Chapter 1. Into the past
Yami Yugi POV
No... Yugi... dying...
Even now I couldn't belive it. It wasn't even like he was sick or something. It was his soul.
Aibou... Aibou!I called to him in his soul room. I was holding him in there. His eyelids fluttered a bit...
/Y-Yami... What's going on... I feel... I don't feel anything/
Yugi... I'm afraid. I think you're dying.
/Dying? But how, Yami. Do I need to see a docter? It can't be that serious/
No Yugi. You... your ba, your soul is dying... and I think it's because of me.
/You? But how/
I think that the presence of dual minds is hurting you somehow
/Yami, that's ridiculous/ he laughed /We've been together for so long. How could something be happening now/
That's just the problem Yugi... I don't know
For a while we just waited there. The puzzle was probably just responding to my emotions but something wierd happened. Suddenly, I was in my palace. All around me were giant statues of the Egyptian gods. I was bewildered. Where exactly was I? Just then there was a voice.
"You! What are you doing here? Only the Pharaoh and I are allowed in here."
I looked up. Kaiba? No, Priest Seto. I remembered now. He was the high priest. I stood up, still carrying Yugi.
"Ph-Pharaoh!" He exclaimed, shocked, when he got a good look at my face. "But you can't be! He is the Pharaoh!" He yelled motioning toward a man identical to me who had just appeared in the doorway. Well, identical except for the fact he was much tanner and a bit slimmer. "You must be a imposter!"
"Don't jumpt to conclusions, Seto-san," He said calmly and approached me. "Who are you?" He asked me, "What are you doing here?"
I wasn't sure what to do but I bowed to him. It was a rather awkward bow, partially because I was carrying Yugi and partially because it was kind of strange to be bowing to my self. "I am... um," I couldn't give him his own name, "Moo hitori no Yuugi."
"Another Yugi?" The other me asked, "Who's Yugi."
I quickly summarized what had just happened. Seto still stood at the doorway in a sort of shock.
"So..." The Pharaoh asked, staring at me, "You're me? How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"You don't have to believe me, um, Pharaoh-sama, all you have to believe is that I need to save Yugi."
"Come with me!" He ordered.
"But you're majesty, what if..." Seto started.
"It's alright, I can deal with the situation. Thank you for your help."
Priest Seto looked uncomfortable and quickly left the scene.
"Come with me to my chambers, we'll discuss more there and..." He laughed, "Get you some more appropriate clothes."
I followed. When he arrived there, he had no problem finding some clothes for me from his own wardrobe. I politely refused but he insisted. Soon, although not quite as richly dressed, I looked almost exactly like him. So much in fact, probably only his closest friends could tell I wasn't him. I felt uncomfortable... like I was an imposter! But he just laughed at the resemblance. My former self was so... light hearted! I didn't remember being like this. Oh, yes, this was probably when he was younger, before he fully realized the responsibility of being a ruler.
"Come on, let's go eat dinner," He invited.
"But what about Yuugi?" I asked.
"Don't worry," he replied, "I'll have my healers look after him."
"But you don't understand, um, your majesty, his illness is not illness of the flesh but of the ba," I said.
He looked uncomfortable as though he had only just realized the seriousness of the situation, which was probably the case. "Don't worry, my friend," he replied comfortingly, "The priests can take care of him. They are well trained in this kind of thing. They might even find out the problem," He said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Now c'mon, oh, yeah, and you don't have to call me Pharaoh or you'll be um-ing your entire stay here. I mean... it shouldn't be a problem if you really are me, besides, I never really cared for all that silly protocol stuff anyway. Just call me Atemu."
"Alright," I replied, "Atemu..." I said that word slowly again later. Atemu, my real name.