Book One

Chapter Two:

Cat Reincarnate

"Hey, Yugi! Don't leave!" Anzu waved down Motou Yugi in the halls after school let out. Yugi turned around and waited for her to catch up.

"Are you doing anything after school today?" she asked once she'd reached him.

"Um, no, I don't think so . . ."

"Cool. Then can you go somewhere with me? I can't tell you where yet, but can you come?"

"Uh, sure."

"Great!"Anzu skipped ahead of her friend and outside. Yugi ran after her.

Five blocks later, they came to a plain brick building with a small sign reading "Humane Society" on it. Yugi looked up at Anzu.

"Um, Anzu? Why are we here?"

"It's the surprise I told you about," she smiled as though she'd concieved something ingenius.

Yugi continued staring at her, trying to figure out what she meant.

"I'm giving you a pet, Yugi." Anzu's smile widened. Yugi looked back at the building, and then back at his friend. "Wow . . . that's so . . . surprising. Thanks a lot." Finally succeding in producing a smile, Yugi followed Anzu inside.

Inside the run down, poorly lit, animal-smelling building, Yugi looked around through quickly watering eyes.

"Can I help you?" A woman with mop-like hair adressed the two high schoolers.

Yugi blinked up at her.

"Yes, we're here to look at the cats avaible for adoption." Anzu answered.

"To your left," the woman replied, and then turned back to reading an ancient magazine.

"Cats?" Yugi whispered to Anzu.

"Yeah," she whispered back. "You're mom said she didn't want a dog, but that a cat would be okay."

"My mom knows?" Yugi's tearing eyes widedened.

"Yeah. You didn't expect me to bring an animal into her house before I made sure it was okay, did you?"

"Oh. But Anzu . . ." Yugi interupted himself by stifling a sneeze.

"Bless you."

"Thanks."

"Are you okay Yugi? You look kind of glassy-eyed."

"I'm . . ." he shook his head. "I'm, uh," –sniff– "I feel sort of stuffed up all of a sudden."

"You . . . oh no. You're not allergic to cats, are you?"

Probably. It'd figure. "Nah. It must be something else. I'm sure a cat will be really cool."

Anzu's smile returned. "Okay." She looked around and entered the cat room to their left. When Yugi followed, he saw a room the size of his kitchen filled with cages, filled with felines. Instantly, an intense tingle shot up his nasal passage. Trying his best to disguise the increasingly apparent fact that he, indeed, seemed allergic to cats, he blinked his eyes a few thousand times and followed Anzu around the dander/litter-smelling room.

"Oh look, here's a litter of kittens!" Anzu was bent over, peering into a cage. Yugi lifted his neck to get a look at them: Four brown and white kittens sleeping, chewing, and peeing on each other.

"Would you want one of these?" Anzu turned her head towards him.

"They are kind of cute," Yugi had to admitt. "I don't know though." He moved away from the cage and knelt down at another cage sitting on the floor. A scruffy cat with matted black fur stared back at him.

"Aww," he said, squatting down in front of it. "Poor old cat. I'll bet nobody loves it."

Anzu sat on the ground next to him and looked into the cage. "Maybe she was waiting here for you."

'Pharoh?' A feminine voice asked within Yugi's head.

"Huh?"

"What?" Anzu asked.

"Sorry, I thought you said something to me."

"Yeah, I said maybe she was waiting-"

"Not that part. Nevermind."

'Pharoh? Is it you?'

This time Yugi jumped up and spun around. "Who said that?"

"Who said what, Yugi?" Anzu stood up and looked down at her empathic friend. Across the room, a goldish tabby began stratching the chickenwire door to its cage.

'Pharoh? Can you hear me? I'm over here!'

Weirded out beyond reason, Yugi catiously walked over to the cage. "Kitty?"

'Master! Is it you?'

"Huh?"

'It must be you . . .'

"Um, Anzu?" he said, without looking away from the cage. "Do you hear anything strange?"

"No. What do you hear?" Teah remained safely standing by the cat with matted fur.

'It isn't you?'

"Yugi? Are you okay?"

'Neverind. Another lost hope.'

'Yugi!' The Pharoh's voice suddenly rang out in Yugi's head.

"Dack!" Yugi yelled, silenceing the voices for a moment. "Will everyone just stop talking to me?"

Anzu remained standing by the cage in muted concern.

Before Yugi could collect his thoughts and asses the situation, his alter-ego, unannoucend, took possesion of his body and took three bounding steps to the cage that held the talking cat.

"Neffie!" He cried, twining his fingers around the chickenwire.

'Pharoh! It is you!' The said cat started mewing dramatically and clawing again at her cage.

Yami Yugi unlatched the cage door and swung it open, taking the cat into his arms.

'Neffie!'

'Pharoh!'

"So, uh, is this the cat you want, Yugi?" Anzu asked.

"Neffie, what are you doing here?"

'Pharoh, I've been waiting centuries for you.'

'Um, excuse me,' Little Yugi irratedly interupted the two. 'Pharoh, would you like to tell me what the HECK is going on??'

"Anzu," Yami Yugi looked up from the cat in his arms to the pensively smilling girl. "This is the one I want."

" Okay . . . I'll just, go fill out the paperwork then." As she left the room, Anzu reasured herself that for Yugi, a scene like this was really nothing to worry about. Stranger things, by far, had happened on a school day.

'Yugi,' Yami Yugi addressed his other half, 'this is Neffertiti. She was my cat . . . a very long time ago.'

If little Yugi had a body at that point, he would have slammed his head into his hand. 'You're kiding me, right?' Why not, though. After all, every one seemed to have been reincarnated. It only figured that Yugi's birthday present would end up being a dead cat.

"Um, Yugi?" Anzu stuck her head back in the doorway. "You need to come sign for the cat."

"Right." Yami Yugi stood up, with Neffie in his arms, and walked lesuirly out to the front counter. The mop-headed woman pointed to the line he needed to sign on, without looking up from her page.

'Why the boy?' Neffertiti asked.

'What?' The Pharoh asked in response.

'The boy. Why is there another mind in your body?'

'Oh. It's his body. My spirit is within the puzzle.

'Ah. Reincarnation does odd things like that, I suppose.'

Yami Yugi shrugged inwardly and pushed the paper back across the desk towards the woman.

"Well, she has all her shots already, so all we need to do still is get her a lisence. But that can happen on another day. Okay?" Anzu smiled down at Yugi.

"Yes. Anzu . . . Thank you so much for this."

"You're welcome. I'm glad it worked out so well. You really seem to like that cat."

"I like her very much. I can't tell you what it means to me to have found her. Thank you." Without weighing the consequences, Yami Yugi hugged Anzu on impulse. Not close enough to squish Neffie, of course. Anzu, once released, stood breathlessly blushing and wondering if she had been talking to Yugi, or the 'other' Yugi (blush).

"Er, you're welcome, Yugi," Anzu sputtered, recovering herself.

'Here, Yugi,' the Pharoh relinquished control of Yugi's body to Yugi.

'Gee, thanks. Now that you've picked out my present and hugged Anzu.'