Lion Heart
folder
Yu-Gi-Oh › Yaoi - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
17
Views:
5,031
Reviews:
88
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Category:
Yu-Gi-Oh › Yaoi - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
17
Views:
5,031
Reviews:
88
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own YuGiOh!, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 06: New Advantage
Chrno269: Yeah, Yuugi does get turned into the weak one a lot huh I fully admit to doing it myself at times °sweatdrops° But bleh, this is a nice change to see from time to time. Anyway, glad you like the fic so much and enjoy the new chap!
EvilPharaohAtem: Don’t worry, the fic’s already completely done on my laptop. Hence why I can just update weekly without stressing out over chapters being done. Anyway, will it help if I say that Atemu will find out soon? °sweatdrops° I doubt it but… well you’ll have to deal with it ciz that’s all I’m saying °nods° have fun with the chapter ^^
Cosmic Tomato: I’m a very, -very- evil person °grins° and who says I ever think? My friends keep saying I have no brain so I doubt I actually have a brain at all, which would explain why I keep putting Teana in my fics… wow, that explains a damn lot. Oh well, it all works for my amusement ^^ hope you have fun with the new chap!
J Chan: °chuckles° thinking is bad for you. Stop trying to figure out what I have planned! I can tell you that other people who read this couldn’t figure it out until chapter… 8 or 9 or something so just give up °nods° it’ll save you some headaches. Enjoy the new chap!
Keara: O.O LEMME GO! *shifty eyes* really… lemme go so I can get another shot at hiding before you see the end of this chap… °gulps°
Tavi: O.o;; wow, you decided to just review everything while you were at it huh? Yay ^^ reviews. I’m not gonna even bother trying to respond to everything you said °shakes head° I’m just too damned lazy for that. °nods° So just have fun with the new chap!
Dragonlady222: Nope, Teana’s sticking around to annoy people! And for my personal amusement of course. ^^ have fun with the new chap!
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Yo people! I’d like to inform all of you that the end of this chapter was partly my friend’s fault. GO NALURAH! She gave me the idea to stop it where it did, so yeah. °grins° Have fun reading today’s chap and R&R!
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--: 06 :--
New Advantage
She was twitching by now. What was he doing there? Why was it that he managed to grab Atemu’s attention so thoroughly without even really trying? Of course, if he were nothing more than a peasant she wouldn’t have so much problems with this. Atemu would plainly deal with the problem brought to his attention and then the peasant would leave. Sadly, though most expected him to be a peasant, Atemu was not going to stop paying attention to him when this problem was discussed. For one the problem was far bigger, and for two he seemed to be more of a friend than just a partner to Atemu.
Hikari, the so-called saviour of Egypt. The lion that always helped Atemu when a town was under attack. The animal that was currently stealing all her Atemu’s attention away from her.
Hikari had come in early that morning, completely unannounced and yet no guard had seemed to be holding him back and none of the high priests had seemed annoyed or surprised by his appearance. Even Seth, the usually moody and cranky cousin of Atemu seemed to actually like Hikari to a certain degree. He liked him enough by any chance that he’d talk to the lion, which was a serious feat at times.
Of course, she only heard Atemu and Seth speak. Apparently Hikari spoke mentally, and she wasn’t being included in the conversation. Yet another crime the lion had committed, in her opinion. She was going to be the future queen of Egypt; she should be included in any conversation about the country or any other topic for that matter.
Teana twitched again as she heard Atemu chuckle at something that Hikari had apparently said. That was it; she wanted to be included in this.
“What’s so funny?” She turned her gaze curious instead of the jealousy she really felt. Jealousy wasn’t becoming of a lady, let alone the future ruler of a country. The three males in front of her turned to look at her, Seth with a bored look, Hikari with a curious one and Atemu with a somewhat annoyed one.
“Sorry, Teana. We’re talking about important things that involve Bakura and Mariku. I can’t include you in the meeting.” Atemu gave a curt nod before turning back to his cousin and partner. Seth gave a half smirk so only they could see and Teana couldn’t, and Hikari gave an apologetic smile at the brunette female and then turned back to the conversation as well.
/ You could’ve just told her, you know. / Atemu rolled his eyes and shook his head. He spoke quietly so Teana wouldn’t be able to hear what he was discussing with the others.
“No, I don’t want her in on anything going on. It’ll only give her hopes that she’s being included and I refuse to even consider courting her, let alone make her my queen. I just need to think of a way to tell her that without causing a war…” Hikari snickered at the answer and the amusement was as clear as daylight on Seth’s face.
“Yes, we know you have issues with this but can we please get back to the matter at hand? You know, the fact that Egypt hates you and Bakura and Mariku are still out there, wrecking towns?” Seth raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his seat, “The fact that the others are busy with other things at the moment does not mean you can stop thinking about this.”
Atemu frowned, crossing his arms and leaning them on the table in front of him. “I don’t know. The town nearby is still being repaired so I doubt they’ll attack any time soon there, but who knows what other towns they might’ve set their eyes on.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “And we still don’t know what happened exactly when they suddenly disappeared into seemingly nothingness a few days ago.”
Hikari cocked his head in thought for a moment. / The shadows… they seemed to just disappear into the shadows. /
Seth and Atemu looked thoughtful for a moment as well, considering the idea. Atemu shook his head, “I admit that it did seem like that, but they don’t have a power like that, do they? They’ve never used it before and there would’ve been many times it would’ve come in handy for them to finish us off.”
Hikari nodded slowly in agreement, the thoughtful look never leaving his features, / True, t they’ve never displayed any such power. Maybe they learned it on the spot? You know, like a panic reaction to almost being defeated by us? /
“Maybe, but displays of such Shadow Magic is rare at best.” Seth crossed his arms, “Shadow Magic needs concentration to use to the point that it can’t just develop on its own. And the chance that it is called on without the slightest bit of practise in it or without the wielder being aware of it is slim to none.”
There was silence after that, all three trying to come up with something else that might explain the strange event. After a few minutes Atemu let out a sigh, “This is ridiculous. We can guess to it all we want but we simply don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration again, “We have no idea where Bakura and Mariku are hiding and no matter what we try, we can’t find them. We don’t know what little power they used to pull off that stunt the other day, and who knows what they plan on doing next. I think trying to find a needle in the deserts of Egypt would be easier than this right now.”
No matter how amusing Atemu looked in his frustrated mood, Seth and Hikari had to agree. Bakura and Mariku had long since become a seemingly unsolvable problem, and any temporary solution they came up with seemed to fail no matter what.
“Sire!” All present in the room immediately looked at the guard that ran into the room. The man looked panicked, sweaty, and out of breath, so he must’ve been running for a while. Atemu rose from his seat and nodded for the other to continue.
“Bakura and Mariku have destroyed several towns, but they managed to intercept any form of communication to here so they had free reign.” Atemu’s eyes widened at the news, walking up the guard to look him in the eyes.
“Where are they now?” the guard panted for a moment, trying to catch his lost breath to no avail.
“They’re heading this way, My Lord.”
Hikari instantly sprang into action, jumping up and running to the door. In seconds he was out of the palace and on his way to the town, sure that Bakura and Mariku would make a stop there to destroy some more even though the town wasn’t even fully rebuilt yet.
More importantly to him, his friends had said they’d be in the town square for the entire afternoon. Hikari had the strange feeling that now that his friends knew who he really was, they wouldn’t leave so easily anymore. They’d want to stay and help him now, somehow under the impression that they might be able to help when they were only putting themselves in danger.
This was yet another reason he hadn’t wanted them to know who he really was.
He vaguely heard Atemu calling him back, probably trying to hold him back so they’d get to the town at the same time, but he couldn’t care less now. He needed to get there as fast as he could, and waiting for Atemu wasn’t part of that planning.
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“Why aren’t we running again exactly?” Ryou ducked behind the barricade of debris as another shot of shadow magic was aimed at him, panic in his normally gentle eyes as he trembled in fear.
“’Cause we need ta help Yuug!” Jou growled as he too ducked, the attack send his way only missing by inches. Malik, who was still standing, dodged to the side before throwing a rather large rock at the two standing in the middle of the square. Bakura merely laughed at the poor attempt to hit him with something and blasted the rock right back at Malik, the pale-blonde gritting his teeth as he was forced to duck as well this time.
“Damn it, those bastards have a damned good aim.” He grumbled. He winced as he felt a blast hit the barricade and a piece of debris was shoved into his back, cursing softly. “Where’s Yuugi for crying out loud?!”
Ryou glanced backwards at the barrier as if he was going to be able to see through it, before looking back at his friends, “I think we should call him Hikari for the moment guys. And I’m sure he’s on his way.” Or so he hoped at least. They would never last much longer.
“Well he better hurry up or we’ll be dead before he gets here!” Jou grimaced, “Now does anyone have any ideas? Because throwin’ random rocks and gettin’ dem blasted back at us isn’t exactly my idea of a good strategy.”
“At least they seem to be enjoying it so we’re doing a great job at stalling.” Malik glared and rose again, throwing yet another rock only to get it blasted back at him with loud laughter following.
“Oh yes, and stalling will be great if we die here.” Ryou pressed his back more against the debris, not caring if some of it was now poking his back painfully.
“Well, it’s been a blast playing with you three but it’s really time for us to go meet the Pharaoh. I’m sure he’s expecting us by now.” The malice practically dripped off Bakura’s voice as he spoke. The shadows surrounding the three friends shifted a little, chaotically moving in random ways that should be impossible and the three teens in hiding paled. If something like this was happening to the shadows, it could only be related to shadow magic. And something related to shadow magic in this case was anything but good.
“Damn it, this can’t be good.” For the first time in the period of time that they’d been fighting, Malik showed fear as clear as day on his features, his voice trembling slightly. Moving shadows probably meant big attack. Big attack meant a lot of power. A lot of power probably meant it was going to kill them when it hit, barricade or no barricade.
“We need to get away, now!” Jou looked around in full panic, trying to find a way they could escape without being seen. None came into sight and he pressed himself up against the barricade as well, “Fuck, we’re dead.”
All three heard Bakura and Mariku laugh insanely for a moment before a large blast was fired. They closed their eyes, expecting not to open them again while alive, but snapped them open once more when they felt a gust of wind pass by them and another large explosion sounded. A powerful wind once more blew from the explosion and Malik, Jou and Ryou all looked up, stunned that nothing else had seemingly happened to them. They carefully sat up, glancing over the edge of the barricade to see why they were still alive, sighing in relief at what they saw.
Hikari, although panting from running so fast, stood in front of the barrier. He glared at Bakura and Mariku as he tried to catch his breath enough to start fighting, since that was unavoidable most likely.
/ Picking on defenceless people now? You’ve sunken low. / Mariku snorted and rolled his eyes.
“They were the ones who started throwing rocks at us.” He grinned maliciously, “They were yelling that we couldn’t get away with kicking their friend’s ass. You wouldn’t happen to know what they were talking about, would you?”
Hikari’s features stayed unchanged, but on the inside he completely panicked. The idiots had let slip that they were his friends. Whether in lion or human form didn’t matter right now; Bakura and Mariku could easily use this to their advantage of they wanted to.
/ Maybe you killed someone they liked? / Bakura chuckled at the meek retort and smirked.
“Oh please, we all know that those three are apparently friends of yours. Now it would be nice if they knew you in real life so we can squeeze the information out of them, but they’ll come in handy even if they don’t know.”
Hikari grimaced mentally, but still didn’t show it on his face. Great, now he needed to fight Bakura and Mariku on his own again while trying to keep them away from Jou, Malik and Ryou. If this fight didn’t kill him it sure as hell would hurt a lot.
Not wanting to wait for the two in front of him to make the first move, Hikari jumped at them, claws out and sharp nails blinking in the rays of Ra. Bakura’s eyes widened fractionally before he quickly dropped to the side to dodge the attack. Mariku was less lucky as he tried to step out of the way as well but wasn’t fast enough, his side being scratched by the deadly claws. The male growled as blood started pouring from the wound and he stumbled back, ducking to avoid the next attack Hikari sent his way and quickly defending himself by sending a blast of magic Hikari’s way.
Hikari landed agilely, only barely able to dodge the blast Mariku sent his way, though his tail was thrown aside by the wind as the blast passed by. Hikari jumped up to attack once more, a shadow blast already forming in his mouth, but was stopped as a blast send from Bakura’s Ring pounded him into one of the buildings behind him.
With a groan of pain, Hikari made a quick movement to avoid the next hit, jumping away from the now destroyed wall. He winced as he tried to stand on his left forepaw and immediately retracted it, the action making him slow down as a new blast hit him.
“Aw, it seems kitty-cat sprained his paw. Does it hurt?” Mariku snickered at his own jest before wincing at the pain in his side and cursing softly. Hikari smirked despite the pain he too was in, glad that the scratches he’d made were apparently deeper than he’d first suspected.
/ It seems I’m not the only one in pain. / He jumped up, ignoring the pain in his paw as much as possible as he tried to run at the other two again. Sadly his speed had decreased greatly because of the pain he simply couldn’t ignore completely and he only barely managed to dodge a blast from Bakura that would’ve been easy to escape from at any other time.
“He might be hurt but at least he still has someone to cover for him. Can’t say the same for you, now can I?” The Thief King grinned maniacally, “After all, your dear master is no where in sight.”
Hikari scowled, / So you can’t beat me one-on-one so you have to come at me at the same time? How pathetic. / Bakura glared at him for the remark, not able to retort immediately.
“Well then, why not let one of them help you?” Bakura suddenly smirked in the direction of Malik, Jou and Ryou. “Tell you what; we leave one of them here to ‘help’ you whenever Atemu’s not around and we take two with us to make sure you don’t start going four-on-two on us.”
Hikari’s eyes widened, knowing that with his current lack of speed due to his paw, he’d never be able to stop Bakura and Mariku if they played it smart. He whipped his head to the three still glancing over the barricade, /Run, now! / The three looked in confusion and Hikari realized they’d never heard someone speak in their minds, but after a quick glance at each other they scrambled to their feet nonetheless in an attempt to get away.
Bakura’s smirk only widened, instantly using his shadow magic to stop the three teens from running and binding them to the spot. Hikari tried to jump in front of the three, only to be tackled by Mariku who was obviously ignoring his bleeding wound for the moment. Bakura laughed at the sight as he rushed towards the three teens bound to the ground.
“Well then, who will we take?” He looked the three over, meeting two pairs of somewhat defiant eyes, and one pair that only showed fear. Two of the teens looked an awful lot like Mariku and himself, and Bakura rose an eyebrow at the likeness, before shrugging it off.
“Well, if I didn’t know any better I’d say I have a younger brother or something.” He looked mockingly at Ryou, the only one showing nothing but fear in his eyes. “And Mariku too.” He glanced at Malik for a second, the sandy blonde glaring at him.
Hikari growled, struggling to get out from under Mariku who was trying to hold him down with his body and the last bits of shadow magic he still had. He winced as he moved his paw in a wrong way, growling louder at the pain. Mariku growled in pain himself, not sure how much longer he could hold the lion back at this rate.
Seeing that his partner wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer, Bakura quickly enveloped both Malik and Ryou in the Shadow Magic completely, throwing Jou to the ground a bit away and pinning him down with minimal effort and magic. He looked back at Mariku, “Come on, we’re going before Pharaoh-dearest can show up; he’s already close by.”
Mariku grunted and quickly leaped to his feet, his Shadow Magic staying in place to keep the lion pinned down even if it would only last a few more seconds.
Mariku rushed over to Bakura quickly, his hands clutching at the gash on his side and groaning at the pain it caused. The minute he reached the white-haired thief, Bakura quickly enveloped himself and Mariku in Shadow Magic as well. Hikari broke free of the magic keeping him down, instantly springing up and leaping at the two that were about to kidnap two of his best friends. Malik was cursing loudly as he tried to move, Ryou struggling as well as tears came down his face as he was completely powerless.
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Dum-dum-dum-DUM! *evil music plays* End of chap people (A) All who want to kill me, GET IN LINE! There are many waiting in front of you... and since one of them is no doubt Keara it could take a while before she’s done with. °nervous look° Y'know what, to try and appease you all I'll put in a clip of what'll happen next chap... Yeah, ood idea.
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Sneak Preview:
“Calm down and tell me what happened.” Atemu crouched in front of the lion, only a feet or so away from him now. Hikari’s eyes flashed with more anger though sorrow could be seen in the very back.
‘He’s guarding himself.’ Atemu realized. ‘Something must’ve happened that he pulled back into himself, leaving only his animalistic instincts.’ Cautiously he held out a hand for the other to sniff, desperately hoping that some kind of recognition or memory would be triggered by it.
Hikari sniffed the hand in front of him, one paw raising itself as if to strike at any given moment. Before Atemu could do anything against it though, Hikari pounced on him, the only thing preventing the other’s claws from piercing his skin being the subconscious automatic response of releasing shadow magic to shield him. He winced as he could still feel the nails biting into his skin, even if the shadows blunted them down and prevented them from ripping him apart.
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... Yeah, enjoy pondering that one °grins° Oh~ What'll happen~ Well you'll have to wait until next week to figure that out. Review folks and tell me how much you wanna kill me!
EvilPharaohAtem: Don’t worry, the fic’s already completely done on my laptop. Hence why I can just update weekly without stressing out over chapters being done. Anyway, will it help if I say that Atemu will find out soon? °sweatdrops° I doubt it but… well you’ll have to deal with it ciz that’s all I’m saying °nods° have fun with the chapter ^^
Cosmic Tomato: I’m a very, -very- evil person °grins° and who says I ever think? My friends keep saying I have no brain so I doubt I actually have a brain at all, which would explain why I keep putting Teana in my fics… wow, that explains a damn lot. Oh well, it all works for my amusement ^^ hope you have fun with the new chap!
J Chan: °chuckles° thinking is bad for you. Stop trying to figure out what I have planned! I can tell you that other people who read this couldn’t figure it out until chapter… 8 or 9 or something so just give up °nods° it’ll save you some headaches. Enjoy the new chap!
Keara: O.O LEMME GO! *shifty eyes* really… lemme go so I can get another shot at hiding before you see the end of this chap… °gulps°
Tavi: O.o;; wow, you decided to just review everything while you were at it huh? Yay ^^ reviews. I’m not gonna even bother trying to respond to everything you said °shakes head° I’m just too damned lazy for that. °nods° So just have fun with the new chap!
Dragonlady222: Nope, Teana’s sticking around to annoy people! And for my personal amusement of course. ^^ have fun with the new chap!
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Yo people! I’d like to inform all of you that the end of this chapter was partly my friend’s fault. GO NALURAH! She gave me the idea to stop it where it did, so yeah. °grins° Have fun reading today’s chap and R&R!
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--: 06 :--
New Advantage
She was twitching by now. What was he doing there? Why was it that he managed to grab Atemu’s attention so thoroughly without even really trying? Of course, if he were nothing more than a peasant she wouldn’t have so much problems with this. Atemu would plainly deal with the problem brought to his attention and then the peasant would leave. Sadly, though most expected him to be a peasant, Atemu was not going to stop paying attention to him when this problem was discussed. For one the problem was far bigger, and for two he seemed to be more of a friend than just a partner to Atemu.
Hikari, the so-called saviour of Egypt. The lion that always helped Atemu when a town was under attack. The animal that was currently stealing all her Atemu’s attention away from her.
Hikari had come in early that morning, completely unannounced and yet no guard had seemed to be holding him back and none of the high priests had seemed annoyed or surprised by his appearance. Even Seth, the usually moody and cranky cousin of Atemu seemed to actually like Hikari to a certain degree. He liked him enough by any chance that he’d talk to the lion, which was a serious feat at times.
Of course, she only heard Atemu and Seth speak. Apparently Hikari spoke mentally, and she wasn’t being included in the conversation. Yet another crime the lion had committed, in her opinion. She was going to be the future queen of Egypt; she should be included in any conversation about the country or any other topic for that matter.
Teana twitched again as she heard Atemu chuckle at something that Hikari had apparently said. That was it; she wanted to be included in this.
“What’s so funny?” She turned her gaze curious instead of the jealousy she really felt. Jealousy wasn’t becoming of a lady, let alone the future ruler of a country. The three males in front of her turned to look at her, Seth with a bored look, Hikari with a curious one and Atemu with a somewhat annoyed one.
“Sorry, Teana. We’re talking about important things that involve Bakura and Mariku. I can’t include you in the meeting.” Atemu gave a curt nod before turning back to his cousin and partner. Seth gave a half smirk so only they could see and Teana couldn’t, and Hikari gave an apologetic smile at the brunette female and then turned back to the conversation as well.
/ You could’ve just told her, you know. / Atemu rolled his eyes and shook his head. He spoke quietly so Teana wouldn’t be able to hear what he was discussing with the others.
“No, I don’t want her in on anything going on. It’ll only give her hopes that she’s being included and I refuse to even consider courting her, let alone make her my queen. I just need to think of a way to tell her that without causing a war…” Hikari snickered at the answer and the amusement was as clear as daylight on Seth’s face.
“Yes, we know you have issues with this but can we please get back to the matter at hand? You know, the fact that Egypt hates you and Bakura and Mariku are still out there, wrecking towns?” Seth raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his seat, “The fact that the others are busy with other things at the moment does not mean you can stop thinking about this.”
Atemu frowned, crossing his arms and leaning them on the table in front of him. “I don’t know. The town nearby is still being repaired so I doubt they’ll attack any time soon there, but who knows what other towns they might’ve set their eyes on.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “And we still don’t know what happened exactly when they suddenly disappeared into seemingly nothingness a few days ago.”
Hikari cocked his head in thought for a moment. / The shadows… they seemed to just disappear into the shadows. /
Seth and Atemu looked thoughtful for a moment as well, considering the idea. Atemu shook his head, “I admit that it did seem like that, but they don’t have a power like that, do they? They’ve never used it before and there would’ve been many times it would’ve come in handy for them to finish us off.”
Hikari nodded slowly in agreement, the thoughtful look never leaving his features, / True, t they’ve never displayed any such power. Maybe they learned it on the spot? You know, like a panic reaction to almost being defeated by us? /
“Maybe, but displays of such Shadow Magic is rare at best.” Seth crossed his arms, “Shadow Magic needs concentration to use to the point that it can’t just develop on its own. And the chance that it is called on without the slightest bit of practise in it or without the wielder being aware of it is slim to none.”
There was silence after that, all three trying to come up with something else that might explain the strange event. After a few minutes Atemu let out a sigh, “This is ridiculous. We can guess to it all we want but we simply don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration again, “We have no idea where Bakura and Mariku are hiding and no matter what we try, we can’t find them. We don’t know what little power they used to pull off that stunt the other day, and who knows what they plan on doing next. I think trying to find a needle in the deserts of Egypt would be easier than this right now.”
No matter how amusing Atemu looked in his frustrated mood, Seth and Hikari had to agree. Bakura and Mariku had long since become a seemingly unsolvable problem, and any temporary solution they came up with seemed to fail no matter what.
“Sire!” All present in the room immediately looked at the guard that ran into the room. The man looked panicked, sweaty, and out of breath, so he must’ve been running for a while. Atemu rose from his seat and nodded for the other to continue.
“Bakura and Mariku have destroyed several towns, but they managed to intercept any form of communication to here so they had free reign.” Atemu’s eyes widened at the news, walking up the guard to look him in the eyes.
“Where are they now?” the guard panted for a moment, trying to catch his lost breath to no avail.
“They’re heading this way, My Lord.”
Hikari instantly sprang into action, jumping up and running to the door. In seconds he was out of the palace and on his way to the town, sure that Bakura and Mariku would make a stop there to destroy some more even though the town wasn’t even fully rebuilt yet.
More importantly to him, his friends had said they’d be in the town square for the entire afternoon. Hikari had the strange feeling that now that his friends knew who he really was, they wouldn’t leave so easily anymore. They’d want to stay and help him now, somehow under the impression that they might be able to help when they were only putting themselves in danger.
This was yet another reason he hadn’t wanted them to know who he really was.
He vaguely heard Atemu calling him back, probably trying to hold him back so they’d get to the town at the same time, but he couldn’t care less now. He needed to get there as fast as he could, and waiting for Atemu wasn’t part of that planning.
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“Why aren’t we running again exactly?” Ryou ducked behind the barricade of debris as another shot of shadow magic was aimed at him, panic in his normally gentle eyes as he trembled in fear.
“’Cause we need ta help Yuug!” Jou growled as he too ducked, the attack send his way only missing by inches. Malik, who was still standing, dodged to the side before throwing a rather large rock at the two standing in the middle of the square. Bakura merely laughed at the poor attempt to hit him with something and blasted the rock right back at Malik, the pale-blonde gritting his teeth as he was forced to duck as well this time.
“Damn it, those bastards have a damned good aim.” He grumbled. He winced as he felt a blast hit the barricade and a piece of debris was shoved into his back, cursing softly. “Where’s Yuugi for crying out loud?!”
Ryou glanced backwards at the barrier as if he was going to be able to see through it, before looking back at his friends, “I think we should call him Hikari for the moment guys. And I’m sure he’s on his way.” Or so he hoped at least. They would never last much longer.
“Well he better hurry up or we’ll be dead before he gets here!” Jou grimaced, “Now does anyone have any ideas? Because throwin’ random rocks and gettin’ dem blasted back at us isn’t exactly my idea of a good strategy.”
“At least they seem to be enjoying it so we’re doing a great job at stalling.” Malik glared and rose again, throwing yet another rock only to get it blasted back at him with loud laughter following.
“Oh yes, and stalling will be great if we die here.” Ryou pressed his back more against the debris, not caring if some of it was now poking his back painfully.
“Well, it’s been a blast playing with you three but it’s really time for us to go meet the Pharaoh. I’m sure he’s expecting us by now.” The malice practically dripped off Bakura’s voice as he spoke. The shadows surrounding the three friends shifted a little, chaotically moving in random ways that should be impossible and the three teens in hiding paled. If something like this was happening to the shadows, it could only be related to shadow magic. And something related to shadow magic in this case was anything but good.
“Damn it, this can’t be good.” For the first time in the period of time that they’d been fighting, Malik showed fear as clear as day on his features, his voice trembling slightly. Moving shadows probably meant big attack. Big attack meant a lot of power. A lot of power probably meant it was going to kill them when it hit, barricade or no barricade.
“We need to get away, now!” Jou looked around in full panic, trying to find a way they could escape without being seen. None came into sight and he pressed himself up against the barricade as well, “Fuck, we’re dead.”
All three heard Bakura and Mariku laugh insanely for a moment before a large blast was fired. They closed their eyes, expecting not to open them again while alive, but snapped them open once more when they felt a gust of wind pass by them and another large explosion sounded. A powerful wind once more blew from the explosion and Malik, Jou and Ryou all looked up, stunned that nothing else had seemingly happened to them. They carefully sat up, glancing over the edge of the barricade to see why they were still alive, sighing in relief at what they saw.
Hikari, although panting from running so fast, stood in front of the barrier. He glared at Bakura and Mariku as he tried to catch his breath enough to start fighting, since that was unavoidable most likely.
/ Picking on defenceless people now? You’ve sunken low. / Mariku snorted and rolled his eyes.
“They were the ones who started throwing rocks at us.” He grinned maliciously, “They were yelling that we couldn’t get away with kicking their friend’s ass. You wouldn’t happen to know what they were talking about, would you?”
Hikari’s features stayed unchanged, but on the inside he completely panicked. The idiots had let slip that they were his friends. Whether in lion or human form didn’t matter right now; Bakura and Mariku could easily use this to their advantage of they wanted to.
/ Maybe you killed someone they liked? / Bakura chuckled at the meek retort and smirked.
“Oh please, we all know that those three are apparently friends of yours. Now it would be nice if they knew you in real life so we can squeeze the information out of them, but they’ll come in handy even if they don’t know.”
Hikari grimaced mentally, but still didn’t show it on his face. Great, now he needed to fight Bakura and Mariku on his own again while trying to keep them away from Jou, Malik and Ryou. If this fight didn’t kill him it sure as hell would hurt a lot.
Not wanting to wait for the two in front of him to make the first move, Hikari jumped at them, claws out and sharp nails blinking in the rays of Ra. Bakura’s eyes widened fractionally before he quickly dropped to the side to dodge the attack. Mariku was less lucky as he tried to step out of the way as well but wasn’t fast enough, his side being scratched by the deadly claws. The male growled as blood started pouring from the wound and he stumbled back, ducking to avoid the next attack Hikari sent his way and quickly defending himself by sending a blast of magic Hikari’s way.
Hikari landed agilely, only barely able to dodge the blast Mariku sent his way, though his tail was thrown aside by the wind as the blast passed by. Hikari jumped up to attack once more, a shadow blast already forming in his mouth, but was stopped as a blast send from Bakura’s Ring pounded him into one of the buildings behind him.
With a groan of pain, Hikari made a quick movement to avoid the next hit, jumping away from the now destroyed wall. He winced as he tried to stand on his left forepaw and immediately retracted it, the action making him slow down as a new blast hit him.
“Aw, it seems kitty-cat sprained his paw. Does it hurt?” Mariku snickered at his own jest before wincing at the pain in his side and cursing softly. Hikari smirked despite the pain he too was in, glad that the scratches he’d made were apparently deeper than he’d first suspected.
/ It seems I’m not the only one in pain. / He jumped up, ignoring the pain in his paw as much as possible as he tried to run at the other two again. Sadly his speed had decreased greatly because of the pain he simply couldn’t ignore completely and he only barely managed to dodge a blast from Bakura that would’ve been easy to escape from at any other time.
“He might be hurt but at least he still has someone to cover for him. Can’t say the same for you, now can I?” The Thief King grinned maniacally, “After all, your dear master is no where in sight.”
Hikari scowled, / So you can’t beat me one-on-one so you have to come at me at the same time? How pathetic. / Bakura glared at him for the remark, not able to retort immediately.
“Well then, why not let one of them help you?” Bakura suddenly smirked in the direction of Malik, Jou and Ryou. “Tell you what; we leave one of them here to ‘help’ you whenever Atemu’s not around and we take two with us to make sure you don’t start going four-on-two on us.”
Hikari’s eyes widened, knowing that with his current lack of speed due to his paw, he’d never be able to stop Bakura and Mariku if they played it smart. He whipped his head to the three still glancing over the barricade, /Run, now! / The three looked in confusion and Hikari realized they’d never heard someone speak in their minds, but after a quick glance at each other they scrambled to their feet nonetheless in an attempt to get away.
Bakura’s smirk only widened, instantly using his shadow magic to stop the three teens from running and binding them to the spot. Hikari tried to jump in front of the three, only to be tackled by Mariku who was obviously ignoring his bleeding wound for the moment. Bakura laughed at the sight as he rushed towards the three teens bound to the ground.
“Well then, who will we take?” He looked the three over, meeting two pairs of somewhat defiant eyes, and one pair that only showed fear. Two of the teens looked an awful lot like Mariku and himself, and Bakura rose an eyebrow at the likeness, before shrugging it off.
“Well, if I didn’t know any better I’d say I have a younger brother or something.” He looked mockingly at Ryou, the only one showing nothing but fear in his eyes. “And Mariku too.” He glanced at Malik for a second, the sandy blonde glaring at him.
Hikari growled, struggling to get out from under Mariku who was trying to hold him down with his body and the last bits of shadow magic he still had. He winced as he moved his paw in a wrong way, growling louder at the pain. Mariku growled in pain himself, not sure how much longer he could hold the lion back at this rate.
Seeing that his partner wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer, Bakura quickly enveloped both Malik and Ryou in the Shadow Magic completely, throwing Jou to the ground a bit away and pinning him down with minimal effort and magic. He looked back at Mariku, “Come on, we’re going before Pharaoh-dearest can show up; he’s already close by.”
Mariku grunted and quickly leaped to his feet, his Shadow Magic staying in place to keep the lion pinned down even if it would only last a few more seconds.
Mariku rushed over to Bakura quickly, his hands clutching at the gash on his side and groaning at the pain it caused. The minute he reached the white-haired thief, Bakura quickly enveloped himself and Mariku in Shadow Magic as well. Hikari broke free of the magic keeping him down, instantly springing up and leaping at the two that were about to kidnap two of his best friends. Malik was cursing loudly as he tried to move, Ryou struggling as well as tears came down his face as he was completely powerless.
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Dum-dum-dum-DUM! *evil music plays* End of chap people (A) All who want to kill me, GET IN LINE! There are many waiting in front of you... and since one of them is no doubt Keara it could take a while before she’s done with. °nervous look° Y'know what, to try and appease you all I'll put in a clip of what'll happen next chap... Yeah, ood idea.
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Sneak Preview:
“Calm down and tell me what happened.” Atemu crouched in front of the lion, only a feet or so away from him now. Hikari’s eyes flashed with more anger though sorrow could be seen in the very back.
‘He’s guarding himself.’ Atemu realized. ‘Something must’ve happened that he pulled back into himself, leaving only his animalistic instincts.’ Cautiously he held out a hand for the other to sniff, desperately hoping that some kind of recognition or memory would be triggered by it.
Hikari sniffed the hand in front of him, one paw raising itself as if to strike at any given moment. Before Atemu could do anything against it though, Hikari pounced on him, the only thing preventing the other’s claws from piercing his skin being the subconscious automatic response of releasing shadow magic to shield him. He winced as he could still feel the nails biting into his skin, even if the shadows blunted them down and prevented them from ripping him apart.
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... Yeah, enjoy pondering that one °grins° Oh~ What'll happen~ Well you'll have to wait until next week to figure that out. Review folks and tell me how much you wanna kill me!