A/N: This chapter was extremely hard to get out due to the case section of this chapter. I don't remember how many times I redid that... Argh. I may go back and reword it later, but for now it'll suffice.

DISCLAIMER: Bohr-d doesn't own Yami no Matsuei, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or anything within this fic that actually exists and makes money. She does, however, own the OC's presented in this chapter as well as the imaginary Egyptian Society of Osiris.

"I-I'm not afraid of dying. …I've always wanted to try dying once."- Kouyama Mitsuki, Full Moon wo Sagashite, Volume I (Arina Tanemura)

Life After Death
Chapter Six: New Case, New Problems
-bohr-d

Seto held the bottle in his hand, the ice covering its plastic shell gleaming in the fading sun, making it look more like glass than plastic. It wasn't cold though, and when the brunet ran his thumb over it, he was disappointed to find that the bottle was just that- a bottle.

"But I could have sworn…"

The ice, if there had ever been some, had just simply disappeared. But the question plaguing Seto's mind, along with the notion of whether or not he was beginning to lose it, was how it had gotten there in the first place. His genius couldn't come up with any plausible reasoning, which frustrated him. And with a sudden snap of his wrist, the nearly empty water bottle went flying across the room, the small amount of liquid still inside streaming out only to hit Seto in the face.

Muttering underneath his breath, the blue-eyed teen sighed, wiping the remnants of the water off of him. Something clicked in his mind- a welcome thought.

"At least my headache's gone now… now I can get some work done around here," he said to himself, using the couch behind him as support as he hoisted himself off of the ground. As he made his way around the kitchen: grabbing his briefcase from off of the floor and putting it upon the table, starting up the coffee machine, searching for something to eat in the refrigerator, the brunet's mind drifted back to the few flashes of… something, right before he had found himself of the floor gasping for breath.

'Those people… did I know them? And what was that large skyscraper? I know I've seen it before…'

But paperwork beckoned to the hard-working young man and soon his thoughts were ones of filing systems, annoying partners, and prefectures of Kyoto rather than scattered memories that were more like a dream than anything.

"See you in the morning, then," Watari said as he slipped on his shoes, "And remember not to be late; Konoe'll have your head."

Tsuzuki nodded as he opened the door for his friend, "You're telling me. Not to mention Hisoka'll be angry with me as well. I guess I'll have to wait until later for my Cinnapon."

With a final farewell, Watari left Tsuzuki's apartment, heading down the long, empty hallway. The scientist was torn between heading back to his own apartment for the night and going back to the lab to finish off a few experiments he was working on.

"003's waiting for me back at the lab though…" Watari muttered to himself as he headed down the stairs, "Maybe I'll just stop by to pick her up then go home; I did tell her that I would be back."

Deciding on that course of action, there was a small spring in his step as Watari walked. He reached the second floor, and it was there that he paused for a moment. His partner had a room on this floor; the first door on the right, if Watari wasn't mistaken. After a short pause of hesitation, the blond continued on his way out of the building.

Even though Watari was one for forcing social habits onto those like Hisoka and Seto, even he knew that there were probably some times when it was best just to let things alone. And right now he was getting the strange feeling that it just happened to be one of those times.

Bakura Residence, Domino City, Japan- Chijou.

It was rather late when Bakura Ryou unlocked the door to his cozy though lonely apartment and walked in. The white-haired teenager and former Item holder was exhausted after a night of hanging out with Yuugi and the others. It seemed that once the whole mess with the Items had been finally finished, there was a lot more time for just having fun and enjoying being a teenager.

Bakura didn't have to feel so alone anymore, isolating himself from anyone attempting to get close to him, in fear of the evil spirit once housed in the Sennen Ring he was burdened with.

Flipping on the lights as he entered his bedroom, the teen suddenly had a chill run down his back. The air was rather still, tense as if someone, or something was there. Making no sign as if he had noticed anything amiss, Bakura calmly threw his jacket and other belongings on his bed before making his way back down the stairs and into the kitchen.

'Whatever it is… or who… it's following me,' he realized as he stopped. Right next to him was a large set of steak knifes; probably the only thing even resembling a weapon in the whole apartment. His hand reached out and quickly drew the closest one to him.

"Whoever you are… come out right now," Bakura said loudly to the seemingly empty room, inwardly thanking whatever higher power there was that his voice didn't betray the panic he was feeling at that moment, "Or else I'll use this on you! I will, you know, I'm… I'm not bluffing!"

'I thought this was all supposed to end when I got rid of that blasted hunk of gold! I hate looking over my shoulder all the time…'

The white-haired teen received no answer; but suddenly the air seemed to lose the tension it had carried before, as if whatever hostile presence that had been there before had just simply vanished.

Or maybe it had just decided that it would be better to bide its time at the moment.

Whatever it was, Bakura felt a cold sense of foreboding come over him.

'Something's not right here…'

The clock in the laboratory chimed nine just as Seto hurried into the room, unusually distracted and in the middle of tying his tie on. Watari looked as his partner for a moment, confused.

"Did you just come in?" he asked, a smug smile beginning to creep over his features, "Well, who would have guessed. You sure picked the best of days to be late coming in, you know."

Ice blue eyes glared in the blond's direction, "I would need a whole notebook to record how many times you have been late, Watari-san, in the past few months I've been here."

"Ooh… touchy, aren't we?" Watari retorted, shuffling through the files on his desk, "Well, you actually didn't miss anything. Kachou said that the delegates had been delayed by a few hours due to some mission that came up or something or other, so they won't be here until this afternoon."

He received no reply from the brunet, only the sound of fingers clacking on computer keys filled the small silence after Watari spoke. Mentally sighing at once again being ignored by Seto, even though it was the norm for him, he went about doing some paperwork. After all, the boss man said no explosions, but Watari really wanted to test out a new idea of his…

"Watari-san…"

"What? What'd I do?"

"You're thinking about doing something irrational and stupid with the lab equipment again, aren't you." It wasn't a question. Damn the boy for being so observant.

"No…"

"Liar."

Watari frowned, "Oh, so what if I am? It's my stuff after all."

"Pay cuts," was Seto's response. And it just happened to be a good one, because the threat stopped the scientist in his tracks. A slight smirk formed on the brunet's face, he knew he had won.

003 flew into the lab at that point, cutting off whatever retort Watari was thinking up. She fluttered over her owner's head for a moment, before landing on his shoulder.

"Hey girl, where have you been all morning?" Watari asked the little owl, who blinked up at him before fluttering over to Seto and landing on the top of his laptop screen.

The teen glared at 003, "Off. Now," he said, to which Watari chuckled. 003 hooted before flying onto the desk and nipping Seto's hand before circling once more and heading out of the room.

Watari, having had 003 as his only company for thirty-odd years, knew exactly what the diminutive owl was trying to tell them, "She wants us to follow her, Kyouji," he said.

"It's an owl, Watari-san, it can't talk," scoffed Seto.

"Hey, what's taking you guys so long?"

Both shinigami turned to see Tsuzuki at the lab door.

He nodded, "We sent 003-chan to get you two! The shinigami from the other department are here."

Watari smiled, "Oh, so they resolved things that quickly, then?"

"Nope! They had someone else do it for them, I think. But anyways, they want to get started soon, so you better hurry up."

When Seto and Watari walked into the briefing room, like everyone else, their attention was drawn to the three newcomers sitting at the head of the table next to Tatsumi and Konoe. The younger pair- a young man with spiky, dark brown hair and a woman with dark green eyes narrowed in irritation at the man next to her- were conversing rapidly, and heatedly, in Arabic as their superior sighed and tried to intervene.

Watari was oddly reminded of Tsuzuki and Hisoka for a moment.

The scientist had done a bit of looking into the databases the night before, to learn a bit more about the delegates from the Egypt branch of Meifu, formally known as the Egyptian Society of Osiris. The man in charge of their Soul Retrieval section, as they called it, was Hanadi Farouk, a slightly heavy-set man with the appearance of a man in about his late forties or so.

'Those files must be highly out of date though…' Watari mused, as the physical appearance of the man was a bit different than the picture included with the file Tatsumi had been given as well as the one featured on the database. A large scar marred the man's face, running from forehead to jawline over his right eye. The blond idly wondered what could cause such harm to a shinigami that it would leave permanent disfiguration after the skin had regenerated itself.

He decided though, that he really didn't want to know.

Tatsumi, obviously, was getting a bit tired of the bickering between the pair seated across from him. He turned to the Egyptian seated next to him. "Excuse me, Farouk-kachou, but we'd like to begin the debriefing now."

The man nodded in Tatsumi's direction before leaning over the table and whacking the two younger shinigami over the head, causing them to both quiet down and look sheepishly at their boss. "Behave, you two," Farouk said, his words thickly covered with an Arabic accent, "You told me you'd be on your best behavior. Do not insult the honor of our branch."

The woman turned to Konoe, "I apologize on the behalf of my partner and I for our rudeness… it's just sometimes he doesn't know when to shut up."

"Oh, geez… get over it, will you, Aria?"

Aria ignored her partner, causing him to smirk slightly, thinking he had won whatever argument the two had been having before Watari and Seto had arrived.

Tatsumi looked around the room and took a mental roll call, making sure that everyone who was supposed to be there was. This time, the full office hadn't been assembled, just the Kinki and Kyushu sectors as they were the ones who would be working on the case.

"Now, let us begin the meeting. Why don't we go around and introduce ourselves first," Tatsumi said, "Watari-san, we'll start with you; Konoe-kachou and I have already introduced ourselves."

"Umm… okay then," Watari replied, smiling congenially, "I'm Watari Yutaka, Kinki sector shinigami."

"Kurosaki Hisoka, Kyushu sector."

"Tsuzuki Asato, also from Kyushu."

"…Kyouji Seto, Kinki sector."

The three Egyptians smiled, before introducing themselves as well. "It's surnames first, am I correct? Then I am Farouk Hanadi, Chief of the Soul Retrieval section of the Society of Osiris."

The woman introduced herself next, "Nebet Aria, Valley of the Kings retrievalist."

Aria had to nudge her partner, as it was clear he wasn't paying attention, "Oh. Oops. I'm Djari Salim of the same."

Konoe nodded to Tatsumi, who passed down a pile of folders to everyone at the table while Farouk began to explain the case. "Five millennia ago, Egyptian rulers played a game of great and terrible power. These games were called the Shadow Games, and involved the mutilation of a human soul, along with powers that even a shinigami could never hope to wield. The power of these games threatened to destroy Egypt, as well as the world."

For some reason, Seto felt the urge to laugh at the man, and barely restrained himself from doing so. However, he couldn't keep his remark of "A bit exaggerated, don't you think?" from leaving his mouth.

Watari glanced sharply at his partner, as did the rest of the room. "I assure you, this is no exaggeration, Kyouji-san, was it?" Aria said, "These Shadow Games could only be played with those who had possession of what was called a Sennen Item. There were seven in all, each one holding a unique power of their own as well as the ability to call forth monsters from the Shadow Realm; monsters representing the ugliness and the beauty of a person's soul. In some cases, they were the souls of the person themselves."

Salim entered the conversation as well, "Mind control, seeing into the future, telepathy, judgement of a soul, these are only a few of the powers that the Items held. If given into the wrong hands, well, you could imagine the chaos that would cause."

Farouk nodded, "The pharaoh of that time sealed the magic of the Shadow Games and the Sennen Items away for the last five millennia, until a Japanese student solved the Sennen Puzzle, said to house the soul of the great pharaoh."

Tsuzuki frowned, "The soul of the pharaoh? So that means, his soul went without judgement for that long?"

"Yes, but because it was deemed in a prophecy that he would be needed to save the world once again from the danger of the Shadow Games, our Society let him stay housed within the Puzzle. Though Osiris, if he had wanted to, could have taken his soul to Judgement when the ritual was complete instead of letting the transfer to the Puzzle be completed.

"Anyways, about a month or so ago, the prophecy had finally come to pass. The pharaoh had regained the memories he had lost during his imprisonment, the Sennen Items were ready to be destroyed once and for all, and the Shadow Games had been stopped for good. He got as far as completing what is known as a Ceremonial Duel—"

Hisoka perked up a bit at this part, "A duel?"

"The modernized version of the Shadow Games was turned into a highly popular card game, Duel Monsters. The pharaoh and the one whom he shared a body and consciousness with for the last several years, one Mouto Yuugi, had to duel against one another to see if they were ready to part.

"When Mouto-san won, the pharaoh opened the gate of the Shrine to the Next World."

Watari interrupted, "I've heard of that; it's a gateway into the past, isn't it? A gateway to the world of five thousand years ago, specifically. But, that would mean that the soul of this pharaoh would get another chance at life!"

"Yeah, but apparently the higher-ups figured that after saving the world twice, the guy deserved it." Salim said.

"So what went wrong?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Well, what went wrong was that the pharaoh, after searching for his memories and finally having the chance to return to a life and time where everything was the way he had known it when he was alive, didn't take that chance."

"Well that was stupid." Seto said, "But I really don't see the problem. You were going to let him have a second chance anyways, so why does it matter what time period he chooses to stay in?"

Farouk frowned, black eyes piercing Seto's own ice blue ones, "The problem is, that if he stays in this realm, the Sennen Puzzle stays as well. He cannot exist without it as he himself does not exist in this day and age. And as long as there is a Sennen Item still around, there will always be the chance that someone will use it for the wrong reasons and bring back the Shadow Games."

"Not only that, but we received reports that another Sennen Item survived the collapse of the Shrine of the Next World," Aria sighed, fingering the edge of the manila folder in front of her. "And it just happened to be our luck that it was the Sennen Ring."

When five confused looks were the result, Farouk was about to explain when Seto cut him off, "The Ring houses another soul, doesn't it? As well as the power to transfer souls into objects."

"How did you know that, Kyouji?" Konoe asked, glancing at the teen.

Confused to that himself, but not letting any of that emotion show on his face, Seto replied, "I… I think I must have read it somewhere."

'Honestly, I don't know… how did I know that, anyways? This stuff is complete bullshit anyway. The souls in the Items I'll take, soul transference has happened before… but monsters and manipulation over shadows?' Seto's gaze flickered towards the Secretary at the end of the table, 'Only a Kagetsukai can control shadows like that, and Tatsumi-san's the only one other than his sensei. It's not something any mortal could do.'

"…To send a Retrievalist out, but by then the Items had already crossed the border. We traced them back to Japan; in Domino City, to be exact. It's not in our jurisdiction anymore, so we ask that you please work with us to collect these two for Judgement."

When Seto bounced back out of his thoughts, he realized that he had missed a good chunk of the conversation, though he would never admit that to anyone. Watari though, he noticed, had taken a good amount of notes in the ledger he usually carried around. Seto made a note to steal it and look through it later.

Later that night, the buzzing of the intercom on Kaiba Mokuba's office desk woke him from the nap he had been taking. Rubbing his eyes sleepily and vaguely wondering what time it could be, the pre-teen pressed the receiving button of the small machine.

"Yes…? What do you need, Masahide-san?" Mokuba yawned, waiting for his secretary's answer.

"You have a call on line one, Kaiba-sama; I believe it's from the Estate."

"Thank you, patch them through, please?"

"Of course, Sir."

The pleasant, calm voice of Mokuba's secretary was replaced by a small amount of static before Yuugi's rushed, panicked tones filled the large office. Senses still slightly hazed by sleep, Mokuba interrupted Yuugi.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. What's going on, Yuugi?" Mokuba asked, a feeling of dread beginning to worm its way up his spine.

'Yuugi's almost never this panicky… I wonder what's happened.'

"Mokuba… it's Jii-chan. He's… he's in the hospital."