Chapter Four - Shadow Realm
"Are you sure about this?" Joey demanded.
"Yes, I'm certain," Yami Yugi replied. "Let me see your deck, Joey."
"Sure." Joey handed his deck over. Yami thumbed through it quickly, finding the card he wanted, slipping it from Joey's deck and substituting a new one. He slid Joey's card into his pocket.
"Yami?" Yugi's mind-voice was gently hesitant. "Joey is there? Can I come out now? "
"My surprise is ready, Yugi. Thank you for staying in your 'room' and granting me the privacy I needed. Yes, Joey is here. You do not need to stay isolated any longer." Yami felt as Yugi opened the door between their minds again, reinstating the full merge between them.
When Shadi had mistakenly invaded their minds with his Millennium Key, they discovered how a corridor both connected and separated Yami's mind from Yugi's. Since then, they had used that knowledge to lessen or deepen the connection between them at will. Today was the first time Yami had asked for as nearly complete a separation as they could manage, allowing him to act without Yugi knowing what he was doing. He was pleased that Yugi had granted that request without demanding an explanation or even questioning it at all. It showed Yami how much Yugi had come to trust him.
Yami hoped that Yugi would like the surprise he had planned. He looked up into Joey's eyes.
"Let's duel!" He closed his eyes and performed the slight mental twist that allowed him to transport them to the Shadow Realm.
"Th,The Shadow Realm?! What's up, Yugi?"
"It's not me! It's Yami!" Yugi exclaimed before Yami spoke to Joey himself.
"I don't much care for Seto's duel disk system. You're a strong duelist, Joey. I'll help you incarnate your monsters if needed," Yami offered.
"I dunno. It's weird enough to be duelin' you instead of Yugi, but the Shadow Realm?! Nothing good ever happens here!" Joey shivered.
"Joey, I'm right here. I won't let things get out of hand," Yami promised. "Trust me."
The words made him think back to his conversation with the other person whose help he needed to plan this surprise...
********
Yami opened his eyes in the ancient Egyptian tomb that was somehow the spiritual representation of his own mind. Unlike the spiritual representation of Yugi's mind, a bright and cheerful room filled with light, Yami's mind was filled with darkness and a sense of quiet foreboding. Yami knew that someday he would have to thread the labyrinth and unlock the dark secrets of his own past. He dreaded that task and what it would reveal to him. Fortunately, today was not that day.
"Mahaad?" The name was halfway between a question and a command.
"My pharaoh!" the Dark Magician appeared, bowing low before him.
"Mahaad!" Yami smiled. "Certainly here, within my mind, you don't have to be 'just' the Dark Magician!"
The Dark Magician straightened and smiled. "Does this please you more?" The Dark Magician's form shimmered and changed, becoming a tall, impressive man, clad in ancient Egyptian fashion instead.
"Let us say that it pleases me in a different way," Yami replied.
"The diplomat as always, my pharaoh!" Mahaad laughed. "So you have found a way to summon me here without the power of the Puzzle?"
"No. I still use that power, but more lightly. It should be much less of a strain on Yugi."
"That is good."
"Akai...has he...?" Yami began.
"Akai, my brother Dark Magician, has become as loyal to you and Yugi as any of your card monsters, my pharaoh," Mahaad supplied.
"Good! I was reassured when I spoke with him here, but still I worried," Yami admitted.
"I trust him," Mahaad stated simply.
Yami nodded and cupped his chin. "He has been through so much! Is he...happy, now?"
Mahaad pondered that. "Happier, certainly. As happy as he could be? I'm still not sure. I sense something troubles him, something he won't share with me. I can tell it is not harmful to Yugi, but whatever it is seems to weigh heavily on Akai. Arcana was quite callously evil to him, and not just in that final duel with Yugi. I have learned that Akai suffered in almost every duel as Arcana's card monster. And Arcana dueled quite a bit."
"How does Akai feel about Yugi? Yugi has had a chance to summon him to duels several times now."
"He likes Yugi, even as I do. It may not seem like it to the opponents he duels, but Yugi has a strength that all of his cards can sense."
Yami smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way!"
********
"I play my Red Dark Magician!" Yami called the move, dragging his thoughts back to the present and his Shadow Duel against Joey.
Akai could feel a difference as soon as he opened his eyes. He could tell he was still expected to obey his duelist, but it was almost as if some...restraint had been removed.
"There!" A note of satisfaction rang out in the word. Akai turned his head. He'd heard this voice before! "We meet again, Akai!"
"Yugi?!" he whispered, incredulous that he was addressed by his name and allowed to speak on the dueling field.
"No!" The voice barely suppressed a laugh. "You confuse me with him yet again! I am Yami!"
"Wow! Yugi tried to tell me he thought the Red Dark Magician was different, but I didn't believe him!" Joey exclaimed. "This is amazing!"
"Why am I..." Akai looked at his hands, then up at Joey's giant face peering down at him curiously, "...so small?"
"Ah, this is a Shadow Duel. We could incarnate you duel monsters much larger, but that takes more energy from the duelists," Yami explained. "It is really troublesome for you?" he asked.
"No," Akai shrugged. "As long as the opposing monsters aren't huge it shouldn't be a problem."
"Good. Joey, my turn is over."
"I never let Yugi get his Dark Magician on the field without trying to take him out right away. I'm sorry, Akai, but I'm pretty sure it's just as bad to let Yami get a Dark Magician out too!" Joey said, placing his monster card on the field. His Red Eyes Black Dragon materialized.
"And just to make sure, I'll give him Dragon Nails!" The Red Eyes flexed his already massive claws and metal appeared to clad and reinforce them. "Attack the Red Dark Magician, Red Eyes!"
"Joey, Joey, Joey," Yami teased as he turned a card. "Do you think I wasn't ready for that? I'll protect my Dark Magician! Akai, cast Magical Hats and conceal yourself!"
Akai smiled that Yami wanted to keep him in the duel. Actually, Magical Hats was one of Akai's favorite spells. He performed the trick with a flourish and was rewarded with Yami's delighted laugh as the hat came over him to hide him.
"Grr! I hate it when Yugi does that!" Joey fumed. "It's just as annoying when you do it, Yami!"
Yami laughed. "Pick a hat, Joey, and end your turn."
"Eh...Red Eyes, attack the left hat!"
"Apparently you picked wrong," Yami noted as the dust cleared. He drew a card. "I'll place this card under one of the hats and end my turn."
"Sheesh! As if Yugi hasn't played this combo on me before!" Joey complained. "You slipped a Spellbinding Circle under there, didn't you?!"
"You could always attack a hat and find out," Yami suggested mildly.
"I'll put Swamp Battleguard down instead, in defense mode. That's it, my turn is over."
"I'll place one more card under a hat," Yami grinned. "Your turn, Joey."
Joey sighed in frustration. "You're gonna make me do it aren't you? Grr! Swamp Battleguard isn't strong enough to take your Red Dark Magician if he's lucky enough to find him, and now you have two unknowns under there too! I can't risk it...Red Eyes, attack the middle hat!"
"Ah, you found my De-spell Card! Bye-bye, Dragon Nails!" Yami noted. "Making Red Eyes manageable for my two Dark Magicians! You can both leave the Magical Hats now! They've served their purpose!"
Two Dark Magicians? Akai had never been on the field at the same time with Mahaad; Joey had aptly seen to that! This could actually be fun! He leaped out the top of the Magical Hat, flipped a somersault just for the fun of it and landed in front of the purple Dark Magician.
His grin fell when he looked into the other Dark Magician's face.
"Uhm... Hi, Akai..." Yugi smiled sheepishly at him. "I guess this is the secret Yami's been trying so hard to keep from me!"
********
"Do you remember the duel against the 'evil' Seto Kaiba in Duelist Kingdom?" Yami recalled the rest of his secret labyrinth conversation with Mahaad.
"When the real Seto Kaiba actually helped Yugi defeat one of the Blue Eyes White Dragons? Yes."
"And Yugi's duel against Panic to regain Mai's star chips?"
"Yes."
"Were you aware that there was a duel between those two duels?"
"No..." Mahaad shook his head before staring at Yami with a stunned expression. "There was?!"
Yami smiled again. "It was a Shadow Duel. That was the first time since Yugi solved the Puzzle that he and I had been separated. Bakura used the power of the Millennium Ring to place Yugi's soul, and the souls of all his friends, into their favorite cards."
Mahaad glanced at Yami sharply.
"I am...the Dark Magician is Yugi's favorite card... What happened?"
"Exactly what you are thinking. When Yugi played the Dark Magician in that duel, his soul was transported down to the game within the Dark Magician. I became the player in his place. My question is: what happened to your soul, to you, when that happened?"
Mahaad cupped his chin and floated up a few inches into the pondering pose of the Dark Magician. Yami smiled that the unconscious idiosyncrasy of his friend had transferred unchanged into the duel monster he'd been forced to become.
"The Millennium Items have always been the most powerful and uncontrollable of all magic. Since I have no memory at all of the duel, I suspect I remained 'asleep' so that Yugi could duel in my place. Was he able to use...?"
"Yugi enjoyed being the Dark Magician, and using your powers, very much," Yami told him.
Mahaad smiled.
"I am honored. Did he get to use any of the fun spells? Magic Box of Death or Magical Hats?"
"Regrettably, no. Only the Dark Magic Attack."
Mahaad glanced sideways at his oldest friend. "So, what do you plan, my pharaoh?" The words were respectful, but the teasing tone was not. "Why tell me this?"
"Hear me out!" Yami laughed. "Do you think..."
********
"Yugi! Down there?!" Joey exclaimed, looking down at his tiny friend. "So that's why you wanted to look through my deck!" Joey narrowed his eyes at Yami.
Yami laughed and pulled Joey's Flame Swordsman card from his pocket. "Yes, I couldn't have you going down to the field too!"
"Yugi...down here? How?!" Akai demanded. "And what about Mahaad?!"
"Akai," Yugi stepped forward to place a calming hand on the Red Dark Magician's arm. "It's okay! Actually, if I had known Yami could do it, I would have asked for him to do just this thing! I've been frustrated, trying to learn about you in duels, but in regular duels you have to act as just a duel monster. Here, in the Shadow Realm in a duel against Joey you can..."
"Be yourself," Yami finished. "As for Mahaad, he's honored to let Yugi borrow his power. I checked with him before deciding to do this."
"But...what did you do?" Akai asked, still confused. Yugi was his duelist, his...master. As much as he hated the word now because of how Arcana had treated him, it was still the correct word. How could Yugi be so happy to be...demeaned like this?!
"Let me explain it, Yami!" Yugi insisted. His eyes were happy as he looked up earnestly into Akai's eyes. "Once before, for a very evil purpose, my soul was placed into my favorite card. During that duel, when I played the Dark Magician, suddenly I was on the field as the Dark Magician. It was a very serious duel, for very high stakes, so I really couldn't enjoy it. Now..."
"Now, the stakes are light enough that you can enjoy yourself. You also have a chance to interact with Akai face to face as you wished," Yami told Yugi softly.
"Yeah..." Yugi agreed. Akai's amazement deepened. Yugi wanted to...meet him? Enough to accept what Yami had done to bring that meeting about?!
"Now, my two Dark Magicians, you have a Red Eyes Black Dragon to attend to!" Yami stated, bringing everyone's attention back to the duel.
********
"Mahaad?! Where's Mahaad?!" Mana was frantic.
"I saw him enter his atelier earlier," Rowan told her. "Why, what's happening?"
"Oh...nothing. I just had a Dark Magic question," Mana told her. "Nothing to be concerned about."
Mana waited until Rowan's attention was elsewhere before she stealthily made her way over to Mahaad's workshop. The attitudes of the other cards toward Akai had been slowly changing, so everyone in the Magic Box now knew whenever the Red Dark Magician was in a duel. What the rest of the card monsters didn't have was Mana's Dark Magic sense. She could tell that there were TWO Dark Magicians fighting for Yugi in the duel. And she could tell that neither of them was her Dark Magic master.
Her heart thudded as she took the latch in her hand. Mahaad had forbidden her to enter his workshop until she was 'ready'. Mana wondered if she would ever be 'ready'. After a while she had comforted herself with the thought that Mahaad just wanted one area that was his alone...that it wasn't that SHE wasn't ready, it was him. That he didn't want to share his secrets.
Then HE showed up. Akai. The very first time he was here, Mahaad took him into the workshop! Mahaad had opened his secret workshop to this...intruder! Mana never thought she could hate. She now knew she was wrong.
But now...two Dark Magicians dueled for Yugi and neither one was Mahaad! She was worried. Had Akai somehow used the knowledge of the workshop to usurp Mahaad's position?
Mahaad had seen the determined look on his apprentice's face countless times. He worried that this time she would actually enter his workshop. She wouldn't see anything, not even him. Mahaad wondered what he would do if she did, ultimately, enter unbidden. It would be the final severing of the master/apprentice trust between them if she broke his rule. He was hardly in a position to enforce it though. It was taking all his concentration to maintain his consciousness as Yugi dueled in his place. Mahaad had woven his soul into the very magic of his atelier so he could witness and remember the duel. If Mana were to break her word with him, there wasn't anything he could do to stop her.
"Mahaad! Master," Mana sighed, removing her hand from the latch. "You always seem to know what's going on. I guess...I'll trust that you know now."
Suddenly she remonstrated herself. "Come on, Mana! How could you sense something dealing with Dark Magic that Mahaad didn't? He probably knew about it before you even thought to look! I guess, I'll just...wait. If I need to know what it's all about, he'll tell me. I think. Maybe he'll just tell Akai... Since I don't seem to matter to him anymore..."
Mana had tears in her eyes as she turned from the atelier door and walked off into the forest area.
Mahaad would have smiled if he could. "Putting your jealousy toward Akai aside for a moment, you've taken the first step, Mana!" he thought to himself. "Just trust me..."
********
"No! My Red Eyes!" Joey exclaimed as the Spellbinding Circle cast by Yugi, immediately followed by the Dark Magic attack from Akai, sent his most powerful monster to the Graveyard. Joey had tried to boost his dragon again, but Yami somehow held just the cards to let his Dark Magicians stop him.
"Uhm..." Joey surveyed the cards in his hand and wondered what he'd be able to do. Of course he didn't want to hurt Yugi, who was playing as a duel monster now, but he didn't want to give his friend a wimpy, easy duel either. That would be too boring.
He drew a card. Hmm? Did he have...
Yes! It was already in his hand! What luck! But how to do this...Yugi had seen the combo before, so certainly Yami was aware of it...
"I play Time Wizard in defense mode," Joey declared, placing the card on the field. "And I set this card face down too." He placed a card in the nebulous card monster/trap card area in front of him.
"And I end my turn."
Joey had never thought that the color purple was particularly intimidating before. That was before he'd faced Yami's hard gaze across a dueling field.
"Notwithstanding what your plan is Joey," Yami began. "I can't let you use your Time Wizard. I have no idea what would happen if you aged the Dark Magician one thousand years while he is housing Yugi's soul. But I don't want to risk one of my Dark Magicians against your face-down card either, in case it is a trap instead of the Baby Dragon. So..."
Yami pulled the card from his hand and turned it so Joey and the Dark Magicians could see.
"Yugi, would you like to perform Magic Box of Death?" Yami asked. Yugi had begun to nod when Akai stepped between them.
"No, allow me. It's not enough to wield Dark Magic. There actually is a trick involved. Yugi can't possibly know it, so he'd be injured," he explained.
"Oh!" Yugi seemed disappointed.
"Don't worry! You'll be able to figure it out from your position on the field!" Akai promised. Yami placed the card, incarnating the first Magic Box behind Akai. Akai crossed his arms, turning his wrist so that his staff would line up cleanly along his body and fit properly in the box. He drifted back into the confines of the box triggering the automatic closing of the doors...and the mystic swords that pierced through the box a moment later. Even though he'd seen Yugi's purple Dark Magician perform the trick safely before, Joey jumped.
A Magic Box appeared on his side of the field in the Time Wizard's square. The box on Yami's side of the field opened to show Joey's Time Wizard skewered on the swords. The final twist of the trick, the box on his side opening to reveal an unharmed Akai, made Yugi clap his hands in delight.
"Marvelous!"
"Did you see how I did it?" Akai asked with a conspiratorial wink.
Yugi nodded. "Yup!"
Yami smiled down on 'his' two Dark Magicians, pleased that his surprise for Yugi had reaped such benefits. Though Yugi was down on the field, they still maintained a light connection with each other. Yami could tell that Yugi was elated to have been able to 'meet' Akai. He could tell that Yugi liked Akai very much.
Yami was a bit surprised at how Akai was behaving. Akai was much less stiff and formal than before. Then again, Yami reflected, Yugi had a knack for putting people at ease very quickly. He shouldn't be surprised that Yugi's knack worked for card monsters too.
It had taken considerable effort and energy on his part to bring this meeting about, but it had been worth it. He looked across the field at Joey to find that Yugi's friend was watching him.
Joey nodded and winked.
"Akai, before we get back to the duel..." Yugi began. "Since this is probably going to be the only time I can talk to you face to face, I wanted to thank you."
"Thank me?!"
"For helping my Dark Magician Girl to defeat Arcana. I suspect that was very hard for you. And I wanted to tell you how happy I am that you are...that you duel...for me now. I've been wanting to tell you that in all the duels where I used your card, but there was no way..."
"I'm glad to duel for you now...master," Akai admitted softly.
Yugi shook his head. "Don't call me that! I'm Yugi, just use my name."
"Yugi..."
"Yes?"
"I'll always do my best...for you."
"There are going to be some times where I might have to let things happen to you, in a duel, but...you should know...I always respect my cards. I'll never belittle you as Arcana did."
"I saw how hard you tried to protect your Dark Magician in the duel with Arcana. It is...my honor to be your card monster now."
Yugi just grinned up at Akai.
"Okay guys, enough sap! Yer gonna make me cry!" Joey complained. "Or am I gonna hafta take one of you out to stop the heart-to-heart here? Did you forget we're in the middle of a duel?!"
"No, Joey, we didn't forget!" Yugi laughed, turning to face his giant-seeming friend.
"But don't think it will be so easy," Akai suggested, striding over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Yugi, "to eliminate one of us!" he boasted as he crossed his arms letting the action 'shield' Yugi behind his staff.
"After all," Yami leaned forward and pinned Joey with his most intimidating stare, "You are still dueling me!"
Joey gulped visibly. "Don't do that!" he complained before winking at Yami again.
"Come on, Dark Magician Yugi! Let's see what you got!" Joey teased, placing a new card on the field.
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Author's notes -
Please, please, please realize that I've never played a game of Duel Monsters! I tried my best to keep that part of the story true to the game. Please don't quibble if I messed it up to maintain the integrity of my story.
Next Chapter teaser - ??? (the next chapter is well underway, I just don't want to give it away by posting the title! ^_^)
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com