CHAPTER I
A piece of the puzzle
The seven Millenium Items have finally been assembled, and the eighth key has been unlocked. The Nameless Pharaoh has finally remembered, and by his name, the gods have been summoned upon to purge evil. It is now time to return the pieces of the past to where it belongs. It was now time for the Pharaoh to journey to the spirit world.
However, the puzzle has not been completed yet.
After returning from the world of the Pharaoh's memories, Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, Tea Gardner, Tristan Taylor, Seto Kaiba and Ishizu and Marik Ishtar are now standing in front of the Weiji Eye—the gate to the spirit world. It is now time to send the Pharaoh to the place where he belongs: the afterlife.
The Pharaoh's spirit has been sealed inside the Millenium Puzzle for 3,000 years, a sacrifice he made in order to seal away the great evil Zorc. After willfully losing his memories to keep the evil form breaking free, he has finally recovered everything. He is no longer nameless. He is Atem—and his spirit is agitated.
It was now time to say good bye.
Yugi put the seven millenium items in the stone plate in front of the Weiji eye—the millenium ring, millenium rod, millenium necklace, millenium scale, millenium key, millenium eye, and the Pharaoh's mark: the millenium puzzel, where his spirit was sealed away- the rightful resting place of the Millenium Items to open the gateway. Their hearts froze. When the items are placed on the stone tablet and the ceremonial battle is commenced, the door to the other side will open. Parting is sorrowful. But a real friend must set you free.
"This is the last journey of the Pharaoh," said Marik.
His sister acknowledged. Their tribe has been keeping the memory of thePharaoh for 3,000 years after a fortune teller said that the Pharao will return. And now, their tribe's labor ends as the Pharaoh is about to journey to the afterlife.
"My other self…," uttered Yugi as he is about to place the Millenium Puzzle in the heart of the stone plate. Ever since he solved the Millenium Puzzle, his life was never the same again. The Pharaoh has been living inside his body, and together, they saved the world and played Duel Monsters together. But now, it was time for his closest friend to leave.
Before Yugi was able to take off the Millenium Puzzel which he wore in his neck like a large pendant, the Weiji symbol on the wall glowed along with the stone plate. Suddenly, the temple ground started shaking violently.
"What's this again?" Kaiba gruffed.
"Look!" Tristan pointed to the east part of the temple and there, a stone wedge was rising from the ground.
When the wedge was completely out of the ground, the dust dispersed and the seizure stopped. Yami yugi, the Pharaoh, surfaced from Yugi's body, and all of them came closer to the newly risen wedge. It was blank.
The Weiji eye and the plate stopped glowing. Now, it was Yugi's puzzle that was glowing, its light illuminating the wedge. New hieroglyphic texts were starting to appearing in the stone tablet.
Upon seeng the texts, the Pharaoh was stunned.
"We have never seen these texts before!" exclamed Ishizu.
"What does the wedge say?" Joey asked the Ishtars. Ishizu translated the texts to them.
" The pieces of memories have returned to the Pharaoh,
But some of it are still floating amidst the sea of oblivion.
The Pharaoh may battle and return and rest.
Though evil has been uprooted, it has left a seed. And it shall grow once more."
Everyone was shocked by what they heard. "Darkness will grow again? Does that mean Zorc will—come back?" Tea said trembling.
"No way! We've just defeated him," said Tristan.
More texts rose from the huge stone tablet.
"Know the origin on the evil.
Recover the secret. Face the darkness once more.
Find the memory of the one who gave life to evil so you may crush its seed."
"What did all of that just mean?" Tea said.
"The wedge permits the Pharaoh to continue on to the spirit world. However, it did warn of the return of evil," Ishizu said. "Zorc might really return. And it seemed Zorc left something."
"The first line of the text said some of your memories are still 'amidst the sea of oblivion'," she continued. "Pharaoh, could your memory be incomplete?
The Pharaoh turned his gaze down and contemplated, worry painted on his face. He was tring to remember everything. "Ha-Have all we've seen in the world of my memories—incomplete?" he asked, holding his head in confusion. "What did we miss?"
Then it hit him. An image came to mind.
Long, golden locks of flowing swept under the majestic shine of the full moon, its ends coiled. A woman was turning away from him. The Pharaoh froze as he remembered. His head hurted.
"Yugi! Are you ok?" his friends started to worry. They still call him 'Yugi', the name of the boy's body he is occupiying.
"My other self! Hang in there!" Yugi called from inside their minds.
On the other side of Egypt, a team of archeologists have just excavated a tomb. After a week's work, they are now packing up one afternoon, accomplishing no new finding and only failure.
"We spent thousands for this research project on this tomb, yet we didn't find anything new!" one researcher grumpily said.
Dr. Charles Hiriyu was part of the research team. He was now packing up his own stuff, taking off his mask. No new discovery, no good news for Aya, he said to himself.
He was an old man in his mid-forties with very light brown hair that used to be darker during his younger days. He also has a mustache which suits well with his research outfits. His tender personality makes him a good team player and a good father to his only child, Aya, a sickly teenage girl.
He took off his coat and held his locket. He opened it and looked at the photo in it. Aya, my sweet child. I wonder how she's doing? He thought to himself happily, excited to see her again.
Suddenly, a violent wind came and swept the whole reseach area.
"It's a sandstorm! Everyone, to the tents!" alerted the head researcher. Dr. Hiriyu clench on his stuff and was about to head to his tent when he saw a dark-skinned Engyptian woman wearing a veil. She was heading to the open field where the large sand dunes are. The sand storm was strong. The tents are almost about to be ripped from its posts.
Dr. Hiriyu abandoned his stuff and went to the woman, trying to save her.
"Dr. Hiriyu! Where are you going?" his colleagues worriedly said.
Struggling from the heavy sand in his legs and the grains of sand flying everywhere, he continued to run for the girl.
"Miss, stop! Don't go any further. It's too dangerous. The sand might bury you alive." he kept shouting to the woman with all his strength while enduring the wind and sand. Still, the woman did not turn.
They were far from the camp now. Dr. Hiriyu was still convicted to rescue the girl. He still kept on calling to her.
A little later, the woman stopped from walking and turned to the archeologist, locks of golden hair escaping from her veil, her emerald eyes set on him.
The wind amplified strength. Amost nothing can be seen anymore exept the sand. The sand was piling up higher and higher on Dr. Hiriyu's legs.
Then, in a moment, the strong wind quieted down and hushed away the sand, trickling back to the ground. Dr. Hiriyu turned everywhere to look for the woman, but she was gone.
The last spectrums of the setting sun made something shine from where the woman stood a while ago. Dr. Hiriyu came to the spot and picked it up from the sand. It was a woman's accessory: a bracelet. It had a weiji eye symbol embossed on it.
"Dr. Hiriyu sir! Are you alright?" shouted his colleagues who followed him through the ravaging sandstorm a while ago.
"Yes. I'm fine," he replied, still confounded.
"We were worried when uou suddenly ran off to the sand dunes all by yourself in a sick weather like that," said another colleague.
"I was trying to halt a lady heading to the dunes. By the way, have you seen her?"
"A lady? We didn't see other persons here. Is the heat coming in to you? Are you hallucinating?"
"No really! There was a lady who came on this very spot a while ago. I think she might have even dropped this bracelet."
They looked closely at the bracelet. "It has a Weiji sign on it. But it still looks average. I thinkyou can easily but one of these at a local merchant's shop," a colleague said. "Come'on, let's get back to the camp. Everyone's been worried about you, Dr. Hiriyu. Please don't do anything rash like that again."
It was a flashback. Dr. Hiriyu was telling the story to a girl in peach pajamas, lying on the hospital bed. "That was my great recent adventure in Egypt," he said proudly.
The girl had golden wavy hair. She was very pale, but her big peridot eyes came to life upon hearing the story. "Wow father! But what happened to the woman?"
"It's a mystery, Aya," said Dr. Hiriyu on a mysterious, joking tone. "But did you know what happened to the bracelet?"
Dr. Hiriyu fumbled something from his bag, and out there, he drew out the bracelet.
"Ta-da!"
Aya's eyes widened. "Wow! For real, father?" Dr. Hiriyu put ont the bracelet on Aya's right wrist. "This is amaizing! Egypt is so amazing! That's where Duel Monsters came from, right father?" the young lass was energetic.
She raised her bracelet up and gazed at the bracelet, her eyes sparkling.
"'Glad you like it, sweetheart," Dr. Hiriyu said with a chuckle.
Even though I can't take you to the places I go Aya and see the whole world, he said to himself, I could never wish for anything more that you may be happy. I wish that from the bottom of my heart. I've been telling you stories since you've been bedridden almost all your life. But I'm willing to explore and tell you a hundred stories more from all over the world just to make you happy.
"Thank you, father!" Aya said and gave him a weak but big hug.
All of a sudden, Aya's breathing became heavy. He let go of her father and held her chest.
"Aya, are you ok?"
She still made a cheerful smile. "I'm ok. This has been going on for a few days now. I'm a bit used to it. It will go away later," she said, trying to put on a happy façade while struggling at every sentence.
Aya suddenly lost all her strength and fell at her bed, panting heavily.
In panic, Dr. Hiriyu shouted for help and a doctor and some nurses immediately came in. He was now standing in horror of the sight of his daughter struggling to survive.
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