The Pharaoh looked at his reflection in the arcade cabinet, trying to puzzle out the man who stood within. Having time to himself without lives on the line was rare, but Yugi had practically demanded he go out with Joey and try some arcade games, and he'd been happy to accept. Games were something he knew well—card games, dice games, any games, really.
But the mystery of the Pharaoh himself was the one puzzle he wasn't adept at. It bothered him more than he cared to admit. Turning his attention back to the game, he watched the little yellow circle—Pac-Man, the cabinet said—eat a small row of dots, then a larger dot, which made the ghosts chasing him run away. From powerless to powerful, he mused.
Yugi had sometimes felt that way about their relationship, with himself as weak and the Pharaoh as strong, but the Pharaoh had reminded him that they each possessed strength in their own way, and learned from one another. They were, after all, not one mind but two.
"Wow. You're really killin' 'em," Joey said, watching Pac-Man plow through two more ghosts before the power pellet wore off.
"Of course. I have to win."
"You do know that this game doesn't have an ending, right? It was made to be unbeatable. You play 'til you die and get a high score, basically."
At that the Pharaoh straightened and threw out his coat, drawing glances from other arcade-goers. "That sounds like a challenge to me!"
It was almost like he himself was of two minds, the Pharaoh thought. Give him a game, give him a puzzle, give him something to overcome and he was virtually unstoppable—heat rushing through his veins, adrenaline and shadow magic combining into a cocktail of power, the urge to win at any cost eclipsing all else.
Put him before something else, though, and he was out-of-depth and knew it, relying on Yugi's knowledge and what he'd picked up from others and himself to find his way. Having no memories from before his awakening meant his social skills were limited, and that made self-reflection equally difficult.
The Pharaoh made it to level 256 before the game crashed, preventing him from progressing further, but it was as close as an ending as it'd come, and that was a win in his book. Yugi's grandpa would be amazed to hear he'd beaten a 'play-til-you-lose' game, he thought with a chuckle.
He was about to turn to another game—the arcade cabinet read Donkey Kong—when a hand on his shoulder stilled him briefly.
"Okay. I get that you have to win all the time. Have you ever thought why you hafta win so much, though," Joey asked.
The Pharaoh shrugged. "I don't know, Joey. I just know I have to win. Call it an instinct."
"Maybe. Or maybe it's cause you're afraid of losing."
At the word the Pharaoh bristled, and Joey gave him a grin. "See what I mean? Even the word sets ya off! Between you and me, oh mighty Pharaoh, I think it's time you were enrolled in Joey Wheeler's school on how to lose gracefully."
"And why would I want that? You know with the Shadow Games a single loss could mean banishment to the Shadow Realm or worse."
Joey blanched. "Point taken. I ain't sayin' you wanna lose those games, but…what about games for fun? Y'know, without all the crazy world-savin' stuff?"
"I just played a game for fun, and I conquered it," the Pharaoh said, with just a hint of smugness to his tone.
Joey sighed. "Right, right. But… Okay, look. I'll play this game right here, and maybe then you'll see what I mean."
Joey turned to the Donkey Kong cabinet and inserted the necessary amount of quarters. The Pharaoh watched the game with interest as Jumpman—though Joey called him Mario—traversed the city to rescue his love, Pauline, dodging barrels and other obstacles along the way.
He made it through the first series of platforms without much issue. When Joey neared the top, though, the character made a bad jump and died. Two more incidents ended the game, without even a screen to put in his initials for the high score system. But to the Pharaoh's amazement, Joey Wheeler was smiling.
"Awright, you see that? That's what I'm talkin' about!"
The Pharaoh frowned. "You got a Game Over, Joey, and didn't even reach the second level. I wouldn't see that as something to celebrate."
Joey nodded. "That's cause I was outta practice. Now that I've gotten my blood circulatin', lemme show you what I can do now!"
The next game progressed to level 3 before Jumpman bowed to defeat, and the game after that cycled through the ending screen before a barrel brought an end to the latest adventure. Through it all, Joey grinned, and by the fifth game he'd done well enough to get his name on the high score list.
"Now what did you learn just now from watchin' me play? This'll be on the test, by the way."
The Pharaoh thought, remembering how happy Joey looked just to play. "You smiled even when you lost, and you got better every time you started anew."
"That's right! Practice makes perfect! And not only that, I, uh… don't take this the wrong way, but I didn't flip out like you or Kaiba would if you guys lost."
The Pharaoh chuckled. "Point taken, though you're lucky Kaiba wasn't around to hear that."
"Heh. It's not like I like losin', ya know? But you gotta get used to it if you're gonna keep winning—I mean, you have lost before, even if it was to cheaters. But the time might come when you do lose for real. Even if it's to someone like Kaiba. Or me. Or Yugi."
Joey swallowed, unsure if he could proceed, but the Pharaoh motioned for him to go on. He seemed entirely focused on the boy's words.
"And if you do lose for real—when you lose for real—I hope it's a loss Yugi can be proud of."
The Pharaoh took in the meaning and slowly nodded. He meant to accept the idea of a fair loss, the idea of himself losing, the thought that loss would make victories ever sweeter, that even defeat didn't have to be forever. Mai had said something to that effect, he recalled; he'd just never thought to apply it to himself before.
What's more, he and Yugi were of two minds. What sort of shape would he leave the boy in if he grew up refusing to lose, as he had?
He'd never remotely considered a fair loss before.
Perhaps he should.
No, he would.
"Thank you, Joey," the Pharaoh said at last. "Now… which one of these games has a two-player mode?"