Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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'Magic is real.'
The air around them 'was' stirring, brushing against anything that wasn't covered in clothes, tugging at their hair. Ruffling the long hair and attire that these three strangers wore, while a glance beyond the graveyard fence showed how still the trees 'were'. "Uncle is here?"
The second that word left Georges' lips the wind seemed to come after the twins, leaving them at a loss for what to do 'now'. If this 'was' their Uncle why was he 'here'?
'How would the three of us even be here.'
A loaded question to be sure, calling back the twins concern when they arrived and found this trio loitering around the area. Black coat, white wig because it had to be a wig, another in a hoodie and the third guy with his slouched posture. It was hard 'not' to feel there was a danger about this trio so when the trio dispersed the twins took it as a chance to see their Uncle again.
Now they were both wondering if it would have been better to come back the next day, knowing that these strangers knew 'way' too much about their Uncle and that they would even be here. But that they would mention 'being here' in context to magic was the one thing that concerned the pair all the more. Did they honestly want Fred and George to believe that this trio didn't just walk to the graveyard? That there was some form of magic involved? Did they think the twins were stupid? Playing with them?
Or telling the truth?
"You walked, its a distance, but not impossible to walk here," George pointed out for which Ryou began nodded amicably.
"Yes, originally we forgot the time difference between here and Japan and it was too late to visit your parents shop. At the same time I found myself drawn to this place and we spent the evening walking here. And that's when things are going to sound even stranger, so if you would feel more comfortable in an in town setting please, tell me. We'll happily go there to make this easier for you," Bakura offered. Recalling easily that night and those images that made him turn his steps to the graveyard without ever finding a root cause. Unless it was John himself, his situation calling out to anyone who could empathize with his situation and drawing them in.
"I have no desire to cause you any further distress than our, rather dangerous, surprise presence and appearance may have caused you. And you need not worry about putting three possibly dangerous teens in the back of your car, we'd be more than happy to go into town ourselves and meet up with you at a location of your choice." He finished watching as the pair, reading their body language like a book.
The pair had no solid stance, shifting their weight from foot to foot, groundless and without any support. The admittance of how everyone treated Johns' 'suicide' having upset the pair since they believed, rightly, that it wasn't suicide. There 'was' more, the pair's clear expressions of panic at the sight of the wind's movement while discrediting magic off hand. Given what Bakura had already seen, it struck him that there was a possibility that these two didn't believe 'in' true magic.
Raised as slight of hand style magicians perhaps the situation was that their uncle and mother believed, given the symbols around the shop. The twins may have humored their family members without believing in it themselves. It was regretful that Mahaado couldn't come with the group, the magician alone would do wonders in surprising the twins. He could also help the group understand more the dynamics of how magic would affect members of a family when said member was a twin.
Though there was no reason they couldn't get Mahaado to stop by for a bit, sure he couldn't stay with them, but Kaiba couldn't need him 24/7.
"Oh, they're talking about meeting up somewhere," Jounouchi mentioned to Malik, while he looked beyond the twins and further into the graveyard. Wondering if there were other spirits roaming around... staring at them... so many dead... so many goose bumps.
"That would be nice, its would be nice to be inside as well, even dressed for this weather and I'm not enjoying having to be this covered up." Malik acknowledged.
'Makes sense since you don't like people seeing your back, yet you like showing off your skin,' Jounouchi thought to himself. Recalling the one time he 'did' see Maliks' back and all that it represented and involved in Malik's life. Hell Rashids' dedication came in the form of scarification on his face, and then there was Mahaado literally 'dying' for Yugi. What the hell was wrong with Egypt as a country? There was positively a zero to sixty mentality if he ever saw one! "We'd have to teleport though, its not like we could ride with them."
Malik nodded as he held up his hand to feel the passing wind, his own thoughts on John and the situation the man now faced. Soul bound here much in the same way as Mahaado was bound to the Tablet. Only with no one aware of his presence or the method to summon him into appearing, 'if' that was a thing. Mahaado had no spell books that were passed down, so while Pegasus 'did' create a number of Dark Magician themed items, if there was anything in those that was real?
But in this case it was a human who had been forcibly sealed within a graveyard and only allowed to escape once a year. Just for the purpose of, essentially, protecting everything around it. There had been many nights between the last time they had visited and now that he and Bakura had sat and talked about the why and how this could have happened. Never able to find something that fit perfectly into the picture they were trying to construct.
If this 'was' the group that they were facing against, then John was being used to protect some item of power that they needed. It made sense to put something in place, yet Bakura had been insistent that what he sensed here invalidated that argument. For nothing was hidden from Bakura and it would be foolish to think that there was 'no one' else in the whole area affected by it. People would ultimately be driven away in droves. There were power spots that could easily have been tapped into for any demonic item and amplified that darkness even more over.
Which left that someone knew what was going on and actively was trying to defend the area. That John was here to 'protect' the area from the very corruption that the group could cause. The trip to Colorado even made sense in context, because Set was Yugi's 'High Priest', it would have been right up his alley. He was, from what they could fathom, a bit insane yes, but his presence had a cleansing aspect to the hotel. So it would have been plausible that he came here to set up protections for the area...
But that raised the question of why he did it 'then' and why 'here'. Why protect only one city in California and not the nation? Why not the 'world' from the influence of Demon in fact? He clearly was hitting divine status at this point. It was Bakura who pointed out that by removing the Items, even if they kept the Puzzle. Set would be condemning Yugi as the Pharaoh to staying in the puzzle still, that the demon 'had' to be unleashed to free Yugi as well. The two were bound, thus the events that gave rise to the return of the Items was not just a few months or even a few years before Yugi put the Sennen Puzzle together. It would have been around the time of his conception or even the conception of his grandfather. The pieces had to begin moving into place in time to allow the first to be reincarnated to be around.
Sure Set would have existed outside of time, and if he 'did' move all the pieces into place at the start it would have been decades before Yugi was borne. Again making this place all the more negligible as it literally had 'nothing' to do with Yugi. The only thing this place had was the surprise connection to Egypt, which was where they were now. 'How' was John and his family connected to Egypt, where was the binding that pulled them into place?
He and Bakura could only fathom that this was a discarded point of origin for the group, that they may have thought or tried to come here. Only something drove them out, weak as a possibility as it was. Or that Set, himself, came here and set these things up, though the only reason they could fathom was to protect the twins family. But something must have gone wrong because John and his sister were detached from the world as a spirit and the other was in the hospital.
Now they were getting pieces, though was it pieces that would bring them to the demon or pieces that would bring them to Set was the question. Only the pair couldn't decide what was the better final piece, a Demon coming back, or an insane god fanatically trying to bring back and protect their Pharaoh by any means necessary? Given what Yugi had seen back in Colorado and coupled with what they encountered. It was pretty clear that Set was active and either losing his mind or out right lost it.
Yet when Bakura updated the pair, there was something that was mentioned that tickled a thought back to the first time the trio walked to the graveyard. The conversation they had regarding Gods and... what was it... Something Jounouchi said in fact.
The twins and that woman 'left' brought back the memory...
"The Items could compel us to leave couldn't it? That's what it did in the past right? Drove the Priests apart so that Yugi was easier to attack, I'm right aren't I!"
Jounouchi had started to get agitated at the notion that Yugi and Kaiba were possible Gods, causing Malik to push the memory to the side. Yet its insistence suddenly returned to Malik as he stood in the graveyard. These people were driven away from what Bakura translated, which could be a sign that the Items 'had' been created. While the reality was that Yugi's own Inner Circle was driven apart though still physically together, there must have been something that connected these people to the Pharaoh.
But which 'Pharaoh'?
Were they connected to Yugi's father or Kaiba? Yugi's fathers' Circle seemed to have stayed loyal and by their lieges' side to the very end. Yugi's Circle was already restored, with only three spots empty, Scales, Ankh and Eye. While Kaiba would have formed his own Inner Circle as soon as everything settled down yet they had yet to appear. But would they have a role to play in the current events or not? They 'would' be useless without their Ka's and Kaiba was clearly not drawing people to him the way Yugi did.
"We're bout to leave," Jounouchi suddenly interrupted Maliks' thoughts with his quieted voice. "Bakura's setting up a meeting spot, since, you know, it would be dangerous for us to be brought to their family's place."
"Oh, ok, but why? I mean I know we look suspicious, but..?" Malik answered his hand already swinging towards where he kept the rings.
Jounouchi shrugged in the darkness, yet it was Bakura who answered for him.
"Its a safe spot out in the open for them with others to watch and make sure we don't hurt them. And we're going to the restaurant we passed by when we first got here, so rings please." Bakura informed them as he turned to face the pair. His tone was still that civil tone he had been speaking as he added, "I already told them we won't ride with them until they trust us."
"Yeah three strangers in the back seat isn't safe," Malik agreed as he pulled out the rings from his pants leg pocket. "So we wait until they leave?"
"No, I want them to see us teleport, so they know what we're talking about is real. Despite their choice in careers they don't fully believe and this will work nicely I think." Bakura explained as Malik straightened up and approached Bakura alongside Jounouchi.
The trio closed their eyes and let the magics sweep them away leaving Fred and George, who had opted to stay until they knew where these three parked. The illusionary magics that were also part of the rings turned to walk towards the gates out of the graveyard and towards the pair. Not a single one of these teens gave the twins a passing glance, their expressions casual as though they were out for a walk. So the pair stepped aside confused by how all the sudden the trio acted like the twins didn't exist, and somehow this felt off. In a way that only people professionally trained in the profession of stage magicians would know. That sense of 'where is the misdirect?'
"Why can't I hear you walking all of a sudden?" Fred asked as he reached out to grab at Katsuya only to have his hand pass through the guys' arm. His eyes grew wide as he watched the limb pass through his fingers without even a hint of human warmth.
"Not possible," George gaped as he spoke, his voice breathless in his surprise as he immediately walked forward, his hands outstretched as he tried to find where the trio disappeared to. A curtain? Mirrors? Were these three magicians themselves?
"They were illusions? What the hell?" For all the years they had been stage magicians, studying and practicing their craft. The trio 'did' have plenty of time to set up, but as the pair watched the 'teens' faded out of sight. Not in the sense of walking out of the range of the twins vision, just... faded like a mirage.
An illusion.
They were stage magicians from a long line of stage magicians, the art of misdirection was the lifes blood of their careers. From an early age they were already learning the smallest of slight of hand tricks and built those tricks up to some pretty impressive displays. And not always using the fact that they were twins.
But when a person made their career out of misdirection and beguiling the senses only to be stumped by anothers'?
"Fred, what do you think?" George asked as he looked towards their uncles' grave.
"I need to learn that trick," Fred answered promptly before getting smacked in the back by his brother. "What?"
"Seriously. About Uncle Johnny, that he may have been murdered and it was covered up, and mom... what if what that guy said about mom and Uncle Johnny is real..." George asked as he rubbed the back of his neck at the sensation of pinpricks and goosebumps, something he always got when he came to his uncle's grave now had a different context. 'Was' this Uncle Johnny trying to get their attention all this time?
"George... Magic isn't real." Fred tried to state, but found it hard to say with his normal confidence, now...
But thinking that their mom and Uncle was 'right'?
"Lets go Fred, those kids can't be in town yet, and if there's a chance-" George began walking towards the car.
"We're magicians we know what to look for out of other magicians or frauds. Who knows how long they've been here and could have set up anything really," Fred argued, though there was a halfheartedness to his voice that even he could hear. Losing Uncle Johnny and their mom's condition had been painful. Moving away from everything he knew had also been upsetting, yet despite the clipped, polite British voice Ryou had.
There was just something about the guy that made him feel on edge, like out of the three of those teens, despite being the speaker. It was the group's 'speaker' who looked rather dangerous with his long black coat and his eyes darkened with eye liner. Despite how Ryou acted or spoke, those weren't the eyes of a kid. The other two, even what he barely could see of Malik, they had eyes of the young.
There was an awareness and confidence that made Ryou just feel like an experienced, matured man rather than a teenager. Far and away too comfortable in his own body and in movement, there was no coming into their own posturing from him like there was with the other two.
George rattled the keys to the car as the guy walked towards it with a purpose to his steps, clearly deciding to trust the kids. While normally Fred took lead, until he could figure out a way to wrap his mind around Ryou's presence... Well George was always the one better at feeling people out than Fred was. "I still don't feel good about this."
"We can talk on the drive there. But if they can prove themselves I'll take what I can get, what happened to Uncle Johnny and what it did to mom? You 'know' Uncle Johnny, he wouldn't kill himself, and these are the 'first' people to agree with us on the matter." George replied, walking past the graves with a purpose in his step.
"And then what? We can't do anything to help him, and would it even help mom," Fred pointed out. Not really confrontational, in as much as wanting to know what his brother would do if these teens proved to be legit. It wasn't like they could change their uncles' death certificate and open a case. Not if, and he couldn't believe he was thinking this, magic 'was' involved.
