Muto Residence

November 13, 2025

4:10 PM

It was shortly after Yuki turned 12 that Yugi began having strange moments of déjà vu. They were always subtle, but too frequent for them not to mean anything. It would be a small movement Yuki made, a lilt in his voice or a look in his eyes, and Yugi would be sure he'd seen it somewhere before.

Then, one afternoon while Yuki was playing with Syrus, Yugi happened to walk by the den just as Yuki exclaimed, "It's time to get your game on, Sy!" The words stopped him dead in his tracks. Suddenly, like a wave breaking, all the pieces came together in his mind and he knew.

"Téa!" Yugi bolted through the house until he reached the kitchen, where his wife was stirring a pot on the stove. She turned to look at him when he came bounding in, letting out a gasp of surprise when he picked her up and twirled her— and the dripping soup ladle— around in a circle.

"What— Yugi Muto! What's gotten into you? You put me down right this minute! You're getting soup all over the kitchen!"

Yugi set her down, apologetically grabbing a damp cloth and beginning to wipe up the soup splatters, an effort that was ruined by the very unrepentant grin splitting his features.

"He's going to be alright, Téa. He's going to be alright."

"Who?"

"Yuki. He's going to be alright."

"What are you talking about? I wasn't aware he wasn't alright. Except for… you're not talking about Yubel, are you?" At his affirming nod, Téa frowned in confusion. "She's been gone for years, with no trace to be found anywhere. How could you possibly just suddenly know…?"

"Because I've met them before— Yuki and Yubel. Before he was born, before Pegasus gave him her card."

Téa stared at him. "Are you feeling alright?"

Yugi laughed again, leaning against the counter for support. "I suppose now's the time for a confession." He paused to catch his breath. "This is going to come as a shock, honey, but… the thing is… I've traveled through time."

To her credit, Téa didn't even stop to consider that Yugi might be joking. She'd seen and heard too much for that. "What? When? I mean, how, I mean— what?"

"It was after we got back from Duelist Kingdom," Yugi began, straightening up and becoming serious. "Remember that event Pegasus held here in Domino, as a publicity stunt to reassure consumers he was alright after vanishing for a few months?"

Téa nodded slowly. She, unlike the vast majority of the public, had been privy to the reasons behind Pegasus's sabbatical, and so had been especially relieved when she'd heard he was going to be making public appearances again. She hadn't gone— in fact, none of them had except for Yugi and his Grandpa, all of them too busy with other things.

"That was when you traveled to the future? Did Pegasus have something to do with it?" He'd created Duel Monsters; a time machine didn't seem like that far of a stretch.

"In a way. And I didn't travel to the future— I actually only went about half an hour back in time."

Now Téa was really confused. "I think you'd better start from the beginning."

"Right. Well, Grandpa and I had just arrived at the event when these dragons appeared out of nowhere…" And so he told her— about Paradox's attack, the bright red (or crimson, rather) light that had appeared out of nowhere, dragging him back in time, meeting Yuki and a duelist from even further in the future named Yusei, confronting Paradox, finding out his plan, and teaming up to stop him.

Téa listened without interruption, as she always did, adding ingredients to the soup and stirring and testing it occasionally, but always listening.

"They told me they knew who I was, that there was no need for introductions. It really shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did, considering Duelist Kingdom, but that was when they told me they were from the future." He laughed. "I was totally caught off guard. Yuki told me it was 'no big whoop'." He paused, thinking. "I wonder if our son travels through time a lot in the future."

Confirmation my life will never be normal, Téa thought. "What about Yubel? How did she seem?"

"I didn't actually see Yubel; she must have been concealing her presence— I wonder if that was on purpose because she didn't want me to recognize her later on?— but I definitely heard Yuki address her by name. I can remember it clear as day now, though I haven't thought about it in years… 'Nice job scaring them off, Yubel. That's right everyone— keep running and don't look back,' he said."

The retired King of Games fell silent once again as he pondered. "I wonder why that memory didn't come back when I first saw her name on her card.

There wasn't even an inkling of familiarity, no 'I-think-I've-heard-that-name-before', or anything."

"Modern research tells us human memory isn't nearly as accurate as we'd like to believe," Téa pointed out.

Yugi sighed, running a hand through his trademark hair. "Yeah, I know."

"More importantly, why were our son and his favorite monster 'scaring people off'?"

"Oh, so there wouldn't be any collateral damage. We decided on that together, but before Yusei and I could even start brainstorming ways we could pull it off, boom! Yuki took care of it. I remember, my heart rate spiked like crazy when that energy blast came out of nowhere, but when Paradox showed up again, I forgot all about it. It worked, though; the resulting explosion scared away the crowds, so the second time Paradox attacked..."

Yugi trailed off, suddenly subdued. For one brief moment, his eyes took on a haunted look, as if he'd just remembered something unpleasant. It was gone quickly, but Téa had gotten too good at reading him over the years.

"Yugi? Did something happen when Paradox attacked the first time?" Her husband looked away.

"Paradox didn't take any chances when killing Pegasus. He collapsed all the surrounding buildings to make sure he got him… and he got almost everyone else in the vicinity, too. Including…" he swallowed hard. "Including Grandpa."

"Oh, Yugi." Téa put down the soup ladle and pulled him into a hug. "I can't imagine what that must have been like. You must have been devasted. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Well, Grandpa was fine in the end because we stopped Paradox's attack, and… and I wasn't really sure you'd believe that I'd traveled back in time, even if it was only half an hour, and dueled with duelists from the future… it just seemed better not to bring it up."

"I'm sorry you felt that way," Téa said, giving him an extra squeeze. "And I'm sorry you've had to deal with those memories all this time, with no one to talk to about it."

"Well, Atem was there, of course," Yugi said awkwardly, the hug breaking apart. "We talked about it. It was a joint decision to not tell anyone else, really."

"That's right. I forgot the two of you shared everything in those days," Téa said, her lips twitching in amusement as she remembered the craziness that had been their teenage years. She turned back to the soup on the stove.

"Yeah…" Yugi said wistfully, thinking of his partner. Suddenly he brightened. "Téa, that means that Yuki met the Pharaoh— or is going to meet him?— anyway; he's always asking for stories of what he was like and he's going to meet him and— oh, so much about that afternoon makes sense now. He really seemed more interested in talking to Atem rather than me; I tried to convince myself it didn't hurt, but… guess I know why now."

"That afternoon? I thought you spent that afternoon at Pegasus's event?"

"Oh, yeah, I never told you, did I?" Yugi chuckled nervously. "I did spend it at the event— technically— but I spent most of my time talking with Yuki and Yusei."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

Yugi blinked at her. "Dangerous?"

"Yeah. What if they told you something about the future that caused like, I don't know, a paradox or something?"

"Oh. Well, we mostly talked about dueling, not the future."

Téa rolled her eyes. "Of course you did. You meet two duelists from the future, and you don't talk about world peace or climate change or the economy— you talk about your cards."

"W—well it was something we all had in common, and it's not every day you—" Yugi's flustered protests stopped when he saw Téa grinning at him.

"You're just teasing me, aren't you?"

"Yeah. You're cute when you're flustered."

"Hey!"

"And I don't mind that you talked about dueling. You wouldn't be you if you didn't." She sighed with mock exasperation. "And it sounds like our son is going to be a chip off the old block, too."

"Well, we already knew he loves dueling. But he got something from you, too, Téa!" Yugi hastily assured, not wanting her to feel left out, "he's going to be a great actor! He didn't even give a hint of who he really was— is. Never slipped up and called me Dad, never made a reference to something like he thought I should understand it, never even stumbled over his words when we were talking, really. It wasn't anything like you see in the movies."

Téa laughed. "No, if it was like the movies, he would have interrupted our first meeting and then would have had to try and get us back together again."

She paused, thinking. "I always wondered about that— if Marty's parents ever realized that their mysterious friend of a few days was really their son. Marty's a common enough name in the states, like Yuki's pretty common here. Still, they should have recognized him at some point, like you did, and put two and two together, especially because of the names."

"Oh! That's the thing; he didn't say his name was Yuki. Well, not his first name anyway."

Téa looked surprised. "He was using a fake name?"

"Yeah. Jaden Yuki. Yuki can be a first name or a last name, and he said it completely normally, you know— without any hesitation or anything— so I never bothered to question it… All these years, I've just referred to him as 'Jaden' in my head."

"Jaden, hmm? I wonder why he picked that?"

"I suppose we'll find out someday."

Téa hummed in agreement. "Speaking of 'someday', is there anything else I should know about the person our son is going to grow up to be?"

"You're not worried about a paradox?" Now Yugi's voice was teasing.

She shrugged. "If one thing being around you has taught me, it's that everything usually works out in the end, despite the odds. Besides, it's not fair for you to have insight that I don't. Come on, spill it."

Yugi laughed, and then eagerly began, "Well, his dueling was top notch! He adapted quickly, thought ahead, and worked totally in sync with us. Said he'd learned at a place called Duel Academy, which I guess means Kaiba's plans to start a dueling school are going to pan out."

Téa snorted. "Was there any ever doubt that one of Kaiba's ventures would succeed?"

"No, I guess not. And his monsters had this really awesome special ability— contact fusion!" Yugi launched into an explanation of what their son would be able to do one day, and Téa once again quietly listened, smiling all the while.

Finally, the soup was done, and she put the lid on to keep it warm before pulling out the bread she'd bought that day and began to cut it into thick slices.

"Could you get me the breadbasket, Yugi?"

"Hmm? Oh, sure." Yugi wandered over to the cupboards, and Téa adopted a pensive look, thinking back to the day that they'd been discussing so thoroughly. She remembered it more clearly, now; she'd been at work and so couldn't go with Yugi to the event, but she, Joey, and Tristan had met up with him that evening to study for a test they'd had on Monday. There was something about Yugi's story that wasn't adding up, but she couldn't remember what it was…

"Téa? Honey? Everything okay?" She blinked at the hand waving in her face, turning to see Yugi looking at her in concern.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I was just thinking. I know Joey, Tristan, and I couldn't go with you that day, but… what about your Grandpa? You went back in time, so he wasn't… you know… but… he was supposed to be with you that day. Didn't he wonder where you'd gone? Wasn't he worried about you when Yubel caused those explosions?"

Yugi set down the breadbasket he's been holding and slowly let out a long breath. He pulled out a stool from under the counter and sat down. "No, because I was with him that day."

"Yugi, you just finished telling me about how you saved the world and then spent the afternoon with two duelists from the future; you couldn't have also spent it with your grandfather at the event."

"You wouldn't think so, but… that's exactly what I did."

Téa put her hands on her hips. "What?"

"I have two sets of memories for those six and half hours." She stared at him. "Yeah. Took my brain a while to make sense of it, too. Atem and I stayed up 'till after midnight trying to sort them out." He laughed. "We thought it was pretty ironic at the time. Most of our problems came from not having enough memories, but that night we had too many… Téa, if you keep staring at me like that, your face is going to freeze that way."

"Two sets of memories? Yugi, how can you possibly have two sets of memories for the same day!?"

He shrugged. "The timeline split when Yusei took me back half an hour. I remember that, but I also remember evacuating the area with Grandpa when something exploded nearby. In one memory I know exactly what's happening— I'm standing right next to Jaden when Yubel fires the blast— but in another, I'm panicked and confused, with absolutely no idea what caused the explosion. I remember fighting Paradox and hanging out with Jaden and Yusei, but I also remember hanging out with Grandpa at the event when it was declared safe to go back in. Then Jaden and Yusei left and I went back home, and it was then that my two paths converged and both experiences just… ended up in the same mind. Well, two if you count Atem." He shook his head with residual disbelief.

"I can still see it in my mind's eye, rounding the corner only to see myself with Grandpa outside the Game Shop. For one split second, it was as if I was outside my own body. Then, zap! I was standing next to Grandpa talking about what a great day we'd had, and the whole Paradox duel felt more like a dream than reality. It wasn't the weirdest thing I went through back then, but it was definitely up there." He paused. Téa was still staring at him. "Does that answer your question?"

Téa tapped her foot, considering. "You went through all that in one afternoon?"

"Well, this is me we're talking about. Weird was always normal, back then."

"Back then? Yugi, you just told me our son is going to go around using an alias, partnered with a spirit who can launch real attacks on people, and traveling through time. I don't think the weirdness is going to stop anytime soon."

Yugi laughed. "You're probably right."

"Of course I'm right. I always am."

"I know. What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"Flatterer."

So it was that when Syrus finally went home, and Yuki came wandering into the kitchen, hoping for dinner to be ready, he found his parents locked in a passionate embrace.

"Mom! Dad! Eww! The boy turned and fled the scene, his parent's laughter following him all the way.

Several years later, when Yuki announced that he wanted to attend Duel Academy, but had chosen to use a pseudonym— Jaden Yuki— Yugi and Téa were, of course, completely supportive. And after Yuki had rushed off to his room to call his friends with the news, they shared a knowing smile across the room.