Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: Fixed up some stuff on how the teleportation item works. Adjusted the conversation with Mokuba and fixing the titles now that I realized a few blunders...
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"Very well, it is done. I should tell you right now, that whenever you are using this it will create an illusion of what you are doing at the time and have your illusions walk towards the nearest shadow and quickly fade after you have disappeared. If you are sitting and use this, an illusion will make you appear to casually walk away. That way you don't draw any unnecessary attention to yourselves that could result it making your task more difficult. It will fade you into view."
No one was quite sure what to expect when they first teleported out of the park and past the front gates of Kaiba Mansion. One second they were in the park, trying to figure out if the item was as simple as Mahaado made it sound. The next second they were falling to the ground, unprepared to suddenly be without their chairs.
Jounouchi had no serious experience with magic items and the sudden 'lights out' aspect of the rings, hence his grip stiffened for a moment. Where as Malik was a little more prepared for the possibility of an unusual experience thus the tug towards Jounouchi was answered with a counter tug. While Bakura was so used to losing control of his body and just being surrounded by darkness it was second nature for him to hold the rings firmly as a stabilizer for the other two.
The moment the seats disappeared was rather comical for anyone who would have seen this moment, a shame no one had.
The lack of feeling of the seat under Jounouchi made him think he was about to drop down a hole, like a trap door. His feet and legs didn't move but he tried to brace them further only to have them slide out from under him, only his knees bent further and no pull upwards. The weight of his body sending him leaning further backwards until the tug of the rings sent an instant alarm in his brain. His grip on the rings grew stronger and he yanked on the ring out of instinct.
Malik's expectation was not that they would feel moved, rather than they would just be moved like set pieces. He expected the seat to accompany them and when the darkness overtook his sight and the absolute silence consumed his hearing he just waited. The loss of the seat sent him falling backwards and his barely controlled panic kept his hand clenching the rings as the only solid thing he knew. He didn't know the details, how long would he be in this darkness before he could see again? Releasing the rings could result in him losing connection with the other two and being lost who knew where. So when he felt the ring yank away from himself he struggled to pull the ring back towards him.
The second the darkness hit Bakura, he had slipped his left foot just back under his seat. As the darkness was an old familiar place for him one where patience was rewarded by the return of light. The lack of feeling of motion was noted, but the moment he started to drop from the seat disappearing his left foot was already in place. Though he felt the panic induced pull from both Jounouchi and Malik, he merely strove to hold it in place while he gave a slight bounce down. A bit of a dip from the loss of the seat before standing up again with the ring still in his hand and anchoring the pair with him.
Light returning to Bakuras' sight allowed him to see Malik squatting awkwardly before he was yanked forward by Jounouchi. But even as the poor guy started tumbling forward, Jounouchi's own actions sent that blond catapulting forward, slamming into Malik. Leaving Bakura holding the rings while the two dumb blonds with him ended up in a pile at his feet. He shook out his white hair before turning his head to the sky. 'It is so true. Blonds ARE the dumb species of man.'
"Hey man, why didn't you fall over?" Jounouchi asked as he struggled to his feet while helping Malik. Clearly disgruntled at how smoothly Bakura took to the use of a magical device despite being the victim of evil magic for so long. Indeed Bakura looked like he was waiting on a bus to just roll in before him and not like he had just been teleported from Domino to Kaiba's mansion.
"Because I've got enough experience to know better," Bakura retorted with an eye roll hidden under his closed eyelids. "What with being an 'old man thief'?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah old man Rabbit," Malik scoffed before dusting himself off and looking up at the mansion. "So we know what teleporting feels like so we don't have to make fools of ourselves again."
Jounouchi dusted himself off as he looked back up at the mansion they had visited twice now today. Yugi had said he was going to bed to catch up on some sleep when the pair left the first time. So perhaps the only one left awake would be the servants and Mokuba. Given the reason they were visiting, it wasn't hard for Jounouchi to recall what the pair had been like before.
It was while he was staring at the white painted, stern mansion that a random thought occurred to him. The faint reminder that if he and Yugi hadn't been with Kaiba when the pair had been kidnapped, they would have been safe at the mall or something. Losing gramps and Yugi's mom had been a shock and a loss, but at least Honda would be ok.
Yet... the only reason they were able to escape was because of Mahaado being a good little magician and looking for Yugi. So would they still be in the cage? Would the kidnappers have hurt the little fuzzball that Kaiba called 'Mokuba'? When the group had been kidnapped, they had been subdued by guns aimed at the kid.
While they had been imprisoned Mokuba had served as their source of information out of Kaiba since the jerk refused to talk. His whole presence was one of barely suppressed rage at using Mokuba to get to him. It wasn't until they were at the police station in Canada that they learned that these kidnappers had stolen the limo and taken out the regular driver to do so. That when the Japanese police tried to zero in on the limo, they found it in garage off to the side. The security cameras were unable to get an exact image. But it had been clear that there had been some transferring going on.
Jounouchis' luck had been riding high since they had let him tag along, there was no value to the blond after all. Perhaps they had seen Yugi's position as the King of Games as something they could use because of Kaiba's gaming company. Or at least the rivalry was viewed as somehow friendly. Perhaps in the end they were expecting to use Kaiba through Mokuba.
Kill Jounouchi first as proof that they were serious, to see how Mokuba reacted. Mokuba didn't seem to have friends, he was always by his brothers' side. So the gang was the first group of people that Mokuba got to spend time with and interact. It would be impossible to think that the half pint wouldn't develop attachments.
But the deeper he thought the more Jounouchis' head hurt, he wasn't one for deep plots. Card games were simple, you knew what you had on hand relying on what order the shuffle would put it. By the first few turns of a duel he would know the type of deck he was dealing with and by mid game the type of person. Which was when the reality of that situation finally sank into Jounouchi's head and made him mentally groan.
'They' had been the monsters on the field. Kaiba was essentially forced into a game of Duel Monsters with Mokuba, Yugi and himself as the monsters on the field. Thinking of their situation like 'that' made understanding what was going on a little clearer. That hadn't been a card game where he could just sacrifice them to save Mokuba. He would have had to actively been trying to think of a way to protect all the monsters on his field with no magic or trap cards to protect him. Only, there was no word on the criminals who kidnapped them, at least to Jounouchi's awareness. Yugi, Anzu, Mahaado and the Ishtars would have to hold the fort and make sure that the Kaiba's weren't hurt while he, Bakura and Malik were gone.
Maybe he could call in some friends?
The sound of a knock on the door broke Jounouchi out of his thoughts and back into the world around him. Where he found himself behind Bakura and Malik as Malik knocked on the door.
"Hey... would anyone hear us? Normally we end up using the intercom at the front gate before walking up to the door... Would anyone know we are here?" Jounouchi asked, jerking his thumb back towards the front gate. While they turned to look at him, the pairs' expression thoughtful over the matter when the door opened.
A maid stood there looking at them with a mildly confused expression on her face that quickly was smoothed away. But now there was that awkward moment of wondering who would speak first, Jounouchi had a point after all. Normally people announced themselves before appearing at the door, and Bakura and Jounouchi had already been there once that day...
"Uh hi! We need to see Mokuba," Malik greeted with a slight bow of the head.
"We have something important to ask him, but we don't have the number to the mansion cuz of Kaiba," Jounouchi elaborated. While to the distance they saw Kuriboh float in, see them and then swiftly turn around and float off from where he had come from.
"I will ask the young master if he wishes visitors," the maid replied, before closing the door on them leaving them on the doorstep... because...
"Isn't that a little rude?" Jounouchi grumbled with his arms crossing his chest and Malik readily nodding.
"Well, his older brother isn't awake, Yugi is bound to be asleep, it makes sense she would want to protect Mokuba," Bakura pointed out as he patiently waited and prayed that nothing got lifted.
The door suddenly opened and the trio was interrupted from any potential conversation by Mokuba. The kid stuck his head out, saw them, then stepped out all together with Kuriboh in his arms like an oversized plushy.
Bringing back to mind something in Malik's mind that he now wished to know the answer to, "Mokuba? How do the servants deal with Kuriboh or Mahaado?"
The question earned a surprised look from Jounouchi and Bakura who had never even thought of the servants. With the pair now just as interested as Malik while Mokuba shut the door behind him, to find out how 'did' Kaiba's servants deal with the craziness.
"Its easy actually, they came up with an explanation themselves," Mokuba shrugged. "They think my Brother has figured out how to use the holographic technology of the Duel Disks with AI. So to them, Kuriboh here and Mahaado aren't souls or spirits, they're just preprogramed AI's for Yugi and I."
The trio had to stare at Mokuba for a moment in dumbstruck amazement before lowering their eyes to Kuriboh. It made sense, the holographic systems that Kaiba had created made the images into something physical that could be touched. At least there was enough shown on television to give that impression so why not think it was the holograms? Better that than knowing the truth of why people would collapse after losing a duel among other things. Having a brother be brilliant enough for that to be considered reality made a TON of sense... now if only it didn't inflate Kaiba's massive ego...
"Mokuba, um the reason we came to see you was to find out about Blue Eyes..." Bakura finally spoke up, grabbing the child's attention.
As well as the other two who nodded, "I know how Kaiba got gramps card, but what about the other three in his deck?"
Mokuba blinked at the question and lowered his head to study the top of Kuriboh's fur for a moment. "How come you wanna know that?" He asked finally, before looking up at the guys and it was then they knew something was up. Mokuba's expression was as guarded as his brother's and that was 'never' a good sign.
"We need to find that Book, and apparently there was a time that the Blue Eyes White Dragon was sealing it. So whoever previously had it, must have had some type of access to Blue Eyes," Bakura explained, softening his voice for the child while not hiding the truth. He wanted to think of Mokuba as a clueless child, but that expression coupled with the boy's history?
"There was only four Blue Eyes ever made, and we know that gramps only held the card in a box. He wasn't trying to seal anything away with it so it had to be one of the other three," Jounouchi added.
Mokuba wasn't happy with the question. Not because it would mean speaking of the dark days of his brother's rise to power in the company. But it was how Bakura said 'we need to find the book' that made Mokuba grow sad and scared. "You're going away aren't you?"
The question made the guys look at each other questioningly, wondering why Mokuba was acting like this. Bakura watched as his spirit mother seemed to pick up on whatever the problem was, and he watched her move about behind Mokuba. She rested her hands on his shoulders to the best of her ability and looked at Bakura expectantly.
"We'll be coming back," Malik pointed out, and Bakura nodded.
"Its not like you're alone..." Jounouchi began, only to be cut off by Mokuba's sudden flinch and that was when they understood Mokuba's mood.
"Yes, I am! Its just me and Kuriboh!" Mokuba countered hotly and shoved his face into the furball.
It left the group uncertain on how to proceed, and wishing Anzu or Isis was there.
"My Brother is always busy catching up on work from when we were kidnapped, now he'll have to catch up from this to. Yugi hasn't recovered from the attack either, every school day he actively has to remind himself that he's not at the game shop. He just puts on a mask that he's better but he's not, and when he's dealing with stuff. He swings between being the way he was when all that stuff with the puzzle was going on as aloof and as distant as Big Brother, but at least he's here and Mahaado is at whoevers whim!"
Jounouchi looked away in shame having heard that, there was something about the hurt, accusing tones of a small child that just... got to him. The heated angry protests spoke so much to his own pain when his parents got divorced and he was left with their dad while Shinzuka was taken away. No amount of crying at the unfairness of everything ever was heard. Even after all this time he could understand his mothers' situation being married to such a guy. Yet little Katsuya occasionally still screamed at the unfairness.
"You guys are going away, that just leaves me with Kuriboh here and Anzu, how is that fair? I'm going to be alone!" Mokuba argued, his mounting distress was almost palpable.
The kid also had a point, Mokuba was the usual 'go to' target of anyone who was after Kaiba. The people who kidnapped the pair were still on the loose, there was no telling if and when the next attempt would come at them. "If you guys need me so you can run off forget it! I'm not talking!"
Well that was a threat if they had ever heard one, they needed to know about the card and they couldn't exactly fault Mokuba's reaction to what they were implying to do. The kids' situation was getting worse by the day, with his only blood family incapacitated. More over Mokuba's outburst had expressed a new change in the mansion, as he referred to Yugi and Mahaado as his older brothers. Sure he was casual about it, lacking the honorifics he used for Kaiba. But he did use them, signaling his growing attachment to the pair.
And like most adults they had just forgotten that Mokuba was smart enough to put the pieces together on his own. Though they may have been a simplified or not so simplified understanding, he still knew something was up.
Stuck at an impasse the trio began pondering how to convince Mokuba that it was ok to talk, that despite leaving the trio wouldn't be 'so' far away they wouldn't be able to help. How to convince a child who was becoming traumatized by constant separation that it wasn't going to happen again? Yet it was the ghosts that followed Bakura that gave him the answer they needed as one ghost moved ahead of the number at the front door. Bakura recognized her as one who was starting to regularly appear by his spirit mothers' side. Usually off to the side but never far enough not to be out of ear shot.
The ghost made her way behind Mokuba, and her presence made his spirit mother react in surprise and back off in an act of difference. Bakura watched the pair of women and the intent of the spirit fit into place allowing Bakura to nod.
"Mokuba, you won't be alone, we 'will' be making regular return trips since we're still attending school. But also, while we're gone one of the spirits said she'll stay here and keep an eye on you. If someone comes after you, she'll let me know immediately and we'll teleport back to you."
"Wait... the ghosts are HERE?!" Jounouchi's eyes got huge, the panic he normally displayed reappeared as he suddenly jumped into Malik's arms in fright. The poor Egyptian was stunned for a moment with his arms wrapping instinctively around Jounouchi's waist. Before he just dropped Jounouchi because Jounouchi needed to get over himself.
You know your antics have attained a status when the freaking KURIBOH face palmed.
