Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Good Enough ❯ Part One ( Chapter 2 )

Notes: Thanks again to Litsares!

-Part I-

The alarm sounded well before dawn. Rishid mumbled, clinging futilely to the remains of sleep, and reached to silence the alarm clock.

Clang! Rishid was left with the impression of cold metal as something that had not been there the night before tumbled to the hard floor. He silenced the alarm, sat up groggily, and reached to turn on the light. He'd knocked down what appeared to be a scale balance made of gold. Rishid reached down and scooped it up, inspected it, and realized that the markings on it were familiar.

/This is a Sennen Item!/ Rishid turned it upright and tapped one side of the balance. It swayed for a few moments, glittering. /But how did it get here?/ He stood and tested the door, but it was locked, the chain secure. There was no sign of anyone having entered the room, and Rishid was a light enough sleeper that an intruder should have awakened him. But Sennen Items did not just appear out of nowhere.

He decided to inform Malik of this development. Although Malik had little interest in the Items, Rishid's possession of the Scales could put a new spin on his plan. Malik did not control Rishid with the Sennen Rod, but he kept a mental link open so they could communicate at distance. Rishid used the link, "speaking" very quietly.

:Malik-sama...?:

Mental silence.

:Malik-sama, are you awake...?:

: tooearlygoaway.: It was as much concept as words; Malik was definitely not awake.

/I will have to speak to Malik about this later. But now, I must win the locator cards I need. This matter can wait until I've completed my task. If I don't qualify for the finals... /

He gathered his clothing and went to shower.

In the end, Rishid decided to take the Scales with him. He didn't trust the Ghouls; even though they were under Malik's control, they weren't totally enthralled. One of them might be tempted to steal the Scales.

He had not been able to speak with Malik yet. He had tried to after his first duel, but Malik had waved him off, saying that he was far too busy to speak at the moment and to find locator cards. Rishid was trying his best to obey, but there weren't that many duelists left in the competition....

* * *

/The Game has changed,/ the Spirit of the Sennen Scales thought, watching the duel progress through his host's eyes. He remembered the Dark Game-- most of it, at least-- and this was definitely derived from it. Yet, there were changes. For one thing, the monsters were no longer sealed in stone tablets. Instead, their images appeared on small, thick slips of a sort of papyrus called "card board" in a range of colors that would make any scribe jealous. Instead of using their own innate power to summon the monsters, they used magical devices called "Duel Disks" to summon them. And nobody seemed to use his own Ka anymore.

Not only that, but the entire process was ritualized to a high degree, almost oppressively so. The "duelists" took turns attacking and defending, and both the strength of the monsters and the players' "life" were represented by numbers, rather than by their own strength of soul. And the prize was also strange: a shining piece of papyrus called a "locator card," along with one of the opponent's monsters.

The other odd thing was that his host's strategy didn't involve many monsters at all. Instead, he laid traps upon traps, tricking his opponent into wasting valuable resources. It was an insane strategy, but an effective one, as he was proving by defeating his opponent.

As the other man's "life points" dropped to zero, the spirit felt something that struck him as odd: the aura of a Penalty Game....

* * *

Rishid had just pocketed the last locator cards he needed when he heard distant screams of terror. That was all he knew for a while.

* * *

The spirit marveled at the feeling of having a corporeal body for the first time in three thousand years. Sure, it wasn't his body, but it was still a wonderful sensation.

He'd decided to see who was playing a penalty game, and so had taken over his host's body. Hopefully, his host wouldn't notice. The spirit followed the feeling of darkness to what appeared to be a field of tablets. They had writing on them, but it was an odd, scribbled sort of writing that he didn't recognize. They weren't monster tablets.

There was only one person in the field of tablets. He seemed familiar, with long white hair and a wicked smirk. But there was something that wasn't right about him; he was entirely too pale. The spirit felt a sudden shiver trickle down his borrowed spine.

/That man, he killed... someone. Someone important, back then. But who was it? Who did he kill? Damn these memory holes!/

"You," he finally accused, "you murderer!" /Hopefully he'll give me a clue as to who./

Yet the other man took it in a way the spirit had not intended. "They agreed to a penalty game," he explained, "Item holder. You wear the costume of one of Malik's followers, but I don't sense the power of the Sennen Rod. Hmph. He neglected to tell me he had another Item Holder working for him."

/Malik? Isn't that the guy I'm supposed to be protecting the Pharaoh from? Shadi, what have you got me into?/

The spirit decided to change the subject, and to pay attention to his host's thoughts in the future to prevent any more unpleasant surprises like that from coming up. "Who did you kill?"

"Just a few worthless mortals. No one important. I'd love to chat, but I have to leave now. Don't worry, though, I'll find you and your Item when I'm not so busy." And he turned and left.

The Spirit of the Scales watched the man leave, and then relinquished control to his host. /This is going to be more complicated than I thought it would be./

-End I-

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