Yuugi tossed and turned in his bed, unable to fall asleep. Jounouchi... how was it even possible? Dead... no, he wasn't dead, he simply couldn't be! How was he, Yuugi, going to lead his life without his best friend? Jounouchi had always been there for him. Sure, they started off on the wrong foot as Jounouchi had been a bully to him at first, but that had quickly changed. Modest as he was, Yuugi didn't even take credit for helping Jounouchi to transform into a person who didn't see violence as a way to get what he wanted, a person who was better balanced and who started to believe in a positive future, instead of clinging to a negative past. They had been through a lot together. Jounouchi's worries about his sister Shizuka and her complicated eye-surgery, fearing that she would lose her sight after all. His worries about going to the police academy and if it was the right choice for him. Yuugi had helped him to deal with his insecurities about his life and education, and Jounouchi had been there at the funeral of Yuugi's grandfather, supporting and consoling him with his grief.
"You're not dead, Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi whispered into his pillow. "I refuse to believe you're gone!" He knew exactly what was happening to him; as a psychologist, he had helped his clients through the various stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. He was currently going through denial and anger - no way was he going to accept Jounouchi's death! It just wasn't possible! Not until he saw his body, and even then he would have a hard time believing it. Yuugi pressed his face into his pillow, trying to smother another bout of crying. Hirutani hadn't mentioned anything about a wake or a funeral service, and Honda had left for the police station before Yuugi could ask. He decided to ask first thing in the morning. Turning around once again, he pulled up the blankets, ignoring the wet pillow. He wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon. Kaiba had allowed him to stay at his manor, but only because Mokuba had threatened not to talk to him for a year if he'd send Yuugi away. The silence was eerie. He was inclined to turn a radio on, just to hear some sound. The darkness of his room overwhelmed him and his thoughts were going into several directions, fueling his anxiety. Suddenly, he heard a click. The door to his room went open. His body froze. The attempt to kidnap Mokuba was still fresh in his memories. Was it now his turn to get kidnapped, or even killed..? Yuugi stopped breathing, his heart hammered in his chest.
"It's me, Yuugi," a well-known voice whispered in the dark. Yuugi felt relief wash all over him.
"Mokuba-kun," he whispered in return. "Come in."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"No problem." Yuugi reached over and turned on the light on his nightstand. Mokuba was half-way through the room, looking pale and haggard. "What's wrong, Mokuba-kun? Are you feeling ill?"
"I couldn't sleep," he said. "So many nightmares."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Did you sleep well?"
"I haven't slept at all," Yuugi answered.
"Move over," Mokuba said, showing a watery grin. "I'm not going to hump you, or something like that."
Yuugi scooted over, as the bed was large enough to house an entire family. Mokuba slipped under the covers and curled up a little, leaving some space between him and Yuugi.
"I can't believe it," he said.
"Me neither." Yuugi curled up as well, trying to find some comfort for his tensed body. "It's just not right."
"Not right indeed." Mokuba balled his fists. "And there's nothing we can do!"
"We have to trust the police," Yuugi said.
"Fuck the police!" Mokuba was taken aback by his own words. "Sorry."
"It's okay. We're all upset."
"Except for my brother." Mokuba snorted. "He's so occupied with his VR system that he doesn't care about anything else. He wants it to be perfect. He's convinced it's the only thing that can keep us safe."
"He doesn't really trust his bodyguards, does he?"
"No. They're human, and prone to make mistakes."
Yuugi disagreed with Kaiba's reasoning. "The VR system makes mistakes too."
"Not after my brother's finished with it. He told me that he only has to work out the strange behavior with the power flux."
"The strange behavior with the power flux," Yuugi repeated, completely blank. Mokuba couldn't help but grin.
"The power that supports the VR system won't reach full capacity somehow," he explained. "It leaks away or is being drained by whatever process, and my brother can't find what causes it. Unless he knows what or where the obstruction is, he can't guarantee that the system is 100% operational."
"As demonstrated when Bakura-kun almost managed to grab you."
"Who is this Bakura anyway?"
"He was a classmate of mine, polite and calm," Yuugi answered. "I didn't think he'd ever go down the wrong road. He kept very much to himself though, like he didn't want to give people a chance to get close to him. I do remember that his father was always away, just like mine."
"I guess you never get to really know people, huh?"
"I'm afraid that's my fault, too. I failed to involve Bakura-kun into my circle of friends and gave up on him too easily so yes, I didn't really get to know him."
"My brother doesn't want people to get close to him either," Mokuba said, sighing. "He wasn't always like that, though. He used to be a lot more compassionate. If it hadn't been for Gozaburo and his awful influence, my brother probably wouldn't have lost that caring side of his. I know he cares for me, but right now he's going totally overboard. Since the attempted kidnapping, he doesn't leave me out of his sight for a second and treats me like a six-year old. Which I no longer am."
"Kaiba-kun knows that you're growing up," Yuugi said. "He's afraid of losing you."
"I would never leave my brother," Mokuba said, aghast.
"It's a deep-rooted fear in every one of us," Yuugi answered. "The fear of losing someone. I've lost my mother at a young age and my grandfather passed away recently. And Jounouchi-kun... he's my best friend, I regard him as family."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Yuugi."
"It's not only because of death," Yuugi continued. "Sometimes losing someone who's drifting away... can be even more painful. There's nothing worse than seeing someone turning away from you, that you grow apart from a loved one."
"That's indeed tough," Mokuba said, pensively. Then, he blushed, if only a little. "But I want to be in a relationship someday, Yuugi. I want to have a wife and kids! That is... if my brother ever gives me permission to leave the manor to find the woman of my dreams." His eyes went wide, as if a great revelation dawned to him, an epiphany of some sorts. "Do you think that's why my brother is so distant and aloof in his relationship towards others?"
"Nobody likes to get hurt." Yuugi hugged his pillow close, ignoring the soaked fabric. "You and your brother have already gone through so much pain. You lived at an orphanage, never having known your biological parents, and you ended up with an abusive, cruel adoptive father. No wonder Kaiba-kun has so many walls around him. It's a miracle you haven't closed yourself off to others like your brother, Mokuba-kun. It's a deep-rooted fear of being hurt and being left alone. Hell has to freeze over before he would ever admit it, of course. That's why he's keeping such a strict eye on you. He knows that you want to move away from under his wings, but he rather keeps you close, refusing to acknowledge your independence."
"I never looked at it that way," Mokuba said. A weak grin. "It's handy to have someone with psychological insight around."
"You and your brother have been a tag-team for so long. That makes you blind for each other's flaws. We all have flaws, as well as our good sides and our bad sides."
"True." Mokuba was silent for a moment. "You don't have a relationship either at the moment, right, Yuugi?"
Yuugi was a little surprised by the question, throwing him off guard. He could always refuse to answer the question, but Mokuba had answered all of his and in this strange, intimate atmosphere - while not of a sexual nature - Yuugi felt safe and comfortable enough to tell Mokuba anything, the truth about his own emotions, despite knowing him for such a short amount of time.
"I fell in love with a girl a while ago," Yuugi said. "If she had asked me for the moon, I would've done anything in my power to retrieve it for her."
Mokuba listened attentively. "That's hopelessly romantic. What happened?"
"I thought she reciprocated," Yuugi continued, "but I was too shy and afraid to ask her. I had many chances, many opportunities, and I passed up on all of them, until she moved on. My lackluster attitude encouraged her to look for someone else. Who would like a boyfriend who barely has any confidence anyway?"
"You don't come across as someone without confidence."
"I'm very confident in my work," Yuugi answered. "But when it comes to relationships, I'm hopeless. I just didn't dare, afraid to get hurt, afraid to get rejected. I'd rather have her as a friend, then ruin everything by becoming her lover and disappoint her. I never spoke up, and she went on to meeting and dating other people. I was the to-go-guy when she wanted to talk about her boyfriend, she was just happy to be my friend. It was the most I could get from her, and I don't blame her. It's not her fault that I didn't have the guts to act upon my emotions."
"You're a good person," Mokuba said, "but it sounds heart-wrenching to see the girl you love, be with another guy."
"It is, but it's my mistake." Yuugi's voice went up a notch, a fake, too casual pitch. It was all still painful to think of. "If I had spoken up, she would've known. She could've rejected me, of course, but then I would've known, instead of thinking 'what if', 'why couldn't I approach her', etcetera."
"Relationships sure are complicated," Mokuba said. He shivered. "I know there's someone wonderful out there for us. One for me and one for you."
Yuugi smiled at Mokuba's child-like conviction. Mokuba still was a child, which was quite easy to forget with his mature attitude. "I know there's someone wonderful out there for us," he repeated, as if making some kind of secret promise. A moment of silence. Mokuba closed his eyes and after a while, Yuugi thought he had fallen asleep. However, he opened his eyes again and spoke up.
"I'm having these nightmares of Gozaburo," he said. "Whenever I'm stressed, he always appears in my dreams."
"Considering what he has done to the both of you..."
"Yeah." Mokuba pulled the blankets even closer. "Sometimes I think he's alive and scurrying around in the basement at KaibaCorp., rebuilding his army just to spite us."
"Could he... still be alive?" Yuugi asked tentatively, unaware about Gozaburo's fate.
"No. He committed suicide soon after my brother took over the business by jumping out of the window. Believe me, there's no way he could've survived the fall."
"I see." Yuugi didn't know what to say.
Mokuba heaved a sigh. "That man really was a devil in disguise. After all that talk about darkness, I just can't stop thinking about him. He keeps popping up in my mind."
"I understand, Mokuba-kun. Darkness scares us all, and in the depths of our mind..."
"It's like running in circles," Mokuba interrupted him. "My brother always says to look for the pattern. There's always a pattern."
"He doesn't believe in coincidence? Sheer luck? Fate?"
"Not at all." Mokuba snorted. "My brother only believes something when he can see it with his own eyes or touch it with his own hands, and even then some. Even randomness is a pattern, he says. Everything is connected, connection is everything."
Now Yuugi was silent. "Zorc," he said.
"What?"
"I think Zorc is the connection."
"You lost me. You mean our previous bodyguards? They worked for..."
"Zorc Security. It's everywhere. He's everywhere."
"I know that we used to employ them," Mokuba said. "They were the best in town."
"My grandfather's notes mention Zorc." Yuugi shot up straight and climbed over Mokuba to get out of bed. He rummaged through the stuff on the desk in the guestroom and pulled out a small, black notebook. "Here. When he was still an amateur-archaeologist, my grandfather visited a Pharaoh's tomb once. He never talked about what really happened there, but he stopped going to Egypt and his archaeological business altogether shortly after that. Look..." Yuugi leafed through the notebook, "he made meticulous copies of the hieroglyphs, and here he mentions Zorc. The God of Darkness. When he arises again, it's the end of the world as we know it."
Mokuba's eyes went wide. "Did you show that to Jounouchi?"
"Yes, I did. He said that it had to be a coincidence that a security business had chosen an obscure Ancient Egyptian reference as their name."
"Sounds like Jounouchi all right." Mokuba looked at Yuugi's grandfather's drawings. "Can you read that? Can you translate the rest of the hieroglyphs?"
"Unfortunately, no. My grandfather points out a couple of times that the name of the Pharaoh is missing, though."
"I'll call for an Ancient Egyptian expert first thing in the morning! If there's some kind of clue in your grandfather's notes, we'll find it!"
"A clue? Mokuba-kun, this isn't Scooby Doo..." Yuugi said.
"I don't care. I don't care how vague or obscure the reference or clue is. There's always a pattern, like my brother said. If Ancient Egypt Zorc ties into modern-day Zorc Security somehow, we'll find it. We can help Honda...and Jounouchi. We have to do this, Yuugi."
Yuugi mulled over his words. Mokuba was right, of course. It wouldn't hurt to check it out, no matter how vague or obscure it was, indeed. And if they could help Honda and Jounouchi with it...
"We have to do this," he repeated. "We'll do this, Mokuba-kun."
Mahaado came down the stairs again, his steps calm and controlled. He had taken the opportunity to change clothes, exchanging his traditional garb for a comfortable, dark-purplish outfit. He had pulled his hair back into a ponytail again and a couple of wayward strands had escaped the confinement, framing his face. He carried Jounouchi's gun and handed it to him.
"In case you were wondering where it was," Mahaado said. "I have no knowledge of modern weapons, but I did not want you to use it to threaten the Pharaoh."
"You have no knowledge of modern weapons," Jounouchi said, baffled, "yet you run a mighty crime syndicate?"
"A mighty crime syndicate?" Now it was Mahaado's turn to be baffled. "What are you talking about? We used some... ah, coercion to get the gangs and yakuza working together, but only to find the Items. With just the two of us, it was going to take forever to look for them, and I did not want the Pharaoh to spend even more of his energy."
"Two CEOs got killed," Jounouchi said. He first had to explain to him what a CEO was, and then Mahaado shook his head.
"We have not laid a finger on anyone. The Pharaoh is a benevolent King, not a wrathful, ruthless leader. He has never ordered me to kill, and I would defy that order should I receive it."
Jounouchi wasn't so sure if Mahaado actually would do that, judging from their relationship. The Pharaoh could probably ask for an entire army and Mahaado would build it for him in a heartbeat.
"I am sorry about the CEO's," Mahaado continued. "They had family and loved ones who mourn them, and I will mourn them in my prayers. Nobody deserves to lose his life like that."
So the Pharaoh wasn't responsible for Pegasus' and Dartz' death. That was a relief to know, but how could he, Jounouchi, prove it? Shove the Pharaoh into the captain's face and tell him about mythical artifacts and people going nuts over it?
"With many more people looking for the Items, the faster we would find them," Mahaado said. "It also meant that more people would learn of their existence. It was a risk we had to take, to draw out Marik and Bakura."
"How many of the Items do you have right now?"
"The Pharaoh owns the Puzzle and I managed to collect the Scales and the Key. You brought me the Tauk. Marik has the Rod, Bakura the Eye and the Ring."
"Eye..?" Jounouchi was reminded of something. "Pegasus, the first CEO to be killed, wore it, or at least we think he did. I don't know how or why he obtained it... "
"That is simply the mystery of the Items. They show up somewhere, whether you like it or not. Bakura has killed him for it, by taking it out without mercy."
"How are you so sure that Bakura did it?"
"If it had been Marik, you probably would not have been able to identify the victim, because of the sheer violence he uses," Mahaado said deadpan. "From what you told me, it was a fast person, using the shadows, and that is Bakura to me. Patient planning and flawless execution, like the cunning thief he is."
"Poor Bakura," Jounouchi said. "The real one, that is. Ryou."
"Yes. Bakura of Darkness has overpowered him, and it is not going to be easy to separate them again. We are here to destroy this evil, this darkness. It might end for him by losing his life."
"No! You're not serious!"
"I am always, very serious. You should know that by now, Jounouchi."
Jounouchi was stupefied for the moment. "Can we leave now? We have to get Yuugi, as soon as possible."
"Yes, we leave now."
Mahaado went to the front door of the mansion and Jounouchi asked: "Where's your broomstick?"
"A broomstick?"
"Yeah, you can do magic... so you can fly, right?"
"I am a magician, not a witch, Jounouchi."
"But you can fly, right?"
Mahaado snorted. "Only when I summon my Kaa monster, my Magus of Fantasy Illusion. I do not summon him lightly, and certainly not to perform physical tasks."
"A 'Kaa monster'," Jounouchi said. "Right."
"This is not the time to educate you on the holy pantheon of our Ancient Egyptian Gods, the physics of reincarnation and the way we regard the soul. We have to go."
Jounouchi nodded and followed Mahaado out the door. "Just one more thing," he said. "If you can summon this flying thingie, is there something the Pharaoh can summon too?"
Mahaado looked at him as if he had sprouted a second head. "He summons Gods, Jounouchi."