Artificial Souls

by Tafkae

Complete... or rather, forever incomplete. When the local arcade gets its hands on some virtuapods, it sounds like it'll be a lot of fun, but Yugi and Jounouchi quickly learn the dangers of video gaming as a sinister force begins to manipulate their world

3. Chapter Two: The Fall of the House of Ka...

Artificial Souls
by TAFKAE

Part One

Chapter Two: The Fall of the House of Kaiba

~~~

Yugi was very unnerved. It was Tuesday afternoon, and there had been a distinct silence in the corners of his mind for almost three full days now. Granted, Yami generally was pretty quiet, but never this quiet. He paid next to no attention to anything in school that day, and instead sat, kept to himself, and planned.

He didn't go home with his friends that Tuesday, as he usually did after school. Instead, he'd hastily told them he had something very important to do, which indeed he did, and started for a place he normally made a point of avoiding. Upon reaching it, he hesitated for a moment before entering and made one last internal plea for his aibou to speak, but received only silence as an answer. He swallowed once and began a slow trek down into the mouth of the alley.

It was perhaps a minute or two later that he found himself seized roughly by the lapels and hoisted up until he was face-to-face with exactly what he'd been looking for. He wasn't sure what the guy's name was, but before Ushio had gone mental the two had been partners in crime at some scattered points in their careers, though both careers had been mostly solo. "All right runt, hand over your money or I'll take it."

"I – I don't have any money! I swear!" Yugi protested, struggling. His plan had produced exactly the result he didn't want, though he had halfway expected it. Yami was still silent, and just now the thought crossed the boy's mind that his aibou-niisan would never break off all contact with him this suddenly and then let him get pummeled on top of that… He gulped again and braced himself for a pounding the likes of which he'd not felt in months.

It never came, though. Just as the bigger boy was drawing back his fist to strike, they both heard a voice from the entrance to the alley. "Hey, leave that kid alone or I'll call the police!" it shouted.

The bully didn't need to be told twice. He was quick to toss Yugi at the wall of the alley and run. Yugi clutched his arm as he got up, where it had scraped against the harsh, unforgiving brick. "Ow…"

"Are you all right?" asked the voice's owner as he approached the boy and knelt down.

Yugi nodded and looked up at him. "Yeah, I – " Then a small flicker of recognition crossed his face, disappearing just as quickly as it showed itself. "I think I know you from someplace," he said uncertainly to the man, who had odd silver hair and glasses.

The man seemed to be surprised. "Really? Where from?"

"I dunno," Yugi replied, shrugging it off. "Maybe it's my imagination. But anyways, thanks for scaring that guy off."

"What possessed you to come down here, kid?" the man asked, seeming to ignore the gratitude. "There's no way you could have not known you'd get sprung."

Yugi thought for a second. Aibou-niisan would never abandon him. And it wasn't just that he wouldn't, he couldn't! Period! As long as I have the Sennen Puzzle – and I do! – he is my aibou-niisan!! …Isn't he…? He started walking slowly back out of the alley. No, that couldn't be it. He'd said so himself. Something had to be wrong, which meant: "I was right," he sighed. "I was right."

The strange silver-haired man behind him straightened up, confused. "Right? About what?"

"Something's gone wrong," he replied immediately. "I don't know what, but something's not right here. It's like…"

The man allowed the pause to lengthen, and when it became evident that Yugi wasn't going to finish his sentence, he started one of his own. "Well, I don't know how you figured it out so quickly, but you're right."

Yugi whirled to face him, now that it was his turn to be surprised. "What? You mean you know what's going on?"

"I don't just know, I'm responsible for it," the man said almost proudly. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm called Fold."

"So you – " Yugi took a few steps forward, looking for the right words. "You know what's wrong? what happened to Yami?"

"Ya – ? I don't know what darkness has got to do with this," Fold remarked, raising one eyebrow. "You're no longer in the real world, Mutou-kun." As the boy's eyes widened, he gestured about with his arms and continued. "This is a near-facsimile of Domino City that I programmed myself. And quite a clever facsimile it is, too – it might even be better than reality, in my humble opinion – but I digress."

Yugi couldn't believe it, but he did, every word of it. He had been trapped in a video game. "But – but what about my body? In the real real world?" he stammered, genuinely terrified.

"It is in inexperienced, but good, I believe, hands." He held up one finger. "But don't worry yourself, you'll be out of here shortly."

"Whose hands?" Yugi asked desperately, still not sure what this Fold guy was talking about.

"I don't think you've actually met him. He calls himself Satoshi."

He paused. Satoshi. Where had he heard that name before? A vague memory came to mind, one of floating in a dark place, a dream, he'd thought previously, but wasn't so sure about now. And all of a sudden and for a brief moment something breaking the surface of the black water, and he'd seen it, quite nearly his reflection, and then it shattered before him and diluted throughout the inky blackness, around him, past him, maybe some of it through him, and then he'd been pulled out into the light. Then he'd awoken to Jou calling him Satoshi – he'd thought Jou was just being weird, as usual, but now he finally put it together – the "dream" was real, the shattered reflection Satoshi, and Satoshi still alive. "Sato…" He trailed off before finishing the name.

"Yes, a very interesting case, that one," Fold continued, somewhat wistfully. "After I switched him with the backup copy, he simply would not allow me to dispose of him – "

"Wait, the backup copy?!" Yugi shouted. He wasn't really sure he wanted to know what that meant, but he had to, if it had anything to do with Yami's disappearance. He hoped again his assumption was wrong.

Fold hesitated, as though for a second he thought he'd said something amiss, but then he nodded. "Yes, a backup copy. I originally intended just to make a backup of your memories and personality and make a few changes, but I seemed to have messed something up, as 'Satoshi' has become so radically different from you… I am actually not sure what happened myself, but in the end it worked nicely, either way."

Yugi allowed himself a moment to separate out the information. "So… that makes me… not really me, then. Not really Yugi."

"It depends on your definition of 'really,' I suppose," said Fold.

Yugi paused, then – "How could you do something like this!?" he demanded, trying hard to suppress his enraged tears, and with success. "What kind of monster are you, anyway!?"

"An Agent."

The answer, though more straightforward than he'd expected, still surprised him. "What?"

"You have seen that American movie, haven't you? 'The Matrix.' To use it as an analogy, I am an Agent with the power of the One – a self-sufficient program able to move between games as I please, and to alter them to my liking." He smirked slightly for a second, relishing his clever comparison, then gazed briefly at his hand. A snowball slowly materialized in it, which he threw at Yugi, only to have it disappear just centimeters from his nose and instead splash a fine mist across his face. "You see? And it doesn't stop there. I can even manipulate players, once they've made themselves digital and by association vulnerable."

"B-but – " Yugi sank to his knees, realizing he was totally at the mercy of this "Agent" called Fold. "But why?"

"Ah…" Fold nodded again. "That, my young friend, would be giving you too much information. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to in another game." He was surrounded by a soft violet halo, and then blinked out of sight.

"No, wait!" Yugi shouted, jumping awkwardly back to his feet. "I've still got more questions – !"

But he was alone. Completely, utterly, amazingly alone. It made sense, though, why Yami was gone – he was no longer his aibou. A copy, that was all he was. Satoshi was the real Yugi, only with amnesia. He chuckled softly. Mai would love this. It was unfolding like a bad soap opera.

Well, soap opera or no, he still needed to pull himself together. Maybe there was someone inside the simulation who could help him leave it. But who would know how to get out of a virtuapod game one was stuck in…?

It took him only seconds of deliberation to decide. He turned and started south at full speed, towards the Kaiba mansion.

* * *

When he arrived, out of breath, not knowing just how much later, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. No number of re-readings of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" could have described this old house more vividly. There was even a black and lurid tarn lying in unruffled lustre nearby. The whole place seemed to attract shadows, and as it had become decidedly late and overcast on his way there, which seemed to have the sole purpose of enhancing the effect.

Heh. The Fall of the House of Kaiba. But how could it have gotten this way? he wondered.

"Oh, a thrill-seeker, eh?" said a somewhat scraggly voice from next to the gate to whose bars he clung, and he jumped and looked down at its source to see a moderately old panhandler sitting there.

Calming himself, he pointed up at the mansion. "What happened here?" he asked, awestruck.

"Ah, yes, this old house," said the hobo. "No one lives here anymore, except maybe the rats. It's a horrible tragic story, if you're really sure you want to hear it."

Yugi nodded vigorously. "Yes! I have to know."

The hobo sighed, but then decided he would follow through and tell. "Five years ago, someone broke into the house. Everything got either pillaged or destroyed – it was a mess, I'll tell ya. Very little was spared, precious little. Design schematics, account numbers, money…"

"And…" he was almost afraid to ask "… the Kaiba brothers?"

"Murdered," said the hobo. "Brutally."

Yugi stopped short; he most certainly hadn't been expecting that. "M-murdered?" he half-shouted. "You mean they're – they're dead?!"

"Murder tends to do that to people," the other man said quietly and gravely. "Anyway, no one comes here anymore unless they're really brave – or really stupid. The ghosts of the two children are said to still haunt the place."

Yugi's eyes lit up. "So there's still hope – !"

"Hey, where're you going?" the panhandler asked in disbelief as the boy pushed open the gate and ran inside.

It was very creepy when he actually arrived at the main door – any minute now he expected a great whirlwind to pick up and tear the great walls asunder, but no such whirlwind arose; and so he pushed the door open and stepped into the darkening front hall. Twilight was upon him, and the shadows shining through the broken windows of the derelict house lengthened as he made his way inside. "Hello?" he called out, only half-expecting an answer. "Is anybody here?" However, he did not receive one, so he meandered up the stairs, picked a hallway, and started walking down it.

"Kaiba?" he shouted into the darkness, suddenly wishing he'd chosen a corridor with more windows. "Kaiba, are you here?" Geez, look at me. Screaming a dead guy's name in a house where the only things that can hear me are –

As if on cue, a rat scuttled between his feet. He yelped – he couldn't see very well in this light, but from what he could see, it had been a pretty big rat – and then it was followed by a larger white streak that took the same path – a cat, he realized – nearly causing him to lose his balance. By the time he had regained it, the rat and cat were just scuttling round a bend in the corridor. Calming his breathing, he started once again down the carpetless hall and rounded the same corner.

What was that? Something small, clear at the other end of the hall, walking away – Yugi couldn't tell what it was, but it looked familiar, and maybe a bit luminous. He ran forward toward it, not really sure what it was he expected, but maybe he would get lucky, and –

A loose floorboard caught his toe, and he couldn't help but shout as it pulled him firmly to the ground. He let out a winded grunt when he made contact, then pushed himself back up, trying to pull air into his lungs, and noticed that the small thing was coming his way, and faster now. He really didn't care; after all, it was probably just that white cat chasing after the rat again. He closed his eyes and concentrating on catching his breath instead.

He was surprised when a small voice piped up next to him. "Are you okay, mister?"

He looked up to find a little boy, with long, ragged black hair and a blue scarf around his neck. "I saw you fall," the boy continued, and hearing his voice again confirmed what Yugi already knew; he nodded once and held up one finger as he finally managed to take a deep breath.

The kid couldn't be more than four years old, but… "You're Mokuba, aren't you?"

Mokuba blinked. "Who are you an' how do ya know my name?"

"Uh…" Yugi paused. "My name's Yugi, and it's a long story. Can you help me f – " At that point he had tried to take Mokuba by the arm, only to find his hand grasping at empty air. Mokuba grimaced uncomfortably and pulled away upon seeing the degree of surprise on Yugi's face.

"I'm sorry," the little boy said hastily. "You're not gonna run away, are you? I need somebody to help me, anybody at all, anybody!"

Yugi quickly regained his composure, still unused to the idea that Kaiba and Mokuba could be dead, just like that, even if this was just a virtual world. He knew he would help Mokuba anytime he needed it anyway, and this time the boy just sounded so desperate. "Sure, if there's anything I can do, I'll try and do it. What's wrong?"

Mokuba wiped a phantasmal tear from his eye. "I can't find my big brother anywhere! I've gotta find him – gotta warn him!"

"Hey, calm down," said Yugi, somewhat relieved. "I came here to look for him, too. Isn't that a funny little coincidence?"

Mokuba sniffled a little, then looked up. "So you will help me?"

"Of course!"

He smiled sweetly. With Yugi sitting on his knees as he was, the two of them were at more or less eye-level, so the smile's effect was greatly amplified. "Thank you, Yugi-san. Come on, we've got to find Seto – oh, I hope he's okay…" With that he turned and broke into a run, with Yugi in close pursuit.

"Seto-niisan!" Mokuba shouted as the two of them walked down corridor after corridor, each one seemingly longer than the last, on the lookout for any and all signs of his brother's presence. "Where could he be? What if he got hurt? Oh, man…" the smaller boy mumbled.

"It's okay, Mokuba, I'm sure he's around someplace," said Yugi. "We'll fi- huh?"

Mokuba stopped upon noticing his friend had as well. "What? What is it?"

Yugi walked to the side of the hallway and a previously unnoticed door embedded therein. "I think I heard something coming from in here," he explained as he opened it and was greeted with a rush of musty air. The door obviously hadn't been used in ages. But he was quiet, and held up one finger to indicate that Mokuba should be the same, and together they listened. Of course, they weren't sure what it was they heard, but it was apparent that if they entered that hall, they would find something. The only problem was, it was even darker than the rest of the house, and they couldn't see at all where it led.

He pointed forward into the dark abyss. "Yeah, there's definitely something in there."

Mokuba gulped. "B-but that place is dark and scary!" he whimpered.

"Don't worry, all right? Nothing's gonna happen to you," Yugi reassured him. Not that he wasn't afraid himself; he wasn't so sure nothing was going to happen to him. Mokuba sure wasn't about to get any deader. He vehemently made up his mind and before he could change it, stepped into the pitch-black hallway –

– and was surprised to find nothing under his foot. He fell into the floorless room with a shout and groped wildly about to find something he could use as a handhold. Each of his hands found one about simultaneously, and at the same time his legs found a surface to rest on. Suddenly he realized the situation he was in and almost laughed at his idiocy.

"Yugi-san, Yugi-san!" Mokuba was calling. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Yugi replied cheerfully. "Man, I can't believe I just did that." He turned his head up to the slightly better-lit doorframe in which his young friend stood. "This isn't a hallway, it's a staircase!"

Mokuba breathed a sigh of relief as Yugi got to his feet. "Oh, that's good. So it's safe?"

"Should be. Just watch that first step," Yugi added in mock warning just before Mokuba took it. "It's a real loo-loo."

To his moderate surprise, the boy's first words once inside the darkness came after a tiny peal of childish laughter. "Oh yeah, I heard that on Space Jam! You're so silly, Yugi-sa – "

The door slammed shut behind them.

There was the brief sound of flesh-hitting-flesh that meant Yugi had just smacked himself on the forehead. "Something tells me we should have seen that coming."

Mokuba whimpered. "I'm scared!"

"I'm scared and I can't see a thing and I'm locked in a haunted house … need I go on?" The exact tone of voice Yugi used was hard to describe; in part, it was just as whiny and upset as Mokuba's, and in part it was a lame attempt to alleviate the ghost-boy's fears. In total, it only served to make the moaning and whining louder.

Well, that explained what the hobo had said about being "really brave or really stupid." It was dark, and he was in a room with a ghost. He probably should have expected some moaning.

Then again, it was dark, and he was in a room with a four-year-old. He probably should have expected some moaning anyway.

"It's haunted?!" the four-year-old wailed in horror. "Oh my gosh, now I've really got to find Seto! Man, I hope the bad ghosts didn't get him…" Yugi heard a few quick steps on the narrow staircase behind him, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as the oddest feeling washed over him, and then the footsteps were in front of him, accompanied by a small voice shouting Seto's name as loud as it could.

Yugi shivered. "Mokuba, could you be more careful maybe? You're gonna run through a wall if you're not!"

"Gomen nasai, Yugi-san. Setooooooo!!"

They continued like this until they reached the bottom, Mokuba yelling his big brother's name every few seconds or so, and progressively louder, so that Yugi found himself wincing every time the name was shouted. To perhaps alleviate the ringing in his ears, he joined in with his own call of "Kaiba!"

If they'd been in a pool, it could have been a game of Marco Polo. Given the darkness, it probably could have been anyway.

At the bottom of the staircase, the wall turned sharply on both sides, opening up into a room or perhaps just a wider hallway; either way, it did so suddenly enough to cause Yugi to lose the wall as his guide. He stumbled forward in the dark for a few moments until he hit something that was undeniably a wall. He groped along it for an exit, found a corner, groped the other way, and was met with a sliding door. He opened it and felt around on either side of the wall's opposite face, found success, and exploited it. The fluorescent lights flickered a few times, then flooded the small room he was in and the hallway they themselves occupied with a beautiful white light that Yugi had to squint to see through.

He turned back towards the room. "Mokuba, over here!" he exclaimed, and the boy came running. "Don't want to lose you in there," he added once his little friend was within earshot of normal speech.

"What's that sound?" asked Mokuba almost before Yugi had finished his sentence. They both listened in absolute silence, the latter taking slow, shallow breaths and trying not to make a sound, and the former doing the same simply because he had no idea he didn't need to worry about it. Closer and closer – rapid footsteps, but light, and they couldn't tell from which direction they came. However, there was no doubt in either boy's mind that there was someone – or something – else there. Mokuba cringed and hid behind Yugi, and Yugi adhered to the edge of the doorframe that he thought would provide him the most cover from the end of the hall from whence the footsteps came.

He ended up hiding from an echo, and instead facing quite plainly a boy, not much taller than himself, with short brown hair and deep cerulean eyes. He sported a cute sweater-vest and the face of a full-grown lion whose territory has been imposed upon by a lesser beast. "Who the hell are you and what're you doing in my house?!"

Though, given the circumstances…

Mokuba, though hiding, recognized the voice instantly and ducked out from behind Yugi's legs. "Seto! Seto, it's really you!!"

"Mokuba…?" the older Kaiba asked incredulously, his eyes widening noticeably as his little brother dashed towards him with his stubby arms spread wide.

"I was so scared, Seto!" Mokuba literally cried, tears falling down his cheeks as his brother kneeled down and hugged him tight.

Kaiba looked up over Mokuba's shoulder and glared at Yugi maybe even the most dangerously that the latter had seen out of anyone, even the bigger Kaiba that he knew. "It's all right, ototochan. That lightning-strike victim won't bug you anymore."

"Yugi-san?" Mokuba turned his head the opposite way, inadvertently giving Kaiba a faceful of his raven-black hair, though if he'd been able to see through it, they would have both been looking at the party in question. "No, no, Yugi-san is my friend. I came to warn you about bad men!" he shouted, turning suddenly back and separating himself a bit from his brother's embrace.

"What?"

"There's bad men in the house – I only saw two, but I think there's three." He paused a moment to think. "One had a gun – I saw him second – the first one had a knife. A big one. He hurt me with it, but I got away to find you. I had to warn you, oniisan! I just had to, but I couldn't find you anywhere!!" By now he was crying again, but Kaiba shushed him and prompted him gently to continue. "Then – then – " he seemed to be debating whether or not this object were of some significance, and then decided it was "– I fell down once, and then it – I didn't hurt anymore. So I started running looking for you and – " Here he stopped for a second, uncertainly, since his brother was averting his eyes. "Are you still listening?" he asked in a half-whisper, and then his voice escalated. "Seto, this is important! We have to get away from the bad men! And Yugi-san told me this house is haunted, and he wouldn't lie, I know he wouldn't!"

Kaiba chuckled a little. "Oh, he wasn't lying, Mokuba," he said quietly. "There are exactly two ghosts in this house. One of them's me. And the other…"

Mokuba's eyes went wide – his brother? a ghost? the very idea was absurd – but then he whipped around to look at Yugi, and Yugi knew very well that he expected nothing less than to see right through him. Kaiba laid one hand on his shoulder to bring his attention back. "No, no – your friend Yugi-san isn't it," he corrected, with thinly veiled contempt lacing the word "friend." "I'm one of the ghosts, and you're the other." When Mokuba was left speechless with an I'll-never-believe-you expression on his face, Kaiba took that as his cue to continue. "The bad men already got us. Both of us. I saw your body when the police found you – you wouldn't want to hear how it looked, it wasn't pretty – but by then we'd both been dead for hours at least."

"B-but…" Mokuba stammered, "…but then why didn't I find your body?"

Kaiba twitched. "Not much left to find," he said at last, "let's not take in any further than that. I went to watch it while you were still here, I guess – you, they were able to give a decent burial, but they had to cremate me."

Yugi cringed, an awful feeling of nausea rising from the mental image the young ghost had planted. At best, Kaiba just hadn't been recognizable, and at worst… Ugh.

"But anyway," he continued, "I doubt you came here just to follow Mokuba around." The comment was addressed to Yugi this time, and the sniveling little brother was held close to his chest.

Yugi was abruptly snapped out of his miniature trance. "Wh- oh, that's right. I need your help, Kaiba – if you can give it to me…"

He trailed off when Kaiba sprang to his feet, the look in his eyes transformed from mere hostility into barely quelled malice. "Don't call me by that name," he hissed. "I owe nothing to Kaiba – the family, the man, the name – I owe it nothing. It was stupid of me to let him adopt me and Mokuba. All it ever did was get us both killed." His eyes narrowed further. "I am Seto, and he is Mokuba. Nothing. More."

Had Yugi been, say, Ushio, he might have laughed and challenged Seto to do something about his choice of what to call him.

Yugi, fortunately, wasn't that stupid. He didn't know what a ghost would be able to do to him, and wasn't keen on finding out. So he just nodded. "At any rate, I do need your help."

"What if I don't feel like giving it to you?" said Seto with the air of haughtiness in his voice that only he could have managed, looking back to his brother, who was now clinging to him but looking at Yugi.

"Please – you have to!"

"I don't 'have to' do anything for you," he snapped. "I don't take orders, not from anyone."

Yugi glanced at the wide brown eyes of Mokuba, his own amethyst ones sending a silent plea to the younger boy. Mokuba took the hint and looked up. "Seto, if it hadn't been for Yugi-san, I wouldn't have ever found you down here. Even if I'd thought of the place, I'd have been too scared to come in. Yugi-san helped me so I wouldn't be a'scared anymore."

"Did he," Seto replied seamlessly, almost venomously, but with a sudden tint of interest in his tone. They stared at each other, Yugi and Seto, for a few seconds, and then the latter smirked a little. "Well, Yugi, it seems this will help your cause a lot – I'll at least let you tell me what the problem is."

So Yugi did just that, trying as best he good to stay out of the reality issues except where he needed to delve into them for the situation to make sense. The further he got into it, the more desperate he felt, and the more Mokuba sucked his thumb, a habit he seemed to have remade in the past twenty minutes.

"… then I figured you were the only one who could help me, so I came here – after all, it is your virtuapod game," he finished, hoping very much he was pushing the right buttons.

"A pod game that was barely in its infancy when its father died," Seto replied, not missing a beat. "At least, in this sad little excuse for a world." He paused, taking pleasure in the dismay radiating from Yugi's face. "It sounds like quite a challenge, maybe even worth my time – " the boy's eyes lit up "– but there's still not enough in your offer for me to do anything. – " and switched off entirely.

He greatly enjoyed watching the faces of emotional people while he toyed with their feelings. Yugi was the most expressive he'd met in a long time. Oh, he was going to have fun with this!

"Well – uh – " Yugi stammered, his mind racing at full speed to come up with a better proposal, and only actually procuring one. "There's got to be some way I could help you in return, right?"

That was exactly what Seto wanted him to say. "My brother back, a challenge, you out of my hair, and a favor…" he listed, ticking the points off on his fingers as he went. "Yes, that ought to be plenty." He knew just the favor, too, and now he'd found a sucker willing to provide the one ingredient he couldn't get on his own. The setup was absolutely perfect.

"So…" Yugi trailed off slightly. "What're you going to want for the favor?"

Seto hesitated a few seconds, feigning deep thought though he knew exactly what he wanted. "Hm… oh! I've got it!" He couldn't help just a hint of an evil smile as he said, "Your body."

Exactly as he'd expected, Yugi freaked out. "WHAT?! My – ???"

"Not permanently, of course – you look like you got hit by lightning as a baby and your hair never fully recovered." He chuckled. "No, not even for very long, really; one night ought to do, maybe even less."

"I – I really don't know," Yugi sputtered, finally regaining his composure. "I mean, what if just being possessed could hurt me?" As soon as he asked that question, he remembered Yami and mentally smacked himself for saying something that stupid.

Seto didn't catch it at all. "Less work for me, then," he said as though it were no big deal. "But you'll probably be just fine. Don't worry about it."

"But what would you – why?"

He laughed softly. "Why not? You're desperate, and I've got some things I meant to take care of five years ago." There was a pause in which he simply waited impatiently, then he spoke again. "Look, do you want to go back to that other game or not? Those are my final terms," he said demandingly. "Just say yes to them and we can get straight down to fulfilling your end of the bargain. Is it a deal?"

The pause grew again as Yugi thought… and saying "Yes" was the last thing he remembered for quite some time.

~~~

Jou sighed and bit into another hot dog. He lived close enough to the bus stop that he saw the 7:40 bus come and go, and didn't bother to catch it. Satoshi had been sleeping peacefully for a good hour now (a good sign, considering that the lightest touch on one of his wounds would probably wake him), so Jou had made up his mind to skip school and keep an eye on him.

Still, it was kind of unnerving – the situation in its entirety. Unnerving, and confusing. Saturday they'd just been at the arcade, another two nobodies out to waste their lives (and more importantly their money) on video games. But then Yugi had disappeared and now, on Wednesday, Satoshi had shown up at his door, half-dead. Satoshi, who only existed in a video game himself, if he existed at all. But, he thought as he took another bite, even if there was a way to put a non-player into the real world, or at least into the body of someone who lives there, which apparently there was, why would anyone want to? And why to Yugi?

There certainly didn't seem to be a way to make a financial profit from the endeavor, so that ruled that out. If someone wanted the Sennen Puzzle, the best way would probably be to unplug the pods and take it; and if anything, Satoshi was harder to take it from. If someone wanted revenge on Yugi…

That almost had to be it. Some Pegasus-worshipper or maybe even Peggy himself was mad at Yugi for beating the creep, like Otogi had been, and had gone and made an AI like Satoshi to take Yugi's place, while trapping the real Yugi in a computer game.

Only there were a few problems with that theory. For one thing, Yugi had most definitely logged off, which wouldn't give him anywhere to go – after all, even if there were other games out there, you couldn't log off into one of those – so no one had a clue where he was. And for another thing, Peggy (in Jou's eyes anyway) wasn't smart enough to pull off something that complicated – though if he was supposed to replace Yugi, Satoshi was the greatest botch-job of all time. But even so, the kid was probably the most complex AI Jou would ever see – a masterpiece. He didn't need to be a programmer to figure that out. No, Peggy and his cult following – collective IQ: 3 – could never do something that well.

"Spoons," he mumbled to himself, and popped the last of the hot dog into his mouth. That left no suspect, no motive, nothing. He was most definitely out of ideas and closed.

"Mornin', Katsuya," said a mostly awake voice from the hallway that Jou instantly recognized as his father's. He nearly choked on his hot dog for three reasons. One: he hadn't expected his dad to be up this early, two: he hadn't expected him to be sober, and three: he hadn't heard him come down the stairs.

His dad entered the room to investigate. "You okay?" he asked with a tired gruffness in his voice.

Koff, koff. "Yeah, it's cool. Hey Dad, can I ask you a favor?"

Just then his dad noticed Satoshi. "Jesus!" he exclaimed. "Who the hell is that?"

Jou cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah. That's the favor."

* * *

Satoshi woke up to find himself being deposited somewhere. Whatever was moving him was being exceedingly gentle with his bad arm, but it still hurt just enough to rouse him. He looked up to see Jou's face over him, and then around to find –

Car.

He looked back at Jou, who was trying to strap him in without hurting him, and didn't seem to have noticed he was awake. "Where're we going, Jou?" he asked quietly.

"The hospital, just to get that wrist looked at," Jou explained.

Satoshi wasn't quite sure what to think. What if it's a trap? He wondered frantically. The last time he took me someplace, I got stuck with that Faerie guy – I don't doubt he's a player character – and he tried to kill me, he even admitted it to my face!

But then another thought crossed his mind. Jou didn't know. He couldn't have known. I don't think he'd ever willingly do something that would get me hurt… maybe if I'd noticed him at the arcade, I'd have been okay – not getting the stuffing beat out of someone else's body.

By this point Jou had finished buckling him in, and stood. "I'll just go get Dad, and then we'll be outta here faster than you can say 'Tao Pai Pai sucks.'" He noticed his friend about to try, and interjected with, "Say it slow."

"That wasn't what I was going to say," said Satoshi, a bit amused.

"Well, what were you going to say?"

His stomach said it before he could, and he killed any uncertainties there might have been by saying it anyway. "I'm hungry." His tone plainly displayed his embarrassment.

Jou smiled. "A'right, I'll get you some food while I'm in there. Hang tight, 'k?"

Satoshi nodded and gave the OK sign with his good hand. As his friend regressed to the house, he sighed. Maybe not everything about reality sucked after all…

…just that Yami thing.

* * *

Yami winced, but remained silent; he knew how it would work out if he didn't. It had happened once before at the Duelist Kingdom, and had almost made Yugi lose before he'd made the finals. With so much energy expended keeping a stubborn Puzzle-spirit under control, there just wasn't much left for other tasks, and certainly not enough to concentrate on a mere duel. If anything, all he'd end up doing would be detrimental either to Satoshi or – considering how strong Satoshi was – himself.

It was definitely interesting, and, as many interesting things, perhaps a little frightening. It had been definitively established that Satoshi was scared to death of him – scared enough, even, to resist.

Or not scared enough to succumb. Perhaps he knew, somehow, that he didn't need to be afraid. Perhaps somewhere, deeply hidden within him, was a part of the boy that knew Yami meant him no harm.

Perhaps.

Then again, Yami was in no position to ask.

*TSUDZUKU*

Author's note: Dang it, I keep forgetting the author's note the first time I upload. Well, I know so far I've only got five reviews, but I love all you people who gave them to me! *hands out candy to all those who reviewed* And the hyper-kawaii chibi-ghost-Kaiba made an appearance at last! (He's also gonna be in Part 2, as Part 2 stands now!) Yes, he's a sadist and a jerk, but his heart's in the right place. Sorry if you think I made Jou sound too intellectual… he's just thinking for a change, that's all… there's nothing wrong with that… *hides under the table*

I've finished writing chapter 3 (just last night, during Mobile Suit Gundam (one of the most boring and badly-drawn shows out there)) and Part 2 is underway – Satoshi does come back, if you were wondering, but since you weren't, I'm safe from people pelting me about spoilers.

God, I hope the dubbers didn't change Malik's name to Terrence. I've heard they don't, but I have no guarantees until he formally introduces himself in the WB episodes ("I am Malik, and now I'm going to kill you") … Also can't wait for Yami's date with Anzu. Yes, that does actually happen. Oh, the possibilities… Yami discovers DDR and girls, in one day!

REVIEW! And if you liked this story, please recommend it to your friends! Hell, recommend it to your enemies, I don't care, I just need reviews!!!

JAPANESE FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T FIND A DICTIONARY OR ARE TOO LAZY TO:

Ushio: a bully who didn't make it to the dub; Yami's first victim. I'm not sure Yugi knows it's his fault Ushio went mental, but the guy deserved it, either way…
Sennen: a period of a thousand years, better known as – dun da da daaaaa! – a Millennium!
aibou-niisan: a little pet name I made up for Yami. Aibou means "companion" and niisan means "big brother." (Oniisan means the same thing, and as a nitpicky thing, niisan can also be used as a suffix… obviously. But I do know there are some pretty dumb people in the world…)
gomen nasai: I'm under the impression this one's obvious, but it roughly translates to "I'm very sorry."
ototochan: little brother. Not sure if this can be used as a suffix, but it sounds awkward, so I don't use it that way.
Otogi: called "Duke" in the dub. Yes, the guy who's obsessed with Pegasus and dice. If you don't know him I pity you; he is sizzlin'!
Katsuya: Jou's first name
tsudzuku: the meaning hasn't changed since last chapter. "To be continued."

GAGS, SUBTLETIES, ET CETERA:

- Keep in mind that, when Fold explains the situation to Yugi, they're both speaking Japanese, and yami means "darkness" or "dark." Thus, Fold thinks Yugi is talking nonsense.
- "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe is quite good, a classic actually, and if you haven't read it you should. While you're at it, read "April 2005: Usher II" by Ray Bradbury. It's terrific, too. And they're both pretty short, so you'll be able to get through them pretty fast.
- In "Monsters, Inc" Mike suggests that they dig a tunnel under the city with spoons. Sulley: "Spoons." Mike: "Okay, that's it. Out of ideas. We're closed!" Watch the movie, dammit.
- And once again, Jou doesn't like Tao Pai Pai…

I found a fanfiction contest somewhere. Anybody wanna tell me if I should enter it? If I've got the next chapter up by the time you read this, it still applies – I MUST KNOW!

Bluebug, I know you're out there –

Everybody – I said it last time, I'll say it this time, I still don't know if it's grammatically correct: ANATA O DAISUKI DESU YO!

(o^.^o) The Artist Formerly Known As Ed