Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, Supernatural, or any of the characters.
Chapter 6
Yugi awoke to the smell of frying bacon and his mouth watered at the tantalizing aroma. He quickly, but clumsily, rolled out of the bed. His leg became tangled in the sheets, causing him to trip and fall to the ground, taking the comforter and several pillows with him as he landed with a loud thud and an "umph!"
A low chuckle from the nearby armchair alerted him to Yami's presence. Yugi grumbled drowsily, "That's not funny, Yami."
/Hmm? We will have to agree to disagree on this one./
Yugi glared at the Spirit, who grinned and disappeared. /Did you stay there all night?/ He questioned, already knowing the answer.
/I did. It isn't like I have to sleep./
/Yeah, but that's got to be overwhelmingly boring./
/You know what else is boring? Living inside of a puzzle. I know I did this for a reason but I have to wonder if I really thought that through./
Yugi dressed quickly, running a comb through his hair with little success before making his way down stairs and to the kitchen, which was well-lit and bright thanks to several windows and the door that opened up into the back of the property.
"I was just about to come see if you were awake yet," his mother told him as she set some plates, complete with a dated floral pattern, and silverware on the small wooden table.
Yugi groaned, "How could anyone sleep when there is bacon?"
"A boy after my own heart!" Bobby boasted noisily as he meandered into the kitchen with a beer in one hand and sporting several grease stains indicating he had been outside working on one of the vehicles. He wiped his blackened hands on an old rag that he kept in his back pocket and beamed at the teenage boy. "How about you go get your grandpa and we dig in?"
After breakfast, Yugi helped his mother clear the table and had begun to wash the dishes in the sink. He was stopped, however, when Bobby asked him to sit back down at the table so they could talk about some things.
Yugi let the dishes settle into the warm water to soak and sat down obediently, waiting for what he hoped would be some answers to his growing list of questions. Mrs. Mutou looked uncomfortable and she shifted in her seat nervously. Sugoroku reclined in his chair, nodding encouragingly to Melanie and hoping that she would choose to tell Yugi everything this time. It wouldn't be wise to try and keep this from Yugi any longer now.
Melanie wondered why she felt so afraid to tell her son the truth. Perhaps it was because she had been lying to him for years, trying to protect him from the ugly things of the world. She wanted so badly to keep evil away from her precious son, but he was no longer a small, frightened child. Yugi was growing up and, with the return of an old enemy, she knew in her heart that she could no longer keep her son in the dark. To do so would put him in greater danger.
"Mama?" Yugi spoke quietly but reassuringly, "Just say it, mama, please? Whatever it is that's on your mind…"
His voice trailed off, waiting for some sort of response. She wondered when her son had become the one to offer her reassurance instead of the other way around.
Melanie sighed and began her long tale. "Yugi, I don't know how to tell you this. I'm not sure where to... I guess I can just start at the beginning. I wasn't raised in a…normal…family, Yugi. My family, they're Hunters, or they were. I haven't seen my parents in years, or my siblings. It's dangerous work that they do and Bobby has kept up with them better than I have."
Yugi quirked his eyebrow and tilted his head but did not interrupt, though he stole a glance at Bobby, who met his gaze evenly and nodded affirmatively.
Mrs. Mutou inhaled slowly, continuing her story, "When I was a girl, I learned from my family how to hunt things. Terrible things. I'm not talking about bears and ducks and the like. When I say my family were Hunters, I mean they were Monster Hunters. Ghosts, werewolves, vampires…demons."
Yugi's mouth fell open slightly at that news though he snapped it shut with some force. Sure, it sounded crazy, but he had seen a lot of crazy things himself. If a Spirit like Yami could exist then, surely…
/Such things are not outside of the realm of possibility, Yugi. My people, I'm told, believed in all sorts of monsters and ghosts./
Yugi nodded, thoughtfully, "…and you still hunt monsters?"
She shook her head fervently. "No, dear. I haven't hunted in ten years."
"Ten years? Ten years ago, dad…" Yugi trailed off, his mind beginning to slowly put the puzzle pieces together. "What exactly are you telling me, mom?"
Yugi's mother blanched slightly at his words. He was beginning to understand, she realized. He was already working it out in his mind and he was not so nearly hung up on the existence of monsters and ghosts as she would expect a teenage boy to be.
"Yugi, ten years ago, your father and I went on a Hunting Trip. Your father was killed. I lost him and I nearly lost you as well, though you don't remember. You were only six at the time."
Yugi was done meandering around his questions now. "What killed my father?"
"It was…a demon, Yugi. We had no idea…I didn't realize what we were up against until it was too late. It was supposed to be a simple ghost hunt, and then it came after the family. It came after us. After you. It tried to take you away from me." Tears were streaming down her face now and a small sob escaped her lips. Bobby reached over, patting the distraught woman on the back with one of his big hands.
Something clicked in Yami's mind at that moment as realization finally dawned upon him.
/Yugi, sulfur. We smelled sulfur at your school that day, remember?/
Yugi froze at the memory. How could he forget? He hadn't been that frightened since dueling Marik's dark side in the Battle City Tournament.
/But I don't see what that has to do with this./
/The scent of sulfur, or brimstone, is generally associated with the presence of evil spirits, or demons, as they are called./
/How do you know that?/
Yami shrugged mentally.
/That would mean…/
/This demon that hurt your family? It's was there./
Yugi had grown frighteningly silent and still as his mother finished her explanation and released a decade's tears. He didn't think he'd ever seen her cry before but it felt far away and surreal, somehow. He had the vague impulse to offer some words of comfort to her but Yugi felt disconnected from himself, and from the people around him. His father had been murdered by a demon and it was back. It had followed him at school that day, there could be no doubt now. He wasn't imagining things that day.
A sudden thought occurred to him, finally shaking him from his reverie. "My friends. I left my friends in Domino with a demon lurking around." The horror of this realization crashed down on him like a bolt of lightning.
He clenched his small fists and whispered, more to himself than to anyone else, "How am I supposed to keep them safe if I'm all the way out here?"
Bobby perked up at this and Sugoroku tensed in his seat, knowing how far Yugi would go to protect the people he loved. He was much like his father in that way.
Mrs. Mutou looked at her son strangely before rising from her seat. She stepped closer to his side before kneeling suddenly and wrapping him in a tight hug. He could feel her shaking slightly.
"Yugi, you're just a boy." He felt her arms tighten around his shoulders. "You can't fight demons, Yugi. You are safer here and your friends are safer if you're here, too. It will come after us when it realizes we have left Domino. Here we have a better chance."
/She might be right about that last part, my friend. If your family is the creature's prerogative then perhaps it will chase us here, which keeps it thousands of miles away from our friends./
/Yami, the bad guys always go after our friends. Always./
"I'm not six years old anymore, mom. I'm not completely useless, you know." Yugi stood abruptly from the table, causing his mother's arms to drop from his shoulders. She gazed at him, not fully comprehending his meaning.
Without another word, Yugi left the small kitchen of Bobby's house, stepping outside into the junkyard. The screen door creaked and slammed shut behind him.
I want to thank those of you who took the time to review my story!
Jaystarfighter: I also thought it was interesting that Mrs. Mutou rarely appears in the manga and never appears in the English dub of the anime, nor is she in the 1998 Season Zero episodes. It's almost like Yugi just spawned in! I recall only one scene from the manga with her. That scene doesn't give us much to go on for her character but Yugi called her "Mama" instead of something more formal, which seemed so much like something Yugi would do that I had to incorporate it into the story. I read somewhere that she does make a brief appearance in the Japanese anime and catches Yugi talking to himself. I'm currently working my way through those episodes, so we will see! Thanks for reading and reviewing!
PhantomBrat: Thank you for reading and reviewing! One of your stories got me wanting to write a Yugioh x Supernatural story in the first place. I've enjoyed several of yours since then so I really appreciate you taking the time to write me.
