Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Time changes were hell...
Taking a plane across the globe was an interesting experience, as slow as a day could feel it still progressed. On a plane it felt like one was chasing the eternal horizon, unhindered by obstacles, the chase felt simple. Yet like a coy lover both the sun and moon was ever just ahead unattainable and eternal. A person was literally in a metal tube being hurled through the air and even 'that' wasn't fast enough to stay in the daylight or night time.
Then there was Mahaado's magically item that meant that travel was reduced to seconds.
The thing being that when a person spent their whole day doing normal day things, the body automatically settled into evening activities. Rest started becoming a thing that the body looked forward to as its energy reserves started running out. So one could only imagine how the brain reacted when it was suddenly once more in daylight. When everything around them was saying 'you need to be up and active! No sleepy times yet!' To say the body was confused was an understatement!
The irritation offset by the fact that Scotland was amazingly beautiful.
It was a strange sort of beauty true, but it was grand.
Japan, despite also being an island nation, shared in the smell of the ocean, it's trees, rolling hills and mountains as well as villages. But Scotlands' air was flavored by an ocean air different from what she knew. The species of trees were different giving the hills a slightly different look upon those than what she was used to. Also Japan wasn't as far north as the United Kingdom and that affected the types of plants and clothes the residents wore.
It wasn't a singular opinion either, as Malik was looking about the village with wide eyed interest. The blond was dressed for the occasion with warmer street clothes, but he didn't hide the earrings or make up or his hair. Unlike Ryou who was wearing a beanie that hide most of his white hair, in an effort to be less conspicuous. Despite it getting closer to Halloween, all and all the trio looked casually dressed, blue jeans on the boys and shirts with jackets that kept them warm. Anzu was dressed in a cute, top and pants outfit of soft, warm yellows and solid warm reds. Almost fire colors but intended to play up a 'warm, friendly, harmless' vibe.
Actually when Anzu looked over the guys she only could internally shake her head, as the boys 'still' looked a little on the threatening side... Although Ryou's was justified since Malik was pelting him with all manners of questions. Anzu was waiting for when Ryou snapped, after the warning 'I haven't lived in the UK since I was a child'...
The streets were lined with a wall of businesses all painted in whites with navel blue trims that faced the ocean with a stoic, squat design. Like short defenders prepared to ensure that if a storm came they would staunchly defend the land. It was that same stoic strength that she saw in the faces of the elderly that they passed by, worn by age and proud. Yet there was laugh lines and good cheer even in a place that was currently overcast. Defiant souls that didn't need the sun to find a good day, as sturdy as the buildings around them.
Ryou lead them with remarkable ease, allowing the trio to look more like tourists than ever, though Anzu wasn't a fool. Here today, gone tomorrow, she could only hope that this small town wasn't 'that' small. The smaller the town the faster the rumors and Josie would be the new person in the town, having three random strangers show up so fast might reflect badly on her. There was also the concern of how she reacted once she knew they were coming.
There was no way the twins would not believe there was a high chance that Ryou and Malik could find her. Between the use and display of magic and the history of the twins own family line it just made good sense that they warn her. But how would she 'react' was the question, she was possibly alone here, would she be willing to blindly put herself into the position to face strangers? Strangers who were looking for information about a get together that essentially drove her out of her home country?
'Hi, I'm Anzu, and you must be Josie...' that introduction felt off, 'you must be Josie' well she 'had' been a Stage Magician's assistant, but assistants weren't publicly named. 'Hi, Catherine, Fred and George, said we could find you here...' That was also a no since it could easily be cross checked. Sure it wouldn't 'matter' all that much, once they had the information they wouldn't have to bother Josie again.
"'Kura... have you thought about how we can get rid of the book?" Malik asked finally. Giving Bakura a question that involved an actual answer instead of 'please stop Malik, the ocean is right there and I might drown you', looks. The question pulled Anzu out of her own internal monologue and switch her focus onto Ryou.
"I've been thinking, this book needs to be utterly destroyed, I don't want to risk it ever coming back into being. So fire doesn't work, the remaining ashes can be a threat, soaking it in water doesn't sound like it could do enough damage. Shredding it leaves it open to degrade down into the soil where it can be eventually restored as its absorbed into new trees. Which could give us 'more' of those horrid books." Bakura rattled off as his current spirit 'tour guide' lead him down the road. Allowing him to blissfully not see the pair behind him gape silently as he talked.
"Just ejecting it into space isn't good enough, even re-entry fire wouldn't be good enough for me. A ground zero nuclear detonation 'sounds' like a good idea, but its not like when those have been used there was a massive smoking hole in the earth where it happened. So that's not good enough..."
Even without knowing what a 'nuclear' was, the fact that Bakura just suggested using something that would blow a whole 'through the planet' was enough for Malik. Wide eyed, alarmed, the first thing Malik could think to say was, "ok, so dial it back I don't think the planet needs a piercing of that magnitude."
"I know that Malik," Bakura rolled his eyes at Maliks' retort as he kept his eyes peeled for anyone who could stick out. Possibly Pandora or his brother, but more than likely the group that Pandora got the book from. There was something unsettling about how this small group of friends ended up strangely compelled to stay away from each other. This group had to have either magic, or a demon worshiping priest to support them and he was praying they only had that in singular terms.
"Its been months though since they went after Yugi and nothing else has happened since then. Its beyond bizarre and strange, if they want something from Yugi, and clearly they do, there should be more committed effort to get to him. When Yugi had the Puzzle he spent almost a year with nothing, but, tournaments as thinly veiled attempts to take that from him. This group? Its been dead silent and that's never good." Bakura explained as they reached the end the street and he hung a right.
Anzu shivered at the reminder though she nodded, "well it just looks dead silent because they're not targeting 'us'. But given what Catherine and Mahaado have shown, this group 'is' active, just not fixed on us. All those poor people..." And she right, this group may have wanted 'Yugi' because of his connection to the Book. "I guess they're not going after Yugi directly because they know he can win. The demon may still be too weak to face Yugi directly and instead is building its army..."
A thought that caused Bakura to nod, "indeed, originally the Demon merely generated his own forces, but he had almost a decade to get strong enough to attack the palace. Yet now he has all these humans doing the work for him. Leaving us with the same issue though, why has no one stopped us? It feels strange to have all this access and no one has tried to stop us."
"Probably cuz we're not who they're after, they want Yugi and he's near holed up in Kaiba mansion. A mansion with security and a Magician who can undoubtedly do some serious damage if they tried," Malik pointed out. "But you've got a point there, we can't keep showing up around this group. If we do we put them at risk since it implies they know something more, which to be fair they 'do' know something. But is it something that the group would recognize as important or just a red herring?"
"All we wanted was to find Travis... and even now we still have no clue. Where ever he is, he has to be on the move on his own because the Spirits are getting nowhere." Bakura noted wishing he had his bangs out so he could blow them out. Would help in dealing with all this anxiety he felt, more over since they were far enough away from Colorado, he could feel that creeping sense of corruption slithering about him.
One of the spirits came walking along, eternally looking out of sorts with their traditional Egyptian attire amid all the living around them. He was pretty nondescript, as any commoner from the time would have been with no real stand out profession tools to accentuate his appearance. He greeted Bakura with a slight bow before 'joining' the walk the trio of living folks were on.
"She's waiting for you. The woman has not many friends, however; her neighbor is elderly and has taken her in it seems. The local gossip has already reached the elder woman about you and she has told this Josie woman of our presence."
"Gossip spreads fast," Bakura answered a bit amazed at just 'how' fast. "Josie knows we're here, and she's already been made aware we would show up by the twins." Speaking not only to the spirit, but giving the pair with him a heads up at the same time.
"How? How can we possibly stand out-" Malik began when Anzu casually reached up and tweaked his hair, while Bakura gave an answering glance back.
"Have you tried a mirror?" Bakura snorted before resuming his focus.
Malik glared back in answer before going into a huff, "I can 'not' be that weird, even if its just via coloring it, there 'has' to be more people with my skin tone that are blonds."
"Hello, ye old horse," Bakura quipped as his hands stayed in the pockets of his coat. He had a few daggers on him, but he had refrained from more of his gear. Yet having Anzu along meant he didn't have to entertain Malik's issue about how out of place he looked.
"You know, Yugi has three colors naturally in his hair, if people are stunned by 'me' how do they handle 'him'?!" Malik argued, which earned him a grin from Anzu.
"Really? Well I think most people assume its colored specially since it used to stick up. From what I gathered in America, most people think he intentionally styles it that way for a glam effect. I admit I wasn't there for a long time and only in one city. But no one was aware of how much Yugi changed since the Battle City tournaments. I think if anyone saw him 'now'? Their reactions would be as big a shock as the schools'. A lot of disbelief going on right there," Anzu explained patiently.
"You mean its 'not' a big thing that he's now as tall as Kaiba in less than two years?" Malik asked a bit surprised as he heard that. He was developing running muscles from avoiding the new fans he had acquired.
"I don't think people believe it, there's been talk online, but generally it seems everyone assumes Yugi is someone else. They think its some fan or a copycat that just doesn't bother to do up the hair like Yugi used to have." Anzu confessed with a faint grin, noting the disbelieving look in Maliks' eyes she shrugged. "The school students argue that its actually Yugi, and there's been some pictures of him taken when he's 'not' in a dead run. Just to show that 'yeah' its Yugi. But no dice there, Yugi doesn't look really like a kid anymore, he's matured in appearance."
"Isn't the general thought that the Yugi 'we' have now is a long lost older brother to the Yugi that everyone knows from Battle City?" Bakura asked, earning an increased look of disbelief to his back from Malik.
"Yeah, I saw that too, I honestly think the only way everyone is going to get on board with how Yugi looks is for Yugi to do it himself. Like either get on television and make a personal announcement, which totally isn't Yugi. Or show up at a tournament, I mean sure he looks older and sounds a little deeper in voice. But he still talks like our Yugi so maybe?" Anzu suggested as she tried to imagine how well 'that' would go over. Class had been an event, the 'world'? 'Kaiba may not like having to rely on magic, but I think the fans would storm his mansion like soldiers stormed Normandy... Between Kaiba and Yugi? Then if they saw Mahaado looking human and not in his full Dark Magician robes? Either get Mahaado's help or employ an army.'
"Come to Japan, its where all the sexy, sexy, exotic boys are..." Malik grumbled before shaking his head. "I'm starting to miss the underground and I never thought I would ever feel that way growing up."
"Would you like to know the real life stories of Jpop and Kpop groups?" Bakura asked with a sickeningly sweet voice.
"I think Kaiba is planning on using Yugi's new appearance to help him promote this tourney he's working on." Anzu carried on with a slight eye roll away from the guys, so when she saw both the guys looking at her she opted to explain. "Well, Yugi's mentioned going to the public announcement for the new Tournament that Kaiba's been working on. Though he's admitted he's not sure how to act for it, since people only saw the Other Yugi when the duels were televised."
"So does he try to pretend to be the Other Yugi, or just be himself," Bakura rhetorically asked. "Their personalities were unique enough that it might only reinforce the mentality that the Other Yugi and Yugi himself are two different people. The fans might only want to see the smaller version, which would be near impossible to have happen."
"Yeah, Mahaado could probably do something about it, but that seems stupid and it avoids the issue at hand," Malik agreed. He looked at the long row of trees that lined the nearby mountains? Hills? He couldn't tell, they were all mountains to him, but the trees were this incredible series of warm fire colors, from deep reds, warm oranges and regal golds. The winds smelled and tasted of home though chilled, reinforcing that he was in the same part of the globe of his own native lands. Just north.. far, FAR north.
"Speaking of issues, Josie at 2o'clock," Bakura commented as his eyes caught a glimpse of a thick mass of curls that spilled down over the shoulders and probably the back with a pretty face framing a bright smile. She looked him over, then the two with him, her eyes lingering on Anzu for a moment in mild confusion. But she settled down once she made eye contact with Bakura, though she seemed to have caught Maliks' eyes as well as she shifted her gaze slightly in Maliks' direction.
The day was a gloomy, overcast sky that dulled the painted faces into ones of quiet, stern overseers of the town. So Josie standing there with her bright vivid floral skirt and light button on top gave a bit of light and life to the town that Malik could see. It worked to pull everyones focus onto her, a beacon of life and light in this small town.
It was that life that helped the trio to find their energy to pick up the pace and meet up with the former Magician's Assistant. Walking down cobbled roads, past the occasional resident, across small eatery's and other businesses.
"Ryou? Malik? Ahhh..." Josie called out as the trio reached ear shot, her voice only faltering as she lacked a name to give to the woman with them. She had been told to expect three guys, one with white hair and two blonds, however...
Relief that she wouldn't have to manufacture a greeting helped warm Anzu's voice as she gave her name.
"Fred called, said to expect 'three guys two from Japan one from Egypt and not to find them at any airport or port of call'." Josie brought one hand up pointing up to the sky as she shut her eyes and seemingly recited something from memory. "When I asked how I would know an Egyptian from anyone else in the Middle East or Africa he said 'He's a natural blond with purple eyes and wearing gold'." She clapped her hands before opening her eyes and held a natural happy type of high before reality seemingly returned. "So, I have a small house I moved in to, its not far..."
"You don't have to take us to your house..." Bakura argued feeling automatically dirty with the notion of just going to a strangers' house over such reasons. More over the Spirits were going to start being stretched too thin. "A town like this talks, they'll be worried I would suspect if you went home with three strangers..."
"Its the type of story that people usually tell over a pint," she pointed out with a cheeky grin. Then caught herself, "you three... aren't old enough yet for a pint are you?"
"While I could go for one, you're correct," Bakura answered as he fought tooth and nail against a more jaded answer.
"Yeah, Fred said you sound older than you are..." Josie admitted with a nod, but here were three people she could finally tell her story to. Finally, people who understood what she saw that night!
