Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Bakura nodded, tucking away Yugi's 'be careful' remark in the back of his mind, did Yugi even know he said anything? Or was this a throw back to his conversations with the Other Yugi, maybe it was how he normally talked to Mahaado? That he just assumed the magician was by his side and would throw out random comments? It was a frightening thing to consider, but at least the guy was looking at him again. "What did you mean by 'be careful'?" Bakura hazard watching as Yugi blinked in surprise.
"If they think they can play games with me and are doing this to get me to?"
Bakura nodded, before pushing his bangs out of his face and leaning back in his seat. "I suppose that means we get back on topic."
"Must we? I was hoping we could decipher more royal gossip that I missed out on," Yugi teased in mock regret. "So let's assume, John is protecting the area some how, granted we need Maha to figure that part out. But that leaves the state of Set's mind when he was in Colorado, and how could a police force and possible forensic team miss the fact that there was no body. Remember to let me know how the twins react when they find out that their uncle's body is still moving around. That's going to be special."
"Yugi!" Bakura chided as he covered his eyes. Oh that 'was' going to be wonderful, explaining that they had been mislead into believing he was dead... "You know, you bring that up and I find myself taken by a certain thought..." dropping his hand and noting Yugi's encouraging expression Bakura continued, "well it makes no reasonable sense to take the body, seal the soul, and protect the area from evil. 'If' something evil was in charge." Despite the comfortable temperature of the room, the mere memory of that night and those tendrils of corruption were enough to chill him.
"Ahh, yeah I suppose that once the seal goes down John cleanses the area from how it sounds... Which is probably why you felt the way you did when you arrived, its been a whole year since last he was unleashed," Yugi admitted before giving a thoughtful nod. "And when I think of it like 'that' I can't help but think that whoever it was who stole John's body did it out of good intent. Only to have Zorc rush in and ruin it... Leaving a question of if whoever even knows what's going on back home," Yugi noted while watching Ryou literally deflate in front of him.
"We are 'not' a sentai! We are 'not' supposed to travel around the world finding people and saving the world from disasters!"
Yugi seriously debated if he should hum the opening song to the Seijuu Sentai Gingaman series, but then given that this 'was' the guy who was possessed by the demon that killed him. Might not want to tempt Ryou back into that life. Instead he picked up another small snack and began nibbling away while Ryou struggled to pull himself back together.
'Considering what Ryou said about the Book and its presence around Dragons... I can see how it would be possible to have the demon go behind the Spirit and create a fake body...' Yugi thought. Any other thought was suddenly removed as he felt that familiar comforting sensation of Mahaado's presence. "Maha!"
Yugi turned towards the feeling and was momentarily taken aback when he saw 'Kaiba' on bended knee beside him. Just to remember what Maha was subjected to at the moment, "how does 'learning to drive with Mokuba' going?"
"About that..." Mahaado answered before standing up... "What is 'dr-if-ting'? Mokuba insists on me attempting that... With the actual car."
'I love you both!' Yugi mentally squealed in mental laughter.
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"Wait you want me to do what?" Anzu asked with furrowed brows as she looked at the wall across her room. Across from her was her made up bed, and drawers for her clothes, with a few posters and pictures scattered on the walls. She had a text book on her desk behind her with several sheets of paper scattered over it as well.
"Well when we can figure out where in creation we're going, do you want to take my spot for a maybe a week with Bakura and Malik?" Jounouchi asked as he tugged on his work clothes. "I have to work all week, and the rings need a third person. That and you have all that English to help out Bakura..."
"Ryou..." Anzu corrected wondering why they were suddenly using terms for the Ring Spirit for their friend.
"Right... just..." Jounouchi winced as he realized what he had been doing since last night. "Its been weird, I'm sure Malik can fill you in more. But right now the guys need to go to someplace in Europe because the twins are busy-e-e-e-e-e-e-"
Anzu flinched as she heard what sounded like Jounouchi making a clumsy dive into the floor. The phone clattered as it hit the ground and she could hear the distant sounds of a body moving around. She turned to look at the sample tests she had been working on, wondering if it was worth it, given that he said 'Europe'. As in 'we don't know where you'd be going, just that you'd be going'. Though Ryou loved his education as much as she did from what she gleaned from previous conversations at school. So the pair of them 'could' just bounce off studies while traveling, study on the go AND get to see a European country.
"Sooo you on board?" Jounouchi asked, amid sounds of him getting up off the floor.
"You guys don't want to wait until..." Anzu began only to faintly shake her head. Given what she knew from when they explained the 'first' time they brought her to California. Coupled with what Jounouchi could afford to say when in possible ear shot of his dad... They really shouldn't sit on this, given what happened to Kaiba, or the twins Uncle. "You go to work Jounouchi, I'll get in contact with Malik and see what he has to say."
"Great! You'll be a big help to Bak-Ryou and its only for the week I hope," Jounouchi enthusiastically replied. "You'll probably have a faster time if you call Ryou's apartment, Malik seems to prefer using it as his base of operation..."
They said their good byes followed by Anzu hanging up and then pulling up Ryou's phone number on her cell. But at that point she paused, her thumb hovering over the call button as she found herself going over what he had said. Or rather 'not' said. Given his relationship with his dad, she figured there would be parts he couldn't discuss. Yet what he 'did' say made her wish more that Yugi was with her if she did this than Ryou or Malik.
Maybe some of it was a knee jerk reaction from the thought of having to travel with someone who had been routinely possessed by a demonic spirit. Ryou. As well as the guy who had possessed 'her' and at one point had her hold a poison filled pill between her lips. Just to force Yugi to duel a mind controlled Jounouchi. She understood that Ryou was innocent of his situation, Malik was as well, but 'Europe' was a large place. In America it would be easy for her to get help if something went bad, or if the guys got possessed. Would that still apply for her if she ended up in, say France, or Italy?
But they needed her, Rashid was far too intimidating with his facial scaring and stern facade. Honda was... well, permanently injured. Yugi was looking after the Kaibas' and Kaiba but really Mahaado was looking after her... so maybe it was for the best that she went. Going to another country for a few hours a day looking for a woman would probably more preferable. With that she pressed the 'call' button on her cellphone and then waited for the sound of the phone ring.
Though why would Malik pick up Ryou's phone? How would he know that it was not someone looking for Ryou who would be a little alarmed at a random stranger picking up the phone? As the phone continued ringing she resigned herself to hanging up. 'I better just go over there myself. I could use the break.'
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Some time later at Ryou's apartment \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Anzu stood at the door to the apartment, giving a bright, cheery knock on it before waiting patiently for Malik to answer. As the seconds began to mount she heard what sounded like metal sliding against metal slowly. Not exactly a 'click', but still audible enough for her to hear it, yet the door remained shut. Odd.
"Malik?" She called out as she reached for the door knob and gave it a turn. Which revealed to her that it wasn't locked, but again 'Malik'. She suddenly heard a distinct thump on the other side of the door leaving her a little concerned. It sounded like someone fell and she wondered if it was the sound of Malik hiding himself, or if tripped trying to go to the door?
As the door opened she sighed, the lights were out, tv off, in fact the apartment at a glance appeared to be empty. She shook her head as she shut the door behind her, and slipped out of her shoes wondering if Malik was trying to scare her or if he thought she was someone else. Ghosts had a tendency to mess with lighting from what little she knew of the subject. Maybe the influx had messed with the power grid of the building and there were scheduled checks to find it?
"Malik its me, Anzu," she called out as she walked further into the apartment, near the small table before the couch. There were a series of cards scattered along the top that caught her attention, as she studied them she realized they were language flash cards. With Japanese and what she could only assume to be Ancient Egyptian written on them. But the writing wasn't as neat as Ryous' so did Malik write these to help himself and others? For that matter it made no reason for him to even make the cards unless... Were these for the ghosts? So that the rest of them could communicate with the spirits?
"Malik are you here?"
She turned to look back at the front door of the apartment, her eyes focused on the ground to seek out an extra pair of shoes that would have been there if he was... Only her shoes stuck out though.
But even with that slowly dawning revelation coming over her, the cards were suddenly yanked out of her hands and into the air. They fell like feathers, drifting down around her save one that seemed to be trying to stay 'up' and failing. Granted she was a bit nervous in reaching out, yet she gathered her courage to extend her hand and caught the card.
'No.'
The word was written with what she expected to be the Ancient Egyptian version above it, as a very large indicator of two things. One no one was home and two, that quite possibly the spirits were the ones who let her in. Maybe there 'was' something to Jounouchi's little 'issue'?
"I should go then... I mean, thank you for letting me in." Anzu began when another card began wiggling, for lack of better word, on the ground.
'Yes.'
It wiggled along the ground away towards a corner of the room, gathering more cards as it did so.
"Right ok, well I'll come back later when Ryou is home," she began when the 'No' in her hand began wiggling in reaction. But it wouldn't be right if she just left the cards on the floor, thus she knelt down and began gathering up the cards. Granted the apartment was dark, but there was enough natural light from the covered windows to make it possible to pick up the words on the cards. There weren't a great deal to form a conversation with, but it was clear that someone was putting in effort. There were no conversational words at the moment, she found that most of the words were either basic location words, action words or the aforementioned 'yes' and 'no'.
All the same she made her way to where the last bit of cards were resting, picking up the 'yes', and 'come' and 'here' cards. Which stopped her as she knelt there, making her wonder given what she had asked. "Are you trying to say that 'no, Malik isn't here but he's coming?'"
The cards wiggled almost violently in her hands, for which she took a chance to decide that they meant 'yes'. "Well, until he gets here, its impolite of me to just be in Ryou's apartment, I'll just wait outside until he gets here," she replied in an attempt to mollify the spirits she couldn't see. She gathered up the remaining cards and returned them to the table in a neat little stack. All the while understandably nervous about how strong these spirits were.
'I understand where they come from, but they couldn't do this in the beginning. They affected Yugi because they were angry. And yeah I suppose its possible that their joint connection to the Sennen Items might make it easier to touch him. But... Ryou wouldn't leave his door unlocked and that means these ghosts managed to unlock the door on their own. How strong are they getting? What if it affects Ryou?' she wondered as she made her way to the door of the apartment. A valid argument in her own mind, was Ryou provided any privacy? Did they draw on his own energy?
Was Ryou getting exhausted and no one realize it? Maybe he was drinking more coffee or energy rich foods.
She slipped her shoes back on and stepped outside the apartment, passively wondering how far was Malik as she shut the door behind her. But it gave her time to stand there and think about what she just saw. Because clearly the ghosts weren't 'with' Ryou at the moment and had the strength to unlock doors and move cards. Perhaps Malik knew more about these spirits, but could she even talk to him about it in an apartment with spirits active?
The elevator at the end of the hallway gave off a small chime, that got her attention as she watched Malik saunter out of the elevator. He turned towards her and his own lavender colored eyes widened in surprise at the sight of her. But it filled her with relief as she waved to him and walked towards him while he picked up his steps.
"Hey Anzu, what you doing here?" Malik asked as they met up mid hallway. Though he noticed her immediate and awkward flinch in answer. "Something wrong?"
"Well Jounouchi called me and explained what was going on. Or as much as he could given the topic and said you were here, and um let me explain inside," Anzu nervously answered as she looked at the wall of Ryou's across the hall neighbor.
Malik nodded and reached into his pocket to pull out the key that Bakura had entrusted to him when Anzu walked ahead of him... and opened the clearly unlocked door. Wait what?
"Anzu?" he voiced his concern as she walked into the apartment with him following. He flipped on the light to the apartment before he pulled off his shoes. Yet the fact that he had to turn it on indicated that Bakura was still visiting Yugi so how did she just walk in? But she seemed willing to talk now as she moved from the door a bit and turned to face him.
She explained her whole trip and Malik was taken a bit aback by how the ghosts had clearly unlocked the door to the apartment for her. As well as used the cards to try and communicate with her despite Malik not fully fleshing out the words base. Causing him to exam the room as she continued recounting her sudden adventure.
True he wasn't going to see spirits, but that was the first thought that came to mind as he stood there. As she continued and explained how the cards reacted to her presence cinched his suspicion that the spirits had taken action. But... "Don't spirits need an energy source to do that? Its why the rooms tend to drop in temperature the further the activity I thought. Are they drawing strength from Bakura?"
He watched as Anzu's eyes grew big and she had this strange tight lipped smile on her face as though he hit the nail on the head... so why not just say it? "Don't tell me you're scared of the Ghosts too?" He wasn't sure if he wanted a female Jounouchi...
"I'm not scared 'of' ghosts... I'm just worried about how this might affect Ryou... I mean, there's 'ghosts' and there are enslaved souls 3000 years and counting that can't seem to move on..." She fairly squirmed where she stood. "I just worry that it might hurt him."
Oh... "Point taken."
"I hope he doesn't mind when he gets back and finds us here," Anzu noted as she looked about the apartment floor. On the look out for any possible cards she might have missed in the dark.
"He'll know, the Spirits will tell him," Malik confidently replied, as he draped himself on the couch. "So how much do you know about what's been going on?"