Coming back to the physical plane wasn't as strange as leaving it had been. It felt like waking up from a very lucid dream.
The entire time they'd been in the soul rooms, Yugi's body slept on the bed. Safe, but unresponsive to the world.
He sat up, shaking the feeling back into his limbs.
The apartment was quiet, which meant he still had a little time before his boss showed up demanding an explanation. That was good.
Yugi went about getting dressed, styling his hair and applying his make-up. At one point he inspected the chipped and flaking nail polish on his fingernails, making a mental note to fix that today. He wouldn't be going into work, so he'd have the time.
While applying his eye shadow when he looked into the mirror above the sink he could see Yami against the wall behind him.
The spirit wasn't corporeal at the moment, just a flat Yugi-shaped shadow painted along the wall where a shadow shouldn't be, given the angle of light sources in the room. The more they got to know each other the easier it was for Yugi to pick out the unnatural shadows. He could even tell when his own shadow contained the spirit. There was just something about it. Something weightier.
Yugi shot him a smile and a wink through the mirror's reflection.
For the briefest moment golden eyes flashed in the face of the shadow before vanishing again.
Something warm and bubbly brushed against Yugi's consciousness. Shutting his eyes, he pushed right back with his own bubble of affection. He tried to imagine a hug, pleasant and fond, all the feelings that came with it. He wasn't sure how much of his thoughts Yami could pick up on, but he knew as long as the bond was open the emotions would flow through.
When he opened his eyes again the unnatural shadow on the wall was gone.
Despite that, Yugi felt the heat radiating from the puzzle at his chest and placed a hand over it.
I'm going to keep you.
Yami appeared several more times around the apartment that morning. He would drift along the walls, loom in corners, or sit on a chair with his legs crossed while Yugi washed a few dishes. The spirit had offered to wash the dishes, but Yugi waved him off saying he dirtied them so it was his responsibility. In the laundry room Yami perched on the tiny dryer and folded the clean clothes while Yugi placed a load of dirty laundry into his little washing machine.
When Yugi nearly dropped the powdered detergent—he'd had to stand on his tip toes to reach the shelf it was on—shadow hands shot out from either side of him to catch the box.
Yugi tilted his head to the side to find Yami had morphed behind him. He was practically in the shadow's embrace, the two of them clutching a box of laundry soap. It was not lost on Yugi how stupidly domestic this was. He leaned back into Yami and smiled at him.
"Thank you."
If a shadow could blush Yugi thought this one was.
All three eyes widened, fixating on him, accompanied by a distinct fluttering anxiety and that glowing affection again.
Yugi brushed his thumbs over Yami's hands and said, "I've got the box now. Lucky you were there to spot me, otherwise it could have been a mess."
The spirit released the box at that and retreated to a more appropriate distance. His hands disappearing against hips in a gesture that looked like sticking one's hands in their pockets. Body language was a little harder to read on a silhouette but Yugi was pretty certain he was right.
Things felt unusually tense between them. Definitely more awkward ever since the emotional feedback loop in the soul room. And Yugi supposed he wasn't helping anything by subtly flirting.
He sucked in a breath while he measured detergent into the washing machine.
"So, if you can change shape and stuff at will, can you like… turn into animals too?"
Yami looked thoughtful at that. As if it was something he hadn't considered before. He took a step back until he was in the center of the cramped laundry room.
Yugi watched as the spirit held out his arms and proceeded to fall apart before his eyes. A rain of long, thin, black things.
It took everything Yugi had not to leap away and attempt to climb his washing machine. For all the good it would do.
This wasn't unlike the time Yami had shown off his ability to split apart into tentacles. Except this time Yami became a pile of coiling, shifting asps.
There must have been three dozen void black cobras writhing together in a mass. One cobra in particular stared up at Yugi from the center. It was different from the rest. The others were completely black, all silhouettes of snakes. While this one had glowing golden eyes and a third eye on its cobra hood in the same pattern as the eye on Yami's forehead.
"That…is s-super cool," he assured the golden-eyed snake. He was almost certain Yami could feel the horror coursing through him but he fought to tamp it down. "But I was sor-sort of hoping you could take the form of something more cuddly. Like…maybe a cat?"
The snakes—which had slithered and spread out along the floor—melted into puddles of ink before pulling back together. The mass of black coalesced and reformed, becoming a mammal with four legs and a long bushy tail.
Those golden eyes reappeared, staring at Yugi from the face of a seemingly fluffy black house cat.
"You're incredible," Yugi blurted out. "That's amazing."
The cat sat back on its haunches and preened, scrunching its eyes in self-satisfaction.
Yugi crouched before the Yami-cat, reaching a hand out to touch. "May I? I know you aren't a real cat, so this is stupid, but I really want to pet you now."
Without the hesitation of an actual feline, Yami closed the distance between them and bumped his forehead into Yugi's palm. The spirit didn't actually feel like a furry cat. The fine wisps that made up the texture of the "fur" passed right over Yugi's skin like shadows, no feeling or texture at all. And the rest of the cat's body felt like Yami's normal form, a strange not-quite liquid/not quite solid. It was hard to liken it to anything in the material world.
Yugi stroked the feline's back a few times, still puzzling over the lack of texture, and deciding that Yami would only be passable as a cat as long as no one touched him.
Then he reminded himself this was a man-ghost-eldritch-horror thing that he was petting and he should probably stop. He retracted his hand, resting them both on his knees as he remained crouched.
"Thanks for indulging me," he said as his cheeks burned.
Yami made a circle, tail curling behind him more like a tentacle than a cat's tail. It sort of ruined the whole cat illusion.
Yugi was about to tell him he could change back when pounding started on his apartment door. He jerked his head up, frowning. "That will be Seto. I just know it."
Sure enough someone started yelling Yugi's name, heavily muffled by the walls of the building, but definitely Seto Kaiba sounding.
"Shall we?" Yugi asked the shadow cat, giving it a weak smile. He stood up and started for the living room and the entryway, attempting to steel his nerves as he did so. Yami trotted along right beside him, albeit a little awkwardly. Still getting accustomed to four legs, his movements weren't anywhere as graceful as a real cat.
At some point between reaching the front door, popping the locks and opening it, Yami managed to disappear. Yugi suspected it was probably beneath the furniture. He didn't really have time to speculate though because Seto was shouldering his way into the apartment.
The CEO practically stepped over Yugi to get inside.
"Shoes," Yugi reminded softly.
"Explain to me what the hell happened at Kaiba Corp yesterday," Seto demanded, but he bent to undo the belts on his boots regardless. Yugi shut the door, leaving it unlocked because Ryou and Ryuji were supposed to be coming over around lunch time for Monster World. He moved around Kaiba and into the living room, a less crowded space to have a conversation.
"What would you like me to explain?" Yugi tried patiently.
Seto was still busy fighting all the buckles on his boots and trying to yank the knee-high monstrosities off. When he finally straightened up his hair was a tousled mess. That didn't seem to bother him and he followed Yugi into the living room, whipping out a tablet as he did so.
"Maybe why video surveillance caught you on film being kidnapped by a man in a black morphsuit." It wasn't a question. It was a demand.
He shoved the Kaiba Corp brand tablet at Yugi's nose, showing off screen shots of said footage.
Sure enough there was Yami, the pitch black shadow man that he was, stalking through the lobby of Kaiba Corp and carrying an unconscious Yugi… like a bride. Thankfully, Yugi had been somewhat prepared for this, but actually seeing the damning evidence still made his stomach drop.
"That isn't a man in a morphsuit," Yugi began, opting for honesty. It wouldn't do any good to lie to his boss, not when he sucked at maintaining lies. "Remember when Ryou said my apartment was haunted?"
"Is this some fucking prank?" Seto growled. His eyes went dark and steely. Voice dripping with bitterness and disbelief. "Are you going to tell me Kaiba Corp is haunted too?"
"No." Yugi tapped the shadow man in the pictures on the tablet, moving his fingers to zoom in on the image. "This is Yami. This is my apartment ghost."
"Bull fucking shit."
"I'm serious, Seto. I'm not pulling your leg."
"You expect me to believe your apartment thingy came to my building and kidnapped you?"
"I got sick at work yesterday. He overreacted and took me home."
The noise Seto made was a mixture of disgust and disappointment. As if he couldn't believe Yugi would stoop to this, spit these kinds of lies at him. But he quickly shrugged that off in favor of asking, "You were sick?" He was now focused on the wrong part of all this.
Seto reached out and took Yugi's chin in a firm grip. He tilted the shorter man to look up at him as he carefully studied his face. He placed the back of his other hand to Yugi's cheek. It was the way one might check for a fever, except it was the wrong place on a person's face. Seto didn't seem to know the first thing about checking anyone for a fever.
Still, under the intensity of those steel eyes and the firm touch of Seto's cool fingers Yugi shivered. His skin felt like static, nerves alight, and breath catching in his throat. He attempted to break eye contact and look off to the side. "Y-you don't have to do this. I'm not sick anymore."
Seto quirked a brow, and felt Yugi's other cheek. As if that one might provide more accurate results than the previous one.
Yugi squirmed out of his boss's grip, shoving Seto's hands away. "It was a dumb fever because I overworked myself and skipped lunch. I'm fine." He straightened his spine, refusing to cower beneath Seto's scorching disdain. His boss was intimidating, there was no denying that. The man was six feet tall with mathematically precise hair that shadowed blue eyes cut from metal. Even his features and frame were hard and sharp, all angles. The man had a tendency of bullying his way through most situations.
"I'd like you to start using Otogi more."
"Noted, now can we talk about the real issue here?" Yugi shoved Seto's tablet back into his hands.
Seto looked at the pictures on the screen with a deeper frown. "This delusional ghost story again?"
"Have I ever lied to you?"
The CEO set his jaw at that.
"I haven't," Yugi insisted, trying hard to maintain eye contact with his boss. "I know how insane this sounds but I've never given you a reason not to trust me."
Seto blew out a breath, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "Where is the proof Yugi?"
"He's here." Yugi gestured to the general area of the apartment. Seto's eyes followed the gesture to gaze around a living room that was distinctly empty and lacking any evidence to support Yugi's claim. "But he's hiding."
An exasperated exhale, Seto pinched the bridge of his nose. "That is the stupidest excuse I have ever heard."
"It's not an excuse!"
"Then ask it, the darkness or whatever you call it, to prove it to me!"
"I won't ask him to come out. He needs to make that decision, the same way he did with me."
"Seriously, Yugi if this is some sort of joke… just tell me who you hired to wear the morphsuit."
"No one!" Yugi stomped his foot, the control on his anger beginning to slip away from him. "It's not a prank! Yami is real!"
Seto opened his mouth to yell something right back when someone stepped out of the shadows behind Yugi. One moment it had just been Yugi's shadow against the floor, the next a black man-shaped mass had quite literally stepped out of the floor and rose up, larger and larger until it towered behind Yugi.
There was no detail, just a void black silhouette that sported hair spikes similar to Yugi's. Those spikes seemed to curl and twist at the edges, alive and prehensile. Its arms drew impossibly long, raising up with fingers the shape of sickles, cruel claws that came to rest on Yugi's shoulders protectively or perhaps… possessively. In the face of the looming shadow a single eye opened in the forehead. Its pupil pulsed and made a crazed circle before locking stares with Seto.
Seto Kaiba simply stared right back, mouth still slightly ajar from his abandoned comeback.
Yugi, sensing the presence behind himself, eyed the hands on his shoulders before tilting his head back so he could look at the shadow standing over him. "Be nice."
The regular golden eyes appeared in the face, just thin slivers almost gazing down at Yugi.
"He's my friend." When he said this the grip tightened just for a moment on Yugi's shoulders.
"This isn't my holographic technology," Seto stated calmly. He took a step towards them and pulled a small flashlight from one of his coat pockets. "This is what your other face does with the duel monsters, isn't it? How you make them real." With a click, he snapped on the light and shone it in the shadow's face. Like a void the darkness absorbed the light, not reflecting it, but it didn't cast its own shadow either. It was as if the flashlight beam passed right through. Simply an inky black nothingness.
"My other face?" Yugi asked quizzically. He felt like he was missing something in the conversation.
"Is this thing alive like the monsters?" Seto evaded Yugi's question, more interested in the shadow man draped protectively around him. He reached a hand out, fingers poised to touch, but hesitating, "can I touch it?"
"Him," Yugi corrected. "His name is Yami, and you need to ask him."
"It can talk?" Seto appraised Yami with inquisitive eyes. Not like a regular person in the presence of a dangerous supernatural entity, but more the way a scientist would approach a fascinating phenomenon.
"When he's not being petulant." Yugi felt something ruffle his hair, but neither of Yami's hands had left his shoulders. "Use your words," he fondly chastised the spirit. "Where's your Speak & Spell?"
"Is that what you wanted that thing for?" Instead of asking permission to touch, Seto retracted his hand altogether. It was probably for the best because Yami wouldn't have taken to being prodded like some kind of animal.
Yami didn't move to collect his Speak & Spell. Rather the puzzle glowed at Yugi's chest and a presence washed over him. A separate consciousness filling his mind, pressing in with intent.
-let me let me let me-
Yugi wasn't certain what he was allowing when he consented to Yami's request, but he trusted the spirit. "Go ahead, just be nice," he warned one last time.
Yami seemed to melt around him, shadows flowing into the eye of the puzzle.
Yugi felt himself begin to drift away, but rather than his world going dark, blacking out as he was accustomed to, it felt like he was pushed from his own body.
His consciousness was still in a state of awareness, but it was like viewing the events from the other side of a one way mirror. He was a spectator, with no control of his body. Suddenly someone else was in command, someone else was using his voice to speak.
"You may not touch me, Kaiba." Yugi heard himself bite out in a lower tone than he normally spoke.
To Seto's credit he looked incredibly unperturbed by all this, taking it in stride. In fact, he appeared more curious and even amused than spooked in the slightest. Puzzle pieces clicked into place inside his brain, a realization alighting behind the man's eyes.
"You, are Yugi's other face."
Yami nodded, and Yugi felt him stuff their hands in their pockets. It was… weird. Very detached.
"The same face all these years." Seto tucked his tablet away, back in his coat and crossed his arms over his chest once more. "You aren't an apartment ghost at all."
"I am not. That was… a misunderstanding. Yugi and I have already worked it out."
"Well this explains so much. The reason you're so difficult to beat. It's because there are two of you. Two Yugis. My greatest rival isn't one mind, it's two."
"Don't let your ego run away from you," Yami scoffed. "Yugi has not needed my assistance to kick your ass in many years. It is not like you have played us both at the same time."
Seto's eyes hardened beneath the shadow of his bangs, his mouth drawing in a thin line.
Yugi's face only split in a manic grin. Yami's manic grin.
Intense pride washed over Yugi's consciousness. Pride in him, pride over his accomplishments, in his ability; Yami was proud of everything Yugi was. And he wanted to lord it over Seto's head.
Yugi wanted to tell Yami to stop, because he was embarrassed now, but he didn't have a voice to speak. He could only spectate as the spirit continued the conversation.
"We'll have to settle that one of these days," Seto conceded.
"I look forward to handing you your ass again. Or watching my Aibou do it, I am not particular."
-Yami!-
He must have heard Yugi somehow via their mind link, because Yami physically flinched.
Seto's sharp eyes missed nothing. Even while his mouth talked trash he scrutinized every detail of the situation with a keen mind. "You're mouthier than the normal Yugi. I'll be wiping that smug grin off your face."
"Please do try." Yami hummed. But then segued the conversation with, "Aibou would like us to return to topic." He paused again, shifting awkwardly, perhaps because he didn't know what else to say. Finally he added, "In fact he can take over from here, I grow tired of speaking to you."
Yami didn't wait for any sort of confirmation from Seto.
The puzzle pulsed with light again, Yami's consciousness receding. That presence brushed affectionately over Yugi's, enveloping him briefly before it dissipated from his mind. Off to the soul room, or some other place.
Yugi regained control of his own body. It was like the end of a day dream when he would suddenly jolt to attention.
"I-I'm sorry," Yugi rasped out, relishing the use of his voice again. "He was being rude."
"It's fine," Seto rumbled out. His posture relaxing a fraction as he rested his hip on the back of the couch.
"You know him." The observation struck Yugi like a blow to the face.
"We have a history."
"Did… did he ever hurt you?" Small fingers wrung the hem of his shirt nervously. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to this question.
Seto made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, closing his eyes for a brief moment. "No. He…didn't. He made me a better… person."
An awkward silence fell over the room. Seto looking anywhere but at Yugi. A breath released that Yugi hadn't known he'd held.
He took hold of the puzzle, hugging it to his chest, his heart constricting more than it ever had, and there might have been moisture collecting at the corners of his eyes. Seto looked at his feet, fingers fidgeting uncomfortably with the metal bracers on his arms.
"I should-" Seto was cut off by a knock on the door.
The interlopers on the other side didn't even wait for Yugi to answer it, they pushed it open, ducking into the apartment while laughing noisily about something.
Ryou was the first to enter, toeing off his shoes. He carried a laptop bag and a figure case covered in pastel zombie kitten stickers. Ryuji followed right after, hefting a box with new diorama pieces.
Both men fell silent when their eyes fell on Seto Kaiba. Eyes darted between the CEO and the nerdy goth standing about a meter apart at the back of the couch.
"Excuse us," Ryuji gave a half bow and proceeded into the kitchen. Ryou lifted his free hand to wave shyly at the CEO, but he too quickly ducked out of the room, following Ryuji into the kitchen.
Seto scowled at both of them until they vacated the living room, then he pushed himself off the back of the couch. "I expect you back at work tomorrow. Don't be sick. If you are…" he paused for a second then finished with a concise, "stay home." With that, he started for the entryway where he left his boots.
"Wait."
Seto paused mid reach for one of those boots.
"Stay and play Monster World with us today."
"I don't play Monster World," Seto deadpanned.
"Anyone can play Monster World. It's a lot of fun and you can even play as a dragon knight."
That piqued Seto's interest. He knew it would.
"Please?"
The CEO heaved an exasperated sigh, but straightened back up, shooting Yugi a look. "Does he play Monster World with you?"
"No," Yugi admitted, touching the eye on the puzzle again, and wondering if Yami was in it, or if he'd snuck off some place. "Too many people I think."
"Hnn." Seto stepped away from his boots then and Yugi broke out in a smile.
"Can you move the recliner into the kitchen? I'll have to fetch more seating from my spare room. Jou and his sister are supposed to come by in a little bit to play too."
A frown set on Seto's mouth, perhaps at being asked to move furniture, but he started for the recliner anyway. He hauled it off the floor with very little effort.
Yugi poked his head into the kitchen to let the others know about their extra player. He found Ryuji and Ryou crowded around the refrigerator, arms stretched above their heads and grasping for something on top of the fridge but just out of reach.
"Hey guys, Seto is joining us today. Get a character sheet out for him."
Ryuji whipped about looking startled, green eyes going wide, but Ryou didn't even turn around. He was still making a grab, while bouncing on his toes.
"Yugi," Ryou said and made another hop, "when did you get a cat?"
"We're trying to pet it," Ryuji explained, recovering from his shock to look slightly embarrassed.
Yugi craned his neck, standing on his tip toes to catch a glimpse of this "cat" they'd found.
Golden eyes flashed from beneath the wooden cabinets over the fridge. Something black was crammed against the wall in the space between those cabinets and the roof of the refrigerator.
So that's where you disappeared to.
Yugi concluded that Yami must have snuck into the kitchen as a cat to spy on their game, and thought he wouldn't be noticed atop the fridge.
Unfortunately, Ryou had the softest spot for cats, an absolute sucker that had to pet every single feline within a mile radius of himself.
"Oh," Yugi hummed, "I found him hanging around, looking adorable and sweet. I decided to keep him. Don't get bit." You're on your own, Yugi mouthed the words at the trapped cat before splitting into a grin and walking out of the room.
He felt annoyance and mock betrayal bleed into his senses.
On the way out of the kitchen, he had to duck around Seto and the recliner. He beamed at his starchy friend, who still didn't so much as return the gesture, but there was a softer set to his eyes than before.
Yugi made for the spare room.
Upon stepping inside it smelled of disuse and cardboard. Boxes were stacked about, strewn between some disused furniture, and a half put together bed frame. He always intended to set this room up for friends to stay over, but hadn't managed to get around to it yet. For now it was being used as a storage space for random things. A couple of the boxes even belonged to Jou and Honda. He held onto them while they worked out managing the space in their tiny apartment.
Yugi poked around, moving a few things until he found what he'd come in searching for. He dragged an oversized bean-bag chair out from behind a stack of boxes. A few shakes to dislodge some dust, a cough, then he spun on his heel to return with his acquisition.
A shadow took up the doorway of the room, walling off the only exit.
It had strange eyes that weren't shaped right, and a third eye with vertically parallel lines running from the bottom of it. The flatter hairstyle also screamed wrong, wrong, wrong.
There was a sinister, predatory feel that rolled off this shadow, even whilst its eyes appeared to be smiling.
"Oh, god. It's you," Yugi rasped out, stepping back as the room plunged into an icy chill. The noise of his friends in the kitchen suddenly seemed miles away. He felt like a trapped rat.
When the shadow shifted Yugi saw something clutched in its hands. A familiar rectangular shape. It was Yami's white board. One of the blue markers was also uncapped in its grasp.
The shadow man turned the white board so Yugi could read what was written on its surface.
'I finally figured out how to do this,' was written into the surface in blue ink and unfamiliar scrawl.
"Do what?" Yugi took another step back, clutching the bean bag tighter to his chest. He considered how affected the shadow would be if he chucked it at it. If it would even startle it enough to provide an opening for escape.
Without haste, the shadow wrote something else on the board, its third eye fixed on Yugi the entire time. When it was finished it turned the board again for him to read. The writing wasn't an answer to Yugi's question.
'You make him so powerful.'
"Who?" Yugi demanded, his voice still restricted. Barely a whisper. "Yami? How? How do I make him powerful?"
Fear churned in his gut. Unlike the last time he'd seen this spirit, when it was just a shadow on his wall, it was corporeal. A black void that he had no doubt could make itself as impassible as Yami could.
As if reading his mind, another pair of arms manifested from the shadow man to grip the frames of the doorway. The hands taking hold of the molding and making the wood creak under their grip. Then another pair manifested, grabbing at the frame farther down. A spider spreading out its legs, it was effectively blocking any chance of escape.
Yugi wanted to scream, but his throat was seizing up. Not even his legs wanted to move.
Last time he'd been unable to run because of his injury. This time he was completely paralyzed by fear.
Another message on the board, 'would you make me just as powerful if you were my host?'
"I don't…want to be your host," Yugi choked out.
'You wouldn't have a choice,' the strange shadow mocked back in text. It seemed to shake like it was chuckling at him. It tried to use its sleeve to clean the marker off the board but failed, instead the shadow stooped and wiped the board across the carpet, leaving a faint blue discoloration. The extra hands still gripping the doorframe stretched and accommodated the movement.
Yugi cursed this room for not having any windows.
"Yami!" The call came out like a strangled plea, and he doubted his shadow spirit could even hear him.
The other one seemed very amused.
'Does it upset you that I'm defiling something that belongs to him?' It proceeded to press the tip of the blue marker, hard, into the surface of the board and scribble angry childish lines all over the face of it.
When it showed Yugi again he could see all the scribbles formed shapes, messy misshapen eyes. So many piercing eyes. Like the eye on his puzzle, or the eye on Yami's forehead, or even the eye on this shadow's forehead.
Terror clawed its way through Yugi. Chilling and awful, it choked him. He backed into a stack of boxes, his legs trembling, ready to give out. "Yami!" he croakedagain. He pled for him with every fiber in his heart.
The room felt muted, isolated, Yugi's own hyperventilating filled his ears.
The shadow in the doorway showed him a new message written overtop of all the scribbled eyes, 'I could take you from him.'
A sudden commotion in the kitchen broke the sinister spell over the room.
Seto and Ryuji were swearing, followed by Ryou letting out a yelping noise. The shadow in the doorway flinched, snapping its head towards the cry.
A crashing sound came, then seconds later a second black mass collided with the one in the doorway.
The two masses became one, spilling out of the doorframe and into the room.
Arms locked, feet kicked, bodies grappled. A writhing ball of darkness began twisting and rolling around on the floor. Yugi might have assumed it were one entity if not for the two separate sets of eyes.
Fingers clawed at a face, an arm cracked in a sick angle, tentacles snapped together, twisting around others; limbs of every shape and size lashed and grappled with each other.
Yugi sank to his butt against the boxes behind him, he clutched the bean bag like a protective barrier.
The fight before him was completely silent, but a blind anger screamed inside his head, it was all fury, fierce and breaking like lightning.
The shadows ripped pieces off each other. First, a severed tendril, then a writhing tentacle. Fingers, locks of hair, what must have been clothes… maybe. They were all just shapes.
A severed arm was tossed at Yugi's feet.
It made a grab for him, fingers grasping. He shrieked and kicked it away.
They tore each other apart. Each piece of severed darkness would squirm for a few seconds before disintegrating into nothingness.
Yugi wasn't certain what pieces belonged to whom, or who was even winning.
Color and movement caught his attention. He looked passed the savaging shadows to find three faces peering in the doorway. Two expressions of horror, and one surprised calculation.
Yugi opened his mouth to cry out to them, but his voice caught when the mass of violence between them broke apart. One shadow kicked free and shot straight at Ryou, passing through the fabric of his sweater and disappearing into his chest.
Ryou stumbled back a step clutching at his chest, wincing as he did so.
The other shadow shot straight for Yugi. He unconsciously flinched, squeezing his eyes shut.
Nothing touched him.
The puzzle at his chest burned fiercely for only a moment. Then a familiar presence filled his head. He was almost relieved until…
-Let me let me let me. Hurt pain hurt anger anger vengeance let me let me let me-
Something crawled under his skin, dragging at his limbs like puppet strings. Something trying to sever his control, to take it from him and use his body. He was dragged to his feet against his will, dropping the bean bag in the process.
"Yami stop it!"
-Let me let me let me let me-
Yugi fought the presence in his head, fought to retain command of his own body.
"No!" he shouted. Fingers clutched at his own arms, as if holding onto himself could hold onto his own free will. "I can feel your intent. You want to hurt somebody!"
Yami wrested control of their mouth from him. A lower more severe tone spilling from Yugi's lips. "I just want to hurt him!" Their finger jabbed at Ryou.
Ryou, whose brown eyes shone with horror in their depths, but whose face was contorted in a malicious expression. One of Ryou's fingers was dragging down the bottom of his right eyelid, and he grinned as he stuck his tongue out.
Ryou's left hand shook, trembled like a leaf in a windstorm. Yugi could see Ryou's left hand—the one that had scars on its palm—snaking down to his pocket, struggling every inch of the way.
Yugi fought back another surge of Yami's will, and managed to regain some control. "You promised!" he sobbed out. Tears spilled from the corners of his eyes and he jerked at the puzzle around his neck.
"You wouldn't dare harm this innocent host," taunted a strange voice spilling from Ryou's mouth. It was lower, more gravelly than normal. The sneer that morphed his features also didn't belong on that sweet man's face.
Yugi lost some ground as Yami seized command of their voice again.
"Do not dare to hide behind him you vile parasite!" he snarled out.
Ryou chuckled, low and minacious. "The pot calls the kettle black."
Yugi felt like he was tugging at ropes that continued to slip through his grasp. Every inch he lost burning his palms and leaving him raw. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and in his heart he screamed.
Yami was a maelstrom, a tempest storm that threatened to yank those ropes away from him, and leave him powerless to a violent sea.
Yugi fought against him with everything he had.
But he was losing.
There was a flash of silver. Ryou's left hand pulled a knife from his pocket. Before anyone could react he sliced a leather chord at his own neck.
A golden ring with five conical needles slipped from beneath Ryou's pastel green angora sweater.
It clinked to the floor of the spare room.
The storm raging within Yugi became as still as a cloudless night.
Ryou's scared brown eyes looked up to meet Yugi's gaze. Sweat gleamed on his brow, his white hair a frazzled mess, and his glasses sat crooked on his nose. Looking down, both his hands trembled. "I'm so sorry about that," Ryou whispered.
For a short eternity all Yugi could do was stare at his friend, shuddering in his own relief.
Then Ryuji broke the silence from the doorway. "What the fuck was that?"
Seto stood right behind him, looking less horrified but instead like he'd witnessed something extraordinary.
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