Chapter 33: Replacement
"Yuugi can't be dead." Yami couldn't believe it—wouldn't believe it. "It isn't possible."
Shadi said nothing, only held his infuriatingly stoic expression.
A hundred arguments came to mind—the fact that Yuugi couldn't have died as a spirit; the fact that Yami still felt a connection to the boy at the back of his mind, could still see his soul room within the puzzle; the fact that he would have known, he would have known—
Rather than make arguments, he grabbed the Millennium Necklace from his pocket and tied it to his throat once more. He closed his eyes and focused on Yuugi in that moment.
He expected to see the boy with Ra, standing in that room painted with light.
Instead, he saw Yuugi in Domino with Sugoroku. The old man sat in the back of a taxi, leaning against the window, his face drawn and pale. Yuugi sat beside him, and nothing would have been strange about the scene except for two little details: One, it was impossible for Yuugi to be back home in Domino, and two, Yuugi, the attentive boy always keen on safety, wasn't wearing a seatbelt.
"You sure you don't need a hospital?" the taxi driver asked, frowning into the rearview mirror.
Grandpa chuckled weakly. "I've survived a few monster attacks in my day. You just take me to that address I gave you."
"Monsters." The driver shook his head. "Everybody's ravin' about monsters today. Look, sir, I never disrespect my elders, but I don't know if I missed a joke or what. Are you talking about those holographic things that KaibaCorp makes? Those aren't real, and they can't hurt nobody."
"Believe it or not, I am up to date on my technology and also not senile enough to confuse the difference between reality and games."
Yuugi said nothing, and his grandfather talked as if he wasn't there. It was unlike either of them.
"Okay, okay." The driver hooked his thumbs through the steering wheel, waved his fingers in surrender. "Didn't mean any disrespect. Just a lotta weird talk today."
"Don't disbelieve everything you hear," Grandpa said.
Yuugi watched him for a moment, then turned to look out the window. He began humming to himself, a children's song that teased at the back of Yami's mind like a forgotten memory—a memory that had never been his to begin with.
"Keep your pocket star . . ." the boy sang quietly.
And neither Grandpa nor the driver even glanced his way. Like he wasn't there at all.
Yami opened his eyes, jolting back to reality. He caught himself on the cart railing. His breathing was ragged.
Shadi watched him but didn't ask.
Yami swallowed. With impatient fingers, he untied the necklace and shoved it back in his pocket.
"You could use it to see everything," Shadi said at last, his expression still empty. "The tournament ahead, the matches and results. Use it to see what the monster inside Marik will do."
"So it told me," Yami snapped. Even with the necklace in his pocket, the whispers of the shadows weren't completely silent. "Millennium Sight is unobscured, unfailing. Yes, and I suppose Ishizu could attest to that."
"Our duty as tombkeepers has always been to deliver the seven items to the pharaoh."
As if he were anything special. The shadows would have him believe that—that he was unfailing. Absolute. Divine. That he could unlock the full power of the items no one else could, that he could do and be what no one else could.
"No matter what happens," he said, "all I can be is myself. I refuse to second-guess my every action, to look for the test answers in an attempt to cheat my way to victory. Either I am capable of victory or I am not, but the shadows will not give it to me. They never give, only take."
Even as he said it, he thought of Yori unconscious in a hospital bed, of Yuugi somehow trapped in a way he couldn't explain. The shadows stirred, whispered just a fraction louder: There was too much on the line to take chances, too much at stake to take a moral high ground and hope for the best. The only sure way to victory was to cross any line, to do whatever it took.
Yami thought of Kaiba, standing on the edge of Pegasus's castle. He thought of a Ghoul at the edge of a shadow game.
"There is something I can tell you . . ." Shadi hesitated. ". . . about the Millennium Items."
Yami swallowed, shook himself back to the moment. "Tell me."
"The significance of the pyramid." Shadi drew a triangle in the air, traced down, across, then up again, held his finger pointing up. "The pyramid points to the sun. It is a symbol of the light of Ra and draws souls nearer to him."
His gaze dropped to the puzzle around Yami's neck, and Yami looked down as well. He tilted the puzzle in his hand, stared into the Eye of Horus on the upside-down pyramid.
"Inverted," Shadi said, "it is all the opposite."
A symbol of darkness, filled with the shadows of . . .
"If Ra is the god of light"—Yami looked up—"who is the god of darkness?"
"If we speak of literal darkness, Kek and Kauket rule over the night. The goddess Kauket brings the darkness at twilight, and the god Kek fades it at dawn. They work in unity with Ra to circle the days."
"Metaphorical darkness, then. Who is Ra's worst enemy?"
Shadi's eyebrows raised, though the emotion behind it was impossible to interpret. "Worst is certainly the Great Serpent, Apophis, who nearly killed Ra once if not for the intervention of Set."
Apophis. A shiver crept up Yami's spine at the name, and he felt the urge to lower his voice, like crossing the boundary of a cemetery and feeling the unnatural hush of death beneath the ground.
"I'm afraid I've missed all my history lessons for the last three millennia. Explain Apophis."
Shadi inclined his head, bowing to the order Yami hadn't even meant to give. "Before the creation of this world, all existed in undifferentiated chaos. Apophis swam in the depths of that chaos, unfettered and satisfied. Then came the work of creation, when order was introduced to chaos, when duality divided light from dark, water from land, and life from death. All creatures, including gods, were given place, boundary, and limitations. Thus, from order was born our world."
"Apophis doesn't like his limitations."
"The Great Serpent will do anything to return to an existence of chaos."
"He hates order, but he hates Ra most. Why?"
"Because order began when Ra claimed light from the dark. And it will end if the dark can reclaim him."
If the dark can reclaim him. Yami looked down once more at the puzzle, felt the shadows slither in his mind. Stories and prophecies—it was like wading in murky water and watching the surface, hoping to catch a glimpse of some creature before it dragged him under.
"Ra can fight his own battles," he said at last, releasing the puzzle. "And the shadows can fight theirs. I just want my friends back."
"I do not doubt your power to rescue those you love," Shadi said. "My hope is that you do not reclaim them only to lose them once more to an even greater darkness."
"Yuugi is in Domino." Yami watched the spirit's expression, hoping to glean something. Shadi only frowned.
"Farewell, my pharaoh."
He disappeared at last. It was the most conversation Yami had ever managed with the tombkeeper, and apparently Shadi had hit his limit.
Yami reached for his mental link, though his attempts to contact Yuugi yielded nothing. The boy's soul room remained firmly closed, but as long as it existed, it was a symbol of hope. Yuugi wasn't gone. Spirit or ghost or something else entirely, he wasn't gone.
"Osiris?" Yami's voice came out hoarse as he glanced at the ceiling. He had never before prayed, at least in his time bound to the puzzle, but his brief meeting with Osiris gave him hope there was at least one god who could be counted upon. And he had no one else to turn to, no one else to ask for answers to impossible questions. "Please. How do I save Yuugi?"
But the room around him remained silent. He was on his own.
The green exit sign glowed, highlighting the stairs to the roof. He had no idea how long he'd stalled; perhaps the duel between Kaiba and Marik had already begun. The tournament would not wait for him to catch his bearings, and neither would Marik.
As soon as he thought of Marik, he remembered their conversation in the hallway, his blood chilling. "You may save the girl's life if you wish, Pharaoh," Marik had said. "Or you may save another. But you may only save one."
He'd known. Just as Shadi had.
That was all it took to get Yami moving. He rushed up the stairs and burst onto the roof of the tower, arriving just as Joey did. Kaiba and Marik were the roof's only other occupants, both standing on the elevated center platform. For a moment, Yami thought they had already started their duel, but the large reflective panels surrounding the roof lay dormant.
"We made it, man!" Joey grinned at him, but Yami was focused on Marik, already climbing the platform stairs to reach him.
"Oh dear." Marik smirked. "An angry pharaoh in the wild."
"What happened to Yuugi?" Yami snarled. He caught Kaiba's frown but didn't care.
"Little Yuugi, about yea high?" Marik held his palm at his waist, then rubbed his chin. "Let me think. I may have caught a glimpse of him during my last shadow game. It's a dangerous thing, you know, invading someone else's shadow game. Dangerous enough to get one killed. If only his ancient guardian had warned him."
"He isn't dead. He can't be."
"Wait, what's this?" Joey climbed the platform as well. "What about Yuugi?"
"Everyone but Marik, off the field," Kaiba snapped. "Now."
"What happened to Yuug'?"
Yami struggled to control his breathing while Marik grinned like a prom queen at a party.
"Nothing," he said at last, waving Joey off. There was nothing the blond could do, and besides—"Yuugi's fine."
"Our all-powerful god-on-Earth speaks." Marik stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Close your eyes and wish for it very, very hard. Maybe it will turn out you have some power after all."
Yami said nothing. Behind him, he heard an elevator ding and the whoosh of opening doors. Friendly chatter spilled across the rooftop, snatches on the warm ocean breeze.
"No?" Marik cocked his head to the side. "Only empty words and delusions? To think we ever followed you. To think we ever feared you."
Yami narrowed his eyes. "To think you've wasted whatever life you have on a mummified grudge. The world has forgotten us both, and here you are, digging in the sand to uncover history that no longer exists."
"Ooh, very good, Pharaoh. I knew you had fangs under that fluffy sheep's cloak."
"Mr. Mutou," the referee called loudly, "kindly exit the field so we may begin the duel."
Marik smirked. "'Mr. Mutou,' how fitting. Now that he's gone, will you slip into his skin as I did into Marik's? Take a job at a supermarket, perhaps. A king of Egypt reduced to bagging onions for hunchbacked old ladies."
Yori's voice echoed behind the taunt: "If you could do anything in the world . . ."
"Will you smile at his friends while you answer to his name?"
In the back of Yami's mind, the shadows whispered, reminded him of a time when Yuugi's identity had been all he possessed, reminded him how easily he fit the role, how much he cared for the people in Yuugi's life and how much he had already sacrificed on their behalf.
"I assure you," Yami said, "Yuugi is irreplaceable. And I would sooner die."
The shadows fell silent. Yami turned away, stepping off the platform to join his friends in the spectator ring. Joey eyed him with a worried frown but said nothing. Tristan congratulated him on making it to the finals and said he looked forward to seeing if Joey could last longer in their rematch than he had in the Duelist Kingdom finals. That successfully distracted Joey into a wrestling match.
Meanwhile, the holoimagers circling the tower shimmered to life, and the referee declared the start of the first match of the Battle City finals. But although Yami feared for its outcome, Kaiba had chosen his own fate despite every warning, and he would have to meet it alone on the field. Yami had his own matters to attend to.
He slipped around his friends until he stood next to Ryou.
Learning the spirit's name had changed everything for Ryou. It stole the fear, replaced it with an uneasy curiosity. It finally brought home the one fact Ryou had struggled to grasp since first putting on the ring; the grumpy poltergeist ruining his life was a real person. A kid like him, somehow killed and trapped in an artifact with only the shadows for company. He had parents and a scar and a hopeless love life and secrets Ryou couldn't begin to guess.
And he had a name. Nakhti.
Ryou couldn't get it out of his head. Through the rest of the semi-finals, through the all-for-fun duels late into the night with Joey, through breakfast and the Qualifier and standing on the platform waiting for the first match of the finals, his head was filled with the buzzing realization of a much wider world.
/Where did you grow up?/ He asked it before the semi-finals finished.
/We're not friends,/ the spirit responded curtly.
Nakhti. Did he have a last name?
/Were surnames a thing in Ancient Egypt?/ he asked.
But after that, there was just silence. Ryou tried to bridle his curiosity, really tried. Yet it kept spilling out when he least expected it, in quiet moments when no one else was speaking.
/Did you play games back then?/ he asked.
/Do you remember everything?/ he asked.
/How did you know the pharaoh? Were you friends?/
The only answer he received came during the billiard game in the staff room, when Nakhti exploded: /Silence, blasted vessel! Or we'll see if two souls in one body can have a shadow game./
Ryou bit his tongue and kept himself in check through the rest of the activities until he parted ways with Joey and was left standing in an empty, dark room without even stars out the window. Between the non-stop tournament and the short eternity of shadow torture, he was exhausted, body and mind. Even so, he couldn't sleep.
As he stared up at the gray ceiling, he asked, /Why did you choose me?/
Only to remember that Nakhti hadn't chosen him at all. Ryou's father had found the ring during an excavation. He'd sent it home (late) for Ryou's birthday.
Ryou had heard Yuugi's grandpa talk so much about how the puzzle had chosen Yuugi, how it couldn't be solved by anyone else. He'd taken it for granted that if he was cursed with an ancient artifact and its accompanying problems, at least it meant that he was special, that he was meant to do something with the opportunity.
But he wasn't. As the spirit said, he was just a vessel. An annoying, useless one at that.
He reined himself into silence at last. But even in the silence, his mind kept circling back to Nakhti.
So the pharaoh had to say his name twice before Ryou shook himself and returned to the present.
The referee declared the start of the first match of the finals, and Kaiba took the opening turn while Marik smirked from across the field. The cluttered sunlight reflected off the wreckage far below, turning the island from a wasteland into a field of diamonds, and beyond that, the ocean glittered just as brightly. It would have been surreal even without Ryou's distraction.
"Sorry, mate." Ryou cleared his throat, tilting slightly to face Yami. To his surprise, the pharaoh had his back to the duel, staring out at the ocean instead.
Yami kept his voice low and his eyes on the horizon. "I need your help."
Ryou knew an ominous tone when he heard one. He waited.
"It's Yuugi. He's . . ."
The pharaoh apparently couldn't finish, arms tightening across his chest. But the tone was clear enough. It was bad. Real bad.
"You know about the occult," Yami managed at last, meeting his gaze. "Do you know how to contact the dead?"
And Ryou suddenly couldn't breathe.
Note: I hope everyone's been staying safe. I had a doctor's appointment this week and while talking to my nurse, I realized I can't even keep my days straight anymore. I thought for sure Monday was Tuesday. xP Thank goodness for calendar apps and reminders and alarms-otherwise I'd never make it to anything.
One week from today (July 16th) is the one-year anniversary of when I started posting CHp2. I thought it would be fun to do a celebration of some kind! I don't know how many people would be interested, haha, but you never know until you try. I'll post a poll on my profile to see what your thoughts are. Please let me know! Thanks!