My story is just about to begin
These words came through my head when it all ended.
Yet, nothing had changed. The world was still spinning and I had to move with it.
I still had friends, family, I still played Duel Monsters.
But something had changed.
I'm still trying to convince myself that everything is alright, but in reality I feel that I'm lying to myself.
Nothing is alright since he left, since we had this duel in front of the eye of Wadjet.
I knew that he wanted to take back what he had lost, his identity, friends, family...
I knew it, and because of that I decided to fight with him.
If someone else were to duel him, I just wouldn't let them win.
I couldn't..
In this moment, when I was about to win, I hesitated.
I kept asking myself if I wanted to let him go. I didn't.
I couldn't.
But I had to.
If I hadn't done that, he'd be trapped in our world forever.
I'd die and leave, but he'd stay. And I didn't want that. He wouldn't be happy. So I attacked and won.
But tears haven't stopped falling.
I couldn't tell him what the real cause of my sorrow was, so I told him first cause which came to my mind.
I told him that I wanted to be like him and that I was a coward.
True.
I was a coward because I couldn't tell him 'Don't leave me' or 'I need you', even if I knew it was true.
It hurt when he said that he was no longer the other me, that I couldn't call him Mou hitori no boku.
It was truth that he was separate person and I was separate person as well, and that I was the only one Yuugi Mutou. I even felt happy when he said that to me. But then I felt like he was renouncing our bond. Like he wanted to be associated with me no more.
I knew it wasn't truth ,but…
My friends also tried to make him stay, but they let him leave in the end. I knew that if I won't be strong at this moment, I will not forgive myself until death, so I just put on a fake smile and I promised that I won't forget him.
He smiled and left.
All the Millennium Items were lost in the sand.
The last thing that connected me with the Pharaoh was buried with the tomb, which started to fall down.
When we got out of this, I said to myself that I will be happy and that I will live for the two of us.
At the beginning it was good but then, I realized that he was not coming back to me.
That I won't hear 'Aibou' anymore. That I won't travel with him through his Heart's Maze. He was gone.
The others seemed to come back to the previous life.
Jonouchi was dating Mai, Honda and Otogi were still competing for Shizuka's affections, Ryou was still silent and closed, as if Bakura's death was rather upsetting him than making him happy.
Anzu started to dating Johnny, Ishizu and Marik were still in Egypt, Rebecca found herself a new "darling" – Leon, Kaiba and Mokuba have moved to the USA.
Life was still going on, but I was completely out of it.
I haven't even noticed when this six years since that duel gone by.
Every anniversary since that day I celebrated alone, without the tears because Atem had taught me how to be strong, so my suffering, even when it was unbearable, wasn't shown.
Just after some time I understood why it brought me more pain than my friends.
In all of ours adventures and "saving the world's" I haven't noticed that my friendship with Pharaoh had grown to something more. I don't think that he had noticed that – in all this battles and saving the universe there was no time for love.
Love. This feelings that I held and still hold for Mou.. For Pharaoh, were nothing else, but love. Maybe I was too young to understand, maybe I still believed myself to be in love with Anzu, I don't know. I haven't noticed them until it was too late. But then again, it was not the easy, typical 'falling in love'.
No. It was something deeper.
It still is.
I've discovered this when I'd sent a young boy, Judai, to the past with the help of Winged Kuriboh.
I went there with him to watch the duel from the hidden place.
In this moment, when the Spirit of Puzzle took of the duel, I noticed how happy I had been when our eyes met.
When I was watching him and my past self I understood, that for us it was no longer friendship. And that it hasn't faded away.
That I'm still waiting to see him again. That I think of death like of the way to meet with him in Afterlife.
I started to smile again after looking at the fight.
This love had given me a strength I needed.
I had hoped that I will meet him.
But I didn't know, that it will be that fast and under these circumstances.
