Challenge Name and Number: #21 Belief
Drabble Title: The Innocent
Word Count: 600
Warnings (if applicable): post canon
Pairings (if applicable): none
Summary: Many years later Yuugi has a conversation with his granddaughter about a time in his life that feels more and more like a fantasy the older he gets.
By Citrus Luver
A/N: Another drabble for the Yu-gi-oh! Drabble Challenge group on lj.
They say that time does funny things to people, and if enough of it passes by, it starts to blur together and becomes almost like a bittersweet fantasy. It has been over fifty years since he fought that legendary duel, since he sealed him away. Life stopped being filled with never ending danger, and over time even Duel Monsters stopped being so magical.
He and his friends found their places in life: whether it was running a multimillion dollar company, joining Japans Police Force or moving away to America. Over time they saw less of each other. Only during Golden Week would they all be free enough to sit down for a cup of coffee.
Today, he would join the ranks of thousands in retirement. He was finally coaxed into turning in his shovel and spending his remaining days with loved one. He fidgeted with his tie. He hated the darn thing. It made him look like an overstuffed penguin.
"Jii-chan! Jii-chan!" A young girl of six with lovely auburn hair stumbled into the room. She was wearing a dress that appeared way too long, and the red stain that dribbled across her face indicated that she had found the punch bowl.
A smile crossed his face. He couldn't help but chuckle as his young granddaughter looked up expectedly at him. "Yes?"
"Nii-san said you played card game!"
"Really now?" He silently wondered if he should have introduced his grandchildren to Kaiba the other day. The last time, he was sent fan girlish emails that he had to protect his dignity from the big bad Kaiba.
The young girl nodded her head and pulled out an old wrinkled paper with a faded colored picture. He instantly recognized the picture. It was one of the few remaining pictures of that time and of him. "See! And Nii-san said you look like the pharaoh... your pharaoh."
"My pharaoh?" He wrinkled his brow.
"You know, Atemu-sama!" The young girl seemed aspirated that she shouldn't be explaining something that she felt was obvious. "Nii-san claims its a co...coincidence." The young girl struggled through the word.
"And what do you think?"
"I think you met Atemu-sama with the magical puzzle and saved the world!"
"Really now," he was slightly bemused at this granddaughters words. At the beginning of his career, he had tried to persuade the scientific community that the origins of Duel Monsters did not belong to Pegasus while they were only interested in why he bore an uncanny resemblance to a dead pharaoh. It was a brutal battle that almost cost him all his respect. He remembered one night, when he almost launched an evacuation to uncover his tomb. It had taken weeks of persuasion and alcohol from his childhood friends before he accepted that his past was too much like a fairy tale to be taken seriously.
He could only chuckle at his granddaughters naivety and how only in eyes of the youth could anything remotely mythically seem real. "I'll tell you a secret, but you cant tell anyone."
"Not even Nii-sama?"
He shook his head. "When I was about your age, Jii-chan gave me the puzzle. When I solved it, I met Atemu." His eyes seemed to sparkle as he spoke.
"Sakura-chan!" A voice called from the hallway.
"Coming Okaasan!" She yelled back. She turned back to her grandfather who was still holding the age old photograph. "Our secret." He nodded. He watched his granddaughter run out the room before turning back to the photograph and smiled. "Look at us now, only the innocent believes in the truth, other me."
Owari