Chapter Five Duelist Kingdom Part II
When I could see again, I stood atop an enormous black rectangle flecked with spirals of gold. I gasped, realizing this was a giant-sized version of a Duel Monsters playing field. I looked down at my feet and noticed that I was clad in the robes of my favorite card, the Change of Heart. My Yami loomed above me, horrifyingly godlike. Murder shone in his eyes. Terror washed over me. "Change of Heart on Black Magician Yugi!" he directed.
I froze and looked across the board, where Yugi and his friends cowered. Behind them another Yugi, stronger, more determined, and taller, despite the initial illusion of largeness, kept vigil. His narrowed eyes brimmed with courage. I knew that I could never betray him. He, if none other, could help me.
My heart beat faster as I skimmed my side of the board. The High Priestess stood at my side. Instead of doing as my Yami said, I lunged for her. As when I had forced him from my body, she yielded easily. Now I was clad in the tri-colored robes and heavy headdress she wore. "Sa, Yugi-kun! Kill me!" The plea, though reckless, embodied the very soul of my desperation. "The graveyard will be better than being under the control of an evil spirit!" I braced myself for death.
Before my other self could react, golden light on the other side of the board shattered the darkness. The pyramid Yugi wore beneath his heart formed the source of the glow. It increased in radiance with my every heartbeat until it seemed that I stood before a window bathed with sunlight. I closed my eyes to the light as it enveloped me. Death, I thought, should not be so beautiful.
I opened my eyes and blinked as if awakening from a long, confusing dream. I sat across from Yugi's other self. Somehow I had been removed from the game board without being forced into the graveyard. I looked down and saw Yami Bakura clad in the priestess's clothes.
"Black Magician attack the High Priestess!" Yami Yugi ordered.
My Yami, though small, emitted a scream that echoed in the deepest caverns of my heart. I could not bear to watch. Though Yami Yugi had rescued me from the graveyard, he had still killed a part of me. Nonetheless, he was my savior. At that time I vowed I would never forget it.
However, I soon found after the Shadow Game concluded that no savior, even mine could banish evil forever. Throughout our travels together in the Duelist Kingdom, the Sen Nen Ring remained about my neck. I could not part with it, even with Yami Bakura gone. I learned this during Yugi's battle with Pegasus. When I learned that Mokuba held the key to Kaiba Corporation, something stirred from deep within the Sen Nen Ring. Before I could comprehend the words, my other self materialized beside me. My savior, otherwise occupied, could not help me now. My heart plummeted.
Yami Yugi had wounded him by sending him to the graveyard. However, as part of the darkness himself, he had survived and hardened. He looked, if at all possible, meaner. Within my own body he leered at me, enjoying his parasitical existence.
Even when Honda knocked me senseless and hurled the Sen Nen Ring into the gnarled forest beneath the castle, the Ring and my other self reappeared to torment me. You will never be rid of me! He crowed with glee. In the graveyard, his power had increased. I had no hope of blocking him from my body and thus remained detached from it. Sometimes I trailed after him for what seemed endless intervals as he committed his foul mimicry of me. Other times, I returned to his dismal grave. There I sat for hours, thinking and despairing. Even Yugi, my last hope, had failed me!