Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Do You Dream of Me? ❯ Reflections ( Chapter 19 )

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-gi-oh, more people would be up in arms about me not doing anything with it.

 

It looks like I temporarily am conscious enough I might be able to write real fic. See my bio/lj for details. Basically, chronic depression, meds disruptions since winter break, they put me on something new, and it might be helping. Therefore, this is the interest on my 1000th reviewer prize to Daikaio, which is muchly overdue, sorry. I said I'd write a giftfic, not chapter, but I thought this would make the wait less painful. Also, my 150th mediaminer reviewer (anonymous, unfortunately) asked for an update to this… so two birds with one stone. …it's not even Y/Y fluff, mostly. Sorry.

 

I'd like to thank everyone who let me know they still cared by asking for updates/offering sympathy for my condition. I'd especially like to thank DarkGatomon for the best review I've ever gotten. I was composing a thank you/reply, and then my computer crashed, sorry. But I'll say thanks now.

 

I don't have the manga, but fortunately I was planning to depart from the manga in this chapter in any case. It's also a very different style, because I'm… it's going to be hard enough to write, I'm doing something easy currently. So sue me.

 

Please, I would really appreciate reviews, to let me know how well I'm doing picking this up after such a long hiatus. While it would be good to know I was doing good, constructive criticism would be wonderful if you have the time. Especially characterization problems, those I need to know about. I'm having a hard time getting back `IC' for the DYDOM and Forgiveness versions of the characters, and I don't want to publish something unless it's decent.

 

Also, I'd like to thank my C2 staff for helping keep my Y/Y C2 archive, The Pharaohs Rule, 6th in archive size and 3rd in subscriber count, but if anyone has stories they think should be added/wants to help keep it a comprehensive archive of the decent Y/Y stories (it's very outdated currently, there's been a bunch of good new stuff published I haven't had time to look at), I'd love to add you to staff.

 

I promise you that I will finish this and everything else in progress up. When my meds get fixed, I will once again be she-who-updates-7000-words-a-week-while-in-Spain.

 

And now… here goes nothing!

 

VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAV AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAV

 

The ropes holding it in place dissolved and the Millennium Key fell into Shadi's hand, which tightened around it. He looked up at the roof, where they still stood, he guessed, although the blowing wind prevented him from hearing anything.

 

He knew he could use the Millennium Key to enter their minds and listen to what they were saying. Normally he simply wouldn't bother.

 

Normally those he tested failed. This was a sacred power, not to be used lightly, after all. And eavesdropping was certainly using it lightly.

 

He'd done it though, as a child. Though his tribe guarded the items, he'd been the only one in ages called to bear one.

 

The key had glowed when he was born, and he was born a sacred child. The future leader of the tribe. A chosen one. A possible pawn, to some. A target.

 

He'd seen the minds of those who had called him a friend falsely. He'd seen the horror on the faces of the others at what he'd had to do to defend himself, to defend the sacred traditions, to keep the tribe from falling apart after the Cryptkeeper heir had walked off with the Rod, a common thief had walked off with the ring, an American fool with the eye, and Isis' vision had commanded them both to let that fool see the Cryptkeeper Tribe's remaining secrets.

 

Isis… Isis had shown him finally what `friendship' was, what power was. She knew what the Items did, were doing, in the wrong hands. She knew that her tribe was falling apart. She knew what was at stake.

 

And she'd stab him in the back in a heartbeat; doom the whole world for that kinslayer brother of hers.

 

He'd seen it. The last time he ever entered anyone's mind for anything more than duty.

 

Fortunately, he knew something she didn't. Had studied the scriptures as she should have, as the new leader of her tribe. Would have, he knew, if things had been different. She was a dutiful person, dedicated to her tribe. Too dedicated to one banished member of it.

 

The Torque couldn't predict the changes caused by the Items. Or, to be more accurate, the sacred talismans would not give away their own plans, would they?

 

Not even to him. The Key controlled memory, after all.

 

He wondered why he hadn't been allowed to know the Nameless Pharaoh immediately. To place a god on trial…

 

He wondered why the Items had chosen a child of such innocence to solve the unsolvable puzzle. Why a god would show such devotion to such a one, with nothing of the shadows about him.

 

He wondered when the Items had accomplished their purpose, if Isis would still be alive this time.

 

He knew he wouldn't be. But Isis was, he supposed, the closest thing he would ever have to this `friendship.'

 

VAVAVAVAVAV

 

Sugoroku led the way, his grandson, Yugi, trying desperately to strike up a cheerful conversation, acting as childlike as he had when he'd yelled for joy over the burgers.

 

His friends assisted to various degrees, the girl, Anzu, acting as if she didn't have a care in the world despite having been dangling… Yoshimori had looked in her eyes, and then looked away.

 

Yugi was right, he knew. He didn't want to think about what had happened right now. He didn't want to think about how he'd watched. Just watched. Not enough left to understand, not enough to care, just impulse and memory.

 

He should be excited. He'd finally had an adventure, after all.

 

Sugoroku had had adventures. Sugoroku had rode into that dusty town in Egypt (he couldn't remember the name, there had been so many…), in a suit and tie, chasing a legend of the ultimate game. He'd rode out again with two guides, returned with none and clutching a box in a sack.

 

He'd been just a boy then, following his father around wide-eyed. Having an adventure. So he'd gotten a peak at what Sugoroku wouldn't let the adults see.

 

It should be in a museum permanently.

 

It should be far away from him.

 

It should be with Yugi, though. He shouldn't have asked him to loan it to the exibit. He understood that look in his eyes now. Missing something precious.

 

He'd hounded Sugoroku for the story, and been told nothing, but known that all the legends were true. And Sugoroku, and Hawkins, kept having adventures. And he kept chasing the legends, finding treasure that would never be his.

 

Throwing away the treasure he had.

 

He wanted something to eat. Something normal. Something he'd had while home form the digs, something to settle his stomach. He wanted to know what had just happened, so the mystery wouldn't drive him mad like Sugoroku's mysterious night had.

 

And then he wanted to go home, and see his family, and take that offer to take Kanekura's place at the Domino University Museum. And have a nice, normal, 9-to-5 job, and come home, and help his daughter with her homework, and talk to his wife for once.

 

And live for once. Even if it meant stepping into a dead man's shoes.

 

Because as everything had faded into gray, the last thing he'd tried to hold onto, the last thing he let slip from his grasp, wasn't a priceless artifact, wasn't a bit of history, wasn't any of the things he'd worked so hard for.

 

It was a photo of something that had fallen into his grasp. And as he had let it fall out again, he had known that it had been left last to erase, because though he hadn't known it before it would hurt most to lose.

 

He didn't want to lose it again. He knew he would, though. He'd spent his life among the dead. He knew they all would join them.

 

They had known he would join them. And they had laughed.

 

He'd hoped it was a dream, until he'd realized he really was in mid-air.

 

He knew better than to hope he would get over the nightmares anytime soon. But Sugoroku was his friend.

 

VAVAVAVAVAV

 

Jou walked along, hands in his pockets. They hadn't exactly spelled it out, but they'd all known where they would end up. Strange to think they'd been friends for so short a time.

 

Yugi was trying to reassure his grandfather. Now, Jou would be the first to admit he wasn't all that bright, if it weren't for the fact that so many people would say it for him. His parents, if you could call them that, at the head of the line.

 

But it didn't seem very much like Ji-san needed reassuring. More like the other shoe had dropped. Anzu had told them all about that legend the old guy had told her and Yugi. Maybe he'd said it just to creep `em out, maybe not.

 

At this point, he was guessing maybe not. And, looking around, he gathered everyone'd come to the same conclusion except Yugi. Who was trying to cheer him up, and being excited, and bringing a smile to everyone's lips on occasion. Which was saying something, after all that.

 

Anzu was being perky, well, Class Prez after all. She could pull off a good act. And he'd played the fool a bit, jockeying along Yoshimori before the guy'd got his head out of the clouds. Or off that ledge.

 

That had been creepy. Even creepier than the one with the unsealed shrine being filled with eyeballs. He'd prettymuch grown up on the streets, after his Dad'd got custody and made him earn his keep running with the gangs, picking pockets and feeding himself out of whatever was left over after Dad took a cut. He'd heard every urban legend there was.

 

Ghosts and zombies and that creepy guy in the toga thing and the turban… this'd gone way beyond weird. His good ole' survival instincts had been screaming at him for a while, and he was a damn fool to hang around, he knew.

 

Rich girl and the geek… what was he doing hanging around with his natural prey? Honda was decent in a fight, but those two should be just dead weight.

 

Hell, he should be trying to get in a big gang now, get a footsoldier gig with the Yakuza. He could pull off bodyguard: he spoke okay English from all the gangster movies that his Dad'd used as babysitters for him and his sis.

 

Shizuka'd told him Mom had gotten her a tutor to get rid of that accent. He wished he was surprised none of that money was being saved up. No point.

 

Having her learn that brail stuff too.

 

He could make good money selling drugs. Get a rep, get a protector… it wasn't like he had a life now, going legit. He couldn't pull off civilized, the teachers all knew he was a retarded gangster.

 

He saw how they looked at him. Just waiting to kick him out of their classrooms. Gutter trash. Go back on the streets where you belong, drink yourself into oblivion like your father. Quit wasting the time the real students should be getting.

 

But he couldn't do that. He was a brother, despite everything they'd done to prevent him from being one. Shizuka looked up to him.

 

…he just had to find a way she could look up to him and look up to him. Maybe Yugi could get Yami to do it? Seemed to have him wrapped around his finger.

 

…if Mom ever let him see her again. She'd been watching her like a hawk since that time she'd slipped off, all those years ago. Well, he wouldn't want her hanging around someone like his Dad, either. He could understand her not fighting to get custody of him too.

 

But it wasn't his fault he looked like his father.

 

And it wasn't Yugi's fault he was puny and needed helping out, and it wasn't Anzu's fault her parents were controlling jerks. So he watched their backs.

 

They weren't Shizuka. They weren't the sister he couldn't have, couldn't help. But they were friends.

 

VAVAVAVAVAV

 

Anzu laughed at what Jou said, and Yugi's enthusiastic response to it. As long as it wasn't that burger joint, she didn't care.

 

Yugi was… sweet. And had a really childish voice sometimes. He really did look like a kid, bouncing around like that. She could understand why people made that mistake.

 

She didn't understand how anyone could be that sweet, really. He'd been teased tons, for his hair and his height and his odd obsessions. Yet he still had this strange …innocence wasn't really the right word…

 

Hope? No stronger than that.

 

Faith? No, he wasn't stupid, he knew most things would turn out wrong, most people weren't nice.

 

Love? Well… he really did like everybody. He'd looked up to Jou when she didn't see anything in him, and then she'd found out about… Honda still wouldn't give them the details.

 

He was just a really good person. A saint? She laughed, looking at him dancing around, and he looked at her questioningly and she said something about his burger obsession. Well, people had thought that red meat and cheese would help you grow…

 

He'd never laughed at her dreams, and she hadn't laughed at his, though she'd been tempted a lot. She admired him, how hard he tried.

 

Under that soft, cuddly exterior was the heart of a warrior. Man, she was poetic all of a sudden.

 

She'd know him for ages. He was the heir to a business, after all, so he was the right sort as far as her parents were concerned. They'd freak if they knew about Jou and Honda. They'd freak if they found out she hadn't really been at tutoring all these years.

 

She hadn't even dared to tell Yugi. The kid had this big honest face, and he couldn't keep a secret.

 

He still kept surprising her, after all these years. She hugged him, out of the blue, and he hugged her back, smiling, like they had been since they were kids. She didn't want to see red there, then.

 

Or maybe she did. She didn't know. Yugi trusted beyond reason, loved beyond reason. She admired that, tried to live up to it, got insanely angry when anyone abused him, took advantage of that.

 

Yami… if they were… he needed help too, then.

 

Don't think about that. She could stand a burger, she got enough exercise dancing as many hours a day as she did she didn't have to worry about her weight.

 

If he needed help, Yugi would help him. And she would to. Because he was Yugi's friend, and a friend of Yugi's was a friend of hers.

 

Even Jou and Honda, and they panty tanked her in front of the whole class.

 

At least Yami wasn't likely to do that. It would be tough to stick him with cleaning duty.

 

…no, he wouldn't make Yugi do it. She smiled at them.

 

VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAV AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAV

 

Please, review.

 

Daikaio? Which do you want me to work on first? The `real' version of this chapter, with Yami and Yugi's perspectives and actual conversation, or a stand-alone fic? Any new parameters for the fic besides Yami/Yugi fluff?

 

I warn you, despite this warm-up, the DYDOM chapter would require me to be in better condition, do a lot of prep work, as this is an epic. But a single fic would be easier, I think. If you pick the one-shot, e-mail me to kick me awake if it's not done in a week. My IM is the same as my username here and on livejournal, and my e-mail before the atyahoodotcom. I use Laryna6 for everything.

 

I'd like reviews, as they are shiny and are kept here for purposes of seeing my progress as a writer over time and are convenient, but if you want to bug me any other way in addition to that, feel free, all of you.

 

Again, thank you all for bearing with me.