Chapter Text
“FOOLISH MORTAL WHO DARED TRESPASS ON HOLY GROUND AND PILLAGE THE ROYAL TOMBS, RETURN MY MILLENNIUM PUZZLE OR SUFFER ONE THOUSAND DEATHS AND AN ETERNAL CURSE UPON THY HOUSE.”
Making this threat, bellowed in the most commanding and intimidating voice he could muster, was the first thing Atem did upon being released from the Millennium Puzzle, the very moment the last piece clicked into place. He hovered high above the Puzzle, arms crossed, looming down at whoever had solved it, whoever had put their grubby little grave robber hands all over his precious Puzzle. Insolent worm, invading his tomb, touching his most beloved possession, interrupting his afterlife-
“W-Wait… ‘Your’ Puzzle?” gasped a small, shaky voice. “If this is your Puzzle… then you must be…”
“THE GREAT PHARAOH ATEM OF THE TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY OF THE THRONE OF EGYPT, SON OF PHARAOH AKHENAMKHANON, KING OF UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT, DIVINE SON OF RA, BELOVED OF THE TWO LADIES, HE FOR WHOM THE SHADOWS-”
“Oh, no… If… If you’re a Pharaoh, and this was stolen from your tomb, then that means you… Can’t have a proper afterlife, can you..?”
It was at that moment that Atem noticed that the person who had solved the puzzle didn’t appear to be a dirty, wild-eyed grave robber, but rather a boy, seemingly around Atem’s age, or maybe a little younger. (Or at least, around Atem’s mental age; Chronologically speaking, he wasn’t entirely certain of his own age, but it went without saying that he was far, far older than anyone currently alive, he thought.)
The boy, of course, looked deeply upset. Completely scared shitless, Atem assumed. Good. He should be. It didn’t matter who he was, or how old he was; What he had done was unforgivable, and Atem was going to make sure he was damn well aware of it.
“CORRECT, YOU INSOLENT, BARBARIC SLIME. NOW, RETURN THE PUZZLE TO ME OR YOU WILL BURN IN THE SHADOW REALM FOR ALL ETERNITY, AND YOUR HEART WILL BE ENDLESSLY DEVOURED BY THE BEASTS WHICH INHABIT IT.”
(Of course, this was a completely different threat from the one Atem had made earlier, but he figured it was probably best to cover all his bases.)
“Y-Yes, of course I’ll put it back! I’m so sorry, that must be so awful for you, I’m really sorry, I had no idea,” the boy stammered, looking… Genuinely hurt? Sad?
Suddenly, Atem felt a pang of deep guilt, like accidentally kicking a pet.
“Ah, wait, that means I’ll have to go to Egypt, won’t I?” the boy said hastily, seemingly talking to himself. “I don’t know how I manage to convince mom and dad to let me go, maybe I can get grandpa to take me- Oh, and I’ll have to skip school- And wait, how much does a plane ticket to Egypt even cost? It’s on the other side of the world, it must be expensive, but I only have about 10,000 yen in my savings right now… And- Oh, oh no, I don’t think anyone’s allowed to go into one of the ancient tombs, and I don’t even know where it is and- and-”
...Hang on. Was… Was the boy… Crying?
Oh, god, he was. Now Atem really felt bad.
“W-Wait, kid, don’t cry- UH, I MEAN. CEASE YOUR PATHETIC BLUBBERING, MORTAL,” Atem commanded, awkwardly stumbling to regain his intimidating voice.
The boy immediately shut his mouth and sat up straighter than before- though he still avoided eye contact, his lip trembled incessantly, and his breathing was more like a series of hiccups and sniffles than inhales and exhales.
“FORTUNATELY FOR YOU, ONE AS WISE AND EXPERIENCED AS ME UNDERSTANDS THE LIMITATIONS OF MORTAL TRAVEL,” he announced. “IT WOULD BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE FOR ME TO KILL YOU BEFORE YOU CAN GET TO MY TOMB. THEREFORE, I SHALL GIVE YOU…” He paused. How long would it take to get to Waset from… Where were they, anyway? Phoenicia? Crete? Punt? Hell if he knew. Looking around, he realized that neither the boy’s clothes nor the contents of the room at all resembled any cultures he was familiar with, meaning they must have been quite far from Egypt indeed.
“...THREE MONTHS,” he decided after a moment, figuring it was probably about long enough. “YOU HAVE THREE MONTHS TO MAKE YOUR JOURNEY AND RETURN MY MILLENNIUM PUZZLE. WASTE MY TIME, AND YOU WILL REGRET EVER HAVING BEEN BORN INTO YOUR PATHETIC LIFE.”
“Yes, of course! I’m so, so sorry this happened to you, and I swear I’ll do everything I can to fix it,” the boy promised. There was a definite earnestness of sorts to his voice, which Atem found curious; If he hadn’t been entirely certain before, he could tell beyond a doubt now that this boy was no grave robber, but rather a genuinely good-hearted person. He tilted his head and watched the boy thoughtfully for a moment, while the boy stared shyly back up at him with those sad, scared, guilty eyes.
“...WHAT IS YOUR NAME, MORTAL?” Atem asked.
“Oh! It’s, um, Yuugi. Mutou Yuugi,” the boy responded.
Atem nodded this, as if approving this answer. “HOW DID MY MILLENNIUM PUZZLE COME INTO YOUR POSSESSION, MUTOU-YUUGI?”
“W-well, you see, my grandpa won it in a bet a long time ago, when he was in America, although I don’t know who he won it from or how they got it. Then he gave it to me, since I always thought it was cool when I was a kid,” Yuugi answered.
Atem raised an eyebrow. “YOU THOUGHT THE MILLENNIUM PUZZLE WAS… ‘COOL’?” he questioned in surprise .
Yuugi nodded enthusiastically, suddenly seeming to perk up, even as his eyes remained red-tinted from crying. “Yup! I’ve always really liked games and puzzles, and the Millennium Puzzle is so pretty, plus nobody’s ever been able to solve it before! I wanted to be the first,” he explained.
“NONSENSE. I’VE SOLVED IT DOZENS OF TIMES. IT WAS MY FAVORITE CHILDHOOD TOY,” Atem pointed out.
Yuugi shrugged. “Well, I guess nobody’s been able to solve it since then. Of course, it was also rumored to be cursed by the Pharaoh, and- ...Oh. I… guess the rumors were kinda true, huh,” he realized quietly, looking sheepish.
“REALLY? SUCH A CLEAR WARNING, AND STILL NO ONE THOUGHT OF RETURNING THE PUZZLE? HOW ABSURD,” Atem spat angrily. “SOMEDAY, HUMANITY’S AVARICE WILL BE ITS UNDOING, I’M SURE OF IT.”
“You’re right… I’m sorry, I should never have been so selfish,” Yuugi apologized, eyes beginning to well up with tears once again.
“I WASN’T NECESSARILY REFERRING TO YOU SPECIFICALLY,” Atem clarified hastily, waving his hands in dismissal before Yuugi could start sobbing again.
Suddenly, a knock came at the door. Both the room’s occupants glanced toward it, distracted by this interruption.
“Yuugi, are you still awake? You should be in bed, it’s after midnight,” a voice said from behind the door, gentle yet slightly scolding.
“Oh, right! Sorry, grandpa,” Yuugi called back, then turned back to Atem. “Um… I have school in the morning, so… I really do need to go to sleep now, um, if that’s alright,” he told him slowly, with an awkward inclination of his head.
“TOMORROW WE WILL BEGIN THE JOURNEY TO EGYPT, YES?” Atem questioned, a slight threatening edge to his voice.
Yuugi fidgeted nervously, face contorted with worry. “I’d like to say yes, but... W-Well, it’s not as simple as just going to Egypt, unfortunately… But I promise tomorrow I’ll start working on a plan,” he replied, with a nod of conviction.
“THEN SLEEP,” Atem decided, and said no more.
Yuugi nodded stiffly, and walked over to the door, keeping his eyes on Atem as he hit a switch on the wall. Suddenly, the room went dark, and Atem found himself looking around wondering where the light had even come from in the first place; He’d been so wrapped up in his anger and threats that he hadn’t even noticed it before, but in hindsight, the room had been surprisingly well lit for indoors, despite the lack of any visible candles or torches or anything like that. Idly, he wondered what that was all about.
But he was still more concerned with matters at hand, and turned his attention back towards Yuugi, who was now walking towards the bed.
There were a few moments of awkward silence as both Atem and Yuugi continued to watch each other while Yuugi slowly climbed into bed- Yuugi, with wide, nervous eyes, and Atem with a sharp, burning stare. Eventually, Yuugi shyly turned towards the wall, and fell into a deep sleep not long afterwards.
Evidently, ghosts did not sleep. Atem knew this, because he’d been trying to go to sleep for the past several hours (or so he assumed, anyway) and had gotten absolutely nowhere. No matter how hard he tried, he never even felt sleepy; Even if he closed his eyes for what seemed like an eternity, it still just felt like… Well, closing his eyes. There was clearly not going to be any sleep happening, so after a long and frustrating span of time, he simply gave up.
With nothing better to do, he decided to investigate his surroundings. Atem was a naturally curious person, and nothing seemed familiar in this strange land and time. What was it like, he wondered?
Looking around, the first thing he noticed was the location of the Millennium Puzzle. It rested next to its box on a plain, rectangular wooden table; The table was fairly small in terms of surface area, but unusually tall- not that this was much of an issue, given that there was also a tall chair next to it. The right side of the table seemed to have a stack of drawers in it, as well.
On top of this table sat a row of slab-shaped objects, which Atem didn’t recognize, with white centers and colorful outer layers, arranged to be mostly standing up with several falling over slightly. There was also a frame holding what appeared to be a freakishly good portrait of several people, as well as a mysterious structure made up of several metal bars connected to each other with hinges; The shape of it reminded Atem of an arm sticking out of the grown, or perhaps some sort of bird. He touched it, and the thing moved slightly, with a quiet creaking noise.
The room itself was fairly small in size, with a slanted ceiling, and a long glass-covered window above the table. On the right side of the table, as well as on the adjacent walls, were several shelves, filled with more mysterious slabs and boxes and various other objects. A large mirror also hung on one of the walls (Atem’s reflection appeared vague and shadowy, almost as if it could be mistaken for a smudge on the mirror if he weren’t looking for it). To the left of the table was a cushioned bed, where Yuugi lay on his side underneath a blanket.
On top of the bed’s wide, shelf-like headrest was a small, very peculiar box. On the front of it were several glowing, blinking glyphs in some script Atem didn’t recognize, though it vaguely reminded him of cuneiform. The box must have been enchanted, given that the glyphs glowed, so maybe it was for some sort of ritual purpose? He’d have to ask Yuugi about it in the morning, Atem decided.
Yuugi…
Atem’s gaze drifted towards the boy in question, who snored gently as he slept, his chest rising and falling with a slow, steady motion. He looked so… Innocent, sweet, peaceful, making Atem feel a strange sense of wanting to protect him.
He… Really did feel bad for scaring the poor boy like that, if he was being honest with himself. He clearly hadn’t been aware of the Millennium Puzzle’s origin, and seemed genuinely remorseful about it. A part of Atem said that he had been cruel to yell and threaten an innocent, clearly timid person like that, but what was he supposed to do? Just say, “Oh, well, nevermind then, by the way do you think you could stop by my tomb if you get the chance?”
Of course not. He couldn’t back down from his initial threats. He had to be scary, had to be intimidating, or else how would he ever be taken seriously? He loved his Millennium Puzzle so much that it seemed it had become a part of his very soul, and if it wasn’t returned to his tomb, he wouldn’t be able to return to the afterlife.
He wasn’t sure how long it had been since the Millennium Puzzle had been stolen- How long he’d spent in empty, disorienting darkness- But the memory of it was enough to make him shudder with fear. No, he absolutely couldn’t afford to risk the possibility of Yuugi deciding that the journey to Egypt was too difficult to make, or that he didn’t care enough to bother. Atem had to make sure beyond a doubt that he would return the Puzzle, and preferably as quickly as possible. If that meant going just a little far with scaring him into submission, so be it.
Atem sighed, and glanced out the window, wondering how long there was until morning. He could only just barely see slightest little inklings of the sky beginning to lighten on the horizon, behind several tall buildings. Great.
Something was making a terrible, terrible noise. A very, very annoying, very, very loud, high pitched noise, not unlike some sort of strange, horrific mutant click beetle being brutally murdered. And it.
Wasn’t.
Stopping.
Atem searched frantically around the room for whatever the hell was making that god-awful noise, and quickly identified the source: the box on the bed, the one with the magic glyphs. Why it was making such a noise, Atem didn’t know, and frankly he didn’t care. What mattered was that he Didn’t Like It.
“Stop that. Shut up. Be quiet,” he told the box- not really sure if he was speaking to it because he believed it could actually understand him, or if he was simply talking to inanimate objects because it wasn’t like there was much else he could do.
The noise continued.
“I said, be quiet,” Atem repeated, more firmly this time.
The noise continued.
“I ORDER YOU TO CEASE THIS RIDICULOUS NOISE,” Atem shouted, running extremely low on patience (he’d used most of it up in the hours he’d spent doing literally nothing all night).
Atem gritted his teeth and growled in frustration, now more than just a little irritated. He grabbed the box and, with all the incorporeal strength his soul could muster, hurled it at the opposite wall as hard as possible.
The box slammed into the wall and fell to the ground with a satisfying thud, and though it did indeed stop, the sound of the box hitting the wall also woke up Yuugi, who sat up with a start- And then, upon seeing Atem, jumped again, this time screaming slightly.
“HELLO, MUTOU-YUUGI. YOUR HORRIBLE BOX WOULDN’T STOP SCREAMING, SO I KILLED IT,” Atem announced, standing with his hands on his hips and nodding in satisfaction. “YOU’RE WELCOME.”
Yuugi simply stared at Atem for a moment, eyes wide and heart racing, before speaking in a tired voice. “...You broke my alarm clock?”
Atem raised an eyebrow. That thing was supposed to be a clock? No way. That didn’t make sense, it looked nothing like a clock. Then again, it was magical, so who was he to say?
“YES, I DID. IT OFFENDED ME, SO I DESTROYED IT. YOU SHOULD GET A BETTER CLOCK, ONE THAT DOESN’T SCREAM,” he informed Yuugi. “YOUR SOCIETY MUST HAVE SOME STRANGE PRIORITIES, IF THIS IS THE SORT OF TECHNOLOGY YOU’VE DEVELOPED.”
Yuugi stared at Atem for a few more seconds, and then groaned and fell back onto the bed, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead in exasperation.
“It’s too early for this,” he muttered under his breath.
After a little while, Yuugi sighed, and reluctantly sat up. He rubbed his eyes, and stumbled over to the door.
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Atem asked.
“Breakfast ‘n’ stuff,” Yuugi muttered sleepily in response.
Atem followed him, and stuck his head out the door just in time to see Yuugi start descending a set of stairs… But found that he was unable to follow any further, confined to the room by his connection to the Millennium Puzzle.
A little while later, Yuugi came back, looking much more awake. He still seemed a little startled upon seeing Atem, almost as if he’d expected the whole thing to have been just a dream, but quickly regained his composure.
“Uh… Good morning, um… Pharaoh…” he greeted him slowly, still with tentative uncertainty in his voice. “Uh, how did you sleep?” he asked, feeling a need to be polite to his “guest”.
“I DIDN’T SLEEP. I AM A GHOST,” Atem replied bluntly.
Yuugi blinked in surprise. “Oh. Okay. Well, anyway, um… I have to get dressed now, so… Do you think you could, um, turn around or something for a few minutes?” he asked with no small amount of awkwardness, fidgeting nervously.
Atem nodded- he did at least respect Yuugi’s privacy- and turned to face the wall, away from the mirror.
“SO, MUTOU-YUUGI-”
“Oh, you can just call me Yuugi, actually,” Yuugi interrupted.
“VERY WELL, YUUGI,” Atem corrected himself. “TODAY YOU’LL BEGIN MAKING ARRANGEMENTS FOR PASSAGE TO EGYPT, YES?” he asked as he continued to face the wall.
“Yeah... Although I have to go to school first, but I’ll do whatever I can as soon as school gets out,” Yuugi promised.
“GOOD. I HOPE YOU REMEMBER WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DON’T,” Atem warned ominiously.
“Y-yes, I know. I promise, I’ll find away to return the Millennium Puzzle,” Yuugi insisted quickly, a nervous edge to his voice. “Alright, you can turn around now.”
Atem turned around, and idly glanced over Yuugi’s clothes- They were rather plain, he thought, though he did like the choker. Interestingly enough, he noticed that Yuugi was wearing tight pants, as opposed to the loose ones he’d slept in. They looked uncomfortable, he thought, but evidently Yuugi didn’t seem to mind.
“I gotta get going now, so… I’ll see you later,” Yuugi told Atem, waving slightly as he headed towards the door- And then he hesitated, as if remembering something.
“Oh, by the way…” He sighed. “Listen, Pharaoh… I understand that you’re upset, but please don’t break any more of my stuff while I’m gone, alright?” he requested, sounding slightly exasperated.
“DO THE REST OF YOUR THINGS ALSO MAKE HORRIBLE INCESSANT SHRIEKING NOISES?” Atem questioned.
“...Not really, no,” Yuugi replied.
“THEN I SEE NO REASON TO BREAK THEM,” Atem assured him with a shrug. “GOODBYE, YUUGI. REMEMBER, IF YOU NEGLECT YOUR TASK I WILL KILL YOU,” he added for good measure.
Yuugi raised an eyebrow. “Right… Uh… Well, see you later. Have a good day, I guess,” he muttered awkwardly, and with that, he left the room and shut the door behind him.
Now, Atem realized, he was alone. Alone, and confined to Yuugi’s room, with nothing but himself, the bed, the table, the blissfully quiet magic box, and the colorful mystery slabs. Waiting for Yuugi to come back from school.
Atem sighed.
It was going to be a long, boring day.