There are minor spoilers for the Death-T arc and Kingdom Hearts. I'm also rather amused to note that this chapter may be a bit…shall we say…puzzling, hehehe. We will finally meet Kaiba in this chapter, by the way.

Also, it's my birthday today. Huzzah!

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is owned by Kazuki Takahashi. Kingdom Hearts is owned by Tetsuya Nomura and all that.


Duel Disks and Keyblades

By FlikFreak

Chapter Nine: Searching for Answers


What exactly are you planning, Yugi?

Yugi gave a glance up as he packed his backpack. Sora had gone to wash his face off, and though he had offered Sora some clean clothes, the boy had insisted on keeping the ones he had. Oddly enough, by the time they had finished conversing, Sora seemed perfectly clean, and he had dropped the issue. I still don't know if we can trust Sora or not, he said, answering the spirit that stood next to him. I mean, he's a nice guy and all, but when he mentioned Roxas he got kind of quiet.

It's probably not a great memory for him, Yami replied, glancing toward the bathroom door where Sora was blindly reaching around for a towel. But he does seem like a cheerful enough young man when it comes to anything else.

Yugi was about to answer when a mock-dramatic voice called out to him. "Yugi! Where are the towels? I've got soap in my eyes and I can't see!"

"Left of the sink," the boy replied, leaving Sora to work out the rest. Maybe we shouldn't push it, Yugi mused. Besides, I was interested in seeing the exhibit anyway, and Sora did mention that he'd like to relax for once, even if we don't find anything.

Yami could barely be heard chuckling before he slunk back into the puzzle. Yugi strapped on his backpack and stood, stretching before Sora stumbled out of the bathroom, one of his eyes looking a bit red. "You never told me you had killer soap next to the sink," he whimpered.

He certainly is an odd kid, Yami commented.

"Sorry about that," Yugi replied, grinning sheepishly and partially ignoring his partner's comment. "At any rate, Jounouchi and Anzu are already headed for the museum. We should get going."

Sora nodded. "Right."

"By the way," Yugi added as they headed out the door, "I saw you use some kind of shield when you were fighting that woman. Was that magic?"

There was a momentary hesitation, but Sora nodded. "Yeah. A friend of mine taught me some back when I first got the keyblade." He got a bit quiet after he said it, sounding a bit sad and nostalgic at the same time, but Yugi caught a smile on his face. "I've learned a bit more since then, among other things, but I try not to overdo it…"

"But that in particular was magic, right?"

"Yeah."

At the answer, Yugi took a deep breath, desperately suppressing a grin. "Oh, boy," he muttered. "Kaiba's ganna have a field day with you, Sora…"

Sora lifted an eyebrow. "Who's Kaiba?" He asked. "A friend of yours?"

"Sort of," Yugi answered, hearing Yami scowl quietly in his soul room. "He's more like my rival than anything. We do still look after each other in our own way, but he's kind of selfish and way too stubborn for his own good." Momentarily pausing, he noticed his shoe was untied and propped it against a nearby bench to fix the problem.

"He sounds rather charming," the keyblade master commented under his breath.

Yugi laughed. "You bet he is," he replied, sarcasm momentarily evident in his voice. "He insists that stuff like magic doesn't exist, even though it's constantly being shoved into his face at times."

"Does he walk around in an enormous white trench coat and carry a briefcase with him wherever he goes?" Sora asked.

Surprised at the somewhat accurate description, Yugi nodded. "Yeah, he does. Why do you ask?"

"He's standing right next to you."

Sure enough, when Yugi looked up, there stood Seto Kaiba himself, giving him the same look that he always did. If he hadn't known better he'd think Kaiba was glaring daggers at him, but fortunately he was familiar enough with him to know otherwise. "Hey, Kaiba," he said cheerfully.

"Yugi," Seto replied simply. "It's about time I caught up with you."

Always rather blunt, isn't he… Yami grumbled. I wonder what he wants now.

The young CEO turned his gaze to Sora, whom stood next to the boy. "Never thought I'd see you hanging out with a shrimp like him, though."

Sora was clearly insulted by this, and immediately protested with a clenched fist and a rather angry tone of voice. "Don't call me shrimp!" he yelled. "I have a name, and it's Sora!"

Kaiba gave a sort of snort as he turned away. "Quick on the introductions, aren't you?" he remarked. "I don't supposed you'd know anything about the moron that made such a mess in front of my building earlier today."

Both Yugi and Sora paused indefinitely, exchanging glances. They both knew exactly what was going on, but they weren't about to let up. "What do you mean, made a mess?" Sora echoed.

"Some idiot thought that scaring off people in front of KaibaLand was an amusing pastime," Kaiba continued, eyeing Sora momentarily. "And she wound up picking a fight with someone to add to the damage."

"Do you know anything about that woman?" Yugi asked.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "What do I look like, an information source? I have a company to run, not an encyclopedia to write. I was going to ask you if you knew anything."

Sora nodded. "Her name was Larxene, and she's part of a group called Organization XIII."

"Pleasant," Seto remarked. "Anything else?"

"There should be at most eleven others like her running around," Sora said, eyes darkening in what could only be hatred toward that group. "They're a lot more dangerous than they appear, and if you see anyone like that people should leave the area immediately. They're easy to recognize since they've all got black cloaks."

Kaiba groaned. "Great. First I have some lunatic barge into my office this morning, now I have to deal with the rare hunters again?!"

"These guys are a lot more dangerous than the rare hunters," Yugi said. "A lot more."

Sora nodded firmly in agreement. Seeing this, the CEO groaned. "Fine. I'll do what I can. If this ends up being bogus, however, you'll never hear the end of it from me." With that, the man walked firmly away.

Once he was out of earshot, Sora groaned. "Is he always like that?" he asked.

"He was nice once," Yugi replied, sighing. "But there was a kind of harsh turn of events at some point in his life that he's never been able to cope with, so he's not exactly a social person anymore."

"I see," Sora said, hanging his head a bit. With that, the two continued to the museum.


The moment they entered the doors to the museum, Sora took notice of Yugi's sudden sense of peace. The boy tended to be a tad high-strung on the streets – especially when there was a crowd nearby – but here he just seemed to be happy and quiet. "I take it you like it here?" He asked carefully.

"Yeah," Yugi replied. "I always liked looking at the Egyptian artifact displays, but it's always quiet in a museum compared to outside. Besides, people tend to challenge me to duels a lot, but they wouldn't come in here looking for me."

Sora smiled at the boy's sentiment. At his own home on Destiny Islands, he had enough of a hard time sparring out in the sun on the beach or on the small island he and Riku frequented, but there was always one place that he knew he could go where he knew he'd be safe. The cave near the waterfall – with an opening just large enough to crawl through – was where he and his friends went when they just wanted some peace. Drawings covered the stone walls there, including one that he and Kairi had drawn of each other. It was so ironic to him that such a peaceful place could end up being the start of so much chaos…

"Erm…Sora?"

The keyblade master snapped out of his daze, glancing at Yugi. "Something wrong?"

The boy shook his head. "No. You just got this faraway look in your eyes…I was wondering if you were alright."

Sora nodded. "Yeah…I'm fine."

Yugi nodded reluctantly, and the two walked forward past the welcome desk, where Yugi quickly paid their entrance fee with a few coins that Sora didn't recognize (he had plenty of munny with him, but he had quickly found out by glancing at one of the sales in the game shop that such a currency wasn't accepted here). Sora felt guilty about having Yugi pay for him, but the boy just brushed it off and they kept walking until they found a small display of various pieces of old, golden jewelry and masks. Behind it was a wall display of a papyrus scroll. Sora quickly showed interest in this, and Yugi eagerly explained.

"Well, the large set of scales there was a tool used to weigh the sins of the dead against the feather of truth. If they weighed more, the victim would be devoured by the demon, Ammit."

"Sounds harsh," Sora commented, chills running down his spine.

"It is," Yugi replied. "The set of scales in that picture is supposedly one of the Millennium Items."

"A set of scales?" Sora questioned. "You serious?"

Yugi nodded. "One of the seven. When the Millennium Items were made, great sacrifice was also endured to create them. Without sacrifice, the power becomes corrupt. An item was once made like that, but luckily it's been destroyed…" His voice trailed off.

Sora decided not to pry into this, and looked on, enjoying the peace for once. He moved past the mural of the Judgment of the Dead and ended up standing in front of a large stone tablet. Depicted on it were countless hieroglyphics, and in the center of what was apparently a shining light lay a triangular object that Sora could closely identify with Yugi's pendant…or puzzle, as the boy called it. Around the object were three rectangular tablets, in which were powerful beasts that he didn't recognize. Moving downward, Sora saw a depiction of a powerful face-off between what was some sort of magician and a dragon, below which were two more people. The one on the left was someone he didn't recognize right off the bat, but the one on the right was another story.

He looked almost exactly like Yugi.

But if it looks so much like someone in the present, he wondered, why would a depiction of this sort of thing be in a museum? After a moment of thought, Sora shrugged inwardly, eyes still locked onto the tablet. Perhaps Yugi had gotten the nickname "Pharaoh" from the tablet. After all, his doppelganger in this thing certainly looked dressed like a king.

It didn't take long for Sora's thoughts to wander. Maybe…maybe it had something to do with Yugi's puzzle. After all, that was depicted in the tablet too. Maybe he'd have to ask Yugi about it. As he turned to find his friend, however, he felt a sharp pain in his chest and he doubled over, crying out.

Yugi spun around, running toward him. "Sora! What's wrong?"

The keyblade master was unable to answer. His heart throbbed; he could hear it pounding in his ears. A sudden cold sweat rolled down his brow as darkness closed in around him. Yugi's face eventually became a multi-colored blur, his voice a far-off echo. Eventually, he lost all contact with the world around him. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.


"Do you think Yugi will tell Sora about the Pharaoh?" Anzu asked as she paid the entrance fee to the museum.

Jounouchi walked next to her and tossed a few coins unceremoniously at the desk. "Maybe," he replied. "Not sure how Sora's ganna take it though. It's not easy explaining that Yugi has a two-for-the-price-of-one deal going on." There was a slight pause and Jounouchi cocked an eyebrow in thought. "Now that I think about it…how did we end up figuring out about it?"

"Death-T," Anzu said quietly, "Remember?"

"Right," the blonde replied. The two had a moment of silence before they finally arrived at the Egyptian exhibit, only to see Yugi kneeling on the floor over a limp, lifeless Sora. The two rushed over immediately. "What happened?" Jounouchi demanded, quickly examining Sora. His eyes were squeezed shut, and he trembled every few moments, almost in rhythm.

Yugi shook his head. "I don't know!" He said. "He was looking at that tablet and just went into some sort of seizure!" He gestured to the said object behind them, which only earned a moment's glance from everyone before they returned their attention to the keyblade master.

"He's still breathing," Anzu said as she slipped two fingers just beneath his jawbone. "But his heart is beating faster than it should. Other than that, he seems fine."

"We should probably get him somewhere to rest," Jounouchi suggested, hauling the boy's arm over one of his shoulders and pulling him up. "Does Yami have any ideas on this?"

At the mention of their friend, Yugi paused a moment, and shook his head. "He said he doesn't know what caused it, but he sounds kind of distracted."

"Distracted?" Anzu echoed.

Yugi nodded. "Yeah. I think something's wrong in the puzzle."


Okay, so I didn't reveal the main villain this time. But all in due time, my dear readers! As for what's happened to Sora...you'll see.