Disclaimer: I don't own YGO and the base idea for this fic belongs to Wingleader Sora Jade.
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Part 1: Separate
Chapter 2: Yami no Yugi: Grief
For once in his life, Bakura was right.
Ryou had barely lain in the ground for a week when I found myself standing there again, watching Yugi be put to rest next to him. The two hikaris had been best friends for over 75 years, this was how they'd always wanted it. Shizuka lay on Ryou's other side, and Anzu on Yugi's. Nearby, I knew, Seto Kaiba and his wife Isis lay buried near Jounochi and Mai. Honda was somewhere in this graveyard too. Malik had requested to be buried in Egypt, so he wasn't here. Neither was Otogi, who'd been put to rest somewhere up north, I'm not sure where. So that was it. This is what it all came down to. Mokuba was the only one left, and even he was old and near death.
And Bakura had run away.
Now it was only me.
Sure, Luke and Maia and Ryou's other children and Yugi's twins were here, but it wasn't the same. Standing wrapped in a coat while the preacher spoke about my aibou, I felt intensely alone.
I shivered a little, hugging my coat closer. It was mid-November, and beginning to get colder. I'd always hated the cold. Yugi'd always teased me about it, but then again, he was always the first one to make me hot tea or cocoa, even before I'd asked...
It was right then, standing in front of Yugi's grave, that I knew Bakura was right. I was going to run away, just as he had. Oh, I knew I could never escape the pain, and I didn't want to. Pain let me know that I was real, that my love for Yugi was still real. What I was running from were the memories. Maybe in a few years I could come back to Japan, but right now it hurt too much to be near the places my aibou had loved so deeply.
It was Luke Bakura that gave me the way to do that. After the preacher had finished and people were beginning to migrate down the hill toward their cars, Luke and Maia took me aside.
"Everything's packed," Maia told me, sympathy plain in her eyes. She was very pretty, having inherited Isis's coffee skin and dark hair, though hers was more curly than her mother's had ever been. "Luke and I have got most of your clothes and some of your books in suitcases in the back of the car."
"You'll never have to worry," Luke added, pulling something out of his pocket and handing it to me. I was surprised to find two plastic cards, both emblazoned with matching numbers and the Kaiba Corp logo. Yugi had told me about credit cards, of course, but I'd never owned one before. "Those cards are set to tap directly into Kaiba Corporation's account. They're hack-proof and can't be overridden, and the technology is self-learning (which means as banking gets more sophisticated, so will the card), so even a thousand years from now you'll still be able to get money, as long as Kaiba Corp stays open."
"It will," Maia added. "Since daddy and Uncle Mokuba bought out Industrial Illusions, we've had a monopoly on the gaming industry. I don't think we'll ever go out of business."
"Those cards have a thousand dollar a month limit, though." Luke cautioned me. "Any more and people who don't know about this might notice. The other card's for Bakura, when you find him, and the passwords for both are set to 'sennen', although you can change it."
I felt a rush of gratitude for these two who had already done so much, and to my embarrassment a rush of tears accompanied it. "Thank you," I said, sliding both cards into my pocket. "I don't know how I can ever repay you..."
Maia smiled and cut me off. "There's no need. Just knowing how much you guys loved Uncle Yugi and Uncle Ryou is enough. And besides, it seems like you and Bakura are stuck. It's the least we could do after all you have already been through." She giggled a little and winked at me. "And besides, daddy would have kittens if he were alive and found out I'd done this."
I smiled wanly as they began to lead me toward their car (I'd driven over with them, as Bakura had taken our car when he left). Maia was the youngest of Seto's three daughters, and always had been the rebel.
"But," Luke spoke up, grinning. "Our families seem to have a notorious reputation for reincarnation. So take care of them if they ever show up again, okay?"
I didn't have to ask what he meant as he held open the door to his car for me. 'They' obviously meant my aibou and Ryou, and anyone else who felt like getting reincarnated. I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. Luke was right, we all had reputations of not staying dead.
"So where to?" Maia asked as she climbed into the passenger's seat and Luke slid in behind the wheel.
I blinked, pulling myself back from my thoughts. "The airport." I said, a small knot forming in my stomach. This was it, I was really going. I was actually going to leave Japan, and maybe not come back.
And I was alone.
Unconsciously I tightened one hand around the Puzzle's chain, gaining a little comfort from the cool metal. Turning a little as Luke began to pull away, I watched as two workmen began to fill in Yugi's grave. Every shovelful of dirt felt like it was being tossed onto me, that I was going to be buried and suffocate instead of Yugi.
That was why I had to leave.
Closing my eyes, I summoned up an image from a time long past, of a twenty-five year old Yugi on his wedding day. I'd never seen him happier. His youthful smile fixed in my mind, I turned to face forward again and opened my eyes.
It was beginning to snow.
"The airport," I repeated, my hold on the Puzzle's chain tightening. "I don't know where I'm going, but it's someplace far away."
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And there's chapter two. I think I write Bakura better than I do Yami, so I'm sorry if this chapter lacked. =( Stay tuned for next time!