Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Cold, hard and smooth, the feeling brought to mind armor the way it curled around as though it encased an arm under Anzu's touch. Yugi had multiple knight themed monsters that served in his deck, but this was 'Kaiba'. Her limited knowledge of his deck causing her to draw a blank on what he could have summoned. 'He summoned. He actively summoned a Ka... and probably his...' she thought in amazement.
'Wait... but if injury to the Ka is injury to the person and Kaiba's already tired...' if Anzu had any excitement for Kaiba doing what he never did before... Welp it was frozen into shock at that one thought.
"Big Brother?" if Mokuba's concern was a light, it would have illuminated Domino City easy.
"What's going on... Where's the man?" Anzu asked as she reached out and tried to find Kaiba's white coated back. If he was standing up right he couldn't have been hurt, but she doubted that there was a helicopter the man could of used. 'Well he 'could' have had one sent as the storm was easing up but that... No, it's beyond insane to think people could predict that Kaiba would ease the storm up enough to let one move about...'
Though in hindsight, the guy 'could' have had training and just stole one of the hospitals'...
"He's still here... what's left of him anyway..." Kaiba reported, his voice a low, unamused sound. "Whoever it is summoned something and used the fool as an anchor. Its fused itself into him, as to what it 'is' now..." Kaiba replied stiff and displeased. "It has no form and I can't find it... What I can tell you is that this wasn't part of the plan. What has been bound to him? Is against his will..." 'Right now they're probably fighting for some form of dominance or agreement. But whatever this thing is...' Kaiba thought and let his thoughts shift from that to battle tactics.
If it were just him alone, he could spare the thoughts on what was going on, Dios would not tolerate another Ka being bound to Kaiba against the man's wishes. But Mokuba was an easy target as young as he was. Not as young as the oldest of the Kurrs, but still young enough that if whatever showed up wanted. It could try to take Mokuba, and Anzu was no better. While she was older, that didn't mean she had a fully formed Ka or one that would be able to protect her.
More over 'if' the entity took over the pair, Kaiba had no means of driving out such a being. Kill the Ka beast and the fool who attacked Yugi? Easy. Kill said beast if it moved into the two with him or someone below? It wasn't even an option, but Kaiba wouldn't be able to do anything either.
"Should... we go?" Anzu asked, ignoring the stiffen displeasure that was communicated through her side from where Mokuba was fairly clinging to. While his hands were now on his brothers' he had opted to press himself so he was still side to side with Anzu. An act of trust that took over a year of work to get to really. An act that she didn't want to damage by doing any less than what she could to keep him safe.
"hm..." it was the closet sound Kaiba produced for an answer.
But unlike Yugi, who probably could translate that sound, Anzu was still at a loss for how to respond. Was it a confirmation that the pair should leave? A denial, given it might be too late to avoid the entity?
Before Anzu could even form a response, Kaiba was sudden motion, he had grabbed Anzu and Mokuba dragging the pair with him. Shielding them with his body while pinning them against the wall. As a wind with the force of a hurricane tore by. It stole the air from Anzu's lungs and she found herself completely stunned from how absolutely sudden it was. It raked against her skin in a way wind didn't do. Unnaturally stinging her face and legs, she pushed her face into Kaiba's chest and pulled Mokuba into them as tightly as she could. Followed by an ice then fiery sensation, the foul itching sensation that made her want to scratch at it.
"Hey!?" Mokuba yelped and huddled against the pair. "It hurts Big Brother, what was that?!"
Rushing by the wind was gone as suddenly as it sprang up leaving the pair gasping in amazement and alarm. Dropping to her knees onto the water coated concrete ground Anzu hugged Mokuba in response. But even she had to wonder about the pain, this was beyond Kaiba's holographic recreations. 'My first serious experience and Yugi's not here...' she thought to herself as she felt Kaiba's hand drift over her hair.
He wasn't healing, the stinging pain from whatever had happened was still there. But at least he was checking on them. "Form follows function, and it lacks that at the moment..."
'That's not good, if it has no form, it can do anything then? That must be what he means...' Anzu thought in mounting alarm as she traced her hands down Mokuba until she found his hand and grabbed it. "Is there anything we can do to help Kaiba?" Anzu asked tentatively.
"Perhaps."
'Oh wow thanks for the help Kaiba...' she thought with a shake of the head. 'Talking to Yugi's father is preferable...' The slowly returning glow of Domino city lights was starting to illuminate the night. Through the hazy fog as water mixed with the heat of the asphalt, the soft lights of the evening was carried through the mist creating a dream like glow. It was in that glow that Anzu could start to faintly see another figure on the roof top with them. Dream like or nightmare incarnate she couldn't be confident, but the pain from the attack still stung her skin.
Weighted down by the water dragging against the tips of her hair and her clothes left her her feeling sluggish. Or maybe that was just what the being before them projected, maybe just the awareness that she was on the roof of a hospital filled with patients. That the only thing standing between that stinging pain and possibly worse being inflicted upon a number of innocent people was Kaiba.
The memory of talking to Yugi's father was still in the back of her mind. The anger in his voice when he realized that the shooting had been 'real'. No one in the group even knew 'how' he found out, but when she took that call.. Kaiba had been sitting there, too exhausted from working to take it but at least himself once more.
Just his level of exhaustion and she couldn't decide if Yugi would be happy with what 'help' she was able to provide or disappointed. 'And now here we are trying to be of some help...' Anzu thought when a worrisome thought hit her. 'If we're supposed to treat this like a normal duel... if he's going to summon a stronger Ka that isn't what he has. How does he do that? He has to tribute summon right? So...'
The thought froze her to her core as she realized just 'why' Kaiba wouldn't answer her. 'Tribute' summoning was just a nice way of saying 'sacrificing'. As in letting the monsters die. They 'did' after all go to a 'graveyard'. Kaiba had no duel disk, there was no way for him to draw cards and even if he did it would be his own energy. How could he summon something stronger like Blue Eyes if he had to depend solely on himself?!
Just how 'did' the Ancient Egyptians fight with Ka Beasts? A game was a game, there was always embellishments on how things were translated when put into a game format!
"AHHH!" Mokuba broke his hold on Anzu's hand and lunged into Kaiba fairly trying to climb up his older brother in alarm.
"Mokuba what?!" Anzu began when Mokuba answered her in a panic.
"Something started to grab my leg!" He answered and that he said 'something' not a hand or anything easily recognizable did nothing to ease Anzu. Especially as the entity before them began to manifest. It hovered over the would be assassin, formless, its own outline wavered as it started to stretch out towards them. With all the swiftness of a Shadow Game being called into being.
"This isn't right, the Items are gone, and this looks like a Shadow Game..." Anzu couldn't hide the mounting alarm as it entered her voice.
"Its not a Shadow Game, the 'thing' trying to establish a form. You're not..." Kaiba gave a put upon sigh of annoyance. "You're a pair of open books to it and its trying to read you to form itself."
"Sorry?" Mokuba tried as he hesitantly let go of his brothers' waist and let his feet get replanted to the ground.
"So its trying to find what would scare us and use that... So no point in hoping it has any 'good' intent in it." Anzu replied as she saw the smokey reds and blues rise up with eyes blinking open with their multitude of shapes, colors and sizes. She turned her attention back to Mokuba, urgency in her voice, "Mokuba. Try to think of something less dangerous or scary, anything and don't say it out loud!"
"Uh ok?" Mokuba faltered as he tried to think of something 'less' dangerous than their current situation.
As for Anzu, she tried to think of charging, soft teddy bears, stampedes of rabid bunnies, if this 'thing' was going to try and base its form off their thoughts. 'Well it stands to reason that it might not be able to read my deeper thoughts...'
"Smarter than I gave you credit for," Kaiba confessed, the closet that he could say that sounded like his version of normal.
Around them the eyes remained, the feeling of being in a Shadow Game didn't fully manifest though it was there. Instead large outlines of overly large teddy bears and soft furred bunnies began to charge out of the darkness. Grave stones rolled towards the trio, their hard flat surfaces slapping against the wet concrete roof filling the air with a sharp splash on excessive repeat.
Soundless despite the armor, the figure with Kaiba moved forward suddenly, its own outline lost to the growing hordes set against them. Yet the sounds of combat weren't silent, there was fabric being sliced opened or flesh being cut more real than anything from Kaiba's Duel Disk.
"Anzu!" Mokuba cried out even as he yanked on Anzu's hand hard enough to send her to her knees. The air whistled above her head as a teddy bear armed with a gravestone swung and barely missed Anzu's head!
Given she hadn't even thought of the bears being able to do such a thing, either Mokuba did or the entity came up with it. There was an absurdity to the idea that Kaiba was being forced to fight against gravestone wielding teddy bears and rabbits. Even as the air began to mingle with the soft weighted plops of liquid splashing onto the ground. It served as a soft back drop to the sound of weighted stone against metal. Whatever Kaiba had summoned must have been using a metal weapon.
Leaving odds as it striking the tombstones or the bears and bunnies meaning...Was it blood? That plopping sound that was running co-current to a resumed soft drizzle of rain. Was it the blood from the rabbits? Or was Kaiba getting hurt and they just couldn't tell? Just the thought of Kaiba killing rabbits and teddy bears like animated pinata's just...
'No, focus Anzu, don't give this thing anything to use against us,' she thought stubbornly. No one needed to see the hospital walls bathed in blood. Be it rabbit or arcane. Only suddenly there was a weighted puff of a sound, something exploding in the air with the rattling of some childish bell. One then another... 'oooh nooo...' Anzu mentally cringed as the idea that maybe a pinata was created, became reality.
"I might owe you an apology depending on what just might have appeared," Anzu finally confessed shamefaced in tone.
"Floating pinata's that when hit produce more of this failed teddy bear picnic?" Kaiba asked, his tone a mixture of bemusement, fatigue, and dismissive disdain.
"... I... would like to apologize for that..." Anzu began, while Mokuba started snickering.
"Not going to lie, I kinda wish I could see this better, Big Brother."
"Even the rabbit's dangling body with its head impaled on Dias' sword?" Kaiba asked in reply.
"Sure!"
"Mokuba!" Anzu blanched as she looked down at the child's barely visible presence. "You're too young..."
"Ahh its ok, I've seen more graphic stuff on tv," Mokuba said with casual indifference. But his tone was settling down, the fear that might have started to get a hold of him was finally easing off. Be it because he could see some of his brothers' power, or because the monsters being created were so utterly harmless.
His relaxing nature gave Anzu a bit of comfort and breathing space, the childs' amusement allowed less threatening thoughts to be easier to come by. 'Its not even bad, Kaiba hasn't fought with his Ka right? So this would be great practice and not a threat for him!' she realized as she began to relax. But a soft, yet firm voice in the back of her mind quietly began reminding her.
The 'threat' was connected to a man who tried to 'murder' Yugi. Light and fun was nice and all but there was a killer on the roof with them.
Guard up!
For example, that it was so silent. Never speaking, or conveying anything, how were they supposed to figure out who this group was about? Where did this group even get the power to create this entity. Even if it was currently formless, it 'was' still summoning and bringing things into the world.
'A pity I can't really focus much on a helpless ball of fur... Kuriboh would get offended I'm sure,' she thought in passing. Before she recalled what Kaiba just described, 'So they're not just poofing out of existence, they've got some form of a body. Though I wonder how long it will last, like when the fight is over is that when it will disappear?'
A furred body that easily reached Anzu's thigh slammed into the back of her and sent her staggering forward. Crying out in alarm, her hands hit the smooth fabric of Kaiba's coat. Slipping against the smooth material until instinct made her hug Kaiba's waist in a last ditch effort not to fall completely to the ground.
As much of a pillar of iron as Kaiba could be. Even he had to take a step forward given the slick nature of the ground and his surprise at the sound and grab. It was only his awareness of the pair with him that kept him from resummoning Dios and having it stab whoever grabbed him from behind. Before processing that it was Anzu.
Distractions being what they were though, the moment he stopped focusing on the multitude of future coats and childrens toys, Dios stopped moving as well. Leaving it open for the rabbits to try and pry open its armor with their digging claws and prying front teeth.
"Woah! Hey!" Mokuba's own surprise was followed by a meaty kick, as the boy kicked the attacking rabbit as hard as he could in the front leg.
Of course he was kicking a rabbit that would be looking down on him the moment it sat up on its hind legs. Or rip his throat out if it got close enough because it was big enough. But they were unarmed and as amusing as being attacked by stuffed teddy bears and rabbits 'were'. They had weighted bodies and the bears were using gravestones as weapons!
More over, even though the teddy bears were based on non living toys, the rabbits were based off real ones. Yet they didn't have the docile behavior of rabbits, and were being joined by other thought up creations...
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Motion sickness was not something Malik ever expected to suffer from being on the ocean. There were parallels to the endless sea of sand in the desert, the rolling hills were stationary true. But they were rolling, while the ocean went up and down...
Up...
And down...
"I should have went with my siblings..." He thought as he laid face down on his bed. In case he threw up and needed to not drown in vomit... "Damn you Kaiba and your power..."
The storm had ceased for now, and Malik finally wasn't being rocked so hard that he began to fancy an idea. Of actually putting his feet on the ground and standing up... Along with packing his bags and moving in to Bakura's place for the rest of the duration of their visit because...
KAIBA YOU AND YOUR DAMN WEATHER!
But it wasn't stable enough that he could risk using the steps to the dock, 'I can at least get a look outside for what its worth at this point. Or see if the world is still standing after that storm.'
He slowly dragged himself up into a sitting position and could see off to the side, a series of scattered cards on the ground. All faced down save several, all made to help him communicate with Bakura's tribe.
Go. See. General. Bakura.
