Yami stared glumly at the scroll in his hand, his depression rising as the number at the bottom of the page rose. More people were signing up.
36/500.
His death was drawing near.
The days kept passing.
He could vaguely tell the time of day by the way the tiny window brightened and then darkened. The inmates would snore like thunder, so he'd muster up all his energy to cast a deafening spell that would last until morning, then sleep all day because he was always exhausted.
His days blurred together like that, and he kept digging up bits and pieces of Seto's impish smile in his memories, running happy times back through his mind until he got tired of it and fixated on interesting moments from his quests in the other dimension with the handsome café manager, and then the cute human girl. Their meetings were brief, but every single moment stuck out to him, and he found that reliving it while his eyes were closed made the time more bearable to pass.
This was fine.
It gave him time to come to terms with the death quest.
Seto stood at the doorway of the dorm, with his knapsack on his back and Bakura grumbling at his side. They were ready to leave for their first attempt at the Healing Spring quest.
Over the past few weeks, Dartz had gone out of his way to equip them with knowledge. Books on beasts, edible plants, the District rules, army routes, and traveler's roads were all laid out for them. He spent nights awake memorizing until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and often fell asleep atop the map, book, or scroll he was buried in.
Now this was the kind of shit he'd needed to learn. Bakura helped, surprisingly, by organizing them in levels of priority and cramming him full of pointless spells that he didn't want to learn himself.
The other children were aware of their endeavor, and helped in their own way, by giving them privacy, saving them food when they missed mealtimes, or passing them little gifts they had made that they thought would help along the way.
Faerie dust was the only thing Bakura was collecting, so Seto had to fit everything else in his own pack, irritated at Bakura's bias, but he'd come to terms with it.
Now, standing at the doors staring at their empty beds, it was hitting Seto particularly hard. It was either this or wait for a draft official to come pick them out of the group. No thanks.
The number on the scroll had crept upwards, and he checked it every night obsessively. It was currently at 37/500. It was fine.
He estimated a total of two people would sign up every week. It would speed up near the end when people saw it was filling up, so they needed to be back at 450/500. Just in case a surge of 50, stupid cave-raiders wanted to sign up as a large group.
Master Dartz ushered them to the front gates of the school and pulled the barrier back for them, beaming and shining with an odd light that framed his long hair when the sun hit him at an angle.
"Come back soon, all in one piece," Dartz said with a wide grin, flashing them both some fang. "Don't dwell in the Districts. You'll have plenty of time to do that. Remember, check the scroll sign-up numbers often, and if you're badly injured, catch the nearest dragon back here. One won't hesitate to help a couple of injured demons back to their home."
"Cool, got it," Bakura grumbled, rolling his eyes. "I hate you Seto."
Same , Seto replied with his best professional smile.
The school gates closed heavily behind them, and Seto spared it a glance before pointing at the line of trees in the distance.
"Goal," he said simply, trotting forward and feeling Bakura's glare on his back.
"Tell me something…" Bakura rushed to his side, staring at the tops of Seto's tiny, pointed horns. "Were you really Seto Kaiba in another life?"
"Will my answer make you stop being an asshole to me?" Seto asked gently, wondering if he was going to endure 100 days of Bakura's BS.
Bakura frowned and stomped ahead a few steps, huffing, "No. I'll still hate you."
"Then I won't tell you," Seto answered flatly, thinking his tone already implied that he was Seto Kaiba, but Bakura wanted to hear it for himself. He understood that.
They ventured into the edge of the forest and trekked deeper into the trees, the sun shaded from above, and bringing the fresh scent of dirt and nature into his lungs. Seto took a deep breath, letting it cleanse him as they pushed through, with Bakura holding the map and using the tiny dagger he'd been given to violently hack away at the branches in front of him.
He had to wonder how Yami was doing.
He'd been thinking about that spiky-haired mage non-stop…
Yami was frantically casting another muffling spell around his cell when he saw finely dressed humans entering the dungeon, and he knew what to expect.
What unnerved him was that this time, they were all human men, and his unease rose.
They ran up and down along the hallway, ooo-ing and ahh-ing as they wiggled their fingers in through the bars of the cells, their skin glistening with the barrier-repellant magic which Yami figured someone was selling underground, and someone else was bribing the dungeon guards to let the humans in here to treat the prisoners like brothel members.
His barrier didn't go up fast enough, because a man with hair dyed dark red spotted him and leaned against the bars that were quickly frosting over in between.
"Hey handsome," the human said silkily, and Yami shut the barrier in his face, glaring at the shadow behind it and hearing an affronted yell.
"What the fucking hell! This mage-guy is a dick!"
"He thought you were ugly! Pick someone else! Try the sexy lizard man next door, he has abs for days," came the echoing yell from the down the hall, and Yami bunched the blanket up over his head and shut his eyes, wishing for more silence, more…magic to muffle the disgusting sounds that were leaking through his weak, level 100 barrier.
Human pleasure was a double-edged sword, and he now knew the full extent of it.
Seto and Bakura stood at the edge of the forest, staring at the wide expanse of desert before them. Shit. This was the part they were worried about, and the endless stretches of sand was intimidating.
"There's a ruin in the middle here," Bakura muttered, pointing at the mark on the map in the center of the sand ocean. "We can take shelter there. Let's try to die all the way this time, if we're dying."
Seto frowned and shielded his eyes from the sun, the heat blurring his vision in the distance, and he aimed his glance downwards, seeing his foot sinking into a weirdly soft hole, so he stepped away from it, closer into the shade, reluctant about being roasted. There had to be a better way.
"Want to travel at night? Double sunset is in….38 hours," Bakura announced sourly, glaring at the sun. "We're wasting time. What do we do, genius? Want to continuously cast so we can fly?"
"Flying isn't the answer," Seto answered impatiently, still seeing the hole take in sand and begin to make a strange puddle. "There's a sinkhole here. Step away from it…."
The hole stopped bubbling and stilled. So something was underneath.
Underground …was the way…?
Bakura walked over to it and stamped on it violently, having come to the same conclusion, and the edge gave away so fast, Seto didn't have time to brace himself. They were falling fast with sand cascading down on top of them, it was hard to see or breathe.
Coughing and spluttering, Seto cast a hasty barrier around them both and felt them land on the ground with a rough thump! And a blast of pain shot up his leg.
Rolling over onto his side, Seto winced and healed himself slowly, hearing something pop! And he had to stop.
Bakura was spitting loudly and shaking himself off.
"I broke my leg…" Seto said weakly, and Bakura rushed over to help him up into a sitting position, wincing at the way the tiny limb was twisted to the side.
"I'll set it, ready?" Bakura asked with a gleam in his eye, eager to cause the ex-CEO pain.
"N—" Seto couldn't even take a breath before Bakura grabbed his leg and yanked it forward with a sickening crunch that echoed in the darkness around them, and Seto let out a deafening yell that shook more sand off the walls into the pit they were sitting in.
"Payback, for no Christmas or New Year's break, you fucking workaholic," Bakura grinned evilly and offered him a hand to stand, which Seto slapped away with a hiss and stood up shakily, hating how his body was vibrating with energy, totally fine because he'd healed up fast, but the pang of pain lingered in his memory. Fuck this guy, seriously!
"I hate you so much," Seto said venomously, and Bakura let out a bark of laughter that echoed down the long, dusty tunnel that had opened up in front of them.
"Dug by vermin, human or otherwise," Bakura nodded at the ridged walls and cast a ball of light in his palm. "Hup hup, Kaiba-boy."
Limping even though it didn't hurt anymore, Seto followed Bakura down the dark tunnel, not needing the light because his vision adjusted fast.
Interesting runes had been carved into the walls and Seto wished he could stop to read them, but Bakura was intent on pushing on, eager to get to the end, and then get back.
"Hey, what do you want to achieve in this life?" Seto asked steadily, trailing his fingertips over faded drawings, his heart skipping a beat when he thought he saw a crude drawing of a modern car. "Other than torturing me because you think I'm someone named Kaiba Seto?"
"Not being a 45-year-old single loser," Bakura called back in the dark, his footsteps muffled the deeper they traveled, and the tunnel narrowed. "Not being a corporate cog. I work for myself now. Everything I do will be for me. I was too stupid to be selfish. Now, I'm 100% selfish."
"Find a fucking balance," Seto muttered, hurrying after Bakura's shadow as the tunnel took an odd dip, and the temperature dipped with it.
The tunnel mysteriously widened and opened up into an enormous courtyard with a dried up fountain set before a giant amphitheater, complete with raised stone steps for an audience, and the boys stood there to gape at it.
"Are these the ruins?" Seto asked, his voice echoing in the spacious area.
Bakura vanished the map into his pack and ran up the steps, standing at the very top to survey the stage at the bottom.
"Intriguing," he said with a wicked smile. "Looks like there was a civilization down here. Should we rest here? The Districts are coming up beyond this sand wasteland. I want to buy proper clothes. Lend me some money, rich boy. I peeked in your pack. You have tons of gold. I can't wait to dress amazingly in human clothes."
"I'll give you half if you stop torturing me," Seto said seriously, and Bakura gave him another impish grin.
"Nope. Not for all your money I won't." The white-haired boy hopped off the steps and plopped himself down on it with a sigh. "I'll set up our tent. You can try going down those hallways to find something. Food related."
Seto crossed his arms in a huff, irritated that Bakura was ordering him around.
"Why don't you go?" Seto asked furiously, glaring at the empty fountain. "This place needs a clean-up. I'd rather do that instead."
"Seniority," Bakura shot back, and Seto was quick to argue.
"My level is higher than yours."
"So what? You can't cast for shit on your broken horns, and I was here first."
Seto ground his teeth in fury, only conceding this once as he turned on his heel and stalked down the dark hallway, calling over his shoulder, "if something happens to me, it's your fault!"
"Love you too!" Bakura called back tauntingly, and Seto hissed under his breath, walking down a series of stone steps and the temperature dropped again. It was now freaking cold.
He passed a dark door covered with stone, and he shivered, walking past another one, and another, pausing when he realized it wasn't a door at all. It was an opening.
A labyrinth of hallways. Oh shit. It was so long and dark, his enhanced vision thought the black wall was a door and not an opening. They were screwed.
He dashed back in a straight line the way he came and saw Bakura smugly propping up their tent, turning around to give him a wide-eyed look. "Scared, little baby?" he asked with a pout.
"It's a fucking maze. Come with me," Seto growled, his fear rising as he recalled no end in sight to the hallways. "If I get lost in there, I'm never coming out."
"Get lost then!" Bakura jeered, and Seto wondered if he ought to stamp his foot and throw a real tantrum. This was serious shit! He wasn't asking if he didn't really need the assistance!
There was a quiet rustle behind him, and Seto whipped his head around, perking his ears up, listening for it again. It sounded like…a creature.
"Did you hear that?" Seto asked irritably, over the sounds of Bakura scraping the tent poles over the stone steps and then hammering holes down into the ground ear-shaking force. "Stop for a fucking second—"
He heard a gasp coming from the darkness in the hallway behind him, and stared furiously into the hallway, seeing a flash of…white-blond hair. It vanished into one of the maze hallways, but it was unmistakably long, white-blond hair. An elf?
"I saw an elf I think!" Seto announced, and he backed up nervously to hide behind the bevel of the large fountain. Bakura was instantly on guard, ditching the tent stakes and hopping down to crouch behind the crumbling edge for cover. The silence was ringing, and Bakura leaned over to whisper, "hostile or not? Adult or not?"
"We're adults too, idiot!" Seto hissed, and Bakura bared his fangs.
"They don't consider us to be in this universe—"
"Who's there…? Are you…children lost?" Came a soft voice echoing from the hallway, and Bakura peeked his head up before turning bright red and sliding down until his back was flat against the fountain's bevel.
Confused by this reaction, Seto also peeked around the edge of the fountain and saw a pretty elf girl, dressed in a ragged, plain brown robe, the brass fixings in her hair tarnished badly, but her eyes were wide and fearful as she gripped the hallway door, looking around for them.
Frowning, Seto was about to call back an answer when Bakura yanked him back down so hard, his arm ached.
"Ow!" Seto hissed, and Bakura was shaking his head so much, his orb-like eyes were blurring.
W-What!?
I know we said we'd do our personas in the Districts, but I want to do mine here, now! Bakura thought wildly, and Seto raised his head slowly to glance at the pretty elf girl and then back down at his companion with a wicked smirk.
You like her! Seto crowed triumphantly, eager to hold this above Bakura's head for the rest of his fucking life. You wanna be that handsome human to sweep her off of her f—
"Hello? K-Kids? Can I approach?" The elf called shrilly, her voice growing closer. "Are you lost? May I help you exit? I heard you two…fighting about being lost. I can h-help. I live here…"
If you …help me now, I will never…be mean to you again. Understand? Bakura said quietly in his mind, his eyes glowing bright red in the semi-darkness. I like her. I will now show her the best, most idealized version of myself. I'm not meeting any more beautiful elves in my snotty, bratty child's body. Dartz was already hard to pass up.
"I knew you were horny for Dartz. I'll create a distraction," Seto whispered back with a smirk, flicking his fingers in the air to cast, making them invisible… when he saw a shadow creeping around the side of the fountain bevel. He grabbed Bakura by the arm and inched him back, hearing him reciting the script he'd prepared to change himself.
Seto glanced at the empty fountain and decided to make water, since that was the thing he could do the best. Hopefully, he wouldn't flood the entire underground tunnels here while trying to create a distraction for Bakura.
He took a deep breath and splayed his hands out to his sides, controlling the visual of a sparkling river, spouting from the top of the fountain and filling the rest of the crumbling stone structure, and sure enough, a rush of water filled the fountain from the bottom up, spurting beautifully from the top and creating a cascading wave of white water, the splashing sounds roaring so loudly, Seto could barely hear himself think.
The elf girl let out a gasp and backed away fearfully, thinking the children were going to flood the tunnels out of fear.
Turning around and stumbling back to safety of the hallway, her nose ran right into a muscular chest, and it stung. She let out a squeak and tried to duck around the mystery man, but her arm was caught by the warmth of a hand wrapped around her wrist, and the man called out softly, his voice barely audible over the rush of water, "please! We didn't mean to frighten you!"
Seto barely spared them a glance, standing back to admire his big fountain with a puff of his chest. Yami would be so proud! Now time to set up a tent properly, not on stone steps, like a fucking idiot who had never been camping before a day in their life.
Bakura held tightly onto the elf's hand before he let go and bowed apologetically.
"I'm sorry," he apologized instantly, and he straightened up to look in her face, his heart clenching when he realized…it was a man. A very pretty man, with tanned skin and dark almond eyes. Dark gray eyes were rare for an elf…? Or perhaps he was half…?
The elf stared listlessly at him and finally spoke, "are you lost or not?"
"We might be," Bakura said gently, offering the kindest smile he could muster. "Would you like to join us for a meal? I'm a great cook."
"Are you now?" Seto called derisively from the top step, laughing at how hopelessly sappy Bakura was being. "You hate boiling anything."
"Seto. Please." Bakura clenched his teeth and stared rapturously into the elf's pretty face, his heart swelling when the man blinked hesitantly and then nodded, ducking his head down in a return bow to introduce himself.
"Please call me Marik," the white-blond elf said in a whisper, and Bakura had never felt his heart flutter so hard before as he stared at the slender shoulders dressed in the ratty, tattered robes.
"I'm Ryou," Bakura replied with another stiff bow, gesturing for her to follow him back to the fountain stage. "And that boy up there is Seto. We're harmless, and you're welcome to sit with us."
Seto watched apprehensively as Bakura led the disheveled elf to join them on the top step, and he couldn't help but stare at how…he'd been fooled into thinking it was a girl when this was clearly a man. He had a sharp adam's apple, and smooth, flat chest, and his hair was scraggly, as if it hadn't seen water in years.
Sure enough, the elf inched off the step and ran to touch the water in the fountain before brashly taking off the tattered shoes he was wearing and sinking his feet into it with a relieved sigh.
"Thank you for making this water…Seto," he eyed the little dragon boy with the slitted pupils sitting by the tent and received a cold nod.
"Your son?" Marik added, shyly eyeing Bakura, thinking he'd heard another child arguing in the area. "Where's the other one? I saw two boys."
Bakura hesitated to come up with a lie, but Seto caught it fluidly with a catty grin.
"That was my mirage. I'm practicing. Wanna see my school's headmaster?" And he mustered up his favorite memory of Dartz striding across the grass towards them and threw his hand out, palm facing up and conjured the tall man in the space beside them, making him walk on air.
Marik's mouth dropped open and he sat down with a heavy splash in the water.
"You're scaring him," Bakura muttered, so Seto stopped projecting the mirage, thinking his anteater friend would've been proud of that effort too. He was so underpraised here.
"And no, he's not my son! We're merely traveling together," Bakura exclaimed, and Seto snickered, enjoying this embarrassing, cringy, soft-spoken, 'nice' version of Bakura that had emerged.
Marik nodded absently and turned away, embarrassed as he splashed water up over his head, and Seto frowned, thinking this was odd. He threw Bakura a private thought , "I think this elf can't do magic."
I think so too, Bakura replied with a worried grimace. Ask if you can perform a cleaning spell instead. This is agonizing to watch.
Seto smirked and shot back, if you hadn't chosen to be human, you could perform it for him.
Pointless to win his affection! He's clearly scared of magic! Just do it please! Bakura shrieked, his soft brown eyes widening slightly and flashing red underneath.
Loser, Seto held up the L on his forehead, hoping to incite Bakura further as he inched off the steps and stood an arm's length away from the blond elf.
"Hey, can I help you get clean?" Seto asked, feeling weirdly like Yami when they had first met, cleaning him off when he'd been picked out of the bloody river. "I know a cleaning spell. It doesn't hurt and you don't have to take off any clothes."
The elf froze in embarrassment and nodded, sitting quickly at the edge and folding his hands on his lap formally, looking…ashamed.
Grimacing, Seto stood behind him and cast a large bubble of water, running it down the elf's body with a practiced motion, noting the brass was still rusty in his hair decorations, and chose to run the bubble back up to attempt to clean it, but the rust stayed, so he gave up and splashed the dirty water back into the fountain. There. Clean.
Holy fuck, that elf hadn't had a bath in years it appeared.
"Wow, look at that, Seto you're a whiz!" Bakura said cheerfully, and Seto turned to make a face at him. He thought he'd like a 'nice', 'new' Bakura, but this version was somehow more cringy and annoying.
"Whatever, I'm going to sleep," Seto announced, even though he wasn't sleepy. He knew Bakura needed to test this new persona out. Wait, his name was Ryou now.
"Okay brat, did you wash up too?" Bakura asked sternly, and Seto's mouth dropped open.
W-Was he being babied now?!
"Are you serious?" Seto replied incredulously, aware that the white-blond elf was watching them like they were an interesting show. "Now you're just acting like my father to show off to your new elf friend."
"Who said anything about anyone's dad?" Bakura shot back equally as fast, his eyes narrowing. "I merely suggested washing up."
The elf giggled softly from the fountain's edge, and Bakura instantly turned to give him his attention.
"Seto knows a duplicating spell, so we won't all have to share a tent. Would you like to stay together as a group?" Bakura asked genuinely, and Seto turned around to make retching noises that echoed around the spacious amphitheater, knowing this would incite the demon, but this was pure payback.
"Why's he doing that?" Marik asked shrilly as the child dragon behaved strangely, acting like he was sick. "Did he eat something bad? I have medicine!"
He received two blank stares that made his cheeks reddened, and he glanced over his shoulder at the dark hallway, "I-I can go fetch it now…!"
"I'm doing that because he likes you," Seto said sourly, catching a panicked look from Bakura that made his head rush, so he pushed on. "He thinks you're pretty and is now making me do all this magic to make you comfortable."
Marik flushed dark pink, and Bakura turned the same shade of pink and went darker into crimson only because his skin was paler.
Oh, this is no fun , Seto growled, and he turned back to the tent to perform the duplicating spell for his own sanity. Now they had added one more person to their party, and they weren't even one third into their journey. And this party member couldn't do magic! This was going to suck major balls, especially since Bakura was pretending to be human now, he was the only one doing magic for the three of them.
Great! Seto thought cheerfully as he brought out the second tent and made it larger, large enough to fit three adults, and keeping his own tent small and child sized. Yami would be so proud to see him doing such awesome magic. He couldn't wait to find that spiky-haired mage to magic the pants off of him to show him how much he'd improved over the past month.
He crawled into his tent without so much of a glance over his shoulder and snapped the flaps shut, running a cleaning spell down his entire body and across the floor of his entire tent for good measure and threw himself down on the cushy sleeping bag, eavesdropping shamelessly at Bakura and Marik beside him.
"…You place your head here… May I help you take those off? They need a cleaning…"
"No, it's really fine. I've had these for as long as I can remember…"
"We can buy you new hair ornaments in the next town. Seto has a hoard of gold."
Seto clicked his teeth and rolled over, annoyed.
"These were my sister's. I'd rather keep them… and clean them if possible. I don't go outside…"
"What! Why not?" Bakura sounded shocked, and Seto tucked an arm under his head, interested, but only half.
"I can't…do magic. I'm useless. Humans bully me, and other elves shun me. I have nowhere to be, so I'd rather stay here."
Seto felt a hot pang of something sear through his chest, and he decided to cast a muffling spell around his own tent to avoid hearing any more depressing shit, but it was too late.
"You're not useless if you can't do magic. Seto over there has broken horns and he can manage just fine. I manage just fine," Bakura insisted gently, reaching forward to grab Marik's hands and giving them a squeeze. "Stay with us, and you'll be fine. We'll cast protective spells on you."
"My…sister used to do that…" Marik ventured, and Seto rolled his eyes, sealing the top gap of his muffling sphere and turning over to really sleep.
Good for Bakura. It appeared he'd found someone to be un-single with.
Seto shut his eyes and took a deep breath, wishing he could communicate with Yami somehow, and realized he'd completely forgotten about the bracelets. He reached into his pack to dig it out and slipped it on, seeing it glow and then nothing happened.
W-Weird. Whatever.
He kept it on and rolled back over into his sleeping bag, closing his eyes and grateful for the dreamless sleep he experienced in this life.
Author's note:
Seto and bakura set out on their quest, Bakura meets marik!