B. A THOUSAND YEARS (multiplied by Five)
An endless turning stairway climbs
To a tower of souls
If it takes another thousand years, a thousand wars,
The towers rise to numberless floors in space
Or I could ride with kings and conquer many lands
Or win this world at cards and let it slip my hands
I could be cannon food, destroyed a thousand times
Reborn as fortune's child to judge another's crime
A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves
Like galaxies in my head
On and on the mysteries unwind themselves
Eternities still unsaid 'til you love me
Sting, A Thousand Years from "Brand New Day"
Classes had drug on at a snail's pace, even lunch, to Yugi's annoyance. The usual Gin Rummy game had lasted ten hands before the period ended and her new shadow, Bakura Ryou, was starting to get on her nerves as well. It was bad enough that the school paper had started a movement to push her and Kaiba together, but the fact that he seemed to always be hanging around in the background was worse. At the moment she was heading towards her grandfather's shop, the Kame Game Shop, intent on settling down with a nice dinner of chicken stir-fry and some tea before curling up in bed like a cat in the sun.
That hope was utterly ruined when she heard someone shout her name.
She repressed a whimper, but physically winced. Of course the voice had to belong to the soft-spoken Ryou, who had obviously decided that he would finally say something to her instead of just being the silent stalker. But, why did he have to chose now of all times? Some days she cursed the fact that she did not like to keep the volume on her MP3 player up really loud, seeing she valued her ear drums and they were a long term investment, not to mention it was dangerous crossing street intersections with them on high. Adjusting her black messenger bag, another words her left hand was gripping the strap just above her heart instead of lashing out against the new student, while her right hand loosely held her MP3 player with her thumb over the volume control. Was there any way to convey to this boy that she was in no mood to be very friendly, polite, and courteous?
Turning around she noted that he looked determined, so the answer was no. She pinned him with a bored stare and waited, but he just stared at her blankly for a moment. It was a creepy thing to observe, considering he looked like one of Kaiba's fan girls when he actually had to acknowledge their existence.
Meanwhile, Ryou's mind had gone blank as he finally caught up with the red haired girl. What the hell are you waiting for? I would love to get out of this damned ring in the next damn week. She won't bite your head off, maybe give you a black eye for being a stalker… that same voice snapped as Ryou rolled his eyes. She looked a bit annoyed and Ryou was inclined to agree with the voice in his head, she was going to try and deck him if he was not quick.
"Sorry for acting like a stalker today, Motou-san!" he apologized, stopping a few feet from her and bowed. From the corner of his eye he could see her left hand tighten around the strap of her messenger bag while the other held an MP3 player. With a sigh she slipped the small music player into the right side pocket and than reached up to remove her right headphone, indicating that he had part of her attention.
"What can I do for you, Bakura-san?" she asked in a bored tone, her shoulders slumping a bit while she shifted her weight to her left leg. He blushed a bit at her tone and tried to ignore the music that he heard and the nervousness that suddenly came over him.
Why did I call out to her again? he asked himself as the voice growled in annoyance and snatched control from his host, mentally growling out a few curses for him being shy and stupid on some, if not most, occasions.
"Yamanaka-sensei suggested that I should borrow your history notes, seeing you have the best attendance in the class and your scores are very good, not to forget the fact that no one else was willing to give up their notebook." The in-control voice stated out loud with a pleasant smile, wondering if his face would become stuck like this and if he would be allowed to indulge himself in some alcohol for being this damned polite in public, he was a thief for the sake of Ra and they were not this polite!
"I suppose, I can ask Kaiba to send me a copy of his if needed." She told him with a thoughtful look before looking down and using her left hand to pull the flap of her messenger bag up and her other hand to dig out a plain notebook that had 'History' handwritten on the binding. Yugi offered it to him, he accepted with another smile as she let the flap drop back into place. "All of the notes are between the covers, take what you need and try not to destroy that notebook… the poor thing tends to spit out pages at random."
"Of course." Ryou replied, smile faltering a bit as he shoved the voice back again, cursing its impatience.
"Just staple them back in or shove them in place, but keep them in chronological order." she added with a shrug and picked up her headphone, from where it was hanging by her waist, and slipped it on again. "Finally, I would like it back by first bell so I can finish the drawing on the last pages. The battle scene was just getting interesting." With that she turned and started to walk away as he stared down at the black-and-white diamond design, cardboard cover that had 'Motou Yugi' on the front in black pen and orderly kanji.
"Thanks." he muttered to her back as she waved a hand in good-bye, or dismissal, before disappearing into the crowds.
Battle scene? the voice asked in curiosity as Ryou tried to squash him down; they could poke around the notebook in the comfort of their own apartment. People were looking at them oddly enough as it was. With a growl of annoyance, he shoved the notebook into his bag and missed the fact that Yugi was standing on the street corner opposite of him and was watching him stalk off in the opposite direction she had been heading.
Yugi frowned as she tried to figure out what was going through the transfer student's head; he was really an odd character among the usual ones that already walked the halls of Domino High School. He just went from polite and shy to growling and stalking away as if someone kicked his puppy. Shrugging this off as something that usually happens, since it did, she started her trek through the streets of the city, which was just a mere stretch of the legs and only a fifteen-minute walk when the weather was decent. After that meeting, and letting her mind go on autopilot, she had managed to cut down her usual time to ten minutes. When she was finally pulled from her internal debate about the characters around her by the fact that she stood before her grandfather's shop slash where they lived, the Kame Game Shop. The building was a typical shop, only a little smaller with a green and yellow turtle on the front sign and the kanji for 'Kame Game Shop' written in black across its back. She reached out and turned the golden knob on the wooden door with a glass panel that had a sign that proudly proclaimed 'Yes, We Are Open' on the front and opened the door, wincing when the little bell attached to the metal ring above the door was rung. So much for the stealthy entrance, thank heavens she was not a ninja.
In light of her failure to sneak in, she decided to hide the failure and turn it into something intentional. "Grandpa! I'm back!" Yugi announced cordially, pulling her MP3 player out by the headphone cords and shutting it off just as an old man with a wild hairstyle popped up from behind the counter along the back wall.
Sixty-eight-year-old Motou Sugoroku was at least a half-foot shorter than his five foot six granddaughter, a bit stockier than her, with gray hair that was spiked up in the back with his bangs creased and flying away from his face. His face had a few laugh lines, a testament to the fact he was once a parent and was now a grandparent, but the feature on this man that drew people in was his large purple eyes and a calm, understanding air that hug around him and compelled people to trust him. How he kept that air about him while being an archaeologist and former professor, she would never know. It was one of the many mysteries that haunted his old friends, colleagues, as well as her friend's daily lives.
"How was school, Yugi?" he asked with a smile, dusting his hands off on the blue jean overalls he wore before straightening his dark blue shirt. He fixed his granddaughter with a stare that was neither demanding or innocent, but a medium that made her shift a bit and debate on how to answer this question without being interrogated too much over dinner. There was a puzzle calling her name in her room, after all, and she had no homework on this dull late, Monday afternoon.
"Mind numbingly boring, with the occasional interesting point. Managed to play three too many hands of Gin Rummy during lunch and gained a stalker for most of the day, but nothing different there" she stated with a shrug, walking past the counter and started up the stairs that was off to the left of the counter, the ones that led to the living area on the second floor of the building.
"Stalker?" he echoed with a frown as she paused after five steps, turning a bit and shrugged.
"New student decided that I was interesting, I guess, or he was just hellishly bored and Seto and I were the victims." Yugi dryly replied as Sugoroku's eyebrows rose by the fact she called Kaiba by his first name instead of 'Kaiba' like she usually did. "Grandpa?"
"When did he become Seto, Yugi-chin?" he asked with a wide smile and a devious look in his eyes, making her shiver at the can of worms that had just been opened by that little slip up.
"Slip of the tongue, honestly, it has been one of those days." she answered and quickly retreated up the rest of the stairs as he rolled his eyes at her stubborn nature, which had been inherited from his side of the family, and than shook his head. Those two would never admit anything, that he knew, but it would be an interesting day when they did so. All that tension may melt away when they were around one another. "I put some new card packets on the coffee table in the living room so please thumb through them tonight or tomorrow morning before school"
"Thank you, Grandpa!" Yugi called down as he heard her open the door at the top of the stairs and, moments later, shut again.
Yugi groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead, what a slip up! She entered the living room where a small entertainment center was set in a corner, just before the entrance to the small kitchen, with a sofa against the far wall with the small hallway to the bathroom and three rooms. She picked up the two foil card packets and made a beeline for the hallway, shoulders slumping forward a bit as she paused in front of the first door and turned the gold knob and pushed in. People same that the eyes were the windows to a person's soul, but it can also be argued that how someone decorates their place of residence reflected just the same and Yugi's room was no different.
The walls had been painted a lavender color with Egyptian hieroglyphs painted in gold four feet from the floor, done by her grandfather as a gift. Over the years many things had been added to the room, seeing she rarely threw things out, and the most prominent addition was a four-shelf black book case that was at the foot of her western style bed, which sat low to the ground. The bed was beneath the only window in the room, and covered in dark red sheets with black pillow cases and several blankets of varying clothes and ages strewn all over it. The window had heavy purple curtains tied to the sides by golden rope and the sheer white curtains obscuring all view of her, as did the black macabre plant holder with a long vine being held. A taller shelf was placed against the wall opposite of her bed and far enough away that it was not going to fall on her in the fight, and just to the right of the door with the shelves facing the bed. These shelves were packed with books on ancient cultures, mythology, on Egypt, and ancient history with a few modern history books with trinkets that were important to her. A five drawer dresser made of dark wood was placed in the center of the wall that her headboard resided against and had a black spider-web lace on the top and several trinkets spread over it, her dueling deck sitting in the middle of all it in its plastic case. Across from the dresser was a matching desk that had a green lamp to the left side, two drawers on either side, and had many papers haphazardly left on its surface with at least two books and many pens, pencils, and highlighters weighting them down. The walls either had several black plastic frames, one was a movie poster for The Nightmare Before Christmas and the rest were dragon puzzles, and had been hung randomly on all walls with tapped up pictures from animes or just random things she found on-line.
Home sweet home.
After taking a few calming breaths and crossing the threshold into her sanctuary, enjoying the faint scent of chocolate and flowers, Yugi dropped her school bag by the door to her room as she closed it. Closing her eyes and crossed the room in three steps and flopped down on her mattress and blankets, arms spread to either side with her legs hanging off of the bed. With a sigh of utter relaxation she slowly opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling and attempted to will herself into action… to find the puzzle that had been determine not to be solved since her grandfather gave it to her four years before. Sometimes she wondered how well he could hide his sadistic streak, giving a five millennia old, pure gold, cursed puzzle to his twelve-year-old daughter as a coming of age gift.
Speaking of the nearly impossible to solve gold puzzle…
Yugi finally sat up, brushing a hand through her hair, and sat on the edge of her bed surveying her room. The ornate, dark mahogany and gold inlayed box that held the gold pieces sat on the top of the four shelf bookcase at the foot of her bed on a white doily of pineapples with only a stack of six paperback puzzle books, three frog decorated pencils that ranged from two inches to five inches on top of the stack with a well used rounded pink eraser, to its left side and a digital clock to the right that showed that the time was 4:13 pm. Pulling her feet up on to the bed and sprawling out on her stomach this time, she reached out and tapped the lid of the box. "Looks like it is just you and me tonight, eh?" she muttered tracing the gold designs with a small smile before reaching out with her other and carefully picking it up by the sides and sitting it on the bed in front of her. "The cards!" she exclaimed getting to her knees and casting a look at her bag, which was across the room and by the door. "Nah, they are too far away and I don't feel like getting up for them till dinner… yes, I'll look at them when we sit down for dinner." She told herself and stared down at the box, fingers itching.
Sitting back on her butt she reached out and pulled the box closer to her and turned it around to the front where the eye of Horus stood out on the side of the box with the simple clasp. Carefully opening the box, she started to pull out the remaining pieces and spread them around her. There were at least four clusters of pieces that had merged together and at least ten floating pieces that she sat before the box before picking the box up yet again and turning to sit it on the pillow at the head of her bed. Picking up an oddly shaped piece and inspecting it in the sunlight, she had a sudden reminder about something. "Damn it, dinner with Seto tomorrow night around six." she muttered to herself while reaching out to pick up the one cluster of pieces to her left and managed to fit the piece to the one side.
She did not know how much time passed, but she had four more pieces in place and had connected two of the clustered pieces together. The muttered curses and musings had started in her frustration, she missed the door opening and her grandfather peeking in. "You do know that when you start to talk to yourself, you are heading for the homestretch in the insanity race and the next one is hearing voices." Sugoroku told his granddaughter with an amused look, which widened a bit more when she jumped a foot in the air and the piece she was holding, which had the eye of Horus on it, tumbled into her lap. Yugi glared at him for his sneakiness, but he snickered in response and flipped the light switch that turned on the light that was in the center of the ceiling and covered by a frosted glass covering.
"I just lost two years of my life!" she whined with a pout as he laughed out loud, shaking his head at the fact his serious granddaughter sounded like a five-year-old that was just denied a sweet. "Evil, evil Grandpa." With that she turned back to the puzzle and fished the puzzle piece that she had been holding from her lap.
"Than you should be more aware of your surroundings." He shot back and crossed his arms. "Dinner will be in two hours, I've decided to make soup tonight and dug out that old recipe I had from Egypt and it turns out we have everything for it." He told her as she cooed, a starry look appearing in her eyes.
"Yatta!" she happily declared with a true smile and bobbed her head about to music that he could not hear at the prospect of one of his infamous stews. He may not be able to cook any other type of meal but soups, but those soups were worth cooking the rest of the time.
"I'll call out when I need you to start the rolls." He added as he stepped from the doorway, shutting the door as he went.
"Soou-ou-ou-oup." She drawled out like the B-rate science fiction movie zombies drooling over brains. So the day was actually looking up, Yugi figured as she stared at the shut door before turning to look at the puzzle sprawled out before her. With renewed determination, she decided that she would assemble the remaining pieces in an hour and than go hover in the kitchen for dinner of stew. "Fresh biscuits, since rolls require sitting for an hour or so… well I could do rolls if I finish this early." She muttered to herself, now excitedly waiting for dinner to be done.
As she continued to work on the puzzle, the pieces started to feel a bit colder and she swore that the shadows in the room were a bit darker and seemed to have a personality. Sure the fluorescent lights had chased away the shadows that had lengthened with the sun setting, but that did not explain why the hair on the back of her neck were raised and she had the sudden urge to get a flashlight from under her bed and sit in the corner and glare at the shadows till morning. More pieces clicked into place and she combined the two clusters, leaving only four pieces before her and an upside-down pyramid that was missing two corners and a line down the middle. She groaned and tilted her head back, rubbing her neck and right shoulder as the strain of leaning over the puzzle started to take its toll. This was not good for her back, but there was always the age-old adage 'no pain, no gain' to remember.
Only a half hour had passed, she noted after glancing at her digital clock and the fact that its red numbers declared it to be 5:30 pm. Well, at least the only plus was that she was now down to only four pieces instead of the original ten floating ones and the four clusters. She may actually make it! Yugi took a moment to turn and stretch her legs out over the side of the bed, wincing as her calf muscles and knees protested the stretching while her right foot had the pins-and-needles feeling of the circulation speeding up a bit. "Never sit like that for a long period of time ever again." She grumbled, knowing that it was useless to say such a thing when she would do it again. Swinging her legs a bit she braced her hands against the edge of the bed and leaned her head forward, letting her hair fall forward and cover her face. "How about a nice, hot shower and then finishing this frustrating puzzle." With that she slowly got up and muttered about her room, pulling out a fresh set of pajamas and undergarments and left her room with the prospects of being clean.
Sugoroku heard the shower start and left the kitchen, a towel over his shoulder and the stew was on the stove boiling for the next hour or so, and made his way to Yugi's room. The shower curtain's rings clinked as it was pulled close, he suspected, so he could step into her room and take a look at her progress on the puzzle without having to worry about the questions she would ask. Hell, he would ask the questions if he caught someone checking on his progress without his permission! Mentally he damned himself for accepting that damned offer from the twenty-year-old woman in Egypt who had seen a picture of his granddaughter when she was ten or eleven. This puzzle had been given to him by here, the woman's agenda still unknown but he would kill her if it hurt his darling granddaughter in any way.
He stood by the bed where the gold pieces were, noting the black lines that made up the designs at the corners he could see and the outer lines of the eye of Horus that would be in the center of the side that was laying face up, the front. He touched the main piece, only to retract his hand as if he was burned. The gold was cold as ice to the touch, but he felt like he was stung by the black lines he had touched. He glanced to the side as the shadows seemed to shift, growl in annoyance at the fact he dared to touch something that was obviously not meant for him. He backed away from the bed, keeping his purple eyes on the golden pieces that were sparkling innocently in the light and did not look away until he was in the hallway. It was than he turned and retreated to the kitchen, to where the phone was, and to where he knew the pieces of that artifact could not make him feel threatened.
Taking a few deep, calming breaths and pressing a hand over his heart, he finally steeled his nerves enough to make that phone call. To make the only phone call to that damnable woman. With a defeated sigh, and many colorful mental curses towards the woman, he picked up the phone and dialed the number that had been forced into his head, and dailed it. After a few rings, and maybe a minute that seemed like an eternity, someone picked up the phone. "Miss Ishtar?" he asked politely after a soft, female voice greeted him with a standard greeting and he suddenly felt a bit sick to his stomach. The ramifications of what he had agreed to those five, nearly six, years ago were finally making a return. "This is Motou Sugoroku, you told me to call today. Yugi is close to completing the puzzleyou told me to give her." He grit his teeth as his free hand curled into a fist, the biting of his nails into his palm the only thing that kept him from 'accidently' breaking a plate in his frustration and what the young woman was telling him. "Of course, Miss Ishtar." He coldly bit out and hung the phone up. Oh she would rue the day she started this little plot.
"Grandpa?" he heard Yugi ask, which caused him to jump this time and the towel that was drapped over his shoulder to slip off to the floor. He forgot that she took rather short showers and had not practiced what he had told her earlier about paying attention to her surroundings. "Who was on the phone?" she asked adjusting the bundle of dirty clothes in her arms with a frown.
"No one of importance, Yugi, just someone that I wish I had never met." He honestly told her as she nodded, but he could tell by the look on her face that she was unsettled. It was best that she was unsettled because something would happen soon and she may be in the center of the ordeal, to his annoyance. Yugi shrugged, obviously not curious enough to actually question him further, and left the kitchen for her room again. "I do hope you can forgive an old man for his follies." He whispered and turned his attention back to his stew.
After that odd conversation, and actually sneaking up on her grandfather, Yugi returned to her room clad in her red pajama pants and a baggy black shirt with her hair bound in a simple bun on top of her head. She turned to the left as soon as she entered her room and pulled open the doors for her closet and dropped her dirty clothes into the hamper that was on the floor amongst the five pairs of shoes for varying seasons and three board game boxes, seeing three school uniforms were hanging up with varying shirts and skirts while the top shelf had several boxes piled on it. Shutting the door she turned back to her bed and decided that she had wasted enough time and that those four pieces needed to be put in place before her mind beat her senseless for procrastinating.
Crossing the room for the third or fourth time that evening, she plopped down on the bed and picked up the first floating piece and slid into place above where the eye of Horus obviously went. "Nearly done." she muttered to herself, ignoring the fact that the metal definatley was told beneath her fingertips and that something was obviously watching her and it was getting on her nerves. The next two pieces easily slid into place, forming the upper right corner of the puzzle and the lower main point and left only one hole in the center of the front of the puzzle and the last piece was in her hand.
She did not feel the excited energy that flowed in the gold beneath her fingertips or the fact that the shadows were practically whipping around her. Everything looked to be ordealy to her, as it should have been, but the hair on the back of her neck had definitely risen again and her arms were covered with goosebumps. Yugi took in a deep breath and slid the final piece into place, letting the breath out as it 'clinked' and locked into place. Suddenly she felt as if she was frozen in her place, her right hand cradling the back of the puzzle and her left index finger pressed against the eye of Horus. Shivering, her eyes darted around due to the fact that her limbs did not respond.
The breath was knocked from her lungs and her eyes widened as something seemed be trying to crush her chest while a hiss tickled her ear. The next moment she was in pain and if she could have screamed, she would have. Her body fell back, the puzzle clutched in both hands, but she felt her conciousness, her soul, being pulled into the shadows. What had her grandfather given her?
A/N: I figured that the author's notes and such at the end would be better. Anyways, I'll try and update once a week on Saturday... I believe I am far enough head that college will not interfere, or is that the other way around? Anyways... the pairings are: Yami Yugi/Yugi, Yami Bakura/Ryou, Yami Malik/Malik, Seto/Jou... Otogi/Shizuka, Mokuba/Hotaru, and the rest are on the ropes right now.
Blizzardtorment: Ni! Sorry about that, but I have been discussing this with a friend of mine for awhile now. I just hope that the other changes I make agee with any that do review or such. Thank you!
FifthDayOfMay and Bellahshade: Thanks, your reviews also made my day when I seen them.
S2Teennovelist: To be honest, this is the longest review I have had in awhile. I know about the Sailor Moon and Harry Potter parts and I hope to actually change them in some way because I was writing like an adolescent, or at least rushing everything through which is not good. I will try and balance them out more, but I cannot help if I portray a few in a bad light. So far I plan on keeping Setsuna as a thorn in their side, as well as Queen Serenity and Mamoru, while giving Beryl a true reason to go to war with Serenity. The other character I was planning on helping out a bit was Hotaru, since the Seto/Mokuba pairing is not in this version, and pairing her with Mokuba (someone has to continue the Kaiba line and Hotaru would fit in well with them). That is all I know at this early in the game.