The Others: The First Year

Disclaimer: Yu-gi-oh! Duel Monsters is owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, and TV Tokyo. All names were changed to the characters of this fandom in order to protect the real people involved in the following incidents.

To all six of my roommates
You are my new family
We will make it though this together

Chapter 21: Tin Foil Hats

Tuesday, February 21st, 2017

We were practicing falling in Combat and, no, before you ask, Kaiba wasn't just knocking us down for the living heck of it (though I wouldn't put it past him to do such a thing). No, instead we were learning how to harden our bones so that we could survive a three story jump and walk away unscathed.

Eventually, we'd move up to five stories and then seven. Apparently, the highest someone had jumped down from before was fifteen stories. Anymore than that and you would seriously get hurt.

Kaiba had taken us to an abandoned warehouse building so that we could practice. He had made us run all the way there without using our magic. It was a good fifteen minutes before we made it there. I was further convinced of the CEO's sadistic tendencies.

So there I was, standing on a ledge, three stories up, going to jump downwards. It seemed a lot farther down than just three floors. It looked for like seventy. Seventy two, at the most.

Kaiba had mentioned that it was unlikely that I would die from jumping at this height, but I wasn't so sure. What if I messed up? What is, for some reason, this all went terribly wrong and I ended up in a coma for the rest of my life?

Hey! Hey! Listen.

I looked around to see the owner of the voice, only to realize that it was Akeifa trying to get my attention.

"What?" I muttered. Marik, who was standing beside me looked over in confusion. I mouthed Akeifa's name and his eyes widened with understanding.

The secret to doing this is to leap into the fire while you're in the air, he explained. This Kaiba person is technically right, though, about focusing your power in your legs to strengthen them on impact. But I've always found it worked better if you just leap in the air. It sends a fresh jolt through your entire body. I leapt off a cliff once doing that and I was fine.

"Really? Thanks, mate," I told him.

"What he say?" Marik asked eagerly.

"Akeifa recommended jumping into the fire when you're in the air instead of what Kaiba's telling us to do," I repeated his advice.

"Really? I mean, I've always felt some pain in my knees after I jump. Will this really help?"

I shrugged, "Might as well give it a try."

And with that, I found my way into my soul and stepped out of the magical flame in my Room. Then, summoning up all the courage I had, I leapt off the ledge and plummeted to the ground. Just before I landed, I threw myself back into the fire and felt the rush of magic through my body. I let my knees bend on impact and landed on the floor of the warehouse alive and well.

There was none of the hurting that Marik described, so I gave him the thumbs up. He grinned down at me and disappeared. Then his body flew off the edge (I guess he took a running start) and he landed just a gracefully as me.

"That was so cool!" He threw his hands up, "Hey, tell him thanks for me too. Whoo!"

I relayed his message and could feel Akeifa's smirk; I would very much like to meet this Marik someday in person.

"That can be arranged," I told him.

There was a feeling of shock and then, I-I don't know. It's just - the real world - I've already gotten a taste of it and the others haven't. Maybe they should go first...

But I could tell that there was something else bothering him. He would tell me on his own time, but if I had to guess it would be because of Atem.

"She's not angry with you," I told him. "If anything, I think she wants to see you too."

No! He yelled and I flinched from the volume. No, I just...I just can't. I'm not ready yet.

And with that he was gone.

Love-struck fool, Game Master whispered from my mind.

I leaned against the wall, closed my eyes and entered my Soul Room. I marched outside and banged on the door that I knew belonged to him.

"Don't make me say what I've come to say out here where everyone can hear me."

I could hear him sigh through the door and then it unlocked, swinging outwards with a loud creek. I stepped inside, hesitantly.

Game Master's Room looked like a stereotypical medieval bedroom. There was a four-poster bed with blue hangings on the columns. A fireplace, burning with a familiar red flame, was set into the wall. There were paintings hanging in the stone walls of faces I didn't recognize. Game Master stood in the corner, glaring at me under his white hair.

"What?" He snapped.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked, "I know you've got issues with Atem, but why do you have to take them out on Akeifa? He's done nothing wrong."

He snorted, "Don't be stupid. He still thinks he's something special to her, but he's wrong. He's just the sixth in a long line of people called Bakura."

He laughed cruelly, "Just like I was number three. You don't think it's a coincidence, do you, that M'lady just happens to travel into our countries at the exact time that we are there? No, I bet that she tracks us down and searches us out. It wasn't chance that brought her to that village where I found her. It wasn't luck that she managed to convince me to hire her as a servant. She witched me with her mind and her body. Just like she witched Akeifa, though the idiot doesn't have the brains in his head to figure that out.

"And you," Game Master snarled at me. "You disgust me even more than he does. Here you are, with the knowledge of what happened to each of us - knowledge that we never got the chance to have - and yet you still trail after her like a loyal lap dog."

"Shut the fuck up!" I yelled, "Just shut up. You don't know anything -"

"I don't know anything? I don't know anything? You forget who you're talking to, boss. I know a lot more than you know, more than you'll ever know. You've known her for months. I've known her for years," his voice was low and dark, angry almost. "And after everything that I did, everything that I went through for her, do you know how she repaid me? By moving on and sleeping with Soul Steeler, that jumped up slut!"

I couldn't take it anymore. I stepped forward and punched him in the face. The red flame in the corner jumped and then -

I was staring at him - her - from behind. She was bathing in the stream again. This was the third time that I'd caught her like this and she didn't know that I'd discovered her secret yet.

And then -

She was running behind me as I rode quickly away from her. It was our silent deal: if I could loose her, she would go away and leave me be. But this time, she was sick and breathing terribly. I slowed to a halt and held out my hand.

And then -

The monster was dead on the ground, limbs torn from it's body and I couldn't remember how, so she must have done it. The wound in my side was gone, so she must have done that too. Rain was falling from the sky and suddenly her lips were on mine and she was whispering in between kisses "You're alive. You're alive." I was shocked and scared, but I didn't pull away because, as much as I hated it, I wanted this so bad.

And then -

I was back, back in my own memories, my own soul. I stepped backwards, shocked at what I'd just seen. I looked up at Game Master and he had stepped back, eyes wide with shock.

"Did you...see that?" He asked breathlessly.

"You watched her bathe?" I stared at him incredulously, "You're worse than me."

"Sh-shut up," he actually looked a little embarrassed. "Get out."

"And what was that monster?"

"I said get out!" He threw up his hands and the flame in the fireplace rushed towards me and pushed me out of his room.

I woke up in my real body and moved towards the edge of the ledge once more. I remembered the feeling of need that had coursed through my veins when I experienced Game Master's memories. If he felt that at one point for Atem, what had happened to make him this angry at her now? Or maybe, I thought, it was just something that snuck up on him over time. I'd find out eventually what had happened between them.

I looked down passed the edge and jumped off.

Game Master, had he been born in our century, would have been the guy who wore tin foil hats and installed a nuclear bunker in his basement. His computer would have so many firewalls and anti-virus programs that he wouldn't be able to run anything on it. His home would be equipped with cameras and lazar beam security fences, making it impossible to get anything in or out without him knowing about it.

So it would be fair to say that the guy is a little bit paranoid.

He was born in the year 1362 in the Kingdom of Castile and Leon, a kingdom that would eventually become part of modern-day Spain. When he was old enough, Game Master attended the Spanish campus of Camelot Academy of Magic and learned to control his powers. He favoured Enchantment because of his need to know what everyone else around him was thinking. He was easily the greatest Enchanter to ever come out of that school, if not the entire world. He knew more about what each of his fellow students were doing than some of their best friends. Game Master never really trusted people because he knew that they lied a lot.

When he returned to his home, he decided that he was going to give up his dream to become a scholar and joined the military. He wasn't going to have a future as a page-turner and, even though his belief in God was as strong as ever, he was never going to become a priest (he like visiting the local brothels a little too much). So the army was his only option.

After a few years of training and saving up his money, Game Master purchased a horse and began his ride to the southern Kingdom of Granada to fight the people living there. On the way, he stopped in a town in search of a servant. There was only one that peaked his interest. A boy with gold, black, and red hair. A boy with maroon eyes.

A boy who's mind he couldn't read.

The boy (Atem, he introduced himself as) could use magic too, but seemed a bit too young to be able to control it as well has he did. He'd never gone to Camelot before, Game Master would have recognized him of he had. He could run in time with a galloping horse and prevent his chain mail from rusting.

Of course, Game Master discovered later that Atem was actually a girl. That discovery nearly gave him a heart attack because Camelot, until the 16th century, was for men only (European women didn't start actively learning magic until long after the Witch Hunts were over, ironically). His mind was later blown to bits when he found out that she was The Immortal, a title that Atem had picked up over the centuries. But the worst was yet to come.

He'd grown to fancy her. It was the first time that he'd ever really felt a genuine attachment to someone, so Game Master was a little scared about it. He had to trust that she was telling the truth because he had no other way of verifying her words. But it was how Atem would say something that would make him smile or laugh in a way that he'd never done before that made him fall for her.

But he was convinced that he was never good enough for her, that he was unworthy of any attention that she gave to him. He wanted her to leave so that he simply wouldn't have to deal with that fear. Atem scared him because of his inability to read her mind: he never understood why she kept following him.

He never got to understand how much she actually loved him.

So I kind of still have a little bit of trouble with possession. But just a little bit. Really.

Okay, so I still sucked, but at least I knew that I could do it.

It was a bit different than when I let spirits like Akeifa possess me. They were easy. Just grab one, drag him out of his Soul Room and toss him to the end of the corridor in my mind. Simple.

It was so much harder when it wasn't the spirit of some guy that you despised, both in life and in death, and wanted to get him to pass on as quickly as possible so that you didn't have to stare at his ugly mug any longer than you had to.

"Fucking old cat women," I grumbled under my breath as we walked back to the KaibaCorp building.

Atem was laughing, actually laughing, at me, "I don't know what you're complaining about, Bakura. She seemed like a lovely person."

"I swear, every single old bat who kicked the bucket after their hundredth birthday had fifteen cats," I complained. "And they loved them more than their own children. Why else, pray tell, would they want to see each and every one of their precious furry felines before they passed on?"

I threw my hand up in frustration, "I mean, I like cats and all, don't get me wrong. Its just there is a fine line between liking something and obsessing over it."

"I'm more of a dragon person than a cat person myself," she said lightly. My jaw dropped.

"You have pet dragons?"

"They're not pets," she corrected me. "They're Summons."

"But they're actual dragons?" No way. Atem could not be this awesome.

"Yes, actual dragons," she looked at me perplexed. "Why?"

"I have been reading sci-fi and fantasy books since I was eleven and you are living me dream."

She just stared at me, mouth hung open as she tried to form words. Then she shook her head, "Crazy..."

"Can you introduce me?" I asked joyfully.

"Unless you want to pass out for a month after Summoning Slifer, then the answer is no," Atem rolled her eyes at me.

"I'll take my chances. What can Slifer do?" I was grinning so hard it actually hurt my face.

"He breathes lightning out of his mouths," she sighed. "And no, before you ask, I'm not introducing you to him - you know that you look really stupid with at smile on, right?"

"You are so freaking cool," I told her. She looked confused, "You have a dragon. Named Slifer. That spits lightning."

"I fail to see how my choice in Summons reflects my body temperature," she didn't get it.

"No: cool. As in the slang term," she obviously didn't get my explanation. "As in amazing. How did you get through the 70s without hearing the term 'cool'?"

"I was in hiding," Atem said it like it was supposed to be obvious.

"Where?"

"In the Rocky Mountains."

"Where in the Rocky Mountains?"

"On top of them. In Canada."

There was a pause where I processed this information. And then, "Did you kill a bear with your hands while you were up there?"

She pulled a book out of nowhere at wacked me over the head with it.

"Ow! What was that for?" I shouted.

"For being an idiot. A stupid," thwack, "stupid," thwack, "stupid," thwack-thwack-thwack, "idiot."

"Stop hitting me," I cried, trying not to laugh. "This is child abuse!"

Atem beat me to the punch, bursting out in breathless laugher that refused to contain it self. Soon after, I joined her. We must have looked like a pair of idiots to the people walking by. I was sure that we got more than a couple of strange looks.

But if there was one thing that I remembered from all of that, it was that Atem had a beautiful laugh. The sound of it, combined with how her maroon eyes lit up and the wide grin on her face made it so. And I wanted to hear her laugh more often.

Took her by the hand and we ran like the stupid people we were all the way back to Atlantis.

Friday, February 24th, 2017

I decided that I was going to do a little research on Atem's life myself. I had a little more than an hour before I had to be at Medicine, so I turned on my tablet and opened the internet app, locating the site my sister had shown me a few weeks ago.

The home page of 'Who is Yugi Mutuo?' had a massive, blown-up, covertly taken picture of Atem positioned at its centre. Underneath was the caption "Have you seen this woman? Click the link below."

Well, technically, I had, so I followed the instructions. It brought me to the main sight. It was surprisingly well formatted, with interesting graphics and everything. I clicked on the link that said 'Sightings' and waited for the page to load.

There were a bunch of pictures; old-fashioned black-and-white stills, and even a few coloured photographs. There were drawings and links and all sorts of other things as well. Scans of diaries from notable historical figures like Napoleon were there as well. I remembered my promise to Akeifa to find out what happened to him and mentally poked him.

Hmmm? He mumbled. What?

"I think I might have something on Napoleon. You asked if I could find out some stuff about him, so here it is, "I told him. "Can you see the page through my eyes or do you want to possess me?"

I could feel him shift nervously. I was tempted to roll my eyes, "Look, Atem's not going to walk in."

It's not that, he mumbled. I never got a schooling. I can't read.

"Oh," I said. "There's a translation under it. I could read it to you."

Alright, he agreed, sounding a bit more relieved than I thought was necessary.

And so I did. It was a page from one of Napoleon Bonaparte's journals, one that the French government had paid Google outrageous amounts of money to have it be the very last thing that comes up on a search. Apparently, most people don't look past the first page on a search engine, so almost no one looked on the last page. And this journal wasn't something that anyone should have been looking at.

Napoleon wasn't an Other, but he definitely knew about magic. He'd written about it in this journal of his. It was a description of a day in his life during the Revolution. There were mundane things, like what he'd eaten for breakfast, but there were mentions of some other things. Things like a different war that he was fighting other than the Revolution, but the threat's name were smudged so I couldn't tell what it was. And there, there she was.

Atem.

She wasn't mentioned by name, but Napoleon wrote her in as L'Immortel, or The Immortal according to the English translation. It was, according to Akeifa, a title she'd picked up over the years. And she'd been there, sitting with the man who would later become the Empire of France, apparently staring out the window with sad eyes. She was remembering...there was a blank, like someone had removed the ink on the page...and then something about a great and noble fighter who had died recently.

"Hey, Akeifa. I think he was talking about you," I whispered. I didn't know that it was possible to hear someone smiling - let alone someone who had been dead for two hundred years.

Do you know what else happened to him? How he lived his life after I died? He asked. Did he end up marrying Josephine?

I searched for Napoleon's name elsewhere on the page, but there was nothing. I opened up a new tab and logged onto Wikipedia, typing in the man's name into the search box.

"Uh, let's see. Napoleon Bonaparte...ah, here it is: 'He was romantically attached to Barras's former mistress, Joséphine de Beauharnais, whom he married on 9 March 1796 after he had broken off his engagement to Désirée Clary.' And...oh, and then he basically took over Italy. Sacked Venice while he was at it. Hung out in Egypt for a while; bet Soul Stealer would have loved him..."

Though I never met the man, I could teach you a few curses we might have thrown at him, Soul Stealer shouted jokingly from his room.

Never mind him. Go back to what you were reading, Akeifa sounded excited.

"Alright," I snickered at their antics. "After the Egyptian Campaign, he went back to France and became part of the Consulate and revolutionized the country. Invented the metric system, created higher education systems, named a code of law after himself. And then, he crowned himself Emperor of France after an assassination attempt, with Josephine as his empress."

That's great! I'm happy for them, he whispered.

"That's not all," I went on to say. "Things kind of went down hill after that. He divorced his wife (What?) and married a woman named Marie Louise (What?) and then tried to invade Russia, but was forced to retreat because of the winter (No...no it can't be...). He was exiled to a place called Elba (Son of a -) but came back to France afterwards. The new king, Louis XVI - no offense, but your monarchy was completely unoriginal with their names - runs away with his tail between his legs and Napoleon rules until he is exiled again. This time, however, he doesn't come back. He dies on the island of Saint Helen because of an ulcer - Akeifa, are you alright?"

I was getting an odd feeling from him, one of complete shock. I was almost tempted to go in and check on him, but then there was a wave of anger that I never thought would ever come from him. I suddenly understood how this man was able to become the killer that Kaiba feared so much.

They got him, he whispered. The bastards got him in the end.

And then he was gone.

I still had about half an hour, so I closed the window and looked back at the bits of proof of Atem's travels. One stood out more than the rest: a drawing that was more of a sketch than anything else. Underneath it was the caption, "Drawn by a young man at the signing of the Treaty of Granada."

Granada. Granada. The name sounded familiar, so I Googled it. Apparently, it was the treaty that ended the fighting between the Christian soldiers of modern-day northern Spain and the Muslim fighters of the south...

Wait...Spain? I did a little more searching and came up with my connection. The Treaty of Granada had put an end to the Spanish Reconquista, the war that Game Master had taken part of.

And Atem...Atem had...

"Game Master, you need to see this."

No, go away.

"No really, you need to see this."

I said...there was a treaty? He seemed surprised, Spain is united?

"Yes," I whispered. "And look who's standing there, at the signing."

No...

"Yeah. That's her. That's Atem."

She was a little difficult to recognize. The male clothing didn't help and neither did the shortened hair. But it was her and there was no doubt in my mind that she had help put this all together.

"The date, Game Master. Look at the date," I told him. "1491. What year did you die in?"

There was a pause and then, 1391.

"One hundred years. She stayed behind for one hundred years, to finish what you started. She ended your war for you, even though it took her a whole century to do it. She did it for you."

No...Game Master's voice was shaking, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He tried to escape into the back of his Room, but I chased after him.

He was pacing like a caged animal, sputtering and pulling at his hair, wild red eyes darting around the Room. He muttered under his breath in what I assumed was Spanish. Either way, I couldn't understand it.

"Will you stop that? You're making me dizzy," I told him. "Just say what you're thinking for once, instead of covering it up."

He slammed him fists into the stone wall, letting out a noise that sounded like a chocked-up attempt not to cry. Game Master stayed in that position as I approached, wary of any attempt to throw me from his Room again. When I got close enough, I could see him shaking.

I didn't know how it worked, but I knew that if I touched him in here, I would be able to see parts of his past. Maybe I would be able to understand what was bothering him so much.

I reached out, but hovered over his shoulder long enough for him to know what I was planning to do. Game Master did nothing, so I lowered it onto him and was thrust into his memories -

I half-walked myself and was half-carried by Atem back to the room at the inn where he were staying. The side of my tunic was soaked in my own blood, but the wound was long gone. She'd healed my flesh, but my mind was still churning from what that monster had called her. Princess.

Princess. This was horrible. She couldn't be a princess. Princesses had hands that were as smooth. Princesses were soft spoken and wouldn't touch a weapon if you paid them. Princesses weren't...weren't like she was at all.

Atem dumped me onto the single bed in the room, leaping on top of me and pinning me down as I tried to sit up. I tried to argue with her - I was fine, really - but she slapped her hand over my mouth and forced me back.

"Don't," her voice was ragged and unsteady and I remembered her desperate kisses from moments before. "Don't get up. You could still be hurt."

And then Atem started fiddling with the laces on my tunic like it was the most normal thing on earth. I should have stopped her, but I couldn't move.

After my shirt was gone, she moved down-down-down my torso and off of my hips and bent over to...take off my boots? Oh, right. It was almost dark and she was preparing me for bed. Like a servant. But she wasn't a servant; she was royalty - God's chosen rulers over mortal men.

Then she rolled off of me and stepped off the bed. Atem was shaking badly. She'd used up a lot of magic fighting that thing, whatever it was. And she was about to sleep on the floor, like she always did. But no, this time it was different.

"You cannot sleep down there," I told her.

"Why not?" She snapped, "I've been sleeping down here for a while."

"You cannot. Princesses do not sleep on floors."

- And stepped backwards away from Game Master. I'd seen enough.

"Is that why?" I asked, "Is that why you're always so mad at her? Because of..." I trailed off.

He remained silent for a while, but eventually did answer, "She is royalty. I had no business being anywhere near her, let alone...let alone to court her, if you could call what we did courting."

"Weren't you a noble?" I asked.

"Yes, but..." he made a sound that might have been an attempt at laughter, "I was the youngest of five sons. My father was a Count and a poor one at that. I would have inherited nothing at his death. I couldn't have given her anything. And Atem...M'lady was a princess, an heiress to a mighty Empire. God chooses Kings to be his representative on Earth. I should have never..." he broke off again, letting out a yell of frustration.

"When she was young, really young - like five years old," I told him. "Atem ran away from her family. She was nearly killed when a market stall crashed on top of her. But a boy whom she had never met before saved her life. She learned then at a life was a life, no matter the title or status of the person it belonged to. So I think that Atem didn't see the fifth son of a poor Count when she looked at you. She saw you; she saw...Bakura the Game Master."

He slid to the floor, "No, she couldn't have. M'lady couldn't have cared like that."

"Then you explain to me why she bothered to stay behind for a century after your death to complete what you started. Because if she didn't care, I would really like to understand Atem's motives here."

He couldn't give me one. Game Master just broke down and cried.

"God! Is this my Hell, my punishment for my sins? Why did it have to be this?"

I wanted to do something, but someone placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Akeifa standing behind me. He jerked his head towards the exit as if to say, 'Go, I'll take care of this.' I nodded and left, only looking back as I closed the door.

Akeifa was kneeling beside Game Master. The older of the two spirits was trying to push the other away from him, but Game Master's attempts were half-hearted and weak. Akeifa mumbled something and wrapped his arm around the other spirit's shoulders.

I shut the door and left, wondering just how bad things had gotten for Game Master to be like that. I hoped that, one day, he'd be able to see past what had happened to him and simply live again.

I also hopped, rather selfishly, that I would never turn out like Game Master. I didn't wanted to end up as broken as him.

Hello, my friends!

I would like to thank the people who reviewed for the last chapter: Akikee, Coolaloo, Malik'sStalker, and Ebony-Ivory-and-Rachele. Thank you all for your continued support.

This was an awesome chapter to write. Game Master has, over the course of The First Year, become my favourite of the spirits. His back story, as you will find out in Resurrection is very complicated, especially when Atem comes into his life. As I said in the forum post I did on the spirits, it is crucial to remember what time period he comes from:

The thing to remember about Game Master is that he is a hard core Christian living in Medieval Europe. The Crusades and the witch burnings are going on and the Church is, effectively, the only law. So, when Game Master develops feelings for Atem, he fears them. Atem is a woman doing men's things (like going to war), unmarried, not a virgin, isn't white, cursed, immortal, and a heathen. Not to mention that she's royalty (Game Master is also a believer in the Divine Right of Kings) and the youngest son's of poor counts don't court princesses. And the worst bit: he can't repent for anything because repenting means that you are asking for forgiveness from God. Despite his fear, Game Master isn't sorry that he loves Atem.

As for the next chapter, there's going to be a huge game changer that you will not see coming. Well, technically two game changer, but one's been in the making for a while. Can't freaking wait!

Until next time,

AlcatrazOutpatient