Yami Yami Yugi: Haha! I told you I'd be back soon this time.
Jounouchi: Yeah, like we were gonna believe that.
Yugi: Jou! Be nice!
YYY: Forget it. He's just like that sometimes. But now we have to get on to business. Yugi?
Yugi: Right. As you may have noticed, Yami Yami has been playing around with titles for a while. Don't worry, she'll have one picked out soon enough.
YYY: Great. Now Jou, do you have anything you would like to say?
Jou: *Smashes himself against the screen* HELP ME! I'm being held here against my will! Get me out! Please! Free me from this horrid place! I'll do anything-
YYY: JOU!! That's not what I meant.
Jou: *blinks* Oh… Right. Thanks for all the reviews! Although Yami Yami was rather surprised that not to many of you caught on to what was strange with Yugi and me.
Yugi: But that's alright! You'll find out soon enough.
YYY: I think that's all… Oh yeah! Thank you to all who reviewed! I don't think I've seen so many reviews appear all at once! Well, here we go again!
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Disclaimer: Just to remind you, I don't own Yugi or Jounouchi or Ryou or Malik or Yami or Seto or Bakura or Ishtar or… *two hours later* or Espa Roba's youngest brother or Rebecca's teddy or… *the next day* or random man 37 or random man 38 or…
Yugi: We could be here for a while. Let's leave her alone and get on with it.
YYY: or random girl 3 or random girl 4
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Warning: Scroll up. See the rating. See genre. See previous chapters. See what I mean?
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Chapter Five
Knock Knock.
Yami looked in the direction of the door to the throne room. "Who's there?" he demanded.
"Who do you think Pharaoh?"
Yami grinned. Only one person he knew had the nerve to talk to him like that and live to tell about it. "Wait one minute," he shouted. He turned to the boy sitting on a smaller chair beside him. "Yugi, go to my room. I'll be there in a minute." Yugi gave him a confused look but went over to the doorway to Yami's room just the same.
Once the door closed, Yami turned to the one Seto was behind. "Enter!" The door swung open and Seto marched in, dragging a struggling boy behind him. "Is this him?"
"Yes," he said pulling Jounouchi in front of him. The boy immediately bowed. Disrespecting the High Priest was one thing, but the Pharaoh was a whole nother story. He most certainly did not have a death wish!
"Good. Now we'll have to find a place for him…"
"Actually Yami, I wanted to request that he be my slave."
Yami raised an eye brow. "Oh really?"
Seto rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up! So can I have him or not?"
"I suppose so. Just, don't kill him. The reason I had you bring him was for…you know…" he motioned toward his chambers.
"Ah, of coarse!" He smirked. "Well, I'm off. Have fun with your playmate."
The Pharaoh glared and the next thing anybody knew, Seto was being attacked by a brown hairball.
"Argh! Get this stupid thing off me!" He yanked the creature off and threw it at Yami who sent the Kuribo back to the Shadow Realm.
"Come Jounouchi," he said pulling the slave up and out of the room.
'Great' Jounouchi thought, 'now I'm stuck with this guy for my master. Does it get any worse?" He let Seto lead him while he looked around.
In all fairness, this place was pretty cool. It was very clean and looked very nice. He was being led down a rather long corridor at the moment. There were a few doors they passed and writings on the walls. He could read a few words of it, but not a lot. As he passed another door, He had to wonder of Yugi could be right behind one of them.
"Big brother!" Jounouchi was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw a little raven haired boy running down the hall towards them. The boy launched himself onto Seto who gave him a quick hug before putting him down. Jounouchi took a closer look at the boy once he was on the ground. He was young, perhaps ten or eleven years. He had long messy black hair and gray eyes. He was wearing short green robes with silver trimmings and a blue sash around his waist. Hanging around his neck was a golden ankh shaped key.
"Hey big brother! Where were you today? I was worried."
Seto gave him a warm smile and ruffled his hair. "Sorry Mokuba. I had to run an errand. And I'm afraid we're going to have to miss out lesson today, too."
The boy, Mokuba?, frowned. "But why? I haven't seen you all day!" Seto motioned behind him toward Jounouchi. "Ohh!" he said, understanding. "Well in that case, don't let me keep you. Just make sure to promise not to skip out on me tomorrow."
"Okay, I promise."
"Alright. See you later big brother!" With a wave he disappeared down the hall.
Seto's face hardened again as he continued to lead Jounouchi down the hall. After a few moments they reached the door at the end. It was silver with a carving of the Millennium Rod on it. He placed his hand on it and it glowed blue before opening.
Now it didn't take a genius to figure out this was the high priest's room. It was the second best room in the palace next to the Pharaoh's. The only difference was that it was slightly smaller and everything was blue and silver instead of red and gold.
Just before entering the room Jounouchi suddenly became very nervous. 'Shit! I'm his slave and I'm in his room. That can only mean one thing…' He was scared. More than nervous but less than terrified. He was just scared. So naturally he jumped when he heard the sound of Seto closing the door. And locking it. Seto turned around and approached his new slave. He slowly backed away as Seto continued to advance until he hit a wall. Great, now he was trapped in a corner. Jounouchi tried to look tough, but it was kind of hard considering he had a big, powerful man towering over him. 'Damn.'
"Come," he ordered turning and walking to the other side of the room. He stopped at the bath. "I want you to undress and get in. I have to attend to something but I will return in a few moments. You are not to leave this room." With that he left through another door in the back.
Jounouchi stood there for a moment before relaxing slightly. He was safe for the moment. He slowly removed the few clothes he had on and stepped into the bath. The water was hot, but it felt good on his cuts and bruises. He closed his eyes and sighed before sitting up. He found a small cloth and used it to clean himself up. When he was done he settled down into the water and started to think.
What was he going to do when the High Priest returned. He knew what was going to happen when he came back. He shuddered at the thought. Normally he would try to fight him off, but this was different. This guy could do more than just beat him if he got angry. And with the band around his ankle he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
But as he thought, he suddenly became aware of how tired he was. He leaned his head against the side of the bath and used his arm as a pillow. Despite all his worrying, he was soon sound asleep.
Meanwhile in the back room, Seto was doing some thinking of his own. He had become very confused ever since he saw Jounouchi. Sure he was just another slave, but he had somehow become rather attached to him. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he felt sympathy towards him when he saw the state he was in at the other man's house. And when he hit him on the road, he felt horrible after that.
But it didn't make any sense. He shouldn't feel like this towards a slave. Finally deciding to blame it on stress, he returned to the other room.
****
Yugi sat alone in Yami's room fiddling with his shirt. Yami had to go to a meeting so he was left by himself. Sighing he leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. He was incredibly bored with nobody to talk to or something to occupy his mind. Even with his old master he could always talk with Jounouchi or even Draconis and Anaku.
He sighed again and flipped onto his belly. Suddenly, an idea struck him. Using as much power as he could muster, he called his deck to him. With a small pop, it appeared in the air before him. He snatched it up and sat up. Hiding and calling his deck was the most of his powers he could use with the band on his leg.
He started to flip though the cards, stopping at his favorite monster. Yugi was especially fond of the Dark Magician. It was strange because it was said that the Dark Magician was loyal to only the Pharaoh, and nobody else could control it. But Yugi had also been destined to have one.
~* Flashback *~ (Quite a lot of these, ne?)
Five-year-old Yugi was flipping through his newly made deck that his Grandfather helped him make. It wasn't the best deck in the world, but it wasn't bad either. He was about to go out when he was stopped.
"Yugi," his Grandfather asked, "Where are you going?"
"To Jounouchi's house. I wanted to show him my new deck!"
"It's getting dark Yugi. You can go tomorrow."
"But Grandfather, it's only to Jounouchi's house! I'll be fast, I promise! Please, Grandfather?" He gave him eyes that not even the mighty Ra could refuse.
And it worked too. The next thing he knew he was on his merry way to his best friend's house. But on the way he saw a frog hopping about the small stream that flowed out of the oasis.[1] He giggled when it fell off a rock and started to chase it. He ran around before finally losing sight of it. Deciding to look for it again later, he set of to Jounouchi's again. But there was a problem.
He was lost.
He whimpered and wandered through the dark, hopefully to Jounouchi's house. But after a few minutes, he knew for certain he wouldn't find his way there.
"Grandfather?" he called out, hoping he could hear him. "Can anybody help me?" But nobody came.
It was very dark and terribly cold. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. He continued to walk to nowhere hoping to find someone who could help him.
"Hello?" Yugi called out again. Still nobody heard him. Finally exhausted, the leaned against a building and slid to the ground. Afraid that nobody was going to find him, he started to cry. Tears streamed down his face as he whispered one last time, "Can someone please help me?"
There was a glow beside him and the next second he was face to face with… someone. He was very tall and dressed in all purple. He had on a big hat and was carrying a long staff.
"Who are you?" the little boy asked.
"I," the stranger responded, "am the Dark Magician."
"But why are you here?"
"You were in need of help, were you not?"
"Yes…"
"Well, I am here to help you." He held out his hand, which Yugi took, and helped him up.
"But why is an important monster like you helping me?"
"Are you not one of the Chosen Four?"
"Huh?" He was confused.
"Your special powers."
"Oh!" he said, knowing what he was talking about. "Yes, I am."
"Well, because of that I was called to you. Now, what is it that you needed?"
Yugi smiled, glad that he wasn't alone anymore. "I'm lost. I have to find my friend Jounouchi's house."
The Dark Magician nodded and led him down a few roads before stopping at one of the houses. "Is this the one?"
"Yes. Thank you so much Dark Magician!"
"Think not of it. Just call on me whenever you need help." He glowed and disappeared. On the ground where he last stood was a card with his picture on it. Yugi picked it up and smiled before carefully adding it to his deck.
~* End Flashback *~
Yugi returned to laying on his back, wishing he could talk to his monster again. It had been so long since he last summoned him. But this stupid band on his ankle kept getting in the way. Just a stupid piece of metal. But the only person who could remove it was whoever his master was. And you could imagine how many masters would do something so you could unleash some sort of strange power.
The door opened and in stepped an annoyed looking Pharaoh. Mumbling something about "idiotic buffoons who call themselves counsel members may they drown in piles of camel shit," or something like that, he collapsed on a couch. Yugi sat down beside him and tilted his head to the side.
"Bad day?"
"How could you tell? Yes, I'm afraid I can't stand that stupid counsel. I swear they have no idea what they are talking about."
"Then why don't you just get a new one?"
Yami shook his head. "I couldn't do that. They may be a bunch of old buffoons, but I can't trust anybody else. They're among the few who are truly loyal to the kingdom."
"Sorry, I didn't know."
"Don't be," he said sitting up. "You're too young to understand this sort of thing."
"But aren't you pretty young too?"
"Yes, I'm afraid you have me there. I'm only fifteen, but I've been learning about this stuff since I was very young."
"Oh." Yugi wasn't sure what else to say.
"Well it's late and I'm tired. Let's get some sleep." He stood up and Yugi followed. But the metal band around his ankle got cought on the end of Yami's cape and he tripped, sending them both to the ground.
"I'm sorry! Are you okay? I'm sorry!" Yugi panicked. Yami had been nice to him so far, but was he going to hit him this time?
"It's alright Yugi. I'm fine. But I do want to know what this is." He pionted to the band that now connected Yugi's ankle to his cape.
"Oh, um…" 'Great. What am I supposed to tell him now?' "My old master put it on me. It was to…sort of keep me in line, I guess." He hoped he believed it.
"Well, it's only causing trouble here so…" He reached over and snapped it off.
****
YYY: *still doing disclaimer* …or Yugi's hair gel or Malik's left shoe (But I have his right one) or, finally, The dynamite I used to blow up Kaiba's house.
Kaiba: *off screen* You what!?
YYY: Now that that's done, let's get on with the fic!
Jou: Yami Yami, the fic's over.
YYY: It is!? That's the last time I do a disclaimer! So let's see where we stand…
*reads the fic*
YYY: Okay, so it isn't the fastest update in the world, but it was faster than last time!
Jou: Yeah, barely.
YYY: *sticks toung out*
Yugi: You two are so immature!
YYY: Oh, and who still sleeps with that Dark Magician night light?
Yugi: Okay! It's on! *tackles YYY to the ground*
Jou: Wow, he's tougher than he looks. Oh well, see you next time!
YYY and Yugi: *in a dust cloud*
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[1] He's five. Five-year-olds get distracted easily.