A Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic collection by Archive of Our Own author MMMOTH
, also known as apathetic-theme-song on Tumblr. Kill Shot is a modern Magic Realism AU Slash Fic set in two parts:
In Part One, Bakura is an internationally renowned assassin working out of Japan that meets his match when Qadir, an Egyptian assassin, tries to kill him in a plot between their bosses to get rid of both of them. In Part Two, Bakura heads off on a Quest for Identity after meeting Atem, who reveals that his shadow magic comes with strings attached.
It can be found here. Other fics in the collection include One Shot, One Kill and well, this is awkward. All parts of the Kill Shot collection are NSFW and contain explicit material.
This work contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Qadir's childhood was, to put it lightly, not great. This is played slightly for laughs in "well, this is awkward".Qadir: I think I have some serious daddy issues.
- In "One Shot, One Kill", more context is given: Qadir's mother died giving birth to him and Marik, and his father blamed him for it while also turning Marik and Rishid against him. Marik eventually unpacks this and reaches out to reconcile with Qadir.
- Adaptational Badass
- By the time the story starts, Bakura is already widely considered one of the best assassins in the world. He impales Qadir's hand by throwing a knife, succeeds in wiping out almost an entire room of assassins by himself, and manages to kill his boss by impaling him through a broken window.
- Qadir has a few moments where he proves he's Bakura's equal, coming close to killing him a few times. The biggest moment comes when he succeeds in killing Ansar, his boss; he convinces the other agents of Alhalu Al'akhir to stand down while completely covered in blood and waving a decapitated head.
- Iah, the Bandit King, was notorious in ancient Egypt, to the point that folk tales are told about him four thousand years later.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Qadir is Straight Gay. Bakura's sexuality is a little more complicated; Zorc mentions that Bakura hasn't really been interested in anyone the way he's interested in Qadir, and Bakura admits that he finds most people to just be a nuisance. In chapter 21, Bakura remembers having a romantic relationship with a woman in one of his iterations, and Zorc says that he's been quite the heartbreaker over the years.
- After Action Patch Up: How Bakura and Qadir bond after deciding to team up in Chapter 5. Played more seriously in Chapter 15.
- Alternate Universe: Duel Monsters and the Millennium Items don't exist, with magic powers either being gifted by deities or inherited through bloodlines. Yugi and Ryou don't exist, either, replaced with Atem and Bakura, respectively. Qadir (Yami Marik) is also his own person and is Marik's younger twin brother. And because the Millennium Items don't exist, Kul Elna was destroyed by bandits looking to rob the inhabitants instead of being razed by the Pharaoh's army. Iah's hatred for Atem and his family stems instead from the fact that the royal family did nothing to help bring the bandits to justice.
- Ax-Crazy
- Bakura spends a good deal of his flight to Egypt in chapter 2 imagining how he will kill Qadir, explicitly mentioning that he hasn't eviscerated anyone in a while.
- In Chapter 7, Qadir kills his boss by decapitating him. For the rest of the chapter, he carries the head around as both a trophy and a bargaining chip, completely covered in blood. And it's implied that he's done worse.
Bakura: Only if you show me what made you so terrifying back in Egypt.
Qadir: Oh, if I did even half of that shit to you, they’d need to staple you back together. - Badass Boast: There are a few examples.Bakura: Your death means nothing to me; I'll forget about you by breakfast.Qadir: Ansar learned this lesson the hard way. Do not fuck with Qadir Ishtar!Iah's Mother: We will not lose you again.Bakura, to Atem: I took the deal to get revenge. Four thousand years in the making, and now I get to finish the job.
- Battle Couple: Bakura and Qadir team up once they realize they've been set up to kill each other. They hook up almost immediately afterward and stay together even after they succeed in getting revenge.
- Berserk Button
- Bakura doesn't take Qadir's attempts to kill him lightly.
- Qadir nearly kills a fellow agent for insulting him one too many times. He eventually reveals that he was verbally abused by most of his family growing up.
- Boom, Headshot!: Bakura saves Qadir by stopping time and forcing an agent to shoot himself in the head.
- Cain and Abel: When Bakura arrives in Cairo, Rishid tracks him down to give him Qadir's location in the hopes he'll kill Qadir.
- Casual Kink: Bakura and Qadir's relationship pretty quickly becomes a BDSM one, complete with a Safe Word, as Qadir is a Combat Sadomasochist who enjoys knifeplay and Bakura enjoys being in control.
- Character Death: Bakura. He gets better. Taken to extremes in chapter 21, when Zorc forces him to relive some of his deaths over the years.
- Combat Sadomasochist: When Bakura impales Qadir in the hand, Qadir starts laughing in delight.
- Darker and Edgier: Kill Shot takes place in a universe where assassination agencies are commonplace.Author's Tags: rip to all the nameless goons that get killed for plot development
- Eye Scream: In chapter one, Qadir nearly stabs Bakura in the eye. At the end of chapter 20, Zorc shows Bakura a timeline where he succeeded.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Bakura, having mostly been amused by Qadir's flirting, finally starts to reciprocate the feelings after seeing Qadir covered in blood in chapter 7.
- Meaningful Name:
- Qadir calls Bakura "ya amar" ("my moon"), initially as a joke since he's so pale. This turns out to be fitting when it's revealed that the Bandit King was named after Iah, a minor moon deity in ancient Egypt.
- In part two, Qadir graduates to calling Bakura "ruhi", which means "soulmate".
- Mysterious Past: Bakura, as a condition of his shadow magic, has lived for so long that he's lost most of his memories, aside from the occasional feeling of familiarity regarding Egypt. He starts to fully regain his memories once he meets Atem.
- Power at a Price: Making a deal with the shadows grants incredible powers - in Bakura's case, stopping time and camouflage. Too bad it also indentured him to eternal servitude.
- Resurrective Immortality: Whenever Bakura dies, he "reiterates" somewhere else with no memory of who he was before. Atem, who also made a deal with Zorc, explains that this is on purpose, as it's easier for Zorc to possess someone that has no ties to humanity.
- Tempting Fate: Bakura tells Qadir that he's not ready to die yet in chapter four. The next chapter ends with him getting shot in the heart.
