Disclaimer –"Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. The world of Reirinsei and all related characters and concepts belong to Lunnaei. Dragon's just havin' fun. We get no monetary benefit from this. Our benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.
"Otherworld I: The Door"
by Lunnaei and DragonDancer5150
Chapter 4 – The Answer
The spirit "watched" from the door of his soul room as Yugi stepped off the bus at the museum to find that his grandfather had already arrived. To both souls' surprise, so had two others, sitting alongside Grandpa on a park bench.
"Kaiba Seto!" Jonouchi startled.
"Ah! Hello, Kaiba-kun, Mokuba-kun! What brings you here?" Bakura put in as Honda elbowed Jonouchi into silence.
"Hey, guys!" Mokuba waved amicably.
Kaiba regarded the quintet for a long moment before responding in a low voice, "The same thing that brings all of you." With a small, wry smirk, he added, "If that's all right with the other you."
Yugi responded with a light-hearted chuckle before stepping back.
As he took control, the spirit nodded in good humor, giving Mokuba a grin of welcome before turning to the elder Kaiba. "I have to say that I would never have expected to see you here, but I'm glad that you are." More seriously, he held the other's eye and confessed, "It means a lot to me, Kaiba. Thank you for coming – all of you." His gaze shifted to include first Mokuba, then Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu, Bakura, and finally Yugi's grandfather, Mutou Sugoroku.
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Sugoroku met the gaze of the one standing before him in the corpus of his grandson. He had known for some time, since before his soul's imprisonment in the videotape during Duelist Kingdom. Still, he had found himself hesitant to confront the spirit face-to-face before now. Perhaps he had been wrong in that. He had seen the positive effects on his grandson that had been wrought by solving the Millennium Puzzle and associating with the spirit.
"It was initially your courage and persistence that made it possible for me to stand here now," the spirit went on, and then explained for the others. "Grandpa is the one who navigated the traps in the tomb in Egypt and brought out the golden box that contained the Puzzle. You are to thank as much as Yugi is for my being here, Grandpa."
Somehow, it meant a lot to hear himself be called "Grandpa" by this person with almost the same depth of affection as his grandson used. He put a wrinkled hand on his grandson's – on the spirit's – shoulder. "I would not miss this for the world, honored pharaoh."
"Well," Honda laughed, "we gonna stand out here all afternoon, or are we gonna get this show on the road?"
"Ut-oh!" Anzu gasped suddenly. "We'll need to buy tickets to even get in! Did everyone bring enough money?"
Sugoroku saw Kaiba roll his eyes even as he himself reached for his wallet, mentally calculating how much tickets were going to cost, but Bakura laughed and assured her, "No need to worry. It's already been taken care of. My father is the curator, remember? I've already spoken with him and have passes for everyone waiting at the box office, plus I can get a few more without too much trouble," he added with a wink, taking in Sugoroku and the Kaiba brothers.
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The spirit led the group across the plaza, drawing up to the bottom of the stairs, and paused when a man stepped into view at the top. He was tall, dressed in a cream-colored robe with a turban wrapped around his head. Gold glittered from objects in both hands. Dispassionate eyes rimmed in kohl gazed down at the group of them.
Only Honda's quick reflexes kept Jonouchi from pounding up the stairs in a sudden rage. "YOU! What the hell do you think – ! Honda, lemme go!"
The spirit put a hand on Jonouchi's arm, silently asking him to calm himself, as Kaiba stepped up by his side with the question, "Who are you?"
The spirit answered in the man's stead, a deep growl in his voice. "His name is Shadi. He's from Egypt, from the same clan as Malik, Ishizu, and Rishid."
"The Clan of the Tombkeepers." Kaiba nodded, having heard the full story. "And the items he's carrying – ?"
It was the spirit's turn to nod. "Millennium Items."
From the top of the stairs, Shadi addressed them. "I do not apologize for my actions back then . . . though I admit that I may have been a bit harsh."
"Chh! A bit – !" Jonouchi stopped, however, at the unexpected growl from low on his left, from none other than Mutou-Grandfather.
Sugoroku glared up at the Egyptian. "It was you who killed Kanekura-san, aren't you? And I know that you set my friend Yoshimori-sensei after Jonouchi-kun, somehow."
"Not ta mention Anzu's . . . " Again, Jonouchi stopped himself, catching the haunted, almost frightened expression in Anzu's eyes.
Unfazed, Shadi maintained eye contact solely with the spirit. "Pharaoh, you and your host have come a long way in recognizing and communicating with one another. At my last visit to this country, you had not yet even learned of each other's existence, and it took great trauma to awaken and draw you out from him." A very small smile tugged at his lips as he added, "It is something of a compliment, really, to your host's strength of mind, that it took so much to overwhelm him in hopeless grief enough to force you out."
"We have learned a great deal, yes," the spirit snarled, "and if you ever attempt such a thing again with any of those in my care . . . " He let the threat hang between them, his fury hot and nearly palpable in the cool, afternoon air.
Shadi shook his head. "That will not be necessary. I learned what I had set about to determine. In that Shadow Game and in the trials that have beset you since, you have proven that you are in fact the true pharaoh for whom my entire clan has waited for three thousand years. You now stand in possession of the three God cards and all seven Millennium Items. The time to regain your memories and your rightful self is at hand."
The spirit frowned. "I have five of the Items. You still hold the last two, Shadi, or are you saying that you will freely give them to me? What is your game this time? What is the cost for the final two Millennium Items, Shadi?"
"I cannot answer that with words you will believe. Let my actions speak for me." With that, he descended the stairs with slow and deliberate steps. The company braced back from his approach, but he stopped halfway down. Turning his back to them, he crouched briefly, then stood, sidestepped and returned to the top of the stairs. On the step where he had paused, the Millennium Scale stood gleaming in the afternoon sun, the Key resting across its base. "Approach and freely claim them, Pharaoh. Through trials of fire and darkness, you have earned them."
For a long moment, the spirit stood his ground, studying Shadi warily. He knew very well that this might be a trap of some kind, but he could not see the what or the why of it were that the case. At length, he made his decision.
"N-no!" Anzu gasped, catching his arm as he started forward.
The spirit paused, laying his hand over hers for a moment with a nod and grin of reassuring confidence, before pulling gently from her grip to ascend the stairs and claim the Items. Slowly, the rest of the gang followed suit as the spirit continued up to the broad patio of the museum itself.
Shadi withdrew several paces, allowing the spirit his space. "I understand that you do not trust me. Too much has happened, both by my own hand and by the doing of countless others. However, with or without your trust, I will carry out the completion of the sacred duty of my clan. Soul of the Pharaoh, by the will of the God cards, you have come to this museum. You will travel now to the World of Memory and face your destiny once again."
The spirit gasped at that. The 'World of Memory' . . . !
Shadi held the spirit's gaze with an inescapable intensity. "No matter how painful the experiences, you must not look away." Then, his gaze shifted to find Kaiba's and Sugoroku's. "The same goes for you."
Jonouchi growled. "Whoa! Wait just a minute, you! What're you tryin' ta say?"
"Shadi," the spirit queried in a low voice, "how much do you know about my memories . . . and the secrets of the Millennium Items?"
The Egyptian shook his head. "The answers to all puzzles are in the World of Memory. You must see with your own eyes, Pharaoh. Come." Without looking back, he strode for the entrance to the museum, leaving the rest to follow as they would. They were halfway through the building before anyone spoke again.
"Hey, Yu – erm . . . I-I mean . . . "
The spirit turned at Honda's voice, noting how his friend had caught himself calling the spirit by Yugi's name. It was what they had called him for so long . . . but Honda looked as painfully aware as he was that it was not, in fact, rightfully his. He felt Yugi's quiet smile of support as he met Honda's eyes softly. "It's all right, Honda. Aibou says that he doesn't mind sharing his name. What were you about to say?"
Honda scratched at the back of his head for an instant, then swung the knapsack forward off his shoulder, the one with the other Items within. Yugi had given it to him on the bus, as Honda had offered to carry it for him. "Ah . . . well, I was just wondering if you wanted to free up your hands and add those in with the rest." He pointed at the Key and Scale.
The spirit looked down at the golden artifacts in his fists. They thrummed with a tactile power, and part of him was reluctant to release them. He knew that Yugi could not sense the energies in the Items, or he would not have given the knapsack into Honda's keeping. The spirit did not want to risk any more harm to his friends than they had already suffered. Still, they had come here of their own free will, following as they had always done. He could not have kept them away if he had forced them.
And he suspected that he would need his hands free. "Yes, Honda. Thank you."
They had paused in the hallway just past a gift shop, Anzu pacing along with the rest though, by her eyes, the spirit had suspected that her mind was elsewhere in thought. As he tucked the Items into the knapsack, Anzu's sudden, small gasp startled them. "I'll be right back. Grandfather, would you come help me find something, please?" Without even waiting for an answer, she dragged Sugoroku into the gift shop.
Jonouchi shook his head in disbelief. "Leave the souvenirs till later!"
"Anzu!" Mokuba called in concern.
After a moment, Anzu and Sugoroku rejoined the group. There was a sad smile of understanding on the old man's face as he met the spirit's eye knowingly, while Anzu held something to her heart, hidden in her fist.
Kaiba cocked an eye at her and muttered, not too unkindly, "Didn't find any replica Puzzles for sale?"
Anzu shot him a look, then stepped up to the spirit. "Yugi, I want you to have this." She held out her hand. As her fingers uncurled, a long, fine chain fell free, hanging from the jeweler's ring at the top of a pendant in her palm.
The spirit accepted the gift, holding up the odd necklace in curiosity. It was a long, ovoid plate of golden metal, the surface perfectly smooth within a rounded frame all around the edge. The bottom of the frame flared into a shape like a low pedestal. "What's this?" He thought the design seemed vaguely familiar.
"It's a cartouche pendant. It's like a nameplate."
Sugoroku added, "The ancient pharaohs always had their names written on such cartouches."
"There's no name on this one," the spirit pointed out. He had seen things like this before when Yugi and the others were out wandering and shopping – usually keychains with common names preprinted or molded. He did not suppose that "Yugi" was a common enough name for them to have found a premade cartouche.
With a smile, Anzu explained, "I want you to carve your real name on there, Yugi."
That stopped the spirit cold. My . . . real name . . . ?
"That way, when you get your memories and you real name back, you'll never forget it again."
Mokuba looked up at him in empathy. "You . . . you don't even know your own name? Aww, I hadn't thought about that."
Sugoroku put a hand on his shoulder. "That's what we're here to find out, lad."
Kaiba nodded thoughtfully. "Any time the pharaoh's name was scribed on anything, it was surrounded by that cartouche design. There is one cartouche among the images and hieroglyphs on one of the stone slabs, but the name was chiseled off the center."
"Ah, man, that's just cold!" Jonouchi muttered.
Shadi met his eye calmly. "No. It was vital."
The spirit slipped the chain of the necklace over his head with deliberate care, tucking it in under the shirt. "Thank you, Anzu. I will treasure it always!"
"Okay!" Anzu grinned.
Shadi gestured. "Come. The tablet awaits."
The group continued on its way, descending into the basement and rounding a corner into a room. Stone statues of seated Egyptian figures and large painted wooden panels protected behind glass panes flanked them to either side, while two great carven stone murals commanded attention in the wall ahead. Set into deep, glass-paned alcoves, the left-hand tablet especially took one's attention. The design was equal parts graphic images and hieroglyphic text. Two humanoid characters dominated the lower half of the panel, opposing figures with hands outstretched to one another over a burning brazier – a sorcerer-priest on the left holding the Millennium Rod, the pharaoh on the right with the Millennium Puzzle hung from his neck. Those who had laid eyes on this tablet before now still marveled at the unmistakable likenesses to Kaiba and Yugi. Those who had not were gathering their jaws back up off the floor, their eyes popping out of their heads in utter disbelief.
In a small voice of trepidation and awe, Yugi spoke up at last from within the spirit's heart. -Finally, it's time, Other M - ! . . . I-I mean . . . -
The spirit closed his eyes, mentally stepping back for just an instant to meet his cherished aibou in the netherspace between their souls. Sharing Yugi's excitement and impending sense of grief, he laid a reassuring hand on the ethereal shoulder of this, his closest friend. -Aibou, there is a portion of me that will always be the 'other you'. You and I have been as one for too long for it to be any other way – nor, truly, would I have it be any other way. No matter what happens, we will carry a part of each other's spirits forever.-
Tears in his eyes, Yugi managed a genuine smile and nodded. -Yup.-
The spirit returned outside, regarding the imposing stone slab before him. The time has come. The brand on Malik's back showed me what to do. I have to present the three God cards to the Tablet of Memory . . . He turned, but Honda was a step ahead, already offering the golden box. He took in hand the three cards, splaying them across his fingers. And then what will happen? His gaze wandered up past the figures of the priest and pharaoh, past the dragon and mage facing off over their heads, to the depiction of the Millennium Puzzle surrounded by images of the three Egyptian Gods: Obelisk to the Puzzle's right, Ra's Dragon on the left, and Osiris above.
"Yugi . . . " the spirit heard Jonouchi murmur behind him as he shifted the cards in his grip to face outward.
The answer is here!
The rumble began as soon as the spirit lifted his hand with the cards, presenting them to the tablet. The images of the Puzzle and Gods shimmered, then a terrific, blinding flash erupted from the carven Puzzle image, answered by an equal flare from the real Puzzle. The combined bedazzlement born of the ancient power at work filled the entire room, overwhelming the senses of all those present.
Just as suddenly, it was gone, leaving three collapsed bodies in its wake.
Author's Notes: Please be sure to check my bio page for any updates, etc. Thanks!