Ninjashipping (Magnum x Mai)


"What the hell does it TAKE?"

"Oof!"

Jean Claude Magnum stumbled back after Mai landed a solid hit into his stomach.

"N-now...Mai," he started.

"No! I don't want to hear it!" Mai Kujaku said, her violet eyes burning with rage. Her fists with tight and trembling, and it looked like she was itching to punch him again.

"Mai –"

"You do NOT have permission to use my first name!"

The people on the sidewalk were edging away. Some were even crossing over the busy New York street to avoid walking past the fireworks.

"I've been looking for you for a long time –"

"SHOVE. IT."

Magnum took a step towards her.

"Mai, I've been practicing Duel Monsters, and I'd just like to duel you again –"

"That's code for kidnap and force me into marriage, right?" Mai snapped.

"Well, I had hoped that you would reconsider –"

She shoved him back with both her hands.

"I have too much on my plate right now," she said through gritted teeth. "I don't need you there too."

"Mai, why are you so against me?"

"No. First. Name."

Magnum frowned, and Mai's lips tightened. This stupid American didn't get how completely rude it was to call her by her first name, and she was so sick of it.

"Why are you so against getting to know me?" he said slowly, as though considering his words carefully.

"Why are you so insistent on marrying me? You don't even know me!"

"Well, because you are a lovely, talented young woman."

"Is that it?"

Magnum blinked, looking confused.

"Isn't that enough?"

Mai's head just went silent. It was like the city around her had gone quiet too – she couldn't hear its sounds. She could barely see in front of her, like her eyes had gone into tunnel vision.

"Magnum..." she said quietly. "Do you know what hell is?"

"What?"

That laugh, grating against her ears, making her scream – the terrible pain shooting through her as the darkness choked her to death – the power rushing through her as she set that glowing green card into her Duel Disk – the horrible, thick, rusty feeling that seemed to coat her insides as she thought about all the things she had done – that look on his face, smiling as the magic ripped his soul away, because he was just glad that she was safe now...

"Do you know what hell is?" she said again.

"I-I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about..."

She got right up into his face – it was easy, she was almost taller than him with her heels.

"Because I've seen hell," she said. "I've been there and back more than once. Do you really want a woman in your bed that wakes up screaming every night because of that one maniac that won't stop laughing at her pain? Do you really want to live with the woman that can barely look at herself in the mirror because she sees that glint of red there every time she does? Do you want to have me, the 'lovely woman' on your arm at all your fancy parties, and have to cover up for her every time she has a panic attack because something, anything reminded her of the hell she's been through? You say I'm pretty – but is that going to be enough to make living with a broken woman tolerable, much less pleasurable?"

Magnum's mouth was hanging open. Mai glared at him for another moment. Then she stepped away from him.

"I thought so," she said quietly.

She stalked past him.

"W-wait, Mai!"

"No first name," she said, continuing to walk.

"If you're how you say, then who else do you think will take you?"

Mai froze. Her hands rolled up into fists.

She slowly turned to face the man that had just said those vile, terrible words.

"Who will take me?" she said slowly. "Who will take me? I don't think you understand, Magnum. I don't need to just be taken by a man who thinks that no one else will have me."

She bored her gaze right into his.

"You listen here, Magnum. I'm broken, but I'm not alone."

At the back of her mind, images formed, taking over the hellish dreams she had been reliving for this man. A cheerful girl with a brown bob, blushing as Mai teased her. A spiky haired young man who held out a handful of star chips. A laughing boy with goggles, punching her playfully on the shoulder. And a blond boy who grinned foolishly as he waved her goodbye...

"I'd better see you again soon, ya hear! Don't you block out your friends like that again!"

"I don't need you telling me that I'm not worth a damn if I don't have a man. I know I'm worth more than that."

Because my friends have told me so.

She thought about punching him. But he looked so pathetic, like a fish out of water, that she thought maybe this was good enough for him.

"I hope I never see you again," she said, turning around. "And you'd better hope that too."


A/N: This was just me bashing on Jean Claude Magnum because I don't like him for various, half-baked reasons. It just occurred to me that my least favorite characters in Yu-Gi-Oh are American...and I'm American. Huh. Anyway, next is Nellshipping (Noa x Amane)