nevertem

[nevertem]

"You think so?"

It was hard to believe, at least in his own mind, that someone could think negatively of the open horizon. The bleeding red faded into gold, which fell in heavy streaks into the inky darkness. A few stars twinkled in the beyond.

He wrinkled his brow, thoughtfully. He didn't have a name for the feeling that it gave him, and the only reference for things beyond his own experience were Yuugi's memories--and those felt strange and distant to him. More fact than emotion.

"I suppose I understand...if you remember Duelist Kingdom...why it wouldn't be a great thing to see..."

@nevertem

Yuugi's eyes followed his other self's hand, before following the line of his gesture into the sky. It went on forever.

"Yeah...it's so big. Like you could go walking out there in any direction and it would all look the same for miles."

He wondered to, if they would be able to see more stars then. In Duelist Kingdom when he'd looked up through the canopy of trees, or sat out by the cliffs near the shoreline, that had been the most stars Yuugi had seen in his life. Would they look the same here?

"It kinda feels...lonely...here."

[nevertem]

Ah, that was right.

Mutou wasn't there when he took on Pegasus's spy by himself. Nor was he there when Pegasus tried to hold him captive inside his castle.

That must be why the Duel King was screaming at him. As if he couldn't take care of himself.

Mutou hammered on the elevator button, but technology, as always, did not care about the circumstances. Code always did what it was programmed to do. Machines didn't care. It was what Kaiba liked so much about them.

The strange, cold shiver touched him again, as the men were knocked to the floor, and stray shots littered the ceiling. Kaiba's fingers twitched towards his deck holster. He'd hate to get his cards damaged in the crossfire, but Critias seemed to be solid enough...

He spun on his heel towards Mutou. "What the hell are you doing?" He hissed. "They found us because you left the others alive! Are you going to be useful enough to silence them permanently, or do you have to rely on me to do all the dirty work--like you did with deadbeat and Chopper Man!"

The opening doors caused him to turn, eyes widening as they both realized the elevator had stopped too soon. There was an additional voice in his ear that did not belong to a ghost, pleading with him to acknowledge that he'd heard the warning. Armed Guards on Floor 14 trying to intercept the elevator!

The spirits had completely drowned out what he'd needed to hear the most. Because Kaiba wouldn't leave him alone.

"Get Back!"

Yuugi was not sure if he'd only heard it in his head, or spoken it. Possibly, both, as a wave of energy shot out toward the men in the hallway. In the same moment, his arm swung out to the Door Close button, slamming it in the hopes that it would work, that he'd bought them enough time to escape.

[nevertem]

I love writing Kaiba because outside of a duel he's just

"did you know people die in car crashes all the time even when wearing seatbelts? I just thought that was interesting. Mheh heh."

And he just. Doesn't fucking elaborate.

[nevertem]

I think a really underutilized joke I'd love to do with anime muses is the fact that. The Duel Spirit Realm just flat out doesn't exist in the manga. It isn't a thing. The World of Darkness at least exists in Pegasus's duel with Atem, but the Duel Spirit World just flat out doesn't exist. So he'd have no fucking idea what anyone is talking about. And would have no idea that Duel Spirits exist. Or what they are. Like I really want to use that somehow..

[nevertem]

I'd love to watch any of the Yu-Gi-Oh! spinoffs. Unfortunately I fucking hate sci-fi.

[nevertem]

The lights flickered again.

It happened three times since he'd walked into the building with Yuugi, after Yuugi had used the strange magic to throw the men against the wall. Each time accompanied by a chill.

The same chill he felt when Pegasus had looked at him. With that strange Eye.

His own eyes narrowed in response to the feeling, and he frowned, tightly. He didn't give a reply to the way the other bristled--frankly, it meant that the conversation was useless, since Yuugi didn't understand.

The elevator door opened, and standing in the hallway, in a straight line, was a tight formation of guards waiting for them. They weren't even on the right floor.

"Well. Seems we've been found."

Kaiba treating compassion like it was a character flaw was nothing new, and Yuugi was used to hearing it. It was the same mantra repeated by many of the others he had encountered, who went out of their way to hurt others for some personal gain. Yuugi could never walk away. He would not be allowed to, whether he had a 'bleeding heart' or not.

Blood! Blood for blood! A life for each life!

Yuugi winced at the lancing pain in his head, ears ringing with what could be a hundred voices. Louder than they had been for some time. He bristled. The lights dimmed, though the whirring of gears continued unphased by the interruption. Turning fully to face Kaiba, it took everything to resist pinning him against the wall too.

"I don't need you turning my own words around," He snarled, as if it would lessen the stabbing pain in his heart. Warmth gathered around his abdomen where the Puzzle rested--impatient at his resistance.

"Of course it's valuable! I wouldn't be trying to help everyone if I didn't think it was!"

[nevertem]

"Well, you could if you didn't have such a bleeding heart. But I've always thought that was the issue with having others around, anyway. Too many weaknesses to jump on."

Power of Unity or not, he was prime proof of that, after Duelist Kingdom--even if Mokuba was the one to save his life in Battle City.

He had drifted his gaze towards the elevator's doors for a moment. Only a couple of seconds had passed since its closure, only enough for a few words to be exchanged.

"Do you know how valuable blood is, Mutou?" He finally asked. "You said once that only cowards bet their lives. How valuable life is, too valuable to be bet on. You're a hypocrite. And that annoys me. Maybe that's why your cards have left you, why your hanger-ons don't trust you. You still don't understand duels."

Of course he could trust Kaiba to latch onto every word he said. He never missed a detail, and Yuugi knew there was no way to convince him to drop he subject. Not once the cat had found some prey to toy with.

"Of course, not everyone is going to agree with you all the time."

As soon as the words left his lips, however, Yuugi realized that Kaiba likely was surrounded with people who did agree with him. Whose job it was to agree. He glared up at the numbers over the doors as they slowly lit up each floor they passed.

"No, I don't like them. It's not like I have much choice either, and don't say I could just walk away."

[nevertem]

I honestly feel like I write Kaiba pretty well.

[nevertem]

So the Duel King did have a temper. He'd wondered about that. He'd heard Yuugi directly call him unforgivable several times during Death-T, but his apparent friendliness afterwards on Pegasus's island seemed to contradict that.

As well as what happened on the castle wall, of course.

Still, he'd recognized that isolating Yuugi from his friends was his weakness, when he'd started trying to pick them off, one by one. The knight, the rook, the king...

It was unusual, to see Yuugi snap.

Some part of him wondered, vaguely, if it was like when his own heart was rebuilt. How missing pieces kept him under.

It still made his head hurt to think about, though, so he dropped that thought immediately, and buried it.

"But they're critics." He picked up on the implicit worst in the statement. "Is that how you see fights, Mutou? You never seem to like them. But you always get involved in them."

Yuugi kept his eyes straight ahead, jaw firmly set. He had been hoping they could all just have a quiet ride to the top floor, but of course, that seemed to be asking too much. He instantly regretted unmuting.

"That was uncalled for! It's not that at all!"

"I'm not going to play telephone while you argue with him," Yuugi snapped, "I'm going to mute again until we get to the top, don't try to talk to me unless you find out there's trouble we need to avoid."

"We do believe in you, Yuugi. We just don't want you to get hurt."

He pressed the button.

"They're just worried, Kaiba, that's all," He sighed and leaned back against the wall.

"They're not my worst critics..."

I was alone before them.

[nevertem]

How interesting.

He'd seen the way that Yuugi had been acting the past, few days--and while he'd gotten the notion that Yuugi had changed a bit after his other personality vanished due to losing to the Seal, it seemed that it wasn't limited to moodiness and moping around.

No wonder he didn't have the heart of a duelist anymore, if his friends trusted him so little to do things by himself.

Well, that was what he got for relying on others, in Kaiba's opinion--and it was none of his business to be involved in this magic nonsense in the first place.

He hit the button for the top floor, and the metal doors closed, sealing with a harsh wheeze. The elevator started to move, slowly, shaking all the while as Kaiba folded his arms over his chest, and peered out of the corner of his eye at the Duel King.

He smirked.

"Don't they have any faith in you at all? It must get annoying, to have so many voices criticizing you all the time. Why are you all so needy with each other, anyway?"

"You scared us! What happened with the guards?"

"Took care of them, don't worry about it."

"What does that mean, Yuugi?"

"I mean, we don't have to worry about them for a while and we didn't get hurt. Don't freak out every time I mute, you're distracting me when I need to focus."

That much was true, and Yuugi had more than just the voices in their communication line to worry about. There was a pause on the other line, and he turned his attention to Kaiba, who had just spoken.

"Whoa, who said anything about killing anyone!?"

Yuugi groaned. The live commentary in his ear was not helpful, and the only reason he did not turn it off completely was because Rebecca was still needed.

"Just answer his question."

At least, they had the correct floor, which he relayed to the CEO so he could push the appropriate button as he entered.

[nevertem]

Well, that was a rather neat trick.

In truth, he'd merely asked out of a genuine curiosity--it would make sense if the strange magic always surrounding Yuugi had some sort of use beyond physically hurling men around a room.

Oh, well. Still, he supposed it meant that Yuugi was a little more useful than an earpiece for their translator in the state that he was in.

Better than dead weight like the rest of them would have been.

He hooked hs laptop up into the plug in the wall again, and crouched, idly eyeing the bodies. He didn't think Yuugi had it in him to kill, not really. He'd always come close to the line, but never toed it--not in the way that he'd seen the other two happily shoot the Death-T employees or set Chopper Man on fire.

He guessed it was part of growing up. Everyone did sooner or later.

Oh. They were breathing. Huh.

The elevator doors opened, and he stood up. "Get in. What floor is the office on? Stealing some encrypted information will at least give me something to draw out his shareholders. If we can't find his location so I can kill him directly."

The only thing that made Yuugi pause long ease up and allow the two bodies to crumple to the floor, was the commotion coming through the earpiece. The others had caught on from Rebecca that something was up. All he had to do was think it, and the guards would sleep and wake up in a few hours with a nasty headache. Wincing, as the volume increased past the bitter complaints of the spirits in his ears, Yuugi ignored Kaiba long enough to unmute the microphone and answer his friends.

"We're clear."

He was not going to apologize for preventing them for potentially hearing something they would rather not. He glanced between Kaiba and the door. Of course, he had meant that the high security door would require more finesse than simply pushing a button.

"Possibly, but it might alert someone it's being forced open."

[nevertem]

Seto Kaiba wasn't particularly afraid of cowards.

In general, Kaiba had a sort of policy about the way he lived his life--if he was too afraid of doing it himself, he didn't demand it of other people. It was, perhaps, the thing he valued most in life--his own ability to be fiercely independent.

It was something someone learns to value when faced with the harsh reality than he was only ever going to be used by other people when he had something to offer--something he very quickly came to terms with when he bargained his meal ticket on a game of chess.

This wouldn't be the first time he'd faced down armed guards, of course. He'd had a gun held to his head when he was betrayed, and Pegasus's guards tried to drown him--and that was much more dangerous than from a distance. It felt obvious to him--but apparently not to everyone.

Obnoxious.

Kaiba, about to shout back for Yuugi to listen for once in his fucking life, blinked as both guards were thrown back by some invisible force--as if they were a performer yanked offstage by a cane, almost comically so. They seemed to be held down under their own body weight, as the lights flickered.

Kaiba blinked a second time, before figuring it was probably something to do with magic again. None of his business. He was just here for his company.

"Useful." He mused. "Hm. Are you able to open the door like that, then?"

"No, not that way, there are guards at that elevator!"

The warning came too late, as Kaiba had gone too far ahead to relay the it, and the guards too close to raise his voice and get his attention. Biting back a string of curses, Yuugi trotted to catch up, to pull him back if he had to, only to stop short as Kaiba had at least paused long enough to notice.

He was about to suggest the double back, when Kaiba already started moving. His eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. Even though he couldn't see them, something in the air, the click of metal, the way he could hear them standing their ground.

"Hands in the air!"

"Stop!"

"Yuugi, you guys gotta go back!"

He muted the microphone. His body moved on its own, rounding the corner behind Kaiba. How did he expect him to just stand by after saying something like that?

"Yuugi! Answer me!"

The air crackled, lights flickered, and the men are slammed against both walls with shocked, strangled cries. One of them barely got a shot off, the bullet whizzing past them off down the hallway. The guns clatter to to the floor, but their bodies remained pinned as Yuugi felt the telltale warmth on his forehead. Hands open at his sides as if he was physically holding them down. Shoving them into the drywall for attempting to shoot.

Rebecca's voice became muffled in his ear, as other voices flooded his mind. Egging him on. To show what he was made of.

[nevertem]

At what points everyone knew Other Yuugi was the ghost of a Pharaoh:

Yuugi Mutou: kind of knew that Other Yuugi wasn't necessarily an alternate personality vaguely somewhere between Death-T and Duelist Kingdom, since he took off the Puzzle to not have Other Yuugi around, and freaked out about never seeing Other Yuugi again during the DDM game. He never treats Other Yuugi completely as another personality, and always seems to be aware he's at least a curse of some kind. Confirmed when Pegasus drops he comes from the Puzzle, and confirmed completely that he's a ghost by Isis after the quarter finals.

Anzu Mazaki: Found out from Isis during the "date" between DDM and Battle City.

Jounouchi Katsuya: Found out from Isis after the Battle City quarter-finals. He was at the Ceremonial Duel, and was in Memory World, where he met Atem directly.

Honda Hiroto: Found out from Isis after the Battle City quarter-finals, through Isis. He was at the Ceremonial Duel, and was in Memory World, where he met Atem directly.

Sugoroku Mutou: Is heavily implied to know something from the first chapter when he says Ushio is the one in trouble, but isn't confirmed until he startles Yuugi by talking about the ghost of the Pharaoh before Memory World. It's never confirmed when he knew, but judging by his backstory with seeing Atem's ghost, it's seemingly since the beginning.

Ryou Bakura: Never directly told, but it's strongly implied he found out after Battle City since he showed up to say goodbye to Other Yuugi at the museum, and built the set. Confirmed by being at the Ceremonial Duel. Already possibly knew since Dark Bakura wasn't shy about talking about ghosts in the Items, but it's not confirmed.

Mai Kujaku: Never directly told, seemingly doesn't know. (She is aware of Other Yuugi, but not that he is a ghost.) Does not show up at the Ceremonial Duel, and while she doesn't seem too phased by Dark Games, she is never involved directly.

Seto and Mokuba Kaiba: Kaiba was strongly given the implication by Isis, but was not told Other Yuugi was a ghost. He was also not there for Isis's explanation, but received an invitation from Yuugi, and showed up after the Ceremonial Duel. Confirmed to know by DSOD as both he and Mokuba address Other Yuugi as a Pharaoh. (Seto Kaiba also had the vision during the semi-finals of the Pharaoh and the Priest, but up until that point, Isis phrased it as if the pair of Yuugi and Other Yuugi were BOTH the reincarnation of a Pharaoh as a system who were ALSO a Pharaoh in a past life, rather than as Yuugi being possessed by a ghost who PRESENTED as an alter).

Ryuuji Otogi: Was in the same room when Isis directly addressed the Pharaoh's soul as in Yuugi. Was at the Ceremonial Duel afterwards, and is seemingly told everything. Already possibly knew since his dad was into the occult.

Shizuka Kawai: Was in the same room when Isis directly addressed the Pharaoh's soul as in Yuugi. Was not at the Ceremonial Duel.

[nevertem]

Hn.

He didn't have any response to that--but it was good to be agreed to. With the state that Mutou was in, Kaiba knew he wouldn't be able to show his proper skills as a duelist.

He thrust out his arm to bar the Duel King as they came down a hallway, and he peered out. The elevator across the way was being guarded by armed security--cameras were one thing, but manpower was another.

Well. He'd already taken out security before.

"I'll handle this." He said dully. "Wait here."

Briefcase in hand, he took off running in a direct charge, as both guards took aim to fire.

Yuugi's nails bit into his palms, and the lamp on the nearby wall flickered, though whether that had anything to do with the anger simmering in his chest it was unclear. The worst part was, there was nothing he could throw back at him. Nothing.

"What's he talking about?"

He ignored the voice coming through the earpiece. That concern in her voice only making him more irritable, because he couldn't even begin to explain it to her. She wouldn't understand. He doesn't understand. Yuugi did not have the height, the strength, to save anyone. Not even himself. Not properly.

Begrudgingly, he followed Kaiba through the door, keeping a few paces behind.

"Fine. Since you'll do the same for me."

Yuugi wasn't sure where that came from, exactly, and decided not to dwell on it. Their footsteps echoed off the tiles in the empty hallway, and though he couldn't be sure how, he knew this side of the building was clear.

[nevertem]

What a nuisance.

Did he have to sit her and hold the hand of every person who did what was expected of him? Why did he have to cater to the feelings of some spoiled child to get anything done?

He was better off doing this alone. Truly, the only reason he wasn't doing it alone was her ability to read some long dead language.

Hm. He should have tried the satellite imaging again, if the ridiculous magic nonsense worked with the Sun Dragon Ra last time.

"And have to deal with dragging your dead body around again? Not without the deadbeat doing the only thing he's good for--carrying you around when you insist on stupid heroics like this again. Don't think I've forgotten what you pulled on the pier."

He strode again ahead, not bothering to see if Yuugi was following.

"I expect you to leave my body behind, just so we're clear." He added. "Though the image of you trying with me, is admittedly amusing."

@nevertem

Standard weapons. Not magic. Yuugi clenched his hands at his side. He remembered the last time he'd encountered them. He wanted to tell Kaiba he can cut the snark out of his questions, but he knew that it wouldn't do any good. It might even make it worse. Instead, he asked if Rebecca heard the question.

"Already got it, you're clear to enter as soon as the door unlocks. If he could forget his ego and let you walk in front of him I can guide you past their patrols easy-peasy."

Yuugi huffed, and turned his eyes skyward. It was going to be a long hour.

"Yeah, she does, and if I go ahead it would be easier to avoid the guards if I don't have to give you verbal directions."

[nevertem]

dude your brave and loyal knight fucking bit me

[nevertem]

See the real thing nobody considers is the fact that Ryou is super fucking used to people liking him.

He gets constant love confessions. He's super popular. People like him. He makes friends easily and runs regular game sessions, enough to have that huge collection of minis that Dark Bakura sealed people in. He's pretty social and popular.

What I'm really saying is that post recovery fragileshipping is Ryou being super used to dating and casual with it and being so utterly bemused about Atem who gets flustered at the CONCEPT of dating and shuts down until he gets to an arcade and who fucks up in any social situation possible that isn't about games

Ryou is the kind of person who knows exactly what to do and what to say and Atem doesn't know how to do anything but to "IT IS!!!!!?????" and internally screams for help at all times