Seto closed his eyes and leaned against the cold window. Stress was beginning to accumulate in the front of his head and he felt like he was going to explode. Painkillers sounded wonderful at the moment. Sometimes he wished he could just disappear and be a normal person—not worrying about working or making money or providing for his little brother. Being a father, a CEO, and a model student was more difficult than it sounded.
Blue eyes opened and drank in the world; people rushed hither and thither, so preoccupied with their previous engagements that they never stopped to think twice about the ragged man with the unruly beard sitting against the brick wall of a building. People hurried by, calculating their day in a matter of minutes; murmuring on their cell phones about what stocks to buy and what to sell; going over a mental checklist of the days groceries. The man against the wall, however, sat with his legs bowed in the classic yoga position. His eyes were opened and unmoving—he almost gave the appearance of death. If someone bothered to pay attention, however, they would have seen that the man was observing. He was looking at the world in a disconnected manner—appreciating the life-giving rain, the shadows dancing off of reflections and just loving to be alive. A small smile was noticeable on his face. Though he was in rags and was soaking wet without any place to seek out for shelter, he was happy.
As the light changed from red to green, the limo pulled away. Seto glanced back at the man—a longing feeling in the pit of his stomach—only to find the man was gone.
Sighing, his eyes returned to the front and focused on the task ahead. What was he going to do about Pegasus? Seto could only imagine what things the rival company-man had in store…and most of them were incredibly unpleasant. The CEO of Kaiba-Corp. never really forgave the man for kidnapping his little brother. Although Pegasus had become slightly toned-down, Seto could have died happy if he never saw the man again.
The limo made the familiar turn into the looping driveway of the Kaiba mansion and stopped at the front door. A smartly dressed chauffer got out and opened the door for Seto.
Without a second glance back, Seto exited the limo and walked straight into the house (a maid opened the door). Mokuba bounded down the stairs a few minutes later and barely caught the tail-end of Seto's school uniform disappear into his office. The younger Kaiba pouted briefly and consented to wait for thirty minutes at the most. After all, his big brother had promised to take him to the ball game.
Inside the office, Seto sat in his comfortable leather chair and hesitated a moment before picking up the phone. He quickly dialed a number that came so easily to him, as it had many times before.
It rang twice before it was answered.
"Ahh, Seto Kaiba! So good of you to return my phone calls!" an all-too familiar drawl exclaimed.
"You sound surprised, Pegasus." Seto kept his voice cool and professional. Keep the conversation to business, and he would be free in twenty minutes.
"Oh, you know how it goes in this business. Some partners are just so frighteningly unreliable," there was a hint of sarcasm in the millionaire's voice.
Seto didn't respond. Instead, he waited for Pegasus to continue the conversation.
"I'm sure you're dying to know why I've asked you to call me, aren't you?" there was amusement. Pegasus J. Crawford loved playing games of cat and mouse.
"My secretary has informed me that you've discovered something in Giza regarding Duel Monsters. What is it?" Seto's fingers began drumming on his desk in time with the drumming of the rain on his window sill.
The man on the other end of the line sighed. "Always straight to the point, aren't you, Kaiba? You're no fun at all. All right. On my latest dig, as you know, we were excavating for a rumored hidden passage that led farther down into the pyramid than the current depth. Have you heard this rumor?"
Seto hadn't, but Pegasus wasn't to know that. "I had heard something like that."
"Of course. Well, needless to say, we found it. Inside the treasure chamber of the late Pharaoh Khufu, whom, as you know had the temple built for his burial. You also are aware, I'm sure, of his fascination with magic and the mystic arts, correct?"
That one Seto had heard. His own fascination with Egypt had him study up on a lot of lore and history, including those of the pyramids and the Sphinx. Seto was particularly captivated by Khufu and his successor, Khafre, who has been rumored to have built the mysterious Sphinx. "Yes, I am very familiar with this fact."
One thing Seto hated about talking with Pegasus was the self-fulfilling spins that the man tended to put on his stories.
"Well, inside the chamber was a wall inscribed with the great deeds of Khufu, namely, the building of his pyramid. Some test probing revealed that the wall was not solid—there was nothing but air behind it and you know how unstable that could make a room. So, to put it simply, we knocked through the wall. Behind it was a long tunnel that seemed to span the whole way of Giza. Along the walls were paintings and inscriptions that became increasingly similar to what we know as Duel Monsters. The end of the tunnel opened up into a huge cavern."
Seto was trying to picture this all in his mind. He imagined a very bare, sandy walkway with limestone walls. The walls would be cracked, but the inscriptions untouched and nearly perfectly preserved. In his mind, the walls were huge; the monsters on the wall would be dominating and magnificent. As the tunnel progressed, Seto imagined that the monsters got bigger and more clearly defined, more glorious and slightly more menacing.
"The cavern was like nothing I'd ever seen before, Kaiba! It was amazing—no, breathtaking! The size was unimaginable! It was pitch black, obviously, but as the diggers scattered to light it up, it was stunning. The walls were smooth and carved with all of the imprints we'd seen in the tunnel. There was a crystal clear moat that surrounding the most beautiful of all the structures in that cavern: a solid gold altar. It was a little dusty, but the sheer beauty and craftsmanship still radiated off of it. Upon closer investigation, we saw that there was a book of incantations, very similar to the design of the Book of Life. There was also one more thing that was striking about the altar…"
Unfortunately, Seto had to take the bait: "Which was…?"
"Human skeletons! They were all around the altar! Some were even on the altar. Here was a place of practiced human sacrifice!"
This idea stunned the brunette for a moment. A secret site of sacrifice? "That's all well and good, Pegasus, but just what exactly does it have to do with Duel Monsters?"
"Patience, my dear Kaiba, patience. We did some research with the incantation book and discovered that it was used to appease the beasts carved upon the walls—the Duel Monsters! These people believed that the spirits of these Duel Monsters were malevolent beings, intent upon human destruction, and that the only way to keep them at bay was to give them the blood of the willing! Unfortunately, we discovered something terrible about that altar."
"Terrible?"
"The sacrifices were conducted upon that altar, with the necessary blood being diverted into a "storage chamber," if you will, inside of it. Further reading of the book revealed that if the blood were to ever dry up, then these spirits would be released into the world to begin wreaking havoc."
"So?"
"Well, when we broke the seal and looked inside, there was nothing but dust. As we shone a light inside, something flew out."
"What do you mean 'something flew out?'"
"I'm not sure what exactly it was, but it was a large manifestation. It blew by us, and those it touched keeled over and died where they lay. The short amount of time it remained in the cavern, everyone was filled with a sense of pure evil, of nothing but dread. Several other men fainted. Then, it went down the tunnel and was gone."
"I'm not sure I'm following the significance of this thing. Are you saying that it is the spirits of all these Duel Monsters? Now that it's out, it's going to wipe out the planet?"
"It was like opening a Pandora's Box. After we returned to our encampment, we started hearing rumors of an epidemic of disease and more terrifying ghost stories than I care to recount. Seto, I'm afraid we may have unleashed something terrible into the world, and I need your help to stop it."
-
"Possessed? Whadaya mean, 'possessed?'" Jounouchi looked from Yuugi to Yami and back, hoping someone would clarify.
"Would you like me to get you a dictionary, Jou?" Yami returned. He crossed his long, slender legs in front of him and looked like he was about to settled down and give a lecture to a small child. "When a spirit is in need, or has a wicked soul bound to Earth, sometimes it will try and commandeer a body." Yami paused to let this statement sink into Jou's head. He continued with: "The body can then be used for whatever purpose the spirit has in mind; trickery, comfort of a loved one, finishing unfinished business and the like. Nine times out of ten, though, the possession is for evil intent."
"Then what about that damn cat that nearly clawed me to death?" One of the blonde's slender fingers went unconsciously to his chest, slightly caressing one of the deeper scratches.
Yuugi giggled slightly. "I don't think that cat was out to kill you, Jou! I think it was trying to protect you!"
"Then it's got a nasty sense of protection!" chocolate eyes narrowed in anger. To him, protection meant not allowing the protected to get hurt!
"It's an animal, Jou," Yami said. "Animals are much better at sensing the spirit world than human beings. It was reacting on instinct. If my hunch is correct, you would do well to keep the cat around."
"Yeah, but, why me?" Jou whined. Why was his apartment haunted, and not the alcoholic's apartment directly below?
"That," Yuugi interrupted, can be decided after the game. If we don't hurry, we're going to be late!" The group of three grabbed their coats and walked out, calling a hurried goodbye to Sugoroku as they went.
-
Hey, guys! Long time no see! This chapter is to prove to you that I am, in fact, still alive and kicking! I know this is a lot of boring and mundane information to take in, but I promise it will tie in better to later chapters. I have myself set at a goal of one chapter per week, hopefully on Wednesdays, so we'll see how that goes.
I hope you enjoyed! If I've gotten any facts wrong, I apologize. The research was kind of hasty. Of course, some facts are distorted for the literary value, so don't kill me! Constructive criticism is always welcome and encouraged!