Everything
By: ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or anything that has to do with the anime/manga.
Claimer: I fully own Ichidou Yachitose and her family, Mrs. Suteki Iyashii, Suteki's deceased father and mother, Ryougi, Karei, Sumizome, Komayaka Mada-Tafunesu, Ke-ki and her gang, Miss Jishi, Nenriki "Riki," Tomobito, Kurisutaru "Kuri" Susume, and Nekura Kyouran. I also own Neferetiabet, Miw-sher, and Great Wife Netikerty. Please don't use any of them in any form without my permission.
To Artemis*Obscure: Thanks for the happy birthday declaration. ^__^ You're right, the art teacher does sound pretty cool. *laughs* In addition, I've been planning two things since before I started writing this fanfic:
1. That Riki and Kuri would get together to Ichidou's initial dismay and…
2. That this would end up being a Yami/Ichidou story.
So consider your wish for this to be Yami/Ichidou already granted. ^_-
A/N 1: Okay, for this chapter I was definitely not muse-less by the end. I mean, I was seriously on a roll. It took quite a bit of research on the pharaohs' consorts of Ancient Egypt, royal harems, and I even had to do extensive research on confirming what I was fairly sure was Yami and his father's real names. I was right about Yami, but I'm still not so sure about his dad's name's spelling. Either way if you don't want to find out what it really is then I'm sorry, but it's one big spoiler. I use Yami's name a few times towards the end of this chapter and will use it quite a few times next chapter as well. If you doubt if it's right many people have confirmed the name before me. I'll talk more about it in my author notes at the end of the chapter. Here's chapter 9!
Duel Nine: A Long-ago Romance…"That could've gone better," Ichidou mused as she lay on her bed an hour later. Her aibou and her were both conversing in Yami's soul room, sitting against the cold stone wall.
"It certainly could have," grumbled Yami.
"Daijoubu ka?" Ichidou queried. "You look a little worse for wear."
She received a dark look in response to which Ichidou said, "Oh come on! Atleast she didn't freak too much! She only made me promise to go talk to that Seto Kaiba guy and get everything he knew about you."
"And she hollered at me for possessing you before that," added Yami wryly.
"Oh yea," admitted Ichidou. "Well, that was when she thought you were the akuma* or something." (A/N: akuma=devil, demon, Satan, fiend, evil spirit)
"Should we go see Seto Kaiba tomorrow?" queried Ichidou after a prolonged silence.
"If you wish such," Yami replied.
"Why do you always say that?"
"Because, in essence, you hold my purpose and existence in your hands," answered the Pharaoh.
"You don't need to say, "If you wish such" all the time though!" Ichidou shouted.
"If you wish such," stated Yami evenly.
Ichidou mock-growled, trying not to grin, and ruffled up his hair. Ichidou beamed impishly then, and said, "Oyasuminasai, Yami!" She vanished from his chamber as Yami shook his head, brushing a hand through his hair. He stood up in one lithe motion; his frame was wiry, but he was far from being as small and flimsy as his present and former hosts' bodies were.
Ichidou, he had realized, was only a head taller than Yugi had been at her age, and while they both had their meek moments, were quite ready to stand up to what they believed was just if pushed hard enough. 'Now,' Yami thought, 'If only I can induce Ichidou to stand up to Ke-ki and her group.' Unlike Yugi, Ichidou fought against Yami's impelling at all possible instances. Yami had forgotten how resolute a ti-n'e-ja could be, his own days where so long past that he only recalled fleeting memories that vanished as subtly as if he were trying to hold a pound of desert sand in his hands. They would simply fall through his fingers the moment he attempted to grasp them.
By then, his cogitations had led him down a dim hallway in his soul room. All the passages were shadowy when Ichidou, his hikari, was not within the chamber as well, but somehow this walkway felt…darker. His eyes quickly adjusted to the sudden, infinite blackness, and he strolled down the hallway with his usual poise. At the end of the passageway was a tall metal door with an Egyptian hieroglyph on it; the Eye of Horus, or the udjat. Frowning as little flecks of reminiscence ran across his vision, Yami touched the cool metal with his palm.
He could vaguely tell Ichidou, who had been nearly asleep, was now stirring at his movement and anxious thoughts. She yawned and grabbed the Puzzle from where it lay beside her bed. She pulled it over her head and appeared at his side in the next instant, still adorned in her blue pajamas. If he had been a younger incorporeal spirit, he would have been startled at her sudden appearance, but he certainly wasn't so he simply acknowledged her presence with a nod her way. The rest of the chamber had obviously been bathed in light at her materialization in there, but the passage they were in was still dark.
"Yami…?" Ichidou whispered, grasping her own bare upper arms to keep warm in the strangely drafty catacomb.
Cautiously pushing open the door, Yami peered inside as Ichidou hovered nervously behind him. 'This doesn't feel right,' she thought, quivering. It was in the next instant that Yami vanished while Ichidou was shoved backwards. "Yami, ah!" she shouted. She hit the ground and her head made contact with the stone with an abrupt agony. She clutched it, realizing sharply that the chamber was becoming colder. "Yami!" she called out, staggering to her feet. The air was developing into a suffocating force, weighing her petite build down. "Yami!" she repeated with more urgency. She tottered to the door and pulled it open a bit wider. Within it was a grand, empty hallway in a palace of some kind. She felt frail and out of place as she warily stepped onto its smooth flooring. She was on a surrounding veranda of some kind that was sheltered with a roof held up by cream-colored pillars. It led into the palace via various guarded doorways and overlooked a vast green that ended with a considerably sized marketplace.
Ichidou glanced back to see that the passage extended behind her. 'The door's gone,' she realized numbly. She turned agitatedly to one of the guards, who were all standing firmly in only skirts, jewels, and headdresses. She queried, "Umm, did a guy with weird, spiky multi-colored hair go by?" To her amazement a flurry of words flew from her mouth that she could somehow understand to be what she had meant to say, but in a totally different dialect.
The sentry looked aggravated by her inquiry, but he somehow refrained from snapping as he asked in the same tongue Ichidou had just spoken in, "What are you doing here, lady? Should not you be in the Pharaoh's chamber with his other consorts?"
'Pharaoh? Consorts?!' Ichidou gasped silently. 'But that can't be-I-oh no! Am I in one of Yami's memories? But how…?!'
"Lady Neferetiabet*!" came a voice, dragging Ichidou out of her jumbled deliberation. Ichidou looked up to see a short, young woman maybe a year or two younger than herself, hurrying towards her. Her skin had a rich tan hue and her black tresses had been placed in numerous braids. She was wrapped in a pale yellow dress with a little gold trim. "I'm so glad I found you, m'lady," continued the girl. "The ceremony will begin when the sun sets! We must hurry!" (A/N: It took me awhile to decide on a real female, Ancient Egyptian name and finally I picked Neferetiabet, which means "The Orient is Beautiful." It kind of fits Ichidou in more ways than one if you ask me. ^__- *)
"What do you-" began Ichidou.
"Come, Lady Neferetiabet!" said the girl making motions with her hands to follow her. Ichidou followed her onto the courtyard and to several mud brick buildings surrounded by a high wall.
Finally Ichidou asked as she rushed behind the teenage girl, "What's this ceremony for?"
"If you do not mind me saying, Lady Neferetiabet, you are very absentminded," replied the girl. "The ceremony is for the Pharaoh's heir. He is ten-years-old today after all. I'll get you ready, m'lady!" she continued, dashing into one of the structures. Once inside, the girl, whose name, when eventually asked, was Miw-sher*, sat Ichidou down and placed rouge on her lips and bordered kohl around her eyes. Miw-sher then pulled several sparkling, aureate bracelets onto Ichidou's wrists and put three jeweled anklets on each of her bare feet beneath her dress. 'Wait, hold the phone!' Ichidou thought. 'I was wearing my pj's before! How am I wearing this?!' Sure enough when Ichidou glanced at her reflection in the gold water basin she saw a slightly tanner, bejeweled self gazing back at her. She was dressed in a long, ecru gown with quite a few necklaces resting against her chest. Her hair was darker now and had been placed in many tiny braids. Her black-edged emerald eyes widened at how strange, but similar she appeared. Then she realized something, she was probably no older than thirteen years old now. She sighed and tried to recall how it had felt being nine-years-old the first time around. She nearly laughed aloud. (A/N: By the way, my sources tell me Miw-sher means "kitten" and was an Ancient Egyptian name. ^_^*)
"Are you ready, Lady Neferetiabet?" asked Miw-sher politely. She was, Ichidou had gathered, the maid of the youngest consort of the Pharaoh. 'That's me,' Ichidou thought wrinkling her nose.
"I am. Let's go," Ichidou said.
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"Miw-sher, how many wives does the Pharaoh have?" Ichidou questioned as they walked down a passageway back in the palace. They were making their way towards the hall where the rite would be held.
"Pharaoh Akunamukanon has one chief wife of course-that's Great Wife Netikerty-and thirteen lesser ones such as yourself, Lady Neferetiabet," stated Miw-sher. She stopped twenty feet from a wide doorway where several decorated people were entering. "I will see you after the ceremony, milady," Miw-sher declared, leaving as soon as her mistress had bade her farewell.
Ichidou took a deep breath and strode into the hall. She felt odd beside all the other consorts of the Pharaoh. The chief wife of which sat closest to the king himself, who was a man with sun-darkened skin and a beard. He had on a headdress with the uraeus, or sacred snake, on it. Great Wife Netikerty appeared to be atleast five years the Pharaoh's junior and was dazzling in radiant gold. Her face was narrow and she had sharp amethyst eyes. She eyed Ichidou for a moment before turning her head to the door. Many people were looking there as well so Ichidou turned her head to see…Yami. Ichidou gaped as she analyzed her aibou. He was definitely much younger, only ten-years-old, but his hair was the same pointed shape and, she realized, he definitely had Great Wife Netikerty's eyes. She stepped forward reflectively before she realized what she was doing. This wasn't her Yami. He had his own body and wasn't so inclined to brood yet after all. 'Besides,' Ichidou admitted, 'he's doesn't know me.'
Yami was greeted and bowed to by many people. When he reached his father's throne he bowed himself and sat beside the Pharaoh, Great Wife Netikerty, his full-blooded younger siblings, his father's other consorts, and their children or Yami's own half-siblings. Ichidou sighed, and sat down among the other secondary wives. She chewed her lip as Pharaoh Akunamukanon stood and addressed the crowd on honoring the special day. Ichidou barely listened for she was intent on observing Yami's every move. She had no idea what his real name was, for it certainly couldn't be Japanese until Pharaoh Akunamukanon said to Yami, "Come Atem, I need to speak with you." Yami, or Atem, stood up and followed his father, leaving Ichidou to mull over her discovery.
After a moment, she realized someone was standing over her and looked up to see Great Wife Netikerty. The chief wife of the Pharaoh sat down beside the younger woman on a pillow, but her head was still quite a bit higher than Ichidou's. "So, Neferetiabet, what think of my eldest son, Atem?" she queried.
"He's-" Ichidou tried to say. She swallowed and settled for saying, "He seems nice enough, milady."
"You are very close to his age, are you not, Neferetiabet?" questioned Netikerty.
"I am nearly thirteen years of age, m'lady," stated Ichidou automatically to her own surprise.
"I see. So in two years or so you will wish to produce one just like him, or perhaps a girl?" asked Netikerty.
Ichidou nearly choked. 'What if I'm stuck like this that long or forever?!' she gasped slightly, realizing just how deep she was in. Finally she managed to say, "I don't know, m'lady."
"I myself have five such royal children of the Pharaoh already and another is upcoming," stated Netikerty.
To Ichidou it sounded like Netikerty was boasting and she nearly gagged. "It has been nice talking with you, milady, but I must be going," Ichidou lied, standing up.
"Of course, but, Neferetiabet…?"
"Yes?" Ichidou queried warily.
"Do be careful," stated Netikerty enigmatically.
Ichidou gulped and thought, 'My life is hell! Yami's 'kaasan is threatening me and I'm trapped in Ancient Egypt as one of his haiguusha no 'tousan. Just great…"
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A/N: I'm not sure how old a girl would have to be to become a royal consort, but everything, when it came to ages, was lower so I chose eight. If I'm wrong, oh well.
A/N 2: So Yami's real name is Atem. Technically you could also say it's Atemu because you can't have an 'm' in Japanese without a following vowel. That's what I've heard anyway. It could be a nickname or short for something in reality though. @_@ I mean, what pharaoh has a name that short? Oh well. I'm sure we'll figure this all out by the end of the series… Ack! I don't want to think about that! ^_^;; Anyhow, on to the next author note!
A/N 3: Here are the Japanese translations:
Hikari=light
Haiguusha=spouse, wife, husband
Other Notes:
*Uraeus=
The figure of the sacred serpent, an emblem of sovereignty depicted on the headdress of ancient Egyptian rulers and deities.
-from The American Heritage® Dictionary
#Netikerty=She who is excellent (Choccy: Cool name. Bad dame. You'll really see what I mean later. ^_-)
A/N 4: I hope you guys like this chapter. It was loads of work. Please review! ^_^
UPDATE: Anyone who read this chapter before 1/5/04 has the wrong ages for Neferetiabet and Atem! Neferetiabet is nearly thirteen and Atem has just turned ten!
A/N 5: Here's a little preview of the next chapter:
Ichidou's nearly thirteen-years-old again and is stuck in Ancient Egypt! The Yami of this long ago time is only ten and not much help. But just as she gets used to her present status she's whisked six years later when Yami is sixteen and Pharaoh Akunamukanon is dead. As young Atem is now Pharaoh it's time to choose his chief wife to unsure the protection of the kingdom. To the modern girl in Ichidou's horror, Netikerty is trying to convince her son to make her his principal wife while the Neferetiabet in Ichidou wishes badly to be the one Atem chooses. Mysteries and murder abound as Neferetiabet becomes closer to Atem and Ichidou finds herself torn between wishing to be home and wanting to discover what exactly happened to her past self and Yami…
A/N 6: Sayonara! ^__^
Cineris: *chirp*
