Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: Annnd back to fixing the chapters so they make 4 pages each... here's to hoping I don't end up with another 7 pager...

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Sure Rashid and Isis were close to Yugi, but he was their reincarnated ruler. It was less that he was their 'friend' and more like they were returning to service. With the bitter taste of irony that he was being forced to work with the two actual friends that he had brainwashed. Jounouchi was a bit of an idiot, with flashes of insight that made dealing with him not completely unbearable, when demon hunting. Anzu on the other hand, was more mature with a closeness to Yugi in another manner all together...

… Close... there was a thought... Mahaado always looked at Yugi as 'Pharaoh'. As he thought on it, Malik began trying to figure out where Anzu's role would exist in those ancient times. Realistically she was looking to be a professional dancer, she certainly took a great deal of joy out of the art. Only that would put her lower on the caste to anything Mahaado should feel required to act on. However; if Mahaado felt there was more between Yugi and Anzu, was it possible that he saw her as a potential wife?

It would be easy for him to assume dating in the same context as the Pharaoh looking for a bride. Meaning that Mahaado 'could' be acting out on his own in respect or silently endorsing a potential 'future Queen' as it were. 'Hey Anzu? You and Yugi plan on dating any time soon? If not you might want to explain to Mahaado that you're not striving for the title of 'Future Great Queen', that could help you out...'

Nope, Malik wasn't saying a 'word', to Anzu. He would discuss the hell out of this with Bakura because it was incredibly interesting and insightful... just not with Anzu in ear shot thank you. He wasn't a blind fool and saw how Bakura acted whenever there was even a whiff of 'angry Anzu'. Instead he settled for, "'Kura made it sound like the bullying was going on before Kaiba took over though, so was Mahaado active back then as well?"

"I... I'm not sure about that," Anzu confessed as she finally began relaxing into her seat. "He might have been doing small, minor things and it escalated when Kaiba took over... it would make sense because it would make this an escalation. If he 'wasn't' doing anything before then, however..."

"Xausing people to fall down stairs, albeit without substantial injury 'is' a pretty high bar to start with in terms of disciplining." Malik finished the thought out loud for Anzu as they sat there. It was a dark place to start, since none of them Bakura included, knew what Mahaado's life was like originally. "Maybe my siblings know? They've been remembering the past after all," Malik suggested only to have Anzu shoot that down with a shake of her head.

"I don't think so, Yugi remembers enough that he knows they don't live in the Palace with him when he was small. When Yugi talks about what he remembers, it sounds pretty dark. Mahaado was apparently beaten, how much is up for debate for now. But Mahaado confirmed that all the other priests lived in temples serving their masters by learning their future duties. Only the General and High Magician lived in the palace to defend the Pharaoh. So if there was abuse, I doubt Isis or Rashid saw it," Anzu explained.

"But it would explain why Kaiba would let Mahaado have a free run of the school," Malik accepted thoughtfully. Without coming right out and bringing Noa's whole situation back out onto the verbal discussion table. It was far beyond clear that Kaiba was only adopted as a host body, so expecting Gozoboro to care about Kaiba anymore than that was out of the question. Kaiba getting those ancient memories back would, undoubtedly, make him more sympathetic to Mahaado's state of mind. More over, given how much Kaiba kept to himself, it would make it damn well near, if not outright impossible, to get Kaiba to 'talk' about that point.

"That's so sad too. Kaiba was Yugi's General, they would have the most contact with each other so seeing a friend who had been victimized. After being abused himself in this life time, poor Kaiba, does he even know 'what' to do?"

"Clearly the suggestion 'talk to a teacher' isn't an option he can use," Malik snarked at Anzu given what they had already discussed. Causing Anzu to wince as she sat there acknowledging his unspoken irritation over the fact. Teachers who did nothing for their bullied students sat pretty close to Maliks' own father.

A silence that began to stretch when Anzu suddenly stiffed, "oh! That's right! I was wondering how well the search was going for the country you're looking for!"

Malik, who had resumed his more comfortable sprawl on Bakura's couch blinked in surprise before shrugging in indifference. "About as well as can be expected when you're dealing with ancient spirits."

"Malik, sit up, there's no reason why we can't help them you know!" Anzu scolded as she looked down at the set of cards before picking them up. "After all, they can see color right? They don't need to know the country to start with, we just need to know the country's flag! And that means we need to know the colors, then can narrow down to the design of the flag."

Being scolded was one thing, he almost disregarded her instruction until she brought up the colors. Flags had different colors? "But Japan's is just white and red, and America has white, red and blue..." He pointed out, there wasn't any objection in his tone as he pushed himself to his feet. The outside world was vast and she was suddenly so fixated on what she was doing it took him back a few paces.

"True a lot of flags share colors, but that's where the shapes will come in handy," Anzu distractedly explained as she flipped through each card. There was a surprisingly wide selection of words to choose from, and she began to pull out a series of colors she found as she spoke.

"Hmm, I didn't do a lot of color or shape cards, I'll have to make more, or at least make a list that the spirits can use. If 'Kura isn't on his way back yet," Malik pointed out as he went into the kitchen.

"Oh..." Anzu blinked as she looked up from the cards in her hands, she parted what she could and placed them on the table before going back to the 'yes' and 'no' cards. "Ah... is Ryou on his way back?" She asked placing the cards face up on the table before her.

Meanwhile Malik went digging around the drawers in the kitchen, seeking out those recipe cards that Bakura used. There 'were' blanks that Bakura used when he found new recipes and now Malik was digging through to find 'those'. Otherwise it was dig through and find the ones for school. Malik was not interested in dying prematurely so the school ones were off limits.

Once those were in hand he had returned to the table, where Anzu had been transcribing something from her phone. Obediently he had reclaimed his own pen and in time he had managed to write down a series of colors, and symbol shapes for each card. Then having to translate all of that into Ancient Egyptian. It was time consuming, but strangely fascinating as he went about working while Anzu watched. Eventually the small table they were using was covered in a number of cards that listed numbers to colors, to different patterns that the flag could have on it to shapes of symbols.

It was game like, a light chill as the spirits joined in to help them figure out the mystery of where Josie was. The maps were useless since they required physical man made lines that were impossible to see with the naked eye, ghost or otherwise. Also there just wasn't cards to explain what the Ghosts saw given that they didn't have words for a lot of it either. Having conversations with Spirits who knew things, but not how to describe them. What building didn't did 'not' have a roof? A challenge to be sure.

"Yeah, they can't even tell 'Kura because things like 'cars' are rather generic... Anything that they can use, well reading a different language can be difficult as well." It had been Malik's explanation between cards when his hand started cramping.

In the quiet of the room, as Malik had written on the cards, it hadn't taken long to figure out the Spirits were signaling that there were only two colors on the flag itself. So Anzu had taken a blank card for herself and began transcribing from her phone. Writing all the flags that were listed as having two colors as well as what those two colors were. It wasn't a long list, but it was time consuming to go through each one and write, refreshing the screen on her phone.

Now they stared at a series of cards before them with a perplexed expression on both faces of the living. There was a card reading 'blue', one reading 'white', and one reading 'cross', simple enough one would imagine, Anzu had been quite pleased when she recognized Finlands' flag colors.

Only to have the 'No' card slide out and near force its way onto their work.

Malik groaned as he rolled his shoulders, fiddling with his pen between his fingers as he looked at the cards before them. Anzu was sitting between the couch and table face down with her head pillowed on her arms in mounting frustration. For it was frustrating, the Spirits clearly had a solid idea of what was going on, but whatever it was, the living were missing it...?

"So the flag has blue..."

The 'yes' card wiggled on the table.

"And white..."

More wiggling from the card came, though there was a decided sharpness to the movements now unlike before. A clear sign that the Spirits were getting frustrated with this barrier to their communication as well.

"And a cross..." Malik finished, feeling the same frustration that sent Anzu face down on the table.

The 'yes' card didn't bother stopping in its wiggling.

"So its 'Finland'." Malik stated only to watch as the 'yes' card stopped and the 'no' started dancing more actively. Giving the poor blond a feeling that the Spirits were about to wave the card in defeat. Maybe they would be served better if they waited until 'Kura returned to his apartment. So they could explain what they were trying to say to the living.

"Oh, then I guess they mean 'Scotland'..."

Ryou's chipper, clipped, voice cut through the air with the same bright cheer of someone who had some actual god damn tea and snacks.

The voices of Anzu and Malik, in contrast, were high pitched and terrified screams. Anzu shot up and backwards flinging herself into the couch while Malik held onto her in alarm. Flinging themselves into each other arms and holding on for dear life in a manner that would have brought a tear to Jounouchis' eye. The spontaneous screams born of fright and surprise sent Bakura throwing himself back from them. His quick foot work was the only reason he didn't fall on his ass as he clamped his mouth shut out of alarm.

Malik finally looked up only to see 'Kura standing there looking down at them in muted disbelief. What other emotions he may have expressed seeping away though as the expression of unamused annoyance started to rise up. Trust a Brit.

Said 'Brits' expression started at alarm before melting into baffled confusion and now was a mildly annoyed confusion. This 'was' his apartment after all, his table, his note cards, his pens, all of it his. So one should 'think' that him speaking in his own residence was permissible and 'not' cause alarmed, panicked, freaking out. Oh well.

Hence upon his arrival at his own apartment, well aware that Anzu and Malik were there, thank you Spirits. In fact, pleasantly surprised, to find the pair working so diligently together in concert with two of the Spirit children despite not being able to see said souls. With one of the adult spirits, the mother of one, blatantly proud of her son in said apartment. Commenting that the four of them were working on figuring out Josie's location via the colors of the nations flags. He had politely stayed quiet as his apartment door was opened silently for him. Allowing him to silently slip off his shoes and walk over to the table.

"Bakura! Make them understand!" one of the two kids protested, his face hidden as he emulated sitting, his head resting in a similar plopped down position as Anzu. "They have it backwards!"

"Yeah! Its not a cross! Its 'this'!" The young girl added crossing her arms to form the symbol with her arms showing what the two other living occupants of the apartment couldn't see. Her own hair interestingly in a modern pair of pigtails, swinging with the force of her protest. Though a little Egyptian girl spirit intentionally wearing pigtails was a bit of a stop and look moment for him.

He walked over to the side of the table where Anzu had originally sat on and looked over at the trio of cards thoughtfully. Followed by making the mistake of speaking in his own apartment without permission.

"Are you two quite finished?" He asked folding his arms across his chest as he straightened up with his focus on the pair before him.

"Oh my god," Anzu groaned as she sank back against the couch, the panic caused by his sudden appearance melting through her limbs down her legs and through the soles of her feet.

"Hi 'Kura, welcome back!" Maliks' answer was strained as to be expected, but at least he dropped his arms from around Anzu. Instead pushing his fingers through his hair as his brain scrambled back to what Bakura had said. "And what is a 'Scott Land'?"

"Its a country that is part of the United Kingdom, hence 'United'," Ryou explained patiently as the girl pushed a card towards him.

"Here Ms. Anzu made a list of countries!" She explained as Ryou leaned over and picked up the card, noting the list of seven nations that had flags that were only blue and white. There was a single line drawn through each name crossing out their chance of being 'the' flag that was needed. It was a sound plan, and he could see where the problem probably came from.

"Most websites don't list Scotland exclusively because of being part of the United Kingdom. What the kids, and you 'are' dealing with a small boy and girl," Ryou began explaining to the pair of living teens before him. "Were trying to tell you is that flag you're looking for has its white and blue inverted from Finlands'. Also its not a cross, they don't have a word for the letter 'x' though and well tilt a cross and it looks like an 'x'. So I suspect they probably tried that method and you didn't realize that it was the clue they were trying to communicate." He held out his hand to between Malik and Anzu, with the blond readily handing over his pen without objection.

With a brief nod, Ryou crouched down beside the small table and made a quick, rough sketch of the Scottish flag. Everyone leaning over to see his rough talentless work, the kids growing excited as they saw the flag 'they' saw start to appear. "So these are blue, this is white, and this is the shape that the 'cross' actually makes yes?"

"Yes! Exactly!"

"Marvelous!"

Hearing a little Egyptian trying to mimic a British accent was now a thing.

"oohhh," Anzu didn't sound too frazzled as she leaned over to see Ryou's work, nodding as she saw the design. "Yeah, I guess you're right, I hadn't thought about it like that I just kind of assumed, since its a country... You know."

Bakura nodded as he finished and put the pen down, "if you don't know you're looking for a country 'in' the UK it makes sense. But now between the four of you, we now know which country to actually go to." He replied, acknowledging the kids effort with verbal praise as he pushed himself up and made himself a seat in the chair near the couch. "So you want to talk about that trip or... Because I don't know a great deal about Mahaado's history in the palace. All I know is that he never wore anything save his winter robes. No one ever publicly saw him naked..."

Cue the Anzu embarrassed blush...

"Remember that nudity was perfectly normal, Anzu..." Bakura pointed out in as polite and gentle manner as he could.

"Yugi streaking through the palace..." Malik teased with a devilish grin on his face as he looked at Anzu shamelessly.

"Behave yourself Malik," Bakura chided amid a sigh that this was happening.

"So!" Anzu's voice was a high pitched squeak as she desperately tried to go back to topic, "what's the big deal if he never seen in the nude?"

"Egypt has always been a hot place, for him to refuse to undress would be highly unusual."