Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"We appear at the graveyard, I'm not interested in pushing Mahaado's spells unless we 'have' to, and the graveyard should be empty." Bakura announced as he and Jounouchi took up their rings, with no objection coming from the pair before him.
It was a sound location, they had already appeared at random in the city once and once at the park. Yet despite that Bakura was wary of appearing in town each time, there was just enough about them to stand out despite the Halloween holiday encroaching on them. But it 'would' be unnatural to have them show up again around the same spots. It would start becoming clear that the trio was neither arriving at the park on their own or as a group, only leaving as a trio.
Once they had the location picked they allowed the rings to do their job bringing the trio into the quiet, solemn graveyard. The sun was still in the sky, but it was much lower than back in Japan turning the tops of trees and the gravestones into the reaching fingers of night. The normally bright and healthy grass was turning dark as well. There was very little sound save the final rustle of animals finishing up storing food for the day. Before night came and the nightly predators stole into the graveyard looking for easy prey.
The wind drifted through carrying the soft moan as it coursed over and around trees, a sad lonely moan made up of many voices. It slipped along the ground, grasping at the socked ankles and ran up the legs of the pants the guys wore, sending shivers Jounouchi's spine as he looked about the graveyard.
"Man does 'all' American graveyards come equipped with moaning wind?" He complained as he stomped his feet as though to force the cold wind out.
His idle look about the graveyard catching sight of Bakura's speculative glance at him, yet it was Malik who answered.
"I'm more willing to bet that you only hear the wind because you're opening up to the same world that Bakura and the other Reincarnates live in." Malik noted as he pulled up his hoodie hiding his blond hair under the vivid white fabric.
"Is... is that a good thing?" Jounouchi asked as he looked first at Malik, then Bakura, then started to check around him in case of ghosts.
"Well its good in that means you are opening up to the possibility of sensing what is going on around you. Thus meaning you are better prepared for anything that might wish to do you harm," Bakura acknowledged with a slight nod.
"And..." Jounouchi dragged the word out as he fixated his look onto the white haired thief.
Who opted the give a casual shrug as if to say 'it is what it is' before finally saying, "so long as you learn how to open and close that ability you should be fine. Almost anyone can do it, you're just getting to experience what some people would 'want' to experience, instead of just training blind."
"Well what if I don't want to see ghosts?!" Jounouchi argued hotly as Malik started walking about the gravestones, looking at the names and images on the stones.
"Well then you better get good and get good fast so you can figure out how to shut it down," Malik quipped.
"What?!" Jounouchi reacted in alarm while Bakura shook his head and rested it in his hand as he stood there letting the two walk around for a bit. Though the idea that Jounouchi learning to do what Bakura and the other 'Reincarnates', as Malik so blatantly, put it would be of help. If he could learn to summon Ka beasts from the Tablets, it would be an added defender. Taking some of the stress off the rest of them and give Anzu and the others a protector of their own.
"What he means is that if you don't learn how to turn it off, and some can never turn it off, then you're going to be experiencing stuff like this from now on. Mostly because of what Yugi represents and in a way, generates by his very nature." Bakura explained as he started walking along looking for the lone grave.
"Yugi doesn't generate anything," Jounouchi argued before catching himself and asking Bakura, "Does he?"
"Well. He 'is' a lot like the Emperor," Bakura pointed out casually, earning a momentary look of thoughtfulness from Jounouchi before the blond settled down. But it caught Maliks' attention turning his hooded face towards Bakura for elaboration.
"Japan has a royal family that for ages used the belief they are descended from their Sun Goddess to validate their claim to the throne." Bakura explained watching as the metaphorical light bulb go off over Maliks' head.
The light bulb stayed lit as Malik shifted his gaze over to Jounouchi, "hey Jounouchi, about gambling..."
Bakura glanced up at the sky, watching as the sky darkened allowing the conversation to become background noise. Somewhere in this graveyard there was Johns' soul, enslaved to perform a task for some priest or magician. And they were still a few days off from the unseen gates of the graveyard would open allowing that soul to travel out. Yet at the moment Bakura couldn't see the man despite being in the graveyard. If this was due to the spell or because of John, himself, Bakura didn't know, but he would be willing to wait a bit longer, just long enough for the sun to set.
As he waited he wandered the graveyard looking about the exterior of the fence that protected the grounds. Beyond there was an empty parking lot and further on was a building that Bakura could only currently assume to be used to store equipment and supplies for the graveyard. In all honesty now that he was here in the, rapidly fading, day light he was surprised at just how large the graveyard was.
Amid his wanderings he found himself at the gravestone of one 'John Mysterio', there was a picture of him framed protectively behind a glass wall embedded in the stone. The words 'In Loving Memory of John Mysterio beloved brother and uncle' were written out in cold stoic letters. Beneath it was the date of birth and death, but the picture called to Bakura. He pulled out a small flashlight from inside his coat and knelt down to study the picture in proper light rather than against the fading sun.
The only picture he had seen of the man was with him, his nephews and the others in those nephews group. Yet this picture was incredibly enlightening as he stood there, thanks to the first picture Bakura knew what John looked like. Making it easier to identify John among his brother-in-law and nephews, but it was a woman he was arm and arm with that gave Bakura a moment's pause.
"Well well well, now this might explain a few things..." Bakura noted distracting Malik from his lesson with Jounouchi to check in on him.
"What might?" The Egyptian asked, holding up a hand to politely pause Jounouchi mid sentence. With Bakura kneeling in front of one of the graves with a flashlight in hand, it was a pure invitation to the Egyptian to approach with Jounouchi taking up the rear.
"Looks like John and his sister are fraternal twins," Bakura explained as he took in the remarkable amount of resemblance between the pair in the picture.
"Whats 'fraternal' mean?" Malik asked, momentarily surprised when the answer came, not from in front of him but from Jounouchi.
"Oh I know that one, Identical twins are like natures' xerox, they're when a single egg splits and produces two children. 'Fraternal' is when there are actually two active eggs in a woman and they both produce a child. Its how you can have a boy and a girl be 'twins' and share features but are different genders. There are even cases where you can get two boys or two girls who look nothing alike but they're actual twins." Jounouchi explained, almost eager in his tone, then again they 'were' in a graveyard and any distraction minus ghosts was a good distraction.
"Aren't you a well spring of information today," Malik commented with a faint smile on his face as he turned to look at Jounouchi.
Only to get flipped off as Jounouchi gave a "Ha, ha very funny, I'm not dumb you know!"
"Apparently," Malik retorted mockingly only to see Jounouchi's face fall in a way that warned him that a memory had awakened in the gambling duelist. "Jounouchi?"
"Gramps... I was at the game shop once and saw a card with 'Gemini' in the name a pair of elves... asked him about it... its how I know..."
Malik froze at the mention of 'gramps' and was grateful as he had withheld any snark driven comment.
"Which you know, is a great way to learn something unlike how I know so much bout gambling. When dad spends all his time drunk or gambling the money away... You learn a lot about cards when your dad is shit faced and beating the shit out of you... or trying to hit your sis..." Jounouchi raked his hands violently through his hair as he turned away from the pair and stalked off without further word.
Leaving Malik standing there suddenly feeling worse for wanting to know about gambling in the first place. Unsure of how to handle the outburst when Bakura's voice spoke right next to him, startling him into jumping forward.
"We were all just broken little pieces left adrift in the world, and Yugi was pulling us all in like the pieces of the Sennen puzzle."
Malik looked at Bakura, surprised at both the stealth that Bakura used to reach him, and the use of Egyptian as though to be truly private in his talk with Malik.
"The Japanese have this thing they believe in. When something is broken, in the effort to put it back together if there's a chunk missing. They like to add gold to make up for what was lost... Jounouchi could be a very different person if not for the events in the past two years."
Malik nodded before opting to give Jounouchi his space, "so John and his sister are twins?"
"Yes, and given that she is now institutionalized it makes me want to have Mahaado here, he would know what to look for at this point. If I had known that she 'was' a twin I would have asked Yugi to allow Mahaado to accompany us today just to check on her." Bakura explained, sighing softly. "I'm only a thief and we need a mage." For the first time that day Bakura suddenly had a reason to crack genuine smile. "Sounds like a D&D campaign," Bakura turned and went back to the gravestone he had been looking at. Leaving Malik to stand between the two and soak in the environment he found himself in.
Bakura was clearly losing himself to some dark thought or another, and Jounouchi had his own troubles. Leaving Malik with the unpleasant position of having to be the adult of the group, keeping them focused on their tasks and not forget that they were working as a group. Which if this was among his tribe would only be a problem in his age. He already had the right to the position of leader, he was just not old enough to be taken properly serious.
Here he was going to have to convince two people with vast more experience with the upper world to do what he said. 'I guess this is just job training...' he thought to himself as he went to recollect Jounouchi and bring his wanna be a blond friend over to the gravestone.
There was a great deal of space, between graves and it gave a feel that it could easily fit spouses or children in this area. But it was still lonely, he could faintly pick out the oldest graves by their actual traditional gravestone design, standing up, while those with money had statues standing over theirs. Beaten by the weather, this was a both a coastal state and elevated mountain area, these graves undoubtedly had seen their far share wind and rain.
The occasional vehicle could be heard or seen traveling across the front gates of the graveyard leading to or from town. As Bakura was in the midst of watching cars he saw one such vehicle make a turn off the road and through the front gates of the graveyard. Which normally wouldn't bother him, something to ignore as background noise part of something to keep Jounouchi's explanation about gambling company.
Yet there was some deep sense of 'payday' in him, like a switch that went on in the back of his mind whispering, or yelling, that this was the mark.
The vehicle drove slowly, along the winding road while Malik took note and cast a glance back at Bakura. The white haired teen seemed fixated so with that as an indicator, Malik walked over to collect Jonouchi. Yelling in a graveyard wouldn't do, it lacked a great deal of respect, even if this graveyard felt rather sterile to him with its rows of stones both upright and flat on the ground. The lack of alters made it feel lonesome, as though the families dumped the corpses off and ran off never to return. Indeed some of the graves looked lonely, maintained by a group care taker, but seemingly abandoned otherwise.
Among the numerous graves he walked by he found fresh flowers resting in their small vases, other vases held dried flowers the colors faded and petals shrunken back like a crones fingers. While others still seemed to hold nothing but long forgotten pieces of autumn leaves from some year gone by leaving only browned puzzle like pieces.
"Here's to hoping we don't have to walk all the way to town, huh?" Malik joked to Jounouchi as he gave a slight head toss to the car in the parking lot.
The Gambler duelist glanced up, his initial look more hostile then seemingly softened at the 'joke', as though it finally processed in his mind. He turned around from his seething, stalking walk back to Malik and followed the lavender eyed Egyptian back to Bakura. Grateful to have something to take his mind off the dark roads it had started to travel around. Or at least help him on his path to shoving his fist into the faces of the people who had started this.
"We're going to need Mahaado to come here, remember what Bakura reported about the twins mom?" Malik spoke softly turning his head slightly to help the words reach Jounouchi's ears. When he heard the grunt of affirmation he continued. "Its possible that whatever turned John into a spirit may have caused her condition. So we'll have Mahaado come here with us at some point so we can have him check her out."
"You know, its almost funny," Jounouchi noted as they closed in on Bakura and the gravestone. Making Malik now the one to give a soft wordless sound of curiosity, "we came here to find Travis cuz of Catherine. Now its a whole new level of mess we found just trying to find a book and a guy, like is this even going to stop at any point?"
"You got a point there," Bakura noted as he turned his attention from the vehicle and more to the guys who he actually knew. "And we're kind of stalemated here I'm afraid. Approach the car and they may drive off in alarm, but the two in the car haven't stepped out yet. Makes me think that they want to walk here but the three of us is a bit intimidating..."
He didn't have to explain the rest, it was just pure 'weird' to have three people idly roaming 'this particular' part of the graveyard. Three teenage guys one in a long black coat and one in a hoodie, would the two in the car be willing to step out? Did they feel threatened by the presence of the trio?
"Maybe we should move somewhat to the side, at the most we can cut them off from the car if we have to," Malik offered even as he turned his own steps away from John's gravestone.
"Sounds ok to me," Jounouchi continued following Malik leaving Bakura to take up the rear. Though Malik was right, with Bakura's dark clothes clashing with his stark white hair and Jounouchis own school uniform appearing rather dark in this light.
How could anyone 'not' be worried.
The light was steadily retreating away and any brighter than black color was being cast into darkness. Malik may have been wearing a bright white hoodie but his hair was also covered, and realistically dropping the hood wasn't going to help him. Coupled with the very real fact that there were three guys standing in a graveyard with 'no' vehicle present what so ever. Meaning they had to walk up to graveyard and that never sounded good.
As they moved away Bakura could see from the corner of his eye that the car doors were opening. And he found himself pondering over why the people would wait until evening to visit a graveyard. He saw two people in the vehicle, however; he could see nothing greater due to the dying light and distance. Coupled with the fact that the spirits couldn't enter this graveyard leaving him purely on his own. Surprisingly naked in a sense, yet it was so nice to not have a spirit in his face wanting his attention all the time.
Finally with some peace and quiet and now about to interview the survivors of a suicide. What a way to start a night.
