Mou Hitori no Boku: True Darkness
The water was refreshingly cool on their skin as they descended through it. The light above gradually grew fainter, and fainter, and they were in total darkness for a few moments, until a red glow shone up from beneath them. They left the cool water to fall into the burning heat of a lava-filled cave.
"Too hot..." Yugi murmured. "Not good..." His cheeks were already flushed from the sweltering heat. "We need to do this one fast." Bakura said. "Before we all bake in here." "Yes," Yami said, looking around. "But where do we start?"
Around them, a maze of paths spread out, separated by the lava. They all branched off into five different caves adjoined to the one they were in. "Five caves," said Seto. "Five of us." "You're suggesting we split up?" said Ryou. "But what if we get lost in here?" "We've got no other choice." Seto said. "I won't leave my hikari!" Yami said suddenly. Seto turned to meet the young Pharaoh's fiery eyes with an icy glare. "Do as you will, Yami, but the longer we sit here arguing about it, the less time we have for searching! None of us can stand this heat for long!" he said. "I can't force you to leave Yugi, but it would be best for all of us if we make a descision now." Yami opened his mouth to reply.
"Yami, it's alright!" Yugi said. Yami turned to face him, eyes wide. "I-I don't want to leave you alone..." he said slowly. Ryou whispered to the others. "Let's get going while they decide." He pushed Seto and Bakura off in separate directions, and taking another path himself.
Yugi stood on tiptoes, and kissed Yami on the lips. "I'm never alone." he said. "We remain connected, no matter how far apart we are. I will be fine." "The heat will fade the connection slightly." Yami said slowly. "But I do believe in you. I will see you later, koi." Somewhat unwillingly, Yami turned, and made off down the path that was closest to him. Yugi smiled, and took the last path.
==
"Shit!" Bakura swore loudly. "It's a dead end!" He was faced with a solid rock wall, completely unpassable. Growling in his throat, he turned to go back to the junction of all five paths, and follow down the one that Ryou had taken.
=
Seto was relieved, as he seemed to be moving away from the heat. The area he was in was getting steadily cooler as he walked. Soon, the sound of dripping water reached his ears. "Surely there can't be any water here..." he muttered. Turning a corner, he found a damp cave, with a wide mouth letting daylight in. When he looked over his shoulder, he could hardly see the entrance to the hot cave.
"High Priest? What are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked. A red- clothed girl stood at the mouth of the cave. "Amiy?" he asked. The girl nodded. "Yes, but I thought you were going on to the next Realms!" she said. "We did!" Seto exclaimed. "We were inside a lava cave, and we all split up to follow separate paths, and mine ended up here!" He pointed at where he had emerged from - but the path was gone. Amiy cocked her head to one side. "It must have been a slight waver in the alignment of the Realms." she said, inspecting the place that Seto had pointed to. "Gone now."
"But then, I can't get back!" Seto said. "Of course you can." Amiy smiled. "But you'll have to go into the volcano again, through the Ring Realm again, and back into the Rod Realm." "How did you know which Realm I was in?" Seto asked curiously. "Oh, we know the natures of all the other Realms." Amiy led him out of the cave, and started to climb up the mountain again. "You can describe a Realm, and I'll know which one it is." Seto nodded, annoyed that he had to go through all that again.
==
Yugi turned a corner on his path. It seemed like he had been walking forever, and he couldn't feel Yami nearby at all. "He meant what he said about the heat fading the connection..." Yugi muttered. "I can't hear his thoughts at all, and usually I can..."
"Yugi!" a voice called. The short duelist found himself in a huge chamber, with three paths, two stretching around the sides, and one short one into the middle. Hung from the high ceiling, with a pool of lava below it, was a iron cage. Inside it sat a sandy-haired boy. "Malik!" Yugi called back. "I'm glad you're OK!"
"Where are the others?" Malik asked loudly, looking around. "We all split up.They all went down different paths. I don't know exactly where they are." Yugi smiled, a little sadly. "I'm sure they'll find us sooner or later." "I hope so. This cage is magical, it can't be broken without some really strong magic, like Yami's. I don't really fancy my chances if they don't turn up, because this cage has been lowering by about a quarter of a metre every five hours." Malik said. Yugi frowned. "I'm sure they won't be long. I would call Yami, but our link's been weakened by the heat. I can't hear him." he said.
"Don't worry, Yugi, I'm here!" Yugi turned to see Yami walking down one of the side paths. "Yami!" Yugi cried joyfully, running over into his darker's arms. "I was really worried, I couldn't hear you at all!" he said quickly. Yami smiled down at him. "It's okay. I'm here now, but don't be surprised if we still can't hear each other through the connection. The heat's too high for the magic to pass through easily." he said softly.
"Okay, okay, can I please get down from here now!?" Malik called. Yami looked up at him. "I'll need Bakura's help." he stated simply. "Why?! Your magic could easily disspell the cage!" Malik replied in surprise. "Yes, but if I were to disspell the cage, you would fall into that lava. I need Bakura to catch you." Yami replied, very matter-of-factly. "Alright..." Malik muttered.
Yami turned his attention to the boy still clinging onto his waist. He leaned down to kiss the boy on the forehead. "How did you get here?" Yugi asked. "You didn't come the same way I did." "I guess my path also came here." Yami said, a little too quickly. "No point worrying about that now; I'm here, that's all that matters." Yugi smiled, and hugged Yami closer.
"YUGI!!!" a voice behind him exclaimed. The small boy let go of Yami, and turned around to see
Yami.
"Wh-what's going on?" Yugi stuttered in shock. "Yugi, that's Yugiou!" the newly arrived Yami said quickly. "Don't believe him!" the other Yami said. "He's lying. I'm the real one." "No you're not!" "Yes I am!" "NO you're not!" "YES I am!" The two argued loudly, until one of them said "Prove it."
"How do you expect me to prove it?" the other asked. "You can't!" the one who said 'prove it' jeered. "You can't, and that proves that I'm Yami." "Well then, you prove it!" the other shouted. They waited in silence. "See? Neither can you!" The arguement continued in this fashion for nearly five minutes, until Yugi shouted. "SHUT UP!!!"
Both looked at him. "Look, I know Yami better than anyone. I will be able to tell which one of you is my Yami, and which is Yugiou trying to trick me." Yugi said boldly. "Fine." both replied in unison.
"It can be your Challenge!" A girl giggled, appearing on the path. She wore a coat like all the other Guardians, only her one was hot pink. She was armed with a bow and arrows, all of her arrows having stone heads. "What?" Yugi asked.
"I'm Myai, the Guardian of this Realm." she said. "And I will set the Challenge to win the Rod Realm, and win your friends safety." Yugi sighed. "I accept."
"Ok then. Your Challenge is this; you must work out which one of these pair is the REAL Pharaoh, and which is Yugiou, with only three questions. And you may not ask them to perform any magic to help you choose."
Yugi took a deep breath.
==
"You will have to catch up with your friends quickly." Amiy said, as they reached the top of the volcano. "You will have to use the portal that the Ring Realm Guardian opened for you." "The pool in the underwater palace?" Seto inquired. "Yes, if that's how you originally got into the Rod Realm. But be fast; if your friends move on to the final Realm before you get back, you may never catch up, because you won't know where the portal is. The Guardians are really strict about that; they must only reveal the portal to those who win the Realm. They won't tell you where it is, if the Realm has already been won." Amiy explained. "Good luck." Seto nodded to her, stepping forward, and leaping into the depths of the volcano crater.
He once again landed on the sandy beach in the Ring Realm. Growling in annoyance, he pulled out the Umi tunic that he had decided to put back in his bag, even after discarding it. Good thing that I did, he thought as he tugged it over his head, and splashed out into the water.
He swam for about ten minutes before realizing that he had no idea where he was going. Floating still, and emitting bubbles in irritation, he waited for one of the Water-attribute monsters of the ocean to swim by so that he could ask directions. The first creature he saw was a Hyosube; a cross between a newt, a frog and a turtle, with oddly human hair. He immediately asked it for directions to the underwater palace, and the Hyosube bubbled at him, obviously unable to respond in a language Seto could understand. However, the creature seemed able to understand Seto, and he pointed in the general direction. Seto actually thanked it before swimming off. "I'm getting soft..." he muttered.
==
"Three questions... three questions..." Yugi pondered. The two Yami's looked at him patiently, while Myai was apparently bored, and was trying to flirt with Malik, who certainly wasn't in the mood for that. "Do hurry up." Myai said. "I have other creatures to deep-fry." "Hey!" Malik exclaimed.
"Right... my first question..." Yugi began, trying to think of a question that only Yami would know the answer to. "Exactly how many cards are in my main deck?" "Forty-six." the two Yami's replied in unison. "Correct..." Yugi murmured. "Come on, Yugi!" Malik called, trying to encourage the short boy. Yugi fell silent again for several minutes, despondently trying to think of something. "What's the expiration date on the cheese in the refridgerator that I had to warn Yami not to eat?" he said in desperation. "3rd May, 1996." they both answered. Both Malik and Myai screwed up their noses at that. "Eww, Yugi, why don't you throw it out?" Myai asked. "Because I think throwing it out could be classed as murder by now..." Yugi answered.
"Yugi, listen! Yugiou will know everything that Yami knows! It's no use asking them questions like that!" Malik called. "You'll have to think harder!" Yugi frowned in concentration. "What am I going to ask?" he murmured. "And NO! That's not one of my questions!" He shot a look at Myai. "Well, duh, I'm not that stupid!" she said. Yugi noticed for the first time that Myai had blonde hair, unlike the other Guardians, who all had dark coloured hair. 'Explains plenty...'Yugi thought.
Streams of ideas rushed through his brain as he tried to think what to ask. If he didn't figure it out this time, he was sunk, and he'd lose the Realm. He couldn't do that. He would let Yami down so badly...
==
"Bakura!" Ryou exclaimed, as he met his darker coming down the path towards him. "My path was a dead end." Bakura explained quickly. "So is this one." Ryou said. "We've got to find the others; maybe they've found Malik already!"
"Let's hope." Bakura said, turning quickly down the path.
==
"No time to explain, nice seeing you again, bye bye!" Seto said quickly, on meeting the Ring Realm's guardian, polishing the floor. He threw off the Umi tunic as he ran up the stairs towards the portal. "Nice to see you again too, High Priest..." Mayi said, as Seto jumped through the portal. She shrugged, and returned to her task.
==
Bakura and Ryou quickly reached the midpoint of all the paths again. They looked at the paths - they had no idea which one to take.
"I know! What if you use..." Ryou's sentence was cut short, as something flattened both him and Bakura.
"Oww..." Seto murmured. "'Ow' yourself, jerk, get off of me!" Bakura yelled. Seto only just realised that he was sitting on the Ring duo. He jumped up quickly. "Sorry..." he muttered.
"I was going to say, 'what if you use the Ring?'" Ryou said quickly. Bakura smacked his forehead. "Why didn't I think of that!? We needn't have split up!" He quickly set the Ring's magic to work, and it led them away down the path that Yugi had taken.
==
Yugi bit his lip in concentration. "Please hurry up..." Myai said, beginning to get annoyed with the long periods of silence. Malik quietly gave Yugi some encouragement, and the two 'Yami's watched the small duelist with anxious eyes.
Yugi looked up. "I've got it." he said. "Ask then..." one Yami said quickly.
"You HAVE to answer this one at a time. And listen well. For each of you, if I chose the other, and not you, what would your reaction be?" He smiled softly. "You first." He pointed to one of them randomly. "I-I don't know..." the 'Yami' he had chosen said. "I-I'd be devastated... I don't know what I'd do without you..."
"Now..." Yugi began, directing his attention to the other. "You...?"
The other was trying to hold back tears, tears that stubbornly refused to be held back. Yugi frowned slightly. "You can't answer, can you?" he said slowly. The one he had asked shook his head sadly, tears flicking off of his cheeks as he did. "You're my life..." he murmured quietly. "I would die..."
"Then it's you!" Yugi said joyfully. "You're Yami!"
"Very good, Yugi!" Myai said, clapping slowly. "You've won the Realm." Yugiou growled deep in his throat. "You've only got one Realm left. Believe me, there, you won't be so lucky!" He turned, and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Yugi stuck his tongue out cheekily at the dissipating smoke, and then looked at Yami.
His ruby eyes glistened with tears that continued to fall. Yugi ran towards him, and wrapped his arms about his koi's waist. "Yami, onegai, stop crying?" he asked, looking up into the damp eyes of the young Pharaoh. "I can't..." Yami said slowly. "I got so scared I'd lose you..." "You're so silly!" Yugi exclaimed. "I know you too well. You shouldn't have been so afraid."
A glowing card floated before Yugi's eyes. He took it, and it changed to display the Millennium Rod. "You win." Myai said. She snapped her fingers, and Malik appeared next to Yami and Yugi, free from the cage. As this happened, Bakura, Ryou and Seto came running into the chamber. "Hi!" Ryou said breathlessly. The glow of the Ring dulled, and it fell clinking against Bakura's chest.
"Now that you are all here, I will send you on." Myai said. "But, I shall not send you straight into the final Realm quite yet. I will send you to a waypoint - a sort of miniature Realm between Realms. There, you can rest, and there will be food, and the like." Yugi turned away from Yami, and bowed politely. "Thank you for everything, Myai." he said. Myai smiled. "It's alright. Free my Realm of Anger, onegai, save the Seven Realms." She clicked her fingers again, and the group disappeared.
==
Pan: Phew! Sorry it took so long; this went through two rewrites before I got it just right!
The water was refreshingly cool on their skin as they descended through it. The light above gradually grew fainter, and fainter, and they were in total darkness for a few moments, until a red glow shone up from beneath them. They left the cool water to fall into the burning heat of a lava-filled cave.
"Too hot..." Yugi murmured. "Not good..." His cheeks were already flushed from the sweltering heat. "We need to do this one fast." Bakura said. "Before we all bake in here." "Yes," Yami said, looking around. "But where do we start?"
Around them, a maze of paths spread out, separated by the lava. They all branched off into five different caves adjoined to the one they were in. "Five caves," said Seto. "Five of us." "You're suggesting we split up?" said Ryou. "But what if we get lost in here?" "We've got no other choice." Seto said. "I won't leave my hikari!" Yami said suddenly. Seto turned to meet the young Pharaoh's fiery eyes with an icy glare. "Do as you will, Yami, but the longer we sit here arguing about it, the less time we have for searching! None of us can stand this heat for long!" he said. "I can't force you to leave Yugi, but it would be best for all of us if we make a descision now." Yami opened his mouth to reply.
"Yami, it's alright!" Yugi said. Yami turned to face him, eyes wide. "I-I don't want to leave you alone..." he said slowly. Ryou whispered to the others. "Let's get going while they decide." He pushed Seto and Bakura off in separate directions, and taking another path himself.
Yugi stood on tiptoes, and kissed Yami on the lips. "I'm never alone." he said. "We remain connected, no matter how far apart we are. I will be fine." "The heat will fade the connection slightly." Yami said slowly. "But I do believe in you. I will see you later, koi." Somewhat unwillingly, Yami turned, and made off down the path that was closest to him. Yugi smiled, and took the last path.
==
"Shit!" Bakura swore loudly. "It's a dead end!" He was faced with a solid rock wall, completely unpassable. Growling in his throat, he turned to go back to the junction of all five paths, and follow down the one that Ryou had taken.
=
Seto was relieved, as he seemed to be moving away from the heat. The area he was in was getting steadily cooler as he walked. Soon, the sound of dripping water reached his ears. "Surely there can't be any water here..." he muttered. Turning a corner, he found a damp cave, with a wide mouth letting daylight in. When he looked over his shoulder, he could hardly see the entrance to the hot cave.
"High Priest? What are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked. A red- clothed girl stood at the mouth of the cave. "Amiy?" he asked. The girl nodded. "Yes, but I thought you were going on to the next Realms!" she said. "We did!" Seto exclaimed. "We were inside a lava cave, and we all split up to follow separate paths, and mine ended up here!" He pointed at where he had emerged from - but the path was gone. Amiy cocked her head to one side. "It must have been a slight waver in the alignment of the Realms." she said, inspecting the place that Seto had pointed to. "Gone now."
"But then, I can't get back!" Seto said. "Of course you can." Amiy smiled. "But you'll have to go into the volcano again, through the Ring Realm again, and back into the Rod Realm." "How did you know which Realm I was in?" Seto asked curiously. "Oh, we know the natures of all the other Realms." Amiy led him out of the cave, and started to climb up the mountain again. "You can describe a Realm, and I'll know which one it is." Seto nodded, annoyed that he had to go through all that again.
==
Yugi turned a corner on his path. It seemed like he had been walking forever, and he couldn't feel Yami nearby at all. "He meant what he said about the heat fading the connection..." Yugi muttered. "I can't hear his thoughts at all, and usually I can..."
"Yugi!" a voice called. The short duelist found himself in a huge chamber, with three paths, two stretching around the sides, and one short one into the middle. Hung from the high ceiling, with a pool of lava below it, was a iron cage. Inside it sat a sandy-haired boy. "Malik!" Yugi called back. "I'm glad you're OK!"
"Where are the others?" Malik asked loudly, looking around. "We all split up.They all went down different paths. I don't know exactly where they are." Yugi smiled, a little sadly. "I'm sure they'll find us sooner or later." "I hope so. This cage is magical, it can't be broken without some really strong magic, like Yami's. I don't really fancy my chances if they don't turn up, because this cage has been lowering by about a quarter of a metre every five hours." Malik said. Yugi frowned. "I'm sure they won't be long. I would call Yami, but our link's been weakened by the heat. I can't hear him." he said.
"Don't worry, Yugi, I'm here!" Yugi turned to see Yami walking down one of the side paths. "Yami!" Yugi cried joyfully, running over into his darker's arms. "I was really worried, I couldn't hear you at all!" he said quickly. Yami smiled down at him. "It's okay. I'm here now, but don't be surprised if we still can't hear each other through the connection. The heat's too high for the magic to pass through easily." he said softly.
"Okay, okay, can I please get down from here now!?" Malik called. Yami looked up at him. "I'll need Bakura's help." he stated simply. "Why?! Your magic could easily disspell the cage!" Malik replied in surprise. "Yes, but if I were to disspell the cage, you would fall into that lava. I need Bakura to catch you." Yami replied, very matter-of-factly. "Alright..." Malik muttered.
Yami turned his attention to the boy still clinging onto his waist. He leaned down to kiss the boy on the forehead. "How did you get here?" Yugi asked. "You didn't come the same way I did." "I guess my path also came here." Yami said, a little too quickly. "No point worrying about that now; I'm here, that's all that matters." Yugi smiled, and hugged Yami closer.
"YUGI!!!" a voice behind him exclaimed. The small boy let go of Yami, and turned around to see
Yami.
"Wh-what's going on?" Yugi stuttered in shock. "Yugi, that's Yugiou!" the newly arrived Yami said quickly. "Don't believe him!" the other Yami said. "He's lying. I'm the real one." "No you're not!" "Yes I am!" "NO you're not!" "YES I am!" The two argued loudly, until one of them said "Prove it."
"How do you expect me to prove it?" the other asked. "You can't!" the one who said 'prove it' jeered. "You can't, and that proves that I'm Yami." "Well then, you prove it!" the other shouted. They waited in silence. "See? Neither can you!" The arguement continued in this fashion for nearly five minutes, until Yugi shouted. "SHUT UP!!!"
Both looked at him. "Look, I know Yami better than anyone. I will be able to tell which one of you is my Yami, and which is Yugiou trying to trick me." Yugi said boldly. "Fine." both replied in unison.
"It can be your Challenge!" A girl giggled, appearing on the path. She wore a coat like all the other Guardians, only her one was hot pink. She was armed with a bow and arrows, all of her arrows having stone heads. "What?" Yugi asked.
"I'm Myai, the Guardian of this Realm." she said. "And I will set the Challenge to win the Rod Realm, and win your friends safety." Yugi sighed. "I accept."
"Ok then. Your Challenge is this; you must work out which one of these pair is the REAL Pharaoh, and which is Yugiou, with only three questions. And you may not ask them to perform any magic to help you choose."
Yugi took a deep breath.
==
"You will have to catch up with your friends quickly." Amiy said, as they reached the top of the volcano. "You will have to use the portal that the Ring Realm Guardian opened for you." "The pool in the underwater palace?" Seto inquired. "Yes, if that's how you originally got into the Rod Realm. But be fast; if your friends move on to the final Realm before you get back, you may never catch up, because you won't know where the portal is. The Guardians are really strict about that; they must only reveal the portal to those who win the Realm. They won't tell you where it is, if the Realm has already been won." Amiy explained. "Good luck." Seto nodded to her, stepping forward, and leaping into the depths of the volcano crater.
He once again landed on the sandy beach in the Ring Realm. Growling in annoyance, he pulled out the Umi tunic that he had decided to put back in his bag, even after discarding it. Good thing that I did, he thought as he tugged it over his head, and splashed out into the water.
He swam for about ten minutes before realizing that he had no idea where he was going. Floating still, and emitting bubbles in irritation, he waited for one of the Water-attribute monsters of the ocean to swim by so that he could ask directions. The first creature he saw was a Hyosube; a cross between a newt, a frog and a turtle, with oddly human hair. He immediately asked it for directions to the underwater palace, and the Hyosube bubbled at him, obviously unable to respond in a language Seto could understand. However, the creature seemed able to understand Seto, and he pointed in the general direction. Seto actually thanked it before swimming off. "I'm getting soft..." he muttered.
==
"Three questions... three questions..." Yugi pondered. The two Yami's looked at him patiently, while Myai was apparently bored, and was trying to flirt with Malik, who certainly wasn't in the mood for that. "Do hurry up." Myai said. "I have other creatures to deep-fry." "Hey!" Malik exclaimed.
"Right... my first question..." Yugi began, trying to think of a question that only Yami would know the answer to. "Exactly how many cards are in my main deck?" "Forty-six." the two Yami's replied in unison. "Correct..." Yugi murmured. "Come on, Yugi!" Malik called, trying to encourage the short boy. Yugi fell silent again for several minutes, despondently trying to think of something. "What's the expiration date on the cheese in the refridgerator that I had to warn Yami not to eat?" he said in desperation. "3rd May, 1996." they both answered. Both Malik and Myai screwed up their noses at that. "Eww, Yugi, why don't you throw it out?" Myai asked. "Because I think throwing it out could be classed as murder by now..." Yugi answered.
"Yugi, listen! Yugiou will know everything that Yami knows! It's no use asking them questions like that!" Malik called. "You'll have to think harder!" Yugi frowned in concentration. "What am I going to ask?" he murmured. "And NO! That's not one of my questions!" He shot a look at Myai. "Well, duh, I'm not that stupid!" she said. Yugi noticed for the first time that Myai had blonde hair, unlike the other Guardians, who all had dark coloured hair. 'Explains plenty...'Yugi thought.
Streams of ideas rushed through his brain as he tried to think what to ask. If he didn't figure it out this time, he was sunk, and he'd lose the Realm. He couldn't do that. He would let Yami down so badly...
==
"Bakura!" Ryou exclaimed, as he met his darker coming down the path towards him. "My path was a dead end." Bakura explained quickly. "So is this one." Ryou said. "We've got to find the others; maybe they've found Malik already!"
"Let's hope." Bakura said, turning quickly down the path.
==
"No time to explain, nice seeing you again, bye bye!" Seto said quickly, on meeting the Ring Realm's guardian, polishing the floor. He threw off the Umi tunic as he ran up the stairs towards the portal. "Nice to see you again too, High Priest..." Mayi said, as Seto jumped through the portal. She shrugged, and returned to her task.
==
Bakura and Ryou quickly reached the midpoint of all the paths again. They looked at the paths - they had no idea which one to take.
"I know! What if you use..." Ryou's sentence was cut short, as something flattened both him and Bakura.
"Oww..." Seto murmured. "'Ow' yourself, jerk, get off of me!" Bakura yelled. Seto only just realised that he was sitting on the Ring duo. He jumped up quickly. "Sorry..." he muttered.
"I was going to say, 'what if you use the Ring?'" Ryou said quickly. Bakura smacked his forehead. "Why didn't I think of that!? We needn't have split up!" He quickly set the Ring's magic to work, and it led them away down the path that Yugi had taken.
==
Yugi bit his lip in concentration. "Please hurry up..." Myai said, beginning to get annoyed with the long periods of silence. Malik quietly gave Yugi some encouragement, and the two 'Yami's watched the small duelist with anxious eyes.
Yugi looked up. "I've got it." he said. "Ask then..." one Yami said quickly.
"You HAVE to answer this one at a time. And listen well. For each of you, if I chose the other, and not you, what would your reaction be?" He smiled softly. "You first." He pointed to one of them randomly. "I-I don't know..." the 'Yami' he had chosen said. "I-I'd be devastated... I don't know what I'd do without you..."
"Now..." Yugi began, directing his attention to the other. "You...?"
The other was trying to hold back tears, tears that stubbornly refused to be held back. Yugi frowned slightly. "You can't answer, can you?" he said slowly. The one he had asked shook his head sadly, tears flicking off of his cheeks as he did. "You're my life..." he murmured quietly. "I would die..."
"Then it's you!" Yugi said joyfully. "You're Yami!"
"Very good, Yugi!" Myai said, clapping slowly. "You've won the Realm." Yugiou growled deep in his throat. "You've only got one Realm left. Believe me, there, you won't be so lucky!" He turned, and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Yugi stuck his tongue out cheekily at the dissipating smoke, and then looked at Yami.
His ruby eyes glistened with tears that continued to fall. Yugi ran towards him, and wrapped his arms about his koi's waist. "Yami, onegai, stop crying?" he asked, looking up into the damp eyes of the young Pharaoh. "I can't..." Yami said slowly. "I got so scared I'd lose you..." "You're so silly!" Yugi exclaimed. "I know you too well. You shouldn't have been so afraid."
A glowing card floated before Yugi's eyes. He took it, and it changed to display the Millennium Rod. "You win." Myai said. She snapped her fingers, and Malik appeared next to Yami and Yugi, free from the cage. As this happened, Bakura, Ryou and Seto came running into the chamber. "Hi!" Ryou said breathlessly. The glow of the Ring dulled, and it fell clinking against Bakura's chest.
"Now that you are all here, I will send you on." Myai said. "But, I shall not send you straight into the final Realm quite yet. I will send you to a waypoint - a sort of miniature Realm between Realms. There, you can rest, and there will be food, and the like." Yugi turned away from Yami, and bowed politely. "Thank you for everything, Myai." he said. Myai smiled. "It's alright. Free my Realm of Anger, onegai, save the Seven Realms." She clicked her fingers again, and the group disappeared.
==
Pan: Phew! Sorry it took so long; this went through two rewrites before I got it just right!