I swear this is still a YGO fanfic with YGO Duel and so on!

Warning: The following chapter contains violence and gore.

Darkness reigned over the world once again, as underneath the looming moonlight two figures ran through the empty streets of the once lively city. There was nothing but deadly silence lingering in the air as if the town itself was turning a blind eye to their plight. They had no time to look back, but the hunter was there, slowly, following his prey with a malevolent smile. As if trapped in a nightmare, no matter how fast the teens were running, they couldn't lose the killer.

Finally they reached a park and had to stop. Arata's stamina was at its limits, his face was pale, he looked as if he was about to collapse any moment by now. The boy cursed himself mentally, why did he left his phone when they left the house?! Well, since he didn't have many friends there wasn't anyone that would call him. Who could even expect that they would need to call the cops because someone with a knife also so happens to look like a murder is following them anyway? Certainly not him.

Taking a few deep breaths Arata raised his head and looked behind. There was no one there. Arata took another breath of relief, after so long they finally lost that crazy fucker, but he was still somewhere out there looking for them. What exactly did that man wanted? Arata didn't know, but he wasn't going to stand here and wait for the murder to find them again. Problem was how they were supposed to hide from that fucker, he was able to catch up with them by just walking slowly the entire time. If that psycho was trying seriously he would probably have killed them many times by now.

But then what was the point in running from him 'till now?

"He is going to show up again soon. We need to resume fleeing!" Eve said with her monotone voice while pulling on Arata's arm. "Hurry up! He is going to come back!"

Arata looked back at Eve, confused by her statement. How did she knew that this man is still following them? Come to think about it, she was able to recognize the man's intentions long before he pulled out his knife. Her reaction was too quick back then. It was as if she knew who the man was and what he was about to do. Why Eve's parents sent their daughters all the way from Japan? She said that it was because her parents wanted her to study aboard, but that now sounded like a very bad lie.

"No, I want you to tell me the truth." Arata insisted pulling his arm away from the girl's. "You didn't came in this country to study, right? When you first saw that man you seemed to know him. You told me that he was dangerous before seeing the knife! That was a fast judge of a stranger you have never meet before, don't you think?"

"I don't know anything, so let's hurry!" Eve shouted and tried to pull Arata once again. This time forever the boy slapped her hand away, causing the girl to recoil back.

"There is definitely something going on between you and that man!" Arata yelled and clenched his right hand into a fist. "I trusted you Eve! Do the same thing for once and tell me something that isn't a lie!"

Arata let the girl to live in his house because that was his father's wish, not because he liked to help people in need. No matter what Eve did or said in those past three days he never questioned her and let the girl to be. But this right now was too much for him to turn a blind eye on. To let Eve keep living in the house from now on would be too dangerous for Arata's own safety. But there must be a reason why his father sent the girl to him - his only son – so he would bear with it. However, what Arata couldn't put up with are obvious lies and fakes. He had enough of that for one lifetime, If Eve needed help she just had to explain herself and not deceive him.

Eve sighed in defeat and looked Arata in the eyes. "The man's name is Saivar Ariusson. He is a professional killer who was sent to take me back. Do you trust me now? I swear, I'm going to tell you everything once we get somewhere safe."

Well, after learning that Arata couldn't ask why she didn't explain all of this from the beginning, could he? Telling someone that a murder is after you would quickly kill any chances of having a normal social life. Friends of his father or not, even Arata would kick anyone out of his house after learning something like this.

Then why does he accept Eve and her problems? It was clearly a dangerous stuff that he was getting himself into. There was no certainty that this won't cost him his life, yet here he is, helping a girl that should mean nothing to him. Maybe you could put it as his payback to her for being his friend. Even if it was all just an act to get his trust, the girl stood with him and put an end of his empty everyday life.

Doing such a dangerous thing for a pathetic reason like that, he must have gone mad. Talk about irony; Arata, the boy that all other kids at school disliked and even labeled a killer was risking his life to safe a girl he has no relation to.

"That's good enough for me." Arata replied and took a step toward. He pointed at the distance and spoke again. "I know this park quite well, if we head to the north exit there is a roundabout way to our house. This way we will also avoid the chance of bumping into that crazy fucker again."

"Thanks." Eve said with her monotone voice and put her hand on Arata's. The boy looked at her quite surprised; that's the first time someone thanked him for something instead of cursing or ignoring him. He quickly regained his composure and took Eve's hand into his own. The two then turned toward the path they had chosen and were about to make the first step when suddenly Arata came to a halt. Something here wasn't right. Eve turned her head toward the boy and quickly withdrew her hand from his.

None of them knew how this happened but after a moment of complete silence between the two Arata dropped face first on the ground with two knifes stuck in his back. Eve took a step away from the body and looked around. He was there all along. The man was with them from the start, hiding in the shadows and waiting for a good moment to strike. But now that his presence was known, there was no point in those games anymore.

The man appeared from behind a tree, making sure that Eve could see him. He seemed to be in his early thirties, his blue eyes were looking the girl up and down as he licked his lips in anticipation of what was going to happen now that they have come face to face. Judging by their expressions it was hard to say which one was the predator. Both of them were emitting an equally strong killing intent and it was a miracle that they weren't on each other's throat by now.

The man put a hand into his jacket and pulled another knife from within it. Eve prepared herself for another attack, but it never came, instead the murder threw the knife into the air and caught it between his index and middle fingers. He wasn't going to fight her, not yet.

"You should have been able to sense my presence. Have your senses gotten dull so fast?" The man said mockingly and threw the blade into the air again. "It's not a surprise though, you are just a defect after all."

There was no reply from Eve's side. She didn't pay attention to what the man was telling her and just looked down at the fallen boy in front of her. Arata wasn't dead yet, though thing would have been easier if he was. The reason why Eve insisted of them running from the man until now wasn't because she was afraid of facing him, but because of her promise to try and protect her savior's son as much as she could. Of course, judging by the boy's current condition she had completely failed in the task of keeping his safe and out of danger. Well, what was someone to expect from someone trained in killing people rather that protecting them, right?

Eve then looked at the man again. "I'm not going to come with you, Saivar."

"Oh, so you remember my name." The man, or rather Saivar, said and stopped playing with his knife. He licked his lips again and grinned. "That's the response I wanted to hear. None of those dolls dares to say such a thing and they don't even beg for their lives, so it was pretty boring killing them. But you are different, so I expect this to be more interesting."

Without waiting for an answer Saivar threw his knife toward Eve, with the speed of a bullet the projectile flew toward the girl's neck to take her life. That was far from enough. Eve sidestepped in the blink of an eye and caused the projectile to completely miss its target. Her eyes moved to the bag that Arata has been carrying with himself. She quickly reached out to grab it, but before she could do it another knife came flying toward her head. Eve didn't have enough time to both arm herself and dodge the projectile so she rolled to the side and glared at Saivar.

The man chuckled and pulled another two knifes from within his jacket, which were much larger than the previous ones and looked more like machetes. Saivar rushed toward Eve, he didn't want to waste his time fighting someone that's not worth his time so the last two attacks were just to test her reflects while this was his first real attack. As the distance between the two shortened enough the man swung his right machete, aiming for her arm this time. Since all of his attacks till now were aimed for the head that was a move that no one would predict. But there was someone who did. Eve not only leaned to the side, dodging the attack, but she also threw a kick aimed for his head. It was an attack that would cause some serious damage.

Saivar's reaction was astounding. He quickly ducked under the strike and took a step back, creating some distance between him and Eve. The girl did the same, but unlike the man she didn't bother in taking a battle stance. She stood there and waited for her opponent's next move. Saivar leaned toward, ready to rush in again, but was stopped. A hand grabbed onto his leg and pulled him back from attacking. Eve noticed that and quickly realized a big mistake she had done -she had moved to far away from where Arata's wounded body was.

Saivar made an unpleasant face and looked down at the boy, who was trying to hold him back. Arata looked up at him as well and the two locked eyes for a moment. He should have played dead instead of trying to play a shitty hero and the boy knew it, but he couldn't let this man kill Eve.

"L-leave her…" Arata's voice was low and weak, but also insistent. Saivar replied with a low chuckle before raising one of his machetes. He was death. The truth hit Arata way too fast. He shouldn't have tried to intervene, but he did, and now was going to pay the price for that. The dark blade flew toward his head and no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't think of a way for this to end well.

Splasssssh!

A knife cut through human's flesh and splattered blood. An inhuman scream filled the silent air and broke the serenity of the night. Arata tried to bury his head into the ground and hot tears feel from his good eye while he held the bleeding right side of his face with a hand. Eve couldn't bear watching this scene and turned her head to the side. The one she was supposed to protect was sacrificing his life for her and she did nothing to try and prevent that.

"You are trying to play a hero, kid?" Saivar asked with a taunting voice and grabbed a handful of Arata's hair, forcing him to get up on his knees. The boy bite his lower lip to stop the screams that struggled to come to the surface. The pain in his back and the right side of his face were too much for the boy to handle, but he still tried to stay strong under the suffering. His mind was quickly brought to the reality when a cold metallic surface touched against his neck, preparing the finishing blow.

Arata slowly opened his eye and looked forward to where Eve was standing, looking down at him with her usual emotionless face. There were no sights of fear, pity, sadness or desperation in her eyes, just like a doll that stared lifelessly into the space in front of her. No, he didn't want to die like this. Arata's heart smashed against his ribs and he was hoping that by some miracle the killed would spare him.

"So, what are you going to say now? I got your friend here as a hostage, are you still not going to come with me?" Saivar asked and yanked Arata's head back, emitting another cry of pain from the teenager. The boy's purple eye landed on Eve once again, full with pain and fear. It was a plea for the girl to save him.

"I can't do that." Eve shook her head. Arata's face turned pale from those words and his heart was beating so loudly, it was like someone had torn it from his chest and pressed it to his ear. She would sacrifice his life to save her own. It was foolish from him to expect anything else, survival is the primary instinct of all living beings after all. Yeah, self-sacrifice is a kind of mental illness that some people suffer from, but no sane person would willingly throw away their own lives to save someone else.

"What are you saying!?" Saivar yelled back at the girl and pushed the knife against Arata's skin, drawing blood. Red started to run down the boy's neck and he shut his eye tightly as the man continued yelling. "I'm going to kill him and you are ok with that!? You won't even try to attack me? I thought that you were supposed to have a heart, but you aren't any different from the other dolls!"

"I have a heart." Eve corrected and put a hand on her chest. "My time with him was wonderful and if you kill him I would feel grief. But I still can't let you take me back to that place. Too much is bet on my existence and if I come the efforts of my saviors would go to waste."

"Your existence is important?" Saivar chucked darkly. "Isn't that a selfish way to put it? You are just a defect, don't put that as something special, thank you very much. Anyway, I'm going to need it for the record so what's your name boy?"

"…Ar-rata." The boy answered weakly.

"Arata, huh?" Saivar chuckled again. "That's a shitty name. What about your surname?"

Arata kept silent, unsure if he should tell that man. Judging by what Eve and this bastard said, his father is probably involved in this. His silence irritated Saivar and he yanked his hair again, causing the boy to snivel.

"…Godbell." He ended up saying the word that could end his life.

"Godbell?" Saivar repeated and bursted into uncontrollable laughter. "Like Leonel Godbell? I can't believe it! You must be that bastard's son! You have no idea how much trouble your daddy caused all of us by kidnapping Eve. So much that I want to kill him with my bare hands."

Those words made Arata's heart to beat faster, like it was trying to jump out of his chest. He didn't want to die, he wanted to keep living, but how would a miracle like this happen? The boy shut his eye tightly and braced himself for what was about to happen next. The man raised his knife into the air and swung it down, piercing his heart. Spurts of red weakly gush from Arata's chest, he opened his mouth to scream but no sound came from it. Eyes wide as pain unlike anything he had ever felt flooded his body. It went cool, his vision darkened, and soon, he was reduced to a limp heap which fell on the ground.

Saivar smiled proudly at his work and glanced toward Eve. The girl watched the scene in front of her with an indifferent look on her face. She was sad that the boy had to die after such a short period of time, but he was just a normal human after all. Her savior should be able to understand why she scarified his son's life. Eve looked at Saivar once again, she made the logical decision of not accepting the man's demands and let him kill Arata, now was time to avenge her fallen partner.

"You aren't going to try run away?" Eve who prepared an attack stopped herself and titled her head to the side after hearing Saivar's question. The man played with his knife again and looked at the side as he continued speaking. "I killed the boy and you did nothing to stop me. Did you feel helpless? Are you afraid? I really don't understand how defects like you think."

"I don't understand your question." Eve replied confused.

"You were from the Asian Branch, right? Then why did you choose to travel all the way to Bulgaria when you know that the European Branch has far more influence over the continent? Tracking you down here would be a piece of cake. Why would a being that follows logic do such an illogical move? This makes no sense no matter how one looks at it."

"I was told to come here; that's all there is to it." Eve replied. It was true, coming to Europa was a dangerous move, so why did Arata's father send her here? He even put his own son in charge of protecting her, risking the lives of his own family. She never had the interest to question the man's motives for making such dangerous decisions until now.

"Well then, I guess it doesn't really matter now." Saivar said and slipped his knives back into his jacket. He took a black circular item and put it on his arm, momently five blades bursted from the sides of it and connected, lighting up. Eve realized that this was a Grand Order's Duel Disk; a custom made version with some modifications from the standard ones made by Konami; including a built-in Solid Vision system and the ability to use them outside of duels. It was the perfect tool for a hunter.

Saivar grinned and swiped his arm across the disk, which caused five holographic cards to appear in front of him. He took a card and put in on one of the blades, a limbless mechanical dragon materialized right in front of him and glared toward Eve. Saivar wasn't going to Duel the girl. This was going to be a hunt, but he wasn't going to be the hunter.

Eve had no chance or running away now, not that she needed to anyway. This was the kind of situation that she needed in order to unleash her true powers. The dragon charged an energy beam in its mouth and blasted the girl with it. Or that's what Saivar expected to happen. Eve took a card from her pocket and raised it into the air as the deadly projectile was making its way toward her, a golden shield formed in front of the girl and blocked the attack, reflecting it toward the ground between the two.

"Servant of light, you guardian is calling you! Merge our souls and become my blade!" Eve chanted and the card in her hand started to glow along with her skin. Saivar covered his eyes with an arm to prevent getting blinded. After a moment the light died down and the man looked toward the spot where the girl was standing, his lower jaw dropped at the sight that was presented in front of him.

Eve's outfit had completely changed from the one she had on a moment ago. The girl now wore a white body suit with golden armor covering her knees and body. The shoulder were gold and white, far larger that her body with the number '39' written in red on the left one. Eve's suit had a high collar with golden borders, while the armor had a green gem attached to the chest area. The girl had a helmet with two spikes pointing from the sides and one from the back. There were two golden swords attacked to her tights, but that wasn't nearly as striking as the two wings made of white metal which were attacked to her back.

Saivar's eyes widened in disbelieve and his arms dropped at the sides. He has heard that Guardians have the ability to infuse their souls with cards, but that was supposed to be some kind of advanced ability. It wasn't possible for Eve to have learned this trick so fast, and she also did it without summoning the monster first. Now, Saivar's grin started coming back. His prey was far more experienced than he initially expected, so it was also going to be a lot more interesting to put her down.

"Whoa, what are my eyes seeing?" Saivar chuckled darkly and put a hand on his forehead. "You aren't in Japan anymore, rat. Cosplays aren't very popular around here."

"You killed someone precious for me. I won't forgive." That was Eve's declaration. As soon as she spoke those words the girl grabbed the swords she was carrying and charged toward the mechanical dragon. The robotic beast moved back, to increase the distance between them and fired another beam toward its opponent. This time Eve jumped into the air, and slashed her swords downward. The mechanical dragon roared and retreated back with a large cut presented on its chest. Saivar gritted his teeth in anger and took two more cards from his hand.

"Don't make it sound like I did something wrong, bitch! That was my job! If you really cared about that damn boy you should have tried to save him, instead of standing there and watching how I killed him!" Saivar shouted and a second dragon appeared beside the first one, then they merged together into a single robot with two heads.

Eve didn't reply and instead focused all of her attention on the current enemy. The new beast quickly fired two beams from its mouths, it wanted revenge for the wound she had inflicted a moment ago. Eve's wings quickly reacted on the upcoming attack and created a barrier which reflected the attacks somewhere in the distance.

Using the time which the beast needed to charge another attack the girl charged toward again. Her swords started to glow and she strongly slashed the mechanical demon with everything she got. The impact caused the beast to stumble backward, but unlike last time there was no visible damage on it. Eve guessed that this was probably because the new monster was stronger than Utopia and needed more than one attack to be put down.

"What are you going to say now?" Saivar asked mockingly. Grand Order's Duel Disks were designed to be used to hunt down Guardians, therefor they were also able to counter Soul-Fusion: the trump card of any Guardian.

The fact that this attack didn't inflict any damage unnerved Eve a bit, mostly because her Soul-Fusion was more evolved and therefor stronger. Unlike the standard version of the ability where a Guardian must have already summoned the monster in order to fuse with it she was able to acquire this power without even being in a duel. If after that she was unable to completely destroy a Cyber Dragon with a single attack which also had no effect on a Cyber Twin Dragon, then the Grand Order's technology must have improved quite a lot since she was a part of their forces.

Eve didn't like wasting her time when fighting someone and always aimed for the quickest way to end it. This means that she need to aim at Saivar instead of the dragon, however, that wasn't going to be an easy task since the monster was standing in front of its master, shielding him from any possible harm that could come his way. With no other choice but to attack the robotic beast first Eve swung her swords and charged toward the monster once again.

It was cold and dark, there was nothing but an endless void; Arata could barely remember what happened for him to end in this place. His wounds had all disappeared and he was sitting on a silver throne with angel wings on the top. There was a blurred memory in the boy's head about an agonizing pain that he felt right before ending in this place. It had something to do with a girl that looked like an angel. Somehow he felt like she was someone he knew, but couldn't remember her name.

Arata wanted to move and look around this strangle place but was unable to do so. There were golden chains wrapped around his body which held him firm in place on the throne, forbidding him from moving any part of his body, even his head. Because of that Arata was forced to only look at the man sitting on a throne opposite from him and drinking black tea.

This strange person seemed to be in his mid twenties had short black hair and eyes, a mole under his left eye and small moustache that gave him the appearance of a handsome gentleman. The man wore a formal black suit with a tie and a matching top hat. There was a cane leaning against his throne, but Arata didn't pay much attention to it. Instead, the boy wondered why the man's throne didn't have the angel wings and why there were no chains to hold him in place.

A few moments of silence passed, the man then put his cup of tea on a white table (that appeared out of nowhere) and turned his attention toward his guest. A small pleasant smile appeared on his face and he leaned back against his throne. The man then put his right leg over the left one and looked the boy from toes to head before nodding.

"Another purple-eyed person appeared here." The man said with an amused tone. "You came here a few years earlier that I expected, but there is nothing bad in it. After all, if humans didn't die my job was going to be pointless."

He has died? The thought alone shocked Arata and he didn't want to believe that this was possible, but then all of the memories returned. The boy remembered the suffering he was put through and how Eve – his angel – was there watching him. She stood there and refused to save him, help him, do anything to reduce the unbearable pain.

"So I died?" Arata asked and the man confirmed with a nod. "Then, is that the hell?"

"Well, you are near it but not quite." The man replied. "This isn't really hell or heaven, it's the place between the world of living and the world of death."

"And why am I here?" After all, Arata was dead so why did that man keep him from reaching his last destination?

"Asking right ahead, eh? You are a pretty boring individual, but whatever." The man smirked and stood up, then he leaned toward Arata. "The truth is that I came to give you a curse."

"A curse?!" Oh no, that's not going to end well and Arata knew it. He tried to move again, but the chains wouldn't let him do so. In fact, their hold on him seemed to have strengthened.

"Yeah, a curse." The man repeated and his eyes started to change. They became completely black with no sight of life in them.

Arata didn't realize it, but those words set a chain of unavoidable events in motion.

"The curse of a Grim Reaper."

It was the true beginning of a fight that transcended life and death.

A/N: Well... It seems Arata got killed 5 chapters in the story. Good job there, Mr. Main Character!

Jokes aside, I want to thank for the support!

About the reviews:

Thanks you ScalchopWarrior...

But for real, I would like to give some attention to Master Of Anime224's review which is also the first constructive criticism I got in the year of our lord 2017. His review helped me a lot and told me what I need to focus on in order to make this story better. I would however like to get a better explanation about what I should do to make the world-building seem better and more realistic. Of course I will need a name for the damn town and such, but is there anything else that I'm missing there?

Now to the technical part, I know that this is an overused excuse and isn't even a worthy excuse, but English isn't my first language. Because of that I actually encourage the people who read my stories to tell me when they find a mistake. Actually before your review I didn't check my wording all that much, but now I changed that and hope that there aren't any "wrong words" in this chapter. I never realized that I have been the switching between past and present tense before you addressed the issue and I'm going to work on fixing that from now on, but I'm trying to stick with past tense because like you said: "Past tense is just better".

I actually once came upon your story and have it marked to read. I just haven't gotten the time for that yet. If anyone that reads this in interested, then you could go check Master of Anime224's story: Yu-Gi-Oh! Reality's Curtain

Well, that was all about it.

Diabolic Tracer Out!