Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Fluttering down to the ground the trees grew bare leaving the path covered in their shed leaves. Yet they didn't crunch the way dried autumn leaves did, or rustle as the vibrant leaves of the summer even if they should have still been on the trees. Blood dripped from the tips of barren branches, and down the bark lapping at the bricks that circled them.
Mold crept up along the bricks from the ground up, staining bone white into black and green. The air was thick of blood and mold, when there 'was' a breeze it carried the sound of cracking chains or snapping. It blended with the trees that loomed over them, leaning over with their long bloody branches reaching for them...
Standing frozen among all this stark change, the men looked about in complete confusion. There was a pit of terror in their bellies making them want to run screaming, but pride wouldn't allow it. All they had to do was look at the family walking along cheerfully among this... Kids who were completely unafraid, parents busy taking photos or chatting...
"Hey kid..." He tried to sound calm, a friendly adult. Though there was already that problem of talking to strangers. But he wanted their parents anyway, and a smart kid would direct him to their parents.
But this kid didn't. He was busy eating an ice cream cone and showed no notice of the man speaking to him. He was in khakis and a t-shirt with a kuriboh on the front watching them with idle eyes, brown haired and an utterly plain looking child. Yet...
Brians' frown deepened, as he reached over to tap the kid on the shoulder. Maybe the boy was deaf?
"Hey son?"
His fingers plunged down into the boy's shoulder, knocking the limb off as easily as tapping ashes off a cigar. Brian's stomach dropped to the ground in a sickening plop as the boy's fingers slipped away from the cone and fell to the ground. While the child continued eating using his remaining hand and completely unaware that he had lost a limb.
"The fuck man! The hell did you do?!" Ron demanded as his face went green at the horror before them. He backed up, eyeing the parents and waiting for them to realize what happened to their kid... "Shitfuckmanshit!"
Maggots began to crawl out of the severed arm, spilling out onto the blackened leaves and slipping below. Sending the grown men running from the small area while the boy turned in confusion. He kind of heard something 'it' maybe. But all he saw was the long path of stone work path, the large leafy trees and a distant fairy walking with a group of other kids.
"Come on Bobby, the first of the tournament duels are going to happen soon!" the childs' mother called. He turned gripping his ice cream he took another nom of it before quick stepping to his parents.
"The parents are going to kill us!" Ron panted as they tore down the path, the leaves clinging to their shoes and jeans.
"That can't be real," Brian argued with himself as he ran. The logic in his brain kept saying 'this is impossible none of this can be real.' Yet his senses were yelling 'run man RUN!' in the panic of seeing nightmares coming to life. "Its the wrong season for Halloween stuff..."
"Maybe... maybe those were just paid actors?" Ron tried, slowing up from his run. "Fake limb? Maybe... Maybe the kid lost it and that's just a prop?"
Brian slowed up as well and... it sounded reasonable. "Yeah... like that guy has a soft spot for orphans, I can imagine that giving a kid a job like that would possible..."
"Maybe this is an area meant for those dark monsters? Where the demons and fiend cards would 'stay'?" Ron tried and scrutinized the area more. There was a teenage Asian girl laying on the park bench, her skin was painfully pale and her lips had a hue of purple. Brown hair was brushed over her face as she 'slept'. But neither men could see her chest rise or fall.
"Its cool that they can make horror areas this good," Brian noted as he gulped down some more air.
"Is this one of the zones for the tournament?" Ron asked as he looked about, given the lay out he wasn't entirely sure how the dueling area would appear. "Maybe Greg or Ted has found one of them?"
"We should go find that food court, Brian suggested as he looked at his watch. Only it was a black screen, so he shook his wrist and tried to think back to the last time he looked at his watch. "Hey is your watch working? I think the battery died on mine..."
Ron blinked before shrugging, "I don't have a watch I use my..." he reached down to his back pocket for his cellphone. He slipped his hand into the deep pocket, his fingers questing for his gray brick of a phone. His frown deepened as he slipped his whole hand into the pocket, raking against the fabric in hopes of finding a hole. "How the hell..."
"What?" Brian glanced over his shoulder at Ron then turned to face the man. Ron was bent over, his whole hand visibly moving about in the pocket with growing urgency. "Did you drop your phone?"
"There's not even a hole in my pocket, when..." Ron was talking more to himself than Brian. Not that it stopped Brian from looking back at the path they had ran and worried. The ground was covered in leaves and Ron couldn't afford the fancy colored phone. From where he was standing there wasn't a gray brick cellphone laying anywhere in his line of sight.
"We better start looking, look at how messy the ground is, if it fell somewhere someone could step on it." Brian realized as he began to drag his feet under the leaves to avoid it. He reached for his own phone to call the others, yet his own... "Oh shit..." He groaned as he looked at his waist where the phone holder was still resting. Empty of his phone...
Both men were left staring at the path they had run and dread filled their hearts as they saw the leaf covered path they had run. The looming shadows would make finding the phones even harder and going to the lost and found? Was anyone going to see it in time before they trampled it?
As the pair of men began their desperate search Greg and Ted were glaring at their phones in frustration. "Why won't they pick up?" Greg demanded as he stood there. The food court was so full of various food booths that his stomach was strangling his spine. There were stands and booths, some being managed by busty, beautiful young girls dressed as various 'monsters'. A booth that was making unique cotton candy designs.
Ted lowered his weighted frame down at one of the tables and Greg joined him even as they kept redialing the phones. "They can't both be ignoring their phones... Think something happened?" Ted asked as he looked about the place for their friends.
"Or they tried without us and got kicked out?" Greg offered before shaking his head. "Its possible but I doubt it. Maybe they just don't feel like picking up cuz they're on their way?"
"I mean I can imagine Brian's battery having died, maybe my phone charger didn't really recharge his like we thought it did?" Ted theorized as he waited looking about and trying to glimpse up the non existent looking 'skirt' that one waitress was wearing.
"Think we should just get something to eat while we wait?" Greg suggested as he sat there, the scent of cooked meats and toasting bread was making it hard to not drool all over himself.
"Yeah sure, it serves them right to not be on time," Ted agreed looking at his watch. Already the other two were half an hour late, and wait at the 'food court'? Sure it wasn't the same as what the malls had. Not the same generic food stalls so Kaiba obviously busted out some serious cash for quality food. Or it was going to be quality for this week and then the cheap replaced stuff would be rolled in later. There were various stalls from around the world, some European and, of course, Asian. A German hot dog stand was calling his name something fierce as he pushed himself back to his feet. "Alright I'm going to Germany."
While Greg struggled to figure out where to start at given the foods seducing his sense of smell. Sizzling from one booth and the warm scent of ham grabbed Greg's attention leading him to a food stand with a very recognizable American themed structure. It was brown and almost barn like with its planks of wood. Doors that were recognizable in any farm land were opened with a sign that bore a cheery pig face. He stood behind a sizable line of people most with children and there was a pair of menus outside hanging on the 'doors'. One listing clearly adult meals and prices, one lower to the ground that listed kids prices and meals.
The food being carried away was also incredibly delicious looking and the smell was making his mouth water. The sun had risen above him, but there were clouds also in the distance. The noted 'daily brief rain shower' that he had been warned of. The very reason why the group decided to meet up at the food court. Grab a meal, then go to one of the dueling buildings that held the virtual reality fields that Kaiba had created.
But there was no sign of Ron or Brian anywhere amid the heads he saw. Off in the distance he could see Ted standing in line with some Valkyrie dressed women working the stall. They were big chested and blond, 'Mai should be doing this kind of work, its more suited to her.' He thought as he moved up in line closer to the front. Off in one area he saw some well crafted cotton candy and found himself absolutely baffled by that.
'Why waste time making something that can melt in a drop of water look that good?' he found himself pondering as he stared at the display of animals shapes. They were brightly colored and looked like toys he would get his kids. Not to mention the... well he was positive it was 'meant' to be food, but Asian food always looked so bizarre to him...
"Sir, what would you like?"
Greg blinked in surprise before turning his attention back to the stall he was at. Before him was a counter, cleaned and fresh without the age of business. The woman before him was dressed like some duel monster he didn't recognize. But with a dip of the shirt for her breasts, well what did it matter? He jerked his gaze back up as the thought of food rumbled his stomach.
Beyond the woman were employees working over a stove where steam rose carrying the scent of cooked pigs. With hot dogs and sausages, mixed with a variety of meats cooked on the stove top bread rolls and buns were laid out and being toasted or simply laid out for whatever the order was.
While the center piece of the booth was a massive pig standing in the back. 'Taken aback' was not a good enough pair of words to describe his feelings as he saw it. The pig was standing on the table, while low, it gave enough height that Greg could see eye to eye with with the pig. A large metal ring was hooked through its snout and that was attached to a chain that kept it bound to the wall.
It was a clean enough pig, but off putting to see a living example of what he was looking to... But damn it smelled good and it was only a pig.
His gaze went back to the menu to the rack of ribs and seeing a rack already being pulled out of an oven solidified his decision. "I'd like a rack like that over there." He gestured to the steaming, hot rack that was receiving a lavish coating of barbecue sauce.
"Yes sir," the girl at the register rang up the order and he was pulling out his wallet as she called out the order to the guys in the back.
One guy, sizable as one needed to handle racks of ribs, pulled down a massive serrated knife easily as long as Gregs' arm. It was more a saw with two handles than a knife when he thought about it. The guy went to the pig and put the blade down under the pig where another guy grabbed the handle.
'No way...' Greg thought to himself as he watched.
The two men took the blade and thrust it upwards into the pig, right below the rib cage. Then sawed the rest of the way to the spine. Blood burst from the wound splattering the men and poured down to the table as the creature screamed in startled pain. While the men, oblivious and indifferent to the pain they were inflicting, reached in and began yanking on the ribs. The blade was twisted to the side so they could begin sawing the ribs free of the pig, as organs tumbled out of the opening. Dangling in empty space, but he could see the pulse of blood, the heart still beating as the pig stood there.
"Sir if you could wait over there we'll call you when the ribs are finished cooking," the cashier instructed politely.
For which Greg did, stepping aside and watching with rapt fascination as the ribs were pulled free and the lungs and organs just hung there. While he watched the flesh began to regrow in the most amazing manner he ever could see. Bone began rebuilding itself, flesh crawled along the bone and began covering the empty space while the organs were reeled back in by the restoration of flesh.
'Is this what they were talking about? Is this what Kaiba pulled off in the hospital?' It was certainly fascinating.
Meanwhile the family behind him began placing their order while his ribs were seasoned and then put in this large wood fueled oven. Their order wasn't for ribs, and he watched as smaller knives were used to cut off slabs of stomach and legs, even as the ribs were being rebuilt. The slabs of meat were cut and put into another oven and the process began again with the next customer. Legs cut off, organs cut out, whole sections removed and the pig stood through it all, screaming in pain but never dying.
Greg could see rows of cows being cut this way, endless steaks and burgers... 'But Kaiba's Japanese... they spoil their cows and I can imagine he probably wouldn't like to waste his time just making endless American beef...'
Which was a horrible idea in hindsight, if Kaiba 'did' decide to offer this service. It would be to the Japanese meat industry not the American one.
"Your food isn't ready yet? What did you get?" Ted asked as he walked over. His meal was in his hand, a long roll of bread with a thick, long hot dog sticking out with a drizzle of cheese that dribbled down from the tip. There was already a hearty bite taken out of the hot dog and Greg could see more cheese from the center of the dog. While the other held a coke logoed paper cup and a swig had already been taken from it.
"Full rack of ribs, you should see it, they cut it straight out of the pig!" Greg answered and jerked his head towards the interior of the building.
Ted turned his gaze towards said interior and his eyes bulged, the bite of his meal suddenly got messy as cheese smeared his mouth as he choked. "They're killing a pig in public?" Ted sputtered in shock and Greg actually had to take a step back in surprise. He watched as an order was processed and his mind was blown by what he saw. "How are the kids not screaming? Wait you got a rack of ribs from a pig 'that' size?"
Ted looked stunned as he turned to look over at Greg. "I know you like to eat but I don't think your stomach is going to handle a rack from 'that'."
"Never say never. Even if so, by the time that rack is done the guys should be back from wherever they went off to." Greg pointed out as he looked down at the hot dog. "That's all you got?"
"Ran out of chips that went with this, they'll call out when the next fresh chi-," Ted began when a young woman's voice rang out. He raised a hand as he turned and returned to the booth where he got his meal from.
While the scent of the cooking ribs filled the air around Greg. Families and couples continued getting their pork meals, the hiss of sodas being poured, the chatting of families. All around it was turning out to be a pleasant day. 'Actually if Kaiba is doing this for all the food stalls, maybe he'd do it for a person like he did for Yugi.' With that thought in mind he started imagining all the things they could do to Mai to punish her. She'd heal after all because of Kaiba. So it didn't matter, the guys could even have more fun then they had originally planned in fact!
'But how do we figure out if humans are part of this healing thing? Its fine if she'll heal automatically, but if she dies. Big titty Jap or not we're going to get in trouble if it gets linked back to us...' Rain began to splatter down, the first one splashed against his hand only for him to realize it was thick and red... "What the hell?" He rushed under an umbrella that was used for a dining table as red rain began pouring down. The scent of iron overpowering the smell of barbecue leaving him alarmed as the crowd dashed off to find cover for themselves.
