Didn't expect to finish this one but I felt it was a tad over do :) Enjoy!
Fate Breaks the Dawn
Dawn broke over the city with the promise of beginnings both dark and deceptive. The fiery ecstasy of the sun's brightness brought with the flaming spirit of battle and destruction as well as exuberance and roaring embers.
It was no ordinary dawn.
Battles were about to be fought.
Catalysts were about to occur.
Changes that would alter fate and rewrite histories were set into motion.
The futures of kings and countries were about to be decided and reworked and the Fates were already eagerly setting up the boards, arranging their pieces and placing their bets on the winner and who would be the first to fall.
Gods watched with a sickening combination of desire and dread, nervousness and nerves.
All the while the key players took their positions upon the battle field...
All but one.
"Finished!" Yugi cheered with a shout of victory before the morning light peeking through the blinds distracted him. He pulled them down, content to let Yami swipe through and double check for any additions, and got a face full of sunlight. "Woah, it's morning already!"
"I can't believe we spent all night deciding whether or not to include that spell card," Yami matched his incredulous. He swiped up the deck they'd built together and lock it into its protective pouch strapped to their belt.
Looking at it brought a bittersweetness that left an awkward taste on his tongue. They'd built it together. It was a combination of their two hearts: Yugi's strength and spirit and Yami's determination and fire. He trusted those cards with his life and more importantly with his partner's.
They would never trust him fully if there was anything less than honesty between them.
He had wanted so much to spare his partner pain, to spare himself pain, to pretend for just a little longer that he could have both: the life he was growing to love and the life he had lost. A part of him still longed for both: that finding his memory; that discovering the truth wouldn't cost him what he'd gained. Hoped that he wouldn't have to choose between one and the other. It was the hope that drove him to compete in this tournament when had there been any other choice he would not have—no matter how much Kaiba threatened.
But if he was not honest with Yugi now, then he knew he would lose both.
"Yugi...Aibou, I must tell you something."
Yugi looked curious and listened.
Yami wanted to smile but kept his face stern. "For me, battle city isn't just another tournament. This time I'm fighting to find myself. I won't be able to do that without your help."
Yugi looked bewildered. Yami didn't blame him. He held up their deck. "No matter what happens I will have faith in this deck. Please, keep me words in your heart."
"Yup," Yugi nodded. His eyes told Yami he did not fully understand but he trusted him. "I know you would never duel just to get rare cards. I know that better than anyone," he smiled. "I won't ask what you're fighting for or what you want but I'll go with you to find the answer."
Those meant more to the Pharaoh than anything else.
"Let's go."
And they snapped the deck around their waist.
Perhaps Yugi shouldn't have been surprised then, when he found a bright yellow flower shaped like a large daisy and a note waiting for him tucked into the shop door.
Yellow Marquerile, I come soon.
My Angel,
I apologize that this will be my last letter for some time, but fret not. I will also be entering the battle city tournament. I heard that you were entering and I am not surprised. There are many things I need to tell you, but now is not the time, but what you must know is this: my feelings for you have only grown stronger. I hope that each of my gifts has brought you happiness and made you smile for it is but a small piece of the joy you have brought me. Know that I will meet you during the event though I cannot predict as to when only that I will. I have waited too long from a far hoping to find the courage needed to meet you in person, to finally look into your eyes and tell you the depth of my feelings. I am no longer afraid. You give me courage, Yugi, and even if you do not feel the same way as I do...
There was a pause in the writing, a sudden deep grove in the page like he had no idea what to say next or how to express the words and had erased many failed attempts in the journey to find the right one...
I ask only for the chance to earn your heart as you have already done so mine. I wish you the best of luck in this tournament though I know you possess and skill, strength and spirit far greater than anything luck could ever hope to provide.
I hope we can truly meet officially soon—Khazamaa
A breath caught in Yugi'a throat before he could stop it. Khazamaa...was...here. He was going to be competing in Battle City with him? With Yugi? With the Pharaoh?
His heart started to pound and he quickly forced himself to calm down less Yami worry.
He shook his head.
He couldn't think of love and crushes now.
He had promised to help Yami find himself and damn it he would!
It did not stop him from rushing back up the stairs, tucking the note and flower between the pages of his book with all the others and snapping the charm bracelet around his wrists before finally leaving the house.
X X X
Battle city began in true Kaiba fashion with the arrogant dolt's face appearing on the screen of the Domino City Plaza's skyscraper looking down over the crowd of duelist gathering in the clock yard like he was divine chosen king and they were insects unworthy of his physical presence.
The irony was not lost on him.
Nonetheless, the crowd of idiots cheered as the giant blink sporting the all too obvious KC emblem that must've been powered by Kaiba's ego announced the beginning of the tournament and sent them scattering like the insects they were...all except the Pharaoh and the Valentine woman whose body language made it clear she had no reason for such low-level behaviors. Nonetheless, she wished the Pharaoh luck with the promise of victory if they should meet again and flashed a fiery smirk that spoke of nothing sexual and all of sorority completion to prove it.
He just might start to like that woman.
It should've have surprised him that the Pharaoh would be the first one to duel and initiated it before the clock even struck.
He only caught glimpses of the conversation but from he gathered between the furious blond fireball also known Jonouchi (he didn't like reminding himself that he still owed the idiot) and the clearly-deranged sociopath drinking tea with a purple-so-dark-it-was-almost-black cape of all things around his shoulders (what was it with these idiots and capes? Did they think it made them look regal or something of that nonsense? Of course, only the Pharaoh could pull it off he actually was royal), the sociopath robbed Jonouchi of his Red-Eyes the night before (now that was just low, even for him) and the caped freak refused to let him duel for it back but was all too willing to duel the Pharaoh if it meant getting his hands on the Dark Magician he was so fond of (loyal to a fault that Mage even he had to admit even if it was with a snort).
He shook his head.
Oh that poor, dumb bastard.
One look at those fierce, furious eyes, that snarl that showed teeth and fangs, those squares shoulders taunt not unlike a lion ready to pounce and tear its prey to pieces, and that all too visible fire, burning, literally raging all around him...
Oh ho, he knew that look.
Too bad the idiot didn't seem to notice. Or care. Though he was smart enough to recognize and admire a fighting spirit when he saw one.
Poor dumb bastard had no idea what he was getting himself into.
It was over in less than 20 minutes.
And even though it had set his own plans back a bit and he could feel the prongs pulling at the rope around his neck dragging him in the direction of the museum, it had been so worth it to stick around and see the absolute destroyed look on the man's face as in one turn the Pharaoh literally decimated his one strategy and the whole deck crumbled.
He swallows down a laugh, made a dash for the table the fool had been sitting at and slipped back to the crowd with all the skill and silence of his profession, leaving behind his offering for the king, a reward for defeating a lesser god.
He laughed the entire walk away.
Of course, only a King could destroy a god.
And only the Pharaoh could command Exodia.
X X X
The rare Hunter crumbled to the ground in surrender alongside his god. The holograms evaporated like mists from a broken spell.
It was over.
His strategy was destroyed.
He had no hope of winning.
Yami had won the first duel of Battle City and was one step closer to reaching the finals.
Jonouchi cheered beside him as Yami fishes his Red Eyes from the cards that had scattered when the piece of filth had fallen.
The Red Eyes Black Dragon had a bright glow in the sunlight as he held it up, as if reflecting her gratitude. Yami only smiled, about to return her to her rightful owner when something on the table where the Ghoul has sat, something he knew had not been there before the duel, caught his eye.
The Pharaoh found his resolve suddenly shaken once again.
For sitting on the table like it had been waiting to reward him for his victory, and just like all the others before it was a potted plant: this one a full bloom flower the color of pale lavender and whose combined spiked petals resembled a six pointed star, a gladiolus, planted in a blue vase of soil and growing so that it's spiky stem curled all around it bloomed a bright, uncultivated and uncivilized wild rose, all tied with the stringy roots of an Egyptian blue water lotus and written in crude script: Don't hold back, Pharaoh. And on the back their meanings:
Remembrance.
Pleasure and pain.
But was it a warning...
Or a promise.
That was when the fallen Rare Hunter started screaming.
Three guesses who Yami's "admirer" is ;) It was fun writing his POV in this way.
Originally I was going to jump right into Marik's introduction to The Pharaoh, but re-reading the manga put this idea in my head and i ran with it (plus it was impossible to ignore Yami's fiery (and i mean thee were literal flames) fury in the manga when he found out the ghoul had stolen Jonouchi's Red Eyes.
I may get another one up by this weekend, but I make no promises...
