章 30: Seto Kaiba's Fun-Filled Mission (Part 1)
DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)
Afterlife
///Grandpa: Why did I have to accept this chair?/// Sugoroku could feel it underneath him uncomfortably. Atem had insisted, demanded, that he take a chair and sit. He didn't want him standing up the entire time. Sitting however, felt worse. Atem swore there was a reason. Yet, minute by minute it was painful. "Are we done yet?" He asked him.
"How do you feel?" Atem questioned. "Describe it as best as you can."
The chair? "Well? It feels like when the old back pops out and it pops back in, and there's this weird sensational feeling that doesn't stop crawling up you no matter how you move for several minutes. Except, it's all over the body and it doesn't stop after a few minutes!" That was a pretty good indication. "Can I stand now?"
Atem nodded, granting him the chance to stand. Finally! That was so much better. It felt like he was being forced to be seated uncomfortably in an overstuffed car for hours.
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///Atem: A few minutes at most. I can't even offer Grandpa a chair for a few minutes./// His body would rather stand all day than accept a chair. Grandpa didn't even understand that it would be a luxury, something that wasn't due to him. Simply because it wasn't established before death. Not in the balance. He should be with his wife, someplace else, with different needs being fulfilled. If he didn't take the mission that millennium puzzle would lead him to, then he needed to find a way to make Grandpa more comfortable somehow.
"Pharaoh?" Grandpa asked. "May I ask why you wanted me to sit in the chair?"
"To see something." There had to be a way to set things right with him. "Those who die must pass on. They must endure the afterlife, it's where they belong. Yuugi taught me that."
"This is about the Millennium Stone, isn't it?" Sugoroku asked him.
"Do you have any advice?" Atem asked desperately. "No matter how big or little. Oh?" Atem's attitude completely peaked. Seto Kaiba. He was finally back for another duel. He grinned as Atem stood up, ready. An old fashioned game with him, nothing beat it. Maybe the gods granted Kaiba's passage just because it kept Atem from going crazy. "Are you ready, Seto Kaiba? Can you beat me now? I'll try to make it easier for you if that's what you want," he teased him.
"Don't ever go easy on me!" Kaiba's voice rumbled the palace. "Let's Duel."
Sugoroku watched them. Atem always looked so alive when the only living thing out there crossed over to play with him. Seto Kaiba. About once a month? Every two? Every . . . time blended together too much, but that's all it was too. Just play. Atem had nothing to gain, neither did Seto Kaiba. They both just wanted to beat each other. ///Grandpa: I don't know what to say. Anything I say would be working against . . . Yuugi. While the dead should pass on and find peace, Atem cannot. This world cannot. I don't belong here, and I know it. I want to see my wife again so much. I know I saw her when my soul moved from the VHS back to my body in Duelist Kingdom. I know it! I know she's out there. A new start is out there. This is not my eternity.///
Sugoroku watched Atem play gleefully. The swell of playing made him look so completely different than the tired Pharaoh sitting next to where he stood. ///Grandpa: It just feels . . ./// "You should be there, Atem."
Atem took his eyes off the duel to look at him only a moment before concentrating again.
"While the dead need to move on, I don't believe you are meant to be this way. You can't be, there's no way ignoring this will be good for anyone. Look at you, you even age! Who ages in the afterlife?"
Atem paused and looked at him strangely. "Horakhty doesn't want it, and I just don't know enough to take that leap. I'm? I'm sorry. I lay this card face-down." Atem was being extra loud. Hearing but not wanting to hear at the same time. "And I end my turn, Kaiba."
"What if something terrible happens though? What happens when my grandson dies? Does he come here like I did, or go somewhere else?"
"Hurry up and make a move!" Atem shouted once again, but this time- "Yuugi's not just someone to be taken over, he has a life to live. So does Bakura, and what if Zorc himself comes back? There are no guarantees, I cannot rush into this decision. Horakhty was against it."
"Are we gonna dick around with family matters all day or are we going to play some cards?" Kaiba said, yet still stared at his deck system. "Although if this is a conversation that is going to get you back to where you belong, I'll actually be quiet and let it proceed."
"Even Seto Kaiba knows it," Sugoroku stated. "It is probably why his technology was allowed to cross over. There is a reason for everything, Atem."
"Right, and I brought that extra suit to get you the hell out of here too," Kaiba reminded him. "Put it on and get out. You better still have it."
"Oh, what would I have done with the sparkly suit?" Atem complained. "It wouldn't work, contrary to your eyes, I am not a mortal with a body, and I don't belong in the living world. It's not fair to him." Atem seemed lost. "Yuugi has proved that he is strong without me. This should be the end of it."
"It wasn't fair to you either, sealing up your own soul in a puzzle to save the world. Destiny has called," Sugoroku said to him.
"Mahado said it was a choice," Atem shouted. "It was not destiny, not ordained, and not necessary. Above all? Horakhty is against it! That means it is a bad idea. I need not do it. I should not do it."
"Yes. You're right," Sugoroku muttered. "It's a choice. It's your choice." As he breathed, the heaviness almost filled the room.
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A thought. A memory Atem tried to keep back from his mind so many times. After the fire with Otogi's father. In the hospital. A conversation took place between him and Yuugi. One that was burned into him and would never leave.
<<< "Bakura's other self said to me that whoever solves the millennium puzzle has the duty to awaken the lost memories of the Pharaoh. Are you . . . a pharaoh?" Yuugi asked as he looked toward Atem.
"My name . . . even where I'm from. I don't know," Atem had said. "All I know is this. I know I exist because you put the millennium puzzle together, and in the Valley of the Kings is a sarcophagus that holds the puzzle and six other millennium items. There . . . my . . ." Yuugi shouted it was time to stop talking and go see Jounouchi and go home. But. Atem had continued the conversation. "However . . . I want to be with you forever. Even if I can't recall my memories, it doesn't matter."
Yuugi started to cry. "I also wish to forever . . ."
"I will give all my memories to you . . .>>>
They had been so close, but Atem hid the truth about the museum at first. Believing Yuugi wasn't strong enough to hear it.
Finding his memories. Finding his past. Finding his fate. Finding where he belonged. He was supposed to admit to it all . . . being wrong? To just say that he had to join with Yuugi again? And Horakhty. He stared at Kaiba. "Seto Kaiba. I need you to do something for me because you are the only one who can."
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