Woah that was one hell of a hiatus :P
But I'm back and I'll hopefuly manage to finish the story this time.
I cleared and changed two first chapters because seriously, I couldn't look at them. I think they make much more sense now. And yay, we are finally moving on!
Thank you for comments under last two chapters, they were almost literally nagging me to sit down and write the third chapter, so thank you!
"Yuugi!" Anzu shouted, running to me." Yuugi, how...?" But I couldn't answer her. All I could do was to stare at the face of a man I've only seen in my dreams for six years. At the face of that friend I never thought I'd receive, of my soul mate, who was not looking at me.
He was not looking at me.
"Who are you!?" Jonouchi shouted, and I felt somebody's hand landing on my arm. It was Honda. Good, compassionate as of lately, Honda.
The man just smiled even wider and drew a card, not bothered with the uproar he had caused.
He couldn't be my Pharaoh, he couldn't!
Atem would've never ignored Jonouchi, he would answer, he would...
I turned to where Kaiba was standing in his younger brother, and ignoring my friends shouts I marched towards him.
"That's what you meant?" I asked him quietly, trying to get a hold of my voice.
"Yes. He cannot be him. And yet..." I hated Kaiba for sounding unsure, I really hated him at the moment. I would love to hear him say that it was all just a prank, a mistake. But no, even he didn't know!
In the background I could hear Jonouchi still shouting, but to no avail. The man wearing the face of my Other Half was still silent.
I wasn't looking at the platform, trying to calm myself, to somehow subdue my scattered thoughts, to look at the facts. And yet I couldn't.
That is, until I heard Kaiba gasp.
Without asking, I turned and almost immediately regretted this action.
The stranger had summoned Black Magician.
The duel was over almost at this instant, with both Black Magician and Osiris in play, Jonouchi could do nothing to stop the attack.
He had lost.
And I would lie to myself if I said that I wasn't waiting for the stranger to boast, to congratulate Jonouchi, to give any indication that it was Atem and nobody else.
Oh, gods, I don't know what is scarier. The thought that it might be him, or the thought that it might... What do I want?
Yet it was fairly obvious what did I want.
I wanted Atem.
The second Jonouchi left the platform the gang ran to him, and my first thought was to join them, to somehow support him. He must be as confused and hurt as we were. As I...
Kaiba and Mokuba disappeared somewhere. I made first steps to run to the rest, when...
"You are Mutou Yuugi?" A female voice asked, and I turned to face her. She was... strange. She looked somehow like Ishizu, only older and dressed in a suit, not Egyptian wear.
"I am." I tried to keep my impatience from my voice, but judging from the twinkle in women's eyes, I failed.
"Don't worry, I won't keep you for long. I just want to inform you that your presence here is deeply appreciated." She replied and thought her words were kind, her voice was nothing but.
"Why is that?" The woman glanced somewhere behind my back and smiled.
"This tournament wouldn't make any sense if the King of Games wasn't there to shine." If I suspected before that for some reason the woman didn't like me, after this sentence, I knew for sure. Yet I couldn't place what exactly had I done to offend her enough to send her insulting me in the middle of a public event.
"Do you have any point to your speech?" I retorted. The smile got even wider.
"Yes. I just wanted to see you. You are not like him at all. Pity." And before I could react, she was gone.
Thankfully, I had lots of experience in dealing with strange, imposing villains. I mean, I went to the same school with Kaiba for some time.
Not thinking any more about the strange woman, I reached Jonouchi and the rest of my friends.
"... I couldn't even concentrate! It was like dueling a zombie, or something!" Jonouchi explained, trying apparently to somehow come to terms with his loss. It was the first time he wouldn't make it to the finals. It must be an awful blow to his duelist's pride, and I stood beside him in silence, thinking about any words that could make him better.
"Jonouchi-kun..." I started, finally, and immediately the rest fell silent. " I would've lost too." I said, and it was true. If it ever came to this, I would probably end up so distracted by my feelings that I'd too succumb at the end. " It was awful trick, psychological one, that shouldn't be used in a duel. "
"Exactly! That was not a fair duel!" Mai shouted, taking Jonouchi's hands in hers." And you probably remember, I know fair lot about cheating." He smiled at that and gave me a look of gratitude, before switching his attention to Mai.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Ryou murmured to me when we were leaving the area of ancient temple.
"Thank you for stating the obvious, Obi-Wan." Honda commented. Shizuka let out laugh and suddenly the tension was gone. We were once again a bunch of young people, enjoying their passion. The fate of the world did not depend on this game, no one was being sent to Shadow Relm for losing.
And yet, Ryou's words had some ominous feeling to them. It was a psychological trick, yes, but why used on Jonouchi? Or maybe, that duelist was hoping to use it on me? But how?
How would they know who Atem was?
For everyone concerned, I was the one who dueled in the tournaments, I was the only one Yuugi Mutou the world knew. So who could come up with such a scheme? Who would know about Atem?
The only ones that weren't here were the Hopkinses, my Grandfather, Pegasus and Ishtars, but it was hard to imagine any of them to take any part in this.
Or maybe, the Dark Marik had returned and...
No, it doesn't make any sense.
"The next duel is no one we know, we can watch it on tv." Otogi suggested.
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind something to eat, to be honest."
"Oh? Haven't you had enough of defeat to stomach?" That comment earned Honda a little fight with Jonouchi, whose spirit seemed to be restored already.
After a short round of voting , we decided to head for a restaurant. There were plenty of theses in Kaiba Land, but the whole group agreed that finding one that wasn't connected in any way to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon sounded nice.
After a short walk, we finally settled for a Minotaur-themed bistro, because we were hungry and it actually wasn't the Blue-Eyes. It was only a card from Kaiba's deck, oh well.
The duel had already started and frankly, I wasn't interested in it that much. The players were good enough, but they were playing with already-assembled decks, and it was visible. Their decks had no heart in them and there was nothing else to watch, than just a fight between one starter deck and the other.
I was the only one who had lost interest, because the rest was commenting loudly, and honestly, their comments were far more entertaining than the duel.
"Oh, man, don't use that card! Its colours don't match your first monster!"
"Can you even pronounce that name?"
"Oh, gosh, what a surprise! You used Fusion? Amazing, Totally didn't see that coming."
"Brother, can he even do that?"
"Not really, but Kaiba isn't going to stop this duel anyway, so..."
And so on.
Still, after a while I grew weary with both listening to them and fighting myself not to think of the Pharaoh-look alike. So I excused myself and went for a walk, aiming to ease my mind with simply looking around.
I've been to this Kaiba Land before, on Kaiba Grand Prix, but not counting the attractions that were connected with duel arenas, I didn't get much time to simply look around.
Kaiba might seem cold and unattainable, but he has a great sense of what brings children joy. Truly, I would love to come here as a kid, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was an adult and in the middle of a tournament, I might've even enjoy myself at one of these attractions.
See, distracting yourself is easy, when you put your mind to it.
I wandered aimlessly for a while, careful not to go too far, so that I'd see if my friends were leaving and so that I won't get lost on my way back.
The man, despite his looks and voice was nothing but an impostor, who probably watched all of my duels and decided...
There we go, I'm thinking about it again. Go,me.
Maybe it is time to get back...
I turned on my heel and came face to face with the impostor.
Oh, Ra, why.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you here." I mumbled, trying to leave the stranger as soon as possible. But he simply smiled and even the kind, understanding smile looked the same on his face.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand your language. " The man replied and only after a while it came to me, why I did not understand a word he just said. He was using ancient Egyptian. Hilarious, really. However made him do it, did their research. Despite my Grandfather learning Egyptian and being quite fluent at it, all I could say or read was what was written on the Millennium Box.
"Can you speak Japanese? Or English at least?" I prompted, but saw no comprehension on the man's face. What was he, and actor? Or a sadist set to stomp all over my heart?
Then, suddenly, he raised his eyebrows, as if in realization.
"You want me to speak in your language? I don't know it." He replied. Even his voice, the tone and self-confidence sounded the same. How? Why?
I gestured at him.
"What is your name?" I practically growled, because I was done with this facade and I needed some answers. Right. Now.
He looked at my pointed finger.
Then, he reached for something that was hanging on his face and brought it to his eyes, as if it held the answer to my question.
It actually did, for I recognized the cartouche.
It was the same one Anzu gave him all this years ago, so that he would never forget his name gain. He took it with him to Underworld and no one ever saw it! So how?
"Atem." He said finally, hiding the cartouche. "I never seem to remember it, I don't know why." Of course, I couldn't understand what he said, aside from his name, but it was enough. And then, he pointed at me, and even though I did not know the words, I understood the meaning.
"Who are you?"
Atem was back. And he didn't remember me at all.