Work Text:
Series: Dragonflame & Nature's Spark||Title: Garden of Death
Character: Yuuri||Ship: N/A
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 1,500
Genre: Drama||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: YGO Healer/Firestarter AUs, C14, K rated; Easter Advent 2017: Explore Your World, #18, K rated fic; Series Masterclass, Dragonflame & Nature's Spark, #10, The Wild Card
Notes: Firestarter/Healer AU, Arc-V version. Pre-canon. I intend to rewrite all of Arc-V in this setting.
Summary: To enter Yuuri's garden under normal circumstances is to take one's life into one's hands. To do it when he's one of the most powerful Healers in the Fusion Dimension is to court death.
“Are you all growing well?” Yuuri murmured as he entered his garden, violet eyes dancing from one of his fair flowers to another. All of them turned to face him as soon as he did, thousands of voices that only he could hear answering.
Yes, Healer. We’ve been waiting for you.
Yuuri picked up his watering can and headed for the first of the blossoms that needed attention. This was monkshood, a lovely shade of purple that matched his coloring, and every bit as poisonous as he was. He carefully watered it, pressing his fingers against the stem and feeding it some of his energy. The monkshood did not make an audible noise but he could hear it purring regardless. Yuuri petted it gently, assured himself that it needed no further care for the moment, and moved onward to the next garden bed.
Here he grew baby’s breath and there blossomed blood-root, over there was a bed of larkspur and another of iris. He loved every flower, but his favorites would always be those that were purple and those that were poisonous. When those tow came together, such as the monkshood, he put extra effort into tending them.
Not everyone could have all of these flowers together in the same garden. Even some Healers weren’t quite that talented. But Yuuri had known flowers and known the use of life energy and known what it was to use them both to kill from the earliest points of life. He’d been told that before he could walk, he’d been found cuddled up in a thick bed of oleander. There wasn’t a poison or a plant in existence that could kill a Healer but even they walked carefully around some plants. Not Yuuri. Not now and not ever.
In the center of his garden there rested a marble bench and there he settled, arranging himself so he could soak up the sun. Healers were much like their plants in that respect – they needed the warmth of the sun and the life of the earth, and occasional watering. Even Yuuri needed his down time.
It wasn’t time for the invasion yet anyway. The Professor promised him that when the time did come he had a special mission planned for Yuuri, one that he would most definitely love. Yuuri looked forward to it. He’d read all the information the Professor had available on what was going to happen – the existence of the four dimensions and how they were divided by summoning methods.
What the Professor didn’t know was that Yuuri had also researched farther. He’d found the facts the Professor wished hidden.
His eyes narrowed just at the thought. He’d never been much of one for loyalty. His plants were loyal to him and so were the cards in his deck and he returned that, but otherwise? He’d only had the first faint hints of it towards the Professor, and learning that the Professor in actuality hated him – well -
Well, he had plans for what he would do to the Professor when the time came. Carding would be a little too good for him.
He raised up one hand to caress the curve of the flower of one of his special plants, one that he’d grown himself. It somewhat resembled a Venus Flytrap, but only superficially. This one was far larger – large enough, in fact, to swallow and digest an adult human. It was a meat-eater as well. Yuuri kept it well-fed by hand, training it to eat whatever he gave it. It would come in handy one day. He did not doubt this at all.
Quiet whispers echoed. He couldn’t hear what they said but he didn’t need to. In this, his garden, he had eye and ears everywhere. He turned his attention to the plants closest to where the whispers came from – the yarrow. Quite lovely shades of red, those, and he whispered in the language shared between Healers and the plants that they grew.
What was there? Who was there? Who dared approach his garden, which no one was ever supposed to enter without his permission?
Children, Healer. A bit bigger than you are. They wear blue.
Ah. That explained a great deal. He knew who they were and he suspected he knew why they were there. Languidly he rose to his feet and strolled that way, blessing each flower he passed with a brush of his fingertips and a caress of his power. They would return the blessing when he needed them to. That might even be now.
“I don’t think he’s here,” a hurried, quite voice said. “We can check out what he’s got. You know how the Professor favors him. I bet he’s got some awesome plants!”
Ah, yes. Obelisk Blue, Healers’ division. Mostly devoted to keeping the Firestarters and the non-powered soldier-duelists from getting themselves killed on the battlefield. Also being stupid enough to enter his garden uninvited.
His senses flicked over each one. There were three of them. Two were bonded, the other wasn’t. Drat. Only one he could properly deal with then. The Professor made him promise never to kill those who were bonded, if only because it wasted so much effort.
In Yuuri’s opinion, if they were foolish enough to enter his territory, they deserved what they got. As these fools would find out.
They’d not taken more than a handful of paces before Yuuri stepped out, arms crossed over his chest, and stared down at them with his most amused smile, the smile that had sent more than one person screaming into the night. Cowards.
“I don’t believe you're invited here,” Yuuri said with just the right amount of cheer. “You know the rules on that. If you’re not invited into my garden, then I can eject you in any way that I see fit.”
The unbonded Healer turned pale. “We’re just leaving!” He declared, backpedaling. “We didn’t know you were here, Yuuri-sama!”
“He’s right!” One of the others agreed. This was the one that spoke before Yuuri arrived. “We’re sorry if we bothered you! Lovely garden you have, though!” The third only seemed capable of nodding his head quickly, words locked in his throat.
Yuuri sneered. These were the elite of Obelisk Blue? These were the ones that the Obelisk Force would be chosen from? Ridiculous. Pathetic. It was in their best interest if he thinned them out.
“Get out. If you can do it before my treasure takes you, then you can live.”
None of them asked what would happen if they couldn’t. They just turned and ran as fast as they could manage. For most Healers, getting out would have been easy – as long as they hadn’t angered Yuuri. But on his grounds, his rules governed, and he told the grass and the flowers and the trees one simple thing.
That one. The unbonded one. I want him.
Before two of them the trees and bushes parted, guiding them to the nearest exit with all due speed. But before the third one, the grass slipped under his feet, the trees dropped branches in his face, and the vines wove around his feet, tripping him. Yuuri strolled up and set a foot on his back.
“It’s feeding time for my treasure,” Yuuri said, “and since you’ve entered my grounds uninvited and without a just cause – and because I want to – you’re going to be my treasure's dinner.”
The unbonded Healer stared up at him with wide terrified eyes. Yuuri didn’t even bother to look at him. Instead, he gestured, and the vines that wrapped around the other’s legs tightened, lifting him upward and pulling him along back to the bench where his favorite plant’s mouth waited.
“You can’t do this to me! I’m from Obelisk! I’m a Healer, just like you!” He shrieked quite loudly, until Yuuri gestured again and a vine blocked his chattering.
“You should have known not to enter my garden, then. I never entered yours,” Yuuri admonished before he turned his gaze onto his favorite. “Have lunch, my dear. Eat well.”
The screams after that were very loud, but the walls around the garden and the soundproofing built into those walls – which Yuuri asked for after the first time some fool thought to enter his grounds uninvited and someone on the other side complained about the noise – kept most of it muffled to everyone who wasn’t Yuuri. Yuuri savored them as he settled back down on his bench and enjoyed the show.
What a beautiful sight his lovely creation was. He wondered what the plants of the other dimensions would be like. Even better, what would the Firestarters of another dimension be like? He’d never found one to his taste here. Perhaps there would be different. All the flames here were so weak, no matter how they professed to be soldiers. Perhaps they were, but the flames weren’t what he wanted.
But he’d find himself a Firestarter. Somewhere. Whether the Firestarter wanted to be found or not.
The End
Notes: I already know who Yuuri's Firestarter will be. *teehee*