Side note: Yes, Bakura really laughs like that in the Japanese version of the manga. I think it´s hilarious.
He shot a glance at Yami who gave him a smug grin in return.
"I see
what this game is about. Very clever, Pharaoh, very clever. But
Shadow Games are my second nature and I´m afraid of nothing!"
he shouted, sprinting up towards the basket, leaping into the air and
grabbing the metal ring with ease while pushing the ball through. The Yamis´
teammates exchanged high fives and Bakura dropped down lightly.
"I´m the king of thieves, you´ll have to come up with more than that!" he said, sounding slightly insulted, even.
Yami merely shrugged. "I didn´t design the rules with you in mind."
Soon, the match started heating up again. The seniors were playing even more brutally, their strength fuelled by humiliation. Yami nimbly dodged their 'accidental' swipes whenever they came close and Yugi was glad that (since this was a Shadow Game) his guardian wouldn´t let him leave the soul room anyway.
A few other boys in their group weren´t so lucky, though. Yugi gasped as he saw Yasushi kneeing one of them in the stomach, once again pretending to be totally innocent. Yugi´s classmate Hanazaki doubled over in pain, but amazingly enough, the captain didn´t get much more than a warning. Yami´s eyes narrowed, but he told Yugi to keep still regardless.
The other team hadn´t scored yet and Bakura was whizzing through their ranks like a madman, cackling and scaring everyone to death. Yugi felt a deep sympathy for Ryou who would have a lot of explaining to do the next day.
Finally, what Yami had been waiting for happened. He had just passed the ball to Bakura and Yasushi was trying to stop the spirit, swiftly blocking his course. The Tomb Robber reacted by instinct and grabbed the sudden obstacle by the throat.
The teacher´s whistle shrilled through the gym.
"Bakura! You let him go at once, you hear me?! I can´t believe this, why is everybody so on edge today? Free throw for Yasushi!"
The captain of the senior team was fuming with rage. He roughly grabbed the ball from the albino´s unresisting hands and strode towards the basket. Those insolent imps! They would pay for this! But first of all, this was his chance to start to even the score…
He approached the line and prepared to throw…until he suddenly noticed that the floor underneath the basket was no longer there. Instead, there was a gaping hole, swirls of pitch-black darkness slowly emanating from it, curling around his feet…
Yasushi gasped and stumbled backwards. He was about to call out to the teacher – when he noticed that the American was no longer there. In fact, all the other teenagers and the gym had disappeared into the odd, wavering midnight mist that was now encircling him, trapping him on the last bit of solid floor where he stood. The only things left were the basket, the ball and…the midget freak and his albino friend. The two stood to each side of the basket, smirking. The one with the weird hair advanced to the edge of the chasm.
"Welcome to the Game of Courage, my friend…"
Yami Bakura huffed and the Pharaoh flashed him a smug grin. "Now that´s how you make up suitable names. 'Yami no Basketball', I ask you…"
"W-what is this?!" Yasushi´s face had become as white as the lines on the ball.
"You have invaded in the territory of my heart. Therefore you shall have to play a game with me!" Yami proclaimed, causing Bakura to make retching noises in the background.
"Shut up, Tomb Robber! I´ve missed this!"
"…and you´re telling me I have problems?"
"Anyway," the irritated spirit continued, "the rules are simple. In this Shadow Game, you will have to take a running leap at the basket, and slam-dunk the ball through, just as if it was an ordinary toss. If you can do that, the bottomless pit will disappear and you can safely drop down. If you fail, however…" as if on cue, a menacing hiss issued from the hole – "you will plummet into the Shadows, to lose your soul forever."
/…remind me never to play badminton with you./ Yugi commented.
Yasushi had barely been listening, his gaze mesmerized by the slowly shifting shades of black down in the hole. Were these…tentacles he thought he saw? And he wasn´t sure whether he had just imagined the sudden, long-drawn groan from the pit either…
He shifted his stare to the basket and yelped in surprise. The thing had grown at least a metre since he had last looked at it!
Yami´s smirk never left his face. "Of course, as in every Shadow Game, the surroundings will adapt to the state of your heart and mind. This is a test of your courage. The basket will become higher and higher the more afraid you are. There is nothing courageous about your usual style of play, bullying and hitting people smaller than you. Time to put things in perspective…"
Bakura grinned as the ball trembled in the hands of the captain and the basket immediately had another growth spurt. Of course, when the spirit had performed his free throw, the rules had applied to him, too. Nevertheless, he had been able to jump over the pit with ease, assured of himself and trusting in his muscles – a thief couldn´t let himself get weak, now, could he? And besides, the Shadow Realm held nothing he was afraid of, anyway.
(Ryou, the goddamn sissy, of course had insisted on screaming the entire way.)
The Tomb Robber chuckled in delight at the victim´s unease.
"Kukuku..."
"Stop that." the Pharaoh interrupted him, "you sound like a deranged pidgeon when you do that."
Bakura pouted and receded into a huff.. "I happen to like my laugh, thank you so much."
"Well?" Yami turned his attention towards the captain once more and cocked his head into the direction of the basket. "You have to play, otherwise it will get very unpleasant. More specifically, I will get very unpleasant. You have a fair chance, by the way. Shadow Games test your soul. You may call this...a leap of faith." The Pharoh was very proud of his intelligent choice of a title and deflated only a little when he realized noone had got it. He sighed, resigned to the doomed fate of making remarks that went over everyone´s head.
Yasushi stared at them, hatred battling with fear in his eyes. If there was only a way around that pit, a way to get at the two bastards, to make them suffer…
His jaw set. He would have to jump. But not at the point where the basket stood, where the pit was widest. He would try the left side, where it got a little bit smaller…of course, he would miss the basket completely that way, but that wasn´t the point, was it? He just wanted to get to them. That way he wouldn´t have to risk anything and could still snap their little necks.
Yasushi started running. And when he was across the hole and on their side, he would pound them mercilessly, break their weak bones, made them plead and grovel…he leapt.
And gasped.
The floor he had inteded to land on was crumbling away in front of him, his safeplace vanishing. He twisted in mid-air, trying to reach the basket as an alternate means of rescue but saw that the metal frame too was tumbling away into the Shadows.
His flight slowed, came to a halt at its apex…and then started to accelerate, downwards, rushing into the black tentacles that were grabbing for him hungrily, snarling, hissing…dripping with saliva?
Above him, he could see the spiky-haired teen staring down at his panicked, unbelieving face.
"You truly are a coward. I gave you a chance to show courage but you spineless recreant wouldn´t even play by the rules. Now meet the monsters in your own heart! PUNISHMENT GAME!" he shouted, and a searing light emanated from his forehead…
Yasushi felt the tentacles touch his skin and screamed.
XXX
Senior class D couldn´t believe their eyes. For them, their captain had just become chalk-white, then mumbled something at the floor, finally jumped into a completely random direction nowhere near the basket and now lay collapsing on the wooden panels, all the while shrieking incoherently. Apparently it must have been a very stressing day for him.
"…Class dismissed?" the teacher suggested tentatively.
As everyone was hurrying to get home after that eery experience, the two Yamis lingered behind.
"I noticed that Yasushi soon became very still, when they put him on that stretcher." The Pharao observed casually.
"Uh-huh." Bakura replied as they started to walk, sounding bored.
"I also noticed that you apparently decided to take that basketball home with you."
"Uh-huh." The Tomb Robber repeated, although now there was a distinct predatory grin on his features.
"And I definitely remember", Yami continued and now there was an edge to his voice, "that your goddamn ring has the ability to trap souls in inanimate objects!"
"You don´t say, Pharaoh, you don´t say…" Bakura answered absentmindedly, eyeing the ball fondly.
xxx
Yasushi awoke. He felt strange, immobile, almost, as if he was trapped in a very, very small space…a round space…
xxx
The Tomb Robber gave his trademark crazed laugh and started dribbling. "…care for a match of Ancient Egyptian basketball, Pharaoh?"
wheee, finished, cleaned up and uploaded:) If you find yourself here, btw, consider yourself special since that fic has the worst stats of all of my works, so only a chosen few have ever got this far. XD
...either that, or you were bored out of your mind.
I hope you liked reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it and found the idea for the Shadow game interesting - i just tried to write something similiar to the first ark of the series.
PLEASE leave a review and thx for coming with me this far:)