Because when an ancient spirit surfaces into the world to take revenge on his host's behalf, modern technology may be the biggest hurdle to overcome.
First thing the spirit noted when he was freed from the Puzzle were his clothes. Specifically, his attire and lack of regalia.
His bracelets, crown and cape were missing. However, the Pharaoh could feel an accessory resting on his neck. The spirit brought up a hand to examine the collar, and it seemed to be made out of leather, held together by a rectangular piece of metal. Perhaps it was a variation on his own era's Wesekh?
His Shendyt was also missing. Instead, his host wore a garment which wrapped separately on both legs. It was loose and colored a navy blue. The spirit experimentally moved his legs and was relieved to find the material was soft. Moreover he was wearing two layers of clothing, a white blouse with small round pegs in the middle, and a navy blue top, who extended and wrapped around the length of his arms as well, the color matching the cloth on his legs. Initially that seemed strange if not idiotic, since the heat would make such an outfit impractical. However, he noted the place he was in was colder than he was used to, so perhaps wearing two layers was the norm in this region.
At least, the spirit noted as he looked down on his other hand, there was the Millennium Puzzle to provide some familiarity with his current garments.
However, the spirit's discomfort was nothing compared to the waves of despair and terror emerging from his host a few moments ago. The name Tetsu Ushio reverberated though both their consciences…
Ah yes, the source of his host's despair. A brute of a man, who used his strength and position to terrorize and extort those below him. From what little information he gathered, those of his kind were called 'bullies'.
The Pharaoh let out a small chuckle. It was time for this man's reign over the 'school' territory to come into an end. A reign of fear will only lead to the King's untimely demise.
…Then the spirit realized he had no idea how to contact that Ushio person in the first place.
Homicidal rage temporarily put on hold, the Pharaoh mulled over this unexpected problem. This was the first of many snags on his plan for reven-cough-justice.
'Call him.' A voice rang out in his head. Was that his host's unintentional advice? Also, call him? Go outside and shout his name on the streets? That seemed highly unprofessional and lacking dignity. Surely, there must be a more effective and less loud option of coming into contact with the 'bully'.
The spirit was taken out of his thoughts when he heard a voice coming downstairs. The voice sounded familiar... Curiosity took over the spirit as he stealthily made his way downstairs, to see an elderly man facing towards a wooden table.
The pharaoh felt a stronger pang of familiarity when he saw the old man, yet he couldn't recall why… No matter. He was in a strange new world. Anomalies like that weren't unexpected.
More importantly, had the old man gone senile? He was talking to thin air, clutching a small rectangle next to his ear and mouth.
Imagine the pharaoh's surprise when he heard a muffled voice come from the rectangular box.
'What sorcery is this?!'
"That's a telephone," came his host's unintentional advice once again.
While trying to regain his lost compsosure, the Pharaoh thought about this new revelation. It seemed one could communicate with others through these boxes… Somehow the voices were transferred though these devices to one another…
The Pharaoh's eyes widened in realization. That's how he could contact Ushio!
His spirits –no pun intended- renewed, the pharaoh observed his host's relative working the telephone device. When the old man said his goodbyes, he placed the box on top of the other box and made his merry way down the hallway, ignorant of the ancient spirit hidden in the corner, watching the process with fascination.
After making sure the coast was clear, the spirit came out of his hiding place and walked over to the table.
The Pharaoh threw a tentative look at the device. It was made up of two boxes, both rectangular, with the smaller and thinner one resting on top of the larger and more square like one. The boxes were connected to each other by a long spiral line, made up of unfamiliar material. The bigger box contained a number of individual surfaces, each lined with one individual 'number'.
The Pharaoh's eye caught the title of the large yellow book besides the telephone. 'Phone Book' it read. 'Find anyone and everything, in one comprehensive catalogue!' was the subtitle. Perhaps here, he could find his target's 'number'.
The spirit took hold of the yellow book.
The pages felt strange. They were glossy and too thin. The material didn't feel like a papyrus at all. It appeared to be organized as layers of papyrus on top of one another rather than bound to a scroll. And then there were the characters. The pharaoh couldn't help but marvel at their sheer number of them and miniscule size. Add to that the thickness of the tome and unique binding, and the spirit could only wonder the skill of the scribe who put this together.
Thankfully, he understood the language through his host. Yet the letters were different as well, as they seemed to be made up of single line strokes rather than the ornate hieroglyphs the spirit was used to. Add to that that some letters represented a single sounds, whereas others represented entire words, and the pharaoh was more than excused for taking his sweet time and occasionally moving his mouth to pronounce the word like a child going through a spelling book.
Tetsu Ushio… Even the naming was different compared to the fleeting knowledge he had; people here seemed to possess two names.
The spirit, carefully took the top box off its resting place, surprised when he heard a beep coming from one end of it. The Spirit assumed this was the end the other person's voice would come from, so he held in a similar way the old man did.
Good. Now the next step was to input the bully's information into the device.
The spirit pressed each number in the same sequence written next to the name Tetsu on the yellow tome. The process was stressful and arduous as the Spirit did not want to make a mistake.
Finally he punched in the last number. The beeps went silent, only for another repeating pattern of sound to come from the box.
"…Hello?" the Spirit muttered to the box and frowned. Was it supposed to do that-?
"Who is this?" The Pharaoh jumped at the sound and nearly let out an undignified squeak. To his shock, a man's voice came from the rectangular case!
Holding the rectangular 'speaker' at a safe distance, he announced, "Tetsu Ushio."
"That's me," the voice announced in a bored tone. "Is this a prank? Satou, if this is your funny idea of a goddamn joke-"
"I'm Yugi Moto."
"The little squirt? What do ya want, do you have my money yet?"
The spirit suppressed the urge to call on his shadows and see if he could disembowel a person through this phone device. Blind rage would serve no educational value to this brute's untrained mind. Plus, it'd make a mess.
"Meet me up outside the school at…" The spirit paused and bit his lip. What was the time? How did the people here tell the time? There were no sundials at all, and even if they were, they'd be useless indoors.
"Yugi?"
"Midnight. Meet me at midnight, outside the school."
Ignoring the other teen's voice, he placed the speaker on the base of the telephone device, and the voice stooped immediately.
The spirit threw a disgruntled look at the window. Since he couldn't find a dial anywhere, he might as well rely on the stars. From what little he'd seen the previous day, the moons current position at midnight should behind in the sky and bright like a star. Right now however, the sun had just given up his reign of the skyline and the moon was nowhere to be seen, so the spirit had a plenty of time to kill.
Silent as a shadow, the pharaoh returned to his host's room. Since he had nothing to do for a long time, he might as well investigate the state of his sleeping quarters.
The Pharaoh made his way to the side of the room where a large piece of furniture was placed, below a decorative hole in the wall framed with glass. He recognized the furniture as a bed, and was slightly relieved to see something familiar in this strange environment.
The spirit placed his hand on top of it again, only to feel the bed's surface give in under the slightest of pressure. The pharaoh wondered what it would feel like to be on it, so he went ahead and sat on top of the bed.
The mattress gave in way more than he expected and the spirit, unaccustomed to its springiness, he gave an undignified wobble. When his balance wasn't threatened, the spirit angled his body and lay down.
The bed was so soft. Sleeping here would be like floating on a cloud. Surely his host must be of great importance if he possessed such luxuries.
However, if he lay there for too long, he may fall asleep and miss the appointment. So, the spirit sat up and observed the rest of the room.
He couldn't see much, the sun had just set and the decorative hole allowed for little light to come inside the room. The Spirit couldn't locate any candles so he wondered how the people here illuminated their houses at night.
He was pulled out of his thought by a pattern of sounds. A constant ticking pattern, originally too faint to pick up, yet now it seemed to echo constantly through the room. The Pharaoh looked left and right, trying to find the origin of the sound, until he pinpointed the source as a disk placed on top of the wall adjacent to the bed.
Problem was, it was too high up for him to reach. His eyes rested on a small chair leaning against the wall, since the Spirit had come out of the Puzzle. Maybe he could use that?
The Pharaoh climbed on the chair.
And then the chair moved, causing the spirit to lose his balance and topple to the floor.
'How on Ra's name?!'
Upon further inspection, the pharaoh found out the legs of the chair had little wheels embedded onto them. Needless to say, the Spirit saw no use in such a gimmick as normal chairs were easy to move and did not betray you by moving wildly when you climbed on top of them. Still, he was still curious about the ticking disc, and if it meant balancing on top of a precarious chair would be the only way to satisfy his curiosity, so be it.
Very careful to avoid the slightest of movement, the pharaoh balanced on the chair, until he grabbed hold of the disk and got it off the wall.
Reclining on said chair, the Pharaoh inspected the ticking disk, turning it around and sideways to get a better look of the mysterious contraption. One surface was white, the other black. The white surface, which seemed to be the one you were supposed to look at, was covered by a layer of material similar to the telephone's string, only transparent. The outer part of the white surface was lined with numbers, and between the numbers were little rows of lines. On the center was a round fixed surface from which the three arrows originated from. Was it… a dial? One that showed time through these little arrows?
The thinnest and longest arrow moved abruptly on its own accord and then stopped. And then moved again. And stopped.
The spirit may have spent a full minute watching the slender stick circle its way across the disk, trying to decipher how it moved on its own accord. The movement seemed to be constant and fixed, leading the pharaoh to suspect it represented something and was not a mere trinket. But what did they represent? Maybe time?
In this case, if the longest and thinnest arrow represented the smallest unit of time, maybe the shortest and thickest arrow represent the longest unit of time, and the middle one was in between.
So it was 8, 7 and four little lines and 5, 5 and one line, two lines…
What did the lines represent? Perhaps if he knew their total number, he could make out the solution.
In total, the Spirit counted 60 little lines, including those below the numbers. In that case the time would be 8, 41 and 5,6,7… Or was it 43, 41 and 8,9,10?
…This made little sense.
The Spirit leaned back on the chair. This puzzle may have been more complicated than he expected. Maybe if he found a clue…
And then he noticed a piece of this strange parchment, filled with scribbles.
Meet up with Anzu at 4:30! :D
Help Grandpa with dinner at 6:00
Power Rangers on at 7:00!
Tuesday, first period free, get there at 9.30.
The spirit frowned in confusion. How was it possible to have dinner at 6, yet get to school on 9.30? Unless…
Realization hit him, as the puzzle pieces came together to shed light on the situation. The day was split up on two 12-hour chunks… In that case, midnight would be at 12…
The spirit adopted a wide smirk. Now he knew the time too so he couldn't be late. The Ushio 'bully' better have his wits with him… The Spirit of the Puzzle had overcome all obstacles so far and was coming to get him…