Seto Kaiba was certain Yugi Mutou had it out for his sanity. Never mind that he had left him practically comatose after the whole Death-T fiasco (the reasoning he would still insist had to be some horrible reaction to light stimulation via holograms), the vertically-challenged teen continued to spout nonsense about magic and monsters being real, and then had the gall to add that he was apparently the spirit of a pharaoh right out of Ancient Egypt.

If he could find it in himself to believe that the boy had the ability to conspire against him so greatly, he would have thought the distinctly Egyptian theme present during Battle City was all his doing. Isis Ishtar and her stone tablet, her brother and his twisted personality, the sudden 'visions' tossing him back into some primitive age where he wore an awful set of robes and fought using giant stone carvings rather than cards – all of them were very neatly tied together with the precision one would expect from an elaborate plot to make him lose his mind.

However, he couldn't make himself believe that Yugi was capable of such grand schemes.

But he was doing a very good job of trying to make it look like he might.

"…You're joking," he finally replied to the obviously not joking King of Games.

"I rarely joke, Kaiba."

Yugi stood before him with all of the commanding presence of a king, offering to him the gaudy gold piece Marik Ishtar had been so fond of keeping around.

Despite his denials and declarations otherwise, Seto was quite aware that something rather beyond normal understanding was going on. He wasn't blind. Quite the contrary; Seto was very observant. He would never have gotten where he was without having a keen eye, and while he might be skeptical and shrewd, it didn't mean he was completely ignorant of what was right in front of him.

Yugi, for instance, had been a very quiet classmate for all the years Seto knew him. After the large puzzle became a sudden, strange, and permanent fashion statement around the boy's neck, he had marked differences in personality during certain situations. More recently, it seemed as though the two personalities were becoming more alike, as if they had balanced themselves out a bit.

As such it had become a bit harder to see the differences between the two personalities, and it seemed like his little group of friends remained none-the-wiser. Seto was quite aware of when the switch occurred, however, because the kun was dropped from his surname when Yugi addressed him, and his speech patterns in general switched from polite to borderline arrogant. There was also the unnerving (and Kaiba would sooner give up his Blue Eyes than admit that aloud) shift in color in Yugi's eyes. Unnatural but calm amethyst suddenly burned like fiery garnet, and he couldn't help but make the comparison to fresh blood. He had first thought it was a trick of the light, but it happened again and again in different lighting, and Seto finally accepted it was real. As for the matter of whether the two were separate spirits as they claimed or the wild-haired teen was simply suffering from multiple personality disorder, he didn't know and didn't care to find out.

Seto would also be a fool to think his complete understanding of a dead language was a trick. His eyes were not being made to see differently than his brain was understanding – he tested it. The card was simply a card with a different language in the text box. That he understood the language was one of those decidedly not normal things he had no scientific explanation for.

And the Sennen Rod was another.

That he knew the name for the gaudy hunk of gold before having been supplied it bothered him. That his fingers itched to grasp it after so terribly long bothered him more, because he had never held the damned item before in his life.

"It is yours," Confident Yugi affirmed. "Or was, 3000 years ago."

"And you expect me to buy into your reincarnation and destiny bullshit any more than I already do because…?"

Yugi let out a frustrated sigh before abruptly shifting eye color on him.

"Kaiba-kun, hear me out for just a little bit, alright?"

And Polite Yugi was back.

Seto decided he liked talking with this Yugi more than the other. The other was better for dueling against, but made conversation somewhat stiff. This Yugi was much more understanding when it came to differing points of view, and wasn't quick to shout nonsense about destiny and fate.

It was also this Yugi who had stopped other Yugi from knocking him off of Crawford's castle during Duelist Kingdom. He had mocked him for being weak, but after his own loss to the crazed cartoonist and subsequent soul-trapping, he had had time to think about that duel. Those red eyes had vanished, and the Yugi before him had been considerate enough to spare his life and give him a chance to rescue his brother himself, despite the fact that his loss meant he would not get the chance to save his grandfather (though he did in the end anyway, and Seto figured his friends had something to do with that).

Yugi might be far too compassionate for his own good, but it was a trait Seto admired in odd instances, especially when he saw outcomes he hadn't expected. He didn't have the capacity to care for others the way this Yugi did, and it was interesting to observe someone with the ability to be so self-sacrificing.

"I'll listen, but it doesn't mean I'm joining in on your Egyptian role-playing nonsense," he replied.

Yugi brightened despite the mild look of exasperation that crossed his features. The moment passed and he frowned deeply, though, glancing off to his left as if looking at something Seto couldn't see before shaking his head.

"Hang on just a moment," he said, and suddenly he was pulling the chain holding his puzzle over his head.

"This might go better without you interrupting," Seto heard him mutter under his breath. He jogged off to pass the piece over to Katsuya, who looked just as bewildered as Seto was that the short teen had taken it off. When he returned, he smiled up at him and motioned for them to move on.

Seto did after a long moment of contemplation.

They came to a secluded area of the building and took a seat across from one another, blue eyes meeting amethyst straight on, and Yugi took a deep breath.

"I know you don't want to believe all this stuff about Ancient Egypt and magic and all of that, Kaiba-kun, but the fact of the matter is that it's real," he started. Seto's frown deepened.

"Isis-san showed you the tablet at the museum, right?" he continued. "It doesn't make sense, but I've seen the results of the tests run on it, and it's genuine. There could be a number of reasons why we look like the figures on it, or why our favorite monsters just happen to have been carved above them. I don't know about fate or destiny, but coincidence isn't really the right term, you know?"

"You're starting to bore me, Yugi," Seto warned. "Get on with it."

He gave him a look that said he was trying to make a point, but continued anyway.

"The other me wondered about Marik-kun's possession of the Sennen Rod and suspects that he fell victim to it like so many others before him have. He wasn't a match for the item.

"My puzzle took a lot of lives before I solved it. Bakura-kun's Sennen Ring did the same before he came to possess it. If the person using it isn't the right owner, then the shadows consume them. Marik's dark half was probably a result of an improper match, and we suspect Crawford-san would have been a very different man if he had never run into Shadi and had the Eye forced on him."

"And you think I am this so called 'proper match,'" Seto clarified, privately wondering where Yugi had picked up the information on Crawford's attainment of the item.

"It seems incredibly likely, given the image on the tablet. Marik also mentioned that the Rod reacted to you a few times, and he couldn't explain why."

Part of Seto wanted to completely disagree with Yugi, but he was having a hard time getting around all of the little connections that made the idea so plausible.

And the need to hold the item was making him clench his fists in annoyance.

Yugi sighed, drawing his attention back to his face as he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair.

"Honestly, I wish this weren't so complicated. All of these prophecies and cryptic messages would make a lot more sense if they would just spell it out."

It was interesting to see the mild-mannered boy seem so completely done with the ideas he had been preaching, and Seto was distracted momentarily by the sight.

"Or if the other me could remember his past," he continued. "I feel like we could have avoided so many issues if we could have figured that out."

"He can't remember?"

"No, not at all. You should see his soul room; it's a complete..."

He trailed off and his eyes snapped open to stare wide-eyed at him. Seto realized his slip when the King of Games next spoke.

"You just…referred to the other me?"

Seto rolled his eyes.

"I'm skeptical, not blind," he informed him. "I may not believe in all of this ancient magic and prophecy shit, but when a dramatic change in personality is obvious, it doesn't escape me. Besides, your eyes change colors when you switch. Bakura is the same, isn't he?"

"Wait, my eyes change colors?"

"His are red."

"But the others can't…they can't tell."

"Then they're blinder than I thought."

"No, seriously, Kaiba-kun!" Yugi insisted, leaning forward in his chair. "We've done switch tests with them to see if anything does change. The only thing they can tell from is just the other me's confidence. There aren't any physical changes."

"That's ridiculous. Your eyes switched right before you took the puzzle off when you insisted I hear you out. He was the one talking to me first."

They stared at each other for a long moment.

"…That's so weird. I mean, I notice Bakura's eyes change when the spirit of the Ring takes over, but no one else sees it. I thought I was just seeing things. If you can see it too, then…"

"Don't even go there, Yugi," Seto warned. "I don't even want to dwell on it."

Yugi just shook his head.

"All the more reason to think you're supposed to be the proper owner, though. The other me insists he knew you when he was alive, and though he doesn't remember anything from the tablet, it seems really familiar to him. It explains the strong rivalry between you two."

The way Yugi left himself out of that made Seto stop to think about just who he had his rivalry with. He was quite unhappy with his conclusion.

"I have a rivalry with a dead guy," he noted aloud. Or a split personality. Either way, ridiculous.

Yugi's laughter came out in a sputter as though he had tried and failed miserably to contain it.

I've played around with this idea before and have seen it pop up in some of the stories I've read. I enjoy exploring Kaiba's limited understanding of Yugi and Atem, and I really wish he had been given more opportunity to interact with the items.

Apologies for the use of character's Japanese names and if anyone was thrown off by them.

There is at least one more chapter developing for this, but I can't say when it will surface.