41. Please Remember Me – Tim McGraw

Anzu, Jounouchi and Honda waited nervously for news. When Grandpa Mutou arrived it only ramped up the tension another notch, until the air in the hospital waiting room was thick as custard and twice as difficult to breathe without choking.

"A fire?" he echoed when Jounouchi told him what had happened. "But how? What was he even doing by the waterfront?"

"We don't know," Jounouchi replied miserably. "It looked like someone had set up a duel there."

"But why would he go alone? I don't understand."

"Neither do we."

Anzu stared at her thumbs and worried at her cuticles with her fingernails. Guilt jabbed into her gut like a stomach-ache. Yuugi had been there alone because she had left him alone when she went to fetch Jounouchi and Honda. She should never have left. She should have stayed – should have been there with him when he needed her. The skin around her nails was tender and raw, evidence of how long they'd been waiting and how little they knew – and how the little they did know was all bad.

"I thought I saw Bandit Keith running away," said Honda, "but that can't have been right."

"Someone-" Anzu stopped. "Someone stole the Millennium Puzzle from Yuugi, right off the street. He chased after whoever it was, and … and …" She stopped again. "It could've been Keith. He was wearing a hood that hid his face"

"Hey, stranger things have happened," Jounouchi said with false levity. It levitated about as well as a titanium balloon. That had been thrown off a cliff. On Mars.

"He wouldn't let it go," Honda said in the same half-dazed tone. "The whole frigging warehouse was on fire, and he wouldn't let it go. Even when he was unconscious from the smoke, he wouldn't let go of that necklace."

"Because it's more than just a necklace," Anzu said softly. She didn't need to elaborate further. Just as they couldn't have left Yuugi to burn, Yuugi couldn't have left Yami behind. It would have been touching if it hadn't been so terrifying.

Therefore it wasn't surprising that they all jumped up when the doctor finally emerged to tell them what the hell was going on with Yuugi. They may not have known what had happened to put him here, but they could at least find out what would happen to get him out again.

Doctor Yamamoto's expression didn't fill them with hope on this score.

"Retrograde amnesia," he told them after a lot of umming and ahhing.

"What?" Jounouchi demanded.

"But he … it was smoke inhalation!" Anzu protested.

"There was some skull trauma. He suffered a blow to the head?"

At once, Honda and Jounouchi looked absolutely mortified.

"We had to pull out the nail holding the Puzz- his necklace in place. He wouldn't let it go," Jounouchi explained. "We tried to make him, honest! But he just … would let go." It sounded stupid to anyone who didn't know the full truth.

"So you hit him?" Doctor Yamamoto prompted.

"No way!"

"He fell. Forward. When the nail popped out we flew backwards, but he fell forward. He bounced off the, um, metal wall thingy." Honda made a vague gesture with his hands. "We didn't think anything of it. I mean, the warehouse was on fire, man. We thought as long as we got him out of there before we were all barbeque, he'd be fine."

"A noble idea. You're both heroes," Doctor Yamamoto deadpanned. "But I'm afraid that fall had consequences. His current condition has to do with the way Yuugi hit his head, which has had caused some trauma to his brain, resulting in retrograde amnesia, which is-"

"We know what amnesia is!" They all stared at Anzu, but she ignored everyone except Doctor Yamamoto. "Are you telling us Yuugi has lost all his memory?"

"Not all of it," Doctor Yamamoto said primly. "Retrograde amnesia is not the same as full amnesia. From what we can tell, he has perfect memories up until a certain point in his life. It is simply that he believes today is that point in time, not the current moment."

"Huh?"

"Doctor." Grandpa Mutou stepped forward. "Please explain in small words. What is wrong with my grandson?" Nobody had ever heard Mr. Mutou sound so scared before.

Doctor Yamamoto sighed. "In layman's terms, he has no memory of the last five years."

"What?" Jounouchi thundered. Anzu gasped. Honda just looked shell-shocked. All three of them were immediately running through all that had happened in the last five years. Where had Yuugi been five years ago? Hiding in a corner playing games by himself, friendless and alone, with an unsolved Millennium Puzzle and a catalogue of bruises from school bullies and whoever else felt like picking on him ...

"That … that can't be true," Anzu murmured through her hands.

But it was true. It was terribly, hideously true – which they discovered to their horror when they were finally allowed in to see Yuugi, and their friend smiled up at them without a hint of recognition.

"Hello," he said, polite and agreeable, but ever so slightly timid. Everyone noticed the way his hands bunched in the covers at the sight of so many tall people advancing on his bed. "D-Do I know you?"