Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: So a lot of the 'The used to be my Playground' arc, I didn't have enough chapters for the whole song... It got messy. SO this song is from KLF and called 'Justified and Ancient', not sure if I'll stick to this song, but this should be the last song for this book. After that it will be generic 'chapter 1, chapter 2 stuff despite it being over 200 chapters by then... two... hundred... fucking hell.
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"Yugi's... dad..." Mai echoed faintly back as she tried to process this man. He had normal black hair that wasn't trying to stab a ceiling. 'Yugi's dad' appeared professional in clothes and appearance and connecting 'that' to her adorable chibi-chan was a moment of pause.
"This isn't good..." Anzu began as the memory of Yugi's video played back in her mind. How he sent his dad a letter explaining it had been a ploy to catch the shooters. Which in turn lead to her conversations having to deflect from talking to Yugi or Kaiba. None of them had been easy, and she had nearly broken down into tears in that first conversation.
"Its great!" Mai answered unaware of Anzu's mounting distress, as she began fiddling with a silver band she wore. It was plain in appearance, but it was a nice bit of bling to wear when in social occasions like this. Less likely to snag onto something, and Valons' clothes made her hesitant about exposing her nicer jewelry to his leathers. But this was important, she pulled it off and grabbed Anzus' hand.
The most important part though was that it could easily be mistaken for an engagement ring!
"Mai!" Anzu squeaked in confusion when the woman began pulling her away from near the dance floor and to closer to the entryway the staff was using.
"This is the best idea that I've had in a long time," Mai crowed to herself, more pleased than a crow with a prized shiny trinket. She pulled Anzu's hand close while trying to force a ring on her ring finger. "You go over there and introduce yourself as Yugi's fiancee. That will shut Vivian down in a heartbeat, or make an absolute fool out of her."
A roar overtook Anzus' hearing as she heard Mai's 'plan'. Unbidden recent memories of Yugi in the upstairs hallway came to mind. Memories of him a year prior stood side by side with him 'now' and the room suddenly felt as explosively hot as it did outside and more! "I... have you lost your mind?! I can't do that!" Anzu whispered with enough force that if she had been screaming they would have heard her back in Japan. At least she was confident of that not fact.
"Sure you can!"
Anzu could barely hear the reply as she turned and wobbled her way to find one of those nice, useful staff members carrying the drinks.
"Fine, I'll do it myself, girls gotta look after each other..."
'Mai wouldn't...' Anzu told herself as the sea of black suits and vibrant dresses swam across her stunned line of sight. She faintly wondered if the air system had gone down with as hot as she was feeling. When she finally zeroed in on one of the servers and went for a drink.
"Ummm maybe you would like one of these, its water and if you don't mind me saying sooo..." the woman began with a slight accent that Anzu didn't bother to place. The hair was done up in a blond twist to keep it out of the way. The uniform was fairly normal, button on white shirt and black pants. A decided difference from how the staff outside, with their large Duel Spirits costumes appeared.
Anzu was able to keep up with the foreign tongue well enough and gladly accepted the offered clear glass cup. There was several ice cubes weighed down to the bottom of the wide mouth cup.
The ice would be devoured, Anzu needed all the help she could there went Mai with that confident stride in her step... right... towards... Oh no... oh nonononononono...
Focus was a bullet train crashing into a station as she stood there, unable to think anything coherent. Mai didn't know about how Yugi looked, or that Yugi was not really human anymore... and what would Yugi do? He wouldn't mind, Mai was a friend, and he'd probably find it vastly amusing... And Mai would completely upend parts of Kaiba's tournament...
'Which might actually do the guy some good...' some barely self aware, calm part of her mind tried to point out. 'Kaiba's been under a lot of stress and having something to be bothered by that 'wasn't this stupid demon summoning group would be helpful'.
But it felt more like those thoughts were being left on an answering machine as Anzu stood there. 'Is this how the Titanic felt when it was approaching the iceberg and no one stopped it in time?'
For her part, Mai was oblivious to so much it would have been painful if it wasn't absolutely hilarious. She easily made her way through the multitude of business people, and gave a mature, "Mr. Mouto, I presume?"
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"Sooo, that tall, absolutely beautiful gold haired woman is a friend yes?" The spirit of a merchant among the spirits that were serving Bakura asked. He was a thin fellow, a bit stringy in limb and hair, and Ryou couldn't decide if he looked like a branch of a tree made bare or string on feet. The reincarnated thief was dressed in a modest three piece, not elevated enough to look like he would be worth talking to by the big shots. Also not a duelist to be accosted by reporters mistaking himself, or by extension, Malik, as one of the competing duelists.
"Mai?" Ryou asked causing Malik to raise an eyebrow.
"Friends?" Malik asked opting for ancient Egyptian, the safest form of communication the pair could engage in... Because...
Once Ryou nodded, he proceeded to obtain a startled look, before burying his face in his hands and groaning in abject disbelief.
"Share or it didn't happen." Malik replied with a grin at Ryou's clear discomfort.
"Then I will not because I really don't want this to have happened."
Malik was too old to pout, but he did turn and got on his toes to look about the room better, and while he was tempted to call out to her... He then saw her hair and remembered who 'Mai' was and this niggling little bit, ok a great deal of, guilt caused him to clamp his mouth shut. Hourglasses full of sand, Shadow Games, and only the faintest recollection that her skill as a duelist was impeccable. If she had understood how to Summon Ra his darker side would have lost.
Yet as he began to put his heels back to the floor, who she was talking to caught his eye and he dropped to the ground stunned. Ryou's natural instincts catching and steadying him on his feet were the only reason that he didn't just collapse against the table in disbelief.
"Malik?" Ryou's voice took on a tone of concern, as he leaned in, noting the pale quality of Malik's complexion even in these mood setting lights.
Haunted.
It was a word that felt right to describe Malik, as he looked at Ryou in a rather naked display of distress. "Who is that man that Mai is talking to? Do you know him?"
The blonds' voice was almost shaking and it was that slight shudder of breath that caused Ryou to pause and check as well. Finding Mai as his start wasn't difficult in the slightest, even in a room with all this big hair, and multiple blonds, and an absolutely gorgeous red head off in on one side. But Mai was obvious, the sight of the Shadow Games clung to her in ways that sickened him. Not deep, but there, wounds that had yet to heal.
As for who she was talking to, he saw the woman they talked about before. At least he was assuming that was this 'Wong, Vivian' that he heard about. But the man? Clearly Japanese, and could have been anything from what he could tell at this distance. If he was wealthy, he didn't wear his wealth on his person. His expression was stoic and focused, almost put upon and displeased by the presence of the two women in his company.
"No, I can not say I have had the pleasure," Ryou answered, retaining the ancient tongue for no greater reason than to give some sense of comfort.
"I... it sounds stupid, perhaps if Isis or Rashid were here... But I feel like I'm looking at my father, and that can't be right."
That alone was enough to make Ryou do a double take, even the spirits around him were now invested.
"The race is wrong, the skin and eye shape is wrong, but... but if he was from my tribe... Given our skin, our hair..."
"Oh for Ra's sake..." Ryou buried his face in his hands. The merchants' words too fresh to be forgotten...
"You're not wrong... the merchant here said that he caught Mai in a conversation with Anzu." Ryou began and watched as Malik fixate on him, almost with an anxious expression. "That man is Yugi's father... and if you feel he looks familiar to you, that would make sense. If your father was the reincarnation of his brother. Which by the way would explain why you could use Ra originally. It would signify that He acknowledged you as part of the royal blood line despite being born in this life time to a reincarnation."
Malik visibly sagged in relief as Ryou's answer washed away his anxiety, but with its loss came a new question. "Why is he here then? Why not go back to Japan when his son needed him after waking up?"
Ryou shrugged the question off as he recalled the two videos from before. "Yugi told us, he sent a letter to his father saying the event was staged. In a situation like that his father probably didn't feel the same urge to rush back. Be that as it may though, being here could be a sign that he wasn't 'completely' reassured."
"Well that makes this a bit interesting doesn't it?" Malik replied, no longer sounding as shaken as he had. But his nerves were still a little strung up at the thought of a version of his uncle was in the same building with him.
"That 'is' a word that can be used in a sentence, yes." Ryou agreed, "Father, a gold digger, and Mai deciding to 'help out' by pretending to be Yugi's future wife is a recipe for chaos."
"And Kaiba hasn't even made his grand entrance," Malik noted with a mischievous little grin on his face.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'ENGAGED'!?"
Vivian's voice exploded across the whole of the room, English words thickly Mandarin accent.
Brutally murdering countless conversations, laying waste to multiple expensive outfits as drinks or finger food was carelessly spilled out of stunned reactions. People whiplashed towards the speaker with wide eyed disbelief, expressions locked in place as brains tried to piece together the violence that just got unleashed.
While in the center of where the holy hand grenade of gossip starters was the aforementioned 'Gold Digger' Vivian, Mai, Yugi's totally unamused, unimpressed, and largely irritated father and his personal assistant. Who seemed to be trying to retain a look of stoic diplomacy and work focus, but wanted to laugh. The way his eyes would just jerk away to look at some random point of the ceiling and how the corners of his mouth were just pinched upwards.
"And on cue here's Kaiba. Think his 'divineness' caused that little explosion? Can't arrive quietly anymore?" Malik asked, his Ancient tongue being mutilated in his effort to speak, and not burst out laughing. "I want to go up stairs and report this to Yugi so badly!"
'Yugi probably knows if Kaiba isn't shielding him at the moment,' Ryou thought to himself as he buried his face in his hands once more. Of all the stunts that could be played on planet Earth, Mai would play the 'we're getting married' card. Though to be fair, the fact that she tried to get Anzu to do it was a fair point. If Anzu just realized sooner that Mai had a wicked streak in her... 'That is true, Anzu 'is' here so where is...'
He scanned the area and found Anzu at a waitress' side, a cup to her lips and her eyes could have been considered bulging in comparison to the the cup. She didn't look pale or ready to faint dead away, but she wasn't going to give a friendship speech any time soon. Or at least a coherent one if that expression was any indication!
While on the other side of the room, Kaiba was walking up to the podium with Mokuba in tow. The child could emulate his brother pretty well, but he was clearly darting his gaze out to the audience and when he and Ryou's eyes locked... 'I wish he wasn't an innocent kid...'
Mokubas' eyes got big and amused as he began fighting to keep the grin off his face while he took up his spot by his brothers' side. Kaiba eyed the audience before him and their slack jaw, wide eye expressions. Wong's voice had been so shrill he had heard it from before he entered the room and on a deep level he would have envied Bakura's freedom to facepalm. Instead he found his thought out justification for why Yugi wasn't going to be joining them unnecessary.
Because dropping Yugi in this media nightmare was just a recipe for the world being destroyed. He didn't need Yugi's omnipotent awareness to tell him that now everyone was going to want to talk to the King of Games. Instead he watched as the focus of the room slowly shifted from the little knot of conversation up to him.
For a moment Kaiba felt a sense of elation at that empty curiosity. Another speech about the tournament was expected, he wouldn't have to be confronted by the more irritating facts of the past several weeks.
While Mahaado shook his head in the outlandish declaration and its fall out. He stood in the hallway leading to the Pharaoh's private suite. But given how curious the Kuriboh had been towards his spellbook he had settled there to get some reading done. What could make the little one so invested in a book?
"Mahaado there is a man who will come to speak with me, make sure that he doesn't get accosted by security."
"As you wish, who is this man?" Mahaado duly asked.
"He is easily recognizable, he'll be bearing the shadow scars that Mai still carry, but as he was never inflicted with the injuries. You'll only see the mist of them," Yugi answered as he sat at a round table idly looking over the dinner menu provided him. "After you notify the security, feel free to get in some light reading. I realize you've missed it."
Which was true, Mahaado had seen the scars on Mai quite easily once he had settled into his role among his Pharaoh's friends. When he had checked the guests who the Pharaoh was bound to encounter in this tournament he had encountered the man as well. Just to discover that the same shadow work that still wounded Mai were on him. Spreading in much the way a disease would, and Mahaado was in no state to help. Cleansing such taint was more a blessing from Gods than a Ka Beast as himself.
'Do not call yourself that, Lady Anzu gets very vocal about her displeasure of that name,' he reminded himself. Then there was Mokuba's clear displeasure and by the end of it was just easier to humor the group.
So he sat and waited outside of his Pharaoh's suite, his gaze occasionally going to elevator that would lift the people up to the floor or down to the ground. While his fingers danced along the pages between turns. The spells he had in his book were numerous, but as he read through each of them and the incantations others would need to cast them...
'What is it you are questing for little one?' he mused as he read through the pages.
Kuriboh answered in its own way, though not really intentionally. Mahaado couldn't summon Kuriboh like the living. But he might as well have when the little spirit materialized in front of him. While the book was a great incentive for its arrival, the moment it fully appeared in the area it felt something was off. Its fur tingled until it appeared a size bigger, and Mahaado appeared tense to its large innocent eyes.
It looked down at the book and floated forward to plant its paws on the pages, lacking the proper fingers to open or properly grab.
"Now, now, little one. What ever reason would you want my book for?" Mahaado asked causing the spirit to start dancing about. "Ahh you want to play? I see, and Mokuba is with his brother and the Pharaoh is preoccupied?"
The spirit bobbed up and down happily, moving back to get Mahaado to stand up from his floating sitting position. It remembered the feeling in the building, the way it felt all those long years ago. Kuriboh also remembered that it was that feeling that always made Mahaado sad. So now was the time to play and cheer the magician up!