The sun had not yet risen over Domino City but Yugi was already awake.
She had not slept well. The news that someone was once again after her had drawn in nightmares that had made sleep almost impossible. She supposed she should not be surprised. If someone else was going to attack them, it made sense that it was over Christmas.
She hated this time of year. She had for as long as she could remember. Nothing good ever happened during the winter holidays. She was trying to make the most of this year for her twin's sake, it was her first Christmas after all, but this new information had entirely confirmed Yugi's thoughts that Christmas sucked and the sooner it was over the better.
Today's Duel was something that both her and Anesan could look forward to though. Kaiba was always a challenging opponent. She and the spirit of the Puzzle had spent the last couple of hours working on her deck, getting it exactly how they wanted it for this afternoon, balancing out the need for speed summoning by adding back in things like the Royal Knights, and her Magician base by keeping in things like their Sorcerer of Dark Magic, who Yugi had yet to see in play, and adding in a Sage's Stone to allow her to summon the Dark Magician more easily once she had the Dark Magician Girl on the field.
She was kind of looking forward to seeing them again. She had not been able to use holograms in her duels since the Anubis incident when the jerk had destroyed hers and Kaiba's Duel Disks to prevent them summoning against him when he had grown desperate. She missed it greatly. Especially considering the last time she had summoned the pair of Magicians who had seen her through some amazingly tough times.
Mana, the Dark Magician Girl, had been bright and friendly, if a little uncertain, while Mahad, the Dark Magician, had been quiet but had been at her back the entire time. Something that had been a huge relief after the absolute horror that had been that whole fiasco.
Between nightmares caused by the events of Battle City and those invoked by Anubis's Shadow Games, Yugi was lucky if she got any sleep at all. She wanted her Duel Disk and her virtual monsters back, if only so she could feel like she could defend herself again.
She knew it was daft and that Jou and Honda had her back and Anesan was there if she needed her. However she knew she would not feel safe again until she had it. She had also asked Jii-san's permission and gotten herself enrolled in self defence classes. She hated fighting. Absolutely hated it. However she was fed up of being manhandled and pushed around. Fighting to protect herself and her friends was different from fighting for no reason and she had absolutely no intention of letting someone hold her captive again.
'Imoto, you should be sleeping.' Her older twin's sleepy voice echoed in her mind, causing Yugi to wince. Anesan had gone back to sleep on the agreement that she too would go back to bed and try to catch a couple of hours of sleep before the shop opened at eight.
'I know, I'm sorry.' She apologised to the spirit of the Puzzle, who sent reassurance and concern down the bond. 'But I can't sleep.'
'I can tell, your emotions are so turbulent it woke me up.' The spirit of the Puzzle emerged from her resting place and sat on the desk, watching her. For a moment Yugi was fascinated by the way the moonlight actually cast a light shadow of the older twin on the floor, then the Pharaoh's soft voice called, 'Imoto...please, talk to me. I know there's something wrong. Is it just everything that happened last month or is it more?'
'It's...' Yugi hesitated, not wanting to make her sister feel bad.
'Imoto. Please.' Yugi sat up straight and stared at the Pharaoh at those words, stunned by her tone. Anesan did not beg. She never had. Yet here she was, pleading with her.
'It's...everything, I guess.' Yugi admitted with a sigh, looking down at the floor, her shoulders sinking, 'I'm tired, Anesan. I haven't been able to sleep properly since Battle City, Anubis was...awful and now there's someone else after us. At Christmas. Which only makes it worse.'
'Why?' The bed did not move as the spirit of the Puzzle sat next to her, but Yugi could feel the light pressure of her sister's hand as the spectral sight of it moved into her line of vision and took her hand, squeezing gently. 'What is it about Christmas you're not telling me?'
'Christmas...Christmas was when my parents left me with Jii-san.' Yugi admitted quietly, her free hand balling up as old anger and grief rose up in her, 'They were fighting and five year old logic meant I tried to make them stop by showing Okaasan what I'd been making, some stupid little cookie decoration, it wasn't important but it was Christmas and I just wanted...'
'Imoto...' The Pharaoh started when Yugi trailed off but her sister shook her head, not finished yet.
'Okaasan told me off for interfering in adult stuff and sent me to my room...I didn't listen, I went to find Jii-san. I heard them go out and...they never came back. I love Jii-san and I'm glad I wasn't in that car but...'
Oneesan's eyes widened as she felt guilt mix in with the emotions flooding the bond. 'You can't blame yourself.'
'I can and I do. Otosan never liked fighting with Okaasan in front of me, so he probably suggested they went to get the shopping to keep it out of the house and away from me...' Yugi looked at her sister and shook her head, 'Jii-san's told me he doesn't blame me and he's given up everything to look after me so I know it's true but I know it's my fault they went out.'
'You were five.' The Pharaoh disagreed, 'They were adults. Do you blame yourself now for when Ojiisan goes out?'
'No but...'
'It's the same thing.' Oneesan interrupted her, 'You were a child. They were adults. They made the decision to take the arguing out of the house. You're not to blame.'
Yugi stared at her as she worked through that logic in her head. The Pharaoh felt the guilt recede as it sunk in. Not gone entirely but far enough that her twin sister was thinking a bit clearer. 'Even if that's true I don't want to lose anyone else. I can't. And now we have someone coming after us again and I'm afraid. I'm really afraid. Because every time someone comes after us, they take out their grievances on those close to us and...'
The Pharaoh mentally winced as memories flashed through her light souled sister's mind, Kaiba causing Jii-san to have a heart attack, Bakura nearly killing their friends, Pegasus stealing Jii-san's soul, the Death Duel, Mai's Penalty, Jou's near death, Anubis's actions...
She could understand her twin's fear. It did not matter if this new threat really was aiming at Imoto or whether they were after her, her light souled sister was always at risk and she was terrified of losing the girl. It had nearly happened so many times already. If the guy that had approached Jou had been trying to lay a trap, the green stone Honda had showed her had shown her that they carried a magic that could mess with hers. It made her afraid because she did not trust that she could protect those who were most important to her. However Imoto was more important right now and the girl was exhausted. She needed her to be strong.
'We'll win. We always win. It being Christmas won't change that.' Oneesan promised Yugi, her tone more certain than she felt, 'But you need to try to rest. You're not going to be any good in the morning if you don't.'
'I can't sleep.' Yugi huffed and flopped back onto the bed, 'My mind's racing.'
'You trust me, right?' The spirit of the Puzzle asked gently.
'Always, Anesan.' The pure trust flooding over the bond made the Pharaoh smile as she slipped back into the Puzzle and steadily drew energy off of her light. Not enough to hurt her, but enough to make her too tired to stay awake. It did not take much. Her sister had not been joking when she said she had not been sleeping well recently. She did not have much energy to spare.
Once her twin was deeply asleep, she returned the stolen energy and slipped into her own doze, needing to recover her own energy.
She did not wake up until their alarm clock went off, inviting them to get up and greet the day. Her sister was still fast asleep so Oneesan emerged from the Puzzle, taking control of the lethargic body to start the morning routine. She knew it well enough to do so while letting her precious sister get some well deserved rest and she waved at Jou as she passed his room on the way to the bathroom.
"'Neesan?" She paused at his call, sticking her head in his door and trying to ignore that he had no shirt on as he asked, "Yuge still asleep?"
"Yeah, she needs the sleep." Oneesan shrugged, "You okay?"
"Yeah, but I kind of need your help." Jou nodded, looking hopeful. "And I don't want Yuge to know. Not yet."
"What with?" He had peeked her curiosity and she leant against the door frame, watching him.
"Anzu, Honda and I have a surprise planned for Yuge." Jou shared, noting that the Pharaoh's body posture was not as relaxed as she was aiming for, suggesting the meeting about Valon had bothered the pair of them. "After store closes Christmas Eve."
He saw her pause to think about that, a little relief on her features showing that she too thought that Yugi needed something to take her mind off of her current stress. "Okay, how can I help? I'm not going to be able to provide extra hands."
"No but we want to get Yuge into town without her knowing or worrying, can you help?" Jou grinned at her brightly.
"That I can do." The Pharaoh asked, happy there was something that she could do towards it. It would not take much. All she would have to do was suggest that Imoto took a nap while she picked up Christmas presents for the family out of the money Jii-san put aside for her. "What's the surprise? Actually don't tell me, if I'm too tired I won't be able to hide it from Imoto. Just tell me where you want her to be and when."
Jou was stunned. The Pharaoh was super protective of her twin sister but here she was, trusting them to plan this big surprise and take Yuge out somewhere when there was a potential threat incoming without knowing anything in advance. He had known she trusted them, but he had not realised quite how much. "Fountain Plaza, 5pm Christmas Eve."
The spirit of Puzzle paused to consider that. The store was due to close at one that day. That gave her plenty of time to go out, do her shopping and still get to the plaza in time for whatever the others were planning. "No problem. Now do you need the bathroom? Because I don't get to shower often and I plan on enjoying it."
Jou sniggered and darted for the bathroom. The Pharaoh rolled her eyes and followed him, waiting outside the bathroom until he was done. There was something refreshing about the feel of water raining down on her. Probably because back in Egypt rain had been a blessing from the Gods according to the research that Imoto had done. Showers had definitely not been invented back then and while there probably had been baths, they certainly had not been like the one in their bathroom where she could get water from taps.
Once Jou was done hogging the bathroom, Oneesan slipped inside and turned on the shower, allowing it to reach the perfect temperature as she navigated the trick that was getting undressed without taking off the Puzzle. It was never easy but stepping under the warm, fresh rainfall was heavenly and totally worth it.
Imoto finally started stirring as Oneesan was washing the conditioner out of their hair and the Pharaoh chuckled at her sister's sleepy, 'Morning Anesan, what did Jou coat us in this time?'
'Nothing Imoto, I think I taught him not to try and prank us after the flour mess.' The Pharaoh replied, contemplating the texture of their hair and putting a second batch of conditioner in, as relief fissioned across the link. Both Mutou twins remembered the prank from a couple of weeks ago far too well and neither particularly wanted to have to spend several hours getting flour out of their hair again. 'I just wanted a shower. Hope you don't mind.'
'Of course not, enjoy.' The spirit of the Puzzle smiled slightly at the way Yugi did not push for control, letting her relax under the running water.
She needed this as much as her twin needed her quiet nights of gaming or working on their deck. They were both under a lot of stress and it would have driven them both quite mad if they did not take small moments like this to themselves. She felt much better as she ran her hands through her hair and rinsed out the second batch of conditioner. As she stepped out of the shower, she contemplated soaking in the bath and decided against it. She could smell someone trying to make breakfast which did not always end well unless Imoto was there to supervise.
Yugi took control to get dry, dressed and tie her hair up in a messy ponytail that left her blonde bangs hanging loose around her face, before she headed down to check on the cook. Today it was Jii-san, who grinned as he slid her a bacon sandwich.
"Bacon!" Yugi's delighted squeal made her grandfather grin. They did not buy it very often. Not because they did not like it but because it was an unnecessary expense but he had wanted to treat her and her delight was well worth the extra cost. She tucked into the sandwich, savouring the flavour as Sugoroku sat next to her.
"I've got one of the students to start at eleven." He told Yugi, who watched him over the top of her bread, "So if you can help me until then, that would be helpful. It is the second busiest day of the year after all."
"Sure. Honda's coming over at half eleven to go with me to the exhibition match so that works out nicely." Yugi shrugged, suddenly really glad that she had been up early this morning to sort her deck out. She loved her grandfather dearly but she had half seen this coming. In order of importance it was family, shop, and then everything else. Her title and duelling came under 'everything else' and she was fully aware of it.
She did not really mind. While the prize money from tournaments was great, she could not rely on it. The money the shop took in was almost always there and paid the bills. It just meant that she had to do her prep around her shop work, just like she had this morning.
"You're on till duty. Easiest job in the shop." Jii-san continued, pointing to the stool he had set up next to the counter for her. "Jou will sweep and I'll tidy. You count the cash in the draw for me."
"Jii-san..." Yugi tried to protest, aware her grandfather's back had been sore the day before.
"Count. Now." Jii-san's tone was scolding but the grin on his face told her he was not really mad.
She chuckled and took her seat, counting through the change happily. She knew her Jii-san cared and it was little things like this that showed it. Giving her till duty and setting her up somewhere to sit was his way of showing he had her back and wanted her to win later. She would be less tired if she was not on her feet all morning and the monotony of till duty would allow her to be fresh mentally.
'Jii-san is great.' She could feel the happiness that accompanied her older twin's words and grinned.
'Yeah, we're really lucky.' Yugi fully believed that too. While she did miss her parents occasionally, especially this time of year, it was things like this that reminded her of how good she had it. Jii-san had always been there for her. Even when he had discovered she was regularly possessed by the spirit of the Puzzle he had not freaked out. Instead he had just started putting an allowance aside for the Pharaoh and taken her on as his granddaughter.
She was bloody lucky that he had taken her in and she was insanely fortunate that he had been through enough weirdness that the insanity of the last year had not caused him to kick her out. She did not know many adults who would keep her in their home if they had had their soul stolen because of her.
Yugi slipped the cash drawer into the till, passing on the figures to her grandfather as she did so. She was not certain that there was enough change in the drawer but there was always more in the safe, just in case and as the store opened she was pleased to see that most of the transactions were by card. They always had to pay a small fee to the bank for each card payment, but the money went straight into the shop account, instead of them having to walk it to the bank, like they did the cash. Plus it was quicker than cash payments, where she had to ensure correct change before she could send the customer on their way.
"Excuse me but I gave you a five hundred yen coin." It also prevented issues like this from occurring, Yugi mentally huffed. She knew what he had given her, four one hundred yen coins, not one big five hundred yen coin. She still had one hand on the cash in the drawer.
"No, you didn't." Yugi sighed, refusing to be one hundred and fifty yen short as she held up the coins in question, "Your total came to three hundred and fifty yen, you gave me four. I gave you fifty yen in return."
The man scowled and the volume of his voice rose as he snapped out, "You're just trying to steal money from me."
"I would not damage my reputation or the reputation of my store over one hundred and fifty yen, Sir." Yugi kept her tone level and calm, refusing to rise to the bait and get into an argument with the man. "That wouldn't even cover one booster pack."
"Then give me my change." He snarled, slamming his hand on the counter which shook from the impact.
"I have given you your change. Please move along." It was hard to maintain an appearance of calm when someone was yelling in your face, but she had mastered it a long time ago and it had been incredibly useful for disappointing bullies and bad guys who had wanted to get a rise out of her.
"I'll move along when I..." As he leaned forward, fist raised, threatening Yugi, her Oneesan slipped into control and stared at him coldly, irritated with him and his nonsense. He huffed and snatched up the dice pack he had bought, going to fling it back at her when he heard the noise of a coin hitting the floor. He went to pick it up, only to look embarrassed when it revealed the five hundred Yen coin that he had been shouting about.
"Have a good day." The spirit of the Puzzle could sense her light's amusement and eye roll as her tone turned the polite statement into a 'piss off'. The man did not seem to notice, fleeing the store, blushing bright red in his embarrassment.
The slightly sharp look she got from her grandfather for her tone was totally worth it as the next customer moved into place and quickly made a card payment, "I feel sorry for you dear, do you get that often?"
"Mistakes happen. As long as it's resolved it's fine." Yugi smiled as she took over, trying not the show the amusement she felt at her twin's desire to hide from the crazy Christmas crowd unless she was needed. "He's not the worst customer I've had this week, believe me."
"Well I hope the week gets better for you." The woman gave her a sympathetic look and headed out.
The woman behind her made Yugi laugh as she grumbled. "She clearly doesn't work retail."
"Probably not, but at least she was nice." Yugi shrugged with a smile.
"That's rare enough this time of year." Her customer allowed, looking as fed up with the season as Yugi felt. "Can I get two 'Dragon Den' boosters and I need to collect my 'Chaos Core' structure deck."
"Do you have your reservation receipt?" Yugi asked as she pulled out the black pre-order booklet from underneath the till, "And can I have your name please?"
"My name is Kinomoto Ai." The woman informed her as she fished around in her bag and pulled out the battered and bent receipt and offered it to her. "Here you go."
"Thank you." The store owner cross checked the name against the number on the reservation receipt and gave Kinomoto a small smile as she nodded, "Got you just here." She tapped the book, before leaning into the stock room and grabbing a deck out of the box next to the door.
The relief on the fellow shop worker's face was plain to see as Yugi rung her purchases up. "Thank you. I was worried it wouldn't still be here."
"We hold for a week." She reassured her, "Because we understand that sometimes work gets in the way of life."
"And that's why I shop here rather than The Monster Hut." Kinomoto nodded happily. Yugi tried not to grimace at the name of the rival game store. It was half way across the city at least but they had stolen an awful amount of their trade when Jii-san had been in hospital for his heart attack and while most of it had come back, it had been hard for them for a while. That was business though and Yugi could not be mad at The Monster Hut for taking advantage of a rival's weakness.
'We are the better store though.' Yugi mentally giggled at her twin's boast over their bond and as she bowed and started serving the next customer Oneesan continued with, 'Plus we weren't set up by Card Thieves.'
'There's no proof they were set up by the Ghouls.' Yugi mentally rolled her eyes as she worked her way through the queue, thankful that the day after tomorrow was Christmas Eve and the whole madness was nearly over. 'They could have been infiltrated. They wouldn't have been the only ones.'
Oneesan did not have a reply to that, fully aware that the Ghouls and those who led them had been rather good at getting into places that they should not be. The whole Ishtar fiasco had been hard because of it.
Yugi was glad when the student got in. The girl was only there during the holidays, since she was away studying during the term time, but her presence now allowed them to thin the horde a little better. She could get on the till while Yugi helped Jii-san ensure the door was clear at all times so people could get in and out.
They needed to expand the shop floor to keep up with the customer load. Yugi was fully aware of that, but the only way to do so would be to knock through the wall to the store room, start storing the extra stock in the basement and redesign the shop floor to fit in the new space. It was something both she and Ojiisan wanted to do, but they just did not have the money for it.
Not yet anyway. Yugi was saving up her prize money from various tournaments in order to put it towards the refit. It was not much at a time, a few hundred yen here, a few thousand there but she was doing her best and she had amassed around fifty thousand already thanks to the prize money from Battle City. If yen were dollars or pounds which were much stronger currencies she would have it together already but it was not, so there was still a ways to go. Jii-san had no idea but she was looking forward to revealing it to him.
"Yoh, Yugi!" Honda called her on his arrival, his voice carrying over that of the customer she was just pointing towards the till. She finished up with them then skirted around the crowd to the door to reach her friend, both surprised and unsurprised that time had gone so quickly.
"Hi Honda. Welcome to chaos." She grinned, relieved to see him. "Come around the back way with me? It's near impossible to get to the stairs that way."
When he nodded Yugi called over the crowd to her grandfather, who looked surprised and glanced at the clock, then nodded and waved the pair off, having lost track of the time as badly as Yugi had.
She led Honda out and around the back, to the door that led straight up to the flat, needing to grab her purse before they headed out, only to find it was wide open and the lock had been broken. Honda pulled her behind him and darted up the stairs first.
'Imoto...' Oneesan did not need to say any more as Yugi gave way to her, allowing her to take control and follow the boy up. The last thing they needed right now was a thief. While the insurance would pay for it, the premiums would increase again, as they had after Hirutani's break in. The spirit of the Puzzle was as glad as Yugi that their small horde of money was not in the flat, but hoped that the thief had not managed to get into the shop safe as she rushed up the stairs, able to hear the sounds of a fight going on.
As she reached the living room she was treated to the sight of Honda pinning a rough looking teen and a bag on the floor that contained the games consoles that Imoto and Jonouchi had saved their allowances for.
"Get off, you..." The teen trailed off when he saw Oneesan stalk across the room and pick up the phone. "Hey now, no need for that."
"There really is." The spirit of the Puzzle disagreed as she dialed 119 to call the police. "You broke into the flat when we would all be busy downstairs with the shop to steal our stuff. How many other people have you stolen from?"
The boy did not answer her and the Pharaoh huffed as she gave the telephone operator all the details. She wanted to handle him herself, but she knew she was not supposed to in the shop and they really did not have time for her to hunt him down later. Still she was promised that they would be there in ten minutes so she might, possibly still be on time for her match.
'We should text Mokuba and let him know what's going on. Then we need to tell Jii-san.' Yugi sighed, fully aware that they did not need this right now. Today was too busy for all of them to be wasting it on some idiot.
She fired off the text message, not yet willing to leave her younger twin in control. While Honda seemed to have the situation under control, there was no guarantee that it would stay that way. Then she darted down the shop stairs and waved Jii-san over.
"I thought you'd be gone by now." He frowned in confusion, "You okay? Has the match been cancelled?"
"No, but we've got a thief upstairs." She explained with a slight huff, "I've called the police but he broke the lock on the door to the flat and was trying to make off with the games consoles."
Jii-san scowled at that. "Fantastic. I'll get Jou to send them around the back way. Call a locksmith for me? We've got enough cash in right now we can pay for the repair."
"Will do." Oneesan promised the elderly gamer. "Do you want me to cancel the match?"
"No, no, but if Honda could stay and watch the flat until the locksmith gets there, that would be appreciated." His response made her pause.
She nodded and headed back up, relieved to see that the status quo had not changed while she had been downstairs.
"Jii-san says can you watch the shop until a locksmith gets here to fix the door?" She asked Honda as she flipped through the phone book to find the number of a local locksmith.
"Sure but are you going to be alright going by yourself?" He worried at her, aware of the things Kaiba could get up to and wanting to have her back.
"Have to be." She shrugged, finding the number she was looking for. "Jou's needed downstairs, Anzu's busy and Jii-san needs you here. I'd ask Amane but I have absolutely no idea what she's up to and Bakura would probably take horrible advantage of this situation somehow."
Honda could not deny it as she spoke to the man who picked up the phone. He promised to be there by mid-afternoon just as her phone beeped with Mokuba's reply to her earlier text message. That, at least, was reassuring. They could hold off on the match for an extra hour if she needed it and Mokuba would send a car around to collect her so she did not have to walk. Though how much of that one was him not wanting her to have to walk in the Christmas crush and how much was him wanting her to get there faster so his brother did not get cross was another question entirely.
The sounds of people coming up the stairs startled them both, allowing the thief to buck Honda off and lunge for the door down to the shop. Oneesan moved into his path, blocking his exit. Or at least she thought it would, but he took a swing at her, one she ducked under as she dropped to the floor and swept his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor and allowing the police to grab him.
"Nice move." Honda nodded to her as the police started taking photos and collecting evidence.
"Learned it from you and Jou." Oneesan smirked back, noting that he stood a little taller at that.
She gave her statement and then quickly darted up to her bedroom, needing to prepare for the match ahead. It did not take her long to get ready, she and Imoto had practised with their make up enough that it took her ten minutes to apply, and after that all she had to do was switch her trousers and shoes and she was ready before she heard the sounds of a car horn outside. Poking her head out the window confirmed that there was a limo there to pick her up and Oneesan grabbed their purse on her way out.
'Here we go.' Imoto sounded as excited as Oneesan felt as she darted for the back door, noting that the police had already left, taking the thief with them, leaving Honda to set the games consoles back up and check to make sure the impact with the floor had not broken them.
"Hey Yugi," Honda's call made her pause as the sounds of one of the consoles booting up played, "Good luck."
"I'll be back with the win," Oneesan promised as she turned towards the door, "just you wait."