Yugi had opened the door, having expected a delivery to arrive for the shop, what he didn't expect was to see his former enemy standing in front of him and very much alive.
This was the man who had tried so hard to kill someone that he considered like a older brother, his best friend. Now here he was, standing in front of him with a grin, and in his own body like he had been in the Memory World; dark skin, greyish eyes, the grey hair and of course the scars under his eye.
He just stared at him, before he finally gathered his wits; "How are you here? The Pharaoh destroyed Zorc!" He exclaimed, wondering for a moment if perhaps this was a dream, most likely a nightmare, but considering everything he and his friends had gone through since Pharaoh Atem entered their lives, he doubted it, it didn't matter how wild something might seem, chances were it was true.
The ancient Egyptian chuckled, which made Yugi shiver with fear as he didn't have Atem to help him now; "Did he? Or, did he destroy everything negative that was affected and that created Zorc to begin with? Which was the reason why Zorc had to cling to me?"
Yugi was caught off guard with that, he never considered that before, yet he was still worried about this; "So you are saying that you have a second chance? But… why here?" As far as he was concerned there was no real reason for the evil Bakura to be here, they had been enemies before after all… at least in part, if what he was being told was true.
"Because…" He grimaced as he fought to get the words out; "You are kind,"
The pair just stared at each other, Yugi couldn't believe this, regardless of all the adventures he had gone through with the other's, this was something completely different. He spotted that the evil Bakura looked rather agitated and restless as he waited for a reply of some sort, but Yugi just couldn't understand it; "Why me? Why not Tea or…" He scrambled for another name, but the only one he could have come up with would have been Ryou Bakura, and he was certain that the other teen wouldn't wish to have anything to do with the evil spirit, not after what he had put him through before.
"Tea can be kind, but she has her moments. Besides would it really have been fair if I had been sent to her?" He questioned Yugi, who had to admit that was a fair point, and he was well aware that Tea also had her faults, but it also raised another point.
"But no one is completely kind,"
The man nodded in agreement; "Indeed, but they, decided that you overcame many of the challenges that Atem had created,"
Yugi almost questioned that, until he realised that is was probably in relation to when he had brought Atem to the modern world, when he wasn't exactly as sane as he had been later, and then their was his Puzzle, just walking around his vast soul room was a hazard.
"Wait, they think that because I managed to deal with him that I would be able to deal with you?" Now Yugi felt like they, who he figured must have been the actual Egyptian God's, were just being mean, if he was telling the truth. Besides the relationship he had with Atem was different, they had grown to become friends, brothers even, while the evil Bakura was forceful, blocking the other Bakura out.
"I have learned that he was worse than I was when he first became free from containment in the Puzzle," As he said it, it was clear that he didn't believe it, and if Yugi hadn't have gone through it all with Atem, he'd have felt the same way.
Instead of arguing with him, Yugi just rubbed his head; "Did you actually agree to do this?"
"No, but that doesn't matter to them. They told me that I was to relive my life, without the influence of Zorc to cloud my mind. I can make any and all decisions myself, but they wanted to have someone oversee me to begin with," He shrugged his shoulders at that, like he didn't understand their reasons for doing so, but Yugi could.
They probably knew that Bakura would just go back to a life of crime, as he had back in Ancient times, rendering everything they had tried to do useless, but there was something else that made Yugi wonder about this; "Just to begin with?" He was suspicious about that, what was 'to begin with'? Was there a time line? However if he was stuck with him there was one other thing he had to learn; "What do I call you?" He hoped it wasn't going to be Bakura, he didn't want to distance himself from Ryou now.
He tilted his head at the shorter teen, then with a grin he spoke; "Akefia,"
Yugi blinked, thinking back over to the Memory World, where he and his friends, even Atem had all faced the thief king; "You never corrected us on your name!"
Akefia scoffed, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes; "Of course not. In Ancient times telling someone your name was to gain power over them. You saw what went on there, if you had an enemies name, you would have the power to place a curse or any number of spells on your enemies,"
Now Yugi noticed that although he still seemed agitated, he also seemed weary and…. unsure? He wasn't sure if he had ever seen Akefia look unsure outside of duelling Atem, so what was he worried about?
"So you have to stay here?"
"What did I just say? What did we just talk about?" He snapped, it was clear that Akefia wasn't amused about this situation any more than Yugi was.
"It's just…" Yugi began, he would have to speak to his grandpa about this and then try to figure out how Akefia could contribute to the household; "Joey and the other's will see you at some point,"
Now they both had roughly the same thoughts; Joey and Tristan would make threats, although they would be empty one's, though Akefia was not going to allow anyone to threaten him. He had shown them that he could deal with them without the use of Shadow Magic and he would be more than happy to repeat the process again if he had to.
"Simple, I just won't be here when they are,"
It did sound simple, but Yugi already knew that it wouldn't be the case, though he couldn't talk about Joey's private matters, yet Akefia would need to know why his plan wouldn't work.
Akefia watched the teen look pensive, knowing roughly what he was thinking; "I already know about Joey's situation with his father. Ryou might not be regarded as a close friend, but he knew about that,"
Yugi didn't expect that, no one in the group ever spoke about Joey's father situation in front of anyone, as far as he was aware, but the fact that Ryou knew about it, meant that perhaps if Joey and Tristan spoke about it then they might not have been as careful as they were when they were with the other's. He did feel bad for Ryou, but with him being possessed by the spirit of the Ring so often, the other's kept him away out of fear.
Akefia smirked; "Joey is loud, Ryou overheard him ranting a few times in regards to his father. Of course he kept quiet about it, since it was personal information," He did give him a sharp look, as if telling him off for keeping Ryou away from the group of friends; "Although many of the students of that school already knew about, they all knew to keep quiet about it. He should consider himself lucky that Ishtar didn't learn about it,"
Strangely enough Yugi felt guilty, if they had let Ryou into their group of friends, they probably would have noticed when Akefia was in control and then he realised what the Egyptian had just said; "Wait, hang on if Ryou knew and you obviously knew, why didn't you use that information?"
It was odd to see the grey haired man before him look conflicted, as if figuring out if he should tell the truth or not before he came to a resolution; "Because I have… had my own personal code. Not even Zorc could override something like that," He looked down at Yugi, daring him to say anything about that.
He frowned; "Your own personal code?" It was something that he wanted to hear more about, because in the Memory World he had seen nothing that could be regarded as a personal code, unless it was a short one.
"We can discuss that later," Akefia look down at his own clothing, and was thankful that he had returned to his own body, with modern clothes, although he did still get to wear the gold from his previous life; "I suppose these will do for just now," He commented off handedly.
Yugi looked at the clothes he was wearing, although he knew the other would need to go out and buy his own clothing, it wasn't like he could borrow his clothing; "Well you could help Grandpa with the shop," He decided to suggest, after all it would help Akefia earn some money though once he said that the other man bristled, which was when he remembered that his grandfather had been a Priest in the past; "You know he's not against you,"
Those stormy grey eyes looked at him with certainty; "I'm a thief, that is what I do best," He stated, as if Yugi should have known better than to even suggest such an idea.
"Really? Because from what I have seen," Yugi felt that gaze become sharp and he did his best to not let it get to him; "You are a brilliant Duelest, Bakura… Er… Ryou admitted that he was never overly interested in the game, and that his deck had never really been built for anything other than just having it. But you created it, you had myself and Atem on the run so many times,"
It was clearly the right thing to say, as Akefia felt that praise reach him, his gaze on Yugi relaxed which let him breath a little bit easier; "Regardless, you can't expect me to simply stay in a shop and just work my life away, where is the fun in that?"
"Huh, is it because you don't know how to work in a shop? Or are you intimidated?" It was an innocent enough question, but the moment those words left his mouth, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. This was Akefia, formerly part of the entity known as the evil Bakura, but he was surprised that he didn't snap at him, instead he just looked rather confused, as if he didn't understand what Yugi was up to.
"Centuries. I have been a thief for centuries. Do you think I could just wipe away what I am so easily? Like I was never a thief? Regardless of what they want from me, I will never give up on being that," He sounded so angry, yet Yugi was certain he heard a distressed toned in his voice.
He did agree with Akefia though, it would be asking too much when he had been a thief for so long; "So how about if you work a few times a week and then you could…" He trailed off, realising what he was essentially giving his permission for Akefia to do.
"Steal?" He smiled, getting the humour out of the situation when he noticed how Yugi was blushing at his mistake.
"But only from the rich…" His blush became deeper when he realised exactly what he was suggesting.
"Then give to the poor?" Akefia cackled; "You think I will become Domino's own Robin Hood?" He laughed so hard that he had to lean against the wall to keep his balance.
Yugi smiled; "Wouldn't you have wished for someone to have helped you?" He realised that this would be a sore point, after all Akefia's hurt, hatred and loneliness had been the reason how Zorc had remained around for so long, it would be too easy for him to lash out.
"I had help," He stated, looking carefully at Yugi, no longer laughing, but remained leaning against the wall by the door.
"Until Zorc took over,"
Akefia didn't reply sharply, instead he looked rather thoughtful; "No one would have helped a child from Kul Elna. It resided on the outskirts of Egypt,"
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't…" He realised that he hadn't been aware of where Akefia's home was, of how far away from other's it had been.
Akefia's laugh was bitter; "Of course you didn't know, the Shadow Game separated you from the Pharaoh, you didn't have his thoughts in your mind to share," He shook his head; "Not that it matters now, they are all gone,"
Yugi wanted to say something more, but they were interrupted by his grandfather, who looked startled to see the Egyptian at the door, but he had no inkling as to who he actually was. Which to Yugi it was just as well, because he was able to come up with a quick lie as to who he was, not a completely lie though, he would never want to give his grandfather an outright lie. However he didn't want his grandfather to know that this had been the evil Bakura, the one who had tried to kill him. Instead he told him how the man was a former spirit of a Millennium Item and had been given a second chance at life.
Though as Yugi thought about it when his Grandpa greeted Akefia warmly and invited him in, wasn't that also the truth?
