Chapter Four – A Friend Returns
Yugi's POV
Yugi had just started looking for the Princess when he had a strange feeling; it was pulling him towards the plaza outside the hotel. Yugi decided to go with this feeling and walked to the plaza, unaware of the Sennen Eye glowing on his forehead, thanks to the power that was hidden with in Aria's pendent.
When Yugi got there he saw an unconscious Aria slumped against the man they had seen before. Yugi turned and ran to get his friends – he was no match for the man on his own and he knew that.
His friends heard his panicked shouts and came out of their rooms, surprisingly Kaiba was included.
"Hey, Yug', What's wrong?" Joey asked as Yugi reached them and doubled over panting.
Yugi held up one finger, indicating he needed to catch his breath. He straightened up, now only a little out of breath, "He's got her! He's got Aria! We need to go save her, now!"
Without waiting for a response he turned and ran back to the plaza as fast as he could. his friends chasing after him, with Kaiba just briskly walking.
As soon as he was with in hearing range of the man holding Aria, Yugi shouted, "Let her go! Give the Princess back!"
The man smirked, clearly amused by Yugi's demand. "And why would I do that, little boy?" he sneered.
"Because if you don't we'll make you!" Joey threatened, standing next to Yugi with Tristan on Yugi's other side.
The three looked just about ready to murder the man when he suddenly pulled out a knife and threw it at Yugi's head. Yugi yelled and tried dodging, the blade of the knife cutting his cheek. He clutched a hand to his cheek, it stung badly but it wasn't a deep cut, though it would probably scar.
Great just great, how in the name of Ra am I going to explain this to mom and Grandpa? I can't exactly say "Oh yeah, this guy tried kidnapping the Princess of Egypt and threw a knife at me." They won't ever let me leave Domino again!
Kaiba calmly walked past Yugi and right up to the man. Kaiba punched the him. The man fell over backwards. Kaiba took the princess off him before he fell over, turned and calmly walked back over to Yugi. He placed the princess in a shocked Yugi's arms.
No one had time to ask Kaiba how he had done it without having a knife thrown at him because as soon as he had placed the unconscious Aria in Yugi's arms a strange man approached them.
"Come with me, my men will stop the Thief King from following, I will get you to safety."
Yugi looked at the man, he reminded him of someone, he just couldn't think who. The men the man had spoken of surrounded the Thief King, who groaned as he sat up, his nose now bleeding and possibly broken thanks to Kaiba.
"Who are you?" It annoyed Yugi that he couldn't remember who this person reminded him of.
The stranger laughed, "It does not matter who I am, my short friend."
"Hey I am not short!" Yugi paused, "Or your friend."
The stranger laughed again.
What is with him? Why's he laughing so much? This is defiantly not the time to laugh, Aria had nearly been kidnapped… And my face really hurts…
As if reading Yugi's thoughts the man stopped laughing, "Here, your face is bleeding."
The stranger wiped the blood of Yugi's cheek using a cloth; well he actually just smudged it across Yugi's cheek more.
"Thanks" Yugi muttered, his cheek now hurting more.
The stranger raised an eyebrow, "Hmm… I sense you still do not trust me… very well then, I guess I have no choice but to prove myself worthy of your trust."
The man's eyes narrowed, as he looked Yugi up and down. Yugi instantly didn't like this man, not only had he made his cheek hurt more but Yugi did not like the way he was looking at him.
"Little Pharaoh, you have been through a lot, I see why you do not trust easily. What with the business with the Tomb Keeper and Tomb Robber. Though I can see you have decided to put your past behind you… and I do not just mean what happened in the past six and a half years…" The man looked from Yugi to Ryou and lastly to Kaiba.
How? How does he know about all that? He called me 'Little Pharaoh' but why? What does this man know?
Kaiba spoke, snapping Yugi's attention away from his own thoughts, "I don't know about you, morons, but I'm going with him."
Everyone, apart from the mysterious man, looked at Kaiba in astonishment.
"Oh come on, idiots, use your brains – if you have any that is. We're in Egypt and have just been attacked, we need to get away from said person who attacked and seeing as Yugi's girlfriend is totally out of it, an Egyptian who knows their way around this place would be of some use."
Kaiba ignored Yugi's protest that Aria wasn't his girlfriend and started to follow the man, who had started to walk off.
Yugi sighed, "Guys, I hate to admit this… but Kaiba's right. None of us know our way around Egypt, Marik is somewhere probably miles from here and the Princess is unconscious still… this guy may be our only chance…" with that he followed Kaiba, carrying Aria in his arms.
The rest followed after him, with Joey quietly complaining about having to follow Kaiba's lead. On their walk through the desert nothing really happened, other then them having to stop so Joey and Tristan could go pee behind some strange looking Egyptian desert plants, and Kaiba offering to carry the still unconscious Aria for a while. Yugi was relieved by this as his arms were starting to ache from being still so long. Yugi took Aria back just before they reached an old tomb.
"We stop here," their 'guide' said.
Aria groaned slightly, her eyes opened half way. She looked up at Yugi, he looked down at her, they both blushed. Joey laughed when he saw this, causing both spiky haired teens to glare in his direction, though this just made Kaiba laugh.
Yugi set Aria on her feet, making sure she wouldn't fall over before he let go of her waist. Aria took one look at the tomb they were stood in front off and threw her arms around Yugi's neck. Making him blush more.
"Princess Aria you okay?" he asked, looking at her in concern.
She had buried her face in his shoulder muffling her words, "T-this place… I-it is not a g-good place… why… why bring me here?"
The stranger spoke, his tone soft as if to comfort the girl, "Do not worry my Princess, nothing here will hurt you. The shadows are still locked away safely, only one door shall be opened today."
Aria pulled away from a still blushing Yugi, who was now very confused, and looked at the man.
"How can you be so sure, Tomb Guarder?"
Tomb Guarder… is that like at Tomb Keeper?
The man ignored the Princess' question and threw a strange key at Yugi, the latter was lucky enough to catch it before it pocked his eye out.
"Um…thanks?" Yugi looked closely at the key, it was old fashioned and made of solid gold.
Do they make everything out of gold here? First the seven items, then lots of jewellery, now a really old key… Yami even said that in his day they sometimes bathed in gold… if they really have this much gold can't they at least use it wisely, like to help after earthquakes and stuff… who has ever needed a solid gold key?
The strangers laugh cut through Yugi's thoughts, the laughing was starting to really annoy Yugi and he was not someone easily annoyed.
"That is the Yami-No Kagi. It has the ability to unlock two doors. One of which shall never be unlocked ever an-"
Joey cut the man off, "What will happen if that door's unlocked? It must be bad if you say it can't be opened ever."
The man sighed, "If that door is opened the Shadow Realm and all its power and magic will be released to its full extent, this tomb is the place were all of that was locked away and I am to make sure that no one ever opens that door…. Of course the other door can be opened, but they key must choose who can and who can't, and it has chosen Yugi to open it."
"Um…Why?" Yugi asked, he did not like the sound of this, if a key picked him to open a door then something very magical was about to unfold, and Yugi knew from experience that all magic leads to trouble.
"The door this key opens leads to the afterlife… this key can hold one departed spirit at a time for a certain amount of time… Do you know what that means?"
Yugi did know what that meant, he looked at the key in his hand and whispered, "Yami…"
Yugi felt uneasy, he did not know if that was because he was nervous or something else, but something about reawakening Yami's spirit didn't feel… right…
Yugi looked up to ask the man a question to find him gone. Aria looked at Yugi, then the key, she sighed and walked over to the tomb's door.
The eye in the middle of her pendent glowed, making the Sennen Eye appear on her forehead, the door to the tomb opened.
"I'll take you to the door… I may not have been here before but Marik has shown me maps… but be careful there are many traps here to stop tomb robbers."
With that she walked into the tomb, the others following her.
They managed to get through all the traps without anyone getting hurt, though Joey did nearly get squashed by a falling boulder and Ryou nearly speared by a pole shooting out of a wall. Both events made Kaiba laugh, until he nearly fell off of a thin walkway when the bit he was standing on decided to crumble beneath him.
Finally they reached the door. It was unsurprisingly made of solid gold. Yugi put the key slowly into the keyhole and turned it. Even slower he opened the door.
The room was filled with a bright, blinding light making everyone shut their eyes tightly.
Yugi felt something touch his cheek so opened his eyes. A very concerned looking Yami was stood in front of him, his eyes on the cut on Yugi's cheek.
"Who did this to you, my Aibou? Who hurt you? If I find out who did this I will send their soul to the Shadow Realm! How dare they hurt my little Aibou!"
The spirit was slowly getting himself worked up, over something that Yugi had forgotten completely about till that moment.
"Yami calm down, its nothing really, it hardly hurts anymore."
Yami, as per usual when he was in one of his moods, wasn't listening to Yugi.
"Yugi, your face is covered in blood! If I ever get my hands on them they shall regret hurting you, my Aibou!"
Yugi sighed, and put his hand over Yami's mouth, "Shhh, listen to me. This is really nothing, it doesn't really hurt anymore. So no more yelling ok?"
Yami nodded, Yugi removed his hand from over Yami's mouth and smiled. Yami looked at Yugi, studying him, then he slowly started to lean closer to the Japanese boy.