Drabbles Dump - Shaadi (Prt 2) to Zombire
(I swear I'll fix the spacing issue... >-< )
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The Second Round
"One minute left." He knew that. "Do you have the answer..?" No he didn't now shut up! He was already having enough trouble dealing with the fact that this thing was about to eat his hea-
Mirrors.
The tiles were based on a matching game, there would be four pairs, with one 'odd' thing. This was meant to be a mirror...
"Thirty seconds..."
"Eyes." He blinked his own and swallowed.
"Twenty..."
"Nostrils." The air was hot and it was hard to breathe.
"Ten..."
He pulled, fruitlessly at his bonds. "Hands!"
"Five seconds."
He heard him already..! "Ears!!"
"Four."
He knew the answer.
"Three."
The one thing, hovering right behind him...!
"TWO!"
"THE SINGLE TILE IS IT'S MOUTH!"
-shhhaaaaaaaa...-
The tiles flipped over.
He was right.
Ammit faded away and the teen turned on Shaadi with rage filled eyes. "Congratulations," Shaadi announced.
"You've reached the final game."
His response was cold silence and gleaming red eyes as the mists of the illusion wrapped around them.
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The Darkest Memory of a Friend
He claimed this round would be the worst.
That the three shabti would all break in this round. He needed to break Shaadi's own, but the man merely boasted that his mind made the statue's strength as 'diamond'...
'And yours is weak, like chalk alabaster.' Tch...
He didn't believe it. He couldn-
"Nnhnhnhnhnn... Hello, Kuroba-kun."
Shit.
Akako.
-----
Trust
A game to the death with the puzzle as the die. Walk back a number of tiles until one or the other fell off. And for a moment, he'd actually found himself wondering-
What would Akako do playing a game like this?
And then he remembered she could arguably fly, and that this was definitely cheating. But then it could also be an illusion. Or...
"I'm not playing this game with you Akako," he warned lowly, shaking his head. Akako had almost killed him once. And could have, if not for a fateful turn of events in his favor.
It was after that that Akako turned to more neutral actions around him. But this was an Akako filled with all the bloodlust of before. If she could not have her man, no one could. "So this is the Millennium Puzzle," she whispered, narrowing her eyes at her opponent. "How interesting... What would happen," she chuckled, "If I were to drop it over this edge..?" The puzzle would be gone.
Kaito would be trapped.
From within something shuddered and from the side the shabti cracked.
"Perhaps if I disassembled it..." Crack.
"Or simply kept it for my own purposes..."
The shabti shattered, and he turned toward Aoko in shock. "Gh-!"
One left. She was throwing off the real Kaito's resolve, shattering the 'poker face' and-
Think, he told himself. If this was Akako...
What would she do?
"I'll go first," Akako whispered, dropping the puzzle to the ground. It pointed back. "Two squares south."
He did so. "I won't roll, Akako."
A sneer. "Hn. A fool as usual... And again then..." It fell. "Two squares back..."
Again he moved, standing on the edge of what little floor they'd been given. "I won't roll."
"So you're passing then?"
A nod. "Yea. I'm passing."
"What..." Shaadi balked, shaking his head. "You're admitting defeat..!?"
"Not quite," he responded calmly. "...I believe in Kaito's friends. In my friends. And Akako," he continued, looking forward with confidence, "Is one of those friends."
"Then you are a fool," he hissed darkly. "A fool who relies on others, placing your trust in a situation that leaves it just as shattered as your fragile shabti. If you had pushed your 'friend' and 'fear' into the darkness you would have found strength... This is the end, spirit of the puzzle..." He turned to Akako. "Finish the game!"
Akako merely held the puzzle..
And smiled, looking directly at the Egyptian. "I listen to no 'man'..."
The illusion faded. "Believe in yourself." A crack entered the air. "And your friends will believe in you." And another and another...
With a jolt he looked toward the side, eyes wide with fear. "The rope..!" The strain was forcing it to sever, even before the game was over Aoko would-
"Ngh... AOKO!" That voice. Frozen in place he couldn't see a thing, but despite this he could hear that voice. "AOKO! I'm holding the platform... You need to move!" That voice...
Hakuba was here.
Another crack through the air. "Impossible..."
And another. "Still don't get it, Shaadi?" And another... "To believe only in yourself isn't strength..." Another... "It's only inflated confidence." Another... "When there is confidence in another however...
-CRACK-
"There is true strength."
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Unity
The key slid down the rope and with panic and shock Aoko came to. But despite the support Hakuba had on the platform...
"Can't move... She can't move she can't move she can't-"
"Aoko, this really isn't the best time to-"
"Annnnoonnnnnnn...."
"Gh- Uncle..!"
"M... Aoko's going to try... She's... Going to..."
"That's great Aoko, just whatever you do don't look down-"
The platform fell. "NGh-"
Hakuba tried to catch her- "AOKO-"
She'd reached up.
"Got you." And in that moment of chaos a golden key dangled down on a pole and string, clipping the face of the professor that had been pulling at Hakuba's legs. And while the 'Other Kaito' held Aoko close and pulled her back onto the roof from over the fence, sighs of relief filled the air...
Clambering back over the fence, and gasping for breath on the roof of the university as they tried to make sense of it all.
"Kuroba Kaito," Shaadi whispered, the teen looking over with narrowed eyes. "You've passed every test... I am utterly defeated. I tempted you with darkness, and yet it was your friends you reached for... ...And somehow, this loss does not feel painful."
Kaito said nothing in response for a moment, merely grabbing his puzzle from the ground and stringing it back around his neck. "The power of this puzzle..." He stared at the Egyptian with almost indifferent eyes, holding the pendant in his hand. "...Don't bother yourself over it anymore, 'Shaadi'. The power of unity obviously escapes you."
"Unity..."
It was probably good that no one could see Shaadi at the time. No one had a clue what happened, and though Hakuba was more than determined to trace the source it was as though all evidence had melted into the shadows. In an attempt to calm themselves from the hectic evening Yoshimori took them out for dinner... And between that Aoko and Hakuba staring oddly at the other Kaito for again going against his host's food preferences things seemed to calm down.
And far below the key fell... Falling into the grip of a figure in robes whilst they walked away. "We'll meet again... Kuroba Kaito."
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What's Yours and Mine
He really didn't want a stupid keychain pet.
"Awwwww it's so cute..~"
Scratch that he REALLY didn't want one.
But for some reason it was sitting in his hand, and as Hakuba seemed to smile 'innocently' from across the desk he frowned. "What are you looking at..."
Hakuba merely continued to smile while Aoko and Keiko proceeded to coo over the tiny little pet in the device on the desk. "Oh... I think you know exactly what I'm looking at."
"It's not mine..."
"I don't doubt it."
"Then why don't you ask the 'other' me about it..!?"
Another chuckle was his response, and Hakuba's smile somehow seemed even worse. "His answer makes sense- he wanted a pet and got it." Smile was larger now. "What I want to know Kuroba, is why you still have it." He almost didn't answer.
His other self did it for him, smirking as the others paused at the switch and continued as though nothing happened.
"Because if he does," he chuckled, "I'll get a new one."
Bastard.
Least it looked a little cooler in the hour or so before it went through it's lifespan. What they were 'feeding' the pets in Domino though he'd never know.
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Pets and Owners
"Awwww he looks like a little magician..~"
"Ah, you think so?"
The pet system was currently being connected with Yugi's. Supposedly, they'd done the same thing between Yugi's and Jonouchi's 'v-pets' earlier that day, before Yugi's beat another in a fight. Anyone in Ekoda would probably just shake their heads and be confused.
But this was Domino, so it was therefore perfectly normal.
"Hey, they're getting along really well..."
A few beeps passed through the screen, and the others smiled. "Hah- Right off the bat, what are the chances..."
"Oh oh oh- Mine next then..!"
"Eh, Jonouchi?"
"Uh, alright..." The v-pets were connected.. And...
"AH-"
The group stared, Honda in particular looking with disbelief. "I don't believe it..."
"They knocked each other out..."
In the end, the V-Pets became friends regardless (Though Jonouchi's went missing somehow the next day)... But it was still a little amusing to watch both pets 'recover' after their inital brawl.
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Heroes
Yugi had another friend at his school.
He was a frail boy- and he didn't often hang around with the others, but he was nice enough. Kaito himself had never met 'Hanasaki', but from what he heard it was nothing to worry about.
Actually, when Yugi offered to show him something Hanasaki had given him, he'd jumped at the chance.
"Oh- so this is a Garage kit?"
Yugi nodded and glued another piece of the Zombire figure together. "Yep- Jonouchi-kun showed me how to make these. Can you pass me the spraypaint?"
"Sure. So you use this to colour the figure when it's dry?"
"Yea! But could you-"
"It's empty."
"HEHHH!!" The boy scrambled over, and shook the can himself.
As Kaito had said- it was.
"Awwww..."
"All the stores are closed by this point too. I'd see if I had some at home, but..."
"Hn..." Yugi frowned, before hurriedly turning back to his friend. "Oh- Actually, Hanasaki-kun might have some!"
"Hanasaki?"
"Yea..! You could meet him too, this'll be great!"
"Ah, that's true!" He'd finally get to see this kid, that'd be great. "How far from here is he?"
"Not far," he was told. Not far at all-
Actually, it was only about ten minutes away. But when they came to the door it was Hanasaki's father who answered. And when they asked where he was, a note was shakily held out, a note that had so obviously been a ruse... "Oh no... Oh no, for me..." Yugi swallowed. "Hanasaki has... For me..."
When he turned to ask Kaito what they could do, he found himself staring in shock. Because Kaito wasn't there any more.
He'd left the moment he saw the address on the note.
-----------
Hanasaki
"You're Hanasaki right?"
Yugi had told him about Kaito once before. Normally, what he knew came from other people though. To Yugi and his friends, he was a wonderful person.
But to everyone else in the area, rumors of horror and danger alike.
And yet as he was put to the side, he had to agree with Yugi. "You're a brave guy, Hanasaki. Don't let anyone say otherwise..."
The thugs that had tried to kill him came after Kaito. And Kaito merely grinned.
"Who wants to play a game," he asked 'cheerfully', a spraycan seemingly coming to his hand from nowhere. The words seemed to enrage his opponents even more and with a flippant shrug he shook the can and started to spray.
And run. Making a pattern Hanasaki realized. A maze...
A trail...
"Hehehe... Gotcha," they sneered, only for Hanasaki to gasp. At the far end of the paintline...
The cigarette butt they threw away had sparked. "So... Think I was drawing those lines for fun?" The thugs turned to each other, and in a flash...
-Fwoosh-
Fire.
In the end, all three dove into the river, likely to survive. The flames died down and Hanasaki stared as 'Kuroba Kaito' walked back over, the shorter pulling off his mask and swallowing. "Y-You... K-Kuroba-kun..." He bowed his head. "I'm sorry... You don't even know me, but you had to-"
"Hey. Don't cry, nah?" Eh? The boy blinked, and Kaito seemed to grin. "You're a hero right? Why do you need to hide a hero's face behind a mask?"
"Ah- Hide..? But I-"
"A hero's the one who stands for their friends right? That's what you were doing when you saw that note isn't it?"
"But... But I.."
"Hanasaki-kun!" "Tomoya..!!"
Kaito smiled- and this time, it seemed warmer. "You wanted to save your friend. That's all that matters."
Hanasaki didn't see much of Kaito after that- in the end, he and Yugi drifted apart really.
But he never forgot those words- and as proof, the spraypainted, smoke-singed costume he had sat neatly visible in his room from that point on.