Author's Note: I consider my last chapter to be some of my finest work. This story has really helped my writing skills along. Thank you. :3
You guys are gonna hate me for this chapter. I just know it.
Read on. (If you dare. *eerie smile*)
Chapter 23
Atem was pacing. An uneasy feeling was resting in his stomach, and his item bearers could sense it easily.
"Prince Atem, you're going to tire yourself out if you keep walking back and forth," Shada forewarned. He was seated at a table in one of the palace sitting rooms, his hands folded in his lap.
"Thank you, Shada, but I am fine." Atem mumbled something after that, but it was lost shortly after it reached his lips. Suddenly, he ceased his pacing and looked up, wondering aloud, "Where is Isis?"
"She went to go find the Pharaoh," Karim reported. He was leaned on the wall on the far side of the room, his expression blank when in actuality several thoughts were pulsating through his mind. "She said she hadn't finished council with him and had attained an important vision that needed to receive attention."
"What was it?" Atem questioned, his eyebrows gathering.
Karim shrugged. "I don't know."
Atem grew inquisitive about this and decided, "I think I will go look for her and my father to take my mind off of things." He began to head across the room.
"Good idea, Prince Atem," Shimon approved, watching the Prince as he disappeared through the doors.
-transition-
Seto sneered, "You've lost nearly all your creatures, Yami. You should surrender. Then maybe I'll spare your soul, not that it deserves mercy."
Yami merely smirked, reciting, "The game is not over until the last move is made."
The priest growled at this and commanded, "Mighty dragon of mine, attack Yami directly!" The Blue-Eyes White Dragon began to charge its white lightning attack in the cavern of its jaws, releasing a deafening shriek as it did, as if it felt the same mix of anguish and self-reliance its master was channeling.
"Never!" Yami objected. His smirk withstood the face of death that was lurking before him as he informed Seto, "You've done everything I've wanted you to do! Now you will taste your defeat, and you're body, soul, and mind will soon be one with the shadows!"
Seto matched Yami's smirk. He declared, "If you're so confident that you can turn this game around, then I'll give you a turn to construct your battle plan. Blue-Eyes, I call off your attack." The dragon's lightning blast disappeared in a spark, and the beast reeled back as if disappointed it hadn't gotten to finish Yami off. "Go ahead and take your final turn, Yami."
Yami sighed almost contently. "Oh, Seto. I tried to warn you." Seto's smirk vanished in an instant. "I really tried. I told you not to get so overly confident, but I suppose the warnings I have given you have fallen on deaf ears." The older Motou held out his DiaDhank and slid a small tray out of the side.
Seto's eyes widened. "What is that?"
"Remember how I said that I made my DiaDhank?" Yami's tone was haughty. "And how mine was just like yours, only better?"
"I remember! Just get to the point!" Seto snarled.
"Well-" Yami held the white-gold object up. "- I may have… upgraded it, if you will." He questioned almost innocently, "You know how DiaDhanks can only hold three monsters at a time?"
"… You didn't."
"But I did." Yami threw his arm up to the sky, calling, "I summon the five pieces of Exodia!"
"You can't!" Seto challenged, stumbling back a few paces in astonishment. "Exodia cannot be summoned by just any man! That is why DiaDhanks are only privileged to have three spaces for our creatures!"
"Then I guess I'm not just 'any man,'" Yami supposed condescendingly, giving a nonchalant shrug as the Exodia parts began to gather on his custom-made DiaDhank. He explained further, "In order to summon it, a certain amount of monsters had to be destroyed beforehand. Thanks to your stubbornness and overly assured arrogance, this was a simple obstacle to overcome."
Seto staggered back up another few feet, looking as if he might bolt at any second.
"Exodia! I command you to aid me in this Shadow Game!" Yami decreed, and the terrifying creature rose up through the shadows, its enormous gold form becoming Seto's fears in the flesh.
"It's- it's not possible!" Seto stuttered, his eyes wide and frightened like a child's.
"Believe me; it's quite possible." Yami's smug expression grew. "But don't just take my word for it. If you want proof, why don't you take an attack from it yourself?"
Seto's throat was dry, words unable to form.
"No remark? Well then, this was a lovely duel." Yami directed, "Now my five-parted beast, attack Priest Seto's Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
The enormous creature gathered a handful of deadly shadows in its colossal hand and drove it into Seto's Blue-Eyes. The dragon let out a cry of agony as it was thrown into fragments, disappearing entirely. Seto collapsed, the blow affecting him as vividly as if he was the one to receive it. His DiaDhank clattered as it hit the stone, the owner of it flinching in intense pain on the palace floor.
Seto heard footsteps come near, but the throbbing in his head was making things echo and sound indistinct.
"I always knew I'd win." Seto gasped as another wave of pain flew through his body. "I just thought that maybe you'd understand before things had to end. If anyone could, it was you. But my assumptions were wrong. It's a shame." Yami leaned down by the fallen item bearer. "You're fading into the shadows. Is there any message you'd like me to pass on before you completely vanish?"
"T-t-tell L-lady Y-y-yugi I'm sorry-y I f-failed her."
"A reasonable request." Yami smiled as he watched Seto fade completely. "Good-bye, my friend."
-transition-
Yugi heard something. It was a noise- no words! Yes, indeed words! She just needed to get them to register in her mind and then…
"So, you say Lady Yugi's blindness was not induced by birth?"
"No, it was a spell. I'm sure of it. Fortunately, the spell was not a very elaborate one, and I was able to find the counter-spell in no time at all. In fact, it was easier to release her from the spell than it would have been to cure her from an actual physical ailment. This is why it only took a couple of hours."
"Do you have any idea who might have cast the spell on her?"
"Unfortunately, no. Each spellcaster has their own, as you'd say- signature- to their spell that magicians can see and use to identify who cast the spell, but this one was unfamiliar to me."
"And I didn't recognize it either! And I know nearly every magician in the country!"
"-Which leads me to believe that this spell was placed on Lady Yugi by someone outside of Egypt, or at least a magician without Egyptian status."
"Shouldn't she be awake by now?"
"Soon, yes. Soon."
None of these words made any sense to Yugi. They came across to her as jumbled, mixed up, like an uncompleted puzzle. But the voices were familiar, so slowly, she began to try to get herself to awake.
And then her eyes opened.
Those assembled around her gasped. The silver veil that had once concealed Yugi's violet irises had been removed, and her eyes appeared much more alert, darting around at the people and things surrounding her.
Suddenly, Yugi recalled everything.
And she realized she was in a room full of strangers and nameless faces.
"Who- who are all of you?"
The faces all held different expressions. Some appeared disappointed, but others only seemed amused.
"Lady Yugi! It's me! Mana? Don't you remember?" the brunette girl said dejectedly, pointing at herself with a pout.
"She remembers, Mana, but she only recognizes people by voices right now," a tall man with a golden ring strung around his neck insisted, his own expression stern.
"I… I…" It was too much to take in. The colors, so vivid. The people, so complex. Everything! It was all enough to make her cross-eyed. Yugi hoped off the mat and pushed past the group of people, excusing hurriedly, "I need a moment!"
She ran out of the room in a flash, leaving the assembly to wait for her return.
-transition-
Yugi could see perfectly fine now, but she insisted on closing her eyes and using Atem's teaching to guide her to the garden. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself just where she wanted to be. At least she thought… None of it looked like she imagined.
She lowered herself to the ground and leaned over the pond in the center of the folige, gazing into the water. There she saw another person, a very small young girl with soft lavender eyes, pale ivory skin, and blonde streaks of hair that framed her face and accented the rest of her black and pink mane of hair.
"H-hello…" she stammered to the person in the water, "What's your name?"
The girl stayed silent, just looking back at her as if she was waiting for something.
Yugi's eyebrows gathered, and she gasped as the girl in the pond did the same. "Are you copying my movements?" she asked the girl, but water lady kept quiet, only two-dimensionally mouthing her exact words. "Please stop," Yugi requested of the girl. The pond girl only mouthed her words again. She also appeared very irritated. Yugi hissed angrily, "Stop!" and swiped her hand across the girl. The girl disappeared with the ripples, and Yugi gasped. She leaned over the water again, asking frantically, "Where'd you go?"
The water girl returned, but this time she looked worried. But worried about what? Yugi asked just that:
"Why are you worried?"
The pond lady's expression changed but only slightly. Now she looked concerned.
"Answer me!" Yugi demanded, and she stood up.
The girl in the water did the same, looking up at Yugi as she looked down.
"You can see…"
"Water girl?" Yugi fell to the ground again, casting her gaze over the surface again. "Did you say something?" That voice sounds familiar…
"No, it was me."
Yugi turned and spied a young man with hair that was similar to the pond lady's in color but was not lied down and was sticking up in spikes. His skin was the same shade as the water girl's, too. And the eyes as well...
"Are you the pond lady's older brother?" Yugi questioned unknowingly, watching the man as he sat down next to her beside the pool.
"Indeed, I am," he confirmed, staring down at the water just as Yugi had.
"Why doesn't she say anything?" Yugi asked, doing the same and watching the girl in the water look up as she looked down.
"She can't see," the man told Yugi, "Or rather see couldn't see. She was somehow given sight, and now she's getting used to it."
"Oh." Yugi blinked at this. "That sounds like me."
"You just received your sight?" The mysterious young man appeared to be shocked. "That's amazing. Now how is that?"
"I don't know, really…" Yugi glanced down at the grass and confessed, "There was something said about it before I was fully awake, but I don't remember any of it…"
The man hummed before mumbling, "That's too bad."
Yugi looked up at him and asked hopefully, "Do you know where At- I mean the Prince is? I'm sure he'd be overjoyed to know that I can see now."
The young man was silent for a moment, picking his words carefully. Finally, he admitted, "Yes, I know him. Not personally, but I know where he is." He stood up and offered Yugi a hand, saying, "I'll lead you to him." Yugi hesitated for a moment, but only a moment. Then she slid her pale hand into the stranger's equally pale hand and let him capture it. He smiled at her and declared, "Let's go."
Author's Note: … I have nothing to add. Did I not warn you that you'd hate me for this chapter? That's right; I did.
Omigosh, Seto. I'm so sorry. TT_TT
Please review! (They may motivate me to update sooner… *hint, hint!*)