Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Bakura brought the delicate porcelain cup to his lips, taking a deep appreciative sip of properly made green tea, he didn't even mind how the heat burned. He just needed something that tasted like honest to god 'tea', and wash that horrible comment about him being sour out of his mind. Sip, sip.

Yugi sat there with an amused twitch of his lips as he tilted his head to the side watching as Bakura drink. Yugi honestly wondered if Bakura was just going to grab the teapot and chug the whole thing down.

When Bakura finally put the cup back on its saucer and placed the items back on the table with a realized sigh, he noticed the slight smile on Yugi's face... "I was forced to drink lemon soda last night, I needed a drink that tasted sensible more than I realized."

"I see," Yugi commented as he reclined back into his own seat, giving Bakura more time to sit and get comfortable. "Is that an indicator that last night went well, or horribly bad?"

Yugi's room was pretty spacious, and given he was living in a mansion that was no surprise, he had clearly begun to give strong thoughts to its design. He had moved the furniture around to allow for a small area to easily allow for receiving private visitors. Given that he automatically went for requesting tea and cookies for Bakura. It made the thief feel like it was set up for when Yugi knew that he was about to be in discussions that the servants shouldn't have access to. Though it left him pondering why they didn't just use whatever Kaiba used as a sitting room.

But that was the game within the game, and there was a reason that Bakura was here to begin with. "I went to bed thinking it went as well as to be expected, but maybe it was the pizza sitting in my stomach, because now I think its 50/50." Bakura admitted as he sat there looking down at the ripples of undrank tea smoothed away in his cup, before looking up to address Yugi directly. "Its as though I start thinking I have this down, that I can deal with leading the pair only then to have something thrown back to show me that I'm not good at taking charge."

"Aren't you being hard on yourself? As far as I'm aware everything is fine, you three are still alive, no new corpses. Jounouchi is still scared of ghosts," Yugi pointed out, if there had been anything 'bad' going on, Mahaado would have told Yugi. Even if he was not allowed to speak about a good number of things, Maha still gave passive updates. 'Mokuba is going to teach me how to drive, I doubt you shall have need of me, everyone seems fine.'

That 'everyone seems fine' was about as close as he was apparently allowed to get in telling Yugi what was going on. Allowing Yugi to worry over the fact that somehow Mokuba decided a racing game could be considered a 'valid' method of teaching driving skills. Oh and Mokuba was too young to drive anyway so...

"Yes, well, as I was trying to sleep I recalled something that one of the Native Spirits in America told me. That the person who created that whole seal at the graveyard is a possessed body. That the person who cast it was possessed by another spirit and the spirit of that body is the one guarding the graveyard," Bakura explained the words feeling almost painful.

"I felt so 'stupid' how could I have forgotten such a thing? The twins think their Uncle is in the grave, Malik and Jounouchi think the same thing. While I'm literally forced to remember what I was told several hours later..." Bakura gave a strangled type of growl mixed with a whimper as he leaned back. Covering his face with his hands as though to hide from the world.

Someone possessed a body leaving an empty coffin, walking around in the world with the soul that belonged to the body currently trapped in the graveyard. That was most certainly an interesting situation, since the world was a massive place. Even Maha would need time to figure out where the body was. Well he expected it to be fast if they had a picture, but soul removal sounded to him as though this person had magical abilities. If the person could magically or mundanely disguise his physical appearance or just block Mahaado all together. Questions to give Mahaado once Kaiba let Yugi have his magician back!

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Ryou. You're doing the best you can in a task that you have no desire to be a part of to start with." Yugi pointed out gently as he observed Bakura almost flinch at being called by his birth name. "No? That's not the problem?"

"I apologize, hearing 'Ryou' spoken is beginning to feel strange. I'm using it to keep people from knowing my last name when it comes to the twins... Yet it feels like I'm using my real self as a disguise for a side of myself that I want to leave behind." Bakura covered his eyes in quiet pain as he sat there.

"Its understandable, once the Other Me started getting attention from people other than well, people who wanted either of us dead. Well everyone expects me to be the Other Me, and that's... kinda hard too." Yugi offered with a faint smile of encouragement, "it might help if everyone can come together and come up with an easily usable name to use instead for you, so you don't have to do that?"

Bakura lowered his fingers so he could look over them at Yugi acknowledging that Yugi had a point. The Pharaoh always walked with confidence and spoke more like he was passively giving orders to underlings than to peers. While Yugi also was shifting into that level of confident posture at all times, now only reverting to passive when sad. He still spoke like himself, his pronouns were still polite and not the strong ones that the Pharaoh used for the majority of his conversations.

For example, this visit where Yugi had been using polite pronouns from the moment he picked up the phone. Yet the moment he started giving advice or encouragement, he slipped into a little more arrogance. Which must have been confusing for anyone who had seen the Pharaoh's duels, like say, all of Catherine's' kids. The Pharaoh was visible on recordings of duels he had during tournaments thanks to Kaiba after all.

Yet creating a new name for Bakura to use when he had to travel wasn't 'hard', the Thief had many he went through easily. Bakura just had to pick one, but like with the thieves tools and the clothes, they were things he wanted to leave behind. He wondered if the Thief would have left behind such easy information as he had. "Still, forgetting that crucial piece of information."

"Oh I wouldn't be so hard on myself, you're expertise is in Dungeon Mastering, so something like that makes sense," Yugi pointed out, sounding pretty candied in tone. As Bakura's gaze shifted back to him puzzled he gave a half smile. "When you DM you plan for a single course of action to deal with whatever boss you put in your game right? But that doesn't account for everything the players may come up with."

It made Bakura blink, since D&D wasn't exactly something that Yugi regularly did, yet he was right. A proper DM didn't aspire to create games around unwinable situations with the only intent to kill off the players. At least not the ones who wanted to play long campaigns and 'not' have to spend every session creating new characters. Then trying to figure out how 'this' character ended up in that part of the game.

"It might make you feel better thinking that because you have all these, lets say, maxed out thieving skills pre-installed. You're still a player 'not' a DM, you can't blame yourself for being human, nor can you control what everyone does or the situations they or yourself encounter." Yugi pointed out pragmatically before shrugging, "You have deal with the hand you were dealt with and I'm confident on your ability to do that."

Bakura nodded slowly, from the stand point of an actual D&D planning session, Yugi did have a point, perhaps Bakura 'did' spend too much time trying to think like a DM and not as someone who needed to 'out think' the DM. Yet...

"As for what the Natives told you, its not a terrible mistake. Given everything the twins experienced, can't recall, and your sudden appearance I think it worked better that you 'didn't' recall that little fact at the time. Given what happened you probably started developing an air of someone who knew 'too' much, too clean and too ready to give explanations for what was going on. This way makes you a little dirty, a little more bound to the earth and therefore more inclined to trust." Yugi pointed out, with that ability to be on point that made him the King of Games. Even if the Pharaoh was gone, Yugi was still here and still as brilliant as his past.

"I see you're point, and you're right. But this is... They said it was a type of 'priest', that Johns' spirit is allowed to leave once a year. Though they didn't recognize the priest, at least that's what I'm assuming because they didn't describe him..." Bakura sat there thoughtful and lost in his thoughts.

"Can you tell if there's been any harm in the area?" Yugi asked patiently before picking up his own cup and taking a sip of tea. Granted he would have preferred soda, yet there had been a near aura of 'tea or I will burst into tears' from Ryou that had made him change his request at the last moment. Yugi was striving to be able handle many things. Full grown reincarnated Tomb Robbers in a moment of emotional break down because they were reborn with some British in them that demanded tea and was denied... was not one of those.

"No, given the trips it seems perfectly normal at this point, I admit that there is some fall out from whatever Kaiba had done in Colorado. I don't know if somehow he washed all of the Continent at once or if it just flowed along to cover everything," Bakura explained while his fingers picked at the hem of the light jacket he wore. "But one thing, DM or no, I don't quite understand as doable... Maybe you do because, you know, working so much with Mahaado." Bakura began before correcting himself slightly, "or perhaps its better to say 'I don't know the probability of it being doable'."

Yugi raised an eyebrow in response, placing the cup back down and folding his hands over his lap as he sat there while patiently waiting for Ryou's question.

"Its the matter of the body in question. The Spirits state that the priest possessed the body that was interred, and the spirit that belonged to the body was left in the graveyard guarding it. But how did they get the body? He was found hanging so his neck would have been broken, and I can't imagine that the family 'didn't' get an autopsy done given the strangely sudden nature of that death. Was it magic that allowed a police department to be deceived, a corrupt cop?" Bakura asked leaning down and taking up an elegant triangle of finger snacking sandwich, while Yugi pondered that question.

"Ahh yeah that would be a problem, because the game field changes varying on what happened. You said that this family was involved in protecting the Book, despite not being underground with the Tomb Keepers clan. So in any retrospect its hard to pin this on them being evil, after all they 'had' the Book. Why not exploit it long before now? Why protect it and try to keep it sealed if they were going to use it themselves? So is this priest an ally of those trying to get the Book and thus used magic to deceive everyone? Sounds plausible since we don't have a solid understanding of what John is 'supposed' to do in the city on Halloween."

"Or are there members of this group in law enforcement over there? A corrupt cop, someone paid off in the forensic department.. I mean John's body is walking around somewhere out there with his soul in a graveyard. Who knows what that body is doing? If he's supposed to protect the book how did it end up in Pandora's hands? Unless that's what he's doing at the moment." Bakura pointed out his voice starting to express some of his frustration.

"Exactly, Mahaado could scry the whole planet for John, but what would that amount to really? 'Is' John considered 'dead' because his soul is not in the body? Or is he considered 'alive' because the body is still active? Mahaado might find John's currently possessed body, but this group already 'knows' Mahaado is active. I can't imagine they wouldn't try for a spell that would redirect a scrying spell back to the grave." Yugi agreed as he thought through all the abilities that Mahaado had at hand to use. Though granted there was probably more that Maha 'could' do if Yugi pressed him, which was not something he wanted to do.

"I... never thought of that," Bakura blinked at the suggestions. "True I wanted to see if Mahaado could accompany us when we go back. The twins mother is Johns' twin sister, and we thought that meeting an honest magician would help. Given that the people who know most about their family is their 'possibly dead' uncle and their comatose mother. We were hoping there was something that Mahaado could do to assist us with her at the very least. It never dawned on me that they could hide the body or redirect spells. I never thought of 'scrying'... wait..." Bakura frowned as something came to mind, until they knew more of this group there was no reason for Yugi to even think of scrying...

'Sooo maybe I've developed a need to make sure everyone is ok with a little spying... A little spying never hurt no one.' Yugi thought while he merely smiled at Ryou.

They actually sat like that for a few minutes, just smiling cheerfully at each other, one could call it a conversation of smiles.

"But I see your point, Maha may be of some good help. Though given the movie industry I'm kinda curious about what they would expect from him. Like some over the top attire, maybe some strange words, probably an animal sacrifice or two," Yugi noted. "Every spell I've seen Maha do has been so... well it can be flashy when he wants it to be, otherwise it tends to be incredibly modest."

Which was true, the pair were aware of the Dark Magician, once they met Mahaado it would be obvious that they looked exactly alike save the coloration. But all in all the Priest was going to be an interesting guest if for one small thing...

"Will Kaiba allow us to get our hands on Mahaado?" Ryou asked finally.

"Not when you put it like 'that'," Yugi teased grinning. "He all but has a nervous tick when he sees Isis in touching distance half the time."

"How did Isis ever get with Mahaado if Kaiba was 'that' territorial?" Bakura asked shaking his head at the comment.

"He got angry at Maha, dropped his guard and Isis snapped up the opportunity. I have no idea what was going on because I was busy dealing with my father's death and getting ready for my coronation at the time... then I died about two weeks after from what Isis told me..." Yugi pointed out, letting his lips slide into a straight line as he looked at Ryou as though to silently say, 'remember when you killed me?'

"Wasn't me. But I can see where the problem would be in getting juicy gossip once you became Pharaoh," Ryou remarked with a faint nod.

"Yeah, I suppose it came from Mana, Maha would only really recognize gossip that pertained to the upkeep of the Palace, not the fun stuff. That said though, I don't see Kaiba having much issue with Maha helping you out on that." Yugi noted, "though I'm starting to worry about the level of 'charitable donations of Mahaado's time' that Kaiba's willing to go for. I keep thinking there's going to be a point when he finally says 'no'."

Ryou nodded, thoughtfully, "Thankfully we don't have to ask any time soon, the Spirits found Josie so we're going to go talk to her next before we return to the twins."

"Giving the situation with the twins, it 'will' be interesting to see what the situation with Josie is. Though I feel bad that she had to move to Europe just to get away from what was unleashed that night." Yugi commented before picking up his tea cup, giving the contents a light swirl before taking a drink. "So they put a magical message burned onto the walls of the Game Shop.."

Ryou winced slightly, wishing that 'that' particular part of their conversation wasn't being addressed. Yugi looked distant, both mentally and emotionally, his eyes drifting to look at the wall above Ryou's head, rather than at young man himself. "Yugi?"

"You know, I love games, they're fun and they keep my mind active... All this grown up stuff is just too depressing, and even then, its not 'grown up' stuff. Its something that a vast majority of people will never have to be burdened with." Yugi answered, though it sounded more like he was talking to himself than Ryou. "When I talk to my dad its hard to express why I need to stay here. I can't go into details without sounding insane, yet..."

"You've been in contact?" Ryou replied, both a bit startled to know that, and concerned about Yugi's sudden vocalized retrospective. Yet Yugi didn't seem to hear him as the reincarnated pharaoh sighed.

"They better be careful about what they wish for, because they might just get it."

Yugi blinked before looking over at Bakura again as though he just heard the former thief. He straightened himself up in his seat before giving a bit of a rueful shrug, "if by 'in contact' you mean 'arguing'. Because that's what it results in if we talk to each other too long, he wants me to move over there with him. I want to deal with this group who wants to summon demons, not exactly something I can explain to him."