Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Anzu dug about her purse and pulled out a hankie when Yugi finally settled back in his sitting position. Giving her a sign she intended to read as 'its safe to approach' and allowing her to walk up to Yugi. She did so, feeling a bit unsure of herself, because making noise to let him know she was coming felt right, but it was a graveyard. All these standing stones marking the ending of life was uncomfortable even with death being an inevitability. Yet the thought of the graveyard made her think of that American family.
How there was a graveyard with a possibly trapped soul, what if someone did that 'here'? What if there was some poor soul who was trapped to defend an area? But then she mentally shook herself awake at the silly thought, she was already acquainted with one such soul. After all, what else could one describe Mahaado as being? And that made her mentally pause as she looked at Yugi. How was he handling the fact that Mahaado was 'here'. Yugi was so kind and gentle, while Mahaado was easily a comfort he was also a prisoner and Anzu knew Yugi would find that upsetting.
Sure Mahaado gave up his freedom and there was bound to be soulless people who would shrug it off. Mahaado had been alive, what was the cost of his actions now that he existed outside of any living jurisdiction, were there even costs? Knowing Yugi, it would weigh him down. But to her knowledge Bakura hadn't addressed a great deal of what was going on regarding finding the Book, to Yugi. Peculiar though it was, Mahaado seemed bound to that Book in some strange America Bacon degree thing she heard about.
But so was Blue Eyes White Dragon, and sadly, the dragon couldn't speak and had no human mind left. Merely an instinctual basic loyalty to Kaiba that connected him to whoever it was originally bound to. Kuriboh seemed to have basic levels of intelligence, but Yugi kept it out mostly and it interacted with Mokuba a lot. So it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that the little guy learned as he went along... If it was a boy, it 'felt' like a boy to her and she noticed that Yugi used male pronouns to describe it. With her luck if she asked he'd tell her there was a girl version and Anzu wasn't ready for a girl Kuriboh yet.
"Yugi?" She walked over and gently rested the tips of her fingers on his shoulder first, before sliding her fingers forward so they were resting on his shoulder. "Here," she held out her handkerchief with her free hand the moment he turned his head to look at her.
He blinked at the triangular white cloth before giving her a faint smile and accepting it. "I must look so lame compared to the other me huh?" He asked as he wiped away the tears in his eyes. "But right now..." Yugi's eyes lingered on the stones and the finality of their presence before letting his eyes roam upwards to the sky. "The dreams aren't easy, I see terrible monsters in the shadows with gnashing teeth and eyes with no faces. Because I was a child I just grew to accepted these terrible things as a norm. But in retrospect I may have been seeing the Demon within the Palace as he was gathering power and knowing that. Knowing its happening again in this age and I can't pinpoint where he is, is so frustrating."
Anzu blinked in thoughtful surprise as she knelt down next to him the idea of a 'baby' seeing demons all around him? That gave her shivers as the warmth of the air seemed to flee leaving her with only a chill. "They say babies and children see the world more clearly than grown ups," Anzu began thoughtfully. "But we're not like the High Priests before Mahaado or Kaiba, and they were kids too limited in what they could do until it was too late. We're on top of this! Mostly. Sure they got a horrible drop on us, but we know better than to ignore the evidence. This time you're in charge so we'll see through this!"
Yugi turned to look at her with a speculative glance, taking in her cheerful confident smile and gaze. It made the corners of his own mouth turn upward, despite knowing how the girls were getting jealous at school. It made him wish he still was a shrimp, at least until he graduated. His class and old class mates were great, but there were girls not in his class that were becoming problems.
It was amusing as the first years, realizing he was about to graduate high school, were now regularly approaching him for autographs. In much the same way as love confessions were usually made, thus asking to be alone with all these kids, female and male, highly amusing. But he was also growing wary as well, as Mahaado, in his naivety began inquiring about certain behavior from the other students. Behavior that Yugi easily recognized as bullying from the older girls who were trying to 'protect Yugi's reputation' or other forms of nonsense. Before Seto ran off with Yugi's magician, the jerk, Yugi could count on Maha keeping himself invisible and alerting him to this behavior. Allowing Yugi to rescue his poor younger fans.
Fans.
Yugi had 'fans'.
His brain hadn't finished handling that fact. So it was still strange to approach groups of people and try to, gently, reinforce that he didn't appreciate bullying. Because he 'had' been bullied for years and knew how much that hurt. So please to not be doing the very thing that caused him so much grief on other people in his name. Thank you and run along.
He didn't want to draw attention to Anzu that he knew they were trying to bully her, too. He couldn't catch all of them before they could get started, while asking the gang for help felt... weak... They were already helping with a 'demon' they shouldn't have to help with... but that was stupid, Anzu was their friend too and if this book hunt could just 'end'. It would be easier to rope them alone and let them know to keep an eye out for Anzu.
It was upsetting to think that a few uppity girls could ruin Anzu's last year of high school with such behavior.
Yugi pushed himself to his feet, extending his hand out to help her up as well, before he walked back from the gravestones. Once both his feet touched the concrete ground not directly a part of his family's grave set up he took a deep breath. He looked around at all the stones, at lifetimes that came to an end and how quiet the place was, somber and peaceful. "No one's here right now, they've all gone."
"Well yeah, they've all passed on," Anzu pointed out with the corner of her mouth twisting up into a half smile.
"Yeah, but they come back once in a while when family shows up," Yugi pointed out as he wiped away the tears stains from his face.
"Oh come on, how would you know?" Anzu teased while Yugi peered at her from over the handkerchief. When something in his eyes, though good natured and warm, made her want to smack herself in the head.
"Been dead myself you know..."
"Yugi!" she scolded raising a fist to mock punch his arm when the weight of what he said settled into her gut. It caused her to feel that cold feeling regarding their own future. "Yeah, well I'd prefer if this time you could try to go the 'old age in bed surrounded by loved ones' style."
Tickled at her comment, Yugi straightened up and gave her a cheery salute for which she rolled her eyes at him. He followed the salute by reaching into his coat and pulling out a pair of rayband sunglasses that he placed on his face to cover any residual signs of his crying. He noted Anzu's surprised expression and gave a small smirk, "what? I came prepared."
Anzu shook her head at his teasing before deciding it was time to get a 'Yugi View' check in on what was going on at the mansion. "How are the Kaibas?"
Yugi looked ahead and gave a slight shrug before letting his shoulders droop in the way they used to before the Puzzle. "Mokuba's hurting and I can't fix the reason why, not easily. What happened to Seto was sudden and hard on him. Seto's made it clear he's keeping an eye on everything and Mahaado is doing what he can in his own way. Which by the by is rather entertaining, because what Seto may want done, is not necessarily how Maha will do it."
"Huh? Oh I see, Kaiba would rather stand there and broodingly observe and Mahaado actually engages?" Anzu offered her expression thoughtful as she thought about how different the pair were, and was rewarded by Yugi's smile and nod.
He straightened his posture back up before he spoke, "exactly. Seto would rather open the door and make sure Mokubas' sound asleep in bed by observation. But Mahaado goes beyond that by entering the bedroom and checking directly. Among many other little differences, because Maha knows Seto well enough to follow through with what Seto wants 'done' but not 'how' to do it. But he knows Seto back when he was Seth in Egypt. He knows his fellow High Priest, he's not as clear about the CEO that Seth turned into and it shows time and again. And that," Yugi ended with a faint thoughtful, introspective tone, "is part of a new problem."
"New problem?" Anzu asked, letting her words gently nudge Yugi to continue. She wasn't an advocate of letting problems fester if a solution could be found!
Yugi was quiet for a moment trying to think of the best way to explain this without making it long or drawn out. "How Seto acts normally, around everyone, was how Seth acted around strangers who hadn't earned his trust back then. So when Maha is interacting with Mokuba alone, he shows Seth old mannerisms and I think. I think Mokuba never met 'that' side of his brother, even as far back as when they were with their biological father. I think seeing 'that' side of his brother for the first time is a shock to Mokuba. He seems hurt that the good that he's always believed his brother to have, is only another outer layer. Just the idea that his brother has willingly kept himself emotional detached, even from Mokuba all Mokuba's life? I think its hitting him now."
"Is the difference 'that' great? I don't recall much about Set, the General when we went into the Memory Game. But I didn't get a terribly strong sense of difference between the two," Anzu inquired as she tried to mentally dig out any possible nuance she might have missed before. But the gang had no access to the royal palace, and...
"Confidence is a cornerstone to Seth's identity, and justice is his cause, but Seth was like bamboo. He could bend, was flexible, and could adjust to the winds of change, at least he could when he was a child. He openly laughs, displays emotions, things even I remember now. But Set, and by extension Seto, are like oak trees, the flexibility is reduced greatly. And this is too much, too soon and too hard on Mokuba, before with the Puzzle it was fine. The Kaibas' existed as a satellite to my situation and rarely were dragged deeper than that. Certainly Seto overcame everything he needed to when Mokuba was watching, but with this group..."
Yugi's voice drifted into silence while Anzu tried to find something to say, "well if Ryou can find the Book soon that would help right? They need the Book to do anything and if Ryou can destroy it they're straight out of luck. So Mokuba won't have to deal with images from the past for much longer!"
Yugi nodded at Anzu's enthusiasm, her seemingly unending loyalty and support was a blessing, so he didn't bring up the thing she didn't know. Even if the book was destroyed, they would still have to find the groups' leader. The book wasn't needed to create Ka's like Mahaado after all, and the group was actively trying to turn humans into Duel Spirits at the moment.
"But let's enjoy the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure that Gramps and mom would rather I enjoy my life than mope about." Yugi offered, with a small cough to clear his voice and attempt a more positive demeanor. "And discuss the fact that Seto has been playing 'dress up' with my Maha. The jerk."
"Wait, he's been 'what'?" Anzu asked blinking in surprise at the sudden topic switch, no matter how amusing it was. What 'was' going on in Kaiba mansion?!
"Dress up! He's put my Maha in slacks and a button on, I feel violated that he is taking advantage of my magician. Its not like I'm trying to put a tutu on Blue Eyes White Dragon after all!" Yugi protested, his tone turning into one of a childish pout.
"Because Blue Eyes would eat you if you tried? And what's wrong with slacks and a button on? Mahaado would look very nice and cl-," Anzu cut herself off as she realized something and mentally smacked herself in the head. "Yugi you're not planning on making Mahaado walk around in black leather are you? You 'are' going to allow the man to choose his own clothes when the option opens up right?"
Yugi kept walking straight ahead with his mouth a straight line.
"Right?" Anzu insistently asked for confirmation, the corners of her mouth dipping down into a frown. For which when no answer continued being 'the' answer, "Yugi you can't put everyone in leather! What is it with you and dressing in the flesh of dead animals!?"
"I just think it looks cool!" Yugi argued disgruntle in tone as he realized Anzu wasn't backing down on this. "You thought the Other Me looked cool."
"He's not Mahaado and he had to let you dress him it was 'your' body. Mahaado should be allowed to pick his own clothes!" Anzu countered growing hot at the injustice of forcing the poor Magician to wear what others liked. Because in the end, Mahaado was conditioned to do what his 'Master' told him without question. Seemingly even before he became the Dark Magician by proxy of Yugi being, first Prince, then Pharaoh. But that did not excuse the right to pull rank on the poor teenager, which... in hindsight Mahaado was at time of death.
"Tell that to Seto," Yugi groused in answer.
"I will as soon as he wakes up!" Anzu announced sternly. "Until then, I guess I'll start with you."
"Uh oh," Yugi hung his head down in the 'shamed dog' posture as he was reminded that Mahaado was not a human plush toy. Regardless of what Yugi remembered of his childhood back in Ancient Egypt. Over all he felt like he found Seth's long lost sister, because while he would never say it to her face, she did bring up similar points that Seth did back then.
"Stop that Yugi I feel like I'm kicking a puppy around!" Anzu giggled unable to keep her 'stern' voice going. "I heard of a new little cafe in a part of town that makes the cutest desserts you can imagine."
"But is it Kuribon cute?" Yugi asked teasingly as they walked along.
"'Kuribon? Wait... is that?!"
"The little fluff sister of Kuriboh? Yep!"
"Yugi! You and your furballs!"
And that proceeded to set Yugi off into an incredibly huge fit of out right laughter.
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Mokuba sat in his room, a controller to his video game in hand the other at his side and the music of the game continuing to play. But he hadn't moved his character in a while and instead just sat there staring at it, avoiding his homework. But it was hard and getting progressively harder to appear in public beside his 'big brother' knowing that it was Mahaado controlling things.
Mahaado was pretty impressive in how he could emulate a lot of his brothers' mannerisms, especially since he used how Kaiba acted upon becoming General to base it off of. Pretty impressive to know what the world knew of his brother was based off a General. But once the mage was, off the clock, so to speak that was when Mokuba started having trouble.
The magician showed a side of Kaiba that was amazingly kind, more so in fact, than Kaiba ever had been to Mokuba. It was increasingly clear that Mahaado was basing 'all' the behavior off of how Kaiba used to be, and when Mokuba was alone, like right now for example. Mahaado would actively attempt to take part in what Mokuba was doing. Or as he explained, bringing out Seth's attributes into the illusion he was maintaining. Though Kaiba could 'see' what was going on, so long as he actively didn't object to the illusions' behavior...
So Mokuba sat at the game waiting for Mahaado to do as Kaiba would and walk into to check on him. But since it would be just the two of them, Mahaado would drop Kaiba's instinct to be the General and relax. Which would mean that instead of sitting back and watching Mokuba play a video game. His older instincts would kick in and, as Seth would, he would pick up the controller and play with Mokuba.
He just had to hold back the tears as he finally got to play with his big brother casually. It had been so long since he had a 'big brother' rather than a 'dad in big brother body'.