Together We Make Shadows
Chapter Nine
It had only been just under a week since they had picked Amane up from England. The small group had only spent a few days in Japan. That same small group was now sitting in a cafe in. Even though it has only been a few days since they'd met or re-met Amane, it felt like they had all known each other a life time. Yugi's grandfather was also with the group. They were meeting up with the Ishtar siblings who hadn't arrived yet. The rest of Yugi's friends couldn't come due to not having the the money and or couldn't take time off work. Ron and Ginny where also in the country since they'd come with their brother. Thankfully for him they weren't around him at the moment, he honestly couldn't stand the pair. Unfortunately they were meant to be coming along with the Ishtar siblings and their older brother Bill's family.
He sighed as he saw who walked into the cafe, a walking headache waiting to happen. Seeing Pegasus usually meant that there was trouble brewing.
"What's Pegasus doing here?" Yugi asked noticing who he was glaring at plus there was the fact he'd grabbed Mokuba's hand and was on high alert.
"I don't think he's going to kidnap me in public." Mokuba told him in a reassuring tone. His glance then moved over to Amane, the most helpless one in their group. "I highly doubt he'd going to kidnap Amane." His young brother continued.
It was hard to tell with the eccentric American who'd bought Duel Monsters to the modern world. That man was his main business contact, but it didn't mean he had to like him.
A tourist teenager for the table across from there's had noticed Pegasus and was looking with excitement as the flamboyant man walked into the cage. Pegasus sensing a fan, walked right up to the family. The teenager was excitedly telling him in English about discovering Duel Monsters at boarding school.
"Darn, he's notice us."He groaned as the over grown child looked his way. He excitedly waved, insisting the family come with him.
"You said a bad word" Amane scolded him.
"Kaiba boy, Yugi boy what a pleasant surprise to see my two favourite duellists." The overgrown child greeted them. "This is one of my biggest fans, Dudley Dursley. I know how much he'd love to meet you both, maybe even to duel both of you."
"It's nice to meet you Dudley." Yugi greeted the boy politely. "I'm afraid neither of us will be able to duel you, we're both busy at the moment." Which he was thankful for that it was Yugi declining the duel. The small boy didn't decline challenges often. Whereas he declined duels all the time. It didn't always reflect well with his company when he declined duels, but if he accepted every single duel challenge he'd never get any work done.
"Kaiba boy, you're looking better then it's rumoured." Pegasus pointed out. "Last I heard you could barley talk or walk. Was that all just a publicity stunt?"
"As if I'd jeopardise my company with that type of publicity stunt." He replied. Why did this man have to bug him? "Today just happens to be a good day for me." He death stared the cheerful man as he rambled on about his cartoon bunny and toon world. If the kidnapper before him even thought about mentioning magic he was going to kill him, he didn't care about the witnesses. Yes he knew magic to be real now, but this was a person that had kidnapped his brother, tried to use him against him and then trapped Mokuba's soul in a card, violated his own mind before trapping his own soul in a card. He glanced over at Mr Moto who was the other person who'd had his soul trapped by Pegasus. Yugi was too forgiving.
Yugi was chatting happily with the English boy, Ryou occasionally translating for him, his English had improved after the amount of time he'd spent in Europe but he still needed a lot of help.
"Do I know you?" Dudley finally asked Ryou. "You seem familiar somehow?"
"I was a semi finalist in Battle City." He replied shyly. Amane was starting to get bored and was starting to fidget and Ryou was trying to keep his sister entertained without causing a scene.
"Maybe." Dudley replied with a frown. He could tell that the English boy wasn't convinced that was how they knew each other.
"I need to pee." Amane announced in English. While sitting and fidgeting in her seat.
"Can you wait a little while?" Ryou asked her in Japanese. The girl shook her head no. He pulled out his phone to find out how far away Ishizu was.
"What is wrong with her?" the boy's father asked with no tact. "She shouldn't need assistance with that at her age."
"Vernon" his wife scolded.
He sent a glare at the English man. Why wasn't Ishizu answering her phone?
"Oh I hadn't noticed the young lady." Pegasus moved his attention from him to Miss Bakura. Ryou pulled his sister into a protective hug, he didn't want all the unwanted attention on his sister. She was still whinging about needing to pee. The Ring bearer called out to Ishizu in relief when he saw the necklace bearer entered the cafe.
"Ah Miss Ishtar it's a pleasure to meet you." Pegasus greeted the Egyptian.
"Likewise Mister Pegasus, if you excuse me I have a young lady that need's the bathroom." She greeted him and took Amane's hand and walked to the back of the building.
Marik took a seat at the table, his eyes lighting up when he saw Ryou and Yugi. He was chatting the other boys ears off once again. The tourist family left while Ishizu and Amane where in the bathroom. Ron seemed to scare them off. Pegasus waited around, joining them even though he was unwanted.
KC
They managed to get rid of Pegasus as they headed to the dig site. Mokuba and Amane had been left in the care of Roland, Radish Ishtar and Bills wife Fleur. Death Eaters where interested in the site and he wasn't going to willingly put his brother in harm's way; no matter how much Mokuba wanted to see the site for himself. Ryou also didn't want his sister anywhere near the site, she was able to defend herself even less then Mokuba.
He stood outside the tomb with the other re-incarnations, Marik, Bill Weasley his annoying siblings Ron and Ginny, and his not so annoying sibling Charlie. The only reason Charlie wasn't annoying was because he liked dragons, in his eyes he had the most awesome job in the universe. It was his first time talking to Charlie and he was already looking forward to having a long talk with him about the dragons the older man worked with. He kept his excitement buried down whenever Charlie talked about dragons but if he wasn't careful his mask would slip. If he hadn't been raised the way he'd been by his adoptive father he could easily see himself hero worshipping the older man. He was a Kaiba and wouldn't stoop to that level, no matter how much he wanted to. Several archaeologists who Bill worked with where already at the site.
"This is the suspected tomb of Pharaoh Set, we've never actually been able to enter the tomb to confirm if it's his tomb but everything around this place and the magic suggests it's his."
"I've been here before" Yugi's grandfather announced. "Yugi, Yami; see that tomb a short distance away, that's the tomb I found your puzzle."
"It's also close to the location of the tomb keeper's clan." Ishizu informed everyone. Pulling out a map to mark important ancient locations in regards to their so called past life.
After a review of who was going into the tomb they made their way to the entrance.
"The Death Eaters haven't attempted to get in for several weeks now but from what I've heard they're building up their numbers again. He who shouldn't be named is apparently in a weakened state at the moment" the archaeologist wizard whom worked with Bill informed them.
They'd gathered a crowd, interested in watching the opening of the tomb.
It was bizarre looking at the tomb, he got the sense that he was looking at his own grave, something he'd designed. He could see the layout in his head, where the traps where laid, where treasures where kept and most importantly where the pharaoh was meant to be buried. It was bizarre, when everyone talked about him being reincarnated they always referred to him as the high priest and never the pharaoh he'd become after Atem had died.
He read the inscription above the door, and then the translation that the archaeologist had made. It was close but not quite accurate. Their translation was 'Only a light wizard and dark wizard working together may enter.' When in actual fact it translated as. "Together you make Shadows only then may you enter my worthy descendants." He spoke the translation out loud in Japanese.
"No wonder his tomb has never been robbed." The tomb robber announced with a glint of greed in his eyes. "He placed magic so only those descended from him can open the entrance."
"Only his children and grandchildren could enter the tomb to bury him. We may have an issue if you two aren't descended from him." Ishizu exclaimed.
"The Black family are descended from him." Ron announced. "Malfoy mentioned it a few times uh Draco Malfoy and Sirius Black confirmed it. They have family members on both sides of the war."
"It shouldn't be an issue considering Yugi and I can both play the God Cards, even if Yugi and I aren't descended from him you and Marik are. And luckily for us you both have opposite magic natures."
"That's what you meant when you said his wishes about the guarding to the Rod and Necklace had been followed. Set placed his own children to watch the items." Ishizu said in awe. "We can trace our family heritage to the first tomb keepers; there is a chamber with the recordings of every clan member, the recording of our family tree."
"To be more specific the mother of the children who where made the keepers of the items was high priestess Isis's children." He told Ishizu, smirking when he realised he knew something about Ishizu's ancient past that she didn't. "But we're not here to discuss that now, we need to get a move on with recovering the Tome."
KC
Ginny and Ron weren't allowed to come. They would be staying with Charlie guarding the outside of the tomb, protecting them from Death Eaters. He was thankful that they wouldn't be with him, he was convinced that if they came that he'd end up killing them. They just rubbed him the wrong way; the same as what Joey Wheeler did. So that left them Bill Weasley who told them they need his curse breaking skills and was rather good at potions and recognising poisons and making the cures for them. All redundant, his step father had forced him to recognise different poisons and how to make their curers. The old man used to test him by feeding him poisons and ordering him to make the cure. He wasn't always told what he was poisoned with or lied to about what he was poisoned with. The tomb robber would also be more useful for breaking curses and traps then the curse breaker. The thief king grew up in the times these traps where laid and broke them for a living. He was still trying to work out how to convince everyone else that he only wanted the Millennium Item holders entering the Tomb.
Ishizu was going through last minute items they needed to take.
"Are you nervous Kaiba?" Yugi asked him.
"Not really" he replied to his school friend. "Is there a way we can prevent non item holders being able to come in?" he asked in a hushed tone.
"I'm not sure, but I don't want them coming with us either." Yugi admitted sending glances towards Bill and the other curse breakers. "The Shadows Games are dangerous and the wizards don't understand our magic. They keep assuming it's like the magic they're familiar with even though the two magic's are very different. I image if the High Priest was anything like you, it's going to be more deadly than they can imagine."
Thoughts of his team park he'd put Yugi through came to mind. He briefly wondered if the design for Death-T might have been influenced by his past life. Yugi was also thinking of the theme park.
"There is a way to prevent them from following" the thief king informed them, currently in possession of Ryou's body. Telling them of a magic ritual to prevent anyone not possessing Shadow Magic from being able to follow them. "I'll perform the ritual while everyone else is distracted by you two."
"If you try anything ..." Kaiba threatened, not being able to get his full threat out before Ishizu interrupted. The tomb robber got the idea.
"Are you two ready?" Ishizu asked them from the other side of the room where she was standing with Bill.
"Of course" he replied, in fact he was looking forward to seeing the tomb that was once his or still his after all the body of his ancient past still laid inside. It would be interesting finding out if the layout matched his memories.
"As ready as I'll ever be" Yugi replied a little bit more nervously. Yugi had to perform the ritual himself, it couldn't be Yami performing the ritual for him.
"They really should be completing this ritual in Egyptian authentic clothing." Bill stated. Yugi was dressed in his normal duelling outfit that looked very similar to his school uniform even though it wasn't and he was wearing his normal black turtleneck, black pants, buckles and purple trench coat. He had his white sleeveless trench coat in his supplies bag along with his duelling disk.
KC
He and Yugi took their places, Yugi standing on the symbol of the moon and he was standing on the symbol of the sun. Both sent out their magic how Ishizu had been instructing them. His bursting forward in a blinding light, brightening the room and blinding everyone else in it. Yugi's pulling the light out of the room, creating darkness, so dark that it was just as blinding as his light. You couldn't see your own hand in front of your face. In the centre of the room the light and the darkness meet and the two magic's began mingling, mixing and making Shadows appear all around them. Making a line on the centre of the wall that slowly began to mix. The watched as a Shadow portal appeared in the centre of the wall between the picture of another moon and sun.
"You're magic cancelled out my spell." the thief king whispered to them. "But that doesn't seem like it's going to be an issue considering the Shadow portal.
Kaiba smirked, the other magic users weren't going to be able to enter. If they tried they'd either come out where they had entered or transported somewhere entirely different, end up trapped in the shadows or dead. He wasn't even certain if Ryou would be able to enter the chamber with shadow magic, he didn't know if the other boy was a descendant or not.
"This changes everything." Ishizu announced. "I'm sorry, Bill. You won't be able to come with us. Only users of Shadow magic can enter this portal."
"How disappointing, but I should've known that the Pharaoh would have more safeguards in place preventing the entrance of the tomb." Bill replied slightly disappointed, but fascinated with the Pharaohs magic at the same time.
"Come on Bakura let's go." Marik dragged the Tomb Robber through the portal.
"How come Ryan still get's to go? He's a Slytherin! He shouldn't have shadow magic." Ron pointed out, getting the half Japanese half English boy's name wrong ... again.
"As you can see since he entered the portal without any harm he's a shadow magic user" Yami told the English boy. "Kaiba, I believe it's time for us to go."
Seto nodded to Yugi before following him through the Shadow portal, and not long after they entered Ishizu came through. Once the group of five was on the other side Yugi helped him closed off the Shadow portal.
"Last thing we need is for Pegasus to come through." He commented before looking around the tomb. Reverting back to Japanese. He was still peeved off that the man was so close to them at the moment. With his past exposure to the Eye he should be able to sense the Shadow magic they'd just performed.
"My phone's dead." Yugi pointed out. "But my duel disc still works."
"Mines still working." He pulled out his laptop he'd bought with him, it was also still working.
It was strange, technology that he'd made himself was working in the tomb yet all other technology had failed as soon as they had entered.
"You must have somehow woven your shadow magic into your technology as you made it." Ishizu pointed out. "It's something we will have to investigate further once this quest is over with."
"A part of me is wondering if we should ever collect the tome." He mentioned to everyone as they got used to the darkness, letting their eyes adjust. "I have the tome memorised already and this is probably the safest place for it. The only one who's really a threat of stealing the thing is the Tomb Robber."
"Either way, we'll go to the chamber first and decided after we get there if we will remove to tome or not." Ishizu replied.
Before they went too far he made a quick call to Mokuba to let him know that they'd been successful in entering the tomb and not to worry if he wasn't able to get in contact, even though he had service at the moment he wasn't guaranteed to have service the deeper into the tomb they went.
KC
Written on the walls everywhere was history. It was in a good state, untouched by time since it was sealed. Ishizu started chanting and the torches in the tombs lit up, lighting up the ancient tomb. They all gasped in amazements, everywhere on the walls was pictures of the blue eyes white dragon, a large life sized statue guarded the true entrance.
"Do you think he has real dragons guarding the tomb?" He asked, really hoping to get to see real dragons. When this war with Voldemort was over he was planning on asking Charlie to take him to the dragon reserve in Romania. Luna had told him all about the dragon reserve in Romania during his months of capture. He recognised some of the pictures on the wall; they were the same as the mural he'd painted in blood on the walls of the Malfoy dungeon.
He got out his camera, but it was one of the dead items, he was going to have to make do with his phone's and laptops camera. He took many pictures. He was going to have to ask Draco to get pictures of the mural in the dungeon to compare, he never wanted to go back to that place again, but wanted to have another good look at his art work, that was if it was still on the wall and hadn't been cleaned up.
He was in charge of leading him through the tomb, the tomb robber pointing out traps that he would've broke through during his profession as a thief. The Ishtar siblings pointing out similarities between Set's tomb and the tomb keeper's residence; both in structure design and magical residue. They hadn't run into trouble yet, but that was only because anytime they entered a new room they all spent several minutes or more weaving protective magic and disabling the hexes and curses laying about the tomb.
"Bill Weasleys knowledge as a curse breaker would come in handy for some of these rooms." Ishizu commented, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
"I don't think I've ever used so much magic in my life." Marik complained to his sister. The youngest Ishtar was looking a little bit worse for wear.
"I'd love to spend some time going through the history of these rooms, each one tells its own story." Ishizu mentioned.
"I think this is a good place to spend the night. Everyone needs to replenish their magical reserves." He told everyone. He was fine, spending months using subconscious protective magic to keep himself alive had strengthened his magical reserves. Bakura looked like he'd be able to continue without any issues, but the thief king who he drew most of his magic from was used to only breaking the bare minimum and moving as fast as possible. They'd been breaking more than bare minimum so he was actually more tired than he looked. Yami didn't seem to tired either, but when he let Yugi take control again, Yugi looked exhausted.
The room they were in was rather interesting, it had three versions of the Millennium Council and the years they exited. The first version had Pharaoh Aknamkanon, the second had the Nameless Pharaoh who even though he knew his name in the name in his past life. It still wasn't written in the tomb. All it said for his name was Beloved Cousin. The third and final council show Pharaoh Set the difference being he had the Millennium Rod instead of the Puzzle like the previous two Pharaohs and only have five council members instead of six.
"Bakura, were you in the Ring when the Dark Magician girl held the item?" Yugi asked. Even though Ryou was currently in control of the body, they all knew that the thief King would hear the question.
The change was immediate. "I was, she had a lot of courage that girl. Even though she was my enemy, she was the only person before Ryou who was worthy of possessing the ring."
"Thief King loves Dark Magician Girl." Marik teased, running and hiding behind his sister for protection.
Bakura summoned one of his low level monsters, attacking Marik and hitting Ishizu in the process.
He sighed, it didn't look like he'd be getting any peace tonight. He and Yugi began setting up a make shift camp while Izhizu scolded the two boys for summoning shadow monsters in a tomb with unknown magic for a silly game. Sleeping bags where unrolled, gas oven was set up to heat dinner and food was heated. They talked for a bit, arranging who would keep watch while they slept and how far into the tomb they thought they were.