In the greenest of grass they sat for a long while. They were too hurt to move yet. With Yugi gone, it was as if a piece of each of them was cut off. No words needed be spoken. Everyone knew the emotions that ran through them all. The only thing they did was cry, cry in pain, in sorrow, in anger, in hate.
Kaiba, who had been exploring the area briefly, returned to see them still moping and mourning. He understood why, but it annoyed him to see them sit and feel sorry for him, knowing it would progress them nowhere. If they wanted to save him, they had to continue on, not cry on.
"Get up," he called to them. The group didn't even bother to turn their heads. "If we are to avenge him, then what good is sitting and moping going to do?"
"Where can we even go?" Otogi said. "This place seems so perfect, but we don't know where we are, or where he is or what we can do. Nothing."
"Shut up!" Seto snapped at him. "We know what we must do, and that's kill the bastard. We don't have to know where we are or where to go. We'll make our own path. Are you going to let him win, because right now you're definitely letting him!"
They finally turned to him, having never seen him more motivated to rescue someone other than Mokuba.
"What happened is over and done with. It's nothing but a memory now. We have to move on and look ahead, and what's up ahead is his defeat. We can never get there merely by sitting here and moping about the past," Seto told them.
Jounouchi stood up.
"He's right. We have to keep going. We're not going to achieve anything but just sitting here crying over what happened," he announced words no one thought they would ever hear. "I'm with Kaiba."
The rest but Yami Yugi stood up in agreement, realizing that they had to start from scratch and find and defeat Anubis. Yugi's mind, however, was still elsewhere. He was listening, but was more focused in his own dark thoughts. He continued resting his head on his knees.
"You," Seto pointed at Yami Yugi, "you're the worst of the damn bunch. Your mind always dwells in the past. If you care about your partner, if you really want to save him, you'll stop. You'll fight on for him, and for everyone else!"
He knew Kaiba was again correct. He was worrying too much about what had already happened, rather than growing from it. He didn't care! He continued to blame himself for the cause of everything up to this point. Wanting nothing to do with them, he got up and ran. He wanted to be nowhere near them, afraid he would only bring to them what he brought to Yugi: death. And darkness. And despair. No more suffering.
He ran on for a while until he arrived at a small waterfall. He jumped into the river, right under the crashing falls of water. Continuing to cry, he tried to clean himself up, rubbing his face with the water. He scrubbed the blood on his shirt in an attempt to wash it off. Strangely, it would not come off. No matter how much water put on it or how much it was scrubbed, the blood remained, as red as it had been the entire time. He noticed that not even a red color was flowing down the river. Confused and frustrated, Yugi splashed the water with his fist.
"The water…" a voice echoed to Yugi. It was Anubis. "So natural, so clear, so clean. Such great water should not be wasted like that."
"Come face me!" he yelled, unaware that Anubis was nowhere near him. "Coward, don't hide! Come and get me! Destroy me! It's what you want, isn't it? Well then put me out of my misery! Kill me!"
"Water gives the human life. It composes the body. Without it, the body fails. The more natural the water is, the cleaner it is, the more one benefits from it. Should the water be more contaminated, the more one who drinks it will become ill," he heard him say. "I will not let you make the innocent suffer by allowing you to spill the blood in it. This pure water will not wash away your sin. God will not forgive you for your acts. You must live with it until your doom, then to Hell with your soul."
Yugi understood now why the blood would not come off. Anubis was making him pay more than he himself was. But Anubis was no God. He carried the name of one, in his hand he had powers like one, but he was not a true God. It was not his decision to determine the fate of anyone. He knew the God Anubis referred to was himself, and Yugi would not tolerate him thinking that's what he was.
"You're right. My acts were wrong, but it's not you to determine fate!" he yelled, still unaware that Anubis was not really listening to him.
"Continue to defy it all, and you will suffer more. It matters not what you do now, because it is known what will become of you. You cannot undo what is already done," his voice faded away.
Yugi stormed out of the river, water dripping from his body. He ripped his shirt off, still full of blood, and threw it to the ground. Already being torn apart about all of his terrible acts, he did not need to be reminded of it by wearing it. Again, he began crying to the sky.
"Anubis," he screamed, "You'll not determine what will happen to me! I will accept any fate the true Gods have for me, but you will not be the one to decide that because you are not one of them! You're a mortal man and nothing more. Think you're anything close to the Gods and you'll consume yourself!"
He paused for a moment.
"And Aibou," he shouted, "I'm sorry for everything, but especially for what you have gotten and not deserved! Because of me, you're gone, and that's not fair. You should still be here. I swear to you, Aibou, that if my doom is here, I'll die committing an act of good, not of sin. I'll fight for your second chance. For you is all I will strive for! I promise!"
He walked away from the river, still soaking wet and shirtless. He had but one thought on his mind the entire way back to his friends.
I promise, Aibou, he thought to himself. I promise.
Yugi had caught his friends on his way back. They had been chasing after him.
"I'm sorry," he apologized for running off on them. "I didn't mean to abandon you. I just needed time to think and figure out what I want to do."
"That should have been inevitable," Honda said to him.
"It was. I just needed to realize it," he put his head down in shame.
Jounouchi stood beside him and smiled.
"We understand," he said. "Let's forget about it and concentrate on where we have to go."
Anzu walked next to him and showed him a note they had found when he was gone. It read, in some sort of unique hand writing:
Rest to your needs, eat to relieve. Only in the battles of flaws shall death be there.
"Does this mean we're safe for now?" Anzu asked them.
"I wouldn't count on it assuring our safety," Bakura said.
They walked around, exploring for hours before soon enough the sun began to set. Night had crept up on them. Turning their heads to the right, they saw a fire had been built, surrounded by blankets and pillows. Honda walked over to inspect the area, making sure it was safe. He had found nothing of harm, and signaled the rest of them to come.
"I'd say it'd be good to use the night for some rest," Seto suggested.
"But how do we know we're not going to be attacked during the night?" Otogi asked. "This could all be a trap. As utopian like as all seems, it could be nothing but trickery."
After arguing over what to do for several minutes, Yugi had a suggestion.
"I'll stay up and watch for him," he told them. "You all sleep, and if something happens, I'll wake you. If nothing happens during the night, we might be able to believe what the note tells us."
With no better ideas, the gang decided to give Yugi's idea a shot. He continuously reassured them that he would be fine staying up the night. Eventually, they had enough trust in him and began to sleep. Yugi did keep a look out and was well aware of his surroundings, but he spent much of the night, gazing up at the shining stars in the sky. He knew that even if he tried to sleep, he would not be able to. There was too much on his mind. At least now he could hold his tears back.
Morning came quickly. At the feeling of the sunlight, everyone woke up. Again, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the sky was clear. They agreed to get moving quickly and begin their journey. Walking away from the camp site, they ran into a road which had not been there the day before nor created during the night. It was a path of dirt, and right on this trail was a basket of food. Standing in front of it, they debated on whether to eat the food in it or not.
"The note said it was okay to eat it," Anzu stated.
"But can we trust it?" Honda questioned. "I'm not so sure."
During their debate, Jounouchi had already helped himself. His stomach had been growling, and when food was sitting right in front of him, he was going to quickly get some for himself.
"A starving dog will eat scraps off the floor," Kaiba sighed.
"Well if this food was poisonous or something, he would have been effected by it by now, right?" Bakura said happily, sitting down and pealing a banana.
Everyone sighed and decided to eat. There was plenty to go around, and it filled them up quickly. When reaching for the last bit of food in the basket, Jounouchi pulled out another note. About to wipe his face with it, assuming it was a napkin, he caught himself and opened it.
"Follow the familiar trail, and ready for battle," he read aloud.
At the bottom of the note, there were pictures drawn on it, representing seven people. These pictures were clearly, by the art work, hieroglyphics, and the people represented were them. The shortest of the people drawn had been crossed out by red. They began to understand that the battle they had fought yesterday was the start of it all. It was a game like structure, and Yugi was only the first competitor. Now there were only six others. No matter how Anubis wanted to fight, they would stand against him.
The gang stopped eating immediately after receiving this note. Leaving the food be, they continued down the road, knowing that if they stayed on this path, they would encounter their enemy. Yami Yugi walked ahead of them all, determined to keep his promise to his partner.