Chapter 5: - Fortune Told
Yugi couldn't sleep.
It had been bad enough when she'd thought her blackouts were a product of a mental instability or some illness, but last night Jonouchi had told her something. Something that had frightened her more than those options would have.
She was regularly possessed by an Ancient Egyptian spirit. A spirit that she had released from the Millennium Puzzle when she had completed it, who was trying to protect her in return for her freedom, who was willing to kill to protect her...
It terrified her.
She didn't know what to do. Jou had promised her that the spirit who had been taking control of her body had sworn never to harm her friends, but that wasn't enough to settle Yugi's mind. She didn't want to hurt anyone and she didn't want anyone hurt because of her.
But she couldn't bring herself to disassemble the Puzzle and trap the spirit back in the dark, not when, if what Jou had told her was true, the poor spirit had suffered greatly before Yugi had solved the Puzzle.
She didn't want to wear the Puzzle, but she didn't want to leave the spirit trapped again...
"Yugi?" Yugi froze as her concerned grandfather poked his head around the door, having seen the light peeking under her door. "Are you alright?"
"I... I'm ok. I just... can't sleep." Yugi stammered, not wanting to worry her Grandfather and hoping that her pacing hadn't woken him up.
Her Grandfather moved into the room, smiling at her reassuringly as he went to pick the Puzzle up off of the floor, noticing the way she tensed up when he touched it. "Come on, I'll make you something to drink." He said as he left the Puzzle on the desk and ushered her out of the room.
"You don't have to..." Yugi trailed off as her Grandfather left her by the sofa and slipped into the kitchen, sitting down as she heard the kettle boiling, her thoughts jumping back aboard their previous train.
Sugoroku paused in the doorway as he saw his granddaughter looking scared and lost.
He'd known that the Puzzle was dangerous, and it wasn't hard to put together recent events and the Puzzle's completion, but his Granddaughter had needed it. Before she'd had it, she'd been a bully magnet, she'd had no social life and she'd been lonely.
The Puzzle had been good for her, but he could understand why she was frightened. He should take it away from her, lock it in the store safe where it wouldn't cause any more trouble, but he wouldn't - and not just because it's was Yugi's choice what to do with it.
When he'd played the Ultimate Shadow Game he'd been shot by his guide, who had swiftly fallen to the monsters inside the tomb. He'd nearly fallen to his death then, but he'd been rescued by someone in Ancient Egyptian garb who had looked almost exactly like Yugi, if you could see past the skin and eye colour.
Someone who had called him Siamun and told him that she'd been waiting for him a long time...
And that had been decades before Yugi had been born. When his granddaughter had looked like the spirit that had saved him, even at just six years old, he had known that the Puzzle was meant to go to her. He just hadn't expected it to take her eight years to complete it.
"Yugi." The girl jumped a mile and turned to look at him, eyes even wider than usual as he came to sit next to her, passing her a mug of tea which she took without comment, staring down into the mug without really seeing it.
Sugoroku put his hand on Yugi's arm, causing Yugi to jump again and splash herself with the hot liquid, dropping the mug as she let out a pained cry, spilling tea everywhere.
Her grandfather pulled her straight into the kitchen, putting the scalded area under the tap in the sink and putting on the cold water.
"Sorry." Yugi mumbled as the water ran over the injured area.
"What's wrong?"
"N...Nothing..." Yugi shook her head.
"You were miles away." Sugoroku shook his head, "And you are not normally that clumsy."
"Grandpa... I..." Yugi tried to look away but the elderly gamer caught his granddaughter's chin and turned her to face him, or at least tried. She pulled away the moment his fingers brushed her skin, fear obvious, memories darkening her eyes as he caught her arm before she could retreat too far.
"Yugi! Yugi it's me." She shuddered and blinked, light returning to scared amethyst eyes as it sunk in who had grabbed her. "Easy."
"I'm scared." She admitted, "I don't know what to do..."
"What do you think you should do?"
Yugi stared at him. She had no idea. What did someone do in a situation like this?
"What does your heart tell you you should do?"
Yugi paused to think about it and think about it hard. She was frightened of the spirit, it was true, but from what Jou had told her the spirit was only trying to protect her and he'd promised her that he wouldn't let something like today happen again.
Surely, considering everything she had been through before Yugi had solved the Puzzle, the spirit deserved a second chance...
"It's alright to be afraid, but I should try again." Yugi murmured, talking more to herself then her Grandfather, "At least once more."
"Good." Sugoroku nodded, "Now put that burn back under the water for a few more minutes and I'll be back with some bandages."
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Jonouchi had been staying at the game shop, helping out Yugi's grandfather ever since she went into hospital two weeks ago. He was surprised to see her wearing the Puzzle the next day, but when he questioned her about it she had just said "Everyone deserves a second chance" and gotten on with packing her bags for school.
Considering that he was technically on his third chance there wasn't much he could say about that, so he hadn't, he'd just kept his word that he'd stick close to her and helped her with the morning chores, taking over when she started slowing down because her wrists were sore.
When they'd caught up with Anzu and reached school , they discovered that the entire school was talking about Kokurano, the fortune teller in class 4B. He travelled around with an entourage of pretty girls in odd jewellery, and had successfully predicted several events including a fire at the house of a student in class 7A.
Anzu didn't believe in it, Jou wasn't sure, Honda had no interest in it and Yugi had been sceptical about it. Even now she wasn't sure what she believed. The Puzzle was obviously supernatural, but she'd seen people pull the same trick that Kokurano seemed to pull before. They wrote predictions down and only revealed them the after the act - every time before it had been proved to be fake.
At lunch time, for a bit of fun, Jou dragged her along to see what all the hype was about. In the classroom the fortune teller was predicting people's futures in such a way that it didn't convince Yugi any about a validity of his powers at all. He told one homely girl who asked if her beauty would last forever that she would remain as she was until her death, and another who had asked about their exam results received an answer that basically boiled down to 'it depends how hard you worked'.
"Hey I got one for him to see if he's real or not." Jou whispered to the others, ignoring the glowers that were being sent their way by Kokurano's groupies, "That is if you don't mind, Yugi."
"What are you...?"
"Hey, Kokurano-San." Jou budged his way to the front of the group instead of answering her, "What does..."
Jonouchi trailed off as the world around them shook with a terrifying rumble for a few seconds, causing several people to cry out or scream in surprise.
Once the shaking had stopped Kokurano laughed and produced a card out from under his cloak, with 'Earthquake today' written on it.
"See?" The leader of the fangirls crowed, "The Great Kokurano is right every time."
Yugi wasn't so sure but if he wanted to play a game with the girls then it was up to him. It wasn't like anyone was getting hurt by it and Kokurano did seem to be giving everyone he talked to a confidence boost, but... She wasn't sure but there was something off about the way the boy looked at her group of friends and she wasn't sure what it was.
Still it was his game, not hers, and he wasn't doing any harm. Besides, there was an unspoken code among magicians, and fortune tellers were part of that – you never reveal the trick.
She spent the rest of the day becoming more and more amused by the tales of the fortune teller, trying to keep her concern about the spirit from the Puzzle from clouding her day too much. After all she'd chosen to give the spirit a second chance and it wasn't like she'd had any blackouts to worry about today. And finally when school ended she, Anzu and Jou gathered by the lockers where Yugi was just slipping her trainers back on when Kokurano and his groupies showed up out of nowhere.
"Mazaki Anzu-San?" Kokurano asked, watching Anzu as the other two paused in their efforts to get ready to leave to watch the conversation, "I must admit I'm surprised. You're the only female student who hasn't been to see me. I just wondered why?"
"I'm sorry." Anzu didn't seem very sorry, "But we create our own futures. I don't believe in fortune telling."
"How rude." The Leader of the Groupies complained, "You doubt Kokurano-Sama's powers?"
"Whether I believe or not is my choice." Anzu shot back, unwilling to be pushed around by some floozy, "I'm not getting pushed into getting my fortune told. Come on guys." With that Anzu grabbed the loop on Yugi's backpack and started dragging her out the door, causing the girl to let out a startled cry as Jou followed, a highly amused look on his face.
Behind them Kokurano gained a vicious looking smirk.
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Yugi was sat out of PE.
She had her kit with her and had gotten changed as she'd been told, but the doctor's note she had excused her from activities like tennis so she was watching Anzu play against a lilac-haired girl from their class called Miho.
Her mind kept straying back to what had happened in the corridor though. Jou had been complaining because he and Honda had to do Judo, while the girls had tennis when Kokurano had shown up and started throwing around predictions, just like he had tried to do the day previous.
Apparently he'd had two 'visions'.
One was of Jou. Something about 'be wary of lights coming at you' while the other had been aimed at Anzu, who, apparently, had 'someone looking after' her 'from afar' and if she wanted more information to come and see him. Neither vision was particularly detailed and Yugi half suspected that they too were fake, but it had made her wonder if, in the Puzzle spirit's time there had been people trying to pull the same con.
Anzu had just darted over to the water trough to damp her towel and cool off, Yugi joining her, concerned at the distracted look on her friend's face when one of the other girls ran over to see them.
"Did you two hear what happened in the gym?" The pair wheeled around, shaking their heads, concerned, knowing that was where the guys were doing judo, "A light fell from the ceiling, Jonouchi-Kun nearly got hurt!"
Yugi froze as Anzu and the other girls started talking. It had to be a coincidence... or did it? Maybe Kokurano actually had some kind of powers... After all if the Puzzle could hold a spirit... Still...
After school Anzu went to see Kokurano-San and Yugi and Jou went with her, concerned considering what had happened in PE.
Yugi began to have her doubts again when Kokurano pulled a strip of paper out from under his cloak that told of Anzu's visit. It wasn't a hard guess to make considering the events of the day and it was quite possible that Kokurano had written various strips with different times of the day on, just so he looked like he was predicting it... still it was still his game and his rules and she didn't want to break them. Not unless it endangered her friends.
"So, can you tell me about the vision you saw of me?" Anzu asked as Jou sat back on the teacher's desk and watched, keeping an eye on Yugi rather than anyone else in the room. Yugi may have trusted the ancient spirit but that didn't mean Jou did properly. It was why he missed the disgust on Anzu's face when Kokurano started fondling her hand. "I see it! I see it! The person you're waiting to see will appear at six o'clock in classro..."
Something in Yugi snapped at the look on her friend's face.
"Leave her alone you fraud." Yugi snapped as she pulled her friend's hand out of Kokurano's grip, earning herself a shocked look from Anzu and a screech from behind her as Jou pushed the desk back slightly in his haste to get to his feet again.
"It's okay, Yugi." Anzu told her friend, surprised by Yugi's forcefulness.
"You stupid boy. I was in the middle of a vision before you so rudely interrupted." Kokurano glowered at Yugi, who for once didn't back down instantly.
"I'm a girl." Yugi glowered back at him, surprising herself by her actions as much as she shocked the others, "Not a guy."
"Predicted that wrong." Behind her, Jou sounded amused.
Kokurano looked stunned as he looked her over, eyes widening for a moment as he looked at her properly. His fangirls seemed almost as surprised, most having assumed she was with the girls for PE because it was dangerous to have someone her size playing sports with the guys.
"So you're the girl from the vision!" He proclaimed to one and all, recovering quickly, "Countless letters will fall from heaven and a great misfortune will befall you!" Yugi hesitated as he smirked at her, anger having burnt out quickly and not expecting that response from Kokurano, "You should be careful."
"Ah stow it Kokurano." Jou snorted, grabbing Yugi's arm with one hand and ushering Anzu out the door with the other. "We should be... Anzu?" He asked when the brunette shook his hand off and turned towards the classrooms. "You don't really believe him, do you?"
"I don't know." Anzu admitted. "It could just be a stalker or something but..."
"Come on." Jou looked unimpressed, "'The Person You're Waiting to See'? Could be anyone!"
Anzu didn't agree though. She wanted to know more about this mystery person. She just hoped it wasn't the crazy lady from the burger place a couple of days earlier.
"I'll meet you guys at the lockers." She waved them off and darted down the corridor. Jou frowned after her, but led Yugi towards the lockers only to get distracted halfway there by a book lying around on the floor. They had time before meeting Anzu, so they decided to take it back to the school library.
"Now where does Countless Letters..." Yugi murmured, then trailed off, going white as the implications hit her and she heard a bang.
Jou let out a startled yelp as a Yugi-shaped cannonball hit him and knocked him out of the path of the falling bookshelves before vanishing itself under books, shelving units and dust.
"Yuge!" Jou called, turning around the moment he'd recovered from hitting the floor, worried when he didn't see her, only to find a red eyed, furious looking Yugi without her jacket just about crawling out of the gap between one bookcase and the next. "Not-Yuge. Hey." He darted forward and helped her to her feet, "Are you alright?"
"Another minute to figure out 'Countless Letters' and we'd be dead." She growled, before pausing and looking at him properly, "Jonouchi." She nodded at him, "We're fine... however Kokurano is obviously making his predictions come true. I'm going to challenge him. You have a problem with that?"
"Hey, he just tried to kill us. As long as he's alive at the end of it, we're golden." Jou shrugged and shook his head, "Sane would be even better."
She paused, amused by this sudden change in attitude, "I thought I wasn't supposed to deliver my own brand of 'justice' anymore?" She asked as they darted out of the book room and towards the classrooms, knowing her other self had been uncomfortable with Kokurano's actions towards Anzu earlier in the day.
"Let me put it this way." He told her as he tried to work out which classroom Anzu would be in, "If you don't challenge him, I'm going to beat him black and blue."
She smirked as she nodded, but the look didn't last very long as they heard a muffled cry. She darted in that direction, leaving Jou to catch up. When he did he didn't like the scene he found.
Not-Yugi was glowering at Kokurano, who had a semi-conscious Anzu in his arms and was giving her a shocked look.
"But you're supposed to be..."
"You plan failed, Kokurano." She growled as Jou stepped into the room, threateningly, making Kokurano hand over Anzu, "And it's not just your prediction about me that was fake. The fire and the light in the gym that nearly killed Jou. That was all you too."
"What do you mean?" Kokurano demanded, realising he'd been caught.
"If you want to play dumb then fine." She snorted, looking at Jou who moved aside swiftly, watching warily as Not-Yugi moved towards the fake Fortune Teller, "But you and I are going to play a game."
"Why should I play with you?"
"Because if you don't I'm going to tell everyone that your predictions are false and I'll have proof too." She smirked at him.
Jou watched as she set up the game swiftly and efficiently, using what was to hand, a bunch of papers and the half full bottle of chloroform Kokurano had used to drug Anzu, then shook the brunette, worried about her. "Anzu? Anzu!"
Anzu wanted to respond, but her limbs felt heavy, like her mind had woken up but her body hadn't yet, like she was suffering from sleep paralysis. The woman from the burger place was back again but once again she couldn't see her. She both wanted to thank and slap her at the same time, but she couldn't do anything but listen as the game progressed.
Anzu had one question though. Why was Jonouchi with this mad woman?
"Come on Kokurano." The woman chuckled as she took her turn pulling a sheet out and the bottle spun across the table, stopping just centimetres from the edge of the table with all the sheets underneath it impossible to pull out unless he pulled in the direction of the table's edge. "If you're so powerful take your turn. I'm sure that a powerful psychic like you can make the bottle float by itself."
Kokurano hesitated as he looked from her confident smirk to the bottle at the edge of the table. He could so this. He could still win. He concentrated hard and the bottle started floating in midair...
He wasn't a fraud. He wasn't...
"Ha!" He crowed, "Look!" He pointed at it, "Look it's floating!"
He pulled a sheet out from underneath it...
And collapsed as the bottle fell to the floor and smashed, the fumes that rose causing the fraud to pass out.
"I didn't even have to use any magic." She chuckled at Jou as she spread his cloak wide, revealing all of the 'fortunes' that he had written days in advance. The blonde teen looked shocked but couldn't help but be impressed as she came over to his side and with a concern that surprised Jou she asked, "How is Anzu?"
"I think she's okay." Jou replied, concern obvious, "But she hasn't responded at all. The chloroform must of hit her hard." Anzu felt herself being scooped up, only for the person carrying her to freeze momentarily, "You have magic?"
"Some. I'm still working out what I can do." The woman sounded amused by Jou's shock, "How did you think I took down all those thugs? It's not like I could have knocked them all out myself."
The next question surprised Anzu. It wasn't 'who are you?' or 'what are you talking about?' it was, "Does Yugi have magic?"
"If she doesn't I'll be very surprised." The woman sounded thoughtful, "I don't remember much, but I remember something about those of light being incredibly powerful."
"Light?" Jou asked, confusion obvious, then, "Thanks for saving my ass in the book room."
"You should thank Her." The woman sounded a combination of impressed and amused, "She's the one that knocked you out of the way. I didn't wake up until after the bookcases had already fallen." She paused, "Tell Her her jacket's stuck under the bookcase, please? I had to shrug it off to get out safely."
"I will." Jou trembled slightly as he spoke, making Anzu wondered who they were talking about and what, exactly, had happened, "We should get..."
"Are you both alright?" Yugi had apparently arrived and sounded worried, though her next words confused Anzu no end, "My Other Self didn't...?"
"We're fine. It was Kokurano, not your friend who drugged Anzu. She didn't even harm him." The way Jou said 'him' gave Anzu the impression that Jou was glowering at Kokurano, wherever he'd gone, "Thanks for saving my butt in the book room."
"Y...you'd do the same for me." Yugi sounded embarrassed, "Does Anzu need to see the nurse?"
Anzu concentrated hard and was relieved when her fingers moved. Nor was she the only one.
"Anzu!" Yugi sounded relieved and delighted at the same time.
"You awake Anzu?" Jou asked, his tone one of concern.
Anzu tried to speak, to reassure the pair, but all that came out was a soft groan.
"I'll take that as a yes." Jou sniggered, "Come on, Yuge, let's get sleeping beauty to your house."
"What about Kokurano? We shouldn't just leave him lying on the floor..." Typical Yugi, concerned for everyone.
"Why not? He would have just left your mate passed out on the floor if she'd lost." Jou asked and Anzu was personally inclined to agree with him for a change.
"But..." Yugi sounded hesitant.
"Come on Yuge." Anzu felt herself being shifted and then there was a back pressed against one of the hands carrying her, pushing the back forwards, ushering the owner out of the room, "We should go. Before a teacher comes..."
"Alright..."
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"Ow!"
Anzu shifted to look at the door of Yugi's bedroom at Yugi's pained yelp, concerned for her friend, before pausing, delighted when she realised that she could move finally.
"You should get that looked at Yuge." Jou's voice echoed down the corridor as Anzu pulled off the covers and headed towards the sound of the voice. "You had a bookcase fall on you."
"I'm ok. It didn't touch..."
"Don't give me that. Your Other Self had to crawl out from between two bookcases and you're wincing when you move. You got hurt. Didn't you?"
"It's not important Jou." Anzu could hear the dismissal in Yugi's voice even as she wondered what the pair of them meant when they said talked about Yugi's 'Other Self'.
"It is important, Yuge. You should get it looked at."
"It's just a bruise." Yugi protested, "I'm ok. I'm more worried about you and Anzu."
"Don't be. You saved my butt and your Other Self took down Kokurano before he could to do anything to Anzu. We're... Anzu?" Jou looked surprised and worried as Anzu walked into the room.
"Other Self?" She asked Yugi, who blanched, having thought that Anzu was still in her bedroom.
"Uh did I say Other Self? I meant uhhh..." Jou tried to think on his feet. "Inner Elf?"
"Inner Elf?" Anzu gave him a derogatory look, "Is that really the best that you could come up with?"
"I'm bad at thinking on my feet." Jou protested.
"That's obvious." Anzu snorted, "Yugi, what's going on? Really?"
"I...uhhh..." Yugi really, really didn't want to tell her, but...
"Yugi. The truth. Please. You trust me. Don't you?"
Jou saw Yugi wince and scowled at the brunette, who glowered back, knowing full well that Anzu was aiming directly at Yugi's weak spots. "Leave her alone Anzu. It's not her fault."
"Why do you know about this? Why don't I?" Anzu wheeled around to glower at Yugi. "I thought we were friends."
"We are!" Yugi protested.
"Then tell me what's happening!"
"Anzu, calm down." Jou started as Yugi's eyes changed colour and her tone grew slightly deeper, "Calm down and I'll explain everything."
"You!" Anzu stared, backing up, "I know your voice... You... in the restaurant... and earlier..."
"Anzu. It's okay." Jou grabbed Anzu's arm and held her in place. "Just listen to what she has to say. Please!"
"W...who are you and what have you done with Yugi!" Anzu demanded, her voice shaking as she looked at the woman who looked so much like her friend.
"Yugi's fine. She's asleep, right here." The woman put a hand over her chest, where her heart would be, "We can't be awake at the same time, not right now. Maybe once I'm stronger, but for now..."
"What do you... I don't understand."
"She's an Ancient Egyptian Spirit, Anzu." Jou told the girl, having expected her to freak out like this if and when she found out, "She was trapped inside the Puzzle for thousands of years until Yugi freed her. She's the one that's been kicking ass and taking names in Yugi's defence for the last couple of months."
Anzu stared from him to the woman possessing Yugi and back again, then she did what most people would do in her place. She fainted.
"Well..." Jou said as he darted forward and caught Anzu, "That could have gone worse."
"We should have hidden it better."
"No offence Oneesan," Jonouchi said the last jokingly, with a huge grin, "But you're not exactly the most subtle person around. She'd have found out sooner or later."
"Oneesan?" The spirit asked, looking amused.
"Well you act like an over protective big sister, why not? I have to call you something."
"Well, Ototo," She shot back, amusing Jou even further when she called him little brother, "What would you suggest?"
"I suggest we start by waiting till Anzu wakes up and tell her everything. And I do mean everything." He gave the spirit a sharp look. She frowned slightly, but nodded, "And then we work it out from there."
"Complicated plan you have there." The spirit chuckled.
"Well, if you can think of something better, Oneesan, I'd love to hear it." Jonouchi grouched back.
"I have a few ideas."
Before she could tell him anything Anzu woke up, her eyes shooting towards Oneesan who backed off, hands up, trying to look unthreatening.
"Anzu, stay calm." Jonouchi said to Anzu, who was starting to freak again, "She won't hurt us. She needs the Puzzle complete unless she wants to be trapped again and I'll smash it if she attempts anything, okay? Just listen to what we have to say."
"Why...? I want to talk to Yugi."
Oneesan bowed and when she straightened it was Yugi in control. The girl looked around swiftly, relaxing slightly as she did so, and turned to Anzu.
"Are you alright?" Anzu asked, worried.
"I'm ok." Yugi smiled at her, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Anzu snapped at her, "But are you insane?" The brunette teen demanded.
"It would be simpler." Yugi sighed, "I know about the spirit. I know she's dangerous."
"And you're still willing to share your body with her? She set a guy on fire, Yugi!" Anzu snapped.
"I know but..."
"There are mitigating circumstances, Anzu." Jonouchi spoke up when Yugi trailed off, "Just listen and we'll explain everything we know."