Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Final Distance ❯ Farewell to My Concubine ( Chapter 12 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Thank you all once again for your generous reviews! Sorry but this chapter is a bit short because it's nothing but explanations/theories about what might be wrong with Kaiba. It's sort of like a break chapter, trying to sum up for what's to come up next. As most of you might know, there's a "How Creepy is Naoya" poll going on right now, and you can always change your score and reasons!

Disclaimer: They still do not belong to me, as much as I would like to buy them from the brilliant minds who thought them up. All I can really afford right now is perhaps the information of what they were on when they thought these characters up and obtain it and hope for the best. I also don't own "Ba Wong Bei Gi."

Chapter 12-Farewell to My Concubine

"Who are you?" the voice whispered. Yami felt his body jolt backwards as the cold chill ran through his body, and his back knocked against the metal backing of the folding chair he sat on. Mokuba gasped and gripped at Seto's sleeve, tugging at it a bit, getting the young man's attention. The blue eyes focused on Mokuba's slate-colored ones and a smile pulled at his lips. "What is it, Mokuba?" he asked. He then rolled his eye quickly to his right to signal at Yami. "Who is that? A friend of yours?"

Mokuba dragged himself onto the bed and sat on Seto's lap, tugging on the sleeve desperately. "It's Yami, Nii-sama! Don't you remember him?" Mokuba asked frantically. "Your biggest rival in Dueling Monsters!"

"Never played that game before," Kaiba answered easily. "And I've never met this…Yami before." He turned and studied Yami, his brows furrowing. "My, what strange hair you have." Mouth agape, Yami looked at Seto, and then at Toudo, then at Seto again. Finally, he remembered, through his shock, that Toudo was the last person who was in the room with Kaiba… He shot up from his seat and advanced towards Naoya, who was leaning against his desk with the most mystifying smile that Yami found unworldly annoying.

Snarling, Yami gripped the blue turtleneck collar and glared into Naoya's eyes; gold flames calming dancing in the face of fiery red ones. "You!" Yami shouted, "What did you do to Seto?!"

"Hey, I don't remember ever being on first name terms with you!" Kaiba retorted, still on the hospital bed.

"Shut UP, Seto!" Yami shouted, not even bothering to look at Kaiba right now. The face just seemed to bother him so much with his whirl-pooling emotions. Besides, he had a prey inside his hand, and such a mysteriously ANNOYING prey wasn't one he would allow his gaze to stray from. Continuing his accusation, Yami glared heatedly at Naoya as seething words burned upon his tongue. "What did you do…?" Mokuba, seeing that the situation was wrong, jumped down from the bed immediately and ran towards the two of them, trying to stand in between them. "Yami, what are you doing?" he shouted, "Toudo-san would never do such a thing! He's a good person!" Yami ignored him and bared his teeth at Naoya, who found this quite amusing it seemed.

"Patched him up free of charge," Naoya said finally, smiling. He didn't seem worried at all that Yami was gripping his collar. Perhaps it was because he didn't know the abundant powers the once-Pharaoh held, or perhaps it was because he knew and was confident enough that he can defeat it. As much as the first one sounded more plausible to Yami's mind, the way he felt as he stared into those gold eyes made him feel like the situation was more like the second. Looking down at the pleading eyes of Mokuba, he released Naoya's collar and stepped back, his gaze still unwavering.

"Then why is he like this?" Yami pressed. "Even with his mind stuck in short-term memory, he still remembered me…up until we brought him in here and left him with you."

"Are you sure?" Naoya tested. "Maybe it's because of what you did that made him like this…it sounds so Freudian, really… The way he suppresses his memories of you after you harmed him so much. A part of his soul remembers, you know…if he were to act like the way he did in front of you." He laughed lightly and shrugged, shaking his head. "But that's such fantasy talk. I'm a doctor of the hardware, ask Maki if you would like to know what happened to him. Maybe it's best if I asked her to stay with you guys for now." Yami looked apprehensive about the idea of letting Maki stay with them, but he figured that as of now he couldn't do much for Seto, and what Naoya said was partially right; he had been the one who caused Kaiba to stab himself in a fit of rage. He took another step back and studied Naoya, his gaze flickering over that smile. "I'll call her," Yami replied, "But I'm not making any promises."

Toudo shrugged and pushed himself upright, away from the desk, and looked down at Yami. He reached for his clipboard and looked at the documents, and then at Kaiba, who was staring at the both of them incredulously. "You can take him home now," he concluded after a moment's deliberation. Mokuba, hearing that news, went and fetched his brother off the crisp, white infirmary bed and lead him to the door. As they were leaving, Yami glared at him one last time before he stepped out of the darkening office due to the setting sun. Naoya's golden eyes saw them off and then he turned to look at his chess pieces, picking one up and setting it down, advancing towards his unseen opponent's side.

"Will you put him out of his misery…?"

***

Maki sat back and sighed as she turned off the flashlight that she had shone into Seto's one eye and then sent him off to bed, proclaiming that he had not been getting enough sleep. Kaiba nodded, obeying her for reasons even he did not know, something in the back of his mind telling him that he had known her for some time, and set out for his room.

The ancient Egyptian spirit had been watching Maki examine and question Kaiba the minute she stepped into the house. Mokuba had been trying to keep Kaiba company and understand the situation, but being that he wasn't a professional, he eventually had to give up and was sent to bed by Seto. For the next few minutes, Kaiba and Yami had sat silently in the living room with Yami sitting backwards on a chair, his head leaning on the backrest of the chair. Never once did his eyes leave Seto's form, even though he knew that the man hated to be stared at, but he couldn't help it. Something inside him thirsted to touch Seto, to hold him within his arms and claim him as his own, and thus he stared. But also, there was a part of him that wished for nothing more than to strangle Seto. He had to admit, in his own sickening shame, that he had felt triumphant when Seto stabbed himself. When he stared at Seto, his mind flickered from intense lust to insatiable hatred, his crimson eyes moving from every part of Seto's body to suddenly concentrate on that slender white throat that he would realize a second later that he wanted so much to crush within his fingers. This process was repeated over and over until Maki rang the doorbell and Yami went and got the door despite Kaiba's protests. Though Maki's presence had helped with Yami's staring and fantasizing (whether it was good or bad), it still didn't help that much.

Only when he had finished his trek upstairs and the sound of his door closing was heard did Yami speak up. He fidgeted on the chair as he searched for words to form into good enough sentences; he always felt so childish in front of Maki for some reason. "So…what's wrong with him? Why can't he remember me?"

Maki sighed again and placed the flashlight into her bag, turning on her chair to look at Yami. "It would seem that there are two separate memories inside him, Yami" she explained. "I would think that it shouldn't be that big of a surprise to you." She added this when she saw Yami's passive reaction; there was only a hint of shock that she had picked this up so quickly. "But anyway…" she continued, "Before, when he still remembered you, it would seem to be because the line between his one memory entity and the other one is quite blurred. If not for the other memory entity, he would have not remembered you at all because his memories of you are based from your rivalry with each other in Dueling Monsters. Now that his memory of ever playing Dueling Monsters is gone, his memory of you should have diminished at that very moment. But the other memory entity forced him to remember…and now for some reason the lines have been clearly drawn so that the other memory can't affect him, and thus he can no longer remember you."

Yami started violently inside his seat, almost falling off at that explanation. "Wh-why did it wait so long?!" he protested stubbornly. If only Seth hadn't been popping up, then maybe he wouldn't be so messed up in this sort of love-hate emotion that even he couldn't sort out! Maki shrugged, shaking her head. "I don't know, might be trauma, might be the virus…could be anything," she said. "Or maybe an outside force acting upon it." Hearing that, Yami shot up from his seat and gripped Maki's shoulders. "Speaking of which!" he exclaimed, shocking the woman in her chair. Seeing how he was a bit out of line and how he frightened her, Yami stepped back and coughed a bit before he went on. "About Toudo…how long have you known him?"

"Naoya?" she asked, confused at what this had to do with anything. "I've been friends with him ever since he was a little kid. We were neighbors ever since we were born."

"Do you have a photo of him when he was little?" Yami didn't buy that too easily; something inside him was so suspicious he was almost willing to make the assumption that Naoya was something like a vampire or demon. Maki nodded and reached into her bag, producing a wallet. Opening it up, she pulled out an old photo that was worn on the edges and looked like it was torn on one side, a third of it missing. Accepting it, Yami looked at the photo, studying it. Unmistakably, there was Maki on the photo, her orange-brown eyes looking cheerfully at whoever was taking the photo, her chubby little arms encircled around a boy next to her…a boy with blue-black hair and golden eyes. The young boy was smiling just as cheerfully, a smile that was completely different from the ones that Naoya exhibited now. Checking the corner of the photo, Yami sighed when he saw the date "June 6, 1983," diminishing whatever idea Yami had in his head that Naoya was a vampire-demon. Nodding his thanks, Yami handed the photo back to Maki, who put it back into her wallet after looking at it in a way that Yami thought was wistful. He heaved a huge sigh and plopped down into a chair next to Maki, his eyes staring up at the ceiling. "I guess I was wrong," he muttered more to himself than Maki. She turned and looked at him, her eyes narrowing.

"You have bags under your eyes," she pointed out, "I think it's best if you go to bed as well…it's been a long day. For both of you." To say the truth, Yami couldn't have agreed more; his head felt like it was going to split from all the conflicting emotions, and he didn't really want to stay up for another minute to try and sort them out. A hand covered his mouth as he yawned loudly, and he stood up to go to the room Mokuba assigned him, and he watched Maki's retreating form as she started for her room.

***

"Your Highness, what are you looking for?" a servant asked as he passed Yami in the hallway. The Pharaoh seemed absolutely hostile with anger, and it took him everything to not snap at the servant. How dare he! How dare Seth run away from his chambers at such a critical time! Just the idea that he's wandering around the hallways could kill him. Swirling around, he glared at the servant with burning red eyes. "I'm searching for Seth! Where is he?!" The servant, taken back, stared back at the Pharaoh. "He said that he wanted to meet you by the red Horus structure, he needs to talk to you or something."

That's not true

The sand shifted and cushioned Yami's feet as he ran towards the garden he had made with the land he was allotted during his childhood days. As he neared the garden, he smelled the sweet scent of the hundreds if not thousands of flowers that resided in the garden, their aroma mixing with the salty smell of the ocean both he and Seth loved so much.

"Maybe he's come to his senses," Yami said to himself hopefully. Reaching the red bone-like structure he had built by the edge of the cliff, he saw the object of his obsessions standing next to it. The paler teen was dressed in a white cloak that fell around his arms, and he seemed to be waiting. Upon seeing Yami, Seth turned around and sneered at Yami, his mouth working with words that were drowned out by the sound of the ocean beneath them.

What are you saying? I can't hear you too well

Before Yami could open his mouth to voice the thoughts he pondered, he saw a flash of silver and then intense pain shot through his body. He screamed, his own voice deafening him.

Sweat drenched his body as Yami sat up in his bed, his breaths heaving his chest as he tried to shake off the dreams inside his head. A hand pressed upon his drying lips, fingers shaking as he swallowed back his nauseam. The pain inside his body was still strong, and he couldn't pinpoint where it came from, but he knew that was probably one of the worst moments in his life 3000 years ago. Sighing, Yami got up and walked to the bathroom to get a glass of water, and he studied his pallid face in the mirror. The situation right now was really not help his health, and he felt guilty that his predicament was putting Yuugi's health in jeopardy, but he just had to do something for Kaiba. The dreams he was having now wasn't really helping, either, for they either made him lust after the youth more or made him hate him even more, which the last vision he saw was doing very well. Shaking his head, Yami decided to go downstairs and maybe watch a little bit of TV or something that might sooth him and lull him to sleep, considering what is aired during these hours of the day.

Upon reaching the living room downstairs, Yami made the decision at the last minute to get some warm milk, and managed to not make too much of a clamor in the dark kitchen as he got the drink. Settling down in front of the TV, he sighed and turned on the boob tube with a remote, watching some old Chinese movie. Taking a sip of his warm milk, Yami nearly spat it out when his eyes picked up a figure by the edge of the living room doorway. Standing there in all of his pale splendor was Kaiba Seto, wrapped up in a long white sheet that he had pulled from his bed, reminding Yami of that dream…where Seth was in that godly-white cloak.

"Why do you wear white, Seth? Is it to try and cover up your impurity?"

The brunet cocked his head slightly at Yami, at the sound of the television, and approached the seated former-ruler slowly, if not cautiously. "What are you doing, Yami?" whispered a soft voice.

"W-what did you call me?" Yami asked, setting down his mug. His hopes shot up; could it be that Seto remembered him, all of a sudden, out of the blue? Another step was taken by the other youth before he stopped completely in his tracks and backed up slightly.

"Sorry," the same silky voice whispered again. "'Pharaoh.'" Those pale hands gathered up the sheet around his shoulders and Seto stood there, studying Yami's movements, seeing whether or not he may move again. Yami sighed, seeing that this was "the other memory" that Maki was talking about. But it wasn't like he didn't have the same turmoil of emotions towards this creature; in fact, he was the source of his emotions towards Kaiba Seto. He raised a hand and motioned Seth over to him, and the ghost of a memory from three millennia ago who inhabited the body of the CEO carried himself over to Yami and sat down next to the shorter teen. In a swift motion, Seth laid his head onto Yami's lap and wound his arms around the thin waist, burying his face into Yami's stomach, the sheets around him slipping off his shoulders. By the lack of hesitation in his actions as he did this, it would seem that he's done this many times before with Yami, it's just that the ancient Pharaoh couldn't remember it with all his cursed memory-span.

"Couldn't sleep?" the hot breath tickled against Yami's belly through the thin summer shirt. Those brilliant blue eyes were closed leisurely, as though sleeping, but the lips moved in fluttering motions as he spoke. A breath caught in Yami's throat as he saw how defenseless Seto…Seth seemed like this, just lying on the couch by him, head on his lap, arms around his waist, and talking to him. Moonlight spilled from the skylight above, showering upon the two of them and painting Seth's pale skin a hauntingly beautiful shade of glowing blue-white. His delicate, smooth skin looked like a flawless terrain of white jade just excavated from the mountains so pure and ancient that it glowed in arcane beauty. With each steady raise and fall of Seth's chest and shoulders from his soft breathing, his muscles carried out a small ripple of light with his movements, breaking the purity with shadows for one second and then restoring them only to repeat the process again and again.

"N-no, I couldn't," Yami answered after a moment's trance. He gasped as he felt the soft hair brush against the skin of his legs that his shorts didn't cover when Seth nodded in his lap and went silent again. For a moment, all Yami could hear was the blood rushing inside his head from his thumping heart and the soft breathing of Seth against his stomach. As though the ending summer days weren't hot enough already…

"I couldn't, either," Seth admitted, his embrace on Yami's waist tightening ever-so-slightly. He sighed into the soft material of Yami's t-shirt and the wearer bit back a moan as his belly was tickled again. "I keep having nightmares…"

"What kind?" Yami asked, wanting to know exactly what he was seeing as well. He wanted desperately to know exactly what those dreams meant. His palm felt at the smooth forehead obscured by the brown bangs and he gasped audibly. "You're burning up with a fever!" One blue eye silted open to also be kissed by the moonlight, and moved in the direction of the television, narrowing as it contacted the sharpness of the cathode rays in the darkened room. "Hmmm. It's not a big deal. What are you watching?" the voice questioned, its owner apparently trying to avoid the question at all costs. He shook off the concern of Yami towards his condition and the other can only hope that the raise in body heat was from the summer heat.

"`Ba Wong Bei Gi,'" Yami said lazily, looking at the guide on the television screen as he pressed the command button for that feature. "About some Chinese warlord who was losing his country and his battle and he chooses to kill himself by a river to preserve his honor. His concubine kills herself afterwards, I think."

"They sound pitiful," Seth commented, looking and yet not looking at the screen with his clouded blue eyes. The blue iris moved back to look at the blackness of Yami's t-shirt before heavy lids curtained over them again. A sigh was heard over the low volume of the television.

"Of course they do," Yami protested, gesturing at the screen even though he knew that Seth was no longer looking. "It's a Chinese Opera! They always sound like tortured weasels." This comment got him a small laugh from Seth, and the torrent of heated breaths sent shocks through Yami's body, and his thumb twitched, making him turn off the television. It wasn't like he minded anyway; the movie was too depressing anyway. For the next few moments, he allowed himself to listen to the soft breathing of Seth, of the entity that was staying inside this glorious body.

Do I love Kaiba Seto, or do I overlap the image of Seth with him and confuse this feeling?

A finger trailed down the pale cheek, and Seth stirred but did not make a move to release himself from the warmth of this position; Yami didn't want him to, either, and he ventured deeper with his touches. This time he allowed a hand instead of just a finger to stroke at the softness of Seth's face, and then flicked at one delicate earlobe that had been pierced 3000 years ago in Seth's body, and finally raking through the soft russet hair. The figure clinging to him purred and moved closer, seemingly asleep now. Yami smiled at how cat-like this boy was and traced those moonlight-kissed lips that were coldly rosy under the lingering blueness of Selene's face. Red eyes narrowed, however, at the notion that perhaps by tomorrow morning this fleeting image will all be gone and the other entity will take over again and forget him completely. He wanted Seth to stay with him, but he also wanted to see the defiant and heated nature of Kaiba. It was then that Yami realized that he wanted both of them, but the company he sought from one might be different from the other…or not.

"Seth…" he whispered. When the other did not answer, Yami allowed his heart and hand to venture, turning the beautiful face away from his stomach to face upwards as he wasn't contented with seeing only the profile of the face. His thumb played lightly at those luscious lips, and they opened just a bit to let out air as Seth continued to sleep. It had been a long time since he'd last tasted those lips…

Leaning down, Yami placed his lips onto the ones that belonged to the body beneath him, embracing him, whether it was Kaiba or Seth, he did not care. Their lips made contact and moved as Yami deepened the kiss and Kaiba's, in an attempt for more air, opened them more only to enable Yami's tongue to slip in. But Yami did not stay long inside that sweet warmth, afraid that he would awaken the slumbering boy, and he pulled back.

"Seth…" he summoned the name again, just liking how it rolled off his tongue. He pulled the sheets around the body upwards so that it covered the shoulders as well, not only because he was afraid that the body would catch cold, but also because of his fear of his growing libido. He shuddered despite the heat of the ending summer night and shifted his position on the couch even though it will do him no good in waking up with a pair of sore thighs, and fell into his own respective slumber.

"Why do you wear white, Seth? Is it to cover up your impurity?"

"Impurity caused by you and your selfishness!"

Yes, I'll admit it. I was selfishbut I was selfish to save you. If Egyptno, if the world wason one side of a scale and you were on the other, you would outweigh the world in importance, don'tyou know that?

"I love you…"

"LIAR!"

There was a flash of silver, and the same pain shot through his body like before.

Yami blinked and awoke, sighing from the vividness of those strange dreams again. Hearing something like whimpers, he saw that the teen clinging to him was also suffering from a restless sleep. He sighed and placed his hand on the pale cheek, whispering soothing Egyptian words to calm the memories swirling inside the one body.

"I would let you stay in the kingdom if you'll beg, Seth," the man snickered, the crown on his head reflecting the high-noon sun with such splendor it was hard to see his features, but the sneer on his face was unmistakable. "Beg for my forgiveness, and then maybe I would allow you to stay behindand be my bed whore. Maybe after a few years of your service I would let you to become a Royal Harbinger. Your powers in predicting the futures areadmirable."

Seth snarled, struggling under the grasp of three guards who hand fought him down. Several others had failed in trying to bring him down and became victims to his magic before a magical force-field was erected to prevent the use of magic within the palace walls. He lowered his head and muttered something.

"What was that? I can't hear you," the arrogant man said, approaching the captured youth. As he lessened the distance between the two of them, Seth raised his head sharply and spat in his face, earning him a harsh slap.

"How dare you!" the man snarled, wiping the spit off. "If it's banishment you want, I'll give you banishment!"

"Well, then," Seth whispered as he was being dragged away, "Let me give you this prediction, O Great PHARAOH." He raised his head in what looked like sadistic triumph as he pressed these words out, his teeth bared in a cruel smile. "Your kingdom will FALL. Your decedents will overthrow youand you will become nothing but a stain on the books of history. I will sit back and watch, in my banishment, at your downfall!"

A shrill laugh was all that accompanied him until he woke, the voice his own.

To be continued…

Well, now it's Yami's turn to have weird, cryptic dreams. But at least his seem to be clearing some mysteries up, aren't they? I hope that his dream didn't throw anyone off too much…

Sorry that this chapter was really short compared to the other ones, but this one I just kind of put in as a bridge to the later chapters. Another reason is probably because I had been in a bad mood recently…accounting class is a real wrecking ball to my brain. So to commemorate accounting class, the plot will thicken, the characters will go mad, and maybe even a lemon scene?! Thank you all again for all of your generous reviews! They are truly what make me keep writing!

This chapter was originally going to be much shorter, but then I got inspired at work and edited/lengthened it to make it not as boring as it would have been, and to also emphasize the relationship between Yami and Seth as well as Yami's emotions towards the two memories inside that one body.

Also, the Chinese Opera "Ba Wong Bei Gi" does indeed exist, I'm not sure whether or not it's "Goodbye My Concubine" in the English translations…but I doubt it. It sounds like a completely different thing in my opinion. I've only heard one line of the Chinese Opera "Ba Wong Bei Gi" (which literally translated means "Warlord Farewells to Concubine"), and it was a man singing in a shrill voice "It seems to me that today is the day you and I separate!" It's all very sad, from what I heard from my mother.

Happy Chinese New Years to everyone! (2/1/03)