Notes - Set post-GX, contains non-detailed character death and a fictional view of the afterlife. If this bothers you then I'd recommend not reading. This drabble can also be blamed entirely on random character teams on Tag Force 3. Not sure what I make of the pairing but this wasn't going to go away until it was written.
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A hundred years may have been a long time to wait.
He had been dead a lot longer than that. Whole civilisations had changed in the time that he had been dead, and if he'd been a more attentive person he could have watched the rise and fall of many rulers.
Abidos the Third, however, had not paid much attention to other rulers since his own reign had ended.
These hundred years felt longer than any that had come before though. And the reason for that was Juudai.
Juudai had been the first person to duel Abidos honestly, without holding back, and he had defeated him. Then he made a promise to join Abidos in the afterlife in a hundred years time so they could duel again.
So Abidos waited. He practised his duelling, now demanding for his guards to play against him with their real skill, regardless of whether they would listen or not. But mostly he waited.
He checked on Juudai a lot less than anyone else probably thought he did. Somehow it felt intrusive, as if he didn't trust Juudai's promise. There was no doubt in his mind that whatever Juudai was doing was probably be dangerous, but he would not die before the hundred years were up.
There were many times while Abidos waited when he would sit by the 'portal'. This was a loose term for it even as far as loose terms went. The afterlife was a much distorted reality affected by the individuals who came there. For that reason describing it was difficult. It might not be that every person who came there saw exactly what they expected to see, but what they did see would probably be influenced by their culture somehow.
The portal was where many people came through to the afterlife. It was interesting to watch them and to see their reaction to arriving, though most of them would not see Abidos at all.
Why would they? He wasn't a person who had affected their lives at all.
It happened that one day when Abidos was watching there a boy came through. This boy was not greeted by anyone who had already died, which wasn't really a unique case but it caught the Pharaoh's eyes regardless. Perhaps because of how quickly he seemed to recover – the boy sprang to his feet as if dying was a minor setback.
He took this chance to get a closer look, which was fine as long as the boy couldn't see him anyway. As he got near the boy looked in his direction, and for a moment he could have sworn that their eyes locked.
Then the boy offered out his hand.
"Johan Anderson, nice to meet you."
Abidos looked behind him to see if Johan was talking to anyone else, but clearly he wasn't.
Looking back at the boy, Abidos took the hand and said, "Abidos the Third."
They shook hands then released, Abidos baffled by this person. No one had actually seen him for a long time and even when they did they usually had a more shocked reaction to meeting an actual Pharaoh. But Johan really didn't give off any impressions that he thought Abidos was outside of the ordinary.
"It must be quite difficult to find you've come here," Abidos commented, for the sake of having something to say.
Shrugging his shoulders, Johan replied, "Not really, I just got unlucky. Could have happened to anyone."
He smiled. How could anyone who'd just found themselves in the afterlife be so carefree?
"So you were expecting to die?" he went on, wanting to know more about this strange Johan.
"Not at all, I was being chased one moment then the next… well, you get the idea. It's always pretty dangerous hanging around with Juudai," Johan said.
"Juudai…!" Abidos's eyes widened as he heard that name.
"So you know him too?" Johan said, "Makes sense, you look like the sort of person he'd be friends with."
"I do?"
What, did Juudai happen to have a whole herd of Egyptian Pharaohs he was friends with? Because short of that Abidos couldn't imagine how Juudai knew anyone else who was like him.
"Yeah," Johan answered, cutting him out of his thoughts, "You don't look like anyone else I've ever seen, so you probably know Juudai."
Abidos smiled. It had been a nice way of saying Juudai befriended weirdoes.
"You don't look like anyone I've seen around here either," admitted Abidos. It wasn't so much his clothing or even his hair, but something about Johan just stood out.
Johan seemed to take that as a compliment, answering, "It'd be boring if we were all the same now, wouldn't it? So, if you don't have anything else you're doing right now it'd be really nice to be shown around a bit. This place is probably so big and complex."
"A lot less complex the more time you spent here," assured Abidos with a smile, "And of course I'd be willing. It'd be great to have someone to spent time with, especially someone who knows Juudai."
Somehow he just seemed to warm to this boy. Though they had never met before a friendship seemed to be forming instantly. Maybe it was because he seemed so much like Juudai. Whatever the reason Abidos guessed the two of them would look very strange walking around the afterlife together.
He found himself not caring about that.
And so Abidos gave his new companion the brief tour of the afterlife. It may not have been a hundred years and this may not have been Juudai, but somehow even this place could throw a few surprises at you.