It has been...officially forever since I got back into the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, and I'm not gonna lie, Buff Blond Beef-arms Rafael was one of my first crushes. So, uh. Bias influenced this piece.
But no romance shall intrude upon your lives today! This is to provide some...tying up, I guess. Enjoy!
As always, reviews are loved and longed-for. 3
Five Steps to Soul-Saving
1.
"Yuugi! You have mail!"
"Okay, I'm coming!" Yuugi shouted and sprang from his seat, so hasty he nearly knocked the half-finished jigsaw puzzle on the desk into pieces. Some semblance of luck saved it and he ran out the door, leaving the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle in his room where he continued to study the incomplete picture before following him out a few seconds later.
Their grandfather was busy talking to a guest, so the best he could manage was wave a hand towards where a package sat at the foot of the door leading into the shop. Yuugi thanked him with a nod, grabbed it and retreated back to his room - not out of rudeness or anything like that, but he knew that the longer he stayed in the shop, the more likely the chance some duelist would walk in and start challenging him.
It was nice to have attention, really, and being the King of Games had benefits, but Yuugi was so tired of the publicity.
"Who is it from?" asked Yami curiously as Yuugi set the box on his bed. He leaned over to read the addresses while Yuugi bustled around trying to find something to slit it with, one eyebrow raised ever so slightly. "It does not have a return address."
"I just hope it's not a love letter or prank delivery," Yuugi sighed, coming back around with a pair of scissors. He paused, the edge poised over the tape; Pegasus might be all nice and sane now, but he could not quite forget the event that triggered Duelist Kingdom and there was that one time someone actually put a bomb in Yuugi's mail. It was fake, of course, a cruel prank was all, but there had been seething on all sides involved, with Anzu threatening death and Yami threatening something worse.
Whether Yami read his mind or simply his face, Yuugi did not know, but a moment later he was no longer the one in control of his body. Fingers slightly more slender than his own ran the tip of the exacto knife down the slit of the box and slit it open, then the vertical tapes, the movements both careful and tedious.
Yuugi watched through Yami's eyes, doing the astral equivalence of holding his breath. With a flick of the knife's tip, he - they - popped it open and peered inside.
There was no bomb, or a glove with star-shaped grooves in them or a cassette tape with soul-stealing powers. Instead there was a smaller, rectangular box the size and shape of a duel monster card. The plastic lid was see-through, and within was contained a card. Yami picked it up, trepidation and curiosity warring within his mind. He recognized the card - once, it had wiped out his life points and stolen Yuugi's soul away, but it had only punished his mistake, not caused it - and when he turned the box around there was a phone number scribbled on the back.
"You don't think…" Yuugi said and did not finish his thought. It felt strange, somehow.
"Maybe." Yami stood, grabbed the cordless phone Yuugi kept in a corner of his room, and dialed the number.
2.
The other end picked up after four rings, and a gruff voice said, "You are the Nameless Pharaoh." It was not a question.
"...Yes." Yami's reply lacked its characteristic decisiveness, and something like an invitation, or plain hesitation, hung at the end. He turned the card box around to stare at the monster it contained. Guardian Eatos. It had been a long time since he had seen her. "Why did you send me Guardian Eatos, Rafael?"
Silence on the other end for a long minute. "I thought to ask you to keep her for me," Rafael said eventually, slowly, testing every word before it rolled off his tongue. The Japanese sat weirdly with his accent, somehow flat, but that was often the way with him anyhow. Yami's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, glancing at Yuugi next to him. When he said that there were 'no hard feelings' after the Orichalcos, he did not mean 'I don't mind staring at reminders of my mistake everyday'.
"Ask him why, at least," Yuugi prompted, and since that was fair, Yami reluctantly agreed.
Again, silence on the other end. Eventually Rafael sighed. "I am going somewhere," he said, with the same slowness. "I will not be using my deck or cards for awhile. The rest I will keep. Guardian Eatos, however…"
He trailed off and said nothing more. For a long moment they remained that way, Yami staring at the card that was so precious to Rafael, an important part of the deck that had broken him out of his Orichalcos-induced trance, in the end, because that had been Rafael's battle and not his at all, not in the most important ways. He thought of the Rafael he remembered, dug up memories of him and his deck and the monsters who had stood steadfast by his side, and tried not to feel too cold when his train of thought eventually ran ashore at Yami's own defeat.
Yuugi put one see-through hand on his shoulder, companionable and forgiving, and it shook Yami back to the present. "Where are you?" he asked, making up his mind.
"Nowhere near."
"Where are you?"
A sigh. "Thailand. And don't bother sending it back. I-"
"Let's meet," Yami interrupted him. He inspected the Guardian Eatos once more. "Call me when you're in Domino." And hung up.
"Are you sure?" Yuugi asked him. Their memories were not all shared, and subconsciously or not much of the days where they were separated were locked away from him, though he had never pushed Yami to open them. It had been a month and it was still raw, an open wound that was best left for the spirit to nurse in solitude. He had not been depressed from it, at least, and Yuugi had figured that if it was dire, he would share at his own convenience. Watching his other self's face now as Yami stared at the card so hard his eyes might bore holes through it, he wished he had been more forward.
"Yes," Yami said eventually and went to throw the delivery box away. Guardian Eatos's, he set on Yuugi's nightstand. "I am sure."
3.
It still came as a mild surprise that Rafael did call them again, nearly two weeks later, after Yuugi had come and gone from the museum with the pharaoh's name pulsing in his head like a brand. His phone rang at seven in the morning on a Sunday, and the deep voice on the other end chased sleepiness and remnants of uneasy dreams away.
"May I speak with the Nameless Pharaoh?" were his first words, as soon as Yuugi said hello.
He was slightly taken aback at that. Somehow, even with all the weirdness they had gone through, hearing someone politely asking to talk to his other self- er, Atemu - was still odd. But he quickly cleared his throat and said, "Hold on a second", then turned his consciousness inwards to find his partner.
His heart ached at the idea of their eventual separation. It was soon in coming now, with the plane tickets already booked and the location already known...and then what? The future beyond that point in time felt thick with miasma and it frightened him, that he would have to walk it without his- no, Pharaoh Atemu. And Yuugi must have subconsciously carried those worries with him into his partner's soul room, because when he appeared Atemu put a hand on his shoulder.
"You will have our friends," he said, and his eyes were softer than they had or ever will be to anyone else. "You will have your deck - our deck. You will never be alone."
And then he disappeared, taking control of their - Yuugi's - body.
"Yes?"
"I am in Domino City, as you asked," said Rafael. He sounded...tired, but also wry. It was something Yami did not remember hearing before. "When is a good time to meet?"
Atemu counted the days until their plane took off and asked, "Would today do?"
Hesitation. Then, "Yes."
"Good. Meet me in front of the museum. Bring your Duel Disk."
Silence again. Atemu waited until he had an answer before hanging up. It was a gusty sigh, but also one of defeat. "Very well."
4.
Valon was with Rafael, and the biker smiled awkwardly at Atem when he saw him, raising a hand in greetings. "Howdy," he said.
Atem returned it with a nod and a smile of his own before facing the reason he had come here. Rafael stood in front of the empty museum with his arms crossed, and he had gotten risk of Dartz's Duel Disk in favor of a more standard one. That was the most - well, the only, visible change about him. If Atem studied his face long enough, however, he thought he could see shadows there that had not been there before. He thought of Mai, too, and felt his heart clench. He still had not known where she had gone; all attempts at tracking her down had led to dead-ends.
"We'll find her," Yuugi promised him, the first words he had spoken since they left the house. "Just focus. One at a time."
It was good advice.
"I heard you were trying to retire," Atem said by ways of greetings, activating his Duel Disk and stepping forward to meet him halfway. Rafael seemed to understand what he was getting at and sighed again but did the same, taking his offered deck and shuffling it for him.
"Yeah he was," Valon called out, surprising him by speaking Japanese. A stronger accent than Rafael, but not difficult to understand. "I'm here to make sure I'll kick his can today if you don't do it first."
Atem smiled. So his assumption about these two had been correct, after all. Before he handed Rafael's deck back to him, he took out a card he had been keeping in his pocket, placed it at the bottom, and shuffled again. He inclined his head to show Rafael it was exactly what he thought it was. "Here are the terms of our duel," he said. "If I win, you keep Guardian Eatos. If you win, I will keep her until you are ready."
"If I drag you down to two hundred life points at any time during the duel," Rafael replied slowly, every word an unmovable stone wall, "you keep Guardian Eatos."
Atem smirked and took his deck back. "Very well."
5.
The result was two hundred and fifty to zero. Atem was not surprised, all things said; would have been far more disappointed if it had been any different. With or without the Seal of Orichalcos's influence on either of them, Rafael remained one of the most enigmatic and powerful opponents he had ever faced. He also took his loss - as he had the first time - with more than a modicum of grace, the only betrayal of his dismay being a tightness between his eyebrows as Valen clapped (mockingly) and Atem disengaged his Disk.
But what he said was, "Thank you."
"You did most of the work," Atem smiled, but inclined his head. "Nonetheless, you are welcome."
"Well, that went about as expected," Valon exclaimed and tossed Rafael's helmet at his friend with the force of a cannonball. "Let's go get some coffee, shall we? It's bloody early in the morning to be without caffeine." He did not invite Atem or Yuugi, but this, too, was fair, and they stayed long enough to watch Rafael grumble under his breath and walk to his bike before making to turn away.
Before they could, Rafael said, "Wait."
Atem looked at him, and they held there for a long moment. Understanding passed without words, somehow clear without elaboration. Gratefulness, apologies, irritation, and a question that had no answers. Atem inclined his head and said, "It was an honor to meet you."
"And you," Rafael said, sincerity delivering the two simple words with enough force to melt a glacier. He did not smile, but the twitch of his mouth must be something close to it. "I hope to one day learn your name."
"It is Atem."
Rafael blinked, then bowed his head and placed one fist over his heart. "Then it's been an honor as well, Pharaoh Atem."
With that, he fastened his helmet to his head, stomped down on the acceleration pedal on his bike, and rode away. Valon grinned at Atem one last time, waved, and followed him.
6.
In the Afterlife, there was a door that led to the Dominion of Dragons and to realms where monsters dwelled. Atem's discovery of it was unprompted and primarily accidental, but he did find, one day, the Guardian Eatos sitting down next to him on the shore of the Nile. Her golden eyes were solemn and she did not smile, but she said, "Thank you."
"You are welcome," he replied.