"Okay, I'm brain dead and my hand's cramping, what about you?" Otogi asked after throwing his sketchbook on the table and stretching with a satisfied groan.

Yuugi looked up from his notepad and smiled. "I suppose I could use a break to mull over these ideas. See if I still think they're good when seen with fresh eyes."

Otogi made a noise of agreement and rose to his feet. "Sounds like a plan. I'm gonna go for a bit of a walk and clear my head. We can take another crack at this after dinner."

"Okay, have fun!" Yuugi said, waving as Otogi wandered out of the library, leaving Yuugi alone. As soon as the designer was gone, Yuugi closed his eyes and sent a silent message to Atemu, alerting him that work was over for now. A moment later, Yuugi opened his eyes, unsurprised to find his partner standing across from him.

"Did your first session go well, love?"

"You know, I actually think it did," Yuugi replied, shy delight lighting up his features. "Wanna hear what we've decided so far? See if you think it would be a fun game?"

"I would love to. Should I sit down or did you want to stretch your legs a bit?"

Yuugi thought about it for half a second and then stood up. "I've been sitting here for hours, so let's go explore a bit."

"...just dragons to allow for thematic consistency and hopefully appeal to Kaiba," Yuugi babbled as they stepped outside. A moment later, his babbling broke off as he caught sight of a blond firing arrows out on the archery range.

Atemu followed his love's gaze and let out a low noise of understanding. "You are concerned about him?"

"Yeah," Yuugi admitted, eyes still focused on the distant archer. "He was pretty upset that we're waiting on the ring. I should have checked on him earlier, but I got distracted by the game."

"I would not worry so much," Atemu cautioned. "There are far worse ways to work out one's aggression."

"Sure, but how long do you think he's been out there? Our planning meeting broke up hours ago."

"This is true, but he likely had to wait some time before coming here. When we ended, it was nearing the heat of the day," Atemu pointed out, drawing his partner's attention. "If his training was anything like my own, he was taught to wait until Ra had begun his descent into the west."

When this statement earned a curious look, Atemu explained, "Fighting is best done in the early morning or late afternoon, times when there is light to see, but the heat is bearable. Only in a true battle does one need brave the full power of Ra's might."

Yuugi hummed, looking back to the archery range. "I'd still like to check on him, if that's okay with you."

"I am at your disposal, love, happy to follow wherever you lead," Atemu replied before pressing a kiss to Yuugi's cheek.

The action had the smaller teen blushing as he headed across the lawn towards the archery range. As he approached, Yuugi considered what to say. Based on the last time they'd found Marik like this, talking about emotions wasn't really the blond's thing. He'd seemed to get something out of discussing bows and arrows with Atemu, though, and that gave Yuugi an idea. When he was close enough to avoid shouting, he called out, "Hey, Marik?"

This greeting drew the blond's attention and caused a familiar, brown fluff ball to rise into the air from where he'd been resting at Marik's feet. As Kiri zoomed over to greet his summoner, Marik called back, "Hey Yuugi, what's up? I thought you were hard at work on your game."

"Otogi and I are taking a break until after dinner," Yuugi replied, coming to a stop at Marik's side. "We've got some time before food gets here, so Tem and I were gonna go for a walk, but then I saw you and remembered something."

Marik's intrigued "Oh?" was accompanied by a mild wave of curiosity from Atemu. It was clear that neither of them had a clue where Yuugi was going with this.

Yuugi put on his best winning smile and motioned towards the nearby shed. "Last time we were out here, Tem was pretty interested in all the weapons you've got in there. I guess things have changed a bit since his time? I'm clueless on what the differences are, but you seem to know a lot about this stuff. If you're free, would you mind giving him a quick demo?"

Atemu's curiosity upgraded to an almost overwhelming blast of excited interest as Marik grinned. "Oh, I'll give him a demo, but not of what's in the shed. The shed's pretty boring outside of bows and arrows, which haven't changed that much. If we're doing this, we're going downstairs."

Several minutes later, Yuugi, Atemu, and Kiri found themselves following Marik into a room that reminded Yuugi of his high school's gym. The floor had the appearance and varnished shine of polished hardwood. Instead of bleachers, though, the walls were lined with padded mats. As the trio gazed around curiously, Marik walked to one of the walls and pulled on a small section of padding that was clearly different from the rest, revealing a small panel of buttons. He pushed one of them and a click sounded. A second later, a far larger section of the wall swung open. There, hidden behind the secret panel, were racks full of weapons, most of them swords.

Yuugi could feel excitement pouring across his link to Atemu, so he forced the switch, allowing his partner control. A moment later, Atemu was walking forward, moving closer to better study the weapons. "There are several of these that I do not recognize."

Marik nodded. "Yeah, well, a lot of these first date to several hundred years after your time, but we'll get to them. Let's start with something familiar."

With that, Marik pulled down a khopesh, handing it to Atemu. The former pharaoh took the weapon by the hilt, testing its weight and balance. After a few moments of silent appreciation, he looked at Marik and said, "It is an incredible piece of craftsmanship, but why would you make a weapon from silver? Surely that means that it is unusable for anything beyond ceremonial purposes?"

Marik grinned, but didn't say anything. Instead, he grabbed a wooden shield from the wall of weapons and held it up as an offering. Atemu shrugged and swung at it with all the might in Yuugi's body. To his shock, the blade sunk into the wood.

As Atemu stared at the sword, Marik explained, "It's not silver, it's weapons-grade steel."

"Steel?" Atemu echoed, clearly lost.

Marik nodded, eyes gleaming. "Metallurgy has come a long way in the last three thousand years. We don't make swords from bronze anymore."

It was clear that Atemu didn't comprehend what was so impressive about this silver-colored metal, so Marik issued a challenge. "I'll stand here with the shield, you see if you can manage to bend or break that khopesh."

Atemu narrowed his eyes and wrestled the sword from where it was embedded in the wood. Then he adopted a fighter's stance. "Very well, I will test the merits of your 'steel'."

A good half-hour later, both Marik and Atemu were panting, shirts discarded, chests covered in sweat. In spite of it all, Marik was grinning like a loon while Atemu stared at his undamaged khopesh in wonder. When he finally managed to catch his breath, the former pharaoh examined the sword closely, then cried, "The blade is undamaged! It has not even dulled!"

"Nope!" Marik agreed, still grinning.

Atemu looked at his friend with wide eyes. "This was expected?"

"Yeah, basically," Marik replied with a shrug. "It depends on the steel's quality and what you're cutting, but they last. All you have to do is give them an occasional sharpening."

Atemu looked back down at his khopesh, eyes sparkling. Then he turned to where Yuugi was resting against the wall, babbling to Kiri, both of the onlookers having lost interest long ago.

Yuugi's babbling broke off with an alarmed cry as he found a khopesh held up to his transparent eyes. As he leaned back in fear, he glanced up at the weapon's wielder with a look of confused terror.

Atemu grinned sheepishly, pulling the sword back a bit as he said, "Apologies, partner, I did not mean to frighten you, but look! Look at the blade!"

"Yes, it's a very nice blade," Yuugi agreed warily as he slowly relaxed.

His partner's reaction left Atemu frowning, clearly displeased with Yuugi's apparent lack of understanding, so he clarified, "It has not dulled!"

Yuugi looked between the sword and his partner, uncertainty in his eyes. "Was it supposed to?"

Atemu made an annoyed sound and turned back to Marik. "Are such marvels commonplace in this time?"

"I'm gonna guess you were talking to Yuugi and remind you that he's probably never even seen a sword fight outside of TV," Marik pointed out. "Use of weapons like these is more of an academic, hobby, or stage thing than it is common knowledge. But to answer your question, yeah, modern swords and such are a lot more durable. We haven't even gotten into dueling."

"Dueling?" Atemu echoed with confused, but clear interest.

"Oh yeah," Marik replied, heading back to the wall of weapons. He replaced his shield and then picked up a khopesh. Unlike Atemu's steel one, this one was clearly made of wood. "Stronger blades means that fighting styles have changed dramatically. Want a beginner lesson?"

Atemu nodded eagerly, coming to join Marik, trading his blade for a training weapon. Then the duo took up spots across from each other. Marik raised his khopesh and grinned. "Try to keep from getting hit and don't be afraid to use your sword."

Then he moved, swinging his wooden sword at Atemu's side. The former pharaoh responded in an instant, blocking the attack with a parry.

Yuugi and Kiri watched the duel with interest for a while, but eventually returned to their former state of exchanging rambling words and excited coos. They only stopped when Marik and Atemu approached them, both combatants having abandoned their weapons and grabbed their discarded clothing.

"Done whacking each other with sticks?" Yuugi asked with an amused smile.

Atemu nodded. "The hour has grown late and our bodies are in need of food."

Yuugi glanced at the room's clock and felt his eyes widen. "It's that late already?"

"It is. We must hurry or we will be eating a cold dinner."

"You know, these one-sided conversations are kind-of annoying," Marik interrupted with an irritated look.

Yuugi and Atemu glanced at each other and then switched places, intending to do their normal conversational back-and-forth. Instead, as soon as Yuugi was in control, he let out a groan and cried, "Why do my arms feel like they've got lead weights attached to them?"

Marik blinked and then laughed. "Oh man, I totally forgot, Tem may have years of training, but your body doesn't! You might think it's bad now, but just wait, you're gonna be feeling this tomorrow!"

A concerned look spread over Yuugi's features. Then he glanced over at his partner and remembered how delighted Atemu had been by the exercise. How both he and Marik seemed relaxed by this in a way Yuugi would probably never fully understand. In the light of that knowledge, the teen could only sigh and say, "Worth it."

"So not worth it!" Yuugi moaned the next morning as his partner curled around him, brushing transparent hands over Yuugi's aching arms.

"I am sorry, love. I should not have taken such advantage of your kindness," Atemu murmured as he pressed ghostly kisses to Yuugi's face.

The smaller teen groaned again, but was unable to maintain his annoyance in the warmth of his partner's affections. Instead, he merely hummed and asked, "Any ancient remedies for this particular brand of pain?"

"Several, though you will not enjoy them," Atemu admitted. "They mostly involve further exercise, working through the pain."

Yuugi groaned again and gave his partner a half-hearted glare. "Fine then, you got me like this, you get to fix it!"

With that, Yuugi forced them to switch, leaving Atemu in charge of their shared body. The pain in his arms made the former pharaoh wince, but he had experience with such aches. After taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he forced himself out of bed and began to move through a series of stretches. Yuugi watched with fascinated interest, eventually asking, "How do you know all this stuff?"

"Years of training," Atemu explained. "Aches such as these are common when you go for long periods of time without practice, which I rarely did as a child, but training became much harder once I gained the crown. At that time, my duties increased tenfold. I would often go several days without touching a blade or bow. Exercises such as these were sometimes all that I could manage to keep my body strong."

Yuugi nodded, thinking of the muscles lining Atemu's true form. They rivaled Honda's and Yuugi had heard the details of his brunet friend's daily training. It had always sounded intense. Had Atemu undergone something similar? Curiosity rising, Yuugi asked, "What was it like being a prince of Kemet?"

"Exhausting, most days," Atemu replied, continuing to work through his exercises as best he could in Yuugi's untrained body. "I was the only male child to survive past his first few years, making me the clear heir by the age of six. My father was already a decade into his reign at that point and he had not been particularly young when he gained the throne. Though he was in good health, it was common knowledge that I could easily be pharaoh in the not too distant future, so every effort was made to prepare me. I trained with father's men, attended scribal school, and studied with the priests in matters of both religion and magic. It was a demanding schedule, but in truth, it did not seem like such at the time. It was merely what my life was like and I had several fellows with similar burdens. My cousin Seti, for one. Mahado for another, though he replaced fighting with even more magic training most days. Looking back at it now, it seems incredible that at least one of us did not collapse from stress."

"What changed?"

Atemu paused his exercises and looked at Yuugi with a soft smile. "Do recall, I came to this time with no memories of my former life. No expectations for what it was to be a teenager. That meant that I was free to embrace the world as it had become. Free to think of myself like a modern teen instead of an ancient one. Now that I have both my former memories and my modern ones, I find myself comparing what I knew to what I have learned. I find that, while there are things that I miss, there are also many elements of your modern life that I prefer. I do not know if I would have felt so kindly towards these changes had I come into your time burdened with preconceived notions."

He resumed his stretches and continued, "It is almost as if I am of two minds. A voice inside telling me of who I am meant to be that wars with what my modern half-life has made me. I am uncertain which one I should honor."

Yuugi considered this and then let out a low hum of understanding. "For what it's worth, I don't think you need to feel guilty for being a little more modern than you once were. You did fulfill your duty to your people pretty soundly, after all. Seems to me like that means you get a pass to be whatever you want in this time."

Atemu smiled, ending his stretches and coming to sit on the bed at Yuugi's side. "Sound advice, though I do not know if my heart will ever be able to fully embrace it now that my memories are restored. There will always be a part of me that lives for my duty to Ma'at."

"You're hardly abandoning that part," Yuugi pointed out sadly. "After all, we're still going after the items. Still planning to stop your enemy from harming the world."

"We are," Atemu agreed, eyes wandering over his partner's transparent form. Yuugi was curled in on himself, a soft sadness radiating across their bond. "You know that I will stay by your side as long as destiny permits, yes?"

Yuugi nodded, turning to look at Atemu. "I know that. I also know that this is bigger than us. That saving the world has to come first. Heck, even just the souls trapped in the items feel like they should come first. Putting our happiness before all those people... I don't think I'd even really be happy if we did that."

Atemu reached out, brushing a hand against Yuugi's transparent cheek, silently marvling in his love's selflessness. "Yesterday you said that you wished to wait for us to speak in depth on this topic. Does this still hold true?"

Yuugi bit his lip, turning his gaze down to his transparent legs. "Sort of? I mean, there's nothing we can do to change reality. No way to transfer you from the puzzle to something else should the items need to be destroyed, right?"

The former pharaoh considered this, then offered, "I cannot think of such a spell or the means by which I could craft one without the items' aid, but it is not impossible that such a feat might be accomplished. We are in the ancestral home of an order whose leaders are powerful practitioners. I see no reason why we might not ask Ishizu for her thoughts on this matter."

Yuugi looked up at Atemu, eyes lit up with cautious hope. "Really?"

Atemu nodded. "There can be no harm in the request, but please, do not place all of your faith in this. The chances of success are unknown to us."

"Right," Yuugi muttered, hope dulling. "Would you even want that?"

The question sent confusion whispering across their link, so Yuugi clarified, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I want you to stay with me forever, but do you want to stay like this? There are times when I can tell that your lack of a body frustrates you."

When Atemu replied, he lacked his usual eloquence. The words came haltingly, long pauses between them showing that he was choosing his each one with caution. "If I must choose between leaving you and maintaining this half-life, my choice will always be to stay with you as long as you will have me. I cannot deny that I long to be fully myself, a partner worthy of your affections, but that does not mean that I do not feel blessed to have the joys the gods have granted me. When I made my choice that long ago night, I assumed that my fate was an eternity of suffering. A thousand lifetimes of penance for the sins of my bloodline. Yet here I am. I have friends, a purpose, hope that my enemy might be defeated, and love far beyond anything I knew when I truly lived. I can hardly consider such an existence a curse."

There was a moment of silence and then Yuugi stuttered, "S-soul rooms," before disappearing.

Atemu experienced a brief feeling of worry, certain that he had somehow upset or angered Yuugi with his speech. Then he felt the emotions swirling across their bond.

Not anger then, he realized, a flush stealing across his cheeks, reminding him how much more overwhelming being in love was when accompanied by a body to react to those emotions. Then he closed his eyes, following Yuugi, more than willing to give up physical touch for the illusion of holding his love in his arms.

When the duo finally made it downstairs for breakfast, they found everyone assembled and waiting for them. The sight of all those expectant faces made Yuugi flush. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know we were having another meeting!"

"Don't worry, Yuug, no one did," Jounouchi quickly reassured. "Your gramps and Ishizu sprung this on all of us."

"We would have come to collect you, but given your unexpected training session yesterday, it was decided that it was best to let your body rest as long as it needed," Ishizu explained.

Yuugi's flush darkened. Right. Sleeping. That's totally what he'd been up to for the past hour.

Though everyone noticed the teen's reaction, it was generally assumed to just be Yuugi's natural shyness responding to being the cause of a delay. Only Marik had a clue that there might be another cause and he kept his lips sealed. The only indication of his suspicions was a slight smirk as Yuugi took his seat.

"Now that we are all assembled, I will inform you of our ongoing efforts to return you to Japan," Ishizu began, instantly earning everyone's full attention. "We have no wish to keep you from your homes and Sugoroku has informed me that your school year will be resuming shortly. As such, he, Rishid, and I have been discussing the best way to ensure your safety while allowing you to go about your lives. We have decided on several courses of action.

"Firstly, Rishid, Marik, and I will use our items to create several magical amulets of protection for both your persons and your homes. These will not keep you safe from everything the enemy may try, but they should keep you from being spied upon by magical means. They will also alert us if someone tries to use magic in their presence.

"Secondly, Rishid and Marik will be returning to Japan with you. I would go myself, but the threat is not great enough for me to abandon the items that are under our protection here. Both of my brothers will stay with the Mutous, serving as passive guards at all times. We will also be enrolling Marik at your school so that he may guard you without drawing suspicion."

"I'm gonna what now," Marik interrupted, looking shocked.

"I know that your studies are well in advance of what you will learn there, but-" Ishizu started to explain, only to be cut off mid-sentence.

"Oh, I'm not complaining! I'm just clarifying. You're actually sending me to a real school?"

A soft smile spread across Ishizu's features. "Yes, and as you have already completed your academic studies, you are free to be whatever type of student you like. The only reason for your enrollment is so that we can have someone posted at the school without drawing attention."

There was a clear delight in Marik's eyes, earning confused looks from his soon-to-be classmates.

"You actually want to go to school?" Honda asked.

"Yeah," Marik replied, grinning. "I've never had the chance! How does one go about becoming the school prince? Is there a process for getting your own fan-club or does it just happen naturally if you're this good looking?"

"I- I can't tell if he's joking," Anzu stuttered, looking around the group with worried eyes.

"He did say he learned about Japan from anime," Otogi pointed out, only serving to increase the group's worry.

Marik didn't respond to any of this. He just grinned, leaning back in his chair with a scheming gleam in his eyes.

If Ishizu was concerned by her brother's behavior, she didn't show it. Instead, she continued, "Thirdly, you will all avoid contact with the domino museum until after we have either successfully recovered the rod or circumstances require the interaction. We must assume that Dr. Bakura and his son are somehow involved in this affair. I have already informed the doctor that my brothers had to return home for a family emergency, so he will not be expecting to see them again for some time. I can always reverse that decision if need be, though."

At this, Marik's excitement dampened, but he didn't argue. He knew that they had to approach this logically if they wanted to keep Ryou and the world safe. That meant his best course of action was to do everything in his power to help Yuugi and Otogi get the rod. His concern was well known by this point and the Egyptian was touched to find Anzu leaning over, taking his hand with a comforting smile. A smile he returned as Ishizu continued, "It will take us some time to create all of the protective amulets you will need, but if we focus our efforts, the task should be completed by the week's end. As soon as it is done, we will send you all back to Japan. Until then, please continue to make yourselves at home. My brothers and I will be in my study should you need us."

With that, Ishizu called the short meeting to an end, leaving the group to finish their meals and head off in their own pursuits. For most of them, that meant relaxing in luxury, but for Yuugi and Otogi, it was back to the library. They had a game to finish and very little time to do it.