Author's Note: Hi guys! I was startled to find that story takes place right around this year (give or take a few years), if you start counting from when the 1998 show was introduced. This is largely based on the dub, so it seemed like an appropriate place to begin.
Also, I'd like to thank manaDMGmaster, Zaira Fire, lalalei, and everyone else who has taken the time to read and/or favorite my story. Each review really makes my day!
Anyway, here's chapter 6. Enjoy!
-ForeverLily
Higher Stakes Chapter 6: Puzzles and Family
After Tea and Akari went to bed Yugi decided to work on the puzzle. It wasn't simply a desire, it was a compulsion. For some reason he felt as if he absolutely had to work on the puzzle. He sat down and worked by the light of the desk lamp. Yugi no longer had command over his own fingers as they moved on their own accord, connecting pieces that he had been struggling with only a few hours ago. A feeling of exhilaration raced through him with each new piece put in the correct place. When he grabbed the next piece he stopped. Yugi remembered that the puzzle would grant the wish of the one to solve it. Asking for a second wish would be the height of selfishness, but he had to try didn't he? I know I've already had one wish granted, but really need another. I wish that we will be able to defeat the darkness without my friends and family losing their lives or their souls. He clicked the last piece in place.
Energy surged through the air and coursed through Yugi. Adrenaline pumped through him as his body and soul reestablished the connection with puzzle. It was a good shock, like the first jump into a cold pool, and when the feeling faded the connection felt as natural as breathing.
This time something was different. He just knew things about how the puzzle worked, things that he didn't know the first time. It must have been because Yugi was the only soul inhabiting it. It even felt like it fit him better, somehow. I am no longer a child uncomfortable in my own skin. I am more confident, more capable, and I know what I am getting myself into. I was born for this, he thought. We each have purpose, maybe even multiple purposes, and this was mine, isn't that right pharaoh?
He was too exhilarated to sleep, so he grabbed his laptop and dragged up to his old room and poured over card catalogues. Since he couldn't sleep, he may as well do something productive. As the owner of fairly small game shop he had to keep up to date on the latest cards in order to keep customers flowing in. As he researched the new cards, he thought back to when he started learning the game. It seemed so much more simple back then! As the game was refined, so were the rules. As the rules changed, Yugi, like all of the other duelists adapted because they liked the games. Some even said that it made the game more interesting. With all of the complications and new rules it was no wonder that many duelists looking to become champions wanted to attend duel academy.
Yami Bakura hadn't had any exposure to the changes in the game, so he knew that if he bothered to play by rules at all it would be by the old rules established during battle city, with older cards. That is, if he was still bent of using duel monsters at all, but judging by the way that he had summoned Diabound and had readily pulled out a gun he was no longer sure what kind of game the man wanted to play.
"Yugi?" The voice had startled him, causing him to nearly knock the puzzle's box off of the table.
"Oh, it's you Tea!" Yugi exclaimed.
She tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "What are you doing up at four in the morning?"
By way of response he held up the completed puzzle. "It was calling to me, so I came to finish it. After that I wasn't tired, so I decided to do a little research for work. You should go back to bed, I'll be there in a minute." He supposed that he might as well try to sleep.
He shut down his laptop and gathered his stuff. For a moment he thought he saw something reflecting outside his window, but he dismissed it as a trick of the light. Had been up for almost 24 hours and he knew what exhaustion could do to your head.
The next day he invited everyone over for dinner. Seto didn't want to make the commitment to come in case something went wrong on his company's latest project, and Mokuba felt the same way, but with a bit of help from Mokuba's wife (who had decided to visit her parents, who had had a scare at the hospital while she was at the convention), he had managed to convince them by telling them that he an announcement for them. He was going to wait until they met in person, but when dealing with Kaiba family it was best to be upfront. Joey, Mai, and Tristan had all agreed to come without second thought, although that was hardly surprising. It wasn't uncommon for one of them to pop over at random times, including dinner. Both Yugi and Tea came from small families, so they had become their extended family. They always made extra in case someone decided to come over.
"Have you called-"
The doorbell rang. They opened the door and saw Ishizu and Marik standing on their door step. "Please forgive us for arriving unannounced, but you were about to invite us over, were you not?" Ishizu said before Yugi even had a chance to ask. He noticed to that she was standing with one foot forward, as if he were pharaoh.
"You're right, but really, there's no need for that."
"Yes, there is." Marik insisted.
Yugi looked up at the clock. It said it was 5 o'clock. "I'll be right back, just let me close up the shop." Yugi left before they could protest. That day was particularly slow, so closing up was no hassle.
He walked back inside the house only a few minutes later. "Sorry about that. So Marik, how have things been?"
Marik shrugged. "About as well as can be expected. Right now the pharaoh's tomb is as safe as ever because it's in ruins, but people have been going missing. I've temporarily taken off of work because we've had a feeling that something was about to happen. I'm just glad that I didn't get the rod because…." he trailed off. "Never mind," he said dismissively.
"What is it?"
"It's just." He lowered his eyes lap. "I was afraid that too much stress on top of having an item would have been too much. I was afraid that my dark side would be reborn. I was a real bastard even when I had him under control." He looked up and gave a half smile. "Well, it's a moot point anyway. Kaiba has it, and can I just point out how ironic it is that the one person who absolutely refused to believe in shadow games even after witnessing one now has possession of the millennium rod?"
"I think he'd agree with you. Do you know what his reaction was when he realized he had it?" Yugi asked.
"What is it?"
"He told Yugi to get rid of it," Ishizu answered for him. "He even offered to pilot a private jet back to Egypt himself."
Marik burst out laughing "Don't tell me he's actually done it!"
"Actually Marik, we were attacked by a duel monster the day he brought it over here, and since the puzzle was still in pieces he had to fight them off using the rod. It would be pretty hard for even Seto to deny it after using an item."
Tea walked in with flour in her hair and face and a splash of some sort of sauce on her blouse despite wearing an apron. "Sorry guys, I underestimated how long this was supposed to take. I need to have dinner ready by the time Joey and Tristan get here; otherwise they'll eat us out of house and home! Do you need anything?"
"We're fine, thanks Tea. And ah…" he motioned to the general area of his face that corresponded to the part that had flour on it.
"I know! I seem to be perpetually covered in flour these days." A loud timer sounded from the kitchen.
"That'd be the bread. Sorry guys, I've gotta run!" She ran back into the kitchen.
"She doesn't seem the type," Marik whispered, conscious of the fact that the subject of their conversation was only the next room over.
"After that run in with Bakura she's taken up baking." He whispered.
"I see…" Ishizu considered. "You are being asked to handle more than anyone should ever have to handle, and she does seem like the nurturing type, so it is not so surprising that she is coping by baking." Ishizu leaned over and covered his hand with hers. "How are you handling all of this Yugi?"
Yugi touched the puzzle hanging around his neck. "I'm fine. We'll get through this together just like we always have. Things don't seem so uneven now that we've found the puzzle."
Yours is not a hopeless endeavor. He heard the pharaoh. How had he heard the pharaoh? He stood still for a moment and observed his friends. Was he the only the one who could hear that? Because the pharaoh had taken to speaking to him through dreams he had assumed that it was because he could only speak to them when they were in immediate danger. Marik and Isis were carefully observing him.
"Are you okay?" Marik asked.
"Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?"
So the Pharaoh had spoken to him through a link, the way that they used to talk. Did it go both ways. Thanks, I needed that. He silently thanked him. Should he tell them, then? "The pharaoh was just agreeing with me that it's not is the first time that he's spoken with me outside of a dream in a while, so I was just as surprised as you are."
While Marik looked only a little relieved, Ishizu had become much more relaxed. She had grown up with stories about the Pharaoh. To Yugi Atem was a friend and a brother, but to Ishizu he was a larger than life figure, and her king. Reassurance from him meant far more than it ever would coming from someone else's mouth. Marik had rebelled for so long that even though he greatly respected the pharaoh, he did not revere him in quite the same way that his sister did. "So is his spirit inside of the puzzle again?" Marik asked.
"No, that would be nearly impossible! He is still in the afterlife, is that correct?" She looked towards Yugi for confirmation.
"That's right. My soul is the only one connected to it. Trust me, I'd know if his soul was still inside the puzzle." He still shared a bond with his friend from years of sharing the puzzle, so he would have known if his other self was so close by. It was an instinct, something that was difficult to put into words, but very real. Just knowing how to use the puzzle was largely instinctual, so was his connection with the pharaoh. Once he knew that there was another spirit inside of the puzzle it took almost no effort to communicate. All he had to do was think with the intention of the pharaoh hearing it and he would. "You guys know how it is. Even Kaiba knew how to use his without even thinking about it, although from the look on his face you'd think that he was in the middle of some sort of existential crisis."
Marik chuckled. "He probably was. Do you know much it took for him to even concede that we weren't making everything up? He must have thought you had Multiple Personality Disorder or something for the longest time."
"Yes, he is rather obstinate isn't he?" Ishizu agreed.
"If you dorks are done laughing at my expense, I need to speak to Yugi." Yugi hadn't seen him enter, but when he turned his head he saw Seto Kaiba standing next to the couch.
"When did you get here?"
"Right around the part about my existential crisis." Luckily for them Seto looked more amused than angry.
"Sure, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"What do you think I wanted to talk to you about?" He snapped.
"If it's about the millennium rod you may as well ask me in front of them-they'd probably know better than me."
Seto rolled his eyes in frustration. "Aren't you supposed to be an expert on all of this nonsense?"
"Actually, I've never used the rod," Yugi admitted. "Marik and Ishizu are your best bet."
"Fine, has anyone else had these dreams?"
"I've been dreaming about the future," Ishizu said, "although I don't think that was what you were really asking."
"I've been talking to the pharaoh in mine."
A sudden eagerness entered Kaiba's eyes. "These dreams, do they seem real to you?"
"They do, but that's because they're real. It's the easiest and most admissible way for him to contact me."
"Lately I've been having these dreams about him."
"Him?" Yugi wondered who 'him' was. And then it clicked. He meant Priest Seto. Interesting… "You mean Priest Seto?"
"Yes, like I said, him."
Yugi now knew what he meant. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't going crazy. "You aren't imagining things and you're not going crazy." Yugi tried to gently reassure him. "What did he tell you?"
"Why does it matter? All of that teamwork stuff is bullshit anyway. I work best alone."
"Seto, being a high priest made him something of an advisor to the pharaoh and meant that he has experience with shadow magic. He helped to defeat-" do not say his name. "-the darkness the first time. If he gives you advice, you should listen."
Seto rolled eyes. Why did he ask if he knew what Yugi was going to say anyway? "Fine, he warned me that we need to find the other items soon so that they can be used in conjunction with each other."
Yugi nodded. "The Pharaoh had something to say about that too. He-" Yugi stopped. Now wasn't the right time for that. There was a reason that he had called everyone together before their scheduled meeting.
"Hey man!" Tristan waved from the place near the front door. "How's it 'hangin?" Should he tell him that he was getting too old to talk like that? In some ways Tristan had matured faster than the others, but in other ways he was still the eternal teenager. It was okay in their early twenties, but the closer they got to forty, the weirder it began to sound.
The rest of the gang had arrived. Tea walked out the kitchen with her apron still on to greet their old friends. Only the smile was missing from her face. She looked frazzled, and was covered in even more food from cooking. "I'm so sorry guys. I don't know what happened. I burned the meat to a crisp and the other dishes won't cook. Nothing's fit for-" The fire alarm went off. "Damn it!" Tears of frustration began to side down her cheeks.
She ran into the kitchen. Joey climbed onto a chair to turn it off temporarily. "There! No worries Tea, that was easy. Why don't you just take it easy? We'll order pizza or something!"
"Come here," Yugi said. Tea immediately did as he suggested, and then hugged her husband. "Joey's right, we should order pizza and rent a movie. It'll be like when we were teenagers!" They all used to get together at Yugi's house and watch movies as they feasted on pizza, soda, and junk food. Now that they were adults nearing their forties, they rarely indulged in the same way because their waistlines couldn't handle it.
"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I don't even know why I'm so upset. This is hardly the first time I've burned something." The first years of their marriage were filled with slightly burned food because although they would alternate who cooked, neither of them knew how to cook very well. Both of them had burned their fair share of dinners before they got the hang of it.
She sat down and let Tristan pour her a glass of wine. "Are you sure you don't want me to bring over something a little harder?"
"That's not a good idea. The last thing we need is for anyone to get drunk right now, especially since we have a child in the house." Tea said.
"Mooom!" They could hear Akari's whine from the table that she had been studying at.
"You should be studying," Tea shouted.
"How am I supposed to study after all that commotion?" She shouted back.
"Fine," she sighed. "You can come talk with us for a little, but only because we have guests."
She gladly took a seat next to Joey. "So...any boys you want me to beat up for ya?" Joey asked.
Mai snorted, "I think you and Tristan have made sure that she's more than capable of defending herself." Joey and Tristan made sure that she how to fight, and not just in the most basic way taught in self defense classes. They knew how tough the world was and how dangerous people could be. At one point Joey and Tristan had been bullies themselves, and Joey had even been in a street gang for a while. Mai had even learned some basic self defense while she was working on cruise ships in order to fend off angry drunk passengers and had pitched in with the lessons sometimes. Tea had not been pleased, but after his own experiences being bullied Yugi got her to let them teach her.
"Nope, no boys." She didn't seem to happy about that. "No good ones anyway. They all just want a chance to come to my house to see Dad," she made a face.
"Huh, life must not be too easy with a celebrity for a Dad." Tristan remarked.
"You get used to it." Mokuba said. "I'm glad I never had that problem. The girls were all to afraid of Seto. That's why I love my Risa. She was the first girl who could look him the eyes and put her foot down."
"Why would anyone be afraid of Uncle Seto?" Akari asked. Silence fell. no one dared explain to the girl why one of her favorite uncles (although if you asked her they were all her favorite) was scary.
Seto turned to the girl and looked her in the eye. "One thing you'll learn when you're an adult is that people naturally fear their betters. When they come across someone with a superior intellect they can't help but feel intimidated because they know that they can never meet your standards."
"But if I were like you or dad I wouldn't want anyone to fear me!"
He reprimanded herself deprecating remark sternly, "No niece of mine will ever lower herself in order to avoid offending the sheep. You are better than that!" In a twisted way he did have a point, although he didn't agree that was why people feared him. People feared him because he could be ruthless and calculating and knew how to manipulate people
"I think that what Seto's trying to say is that when people see a trait they want they sometimes get jealous or a little intimidated. He is right that you should never try to lower yourself to avoid intimidating anyone, although you shouldn't purposely try to make people fear you. " Tea corrected. "Isn't that right Seto?"
He took the hint and agreed. "Fine, she might have a point." Seto usually would have argued, but Yugi thought that he may have backed down because Tea was already a nervous wreck over her family as it was.
"Thank you."
"So what are we going to do until the grub gets here? I'm starved!" Tristan exclaimed.
"Why don't we rent a movie? Any ideas?" Yugi asked.
"What about the new Marvel's movie? Super heroes are kid friendly aren't they?" Joey asked.
"But don't little girls typically like, I don't know, girly stuff?"
"Hey, I'm not a little kid!"
"How rude!" Mai exclaimed at the same time. "What does that have to do with anything Tristan?"
"Woah there!" he held up both hands in surrender. "I didn't mean it like that! I just forgot that she's a teenager now. I keep thinking that she's still seven years old and carries a tiara around with her everywhere."
Mai backed down and smiled affectionately at her niece. "Oh fine, I guess I can forgive your slip-it is understandable. It does seem just like it was yesterday that she forced everyone to play princess and her kingdom with her."
She had somehow managed to get everyone involved. Of course Tristan and Joey pretended to be her knight and court jester most often. Yugi, Anzu, and Mokuba had frequently switched roles. But Seto, who had somehow managed to get dragged into, it saw an opportunity to begin molding her mind for success at a young age. "If I'm going to get dragged into playing make believe I may as well make sure she gets something out it," he had told them. So he was her advisor. He used it to introduce her to ideas like supply and demand and instill a work ethic in her. Yugi remembered that he once walked into the room to hear him asking her, "Princess, there's been a drought. What's going to happen to the price of food?"
She proudly responded, "Up!"
"Why has the price of food gone up?"
"Because there's not as much to go around as there was before." Yugi was proud of her response. It was pretty well reasoned for a second grader.
"That's right, so a princess has to pay attention to even these small details. What happens if prices rise too much?"
"People can't buy food and they all get really, really hungry."
He nodded, making the girl glow with his approval. "That's right. So you need to do what to make sure that people can still buy food?"
She broke her role. "Um...I dunno know. Why Uncle Seto?"
"You make sure that price doesn't get to a point where the majority of people can no longer afford to pay for it. That means you look for a way to bring the prices back down." Yugi was about to step in because he thought that was a pretty difficult lesson in economics for a child, but she looked like she was enjoying herself too much for him to bring himself to do it. She did not have as many opportunities to spend with Seto as she did with her other uncles so she cherished whatever time she get with him. By that age she already idolized him.
Yugi missed those days. "Sometimes I can hardly believe it either, and I'm her father. She's grown up way too fast."
Akari's cheeks bloomed with red and she hastily tried to change the subject. "Can we please put on the movie now? I'm fine with superheroes!" The group got into the movie, and had to frequently pause to make comments and make fun of the characters.
Before they realized it an hour had passed and the doorbell rang. They opened the door and saw Bakura holding a pizza box. "Special Delivery for Yugi Mutou."
Author's Note: I especially enjoyed fleshing out their relationships with Akari. Akari was the first child out of the group because Joey and Mai didn't get a married until a few years after Tea and Yugi and decided to wait to have children, and Tristan hasn't found the right girl. Yugi has always had a fairly small family so his friends became his family. That meant that from the moment she was born she already had two adoring uncles and an aunt. Seto Kaiba is a different story. I imagine that he has a weakness for children because he sees them as the most vulnerable members of society (Just look at what he did for the orphans with Kaiba Land). When Akari was a baby he might have kept his distance, but once she was a toddler she became too attached to him to keep his distance for long. He saw that she had a good mind, and decided to nurture it. This is partially because he thinks that Yugi and Tea won't push her enough. He first became "Uncle Seto" and then later became "Mr. Kaiba" on occasion because Akari liked to tease him. With that being said, she had him wrapped around her little finger from a very young age (the same with her other uncles). The only reason I'm putting all of this stuff down now is because there's no way for me to be able to expand on this as much as I'd like in the story. Maybe I'll write some one-shots if I get a good response.
-ForeverLily
