Yugi felt uncomfortable.
That could be because Yami had discovered how his back unscrewed and was now poking around his insides…
"Are you done yet?" he asked.
Yami looked up, a screwdriver in his mouth. He struck Yugi as a person more in his element than before. "Nope," he mumbled around the tool, smirking. "Don't move - you'll be fine." Yami patted Yugi's side reassuringly before going back to messing with Yugi's wires and gears.
Robots couldn't breathe, but Yugi heaved a mental sigh.
He wondered if his head could open. The image that thought brought up was pretty disturbing, but Yugi couldn't help being curious. A small portion of his original brain was there, but he also knew there was a computer intertwined with it.
"Oh, that's gross," Yami laughed.
Yugi forgot he was still hooked up to Yami's computers. He glanced at the screens to see the image his mind had produced being displayed.
After a moment Yami commented, "If it makes you feel any better there is literally no organic matter visible in this area. It's all rubber-lined wires and computer parts… The inside of your skin is metal, too. I wonder what kind of material this is?" Yugi jerked as Yami poked his side. "It feels just like skin."
"A type of gel that is further solidified than most," Yugi said, retrieving the information from his database. "It's textured to give the impression of - ow!"
"Ah, sorry, sorry," Yami said, hastily removing his hand. He peered at the fine wires attached to various parts of Yugi's metal interior. Then he tapped his fingernail softly against one.
Yugi pulled away. "That hurts!" he snapped, facing Yami. He ignored how the panel swung open at his movement, a few wires dislodged and hanging loose.
Holding his hands up, Yami said unapologetically, "I was just checking. I think those are what function as your nerves." He made a gesture for Yugi to spin back around, and Yugi reluctantly complied. Yami went back to his inspection, carefully avoiding the wires this time.
A few minutes later he asked nonchalantly, "Do you bleed when cut? I can't find anything that resembles blood or oil."
"Bleed?" Yugi thought about it. "I don't bleed. Processed materials automatically replace electricity in order to save that power source until the materials are completely used up. This can be found in a variety of forms… however, everything is kept from the surface, so as to avoid losing any necessary fuel."
Yami patted Yugi's shoulder. "Simple yes or no next time, alright?"
"...Okay."
Noticing a small device attached to the top of what served at Yugi's spinal cord, Yami pried it off using a crowbar. He didn't worry about breaking Yugi too much - it looked like it was only welded on, and not attached on an internal level. Finally it came away in his hand.
It had a spherical shape elongated at either end, each side resembling the top of an egg. Seeing a seam around the middle, Yami first pulled, then twisted the device both counterclockwise and clockwise. When it wouldn't budge, Yami gave up and put it on the side before glancing back at Yugi.
"Hey Yugi, you had a bomb in you."
"What?!" shrieked Yugi, jumping away from Yami. He paused when he saw the boy's shoulders shaking. "That was a lie, come back here," Yami laughed.
After making sure that there really wasn't a bomb, Yugi crossed his arms and sat back down stiffly. Deciding he'd poked around enough for the day, Yami made sure everything went back to where it was and screwed the panel back in place, unhooking Yugi from his computers. Handing Yugi a shirt, Yami remarked, "You're made of some cool stuff."
"Mm," came Yugi's muffled voice as he pulled the shirt over his head. He looked at it when it was on, then frowned. "Do you have any shirts that don't have Duel Monsters printed on them?"
Yami laughed. "Do you count the one you came in?"
"No."
"Then no."
Shaking his head, Yugi went to the outlet and plugged in the charger. He flicked open his port, beginning to charge himself. Yami noticed.
"Hey, at least eat something!" he complained. "I can cook, you know. Yesterday I was just lazy because you didn't seem to care, so…" He looked at the fridge. "Like, what about beef stew, or corn beef hash… Or even lasagna! I've got garlic bread to go with that, you know."
Yugi sat cross legged on the floor, smiling apologetically. "I'd rather not."
"Why?" Yami asked curiously.
Several responses crossed Yugi's mind, and he settled with, "I do have taste buds, but they function to identify what I'm eating. They can't really 'taste' the way a human does."
"What about the other four senses?" Yami interrogated, his eyes alight with interest.
A smile crossed Yugi's face. "Hearing is something I can genuinely experience, since I needed to be able to process sounds, tones, and tunes in a way an ordinary robot can't. It's hooked up with my original brain. And as for sight, it doesn't change too much from human to robot - though I guess colors are slightly muted, now that I think about it." Yugi paused, then continued, "Touch is definitely the same as before, too. It's just feeling textures, temperatures, etc."
"Huh." Yami grinned. "I wonder if I can rewire you so you can only see in black and white…?"
"No!" Yugi protested, shaking his head. "Absolutely not!" He covered his eyes with partially-closed fingers, staring at Yami. He didn't think Yami really would, but just in case…
Yugi blanked out for a second. What was he thinking about?
Right - Yami. He was going to mess with his vision.
Yami laughed. "I won't," he promised, opening the fridge. He lifted a frozen pizza, unwrapping it and placing it on the stove. Preheating the oven, he crossed the floor to sit beside Yugi with his legs straight out before him. He leaned back against the wall. "So what's your favorite color?"
"Huh?" Yugi asked, unprepared.
Yami shrugged. "My pizza is gonna take a while. Help me kill some time here."
"Oh. Well, green. Minty green."
"Favorite game?"
Yugi laughed at that one. "I love games. I can't really pick a favorite."
"Fair enough. Favorite celebrity?"
"I don't have one," Yugi admitted, blinking his eyes. He felt a bit tired.
"Why not?"
Self-consciously, Yugi leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands. "I don't know much about that kind of stuff."
"Hm…" After a moment, Yami asked, "Favorite animal?"
"Cat."
"Favorite mythical creature?"
"Kuriboh."
"Does that count? I guess so. Favorite… eh, I'm running out." Yami thought for a moment. "Oh, favorite symbol?"
"The Eye of Horus."
"The eye of what?"
Rubbing at a sore spot behind his head, Yugi explained, "I used to love mythology. There's a god of war called Horus, and the eye that symbolizes him is a large part of Egyptian culture. Or at least, it's a commonly found symbol."
"I did not know that," Yami commented. The beep of the oven interrupted them, and he stood to put the pizza into the oven. He took the egg device from the counter to mess with while he sat back down. Yami realized, "I asked all those questions, but I still have no idea what kind of person you actually are…"
"Quiet, or so I'm told," Yugi laughed. "I truly was a game fanatic, too." His head throbbed slightly. Attempting to relax, Yugi leaned back against the wall.
"Tell me something about your past, then," Yami said. "Nothing too personal, but something interesting."
A chuckle came from Yugi. "Interesting…?" he thought aloud. "Well, I lived with my grandpa, and he owned a game store. That's probably where I got my love of games from…" He trailed off, then laughed awkwardly. "I think that was about three thousand years ago, though?"
The device slipped out of Yami's hands with a thunk. "Three… thousand?!" he exclaimed.
"Or… five thousand…?" Yugi said. He ran the numbers through his head one more time, and frowned. "Hey, did you mess up my memory? There are two different files under the same name!"
Yami mirrored Yugi's frowned. "Of course I wouldn't mess up your memory! I'm no amatuer! It's probably just a mistake on some employees' part." He tilted his head. "How were you programmed, anyway?"
"How do you think?" Yugi deadpanned. "In a factory. We're mass-produced, remember?" He blinked as his processors corrected him. "Ah, wait. Most robots are built that way, but it looks like there are certain models that, when personalized to a certain degree, are worked on by specialists."
"Specialists?"
Yugi nodded, examining the information his brain supplied. "The most common type of modifications that require human personnel is combat. There's a lot of rich consumers who want protection." He laughed. "Joke's on them. Because some of them are Kaiba's enemies, he systematically uses those very robots to do away with…"
Curious, Yami interrupted, "Wait - who's Kaiba?"
"Kaiba is… er…" Yugi stared ahead, confused. His headache got worse as he sorted through his brain without luck. "I forget."
"How do you forget?"
"I forgot! It's not in my database anywhere! The name was associated with the company, but other than that I don't have any information related to 'Kaiba.'"
"What? Seriously? That's so vague…"
Yugi shrugged helplessly. "There's nothing I can do about things already hardwired into my brain." His expression changed. "Ah… Speaking of things hardwired into my brain. Your father wishes to speak with you. Will you accept his call?"
"Fine," Yami grumbled.
Yugi closed his eyes, then reopened them with a blank expression on his face. It was weird for Yami to see Yugi's face with his father's voice.
"How are you doing?" his father asked.
"Alright."
"Are you happy with your robot?"
"I guess."
"You had school today, right? How did that go?"
"No, I have school tomorrow."
"Is that so? Make sure to take care of Yugi while he's there. Have some fun with him."
"Sure."
"And don't mess with him, you hear?"
"Yes."
"You know I hate it when you waste your time on machines."
"Got it."
"Well… Take care."
"Take care."
The call ended and Yugi blinked, laughing. "You two aren't very friendly," he chuckled.
Yami sighed. "Tell me about it." He scowled at the ceiling. At that moment the oven beeped, and Yami stood to go take the pizza out. While he sat alone, Yugi closed his eyes and began to reorganize the information in his brain. It was harder than it had been when his 'humanity' had been locked away.
He kept wanting to just throw it all into his mental trash bin and fall asleep.
Yugi found a file labelled School and opened it. He immersed himself in the information provided about Yami's school, as well as the academic level he should be at. Then he returned his attention back to reality as Yami sat back beside him with a slice in hand.
It took only a few seconds.
"You sure you don't want?" Yami offered, holding it out to Yugi. When Yugi shook his head, Yami shrugged and took a big bite of the pizza.
Yugi laughed. "You're so strange!" he said. "Isn't it hot? It just came from the oven."
"Ah, I'm just too hungry," Yami mumbled around his food. "I'll regret the burning in my mouth later." He took another bite, clearly savoring the taste. Then the cheese dripped onto his arm, making him yelp. Yami scrubbed at the spot, scowling.
Suddenly his hand was knocked away from the tender skin, Yugi's own hands replacing it. Yugi dragged Yami - pizza slice and all - to the kitchen, running cold water over the spot. The robot accidentally unplugged himself in the process, although he acted as if he didn't notice or care.
Yami tried to pull away. "Hey, that's cold." Yugi didn't let go. "Yugi." He shook his arm, but the robot didn't relent. "Yugi! Let go!"
He blinked, then released Yami's arm. "I was just trying to help."
"Oh." Yami looked at his arm where Yugi had been gripping it, then smiled. "Well, thanks." He held up the pizza slice. "Sure you don't want some?"
Yugi made a face. "No… I'm definitely fine."
"Your loss." Yami finished off the slice quickly and sighed. "Now I'm bored. Hey, we have school tomorrow, right? Do you know anything about this school my father enrolled you in?"
"Yep," Yugi replied. "It's already downloaded."
Yami nodded absentmindedly. "That makes sense." He thought it over. "It'll probably be a bit harder since your perfect personality has been turned off, though. Might look more natural this way, huh?"
Yugi heaved a sigh. "Ugh, I hate introducing myself to others. I always get so nervous."
"Really?" Yami laughed. "I've never transferred, so I wouldn't know." He stood, gesturing for Yugi to do the same. "Come on. I'm bored, so let's go play some games."
"Great!" Yugi said enthusiastically.
Yami took out a few discs. "I have some RPGs…"
"Eh? No board games?" Yugi asked, slightly disappointed.
Yami shrugged. "I have a few, but mostly card games. I think I have a chess board somewhere… What, you don't like video games?"
Shaking his head, Yugi admitted, "I don't hate them." He made a face. "I'm just really, really bad at them. I prefer board games or even card games."
"Hm. Well, I have a deck of playing cards. And my Duel Monsters deck, but I don't want to lose any of the cards, so…" Yami tried to remember if he had anything else and came up empty. "All I got are playing cards and possibly chess, if we can find the pieces… Which probably won't happen."
"Why not?" Yugi asked curiously. He followed Yami to the closet, surprised when Yami opened it. After a moment of silence, Yugi nodded. "So how about those RPGs?" he said, closing the door on the piles of garbage bags and scattered items.
Yami held up the first disc. "I got three multiplayers. This one is about a traveler who saves a village from a local monster - classic storyline. It leads up to him eventually saving the kingdom from a big bad monster named Diabound. You can customize everything, from party number to character jobs…"
"And this one," Yami continued, "Is basically a maze. Two boys and a girl get lost in a labyrinth built by an evil man, and they have to survive it. Pretty much just avoiding traps and defeating monsters level by level." He shrugged. "Kind of challenging, I guess."
He showed Yugi the last game. "This one's new, I only bought it yesterday. It's a used game that hadn't come in a case, so I have no idea what it's about… The title is cool though - The Seven Millennium Items - so I thought I'd try it out anyway." He put them aside. "So which one do you wanna play?"
"Let's play the third one," Yugi said eagerly. "It sounds interesting, at least."
Yami put in the game, handing Yugi a controller while grabbing one for himself. After a few seconds, the menu opened up. It was a plain black background with the title of the game in white above while three lines of text - New Game, Load Game, and Quit - appeared below.
"Can't load what you don't have," Yami muttered sarcastically, selecting the first option.
They both waited impatiently as the screen went black, the word [ Loading ] popping up in the lower right-hand corner. Then it vanished, replaced by the image of a young boy lying in a dimly-lit room, the walls and floor made from brick.
"Excellent graphics," Yugi murmured.
A water droplet fell onto the boy's cheek, causing him to stir. He opened his eyes, sitting up and looking around. "Where am I?" he said, confused. The subtitles revealed his name to be Atem.
Atem scrambled to his feet, pressing his hands against the nearest wall. "There's no doorway!" he said urgently. "How do I get out of here?"
The screen turned black before colors permeated it again. The graphics were slightly simpler, and the map in the upper right corner made it plain it was time for Yami to move his character. After the game explained how to move Atem and navigate his surroundings, it left the rest to Yami.
"Okay… So this works how, exactly?" Yami laughed, jokingly walking the character up to one of the walls. He moved Atem around the room against the walls until a notification appeared.
[ Examine Strangely Colored Brick ]
Yugi leaned over and pressed the button. Laughing at Yami's affronted look, he defended, "You were taking too long!"
The graphics converted to cutscene mode, zooming in on Atem as he ran his hand over the bricks desperately. When he pressed the brick, it sank into the wall like a button, emitting a click.
"Eh?" Atem exclaimed, pulling his hand back. He watched in awe as a section of the wall slid back, opening up a dark corridor. His hair moved in a slight wind, and he hugged himself. "Cold," Atem murmured. "Maybe… this leads outside?"
When the cutscene ended, Yami immediately sent the character running through the doorway, turning the screen black. A notification asked, [ Save Progress? ]
"Well, yeah!" Yami said, hitting the affirmative. It loaded, and then the field map came back. It was a long corridor made from more bricks that was straight and somewhat narrow. Yami moved the character forward, growing bored. "I wanna actually do something," he complained.
Yugi watched the screen attentively. "Oh look," he told Yami, "Someone's standing in front of that doorway. Go say hi."
"Absolutely," Yami deadpanned, manuevering Atem into place. A cutscene started playing.
Atem walked up to the armored man. "Excuse me, I'm lost," he started, but was interrupted as the man - whose name was Guard, according to the subtitles - demanded, "What are you doing out? How did you escape your cell?"
Taken aback, Atem repeated, "Sorry… Did you say cell?"
"Are you deaf?" The guard unsheathed his sword, pointing it at Atem. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you won't get past me! Get back there this instant!"
"Wait…" Atem attempted, holding his hands up in a surrendering gesture.
Clearly not about to listen, the guard snapped, "Resisting, eh? Fine, just die then!" He swung his sword at Atem, and the boy dodged.
The image paused, and then shattered. Battle music played as both Atem and the guard were positioned on the screen, both with their names and health bars hovering above their head.
"Time to learn how to fight!" Yugi said cheerfully, noticing how Yami perked up. Figuring he'd get a chance to play later, Yugi set his controller aside and settled in to watch. After Yami defeated the guard, he took the spoils - a basic sword and 30 gold - and exited the corridor.
[ Save Progress? ]
"You probably should," Yugi said.
Yami, who was about to select No, shrugged. "Alright then." He saved the game, and the loading screen appeared.
"We have school tomorrow… We should eat dinner and call it a day," Yugi added.
Yami nodded. He leaned forward and turned the Tv off. "Are you actually gonna eat?" he asked, heading to the kitchen.
Yugi shook his head. "I'm good," he said sheepishly, holding up the charger cord.
"Your loss."
