Chapter 9: King of Pain
The ride to the Kame Game Shop was silent. Everyone had crammed themselves into Kaiba's two cars with Yugi lying on the floor of one of them. Yami had tried to get his hikari to come up onto the seat, but Yugi had refused and, whenever anyone tried to touch him, he would shy away. It didn't help that he was shuddering in pain throughout the ride, knifing Yami straight in the heart. He felt every emotion, every ounce of agony that his smaller counterpart went though. Even some of Yugi's memories, thoughts, and nightmares made it through the wall that had blocked Yami from the horrors that Yugi had tried to forget. By the time they arrived, he was ready to vomit and had to stumble out of the car first to heave up bile in the gutter.
Seto watched them the entire time. He stared at Yami by means of the rear view mirror from his seat on the passenger's side. Jealousy he'd never felt before banged in his chest, roaring in his ears. They were close, like brothers, but in an intimate way that few people in the whole world have experienced. Did he want it for himself? No, he didn't think so. Seto wanted something different, although he wasn't quite clear on what it was.
Yugi slowly got out of the car after Yami, every move deliberately taken to keep himself from falling. He got lucky, as they'd pulled up to the shop in between the waves of pain and he was able to walk inside, even if Seto was barely a step behind him. Solomon leapt up from his spot behind the counter as soon as he saw his grandson.
"What the hell happened?" he asked frantically.
Yugi uncurled his fingers, revealing the broken shards of the Khadim. Closing his eyes for a moment, Solomon nodded once in understanding.
"What have you told them?" he murmured.
"Nothing," Yugi replied softly.
"Adil will be here in a few minutes. I sent Indi to pick him up at the airport," his grandfather explained.
"Okay. I need to lay down," Yugi practically hissed in pain.
"Do you need help getting upstairs?"
Yugi slowly shook his head, his long red hair flopping in his face, and motioned to the group that has assembled behind him.
"I understand," Solomon said in Japanese.
As Yugi made his way towards the stairs, Solomon stepped between him and the others. Yami sent him a silent glare, but the older man didn't falter.
"It's going to be a rough few days so it's best to just leave him alone for now," he said.
"Because of the Khadim?" Marik asked.
Solomon nodded. "That and other things."
"What about the Khadim?" Yami asked.
"When a Khadim breaks, the user basically goes through withdrawal as the body changes back to its original form," Odion explained.
"How drastic were the changes to Yugi's?" Marik inquired.
"The basics are the same, but-" Solomon trailed off. He took a deep breath before he continued, "I'd better explain some things first."
"Yes, you do owe a big explanation. It isn't often that during the middle of an important event, demons suddenly summon you to Limbo for a game just to find out that they were sent there by one particular person's aunt to fuck with his mind," Seto growled.
"Kaiba," Yami hissed in warning.
"Is that what happened?" Solomon asked.
Everyone nodded and the gray-haired man sighed. "Come upstairs. Yugi will have barricaded himself in his room by now."
They followed Solomon up the stairs and into the living room. While they assembled themselves on the couch and the floor around it, the older Muto pulled a chair over from the small dining table that stood in the corner. Before he could take a seat though, he disappeared into the hall and came back with a large wooden box. It was made of dark mahogany wood that shone faintly in the light. A large lock made of brass hung on the front of it, clicking softly as it bumped against the wood of the box's body. Yami stood to help, but Solomon shooed him away. Setting the box down on the coffee table, Solomon settled onto the chair he'd brought over.
"So, who wants to explain what happened, in full detail this time?"
It was Marik who chose to tell the story of everything that had happened earlier that evening. Solomon listened in silence, never interrupting. His full attention was focused on this new information and only when Marik had finished did he settle back in his chair. He was about to speak when they heard the faint sound of a bell ringing, followed by frantic footsteps pounding up the stairs
"Indi and Adil are here," Solomon said as the two people burst into the room.
Adil was a tall man, as gaunt as a rail and as unnoticeable as a clover in a sea of grass. His hair was cropped short and a deep black color, although it lacked the shine of any healthy head. Despite being only twenty-five, he sported many wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and mouth. He was dressed in a plain pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt with brown sandals.
"Where is he?" Adil asked, repositioning the bag on his shoulder.
"Bedroom, second door on the right," Solomon replied.
With a nod, the man was gone, his long strides taking him down the hall and into the darkness. When the door to Yugi's bedroom closed, Solomon turned back to the duelists assembled in front of him. Indi threw them suspicious stares as stalked around the edge of the room and stopped just behind her grandfather's chair. Her black sunglasses rested on top of her head, pulling the short waves of blue hair away from her face.
"What happened today and everything that I am about to tell you must remain a secret just between us," Solomon said slowly.
"Can you all promise me that?" Indi asked, cutting in.
"Who are you?" Seto snarled.
Indi crossed her arms over her chest, eyes narrowing into a fierce glare. "What's it to you?"
"This is Indigo, Yugi's cousin," Solomon sighed. "Indi, these are Yugi's friends so be nice."
The young woman snorted, but stayed quiet.
"Do you all agree to not tell anyone about what you're going to hear today?" her grandfather asked.
Everyone nodded and Solomon leaned forward, turning the wooden box so it faced him. He pulled on the cord that hung from his neck, revealing a tiny key that he kept hidden under his shirt. Unlocking the box, he carefully let the lid fall back, revealing the contents of the box. A mess of photos, newspaper clippings and other mementos littered the inside, creating a collogue of colors and shapes.
"I've been meaning to sort through this for years, but since I took over the shop again, I haven't had much time," Solomon murmured as he dug around through the assortment of papers. "Ah, here we are."
He set a large 8 by 10 photo on the table, tapping the image lightly with his finger.
"This was taken in the spring of 1992, just after my youngest daughter graduated from high school. My wife and I had four children: Yumi, Nishi, Tsubasa, and Saimei," Solomon started.
"Which one is Yumi?" Marik asked.
Solomon pointed to the figure on the far left side of the picture. She was tall for a Muto, standing at about five foot six. Her hair was a deep brown color, almost like chocolate, and it was cropped harshly at her chin in a bob. Lilac eyes stared somewhat angrily at whoever was taking the picture. She stood with her back straight, hands clasped in front of her, the epitome of arrogance.
"She was the eldest, a year ahead of Nishi and Tsubasa, who were twins. Tsubasa is also Indi's father."
It was clear that Nishi and Tsubasa were fraternal twins. Nishi had dark eyes, a serious, but kind face, and short, black hair. His brother, on the other hand, had the same lilac irises as Yumi, a cheerful smile, and sandy brown hair. Tsubasa had one arm thrown over his twin's shoulders, leaning almost his entire weight on Nishi.
"Then, there is Saimei, the youngest by five years and Yugi's mother."
Seto almost gasped when his gaze flickered over to the last of the Muto children. Saimei was almost identical to Yugi in nearly every way. She was shorter than any of her siblings, standing at probably close to Indi's height of four foot ten. Her hair was a deep shade of red and the ponytail that it was pulled into was flung casually over one shoulder so it cascaded down her front. Small hands rested on small hips, a playful smile tugging at her mouth. Even her face was the same shape, although her cheeks were slightly more tapered. It was her eyes, though, that had everyone shocked. They were the startlingly clear Tyrion purple that Yugi's had, a color rarely used since the days of medieval royalty.
"See the resemblance, huh?" Solomon laughed quietly. "I loved all of my children, but I was closest to Saimei. She was the baby of the family, happy, playful, and always getting into trouble. Even when she was in high school, she would always have some adventure to go on. Knowing her, I shouldn't have been so surprised when, a month after graduation, she left us a note stating that she wanted to travel the world and disappeared."
"She just left?" Mai asked, frowning.
Solomon nodded and smiled a little. "That was how Saimei was. She would just vanish and, if you didn't find her, you just had to wait for her to come back to you."
"Did you ever see her again?" Yami asked.
"Yes. She came home about two years later with a one-month-old Yugi in tow. I don't know who his father is so don't ask. That, I believe, was a secret that Saimei took to her grave, if she even knew," Solomon sighed.
"So Yugi wasn't born in Japan?" Yami asked.
"Oh no, he was. Saimei traveled to Hokkaido a few months before and gave birth to Yugi in some small clinic in Hokkaido. However, it took her a month to work up the courage to come back to Domino."
Solomon took a deep breath and continued.
"The night that Saimei came home, she left Yugi with a friend of her's. She wasn't quite ready to introduce us to our newest grandson just yet. Unfortunately, that night, she and I got into a heated argument over something that I can't even remember anymore and I basically walked out of her life completely."
"The family became fragmented in the years that followed. Saimei and I refused to see or talk to each other while my wife played an active role in Yugi's childhood, often watching him when Saimei was working. Tsubasa and his wife, now ex-wife, had had Indi the year before and were living in the United States, while Nishi had remained in England practicing law. He's studied at Oxford, you see. He also had a wife and two sons so he rarely came back to Japan. Yumi was the only one who remained, but she had a son of her own and a terrible relationship with her husband, who she divorced two years after Saimei came home."
"What about Yugi?" Yami quietly asked.
"I didn't see him until Saimei's funeral when he was seven and, even then, I didn't talk to him."
Indi shuffled somewhat uncomfortably behind her grandfather's chair.
"After the argument, I busied myself setting up and running the shop here. A year had passed when I heard that Saimei get a contract with a big recording studio out of Tokyo. Have you ever heard the song Aka Sora?"
"Of course, it was practically the theme song for the late 90's," Tea laughed.
Reaching into the box, Solomon retrieved a CD case, sliding it across the table towards the group of teenagers.
"That was Yugi's mom?" Joey cried. "You're telling us dat Sai, the musical goddess of the 90's, was Yugi's mom?"
"She was," Solomon murmured. "Saimei had always been a great singer. She participated in choir all the way from elementary to high school and, after she came back, she took to playing in nightclubs for tips. Some big shot heard her and gave her the contract."
"Wasn't Sai murdered?"
Everyone turned to look at Tristan, who was frowning heavily. Solomon almost groaned at hearing the dreaded word, but fought it back and nodded.
"She was. A few weeks after Yugi turned seven, she was in her bedroom getting dressed. It was believed that someone broke into the house, a crazed fan or something like that. Yugi had come into the room just as Saimei was shot in the head point blank," he said.
He quickly pulled a folded piece of newspaper from the box. He unraveled it and lay it out on the table for them to see. The date was July 6th, 2001 and the headline read: Sai Found Dead.
"So, he watched her die?" Seto asked.
"Yes. When they were found, he had blood all over his face and clothes from the spray of the bullet exiting the back of Saimei's head."
"Did he identify the killer?" Tea wondered.
"No. He told the police that he couldn't remember anything about him or her. The killer had hit him in the side of the head with the gun so it wasn't all that surprising that he couldn't remember parts of what happened," Solomon explained.
"After my parents divorced when I was three, my father and I came to live in Japan for a while. We stayed with Aunt Saimei and Yugi and I became best friends," Indi suddenly said. "Her death affected Yugi very badly. They had been very close, abnormally so considering her career. She would take him on tour with her sometimes and her death, coupled with Grandma's a year earlier, broke Yugi's spirit. I'd never seen him so sad before. The funeral was a nightmare."
"And that was the first time I ever saw Yugi," Solomon sighed.
"Did he come to live with you then?" Mokuba asked.
Solomon shook his head. "Unfortunately no. In her will, Saimei had drawn out a list of people to take Yugi in if anything ever happened to her, the order being whomever she wanted him to go to the most. The first person on the list was her sister, Yumi. Nishi was second and I was third."
Seto's heart skipped a beat. He could tell that this story was only going to get worse than it already was.
"What a piece of shit that turned into," Indi hissed. "Yu wouldn't even need the Khadim if it wasn't for her."
"What did she do to him?" Yami asked.
"A fucking lot," the blue-haired young woman snarled.
"She beat and starved him," Solomon said sadly.
"E-Excuse me?" Yami stammered.
"It was more like she mauled him, Grandpa! His back was in shreds when he was found!" Indi snapped.
"How long did this go on?" Marik asked.
"A year and a half, but the last two weeks was the worst."
"Why didn't anyone notice? If it's as bad as you say, someone would have-"
"-She pulled him out of school so there wouldn't be anyone to notice. Also, remember that our family was spread out all over the world. Tsubasa and Indi had moved back to America and I wasn't a part of Yugi's life at all. As well, Yumi had gotten divorced and gave up all custodial rights to her son. She and Yugi were the only ones in the house and he was denied all contact with the outside world. There was no one to notice," Solomon sighed.
Although no emotion showed on his face, Seto was furious. When his adoptive father had been alive, Seto had faced emotional abuse from the older man. His concept of an ideal heir had been forced onto Seto's shoulders and the teen had fought to reach it. If he didn't do whatever his adoptive father wasn't, he would get smacked around. It had turned him into the cold, ruthless man he was today, even though he'd never gotten his father's approval.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of shuffling papers. Solomon was digging through the box again, his entire upper arm buried in its contents. Finally, it emerged with a thin envelope, the kind used for important documents that couldn't be bent.
"These might help you understand," the gray-haired man said as he opened the flap and pulled out several pictures.
The group recoiled when the older Muto lay the first one out for them to see. A young boy had his back turned towards them, revealing the lacerations that covered it. They were all old enough to have at least healed over somewhat so dark red scabs crisscrossed his back. Most, however, had scarred, permanently marring the pale skin. In between each of the protruding ribs was a cut that cleanly raced around the curve of his body, its end hidden from view. Each vertebra of his spine could be clearly seen, starting at the base of his neck, all the way down to the line of his jeans. The boy's shoulder length red hair was pulled over one shoulder.
Each photo that followed was just as gruesome. At one point, Tea had to walk away to keep herself from vomiting. The child's chest was surprisingly clear of scars except for the continuation of the lines between his ribs. However, the concave nature of his stomach was more than obvious.
In another, the child had his head tipped back to give the camera a better look at the scar that cut across the front of his neck, just below his voice box. It was angry and red, the raw skin having been peeled away by some sort of rope.
The final picture was of the child's right leg. His loose jeans had been rolled up to reveal a series of ugly burns that started just above his ankle. Each one was separate from the other, the distance between them precisely calculated to be exactly half an inch apart. They were draped across his skin, knee and thigh like fabric, following the curve of the tiny bones and muscles that made up the child's leg. All of the burns were fresh, dated to be the same age as the newest scars on the child's back and the cuts between the ribs.
"She always used the same whip on his back. It's called a cat-o'-nine-tails and it was used as a torture device in the 1700's," Solomon explained. "The scars between his ribs were made by a chef's knife."
"What about the burns?" Yami asked quietly.
"She poured alcohol in stripes over his leg and lit each one with a lighter," Solomon replied.
Seto, realizing that he'd been sitting forward with his elbows on his knees, casually sat back, crossing his arms over his chest. He stole a glance at Yami. The Pharaoh had his eyes closed, a pained expression rising on his face.
"Yami, are you okay?" Tristan asked, looking back at his friend.
Suddenly, a door opened and all of them, except Yami, turned to see Adil walking towards them. He was carrying a small package of roots in one hand and, as he got closer, they could all see flecks on blood on his white shirt.
"It's started?" Solomon asked.
"Unfortunately. I had to remove the belt on his neck, which he got pretty upset about," Adil replied. "I'm going to give him some valerian root to calm him down."
"Good luck," Solomon sighed.
Adil nodded as he headed for the kitchen. Two pairs of eyes, owned by the only other two that had understood every word he'd said, followed him.
"What has started and who is he?" Marik asked.
Solomon's attention snapped back to him. Marik smiled at the shocked look on the old man's face.
"My first language is Arabic. You might want to pick a different one if you want to keep secrets from us," the blond said, smiling.
"My name is Adil Nejem. I'm the one who created Yugi's Khadim," Adil murmured as he entered the living room with a glass of water in one hand.
After a silent nudge from Joey, Marik translated what Adil had said.
"I need to get back. Yugi's Khadim withdrawal is going to be a bloody affair," Adil said. "The scars are basically breaking through the skin and reopening themselves. It's going to be painful."
Yami hissed in pain as the blond Egyptian next to him translated.
"I can tell," he moaned, letting his head rest on the back of the couch.
Seeing Indi's confused frown, Marik quickly said, "The spirits in the Millenium Items share any physical pain that we, the hikaris, have. Yugi is the Pharaoh's hikari."
"How did Yugi get away from her then?" Seto asked, moving the conversation back to its original topic.
"About a year and a half after he came to live with her, she boarded up the house and abandoned him. He was locked inside without any food and several open wounds, including the ones on his sides. Two weeks passed before a neighbor called the police to investigate. The house is on the outskirts of town so the lots are big and the closest neighbor lived half a block away. That was how they found him: bleeding and emaciated," Solomon murmured, motioning to the pictures.
"He was so weak that he couldn't even walk. The officer that found him had to carry him out of that hellhole and a nurse had to hold him up to get those pictures taken. It took months to get him to a healthy weight with all of the health deficiencies he had," Indi added.
"It was also those two weeks in the darkness that Yugi created Ataullaha," Solomon said.
"How do you know of his existence, then?" Marik asked, very interested.
"I will get to that later. After his stay in the hospital, he went to live with my eldest son, Nishi, in England," Solomon continued. "He was apparently a quiet kid before Yumi got her hands on him, but afterward-"
"-He was completely different," Indi cut in. "Cold and way of everyone. He shied away from all adults, especially women, but other kids as well, even me a bit. Sure, he regularly attended meetings with a child psychologist, but it didn't really do him any good. It wasn't until the end of his first and only year with Uncle Nishi that he opened up to anyone and, of course, that too was torn away from him by Aunt Yumi."
"Roughly thirteen months after Yugi went to live with Nishi, they were walking back from Nishi's office law one night when they were attacked. Nishi was killed in the same manner that Saimei was and we've since learned that it was Yumi who murdered them both. Yugi escaped physically unscathed, but mentally and emotionally, any progress that had been made was completely wiped out," Solomon said.
"S-She struck again? I thought she hated him. Why the hell would she do that to someone who she clearly wanted nothing to do with?" Yami cried.
Indi and Solomon exchanged a glance.
"Yumi was... always very jealous of her younger sister. Even when they were kids, Yumi would avoid anything to do with Saimei. After her divorce, Yumi was forced to live with Saimei at her home in the country, the same one in which she later murdered her sister and abused her nephew. That close of contact was absolute hell for her and she never forgave Saimei for it. It was her jealousy that drove her to kill Saimei," Solomon explained.
"Then what about Yugi?" Seto asked. "You still haven't explained that."
"Yumi left behind a journal when she fled from the house that she locked Yugi in. According to it, she knew that in order to make the murder work with the story that she concocted, Yugi had to remain alive. However, she didn't count of being declared Yugi's guardian and only took him in because it would have seemed suspicious to the rest of the family. To make matters worse, Yugi was the light of Saimei's life, the center of everything she ever did, and Yumi's anger towards her sister passed onto him. It also didn't help that the resemblance is uncanny between Yugi and his mother," Solomon sighed.
"He told me once that she believes that he has to pay for the sins of his mother since he is the only part of her that is still alive," Indi said.
"So she killed her own brother to emotionally incapacitate the nephew that she had abused and abandoned?" Marik murmured.
Indi and Solomon both nodded.
"Yumi wasn't close with Uncle Nishi or Dad, either and felt no qualms about killing one of them," the blue-haired young woman said.
"This is pretty heavy stuff," Joey whispered.
"Yugi's whole life has practically been one huge fucking mess," Indi sighed.
"Was it after Nishi's death that he came to live with you?" Marik asked Solomon.
"Yes and it was then that I learned about the existence of Ataullaha. He was, back then, the same as your dark side, Marik. If Yugi got into a situation that was too stressful for him, Ataullaha would take over," Solomon said. "I was living at my wife's ancestral home in southwestern Egypt and, on the day that Yugi arrived, I went to greet him. Seeing me must have brought back the memories of his mother's death and he reverted to Ataullaha, refusing to have anything to do with me."
"How then, did he come to be stuck in the Shadow Realm?" Marik asked. "That just sounds like Multiple Personality Disorder. He didn't have the Millenium Puzzle at the time, did he?"
"Spirits of the Shadow Realm are created in two ways. The first is through the sacrifice of a soul. Yami, Bakura, and any of the other spirits of the Millenium Items were created through this method. Ataullaha, however, is one of the few that was created by the second method: the complete and total acceptance of death."
"When he was abandoned by Yumi, Yugi knew that he was going to die and he came to accept it whole heartedly. It put him in connection with the Shadow Realm, which took all of the parts of his personality and spirit that he had thrown away in order to survive. Thus, Ataullaha was created from those forgotten parts. Atauallah was, just as with Yami and Bakura, allowed to leave the Shadow Realm only to take over Yugi's body in certain instances."
"However, that stopped not long after Yugi came to live with me. In hindsight, Egypt was the best place for Yugi to be raised. There were few people around in our village and those that were there were all friendly and extremely helpful."
"For the first year and a half, my relationship was Yugi was very rocky. Ataullaha made frequent appearances during this time Slowly though, he learned to trust me and the others, as well. After Seyton, Ataullaha left complete, sealing himself away in the Shadow Realm. He knew that Yugi no longer needed him."
"Seyton?" Yami asked, frowning up at Indi.
Rifling around in the box, Solomon retrieved another picture, brushing the others to the side. It was of a giant stallion, at least sixteen hands tall. His coat was a bright red, as were his tail and mane. Cuffs of black adorned his legs directly over the hooves, the only break in the shimmering color. Along his hindquarters were five long, jagged scars.
"Yugi's horse," Solomon said.
"Yugi rides horses?" Joey asked incomplete disbelief.
"He's one of the best I've ever seen," Solomon laughed. "He's more of a trainer though, specializing in abused horses. It's therapeutic for him and he has a connection with them that no one I know has ever seen before. He says that it is because he understands what they went through and they know it. Among the trainers in Egypt, he's called the Lord of Horses."
"He was a wild, fierce animal and refused to let anyone ride him. After two days, Seyton let Yugi onto his back," Indi added. "It was training Seyton that brought Yugi out of his shell. The first time I saw him smile after the whole fucking nightmare with Yumi was when he rode Seyton for the first time."
"I had no idea," Joey murmured.
"Not even I did," Yami said.
"If Yugi was doing so well, then why did he need the Khadim?" Seto asked.
They all turned their attention back to Solomon.
"Because of his childhood, Yugi suffers from nightmares like you wouldn't even believe. They prevent him from sleeping, leaving him too afraid to even close his eyes. About two years ago, we discovered that the lack of sleep was hurting his body. He was, and still is, recovering from the damage that Yumi did to him. As well, I believe that Yugi wanted for there to be a time when he looked in the mirror and didn't have to be constantly reminded of what his aunt did to him."
"Adil was a close family friend and we knew that he was one of the last Khadim carvers. He agreed to make one for Yugi. It was designed to keep the majority of his physical features, the height, etcetera, but eliminate the scars. A few more changes were added so that no one would recognize him. In his true form, he looks a lot more like Saimei than he does with the Khadim."
"It also brought out some of the forgotten parts of his personality, those that he gave up to Ataullaha. That is where his signature happy-go-lucky attitude came from."
"So he's going to be very different from the Yugi we know?" Tristan wondered.
Indi shrugged. "It depends on how you look at it. If you wanted to be purely superficial, then yes, he will be very different. He'll be more subdued, talk less, and may even be a bit standoffish with people he's never before. However, the rest of him will be the same and if you can't look past the happy-go-lucky, then you aren't-"
"-Indigo, calm down!" Solomon growled. "Just trust them."
The young woman that stood behind him huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Her violet eyes narrowed into a fierce glare that was directed at the group assembled around the couch.
"Sorry. Indi is very protective of her cousin. They're like siblings," Solomon sighed, throwing a short glance back at his granddaughter.
"It's understandable," Mokuba murmured, speaking for the first time.
"So what happens now?" Tristan asked.
Solomon settled back into his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers.
"Yugi will go through the withdrawal. It's too late to save the Khadim and there is no reason to make another way. Afterwards, it'll all be up to him whether or not he wants to stay. More likely than not, he'll want to go back to Egypt where he feels safest."
Seto's gaze traveled from the old man over to the dark hall that led towards the bedrooms. His eyes narrowed as the shadows seemed to leer at him, laughing at the pain and suffering that emanated from it. While Kaiba couldn't feel it in the same way that Yami could, he knew it was there and it scared him unlike anything else he'd faced in a long time.
A/N: Seyton is pronounced the same at Satan. It is a character from Shakespeare's . 14 pages! Awesome! A lot went on in that chapter.