This is a really weird story. XD That's all I have to say…
"A hundred thou. That's all I'm askin', kid."
"But-!" Yugi had protested. "I don't – I can't –"
He had shoved him then, stony-faced as Yugi's slim body slammed into the pavement. It's getting chillier, Yugi had thought idly. Fall is here.
"A hundred thou," the tall, stocky boy repeated. "Tomorrow."
Yugi was silent as the boy turned and left him.
For one moment, almost imperceptibly, his eyes had narrowed.
One: To whom do you speak?
It starts as a soft nagging, at first, at the back of his mind. As the days pass, it becomes a bit stronger. When he is tired, or worried, he feels it as though there is a voice speaking constantly to him, telling him things that he can't quite hear.
It's a warm voice – a tempting voice. He knows that if he could just understand what it says, everything would be all right.
Everything would be fine.
As the days pass, the voice becomes louder and firmer, but he still can't decipher the meaning of its speech. He wonders whether anyone else hears the voice – whether it's normal.
No, it's not normal.
He's special, though, he knows that. His grandfather has given him a wonderful gift, and he has solved a puzzle that managed to remain unsolved for millennia – if his grandfather is telling the truth, of course.
He runs his fingers absentmindedly across the smooth metal as he ponders over classwork. It's a wonder that the teachers haven't decided that a large, pointed object such as the one hanging around his neck is against the dress code.
A whisper at his ear. He glances around. Nobody is looking at him; he determines it to be the strange voice once again, and looks back at the problem. How can he solve for this? Which equation is he supposed to use?
The whisper comes again, a bit stronger. Not right now, he tells it. I'm working.
If the boy is having family trouble, then what's he doing away from it?
He stands a few feet away from the door, looking in through its small window. It's like a door to a different world - sterile, white, closed away. Yugi's small frame can be seen lying near the wall opposite the door.
What is he doing?
Seto Kaiba confers with an elderly-looking doctor. "He hardly moves," the man says. "Stares at the ceiling. Sometimes, it's like he's – oh, he's starting again."
They both watch as the boy, still lying down, begins to shift. His lips form words. He pauses, and smiles, and then speaks again.
It disturbs Seto.
"What is he saying?" he asks quietly.
The doctor smiles and shakes his head. "We haven't been able to figure it all out. He speaks quietly – and mostly when we're not around. But we have been able to make out a bit."
Seto waited.
"Darkness," the man continues, "we hear a lot."
Darkness…
"How is his grandfather?" asks Seto after a moment. "Yugi must have been thrown into shock… they seemed very close."
"You don't know--?" The doctor turns to look at Seto, frowning. "What relation are you to him again?"
"I'm … a friend," he says. The strange word lingers for a moment in his mind.
Or, rather, he called himself mine.
"Ah," says the man. "It was nice talking to you, but I really must get back to work."
And then Seto Kaiba is left with his confused thoughts.
He remembers pain.
He's been bullied by that tall boy again. Money. Money again.
He doesn't have it. He doesn't want to be hurt. He doesn't want to be hurt.
And then, on the last confrontation, a funny feeling spreads over him. The voice is whispering again, but louder, and lovingly, and it's telling him that everything will be all right.
Everything will be all right.
Green specks explode behind his eyes, like he's pressed his fists to them or run into a wall, and darkness slowly spreads. What's happening to his vision? Why can't he see?
The warm, fuzzy feeling grows stronger. It's wrapping around him; he's curling into a mental ball and hugging his knees.
And he hears, for the first time, words from the voice:
I'll take care of it.
When he wakes up, he's back at home, in bed. It won't be until later that he finds out what happened to the bully.
He took care of it.
For months afterward, Yugi had been blacking out more and more frequently, and growing to trust the voice inside his head. He took care of things. He protected Yugi. He helped Yugi to make friends. Jou and Anzu and Honda, his beloved companions, and Seto Kaiba, the strange, quiet man, and Bakura Ryou, his sweet, shy, awkward acquaintance.
And Yugi was happy, and exuberant, and he wasn't afraid any more, because he had the spirit – he called it the spirit – and life was so sweet. He didn't know what happened to most of the bad people, but it was okay, because they were bad. The spirit was helping him. The spirit was guiding him.
Until that day.
And then the first adventure began.
