Wow… only a few more months and this fic will have been up for a year. That's pretty good, I guess… Hmm… maybe not. Well, moving on… I just re-read the eighth chap, it's looking pretty… violent. And hopeless. For Yugi, at least. Why is everyone else remembering, but Yugi isn't? Hmm. I don't know.
Next month on January 14th, 2005, it will have been officially one year since I posted this fanfiction. Cool and pathetic all in itself. And I'm only at chapter nine… I wrote and posed Dance the Forbidden Dance and half of Light the Flame in that time. Heh.
..9..
--Yugi's thoughts
These words in my mind… they weren't my words. They repeated themselves over and over, like a mantra, saying Either I or he. Either I or he. This strange out-of-body experience seemed to be affecting me somehow. Now my thoughts are becoming separate from myself? What does that mean?
I peered into the room. Yep, I was still in there. Sleeping. Or something. Was I unconscious? Was I… What was I, exactly?
What am I? What am I to curse and confuse? Is that why I was saved? To throw everyone into a downwards spiral?
But no. I can't think such things right now. I hafta do… something. I hafta justify myself. I hafta find that Puzzle.
So I took off down the hallway. The further I got from my body, the farther and farther and farther I got from life.
"We have to do this before someone comes into the room," Anzu hissed. She was the obvious brains of the operation. Honda just rolled his eyes and held the Puzzle to his chest. It was still barely half-done.
Anzu pushed the door open.
It was empty.
"Damnit! I thought this was the right room!" Anzu cried out in frustration. Honda looked at the nameplate fastened to the wall.
Tiatino, Seto
"Yeah, this is the right room, Anzu," Honda said as Anzu fumed. "Maybe he's somewhere else in the hospital, like, I dunno… get checked or something?" Anzu frowned, then spun around.
"Maybe. If we wait here, we'll get caught, so—"
"Uhh… Can I help you?" came a voice from behind them. Anzu looked up and Honda spun around.
Standing in the doorway was a very confused, very different, Seto Kaiba.
"Uhm…" Honda said, but Anzu jumped right in.
"Are you Seto Tiatino?"
"…Yes…" Seto said, raising an eyebrow. He was dressed in street clothes; apparently he was being released. He did look different; not only was he wearing normal street clothes, his hair was longer and pulled back. He had two piercings in one ear, and what looked like some sort of scar on the side of his face.
Aside from that, he looked the same. And sounded the same.
"We're here to talk to you," Anzu said, smiling. Honda rolled his eyes. She walked over and closed the door behind Seto. Even though his past was different, he still towered over her, at six-foot-one.
"About… what?" He asked suspiciously. He sat down in a chair that was behind him. Anzu sat on the edge of his bed.
"First off, you live in Hokkaido, and us too – we live in Domino."
"Domino? Where's that?" Seto asked.
"About forty minutes from here. Okay, and – do you recognize either of us?" Seto blinked at her in confusion.
"Whaaaaaat?" he asked. "I've never even seen you two before – and why am I even here? I'm leaving—" He said, standing up. Anzu ran over and stood in front of the door.
"Hell no, you're not going anywhere," she growled. Seto crossed his arms in front of him.
"My father's gonna be here in a few minutes – I can make you move. I have the justice system on my side."
What does he mean? Is his father a lawyer or something? She thought. Even if this was some kind of alternate reality, he was still extremely intelligent.
"Just answer the question! Please –"
"Look, I don't know what you're talking about—"he said, grabbing her wrist to push her aside. Anzu dug her feet into the floor, not moving anywhere. Honda stood and ran over to the doorway. Seto twister her wrist in an attempt to get her to move, while Anzu cried out in pain.
"Anzu, just—"
"No! I'm not letting Seto Kaiba go now!" she cried. Then she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Seto let her go and stood back.
"Wh-what did you just call me?!" he asked. He had a look of confusion and… hope?
"S-Seto Kaiba," she muttered, breathing hard. She rubbed her wrist. Seto stared at her for a moment, then said
"Why… did you call me that?" he asked. He narrowed his eyes at her.
"I-it just came out of my m-mouth," she stammered, gulping. Seto glanced around, then locked the door.
"You're not the first ones to say that," he said while doing so. He turned around.
"I'm going to tell you about these… dreams I had," he said, turning around.
"Why?" Honda asked.
"Because… The same person, with the same voice, said that same name in my head," he said, striding back towards Anzu and Honda.
Jonouchi had one hope left. As he sat in the jail cell, police calling police. He pulled his knees up to his chest and just watched people running around. They were calling governmental officials, more police, politicians…
Jonouchi was going to trial.
"Oh, dear God…" he whispered, shaking. "Why is this happening? I thought this was over with!" He sat up and stared at his hands. If it wasn't for his driving anger… If only… if only…
"I'm so sorry... Whoever you are…" he whispered. "You. That man. You were Yugi. But different…" Jonouchi shivered violently. He stared up at the ceiling. The man who was hovering over Yugi…
"I think… I saw that in a museum, once. That man." He shrugged it off. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't; all he knew, he was going crazy.
Why couldn't it be so much better? Why couldn't it be… the way Yugi described? Maybe his dream was a way his mind sheltered him from what was really happening.
But then…why did he remember things from this 'dream'? And what about those photos Anzu had? And the Puzzle? And the dreams and spurts of memory and pains…
Maybe the memories were coming back via different mediums. Maybe, he was feeling the emotions, the torments of that dream…
Jonouchi held his head in his hands. His shoulders shook. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut.
"No, it can't be…" he whispered, his arms shaking. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He was on the hard, cold, stone floor of the cell, staring blankly at a wall.
"It's real."
Ryou clicked the light on, the brightness flooding the dark room. If Ryou hadn't been such a promising student in the field of archaeology, the curator of the museum wouldn't have allowed him to go down into the depths of the Domino Museum.
It was a rather large, open room, with various boxes, charts, and maps strewn about. Doors and makeshift walls blocked the artifacts yet to be placed together or restored…. Or just to be placed into the museum exhibits.
"Ryou, if you do anything to any of these artifacts…" Amane warned, "Dad'll have you're ass."
"I know," Ryou said, tugging his wrist from Amane's grasp. "I understand."
"We wouldn't be able to afford to fix these things. And father would lose his job, and –"
"Calm down, Amane. I know what I'm looking for." He swung the keys around his wrist, searching for the door. Or wall. Or box.
Something with the marks 2-E, '96 DKBCEA.
"You're positive that… thing is down here?" Amane asked. Ryou gave an exasperated sigh.
"Yes. The number and letter '2-E' is a common marking symbol for things stored down here – it means that it's artifacts from the Middle East. Or more specifically – Egypt. This museum is the only one in the country that uses that code – what ever this paper was attached to has to be in here." Ryou held the fragment up to the dim lights. The packaging code was faded and messy, as if someone wrote it quickly and had it stored for a number of years.
The paper had fallen out of a pocket in a jacket hanging in the closet in his house. He had been shifting through when he came across something he'd never seen before – a black, leather jacket, nearly the size of a trench coat. It was so long it could reach his ankles. He didn't understand where it came from, but in the pocket, was a scrap taken from a packaging code for artifacts stored in the basement of this very museum.
"I still don't trust this," Amane muttered, stepping lightly through the hallway of makeshift walls. "I mean, where'd that thing come from?"
" 'Dunno," Ryou muttered, glancing up for the code. The pair walked along the hallway, the number-letter combination '2-E' never grazing their eyes.
"Ryou, whatever it is… It isn't here," Amane said, stopping in her tracks. "There are only so many places we have keys to, and if it's buried somewhere—"
"Amane! I found it!" Ryou cried triumphantly. He stopped at a door that was nearly hidden behind huge crates. The door was covered in a thick layer of dust, the doorknob rusty. Whatever was in here hadn't been touched in years.
"Why are we doing this again?" Amane asked in a squeaky voice.
"This may help Yugi – and me – to see if this nonsense is real," Ryou said. He was searching for the right key to unlock the door. "The story Yugi told me was incredible – but there's only one way to prove his dream true."
"And, that is…?"
Ryou found the key and shoved it in the lock.
"It has a lot of Egypt base to it. If there are artifacts to back him up…" He trailed off.
"How can you be so sure?" Amane asked, narrowing her eyes. The lock clicked. Ryou pushed open the door.
"Because," he said simply, stepping into the musty room. Amane followed. It was extremely dark and dank, and musty. Amane jumped a little at the amount of dust that had settled all over the floor.
"Oh—My God," she muttered as Ryou flipped the lights on. "Look at that." Ryou looked up, and, completely startled silent, fell backwards.
The room was filled to the brink. On one wall was about four or five thick glass cases, almost like they were shoved onto the wall, holding thick slabs or rock or tapestry. On another wall was a huge metal shelf, filled with video cassettes. Boxes littered the floor, some marked with letters that made no sense to either person: DK, BC, EA, and YGO.
"What the…" Ryou whispered, still on the floor. Amane walked forwards. There were books piled inside of a near box. There was an old television on a lower shelf of a bookcase with manila folders strewn around it. Amane picked one up.
"Ryou – this has Yugi's name on it," she said, staring at it. She placed it down again. Ryou stood up, staring at the slabs in the cases.
"Amane, look at this – these are ancient, ancient stones from Egypt," he exclaimed. "Look at it – I wonder what it could be?"
"What the hell is this?" Amane asked. She pointed to one slab that seemed to have the bottom broken off. It was covered in little rectangles with different pictures inside. The sign of Ra was at the top with more strange carvings all along and down it. "What the fuck?!" Ryou walked around the room, scanning all the old cassettes. He frowned in frustration at the labels. He picked one up in surprise when he saw his own name mentioned.
"What the… Amane, look at this," he said, showing her the cassette. She blew the dust off the label and gasped in surprise.
"Bakura vs. Yuugi, Round One – What the fuck is all this?!" she cried out in frustration. Ryou walked over to the old television and glanced at the manila folders. Each one had a name and a bunch of information inside. Ryou crouched down on his heels and glanced over the names.
"Everyones here – Yugi, Anzu, Honda, Jonouchi – all of us," he muttered. He turned to Amane and stood straight.
"What does this mean?" Amane asked, her eyes full of horror. Ryou took a deep breath and shook his head.
"I…. I don't…. I don't know," he confessed. "But I think this… This just might prove Yugi to be telling the truth." Amane shook her head.
"No – this proves that the Egyptians were nuts."
"Maybe that too, then," Ryou said, smiling sheepishly. "Wow, I… I can't believe it." Amane backed up. She turned to leave, but instead tripped over a stray box.
In an attempt to keep from falling, she grabbed onto a metal shelf near her, and instead of staying up, just pulled the books down with her that was on the shelf.
"Aaaaaaaieeeeeee!" she cried, landing in the dust. She coughed and rolled onto her back, sitting up and coughing into her hands. Ryou knelt down to lift the books back onto the shelf.
"Nice one, Amane," he said, grinning. Amane just coughed some more. She glanced at the nearest book to her, because it didn't look like a book.
It looked like a scrapbook.
"Hey…" she said, picking it up. She held it in her hands and admired it, turning her head to the side.
"What is it?" Ryou asked, kneeling on the floor next to her. She shrugged and opened it.
And, instantly, a flood of colored photos fell into her lap, shrieking her into surprise.
"There is no way in hell this could happen again," Rachel muttered to herself. Jonah placed his arms around her waist and held her tight, shaking. He could feel her shivering body as she leaned against him.
"Listen, Rachel, please… It's alright. I'm begging you…" he whispered softly. The two waited for news of their son. Because, for the second time, he might have been lost in a world of deep sleep.
"Mr. and Mrs. Muto," Come said, entering the room. "We've checked over your son; he isn't in a coma-like state quite yet, but if his condition doesn't change… I'm afraid we've lost him a second time." Jonah tightened his grip on his wife. It was for her security; it was for his own. He was shaken. He thought that, finally, their lives would go back to semi-normal. But everything was happening all over again – and they don't even know how it happened.
Rachel slid from his grasp and sat steadily on the plastic chairs that surrounded them in the lobby. She rubbed her temples and covered her face. Jonah just looked down helplessly. Come closed her eyes and turned to leave.
"Come – wait," Jonah said, stepping forwards. "Please… can we see him?" Rachel looked up momentarily, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Come looked from Jonah to Rachel, and then back to Jonah.
"You can't go in the room," Come warned, "But there is a window you can see into, if you like." Jonah glanced at Rachel, then continued forward. Rachel followed closely behind. They followed Come down a hall and through a set of doors, finally reaching a long hallway with glass windows. Come stopped at one window and peered inside. Jonah and Rachel followed.
Inside the white room was Yugi, lying in a white bed, his eyes closed. He looked extremely pale and thin, almost deathly. He had a breathing mask over his face, and his wound still seemed to be bleeding. Rachel pressed her hands against the glass, to horrified to look but too amazed to look away. Her quick breaths fogged the glass as she slid to the floor, her hand trailing after her, leaning her head against the hard wall. The warm tears flowed down her cheeks.
Jonah stared down at her, and then looked up at his son. His son wasn't his son any longer.