Oh [4filter]. I finally remembered my password after two years.

[?.?.?]

The director of the Egyptian Archaeological Society was a lustrous woman named Ishizu Ishtar. She was known, of course, for her stunningly piercing eyes that were a blue so vibrant they seemed to spark life into every room she entered. Her hair laced down her back and over her shoulders, laying ignorant to the way it encompassed her dark features.

However, more than her face, Ishizu Ishtar was known for her traditional garb. While her fellow socialites adorned professional suits, Ms Ishtar attended every meeting, every event, every opening, in a long white gown. In isolation, the only thing memorable about it was the fact that someone was daring enough to wear so much plain white. However, in a crowded room of blacks, dark blues, and the occasional red tie, the purity of her dress made Ms Ishar stick out from her donors and underlings.

She was never seen without gold trims dressing her garm. First, gold circlet that dared draw attention down to her stunning eyes and eventually to the gold lacing her hair. And finally, most stunning of all, a gold necklace around her collar where - you guessed it - the carving of an eye lived.

This strange man seemed similar to Ishizu Ishtar in his choice of garments. While he was, quite tragically, bald below his keffiyeh, he too seemed to like robes and gold. The staunch man had two pieces of gold on his person: a scale and a pendant in the shape of an ankh. The scale was especially awkward to look at, seeing as it was neither light nor small. Still, he acted as if it was an extension of his hand.

To put the two people next to each other, one would guess that they worked together. They would look like two peas in the same archaic pod. For that reason, very little of the staff would have been surprised to see a man in robes and gold walking around Domino on opening day. His presence was completely normal.

If not for one small thing.

The man, who turned the key to Yugi Muto's forehead, was never a member of the Archaeological Society. He closed his blue eyes at the stillness in the air.

When he next opened them, the museum was gone. In its place was a void. Without a blink or missed beat, the man proceeded forward. His movements were professional, if not a little static.

Eventually, the black faced away to color, and for a brief moment his nose scrunched in puzzlement. A hallway came into view. On the left, purple bricks leading to a door. It opened just enough to tease the intruder, playfully beckoning him to explore.

Who are you? The room seemed to say to him.

"I am Shadi. I am here to investigate your soul."

No more words were exchanged. None needed to be. The door swung open, welcoming him into it's warm embrace. Lighting so brightly contrast to the dark hallway that Shadi was forced to squint.

This was a Soul Room - a place where words weren't needed to understand someone. In its purest form, Soul Rooms represented everything that a person was. Shadi could see what they loved and feared. He could understand what the person wanted, even if they themselves didn't know. If a person wanted to be a dancer, their soul may be a dance studio. Someone confident may find their room littered with mirrors displaying her own understanding of herself. Small rooms showed comfort and contentment. Photos, drawings and paintings, Shadi found, often displayed someone precious. Even the most evil of people had a frame lying around somewhere, no matter how hard it may be to find.

The bright lights in the room helped it feel as if it exploded in size. Inside was just as vibrant as the walls outside, with splashes of colors all over the wall that seemed to involve cheer. Toys were scattered ungracefully across every inch of the floor. Puzzles, action figures, stuffed animals, littered the ground. Blocks sat proudly piled up by color. Toy trucks and cars were parked next to a robot push to his side. A Digital Pocket Pet lay on the floor yelling out that it needed to be fed. A few block and toy trains floated aimlessly above the vibrant floor tiles.

On the back wall, even more toys seemed to be stacked. Board games spilled their pegs down a pile of clunky game console controllers and RPG figurines. A small table took up most of the space in the center of the room. Next to it, a place for shoes, coats, and lunch boxes to be stored. There were dozens of cubbies barren of personal items save for one at the very end. Boots and a kite were neatly tucked inside of it, even the raincoat was folded nicely.

Shadi could see no frames lining any of the room's vast walls. Not even small ones on kickstands. Although, the tiny table seemed to be cluttered with incoherent scribbles that may have looked like people if he had tried squinting. People or… gremlins? It was honestly difficult to tell. Some of the stick figures were shorter and stockier than others. Above one page there was simply a crayon floating in the air, unsure if it wanted to draw the next picture.

He had seen faces in murals, paper collages, and of course traditional paintings. He had seen whole rooms centered around one large, grandly framed painting, with nothing but another easel in front of it. Very rarely had he encountered a crayon drawing so crude at these.

"Tell me, I must know about the artifact you wear. Why do you have it?"

The room responded with a hush. Toys and papers shuffled, musing through the question. Finally, the drawings on the table slide just enough to make one in particular stand out.

On one side of the page stood the spiky haired boy. He was isolated by whitespace with nothing but a deep frown as company. On the other side of the page he was drawn again, only this time surrounded by a handful of other stick figures and a great big smile. Of course, a now yellow triangle drawn at the center of crayon Yugi.

"Why do you have it?" Shadi repeated, clearly unsatisfied by the answer, "Do you think destiny has chosen to carry this pendant." Not so much as a ball rolled across the room. The same picture remained on display.

Shadi closed the door, the dark hallway a blur. It refused to be more specific. Shadi felt the doorknob burrow into his lower back, begging the Eyptian to come back inside so it could change his mind. Finally, the balls of black blurred together into coherent shapes and Shadi see through enough of the darkness to be surprised by what was in front of him.

There was a second door.

There was another Soul Room.

There was another soul?

This second door, glowing shades of yellow and orange in its gold plated outline, this is much more akin to what he was expecting. Veins slithered underneath the it's side of the wall. Protruding from the surface and pulsating with life, and unspoken warning dared him face his fate if he chose to enter.

The moment he touched the doorknob, Shadi felt it pulse beneath his palm.

Together, the cold and must reeked with a bleakness of death. Somehow it wasn't repugnant. If death was the mortal end to all life, it's brother was the gentle feeling of sleep. He immediately recognized the hibernative state of the room, although all he could visually see was black. A comfortable black. It was as if it had existed this way for many years. Without hesitation, he took a step through the stale, almost musty abyss, door closing behind him.

It wasn't the Soul Room that had closed the door, but another man. Dressed in clothes much like the Yugi, this man stood firm and alert, eyeballing his Eyptain intruder with suspicion. The same tri colored hair that Yugi sported spiked from his head, only sharper. Much like his eyes, in contrast to Yugi's soft orbs, were keen. "No one has ever been in my room before."

This caught Shadi off guard.

"No one has ever been through that door except me. Tell me how did you get here or tread carefully into my room."

"Your room?" he seemed almost insulted, "This room shouldn't be here - you shouldn't be here. This soul already has one room. Just what are you?"

That was the question. Other Yugi instinctively sucked in a sharp breath even if there was no air to breathe. It was a simple statement. A name, an identity, answering this question should have been easy. How long had Other Yugi pondered that very same question? Ages, probably. There wasn't much else to do here but. Yet he still couldn't even come up with a one word answer.

"What are you?" Shadi repeated, the almost painful neutrality causing shivers up Other Yugi. The scale, bulky in Shadi's hand, held against Other Yugi's torso. In response to the question there was a faint jiggle between its scale.

He was something who didn't like pants. Being taunted at was irritating. Playing games wasn't so much fun as it was a survival reflex, but still made him feel proud and strong despite it. When someone boisted about power they don't have, when they used that boast to make empty threats, he got annoyed. All of these parts made him someone. In that way he was no different than others. Yet the sum of who those parts made up seemed somehow unreachable.

No matter how hard Other Yugi focused, he couldn't picture the whole person. Somewhere in this space there was a glue to keep all those pieces together, disguising itself in a cloud of nothingness.

"What do you call yourself?"

"Do you not know your own name?"

"Who are you?"

"Is there darkness in your heart?"

When the room started to shake, Other Yugi seemed unphased by it. His stance sood strong, as did his command. Shadi had no time to work his way through his twisted tongue before the very ground he stood shuttered.

The unexpected shake caused Shadi to fall to his knees. As he did, the scale flew to the ground. Although it was hard to tell with the limited visual range, the sounds of cracking and crashing echoed. The floor seemed weaker by the moment. Still, the man in robes could not find it within himself to move.

Neither of them noticed the door to the room opening, nor the small hand reaching down to pick up the lost scale. Before Shadi knew what was happening, a force was pulling from under his arm.

Once finally on his feet, Shadi's rescuer became clear. The boy who he had entered, who owned the other soul room. The boy's large eyes were lit with the same soft light that emitted from the childlike room. Cold metal wrapped around Shadi's palm. There was no hiding the shock and relief that came with holding the scale safe again.

"We have to go - uh - something i-isn't," clearly the boy couldn't quite figure out how to describe it but had no time to untie his tongue, "we have to go now." He grit his teeth.

Together the two of them did their best to make it through the door. It was difficult to know where their next step would be, but whenever Shadi felt his foot curl, Yugi balanced them. Eventually, stumbling through the door just as the ground in front of it seemed to give way. With it, Other Yugi crumbled into the void, still very much looking as if he were thinking.

For as sticky as the museum floor was, it was at least solid ground. Feeling sick at the events that had just transpired, Shadi allowed himself a few minutes to gather his wits. Even being outside of the Soul Room was somehow dissorinating.

But first, the boy had been right. Something was indeed wrong, a sensation burned crispy in the back of Shadi's mind. It only took finally looking up at Yugi, who had yet to work through the shock, understand. The puzzle that once hung around his neck was gone.