Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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It was nothing for Mahaado to create an illusion to emulate what John was doing, but he was confounded by what to do regarding speech. Clearly there was no grand ability to communicate, language would be a barrier that only the Thief could easily cross. 'This is unlike his ability to communicate with the dead. Since John, in and of himself, is not truly dead. Its perfectly reasonable that he speaks his native tongue even in this state and I can not understand it. In the same way as Josie can not recall the words that Set spoke.'
'Well I suppose there is that one prayer... But I wonder if Set is going to tolerate such a prayer from me. Seto may have gotten over what happened in our time. But Set himself... There was nothing that Josie spoke of that makes me believe that he's well. I don't really want to get a response from him that is a rant about some irrational thing I might or might not have done.'
'Oh well. I'll pray to Her first and hope that it is answered. If not I guess I'll just risk a ranting Set,' Mahaado thought to himself before turning to address Malik. "I realize that you can understand the Mother Language so I think I should warn you. I'm not praying to your sister, she just happened to be named after my Patron Goddess and I'd rather not have you upset with me."
"What? Where did that come from...?" Malik began while Jounouchi chuckled shaking his head.
"Wait, she was named after a Goddess?" The blond asked, distracting Mahaado from Malik while Bakura quietly died inside.
'You understand jealously and miscommunication when its aimed at you from someone younger. But NOT when its aimed at you from a peer?!' Bakura pondered while fighting to keep a straight face. 'How does that brain function?! Yugi I swear I will steal all your black leather if you don't tell me what was going on in the palace! … Wait... if Mahaado's patron is Isis, oh that explains why he didn't want to emulate being alive! The food and material restrictions, Japan is not very meat heavy and fish is fine for him. But America is all about cows... ouch... the belt and shoes are just illusions, but he wouldn't be able to wear them if he were to dress in modern fashion.' It also meant that Yugi couldn't play leather dress up with him either.
Not without forcing the guy to violate his own religious code. Which Yugi might not have been aware of yet. Yugi would have been taught all these things in the past, but if he was still just remembering childhood. He 'could' have retained a sense of the mothering aspect of Isis, but not her restrictions. Leaving Mahaado, who never went against Yugi anyway, forced to violate his own codes to keep his ruler happy...
But Mahaado, having settled down Malik, had walked towards where he had said John was watching them. The day was still pleasant, the air still and yet in the graveyard was a soul that they would finally get to speak with.
"Kind of exciting huh? I mean, after all these trips we're finally getting something definitive about John and be able to help the twins with their mom." Jounouchi looked about the graveyard, the rows of dead when his mind started reminding him of what Anzu and Bakura had told him. Even more so as Bakura frowned as he heard that.
He ignored the comment, deciding it was just something that would encourage to kids to keep going. Mahaado wasn't very far off, but as he stood there an image began to fade into view, a long black robe that drifted as though in water. The priest turned and looked at the group before walking back towards them.
"I can hear him.. but I can not understand what he's saying. Which is understandable given that he isn't actually dead. So you see an illusion I have cast that you may see what he does, as for his voice..." Mahaado explained.
The spirit floated up to be beside Mahaado, the hood drawn back showing them for the first time the man they weren't looking for. Yet somehow was now the focus of their hunt. Somehow seeing him there, even as an illusion, floating in the air felt wrong. Mahaado had become the Dark Magician out of his loyalty to Yugi, but he used magic. Could a priest do the same thing? Could a God... or a Demon? So far Mahaado had made it sound exclusive to something only mages could do. But they knew that wasn't the truth, after all there was still the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Demon created Items could perform the same task, and if that was the case...
An army of humans turned fused Duel Monsters... What a nightmare of a thought.
"You can see me?" John asked hefting the weight of his scythe over his shoulder while studying these young men. The three young men blinked with only... 'Ryou' was it? Showing comprehension as he looked up at John. The bound soul recalled that only one of them spoke English, with only this strange... 'What is this person? Not human despite how he looks..'
"Yes, and understand you, so you're still speaking English," Bakura acknowledged with a relieved sigh.
"Well, yeah my body isn't dead soo... I mean its the only thing that ever made sense to me." John confessed with a faint shrug, though catching the startled look on the young man's face... "Sometimes a medium shows up and I can talk to them. Problem is they tend to be small kids and when you're dressed like the Grim Reaper and you're in a graveyard... I've had kids ask about their family and hah...Once they stopped screaming... Oh man..."
"Oh... oh... yes I can imagine that must be a moment.." Bakura blinked at that, 'He doesn't sound as though he's suffering...'
"Ah, I should introduce ourselves..." Bakura began when John shrugged before gesturing towards Mahaado.
"I know you three, you came to see my 'grave' and spoke to my nephews, but I don't know this..."
"Oh this is High Priest Mahaado, he's also not really alive anymore..." Bakura explained earning a raised eyebrow from John. He could hear Malik and Jounouchi quietly move about behind him, just enough to remind him that they were there. Johns' ability to 'talk' was interesting, the voice was there and they could hear it, but Johns 'mouth' wasn't moving. Since when Mahaado was dealing with Kaiba the mouth moved properly. 'I suppose it's just a sign that Mahaado has learned enough Japanese to at least get the movements right. Unlike English.."
"A High Priest?" John repeated, the stranger certainly appeared to know more of his stuff than modern students of Egypt. He was able to actually get Ryou to hear him after all, which was more than most.
"Mahaado, himself, is a spirit one that comes from Ancient Egypt. Which, after having spoken to Josie, I would suspect to be at the time as the spirit you dealt with." Bakura noted with a thoughtful expression.
"A priest? A real one from those days no less? He doesn't look like my ancestor though," John began. Struggling to think of a nicer way to bring up how unnatural this person appeared. "Rather young..."
Bakura chuckled in response, as Mahaado stood discreetly to the side...
"Translate!" Malik and Jounouchi managed to sing out in an unexpected chorus which startled the two of them into glancing each other. Cracking up as they did so and startling Mahaado just enough to get him to give a slight, amused smile.
"How do I do that when we haven't got past the introductions?" Bakura asked while turning around to face the pair. "Besides he knows who you are, I have to explain Mahaado."
Both Malik and Jounouchi crossed their arms, unapologetic though now silent, allowing Bakura to turn his attention back to John.
"Well, as I was saying... He looks young. But... his aura is strange, I've never seen anyone with one like that. Almost like he's not human..." John explained feeling a bit embarrassed that he had to imply anything else.
"Well, he's.. not anymore. He's a Duel Spirit, kind of like you actually," Bakura began, a little uncertain if he should take note of that or not. "Though he isn't bound to an area as you seem to be..."
"Oh this?" John noted, gesturing down at the robe he wore before shrugging, smiling faintly as he did so. "This is only temporary, I'll be out of here..." His voice rambled off as he jerked his left hand over his shoulder to gesture towards the graveyard behind him. But as he did so he had turned his head and off in the distance, despite looking like all the others, his 'grave' seemed to stand out. "It was only supposed to be temporary..."
"Wait... 'Only temporary'?" Jounouchi repeated stunned before repeating the statement for Malik and Mahaado.
John nodded shifting the weight of his scythe in his hands as he hovered there, they had spoken to his disbelieving nephews... But they had also spoken to Josie and the woman clearly remembered everything that happened that night. The young men clearly were on a type of mission, one that was leading them towards the Forbidden Book. But if that was the case, why was this 'Mahaado' person with them?
The young man appeared perfectly normal, but he felt 'off' in ways that John didn't understand. Perhaps it was this 'Duel Spirit' thing that Ryou spoke of. But that said...
"You spoke to Josie, that means you know what happened that night, which is comforting. Well that you 'believe' her is, because my nephews refused to. Which is strange because they should have. The Forbidden Book is sealed by a Priest, an ancestor of ours and we were always entrusted to ensure that it was never opened. If it 'is' opened the one in charge of the Book is punished by possession. Our Ancestor then goes off for a time, seeking out a particular person. Then returns with our body so we can resume our lives," John explained.
"So I didn't catch all of that... But this is normal?" Jounouchi asked Bakura, seeking clarification for what he had just heard. "So his body is just out and about looking for someone yet they held a 'funeral' for him?"
"I suppose?" Bakura answered his brow furrowed in his own confusion. "But Katsuya has a point. Why would your ancestor have it appear that you killed yourself?"
It was a question that seemed to bring down John, from a casual conversation to dark clouds that seemed to covered his face.
"I don't know. I was sealed here to protect the newly dead and to weed out any of the demon's influence in town. 'If it showed up'. The Forbidden Book was still with us, at that time and I didn't think anything was going on. Until a week later when the funeral happened, and they literally laid apparently 'my' empty coffin into the ground. No one can see me so I can't just ask, but I could hear the conversations. Something happened to Abigail, my sister, that put her in a mental ward, they were talking suicide... If the boys had just believed us... Maybe they would have heard me."
"That's odd, Americans inter their dead, but what form of suicide would validate a closed coffin funeral? Normally the coffin is open and they would have seen it... No..." Bakura blinked as he tried to put this in order. "They put a body in the coffin? But that can't be right you said it yourself that the coffin is empty."
"It was... they did a closed casket funeral for some reason," John agreed sadly his gaze drifting towards the grass beside them. "I've been here for now 10 Halloweens. About three back, my grave stopped being empty. They, and I can only assume that they were the reason the Book was to be protected, had my grave exhumed."
"Did they think they would find the Book in the grave?" Malik asked quietly as Jounouchi translated some of the information.
"I was under the assumption that the exhuming of a body would require an official to allow. Given that it requires the consent of living family which you have. Malik also wanted to know if they thought they would find the Book. You may only be a spirit, but I doubt you couldn't hear them talk among themselves." Bakura offered as a gentle hook to motivate John to continue.
"No. They had the Forbidden Book by then. But the first time you came here, you mentioned Travis and Catty. I can't understand Japanese but thankfully their names are American."
The statement froze Bakura and Jounouchi, despite his limited grasp on English, to their spots as the subtext began to play out in their heads.
There 'was' a body in the grave, but 'Catty' or rather 'Catherine' was safe at home in Japan with her family.
"I'm hearing this wrong, right?" Jounouchi asked, his stomach sickened at the thought that someone was dead. Because his mind was going to places he didn't want it to, so fast and hard that he desperately needed to have misunderstood. He needed Bakura to translate some word to soften the only other meaning that could be used.
"They killed Travis and put him in the grave?" Bakura asked, as kindly as he could as he realized 'why' she hadn't been able to reach him. 'There's no hope of finding him then...'
"No," John's lips twisted into a pained smile. "They didn't kill him and put him in my coffin... He was unconscious and they put him in there. It was all I could do to stay in the ground with him when he woke up and tried to escape..."
Jounouchi blurted out a string of swears that took Malik by surprise, causing him to watch the now irate blond. Though it startled Malik, Bakura stood there painfully unaffected by the reaction behind him as though it was expected.
"This group found Travis, knocked him out and stuffed him in the coffin. That's why there's a body in it." Jounouchi explained before walking away, shoving his fingers through his hair as he tried to calm down. Leaving Malik standing there with the group growing helpless due to his inability to speak English.
There was no further need to explain anything to Malik, a small enclosed box with no way to call for help... Undoubtedly John would have stayed by Travis' side and the man had been both a friend and an elder to the group. How he must have suffered that night when it happened, and asking for Mahaado to merely remove the coffin died in Malik's throat.
"My sympathies for your loss, I realize that what you're currently enduring is less a permanent fate. Rather a temporary inconvenience that seems to be extending further than you would wish. Is there anything you can tell us about this group? The ones who had murdered Travis?" Bakura asked, after all John 'knew' more than what the twins did. What with him following traditions that they had abandoned.
"They're cells of an organization, that's all I really know. They have a chain of command that they follow and they didn't speak. The person in charge was apparently in town directing them by phone. It was as though they knew I was here and trying to avoid giving me information. But they shouldn't..." John recalled with a frown on his face.
"Actually they could... they're working to restore a demon, and that demon could very well recognize your presence in some fashion and warn them." Bakura pointed out earning a startled look from John.
"Demons? I... I suppose so... That's the story that goes with the Forbidden Book. That is what I was told to do. Once a year the seal on the graveyard would unweave enough to allow me to weed out the touch of demons from the town. Until he comes back with my body... But... 'demons'?"
Bakura blinked as he realized the scope of the situation, the twins may not have believed at all. But even the previous generation was starting to lose faith in it... Yet... "That book is the medium used by a demon. You haven't been guarding the Book alone as much as aiding a preexisting seal placed 'on' it..." Bakura explained. "A Priest that for some reason is bound to keeping it shut."