REBIRTH
Chapter one: The Vision
"The end of one adventure is the beginning for another."
Yugi woke with those words ringing in his mind. With a groan the former King of Games swung his legs over the side of his bed and sighed as his old bones creaked in response.
"The end of one adventure is the beginning for another?" Yugi mused as he prepared himself for another day in his game shop Kame Games. About seventy years had passed since that final duel between Yami and Yugi, the duel in which Yami could final rest as the deceased Pharaoh Atem. Yugi was now the only living member of his former group of friends and he could feel death breathing down his neck. With a smile Yugi shrugged.
"Perhaps in my old age I am feeling my mortality?" Yugi mused out loud as he walked into the main section of his humble shop. Seventy years hadn't changed the interior by much, it had grown a bit larger, renovations that Seto had suggested seeing how crowded the merchandise was getting. Yugi's smile widened as he spotted the pictures hanging behind the counter.
One was an old picture of Yugi and his Grandpa standing in front of the shop. Another was of his graduation from High School surrounded on three sides by Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda, all grinning wildly in joy. Sadly it was once college started that they couldn't keep in contact. Anzu had left for America, never returning to Japan; five years later she married another dancer and gave birth to a stillborn, dying in the process. Yugi sighed as he looked at Anzu's face in that single picture; she had been the only person he had felt could have completed his soul like Yami had.
Next to the group picture was a framed picture of Jounoouchi in a business suit cradling his second son with an arm draped around Mai's waist while she had a hand placed on the shoulder of a young girl at her side. "Greetings from ROMA" was written in red across the bottom. Jounoouchi, much to everyone's amazement, had become a serious businessman, working in Kaibacorp with Seto in order to improve the game further. Ten years later he had married Mai, sired two children before moving the whole family to Europe in order to create a branch office for Kaibacorp, him acting as President. Yugi smiled waned, it was five years after that move that he had heard from Seto the incident. During one of Jono's trips to England, a mafia group had taken Mai and their children hostage, and had killed Jono in his attempt to rescue them. Mai and the children never had a chance to escape; as soon as Jono was died the mafia members had killed them as well. Seto had been devastated, Yugi had never noticed how much the golden haired man had actually meant to Seto until he had seen Seto break down in public, weeping openly for the world, and news reporters, to see.
Slightly behind that picture was a somewhat browned wedding invitation, the silver writing still shown whenever the sun's rays struck it, announcing the wedding of Honda and Shizuka. Their wedding had taken place just before Jono had left for Europe. A picture of the couple walking out of the church and down the steps showed Honda's ecstatic grin and Shizuka's slight blush. Jono had almost ruined that wedding by getting Honda wasted at the bachelor party. Honda had become a cop, rising quickly in the ranks before another tragedy occurred. It was during one of his cases that he was shot and killed in action, trying to protect a hostage from an escaped prisoner. Shizuka could never get over losing first her brother than her husband. After ten years of marriage, five recovering from failed pregnancies and the death of her brother, Shizuka's heart gave out from sorrow at the news of Honda's death twenty hours after Honda had been rushed to the ER for treatment.
Yugi hummed tunelessly to himself as he brushed dust off of the next picture. This one was of Seto, proud in a black suit and blue tie, shaking hands with a forty year old Yugi at a bar, a banner stating "Have a Happy Retirement Mr. Kaiba" hung behind them. Yugi shook his head, if Seto hadn't been with him during those long years, constantly badgering Yugi to duel him and help with Kaibacorp, Yugi was certain that he would have cracked from the grief of losing his closest friends. It was Seto's will, once he died at the age of sixty-five, that Mokuba be the holder of his estates and Yugi have his deck of cards, the one from which many duels had been waged and friendship had formed.
Yugi coughed as he moved to the shop entrance, flipping the sign to say "OPEN". Walking back to the counter Yugi sat down and watched the town he had lived in awaken and the day truly start. Sunlight beamed through the glass door and windows, warming Yugi into a pleasant doze.
"Aibou" Yami murmured as the two looked over the Nile watching the sunset dye the sky pinks, oranges, and purples.
"Hey other me," Yugi smiled up at the bronze figure of Atem, his skin was once again young, "It has been some time since we last talked. Hasn't it?"
Yami smiled back, "That it has…everyone is come to the Land of the Dead, my light. Well you join us?"
Yugi looked toward the setting sun. After a tiny pause Yugi's amethyst eyes glowed with joy.
"Yes, my darkness. I have been so alone." With a sigh Yugi leaned into Yami's side.
"Let us meet again in death and then back into the world of the Living, Yugi." Yami said as he slid an arm around Yugi's waist.
"Can we really?" Yugi asked.
"We can and we shall." With the darkening of the sky Yami and Yugi stood together and turned around; behind them stood all their friends with a bright light at their back.
"Let's go!" Yugi yelled as he dragged his counterpart into the Light.
With a content sigh Yugi Muto passed from the world at the age of eighty-six with a smile on his face and the Millennium Puzzle gleaming from his neck.
"Let's go to our new life, years from now where we can all be together again." Yami whispered to the darkness behind him. As if in answer a star twinkled in the night sky.
