Finally the main cast makes an appearance~
I am doing my best to keep everyone's character faithful to the source material but I know that I will make mistakes here and there so your reviews are really appreciated.
Tesem had already experienced jet lag once from her first flight to the USA but just when she thought that she was mentally prepared to endure its effects the 12 hour trip to Japan left her looking very much like a haggard and sleepy zombie.
Rebecca had insisted that sleeping as much as possible on the plane could lessen the effects but there was no use. She had barely slept an hour when someone's loud coughing fit had startled her awake and from then she had taken to fidgeting, then to pacing, then the attendants had chided her for doing so and it was back to fidgeting.
By the time they landed Tesem had picked her fingernails until they were cleaner than an unused lab petri dish and her lips were bleeding from the two spots that she had incessantly nibbled on. To say she handled boredom and monotony badly would be an understatement.
She willed sleep to come on the taxi ride to their rental house but once more she was out of luck. She could only stare out the window and half-heartedly admire the visage of a city vastly different from those she had already known.
Domino was —like most big cities— built up from concrete, glass and metal. Only the strategic placement of greenery kept it from looking too sterile but even then in her eyes everything looked too perfect, lifeless compared to the colorful and exotic visages of Cairo.
She duly noted how Arthur commented on old friends and memories while his granddaughter appeared strangely lost in thought, her apprehension noticeable even as she cast her face to the side.
Had she felt any less exhausted she may have inquired about it but as things were her mind failed to cling to any concrete line of thought and instead drifted sluggishly from subject to meaningless subject.
By the time they arrived at their destination her mind was no longer producing anything coherent, a buzz like an angry hornet's nest settling between her temples in what promised to become a mean headache.
"I would like to change and head out Grandpa, if you don't mind" The blonde girl was always amusing with her way of talking like a woman many years her senior while wearing cute pigtails and dragging around a teddy bear. That level of confidence must come from being basically a child prodigy, intelligent beyond her years and validated by a family that pressed her to exploit her potential to the fullest.
The girls' relationship was one of respect, amiable but not nearly as close-knit as the aged archeologist had hoped.
As strong females they were prone to gravitating to extremes and become either the greatest of allies or bitter rivals. Given that their tempers were disjointed enough for the later option to be more plausible, Tesem had implemented a measured distance in all of their interactions to keep balance and allow them enough breathing room to remain at the neutral middleground of the spectrum. They considered eachother a friend but not a particularly close one.
Arthur regarded the young girl with a stern expression that didn't give away his thoughts, then he smiled and nodded in agreement before turning to Tesem. His granddaughter pranced away merrily and disappeared inside the rental house. "My friend will hopefully join us for dinner. Why don't you try to get some sleep until then? Your room has dark shutters, those should help you."
She didn't need to be told twice. She dragged herself inside and into her room, locked it, stripped bare of all but the unremovable choker and dove right into the plush mattress, caring not if the sweat and filth from the long trip still clung to her frame.
In the pleasant gloom that defied the glare of the midday sun outside her brow slowly lost hold of its frown and one by one her muscles ,tense from hours spent on a sitting position, relaxed.
Several minutes passed in which she drifted in that disorienting state of limbo between awareness and dream. It was then that something within the room stirred but not really, like a passing breeze without any possible source and she swore she could hear something akin to a lonely bell holding a single note in a haunting echo. She wrote off those queer sensations as the beginnings of one of those dreams that are so detailed and immersive you can actually feel what happens.
She liked that kind of dream. They were often laced with anguish, persecution and often bodily harm that hurt too realistically but still she found them to be the most entertaining and exhilarating in some twisted and potentially masochistic way.
Accepting such a notion she let her mind go like one would a helium balloon, convinced a whacked machination of her subconscious was to follow.
'That is just how the subconscious works dear. Do not try to read too much into dreams, the mind is capable of warping things so much it can convince us of having lived impossible things that feel too real. Never forget that these are just illusions created by our imagination'. Those words echoed from some corner of her brain as she opened her eyes to an unknown location.
She didn't know why Dr. Hegazy's voice had invaded her thoughts right then and there but their pertinence was made clear upon discovering how utterly unfamiliar she was with the location that appeared before her.
She looked at a light blue slanted ceiling, tinted a greenish hue from a yellow light-source. A large roof window gave her a good view of the starless night sky, a dead give-away of the late hour. She tried to look around to gather more details about this fabricated scene but she found herself unable to turn any which way. Panic threatened to overtake her every thought at the familiarity of such a scenario but it quickly subsided as she reminded herself of the lack of pain or really any sensation that would further tie this dream to that horrible experience in the tomb.
Her mind was just being a bit of a sadic bitch with its teasing, it was nothing she couldn't handle.
Somewhere very close she heard a sound like metallic objects clinking together, as if someone was tinkering with coins or something very similar in size. Still unable to see beyond her narrow field of vision she focused her ears on her surroundings, slowly picking on the tell-tale signs of another presence in the room, namely the quiet breathing and discreet creaking of a chair as somebody shifted in place.
Had she possessed a tongue or lips or really any semblance of physical form she would have done something to confront the unseen stranger but it appeared that in this instance she was but a bare consciousness somehow rooted in place, perhaps to an object or a place.
She mentally sighed, her hopes for an exciting lucid dream slipping away with each minute that passed devoid of significant change.
A fate such as this rivals our own imprisonment in cruelty. We could sleep the years away, but this forced awareness would have us suffer through every second, seeing the world but remaining unable to affect it. Existing yet forgotten...
She inwardly agreed, somehow not taken aback by the poison lacing the mental voice that wasn't her own or the ground-breaking implications of what was being said. Her therapist would be proud.
"I thought you were a hallucination or something like that. Gone for good." Beneath the indignation her relief was palpable. Although mysterious and clearly inhuman this presence had already proved to be an ally, not trustworthy but neither deserving of contempt. Its company now was preferable over the monotony of this lacklustre dream of hers.
Pay attention. Dreams and memories aren't the same. That statement did manage to startle her. Could that thing read her thoughts so easily? Creepy, even for a product of her imagination.
"So am I remembering things?"
A growl, like a leopard or a wolf with a weird metallic reverb stood in as a 'no'. Confusion ensued but Tesem didn't ask and instead mekame more mindful of this not-a-dream hoping to find her answers there.
"Almost… yeah, this goes here..." The whispered words were barely audible and she nearly didn't catch their meaning since they were spoken in the latest language she had been tasked with learning, Japanese.
It just couldn't be her own remembrance as she was pretty sure that she had never set foot on the Island-Country before. It had to be a dream but the voice fervently denied it… Dreams could try to convince you that they aren't dreams, right? She made a mental note to ask Dr. Yasmine about it on their next weekly phone call.
The room shifted around her and a young boy of remarkable appearance came into view, looking right at her with eyes so tender she would have blushed if she had cheeks to do so.
Those were the eyes of someone looking at a loved one —she was certain— and although it came from a complete stranger she instantly yearned for that expression so deeply it nearly hurt.
"This is the last piece."
Anticipation settled in, not quite her own as it seized her heart in a vicious grip.
At last.
The final puzzle piece clicked softly as it was pushed into place.
Light and power burst forth from the completed item, Tesem's own consciousness being released as the seal was broken.
Untethered her mind floated above, swirling up to the ceiling as she looked down upon the strange scene.
The handsome boy stood, his face downcast and his eyes hidden by the shadows that grew and deepened as if in rebellion against the assaulting luminosity. He didn't move right away but when he finally looked up the eye of anubis shone brightly in his forehead making Tesem bristle and recoil at the sight.
She tried to reach forward, to shout and demand to know his identity, to let him know her own. It felt like it was of the utmost importance but something pulled her away, kilometers beyond the city, over a vast sea and above an endless desert. Into the shadows of a tomb forsaken by the gods where she opened her mouth in a silent scream of despair.
.oOoOoOoOo.
Her eyes snapped open, a cut gasp signalling the very moment she left the dreamscape to come crashing back into reality.
Cold sweat covered her frame from head to toe and the wild tangle of her mane suggested that she had tossed and turned quite a bit during her sleep.
She sat up and ran her fingers through the matted flow of ink-black hair absently. The motion was familiar and soothing, aiding to subdue her nerves which were still on edge after a nightmare she couldn't really recall beyond the feeling of dread that still clung to her throat.
"Childish." She chided herself while kicking off the blankets that had tangled around her legs.
A glance at the window was enough to tell that several hours had passed. Even if the tiredness still refused to completely fade from her limbs she had to assume that she had gotten enough rest for the time being.
Stretching like a cat she made for the bathroom, grateful that she had her own shower and thus had no need to scavenge for her dirty clothes to avoid flashing the other inhabitants of the house.
She briefly eyed the glass shower that somehow reminded her of a museum display before entering, blatantly ignored the hot setting and swiftly cranked up the cold water valve.
The cold assaulted her senses and effectively knocked her out of her stupor. Involuntary shudders ran down her frame for a good minute before her body adjusted to the temperature.
She had never gotten used to what was unsurprisingly the guilty pleasure of many, a steaming shower. Hot water startled her and left her skin feeling too tender and her hair frail and abused, lukewarm was just mild in every way and didn't feel like a good enough shock to the senses. Cold did her just right, it woke her right up and left her feeling energized and ready for the day.
With her eyes shut to ward off wayward trickles of water and foam, and her digits massaging her scalp lazily her mind was given free reign to wander, and to this she attributed the intrusion of an unnervingly familiar voice.
He is coming. The time to right past wrongs draws near.
Once more she should have been fearful or more cautiously curious about that voice and the cryptic meaning of its words. As it stood she was simply annoyed, tired of her mind's weird trickery.
"You have to stop playing the pronoun game." Her frustration swelled and deflated with the same breath. Yasmine had warned her time and time again that the echoes of her past and her possible trauma could manifest in any number of ways. No matter how tantalizing these hidden truths may appear she ought to ignore them in favor of clinging to objective reality or else she risked losing herself.
How could one lose something that was already lost, though? She doubted that the middle-aged woman of arabic ancestry had the answer to that.
We would, but the truth remains sealed beyond our reach. We cannot disclose what fate doesn't show first.
Convenient. She thought bitterly as she turned off the water and stepped out of the crystal stall, carelessly dripping over the tile floor before she grabbed a towel to contain her soaked hair in an improvised wrap.
From her bag she produced a pair of black denim shorts that stopped right below her buttocks and a light blue button up shirt that hung loosely around her chest and which sleeves she rolled up to her elbows for personal styling.
She forwent her flashier accessories such as bracelets and extra collars and simply picked a pair of golden hoops to compliment her choker.
With the towel wrapped around her shoulders to catch the moisture still trapped in her hair she left her room bare-foot and found the house cast in the deep red glow of the setting sun. The long shadows gave the whole place the look of a horror film setting, helped along by the ominous silence that prevailed in the absence of Rebecca and Arthur.
A note left on the kitchen's aisle informed her of their whereabouts. Apparently the young blonde had gotten into some sort of mischief due to a misunderstanding and Arthur had left to intervene. They would be back later, likely with company and food.
She smiled tenderly at the note and stored it in her pocket. It couldn't be much longer then.
Tesem wasn't usually enthusiastic about visitors given that both Rebecca and Professor Hopkins' acquaintances were either too young or too old to really connect with and often their attitude toward her was laced with too much pity and misplaced concern... However this time around she knew that this old friend came accompanied by a grandson of basically her same age, an enticing prospect for a teen with a nearly non existent social life.
In a small patio she found a clothes rack in which to leave her towel to dry, then upon retrieving a brush and perching herself comfortably in one of the tall stools of the kitchen she began the painstaking process of sorting the tangled mess atop her head into a more manageable three-strand braid.
The task was simple enough but it dragged long due to the length of her hair. It was rather impressive how the lifeless, straw-textured, blood caked mess she had arrived at the hospital with recovered its healthy shine and texture without needing to chop it all off. The same could be said about her recuperation in general as the many wounds she sustained from her cruel bindings had closed in record time and even if the rings of pale scar tissue on her wrists and ankles would forever refuse to fade she didn't carry the long-term ailments that the doctors had predicted would accompany her for the rest of her life.
She was a resilient thing, unbreakable. This realization allowed her the mental strength to accept the idea of sporting her scars with pride rather than shame. Men and women of supposed greatness have snapped under less strain. We may be lost but we aren't defeated.
She absently hummed her agreement.
Voices carried into the house from beyond the front door, many more than Tesem had expected and loud with elation and familiarity.
It took her mind a few seconds to make the shift in language and understand the Japanese that was being spoken.
"...and he just grabbed the card and shredded it in front of us, the madman-"
The key clicked as it twisted inside the lock and the hinges creaked almost inaudibly as the door was pushed open.
"-and then Yugi challenged him with Gramp's own deck."
"Of course my grandson would teach that young man a lesson."
"Hmm, the lights are off. I wonder if Tesem is still sleeping..."
Ah. She had in fact forgotten to turn on the lights. To those coming from outside the inside of the house must look close to pitch black while she, after sitting in the shadows for a while, could see well enough to move around without a problem.
"Okaerinasai." Multiple conversations ended at the same time as her accented voice tore through the gloom and announced that she was, in fact, not bundled up in her bed anymore.
"Tadaima." Arthur was the first to answer with a curious smile on his lips, watching as the tan girl made her way to the living room where she flicked on a couple lamps that cast a gentle golden glow that was much more agreeable than the white ceiling lights he had been about to turn on.
She squinted, rubbed her eyes and turned to finally take a good look at their guests.
Three boys, a girl and an old man about Arthur's age who she presumed was Sugoroku Mutou, her legal guardian's long-time friend. They all took a moment to remove their shoes and don house slippers as was customary for Japanese households.
An amiable smile pushed through her natural reticence to break the ice. Despite her best efforts the expression still held a bit of a cold edge, her wariness for strangers swimming in the cold hue of her gaze for the most perceptive amongst the group to notice. The tall blonde teen that came bounding forward with a light blush on his cheeks and a hand scratching at his messy mop of hair was not one of those observant individuals.
"Hello there, I am Katsuya Jonouchi. Your name is Tesem right? Can I call you Tesem-chan? Did you know I was the second place in the- mrph!"
"Alright Jonouchi, you already introduced yourself, now shush." Interceded the brunette whose hair came up in a point so sharp Tesem wondered if it could actually cut. He was about the same height as his friend and had enough muscle mass to restrain the other while pressing a hand harshly against his blabbering mouth.
It was too much, a gleeful chuckle escaped her at the absurdity of the scene, the melodious pitch of the sound had a couple faces blushing and the two older men joining in on her enjoyment.
"A pleasure to finally meet you Tesem." Said Sugoroku upon recovering his composure, dipping his head in a bow which she awkwardly mimicked, clearly not used to the traditional Japanese way of greeting.
"The pleasure is mine, Arthur has told me so much about you."
"I bet he has." He winked at his friend sharing what must have been an inside joke. "This is my grandson Yugi-kun, and his friends Anzu, Honda and Jonouchi."
She meant to address each one in turn but as she dipped her head for the Mutou boy her frame froze mid-motion.
The unexpected familiarity stunned her. Golden bangs, a black and magenta crown of spikes and deep violet eyes, all excessively conspicuous and unique traits to be mistaken for someone else. She must have seen him somewhere, known him somehow but no remembrance jumped up to confirm this leaving her with the unpleasant sensation of having forgotten something important again. The eye carved in the boy's strange necklace glared at her with uncanny intensity, making her tear her gaze away from Yugi's face to instead fixate her eyes on the item. Something was amiss and she dreaded not being able to tell what. The impulse to lift her fingers to touch her own artefact was uncontrollable.
The silence must have stretched a second too long without her notice as suddenly a gentle palm came to rest on her shoulder, freeing her from the violent rush of her thoughts. Tesem looked up at Arthur's fatherly features and then back at the eccentric looking teen and his companions. "It is nice to meet you all… I'll set up the table for dinner."
"Let me help you." Anzu offered cheerfully, easily dispelling the weird atmosphere that had settled over everyone, for which Tesem was grateful.
"Sure. Thank you." She turned and led Anzu to the kitchen where their small supply of tableware was still neatly packed inside a brown box.
"So, you came with Professor Hopkins from Egypt?" The question was voiced with innocent curiosity and thus the tan girl made an effort to soften the fierceness she was used to portray in her face and body-language to try and appear less unapproachable.
"Kinda. We met in Egypt but then traveled to America after he was appointed as my legal guardian. I have been living over there for a couple of months."
She had expected the blue-eyed brunette to press the subject further as would any person with a taste for gossip but luckily the girl appeared to be quite sensible and decided such things weren't proper to ask after having just met. She wasn't a meddler, at least not with strangers.
"Oh that is cool. I mean to study there after highschool but sadly I have never had the chance to visit before."
"It is an interesting place. I haven't really seen much of it but I can tell you that the big cities are diverse, although from how little I have seen Domino doesn't fall too far behind."
"How long will you be staying in Japan?"
A small pondering pause, accompanied by the muted clinking of the plates and cutlery as they were neatly placed on the table. "I am not sure. Rebecca will be returning with her parents in a few days but Arthur said he would stay a while longer for work at the Domino Museum. I'd prefer to stick with him." She admitted with ease, glancing over to where the man in question was engaged in an animated conversation with his friend.
Her passing glance stumbled onto the shape of Yugi Muto. Her eyes lingered until he took note of her stare. She wasn't as shy as to avert her her eyes in shame so instead Tesem held that amethyst gaze for a couple of seconds before the side of her mouth curled in an apologetic grin. Finally her attention returned to her task and the ongoing conversation that had continued to move on without her notice.
"...show you around the city during the weekends. You must be in highschool too right? Maybe you can go to classes with us, I think Professor Hopkins would like the idea if you are staying long enough."
Tesem blinked twice and mentally slapped herself for tuning out, although accidentally, a person who was clearly making a big effort to befriend her.
"I- I would love that." At least she had heard enough to infer the full extent of the proposition to which she gladly agreed. As for the last part she had to take a few seconds to consider it. "Back in America I was being home schooled by a couple tutors while I adjusted. Actual school I think I have never experienced but trying it out with some known faces around sounds nice."
"Can we eat now?" Jonouchi's voice interrupted Anzu's reply earning a very motherly scold from her.
Tesem snickered at that and made a gesture inviting everyone over. "The table is set. What are we having?"
"Kentucky fried chicken." The aged archeologist announced while he stood from the couch, everyone else in tow. The dismayed look she gave him prompted him to explain. "KFC is much better here than in the States, you just have to try it."
Her skepticism wasn't dispelled right away even as Honda and Jonouchi howled their approval of the statement. They all picked their seating quickly, leaving her to hover awkwardly for a little longer when both seats next to the Professor were taken by Rebecca and Sugoroku.
"Tesem." Anzu called with a beaming smile, patting the vacant seat to her left once she had her attention.
'Thank you'. She mouthed and swiftly slipped into place. She pointedly avoided looking to the right as it so happened that the Mutou boy had occupied that spot and already she felt somewhat conflicted by her own reaction to his presence. They were strangers, she had no right to look at him like the guy had just grown a third eye on his forehead but her bodily reaction to him was anything but comfortable.
The elders at the table filled their plates first from the choice crispy fried chicken, potato wedges, biscuits and spicy boneless pieces. Once they were done it was the youngsters' turn to attack the food, their enthusiasm so contagious Tesem found herself smiling and eventually joined the teasing and joking of a multitude of conversations without Anzu's aid. At some point she even began an amiable exchange with Jonouchi and Yugi, the former making a renewed and much more efficient attempt at bringing up their shared background in gaming.
"Are you interested in games, Tesem-chan?" Asked the shorter teen politely, evidently glad that they could finally break the invisible barrier between them.
"I enjoy a few board games but I have only had Arthur to play with. Rebecca briefly introduced me to DM and I quite liked it but I don't have a deck of my own."
"Oh I am sure Yugi's grandpa could hook you up with some cards like he did me."
"Mhmm, you can pay a visit to our shop whenever you like."
"Thanks guys. That would be nice."
A small pause in which she enjoyed the last nibble of her chicken leg (Arthur was right, KFC in Japan was superb) and glanced back at the boys as an idea struck.
"Would you like to play something? I brought a few boards with me."
Jonouchi rubbed a finger under the tip of his nose and smiled cockily as he said. "Duel Monsters is really my thing but who knows? I may have a few hidden talents."
A competitive spark ignited within her, spreading into her smile to give it a more savage curl. Oh how she had craved a good match, one with people whose strategies she didn't know and whose moves could surprise her. Her eyes shifted over to Yugi expectantly and he simply nodded, much more humble and noticeably shier than his friend even if she got the impression that he would prove to be a greater challenge.
"Wonderful!" She said excitedly, bouncing to her feet nimbly and going about retrieving everyone's empty plates to take them to the kitchen where she would wash them later. The pair mimicked her motions in a display of good manners. "I have a few choices. We could play chess, backgammon, checkers-"
"Senet?"
That same unsettling feeling from before struck her once more with foreboding strength, making her muscles bunch up instinctively. She turned to regard the boy with a quirked brow but her gaze was once more attracted as if by magnetism to the golden pyramid bound by a leather cord to his neck. She felt as if she was being tested and it required all of her self-control not to let her lips curl back in a challenging grimace.
Turning up she noticed that Yugi himself appeared completely oblivious to what he had just said or why it struck her (and Jonouchi as-well since he had never heard of the game) as peculiar.
She cleared her throat and said. "Yeah, I have a Senet board that I purchased in Egypt before leaving for the USA. I didn't think it was a popular game anywhere else."
"It isn't but I guess I am in the mood for trying it out." The boy sheepishly scratched behind his ear, his somewhat adorable disposition not quite managing to dispel her suspicion but proving convincing enough for her to relax slightly.
"Alright then. The game is on."