Title: Danger's Edge
Characters: Mazaki Anzu
Word Count: 999||Status: 1/1
Genre: Drama||Rated: PG (references to death)
Challenge: Diversity Writing Challenge, B12, 950-999 words; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #13, 999 words; Dice Gods Challenge (random character); Character Diversity Boot Camp, #30, save
Notes: This takes place pretty much between volumes one and two of the YGO manga.
Summary: Anzu considers what's been happening lately, ever since Yuugi started to wear that strange pendant. Ever since people started to die or lose their minds. And ever since she first heard that powerful voice.

Anzu put the paper on the table, folded so she couldn't see the small article anymore. She didn't have to look at it; she'd already read it half a dozen times, the words now branded into her memory whether she wanted them there or not.

She really didn't. She hadn't wanted to remember that horrible day or anything connected to it, but now it was all that was on her mind.

He died. That guy died.

The prisoner who'd startled her at Burger World, taking her hostage and …

It hadn't been Yuugi. It couldn't have been Yuugi, even if the voices sounded so similar.

But whoever it was, he'd been so confident, so self-assured, and more than that, he'd saved her life. She still didn't fully understand how. No one talked that much about it. It was almost as if they didn't understand it themselves.

But she could not forget the way her heart raced to realize that she'd been rescued, that someone put themselves between her and danger and would not let the danger touch her.

And it kept on happening after that. The escaped prisoner. Kokurano and the strange thing there.

That still made her shudder. She vividly remembered his hands o her, the scent of that cloth pressed against her mouth and nose, and how everything had gone black.

She'd woken up to find herself in the same classroom, with Yuugi sitting not that far away from her, and he'd been so happy when she'd opened her eyes and wanted to know what was going on.

No one had seen Kokurano after that. Rumor had it that he'd transferred to another school, but no one could pin down which one.

Those weren't the only times. When they'd had the school festival and Inoshigira tried to get his huge griddle in there.

That was something else she didn't understand and which didn't have anything behind it to make it make sense. When they'd all left, the griddle stood in horrid supremacy over everything. She'd spent part of the night looking for Yuugi, finally going to his place to ask his grandpa if he'd seen him, and Yuugi had been there.

And from what he'd told her, he'd just decided to go home and he felt a lot better.

Come the morning, the griddle was gone. And so was Inoshigira.

She'd heard later that he'd ended up in the hospital with severe burns. He hadn't lasted long.

But now she read of that prisoner and he'd burned to death as well. Only he'd taken longer than Inoshigira had.

Someone out there is hurting people who hurt other people. Burning them. Maybe worse.

She didn't know quite what to think about all of it. She wasn't sure if she could think anything about it. But her thoughts inevitably turned back to Yuugi and that voice.

Because the escaped convict burned after hurting her. And so did Inoshigira, after hurting Yuugi and angering her.

Other events cropped up. She'd heard about how Ushio beat up Honda and Jounouchi – she hadn't minded that so much, they picked on Yuugi, or they had then, but then she'd seen their injuries.

And Ushio hadn't come back to school yet. He was alive, as far as they all knew, but he wasn't there and he'd been seen playing with leaves and dirt, convinced they were rare treasures and riches.

Something strange had started happening around Domino High School and it touched on her and her friends.

But mostly on Yuugi, because every one of those she could think of could be traced back to him somehow.

Yuugi couldn't be responsible though. It wasn't possible. He wasn't even the type of person who'd burn someone, or who'd want to if he could. Everything just got stranger and stranger the more she thought about it.

For that matter, if Yuugi had suddenly manifested the ability to burn people, why hadn't he done it to Jounouchi or Honda? They'd bulled him so much…

But then he and Jounouchi were friends now. She kind of thought they were closer to each other than she and Yuugi were, which really wasn't a thought she was used to having. For that matter, Yuugi and Honda seemed to be getting along better. She'd caught wind of Honda having had a crush on Nosaka Miho and Yuugi having helped: Anzu listened to a lot more gossip than she wanted to sometimes, but it paid off on multiple occasions.

The one thing she could be certain of was that none of this made sense, because of the simple fact Yuugi wouldn't do that kind of thing. He didn't hurt people. He just didn't.

But the voice? The one who had either vanished without a trace or hadn't ever been there or something? The voice, who she thought about before falling asleep and wondered who it was and if she'd ever see him face to face?

He could do it. He might very well have done it. What happened with the prisoner convinced her on that score. How he could've done it – whatever it was – to everyone else and why it seemed to happen to people who hurt Yuugi or people Yuugi – for whatever reason – cared about, that remained as much a mystery as everything else.

She sighed and got up. The voice had sounded a lot like Yuugi. Just stronger, deeper, more confident, more mature somehow.

And while she wanted to know who it was, she suspected pressing too close might tell her things she didn't want to know.

Maybe she'd find something else to do with her time, until all of this died down somehow. It might not be such a bad idea.

She'd heard about a new card game starting to make a hit for itself. Maybe she'd go find out a few things about that. Cards weren't like lighters or griddles. They couldn't burn people, let alone kill them.

Maybe Yuugi could help her. She could go and ask.

The End

Notes: That might not be the best idea, Anzu. Which may be why she didn't keep up dueling...too dangerous.