Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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The kids were gone, leaving the grown ups alone in their suite. Or as alone as anyone who could be spied on by Mahaado or Yugi could be. Mai was sitting in bed staring at the tv across from the bed, idly flipping through the channels. By the window Valon was, odd for him, staring out at the night sky. She stretched out on the bed, "So now that the kids are gone. What do you really think of Yugi? Did he really look ok?" The question had stayed in the back of her mind, knowing that those kids had gotten themselves into mischief before.
But having Yugi's dad here put things on a different level to her. Perhaps the kids were afraid of letting something leak out? Valon was a good guy though, he wouldn't do something unnecessary to alarm the kids.
Valon blinked as the question broke into his idle thoughts, about the same person in fact. "Oh Yugi? Yeah, he looks fine in fact, hale and hearty as either of us. So the idea that he got shot and died on the operating table so recently blows my mind." He turned a bit so he could address her directly. His gaze following the shadowed curves of her body, with only the tv and the stars outside really providing any light. It wasn't late by any definition, Valon would have gone out to find a bar before. Only Mai hated to be alone and tournaments always had her sleeping early to be at her sharpest, so he stayed and the topic was interesting.
Mai remained quiet, but Valon was fairly confident that she was frowning in thoughtful concern so he continued. "He was pretty lonely though, that group or whoever stalking him has put him in a place alright. He mentioned he couldn't really hang out with the others thanks to the whole 'being shot' thing. We didn't talk too much about his 'miraculous healing', he's a good kid though..." Valon noted even as he wondered if Yugi was spying on them...
"I told you how I first met that group right? Back on Pegasus' island?" Mai asked as she shut off the tv, plunging the room fully into darkness.
"Yeah, the way you made him sound back then... That's not what I saw up there, it was a more confident loneliness. More melancholy than anything," Valon recounted quietly. "He's got a really nice suite, and that Mahaado guy apparently been tending to him directly. Geeze I didn't tell you how I ended up there did I?" Valon straightened up then got to his feet. He walked to the bedside before sitting next to Mai. "That kid ran into the elevator with me, dressed in modern clothes and stuff, cryptic as hell..."
Soon Mai was on her back looking up at Valon as he recounted his trip to Yugi's suite. Listening to Mahaado's sudden appearance and yeah it did sound super cryptic. "He's not alive? Mahaado's dead?"
Her voice was subdued, a touch of sadness that got Valon to reach over and stroke her bare arm.
"Did he die at that age? He's as old as the kids when I met them... And he's scared of something, something here."
"Yeah, super nervous though he's trying hard to hide it. Well, he's super loyal to Yugi so I'm confident that whatever is bothering him can't really doing anything 'to' him. Not without Yugi striking them down directly," Valon acknowledged, wincing slightly at the suggesting of god like powers... 'I still want to see Mai's reaction...'
Mai sleepily giggled as she nodded. "Yeah, he's pretty protective of his friends, I can't see anyone bothering the kid for too long..."
"I'm going into the next room to see if the tv picks up any of my channels..." Valon informed Mai as he recognized her tone. ' Maybe she won't have nightmares with her friend, GOD, upstairs literally,' he mused to himself as he stood up. True he hadn't seen any of his stations on the menu when they arrived. Given Yugi's stunt with the inverted tower of Babil he was willing to find out what Yugi might still be doing.
"Bold child, but quite right..." Yugi mused as he sat back on the roof, green tea in one hand and Bakura and Mahaado keeping him company.
"Child?" Bakura repeated as he sat there sipping on his own warm cup. The pair were reclining on deck chairs, a small table resting between them a small kettle rested on it, with more tea seeping readily. He raised an eyebrow as he glanced over at Yugi, the teen looked so perfectly normal, just lounging back in his chair, eyes on the sky.
"Well I mean you all 'are'," Yugi pointed out with a chuckle. "But in this case its Valon, and he really 'is' a kid when it comes to the magic he's walked in on."
Bakura sat there musing over the comment, swirling his tea before taking another sip, "was it his destiny to be in this situation?"
"'Destiny'? Life is a series of choices, 'destiny' is nothing more than what awaits at the end of those choices. Choices leaning you to one ending or another, choices that push or guide others to different ends." Yugi shrugged after a moment. "There is no 'one set' destiny for each person though. If not your village, then it would have been another village, and another person sitting by me, or not."
Bakura sat there a little taken aback before settling down. "So we're ok for this tournament? No surprises that are life ending dangerous?" he asked as Yugi was sipping his tea.
"mmhmmm," Yugi answered quietly, "they didn't expect me to wake up like 'that'."
"Really?" Bakura asked before frowning, his thoughts going back to that cryptic message they found on the game shop walls. "They wanted a God of War, right? How did they get you so wrong?"
"Several reasons, partly because of my association with Kemet, and Japan both that have pantheon worship. There was a thought that I was just part 'of' one, not the overseer of 'all' of them." Yugi explained as he glanced in his mind back in those past thoughts and moments, the late night discussions over beer. Evolving into meaningful discussions over the concept of god and man... The tape viewings of the duels and awareness of magic...
Bakura sighed as he pushed his fingers through his hair before throwing back the rest of the tea. "And you can't just smite them because..."
Yugi didn't even look at him, it was a question he was aware he would keep getting for quite awhile. "Redemption can not happen if I smite on crime. If I did that, you, Kaiba, Mokuba, Jounouchi, Honda, Malik, and others would be dead already," Yugi noted without even a side look at Bakura. But his voice became tight as he continued, suppressed emotions starting to seep through. "I'll admit the numbers that I want to smite are in the millions..." He sucked in a cleansing breath before he forced out a more calm. "But some will seek redemption, some already seek it so I have to stay my hand..."
Bakura watched as Yugi lifted up the orb he had been holding before him, yet his mind was spinning more on the words Yugi had revealed. They sat in continued silence for a time, Yugi watching or playing with the orb he made and finally needing 'something'...
"What is that orb? You keep messing with it, is it important?"
In the darkness he couldn't see Yugi's smile, not clearly enough to know what it was, so instead Bakura sat in silence. Not complete silence. There grounds were quiet yes, but there was sounds of the soft winds rustling against the trees on the grounds. Extremely distant murmurings carried on the soft winds that rose up against the massive hotel and up to them.
"I can't believe you guys are going to sit there and just talk!" Malik called out from where the full length heated pool resided. "I want to see how Anzu reacts to Yugi's swim trunks!"
"Malik!" Anzus' voice was slightly distorted as she called out mortified.
"I'm Egyptian, swim trunks are a suggestion, not a mandatory requirement," Yugi called back blithely.
"My Pharaoh you will kill Lady Anzu with such comments," Mahaado chided gently. He resigned himself to going into the room where Anzu was in fact, floating and covering her face. The water was heated, but given how red her face was, he wasn't sure if it was from the water.
'Seto is going to probably react to this once he finds out the Pharaoh manifested one... Does he not have those cameras up here too?' The magician pondered as he studied the large oval shaped pool. Whimsical statues were posted about it and the water was kept warm just by the divine desire of the Pharaoh himself. The room was stylized as it would have back home with a large pool the open view of the outside world, oil lamps generously hovering about the room providing light. Which was something that didn't happen back home except upon request by royalty...
"What's wrong Mahaado?" Anzu asked finally as she sat up in the pool, her gaze directed onto the magician. It 'was' strange, everyone could see that something was seriously affecting the guy, he was skittish and stayed in almost a military level attention. Now, in this bathing room, it was the first time she saw him relax. While he was still formal, his eyes didn't glance around and he didn't fairly shy away from areas of the room at random moments.
'Yugi created this space, is it because its Yugi who made it and not Mahaado? Or was it intentionally created to give Mahaado a safe space?' she pondered as the magician sank down into the pool so they were facing each other. Though he didn't attempt to emulate the living.
"Wrong? Ah... nothing that needs concerning yourself..." Mahaado demurred as he looked a bit to the ground.
"Well we're friends, I'm just an average girl, so you don't have to worry about upsetting me or a social order just talking to me." Anzu sat there observing Mahaados' reaction, he quietly lowered his head a bit, he rose up enough to emulate sitting properly in the pool. He wasn't in his robes, instead he was wearing a button down shirt and pants combo that made her think that Kaiba had dressed him.
But if 'Yugi' dressed Mahaado!
The colors worked for him, with the off white shirt and sandy colored pants, keeping with his naturally dark skin and the cinnamon color of his hair. Anyone would be fooled into thinking he was alive. So when he appeared worried or upset it was hard not to feel that growing knot of apprehension. The feeling that came when she could see someone was suffering, yet there was no identified cause of it. 'Clearly there's something here that's upsetting him and going to Yugi is out of the question.'
Yugi would know now, definitely, yet it was cheating and not really how Anzu liked to work as a friend.
"Yes, but you are clearly close to the Pharaoh," Mahaado pointed out. He sensed his master outside of this area, the bond of summoned spirit to their master was clear even now. Yet there was a sensation that he felt when he was outside of this bath. The sensation wasn't something he recognized, even after all these long centuries... 'I would recall the sensation of an injury, but this...' Mahaado was quiet as he tried to figure out just 'what' was bothering him. "I apologize for causing you discontentment while this is meant to be a fun little trip. But I do not know the words for my feelings. I don't understand them myself. I... how I feel is unbecoming of a protector of the Pharaoh..."
"So you're afraid?" Anzu asked and watched as Mahaado gave the slightest of flinches. "Its ok to be afraid," she pointed out. "Well we know Yugi's safe at this event, so it can't be his well being that's worrying you."
"I am aware of that, and its not Seto, though I am sure that he would be far more aggressive in his pursuit as to why I feel this way..." he confessed his voice tinged in a way he didn't realize. The tone of resigned 'Seto being Seto'.
"But there's something here that 'is' upsetting you," Anzu continued as she studied how Mahaado acted. 'Not in Japan, but here, something or someone here is upsetting him. It has to be because he keeps moving.'
Which was true, when she tried to situate herself to what 'north' was, she could see that he wouldn't always stare or react to a particular direction. He was clearly adjusting to whatever, sometimes she could tell he was noticing something east, sometimes west while in the same room. Occasionally moving away from where he was standing as though he had just gotten poked in the soles of his feet.
'Its either a person or an item, but I can't see an item moving around 'that' much, is it being worn?' It couldn't be the book by what Yugi said alone, but was it something like the book? Small enough to be carried around? Or a person in general?' She thought to herself as she kept trying to puzzle her way through the possibilities.
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Mokuba was sleeping, sprawled out on his bed in his pjs. So he sat at the window and gazed out at the city as it slowly faded into darkness. He could see the entertainment areas with their neon variety of colors. Tired and dirty perhaps but present off in the distance for the grown ups, children likely in bed as Mokuba was behind him. The sky was clear but the stars were far fewer than they were back in Egypt before artificial lighting became a thing.
It was peaceful though, quiet enough that he could shuffle through his deck and eye the recent releases in the game. Obtaining them wouldn't be difficult for him, but it was...
It was far later when Yugi arrived, a slight knock at the door with a muffled 'Maha no,'. Kaiba blinked as he looked over his shoulder at the door to the suite. Yugi could have entered on his own, and probably was what Maha expected. 'Acting mortal...' Kaiba drawled out in his head as he pushed himself to his feet and walked over.
Opening the door he viewed the pair before sighing, "give me one reason why I should let you in here Yugi."
"Because you've been pretty isolated for a while and you need company too?" Yugi offered cheerfully before slipping in around Kaiba...
"Well you seem far more happy than you have been..." Kaiba groused as he gave Mahaado a questioning expression though Mahaado merely shrugged.
"Well I had been waiting for someone to let me speak my mind. I figured it would be Ryou, but instead it turned out to be Valon." Yugi settled himself down in a chair before eyeing the doors that led to the second suite where Mokuba was sleeping.
"Speak..." Kaiba echored before adding "what do you think you've been doing?" Kaiba asked as he stalked over and planted himself back to his seat after turning it to face Yugi.
"I've been dealing with the fear that what I'm saying could end up with far reaching consequences for everyone." Yugi replied before shrugging, "now I can just shift instead."
"Why..." Kaiba shook his head as he stared at Yugi. "Want to explain yourself?"
"Well, polite speech verses proud style, you know how Japanese people have those tiers, I can just use that... It exists across all languages in their own way sooo..." Yugi shrugged almost light heartedly. "Just look at the universe like a giant role playing game..."
Just... stop, just no... Kaiba's mind stopped at the idea that Yugi would willingly look at the universe as a game... "Yugi you can't look at the lives of people like NPCs...!"
"Well how else do you expect me to engage with my surroundings?" Yugi asked as he leaned back to get comfortable. "'Yugi' is a polite person who is very tolerant and considerate, just the 'Game Master' is a little..." Yugi started smiling at Kaiba, that Other Yugi type of smile that tended to show up right when all of Kaiba's, and anyone elses, carefully structured moves were about to fall apart. The phrase 'Yugi you brilliant bastard' played on Kaiba's thoughts and didn't help at all that Yugi was grinning from them.
"That boy toy of Mai's gave you permission to unleash this type of unholy hell on creation?" Kaiba asked as he tried to process this fact and was failing so hard.
"Oh he's- ok so that's how it started, but they're moving along the lines of a genuine relationship. So you might as well get used to it because he's libel to be here for the long haul." Yugi pointed out, his words and tone all the Other Yugi.
"I suppose it should be fine, if he's capable of being more mindful of Kujaku than the mutt."
Yugi nodded in acknowledgment as Kuriboh floated into view and away, drifting through the wall with sleepy eyes. Heading for Mokuba's room and his soft pillow for sleeping. Yugi smiled softly to himself before letting 'Yugi's' polite speech style take back over. "So what does the tournament look like now that we're here Kaiba?"
Kaiba did a double take at the formal polite 'Kaiba-kun' before shaking his head faintly. "You'll probably be amused for the duration, if nothing else 'Yugi' would be eternally blushing from the 'fun' that is Kujaku and Wong's antics... don't smirk you..."
