Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Yugi resumed his homework, and the orb that he had since the hospital was in his mouth as he worked. Soft scratches of pencil on paper tickled the air, occasionally he would pick up the paper and hum over it. Taking the pencil he would erase something then put something else to paper. After a time Yugi shoved the orb back into his mouth and began flipping through a book.
It left Kaiba free to think and argue with himself with all the focus and intensity of staring down a chessboard. It wouldn't do to be careless, to play a hand too soon, yet Yugi was no longer the Yugi he met in this life. Currently Yugi's focus was seemingly on the homework assigned by their teacher. History of all things! A farce for Kaiba now that he had been forced to acknowledge what he, and Yugi, were.
He was pushing back, since knowing 'history' or anything really was no more complicated than processing it like a file on a computer or a show on the television. Force a temporary shut down if he had to, but he was going to have some peace of mind! But Yugi was a different story, and while Kaiba was not privy to Yugi's thoughts. He knew their 'stars' were ranked differently and what he could easily repel... Yugi might not.
"What were you doing in that coma? You didn't live long enough to have so many memories. Not when you were also getting those memories back before being shot."
Yugi paused, the flipping of pages stilled before he pulled the orb back out. His expression quiet, focused and after a bit... "True, I ran out and got rather bored waiting for you to reach me to wake up. So then I started living the lives of people from this day and age. Just the best and worst days of their lives. You know, get a feel for how other people are living."
The orb went back in and Kaiba inwardly growled in an emotion he couldn't put a name to. Grief? Rage? Disappointment? Maybe shame? "Why would you do such a stupid thing?"
Yugi didn't answer at first, he sat there resuming his work, scrolling through books and transcribing answers onto paper. Minutes dragged through the mud of eternity and Kaiba didn't stop staring or waiting. When Yugi finally removed the orb again he wasn't looking up from the book, yet, "you know. Its hard to maintain my grade now. I know the answers to every question but prior to this I would have made mistakes. Can't go to a perfect student 'that' fast huh? And look at these books," he leaned back in his seat and gestured at the small stack. "So much of the information is skewed or out right wrong. Writing the 'correct' answer would be getting it 'wrong' because people weren't there and could only go by word of mouth of someone else."
Yugi sat there and began tapping the eraser end of the pencil on the paper, his expression growing darker. "Because you won't, and they deserved to have someone there for them. It didn't start out like that. I lived through the memories of the best days of people first. Weddings, births, I was every gender, every age, every race, I lived through some of the most beautiful... holding a new born with their fresh, soft, pink skin eyes closed... I got married, I..."
His eyes glistened with memories as they closed, but the smile that was forming fell apart too soon. "But that's not life, there's bad as well as good and I..." He covered his eyes and sat there, tears trickling down along the palm of his hand. Down to his wrist where it got soaked into the black leather wristband he wore.
"Yugi, their lives are their own. As terrible as it was..."
"Babies that died in my belly or in my arms. I fought so hard for them to be born but they couldn't live." Yugi's voice choked. "They said they loved me then they forced themselves into me... and not always was I an adult. Sometimes it was daddy or mommy, and it was always because I 'deserved' it... It was people who were supposed to be family, and they let me down!"
"Yugi."
"They killed me for the way I dressed, they killed me because I wasn't wearing the 'right clothes' or using the 'proper pronouns', they killed me because of the color of my skin..."
"Yugi."
Kaiba got up, and in three, long legged strides he marched himself over to Yugi and grabbed the teen by the shoulders. It wasn't panic he felt, it was grief, shame, anguish for it was Yugi's way to give to others. Only this was bleeding the body until it died. He had no restraint... So Kaiba reached down and began shaking Yugi, needing Yugi to snap out of these memories before his powers took over.
If Kaiba's powers created a storm when he was distressed. Yugi's powers would end all of creation.
Yugi's blood red eyes snapped open, tears streaked down his cheeks to his chin causing Kaiba to pause.
"And they all ask me the same question, Set. 'Why me'. Why? How do you face someone and say 'because they don't think you deserve to be treated any better.'" The other Yugi's red eyes fairly glowed with barely held in check rage. "And everyone has their right to make their own choices don't they, Set?" His lips were thinned with anger as he looked to the side. He raised a hand in a sharp gesture of frustration. "Its not right if I strike someone dead before they commit the very act that would validate the death. But doing that saves the would be victim and reduces everyones' lives to toys in my room being smashed together."
Kaiba felt how tense the muscles in Yugi's shoulders were and could only wince inwardly. "You're right, the world is an ugly place and it can be agonizing to know the suffering of others. Taking them upon yourself is a sacrifice I don't know if they would realize or appreciate. But you are physically here, and you are currently limited only by what your physical body can endure and it has limits! The person we know as 'Yugi' is the type of person who could give them comfort. When their time comes your presence will give that to them. Until its their time you have to let things be."
"They don't deserve this Set. They don't..."
"I'm not saying they did, that they somehow deserved to be crushed under the heel of an uncaring unfeeling society. But that doesn't mean that the people who did this to them are free to carry on. All eventually find their way to you. And when they do..."
"I'm going to have so many little games that I can play." Yugi answered his voice tight, sharp and bitter." Yugi broke from Kaiba's hold so he could rest against the back of the dinning room chair. "So many people Set. And their fury, and their pain, writhe in me demanding justice... yet the only thing I can do is allow the criminals to walk free and make that rope they're going to hang themselves with grow longer and longer... They killed 287 people for that stunt at the hospital. Because it was nothing to them. The poor, homeless, drug addicts, trafficked people, dying without understanding why and without a say."
"And the governments won't care because that's just 287 people who don't pay taxes or 'contribute to society in a meaningful way'. So they won't object to the loss, just less trash on the street." Kaiba finished for Yugi. 'Even now you're trying to let them prove you wrong, even if we both know they won't.' "Right now we're not in a good place. You are fully going into your true nature and I... am not interested in mine. We need time to reset and take a rest no different than the rest of your little friends. Who by the by, have been doing just that since you came back from your coma. While despite being in a coma, you need to do now."
"Your tournament would work, nothing happens around that whole time.. Well except that one woman, but I'm not going to deny Mai's chance to play around."
Kaiba wasn't amused even if Yugi's expression became partially amused... "Yugi..."
"Oh and you need to meet up with her. I wasn't strong enough back then to dispel the darkness from her properly. Its growing again and she would be a benefit to you if you're 'that' disinclined on having worshippers." Yugi pointed out, earning a bigger frown from Kaiba. Only to give the CEO a wavering smile in answer. "I'm not looking at the future, that's Isis' duty, I'm just looking at what's going on right now. Even that is just surface reading because I'm holding myself back."
"Just finish your homework," Kaiba snarled as he pushed himself to his feet.
"Want me to call Maha out?" Yugi asked sweetly from Kaiba's back.
"That overly nice... you want to 'check in' on what his antics have done?" Kaiba demanded only to get Yugi to shrug.
"Maha has his magics, he put them in their places. Just because it wasn't in his presence doesn't mean it wasn't done."
"Yugi..."
"We both know how he was, how he currently is, he's polite to a fault and when he's angry or annoyed he expresses it differently. There's a reason three of those companies are bankrupt now."
Kaiba was about to snarl about Mahaado's 'nice' factor only to pause, because he 'knew' about the bankruptcies in question... "That was him..." As Yugi nodded, weary though his expression was... Kaiba felt himself compelled to sit down and lean in. "I want details, he didn't show me what was going on during his version of 'down time'..."
A slow creeping smile crossed Yugi's face as he leaned closer the divine cat that got into the cream...
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Dawn arrived in Japan with everyone in various states of waking up...
"You are 'not' going to the Grand Prix," Kaiba growled following a very stubborn Yugi down the hallway.
"I signed the contract, I'm part of the reason why people are going to the tournament either to take part or to spectate. I'm going," Yugi countered as he brushed at his hair, letting flow down his shoulders as he brushed out the nightly rumpled look.
Mokuba stood there in the hallway watching the pair stalk across back and forth where no one noticed him.
"You flinched when it came to your chest." Straightening a tie.
"Granted you healed it, but my brain decided I should still have some residual pain just for the fun of it." Right before teeth brushing.
"You've got school work."
"You've been incapacitated several times and your staff doesn't realize one of them. Feel free to tell me what 'your' homework load looks like." Spoken after rinsing.
"What type of challenge is it going to be for everyone in facing a god?" His hair brushing was rather simple with his shorter hair.
"Last man standing can face me at the end, it will be 'fine'." Face washing..
"You are being a brat!" Looming in the doorway.
"You are not my dad." Only to be reminded that he was as tall as his cousin.
"Your dad is infuriated with your antics already. How many more buttons do you plan on pressing?"
"How many can I pressed before he explodes? Its going to be fine, mom stop worrying."
"I. Am. NOT! A WOMAN!"
"And to paraphrase what my faithful Maha said. "You still bitch like one."
"YUGI!"
Mokuba stood in the doorway of his room and began looking around for his jaw. It had been a part of him for so long, so long in fact he wasn't very sure what he would do without it. A shadow of a pointed shoe without a proper body was near him in the hallway though.
"Hi Big brother Mahaado. You have a good sleep?"
"Oh it was fine..." Mahaado answered easily enough, he had long since accepted that there was no point to explaining that he didn't 'sleep' unless he was in his tablet. Mokuba insisted on referring to his routines as though he was still performing normal human routines. Granted he never asked about eating, but such things as 'sleeping' and 'taking a break' often came up. Something which Mahaado couldn't deny the child. Instead he stayed in the shadows and watched Yugi and Kaiba continue arguing all through the hallway.
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"So, Yugi is now awaken to his divine nature while still here in the physical world," Ryou noted with a sigh. He sat at the dinner table on Malik's boat, being rocked with an incredibly gentle swaying of the ocean. Somehow despite not being living on the ocean, Ryou was doing moderately well having a meal with such motion. A nice meal with the three Ishtar siblings and speaking Ancient Egyptian for the ease of the Spirits roaming about.
"Yes, and he is insistent about attending the tournament that Kaiba is holding and we're going. You, me, all your spirit tribe." Malik announced as he bit into an apple.
"Why?" Ryou asked, his tone almost pitiful and morose. "Haven't I done enough recently?"
"So we can take a break, you can rest, we can try more American food, it will be great!" Malik pointed out. "Not only that we can see how America looks right now with the organization going on without Kaiba's constant influence. Kaiba isn't going to be asserting his 'divine authority' on the place as we arrive."
"He would have a point, though I suspect he just wants to travel and see other places. I doubt he could get a good sense of a land by going to one very small portion. I think several of our people have gone to the Generals little project." Ryous' Ghost father noted thoughtfully. "The world is large so many different places and I can only imagine what your life would have been like had it not been for the Ring."
"Yes well, I'm still waiting to just be able to rest properly," Ryou noted and only his gaze going from Malik stayed the blonds curiosity.
"Well, I do believe such a trip would be rather costly. So I suspect you're going to either find a third person to go with you or ask Seto." Rashid pointed out as he peeled away at an orange.
"And what of you sister? Any insight of your own?" Malik looked over at Isis who was nibbling her way through her orange.
"I had one when we were on the bus going to the hospital. A rather amusing and alarming one, as it would appear that the Blue Eyes have enough human understanding to try and... well force Seto into performing his duties. But also I had an interesting voice to voice encounter with Yugi. Just not 'our' Yugi, in fact not even a young man rather a young woman."
The living trio, Ryou's dead Ancient Egyptian Father and Mother, an equally dead merchant and farmer all stopped and stared at her stupefied.
"Yugi as a 'girl'?!"
"Yes, I realize how much of a shock that is. More over given that they can apparently cross over to communicate with people in other realities..."
"Multiple Yugis..." Ryou thought of his poor counterparts and wondered if they got damned, saved, or stuck 'leading the group because that's oh so easy!' like him.
"Yes, and Mai was in my vision and I suspect someone here needs to give her a proper apology," Isis continued. Leveling her gaze upon her little blond haired brother who merely rolled his head and eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me young man. What your dark side did to her was cruel and you have a responsibility as 'not the dark side that did this' to apologize properly."
"Can I video tape the apology?" Ryou asked with a tired smile.
"Only if you make copies for us," Isis replied smartly as Malik's head whipped back up and he stared lavender hued daggers at his elder siblings.
"If you need three people maybe you should take Anzu with you, she could use a break too." Rashid noted, "helping Seto wasn't all that easy for the young woman and I think she might benefit with some time away as would you Ryou."
