It was a very, very good thing Mokuba chose to stay with Ichigo while his brother recovered from whatever the hell the spirit did to him. A few days tinkering would do wonders.
However finding out Pegasus Crawford was at Kaiba Corp with the full board had the boy really worried.
Meeting Ichigo's sister Karin was interesting at least.
"NO WAY! How the hell did you meet Mokuba Kaiba, the Capsule Monster Kid?!"
Mokuba blushed.
"You remember that?"
"Dude, you're still the highest ranked Capsule Monster player on the online games!" said Karin.
Karin immediately dug through her bag to pull out...a laptop?
She brought up the game...before she pointed out her username.
"You're Soul_Girl? I've heard of you," said Mokuba impressed.
"Have fun, I cleared the table if you want to play," said Ichigo.
With those two sufficiently distracted, Ichigo helped Yuzu put up the groceries for the week. After that he ordered pizza, since Karin and Mokuba were still debating the merits of some game thing or another.
"So let me get this straight. Some idiot came through a tape...and stole your grandfather's soul?" said Ichigo. Yugi had called him almost immediately, likely because Kaiba had confronted him about the fact he had been the one to break the possession...or the spirit in the puzzle had.
So now Ichigo had become their official channel for anything spirit related, since he seemed to know something about them.
At least Mokuba was safe. He and Karin had hit it off over something called Capsule Monsters (which he didn't even try to understand, so long as they didn't try to drag him into it) and because they had hit it off, Karin had chased off some thugs who tried to kidnap him.
A single kid trying to fight off a bunch of thugs was one thing...a thirteen-year-old girl screaming pedophile got a lot more attention than a boy being dragged into a car.
Especially if said girl had a strong pair of legs she wasn't afraid to use against the men in question. Ichigo was proud to say his sisters knew how to defend themselves against bigger opponents.
That tends to happen when you ask your best friend (the second-best fighter in Japan, and that only because of a broken arm) to teach them self-defense against perverts and pushy fighters.
Karin had taken to it more than Yuzu had.
Ichigo had made a point to keep an eye on Mokuba at all times, and to establish a procedure.
For one thing, he had to let him know if he was going to go shopping, or visit the arcade. And if anything seemed hinky he was to call him immediately, and Ichigo would come find him.
Considering for some reason, people always seemed to be kidnapping him to use against his older brother, Mokuba didn't mind. Ichigo gave him space, but also made sure he knew what to do if he needed him. He was like a bodyguard who at least gave him privacy and didn't ask awkward questions unless they were needed.
Mokuba knew Ichigo was basically living off an allowance from his father in Karakura...there were few stores willing to hire an orange haired teenager with a background for being a troublemaker in his home town.
The fact most of that was gangs who thought Ichigo was a delinquent because of his natural hair color...well, it was something they didn't want to invite.
Ichigo might make an excellent bodyguard.
"No, I don't know how they managed that...though I know quite a few people who are going to be really pissed off someone living is messing with souls like that," said Ichigo to Yugi. This sounded like the sort of thing that would really tick off the Soul Society.
Too bad he lost the ability to contact them... or maybe not.
"Let me make some calls. I know someone who might be able to get a hold of the people who generally deal with stuff like this."
Once he hung up on a frantic Yugi, who was being blackmailed into attending this Duelist Kingdom nonsense, he promptly dialed the number to the shop Urahara owned. If anyone knew about this nonsense, it had to be him.
"Urahara Shop," said Ururu.
"Is hat-and-clogs there? I got something that might interest him, or at the very least something that would definitely set the Soul Society into a real snit," said Ichigo.
It took a moment for Ururu to recognize his voice, but once she did she said "I'll tell the boss you need him."
A few minutes later Urahara came on the phone.
"Ichigo! How's Domino city? Is it really as game obsessed as the rumors say?"
"It's fine, and yes the rumors are in fact true. Should hear the ones I keep hearing about Karakura," said Ichigo.
"So what seems to be the problem?"
"In a word? Possession."
"Really. Tell me more," said Urahara eagerly.
The minute Urahara heard about the puzzle, Ichigo could practically hear him wince over the phone.
"A puzzle you say. Does it have some sort of Egyptian background and the eye of Horus on the front?"
"He did mention his grandfather picked it up in Egypt, why? And I wouldn't know what the Eye of Horus would look like."
"Dammit...that explains the weird surge that was felt a year ago... Look Ichigo, the best I can do is warn you to avoid anyone with anything made of gold who rambles about 'shadows' and 'magic' in the same sentence. They generally have an item with a stylized eye somewhere that's made of gold, except for one that resembles an Ankh with the bottom that looks like a key."
"Why?"
"Because they're a headache and a half, that's why! The damn things were made from the bodies and souls of a village of Jews around 5,000 years ago, and two souls were later trapped in what looks like a dreamcatcher and an upside down pyramid. According to rumor, the dreamcatcher has a tomb robber that caused trouble back then and the puzzle has the pharaoh who tried to stop him... I think, and this is only the bare bones of what I heard, that the robber was one of those living in the village that was sacrificed to make them. I can look this up, but it'll take time."
Ichigo winced. This sounded a hell of a lot more complicated than he thought.
"Can any of them remove the souls of the living and put them into cards?"
"All of them can, it just takes practice and inclination. Which one in particular are you trying to find more about?"
"He said it looked like he had a gold eye in his head where the right one should have been," said Ichigo.
"Millennium Eye. It makes reading the mind or going into someone else's a lot easier, and for the full power to be used you have to replace one of your own with the damn thing. All seven of those pieces are nasty, and the only friendly one I've heard about was the puzzle, which was the one with the pharaoh's soul stuck inside."
"Well that explains the possession I saw. Keep me posted," said Ichigo.
"Only if you keep me updated on what you learn about them. We don't have much because it was in another jurisdiction and the fact they were only active for a couple of years before there was a massive upheaval. A lot of the information about them was lost in the shuffle," said Urahara.
"So do I have any jurisdiction in this? I mean concerning the soul society and what not?"
"Considering the one that dealt with this last time was destroyed and then had to be remade, I doubt they'll give you too much trouble... the one with the Puzzle is Japanese right?"
"His name is Yugi for kami's sake. Who else who name their kid the Japanese word for 'game'?"
"In that case we do have jurisdiction. Just be careful," said Urahara.
Ichigo caught up to Yugi with Mokuba tagging along. Outside of chatting with Karin about the various video games they both enjoyed (and doing his homework online once he explained the situation to the teacher) he was quite bored.
"Okay, what little information I was able to get from my contact is more than enough to tell me you're in for some trouble."
"What do you mean?" asked Jounouchi dumbly.
The only reason Ichigo could get along with this particular idiot was because like him, the blond had a younger sister he was fiercely overprotective of. And that was something Ichigo could get behind. The fact the girl only needed a very expensive surgery before she was able to see meant that he was a little bit nicer to the guy.
It was also why Ichigo fully planned to give Jounouchi his phone number if he needed help...though once he learned of the teen's living situation he would consider giving him the spare key to his apartment.
He was an idiot, but he was a tolerable one. If could deal with the annoying midget who was so out of date that she kept getting her ideas of modern culture from books and manga, he could live with the blond fool who was at least current with the usual trends.
"Well?" pressed Anzu.
"Okay, with what little I did notice and what I saw during that duel with Kaiba... Yugi, the Puzzle is some sort of soul container for a 5,000-year-old Pharaoh. I'm guessing being stuck in a puzzle that was in pieces didn't do him any good for his memory, so that might explain why when he exorcised Kaiba it was so rough. Either that or he's not very good at it."
"Really?" said Yugi with open interest.
"Yeah, but considering what I heard went into making it, I'm pretty sure these things are going to come back to bite you in the ass. Especially considering my contact said there was a second soul sealed into another item that was likely going to be very, very pissed off with the one in yours. Probably enough that he'll want to kill you without hesitation," said Ichigo.
"Eep!"
"Why would anyone want to kill Yugi?!" said Anzu horrified and angry.
"Not Yugi. The spirit in his puzzle. The only reason this second spirit might go after him would be to get at the one in the puzzle," clarified Ichigo patiently.
"Why would hate this spirit so much?" asked Yugi wide-eyed.
"From what I understand, the Puzzle and six others like it were made from a village. The other spirit is supposedly the survivor of the massacre. Now either the spirit in the puzzle was behind that attack, or someone closely related to him was. And considering the practices of Ancient Egypt..." said Ichigo.
Yugi grimaced. Ichigo might have only learned the bare bones of ancient Egypt after looking it up, but Yugi was quite a bit more informed.
"What?" asked Honda.
"The pharaohs of ancient Egypt had a really bad habit of marrying their siblings in an attempt to keep the bloodline 'pure'," explained Yugi.
"Ew," said Anzu.
"In fact it's why King Tut didn't have any living children, despite the fact he had been married before his death. He married his half-sister slash cousin and their children were all stillborn," said Yugi. He found Egypt fascinating, so he listened to his Grandfather about it.
"That is just gross," said Anzu.
"Considering in Japan you're legally allowed to marry your cousin provided you're not too closely related, I don't think we have any room to talk," said Ichigo dryly.
"Can we change the subject please?" begged Anzu. This was really too gross to talk about.
"Anyway from what you told me about this Pegasus, he has the Millennium Eye, which gives you the ability to read other people's minds easier and steal their soul. So try not to make eye contact if you can help it," said Ichigo.
"I really wish I had known that sooner," said Yugi wincing.
"I'm more worried about how my brother's going to take all this," said Mokuba.
"Why?"
"He's pissed that he got beat by some ghost. If he finds out Pegasus can do something similar..." said Mokuba.
"Yeah, well since this is in Japan, I have some ability to help. So long as we don't get separated, you should be fine. It would be interesting to see how Pegasus handles someone like me," said Ichigo cryptically.
He had been hearing whispers in the back of his head ever since the duel between Kaiba and this second spirit.
Most people would be freaking out about such a thing. Ichigo took comfort in it.
He recognized the voices.
"Okay, can you explain to me how the hell I got an invite to this tournament when I don't even own a deck?" asked Ichigo highly confused.
The two of them had come back to the apartment only to find an Industrial Illusions box at the door. Once confirming the thing wasn't a trap box (via throwing it hard into the spare bedroom, where it collided with a wall), Ichigo had opened it...to find an invitation to the Duelist Kingdom tournament.
"I'm betting Pegasus is using this to get to me, since he hasn't been able to get past you," said Mokuba.
"Well there's only one thing to do with this thing," said Ichigo.
"What?"
"I'm calling tall, blond and dumb to see if he wants a free ride into the tournament. I only need one card and one 'star chip' to get into the place. No one said I have to keep the stupid glove or duel anyone," said Ichigo smirking.
Mokuba blinked, before he started laughing.
"You're just going to treat this as a camping trip aren't you?"
"Damn straight!"
That made the kid laugh even harder. Finding out Ichigo wasn't a duelist, at all, was sure to piss off Pegasus. Especially since the only reason he had sent that box was to entice Ichigo to test his luck and possibly kidnap Mokuba. The fact Ichigo was planning to do this on a televised tournament made it even funnier.
Seto was sure to have a good long laugh at this.