It did not take much time for Honda and Anzu to pile over once they were invited. Anzu had the day off of work anyway, and Honda wanted the excuse to escape his family for the afternoon before he could be harassed into babysitting for his cousin again. Once they were there, however, Katsuya realised that he had one small issue.

"Hey, Honda, come into the kitchen with me? I need a hand with drinks." He gestured towards the room in question. Yugi started to get to her feet, since she was one of the hosts here, but Honda shook his head and patted her on the shoulder before following Jou into the kitchen.

"What's u…?" Honda let out a grunt as Jou grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall next to the doorway back into the living room, where the girls could not see them. "What the hell, Jonouchi?"

"Stop flirting with my sister," Katsuya hissed out, trying to keep his voice low after earlier as he glared at the only other guy in the room, not wanting his sister to hear the conversation. "I thought you and Miho…"

"She told me to shove off on Monday." Honda hissed out, batting his friend's hands away before slumping onto a stool by the counter top. "She had a family party last weekend that she wanted me to go to. A whole 'meet the parents' thing."

"And you came to Duelist Kingdom with us instead." Katsuya winced, kind of feeling bad about the end of his friend's seven-month-long kind of, maybe a relationship.

"I told her I needed to go out of town to help a friend." Hiroto's shoulders sank. "Going to a tournament 'to cheer-lead' doesn't count apparently."

"You weren't just a cheerleader." Jou scowled as he slid enough glasses for everyone across the counter towards his friend, who stopped them from falling off the edge. "You helped save Yuge's butt like the rest of us."

Honda snorted, "Oh, yeah, I could totally tell her 'magic is real and I spent the weekend trying to protect my friends from an asshole who wanted to rip their souls out. Oh, and Yugi's 'illness'? That was caused by someone trying to rip her soul apart and her nearly dying, and if I hadn't been there with the others, she might not have made it.' That would have gone down so well."

Katsuya grimaced but could not argue his point. Still… "She dumped you this week, but you're flirting with Shizuka already?"

"I'm…" Hiroto paused to consider his actions and words. "Honestly, if weird shit is going to keep happening, and it probably will considering Bakura's around, I'm not going to be able to date normal people. Shizuka's cute, not taken, and if she starts hanging around the group long enough she's going to find out about things. Magical things. It would be nice to not have to hide things from a date."

The blond ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He got it. He really did. Things had gotten weird around their group of friends since Yugi had solved the Millennium Puzzle, and Shizuka had already worked out that Yugi had a 'sister', so she would probably work out more as time went on. Still…

"Can you hold fire? A least for now? You're probably one of the few people I'd actually trust my sister with, when you're not acting like an ass, but right now…" He shook his head. "There's no guarantee I'm going to be allowed to see Shizuka after today. Okaasan told Yuge that she wanted to try and let me and Shizuka spend more time together, but I've heard that before. There's no point in you even flirting unless Okaasan actually holds to her promises. Considering this afternoon's… mess, I'm half expecting her to block me and the Mutous entirely once the money hits her account."

Honda paused and grimaced. "That bad, huh?"

"Yes, no, maybe? I don't know. Shizuka yelled at Okaasan, and I honestly think Oneesan was about ready to Challenge her, and then Yuge got Okaasan talking, and I finally found out why she left me with Otosan, and I…" Jou trailed off and grimaced as he pulled the cola out of the fridge and slid it across the counter to his right-hand man, who started pouring it out between the glasses.

"You?" Honda pushed.

"I don't know, man." Jou slammed shut the fridge door, which bounced open from the force. He huffed and pushed it closed with his foot. "I'm still mad at her, but… she had her reasons, you know? I'm just… I haven't figured out how I feel yet. I think Oneesan is considering Challenging him. Oh! Right! That reminds me! There's someone to reintroduce you to later."

Honda looked confused at the sudden flip in mood and by who he was talking about, as Jou scooped up the three glasses for the girls and swept back into the living room. Anzu took hers and Yugi's, while Shizuka smiled up at him as she took her own glass.

"Thanks, Katsuya." She nodded and took a sip of the cold drink as Anzu handed the drinks to the correct people. "Are you taking one up to Meisa?"

Confusion passed across Honda and Anzu's faces, but Katsuya looked at Yugi, who grimaced slightly and glanced over her shoulder to where her twin, in ghostly form, was sat on the table, having been observing the small gathering.

'Uhhh, Anesan? Should I leave the room and let you take over so you can come back in?' the light-souled sister asked the dark one with a tilt of her head.

Before the Spirit of the Puzzle could answer, Ginka strolled into the room from the bedrooms and jumped up onto the table. Meisa shifted slightly to give the cat more room, well aware that normally the feline completely ignored her, only for Ginka to nuzzle her arm. Yugi's eyes widened and the Pharaoh startled as the cat repeated the action and then meowed irritably at her, demanding her attention.

'Do you think she can see me?' the ghost from the Puzzle asked as she hesitantly reached out. Shock and extreme delight jolted across the bond, briefly stunning Yugi, as the spirit's hand actually came into contact with the soft, fluffy fur.

"Yuge? Do you think your Oneesan will want a drink?" Katsuya's question barely permeated Yugi's mind as she watched her cat's fur move as if a solid person's hand was running through it. "Yuge?"

She startled at the slight sharpness in the second call and glanced back at Jou momentarily, shaking her head, before turning back to watch the scene of the feline curling up next to the person playing with her fur and starting to purr. "I think she took one up with her, but I'll go and check."

Anzu frowned slightly as she noticed Yugi's distraction. She turned to look in the direction that her friend was looking at and let out a soft gasp as she saw what looked like A barely visible, shadowy humanoid shape fluffing up the fur on Ginka, who seemed perfectly content to let them. The noise drew the attention of both Honda and Jou, who glanced that way. Honda frowned slightly as he tried to work out what the others were seeing, but Jou did a double take as he got to see the fur moving but nothing else.

"Katsuya? What's wrong?" Shizuka asked, worried.

"Nothing, nothing." Her brother tried to hide the fact he was weirded out by what he had seen. "Ginka was just being cute."

"The cat?" His sister guessed, having heard the meow.

As her friends started telling the new girl about the various things the feline had gotten up to since Yugi had gotten her, Yugi got up and moved over to the table, where her twin had a look of wonder on her face as she interacted with Ginka.

'I can touch her.' The Pharaoh's mental voice was soft and fascinated. 'I didn't know I could, but…'

Yugi drained her drink as she tried to work out what was going on. Then it hit her. In Egyptian mythology cats had been thought to be Emissaries of the Goddess Bastet, Guardians of the Pharaoh, and they had even been depicted in the Book of the Dead, where a cat had represented Ra and the benefits of the sun for life on Earth. More modern stories said that they could see and interact with ghosts. Apparently there was some truth to the latter tales, which made her wonder about the former.

'Did you want to say hi to Shizuka and the others?' she asked as she reached down and scratched underneath Ginka's chin, only increasing the volume of the purring. 'Anzu and Honda don't know about your new name, after all.'

'Do you mind?' the spirit asked, still marvelling at the feel of the soft fur beneath her hand.

'Of course not.' She shook her head. 'They're your friends, too, and this is big news. You should get to introduce yourself properly.'

Without another word the Spirit of the Puzzle took over. Ginka huffed and leapt up onto her shoulders, sprawling across them so the Pharaoh could reach up and scratch behind her ear as she moved over to her friends.

"Hi." She felt a little awkward as she stepped into a social situation with a person who knew she was not Yugi, but did not know the full truth of the situation, for the first time.

"Hi." Shizuka smiled broadly, recognising the different tone and pitch. "Your name was Meisa, right?"

"Mutou Meisa, yes." She nodded, bowing to the room in general before looking at her friends to see how they would react. "It's nice to meet you."

Anzu was surprised at the group introduction, since Shizuka was the only one present who hadn't met the Pharaoh before, but she did not say anything about it. She could not help but wonder how it was written, since she knew the 'Mei' part could mean 'Princess,' 'Dark,' or a good many things depending on the kanji that was used. Not that she was sure who had given Yugi no Oneesan a name of her own. She looked forward to hearing the details later.

Honda on the other hand frowned slightly and looked at Jou with a confused look. As far as he had been aware, the Spirit of the Puzzle was either 'Yugi' or 'Oneesan'. Meisa was an entirely new name for the ghost. When Katsuya just grinned, he huffed and sat back with a shrug, hoping to get information.

"Futago no Imoto hasn't been too well, so she's taking a nap," Meisa gave as an excuse for the change over. "Don't worry, it's nothing contagious, but she's really lethargic at the moment. She's hoping to be back before you leave."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Shizuka looked worried. "I hope she feels better soon."

Anzu shifted to give the newly named Meisa a space to sit down, kind of appreciating the fact that she was making an effort to be social despite being socially awkward. The Pharaoh slipped into the seat and hesitated, not entirely sure what to say to the others. She needed to work on the whole being-friendly thing, especially considering that these were the people who had come to assist her in her time of need. However, talking to people who were not her twin was not something that happened often.

"Did you go to Duelist Kingdom?" Shizuka asked curiously, opening up the conversation.

"Uh, yes." The Spirit of the Puzzle nodded as Ginka padded off of her shoulders, paced along the back of the sofa, jumped across to the chair that was being shared by Katsuya and his sister, and planted herself on the younger teen's lap, purring away as the girl pet her fur. "I was helping Imoto and Katsuya from the background."

"So you got to watch the matches? What were they like?"

At Shizuka's urging the Spirit of the Puzzle started describing the duels from an outside perspective, swiftly getting into the swing of storytelling. Anzu could not help but be amused at how much happier the Pharaoh was when talking about games, almost like she did not know what else to talk about. Between Jou's occasional commentary, including a massively overblown version of his duel against Mai, and the occasional sniping from Honda whenever he could insert an amusing anecdote, normally about something to bring Katsuya's ego back down to size, the story flowed easily.

Too easily, in fact. Though Meisa tried to skip over the duel involving the fake Kaiba, Katsuya brought him up, forcing the spirit to think on her feet of how to retell the tales without giving anything else away.

Thankfully, before she could get very far into that duel, the doorbell rang, allowing her to flee the conversation to check who had arrived. Relief sank in as she headed downstairs, kind of glad to be getting away.

'You were doing good.' She sighed at her twin's comment, not entirely agreeing with it.

'I'm glad you think so, Imoto. I was trying.' She sent the mental equivalent of a shrug as she reached the bottom and checked the peephole to find that Katsuya's mother and her fiancé had returned. Briefly she considered leaving the pair outside so her friend could get a little longer with his sister, then opened the door.

"Kawai, Takahara." She nodded to them both, noting the way the fiancé bristled slightly at the perceived lack of respect as he entered the stairwell.

"Mutou-san." Kawaii semi-bowed back, subtly elbowing her partner in the ribs so he followed suit, assuming the earlier blow up had soured her host's mood towards her. Not that she could blame the girl. It had not been the best display of their family dynamics.

"Come on in, Shizuka's upstairs still. We lost track of the time," the spirit informed them before heading up, able to sense Imoto's disappointment that time had passed so quickly.

'Sorry,' she offered, embarrassed that she had taken all of her light's time with her friends.

'Don't be sorry, it's good for you to get some time with the others,' the living half of their soul disagreed. 'You don't get enough time out of the Puzzle.'

'It's not my life to live. I'm not the living half of our soul. You are. I'm just a ghost.' She felt her twin's train of thoughts come to a screeching halt at her words. The two adults headed on upstairs to collect Shizuka as she shut the door.

'You know what?' Her twin's voice was firm. 'You and I are talking about this later.'

Meisa did not respond to that. She knew better than to try and dissuade her twin when she was determined about something. As she headed upstairs, she heard their grandfather, who had been sorting something out in his bedroom and letting the kids just chat, talking to the two adults, swapping e-mail addresses and getting the phone number for the hospital Shizuka was going to be going into, so they could keep in contact and find out how everything was going.

She took the opportunity to switch out with her other self, who let out a soft sigh before saying farewell to Shizuka, promising that she would make sure they kept in contact as Kawai herded the girl towards the stairs.

Once the trio were gone, Jii-san turned to Yugi with an exasperated huff. "You two need to be more careful."

"We didn't think she would be able to tell the difference." Yugi held up her hands. "Anesan wanted to talk to Jou, and we thought it would be safe to switch."

The old man looked unamused, but he nodded, "Still, that wasn't how I wanted to tell Meisa the news."

"You came up with the new name?" Honda turned to look at the retired archaeologist, curiosity etched in his features.

"I'd noticed that having no name of her own was upsetting her." He nodded again, sitting on the arm of the sofa. "So I looked into names. My first thought was something to do with the dark because she's Yami no Yugi, then I remembered she doesn't like the darkness, so I looked into names to do with royalty."

"Which is where Meisa came from?" Anzu pressed.

Ojiisan pulled over a piece of paper and a pen and carefully wrote down the kanji so Honda and Anzu could see it. "I know you, Yugi, linked her to your name during the duel with Crawford, and this probably won't change that, unless you can link her soul to her new name?"

"I don't even know how I did it originally." The younger twin grimaced as she sat on the floor next to the coffee table. "I just… Crawford was trying to keep her out of the duel because she had no name, and it made me mad because we're the same soul, which means on a base level we're the same person, so my name is her name. Somehow that resulted in her getting tied to my name magically."

"Would Bakura know how?" Honda's question made everyone pause to think.

"She might," Yugi allowed, thinking out loud. "I need to talk to her anyway regarding the parts of the soul. She did say she would teach me more."

"Before she went to talk to Crawford," Katsuya reminded her with a scowl. "She's been hyper-aggressive since then. She might try something."

"We need to talk to her regarding that, too." The Puzzle Bearer winced, remembering how Amane had thanked her for the invitation but suggested that now might not be the best time. "I'm just trying to work out the best way to do it."

"Please be careful?" Anzu bit her lower lip. "She can be…"

"I know." Yugi flinched, remembering yesterday's blow up. "But we can't settle this unless we talk to her. There's no way that we were told the same thing by Akhenaden, or she wouldn't be… this angry."

'Unless she doesn't like that she's wrong about what happened.' The Pharaoh's comment made her twin let out a frustrated huff.

'That's not helpful, Anesan.' The girl flopped back onto the carpet, exasperated. 'You know, the more you two snipe at each other, the worse it's going to get.'

'I don't start it.' The older spirit huffed at her. 'You know I don't.'

"Yugi? Care to share with the class?" her grandfather pressed, causing her to groan and sit up. "Also, is this something that should change my mind on you running the Duel Club?"

She shrugged. "Not really. Ba-Khu-Ra and Anesan haven't gotten along since they met. It doesn't really change anything. Anesan was just pointing out that she doesn't… wait… change your mind?"

He grinned at the switch from frustrated huff to hopeful squeak. "I will need to hire someone to work weekends since you're abandoning me and our student's going to University, but yes, I'm willing to say yes, you can run the Duel Club if you want. As long as you don't let it affect your grades."

The hug that earned him made the thoughts of interviewing new hires and working out the best person to pull into their very small pool of staff totally worth it.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Yugi let go and did a tiny dance before realising she had done so, blushing bright red, and sitting down quickly. Her friends chuckled, pleased to see her so happy.

"You'll need to be straight home on Mondays and Thursdays, though. No more arcade trips on those days," Ojiisan warned her. She had no complaints about that, though. She honestly had not expected to be allowed, and now she had the okay, she was actually excited.

"No problems there." The Duelist grinned, grabbing the folder of details for the club and scanning over it. Noticing that Eiko's page had her mobile number on, she quickly fired off a text to the girl, telling her that she was okayed to run the club, before pausing and considering her phone for another moment.

"Yuge?" Katsuya pressed.

She just waved a hand and fired off a text to Amane, asking if they could arrange a meeting tomorrow night, before putting the phone down on the table. "Checking in with Amane."

"Yugi, I hate to ask, but if you're going to be duelling publicly more often, what are you doing about the trainers-to-boots issue?" Anzu asked with a small, teasing grin.

"The… oh." Her friend winced, remembering that Mai had found out about her Anesan because of the shoe change between what she had been wearing and what her twin's illusion had shown. "I guess I'm going to start wearing the boots."

'Sorry.' Apology and concern bounced over the link. 'I should have thought. I can adjust my illusion instead.'

'Can we try that? At least for now? Until I break those boots in properly, so they don't kill my feet?' Yugi suggested. When she did not get a response, she sighed and looked at Honda and Katsuya. "I know this is a weird question, but I don't suppose either of you know where I could get some chain, like dog-lead thickness chain?"

"Why?" At Honda's frown, Yugi lifted her hair enough to let him see where she had had to retie the rope that held the Puzzle.

"What happened?!" Anzu gasped, darting over to check her friend over, not relaxing until she was sure that the Duelist was unhurt. "You seem okay now."

"A couple of guys tried to mug me for the prize money and nearly took off with my Puzzle, too," the Queen of Games explained as she lowered her hair again, her shoulders sinking. "Anesan dealt with them, but they cut through the rope, so I want something a little more secure so it can't happen again."

Honda, Anzu, and Katsuya looked at each other for a moment, the silent message that perhaps they should not let their friend wander off without them for a while passing between them quickly, before Honda turned back towards Yugi. "I can get you some. I'll bring it to school tomorrow, okay?"

"Thanks."

Honda waved off the gratitude with a grin. "Hey, what are friends for?"

"So, what're your plans for the club?" Anzu tried to push the subject back towards something she knew would make Yugi happy.

As Yugi started listing off plans, the Pharaoh slipped out of the Puzzle and took a seat on the floor next to her twin, leaning against the girl. The Duelist shifted slightly so they were both a little more comfortable, giving Honda and Katsuya the odd image of Yugi leaning slightly on empty air, while Anzu caught a momentary glimpse of the shadowy figure again.

Yugi caught her staring and tilted her head curiously. "Anzu, you okay?"

Before Anzu could answer, her phone started ringing. Picking it up revealed that it was, in fact, her mother, demanding to know whether she was coming home tonight or not. That caused Honda to check the time, and upon realising that it was going on six thirty and he also had to be home for dinner, he too had to head out.

"I'll walk your way home." Honda offered his arm to Anzu, wanting to talk to her away from Yugi and Jou. She rose to her feet and took it, smiling at her other two friends.

"See you two tomorrow." She nodded to the two teens, who smiled and nodded. "Ojiisan, thank you for having us over."

Once they were outside and away from any crowds, Honda turned to Anzu. "So, what were you seeing?"

"Was it that obvious?" The dancer winced.

"They weren't being subtle once it was just us." The former thug sighed. "But you seemed to see more than we did."

"I… I'm still occasionally seeing shadows where there shouldn't be." Her step faltered slightly as she admitted it. "It's less frequent than it was earlier this week, but Onee… Meisa promised it would fade with time so I'm just doing my best to ignore it."

"So where were the shadows you saw today?" Honda's voice went soft, concern for her obvious in his expression.

"I think I was seeing Meisa," she confessed slowly. "First of all there was a shadowy figure petting Ginka, then I saw it again leaning into Yugi."

He stopped to look at her. "You serious?"

"Uh huh." Anzu nodded. "I figure it's Meisa. Who else would Yugi be that comfortable with? I mean, you saw her slightly leaning like the rest of us."

"Point," Honda acknowledged, pausing the conversation until they had safely passed a group who had emerged from a nearby building before continuing. "Still, that's kind of freaky. I didn't think she could interact with the real world when she isn't in control of Yugi's body."

His friend just shrugged, still not entirely okay with the whole thing. "I just want my sight to go back to normal. Oneesan can do whatever she likes afterwards."

Honda nodded slightly, thinking for a moment before asking, "So… what do you think about the 'Meisa' thing?"

"Honestly?" Anzu glanced at him. When he bobbed his head again, she sighed. "It's kind of weird. I get giving her a name, because that's seriously been bothering her. I mean, look how hard she bit at Bakura when she was taunting her about it. At the same time, though, Yugi gave Oneesan access to her name, so she has two names now, and we're going to have to remember which one to refer to her to in front of people."

"Oh, that's simple." The former thug snorted. "Always Yugi unless we're alone, otherwise people are going to think Yugi has multiple personality disorder or something."

"I mean, technically…" The dancer trailed off, but her friend's snort told her that he accepted her point. If Yugi and Meisa were the same soul, then technically they were two personalities from the same person.

"Yeah, but we don't want people knowing that. They'd throw her in a loony bin or insist she got medicated or worse. If things get linked back…" Honda hesitated. "Early Meisa was not the sanest of people."

"I know." Anzu shuddered. "But she's getting better. We've just got to hope it stays that way. I don't want to see anyone else on fire."

Silence fell between them as they walked, the quiet evening sounds occasionally broken up by the tweeting of birds or the occasional shouts of children in backyards or playgrounds. As they reached Anzu's house, she paused for a moment then turned to Honda.

"I want to apologise, for Duelist Kingdom. I shouldn't have gotten caught." She bowed, blushing with embarrassment.

"I…" There was a distinct pause from her friend, then he looked away. "You're not the only one. I ended up in a jail cell. Would have ended up the same way if I hadn't…"

"Hadn't what? How did you get out?" Her eyes widened as she leaned against the wall.

"Bakura." He winced. "She let me out, in exchange for a future favour."

"What kind of favour?" The dancer's voice wavered as she watched the unhappy ex-thug shrug.

"She promised she wouldn't force me to hurt my friends, but that was as much as she'd give me," he admitted. "I didn't exactly have a choice. It was either take her deal, or have my soul ripped out and neither of us get back to the others."

She could not fault him on that. Though she wished he had managed to get more details on the 'favour,' it had been an awful situation, and he had at least gotten a promise that she would not make him hurt his friends. Hopefully, that would mean that Bakura could not use him to attack the others.

"If it makes you feel any better," Anzu offered, "I promise I'll keep an eye out, and if you do anything odd, I'll try to mitigate it. Maybe between us we can at least cut back on how much damage she's going to do."

There was a pause, and then the other teen looked up and smiled. "Thanks, Anzu. I should have guessed I could trust you on this. I would tell Jou, but you know what he's like. He'd probably go and try to punch Bakura and get himself sealed in a game piece."

"Again." Anzu snorted, remembering the Monster World RPG Shadow Game that had nearly killed them all when they had first met Bakura. "You're not wrong. Still, I've got your back at least. And, hey, I'm pretty sure neither Bakura knows that I'm still seeing and hearing stuff, so maybe it would be better if it doesn't fade. It would give us a bit of an advantage."

"You sure you'd be okay with that?" Honda looked surprised.

"If it helps my friends? Then yes," she promised, "though I do wonder one thing."

"What's that?" he asked as she moved away from the wall and opened her gate.

"If I'm still hearing and seeing things and I was the last to get my soul ripped out, I wonder if Ojiisan and Mokuba are too."

With that, she headed inside, leaving him to wonder as he headed home.