(NOTE 3/8/06: Chapters have been restored to their original order! Assuming nothing ELSE goes wrong, here ya go!)
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Hey you guys, it clearly says in my bio that there is actual and implied Yaoi in this fic.
I just decided to mess around with which was which. ALL HAIL AUTHORESS POWERS!
As I figure it, you have a choice between Puzzleshipping, Darkshipping, Casteshipping, and Tendershipping thus far. That might or might not change, but you'll need to read to find out...
Disclaimer: Same stuff as last time, idjits
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'Damn it…how dare he bring that up again,' Yami growled at himself as he prepared to deal with the twenty-some humans rushing towards him.
Since - as far as Yami was concerned - humans tended to be extremely slow, this gave him plenty of time to think of inventive ways of disemboweling the tomb-robber.
At least the only thing that had touched him had been the breath on his ear. If Bakurah had been any closer…and that traitor had the nerve to go boasting about his 'new interest'! Did Bakurah honestly think he cared? Or that Yami would be - ancestors forbid - jealous?
'How am I supposed to be jealous? All I want is to kill him,' Yami berated himself, 'And possibly to know what unfortunate imbecile he has his sights set on now…'
But now there was no more time for that - the slow humans had finally reached the distance where they could be considered a possible threat.
"It's time ta pay, ya monster-loving sonavabitch!" the lead human bellowed.
Unfortunately for him and his followers, Yami was now in a very foul mood that needed to be taken care of. Couldn't go scaring the mortals he was supposed to be protecting, after all! Nope, that wouldn't do.
Instead of merely holding his ground, Yami jumped forward, makeshift club swinging, and met the humans head-on. It was pathetically easy to subdue them, but once he'd thrust himself in their group Yami almost wished he hadn't.
Angry and panicky humans in groups were humans who desperately needed to bathe. Up close, Yami's nose hurt with the power of the stenches he was picking up: sweat, blood (albeit that wasn't as bad), even whiffs of fading noxious perfumes…
And there was something else.
It smelled like a freshly-ground spice, one a rich man of the time before he'd been sealed away would have slathered over his meat. It seemed like…cinnamon, maybe? Was that the right word?
Oh, who cared. So someone in the group had eaten recently. Nothing to be concerned about.
Before most of the humans could know what had hit them, Yami had whacked them all senseless with his club (it broke on the last one's head, the thing WAS only plywood) and, as a afterthought, pulled them over to the side so they wouldn't be so easily stepped on.
Then it was time to go down the alley and make certain Bakurah hadn't done something similar to the mortals he was supposed to be protecting. Unless one of them was the new interest, of course…
"AGH! I'm going to do something I'm going to regret Yugi witnessing the second I see him again," Yami huffed, trudging down the alley.
He was so flustered - not that he'd ever admit to being so for this particular reason - he almost missed picking up that the person following him was - swinging something at his head!
It almost hit, too, because that's how upset Yami was.
But it didn't.
The object in question was a lead pipe. And the person swinging it was a human girl, only about twelve years of age judging from sight.
Nonplussed with her surprise attack being detected and deflected, the strange girl swung her pipe at him again. This time, Yami grabbed the pipe and pulled on it, planning to just disarm and disable her before returning to the others.
But this mortal had a strangely strong grip: instead of taking her pipe, Yami ended up yanking her towards him. And she took advantage of her proximity to jump up and head butt him.
The fact that such a young mortal should be so strong, not to mention reek of that weird scent - spicy and strange - would have been a clear enough giveaway, but as he was stepping back from that surprisingly painful knock to the head, Yami caught sight of her eyes.
Almost normal human eyes, dark brown in color - dark enough that one would easy overlook the fact that she had no pupils whatsoever.
"Shifter!" Yami spat, backhanding the 'girl' full force.
Unfortunately, possessing a typical shape-shifter's iron constitution, she only staggered a few steps away without falling down.
"Ho ho," she laughed, "So, you're as clever as we were warned you might be, foolish rogue. Did you think disguising yourself like the boy would fool me?"
"Perhaps, if you're enough the fool," he shot back, "Did you think disguising yourself as a weak child would fool me?"
"Shall I take a form with the power to destroy you then? Ah, yes, good idea!"
The 'girl's' shape began to change. Arms grew bigger, most muscled, armored in a leathery hide with small, sharp spikes jutting at the elbows and shoulders. To match, the shifter increased its height and muscles all over its body.
"How does this body make you feel, oh soon-to-be-dead?" the shifter laughed in a new voice, deeper and rougher and more masculine, "Do I detect a hint of fear in you? Excellent!"
In truth, Yami was NOT scared. Sure, he was very worried, and had very little hope of coming through this fight uninjured. But he wasn't going to let this foul monstrosity taunt him and get away with it!
The shifter's new form was powerful-looking, but Yami was faster. Before it could move a step, Yami had already slashed at it several times in several places with his claws.
His claws barely scratched the shifter's tough skin, and when it did strike back it was surprisingly and brutally fast. The first slash, which would have gutted Yami had it landed, was impossible to evade.
By turning his body around in the nick of time, Yami avoided being instantly killed. But the four slashes now crossing his abdomen were bleeding and stung painfully.
Nonplussed by Yami's near-escape, the shifter swung its outstretched arm back around, easily slamming the mage-demon into the brick wall with enough force to shatter several bricks.
Gasping for air, Yami's body slid involuntarily to the ground, leaving him a pathetically easy target for the shifter's kick. This strike, hitting his chest with the force of a freight train, snapped four ribs like twigs. The scream of pain Yami was unable to hold back caused the shifter to pause in its onslaught in order to laugh.
"Aww, poor baby," it sneered, kneeling down to shove its face in front of its prone victims', "Rogue fall down, go 'crunch'."
"…Bastard," Yami choked out, along with a bit of blood, "I'll see you DEAD, shifter!"
"Will you indeed?" the shifter said, "Hmm. You should be dead yourself…but then why do you still look like the mortal whelp that Lord Hauru has been at us all to find and catch? Could your true appearance be but a copy of him?"
The shifter laughed.
"Well then! You match him, therefore I shall match you!"
And to Yami's horror, the shifter's appearance changed, until the face he was staring at was his own.
"That little runt trusts you," the shifter grinned, his tone so identical to Yami's own that he wanted to scream, "So if you go tell him about this really safe place for him to hide…"
"Touch him and I will use your skull as a wine cup," Yami hissed.
"So amusing…too bad you're going to die now."
The shifter sprang to its feet, and the last thing Yami clearly remembered before darkness took his mind was the sight of his own boot slamming down to stomp on his neck.