5.
It happened during Yuugi's freshman year of high school.
The bell rang for lunch, and a bunch of people got together in the classroom to form a game of co-ed basketball out on the court, including Anzu. Several people were Yuugi's friends, and one of the guys called, "Hey, Mutou! Basketball!"
Yuugi raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah, I'll just jump for the basket with my supernatural leg powers," she said. There were some snickers. "Do you not see how small I am?" She grinned.
Anzu was different - long legs, taller than Yuugi. But Yuugi, still tiny, was no good at basketball.
"Ah, come on, you don't have to win," the guy said, rolling his eyes.
"I sure as hell do. I always play to win," said Yuugi, who was rather fierce when it came to gaming. "Look, I've hung out with you guys at lunch all week, and I'll hang out with you again tomorrow, okay? But basketball ain't my thing. I'm not built for it. Go have fun."
The boy gave a mock sigh. "Fine. Be that way." Privately, he was disappointed. Basketball was primetime opportunity to look up the girls' uniform skirts, and Mutou with her perky little breasts had a pretty sweet ass.
"I'll see you later, Yuugi!" Anzu called, oblivious to the boy's thoughts and rather amused by her friend's total avoidance of games she could never win. "Have fun!"
"Thanks!" Yuugi raised a hand after her. The crowd of excited, chattering students slammed out the door, and she was left alone. She sat back down at the roll-top desk that had been assigned to her at the beginning of the year. From here, she had a couple of options. She could read a book she'd brought with her… or she could work on the Millenium Puzzle.
She chose the latter.
Taking out her bento boxed lunch and snacking idly, she pulled the Millenium Puzzle box from her book bag. "The thing that can be seen yet can't be seen," she mused, gazing thoughtfully into the hieroglyphs carved into the sides.
One could physically see it - it was a puzzle - yet one couldn't see it - it was a puzzle that had never been completed. Eight years and it was mostly done, but not entirely. She thought it was forming a pyramid shape, with the Eye of Horus carved into its center, but that was about as far as she had gotten. Whichever asshole had made this thing three thousand years ago, they'd done a good job. She wondered if the Pharaoh himself had ever solved it. Probably gotten someone to do it for him.
"Hey, Mutou, what'cha doin'?" The box was snatched from her grasp. She looked around and gasped.
Standing there were the two Professional Douchebags of her class, Jonouchi Katsuya - with messy blond hair - and Honda Hiroto - taller, with spiky brown hair. They liked picking on weaker guys and harassing girls; they were from the wrong side of the tracks.
And they had her cornered and alone. Not good.
"Give it back, Honda!" Yuugi snapped, standing, fear curling inside her stomach like a tongue.
Honda held up the box, leering. "Why? Sitting here all alone in a gloomy classroom, muttering about things that can be seen yet can't be seen? This is important to you?"
"It's a gift from my grandfather," said Yuugi through gritted teeth. "And it's a family antique. Now give it back, this isn't funny."
"What'll you do for me if I give it back?" Honda smirked, looking her body up and down.
"Fuck off, Honda. I know you don't have a crush on me. You just want to bang some chick. What's wrong? Prettier girls all turned you down, did they?" Yuugi asked mockingly.
Honda flushed and tossed the box to Jonouchi. "Look at that! I don't even have it anymore!"
Yuugi walked toward Jonouchi, who smirked and threw the box to Honda over her head. She snatched at it, but couldn't reach it. Honda grabbed the box and threw it over her head back to Jonouchi.
"Goddamnit, Jonouchi!" Yuugi spat, and Jonouchi chuckled.
"Look, Mutou," he said. "You're pretty hot, you should give yourself more credit. We just want to have a little fun." And she was hot, especially when she was all flushed and cute and angry like that. She had long black hair, big violet eyes, delicate little wrists, a finely crafted and expressive face - and a nice body, if you liked the slim and petite ingenue look. He shrugged. "Is that so wrong?"
"You know what I think, Jonouchi?" said Yuugi darkly. "I think you don't really like me either. You're just looking to get laid. And I don't think you're going to rape me, and I don't think you're going to hurt me, out of some misplaced sense of chivalry toward women. And I don't want anything to do with you. So could you just give me the box back?"
Jonouchi's smirk had turned to a scowl. "Let's see what's in here first; maybe it's valuable." He peeked inside the box, and Yuugi couldn't see what he was doing for a moment. Then he scoffed. "Never mind, that's dumb."
Yuugi took the opportunity and snatched the box back, red-faced and angry. "Then I'll be having that again. Thank you."
Anzu had just entered the room; she looked between her best friend and the two guys, alarmed and fierce. "What's going on? Yuugi, are these guys bothering you?"
"No, they were just leaving." Yuugi's eyes narrowed.
Jonouchi stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. "Alright. Fine." He backed up. "If you change your mind," he grinned in a way he probably thought was appealing, "you know where to find me. Come on, Honda."
Honda gave Yuugi one last glare before the door slammed shut behind them.
Yuugi let out a deep breath and slumped against the nearest desk. "That was scary," she admitted.
"They were harassing you?" Anzu demanded, indignant. "They took your Puzzle?"
"Actually, compared to how they treat some girls in this class, they were pretty good," said Yuugi flatly. "So why are you in here?"
"Same as you," Anzu admitted wryly. "I made my first jump-shot and some hormonal asshole took a good look up my skirt. I chucked the basketball at his head and stomped off the court. Talk about desperate.
"I get the feeling high school is going to be very interesting."
"Bitch," Jonouchi muttered as he and Honda stalked down the school corridor.
"Which one?" Honda joked.
"Both of them. What's so wrong with us, if I might ask?" Jonouchi asked indignantly.
"Nothing." Honda shook his head. "I knew Mutou wouldn't go for it. Shoulda just grabbed her ass while I had the chance -"
Suddenly, they slammed into what felt at first like a wall. They looked up, and up - into the face of a huge senior with an armband marking him as hall monitor, a member of the student disciplinary committee. He looked a bit like a troll, broad-shouldered with thick eyebrows and a long, square face.
"Did I just hear," he said quietly, looking from one to the other, "someone talking about sexually harassing Mutou Yuugi?"
"N-no! No -!" Honda squeaked out, shaking his head, fearful.
"What business is it of yours? Get outta the way, you big -!" Jonouchi began heatedly, and Honda grabbed him around the neck, strangling him and slapping a hand over his mouth.
"Jonouchi, I am trying to save our lives!" Honda hissed in his ear.
Jonouchi was used to being the biggest asshole around from middle school. But Honda knew about this guy - and he was way out of their league.
"Sexual harassment is a kind of bullying," said the hall monitor, staring at them unblinkingly. "And bullying is what I've been assigned to pit myself against, if I'm not mistaken."
"Nothing! We haven't done anything!" Honda made an effort to smile, still strangling a red-faced Jonouchi into silence. "Bullying is so wrong, I totally agree!"
The boy stared at them suspiciously for a moment, and then stalked off.
"You moron!" Honda snapped once he was gone. "That's Ushio! He enforces the rules by beating the crap out of other students, and he's a senior with fighting experience who's at least twice as big as you!"
He finally let go of Jonouchi, who stumbled away, gasping for breath. "Asshole!" Jonouchi choked out. "And I'm going to make it my personal mission to beat the crap out of that dickweed Ushio!"
There was a pause as Jonouchi took deep breaths and Honda slowly calmed down.
At last, Honda kicked the wall. "Damn! Now there's nothing to do."
"Oh, no? I've got something interesting." Honda turned around curiously at the strange smirk in Jonouchi's voice - and saw a golden puzzle piece in Jonouchi's hand. It had an eye carved into it. "I took this outta Mutou's stupid puzzle box while I was looking inside it. That's just what she gets for turning us down, wouldn't you agree?"
Honda snickered. "If the puzzle's so important to her - let's see how she gets on without the last piece! Awesome, Jonouchi!"
Jonouchi chucked it out the window, and the puzzle piece fell into the school pool two stories below with a faint splash. "Fuck you, Mutou," he snapped bitterly. "Come on. Let's go."
Jonouchi and Honda left.
The puzzle piece fell to the bottom of the pool in a slow trickle of bubbles, silent.
Anzu and Yuugi were walking off campus at the end of the school day - and a voice called out, "Yuugi!"
Yuugi looked around to find one of the hall monitors, Ushio, standing there.
"Have you been having problems with harassment or bullying?" he asked her seriously without preamble.
Yuugi frowned. "Who told you that?"
"I figured it out," said Ushio dismissively. "That's not the point."
"It's nothing I can't handle," said Yuugi stoically.
"Yuugi, I can help you. You pay me, I'll be your bodyguard, I'm sure we can work out a deal -" Ushio began.
"Thanks all the same, Ushio," said Yuugi. "But I don't need any help. It was a one time thing and it's over."
"But Yuugi -"
"Look, man, I've got a shift volunteering at the animal shelter." Yuugi pointed at Anzu behind her. "Then Anzu and me are going to stop by the store to buy me some fresh hair dye, and then go back and hang out at my place." Anzu gave a little wave. "I'm not worried about Jonouchi and Honda. They gave me back what they took in joke; it's in my book bag right now. And I don't have time to stick around and argue with you about this. Okay?"
She and Anzu left. Ushio stood there, staring after them, a strange smile on his face.
"Fuck, that guy's weird," Yuugi muttered once they were a safe distance away. "Paid bodyguard? Seriously?"
"Yeah, it was pretty bizarre," Anzu admitted.
Anzu hung out at the animal shelter with Yuugi that afternoon. They stopped by the store to get the hair dye, and then headed back to Yuugi's place in the setting sun.
"Hello, Anzu!" Grandma called from the back, as they walked through the shop's front door.
"Yuugi. How are the animals?" Grandpa greeted from the front counter. "Any of them dead?"
"You ask me that every time, and it never stops being creepy and morbid," Yuugi muttered. "Anyway, Anzu and I are going up to my room."
"Someone tried to steal Yuugi's puzzle at school today," Anzu piped up. Yuugi paused on the stairs - and sighed, preparing for the onslaught.
"What?! Maybe you shouldn't take it to school anymore," said Grandma, frowning in concern.
"Yuugi, you still haven't given up on that Puzzle?" Grandpa smiled, his eyes gleaming. "Haven't I told you it's unsolvable?"
"There's no such thing as an unsolvable puzzle," said Yuugi flatly, turning back to her grandfather. "There wasn't three thousand years ago, and there isn't now."
"The old argument," Grandma muttered, sighing, going back to what she was doing.
"What about the unsavory rumors attached to it?" said Grandpa, smirking.
"Rumors?" Anzu wondered curiously.
"Oh, here we go," said Yuugi, rolling her eyes.
Grandpa took a deep breath, and began with great drama, "Everyone who found the Puzzle with me is dead. I'm the only one still alive. But here's the thing - none of them died of old age. I'm the only one who's escaped unscathed - so far. The Puzzle might as well be cursed. And the last one said with his dying breath, '... The Shadow Games'."
Anzu looked genuinely nervous. "Shadow Games. What are those?"
Yuugi sighed, and recited the story she'd been told a million times. "Shadow Games are supposedly games of magic that Ancient Egyptians played. They were just like regular games, except if you lost the game something horrible happened to you - depending on what kind of magic was invoked. Grandpa insists he's the only one who's escaped the Shadow Game fate - but he has no idea who the player that defeated them all was, or why that player chose to spare him."
"You think you know everything, Yuugi, but do you know what the hieroglyphs on the box say?" Grandpa asked slyly.
Yuugi paused.
"They say: To they who solve me, I bequeath the powers and knowledge of darkness."
Yuugi smirked. "Cool. I've always wanted to see the powers and knowledge of darkness in action," she quipped, and scampered up the stairs with the Millenium Puzzle box still safely in her book bag.
"Come on, Yuugi, the price that would bring -!" Grandpa finally called, breaking his act.
"Screw you, I'm not giving you back anything!" Yuugi's voice came down the stairs defiantly.
"She's never going to give it back to you," Grandma chuckled, still working on unpacking boxes. "You know how attached Yuugi is to figuring out that puzzle. It's the one cerebrally based game she's never been able to win."
Anzu looked up the stairs after Yuugi thoughtfully.
Yuugi and Anzu were standing by their desks, talking, before school the next day, and Ushio came into their classroom. "Yuugi!" he called out. "Could you come here for a minute?"
Anzu and Yuugi shared a wry look. "Fantastic," Yuugi muttered. "With my luck, he's gotten the headmaster involved."
"Good luck," said Anzu wryly, as Yuugi followed Ushio out of the classroom and down the halls. But to Yuugi's surprise, they left the main school building.
"Ushio-san," said Yuugi cautiously, as they went around the side of the building, "where are we going? Class starts in a few minutes and I'm not going off campus with you." She was suspicious.
"Oh, I just want to show you something." Then Ushio led them to a shadow corner and pointed, smiling. "See?"
Yuugi squinted against the gloom, and gasped. Honda and Jonouchi were slumped there, and they looked like they'd just gotten the crap kicked out of them. They were bloody, bruised, their uniforms ripped. Honda was actually unconscious. Jonouchi looked like he'd put up a better fight, but he couldn't even stand. He tried to, and then slumped back against the wall again.
Yuugi realized she'd put a hand to her mouth but had no recollection of how it had gotten there.
Jonouchi saw Yuugi and smirked. "Put a hit out on us, huh?" he asked wearily. "I should've known."
"What's wrong?" said Ushio, seeing Yuugi's expression. "I thought you'd be happy."
"Why - why would I be happy?!" Yuugi rushed down to kneel in front of Honda and Jonouchi. "Ushio-san, I never asked for this! We have to get them to the medical ward!" There was clear distress in her voice.
"No fucking way," said Ushio. "Now move it. Your bodyguard's not done punishing them." He shoved Yuugi out of the way and kicked Jonouchi in the stomach; Jonouchi let out a choking gasp.
"Bastard," he managed. He'd seen the way Yuugi's eyes had widened in pain, shock, distress. She wasn't very good at lying or at hiding her feelings. She hadn't asked for this. Ushio had done it on his own. And only a complete asshole shoved and hit some helpless girl.
"What was that?" Ushio asked mockingly, poising for another kick.
"Ushio, stop it!" Yuugi rushed in between Ushio and Jonouchi. Her fists were clenched. "If you want to hurt them anymore," she said through her fear, "you're going to have to get through me!"
Her tiny body stood between Jonouchi and Ushio. Tiny, but determined.
Jonouchi stared up at her in horror. "Yuugi," he managed, "don't be an idiot -"
Ushio suddenly slammed her up against the wall, unhinged, putting a knife right up in her face. "If you stop me from doing this, I will cut you, I swear I will fucking cut you," he hissed. "And I want my bodyguard payment. I want my money. Two hundred thousand yen."
"Ushio, you're insane!" Yuugi spat, struggling. "Nobody even at Domino High has that kind of money -"
"Then you'd better find it," said Ushio, smirking. Then he shoved himself up against her, even as she kicked and struggled, and grabbed her ass. Yuugi froze, all her muscles stiffening in terrified paralysis.
Then there was a sudden, wild yell and Jonouchi jumped on top of Ushio, yanking him off with effort. "Yuugi," he shouted, "run! Don't go back to campus - he'll kill you - just run!"
Yuugi slid backward on the ground, and sprinted away. She could hear Jonouchi's shouts and kicks and punches in the background - but, heeding Jonouchi's request, she kept running.
Yuugi was tearful all afternoon, and she could confide to no one what was wrong. Was Jonouchi right? Was it not safe to go to the authorities?
She sat on her bed, playing with the Puzzle, which she always did when intensely miserable. How the hell was she supposed to come up with two hundred thousand yen? Was Jonouchi even alive? She didn't have any phone number she could call to confirm.
She put the puzzle to her face and let just a few tears leak out. "I promised I wouldn't ask you for anything else," she whispered. "And I won't. I'm not asking for anything. But… but if someone's watching… Jonouchi saved me," she whispered, her voice breaking, breath heaving. "I just - I just don't want either of us to die."
She wiped the tears of mascara from her face, her hair a mess, and went back to working on the puzzle. She fit more and more pieces together, it suddenly demystified for her, and all of a sudden as it all came together she realized what she was looking at.
It was an upside down golden pyramid that hung from a thick leather rope - like it was meant to be worn as some sort of pendant necklace. The center piece was the Eye of Horus, and it was the only one she hadn't put into the Puzzle yet.
She reached in the box for it - and felt nothing. Grabbing the puzzle box, she looked inside. The last piece wasn't there.
Her heart nearly stopped.
Sugoroku and Hanetsuki were cautious when the beat-up teenage boy with the messy blond hair stumbled into their shop. He was soaking wet, though it wasn't raining. Without saying anything, he stuffed something into Sugoroku's hand. Sugoroku and Hanetsuki looked - it was a piece of the Millenium Puzzle.
"My granddaughter came home from school an emotional wreck and she won't talk to anyone," said Hanetsuki, suddenly fierce. "Is this the reason why?"
"Uh - no. Look, this kid, this kid at school - he's threatened Yuugi. Says he'll cut her if she doesn't give him two hundred thousand yen. She got in trouble trying to save my sorry, stupid ass. And that's - well - it's me trying to make up for one of the things I did to her."
The boy looked away, ashamed.
"She'll… Look, she'll need it to finish that stupid puzzle, so just give it to her, okay? And don't - don't tell her I told you anything. Don't say anything about me. And help her so that asshole don't get to her. I'd do it myself, but I ain't exactly made o' money."
He began backing up.
"But don't you need medical attention?" said Sugoroku, concerned.
"Me?" The boy laughed harshly. "Nah, I've had worse than this. Used to be in a gang - probably shouldn't have told you that. Your granddaughter…
"Look, your granddaughter's a good person, okay? She's the bravest goddamn girl I know."
He said it all in a rush, and then slammed out the front door. Hanetsuki and Sugoroku looked at each other silently, eyebrows lifted.
Sugoroku trooped up the stairs to find Yuugi in her bedroom, upturning everything trying to find the missing puzzle piece, panicked and a mess and trying her damndest not to start crying.
Sugoroku smiled. "Looking for this?" He held out the last piece. "I hear it got lost," was all he said gently.
"Grandpa! Thank you," Yuugi gasped, taking the puzzle piece from his hand, her whole face lighting up.
"A stranger found it and told me to give it back to you. He wishes to remain anonymous." Grandpa turned to go out of the room, and paused, staring at the finished puzzle. "Well," he said, smirking. "What a smart granddaughter we have. I must go tell Hanetsuki." And he walked to the doorway.
As Yuugi's back was turned, she still marveling over the puzzle, he slipped the necessary money into her schoolbag. Then he left quietly.
At least one thing was going right, Yuugi thought in delight, looking at the completed puzzle and the last puzzle piece. She put the missing piece in - completed the puzzle - and paused, feeling a tingling up and down her body. The eye on the Puzzle glowed for a moment, and then flickered out.
She smiled. "Huh," she said. "Eerie."
The magic of the Millenium Puzzle fit exact rules and specifications.
The Ancient Egyptians had counted on it being a man who solved the Puzzle. So said in The Book of the Dead, the one who solved the Puzzle would be possessed by a spirit, whose sole purpose was to judge evil and dispense appropriate punishment. The soul inside the Puzzle was there for this purpose. His soul and the vessel's soul were to link inside one body.
But the one who had solved the Puzzle… was a woman. And the spirit's soul couldn't sync with hers inside her body.
So instead, the magic of the Puzzle did the next best thing. It used the basic structure and power of Yuugi's body - and gave the Puzzle's spirit his own body instead.
He woke up, his eyes flickering open, on the ground near The Turtle Game Shop. He was a young Japanese teenager, like Yuugi, but he did not look like her - he was tall and slim and trim, with messy multi-colored hair that had a black color base, sharp features, and piercing purple eyes. He sat up and looked at himself in the nearest window. He was wearing an outfit of his own choosing - skintight black leather pants and tank top, gold bangles and bracelets on his wrists, buckled boots, makeup around his eyes.
He knew certain things immediately. He knew he was a spirit of the Ancient Egyptian Millenium Puzzle, sent here to dispense justice and to guard the Puzzle's solver. He knew all the same basic information about Yuugi's world that Yuugi herself knew - what cars were, how to speak the native Japanese language, etc. He knew that though Yuugi wore the puzzle, he had all its powers, being essentially a physical spirit attached to her body.
He knew he could, theoretically, fuse his mind and body with Yuugi's and possess her form temporarily, if he really needed to. But here, things got tricky. He could never completely fuse with Yuugi - she was a woman and he was a man. So any actions he took in her form would have her mental and personality influences leaking into them. Also she would experience all that he did, albeit without personal control, as if in a kind of dream.
The barriers between them would blur together, she would keep her memories - there were just far too many risks. Best to handle things himself, when possible.
He knew her - her face, her eyes, her name. Yuugi. She was his first memory. She who possessed the thing that housed his soul. He knew she was kind, pure, intelligent. He knew who he was supposed to protect.
And he had her most recent memory. It was the only other memory he possessed, in fact. This did not bother him for now. Instead it gave him clearer purpose. He knew what he had to do.
The spirit had complete amnesia. He did not know who he was, or who he had been before possessing the Puzzle. He did not even know his own name.
So there was only one thing for it. He went up to The Turtle Game Shop, and knocked on the door. It was opened, and the old man behind it looked startled. "Do you know," he said, "you are the second strange teenage boy I have received tonight."
That confirmed what he'd already suspected in the back of his mind. Jonouchi had both stolen and brought back the Puzzle piece. Jonouchi had made up for his sins - he had repented.
No, Jonouchi was not the problem.
"I - I'm sorry." He was unused to speaking; he forced the words out of his mouth. His voice was deep, male, smooth, and soft. "I - I just woke up on the street here - I have no memories. I don't know who I am."
Hanetsuki and Sugoroku's eyes widened.
"Do you have any identification on you?" Hanetsuki asked, hurrying forward.
He shook his head, arms hanging at his sides. "None."
He was let into the shop - "I thank you," he murmured - and she hurried down the stairs. Yuugi. The Puzzle hung and gleamed around her neck.
"What's going on?" she asked, looking between her grandparents and the strange teenage boy.
"He just woke up on the street. Has amnesia," said Hanetsuki. "He doesn't even remember his own name."
"Well, he can stay with us," said Yuugi. "We have a tiny room in the back of the shop. It's humble, not much, but - And then he can stay here, and go to school with me, until we figure out who he's missing from and where he came from. He looks about my age, doesn't he?"
"That's fine," said the spirit, his eyes trained on her face. "Humble is fine."
"Well, Yuugi, he can't exactly take our name. We don't know who he is -" Sugoroku began.
"Well, what do you suggest, that we leave him out on the street?" Yuugi snapped. Her grandparents were silenced. "He doesn't have to take our name. To apply for school, all he needs is a first name. So we'll give him one. And then in the meantime we'll start checking hospital records and missing persons. Okay?"
That was fine by the spirit. He knew all the searches would come to nothing.
"And what name," he asked softly, "do you have for me?"
Yuugi walked forward and looked up into his face, frowning in concentration. Thinking. "Akihiko," she said. Then she smiled playfully. "But I think I'll call you Aki for short."
Almost despite himself, Aki smiled.
"Oh, and by the way, Grandpa, I don't know how you found out…" Yuugi scuffed her shoe against the floor. "But thanks for the money," she muttered sheepishly. Her grandparents smiled.
Aki perked up in interest. Money? A plan formed…
All he would need was Ushio's phone number. And in that arena, he wasn't worried.
Sometimes, magic came in handy.
He lay in his bed in the back of the shop, completely still, until all other bodies had gone upstairs and were sound asleep. Then he stood. He ghosted up the stairs, into Yuugi's bedroom, slid the money from her bookbag and her phone from her purse.
He walked outside with the phone. Made the call. Snuck back upstairs and put the phone away.
Then he strolled off whistling through the night. The money snug in his pocket next to his hands.
Ushio would see him tonight, of course. But that didn't matter. Aki smiled.
By the end of the night, Ushio will have been driven insane.
Ushio found some wild-haired teenage kid waiting for him on campus. He was in this bizarre outfit - black leather, wrist bracelets, dark eye makeup. It was fucking weird.
"You'd better have a damn good reason for calling me out here in the middle of the night, you little shit," he growled.
The kid had to be some freshman from Domino High. But why would Ushio not recognize someone who had his number?
"Ushio-san. How nice of you to join me. I'm here on behalf of Mutou Yuugi. Here's your two hundred thousand yen - Oh, but look, isn't that interesting. She seems to have made it four hundred thousand by mistake." The boy smiled. "So how about this. Just giving you the money would be boring. Why don't we play a little game?"
"A game?" Ushio raised an eyebrow.
"Come on. Just one little game. If you win, you get four hundred thousand yen. Easy money."
"Alright. Interesting." Ushio smirked. "What are the rules?"
"We face each other over here," said the kid, going over to a nearby pillar by the front stairwell to the main building. It had a flat top surface. "And we need only one tool to play. That knife you're hiding, Ushio-san." The boy smiled pleasantly.
Ushio took out the knife willingly enough. So Yuugi had told the kid everything. But really, what could some skinny little punk do to somebody like him?
"Okay. Here are the rules," said the kid, all-business. "The players take turns placing the pile of money atop their hand, and then stabbing the money with the knife. All the money on that knife goes to the player. Their opponent then takes their turn with the remainder. The game ends when there are no more bills left. The one with the most money at the end is the winner.
"Also, if you stab your hand, you automatically lose the entire game and give all your winnings to your opponent.
"Finally: if you break any rules, there will be a penalty."
And so they began, Ushio uncertainly. The Shadow Game revealed a person's true nature. Ushio started out greedy and got greedier, stabbing at his hand harder to get progressively and progressively more piles of money. Finally, he went to stab, and paused.
Realized he could no longer control the strength of his hand. Realized he was about to stab himself.
With a strangled cry, he tried to use his strength to stab Aki, who jumped easily out of the way in time. "Penalty it is," he said smoothly.
Because he'd known all along it would either be one or the other. Either Ushio would stab himself and permanently cripple his knife hand, giving up the money - or, as Aki had secretly been hoping, he would have to exact a penalty.
A glowing golden eye appeared on Aki's forehead, and Ushio's mind snapped.
Aki took all the money and left to go back to The Turtle Game Shop. He did not look back, but Ushio's screams did amuse him faintly as he fell into the distance.
"This is my high school," said Yuugi brightly to Aki the next day, as he followed her in a newly acquired school uniform onto campus. "Domino High. And - whoa." She stopped, staring.
Ushio was surrounded by students. He was laughing in a high, hysterical sort of way, throwing dead leaves everywhere, screaming, "The money! It's all mine! No one else can have it!"
"Does he… think those leaves are money?" Yuugi asked, exasperated. She'd still been asleep when Aki had snuck back to the game shop late last night.
"It appears so," Aki observed pleasantly.
"Well, I guess I won't be needing what's in my backpack," Yuugi muttered, and continued on toward the doors. She met Anzu outside campus, and at Anzu's curious look, she added matter of factly, "This is Aki. He's an amnesiac we found outside our game shop last night. He's sticking with me till we find out where he came from."
"Oh. Nice to meet you, Aki!" said Anzu brightly. He was pretty hot, but she decided not to blurt that out in front of him.
"Likewise. Anzu, was it?" Aki inquired curiously.
"Yeah. And don't worry about it. You've got friends in us!" said Anzu. "We'll show you the ropes!"
Yuugi nodded, smiling. "Exactly."
Aki smiled slightly, looking from one to the other. "You're both very kind," he said quietly.
"Hey, uh… Yuugi?" They all turned around in surprise, and Aki's eyes grew canny. Jonouchi was standing there, embarrassed and sheepish. He seemed to have overheard everything. He could also see the Puzzle hanging around Yuugi's neck. "For the other day… thanks," said Jonouchi. "And I'm sorry."
Anzu was the only one who looked confused.
Yuugi paused, and then smiled. "Don't worry about it," she said kindly. "How are your injuries?"
"Not bad. How are you?"
"Shaken, but…" Yuugi looked back at Ushio, who was still shouting insanely, throwing leaves everywhere. "I think I'm okay."
"Hey, Yuugi - I brought you something. But you can't see it." Yuugi turned back to look at Jonouchi in surprise. "It's seen, but you can't see it. Kinda like your Puzzle." Yuugi cocked her head, confused. "It's friendship," said Jonouchi gently.
Then he blushed, red-faced, and tried to hurry off gruffly - right before Anzu roped him around the neck and dragged him back in. "Nope. You don't get away that easy!" She grinned.
"You're one of us now," Yuugi told him, mock serious. "That means you have to suffer from the embarrassment of being seen with us every single day." Jonouchi shouted in irritation and ducked away from Anzu, but he looked pleased despite himself. Yuugi turned to Aki. "And that goes doubly for you," she added in amusement. "You're one of us."
Aki had been watching the goings-on in exasperation and amusement. But at this he looked down at Yuugi, and gave a small smile - a gentler one, truer and friendlier. He reflected on what had happened in the last several hours. He thought back on waking up and having Yuugi's grandparents making breakfast for him, on getting his uniform on and walking to school with Yuugi.
"I think I'm okay with that," he said.
And Aki, Anzu, Jonouchi, and Yuugi walked into Domino High together.
Author's Notes: Obviously, in future fights such as duels, Aki possessing Yuugi will become necessary. But remember - it won't just be Aki. Yuugi will remember everything, and part of her will be fighting from the beginning too.
Eventually, I plan on having Yuugi duel on her own. She will have a deck, Aki will have the more traditional deck, and then they'll have a combined deck.