Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Angel from Above ❯ Reasons ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: See Chapter I for the standard disclaimer.

Underline: Speech in Japanese

And as a reply to Fireotaku18, there is a very good reason the geostigma is back, you’ll find out later ^_~

Sorry for the wait. I sent this to my beta yesterday, but it never did get reviewed in the end, so sorry for any mistakes ><

Note: All Japanese and Egyptian translations are at the bottom under the authors notes

It was the second time in about two days he had fallen unconscious, he thought in disdain with a scowl, prying one eye open, only to squeeze it shut again. And that wasn’t even including the days he spent in unconsciousness, not that he could tell anyways. He sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily with an arm before finally convincing them to open, stopping in his tracks as he saw the king sitting before him.

“Ohiyo gozimasu.” He said, after deciding that blinking stupidly at someone who odiously held power for hours wouldn’t give the best impression.

Pharaoh paused, before repeating what Cloud said, slowly. Cloud looked surprised, but nodded his head in approval of the kings pronunciation. “I am Pharaoh Atem.”

“Per-a’A…Atem.” Cloud repeated, causing Atem to laugh as the blond rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Cloud.” he introduced, although he had a feeling that the king already knew his name. At least he could vaguely understand ‘I am’ and ‘My name is’ now.

“You’re in Kemet.” Atem said slowly, waving to the window, which Cloud glanced out, nodding his understanding.

“I’m from a town…Nibelhiem.” Cloud said, his hand going to the arm with his ash like sickness. “This is geostigma.”

Yami nodded, noticing the slight pain flash in Cloud’s eyes as he grabbed the wound, geostigma as he’d called it. “Does it…is it painful?” He asked, his own curiosity getting the better of him as he reached a hand out slightly.

Cloud repeated the words to himself slowly, before realising the meaning, shaking his head. “Not from touch.” Granted, he felt a little uncomfortable, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone took their curiosities out on him. Then again, these people seemed almost primitive. From his glimpses outside he saw only donkey and horse drawn carriages at best, and when he had glimpsed the ocean, the boats were all wood and wind or man powered, never steel and mako run.

Atem gently ran his hand down the other’s arm, who only looked away slightly, as if he had been in a healers bed his entire life and was used to the poking and prodding. Suddenly, a wave of nausea hit the Pharaoh, and he pulled his hand away with a gasp, closing his eyes tight. The geostigma sickness seemed infused with a dark magic, which had reacted badly to the powers of the Puzzle flowing through him.

“Daijoubu?” Cloud asked, looking at Atem, who was covering his lips with the back of his arm. Cloud watched the other, worried slightly. He doubted he had a weak stomach, but couldn’t guess why the man might look like he was about to lose his meals. “Gomen”

“I’m fine.” Atem muttered, glancing at the puzzle. It had been the same feeling he got when he touched a persons soul, but it was in so much pain he almost lost himself, except he didn’t have to deal with losing his soul and he wasn’t trying to touch the other man.

Cloud gave him a sceptical look, before nodding. After a moment of silence, when Atem finally gained his composure, Cloud said slowly, “teach me.”

“Pardon?”

Cloud sighed. “Teach me the language of Kemet?” He made a motion with his hand away from his lips “Teach me to speak Kemet.”

Atem smiled, what the blond was trying to say finally dawning on him. “Ah, yes, we can teach you of Kemet.”

Cloud stood, noticing the long robe draped over his body and tied around the waist vaguely, looking around for his clothing. He shifted slightly, feeling slightly naked in comparison to his usual attire, but decided that the garments were probably dirty at the very least.

“Come,” Atem began, standing and waving a hand to the door, “let me introduce you to my priests.” Cloud tilted his head to the side, feeling very much like he was back in grade school where the adults said something he couldn’t understand. He followed when Atem left the room, every now and then pointing out something.

“Aa…Atemu-sama?” He would ask, pointing at the numerous wall scrolls and sharp carved writing or statues lining the hall. “Nan’ desu ka?”

Atem would pause, smiling slightly at the odd accent in which Cloud would say his name, before saying what the blond asked. “Isis,” he said, gesturing to the woman on the far left of the scroll in Clouds most recent question, “Osiris.” He turned to the painting and bowed, making sure Cloud was watching before standing with his palms raised towards the sky with a smile. Cloud nodded, seeing they were also painted larger then the others in the scroll, guessing they were gods. “Cloud?”

The blond looked from the painting “hn?”

“What does ‘sama’ mean?”

Cloud grinned, standing straight. “Atemu-sama,” he said, bowing towards Atem. “Reeve-san,” he made a hand shaking motion, using people he knew for examples and straining the honorific, so Atem knew which word was which. “Zack-kun,” he made a slight hugging motion, signifying good friend, “to Marlene-chan.” He held his hand at waist height, signifying younger person, before making the same hugging motion.

Atem smiled, nodding. It was odd, that this language had an honorific applied to the end of a name, and so many as well. “Well, Cloud-san,” he said carefully, nodding at Cloud’s smile, “shall we?”

They headed through the palace, Atem teaching cloud what some of the hieroglyphics tattooed on the wall were, and what the words they said meant to the best of his abilities. When Cloud managed to remember almost every word he had heard for the day, Atem was quite impressed, and lead the way towards a large hall near the end. Opening the door, Cloud smiled when he saw Isis and Maha’ado chatting by a fake pond. The Roof of the room was left open, and all around plants and flowers flourished, even in the heat. There were man-made rivers with low ledges winding around, fed by several spots in the wall. There were benches, and chaises, lush red fabric and cushions scattered everywhere.

“Cloud.” Isis greeted with a smile, Maha’ado looking up and waving.

“Master, who is that?” A short brown haired girl dressed in a short white robe asked as she skidded to a halt beside Maha’ado, her eyes wide and curious.

“I am Cloud.” The blond said with a bow in his customary style, bent at the waist. “You are…?”

The girl jumped, staring at him. “Mana.” She said. Isis laughed and Maha’ado watched the foreigner carefully, unsure he had heard properly.

Atem chuckled. “I have been teaching Cloud some of our language and culture. He has an astute memory and a sharp mind. I would like all of you to help him learn.”

“Why are we teaching him about us?” Seth asked, stepping up behind Cloud and scowling when the blond didn’t even show surprise.

“Hem-netjer-tepey Seto-sama.” Cloud said, bowing to the priest, who raised an eyebrow at the Pharaoh.

“‘Sama’ is a sign of honour I believe.”

Seth glanced coolly back at the blond, who unlike most didn’t flinch at his look, even though said blond was just barely half a foot taller then the Pharaoh. “Indeed.”

Cloud shook his head slightly as Seth left the way he had come, completely ignoring him.

“Ignore Seth, Cloud,” Isis said from her spot, “he is moody at the best of times.” Cloud nodded.

“Isis. I am going to leave him here with you. Could you help arrange lessons of sorts?”

“Of course my Pharaoh.”


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Cloud found that he had forgotten what being at the bottom of the intellectual food-chain felt like, not that he was a genius in any way, shape, or form before, but at least he was able to converse with people and spend money properly and was even able to fix most things. He used to be able to teach Marlene and Denzel how to ride and catch a chocobo, and could even run the old airship before Cid had to retire her because of her horrible condition (the third crash landing in the Nibel mountains hadn’t done much to help).

Time definitely flew when you were on the learning end though. He could estimate he had been here for about three months, and for the first time he found himself thankful of the mako flowing through him, making the intake and processing of information easier. Between Isis, Shadi, Karim, Maha’ado and Mana, and on off times Seth, he was kept pretty busy. Maha’ado and Mana were helping him learn the language in the morning (Mana came because she got to skip out on her own lessons, Cloud guessed), before he was traded off to Isis, who taught him of the religion and politics of the region, before he went to Karim and Shadi, who taught him about the culture of the world they were in. Sometimes, if Shadi wasn’t there or they were feeling particularly lazily Cloud and Karim trained, but this time it was Karim trying to learn from Cloud. On the off chance that one of his teachers was busy with their duties, Cloud would hunt down Seth and follow him around for the time. The first time Cloud had hunted the other down was merely to make sure his skills weren’t getting rusty, but then he had found the priest doing something particularly interesting to a giant stone tablet. Cloud wasn’t artistic, nor scientifically inclined, but he had sat and watched anyways, starting up the habit of finding Seth when he was bored and watching in silence.

Today, he felt like a kid about to get a bowl full of candy. Today was one of the days that Shadi wasn’t around, and Karim said they were going to try something new.

He followed the directions around to the back of the palace, snuggled tightly in between the palace wall and the high shapely walls that kept anyone else from getting in. There was a small hut with a sloped roof, fit across the walls.

“Karim-san?” Cloud asked as he entered, pulling the door closed and latching the rope shut. He felt his breath halt. Before him was a large beast, Taller then him, with a large, well defined face and jaw, leading down to a chiselled neck and soft mane, and a hard large body suspended on four hoofed feet.

“You look like you‘ve never seen a horse before!” Karim said, laughing as he walked behind the horse stalls, towards the blond.

“I haven’t…” the blond replied back, gently reaching out to stroke the horse with his right hand, not wanting to spook it with geostigma. “What are they for?”

“Riding. We‘re going to take a tour through the town.”

Cloud stopped his petting “Riding…?” He glanced at his geostigma-infected arm, which was tightly wrapped, before glancing at the horse. He had found that as soon as his geostigma had appeared, chocobos wouldn’t come close to him unless they were a gold chocobo. All the others shied away in fear, or would attack him if he did manage to get to close, and the same was for Denzel. It had upset the kid till Cloud hunted down and caught one of the gold chocobos for him. “I‘m not sure if that’s a good idea.” He said in his broken language. He was getting better at least.

“What are you, sacred?” Karim said, pulling two of the beasts out with him.

“No.” Cloud said, following hesitantly. Karim demonstrated how to mount the horse, and Cloud sighed, moving towards the horse Karim had pulled out for him.

As expected, the horse’s ears perked towards him, before the animal stepped away as he neared. Frowning, he tried to move closer again, the horse becoming slightly panicky and stomping its hooves slightly

“I told you.”

Karim raised an eyebrow at the finicky battle horse. “What in the name of Ra is wrong with you?” He asked the horse.

Cloud sighed, shaking his head, pausing when he felt a tug on the bindings of his arm. “Nan‘…?”

“Looks like Seth‘s favoured horse has taken a liking to you!” Karim laughed, pulling the other horse back to the stables. The horse had snuck up on Cloud, and was of all things chewing on his geostigma bindings.

“Take him.” Cloud and Karim looked over, Seth stepping out of his slightly shadowed spot, nodding towards Cloud. “If your going for a ride, take him. He is able to stand the scent of dark magic and disease better then the other horses.”

Cloud nodded, mounting the horse easily, smirking at Karim who looked flabbergast.

“You never let anyone ride that bloody beast!” Karim argued, before looking at Cloud, who resisted the urge to outright laugh at his companion. “And you could have told me you knew how to mount a horse even though you have never seen one.”

“That would be because ‘that bloody beast’ does not like anyone else, Karim.” Seth said, turning on his heel and striding from the stables, having to duck under the door.

Karim shook his head and glared at the smirking Cloud. “Well then, come on, lots to see and so little time.” He swung his leg over the horse and began off at a slow pace.

Cloud caught up with him, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a gloved hand “Where I come from, we have chocobos.”

Karim glanced at him, easily ignoring the stares the townspeople were shooting their way, mostly at the pale, blue-eyed blond “What are chocobos?”

“They are large birds, they are this colour.” He explained, tugging on a lock of his own spiky hair.

Karim nodded, finding he had trouble imaging a large ibis bird trying to carry him. It would have to be a damn big ibis.

They traveled out of the town, Karim asking things of Cloud about his homeland as they traveled further into the desert. It was mostly things about battle tactics and such, and Cloud answered as best he could.

“ShinRa had an elite force, other then the army.” Cloud said, after explaining that ShinRa was an organization that had growing inside the major city then had pretty much taken over as the government. “They called it SOLDIER.”

“You were in SOLDIER?” Karim asked, glancing at Cloud who sighed.

“In a sense. In SOLDIER, there were also elites called First Class. The greatest SOLDIER First Class was named Sephiroth.”

“You talked about him…in your sleep, I mean. When you first came in unconscious.” Karim informed, and Cloud nodded, not really surprised. He said a lot of things in his sleep. He had found out later that Aerith knew he had known Zack not long after they met, because he was mumbling in his sleep. And here he had thought he had managed to get rid of that habit since then.

“Sephiroth…He was a great swordsman and general, but,” Cloud paused, trying to find the words, “during a mission to my home town, he went mad. He locked himself in the basement of an abandoned mansion, and when he came out he slaughtered everyone.”

“I‘m sorry” Karim apologised.

“It has been years since then. It doesn‘t hurt as much now…What is that?” Cloud paused, seeing the smoke rise up in the distance.

Karim paused, squinting into the distance. “Looks like smoke. Some poor mans house probably went up in the heat…Cloud?”

Cloud had gone pale. His mako enhanced eyes watched as a woman ran out of the burning village only to get sliced clean in half by a misty apparition wielding a large, curved sickle.

“Cloud!” Karim shouted as the blond spurred his horse heedlessly towards the smoke and blaze. Karim spurred after him, but discovered he was soon falling behind to the speed of Seth’s prized horse.

Cloud spurred his horse past the few people still able to run, ignoring the bodies dismembered in the dirt. The apparition appeared again, right in front of him, swinging it’s scythe. Cloud caught the blade, allowing it to swipe him off the horse and towards a wall, which he landed on easily and pushed himself at the apparition, slamming his fist into it’s skull like face. He quickly delivered a round house to the thing, sending it shrieking into a wall, where it deteriorated into dust.

“Impressive.”

Cloud turned, falling into a defensive stance, wishing he had his sword, even though he knew he was fairly capable in a hand-to-hand fight. There stood seven men in dark black robes, each with a gold wing shaped object on their left arms. A carving of the apparition on one of their plates vanished.

“Didn‘t think a mere human could attack a shadow monster without using their own Ka.” One asked, glaring at the blond from under his dark hood.

“It is possible his Ka is so strong it doesn‘t need to manifest itself out of his body.” Another answered, smiling insanely.

The one in front threw his arm out, smirking as well. “Inferno Hammer, come to my aid!”

Cloud felt the ground lurch beneath him, but he managed to stay on his feet without much trouble. A large beast materialized before him, with a largely muscled frame of red flesh and a skull over his tiny head. Maybe it was his head, cloud thought idly as he took in the buckles around the beasts ankles and feet, and the gaping mouth in the middle of the things belly, where a green eye watched. In it’s hands was a giant steel hammer

“Pft.” Cloud blew off, turning away, walking away slightly.

“Is he just walking away?” Another of the hooded men asked in shock.

Suddenly Cloud turned on his heel, rushing the beast. He jumped in the air, a steel sword he had picked up from where he walked to in his hands. He slammed on the things skull before it had a chance to notice what was going on, ricocheting in a random direction, before changing direction mid air and delivering another series of attacks. The skull was beginning to crack, the beast flailing wildly trying to catch the nuisance, but cloud kept out of it’s reach, until on the 7th attack, the blade snapped, and he kicked off the beast’s face, landing on the ground several feet away.

The Inferno Hammer Shrieked, charging the man. Cloud smirked as it neared, moving both hands in front of him and steadying his feet. “Thundaga!” He shouted, one of the green orbs on his Wizard Bracelet flashing, thunder cracking down straight on the beasts head, causing it to explode into several moist pieces.

Cloud winced, covering his face from the gore. His stomach lurched as the smell and taste of cooked flesh made its way into his mouth and nose.

“Retreat!” He heard, and saw the seven men cast a spell which consumed them in darkness before they vanished.

“Kuso!” He swore, swallowing hard to prevent himself from vomiting.

“Cloud!” He looked over and saw Karim, who looked slightly shocked. “Lets round up the rest of the villagers and leave. We don’t want them coming back with reinforcements.” Cloud nodded and they began the painstaking process of rounding up what remained of the people who had managed to hide. It took an hour before Cloud was giving the village a last sweep, before he paused, hearing small whimpers coming from under a house.

He peered under, moving slowly so as not to startle who ever was under the platform. “It’s all right, I‘m not here to harm you.” he shifted onto his hands, peering into the person’s hiding spot with his glowing eyes. Huddled under the deck was a little girl, probably no older then 10. Her hair was long and dark, her skin the same mocha shade under all the soot and debris. She looked almost exactly like Marlene. He paused, before holding his hand out, smiling through his surprise.

Eventually, the girl crawled out taking his hand.

“Where are your parents?” Cloud asked softly. A look of pain flashed across the girls face. “I-I’m sorry.” He said softly, picking her up. She looked startled momentarily, and watched him wearily. “What’s your name?” the girl stared, before shaking her head. “Well, we‘ll figure out what to call you later, hm? Right now lets get back to the palace.”

“Cloud! Everyone‘s out!” Karim shouted.

Cloud walked over to the small group of crying huddled villagers. “Karim, this child is under my protection unless someone comes to claim her. Do you think Atemu-sama would mind if she stayed with me.”

Karim paused. “She is just a child, I doubt he would have a problem with it. The council might, but Pharaoh has told them to shove it more then once already regarding you.”

Cloud nodded, smiling at the girl. “Lets head out.”


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Authors Notes:

When you actually pronounce most of the names of the characters in Japanese, it comes out as their English names from the series. For example: Isis- I-shi-su (Ishizu), Seth- Seto, and Malik- Mer-iku (Marik) and so on. Some names like Maha’ado and Mana are said the same.

Ohiyo Gozimasu- Formal ‘Hello’
Per-a’A- Pharaoh (king)
Kemet- Black Lands (Egypt)
Daijoubu- Are you alright? (short form)
Gomen- Sorry
Nan’ desu ka?- What is that/it? (informal)
Hem-netjer-tepey: High priest