A Japanese Weresheep in Mutsuba Town
Author's Note: Time for a new pairing! Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH! series.
Pairing: Developing Yuhi x Chupataro.
Summary:
There are some forms of alien activity even MIK turns a blind eye to. The truly alien activity between Chupataro and Ohdo Yuhi, for instance.
Chapter 8: Breaking Down the Lies
X-Files typeface.
CHUPATARO'S APARTMENT
MUTSUBA TOWN, THE BOONIES (ACCORDING TO MANYA)
8:88 A.M.
"Yuhi, you can't keep coming back here. There are bats. It smells like something died, and you're bringing the smell back to UTS with you, regardless of how many baths you take."
Yuhi was breaking down the lies. Or just breaking down.
"It's not as though Chupataro-kun is missing. He's with MIK!"
"He's in a coma, Yuamu!"
That he was.
"My instinct was telling me you were obsessing more than you let on, but I underestimated the extent. After what Meeeg-chan did to Yudias, I thought you wouldn't be anxious to see Chupataro-kun again."
"Chupataro was being used by Zuwijo! It's not his fault what happened to Yudias!"
"I wasn't implying any of this is his fault. Chupataro-kun is a victim too."
"Look around you, Yuamu! What d'you see?"
"I see Meeeg-chan. Meeeg-chan posters. Meeeg-chan wall scrolls. Meeeg-chan dolls. Meeeg-chan magazines. Meeeg-chan's booties. Meeeg-chan's ribbons. Meeeg-chan's cowbell. It's all Meeeg-chan, yo!"
"Except for one thing."
Yuamu perked her ears.
Yuhi turned the picture frame clutched to his chest around. Compared to the fancy atmosphere of the otaku overload it resided in, the frame took after Black Goat Residence's old-fashioned exterior.
"This is –! Chupataro-kun had a photo of you, Yuhi?"
"It was behind a stuffed sheep. I found it when you all rushed out to dodge the stench. This place is plastered wall-to-wall with Meeeg-chan, but in the middle of all of his stalker junk, Chupataro had a photo of me! I don't even know when he took it. That coyote bastard…He actually cared about me enough to stand seeing my face each day and I –"
"Yuhi…"
"I was so petty!" Yuhi's eyes got watery. "And now, I can't even do that with him anymore!"
"He lied to you. A lot."
"Yeah, well, I lied to him too!"
"What about?"
"I love –" Yuhi was unable to say it, but Yuamu understood. She saw and felt the pain her twin was going through.
Zuwijo raised the curtain on recent events, but it was still Yuhi's Earthdamar that bestowed the power.
"I thought he'd get rid of me if Meeeg-chan ever became real! Chupataro told me so himself!"
Yuamu was silent.
"Out of all the lies, this one bites me!"
"Why don't you visit him? I can talk to Manabu."
"I can't face him!"
"You're going to have to sooner or later once he wakes up."
"If he wakes up."
Yuamu laid a hand on Yuhi's shoulder. "He will."
"What makes you so damn sure?"
"He had your photo. He's probably fighting tooth and nail to wake up!"
"So he can rub it in my face!" Yuhi discovered the comedy in it.
"Exactly. Let's go help Yudias find where Zuwijo is! Find Zuwijo, and we find a hint to speeding up Chupataro-kun's recovery!"
"Yuamu…"
"I've got your back, big brother!"
"Cuz you're my sister."
"Because I can't have you distracted and dragging down productivity!"
…
Where Chupataro was, it was a labyrinth of doors.
"Chupa? Anybody here, chupa? Chupa is lost, cabra!"
Two doors flew at him, freezing before impact. The one on the left was pink and rimmed with white wool. The entrance to his happy space, it led to a wonderous setting Chupataro was intimately acquainted with.
"Chupa is inside Chupa's head, chupa!"
The second door, Chupataro also knew, but accessed less. It was metal, like the machinery at the dump, and outwardly less inviting by design.
Both were soul rooms.
He picked right.
Inside, it was bright, and like his apartment, this room was plastered wall-to-wall with souvenirs. Only, this room wasn't filled with Meeeg-chan. The posters and wall scrolls did not feature the magical sheep girl's image or woollyisms. The drawers weren't adorned with Meeeg-chan dolls and Meeeg-chan magazines. Meeeg-chan wasn't hanging off the furniture and ceiling.
Instead, the walls were plastered with posters and wall scrolls of Ohdo Yuhi. The dolls were of Ohdo Yuhi, and the magazine covers decked with Ohdo Yuhi. Hanging off the ceiling were do-it-yourself models of Yuhi's monsters: Tamabot, Cliptera, and Jointech Ace.
All of it was Yuhi.
All of it was the ambivalence Chupataro locked behind an iron door.
Chupataro picked up one framed picture in particular, identical to the one in his apartment.
"Chupa was tricked, chupa," he lamented to the picture. He thirsted to talk to Yuhi. The real Yuhi. Not a picture or his dreams.
The absence of the taste of Yuhi's blood sat corrosive on Chupataro's tongue.
He wanted Yuhi to be real, more than he wanted Meeeg-chan to be real, insane as that sounded.
Why was everything he wanted a fiction?
He didn't necessarily love lying, yet what he loved were lies.
Meeeg-chan.
Yuhi…
The biggest lie Chupataro ever told was the lie he told himself.
Chupataro, who loved Meeeg-chan, loved Yuhi, insane as that sounded!
The sheep had hit the fan.
The truth finally hit Chupataro.
It began as a lie, and the lies bundled together beyond his ability to herd them. Before long, lies were truth and truths were lies, and Chupataro couldn't wrangle the truth from all the lies.
He'd spewed lie after lie after lie to Yuhi, serving a master who was lying to him.
He'd done this to perpetuate another lie. That he'd meet the real Meeeg-chan. That she'd embrace his love.
Yuhi called Chupataro on his lies.
Yuhi rendered him vulnerable.
He could lie to himself vulnerable didn't phase him if Yuhi were there to call him on it, but Yuhi was nowhere nearby.