Yuugi stood, tense, in the hall between soul rooms.
He was engaged in a very intense staring contest with the looming dark door to his other self's soul room.
The door was shut tight, and Yuugi didn't doubt that there were defense mechanisms in place to ward off unwanted visitors.
He always knew his darker half was skeptical of others, but was it something more than that?
His other self was currently engaged in a very serious shadow game with some low life who had made multiple offenses against Yuugi in the past few months, and Yuugi himself knew that the game would take a while.
'Come on Yuugi! You're not gonna learn ANYTHING about the other personality you helped create without going in!'
'But what if he doesn't want me there? It's an invasion of privacy-'
'He'd do the same thing if he didn't already know every single little detail about you! Just go in!'
Having successfully convinced himself, Yuugi steeled himself and opened the large metal door with a hefty shove.
Peaking in, Yuugi slowly slipped inside, the perfect image of timidness.
Looking around, Yuugi wasn't sure how surprised he was that it shared a likeness with an Egyptian Tomb. The winding staircases almost giving the Hikari vertigo just looking at them.
Taking a few steps inside, he jerked violently at the large bang resonating behind him as the metal door slammed shut on it's own.
'Ugh, come on Yuugi! You're not scared of a measly DOOR are you?' He mentally scolded himself for reacting to the door-slam, shaking his head to readjust his focus.
The place was clearly designed to confuse and drive out any intruders. A defence mechanism Yuugi doubted his own soul room would ever achieve!
'Okay… so… skeptical and paranoid?!' Then he remembered Shadi and scowled to himself.
'So there must be his REAL soul room somewhere, right? How am I supposed to find it before he finishes his game?' Yuugi looked around, not seeing any sort of entrance or opening to his other self's true soul room.
"This is hopele-" Yuugi cut himself off, thinking.
'Okay, okay, so to find my other self's soul room, I should THINK like him…'
It's worth a try, he figured, amethyst eyes analysing the twisted stair cases again.
'He likes games more than I do, so he would probably make his soul room a game! So… what are the rules? And how do you win?'
Yuugi looked around once more, trying to find any oddities. Anything out of place.
He didn't see anything.
'Looking around, the place looks like a maze to make the opponent think finding the true room is a hopeless endeavor. He's capitalising on the Human's reliance on their sight to navigate unknown territory…'
Yuugi inhaled slightly before shutting his eyes.
'If you lose your sight, you rely on touch to navigate… so that's out too.' Yuugi began ignoring the feel of the stone beneath his feet, imagining himself floating.
As he expected, the ground disappeared beneath him.
'Without your sight and touch, the two main senses Humans use to learn their surroundings, you are left with… Smell, Hearing, Taste, and Proprioception.
Equilibrioception is useless here, there's no real gravity, and Nociception isn't any help since nothing can cause you pain… Thermoception is another way of feeling out an area, so that's worthless too...
Or, maybe he did away with the senses all together? Without the senses, what is left?'
Yuugi frowned. He was getting somewhere, he could tell, but he still had no answer.
'No, he wouldn't do that! He's protecting his innermost thoughts and feelings! So there must be SOME way to-'
He stilled, his mind working fast to try and find the solution.
All games had a way to win! He knew it! He just had to figure it out…
'Senses are products of owning a body! So, instead of wondering what would happen if you removed the senses… What is left if you take away the body?'
"...The Soul?"
Suddenly Yuugi landed on cold stone, suddenly susceptible to gravity.
'Did… Did I win?' Yuugi slowly opened his eyes and moved onto all fours, looking up.
'His soul room! So I won?'
He stood, looking around in fascination.
The room was still made up of the same stone bricks as the traps and stairs had, but overall it looked more like the room of a modern teenager.
Looking at the bed, Yuugi winced when looking at the cold stone slab.
"Ugh, how does he sleep on that?" After his soft inquiry, a mattress and blankets appeared on the slab, as though the room was answering him.
'Of COURSE he creates them like that Yuugi you idiot!'
Turning from the bed, Yuugi then turned to the side-table.
There was a picture of himself on it! Yuugi pursed his lips.
"So… I'm the most important person to him?" He should have figured, he's the host after all!
Opening the first draw, Yuugi smiled at the neat stacks of cards of various types. Duel Monsters cards, the classic deck of cards, and was that Cards Against Humanity?!
There were also multiple types of dice, clearly flung in there for lack of their own place.
Yuugi chuckled to himself before moving to the second draw.
Capumon capsules were littered throughout the draw! As well as a knife resting in the corner.
Yuugi winced, vague memories of Mokuba-san removing his own fingers whenever he lost flashing through his mind.
But Mokuba-san set the rules himself! I can't blame Other Me for that!'
Yuugi decided it would be best to move on the the next draw.
There were cartridges of Digital Pets nestled in rather snug, including the Gold edition! And a whip rolled up in the back.
Yuugi winced again. Bad, bad memories.
Done with the side-table, Yuugi moved onto a glass case hanging on the wall.
Opening the glass doors with the wooden handles, he smiled upon seeing the dolls his friends and he had played with against Ryo-kun's evil side.
His own was at the front, clearly polished regularly and well taken care of.
Yuugi felt warm at the implications.
Anzu and Jonouchi-kun stood behind him, posed to fight.
Honda-kun and Miho-kun stood at the back, the support.
All together, they made a 'V' shape… or a triangle.
Or the shape of the Millennium Puzzle, when looking at it straight on.
The back of the case was layered with a mirror, and Yuugi gasped.
'Other Me… looking over all of us! Looking out for us, and protecting us…'
Shutting the case gently, Yuugi turned to survey the other side of the room.
There was a pinboard! And on it were pictures of various people, with red lines through a few of them.
'Huh? What?' Moving closer, Yuugi didn't know how to feel about what he saw.
Pictures of people. His targets? And everyone who was dealt with had a red line through them!
Yuugi decided to leave that be. He didn't want to mess with anything…
There were shelves, holding game-pieces in neat lines.
They didn't look like any pieces from real life, but the sign hanging from the lowest shelf saying 'Do Not Touch Please!' clearly indicated they were his Other Self's deepest thoughts, desires, memories, and secrets.
Yuugi wouldn't touch those with a ten foot pole! His other self deserved some privacy after all!
All that was left was a large looming wardrobe, letting off a dark aura and chained multiple times.
Locked up tight!
The locks had the Millennium Puzzle's shape carved into the metal, and didn't have any way of inserting a key of any form.
'Is that… the magic from the Millennium Puzzle? The dark powers that have been granted once I completed it?'
Yuugi decided to avoid that also.
He didn't have the chance to leave in any way before he was suddenly in control once again.
With the way his other self's opponent was curled up and whimpering in the corner, Yuugi was assured that the inevitable happened.
Another shadow game won, another low life ruined.
Yuugi felt safe, content knowing his Yami was always there for him, and would defend him by any means necessary.
After all, Yuugi never claimed to be completely innocent and naive, did he?