's wrong?" she asked. "You tell me about it?"
"I...I just don't feel like watching the festival, that's all," Ryou replied.
"Well, did you ever think about going there instead?"
"Sure! But I'd never fit in down there. I'm not...you know, normal."
"Oh, Ryou, Ryou, Ryou…" Tea said before a bird landed on her face. "Do you mind? I'm would like to have a moment with the boy, if it's all right with you!"
"Hey, quit beating around the bell tower. What do we have to do? Paint you a fresco?"
Tristan said as he took the wooden Ryou figure and but it down on the table next to the wooden villagers.
"As your friends and guardians, we insist you attend the festival." Yugi said.
"Me?" Ryou asked.
"No, the Pope. Of course, you!" Tristan replied as he picked up a wooden figure of the Pope and shoved it in Ryou's mouth
"It would be quite an educational experience," Yugi said as Ryou took the figure out of his mouth.
"Battles, monsters and more battles!"
"You can learn to identify various rare cards…"
"People dressing up a duel monsters!"
"…And trading to improve strengthen your deck!"
"People beating the others and making them cry!"
"Ryou, take it from us spectators," Tea said to Ryou. "Life's not a spectator sport. If watchin's all you're going to do, then you're going to watch your life go by without you."
"Yeah, you're human, with the flesh, and the hair, and the navel lint. We're just part of the architecture, right Tristan?"
"Yet, if you chip us, will we not flake? If you moisten us, do we not grow moist?"
"Ryou, just grab a fresh tunic and a clean pair of hose and…"
"Listen, thanks for the encouragement, but you're all forgetting one thing…"
"What?" Tea, Yugi and Tristan said together.
"My Yami, Bakura." Ryou said as he picked up the wooden figure of Bakura and show it to his friends.
"Oh, yeah, him," Tea said.
"Well…when he says you're forbidden from ever leaving the bell tower, does he mean 'ever ever?'" Yugi questioned.
"Never ever! And he hates the Feast of Duels!" Ryou replied. "He'd be furious if I asked to go."
"Who says you got to ask?" Tristan said.
"Oh, no."
"You sneak out…and then you sneak back in. "
"It's just one afternoon... " Tea said.
"I couldn't," Ryou replied.
"He'll never know you were gone."
"But, what if I get caught…"
"Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission," Yugi said.
"What if sees me!"
"You could wear a disguise," Tristan replied as he put a hooded cape on. Come on, just this once. What Bakura doesn't know can't hurt you!"
"Ignorance is bliss." Yugi said.
"Look who's talking…"
"Nobody wants to stay cooped up here forever," Tea mimicked what Ryou said to Petit Angel. Ryou thinks for a couple seconds then makes up his mind.
"You're right! I'll go!" he replied as they all cheered. "I'll get cleaned up, I'll stroll down those stairs, I'll march through the doors and…"
Ryou was about to go to the door that lends to the stairs. But suddenly Bakura appeared in the doorway in front of him. Tea, Yugi and Tristan suddenly turned back to stone.
"Good morning, Ryou,"
"Ah…um, good...morning, master."
"Dear boy, whomever are you talking to?"
" My...friends"
"I see," Bakura replied as he tapped a stone version of Tristan on he head. "And what are your friends made of, Ryou?"
"Stone."
"Can stone talk?"
"No, it can't."
"That's right. You're a smart lad. Now...lunch." Bakura said before Ryou went off to retrieve a table setting and puts it on the table. Ryou put out a silver chalice and plate for Bakura, and a wooden cup and plate for himself. "Shall we review your alphabet today?"
"Yes, master. I would like that very much."
"Very well. A?"
"Abomination."
"B?"
"Blasphemy."
"C?"
"C-c-c-contrition."
"D?"
"Damnation."
"E?"
"Eternal damnation!"
"Good. F?"
"Festival."
"Excuse me?" Bakura replied before spiting out his drink.
"F…f…forgiveness!"
"You said...festival."
"No!"
"You are thinking about going to the festival."
"It's just that...you go every year."
" I am a public official. I must go!" Bakura said as he started walking outside, Ryou followed him. "But I don't enjoy a moment. Thieves and hustlers and the dregs of humankind, all mixed together in a shallow, drunken stupor."
"I didn't mean to upset you, master."
"Young hikari, can't you understand? When your heartless mother abandoned you as a child, anyone else would have drowned you. And this my thanks for taking you in and raising you as my son?"
"I'm sorry, sir."
"Oh, my dear hikari, you don't know what it's like out there. I do...I do...
The world is cruel
The world is wicked
It's I alone whom you can trust in this whole city
I am your only friend," Bakura sang before he held Ryou's face in his hands.
"I who keep you, teach you, feed you, dress you
I who look upon you without fear
How can I protect you, boy, unless you
Always stay in here
Away in here." They both went back into the tower and back towards the table with the model town on it. "Remember what I taught you, my hikari…
You are deformed."
"I am deformed," Ryou sang.
"And you are ugly."
"And I am ugly."
"And these are crimes
For which the world
Shows little pity
You do not comprehend."
"You are my one defender."
"Out there they'll revile you
As a monster."
"I am a monster."
"Out there they will hate
And scorn and jeer."
"Only a monster."
"Why invite their calumny
And consternation?
Stay in here
Be faithful to me."
"I'm faithful."
"Grateful to me."
"I'm grateful."
"Do as I say
Obey
And stay
In here."
"I'll stay
In here."
Bakura picked up the wooden figure of Ryou and put it back on top the model of Notre Dame.
"You are good to me, master," Ryou said. "I'm sorry."
"You are forgiven," Bakura replied as he headed towards the door, but then turned around towards Ryou when he got to the doorway. "But, remember, Ryou: this is your sanctuary."
"Sanctuary…" Ryou whispered to himself before he looked up at the bells.
Safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone
Gazing at the duellists down below me."
Ryou climbed up and looked out the window at all the people and houses.
"All my life I watch them battle as I hide up here alone
Hungry for the matches they show me
All my life I memorize their strategies
Knowing them as they will never know mine
All my life I wonder how it feels to have a duel
Not watching them
But duelling them…" Ryou stepped out side and started climbed around the cathedral.
"And out there
Living in the sun
Give me one duel out there
All I ask is one
To hold forever
Out there
Where they all live unaware
What I'd give
What I'd dare
Just to have one duel out there
Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives
Through the roofs and gables I can see them
Every day they duel and battle and go about their lives
Heedless of the gift it is to be them
If I was in their skin
I'd win every battle
Out there
Strolling by the Seine
Taste a duelling out there
Like ordinary men
Who freely battle about there
Just one duel and then
I swear I'll be content
With my share
Won't resent
Won't despair
win or lose
I won't care
I'll have done
One duel
Out there!"