Author's note: sorry this update took so long! From here on in, I'm using a different spelling of a character's name...Yuugi instead of Yugi (but I won't be changing all the other chapters—I don't have enough time). This isn't a random spelling decision, my friend who translates Japanese stuff did a translation from the original kana (at least, I'm pretty sure it was kana), and Yugi is more like a dub name. It isn't really wrong, but it takes out the phonetic lengthener (that's the extra u), and Yuugi actually means game I believe, so I feel it's more correct. Names, as you may have noticed, are very, very important to this story, so I'm trying to get them right. And yes, I realize that I'm using dub names for all non-original characters except Yuugi—there is a reason and it is currently a secret. One more thing about the names *things fly out of nowhere and hit Subieko* No, really, just one more! I realize that in the original Japanese version, Yami didn't have a real name—he was called dark Yuugi (Yami Yuugi) in the character guide, mou hitori no boku (my other self) by Yuugi, mou hitori no Yuugi (the other Yuugi) by Yuugi's friends, I believe, and I'm fairly certain he was called the Japanese for "nameless pharaoh" by some people, and maybe even some other things by other people. Talk about an identity crisis...but, Yami was used in the dub as a name. However, I did not just use the dub name—at first, Yuugi and his friends referred to the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle as the Yami, using Yami as a class of spirit. However, later they call him Yami. This is because in my version of events, he chooses that to be his name, and in living under a name it becomes one's own. O___o okay I think I've babbled enough now...sorry, names are just really important! ^__^;;;
Also: I may not update for a while...I'm a little stuck on C5 (and I'm back to school now...O___o). But, I AM working on it! ^___^
And now...thank you to Chace, Mitsuko-chan, and Serafinamoon for reviewing! Thanks for the compliment, Chace. ^__^ Mitsuko-chan, thank you too—I'm glad you think I did a good job. Serafinamoon, thank you too! Heh...mystery girl's identity is revealed in this chapter...she's not a Darkling, but good guess—you noticed that she comes from Dark World, yay! ^____^ And also a big thanks to Kath, who helped me translate that name stuff. Enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 4--Revealed
She slid down from the tree, stealthily approaching the group. She had to talk to them, had to find out who they were; they seemed different from the other people here, and that alone made them worthy of notice. She crept closer, staying in the shadows. She had risked death to come here, and she would speak to these people who seemed so unusual if it cost her her life.
*****
Yuugi, look--it's that girl from the library.
"You're right...I wonder what she's doing here?"
Ask her yourself...she's coming over here. Scratch that--she'll never make it.
"Why not?"
Because the idiots of your stupid school seem to think it would be amusing to smash her face in.
"Oh."
Yuugi got up and started walking off.
"Wait--Yuugi, where are you going?"
"I have to go rescue someone...I'll be back in a minute."
WHAT? Hey--wait for me!
****
She was in trouble; she knew that at once. People bigger and heavier than her, blocking her way--if that wasn't trouble, she didn't know what was.
"Hey, freak girl--why ya wearing a cape?"
"Yeah--something wrong with your face?"
She scowled at them, although they couldn't see that.
"Get away from me!"
"I don't think so..."
*****
You know, we could just play a game with them...
"No. You are not making anyone else hallucinate or blinding them or whatever it is you do to people when you play those games."
Well they deserve it! And it's not like it's permanently damaging...usually.
"Yami, no."
Fine...but you do realize the odds are completely against you. Two-on-one, and both of them are about twice your size.
"Two-on-two, actually."
I can't help you fight--they would kind of notice that I'm a spirit and all...
"Oh yeah...I forgot. Well, we can beat them anyway. Benjamin taught me how to fight, remember?"
Benjamin is a Darkling, and unlike you, he actually aims to win when he fights people.
"We'll be fine--now come on.."
She looked up. It was the boy she had seen in the strange building--the different one. But...why would he be here? It never occurred to her that someone would help her for no reason--in her life, charity was nonexistent. She was consequently surprised by what happened next.
"Leave her alone."
"Why should we?"
"Because you shouldn't randomly attack people?"
I don't think they're gonna buy that argument.
"Well it's true!"
They just like attacking people, Yuugi.
"They shouldn't."
Then let's stop them.
"Right!"
The two would-be attackers stared at Yuugi while he talked, not just to himself, but apparently to another person. Most of the people Yuugi knew thought he was crazy, so this was making them nervous. After all, messing with a psycho is never a good idea.
"...let's get out of here..."
"Right with you."
Well, I guess that's a solution...
"Huh?"
They thought you were crazy and ran for it.
"Oh. Well, that's that."
She stood up carefully, looking curiously at the stranger. What possible reason could he have had for helping her? It didn't make any sense to her, whose life held nothing but quick death for the weak--the strong held out a little bit longer. Still, whatever his reasons were, he had helped her, and he certainly must be like her.
"Come on--let's get out of here," she said, grabbing his hand.
Yuugi stared at the cloaked stranger. He had no idea what she was talking about, but he had a sinking feeling that this was yet another bizarre mystery person from another World.
"Uh...why?"
"Don't you want to get away from here?"
"Why would I want to do that?" Yuugi asked hesitantly.
She couldn't understand it. This one must surely be a slave because of his small size and filthy clothes--why wouldn't he want to escape? She certainly had.
"What, you like being a slave?"
Yuugi's friends, having by now caught up to him, stared at her with him, all of them completely taken aback.
"I'm what?"
"You aren't a slave?"
"No, I'm not!"
"Then...what are you?"
"I'm...well, I'm human...."
"You are!?"
Everyone was silent. They were at loss to see how anyone could think Yuugi wasn't human.
This is too bizarre--most people think you're weird, but she doesn't even think you're human!
"Of course I'm human!"
"...oh. Never mind, then."
She turned to walk away. If these people were no different from everyone else in this World, then they were no concern of hers.
"Wait--I want to know who you are."
She half-turned, glancing back at the small child. If anyone else had seen Yuugi now, they would have been surprised--he looked so much more authoritative than normal that only someone who knew he was a Guardian could have understood. She knew about Guardians, but she hadn't known this World had one; if this was him, then she would have to explain herself.
"Are you...the Guardian?"
"How did you know?" Yuugi asked in surprise.
"I could just tell...I knew you were different from everyone else. All right...I'll tell you my story. I come from--"
"Wait--not here!"
That's right...if she's not human or something, she'll stick out. We can't break the Sacred Trust or anything.
"Come on...we can go to my house. If grandpa was okay with dragons and wolves, you should be no problem."
Of course, you haven't actually told your grandfather that various Duel Monsters have taken up residence in his house....
"Close enough."
She walked off with them, unafraid. Like many people who met Yuugi, she had a feeling that this Guardian was one she could trust.
*****
"Okay, now you can tell us about yourself."
They were all standing (or sitting, as the mood took them) in Yuugi's kitchen, having conveniently decided to tell Yuugi's grandfather about the mysterious girl later. She took a deep breath, preparing to tell her story.
"I guess to really get my story you have to know what I look like. So...."
She took off her veil, then removed the cape she had been wearing to hide her features. They collectively gasped in shock at the person underneath.
She was tiny, both in height and in build--as short as Yuugi and as thin as a rail. Her clothes were gray rags that looked like burlap, crudely cut into a makeshift, sleeveless shirt and shorts that were too small in some places and too large in others. The clothes barely stayed on her bony body, so worn and ragged they were almost falling apart. The back of her shirt was almost see-through from whip cuts, and thick, raised whip scars stood out with her vertebrae underneath it. Every bone in her body stuck out; she looked like one of the starving children on a charity brochure. Her arms and legs were covered with scars from a life of hard labor, and her clothes were stained with what looked like long-dried blood. On her right arm, a tattoo ran from her shoulder to her elbow: 24601. All of this, however, was not the worst.
The worst was her face.
Her sharp, darting brown eyes seemed huge in her thin face, and her skin seemed stretched tight from long starvation. Her hair barely touched her ears, looking like it had been hacked off with a rusty sword; there were scars on her head in some places where the hair had been pulled out by force. Lengthwise on the right side of her face was another tattoo, running from just below her temple to her jaw: 601. They suddenly realized why she had worn a veil over her face--to cover that marking. But where had she gotten it, and why? Only Yuugi, who had been a prisoner in the Chaos Fortress and had known Benjamin best, realized what this must mean.
"Is that your slave number--24601?"
The girl scowled and whirled around, glaring at him.
"I am not a number!"
"No, wait--that's not what I meant..."
Why is she so sensitive about that number?
Yuugi's friends were confused; they had never seen a Chaos slave before. Little did they know that their friend Benjamin had the same heavy scars on his back; he never took his coat off if he could help it. Dark World's Guardian had also been a slave, but to another master, one less concerned with order than with the suffering of his captives.
"What do you mean, a slave number?"
"How did you get all those scars?"
"...who are you?"
This last question was the best, but the hardest to answer; the Overlord's slaves are among the most miserable, because he takes from them the last thing that could make them anything but numbers in his horde of possessions: their names. The slaves of Chaos were meant to be nameless entities, mere fractions of a whole, but they hate this idea with all their hearts. The slaves, not knowing who they were before their capture, fashion themselves knew names as best they can, refusing to be the numbers of a cruel master.
"My name is Scat Freedom, and I am not a number."
If not for the seriousness of the situation, they would have been tempted to laugh. Scat? What kind of a name was Scat? But the girl (or Scat, as we must now call her) glared at them so fiercely that they couldn't make fun of her name.
Well, most of them couldn't.
"Scat? Your name is Scat? You're kiddin' me, right? How can your name be Scat?"
"Joey! You should never make fun of someone's name!" Yuugi said in shock.
Scat herself seemed to think this too.
"You're makin' fun of my name!? I'LL KILL YOU!!!"
She leaped forward, but Tristan grabbed her arms to prevent her from dealing his friend a fatal injury.
"I don't suppose an apology would help..."
"Calm down--er--Scat. He didn't mean it--we were just surprised."
"I'm not ashamed of my name--it's the only one I got1 That's what the others call me...Scat 'cause I'm so fast, and Freedom 'cause I tried to break out so many times. 'Course, I think it's actually kind've an insult--they never thought I'd make it. But this time I did...this time I got out. I took the Gater...I put it the first set of coord'nints I saw...and now I'm here, and you're insultin' my name! I COULD DIE FOR THAT NAME! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT? WE AREN'T EVEN ALLOWED TO HAVE NAMES, AND YOU'RE MAKIN' FUN OF MINE!?"
"Hey, I'm sorry already, quit freakin' out!"
The girl stood still, finally released, still shaking slightly with fury. How could they understand? Their names had always belonged to them, they had never been stolen and destroyed forever, how could they understand what it felt like to be just a number? Idiots...just like all the Chaos troops, taking names and never thinking what that really meant. That's all they were...just like them....
"We're sorry, Scat--my friends have never lost their names before..."
"Oh, an' you have?"
Yuugi was silent for a moment. "...almost."
Scat did a double take. He had almost lost his name? That was something, then. This one was special...she had been right.
"All right, then. Anyway...you wanted to know who I am, now who're all of you?"
Yuugi's friends weren't quite sure how to introduce themselves to a girl from another World, but they did their best.
"Uh...my name's Tea, and it's nice to meet you and all...."
"I'm Tristan...and...yeah."
"I'm Joey..."
Scat looked at them coldly. She couldn't understand how a pack of idiots like them had survived this long, even in their own World. She turned to Yuugi, hoping for a slightly better introduction, if not expecting one.
"My name is Yuugi Mutou," he said, bowing. "I am honored to meet you, Scat Freedom...welcome to our World."
Scat really couldn't help but be impressed by that. No one had ever introduced themselves to her in her life, but she had seen plenty of introductions, and that was certainly one of the best. Of course, one would expect that from a Guardian, but still--compared to everyone else here, it was really amazing.
It looks like mystery girl is finally impressed.
"She's not a mystery girl anymore, her name is Scat..."
Talking to an invisible person completely ruined the effect of the introduction, but Scat was still gratified to hear someone use her name without laughing. Turning back to her, Yuugi smiled, looking much more harmless and ordinary.
"Since you're kind of a refugee now, you can stay with us if you want."
Having been a slave for as long as she could remember, no one had ever offered Scat so much as a kind word before.
"....thanks."
Yuugi's friends, having gotten past most of Scat's bizarreness, rejoined the conversation at this point.
"Yeah--helping refugees is a good thing, right?"
"Course it is! Nobody should have to be a slave!"
Tea nodded. "That's right. But, you're going to need something else to wear if you want to blend in, Scat. Hmm...I'd lend you some of my clothes, but they'd all be too big for you...."
They all looked at Yuugi.
"Okay, okay, I'll lend her some of my clothes...sheesh."
*****
Several minutes later, Scat, looking slightly more normal, trouped into the store with all her new friends.
"Grandpa, this is Scat Freedom and she's an escaped slave, so she's going to stay with us, okay?"
Yuugi's grandfather, looking at the nearly bald, tattooed girl wearing borrowed clothes that were still loose on her skeletal frame, was at a loss for words. Yuugi smiled brightly.
"Great! I knew you'd agree."
They walked out again, leaving a very surprised and confused old man in their wake.