In which Yugi is Vil, and has no time for anyone's nonsense. Let's just say Yugi had a major growth spurt after the pharaoh left, and decided to revamp his image to get a fresh start.
"Hey Yugi, do you want to join us on the basketball court?" said a random classmate.
"No thanks, I'd just be in the way with my height. Maybe later," said Yugi dismissively.
"True. Have fun with your games," said his classmate.
"You sure you're okay in here Yugi?" asked Anzu.
"I'll be fine," Yugi assured his friend. Besides, he had to prepare for work tonight and getting sweaty now would make it take longer for prep.
Anzu came in a few minutes later looking annoyed.
"Let me guess, the guys were using the excuse of letting the girls play to look up their skirts," said Yugi.
"Yes, how did you know?" she asked.
"One, this is high school," deadpanned Yugi. "And two, basketball is an excellence excuse to pull that nonsense. There was no point in me joining in anyway."
"Yeah, you don't really do sports much anyway," agreed Anzu. She was tactfully not mentioning the fact he was among the shortest in their class.
Yugi snorted, and said nothing.
"So what sort of game did you bring this time?"
"It's a card game I've been working on," said Yugi with a grin.
Anzu's eyebrows went up and did not stop when she realized that the game was much more mature than she thought.
"Seriously?" she said.
"What are you playing?" asked another girl, who had cottoned on to what the boys were doing.
"We're playing a game Yugi made," said Anzu.
In no time at all, the boys came back to find the prettier girls surrounding Yugi and all playing some sort of card game.
"What the heck is this?" asked Jounouchi.
"Cards Against Humanity," said Yugi cheerfully. "At least that's what I've been calling it. It's still a rough draft."
More like he had done his best to copy the insanely popular card game from memory.
Once the day was over, Yugi headed straight home.
His grandfather waved him off, well aware of what his grandson would be doing for the next few hours. Without batting an eye, Yugi placed his hand on the full length mirror in his room, which rippled under his hand.
He stepped through once the ripples had subsided, and walked out into the Shaftlands where his father was waiting.
In the span of ten minutes he put his spiked hair into a loose ponytail which was then covered by a wig that was almost pure blond save for the purple highlights at the tips. It took him only a few more minutes to apply his usual make-up, which he couldn't exactly wear at school with how strict the dress code was for males.
It had been a pain enough explaining that no, the spiked hair and tri-colored locks were his natural hair style, regardless of what some might think. Honestly, he preferred the blond and purple coloration since it was much less ridiculous looking.
"Have fun at school, Vil?" said his father Erik.
Originally he had been surprised that his son knew how to travel by making his own mirror portal. Now though he barely batted an eye since Vil was at least making an effort to balance his double life.
"As much fun as public schooling can be," sighed Vil. "Though I suspect things might pick up soon."
If only because it was getting close to the time when he solved the puzzle initially. He wasn't even sure if Atem was even in the thing. It had been awkward enough explaining what Grim was to his grandfather and father.
As it was, Solomon had been using Grim for manual labor in exchange for feeding the glutton. He found it far less lonely with his grandson away at school or during his gigs.
Erik merely sipped his coffee, and waited with his son while Vil's agent came to pick him up. He had been surprised at how his son juggled having a double life, but Vil seemed to be coping just fine.
Since they had a bit of time before his agent arrived, Vil went to the cabinet to take out three potion vials, and began making something to eat. His father said nothing, as he was well aware of what the potions were and what they were for.
Vil downed all three in quick succession, before he swiftly drank the protein drink to drown out the taste. He hated taking the nutrient and growth potions. However it was necessary if he ever wanted to actually get any taller. The taste was appalling, but it was worth it in the long term.
His father handed him a different drink once the potions had settled in his stomach, and Vil sipped his tea quietly, while eating his salad and quick sandwich.
He had a modeling gig after all, and that was long, hot work with very little time for breaks.
Four hours later...
Vil walked through the mirror, tired but glad it was over with. Since he was still a minor, they had to work around his schooling schedule.
Grim was sleeping on his bed, again. Vil didn't know why the beast had been there when he woke up in the past, but at least he wasn't alone.
Yugi stared down the 'head' of the Disciplinary Committee, which was closer to an organized group of the school's worst thugs without any hesitation. Jounouchi and Honda were on the ground, staring incomprehensibly at the smallest teen in their class not backing down from Ushio.
"So let met get this straight. You expect me to pay you two hundred thousand yen just to avoid being beaten up by your little group of thugs, is that it?"
Ushio smirked, as Yugi had called out his little...protection...scheme for what it was.
Yugi glared at him.
"How about... No," said Yugi flatly.
Ushio didn't have much time to process his flat refusal before Yugi suddenly moved, and Jounouchi idly noticed the fact that the smaller boy was in heels of all things. Which, made a lot more sense then it didn't, but when did Yugi pick up the skill to move that fast in three inch heels?
Ushio was already on the ground, silently crying in pain because Yugi had made very sure to stomp as hard as he could on Ushio's balls with those heels. If the other teen was able to move from where Yugi kicked his ass within the next hour, Jounouchi would be very surprised.
Seeing the tiny firecracker turn to them, Honda flinched. Jounouchi was as calm as a cucumber, as he knew Yugi wouldn't target them next.
"If he bothers you again, I'll deal with it. No one would believe that I kicked his ass after all," said Yugi calmly.
Jounouchi nodded.
Yugi would have left it at that, because most bullies generally weren't stupid enough to target someone who had demonstrated rather painfully that they can and would defend themselves with violence.
Ushio...wasn't that smart. And he made the rather poor mistake of targeting Anzu next.
Yugi was not pleased, but he knew that he wouldn't have the element of surprise like before.
Which was why he was going to let someone else deal with this prick. He still didn't know what exactly the Pharaoh did to Ushio the first time around, and honestly he didn't care.
Putting the last piece into the Puzzle caused a rush of magic he almost missed. As it was, Yugi slammed the 'door' of his mind shut to avoid the worst of it, if only so he didn't black out from the surge.
He vaguely remembered the Pharaoh being extra bitchy whenever the shift was triggered during the first six months, but he honestly had no idea he was this bad.
The Pharaoh was not a morning person, and seeing how easily he played Ushio and three of his worst thugs into cheating (thus resulting in an instant penalty game) was enlightening.
He had zero remorse or mercy towards the thugs and it was clear they'd need a decade's worth of therapy just to retain even a semblance of a normal life, and that was if they ever snapped out of the hellish illusion the Pharaoh had placed them in.
"I knew he wasn't a morning person, but this is worse than I thought," commented Vil.
"Agreed, but we knew that going in," said Yugi.
Both were watching the Pharaoh walked back home from the mirror that they used to switch between Vil and Yugi. It was a security measure, because Yugi remembered Pegasus and to a much lesser extent Shadi.
He'd rather have someone dismiss the 'innocent' Yugi in favor of the much more interesting door that lead to a vengeful pharaoh who did not tolerate intruders. Considering it radiated 'mysterious' and 'powerful', most would go straight for it, which meant Yugi could watch the fallout with dark glee.
Grim immediately knew something was up, because he bolted out the room with a loud yowl.
The next morning, Yugi promptly handed over two cans of high quality fish in apology. Grim glared at him, but said nothing as he began devouring the fish immediately.
"So what was the deal with the blot you were giving off?" asked Grim.
"Not Blot, but close enough. And it's the reason we're dealing with this mess," said Yugi absently. He was already making coffee for himself and his grandfather. While he preferred tea, the simple fact was that modeling jobs and using shadow magic made him exhausted.
Coffee was the only reason he was even functioning during his morning classes.
Grim huffed, as he was still unhappy to be so far from his hench-human. He was just glad that the prissy housewarden was nice enough to let him live with him until the time lines synced up, or they found Yuu.
Solomon took one look at the mug, then at his grandson.
"Long night?"
"Yes," said Yugi, yawning.
Solomon began making an energy packed breakfast. If Yugi was drinking coffee, then he wasn't awake enough to cook anything without burning it.
By the time he reached school, everyone noticed his shiny new trinket. However most teachers turned a blind eye because Yugi was always wearing some new accessory and it was easier to wait it out. He barely got away with the clear coat on his nails as it was.
Anzu looked incredibly shaken, and Yugi put a calming hand on hers. To be fair, Ushio and his thugs had cornered her and made it clear what they would do to her if Yugi didn't pay up the money he "owed" them for protection, with interest for daring to fight back. She was under no illusions what they would do to her, and it was fortunate they were all stupid enough to accept Yami's challenge while leaving her mostly unguarded.
He had broken the lock and left, without her finding out who her savior was.
He debated on whether to wear the Puzzle through the mirror, but it was a gaudy artifact and he highly doubted anyone would equate "Vil" to the pharaoh's reincarnation. Besides, most of the crazies demanded duels first and no one would be able to do something like that at a shoot without the idiots being thrown out first and the cops being called.
With that in mind, Yugi placed his puzzle down and went through the mirror like usual. It took all of fifteen minutes for him to switch to Vil, as he had it down to an art. His father was away on a movie shoot, but he was okay with that.
It felt good slipping into his usual heels and clothes. While he had gotten used to his old persona, he really only felt comfortable as Vil.
It was worth the hell he put himself through doing a complete rebranding of his life and appearance just to get away from being forever in the Pharaoh's shadow, simply because he was the man's reincarnation.
Well...that and to get as far away from the most obnoxious stalker in his life. He refused to cater to that arrogant asshole's ego another second, especially since he was more obsessed with the Pharaoh than he was with Yugi.
He came back after a few hours and promptly crashed on his bed. It had been a long day and he knew that he was in for even longer ones because the Pharaoh was 'awake' and the Puzzle was back in circulation.
He still didn't know how to feel about having his other half sharing space in his soul again. It had taken years of therapy for him to reconcile he was gone the first time.