Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: Was doing so good, then had to clean one word up so I did some updating here.
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There was a strangeness to the idea that there were now two different 'headquarters' for the groups at large. As though the destruction of the Game Shop had caused their focal point to bound off into two different parts of the city. In doing so each 'group' within the group had their place where they felt most comfortable in discussing the current situations.
For when the chances of laws being broken or questions best not asked, it was becoming Bakuras' apartment. Which probably had more to do with Kaiba having servants and they having ears, and the Ishtars' boat not being a great idea for Honda's knee. Though an impish part of Anzu wanted to start referring to the Ishtar boat as the 'Historical Society of Egypt' and Bakuras' apartment as 'Egyptian Mafia and friends'.
Anzu had to admit though, it now felt a touch weird how normal the apartment complex remained, despite the ghosts and reincarnated Thief King. Well 'she' knew, to everyone else Bakura remained the sweet, modest, young man he strove to be. Who now probably hit the door running from the number of his fans that were growing and merging with Maliks' own personal fan club.
It was actually funny to think of how self effacing Bakura was and he was attracting so many girls to his door. But at the same time, given the discussion they had during lunch, as well as what she worked alongside during the whole Virtual Reality escapade, Bakura wasn't really 'shy'. By the time school was over, Anzu had started to think that maybe, Bakura wasn't so much a 'shy' or 'polite' teenager, in as much as a grown man trying to not be called out.
That was actually pretty entertaining to her as well, and in a way from what she could fathom, it put him in the same boat as Kaiba. True Bakura died a young adult in Ancient Egypt, given what she experienced in the game. At least that's what she 'assumed' happened in the end. While Kaiba clearly just kept on ruling Egypt, probably like he ran Kaiba Corp. But to be an adult and have to go through all the processes of youth again must have been interesting. Though Bakura didn't seem to get his memories back until after the Ring was gone. Unlike say, Kaiba, where he was getting signals from during the Battle City tournament. At least from what she could tell.
With that thought aside though, she was a mix of emotions about getting involved in this little caper that Bakura and Malik found themselves in. This was something meant for the 'police', yet the pair already discovered things that made the Police pretty useless. They weren't trained to handle ghosts, spirits or magic and sadly, it seemed like the gang 'was'. The idea that she was somehow part of a group that was more qualified than the 'police' in dealing with a possible murder. More over, they were talking about the group that blew up the Game Shop.
Meanwhile the Village Elder floated after Anzu, trying to decide on what would be the best course of action her clan could take at the moment. The demon was protecting the book from their ability to find it. They were splintered off from looking after the Pharaohs, much to her disbelief, the child brother of one of them. As well as the mother who had alerted them about the Book in the first place. True the world was a 'big' place and these things 'were' important it sure did make her miss those simpler days of when she was alive.
But the idea that someone, anyone, could be working to bring back to very thing that cost her her life? No. Perhaps this 'organization' could find truly evil people to subject to the process of making the Sennen Items. But regardless if they could or couldn't, being trapped in this state of unlife was far too cruel. Everything she had been taught about the Field of Reeds and she would never be judged. Never would she be able to argue her case, the Pharaohs' brother judged her and many of her village wrongly. Their voices had been silenced by his actions, but Osiris would have not been so easily fooled! She was confident that many if not all of them would have been freed to go to the Field, they could have moved on! Had these horrible Items not kept them imprisoned and denied the natural order of things!
She floated ahead and drifted her way into Bakura's 'apartment' and found the Tomb Keeper lounging lazily on the soft couch that Bakura kept. While sounds from the kitchen implied that Bakura was busy making some snacks for the living. They were being forced to leave at the an awkward time so they could arrive early in America this time after all. Well, so long as they avoided the long walk to the graveyard she could hope they wouldn't wear themselves out.
"Bakura, tell your bossy friend to be nice to the girl arriving. They are not nice to her at that school of yours!" She called out floating into the kitchen to find Bakura washing dishes.
'This has become my life.'
Bakura stood there quietly washing one said dish as the order was called out, much like a short order cook in some diner on tv. For the life of him, he couldn't tell if his current situation was better or worse than his previous ones. Being enslaved to a demon, or to a Ring was starting to feel like the better option than what his life had become. The sweet oblivion while he was lost in those long bouts of darkness when he didn't know what was going on felt better than this.
Hunting would be murderers?
Jumping from country to country to 'hunt' said murderers?
He wanted to point out that he was too old for this nonsense, and found himself wondering if this was what Kaiba was actually going through. Every single time someone showed up in Kaibas' life towing some magical item and declaring 'magic' was involved. While Bakura already had to explain why he wasn't about to become what was essentially a 'relationship councilor' to the school. 'That' had been fun, and now he had Anzu to deal with, while trying to think of a polite way to ask someone about their dead son?
When he heard the soft knock at the door, he called out, "Malik, its Anzu, let her in!"
"Do I look like your doorman?" Malik called out from the living room.
Without even thinking Bakura called out in answer, "no, more like a doormat, now open the door."
He stopped a moment to think of what he just said when he sighed and shook his head. He was going to hear about that line soon enough, though he 'did' hear Anzu greeting Malik so at least the Egyptian did as told. Good little door mat.
He frowned into his work as he realized how turned about they had gotten, since the original 'task' was to find Pandora. Through him find his brother and the Book at the same time, yet now they were starting to go looking for the family of a ghost trapped in a graveyard. Just the random thought to have as he stood there and he nearly smashed the plate into his head. They had lost focus, got sidetracked and while normally that would have been bad enough. It was the fact that the 'distraction' was less a side track and more a widening of the scope.
They were supposed to find Pandora, through him find Travis and hopefully this group that had started this whole disaster. "DAMN IT."
"Ryou swore."
"In Japanese, I always figured if he was going to it would be in Ancient Egyptian."
So of course he had an audience because why not? He turned and found Anzu had some fall weather wear with a light jacket and a pair of pants and while Malik had learned from the other night and was dressed more warmly. Which was always promising even if the goal was to 'not' stay out late into the night.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Anzu asked, her head tilting to the side as she looked at Bakura.
He sighed in answer before pulling off the rubber gloves he had been wearing and dropping them on the edge of the sink. He leaned against said sink as he looked at the pair, "I was thinking about what we're trying to do and dealing with the fact that somehow we've been sidetracked while simultaneously 'not'. We were supposed to be looking for 'Pandora' and through him find his brother and the Book. Now we're trying to investigate a possible suicide, by going to the shop run by the family of the victim."
"Sounds Thief like," Malik replied with a faint shrug despite the look Bakura gave him. "A General will just pursue a goal until its obtained. But Thieves grab everything of value on the way 'to' the goal and make sure they can still carry the prize."
"'Careless and dumb' thieves do that, Malik. Smart ones don't let themselves get distracted by lesser valued items." Bakura corrected, realized 'what' he corrected and then smacking himself in the face as he tried to get things reorganized properly in his head.
Again.
"So from what you told me, there's this group of stage magicians who got together for a hang out, and their uncle 'killed himself'. But his soul is actually imprisoned in a near by graveyard that is keeping his soul trapped inside, but will be released on and for Halloween." Anzu began in an passive effort to get Bakura back outside his head while Malik strolled into the kitchen and made a grab for Bakura's bangs. Again. "But how do we approach that conversation? We can't just go into a magic shop and say 'Hi, we're a pair of Japanese students with our Egyptian friend and we're here to ask about the death of your... So is he related on the husband or the wife's side of the family?"
The pair of guys blinked in confusion before looking at Anzu, for which she gave them the 'come on guys' look. Having locked horns again as Malik worked on his more direct approach at getting Bakura to not be morbid.
"That... is true," Bakura voiced as he snatched at Maliks' earrings.
"Couldn't we just point out we were looking for Catherine's friends? Maybe pretend like she recommended us to them regarding their history with stage magic? Be all surprised that John is dead?" Malik suggested as he struggled to free his earring.
"That... is workable," Bakura answered thoughtfully as he finally freed his bangs from Maliks' grasp. "Still... she would have to call them first, that's the normal way things progress..."
"Thing being, how do we validate why we would even 'need' a stage magician? Like, are we supposed to be doing a report? And if so, why an 'American' group of stage magicians? Since crossing an ocean 'just' for such questions 'is' pretty extreme, at least for people clearly not rich." Anzu added though her posture readily suggested she was thinking hard on this.
"Why do you have to be 'directly' from Japan? Isn't the whole thing about why Jounouchi can't do this, 'because' you speak better English?" Malik pointed out with a faint shrug. "Can't you just be attending a local school?"
Bakura thought about it, and there wasn't really anything wrong with the suggestion, in fact it was pretty smart. Given the state and its penchant with foreign types, it was quite possible that they 'could' just say they were from a local school. Only to catch a glance of himself and his thick mane of white hair in the shine of the blades of his mounted knife rack. No, he was, too, distinct to 'not' be known were he local.
"I suppose we could say that Malik was visiting you?" Anzu suggested thoughtfully as she continued standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
"So we go in, say we're studying... what? The history of stage magicians?" Bakura asked, leaning against the counter and trying to plot out how to get the most effective amount of information with the least amount of time spent discussing unnecessary stuff. "After all, John looked more 'Greek' than 'Egyptian' so its not as though we could just out of nowhere say 'Hey so what do you know about the books of potential demonic spell casting from Ancient Egypt?'" He gave a sigh as he glanced at a window and shook his head. "We're burning daylight here, and there, we really need to go 'now' and just think on the way."
"True, we can't just materialize in the middle of their local park," Malik agreed with a faint nod before casting his glance on Anzu. "Ready to be teleported for the first time ever?"
"Ahh well as ready as I'll ever be," she answered with a faint, slightly nervous shrug.
"I'll get the rings," Bakura announced before leaving the kitchen, as Anzu stepped aside for him.
"This will be interesting," Malik commented to Anzu as he joined her at the doorway. "Since my first visit was in the middle of the night, I'm curious what it will be like in the day time. But you've been there before right?"
"Yeah, well, I've been to New York and that may be different. So going to California will be a first time for me as well." Anzu replied with a faintly excited look as the implication hit home, getting to visit another part of the country was pretty exciting. "And, you know, getting to help get to the bottom of that terrible group is also a plus."
"Yeah, I haven't gotten to visit a lot of places so far," Malik agreed as he stood there. "After I returned to Egypt after the Battle City fiasco, I spent time with my siblings preparing for Yugi's visit." Malik casually noted, his voice growing thoughtful. "Then after that it was spent mostly working with the rest of the tribes. Being head of the head tribe can be so boring and ugh."
Malik rolled his head back as he groaned, recalling the irritating and long number of meetings he had been forced to sit through. Coupled with the constant, some times subtle, sometimes direct, accusations and arguments about his suitability to lead the tribes. In fact, Bakura's cry for help had been a blessed escape from all that. With the added bonus that Bakura, by being a reincarnation and a friend to Yugi, meant that Malik had a duty to oversee the thief. Partly because of the fact that he was 'that' particular thief, and partly because it allowed him a chance to get out from the Underground. Giving the older, more experienced, tribe leaders time to cool off from the fact that they were expected now to take orders from a 'child'.
Well, they 'were' more inclined to take orders from Isis, as his elder sister unlike his father who had insisted purely on males inheriting anything. Personally, Malik would have preferred to let Isis lead until he was finished learning about the upper world. Though he was pretty sure that he would never finish learning. In the end the tribes would just come and drag him back to the Underground again.
"Here, don't worry about anything Anzu, I know where I want us to appear and all you have to do is hold the ring." Bakura explained as he rejoined the pair, the triple rings hanging loose in his left hand.
"Ok," Anzu replied, her voice upbeat and hopeful.
Which was always good when leading someone into the lions den, as far as Bakura was concerned. As well as trying to fathom how to approach the topic of what the Village elder told him, though perhaps he would be bettered off giving the information to Isis so she could deal with it. What with both Isis and Anzu being women and it being easier to address personal issues woman to woman he figured.
"Think we're going to need to find out what the local schools are? For sake of authenticity?" Malik asked as he followed Bakura into the living room.
"Please, we're already dealing with way more complicated stuff than should be rationally acceptable. Don't add fuel to the fire," Bakura bemoaned as walked over to the door leading out of his apartment so they could all put their shoes on. Like normal civilized Japanese people, and Malik, as though they were about to go out and about into Domino; not be teleported to another country.
"It's no more difficult than playing card games or even your Monster World, what's the difference?" Malik argued as he began putting his shoes on.
"I can't just instant banish anyone who annoys me to the Shadow Realm," Bakura deadpanned.
"Which explains why Jounouchi is still among us," Anzu quipped as she slipped her own shoes on.
Bakura put his own shoes on and dangled the two remaining rings for the pair with him, Malik grabbing his easily and Anzu more slowly. Her eyes reflecting her curiosity as she took up the remaining ring and curling her fingers around its surface. "You'll feel the ground drop for a second, imagine it more like jumping down. That's how it feels, and just act natural because its designed to create illusions that validate why we're located where we teleported in."
"What?!" Anzu blinked in awe, "Mahaado 'made' this? In short order?!" She questioned as she looked between the two. Just to get 'yeah sure what about it' indifferent shrugs from the pair as if that wasn't simply amazing.
