Yami stood over the freshly turned ground of the new grave, the glistening head stone of white-grey marble at his feet. His black jacket hung open, top buttons of his white shirt open, and tie loose. In his had a single rose, one of many already decorating the grave at his feet, though this one was red, in sharp contrast to the others having only petals of white. Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda turned to walk away; Anzu stopped and looked at him,
"Yugi?" She asked cautiously
"Go I'll be there in a moment."
She nodded glancing at the golden pyramid hanging off a chain around his neck, just once before following after Jounouchi and Honda. Yami could feel his aibou's sadness at the back of his mind intermingled with his own heart wrenching despair. He felt like his chest was tearing open. His fist tightened around the rose. A gust of freezing wind howled, echoing the mourning. Thunder rumbled across the sky, and though it was such a horribly over used analogy, all he could describe the sudden down pour as, was that the world had begun to cry. He almost laughed at the cliché of it raining during this particular type of occasion, and at just how over used that was, but… it just hurt too much. The rain was tears, that's all he could describe it as, his own unshed tears falling on the world a thousand fold than they would have from his cheeks.
He fell to his knees abruptly unable to stand any longer, the forming mud splashing over the white roses. The words engraved on the stone were accented with a silvery metal; they seared his mind as if the metal that formed them were white hot. Lia was the name written there. Only Lia. Her birth was unknown, but her death… haunted him. April 5th… last week… shocking they had been able to pull together a proper funeral in so short an amount of time. Clearly the world had become accustom to sudden unforeseen deaths… especially to people the entire world passed by and ignored. She had been one of those people… that's why they didn't even have her last name engraved on the grave stone… no one had known it and no one could find it either. Most likely they were the first people who had ever considered calling her friend, no one else had known she existed… and she had preferred it that way. However; in the end, things had changed. Now he was mourning over her grave reading the text that had been engraved for her "She said she could never understand things like love or friendship, but at the end… she knew what it felt like to care for someone."
Yami punched his fist into the mud, marring the pure white of several more roses. The rose in his hand became half buried in the mud, and the thorns dug into his palm making them bleed.
"I've won this shadow game." The cloaked man had said as the memories flashed through Yami's mind. "It's best that you surrender now instead of suffering the pain of the final blow." Shadows swirled angrily around the arena. Lia was barely standing. She was at a severe disadvantage. The score sat at nearly 3000 life points to her opponent, and 150 to her. Her monsters were gone and she had no way to bring them back. Her deck was completely exhausted. She had three cards in her deck and four in her hand. Her opponent sported several monsters though even the weakest could take her out now. Her legs trembled visibly, and buckled beneath her. She barely caught herself on the edge of the card panel built into her dueling station.
"There's still a chance!" They had shouted to her, King of Games ever the hopeful one. Each time they cheered her on she would look at them so confused, and each time her eyes had become progressively emptier as the duel had wore on, ever so slowly. Lia had said to them over and over again tirelessly to stop wasting their breath, she didn't understand love, or pain, or sadness, or joy. Friendship it's self was an illusion she could not make real. Each time she had grown more and more confused with their persistence. Eventually at the end of the duel Lia had turned to them, looking over them with drained eyes. Her dark hair falling over her face,
"Just stop," She said "I know my cards… there's nothing that I can play to get out of this… I've lost this duel."
When Lia spoke her voice was void of all emotion as if she were incapable of expressing it. Her eyes had been steady on his.
"We'll finish this then," he had said "We'll finish this and rescue your soul from the shadow realm." She dropped her eyes "I… don't understand why you do things for me when I've done nothing for you, but… this isn't going to work the way you think it will." She turned back to the duel "You can only loose so much until you can't afford to lose anything else, and… I was only half a person to begin with."
No one had understood what she meant at first, not Anzu, Jounouchi, Honda, Yugi, or even Yami, but all the same the attack hit. Her life points hit zero and all at the same moment everyone felt that sense of dread and urgency "Wait! Lia, what do you mean it's not the same?" Anzu pleaded urgently as the hungry shadows closed in "What's happening?" Lia looked at her with hollow eyes, and held up three fingers "Soul, body… heart." She said then bent one finger leaving two "No heart," She curled another finger "no soul." She smiled though and looked at Yami "…For some reason… I feel like I know how it feels to care for someone now." suddenly the shadows engulfed her, for a split second. They vanished just like that; she collapsed in a crumpled heap, her opponent gone with the shadows. "Lia!" They had screamed rushing forward but her body was cold and lifeless. That's all it was now just a body. There was no soul and no heart that would have made it live.
The mud swirled around his knees, mixing with the white petals fallen from the roses. A single red petal contrast with the white. It hurt so much. Why did it hurt so damn much? Like someone so close had been ripped away. Her confusion had become his. She had always been confused as to why they did things for her, but she had died for them. He would never know, it was too late ask… she was gone.
His tears remained unseen in the rain; he pulled himself to his feet, Mud covering his knees and pant legs. His right hand bled where the thorns had tore into his palms. The rose lay on the grave amongst the scattered white petals. "I'm sorry." He said to the grave and turned away "Goodbye… Lia."
Yami approached the black cars where Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda were waiting under their umbrellas. Anzu stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. He didn't return the embrace. He just slid wordlessly into the back of one of the black cars after she had released him. He stared out the rain spattered window as the car drove off leaving behind the single red rose.