Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"'Kaiba performed a miracle'?" Mai repeated, her voice expressing her complete disbelief.
"I know, I mean he's done pretty impressive things, but its also been in his own in a way. Now he was sitting covered in blood and thinking he was back in the past when he ruled Egypt." Readily agreeing, yet Anzu's voice held a sympathetic undertone. "But he also had just watched Yugi get shot saving his life and... his hands were so red. I can't even imagine what that moment must have been like."
A reminder that humbled Mai from any other comment. For all his arrogance and bravado, Kaiba 'was' only barely 18 now. Like herself, he had no parents for a long time and it was questionable if he even 'recalled' what it was like having 'loving' parents. "Point taken..."
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"You said Money Bags 'performed a miracle' what the hell could he possibly have done?" Jounouchi asked leaning over unwilling to make eye contact with 'Set'.
Ryou blinked and focused on his hands for a moment, before he seemed willing to even dare speak. "You're not going to believe me, but I think Isis and Rashid might."
"Yeah, what you said didn't seem to surprise them," Malik began when his brother stood up, leaving Isis and Kaiba's side.
Rashids' long strides brought him quickly over to the small huddled group and he knelt his frame down in front of them rather than making a seat. As though he wasn't going to stay long...
"What's going on?" Jounouchi finally asked as they all focused their attention on Rashid. In a sense it was peculiar to see Ryou join in on the rapt attention. For once not having to bear the responsibility of being 'all knowing' to the group he was talking to.
"Kaiba thinks he's Pharaoh?" Malik added, his questioning tone serving to give Rashid a moment to release a sigh of relief.
"Yes. He thinks that this is a part of the Field of Reeds, its how he's rationalizing why his skin is so pale. Your sister and I will be busy trying to herd him around because of that," Rashid began.
"The what?" Honda asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The land of the dead in Egyptian faith. Either you go to the Reeds, or your heart is consumed by Amut and you are deleted from existence for lack of better word," Malik explained hurriedly.
"Yikes... didn't realize..." Jounouchi replied.
"You both appeared a bit elated though..." Anzu pointed out, getting the large man to acknowledge her with a slight nod.
"Yes, the 'miracle' that Ryou spoke of," Rashid nodded. "We don't talk about the miracle directly to Seto because it has some severe consequences to him. We both, even before we got our memories back, long ago accepted that somethings 'need' to be left in the past for people to progress..."
"Ah..."
A doctor, and Anzu expected he was a surgeon, stepped through the door into the waiting room. She watched as he appeared taken aback by the number of people in the room. His presence also served to silence Rashid who stood up... Maybe that was what silenced the poor man as he watched Rashid, a looming, formidable man with the marks on his face...
"We're here on behalf of Mouto, Yugi..." Ryou began, which served as a trigger to send Jounouchi rocketing towards the man.
"Is Yugi ok?!"
Anzu stood up as well while Rashid backed up a step, while the doctor gave them an once over.
"Is Mr. Mouto's family here?" The doctor finally asked, realizing that anyone who could pass as an adult, wasn't old enough to be Moutos'.
"No, the only living family member is out of the country at the moment," Anzu explained. "The other two... died in that bombing..." She added as she saw the skeptic eyebrow raise from the doctor. Fearing that because they weren't blood kin, the doctor might decide not to speak at all. But even he knew about it apparently as the doctor nodded slowly.
"I see, Lord Kaiba said as much, however; for reasons I just felt I needed confirmation." The doctor gave a polite nod towards where Kaiba sat. Hopefully with no clue as to 'who' was sitting in the room instead. He studied the room and it struck Anzu as odd how long he was quiet, in fact that was all he did. Stare at them as they stared back at him, some strange and sudden impasse that she couldn't understand.
"Sooo about Yugi?" Jounouchi finally trampled the impasse with his anxious concern.
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"About Yugi?" Mai repeated as the silence grew from Anzu's side of the phone. By now Mai was dry enough to be able to change clothes or work the growing curls in her hair out. Yet leaving Anzu on her own was not an option. Only Anzu's tale was starting to sound more and more strange, getting Mai more invested and frustrated as she started to wonder. Was Anzu omitting stuff?
"I... its hard to explain, I've gotten used to some... things..." Anzu began with the sound of a half twist of an awkward smile was carried over the line.
"I had my soul separated from my body and stuffed in an hour glass. And while Yugi was kind enough to put me back in my own body. I've since had a near debilitating situation haunt me every day since then. Going above that to now possibly affecting Valon though he won't confirm it."
Spoken in complete deadpan, flat of tone or effect. It was the tone that Mai's voice fell into when discussing the fade out of the universe.
For her part Anzu didn't say anything for a moment before giving a soft, "what? Everyday? Why didn't you tell us?"
"So you know what this is?" Mai asked, genuinely curious only to be disappointed right after.
"No, but Mai... if the Shadows still have you, we would want to know! You're our friend and Mahaado might have been able to do something about it!" Anzu pointed out stubbornly.
"'Mahaado'?" Mai repeated the name, it had some vague points of Japanese, it 'sounded' like 'Mahou' but... 'magic'?
"Oh... Sooo Yugi's Dark Magician comes with a soul, his name is 'Mahaado'. He's literally a magician, and he might have some clue to how to help you!" Anzu explained, much to Mai's confused amusement.
"The purple haired magician-" She began when Anzu cut in.
"Actually brown. More cinnamon spice if I were to label it..."
"That you made the tiger plush dress up in..." Mai continued...
"That I get the feeling he hates but is far, too, polite to state that so instead, just politely hides it from Yugi."
"Is real?"
"As you and I."
"He looks to have some nice, strong, thighs..."
"MAI!"
"Is he any good with that staff out of combat?"
"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!"
"Heh, just figure he might teach some new, 'skills' shall we say, to Yugi..." Eyebrow wiggles were a-go.
"... …. …... I can never look at him the same way again... thank you."
"You were saying..."
There was a bit of a pause before Anzu continued speaking, her tone still a touch scandalized. "I'd have to ask Malik or Ryou. Umm. So what you were subjected to was a 'penalty game' basically punishment for losing. There's people who still suffer the long term effects of the types of penalties that Yugi alone inflicted on them. But I would have thought that by beating Malik, and releasing you, that Yugi negated your penalty. I mean... It almost sounds like its still going on, or that he... maybe mitigated it?" Anzu sounded introspective and apologetic at the same time. "I'm sorry, everyone I would ask is well... not available. But you're right... I've been trying to soften some of the story.."
"Um there's not much more that I skipped. Yugi, Kaiba, Ryou, Isis and Rashid are all reincarnations from Ancient Egypt. Ryou's village from that time is... well haunting him due to their murdered status, and that's how he tends to 'know things', they tell him. But they're also new to the modern world so they can be a bit tricky to understand. What with them having to learn about the modern world in such short order." Anzu began, her tone starting off as though she was reciting facts then suddenly shifted to somber and a bit sad.
"As for Kaiba..."
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Jounouchi's voice broke whatever spell over the room bringing the doctor back to the present. "Ah yes, I'm Dr. Nakahara and was called in to help with the surgery. Normally Dr. Koshin, the presiding surgeon would be here. Please forgive us this unusual..." Dr. Nakahara turned and shut the door behind him. Before stepping, almost anxiously, further into the room thus leading the others to get up from their seats and surround him. Well save Kaiba, aka Pharaoh Set.
"Mouto, Yugi passed away at 1:53pm today..." Dr. Nakahara began, and Anzu's heart dropped through the floor.
The world wobbled in her eyes as tears filled her eyes, Jounouchi began stammering yet Ryou hushed him for the doctor.
"That is the last thing I can tell you professionally, because after that nothing that happened made much sense of anything."
Anzu desperately wiped away the tears from her eyes with a handkerchief pulled from her purse. Only passingly noting the quiet awkward awe from the doctor as he continued.
"Dr. Koshin had covered Mr. Mouto and called time when suddenly the doors to the room burst open. Lord Kaiba stormed into the room and made his way straight to Mr. Mouto. It was as though we didn't exist in his line of sight. He just... we couldn't pull him away, he moved with an unstoppable force until he was bedside."
Dr. Nakaharas' eyes were an interesting study now that Anzu was looking, he kept gazing towards Kaiba but not 'at' Kaiba. In fact he kept his eyes low to the ground, humbled clearly by something that Kaiba had done. His voice lowered as he continued recalling what happened, "As he walked... he spoke, but no one in the room knows what he said. But as he walked there were glowing chains that extended from his wrists into the ground. From it rose a glowing book, a book that opened as it followed him."
Somehow, magic had become mundane for her, yet even with all the stuff that she had seen. From getting her soul sealed into a game pieces and cards, to mind control, the idea that Kaiba 'willingly' used magic... Well.. not 'willingly' as the pharaoh in the corner may have attested to...
"It appeared to us that he was reciting from the book, reading it to Mr. Mouto even as he ripped the blanket off the newly deceased... I mean we kind of assumed it was him performing some type of 'Last Rite'... He must have been under so much shock due to the shooting we backed off..." Dr. Nakahara's voice calmed as he spoke, his recollections began to take on an almost dream like quality. "The room became calm, I was certainly distressed, the damage to Mr. Mouto had been fatal. The bullets had been knocked off course by the buckle on Mr. Mouto's top, but the shards of the shattered metal had embedded itself into his heart, cutting it open. Yet as Lord Kaiba spoke, this peace washed over me. As though everything would be ok now, and not just myself experienced it, everyone else in the room did as well."
"Then we heard it... suddenly, so sudden that it startled all of us... A heart beat... Whatever Lord Kaiba did... Mr. Mouto started to register a heartbeat again. The monitors started to pick up signs of a heartbeat, and we returned to the operating table." Dr. Nakahara's eyes closed as though he was lost back in that moment. "Mr. Mouto had opened his eyes, he was looking up at Lord Kaiba as though he was confused... His hands started reaching for his chest, which was understandable, given that he was in the middle of surgery... The nurses and I had to hold him down, yet his interior chest cavity..."
The doctors' voice took on a tone of reverence that left Anzu, and probably everyone else, in a state of trance. Anzu couldn't pull her gaze away from the man, as she realized with an internal start that she may have 'felt' that 'peace'. That was 'Kaiba'?!
"The flesh was mending as we stood there. As Lord Kaiba continued reading the tears in Mr. Moutos' heart began to knit itself back into place... Even the bones of his ribs began to regenerate on their own... We were so entranced that if the Dr. Koshin didn't get his hand struck by a clamp as it was forced off... Yet just watching the healing going on before us was... to see flesh knit itself back more neatly than any stitch. By then security had come to the room, realizing that Lord Kaiba was in there. They pulled him away, and he collapsed with the book and chains vanishing into thin air..."
"As you can see they brought him in here to recover, we were given to believe that he had possibly blacked out. But even with him gone, the mending continued, albeit the restoration was slowing down. We managed to get Mr. Mouto back under control and finished the work He started as pale an imitation as it will ever be," and just like that the surgeon seemed to come back to himself.
His tone returned to a modest professional tone. "Regardless though, we can't be positive on Mr. Mouto's condition, he 'died' on that table, brain functions had ceased. We've had a completely unprecedented case on our hands. He may be sleeping off the anesthetics given to him, which would be the best case scenario. Once the anesthetics started taking hold he went under again. Best case scenario is that he will wake up in the morning. Worst case is that he has severed irreversible brain damage due to the lack of oxygen he was exposed to. We won't know until the drugs have left his system, so we have him in a private room."
Just like that they were flung into a wall of endings. No further information, just information given and cut off. Yugi might be brain dead. Might not be brain dead.
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"So when did you faint?" Mai dutifully asked, even as she sat there in awe of this story. 'Kaiba brought a dead guy back to life. I can imagine the media circus this will cause if the information gets leaked out.'
"I sat down before it got that far, thankfully," Anzu confessed when a soft knock in the background pulled her attention away. "Oh I need to go, we left the hospital and we're at Kaiba Mansion at the moment. I just needed someone to talk to..."
"That's fine," Mai offered expressing her support while the hotel rooms' door opened. Valon walked with that worrying stiff step that reminded Mai that 'her' problem was starting to seep into him. But he held an envelope in one hand and a raised eyebrow for her.
The man walked over and merely held the envelope out so she could read the front, and a low chuckle managed to escape her lips.
"Mai?"
"Looks like Kaiba's invite just arrived," Mai explained as she took the envelope with the very familiar 'KC' seal into her hand. "Isn't that a bit of luck? We might be able to see each other sooner than expected... Call me if anything else happens..."