Troubles of Chibi Proportion

By Hwoarang Girl

/Summary/ When a spell goes wrong, Dark Magician is transformed into a chibi; but whilst the other duel monsters attempt to find a cure and keep the truth from Yugi and Yami, the knee-high mage is determined on making it anything but easy for them…

/Disclaimer/ I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.

Chapter One

The Magician of Black Chaos stared at the chibi with dislike, and folded his arms across him chest tightly as his eerie gaze scrutinised the indigo-haired, blue-eyed child that had been made to stand in front of him. The chibi mage didn't hesitate to let the tears of fear that had been welling up in his eyes roll down his face, or stop the whimpers of terror escape his small lips.

The duel monsters that were gathered all stood in an uneasy silence, watching the distressed child break under the cold, heartless gaze of Chaos. No one dared to speak out, not wanting to face the wrath of the ritual monster… well, at least until now.

Unable to sit by and watch as his transformed friend has the life scared out of him anymore, the Celtic Guardian addressed the Magician of Black Chaos. "Can't you see you're scaring him out of his mind?!" he hissed, glaring hatefully at the black mage as he walked over and bent down to Dark's level, allowing the little mage to seek comfort in his arms, crushing into his chest before he wrapped his arms round him and straightened up, so he was as level as he could be with the taller mage.

Chaos simply turned his focus to the elf, easily picking up on the hate and fear the creature had for him. A smirk grew on his face. "I was well aware of that fact," he snarled, sending a shiver down Celtic's spine.

An awkward silence, excluding the sound of muffled tears, once again filled the air as Chaos sent a warning glare at the elfin warrior before addressing the whole group. "I want to know what exactly happened," he demanded, regarding each creature present coldly, one-by-one, "and get straight to it before I lose my patience."

Dark Magician Girl stepped forward, gulping as she looked up at Chaos nervously, "Actually…" she took a deep breath, "I needed to talk to you about that…"

Chaos raised an eyebrow at her, and sighed, "I should've guessed it would have something to do with you," he raised a hand to his temples and began rubbing them, "You can start from the very beginning NOW."

The blonde mage twirled a strand of her soft hair as she began to explain, "Well… what happened is… we were having our usual lesson, and Dark had just about given up on me because I still hadn't grasped what he had been trying to explain, so he turned and began to leave. So I… kinda… read out the spell and accidentally turned him into a chibi… "

Silence hung in the air as Chaos stared at her callously, "…and why didn't you come straight to me with the brat and the book?" he scowled.

Dark Magician Girl sighed, fidgeting in the spot, "…because…he ran away from me…and… I… don't remember which book I read from…"

All attention turned to the chibi mage as Dark giggled, Celtic grimacing as his ears were tug upon.

"He ran away from you…?" the black mage inquired cynically, his patience clearly draining rapidly as the female black mage nodded, "and you lost the damned book?!"

Dark Magician Girl nodded again.

"I don't think I want to have to listen to anymore of what has gone on…" Chaos spun on his heel and walked over to the child in question, "I'll see what happened for myself…"

Magician of Black Chaos extended an arm and placed a cold hand on Dark's back, murmuring a spell as the chibi tightened his hold on Celtic's ears in fear.

~~Earlier that day~~

Dark Magician sighed, raising a hand to his forehead as the blonde beside him grimaced in confusion.

"Maybe it's about time to end this lesson," he commented as he tangled his slender fingers in his silky indigo locks, "tomorrow we can go over it again, to see if you can pick it up then."

Dark Magician Girl pouted, feeling a little stupid. How was she going to prove to Dark that she could understand this if he kept giving up on her just before she could grasp it? She looked down at the open book in front of her before glancing up at her teacher whom had turned his back to her and began to walk out of the library.

"Wait!" she called out, "did you mean this one?" she inquired, before beginning to read it out.

Dark's eyes widened and he spun on his heel to face her.

"No! Don't read it out loud!" he cried in desperation, but to no avail.

When Dark Magician Girl had finished reading it, a bright light filled the room, and she inwardly cringed. After a few seconds the flash dispersed, and the sight that had befallen her made her gasp in shock.

"Oh…Ra!" she exclaimed, as a pair of unnaturally large blue eyes locked onto her and began to well with tears.

This was definitely not good. She had turned Dark into a… into a…!

"Chibi…" she sighed, her heart melting as the knee-high mage sniffled, before scrunching up his face.

Dark Magician Girl squeaked in surprise as the little magician began a deafening wail, tears streaming down his soft small face. She stood for a few seconds, blocking her ears, as her mind raced to find a way of calming the small child before he drew attention to them both. She would be in a lot of trouble if anyone found out what she had done to her tutor, even if it was a complete accident… finally, not knowing what else to do, she went with her maternal instincts and ran over, scooping the child up into her arms and gently rocking him, hoping that would be enough to calm the chibi down.

"Shush," she soothed, and the little mage quietened, and let out a sniffle before reaching out a hand.

As the blonde mage let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the cute little chibi in her arms, the mage had decided he had other plans.

'All I have to do now if take this little fellow to Chaos, explain to him my mistake and, after surviving an extremely long and harsh lecture about my stupidity, get him to help me find a way to reverse the spell…'she grimaced at the thought of the angry Magician of Black Chaos, and didn't notice Dark reach out a tiny hand until it wrapped in her hair and gave it a devastating yank, as hard as he could.

Dark Magician Girl yelped and instinctively raised her hands to cradle her sore scalp, dropping Dark in the process. The chibi happily fell, and after hitting the floor on his bottom and whimpering a little, he rose to his feet and ran outside, crying even louder than before.

The blonde mage caught sight of this, and quickly attempted to scramble after him, momentarily forgetting about the long teal staff that Dark Magician had placed down at the beginning of their lesson, and tripped over it, falling flat onto her face.

She seriously considered tearing all her hair out; this day couldn't get worse if it tried. 'At least from this view I can see where he's running to… she mused bitterly, before pulling herself off of the floor and resuming the chase.

Unfortunately for her, he was one hell of a fast chibi, and it didn't take him long to reach the beginning of the forestry surrounding where they were.

Her blue eyed widened in distress as she watched him run in, knowing that with his height and childish-state, he was going to be very much in trouble if she didn't find him, which, if he stopped wailing, was going to be a very hard thing to accomplish…'you had better come out of this all right,' she sighed, speeding up her pace.

* * * * * *

Dark's tears had begun to dry off after he ran into the forest, as his curiosity surfaced, and he began to toddle along, gazing around in awe at the enormous trees that where towering over him, before he caught sight of a creature and paused; scrutinizing it before walking over to it with a finger in his mouth.

The creature was round, brown and fluffy, with green hands and feet and two huge creepy eyes, and it regarded the mage just as oddly as Dark did it. Both blinked at each other a few times, before the mage slowly reached out a hand, pausing before he poked its right eye.

The Kuriboh squealed in response, causing Dark to squeal too and cover his eyes with his hands for a few seconds, before he dared to look at it again. This time he saw only one big creepy eye, and he sniffled once, before his curiosity got the better of him again and he poked it in the other eye.

The Kuriboh squealed again, shutting the other eye, and Dark squeaked, before running away from it and hiding behind a nearby tree.

He sniffled a bit more, deciding that Kuriboh was scary, before rubbing his nose and looking around at what lay ahead of him.

His big blue eyes lightened with intrigue, and he quickly trotted over, to get a closer look at what he had spotted. There, in the shade of a gargantuan tree, the Celtic Guardian lay sleeping peacefully on his back. The mage tilted his head as he approached the elf, and let out a small giggle before he leapt onto the elf's stomach and gripped the long elfin ears tightly, giving them a tug.

Celtic woke with a startle, and, when large blue eyes greeted him, let out a shocked cry as he practically had a heart attack. In response to this, Dark let go of the ears and quickly cupped his tiny hands over his eyes, squealing back.

After a few moments, as the elf calmed down, he lifted the tiny mage off of him, placing him carefully on his feet and sat upright, before gently pulling the small hands from the mage's face and observing him with his amber gaze, before furrowing his brow.

"…Dark?" Celtic questioned, and the mage giggled and nodded in response as he stepped forward.

"Ears!" the mage said, and he grasped onto Celtic's ears very tightly.

A hiss of pain escaped the elf's lips as this happened, and Dark once again let go, burying his face into his hands and whimpering in fear.

Celtic sighed as he watched the mage cower, and gently placed a hand on the chibi mage's shoulder as he softly spoke to him. "I'm sorry Dark," he lulled, "I didn't mean to scare you,"

Dark opened his fingers out a bit, so he could see the other and sniffled, "…sowwy?" he quietly asked, and took his hands away from face slowly and the elf nodded at him.

"Uh-huh, it's just that my ears are very sensitive and it hurts when you tug them like that," Celtic explained slowly, rising to his feet and crouching down, extending his arms.

Dark slowly walked forward, and Celtic dried off the mage's face with his sleeve before lifting him up.

"C'mon," he sighed as Dark clambered onto his shoulders and held onto his ears, "let's find Chaos and see if he can't figure out what's going on and what can be done about it…"

Dark nodded, and Celtic could sense the mage's reluctance when the grip on his ears slightly tightened, "…don't like Chaos…" the mage whispered, "he…nasty."

"I know he is," the elf agreed, "but we have to go and see him," feeling Dark's further reluctance, Celtic devised a quick plan, "and after, if you want, we can stick neon pink hair dye into his shampoo, so he'll have pink hair the next time he washes it."

Dark giggled and agreed, his grip loosening on the elf's ears, much to the warrior's relief.

~~ Back to the present time ~~

Chaos removed his hand and stepped back, shooting a menacing glance at the elf in front of him before addressing the whole group.

"At all costs, master Yugi and Pharaoh must not find out about this little 'incident'. Whilst Dark Magician Girl," he glared at her momentarily, "and I search for the spell that caused this and any ways of reversing its effects, I'll leave Dark Magician in the 'capable' hands of Celtic Guardian, Soul Release and the mystical Elf to keep out of trouble, and the rest of you can concentrate on keeping this as a secret. Is that clear?"

Everyone agreed with the bad-tempered mage, before beginning to clear the area. As he watched the other monsters leave, Chaos reached out an arm and grabbed the Celtic Guardian.

"If you dare to even think about it, you'll wish you were never born." He growled threateningly, causing the elf to grimace and the little mage in his arms whimper at the sound of the harsh tone.

"Good." He smirked, as a pair of large blue orbs fixated on him, in an unreadable expression.

"Very good," Celtic laughed, after Dark had sneezed all over the other mage, taking both himself and the giggling chibi away from Chaos as quickly as possible.

The older black mage barely managed to conceal the boiling anger he felt, and slowly turned to face a rather nervous Dark Magician Girl.

"The sooner we get this done," he hissed venomously, "the better it will be…"

End of Part 1

…To Be Continued…