AN: This is a story I've kind of been working on, off and on, for a while now, and over this past weekend I had a bolt of inspiration that allowed me to finally finish enough chapters to start publishing it. This is VERY early manga/season 0 inspired, although there's definitely some differences right off the bat, hence why it's an AU.
Chapter One: Welcome To Sennen!
Sixteen-year-old Yugi Muto arrived in the town of Sennen in April, the liminal time when the March lion of the winter's brutal winds had tired himself out, but every so often got the energy to growl at the approaching lamb. Most of the snow had retreated to the mountain peaks surrounding Sennen in a jagged stone bowl, but the air was still bitingly chilly and Yugi still desperately needed the hoodie he pulled tighter around himself as he stepped off the two-thirty train at Sennen's Cherry Blossom Station with the last of his luggage, a suitcase and an overnight bag.
Cherry Blossom Station was tiny, barely big enough to be called a station at all. It consisted of a small boarding platform and a single little building containing bathrooms, a small convenience store, and a ticket booth. As for the cherry blossoms, Yugi saw none - the area around him was the drab, wet brown of early spring after the snow melted and before the plants got the memo it was time to start growing again.
Yugi sighed, trying to improve his mood.
"I mean, it looks sort of nice," he murmured. "I've never been to the mountains before." Or, really, out of Domino City for that matter.
Yugi's forced smile faded. He had to remember why he was here.
Three weeks ago, Ushio Tetsuo and four of his friends had been taken to the hospital, three of them in critical condition. And everyone who had been at school that day said they had seen Yugi pick up a nine iron golf club and bludgeon the five students with it in a psychotic rage, inflicting their grievous injuries.
Yugi didn't remember any of this. His last clear memory was getting to high school, looking forward to finally showing off his new treasure at school that day. His first memory afterward was waking up, dazed, covered in blood, lying on the floor in the hallway as Ushio and his friends were loaded into ambulances. The badly bent golf club was stashed in a locked janitorial closet, but it had been covered in Yugi's handprints, and dried on the tip was a bit of blood from all five boys.
Yugi had insisted he didn't do it. He had begged and pleaded that he could never do anything like that. He'd never so much had gotten into a fight in his life!
However, the evidence was everywhere, and when asked what he had been doing at the time everyone reported him going on his rampage, Yugi couldn't say a thing, unable to remember anything concrete about that day and unwilling to make up an alibi. The best that could be done during his juvenile hearing was that he had obviously been pushed to a snapping point that day, and the fact he couldn't remember anything about the day was further proof he was mentally unfit to be declared guilty. He had avoided the worst, however, in return, Yugi would be sent out of town to live in the nearby mountain town of Sennen with his grandfather in hopes the local mental hospital would be able to help him recover.
Yugi had been shocked to discover he had a grandfather, and wondered if there was some secret reason his mother had never even mentioned him. Mom insisted that there was no such reason, that his grandfather had just decided to move to Sennen to peacefully live out his retirement.
Yugi didn't believe her.
Yugi's grandfather's name was Muto Sugoroku, and in his younger years he had traveled the globe as an archeologist and a gambler, before settling down with Yugi's grandmother, one of his archeology partners, and having Mom. After Yugi's grandmother had died before Yugi was born, Yugi's grandpa had officially retired, moving to Sennen and opening a shop that collected and sold vintage games. He also was a collector of old artifacts leftover from his travels, including Yugi's treasure, carefully tucked into his bag, which had come out of the blue as an eighth birthday present Mom had pretended at the time was from her.
"You'll like him, kousagi," Mom said as she said goodbye to Yugi at Domino Station. "He likes games just as much as you do, the older and more complex the better!"
"What are you worried about, then, Mom?" Yugi asked as Mom hugged him.
"I'm not worried, Yugi, what makes you say that?" Mom lied anxiously.
"You haven't called me a bunny rabbit since I was six," Yugi insisted as he returned the hug.
Mom frowned. "I just want this trip to be able to help you, Yugi. I know you're scared about what happened at school, and…"
"Mom, tell me honestly. Do you think I did that to Ushio-senpai and his friends?"
Mom simply smiled tearfully and pulled him closer. "I'm not afraid of you, kousagi. How could I be?"
"Mom, that wasn't… what I asked… " Yugi trailed off.
Mom looked up anxiously at the sound of a train whistle. "That looks like your train, Yugi. Now, remember, text when you arrive so I know the train made it, and your grandpa will be waiting at the station for you. Just ask around for Muto Sugoroku if you can't find him. Although he shouldn't be hard to find, he's hardly taller than you." She gently tapped Yugi on the nose and smiled when Yugi flushed red.
"Mommm…"
"I'll come visit at the end of term," Mom promised. "In the meantime, please mind your grandfather, keep up with school, and… please try to relax and enjoy yourself. This trip is supposed to help you. Alright?"
Yugi bit his lip, knowing Mom was waiting for an answer. "Okay, Mom. I'll… try."
"That's my Yugi," Mom said, gently ruffling Yugi's hair one more time. Yugi, fighting to stay composed, had quickly boarded the train Mom had indicated.
He had kept his eyes on Mom for as long as he could from the train window as it had pulled away from the station.
Now that he arrived in Sennen, as he tugged his suitcase over to the only available bench, he carefully pulled out his phone and composed a quick text message.
'Hi, Mom! I got to Cherry Blossom Station okay, I'm just waiting for him now.'
Mom immediately sent him a reply: 'Good. Just ask around if you can't find him; Sennen is a small town, someone probably knows your grandpa's name.'
'I will.'
Yugi didn't have long to wait, though. After he had only been sitting there for a few minutes, folding his arms and pulling his jacket tighter around himself, he saw a short man in his seventies exit the ticket booth building, glancing around as if looking for someone. He was dressed in overalls and a button-up shirt, and had a bandanna tied over his hair. His hair was gray with age instead of red, but, just like Yugi's, it was messy and all over the place. He also had Yugi's eyes, an Alexandrian shade of blue-violet.
This had to be Muto Sugoroku, Yugi's grandfather.
Yugi anxiously stood, gripping the handle of his suitcase in one hand and the strap of his overnight bag in the other. He tucked his phone away into his pocket, debating whether he should get the man's attention or wait for him to notice him standing there.
However, before he could decide either way, Sugoroku's eyes fell on him. Immediately, he began to hurry over to where Yugi was standing.
Yugi swallowed his nervousness. "H-Hello. A-Are you Muto Sugoroku? W-We haven't met but I'm… your grandson… I think…" He trailed off as the man carefully inspected him with a stern look.
Then the man grinned. "I might have known! You look just like your old grandpa did at that age!" He grasped Yugi's hand in an enthusiastic handshake, then took it a step further and pulled him into a hug. Yugi awkwardly returned it.
When Sugoroku let him go, he was still smiling. "It's so good to finally meet you, Yugi. I've been pestering your mother for years for a visit; I told her, 'A man ought to know his only grandchild, Yukiko!'" he said, shaking his finger for emphasis, as if scolding Mom despite her not even being there. "And yet she always said then wasn't a good time! Not a good time? Not a good time to meet my daughter's only boy?" He pulled Yugi close again. "Well, better late than never, eh?"
"Yeah, sure… I guess…" Yugi said quietly.
Sugoroku cleared his throat, looking sheepish. "Sorry, Yugi, my boy. I know you're probably nervous about moving here. I just got a bit excited." He frowned. "Are you here by yourself?"
"Y-Yeah. Mom couldn't get much time off of work. Just enough to see me off on the train."
Sugoroku's frown deepened. "Didn't even come to get you settled in?" Then he smiled, but it seemed forced. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was avoiding me!"
"Um… I'm sure that's not it," Yugi stammered.
"Never mind that," Sugoroku said, clapping Yugi on the back. "Let's not dilly dally at the station. I've already got the rest of your things back at the house."
"O-Okay. Just let me text Mom and tell her I found you."
Sugoroku nodded. "Go ahead and take the time you need."
Yugi pulled out his phone. 'I found my grandfather, Mom,' he texted. After a moment, he added, 'He seems nice.'
Mom texted a smiley face in response.
Yugi managed a small smile, before briefly wondering just why Mom seemed set on avoiding interaction with his grandfather.
"Okay. I'm ready," he told Sugoroku, stowing his phone in his pocket.
"Good!" Sugoroku said with a smile. "The car's just out front of the station. Assuming I can coax the old thing to start." He muttered the last part under his breath.
Yugi followed Sugoroku - he still couldn't think of the man walking with him as Grandpa - through the tiny convenience store, dragging his suitcase behind him. It clattered and bumped over small lumps and cracks in the worn tile floor.
"Do you want to wait in here? Maybe buy something? Starting my car always takes a minute, and it's getting mighty cold out."
Yugi nodded. He hadn't eaten much at breakfast, too anxious about the impending move to have an appetite. That meant he was starving now, but he didn't want to bother Sugoroku about food.
"Right, I'll be right out front if you need me," Sugoroku said. He again wrapped his arm around Yugi's shoulder and gave him a light squeeze. "Don't worry, Yugi. I'm sure you're going to have a wonderful time here."
"Uh… Sugoroku-san… I mean… Jii-chan…" Yugi trailed off. Sugoroku stopped short on his way out the front door. "Did Mom… tell you why…"
"She said something happened and you need some time to recover. Couldn't have picked a better place, fresh mountain air is the best medicine, and all that. And the Academy's the best-funded place in the prefecture to treat you right until you do," Sugoroku said warmly. "Now, I should get outside and see if I can't finagle that car into starting."
Yugi's smile faded as soon as Sugoroku was out of sight. "Should I tell him? He has to know, right? Mom told him, didn't she? I'm here because I'm being sent to a mental hospital. Because I hurt someone." His voice cracked on the word hurt.
Yugi caught sight of his reflection in one of the security mirrors. At first glance it looked the same as always. Then - unmistakably - his nervous expression twisted into a cold scowl, his eyes glowing with baleful red fire.
It was for your own good, right? You wanted them to stop hurting you… right?
"Isn't talking to yourself the first sign of insanity?"
Yugi was jolted away from his mutated reflection. A girl was standing behind him, holding a box of cream puffs in her arms. Her hair was pulled back into two ponytails, giving her a childish sort of look. She was wearing a red jumper dress over a white shirt, and her hair clips, pinned into her pigtails, were enamel strawberries.
"I'm not crazy!" Yugi protested.
"That's not going to work," the girl said coolly. She leaned in close to him. "I've told Father I'm not insane either." With that, she turned and walked away, disappearing down a different aisle.
Yugi was left staring, shaken, after her. Any followup questions, such as 'Who are you?' and 'What do you mean, you've told your father you're not insane?' choked before they could make it out of his mouth.
Yugi looked warily up at the security mirror to find his reflection completely normal again. Pale from fear, but that was the only thing wrong with it.
Yugi felt his hand tremble a bit and clenched it into a fist, breathing deeply. Then he set about perusing the shelves for a much-wanted lunch.
Finally, he settled on a tray of karaage chicken, and walked up to the front to pay for it. As he approached the counter, he saw the girl staring at him intently from the front window. As soon as she saw she had been caught, though, she quickly hurried away, out of view.
Yugi stepped outside just as the powder blue stick-shift Sugoroku was cajoling into starting coughed, and the engine started rumbling.
"That should do it!" Sugoroku said cheerfully, climbing out of the car. He waved Yugi over. "This should get us home, at least! Did you find anything you wanted?"
Yugi held up the chicken carton as an answer, before putting his suitcase in the backseat and climbing into the passenger seat.
"Yugi? Are you alright?" Sugoroku asked after twenty minutes of driving in silence. "You looked kind of peaked coming out of the store earlier."
"Uh… Yeah, I'm fine. Um… Jii-chan… Do you… happen to know a girl with dark blue hair who talks in a boyish way sometimes?"
"A girl? Why are you asking? Interested in meeting her?"
"N-No," Yugi said, feeling his face get hot. "Just… I ran into her at the store. She said… some interesting things."
"Hm. What does she look like? Besides the blue hair?"
"Um… she has bright pink eyes, and she was wearing a red jumper dress and strawberry hair clips."
"Ah," Sugoroku replied. "Now I remember! That sounds like Bakura Amane!"
"She lives around here?" Yugi asked. He felt anxious at the thought of meeting the strangely off-putting girl again.
"Yes, her father, Akio-kun, is an archeologist who helps out at Sennen Museum on occasion. Actually, he's an old friend of mine I met through my archeological work, although he's not in town often. Always traveling."
Yugi thought he saw a bitter look on Sugoroku's face, before the man apparently shook it off. "Anyway, Amane-chan's aunt looks after her while he's gone. She's an odd one, to be sure. Hasn't been quite the same since the accident."
"Accident?" Yugi asked.
"Ah, look, Yugi, there's our street. You should be able to see the shop from here," Sugoroku said cheerfully, sidestepping Yugi's question.
Yugi followed where Sugoroku was pointing to see a storefront with an apartment on top, cheerfully painted green and yellow with large red letters reading GAME hung above the door. He knew Sugoroku was obviously shifting the subject away from this apparent accident, but he didn't want to push it. Blood related or not, he still barely knew this man.
They pulled into a gravel driveway to the side of the game shop, and Sugoroku got out. Yugi anxiously followed, carefully trying to extract his suitcase from the back seat of the car.
"Need help there?" Sugoroku asked in concern.
"N-No, I got it," Yugi replied nervously, pulling the suitcase out of the car. Shouldering his overnight bag, he shut the car door and made his way to the front steps, dragging his suitcase behind him.
"Here we are, home sweet home," Sugoroku said.
Yugi's eyes widened when he saw the interior of the shop: shelves and shelves of board games, card games, and tabletop games lined the walls, and a freestanding Monster World diorama display took up an entire corner. The front desk doubled as a display case containing still more games.
Sugoroku chuckled when he saw Yugi's awestruck face. "Yukiko told me you liked games. That's why I sent you that puzzle. Do you still have that, by the way?"
"My treasure? Yeah, hang on, it's in my bag," Yugi said. He set his overnight bag down on the floor and unzipped it.
"Let me tell you, that puzzle's a fickle one!" Sugoroku chuckled as Yugi searched his bag for his treasure. "Only solvable when it wants to be solved, and so far, it hasn't wanted to be! How far along are you? Quarter of the way? Half? That's a good leg up on me, I couldn't even get two pieces to stick together-"
He trailed off, his eyes widening in shock, when Yugi held up the completed puzzle by the thin cord he didn't remember attaching to it. It was shaped like an inverted pyramid, decorated with a carving of a staring Eye of Horus on one of the triangular faces.
"You solved it? All of it?" Sugoroku asked in a hushed voice, reaching out and examining the dangling puzzle for missing pieces.
"Yup!" Yugi said cheerfully. "It took me eight years, but I did it!" He pulled the cord over his head, allowing the puzzle to hang around his neck. Its weight felt strangely familiar at the same time as it was foreign.
Sugoroku's eyes flickered with some glitter of recognition, almost deja vu, but it vanished so fast Yugi decided he imagined it.
"Really?" his grandfather said with a chuckle. "Well, I might've known, you are my grandson, after all!" He clapped Yugi on the back with a proud grin. "Although… what did Yukiko tell you about it?"
"She only said you picked it up in Egypt on one of your trips," Yugi replied, choosing to leave out that she had only confessed to that after eight years of pestering where she had gotten it from, and prior to that had pretended it was an antique she had bought herself.
"That's true, but there's a lot more to it than that. Go ahead and get yourself settled upstairs and unpacked, and I'll tell you all about it. You're sixteen now, old enough to hear it, I'd wager."
Yugi nodded, but inside he was bursting with questions. What more to the story was there? Why did his grandfather think now he was "old enough" to hear it? Was it a frightening story?
Once Yugi entered the apartment above the store, he quickly found the room intended for him, a clean and disused spare bedroom already full of the boxes Mom had sent ahead of his belongings, furnished with a bed, an empty bookshelf, and an empty dresser.
He opened up his suitcase and began unpacking that first, sorting the clothes he had brought into the worn oak dresser in the corner. He left his overnight bag at the foot of the bed where he could easily get to it.
Once that was done, he sat down on the bed.
"This is nice," he said quietly. "Bigger than my old room. I can put my games on that shelf, and maybe stick some posters on the wall…" He trailed off with a frown.
He had to remember what he was here for.
He was here because his school, his teachers, even his own mother thought he was dangerous.
And Yugi had no way to argue that he wasn't.
