And one more garden scene, just for my sister, who wanted to know what happened the second time around. This is it guys! Thanks for reading!

Koumori

A young man, of about 30, looked around. Around him was a garden. Small, but full of the most interesting and unique plants he had ever seen. Tending to the garden was a man, whom he was certain he should know, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Ah! I knew you would be coming. I am glad to see you." The man in the garden spoke to him, without even looking up to see who was there.

"Who are you?" the young man asked.

The gardener smiled. "Oh, good, you have forgotten me, I am pleased. It will come back to you eventually, but for now I think it best that you have forgotten. I would like tell you something that I think is best, with an open mind and heart."

The young man smiled. he loved puzzles and riddles, and this man was full of them. "What sort of thing?"

The gardener stopped watering the plants and looked at him for the first time. "I have a short story to tell you."

The young man nodded that should continue.

"Once upon a time, there were two brothers, but they didn't treat each other as such, because they didn't know they were brothers. Or rather they didn't understand the meaning of the word brother. Because of this, one of them died and the other was filled with grief. He had discovered that the very person he sought to destroy was his own family, and now it was too late. He couldn't save his life, but he could save his soul. He roamed the earth, and the heavens to play the ultimate game of redemption, but he still hadn't learned. He sought to do whatever necessary to rescue his brother, even if that meant that others would have to lose much along the way. Like his father, who like his son, didn't understand the meaning of the word brother either, he saw people who were not like him and his family, as others, as separate, as lesser. It was for this reason that he could not stay in the afterlife, upon his death, because he still sought to save one soul at the cost of thousands, because he had not yet learned the meaning of the word brother."

The gardener paused, and sighed hard, as though he breathed hard from pain, or a deep wound. But he smiled and continued. "His dedication, served his biological brother, whom he had sought to rescue well, but at a great cost, one his brother was not willing to pay, when he learned of his brother's mission. So even though he feared he would be cast out of the afterlife as well for interfering, the second brother, sought to insure that anyone, or at least as many people as possible that had been hurt by his brother's interference, could be rescued as well. When confronted however, he was told that he had done the right thing, he had understood who his brothers were, and for that he would be given a chance to insure that the first brother could learn the same as well."

The gardener paused, this time to see if the story had sank in. The young man was looking at the garden, deep in thought. "You do what must be done, to save the greatest amount of people."

The gardener nodded. "Holding people together, is much more difficult then breaking them apart."

The young man sighed. "I know that all too well." He posed a question that seemed to be bothering him. "Why are there weeds in your garden?"

The gardener smiled. "Who am I to decide what is weeds and what is harvest?"

The young man, cocked his head, comprehension dawning. "You are the other Yugi. The Pharaoh." He hesitated to use his true name. "You are...A..Atem."

The gardener smiled kindly. "And you Keitaro, are my brother."

The young man smiled, but corrected Atem. "I prefer Koumori, if you don't mind," shifting his appearance.

Atem smiled even broader. He gazed at the now tall, dark skinned, black haired young man." You are starting to recall all of your pasts. Good, good."

Koumori's cheeks seemed to redden in shame. "I preferred the blank slate."

Atem shook his head. "Nonsense, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You needn't worry about Yugi's reaction."

Koumori shook his head this time. "I am not worried about Yugi's response. I lived as his son for 29 years, I have seen his best and as Koumori, I have seen his worse. Yugi is not the brother in the story that did not understand the meaning of the word brother."

Atem's smile disappeared, but he nodded. "Indeed, he is not. Yugi sees the best in most people, and he treats almost everyone as his brothers." Atem raised his eyebrow. "Then why the shame?"

Koumori didn't meet Atem's eyes. "After all I have done, I didn't deserve such a...gift...two in a row to be exact." With his time as Yugi's handicapped son, he couldn't help but find himself a little more grateful for the things that he had been given.

Atem gave a hmm sound. "You deserved both of them. You definitely got the...raw end of the deal, many times. To be fair, I knew that Yugi would teach you love, compassion,and family, things you had never known before. Of course I also knew that your stubbornness, your passion and your...strength in the face of adversity, would teach him as well. That is why I recommended that you go back as his son. It was your turn to be Seba. And a fine teacher, you made. It also really says a lot for nurture versus nature." He gave a pensive half smile, thinking of a conversation he had had with Yugi about evolution.

A hawk flew overhead and landed in the garden. It shaped shifted into a form that Koumori was familiar with. "Marik Ishtar." Koumori stated plainly without surprise.

"Thief King." Marik nodded, seeing only the man that he had known. He smiled broadly. "Staying this time, I see. Good."

Atem responded. "He is waiting for someone."

Marik smiled knowingly. "Well, here he comes." He gestured to an old man coming over the horizon.

The old man entered the garden. "Who are you? Should I have remembered you? I feel like I should know you." He seemed at peace despite his confusion.

"Ah, good, you are staying. Come into the garden and stay awhile. It will come back to you shortly." Atem spoke with calm patience.

The old man looked around. "There are so many kinds of plants here. It must have taken a lot of work to get this to look this nice."

Atem nodded. Koumori shifted nervously. His appearance shifted to be that of Keitaro before the old man could turn his attention to him.

"I'm sure it was worth it. Hard work, usually pays off." The old man remarked calmly and Koumori stopped fidgeting. He may not remember anything, Koumori thought, but he sure sounded like the man he knew.

The old man turned his attention to Keitaro. "Did you help with this garden too?" Keitaro shook his head no. "I just got here."

The old man seemed satisfied with this answer. Something seemed to be coming back to him and he remarked. "There's time for that."

Koumori broadly smiled and shifted his appearance at the use of a familiar phrase.

Understanding awoke in the old man's eyes. He shifted appearance as well, looking the age, not of a young teen or even a young man, as he had been when Koumori had last seen him, but of a man in his thirties, with shortened hair, and the confident air of a well practiced surgeon. "I knew it was you."

Koumori blinked in confusion. "How?"

Ryo Bakura smiled. "Seto Kaiba was once thrown off, by the fact that he could read Ancient Egyptian texts, though he had never seen any before. Keitaro, too, could read a language he had never seen before, one that I created. He also knew the one thing, to say to my father, like he knew what button to push." Ryo smiled. "I never told anyone that phrase, only you would have known what words to use."

Koumori shrugged. "Except I didn't actually remember why that phrase would have worked, I just felt like I should say it. I'm glad that the two of you, made peace."

Ryo sighed deeply. "In ways, that I could not possibly have fathomed."

Marik interrupted. "I see it's all coming back now."

Koumori raised an eyebrow. "You have more then one past too?"

Ryo nodded. "As a child, I hated the way my father treated me, but as I got older, what I hated more was the fact, that when I looked into his eyes, I saw my own reflection, looking back at me. Not like mirror, but more like a window. I was afraid that this meant that I was going to be just like him, something I would have payed all the money in his bank accounts and my own, to prevent. But I needn't have worried so much, because I had already been there and done that, and learned from it."

Atem spoke up, before Koumori could respond. "It was a wise request."

Ryo gave a half smile. "It saved some of my blows, physical and emotional, for myself." Seeing Koumori's continued confusion, Ryo explained. "My previous life, was a bit closer to home then I might have guessed would be possible. In helping me, connect with my father, you helped me connect with myself. And when I learned to throw aside my hatred of my father, he learned to do the same. He learned to stop hating himself. Everything that I did to help my father become a better man was helping me become the man that had chosen to go back and become my own victim."

Koumori gave a awkward laugh. "Your past life was your own father! And you choose to come back to be his son. How masochistic of you."

Ryo gave a small laugh. "You already knew that about me, considering I agreed to help you."

Koumori nodded. "But, how is that sort of thing even possible?"

Marik shuffled his feet. "Time as a linear construct, is a...human perception."

Atem nodded. "For example, did I instruct Shadi's...Khabit, is what we will call it, for simplicity's sake; did I instruct him to give Ryo the Ring, because I already knew I had done it and therefore my action was merely tracing the circle already draw in the sand, or did my action cause the event that created my option?"

Marik smiled. "Can God create a boulder that he can't move?"

Atem laughed. "That riddle used to drive Yugi crazy. He hated riddles with no answer."

Ryo blinked. "Wait, you mean, Shadi, was following your instructions all along?" Ryo began to laugh heartily, but with a tension that bordered on the edge of sanity.

Atem smiled and laughed as well. "Did he know about the Egyptian God Cards because I told him? And if so then how did I know, because I found out from him?"

Koumori raised an eyebrow. "Who is to say that everything doesn't happen simultaneously. That everyone is, at any given moment, their greatest strengths and their greatest weakness."

Atem bowed. "I know what duty would best suit you, Koumori. A bat is not as blind as people think they are, and neither are you. You are not the man who doesn't understand the meaning of the word brother, either."

Koumori gave a bow back. "It has only taken me several thousand years, but I have learned much, from the best teachers."

Atem looked him solidly in the eye. "You were also my teacher. Trying to understand you, made me analyze myself, in a way I wouldn't have been able to before. You and I both know that the real past, as opposed to the RPG recreation, and it did not play out so...favorably, for me or you."

Koumori nodded. "You made many bad decisions, merely lacking...forethought. When I discovered what you had done, your sacrifice, to save your brother and your kingdom, it was in that moment, that I knew I couldn't continue to blindly hate you. I would have done the same, had I been able to save what I had lost. If only I could have seen, back then, that I hadn't ever really lost anything. Because I hadn't really cared about anything."

Atem smiled warmly. "But you learned to care..." And there was a moment of silent understanding between the two.

Marik looked to Atem. "I think I know which duty you are thinking of. Should I take him now?"

Atem nodded. "I'm sure that my suggestion will be accepted."

Koumori asked curiously, "What shall I be doing?"

Atem smiled." I'm sure you have heard the phrase, Whoever you turn away, shall be turned away, and who ever you let enter, shall enter."

In Koumori's heart, he could see the scales of Maat that once bothered him so as a child, for fear of being bad, and being devoured, a fate which he expected and welcomed with open arms as a Spirit. Luckily enough, that had not been the case.

Koumori smiled. Who better then the shadow to weigh the amount of light? "The scales balance when something is on both ends. For that reason I would like to take Ryo with me. After all, he was my Change of Heart."

Ryo smiled sheepishly. "And you were mine."

Marik laughed. "We all are fusion monsters aren't we?"

There was laughing among those present in the garden. Ryo laughed. "This is where Tea usually made a speech about unity and friendship." The were some additional chuckles at this.

Atem nodded. "Go now then, we will meet again."

Ryo nodded. "Are you going to stay here?"

Atem nodded. "I am waiting for my other half. Mou hitori no Boku. And for all my brothers."

The wind stirred in the garden and the three of them were gone. Atem sighed. But he knew he wouldn't have to wait long.