Leona was not looking forward to babysitting his nephew at the zoo, much less guiding around a tourist and his local boyfriend. He took one look at the tourist and had to repress a sneer at him. The kid was wearing a golden pendant, sensible clothes for the heat and his hair was barely held back by the hat he was wearing.
It took him several moments to realize the 'boyfriend' was in fact Rook Hunt.
Not his problem, though he wondered how the tourist would react to Rook meeting Vil and dumping him. Pretty much all of Night Raven knew that Rook and Vil were a couple by their third year.
Amethyst colored eyes looked to Leona's green, and a shiver of recognition filled him.
"Let's get this over with," sighed Leona annoyed. He adjusted his grip on Cheka's toddler leash, which he had bought rather than carry the kid everywhere. Farena was sure to be pissed, but he wasn't the one chasing down his wild child of a son either.
Cheka gleefully ran around with the energy of a toddler, while the teens wandered around the zoo. With Leona there, they got to see parts that were unavailable to the public.
Leona had the weirdest sense of familiarity with the blond in the hat, but it wasn't until he passed by close while using the restroom that he realized why. He knew that scent.
"Cat got your tongue, Leona?" said Vil smugly.
"You son of a bitch," said Leona, growling. That explained why Rook was acting so lovey-dovey with his boyfriend.
"And that's all the confirmation I needed that you remember as well," deadpanned Vil.
"Wait... you mean you..." started Leona.
"I'll explain everything in a less public setting, but I've confirmed that everyone present during that incident in Tartarus remembers...all least all those who were directly challenging the phantoms anyway."
The second they left the zoo and Cheka was transferred back to his parents, Leona confronted them. It was good to know he wasn't going crazy after all.
Though he did raise an eyebrow when Vil briefly left...and came back with not only Riddle and Grim, but Idia and the twins as well.
"How many of us?" he asked.
"We haven't been able to contact Azul, Jamil, Epel or Yuu," said Vil. "For whatever reason anyone who was exposed to high levels of shadow magic have retained their memories of Idia's Overblot."
"Shadow magic is a myth," said Leona.
"It's not a myth,"said Yami, causing Leona to sit up straight and stared at what he thought was Vil. Yami chuckled darkly at his reaction.
"I still find it weird that Vil willingly allowed himself to be possessed," said Idia.
"But it's so fascinating though!" said Ortho Alpha.
"What the actual fuck," said Leona.
Vil switched back, which was beyond weird.
"What the actual hell was that?" asked Leona.
"That was Yami taking over. This pendant is part of a cursed set of seven, and belonged to a pharaoh from five thousand years ago," said Vil. "His spirit possesses it, and since I'm his reincarnation he has the ability to swap places with me."
At this point he was just thrilled that spending time with Rook meant he avoided most of the headaches of the thugs who had come in looking for the God Cards. His grandfather had been visiting his father at the time (Vil had made sure of that) so the only thing left was to let the cops deal with it and handle the insurance claims.
Leona had an incredulous expression on his face as Vil explained things to him. But on the plus side he wasn't alone anymore and now he knew he wasn't crazy.
Then Vil dropped a bombshell.
"Wait...you want me to what?" said Leona.
Vil had a pained look on his face, but at the same time he could understand the reasoning behind it. Did not mean he wanted to deal with it just yet.
"Pegasus sent paperwork shortly after Battle City which would transfer over ownership of Industrial Illusions to me once I graduate college. I have no intention of keeping the current board of directors around, and Riddle's already agreed to take over the legal department."
"And what's in it for me?" said Leona.
"You want to improve the lives of the people in the Sunset Savanna, but your brother is stuck on traditions, correct?" said Vil.
Leona said nothing, but Vil knew he had the lion's full attention.
"What better way to convince him to improve the infrastructure than to draw even more tourists to the savanna, thus forcing him to add a few minor changes?"
"Like what?"
"Solar energy and wind energy for starters," said Vil. "You could also introduce natural filtration and clean powered wells to the lower income areas."
He had Leona's full interest now. Farena refused to add more machines to the Sunset Savanna, preferring to stick with traditions and long held beliefs than modern innovation. And using natural methods cost a considerable amount of time, money and energy, never mind the higher maintenance fees.
"He'll never go for it," said Leona.
"Who said he had to be involved? I highly doubt the Crown Prince is involved with every new development outside the capital city, and has many, many subordinates who keep track of that sort of thing and merely give him reports," said Vil smugly. Leona snorted at that. "We can drum up business with some entertainment like dueling, movies and the like and you can improve the lives of the citizens by claiming you're doing it for another project. By the time Farena notices it'll be too late."
Leona had a dark smirk on his face.
"What's in it for you?"
"I get someone on the board I know isn't going to screw me over and is generally competent that I can tolerate," said Vil without hesitation. "Plus this means you can bring Ruggie in early, and if Farena ever cuts you off for dating the hyena you have a fall back option."
Leona looked openly interested in the idea. At the very least, he had someone to vent to now who would understand.
Though he still found Vil's ability to create his own travel mirror fascinating. Solomon soon found the lion-kin avoiding his brother by crashing on the couch, and turned a blind eye.
It drove Farena absolutely nuts trying to track down his brother, and Leona got a kick out of avoiding his family for hours on end without worrying about being forced into some boring function with simpering females he wanted nothing to do with.
It was good to have friends who aided and abetted your bad behaviors.
Yugi opened the door to the shop and was unsurprised to see the face waiting.
"Hench-human!" said Grim, all but darting to the girl.
Yuu bent down and scooped up her familiar and hugged Grim tightly.
"Thank you for taking care of him," said Yuu, almost in tears with relief.
"After what you did for me at the VDC, it was the least I could do. Would you like some tea?"
"Please," she said with relief.
Yuu found herself at a nice, quiet table and was still hugging Grim. She was so happy to have her friend back.
"First off, you're not the only one who remembers. So far the only ones I haven't confirmed yet are Epel, Azul, and Jamil, and that's mostly because they're harder to reach than the others. I would have gone looking for you personally, but you never told us what your address was," said Vil patiently.
"I'm just glad I saw Grim during that interview," said Yuu. "I had no idea you were actually Yugi Muto, the King of Games."
"I had to do a massive rebranding because Kaiba is a major stalker who wouldn't leave the fact he was second best alone and insisted on dueling me every time he got a new toy to use," said Yugi tiredly. He smiled when Yuu put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm fine, but at least now I have better support to deal with his nonsense."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"First off, we're getting you a proper phone. Don't think I've forgotten about that outdated model you had before that couldn't even connect properly to your home."
Yuu was incredibly silent.
"Yuu...is there something I should know about your homelife?" said Yugi quietly.
"I'm fine," she said, almost out of habit.
"Uh-huh. Just so you know we've already removed Riddle from his bitch of a mother, and he's been attending proper therapy," said Yugi calmly.
Her eyes were wide at that.
"You...what?"
"I can call him and he could be here in less than twenty minutes. A bit more if he's in a tutoring session, but I'm pretty sure he's off today because it's Tuesday."
She nodded, and within twenty minutes Riddle showed up. His eyes widened in recognition. Yuu immediately hugged him, which was a little awkward but the sheer relief on her face seeing yet another familiar face made up for it.
Yugi left them to catch up, as Yuu had always spent more time with the Heartsabyl dorm than most of the others. To be fair, she was as thick as thieves with Ace and Deuce.
Idia came over shortly after getting the call.
"So Yuu is here too?"
"Think you can do a background check? I want to know what she's not telling me, and if necessary relocate her somewhere closer."
Idia nodded, and it only took him two hours to figure out the truth. Yuu's parents were workaholics, and were typical Japanese salarymen who spent a ridiculous number of hours at work, leaving their teenage daughter alone. Yuu's grades were good, and she had a handful of friends from the photos, but she wasn't really that close from the pictures and it was clear she was really lonely.
Having Grim would help, but having her closer would be better. Yugi made a note to introduce her to Anzu and Mai...Yuu could use some female friends to talk to that were used to the crazies.
A few hours later...
Anzu didn't even hesitate, the second Yugi introduced Yuu to the group.
"She can crash at my place, once things get settled," she said.
"Are you sure?" asked Yugi.
"Mom and dad aren't likely to care since it's another girl, and this way I can stay close to my best friend," said Anzu dismissively. "Besides, I need another girl to vent to other than Mai about the sheer insanity that keeps following you."
Yugi realized with some guilt he had been pushing Honda and Anzu away, but it was honestly for their safety.
"Thanks," said Yugi.
"Do I get a say in this?" asked Yuu jokingly.
"Let me put it this way. We're setting things up so you aren't at home alone and you still have contact with your friends and Grim, plus this is in a much better school district," said Yugi.
Yuu stared at him.
"Wait...how do you..."
Yugi nodded to Idia, who was cuddling Grim at the moment while Beta was out with Noah driving Kaiba nuts...again.
Kaiba hated it when the two showed up, because his systems always went haywire and it took hours to fix. Yugi called it karmic payback.
"Besides, this gives me a chance to overhaul that wardrobe of yours and make sure you get sorted properly next time," said Yugi.
Yuu stared at him in disbelief.
"What do you mean?"
"Eh, spend some time around Yug' and you'll end up picking up on how to use magic," said Jounouchi. "He's already helped me fill out an application, since the fact I remember everything means I have some as well."
"I can't wait to unleash Bakura and Marik on the Royal Sword Academy. Let's see how Neige reacts when his shit goes missing constantly," said Yugi with dark glee.
Marik...was more surprised that there were mage academies, much less that the pharaoh's other half was helping him apply with Odion. Bakura was already counting down the days, and was eager to rob even more people blind. Even better, no one would suspect the sweet and innocent Ryou of being the thief!
