Blood Only Glows in the Dark Chapter 34: 34, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

I meant to post this sooner, I swear I did, but then...well, basically then I didn't.

Ugh, sorry to sound so bland. I'm recovering from the whiplash I got on the Mind Eraser at Six Flags yesterday. Yes, while many people spent yesterday back in school, I was hurting myself at Six Flags! Go me!

(Authoress hides under rock to avoid angry people who didn't get to go)

Disclaimer: Yugioh not owned here

Claimer: Stuff I invented is mine, stuff other people invented but let me borrow is theirs

Working with the off chance that they could get out of the poisoned room somehow at whatever place the red water was going towards, Yami and Yugi followed the trough as it headed out into the depths of the room.

This room seemed to have been constructed by someone with a very nasty sense of humor, because the trough wound back and forth around the endless room without really going anywhere for quite a ways.

To pass the time, Yugi would keep asking if Yami's arm was all right, to which the mage-demon would retort that it was perfectly fine and would you please stop asking. The fact that this did nothing to deter Yugi's questions should have irritated Yami, but it didn't…not as much as it should have, anyway.

After seemingly hours, whoever was toying with them decided to finally give them a break, because they reached the end of the trough. Here, the red water poured out, flowing down into an open hole in the floor. There was a wide ladder leading upwards here as well - conveniently placed so that if you were unlucky enough to fall off, you had a fifty-percent chance of falling into the hole where the red water was going.

"…So who goes first?" Yugi wondered, "This ladder's wide enough for three people to use at once, from the looks of it."

Of the three evil possibilities that presented themselves in this situation - Yugi going first into whatever new danger waited for them, Yami going first and being unable to catch Yugi if he fell off and into the red water, and the two of them going at the same time - the latter seemed the less evil version. Yami went a little ahead of Yugi, but just to make certain non of the rungs were booby-trapped or too weak to use.

"Why does someone have this sort of thing anyway?" Yugi wondered as they climbed upwards, "That acid, this room…"

"I honestly couldn't say," Yami replied offhand, trying to keep his attention on the task at hand and not on how his not-healed arm was starting to bleed a little.

At last, the ladder reached the roof of the room. Here, there was a heavy stone cover, which Yami had little difficulty pushing up and out of the way. Once again, Yami's paranoia of not letting Yugi go first paid off again, because the first thing Yami spotted in the room above was a huge, three-tailed, spiked creature of some kind heading their way at full speed.

From behind the creature, someone yelled something, and a wall of fire roared towards the creature and engulfed it…continuing onwards towards the hole Yami's head was sticking out of.

Half-roasted monster and searing heat were more than enough to make Yami lose his grip. Only by managing to catch hold of a lower rung at the last second did Yami prevent himself from plunging back into the depths of the poisoned room…and left him cursing when the hand and arm he was using to save himself throbbed twice as hard and started to bleed freely thanks to the additional strain pressure.

The next thing Yami heard just made the rest of his misery seem pleasant in comparison.

"Yeah, take dat, ya overgrown iguana! …Hey, what's dis hole doing here?"

"Jou!" Yugi called, moving higher up the ladder and making the puzzled blonde who appeared at the top very pleased with himself.

"Yug'!" Jou cried, "Man, am I glad ta see you! I thought fer a second dere I was stuck all on my own!"

Jou helped Yugi up and out of the hole as he asked, "So, have you seen anybody else in dis crazy place, Yug'?"

"Yes," Yugi said, "Yami's been with me this whole time…are you okay?" the short mortal added, peering back down the hole.

"Never better," Yami said loudly and sarcastically, grabbing hold of the ladder with his other hand and scrambling to the top and out before anything else happened, "Being engulfed in fire is my hobby!"

"Oops," Jou swallowed, "Sorry 'bout dat, Yam'…honest, I only didn't see ya because you were so close ta the ground, I swear!"

Jou being a head taller than Yami, this comment only made Yami's death-glare twice as fierce and angry. Yugi ignored all of this to reach over and readjust the makeshift bandage on Yami's arm, which was red with blood now.

"I hope this manages to heal all right on its own," the boy sighed, "So, Jou, what happened to you when the monsters attacked?"

"Oh, well, when we got sucked around by dat crazy hallway," the blonde said, "I landed in dis place dat looked almost da same, except dat it was full of those nasty spiky monstas! And they wanted ta eat me, so I ran as fast as I could…but one of them ran into this wall, and inside was a little secret room, and inside that room I found this awesome weapon!"

Remembering the weapon, Jou picked it up from where he had set it on the ground. It was a huge orange broadsword, extremely warm to the touch, and engraved into the blade was the symbol for fire magic.

"So, when I swung it da first time, flames came out, and it was so cool!" Jou continued, "Those nasty monstas tried ta chase me again, and I sent 'em running away with all three of their tails between their legs!"

"That's really awesome, Jou!" Yugi exclaimed, "You have a magic sword!"

"I guess I got magic powers, then!" Jou laughed.

"Hardly," Yami said, not even looking up from inspecting Jou's weapon, "This flameblade might have been forged by a fire mage, but it doesn't take the slightest magical power to use it."

"Oh." Jou looked a little depressed, then shrugged and laughed, "Its still plenty awesome at kicking monsta ass, though!"

"Where do we go now?" Yugi asked next, "We need to find this Hauru guy, and stop him before he destroys the whole city!"

"Well, when I was running from da monstas before," Jou mentioned as he hefted the flameblade, "I noticed something weird. Dere are lots of staircases, but the higher up da staircase ya go, da more monstas dere are. I didn't try going up because I didn't feel like being eaten, and dere's lots of monstas on this floor anyway…"

"I see," Yami said, "I think I've got it now. This place must have several levels. We entered on the first level, then Yugi and myself fell into the basement…this must be the second level."

"I did feel like I was being yanked upwards," Jou nodded, "So, what now? What's in da basement?"

"Poisoned acid. Don't ask," Yugi sighed, "We need to go up, right?"

"Yes. Hauru will be on the top level, and once we take care of him this senseless violence will finally end," Yami said, pushing every iota of confidence that he could muster into his voice.

This would be the most dangerous part of their adventure yet…someone would probably die…but like it or not, there was nothing else they'd rather try to accomplish.