.:.Hellfire.:.
Summary: Yami no Malik and Yami no Bakura have been sent to Hell. And they're about to drag their hikaris down with them.
Chapter 2: The Lord of Hell
(Several Hours Later)
Lucifer was afraid. Very, very afraid. Though a fire spirit was almost impossible to kill, it didn't keep him from feeling pain. He was pretty sure his girlfriend of long-ago was immune to pain, but she was the only person like that he knew. Lucifer tried to avoid pain. He hadn't experienced it in a while.
A long, long while.
He also hadn't felt fear for a while, but that was a much shorter while- the last time he and Filora had had a fight, five years ago. She hadn't come back, but he had heard that she had been around lately. Which was worrisome, but not what had him twitching in near-all out panic.
No, the source of his panic were the two weapon wielding, human maniacs who had recently invaded the Hell dimension. Or... he thought they were human. The dark-skinned one definitely sounded like a demon, actually. And the other... well, silver hair and red eyes just didn't occur in humans.
Oh God! There were demons after him!
Now, Lucifer wasn't a coward–
Oh wait. Yes he was. He was a downright wuss. And after one encounter with these people, that left him with just one choice of what to do.
Where could he hide that wouldn't be checked?
"Hey Ryou."
"Hai?"
"I'm bored."
"Wasn't that why you came over here?"
"I'm still bored."
Ryou sighed, looking at the boy slumped backwards off his bed. He himself was seated on the carpet. Malik Ishtar, however, was not willing to go for such a tame seating plan, and thus, his head and torso were bent backwards over the edge of the bed, light blonde hair falling to pool on the ground and golden skin stained mocha from gravity's effect on his circulatory system.
"So am I." Ryou admitted, laying two cards facedown. "Two fours."
"Bullshit." Malik grumped, leafing through his cars.
Ryou lacklustrely gathered the pile and added it to his hand.
"Can't we at least play something other than this?" Malik whined.
"I told you it'd be boring with only two people. You said, and I quote, 'The other ones are too fucking simple to ever achieve anything good.'"
"Well, at least this one had lyng and cheating built in!" Malik protested.
"Yes, but it's really no good without at least three people, and four or more works best."
"So... where are we gonna get people?"
Ryou raised a silvery brow. "Malik, who is there? Excluding mind-slaves? There's the Yuugi-tachi, but–"
"Anyone but them." Malik groaned, running his hands through his hair. It sparkled prettily in a shaft of sun coming in the window.
"They're not really all that bad." Ryou reasoned, but Malik just shook his head, making his face take on a tint of cinnamon.
"They're all still nervous of me."
"That's because even without Mariku, you're still slightly off the deep end."
"Bakura rubbed off on you."
"Maybe."
Malik sighed, placing three cards down and not even bothering to announce them.
"This would be a lot more fun with them here."
"You're going to give yourself a headache."
"I already have." Malik replied, closing his eyes and letting his cards scatter across the floor.
Bakura and Mariku were sitting in Lucifer's office in the "Governmental Building" of Hell's capital, in which it appeared they were. Mariku was making himself dizzy in the rolling chair, while Bakura sprawled across the desk, having liberated it of the more poky things like pens, pencils, and picture frames. The papers, he couldn't care less about. If one or two got crunch, well, too bad so sad.
"That was too easy." Mariku said in a voice that was half triumphant announcement, part whining.
"Mm-hmm." Bakura answered, watching the Egyptian's blonde spikes of hair wave in the circular wind patterns created by his spinning. The fire lighting the room lent a devilish glint to his eyes as his face whisked past Bakura again and again.
Bakura watched, impassive, as the chair began to wobble back and forth almost as much as round and round.
"I mean, really, it only took about four hours."
"Mariku..." Bakura began.
With a crash, the chair fell off its post, sending the Egyptian yami into an undignified heap on the ground.
"You might want to spin it the other way for a while." he finished, smirking.
"I'll keep that in mind." Mariku muttered, weaving a bit as he tried to get up.
"Oh, Luuu-ci-fer!" a voice caroled from the hall. The door to the office was thrown open unceremoniously, and a young woman, 17, 18 maybe, was standing there.
She had on a short, low-cut black dress, burgundy belts with bronze studs looped about her waist, arms, neck, and criss-crossed down her legs. Her feet were bare, her figure a show-stopper, her hair an orangish-burgundy, and pulled back into a long ponytail jingling with odd jewels, beads, braids, and string. Her eyes were a glaring red-orange. She was about Bakura's height, and she was looking at them dumbstruck.
"You're not Lucifer." she remarked, recovering amazingly fast.
"Nope!" Mariku chimed.
"Actually, we're looking for him. Do you have any idea where he might be?"
She eyed the fanged grins and twin predator's looks in their eyes.
"Lessee, the bathroom, broom closet, next door building, the casino..." She began to list places, finally finishing with, "the next town over, the Earth dimension, oh, or, my place. I think he still has those keys." she said thoughtfully.
Mariku stared at her wide-eyed.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Filora. I used to date Luci a couple years back, but, you know, I got fed up with him. Ended up moving in with a man I liked even less, some people I know took us to Vegas, got us drunk off our asses, and got us married."
Mariku stared more. Apparently a crazy life story appealed to him, though Bakura suspected he would have liked it even better if it had more death and destruction in it.
"Right." he said, cutting her off before she could start more. "Can you tell us where these places are?"
She was only too happy to do so, ending with,
"Oh, and if you go to my place, don't mind Shinrya. She's just your average homicidal maniac who wants to take over the Earth."
"Sounds like my kind of person." Mariku said, eyes agleam, as the girl skipped out. "Let's go there first."
Sao: Right! Welcome to Hellfire, chapter two! From here on out, it gets interesting! (At least, I think so.)
Index of Japanese for the Uninformed:
Hai: Yes
Yuugi-tachi: Yugi's group
Yami: Dark side
Sao: Please review!
