Jounouchi thought Yugi's show of actually being a badass was a one-off. That is, until the runt showed up looking annoyed.
"You know, normally I don't get involved in my friend's personal lives. But when idiots like you show up, I can't help but interfere."
"Yugi, look out!"
Yugi had to wonder what the hell these idiots were thinking, bringing out tasers in a building who's roof was almost nonexistent in a rain storm. That was just asking for them to be electrocuted.
Either way, he didn't feel like getting too close to these idiot when his physical combat ability was still too low to deal with brawlers.
Besides, dealing with thugs like these had always been Bakura's (and later Ryou's) specialty. If it was good enough for the Thief King himself, then it was good enough for them.
Jounouchi watched dumbfounded as Yugi pulled out daggers from out of nowhere...and proceeded to throw them with a surprising amount of competence.
"You little brat!" snarled Hirutani.
Jounouchi suddenly remembered his beef with the bastard who had threatened his friends. Yugi was clearly avoiding Hirutani, as that was Jounouchi's fight.
By the end of it, he was panting heavily...and looking at Yugi with a great degree of respect.
"Holy shit, I had no idea you were that good!" said Jounouchi, openly impressed.
"Thanks," said Yugi, already collecting his daggers. Then, in a fit of mischief, he flipped one of the daggers before catching it by the hilt.
It had taken him forever to get this good again, much less getting actual daggers he could use in a fight.
Ironically Pegasus had helped greatly in that regard, once he heard of Yugi's unusual hobby of dagger juggling. Once he demonstrated he wasn't playing around with them and actually knew what he was doing, he procured a proper set of weapons for him to use.
"Where'd you get the knives though?"
"Daggers actually. And don't tell Grandpa...I'm not quite ready to deal with him bitching me out about owning actual weapons in the store," said Yugi.
"Hey, I get it man," said Jounouchi. He could understand why Yugi wanted to keep quiet about that. "But seriously, where did you learn to fight like that?"
Yugi had a bit of a shifty look on his face.
"It's a bit complicated, but let's just say I got tired of being considered 'easy prey' by thugs because of my size," he said.
He couldn't exactly tell Jou that he learned most of this stuff ten years from now and just had to relearn the muscle memory.
Jounouchi could understand. The less he knew, the less he could accidentally spill to Yugi's grandfather.
"Hey...thanks for coming for me," said Jounouchi.
Yugi punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"You're one of my best friends, why wouldn't I come for you? That's what bros are for...to have each other's backs regardless of why," said Yugi.
Jounouchi hid his blush at that compliment, mostly because he could feel the sincerity behind Yugi's words by wiping his face.
"Yeah, we're bros," he said, not bothering to hide his happiness hearing Yugi say something like that without hesitation.
The two of them shared a celebratory meal at a restaurant, at Yugi's treat. Jounouchi would have argued, but he had quickly learned when Yugi refused to budge on certain topics.
He felt a strange twinge in his heart hearing Yugi's grandfather and mother openly fuss over him and his injuries. If this was what a functional family was like, then he really envied Yugi.
Yugi felt his skin crawl, having that shady curator obviously salivating over his Puzzle.
Unlike before, this time he knew better than to let the creep anywhere near it.
"I'm afraid I can't part with it. Not only does it have great sentimental value to me, this particular artifact wouldn't fit in the collection you currently have," said Yugi firmly.
"Are you sure?" said the curator, hiding his anger at the firm dismissal from someone he perceived as weak.
Yugi gave him a flat look.
"Most of the collection is from the dynasty of the pharaoh Ramses the fifth. This particular artifact predates him by several hundred years. It makes absolutely no sense for me to let you put the Puzzle in the museum as a display when it would be completely out of place with the rest," said Yugi bluntly. Seeing the looks on everyone's faces, including the proud one of his grandfather, Yugi shrugged. "I looked into the new collection before we came here."
Solomon was rather happy his grandson had bothered to do his research, and thus backed up his decision.
Yugi couldn't help but noticed Shaadi's reaction to seeing him blatantly wear the Puzzle around his neck. So Yugi decided to mess wit him, simply because he could.
"This curator is an idiot. If he really cared about history then why in the god's name did he remove the sacred spells from the pharaoh? Displaying a mummy like this is completely disrespectful to the former king and ruins it's historical significance. There was no reason to take off the bandages just to show what it looks like underneath!"
Shaadi looked at Yugi with open approval.
"You are surprisingly well informed," he said. His eyes were on the Puzzle though.
"Let's just say I have a very...personal...interest to be offended by this ridiculous display. It's bad enough that so much history was lost to so-called 'archaeologists' before people realized the significance of the rich history Egypt has to offer. The number of mummies looted and burned by idiots with more money than sense..." said Yugi with open disgust.
Shaadi clearly approved of his words.
Then again Yugi wasn't kidding about having a very personal reason for his disgust at the way fake historians desecrated Egyptian burial sites. If the Tomb Keepers hadn't kept such a close eye on Atem's burial site, then there was a very real chance he never would have met the other half of his soul. Besides, it was hard NOT to be respectful to the old gods when he had personal interaction with them through the likes of Slifer, Obelisk and Ra.
He also had very little sympathy for Kanekura, the curator. The man only cared for the monetary value of certain artifacts. He had only found out after the fact from Shaadi, but the man had openly attempted to sell his Puzzle to the highest bidder he could get on short notice, and had no intention of returning it like he claimed.
Solomon couldn't stop beaming with pride and joy as Yugi cheerfully explained about the rules of archaeology and why the Egyptian government had such strict rules about anything found in tombs.
To be fair, Yugi had been studying to become a real archaeologist before he was thrown into the past, and had been taking extra classes in his night courses to explain his sudden knowledge on the subject.
"You really like this stuff, huh Yugi?" said Honda.
"I still don't get why you're taking such weird and complicated math classes during cram school," said Jounouchi. On the plus side, his own math grades had shot up significantly because Yugi was able to break it down into easier to handle pieces for him.
"That reminds me, you never did tell us which cram school you attend," said Anzu.
Yugi grinned and looked at his grandfather who was openly amused by this line of questioning.
"Okay grandpa, you can brag if you want. I know you've been waiting for this to come up anyway," said Yugi amused.
"Hohoho...Yugi isn't in cram school," said Solomon. He was going to enjoy this a wee bit too much.
"But he told us he was taking night classes, which is why he's always so tired," said Jounouchi.
"I am," said Yugi, drawing this out for maximum amusement. "I'm also working on a complicated programming project for the people sponsoring my night classes, hence why I'm always doing such headache inducing math on the computer."
"If you're not in cram school, then what sort of classes are you doing?" asked Honda.
"Yugi's a sophomore at Tokyo University," said Solomon proudly. "He's been studying to be a game designer, with a side degree in Egyptology."
Dead silence.
"I must be hearing things. You're telling me Yugi's in college?" said Jounouchi incredulous.
"Well, four nights out of the seven he is," said Solomon.
"Why are you still in Domino High when you're taking college classes?" said Honda incredulous.
"Because my friends are there, and because it's cheaper to live with my family than deal with the headache of balancing living expenses. Besides, the less I have to rely on the guy paying my scholarship, the happier I am," said Yugi.
"Who's paying the scholarship, the guy who owns Industrial Illusions?" joked Anzu. She was only vaguely aware who Pegasus was, and that was only because of DWO and how much the boys talked about it.
Dead silence, as Yugi didn't refute her joke.
"You're kidding, right?" said Anzu. "Please tell me you're kidding!"
"He's eccentric, but if you know how to keep him amused he's really easy to get along with," said Yugi sheepishly.
It didn't hurt he had cleared up the misconception about the Millennium Items being able to revive the dead. That had been the main reason Pegasus had gone a little crazy and tried to force Yugi into a duel to claim ownership of the Puzzle to begin with.
Except this time Yugi knew exactly who to contact to give Pegasus detailed descriptions of what the Items could do, and after realizing they knew more about his Eye than even he had been able to figure out, had dropped the delusional belief it would revive his wife.
Besides, everyone knew that reviving the dead was just asking for trouble. Even if he did somehow pull it off, then there was no guarantee that it would be the same woman he loved.
(Yugi wouldn't find out until much later, but Pegasus had named him the heir of Industrial Illusions, seeing as he had no desire to remarry and no heirs to speak of. He liked the boy's drive and honesty, which was a refreshing change of pace. Besides, the boy had a good head on his shoulders and had a bigger backbone than anyone would expect.)
A few days later...
Yugi fully expected Shaadi to appear. And he was not disappointed, the Keeper of the Items had to be careful that the Puzzle didn't fall into the hands of the worst person possible.
Though that really begged the question of why he allowed Pegasus to take the Eye out of Egypt, he wasn't about to question the man's methods.
Besides, he'd have a chance to challenge Shaadi later. He remembered all too well how the Tomb Keeper had forced him to bring Yami out by threatening Anzu.
He would not permit that a second time, regardless of the man's intent.
He allowed Atem to deal with the intruder, hiding among his soul room. As far as he was aware, the tomb keeper never actually entered his room. He had been far too interested in going after the 'closed' door.
Yugi ignored Shaadi's intrusion into Atem's soul room. He openly admitted he had never made it past the instinctive defenses of the Puzzle before the pharaoh had firmly kicked him out.
So he went over some finer details regarding the next major update of DWO. Since the Pharaoh had returned in his life, he felt it only fitting that the next major expansion would reveal an entirely new area and new NPC's.
The Shadow Kingdom was heavily based on his memories of Ancient Egypt, and he had consulted with several experts in the field to insure that the graphics were as accurate as possible to make it more enjoyable to the history buffs.
The 'ruler' of the area was Atem in full royal regalia, along with Magician-class advisers. He felt particularly proud of the way the art department drew Atem, as well as a more 'realistic' version of the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl.
It didn't hurt that since DWO was so insanely popular, he could finally hire a proper team of people who could help him with the harder programming to add even more fun things to the game. Case in point, the 'companion' system where players could have their favorite monster travel with them and earn extra 'levels' and store their most uses spells as special attacks.
Yugi only barely managed to snap out of it in time to see Shaadi look at him with shaky eyes. Clearly Atem had rattled the man, not that he could blame him.
To be fair, he was the one stupid enough to intrude directly into the mind of the "Nameless Pharaoh".
Yugi knew when Shaadi attempted to challenge him a second time, this time on more even footing. It still pissed him off that the Tomb Keeper would dare involve an innocent in his trials like this.
Since he highly doubted the man would say anything to Isis or the others, he decided not to pretend he was ignorant of the truth.
"You have overstepped your bounds, Tomb Keeper," said Yugi in Arabic.
Shaadi's reaction was priceless. To be fair, the only reason he didn't use Ancient Egyptian was because he was only barely passable in it.
"Who are you?" demanded Shaadi.
"Release the girl, now. I'm not the one so brazen that I would challenge the Nameless One in his own mind like you did, and involving innocents crosses the line," snapped Yugi, his voice filled with implied obedience.
One of the side effects of having Atem in his soul for so long was that a few things crossed over. Such as the fact that once he stepped into his own and quit relying so much on the Pharaoh to act as his backbone, he developed his own tone of authority. It didn't hurt that Isis and the Tomb Keepers were more than happy to instill the natural behavior of a king into the Nameless Pharaoh's reincarnation.
After all, Yugi was the one responsible for keeping the Shadow Mages in line now that Atem was gone. He would need to have a real backbone to deal with the more...violent...ones.
Shaadi stared Yugi down, clearly evaluating him.
"Do you have any idea of the powers that artifact possesses?" he demanded. "My line have been protecting them for..."
Yugi had the audacity to roll his eyes.
"I don't want to hear your nonsense, Tomb Keeper," he said coldly. "Your level of protection leaves much to be desired, particularly if you let the fool who leads the clan abuse his own son to the point the boy had no other choice than to wield the Millennium Rod against him in self defense. And don't get me started on the fact you let a complete civilian like Pegasus claim the eye and allowed him to operate under the misconception that collecting the rest would revive his dead wife."
Yugi was not impressed by the self-importance of Shaadi or the other higher ups in the Tomb Keepers. What happened to Marik was barbaric and completely unnecessary, and the fact they tattooed him by force despite the fact Odion had made it clear he would have taken Marik's place had never failed to anger him.
"If you will not bring out the spirit, then I will force you," threatened Shaadi.
He quickly regretted his words when Yugi pressed a good amount of force behind his magic against the Tomb Keeper. Shaadi might have been protecting the Items for a long time, but he had never had a chance to play around with unbound shadow magic like Yugi had.
"Try me, Tomb Keeper. You may not live to regret it and if necessary I'm sure I could find another more suitable to carry the Items currently in your possession," said Yugi. He was already in Yugi's bad books for involving Anzu and openly threatening her life.
Yugi felt absolutely no remorse in partially sealing Shaadi's magic, which would make it impossible for him to involve innocents like that twice. Going after those that deserved judgment was one thing...going after his friends was a surefire way to royally piss him off.
There was one small side effect of the encounter...he could sense the Pharaoh being fully awake during the entire thing, and he knew that the time was almost right for a long-overdue conversation between them. Atem was awake enough now that he might actually hear his other half out.