Disclaimer: Kazuki Takahashi owns Yu-Gi-Oh!, not me….
Unknown Identity
Chapter Fifteen: Joyless Homecoming
The helicopter settled down smoothly on the helipad at Kaiba Land, and Seto Kaiba took his hands off the controls.
"You're home, Yugi Mouto," he said, "if that really is who you are." Yugi looked around, but nothing seemed familiar.
"What should I do first?" he asked. In the forest, everything had seemed to simple and straightforward, but here in the bustling city he was unsure. He wished Yami was there to take control, to shield him from the confusing new life until he could adjust, but Yami was still missing.
"I don't know about you, but I'd head over to your grandfather's house if I were you. If anyone will be able to say who you really are – or aren't – it would be him."
"Thanks, Kaiba."
"Anything for the King of Games," Kaiba said as he leapt from the helicopter. Yugi followed him out, and then walked through the exit gates and onto the street. He stopped in shock. Everything was so fast and confusing! The cars moved at blazing speeds, like the prey he had learned to catch, and he could detect no pattern in their movement. Going, going, gone, going there fast with no place to go. He closed his eyes for a moment and dipped into the feeble store of memories he had regained from the illnesses, most of them Yami's. There – a memory of walking from Kaiba Land to Grandpa's store.
He looked around wide-eyed as he walked, but there was nothing familiar here. He suddenly longed for the forest, the only home he remembered. He abruptly realized that his leg never had grown properly. The strange bobbing of the lights as he walked told him that he had a slight limp. Beggars and pedestrians on the street gave him odd glances and wide berths as they passed, moving away as rapidly as they could. Yugi hunched his shoulders and tried to make himself seem small and unthreatening, but he knew it was his strange clothes and ratty haircut that was doing it. He had tucked the Millennium Puzzle into the remains of his jacket, as well, and it created a slight bulge that probably looked suspiciously like a weapon.
I spend three years in the forest learning to be truly dangerous with my mind and body, and it's a nonexistent gun that these people fear, Yugi thought with a wry smile. How ironic.
He looked up suddenly and found himself facing a small game shop. This must be Grandpa's shop! he thought excitedly. Now to find out who I really am…
He reached out and rang the doorbell once, then waited. There was no movement within the building, so he rang again. This time, a face appeared at an upstairs window, but it apparently didn't see him because it disappeared and the shop was quiet once more. He rang a third time.
"Insolent teens don't know when to stop!" he heard a gruff voice exclaim. A door slammed, and he could hear heavy footfalls coming down a set of stairs. They approached the door. A light flicked on inside just as the door swung open, and Yugi blinked in the harsh artificial light.
"Store's closed," the short old man standing inside said roughly. He looked Yugi up and down. "Especially to people who can't even dress properly." He began to swing the door shut and turn away, but Yugi was faster.
"Mr. Mouto," he said. "I need your help."
"What for, young kid?" the old man said, turning around. "You look like you can take care of yourself all right."
"Not in the city," Yugi said, shaking his head, "and certainly not as long as I don't know who I am." He paused, then plunged ahead. "Look, Mr. Mouto, may I come in?"
The old man looked at him more closely. "You know, you remind me of my grandson," he said thoughtfully. "Yes, come on in and we'll chat for a bit. It would do me some good to talk to someone, I think…" Yugi walked in, trying not to walk as silently as he was accustomed to so as not to frighten the poor shopkeeper any more than he already did.
"Now, what is it that you need my help with?" the old man said.
"I need you to help me decide who I am – or am not," Yugi said.
"What do you mean by that?" Mr. Mouto asked.
"I mean that I don't know who I am, Mr. Mouto, but I think that I may be Yugi Mouto." The old man stared at him for a moment, and then tears welled up in his eyes.
"That's a nasty trick to play on an old man," he said darkly, "making them think for even an instant that their grandson might still be alive. He stood up and stormed to the door. "Come on now, out with you, before I call the police!"
"Please, Mr. Mouto!" Yugi cried desperately. "I wish this was a trick, but it isn't. The spirit in the puzzle told me my name was Yugi Mouto and that I came from Domino City, but I don't remember anything before three years ago." His voice cracked, and he had to stop talking.
"My grandson didn't wear peasant's clothes," Mr. Mouto said sternly.
"You're right, he wore black leather," Yugi said softly. "So do I – or what's left of it." He threw off the shawl-like garment that Ashkari had made for him two years before, revealing the remnants of what was once his leather vest. Mr. Mouto's eyes fastened instantly on the heavy chain around his neck, and on the puzzle at the end.
"That's my grandson's puzzle!" he exclaimed. "You little thief! Give that back!" He lunged for the chain, but Yugi caught him and held him still.
"Please, Mr. Mouto, don't take the puzzle from me," he said desperately. "Yami is weak enough as it is, if he's still alive at all – the only way to save him is to put the last puzzle piece back in its proper place." He lowered his eyes and released the older man, taking a step backward at the same time.
"Where did you find the puzzle?" Mr. Mouto asked dangerously.
"I found it near the riverbank," Yugi replied truthfully. "Yami said that was where it had landed after Yami Bakura threw it off the cliff, but I don't remember anything about a Yami Bakura, or a cliff, or anything else except Duel Monsters." His hand went to the pouch that he still carried at his side, and his elegant fingers drew forth the now slightly worn Duel Monsters deck.
"Please, Mr. Mouto," he said. "Tell me if this is the deck of Yugi Mouto. Tell me if I am who I think I am." The old shopkeeper took the deck and riffled through it. His amazement grew at every card.
"This is my grandson's deck!" he exclaimed. "But then what's this?" He reached in an identical pouch that he carried at his side and produced another deck, which Yugi could see wasn't a true physical deck at all. "Bakura said that Yugi's yami carried it, and it's exactly identical to this deck…"
"Yami made it?" Yugi exclaimed. "Then if the deck still exists, so does Yami!"
"The false deck has grown ever weaker in the past two years," Mr. Mouto said slowly. "It was once almost completely physical, and entirely tangible – now I don't like handling it overmuch in case it completely disappears."
"Mr. Mouto," Yugi said suddenly. "I know how to keep the spirit deck intact."
"Hah!" scoffed Mr. Mouto. "And how to you proclaim to do that?"
"By putting that puzzle piece that you have around your neck into its proper place on the puzzle, and saving Yami before he dies," Yugi said.
"And how do I know you won't just run off with it?" Mr. Mouto said.
"I'll let you keep the deck until you know for sure that I won't steal the puzzle piece," Yugi replied evenly. "I give you my word as a duelist, as the King of Games, and as your grandson." He didn't notice the startled reaction that Mr. Mouto gave when he called himself the King of Games.
"Yugi would never give up his deck," Mr. Mouto said suspiciously.
"Yugi – I – would never give up on his friends, either," Yugi countered. Mr. Mouto nodded.
"You have me." He slipped both decks into the pouch at his side and then pulled the puzzle piece from the fine chain he kept it on. Yugi took it from him gently and pressed it firmly into its place on the puzzle. The puzzle began to glow, and he felt a sudden warmth flow over him and through him.
Yugi! Yami's voice came for the first time in three years.
Y-Yami? he replied incredulously. Yami, you're alive!
And stronger than I had hoped, the spirit answered. I'm deep within my soul room, and have been for a long time. How long has it been since you heard me last?
Almost three years, Yugi replied sadly. I've missed you, Yami.
Well, I'm on my way out of my soul room, Yami said. I'll be with you soon. But tell me, how did you get the puzzle piece?
I told Mr. Mouto – Grandpa – that until he either trusts me enough to let me keep the piece or wants it back he gets to keep my deck.
You're with Mr. Mouto?
Standing right in front of him, as a matter of fact, Yugi responded. You want to take over?
Do I ever! Yugi immediately relinquished control and allowed Yami to step in. It felt wonderful.
A/N: Okay, the chapter title doesn't quite fit – it wasn't completely joyless. But oh well, too late to change it now… And please forgive Kaiba's OOCness in this chapter and the last, I just couldn't get him to be vile and still somehow make him give Yugi a lift. ^sigh^ Such a stubborn character…