Amusement Park of Horrors
Death-T 1, as expected, was completely set up. When Kaiba's smug face appeared on a screen in the room, it took all he had not to just point and say 'Hey guys, did you know that BITCH is female? YEA'. Mostly because not only would no one believe him, but something told him it would likely make things worse. They'd just have to push through this 'Death-T' thing and stay alive through it. After all... They could handle anything right?
... Right?
As it turned out, pure luck saved their ass when in an attempt to hop the obstacles in the room, Katsuya came across one of their three opponents. It'd been easy enough to spot him from above... Considering the look on the guy's face when he did it. Apparently, one of them had decided to go ahead in an attempt to sneak up on them. Deciding against his crappy aim, he'd proceeded to jump on the man's face, easily knocking him out before fleeing for his life from the two other opponents they had. Running was cowardly...
...Except when the other team had lasers that sent high voltage shocks through the vests. Something that had become rather evident when not only did the shots that brushed against their shoulders hurt like fucking hell, but when they'd started bad-mouthing Kaiba in front of Johji again oh boy. Honda's nephew was not one to mess with, if the quick draw he'd made on them was any sign. While they avoided being shot by the kid, the vest on the wall wasn't so lucky; even as a melted mass of metal, it was still cracking with electricity. It seemed that as luck would have it, the gun Anzu had was the same as their opponents... So, they ended up taking out the two others using that one gun, using a plan of Honda's. Anzu in the meantime, proceeded to rip off her uniform with a scowl, quitting angrily as they proceeded to the next stage. Of course, he ended up being questioned if he had quit his own job, but he pointedly decided to bring the woman's attention to what could possibly await them in the next challenge rather than go into the fact that he didn't even have time to say that.
Let alone deal with anything Mokuba tried to do to prevent it.
The others were already discussing how potentially dangerous the last one had been- and knowing Kaiba, the coward's sick idea of a 'game' had a lot more in store for them. It ranged from rabid dogs to really far-fetched ones like 'Death-Rays'. Though he didn't put that one past her either to tell the truth. Nonetheless, none of them were right, and as they came to Death-T 2, things only got worse.
Why, he asked himself yet again, oh why, did it have to be this. When Mokuba had almost slipped in saying Kaiba would have leverage over him, he wasn't kidding. As he sat stiff on the roller coaster, he bit his tongue to keep from screaming in fear. This 'game', he thought as he paled, was completely centered on the supernatural. Even Honda admitted that a chill was running up his spine- and the fact was, if there was anything that he didn't like... It was this.
Katsuya shuddered as he and the others took a seat on the coaster, Hobson taking a seat at the very back. They were seated in chairs of metal, and as a helmet and straps locked around everyone's wrists and head, he gulped. "Oh God..." He couldn't move even an inch! Trapped like a tiny tiny rat in a... Something. "You..." He swallowed, attempting to turn to the butler with a glare. "What the hell are you planning?" If the last room had been any sign, he had a feeling he knew what these chairs were...
"The game of death has begun," the currently cloaked man said chillingly. Oh dear god why did that bitch hire Hobson to do this... "The place this ride will take you, 'Death-T 2', is called 'Murder Mansion'," he began, face unseen by the others as he spoke from the back of the cart. "It is a place soaked through and through with terror..." He didn't say! "And as for this place... This is the Grim Reaper's Chair Ride." He chuckled darkly, before continuing. "Given who's in it, it's doubtful you'll even make it to the mansion..."
He swallowed, the others rendered silent as he attempted to find the strength to speak. "What the hell do yah mean... 'Grim Reaper's Chair'?" And thanks, thanks so much for the reference to his greatest fear! Nice to see someone cared, really!
(He was so fucked...)
Hobson chuckled again. "Well, as you've likely realized, you're currently sitting in electric chairs, devices that have sent countless criminals to meet with death..." Another chuckle, and he continued. "During the ride, all sorts of things will play through the dark... And if you scream even once, that microphone will pick up on it, and activate the chair!" Well... Shit.
Katsuya swallowed as the others tensed. Shit... Shit shit shit, he was never good with ghosts and zombies and crap! The ride began, and as the carts moved a single silent mantra entered everyone's minds.
Nobody... Nobody make a sound!
Shit shit shit shit shit.
The cart rolled in the darkness, nothing happening for a while.
Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.
Abruptly, a horde of monsters and mummies and all sorts of typical haunted house type devices fell from the ceiling, Katsuya still biting his tongue as they went. Screams echoed along the chamber, blood practically oozing out of the walls and loosely mummified skeletons reached out from afar.
SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT.
An axe narrowly missed slicing the 'car' clean in two, and a few bones clattered to the ground in their place.
'Oh god oh god oh god...' He could do this. He could handle th- Wait what the hell was blowing behind him! He bit his tongue, and in just a few seconds...
...
He didn't wake up until the end of the ride. Apparently, he'd passed out... Although the moment he did wake up, the scream he'd been holding back was released very, very loudly.
"HAAAAA! AAAAH! AHHHHHH HOLY SHIT GET AWAY!"
"J-Jonouchi-kun," Yugi said as he undid the helmet covering his friend's head. "The ride is over..." Oh. He looked around, coughing. ...So it was.
The teen blinked, before standing up. "Er... Right... So where..." His eyes widened as he looked at the large 'haunted mansion' type set up the cart had taken them too, staring in shocked silence. "Shit..." He could practically hear Kaiba laughing in the background. 'Welcome to Murder Mansion', she was saying with that smug voice. "This place is just as creepy as the last one!" If not more! And yet there they were, walking towards the entrance. Idly, he noted that Hobson had gotten himself nicely fried up, though if his muttering was any consolation, he'd apparently managed to avoid death. Somehow.
Probably rigged the machine actually. Though he was apparently a torture expert so... That might have had something to do with it.
That mansion, he decided, taught him a fair amount of weird crap. Actually if it was divided into points it was only three, but still. One, apparently cards could be used as a way to tell if your grandfather was dying... Well, if the way Yugi was talking about them was anything, he was pretty sure that was it anyways. Wasn't sure how it worked... But it wasn't the kind of thing to look at oddly when you knew the kid long enough to say the least.
Two. You could fit a lot of stuff in a skyscraper. This included replica houses and full size yards. And finally three... Kaiba was way, way, way more twisted than he had ever thought, even after what he'd seen in the 'arena' with Sugoroku.
The door forward had to be opened by a switch. All four of them were required to put their hands through the handholds that covered the switches, which made Katsuya wonder how Kaiba had been so sure that there would be four people instead of three. In all honesty, it gave him the chills. Then again, so did everything about this place really.
Murder Mansion, as it was called, was dark, musky, and more than fit its name. Using a vague clue of the misspelled, English word 'blood' (It had a second 'l' ), Yugi had barely managed to figure out what switch would open the door. And just in time; the other three switches would release a guillotine to cut off all of their hands. And if they hadn't hit any switches, it'd have fallen anyways. And that was with the clue... What would have happened if Yugi hadn't grabbed that piece of paper from the floor! Or if one of them hadn't known enough about English to even notice?
He shuddered however, as he faced down the namesake for that place. Because quite honestly, all that happened before had nothing on this, not by a long shot. "Damn it Kaiba," he said as he stood, chained to a pillar with none other than the famed sociopath 'Chopper Man'. "You're so gettin' it when I find yah..." There was no second floor to this 'building', despite all illusions. Instead, they'd traveled down into a hole in the floor after listening to a chilling tale from the woman who 'invited' them there. He didn't know which was worse. The fact that Kaiba had actually hired the subject of the story... Or the fact that the story was real to begin with.
It had happened last summer, by the lake that the district bordered on. One night, ten boy scouts camping in the area were slaughtered, cut completely into pieces with an axe. Not a single person could piece the boys bodies back together. Not a single one... It was even questioned as to whether or not there were any survivors for a while, before DNA testing showed that there were indeed at least ten bodies in the ground hacked mess. The killer was aptly named for his skills of course, and in the end, no one had found him; hell, they hadn't even had a trace.
Until now. Katsuya swallowed as he stared the killer down, watching Honda's nephew squirm with fear under the man's gaze. Chess pieces, Kaiba had said when she greeted them at this challenge. Each of them were players on a giant board that Kaiba had set them on, and they were in her domain. But damn it... To search out and hire a sociopathic murderer? To actually hire a man who had killed and completely destroyed the bodies of all those kids..?
He was the only one in the room besides the murderer and Johji. Only one person was allowed after all... And hell if he was letting anyone else get into this kind of danger. Street-smarts or not, he and Honda could only go so far... And while he knew for a fact that he could hold his own against even the worst he hadn't felt so grateful for the 'mandatory training' Kaiba's security team went through before in his life. Katsuya glared at the screen that had blipped out in 'Chopper's arms, drawing back from the mans horrific appearance. What to do... What to do... The entire floor was covered with tar, and weapons of all sorts lined the walls. The only light they had was candles, and if those fell on the ground they were screwed. "Gh..." At the moment, he was doing the best he could to avoid Chopper while still being chained to the freak, but... "GYAH-GH!" The chainsaw nicked his shoulder as he dodged, the teen holding back a series of curses to focus on the fight. Blood... Damn that thing hurt!
"JONOUCHI-KUN!" Shouts filled the air from the other side of the door, all three of the teens attempting to see through the tiny window they'd been given. "JONOUCHI!"
The teen shouted as he ducked yet another strike from 'Chopper's chainsaw, attempting to run on the tar floor without falling on his face. "Not helpin' guys!" The door was locked of course. They couldn't get in, he and the brat couldn't get out. Not fun really. "Damn it..." He watched as his opponent attempted to get the chainsaw out of the center pillar, where it had become stuck. At least that weapon was out of the way now, but even with that... He looked at the chain on his wrist, scowling. This didn't help matters at all, and he was going to forever hate this kid for it; regardless of the fact that Chopper had been threatening him to do it.
Abruptly, Yugi pointed his arm through the bars on the door towards the candle. "Jonouchi-kun! There! Hurry!"
Candle st- He rushed over, tugging the weakly affixed candle holder from the wall and ripping the candle off. Of course... There was a point to hold the candle in place, he could use this..! He got to work immediately, praying that he got this over with before 'Chopper' got his chainsaw free.
After all, they had a plan now. A plan that had Kaiba turning the screen on Chopper Man's chest back on and shouting through it in shock. "I don't believe it," she said with wide eyes. "You unlocked the handcuffs..." Ohoho, that and much more...
He smirked, moving to the side as the chain was revealed to be firmly affixed to the very door separating the group. Chopper's strength was more than enough to rip it from its hinges, allowing Katsuya and the kid to escape. But that wasn't all they'd done. "It's called," Katsuya said with a dark laugh as the candle fell off the door seemingly in slow motion. "'Using your opponents strength against yah." He smirked darkly as Chopper Man stared at the candle, horrified as it fell into the tar to set it ablaze. "I might not be a genius Kaiba, but that fire and tar ain't gonna mix that well..." He quickly took refuge on the small strip of concrete around the room, the others following after him as they continued through the second doorway there.
Kaiba's voice was cut off as the screen fizzled out, destroyed in the flames. And as he and everyone else escaped through the second door in the room, howls of pained screams pierced the air, the smell of smoking flesh stinging their nostrils. The 'Chopper Man' was burning to dust in a pool of tar, and no one was going to miss him.
'We're comin' for yah, Kaiba,' the blond thought with a determined frown. 'An' you'll get what's coming!'
Time to move on to Death-T 3.
If there was ever a time. That Anzu's obsession with dancing. Could help so much.
He sure as hell hadn't expected it to be here. But even then, it did them no good at the end. 'Don't give up!', he'd told Yugi. Don't give up, even though we've just been locked in a tiled room, the door over 10 meters up the wall, and blocks are falling from the sky. Blocks that managed to hold a rhythm of sorts that Anzu followed and directed them through until the blocks all led them to the hole in the room. Suddenly, he was very very appreciative of her impossible dream of taking dance in New York. Because damn it, dancing saved lives here.
Don't give up, even though your Grandpa is probably dead thanks to the heart pressure that 'illusion of death crap' put him through earlier. Don't give up even though the so called games up to this point have all been rigged, and have made it fairly clear that Seto Fucking Kaiba is either a psychopath or a seriously twisted fucking bitch. ...Most likely both.
Don't give up, he thought, pounding his fists into the cube that now separated them from Honda in the room of falling blocks they'd climbed to this door. Even when Honda tells you to move on as his jacket becomes wedged between two of the falling blocks... And yet another one separates you from him before you can even tell him to shut up.
'Don't give up Yugi', he thought, tears running down his face, 'When you're the reason why I bother doing things any more.' A kid who believed in 'good' in everyone...
He'd thought that was stupid, when he first met Yugi. Completely moronic, and useless. After all; he'd been a useless bully, with a useless father in a useless world... And for some reason, that kid bothered to stick up for him after all the crap he put him through. And because of it, suddenly that useless world wasn't so useless... And maybe, just maybe, he wasn't so useless either. Don't give up, never give up...
Because regardless of all the crap that he'd heard and gone through lately, he was never giving up on that kid. He and Honda both.
And now, one of those people that Yugi had stood up for... Was gone. "HONDA!" He shouted at the brick pointlessly, pounding at the wall until he felt his knuckles bleed. "HONDA! WE'LL WAIT FOR YOU!" He breathed heavily, shouting again. "DON'T DIE YOU MORON! WE'RE WAITING FOR YOU! SO YOU... YOU USE THE GUTS I KNOW YOU HAVE, AND GET OUT OF THIS SITUATION!"
There was a permanent marker face on his hand, or part of one at least. They'd waited a long time before blocks had begun to fall in that room after all, and during that time Anzu had drawn the face so that, any time they looked at their hand, they'd remember the things they did together. They'd remember the good days at Burger World, or the arcade. The fucking weird days, like at that professor's house, or the museum, or at school with that puzzle letter. They'd remember the bad days...
'This is as far as I go,' he'd said.
And suddenly, he was gone. "Anzu," Katsuya began, breathing harshly as he clenched his fists. "Yugi," he continued, turning slowly as he wiped whatever tears had come from his eyes. "Let's go!"
"Wait," Anzu said, Katsuya blinking as she looked down at Yugi. The boy was curled in on himself, face screwed up in some sort of pain as though attempting to fight something off. "Yugi looks... Yugi doesn't look so good..."
Katsuya had merely stared, frozen as a dark feeling came over him. Oh fuck not now...
'You don't know,' Mokuba kept saying. You don't know... 'He became a different person'.
Something told him that they were going to meet that 'Other Yugi' really soon... And all he could do was pray to anything listening that this 'Other Yugi' wasn't as bad as Mokuba had made him out to be.
This game, Seto told herself as she laughed darkly at her 'rival's misery, was like chess. If she thought about the game like that, each player had a corresponding piece.
Yugi, of course, was the king. Anzu Mazaki, the player she hadn't even considered until the end of Death-T 1, was the bishop. In her mind, Yugi had no 'Queen', deserved no Queen. No, the most powerful of pieces had long since been reserved... Seto smirked, knocking one of the pieces over on the board. If Jonouchi was Yugi's knight, his 'right hand' then Honda was the rook, the 'castle' that held it all together. "And now," she said aloud, arms crossed with a smirk. "I've taken his rook... And soon, it will be 'Check Mate'." And with one piece down, the rest would be soon to follow.
"Those guys are stubborn, aren't they Nee-sama?" Seto didn't turn as Mokuba's voice came into the room, the boy holding a serious and quite possibly angered expression on his face. Mokuba... Now what was he doing up here, when he was due for 'T-4', which he'd spent all week convincing the woman to have him participate in? Trying to wheedle his way into her 'good graces' again..? "The end of the game is coming to a close," the boy said with a frown, balling his fists. "You remember our bet?" The boy's fists clenched, and he continued. "Before we created Death-T... You and I, we made a bet.. On the stage where Yugi would lose!" His voice sounded pathetically pleading, Seto thought to herself as she continued to watch the screens. He was trying too hard, far too hard, to get on her good side in the middle of 'work'. Nonetheless, her brother continued. "And you, you bet that he would make it to Death-T 5! Isn't that right, Seto-neesama!"
She nodded, still looking ahead. "That's right... And you, of course, bet that he would only reach Death-T 4..."
Mokuba went red, gritting his teeth. "You... Nee-sama... You not only let MY employees get involved, but Death-T 4... That was my battle!"
"Yes yes," she said with a dismissive tone, still focused on the screens. "And my bet, Death-T 5, is my duel monster's match against him. I'm honestly curious as to why you're so upset about this."
The boy growled, shouting at his older sister in rage. "You're betting on my losing to Yugi! Of course I'm 'upset'!"
She scoffed. "And I stand by that bet as well, Mokuba." The woman turned slightly to look at her brother, before continuing. "You can't beat Yugi... And from the start, I was opposed to you being involved at all."
He tensed, scarcely able to respond. "You... You..."
The woman continued, uncaring. "Mokuba... You challenged Yugi to a game behind my back..." Seto turned back to the screens, ignoring the expression on Mokuba's face as the boy was reminded of the horrific experience. "I don't know the result," she said coldly. "But given your 'week long leave', I can take a guess!"
Dark dark dark, he wasn't there, he wasn't there... Mokuba swallowed, shrinking back a fair amount under the force of those words. "That... That..." He gulped, shaking his head. "I just wanted... I... I just wanted your approval... Just once..."
"GET A CLUE," she shouted, voice sounding through the room as a cruel reminder to the day that she'd begun to treat her brother like this. "In the world of business, there's no room for affection!" She continued shouting, turning on her brother with a cold snarl. "And until you know that Mokuba, you'll never be anything more than a LOSER!"
He stood there, frozen for a few moments as tears ran down his face. "You..." He choked, before shouting back at his sister before leaving the room. "JUST WATCH, 'NII-SAMA'," he said with spite. "I'LL WIN THIS MATCH!" Ha! A joke at best, Seto thought, ignoring the boy as he left.
Mokuba stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him rather loudly. He turned to the body guards with wide and crazed eyes, chocking for a few moments before he could finally speak. "Is Death-T 4 prepared?"
They nodded, seemingly oblivious to both the tears and the incensed look on the boy's face. "Yes sir!"
He turned, storming down the hall to the stage he'd set up for the event. "Good! Let's go!" Just watch, he thought, wiping the tears of his face with a scowl. Just watch... Seto would see his battle... See his true strength, and then she'd be happy, and smile, and play with him and everyone else he liked and everyone would be happy... Everyone...
Like it should have been...
The gates opened, and he entered the stage, waiting for his opponent to arrive with an absolutely murderous expression of determination. He learned from the best after all.
AN: IT'S TIME TO DUEL, BITCHES. Ok. That was a little harsh, I take that back. Anyways! Oh manga chapters... For the most part, I didn't want to extend this by essentially copying every single page of the manga, sooooo... I skimmed it here. Which effectively tells you all just why this chapter is so freaking short compared to the others. Obviously the details will be covered beloooow~ But an interesting thing to note, once we hit 'Duelist Kingdom', I don't... Really do this when it involves Jonouchi or Kaiba. At all.
Well isn't Kaiba (To quote the amazing reviewer Iona) a crazy crazy bitch? I swear, the guy she hired is the trope namer for 'Axe Crazy', though I can't be sure, since he apparently prefers Chainsaws... Seriously though. Things got REAL. Ever wonder how the others would have reacted to 'Yami Yugi' if they knew about him before Yugi spilled the beans? (A point of time where Yami conveniently toned down his shadow games in terms of lethality... Or so it seemed until Duelist Kingdom. *checks* YEP. HE'S STILL AT IT FOLKS.)
AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR...
Anonymous Review Responses
Only one was sent without an account, but that's ok! (Because quite frankly, it was so amazing it counts for two... Or more.)
To the amazing Iona, first off... THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU. It is reviews like this that allow me to breaaaaathe. And don't you just love knowing what will happen next without feeling like 'Eh... I know what'll happen next. I'll just skip this chapter annnnnnd...'? (I know I do when I read fanfics like this, and I'm personally honored that you would think the same for this fanfic here!) As for all those points... I can't tell if it's my inner TV-Troper or if it's my inner Psych nerd. I like to think it's both. (Not to mention obsessive research...) Trust me when I say, the further we get into this fanfic, the more 'diverse' the changes to the storyline are... And yet aren't. Most of the changes will especially be apparent during 'in between times'... After all, when Kaiba comes back in Duelist and asks how long it's been, they say almost a year. And I'm actually shortening that...
In any case, thanks again! I hope to continue making this worth the read!
Usagi's Manga Guide/Corner!
The section so cool it... Uh... Can't think of anything to say.
Does anyone doubt how absolutely INSANE Kaiba is? Because that entire scene with Chopperman is completely ripped from the manga, save one point; namely Jonouchi's mention of 'training'. This is actually a reference to a much later point in the Duelist Arc, where (Spoooooilers~) Kaiba holds a gun to his(her? I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE!) former bodyguard... Who was apparently also a spy. Kaiba mentions a training regime that he puts all members of his security staff through, along with the fact that... Well... There's a reason why he instilled that requirement. Something tells me that Jonouchi isn't an exception, which makes for an interesting image... Although he hasn't 'shown up' in uniform yet, can you say... 'Jonouchi Katsuya in a suit?' Or perhaps 'Cool shades'?
Another example of ripped dialogue (As if most of the chapter isn't...), is the very last scene. Besides what isn't in brackets on Mokuba's part, nearly the entire thing is manga-original. Even the 'GET A CLUE' (Which effectively translates too... IHATEYOU. Oh Kaiba... OHHHHH Kaiba...)part. An interesting point however, is that when Kaiba does the whole 'Chess comparison', he leaves Anzu out completely; she isn't even mentioned by him, and it's one of those things that make you wonder... Did... Did Kaiba randomly forget Anzu? Even though Anzu just blew away Kaiba's 'clearly this challenge will destroy Yugi's friendship' monologue? (A monologue I did not mention, but it DID happen..) Needless to say, I have a feeling that Kaiba wouldn't see Anzu as the 'Queen'... Particularly not a female Kaiba, as the 'Queen' is pretty much the most powerful piece in the entire game. And we all know how power hungry Kaiba gets...
Some might think I copped out on the 'Grim Reaper's Chair Ride' (Which had a much lamer name of 'The Chair Ride of Death' in the manga... Though your mileage may vary.)... But Jonouchi really did pass out early on. It was actually hard not to skip that scene all together, like I did with 'Death-T 3'. Death-T 3 for those wondering, is the home of the oh-so-famous 'Friendship speech' Anzu makes. A speech that makes much more sense in timing, and sounds MUCH better as well; as she looks around, she mentions that had they been alone, all they would have written was their names (Solitary Confinement anyone?), but as a group, the amount of things they could put there would be endless, like a 'blank canvas'. (Cue amazing smiley face...) An interesting note is that from the end of Chopperman's death onward, Honda's nephew is asleep... Clearly all the 'fun' he had on Anzu's lap has him tired out by now.
From this point on, things will be getting longer again (As in, don't expect the next two 'Death T's to go so fast. There's 5 by the way, if you didn't get that from above.), so I hope you enjoy!
See you next chapter!