When the Egyptian exhibit was originally opened to the public, Yugi had gone to see it out of professional curiosity.
And had left utterly disappointed with the entire thing. Whoever had set it up was an absolute idiot who knew nothing about the preservation of the remains or the time period that the dead king came from.
So when he found himself dragged back not two days later by his friends and Grandfather, Yugi was in a less than charitable mood.
"Absolutely not. I am not handing over the puzzle for the exhibit, not if that is the best you can do in displaying ancient cultures," said Yugi sharply. The curator had an angry expression that Hiryu was all too familiar with.
The man was of a similar cloth as that asshole Vernon. Like hell was Yugi trusting anyone like that.
"But think of the prestige it would give!" said the curator, trying another tactic.
Yugi gave him a flat look, and crossed his arms.
"One, the odds of there being any prestige from handing over a clearly valuable artifact to a lesser known museum is laughable at best. That would imply that you have time to set up a press conference or anything of that nature. Two, I've looked at your exhibit and I am utterly disgusted at how half assed you presented Egyptian culture in general. For the love of the gods, you actually removed the sacred spells from the bloody pharaoh! If you were any sort of real scholar you would have at least left that alone, not disgraced the entire Egyptology profession!" snapped Yugi.
Solomon, rather than be upset at his grandson ripping the curator a new asshole and embarrassing him in public, looked downright proud.
The curator kept shooting Yugi dark looks for the rest of the day, while the poor professor looked downright embarrassed at his part in all this.
"So...you know mummies?" said Jounouchi awkwardly.
Yugi hooked a thumb in his grandfather's direction.
"Grandpa used to raid tombs. Where did you think he got the puzzle, a curio shop?" snarked Yugi.
That had the other teens looking at him.
"No way, seriously?"
"Well, it's not exactly something you bring up in polite company," said Solomon embarrassed.
"But seriously, the way they presented the things they literally stole from a king's tomb was utterly embarrassing to look at. Why did you think I was so reluctant to come?" said Yugi.
Seeing their interest, Yugi cheerfully went over what he knew of the subject...from a mundane perspective anyway... and his grandfather and the professor would chime in clarifying things. It was clear Solomon was very proud of his grandson for being so informed.
When they reached the mummy, Anzu made it clear she wanted no part of being around the thing.
Yugi walked up to the dead king with an expression of empathy on his face.
Since he knew he was coming back to the museum for the express purpose of seeing the exhibit, Yugi had gone into his vaults to get something.
It was a small packet of special herbs and incense, one that he planned to slip past the glass.
Making sure no one noticed what he was doing, Yugi carefully used a bit of magic to slip the packet under the exposed body, next to the sacred spells. That done, he replaced the glass as discreetly as possible before muttering something most people wouldn't be able to translate under his breath.
Unnoticed, there was a man with distinctly Egyptian features watching the odd boy and what he was doing. Initially he planned to stop the child, but he was curious as to what the boy had planned.
His eyes widened in shock as he felt a small sliver of shadow magic calling upon Anubis himself. A spectral jackal, invisible to most, sauntered up to the boy as if greeting an old friend. He cautiously walked close enough to listen to what the boy was muttering...his heart nearly stopped when he recognized it as a special prayer to the dead and a request that Anubis send the soul of the dead king back where it belonged, rather than force it to wander the earth since his body was vandalized.
The jackal sat there calmly, before assuming a more human like figure. The dead soul of the king, which had been weeping previously sat up with astonishment and followed the jackal. They left the museum, and the boy finished his prayer before wandering off to another section of the exhibit.
Nothing could describe the look of shock and confusion on his face. He wandered over to the body...it was an empty vessel once more, the spirit inside released back to the afterlife it had been ripped so cruelly from.
He looked at the boy with a degree of calculation. Not many knew the special prayer to the dead...and even fewer could get an actual response from Anubis himself.
As if his day couldn't be shocking enough, when the boy turned the corner he saw a very familiar pendant around his neck.
The boy had the Millennium Puzzle, in it's completed form.
To say Hiryu was pissed was an understatement. However the man who intruded on his mind only briefly glanced at the 'innocence' Yugi projected and paid no mind to the mirror half-hidden in the corner. Instead he seemed more interested in the other room, which contained the pissy king.
He felt zero sympathy for the odd mage when he was forcibly kicked out by a very crabby spirit who was less than pleased at the intrusion.
Hiryu's only act of kindness in the matter was to help the now shaking man up.
"Serves you right. Even I don't go in that room unless I know damn well he's asleep. He's not exactly friendly to intruders," said Hiryu.
Shaadi looked at him sharply.
"You know what is in that other room."
Hiryu's expression was deadpan.
"The last known owner of the puzzle was a king, and the line of magical pharaohs was essentially wiped out of existence after whatever the hell happened back then. I don't have specifics, but I known the general gist of what he is, even if I have zero idea who he was," said Hiryu flatly. "My only concern is finding a way to get rid of the Puzzle and the rest of them permanently. I don't tolerate soul containers."
The expression on Shaadi's face was highly entertaining.
"You...who are you?" demanded Shaadi.
Hiryu's grin was downright wicked.
"Why don't you ask the gods? If you have enough skill to call upon Ma'at, then surely one of them might be inclined to answer."
After the intrusion, Hiryu sensed that the spirit was a bit more awake and alert. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
So, in the spirit of getting it over with, he waited until the spirit's alertness was a bit higher than normal before meditating.
He found himself in his mental room. The part of him that was Yugi was asleep...right now they didn't need his 'innocence'. Hiryu stepped out from behind the mirror, avoiding the scattered toys and floating books.
Once he reached the door, he calmly stepped out into the hallway...and knocked on the opposing side.
It was only polite after all.
The door slowly creaked open, an ominous aura behind it. Hiryu acknowledged the silent threat it was giving him, and stepped inside properly for the first time.
He spotted the other spirit, who for some reason looked like his current body only older. Not as old as Hiryu was at his death, but likely in his late teens to early twenties.
"So you've become brazen enough to intrude properly," he commented.
"Intrude implies I barged in," Hiryu shot back.
"You've opened that door a few times already," replied the spirit.
"And yet I've never actually come in without permission. I'm not an idiot after all," said Hiryu. "Besides, you were always sleeping, and from what I can tell you react badly to potential threats when half-awake."
The spirit stared at him with all the arrogance of a king. Hiryu couldn't find it in him to give a damn.
"Who are you?" he asked finally. "I know you've attached yourself to my other self, but for some reason I can't find it in me to see you as a threat."
Hiryu gave him a flat look.
"You honestly believe that this is the first time a fragment of your soul has reincarnated? This is what I looked like in Yugi's past incarnation before this one, though I honestly blame Osiris."
"Osiris?" said the spirit surprised.
"In my past life I made it a point to track down soul containers...much like the puzzle... and destroy them or forcibly put the spirits inside them to rest," said Hiryu patiently. "Doing so earned me the favor of the gods that rule over the dead, Osiris included, though it pissed off a lot of tomb keepers in the process."
Seeing he had the spirit's interest, Hiryu explained.
"I was going after a mage that kidnapped a lot of kids from their families and was going to use them in a ritual to make a soul container. I managed to stop him and free the kids, but the energy surge was too much to contain. I had a choice...either take it in myself and protect the kids who hadn't fully escaped the blast radius, or save as many as I could and let the rest die," said Hiryu. "I don't regret my death, nor am I upset about being reincarnated so soon after it."
The spirit stared at him in shock, clearly not expecting that. Worse, he sensed zero lies in Hiryu's story.
"So why are you here?"
"You're finally awake enough to have a chat," shrugged Hiryu. "Do you have any idea what a headache it's been doing damage control whenever you show up half-awake and use your magic so blatantly? Mages have long since gone into hiding and I've had to explain multiple times to the ruling body that I'm not trying to needlessly expose our world to the mundanes."
The spirit at least looked a little embarrassed about that, as he hadn't known.
"What of Yugi?" asked the spirit.
"Yugi and I are one and the same. His innocent facade is what I present to the world, and he is aware of the fact that his past self is sleeping in his mind's room," said Hiryu shrugging. "Once you're more aware, I'm sure he won't have a problem with your temporary residence in our body."
"Temporary?" repeated the spirit dangerously.
Hiryu's expression was as cold as the tomb they were in.
"Your corporeal body is long since dead and the only way you can manifest yourself is as a parasite. A protective one, but still a parasite. My stance on soul containers is that the dead deserve to have their rest, regardless of what the living feel about it. It's why the gods that rule over that domain like me...they just have to point me in the general direction and I deal with pests who have lingered too long for them without any input on their part," said Hiryu flatly.
"If I'm a parasite, what does that make you?" the spirit shot back.
"A shade of a memory," said Hiryu without hesitation. "I am not the actual soul, just a representation of the memories and knowledge left behind by the man I was before. Rather than overwhelm my too young mind with such information, it manifested into a pseudo personality that was named Hiryu by those that encountered it. Think of me as a regular Jiminy Cricket."
"Who?" said the spirit confused.
Hiryu snorted at that.
"If you knock politely, you can borrow from the bookshelf in our mind's room across the hall. That should get you more up to speed on how things are in the present. I know for a fact I've read the original version of that story."
The spirit (which Yugi immediately named "Yami" for simplicity's sake) was a little shy at first, but eventually came to borrow a large number of books...especially the magical ones.