You could be great and heroic.
Or you could be a terrifying monster.
You could fight for justice and honor.
Or you could fight for selfish reasons.
You could be a loner, with no one to support you.
Or you could just have friends cheering you on.
I just happen to be one of those guys that fits in all of those categories.
My name is Yugi Muto.
And this is my story.
The Call
(Yugi's POV)
You're probably wondering what I'm even doing in this rotten place. I'm still trying to make sense out of this as well. But if you really want the facts, then I'll tell you…
It started on a warm summer day, one year ago. I was cleaning the counters, as usual; there was this one spot that just wouldn't come off, no matter how hard I tried. I took the glass cleaner and sprayed. Then I wiped the spot.
No dice.
Damn spot, I thought to myself. I repeated the process once again.
Spray.
Wipe.
Nothing.
Freakin' damn!! I growled in frustration. Once more I repeated the process.
Spray.
Wipe.
Still nothing.
DAMN YOU!!! Without thinking, I punched the glass with my fist, shattering it into pieces. The act caused my left hand to start bleeding profusely.
"Oh, that's just perfect," I mumbled. "That was a waste of some perfectly good glass."
Not that replacing a glass even mattered anymore. Nothing mattered much anymore...
To tell you the truth, my life hadn't exactly been going well these last ten or so years. Ever since the Pharoah left me alone, I felt as if-
(Wanderer: Wait: who's Fearow? Isn't that a Pokemon?)
What are you doing?
(W: Um...breaking the fourth wall to add intentional humor to a serious and dark story that would otherwise be painful to the minds of children and crazed fans alike?)
WILL YOU PLEASE NOT DO THAT?! I am TRYING to establish mood and provide some background info to the story at hand!
(W: Whatever man...)
Thank you!! Now, where was I?...Oh yes, I was gonna tell you about my life.
Ever since the Pharoah left me alone, I felt as if life itself had crashed, and my world as I knew it would cease to exist. For a time, I was unable to fathom the very thought that he was gone. Sometimes before I went to bed, I would try talking out loud, still believing that the Pharoah's ghost would be around to listen to what I had to say.
But he never was. And I would cry myself to sleep. Without him, I was nothing. Who would encourage me to be my best and keep moving forward? Who would laugh to all those funny stories about me and Joey raiding the men's locker room and putting spaghetti in their socks? Who would be my friend?
By the way, he's not a Pokemon. He's an ancient Egyptian king who lived around 5,000 years ago, possessed a magical artifact, and used powers to bring monsters to life in order to stop an evil being from destroying the world.
(W: Yeah, I knew that. I researched a lot about you before I tracked you down here)
Then why did you ask me in the first place?
(W: To mess with you)
Grr... And what did I say about breaking the fourth wall? Don't you know how dangerous that is?
(W: Like I said, I know everything. I just love messing with you)
Sigh...let's move on then.
I wasn't able to escape the fame of King of Games, and I was still regarded as the most powerful duelist that ever lived. Sure, it was kinda cool for a while. But then, when I was 24, I decided to call it quits, because I just didn't feel like dueling without the Pharoah anymore. Even though I managed to beat him in the Ceremonial Duel, it still felt awkward dueling without him. Besides, what did I have to prove to anybody? I was already the World Champion! Wasn't that enough? I didn't care about fame and fortune: in fact, the only reason I was the duelist that I was was because I was forced to duel in order to save the world. And since the world was safe, that was good enough for me.
Another reason that I retired due to the fact that I had to take care of my 4-year-old daughter Sarah. As much as I hated to admit it, dueling wouldn't allow me the time to do that. But I loved dueling so much, the thought of just giving it all up seemed unreal. So I decided to work for Industrial Illusions in their Japanese division. I thought it would be the perfect job, getting to spend a lot of time with Duel Monsters cards.
I was wrong. The job forced me to work overtime. A lot of overtime. I wasn't able to play with my daughter or do errands for my wife Tea. Eventually she got fed up with me and left us. I don't know what her problem was: it's not like I asked to work long hours. I was just trying to pay the bills and care for my family. And she thought she could just leave me all alone like that?
But that wasn't the worst thing that happened to me. What really hit the nail on the head was when I heard about the accident. My friend Tristan had died in a motorcycle crash when he collided into a tree. He was drunk, and he had gotten into a bar fight with someone who had called me a failure. I couldn't bear the shock I recieved when I learned about this fact. To think that I had unwittingly caused the death of my closest friend filled me with rage and sadness.
By now, you would probably expect me to just kill myself and end the misery. Well, I didn't have the guts to do it.
No, not for me. Not for the world. But for my little Sarah.
You see, I had grown up without a father, and I promised myself that I would never let my daughter experience that same pain and lonliness. So I moved forward, trying to pick myself up and reclaim the life that the Pharoah had given me. But then- well, let's just say time is not kind to the suffering.
The only difference between my life before and after the Pharoah is that I no longer had my grandfather to comfort and protect me. He died from a massive stroke, about 3 months before this madness began. I was the only one who attended his funeral. My friends never came.
Can you believe it? After all we had been through, after all the sacrifices we had made for each other, my friends had abandoned me when I needed them the most. I just couldn't understand what their problem was!! Why did they leave me to suffer all alone? It was as if the sword of time had slashed our circle of friendship into pieces and scattered our hearts afar. Sure, we all still lived in the same city, but I felt so far away from them.
I brought my non-bloody hand to my face and started crying. Slowly, I sank to my knees and onto the cold, hard floor; the tears fell faster now, stinging my red-hot face and burning my cold heart. It was at that moment that I finally embraced a indeniable fact:
I was a failure. A plain loser who nobody cared about. I would never amount to anything in my life because I couldn't get over my sadness.
Oh, well, I thought. At least this can't get any worse.
I was wrong.
Because the moment that thought came to my head, I got the call.
The telephone started ringing. I was startled at first. Slowly, I got up and walked over to the table that the phone was on. I hesitated.
Who could that be? I wondered. That could be anyone. Tea. Joey. Pegasus. Rebecca. Marik. Heck, maybe even Kaiba. But I didn't really feel like talking to anyone. Nobody would care about what I had to say. Nobody in the world...
No, I scolded myself. I have to put my life back together. Talking is the first step to healing. It's like when we helped the Pharoah beat Zorc. Everyone needs help sometimes.
I reached for the phone with my trembling hand. I put the phone to my ear. "Um..hello?" I asked.
"Hello, Yugi Muto. Feeling a bit down?"
To be continued
