Shukumei no Duelist von Yamato_ (Duelists of Fate) ================================================================================ Prolog: Shattered ----------------- There is so much darkness in this world. So much pain, grief, and suffering. But still, the gods gave us one single light to overcome the darkness, that light which is called love. It shines in our hearts like a candle, like a blazing flame. It guides us and carries us, and gives us a reason to go on, regardless of the trials we must endure. I can see this light in your heart right now as I look at you. It lies buried beneath your pride and your anger and the ashes of your broken dreams, but it still shines. You share a bond with someone. Your heart yearns for him, your soul calls out to him, and all your spirits stir in their weiju and find no rest. Why do you try to shatter that bond instead of cherishing it? Why do you wish to deny yourself this divine gift? Do you not understand how precious it is? Can you honestly say you prefer to stay in darkness? Alone? Shukumei no Duelist Duelists of Fate (Schicksalsduellanten) ---------------------------------- Disclaimer: YuGiOh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I’m only borrowing his characters. ^__^ Author: Yamato (on Animexx: Julie) Rating: R (FSK 16) Ships: Prideshipping (Seto x Yami-Yuugi), Scandalshipping (Atem x Seth) Summary: Seto Kaiba tries to put his heart back together after it was shattered at Death-T. On his journey he encounters strange visions of the past, guardians of the Egyptian underworld, Ka spirits fighting over his soul, and a promise made over 3000 years ago. It’s a good thing, really, that he doesn’t believe in any of this occult nonsense. Author’s Note: Borrowing some canon from the manga, some from the anime. (Japanese, not dub) Prologue: Shattered Everything was dark around him. In fact, it was so dark that in the very first moment he didn’t know whether his eyes were closed or open. Carefully, he touched his face, trying to ensure he was all right. It did feel like a face. His nose, mouth, cheeks, hair, everything seemed to be in proper place. His eyes were open; yet he still couldn’t see his hands. For a moment, he wondered whether he had gone blind. His chest hurt. His chest hurt so badly as if he had taken a blow to his ribcage. Which he probably had, considering the circumstances. He lay flat on his back and tried to breathe evenly, but the pain didn’t recede. Every breath felt as if he was taking in needles instead of air. Where am I? What happened? How did I get here? Why is it so dark? “Every true beginning starts out in darkness,” a soft voice answered him. “The darkness is older than the light.” Did I die? This time the voice didn’t answer, so he spoke his question out loud. “Did I die?” “Anubis says, yes, you did.” Great. In all the things on his to-do list for today – not that he remembered any of them – dying sure wasn’t included. In fact, he couldn’t even remember if he’d kept any to-do lists, but if he did, they would probably read things like Lunch at 11.00 and Meeting at 16.00. Instead, he was stuck in a strange dark place listening to some cryptic wish-wash from annoying floating voices, with a pain in his chest and no memory of himself. Well, almost no memory, for he was sure that he did not believe in either floating voices or cryptic wish-wash. Wait a moment – why would he still feel any pain if he was dead? “But I beg to differ,” said the voice. “And it seems that I have the better …uhm… arguments. At least for now.” “Hmm. So, once you’ve all decided whether I’m dead or not,” he gasped, pressing his hand to his aching chest, as he tried to sit up and failed miserably. If this was a nightmare, it was almost too ridiculous to be dreamed. He was going to stop dreaming this right now. “I’m afraid that decision does not rest with me.” She – it was undoubtedly a female voice – sounded sincerely disappointed about it. “Well then, go get the person responsible and tell them that I wish to go back to my life.” On the second attempt he managed to pull himself into a sitting position. “And hurry, if you please, I have a company to run.” Yes, there definitely was a company. If he only could remember what it was called… “Oh, I would, but unfortunately it’s not that easy.” She gave a sigh. “This is partly my fault. I just wish I could have protected you better, then you wouldn’t be in such trouble right now. But I was faced with a choice, and I chose your life over your soul and your soul over your heart.” “Get to the point, will you?” He really wasn’t in any mood for this occult nonsense. He had far more pressing matters to deal with, and once he woke up from this pathetic excuse of a nightmare, he would surely remember what they were. All this talk about hearts and souls sounded utterly ridiculous and none of it made any sense to him. His soul was… well, wherever souls were if they actually existed, and his heart was right where it belonged, inside his chest. Only it wasn’t beating… He pressed his forefinger to his wrist frantically searching for a pulse. This couldn’t be possible; it had to be a bad joke. How could anyone live without a pulse? What was this supposed to mean? No, he couldn’t be dead. Yes, he could be. To lose means to die. The last words rang so clearly in his mind that he wondered if someone else had spoken them. And it was definitely not the girl. “So you’ve noticed.” Her voice sounded much closer now. He reached out and felt around in the darkness; he didn’t particularly like being sneaked up on, and annoying floating voices posed no exception. But all he could feel was a soft movement of the air as if someone had just walked past him. Yet, there was no sound of footsteps. “Well, as I said, we both made our choices and now you’re in a near-hopeless situation. But the good news is you’re particularly skilled at getting yourself out of near-hopeless situations. It’s probably what you’re best at, apart from getting yourself into near-hopeless situations. And winning at Duel Monsters, but we’ll get to that part later. For now, all you need to do is…“ “I decide for myself what I need to do, thank you very much,” he interrupted her brusquely. “I don’t follow anyone’s orders.” “Yes, I know.” He heard a soft chuckle; for some unknown reason his last remark seemed to have amused her. “But didn’t you say you wanted to live? Living without a heart will prove considerably difficult to say the least. So what will you do? Sit around here and pout some more or try to get your life back?” He considered his options. Since he still didn’t know anything about this place (or about anything else for that matter) he wasn’t left with many of them. “Fine. I’ll play your little game for now. So how does it work?” “I knew it! You would never give up!” she shouted in triumph, and added much softer: “Still, there are no words to describe how happy this makes me feel. Please open your hand; there’s something I have to give you.” He was still wondering how the hell she was even going to find his hand in this darkness as he already felt another hand touch his, and then an object was put into his palm. He had no idea what it was, only that it felt warm and smooth, and somehow – there was no other word for it – alive. The other hand tightly closed his fingers around the object before releasing him. “What is this?” The warmth was quickly spreading through his body and the pain in his chest was finally receding somewhat. “A broken piece,” she answered with a tone of sadness in her voice. “I’m afraid it’s the only thing that remains of your once so proud duelist’s heart. I have kept it for you.” “And what am I supposed to do with it?” “It will help you find the other pieces,” she explained. “If you gather them all, you can put your heart back together and return to the world of the living.” “Hmm.” This whole thing sounded too much like a cheap adventure game. “So where’s the hitch?” “Well, since this is a yami no game, you can imagine that there will be tests and trials and such…” Of course there were. And most probably monsters and treasures and lots of pointless running around in pathetic dungeons. Not to mention some ridiculous final bosses with magical powers and a silly laugh. Haha. Me crush you now. Another soft chuckle interrupted his train of thought. “Don’t forget about the dragons.” Whatever. Yami no game, she had said. A shadow game. That name sounded vaguely familiar and it sent a chill down his spine. He was sure that it was connected to a memory of his, but he couldn’t quite grasp it. Was this another riddle he had to solve? “You have a very long and difficult road ahead of you.” Much to his surprise, her voice had lost all earlier playfulness, sounding dark and serious now. “I wish I could give you advice, but you never listen to what I say, so it looks like you’ll have to do this on your own. However, I have great faith in your abilities. Believe me, even if you don’t remember it now, you’ve mastered worse situations than this one. You’ll manage. And I promise I’ll be with you every step of the way.” “Hmm.” He had absolutely no idea how to reply to this, so he resorted to his usual rudeness. “Are you quite finished with the pep talk? Then tell me something useful.” “You will know more once you open your hand. Wait – if you meet Anubis, tell him I’m sincerely sorry about our little disagreement. And his scales. And Ammit. And Maat’s feather… oh, on second thought, forget what I said and better stay out of his way. And when you play Ament-Urt at Senet, don’t step on the House of Water. And watch out for…“ “I said, spare me the pep talk.” And before she could say another word, he opened his fingers, and was blinded by a blazing white light emerging from his hand. In the split second before he closed his eyes, he could see the silhouette of a girl sitting across him on the floor. A petite heart-shaped face framed by a mane of long hair falling down over her shoulders and chest. A small delicate body. And the most magnificent blue eyes. Those eyes are exactly like mine… He forced his eyes open again, but couldn’t see much except for dancing spots in all colors. The blazing light was gone and so was the girl, but the pitch-black darkness hadn’t returned either. Something glowed in front of him, something large and rectangular. He narrowed his eyes to get a better look at it. It was a door. It was a door in the middle of nowhere; there were no walls around it, and there weren’t any buildings or courtyards where it would lead to. The stupid thing simply stood there with neither purpose nor reason. Was this what the girl had meant by ‘You will know more?’ Well, just because the door was there didn’t mean he was automatically going to walk through it, but it wouldn’t hurt to examine it a bit before making a decision. He got to his feet and noticed with relief that the pain in his chest had reduced to a dull throb, nothing he couldn’t handle. And that supposed piece of his heart was still… …had changed into a small piece of cardboard. He was holding a card in his hand! ------------------------------------------ BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON Light (Hikari ) * * * * * * * * [Dragon] This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and lived to tell the tale. [ATK/3000] [DEF/2500] -------------------------------------------- The card also included a drawing of a white dragon, but it was a very clumsy one. Its proportions were way off and all in all it looked more like an oversized chicken than a dragon. It was the kind of drawing a little kid would do. Duel Monsters… this was a Duel Monsters card. That strange girl had spoken about it and she had said he was particularly good at this game. However, you couldn’t play a game with just one card, so what was he supposed to do with it? He checked the pockets of his school uniform (something he should have done ages ago), but they didn’t reveal any more cards. Neither did they reveal anything else, no identification, no money, nothing that could give him at least a hint about who he was and where he came from. Why couldn’t this stupid school uniform at least have a badge? This whole thing was pointless, so he tucked the card safely into the pocket of his shirt and went back to his original plan to examine the door. It was made of stone and covered in hieroglyphs and ancient Egyptian imagery. On the sides, two large figures were carved in it facing each other. They looked mostly human and were depicted in the typical Egyptian way with their heads sideways, but their bodies facing the front. The figure on the left side wore a falcon’s head upon a human body. The figure on the right side had an animal head as well, but this animal was hard to make out. With its long snout it looked like a mixture between jackal, pig, and donkey, but it also had rectangular ears, and there wasn’t any known creature with ears like that. Scattered between the two figures were seven different images. He could make out an eye, a scepter, a bark carrying a golden disc, a hippopotamus, two crossed swords, a sand dune, and an ear of wheat. In each of these symbols was a rectangular slot exactly the size of his Duel Monsters card. Hmm. A one out of seven chance. Not too bad. Still, his instincts told him that putting the card in each picture in turn was not an option. He took a closer look at the writing carved in the stone. At first there were only hieroglyphs, little animals and objects and such. But somehow they reshaped themselves, formed letters and finally words. Was this only his imagination? Or was he, for some unknown reason, able to decipher hieroglyphs? WHEN THE TWO DUELISTS OF FATE ARE RECONCILED THE DOOR TO ETERNITY WILL OPEN Tsuzuku (…to be continued) Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)