Dang, I got a ton of followers after the first chapter! Skull's more popular than I thought... XD

nekozr: Yeah. To be fair, it was kinda obvious. XP

IAmACrazyFan: I have no idea why, but when you called Skull a flame beast, I immediately got an image of Skull going all Izuna on Byakuran's ass. Holy crap, that would actually be pretty epic. O.O

suntan140: He'll probably be the type of guy who doesn't know that other people think he's badass. XP

QuirkyKit: I know, right?! No Game No Life is awesome! XD

Failing Wings: Well, actually, I had the idea for this fic long before the one in the Idea Dump. XP

XXX

Restart and Try Again

Chapter 2: God of Games

XXX

"Ugh... God, my head..." Skull groaned, wincing as he sat up and placed a hand on his forehead, eyes squeezed shut. "What the hell happened?"

Good morning!

"Wha!" Skull jumped in surprise, causing him to fall off the bed and onto his back on the hard, wooden ground. "Ow...bitch!"

That looked like it hurt.

"No freaking duh!" Skull shouted before his eyes shot open and he looked around wildly. Slowly, he remembered what had just happened. "...God?"

Yep, that's me! I'd like it better if you called me by my name, though.

"Gods have names?" Skull asked as he stood up and rubbed his head, looking around. He recognized this place. It was a hotel he had been staying at all those years ago while he had been waiting for the day the Arcobaleno would all meet each other. Back to the matter at hand, though. "What is it?"

Tet.

"Tet, huh...?" Skull repeated, frowning. The voice in his head sounded like that of a twelve-year-old boy, nothing like he imagined a god would sound. But, considering the feeling he got from him during their first conversation, he thought it fit his personality. "So...you can talk in my mind?"

Yeah! Think of it as a sort of telepathy. You can do it, too, you know. Go ahead and try to transfer your thoughts to me.

"Transfer? How in the hell do I do that?"

It's just a fancy way of saying to think your words instead of saying them out loud.

"Oh, really? That's pretty convenient."

Yeah. I mean, you don't want people thinking that you're some crazy wack job who's always talking to himself, do you?

"..."

Glaring at nothing isn't really going to help your case much, either.

"...Shut up," Skull grumbled before sighing and trying it out. 'Alright, here. Can you hear me?'

Good job! You've officially learned how to use your inside voice!

"..."

Hey, what did I say about glaring at nothing? You don't need people saying things!

'...Whatever. Oh, by the way,' he thought, suddenly sounding very interested. 'You said that Ability Users have the same kind of powers the gods have, right?'

Well, that's not exactly right. We give them powers similar to ours. If we gave humans all the powers of a god, it probably wouldn't end too well. Lots of people going crazy with power and then doing something stupid. Like trying to take over the world or something.

Skull arched an eyebrow. 'I thought that was just in cartoons... Are there really people who'd try to do something like that?'

You'd be surprised.

'...Well, I don't think I'll ever meet anyone like that anyway,' Skull replied offhandedly as he stood up and sat down on the edge of the bed. 'So what kind of god are you? Fire?'

Nope.

'Water?'

No.

'Electricity?'

Nu-uh.

'Hmm... Animals?'

No- Wait, what? How'd you get there from electricity?

'What, is that weird? I think it'd be pretty cool. Like being able to turn into a lion or a bear or a dragon or something.'

...No, I'm not the god of animals.

'Fine... God of guns?'

There is no god of guns.

'Really? There should be...'

Well, there is a god of weapons, though.

'Oh, that's pretty cool...' Skull thought before suddenly realizing something. 'Hey, wait a minute! Weapons are manmade objects, how could there be a god for that? It doesn't make any sense!'

A good question. You remember that I told you that there are many different types of gods?

'Yeah?'

Well, we were all created by someone else. Our One True God.

'One True God? Is that like the God of Gods or something?'

That's one way to look at it, I guess. He's our creator, and your creator.

Skull's eyes widened, astounded at this new revalation. 'Really?! So is he the god that created the universe?!'

Well, no, not exactly. He created this world, not the universe. Each world with life on it kinda has its own god to take care of it.

'So who created the universe, then?' Skull continued his questioning. It was just now really sinking in that he was speaking to a god, who had the answers to all the questions humankind could think of asking. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Sorry, but I really shouldn't be telling you anymore.

'What? Why?!'

There are some things in this world that humans are just better off not knowing about.

'Damn...'

Sorry, that's just how it is. But, anyway, when humans make something that the One True God sees potential in, he creates a new god for whatever that is. He saw the potential in weapons, so he created a god of weapons.

'Alright, that makes sense I guess,' Skull thought dejectedly, still disappointed. 'Though I don't really get why he'd want to make a god of weapons... Oh, hey, are you a god of war?'

*sigh* No.

'Screw it, I give up then. What kind of god are you?'

Ah, you finally ask! I am one of the gods that the One True God created for something manmade.

'Oh, really? Which one? Wait, are you the god of weapons?!'

No, I'm the god of something even better!

'Really?!' Skull thought back to him, his eyes now wide with excitement. Maybe, with this new power he was going to get, maybe he actually would be able to stand against Byakuran!

That's right!

Maybe he actually had a chance!

You see...

Maybe there was hope for him saving himself and the other Arcobaleno!

I am the god...

Maybe...!

Of games!

...Maybe the world just really loved to screw him over.

"...I'm doomed," Skull groaned, running his hands through his hair and falling onto his back in despair. "I'm so screwed! I mean, what the hell am I even supposed to do with that?! Challenge him to poker?! We're all going to die..."

*Ahem* Skull?

"And it's probably going to be painful..."

Skull!

Skull sighed. 'What is it now?'

...You probably can't tell, but I'm rolling my eyes right now. Anyway, don't you wanna at least give your new power a chance before writing it off? I wouldn't send you off to fight Byakuran with a completely useless power, you know...

Skull sat back up and frowned. 'I don't know, I've met a lot of assholes in my life... I wouldn't be surprised if one of them decided to do that...'

Really? Wow, your life must have sucked...

'Hey! I... Well... Yeah, pretty much.'

Well, don't worry. I'm not that big of an asshole.

'...But you admit that you are one?'

Sure. I have no reason to lie.

'Well, this day just keeps getting better, doesn't it?'

Anyway, back to your power. But first, I need to ask you something important.

'Uh, what?'

Skull, do you...

'Yeah...?'

...Play video games?

'...What?' Skull asked in slight irritation after a moment of silence. 'That's the important question?' He sighed. 'Yeah, I do. After I became an Arcobaleno, I couldn't really do stunts anymore. So, I took of video games to kinda...fill the void.'

Huh... That's actually kind of sad.

'I know, but-' Skull suddenly shot out of the bed. 'Wait, I'm not a baby anymore!'

Well, yeah. You just noticed this?

'Well, I was kinda in shock, so- Oh, who cares? This means that I can ride my motorcycle again!'

That's really what you care about in all this?

'Of course!' Skull mentally shouted before becoming serious. 'I... Being a stuntman was my life... After I became an Arcobaleno... I didn't know what to do anymore. I got depressed for a really long time after that...'

Oh... Hey, you didn't...?

'If you're going to say "want to kill yourself," no, I didn't,' Skull answered, frowning. 'Besides, that's the coward's way out.'

Really... Are you still going to become an Arcobaleno this time around?

'Do I have a choice anymore? I mean, I've already got your powers now and everything...'

Did you already forget what I said? I would have given you these powers even if you chose not to fight Byakuran. So you can still change your mind, I don't have a problem with it.

'Really? Then why the heck did you even decide to do this in the first place? I mean, if you don't care whether I decide to fight Byakuran or not, then...'

Ah, that. Well, I have two reasons why I decided to make you into an ability user.

'Okay?'

The first reason is...I was just kinda bored.

'...Wha-'

The second reason is, that this is kind of an experiment.

'You were just bo- EXPERIMENT?! You're not going all Verde on me, are you?!'

The experiment is that I want to see how my powers would be used by an Ability User. You're actually my first one, so I wanna see how it goes.

Skull glared down at the floor in irritation before sighing. 'I see... So you did this just because you were bored... And as for the whole experiment thing...well, we'll see how it goes.'

Glad to see you're so understanding. You never answered my question, though. Are you going to become an Arcobaleno this time around, too?

Skull frowned and crossed his arms. "Hmm..." 'Well, I don't really think I have much of a choice. This doesn't seem like something I can run away from. I keep thinking that that Checkerface guy will come after me or something... Hey, do you know anything about the Arcobaleno curse?'

Not much, to be honest. We gods don't really deal with the human realm that much unless we're trying to find potential Ability Users, so I can't help you with that.

'Oh, that's too bad... That reminds me, why did you pick me of all people anyway?'

Hm, well, I'm interested in learning more about this curse, so I decided to go with one of the Arcobaleno. Since you were the weakest, I figured that you'd need my power the most.

'Which, by the way, you still have to explain,' Skull pointed out before suddenly remembering something. 'Oh, yeah... Hey, how the heck did you send me back in time, anyway? I mean, you're the god of games.'

Oh, that. I asked the god of time, Chronos, for a favor.

'Heh, there's a god of time, too... Alright, you can tell me what my powers are now. And what the heck they have to do with video games.'

How about we go somewhere without people first? You need someplace to practice!

'Hmmm... I guess we could go to the forest around the Arcobaleno mansion...I doubt anyone's there yet anyway.'

Deal!

XXX

In case nobody noticed, Skull's gonna have a real potty mouth in this fic. XP

Probably should have put this in the first chapter, but I got the title of this fic from this: www . youtube watch?v=JLdU7VQFR7M

You know, for anyone who's actually interested. XP

I would have made a more detailed explanation on how this world and its gods worked, but why not keep it mysterious (plus I'm kinda lazy)? Besides, it's not really that important to the overall plot. At least for now. Who knows, I may decide to do something with it in the future.

Also, and this is completely unrelated and random (I sort of just thought this randomly while I was writing this chapter), if Tet was a pokemon, he would definitely be a Mew. ...Like I said, it was just a random thought. :P