Aaron was stunned that he hadn't noticed it sooner than he did, but since they had gotten to the venue for the duel, Yugi had looked a lot like the stranger from their dreams. The scowl on his face, the way his amethyst eyes seemed to bore through the eyes into the soul of whoever happened to meet his gaze. This wasn't the same Yugi that had happily smiled and reassured them there was no need for stage fright during the upcoming duel. Something was bothering this Yugi, something Aaron couldn't understand at that moment, and if he were honest with himself, he wasn't sure how to broach the topic. He didn't know Yugi well enough to know what topics might be off-limits.
Later that evening, Yugi and Yami were in Yugi's bedroom discussing Bakura's words and what they meant for their future.
"I don't get it; why send Bakura as a messenger? Anyone who knows us would know we wouldn't believe him." Yugi sighed as he sat back in bed.
"That's true, Aibou, but there have been other signs… signs that we can't find a reason for," Yami replied. Yugi could see his translucent form sitting on the edge of his bed, but if anyone else had entered the room, it would have looked like Yugi was talking to himself. That was why they never pulled out this little parlor trick anywhere but Yugi's bedroom. They also had conversations where Yugi stood in front of a mirror, and Yami appeared in the reflection, but as with the bedroom trick, Yugi was the only one who saw Yami; anyone else would think Yugi was talking to his reflection.
"True, and honestly, I feel bad for Emily; it feels like she was randomly thrown into the middle of this with no knowledge of what's happening." Yugi sighed.
"Me too, but Aibou, did you see how she looked at me… I think she knows more than she's letting on. I think they both have a lot of information thrown at them that they don't yet understand."
"Like us… yeah, I got that too." Yugi replied, "I wonder if our friends are getting these weird dreams, too."
"I don't know. They haven't said anything, but then we have never said anything to them either," Yami replied.
"That's true…" Yugi replied thoughtfully. If he were honest, he was worried about going to his friends about these dreams. There was a good chance he was reading a lot into nothing, but combined with what Bakura had said, he worried that maybe there was more to this than he thought.
Yugi was about to try to sleep when his phone rang.
"Hello?" Yugi said.
"Yugi, hey man, we need to talk…" it was Jonouchi.
"What's the matter, Jonouchi?" Yugi asked.
Yugi almost dropped the phone when Jonouchi described the same dream he'd been having about a boy and girl with the Eye of Horus or something remarkably similar in appearance on their heads. From Yugi's research, it could be a variation of the Eye of Horus, or it could have been the Eye of Ra, which was similar in appearance but was often depicted as the opposite eye as the one of Horus. As usual, Yami's memory being nothing more or less than a complete blank slate meant he was useless.
"That is crazy, I've been having the same dream," Yugi replied unable to hide the shock in his voice. He looked over to where Yami was still present in his translucent state, listening in and looking shocked at the revelation that Jonouchi was also involved. Then he thought about it: if he and Yugi were almost counted as one and he was a leader, Jonouchi was as close as he'd ever come to having a right-hand-man since Battle City when he'd allowed Yugi, and more importantly, his friends, to know that he existed. That led to them becoming his friends and making them extremely valuable to him.
"What about Yami, does he have any idea what all this means?" Jonouchi asked.
Yami shook his head silently.
"Nope, he's just as confused as the rest of us, and he isn't happy about it," Yugi replied, though it probably went without saying that a mystery Yami couldn't solve irked him more than a little.
"Was there ever any doubt he'd be annoyed by this?" Jonouchi asked.
"Nope, but I agree with him, this is annoying. I feel like we've got a puzzle to piece together but as it stands we only have about half the pieces." Yugi sighed and Yami had to agree with him the analogy made sense.
"Let's try t' get some sleep and maybe some o' this will make sense in the morning?" Jonouchi suggested and Yugi had to admit it sounded like the best plan any of them could come up with at that moment.
"Sounds good to me," Yugi replied tiredly, punctuating the sentence with a yawn.
"G'night, Yugi," Jonouchi sighed.
"Good night," Yugi said, then hung up the phone.
"Sleep well, Aibou," Yami said softly as Yugi drifted off, hinting at a brotherly affection.
"Good night…" Yugi replied, rolling over to go to sleep.
That night, more dreams would come, and more details began to come to light, but nothing would bring answers, just more questions that seemed to linger far after they all woke up.
The next day, Yugi still felt he had no answers about what was happening. He was opening some card packs when he uncovered something that completely stunned him: a Wingweaver card.
"Now I understand why she was so attached to this card." He said to Yami as he looked over the monster's stats.
"2,750 attack stat 2,500 defense, that's nothing to sneeze at" Yami agreed as they looked over the card Emily had been so disappointed she hadn't had to use against them. She was strong enough to take out his Dark Magician without a hiccup, and it wouldn't take much to boost her to Blue Eyes level.
"I say we hold onto this card and get it back to Emily" Yugi suggested.
"I agree," Yami replied, the thought of the symbol around Emily's neck still troubling him.
Yugi was also thinking about it, so he went to his computer and looked into Egyptian Gods, loosely describing what he'd seen when his grandfather noticed what he was looking at.
"What brought this on, Yugi?" Sugoroku asked in confusion.
"Oh, the girl I was supposed to duel had a pendant with an Egyptian Goddess on it and I was trying to figure out who it was and what they were about," Yugi replied.
"From that description, my best guess is that the goddess you're looking for is Isis," Sugoroku explained .
"That might explain how she threw Bakura's toxin off so fast if that pendant has some of the power of Isis in it," Yugi said to Yami.
" I don't know… it did look old; perhaps it was imbued with power," Yami replied, deep in thought. "I couldn't tell for sure; I wasn't paying enough attention to it to see if I felt any power off it. I won't make that mistake again; I will find out if that pendant is a magical artifact next time we meet with Emily."
Yugi looked to his grandfather, fighting back the urge to ask him if he knew of more magical Egyptian artifacts. He didn't want his grandfather to worry about him; the older man had enough on his plate worrying about the Millennium items being dangerous to him; he didn't want to awaken any new fears.
It took Yami a few seconds longer than it should have to figure out why Yugi didn't ask his grandfather about the pendant. He understood that he did not want to stress Sugoroku out any more than absolutely necessary. Yugi's grandfather wasn't a young man by any means, and they were both aware that his heart wasn't as strong as it once had been. That meant limiting what Sugoroku was allowed to know. That was why Yugi had kept him in the dark about Yami's presence, why Yami worked so hard to appear to be Yugi while he was in Sugoroku's presence. Mostly that meant limiting his interactions with Sugoroku to as short a time as possible. Duel, win, switch back before Sugoroku can talk to him and realize he isn't Yugi. As far as they could tell, they were being successful and keeping their secrets.
Sugoroku looked at his grandson as he sat back in his chair. He wondered what was going through his mind. He also wondered how long he would try to hide that another spirit was in his young body. Sugoroku walked away, fighting the urge to shake his head at his grandson. As much as they tried to fool him into thinking it was just Yugi, it didn't work. He knew Yugi too well to be fooled by the spirit. He was good at convincing others they were the same person, but Sugoroku had known Yugi too long to be fooled.
This 'other Yugi' was different; it wasn't that Yugi wasn't polite; this spirit was more so. He was also extraordinarily self-assured and had an air about him that seemed almost royal as if, in life, he had perhaps either been in line to be pharaoh or, more likely, had actually been a pharaoh.
The legends had said the Millennium Puzzle had once belonged to a pharaoh whose name was lost to history and a lot about whom he had been in life. Though if the spirit's current behavior was anything to go by, Sugoroku couldn't see him as anything but a kind and benevolent pharaoh.
Sugoroku smiled as he closed the door between the house and the game shop. He would play along for now. Clearly, Yugi and this spirit didn't want him to know that he existed, so unless something happened, he would let them believe they had succeeded in their attempts to keep him deceived.
Yami looked at Yugi in concern.
"You don't think he knows anything, do you?"
"About what?"
"About me, Aibou, about the fact that I exist in your mind," Yami replied.
"No, I don't think so," Yugi replied, but it came outless confident than he intended.
Yami gave him a skeptical look.
"Yugi, think about it. He has known you for your entire life; of all the people we come across, he knows you best, and I'm not certain I have convinced him that I am you."
"I don't know. The time may be coming for us to come out and introduce you to him." Yugi replied.
"Are you sure, Aibou?" Yami asked hesitantly.
"Yes, we won't be able to fool him forever. Frankly, I'm not sure we're fooling him now. If I were honest, I think he's humoring us. He knows a lot more than he's letting on" Yugi replied. "Though I think we don't have to do anything today."
Yami seemed relieved that revealing his existence to Sugoroku would hold at least a few days. He had too much on his mind to attempt to explain the how and why of his existence to Yugi's grandfather, especially since he wasn't sure he fully understood them himself.
Meanwhile, Emily looked at the strange third amulet their grandfather had given them.
"Grandpa said we would know who to give this to." Aaron sighed.
"I know, but how are we going to know that?"
"I guess the same way we knew which amulet was ours." Aaron shrugged.
"I have this strange feeling we've met the person destined to wield this." She said.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I don't know his name; he was with Yugi today?"
"Jonouchi?" Aaron said in confusion.
"I think so," Emily replied, looking the Amulet of Montu over in her hands.
"We'll have to see." Aaron shrugged.
To Be Continued…