Chapter Thirty-One: Crazy Egyptians
Seto's birthday wasn't so good. I tried to make it really special for him, but…my present was one he didn't like. And he didn't like that I invited over a friend. It was my fault. I had been foolish to think Seto would want to see the gang at all. My brother shouted so much I think he lost his voice.
Even worse, he didn't like the present I got him. I can't do anything right anymore. I think he liked the journal he probably doesn't use more than he liked the Egyptian hieroglyphic decoration. I didn't give it to him because he "didn't want anything like the necklace Yugi had," and so, I gave it to someone else instead. That just made him more furious, and I went to my room until he calmed down.
At breakfast that day, Seto had even mentioned how he had given his life for me, meaning how he had lived so much of it for my sake and to make my own better. He said no thanks was necessary, but maybe he was lying. He confuses me, like sometimes he's one person and other times another.
Sometimes I wonder if my brother likes me much at all anymore.
The blowing wind from the hillside still sweetly lingered in my nose instead of the smoke that so commonly stank there. Even if I couldn't stay much longer after admitting the most probable truth, its serene beauty could keep some of my common demons at bay for awhile.
Sun barely perceptively lightening the east, I debated crawling into my bed at all. The usual nightmares would wait for me—nightmares of both hopes and a final end to events. Neither could I handle right then. Even that usual dream of not finding the last puzzle piece would have been better than the other nightmares that plagued me.
Maybe the Millennium Necklace was what I should try. After all, what could possibly be worse than admitting my brother may have run away to escape me? It was either try the Necklace or go wake up Yugi and see if he helped my brother run away. Or Wheeler. One of the nerds would probably know something about it. If it were true. But I probably couldn't get into any of their houses. And while that normally wouldn't deter me if I were determined, I felt so weary, so listless, that I could summon any enthusiasm to go there. Besides, I had already gone there so often and asked so many questions I had no idea whether I could trust them or not. The Millennium Necklace was my choice.
With a heavy chink, I took the golden decoration into my fingers, seeing the glowing quality it gave to my skin. Almost, my pale fingers turned translucent, and this Item's natural light shone through me.
"How do I even use this?"
In all the times Ishizu had forced the Necklace to show me visions, it had been completely against my will. I had been more intent on keeping hold of my wits than watching how she worked the cursed thing.
Feeling entirely like a buffoon, I took the amulet and held it in my hand, the bulk of its shape in the palm of my hand. Somehow, it seemed oddly warm already. Then, I began to concentrate on thinking, "Memories, my memories is what I want. What happened the night my brother disappeared?"
Long minutes passed with nothing happening and me determinedly continuing to hold the Millennium Necklace, urging it silently—sometimes not so silently—to help me see my true memories.
Nothing happened.
"Stupid thing," I cursed, about to throw it into some unlit corner of my room.
Before I could chuck it out of my sight and away from my tattered hopes, the corner ceased to be unlit. Someone stood there. Someone was there, lighting my room faintly with a soft yellow glow.
"How'd you get in here?" I asked instantly, looking directly into the man's gradient blue eyes even as I could take in the rest of his foreign appearance. A turban rested atop his head, and his long, flowing robes reached the ends of his sandaled feet. Most striking was the cause of the faint glow, which was the ankh-shaped key around his neck. I recognized it instantly as another of those accursed Millennium Items. Nothing else had its own glow nor was such a gigantic chunk of gold.
Despite the glowing Item, however, all my attention remained where my eyes were focused intently on his blue orbs. It was his glaring face that unfazed me, for in all my years, no one had ever been an equal to me in glaring.
This man was.
"Seto Kaiba," he sternly said in an Egyptian accent. "Tell me what you are doing with that Necklace. It was not destined to be yours."
Realizing immediately that the flow of this conversation was going to be his as well as this "he" had to be Shadi, I dropped my annoyance at the avoided question and proceeded to answer.
"Yugi lent it to me."
"The Pharaoh? Why would he do something like that? He needs all the Millennium Items to do what is yet required. To open that door…"
I hated enigmas, and I wasn't going to pleasure this foreigner into questioning him about things he probably wanted me to question. "Who cares? I needed it more right now. But I couldn't get it to work."
"Of course not. It is not destined for you."
Destiny. I almost started laughing in scorn, but if the Necklace wouldn't work for me and Shadi was the only other one who held the answers, I couldn't get on his bad side. Well, any more on his bad side.
"Fine; I'll return it to Yugi later. Now, I—"
"I do not trust you. I will look into your soul and see if you are telling the truth in how you gained that Item."
"What!" I moved backward, having seen the man's brown hand lift his neck decoration up towards my head. "What do you mean?"
"This Key opens the door to one's soul. In the room of the soul, one discovers everything about a person…who they are, what they love, what they fear…even what they themselves do not know." (1)
Even what I did not know? Then that was exactly what I needed! But how could I believe in such paltry magic tricks?
"Nothing has such power," I scoffed, unable to believe this man was really useful and not just a crazy man in a get-up.
"That's because you look and think in the wrong way. It is like you are searching for faint stars in the sky by looking directly at them. It is the side-vision that sees those clearest.
"You look through lenses that tint the world with logic. You see the world only through the perceptions you believe in. But what if what is happening is clearest through the belief in 'fairy tales?' Use your peripheral vision, Kaiba, use a different set of lenses, and maybe then you will see."
"Don't taunt me with false hopes! I've had enough of them! I can't even keep myth and reality separated anymore; how could what you're saying be of any use to me?"
The man looked at me closely, lowering his hand, though I could still sense his intent to use the object on me.
"You have lost pieces of your memory. Why do you not remember things? You try to remember, but you cannot. You do not have the memories. That is how what I am saying can be of use to you. Don't be so quick to limit the usefulness of my Key or of arguments that you normally don't believe in.
"You have experienced the power of the Eye before. Surely you do not still doubt that mysterious things happen? The Millennium Items hold enormous quantities of power, Seto Kaiba. Powers that your lens will not see in focus. You must open your mind and be prepared to accept things you formally denied."
What was the fool yapping about? Something had happened that I normally wouldn't believe? Well, he had that right. I'd never believe in this pathetic magic show that Yugi had already tried to convince me of. Sure, Pegasus's tricks were hard to give a concrete reason to, but that didn't mean one did not exist. For all I knew, he could have simply knocked me out and—
No, that would never explained how oddly my brother had looked when I saw him as Pegasus's puppet. And it would never explain the intense feeling of aloneness that had enwrapped me for unlimited time—it had seemed an eternity—and how I existed no where but felt present at the same time…
Taking a closer look at the man before who seemed to know my history as well as myself, I shook my head. This Shadi character was either a raving madman or someone with extraordinary powers. Then again, maybe I was hallucinating. I had gone a long while without adequate rest.
"I will go into your soul room now and see what things are in there that are causing you unrest. I will go and see if I must weigh your heart."
Before I could even protest and argue about what exactly he meant when he said "weigh your heart," the man's hand had raised the Key once more, making it level with my forehead. Then, he gave his wrist a flick.
Shadi didn't move for a few seconds, not through blinking or even breathing it looked like. Then, his arm went back into place, returning the Key to his neck.
How odd. I hadn't experienced anything or felt anything during the experience. I just thought how amusing Shadi appeared, still as a statue.
But I still remembered what I hoped to find out by him.
"Well? What did you learn? What happened the night my brother was kidnapped?" I asked in a rush, fingers clenching and unclenching as I waited to find out what truth was in my soul…or to find out this man was a fraud.
Shadi stared at me with his usual glare, blue eyes intense and seeming to judge me for every wrong I had ever committed. Such a gaze made my insides feel they were withering and drying to nothing.
"No."
"No?" I echoed dumbly.
"Your brother was not kidnapped," Shadi said sternly.
"Well, he didn't run away!" I immediately snapped back, even though with what I was learning, it was actually probable that he had. Still…I hated admitting that to myself, much less this near-stranger. For a near-stranger, though, he seemed to know a lot about me.
The Egyptian stared at me with his unfathomable eyes. "No," he agreed, "he did not run away. Your brother is dead. He was murdered in your own house." His eyes didn't blink, and the accusatory stare remained. "By you."
(1): Shadi says this exact quotation in the second volume of Yu-Gi-Oh! the manga.