Original Yu-Gi-Oh Series
Parallel
Chapter 024
Originally Written: Sunday, April 10, 2022 816PM to 932PM
. . . . .
"So, you're a guard for me?" Yugi took a bite into a burger. He sat at a table next to Tea, and across from Pegasus.
"Temporarily." Pegasus took a dainty gulp of his seltzer water. He didn't make a sip or a slurp. He startled the waitress when he gave his order. He'd taken the cap off the disposable cup, because drinking from straws was unsightly, and added something to his drink from a fancy bottle that both Tea and Yugi were certain was alcohol. "Bakura will take over for me, when scheduled."
"Then, what's the real point of you being here?"
Pegasus smiled. A calm smile, like one a sadist would smile before murdering their next victim. "To see Duel Academics burn of course."
"Burn burn, or metaphorical burn?"
"Either will do. I am only telling you this because you will proceed to run around like a chicken with its head cut off otherwise, but I am not supposed to tell you. Noah Kaiba is the face of Duel Academics. The one in control behind the scenes is the woman who assaulted you and most certainly killed Bandit Keith. Make no mistake, in America, that was nothing short of premeditated and attempted murder."
Yugi growled. "Amane Bakura."
Tea tensed, gripping her soda in a near vice grip.
"As I believe Ishizu told you, every Millennium Item has abilities unique to them, and abilities all the items can use. Traditionally, Millennium Items such as your puzzle are truly compatible with one and only one individual. However, there are those who can use them with a few non-fatal setbacks, and those are who we will focus on in today's conversation."
Both listened to Pegasus, holding onto every word. They had nothing better to do, as they were waiting for Solomon to join them.
"Amane Bakura is the current holder of the Millennium Ring, however she is not its intended holder."
"That's Ryou Bakura." Yugi guessed.
"That's correct. Their father originally gave it to Ryou, but Ryou decided to share it with his younger sister, Amane. There is a spirit in the ring, much like the one in your puzzle. When Ryou discovered this, he grew afraid of the ring. So it spent most of the time in Amane's possession, who considered the spirit a friend. One day, he took over Amane, and used the ring's powers to save her and their mother in a surely fatal car accident. Since then, Amane grew obsessed with helping the spirit of the ring with his goal."
"His goal?" Yugi asked.
Pegasus sat in silence, waiting for Yugi's mind to process and figure out the answer himself. It was always fascinating watching someone's mind work through to conclusions. He consistently got a first hand view.
"He wants the Millennium Items."
"Precisely. Remember the setbacks I mentioned?" He waited for both of them to nod. "It is not common for spirits to be sealed into the millennium items. There is not one in mine, and your puzzle and the ring are the first one's I've seen this from. The spirit of the ring is a talented thief, possibly one of the fabled Egyptian Kings of Thieves from the days of old. He uses the shadows and his own skill to hide in wait for the right time to strike. He has taught Amane many of these skills, and that is how she caught both Bandit Keith and you two off guard."
"That doesn't sound like much of a setback on her end." Tea muttered into her drink.
"Ah, no I suppose not. However, I do not believe he taught her these skills. Rather, she wrenched them from his mind." Pegasus dipped a finger into his drink, and swirled it around. "And practiced."
"What makes you say that?" Yugi frowned.
"During Duelist Kingdom, the spirit took over young Mokuba, and tried to reach out to Ryou. This suggests to me that he is running from her, not helping her. Ryou has confirmed with me that the spirit is actively trying to get the ring out of her possession. He won't say why, however. Perhaps memories that were locked away were revealed when she rummaged through his mind? Maybe he is partial to Ryou, and is more incompatible with her than believed. We don't know."
"Can't we just take it from her?" Tea asked.
Yugi shook his head, "I think Millennium Items can only be formally handed over through the loss of some type of game or wager? Both parties need to agree that the item will exchange hands upon the item holder's loss."
"Correct again, Little Yugi. Amane can call the ring back to her whenever she pleases. She refuses to duel, or challenge anyone to any type of game involving the wager of the ring. Instead, she sends others to play for her."
"But doesn't that mean she can't take any Millennium items either?"
"Formally, yes." He gave Yugi a look. "Continue."
"Only if you don't look into my brain while I'm thinking this time, ya weirdo." Yugi snapped.
Pegasus tittered a laugh of agreement.
"Tea…" Yugi looked at her. "That bitch was watching us during Duelist Kingdom."
"What?" Tea blinked in surprise.
"She was on the island watching us like some perv. She could have killed us whenever she wanted." He turned to Pegasus. "You used a shadow game thingy dueling against me, right?"
"The correct term is 'activated'."
"Whatever," Yugi waved his hands. "That weakened you. So she came along and challenged you. You made some agreement with her that if you lost to me or me and Seto Kaiba, or just Seto, you would have to duel her. Or whatever you did. You went all out on me, because you deduced I was the easier opponent. With my puzzle, you would have two items to use against her one when she decided to come for you afterwards or if you said 'No'."
Pegasus clapped, "Excellent deduction, little Yugi." He sobered, staring into his seltzer. "It was a clause slipped in when Noah Kaiba sold his younger brother Seto's Duel Arena technology to Industrial Illusions. I was under the impression that it was being sold with young Seto's permission. However, he never made a fuss, and he had yet to properly draw up rights in his name, due to the arenas being prototypes. When he finished development, Seto found he could not register the rights, because Noah already had, and unfortunately Noah was helping him build them. When I discovered this, I could not legally make a move to return the rights, due to fancy legal jargon I'm certain you don't care for. So I hit Duel Academics in the one place that would hurt them the most: their bank accounts."
"Wait a minute. You got swindled into a magical fight because you didn't read a contract properly?" Tea stared at him gobsmacked.
"I receive hundreds of various contract proposals a week, dear Tea. No one could reasonably go through them all word by word." Pegasus' shoulders slumped. "The fortune I spend on my legal team in a month is many times more than what you could make at Burger World over the course of ten years."
"Who? Me?" Tea flushed, "I don't work at Burger World. Not me, no way." She shook her head quickly. Locks of her brown hair flew every which way. "What a slanderous accusation. Trying to get me expelled from school. Rude!"
"Working laws in Japan are so strange." Pegasus hummed.
Yugi pushed his half eaten burger away from him. Pharaoh's disgust seeped deep into Yugi's soul. He couldn't blame him. He felt the same way.
'Amane is using Kaiba Corporation's reputation and power to strongarm item holders into accepting challenges on her terms. Exactly like a thief.' Pharaoh commented. 'She favors situations with conditions where she would have a 90 percent or higher win…steal chance. She can't do it any other way, because the Ring doesn't rightfully belong to her. She doesn't have access to everything it can do. And whatever the items can do when all seven are placed together, doesn't necessarily require her to actually use them individually.'
Battle City was simply another challenge set to her terms.
. . . . .
A/N: I hope that made sense. In other words, like the Tomb Keepers, she's closely enough related to a Millennium item holder soul-wise that holding a millennium item doesn't immediately kill her. And the thief king isn't able to reject her because the ring accepts her. So it must be won from her. (Or Yugi and co. could kill her, if they can actually catch her to do so... -shrug-)
I never really went into too much detail about Amane's reasoning for not showing up until she did in my notes. If it doesn't make sense, just remember what's also sealed in the ring…technically. Kind of. If that still doesn't make sense, apply the same creative license that lets people create stories with an eighth millennium item. That's a far more nonsensical fanfiction plotpoint. -shrugs-