EDIT: I decided to combine this and Monologue and then continue this as a series of one-shots, as you can see. I don't know if I should have just created a new story altogether but meh, I'm doing it like this so deal with it.
All of the one-shots are going to be manga-based. The cover art is done by me.
This one is set right after the iron plate hockey Shadow Game.
WARNINGS: Contains mentions of setting a guy on fire, meandering, slightly fragmented thoughts of a not yet quite sane spirit, a very passing mention to Peachshipping, and possibly bad grammar and/or spelling errors (English is not my first language).
Summary: He was Yugi Mutou, yet he wasn't. The Other Yugi contemplates his existence, his identity, and his role while walking home from his latest Shadow Game.
Identity
He didn't look back when he walked away from the screams. He had already seen the burning body writhing on the ground, screaming like there was no tomorrow. The smell of charred flesh pushed aside the crisp night air. He kept walking briskly towards the street that stretched beside the school. The explosion must have attracted attention. The fire department might be there soon. The burning boy might still be saved, or he might not. Most likely not.
He didn't care. It had been a deserved punishment. Nobody trod down the soul of Yugi Mutou and got away with it.
It was funny how many people seemed to think they could.
He supposed it was because Yugi made it so easy. Yugi was simply too kind to fight back. His appearance didn't help either. Yugi was skinny and short enough to pass for a ten-year-old even though he was in high school. And about a fifth of his height consisted of wild, spiky hair. That also made it easy for people to underestimate him as well.
It was always fun when they laughed at him, thinking they had the upper hand. Then breaking them was all the more sweeter. Then the punishment was all the more crushing.
He rounded a corner and kept heading home, hands in his pockets. Street lights dotted the pavement, brushing against his face and making the shadows around him hiss. He felt the other consciousness stir within the back of his mind. Yugi Mutou was waking up. Quickly, with gentleness he didn't even know he possessed, he soothed the innocent soul back to sleep.
Not yet, he told the boy, you don't need to see this.
The young one drifted back to the world of dreams, but it wouldn't take long until he would wake again. He needed to pick up the pace. Besides, the farther away he was from the school when the police arrived the better.
He had left no evidence that would point to him. Everything he had touched had been either wiped clean of fingerprints or now burning in the chemical-induced fire. It would look like a tragic accident involving a hot iron plate and a careless young okonomiyaki maker. Nobody would connect the incident to innocent Yugi Mutou. There was no way Yugi Mutou would be capable of murder or revenge.
Yugi wasn't.
But he was.
When it was justified. When someone crossed Yugi Mutou. Because anyone who crossed Yugi also crossed him.
Because he was Yugi Mutou. Yet he wasn't.
He knew the innocent soul he shared a body with couldn't be the same person as he was. Yugi was kind, endlessly forgiving, and abhorred violence. Yugi was timid and let others walk over him. Most people called it weakness, and he could have so easily agreed. He wasn't sure why he didn't.
In any case, he wasn't like Yugi.
Yugi was innocent. He was the sinner.
Yugi couldn't – wouldn't – protect himself. So he would do it for him, whether Yugi knew about it or not.
Home was dark and silent when he got back. Yugi's home. His home. He knew it was his, yet he didn't feel the attachment he supposed should go with the knowledge. It was the same with everyone Yugi knew. He knew Yugi loved his family. He knew Yugi was very attached to his friends. He knew Yugi had a very special place in his heart for one Anzu Mazaki. So he also chose to feel that way towards them, even though the feelings weren't his own.
He would protect Yugi's loved ones. Because if they were hurt, Yugi would be hurt as well.
Then there were the memories that were passed from Yugi to him. He hadn't lived any of them, but he still remembered them, and he chose to cling to them.
Because he had none of his own. Nothing but darkness.
He supposed he could be another part of Yugi. A hidden part. One that was too separate from the innocence to fit into the same soul.
No, not quite separate.
He felt the link between them. It was the link that always signalled him of Yugi's distress and brought him forth. It was the link that leaked memories that were his yet weren't into his mind. It was the link that had created the corridor that connected his and Yugi's soul rooms together.
It all made sense, yet it didn't.
Because he also knew that he had come from the Millennium Puzzle. How could he forget? He didn't know how long he had spent inside it. Trapped. Captive. For too long, was his estimate. For too long had there been nothing but darkness. Darkness and shadows that tore at his sanity until he had shattered. He had many times been so close to losing himself completely, to becoming like one of the shadows. But he had pulled himself back every time. Because he had known he had been waiting for something.
Then there had been light.
Yugi Mutou had spent eight years trying to solve the Puzzle. And to free him. Yugi had never given up. Yugi had called him forth without even knowing it. Without knowing he even existed. And he had answered the call, drawn to the light like a moth. He had trashed in his prison, clawing, kicking, screaming, begging to be freed, knowing all the time that he couldn't be heard yet.
Then, with one last click, he had been free.
Free to protect the one who had saved him.
He walked with soft, quiet steps back into Yugi's room. The clothes he had put on had been the same that Yugi had worn during the day. No one would realize they were a bit dirtier than they had been this evening. He changed to the nightclothes Yugi had worn before going to bed. He washed his hands and face, checking the mirror to see that there were no signs of his nightly escapade. A face that was his yet wasn't looked back. No new cuts or bruises. Good. Yugi didn't need to know. Yugi would just be upset. Yugi would just feel guilty about it.
He didn't like seeing Yugi upset. Or hurt.
It wasn't just because Yugi hurting meant him hurting as well. It wasn't just because he was indebted to Yugi for freeing him. He didn't know what exactly it was.
Maybe it was just the fact that Yugi kept the worst of the shadows at bay.
Yugi kept him clinging to what little sanity he had salvaged from the darkness.
He sat on his bed and slipped under the covers. Only then did he let Yugi back in control. He felt the body relaxing when a sleeping soul took over. The bedroom disappeared and he was back in the labyrinth of his own mind.
He sat down on a set of stairs that were kind enough to obey the laws of physics. Most of the paths and stairs in his room didn't feel like doing that. He had appeared close to the door that led to the hallway between his and Yugi's rooms. He had looked into the corridor several times, but he had never been to Yugi's room.
He didn't feel like he had the right to go there.
It wasn't his room. It was one of the few things that belonged to Yugi that he was certain didn't belong to him as well.
Of the other things he wasn't quite so sure.
If he was also Yugi Mutou, didn't that mean he was just as much entitled to live his life?
Then why did he freely agree to take a back seat whenever there was no danger?
Maybe because something whispered to him that it really wasn't his life after all.
He certainly had no problems betting his life in his games, even when he knew it would also cost the innocent side his life if he lost.
But that was just one more reason to never lose.
His victory was Yugi's victory. His loss would be Yugi's loss.
Because he was also Yugi Mutou.
He silenced a little voice in his mind that told him it wasn't true.
Because if he wasn't Yugi Mutou, then who was he?
Author's Note: I've never watched Yu-Gi-Oh! Well, except for a few episodes of Season 0. I have read most of the manga, though. I don't know... I just felt like writing a sort of character study-ish thing about the more homicidal Pharaoh. I'm sure someone has done it better but this is my version anyway. I wasn't going to actually post this but then I figured, what the heck, I quite like it even though I also feel it's not that great. Gah! I'm confusing myself! Tell me what you think, maybe?
Also, an Anonymous reviewer pointed out to me that I probably shouldn't use Japanese terms in my fics. Yes, I agree, and I was never actually going to use them. Except if it's a name or something like food or a very traditional thing that doesn't have a proper translation. Like okonomiyaki in this one (it's a pancake-like food that can have various ingredients in it, sort of like toppings. I've never tried it myself).