Ji-chan
By: Ankhutenshi and Matt Morwell

The Authors’ Notes:

Ankhutenshi: Not too much to say here, really… this is a co-written one-shot from Grandpa’s POV. We were batting ideas around late at night over IM’s and this… is kind of the result. Warning ! You may encounter excess amounts of ‘cute/kawaii’ in this fic. My thanks go to Matt for helping me keep in character (I try!) and actually putting up with my weird idea tangents long enough to get this written. Here’s hoping we write something together again, and really soon at that !

Matt: Like Ankhutenshi, not much to say.  I'm glad I got the opportunity to write with her, as I believe her to be an amazing and talented authoress, and I look forward to our next collaboration together!  I hope you do, too, because I enjoyed co-writing this.  Have fun with our little fic!

            It's raining tonight.  Usually, on rainy nights, my grandson will see me to bed instead of the other way around... the way that's customary.

            Tonight, though, Yugi decided to go to bed early.  He was holding his Millennium Puzzle and had his gaze fixed on it, as though there was something particularly radiant about it tonight that just made him want to stare at it for hours on end.  He trudged up the stairs that way: head craned down, the Puzzle gingerly resting amongst his fingertips... barely paying attention to where he was going.

            I'd been doing some late-night cleaning in the back room.  It was awfully dusty there, and customers don't exactly beam at the sight of a box covered in a layer of grey.  Nor do they really like seeing an old man with too much grey in his hair as it is suddenly further peppered with the material.

            Now I stand outside Yugi's doorway.  He left the door cracked open slightly, as if he'd known I was going to be there... watching, listening to the sound of his tossing and turning.

            I can't help it.  I worry over him, night and day.

            Except something's just a little off, tonight. It takes me a minute to figure out what it is; after all, it is such a trivial thing, it would hardly be worth noticing... except that, after watching him sleep for 8 years, one simply notices things like this.

            Yugi always sleeps on his side, but tonight... he's not.

            Rather, he's on his back, propped a little higher on the pillows than could possibly be comfortable for sleeping. His Millennium Puzzle is on the blanket in front of him, rather than hanging on the bedpost where it usually stays throughout the night.

            I sometimes wonder about that puzzle.  I don't know what possessed me to become an archaeologist -- temporary insanity, I suppose -- and I don't know what possessed me to enter an undisturbed tomb in the Valley of Kings that no other sane person would go near... but somehow, it's made a difference in his life that I couldn't begin to explain.

            Yugi is still Yugi.

            And yet... he's so different.

            Nights like tonight, though... these are the nights I really wonder about. Nights when my grandson does things like this that are admittedly strange and even a little bit frightening --  and that's a word that should never be used to describe someone like Yugi.

            But...

            There are just those times when things just don't seem to make sense.

            For instance... after Yugi came home with bruises, I immediately wondered what had gone wrong.  I drilled him about getting into fights at school.  He insisted that nothing had happened, though I knew that wasn't true.

            It turns out I should have been more worried for the person that inflicted those bruises in the first place.

            Joey told me later what had happened.  A bully was pushing Yugi around and trying to make him pay an astronomical fee for beating up two other people.  Joey didn't mention who those two other people were, but he sounded uncomfortable talking about it... and knowing of Joey's previous reputation at school as something of a jerk himself, I wouldn't discount the possibility that he was one of the two.

            But bruises... those can be healed.

            A man doomed to a psych ward?

            Much different.

            And the question remains... what happened ?

            Or when that criminal held the restaurant hostage while Yugi and the others were there. Held Téa at gunpoint. Threatened to shoot everyone if they raised their heads. And though no one had been able to see what was going on, the reports of what they had heard were all eerily similar. Someone... someone...  had challenged the gunman to a game. Explained a rule.  Started the game. Won the game.

            Téa's fine. She was blindfolded.

            The gunman is not fine. He burnt to death. Somehow, a lighter had set off the vodka he was pouring... for some reason, he'd been soaked in it.

            And still, that question. What happened ?

            Yugi said he didn't remember.  That was another similarity; he didn't remember what happened to the bully, what could have caused him to become catatonic... neither could he explain the charred remains of a Death Row escapee.  Joey was apparently not there, nor was anyone else, to witness what had happened with the bully.  He was there with Yugi at the restaurant, but he doesn't understand what could have happened. And I don't dare ask Téa.

            There are so many things that leave me confounded now... I look at my grandson and, as frightening as it is...

            I begin to wonder if this is the Yugi I knew.

            And I can't ask him... how would you go about starting that conversation, anyway ? No... I just have to watch. Watch and wonder at the trail of mysteries as it follows my grandson around.

            It doesn't seem to bother him, and I'm not sure if that should bother me or not. Do I just accept this ? Ignore it ? Address it ? I think for the first time in the 8 years he's been living here with me, I don't know how to talk to him. And what hurts the most is that he doesn't come to me like he used to. I've been trying to tell myself that he's not a little boy anymore, that he is a young man, and it still doesn't change the fact that I miss having him come home from school, bouncing and chattering on about his day.

            And I miss the fact that he rarely comes to me for comfort anymore when I know he's had a rough day.

            But if I'm not the ear he needs... who is ?

            I don't want to say that he's ignoring me completely.  Not like the stereotypical teenage rebel.  For 8 years, almost all Yugi and I had was this shop... and each other.

            Now, though... it's like I've lost one of those two.

            The one that matters more to me.  The one that matters more than any bizarre board game or any card ever created.

            No... not lost.  He's still here.  And I know he loves me.  But lately, it's as if his attention were divided.  Instead of helping me all the time, as he used to, he's become... become...

            I can't explain it.  I wish I could.

            But I think whatever changes he's going through... despite the mysteries that now follow him... they're making him into a better person.  Bolder.  More ready for the world and the trials he'll eventually have to face.

            After all, look at him now.  He's got friends he never would have dreamed of having before.  Joey and Tristan, of all people!  Seeing those two grow up -- and there, I use the term loosely -- I didn't think they'd ever become as mature as they are now.  And Téa, she's been there since...

            Since before I can remember, really.  She and Yugi have been friends for a long time.

            It amazes me, really.  All of a sudden, Yugi's been taking chances... risking things... and he comes out ahead.

            All after he finished the puzzle.

            So why can't I shake this feeling of apprehension ? Of... dread, if I can name it that ?

            Because of things like what I'm seeing right now, looking through the crack in the doorway, and seeing him sitting up in bed and smiling. At something I can't see. Even Yugi, the happy child that he is, doesn't smile widely at nothingness.

            The rain continues to patter against the roof.  Little light enters the window.  Yugi cannot spot me unless he knows I'm here.

            For all he knows, I'm downstairs in bed.

            I heard him softly sighing, muttering words... I can't make them out.

            That worries me even more.  Yugi isn't prone to sleep-talking.  And talking to himself isn't any better a sign than smiling at the air.

            I actually raise my hand to knock on the door; if anything, I'm getting more than a little unnerved standing here, and feeling a bit guilty about eavesdropping on this conversation (conversation ? is that what it is ?) but I don't, and after a moment, let my hand fall to my side again.

            No. What's the point ?

            Undeniably... he is happier, now, than he has been in a long time. And even if I don't understand quite how... or why, or who, or a million other pointless questions... if he's happy than I'm happy. Or at least, I'm content.

            Besides... Yugi's not selfish about his friends.  He brings them over frequently.  And he's always happy whenever I'm around, though occasionally I can see his embarrassment when I talk about his earlier childhood.  This is hardly news to most of the people he brings over, though, most especially Téa.

            Téa...

            She's been Yugi's friend for years.  Sometimes Yugi will get this look on his face when he talks about her.  He gets several looks when he talks about her, depending on the subject, come to think of it... but the one that always catches in my mind, the one that always makes me want to reassure him... is the look that says, "What did I do to deserve her as a friend?"

            And he'll ask me a question along those same lines.  Or variants.  "Am I a good friend, Grandpa?  Do I do right by my friends?"

            "Always, Yugi," I tell him.  "Always."

            He does right by Téa, that's an indisputable fact.  He won't let anything stand in the way of what makes her happy.  He once told me about the night before a festival that was going on at school.  He told me that Téa had spearheaded his class's efforts, and that they'd gotten everything together, right before the seniors callously knocked everything down using a grill as a battering ram.

            He told me that he thought he'd seen her crying.

            Such fury crossed his features when he told me that... I could hardly believe this was my Yugi.

            It scared me. I admit it. Because in all the time I've known him, and through everything I've seen him go through, never had I known that he was capable of such a... a... there isn't even a word for it. Such a profound negative emotion.

            I tried to tell myself it was just because he cared about her -- he adores her, really, that's plain to see -- and if someone can be unerringly loyal to one's friends... that's what Yugi is.

            It would have worked if not for the little voice in the back of my head, screaming out my doubts.

            I sigh and decide my time outside the door is at an end... there is nothing more to be done here.  I go down the stairs and move behind the counter.  The lights are out, and the store is anything but open, but that makes no difference to me.  Ahh, the perks of being an owner.

            My eyes flit across the supplies we have stacked in boxes below the counter.  A new shipment of Duel Monsters cards arrived this morning -- or was it yesterday morning?  Even my watch can't tell me -- and Yugi and Joey spent the better part of their afternoon hours, drooling at the boxes... wondering what treasures might lie inside.

            I don't know what's in there.  I don't order specific cards unless asked to by someone who's willing to pay a shipping and handling fee on top of the cards' market prices.  I like the spontaneity of packs, myself.

            And then, inexorably, my thoughts drift to Joey.

            I'm not ashamed to say it; when I first saw him, my reaction was 'a street punk' and I wasn't far off.  He used to run with a gang from Rintama, led by an even bigger bully named Hirutani. Thankfully, they terrorized the other end of the city, and avoided Domino because of Ushio and Rusaki's gangs.

            What I didn't know... was how tough his home life is. Or how interested and how talented he was in Duel Monsters. Or that he was willing to duel through the Duelist Kingdom for the prize money, only to turn around and give it to his mother for his sister's eye operation.

            Or how loyal a friend he'd be to Yugi.

            I didn't know any of this, before. I had thought he was nothing more than a hoodlum, a vagrant, and I have never been happier to have been wrong.

            Of course, I'd like to think that Joey's ability in the game comes partly from my training.  Yugi is an amazing duelist -- he pulls off moves even I have to double-take at -- but I doubt if he would have been able to teach Joey the game quite the way I do.  He certainly wouldn't have grilled the poor boy day and night over the near-hopelessly complex tactics of the game, to the point where he would have preferred detention to dropping by the store.

            Despite the fact that Joey most assuredly hated being within a one-kilometer radius of me within a week after I'd started the intensive training... he became a worthy duelist.

            Well... maybe "worthy" is too strong a word.  At first, he was still quite new to the game.  Even he'll admit -- during the few moments he chooses to be exceedingly humble about himself -- that some of his early victories were based on luck, rather than skill, or the flow of his cards.

            But field experience was exactly what he needed.  Now he's one of the finest duelists I have the privilege of calling "friend".  Quite a jump from "street punk".

            Another thing that really impressed me was the dedication to his sister, Serenity, who I've only had to chance to meet a few times. That sort of loyalty, sibling or not, is something that's very rare in people of that age.

            Joey still has his moments, though... occasions when his "big brother" nature extends to Yugi in such a manner that his old habits sort of bubble up.  It's only for a brief moment; a tease, a nudge, a prank.  The simple fact is that Joey is Joey.

            The same can be said for Tristan.

            Now, Tristan is a case all in himself.  According to late night confessionals, Tristan and Joey ganged up on Yugi every so often (before that mystifying incident with the bully) and acted generally cruel to him.  I can tell in Tristan's voice that he's apologetic, embarrassed... possibly even humiliated over saying such things to me.  If my theory about Joey getting beaten up by the bully is correct, then perhaps Tristan also discovered that what goes around comes around.

            Tristan doesn't take nearly the active interest in Duel Monsters that Yugi and Joey have.  Though he duels, it's always for fun; never for stakes of any kind.  That's just as well.  I don't sense in Tristan the same motivation, the drive that carries duelists like Yugi and Joey.  Maybe he's more like the "rebel without a cause".  I don't know.

            Tristan, however (in my opinion, at least) provides a bit of... well, maturity to the group. A stability, if you will. Even though he is as much a part of the others' adventures (listen to me, I sound wistful), he keeps his head on his shoulders and his wits about him.

            That's a quality that's served him quite well in the past, and will continue to serve him well in the future.  Admittedly, he's a roughneck... but again, this is a quality that has served him well, despite his occasional use of that quality on my grandson.  He's both strong and humble... stone-faced and soft-hearted.

            The soft-hearted part surprised me.  I'd only met him once or twice before (he wasn't usually one to play games), but the day Yugi and Joey brought Tristan in to find a game... well, I could have closed the shop early, because I was sure I'd die from having seen everything there was to see.  Tristan had been love-struck by an attractive girl in one of their classes, and was looking for a way to woo her.  Luckily, I had just the thing for him: a blank puzzle.

            Tristan then insisted that Yugi write a romantic message on the puzzle.  I didn't have much trouble figuring out that Tristan wanted a scapegoat in case something went horribly wrong.

            Come to think of it... I do recall a few kids coming into the store that day and mentioning something strange about Ms. Chono, who was one of Yugi and Joey and Tristan's teachers...

            Perhaps it doesn't matter.  Poor Tristan, the girl ended up saying no to him.  So much for romance.  Luckily he didn't blame it on Yugi; if anything, they became a little closer.  It was steps like that... baby steps... that built up their friendship, brick by brick, until it became a virtual fortress.

            Of course, those are the friends Yugi tends to hang around the most.  He'll bring others in occasionally; he's probably got more friends than I can remember.  But one "visitor" (for lack of a better term) that sticks in my mind is Ryou Bakura.

            This boy... I'm honestly not sure what to make of.  His thick, unruly white hair makes him stand out anywhere he goes -- not unlike my grandson's own embarrassingly unkempt style -- and he's quite shy.  He's quite polite when he's here, but his shyness causes him to not say nearly as much as I'd like to hear from him.  He remains conspicuously silent when discussion turns to various people's origins, their families, and personal history.

            From what little I've gathered about him, he lives with his father, who's away much of the time. He's only lived in Domino a few years, but he strikes me as a very responsible young man, much like Tristan in that regard, and Yugi tells me he does very well in school.

            Strange that he should be so... distant, though.

            I do know he's into Duel Monsters, though, because sometimes he buys booster packs from the Shop. Yugi once said that his deck was 'creepy', full of Fiend-types. Funny, you wouldn't guess it to look at the boy.

            Then again, I sometimes wonder how Yugi so readily embraces such powerful and terrible monsters like Dark Magician and Magician of Black Chaos.  His preference is spellcasters, it always has been... but those monsters sometimes frighten even me to use.  Don't ask why; there's no reason I'd be able to put into words.  I find the Dark Magician card to be just the slightest bit... eerie.

            As if it had some spark within it.

            Though a spark of what... I can't begin to guess.

            Of course, not all the people my grandson considers friends return the gesture. I'm sure that Seto Kaiba, for example, only sees him as an opponent. I'll never forget the day he strode into the Shop and demanded my Blue Eyes White Dragon. If Arthur Hawkins hadn't given me that card, I might just have traded, too. You couldn’t imagine the case full of rare and precious cards he plunked down on my counter.

            But he ended up getting it a different way. Thankfully, Arthur forgave me for that. Impudent young one, that Seto Kaiba is.

            I wonder if greed is his only motivation.  Yugi told me on several occasions about how Kaiba's younger brother, Mokuba, was in danger, and the trials that both Yugi and Kaiba had to go through in order to get close enough to get him back.  Ironic that Tristan would end up being the one that actually found him!

            ... I find a lot of things ironic, nowadays.

            I could see in Seto's eyes the greed and lust for my Blue Eyes White Dragon, the day I dueled him. I could see it all the way across the expansive holographic dueling arena. They'd glowed with some insatiable hunger. I doubt if he would have been satisfied even if he had acquired the card for keeps.

            Mokuba seems like a nice enough boy, though. A good person, though he's misguided at times. His dedication to his brother seems to blind him to the greed. So while certainly more friendly than his older brother, he only seems to care about Seto's approval and sating his ravenous desires.

            ...No, that's not quite true. He genuinely cares about his older brother. That's why he came to the shop in the middle of the pouring rain to find Yugi and Joey... why he begged them to help rescue Seto from the clutches of the virtual reality game his own corporation had trapped him in.

            At least that proves the Kaiba’s don't have completely stone hearts.    

            I roll my eyes at my own train of thought. It sounds like some bad soap opera (is there any other kind?) you'd catch on one of the three channels the television in the back is able to pick up.

            And then I think to myself, Well, look at it this way... at least nobody's been stabbed.

            It's no strange thing, anymore, to find that phrase to be of small comfort.

            I'm not exactly sure where the line between 'friends' and 'acquaintances' is drawn, especially taking into account Yugi's nature, but another boy who drops by every so often is Duke Devlin.         

            When he opened the Black Crown Game Shop, I admit I was less than pleased with his presence in Domino. And after hearing what he did to Joey (even if Joey did walk into it), I was convinced that there wasn't anything but maliciousness in that boy.

            Maliciousness and a good deal of money.

            His own arrogance and pride proved to be the most rapid deflation of a one-man hot air balloon I've ever seen.

            So confident was he that he would win against Yugi -- in a game Yugi possessed no skill at -- that he invaded televisions worldwide on cable, declaring Yugi's victory at Duelist Kingdom a total falsehood and that Yugi was nothing but a cheat. He was determined to make sure that Yugi never got the chance to "cheat" at anything else again, and to take revenge on my grandson for somehow single-handedly causing Pegasus to, as he put it, "fall off the face of the planet."

            And then the entire world found out just how drastically Devlin had underestimated his opponent.

            After that whole incident, though... he became tolerable. Even agreed to specialize in Dungeon Dice Monsters so I could carry Duel Monsters (actually, we still end up sending business each other's way) but more importantly, he apologized to Yugi. For calling him a cheat. For doubting him in the first place.

            What is it about my grandson, though ?

            Winning against Pegasus, I could understand. It was a huge accomplishment and certainly, it was quite remarkable, but Yugi knew Duel Monsters, and knew good, solid strategies. He had a strong, powerful deck.

            But beating Devlin, his first time playing ? It wasn't impossible (obviously) but...

            I should be so proud, and I am, and yet I just can't help but wonder...

            And it all comes back down to wondering.

            Wondering about my grandson. His friends. His enemies.

            His future.

            His life.

            I rub at my eyes; my eyelids have suddenly grown quite heavy. I trudge into my bedroom, kick my shoes off, and lie down atop the covers, then fold my hands on my belly and stare at the ceiling.

            My eyes drift closed.

            And here, in the twilight between memory and dream, I can almost grasp it.

            Another memory... hidden in the shadows, standing on the horizon, waiting for me to reach out to grasp it so that it can smile sadistically and pull out of my reach. It eludes me like a living thing.

            But that doesn't stop me from trying to find it.

            A name. A face. A shadow. A voice. A plea.

            A memory ?

            Or a dream ?

            Why can’t I remember ?

            And then... just for the briefest of moments... it reaches back out, across that horizon... across the distance of time, across the expanse of despair...

            For a moment, it's back.

            A dark cloud, enveloping everything. Yugi and Pegasus, dueling each other.

            Why do I have a memory of this ?

            Is it even a memory ?

            No... wait... it's not Yugi.  He looks like Yugi, but he's not Yugi.  He's taller.  His clothes are different.  His voice is deeper... strong... confident.

            Or would be confident, if he wasn't despairing now.

            “Yugi ? Yugi !”

            “…Spirit… you’ve got…to beat… Pegasus…”

            “Yugi ! Yugi ! … I can’t sense his spirit. I can no longer feel the presence of his young mind… No… No, he can’t be gone !”

            Who is he?

            He is almost... crying.

            He believes Yugi is gone.

            Such sorrow... wrenching and piercing and fathomless. This is how I would feel if I thought for a moment that I had lost Yugi somehow. And a sudden feeling of kinship with this Yugi-who-is-not-Yugi.

            "Yugi is still with you."

            "You must be…"

            "Yugi's grandpa. And believe me, his heart is still in this.”

            "But… but how can that be ? I thought he was…"

            "You thought only what your eyes showed you…”

            I didn't know.  Didn't know what was going on, didn't realize what the stakes were... but I knew what this... this person was thinking.  Somehow.  And I knew to reassure him.

            Yugi has more strength than the creature who stands before me now necessarily gives him credit for.

            He would not fall so easily.  He doesn't have to be physically fit.  This sort of battle would not require it, anyway.  No, instead, this battle required of my grandson exactly what he has; a strong spirit.

            And so I stand here in the nothingness, on the edge of oblivion... reassuring this strange being that Yugi is still with him.

            I don't know how they came to meet.  I don't care.  They are friends, just as Yugi, Joey, Téa, and Tristan are.

            And they're with him, too.        

            The blurry, almost-memory ends. Another fades in to take it's place.

            A room. White. A hospital... I remember awakening and knowing nothing except for the lingering feelings of satisfaction and pride and victory. 

            But the question persists... where did all of this come from?  If I remember it, it must be a memory... yet it evades me every time I try to reach for it.  It's as if an older sibling is teasing me with a cookie.

            I can't quite grasp it.  I try, but I fail every time.  I can't encompass it all.  It's beyond my capability.

            Then again... after all that's happened... perhaps it's better that there are a few things I don't know.

            My eyes drift back open, and I pull myself from the border separating this world from the dream world.  It's only for a few moments, long enough for me to pull off my slippers and pull the covers up over me.  It's slightly colder down here than it is upstairs.  My covers are warm, though, and they keep me good company... especially in the midst of the sounds of rain.

            I close my eyes again and chase the elusive memories.

            If I don't catch them tonight, perhaps the next.

            Or the next.

            I'm patient.

            Yugi looked at his see-through counterpart, sitting on the bed next to him, disappointment clearly visible in his eyes. "He couldn't see you. I thought… I thought just maybe…”

            Yami cocked his head at his junior.  "Do not be discouraged, aibou.  Perhaps he still has yet to fully believe."

            The teen looked down the bedspread. “I just hate feeling like I have to hide you.”

            The spirit smiled slightly.  "Yugi... if he can't see me, it's not your fault."

            "I know that, Yami." Yugi answered earnestly. "I just want to see his reaction when I can finally introduce you two." He grinned impishly. "I don't know how I'll explain it, but I hope it happens soon."

            Yami glanced over at the clock.  He found it to be a marvelous invention, a device that could (accurately) tell what time of day it was, even without the benefit of the sun.  "We've met before, aibou... he simply has yet to remember.  It will come back to him in time."

            "Ok." Yugi smothered a yawn into the back of his sleeve. "I guess I should go to sleep, huh ?"

            "No guessing."  Yami smiled down at his light.  "You have a test tomorrow, remember?  You'll need every minute of sleep you can still get."

            The hikari made a face. "Now that's a thought I really wanted to go to sleep to." He grumbled, but pulled the blanket over him and lay down on the pillow. He yawned again before asking drowsily, "Are you going to sleep now too ?"

            "I think I shall remain awake a while longer," Yami replied.  He got to his ethereal feet.  "Perhaps I shall go visit your grandfather."

            "Mmm-hmmmm..." Yugi replied, already asleep.

            Yami made his way downstairs and moved into the bedroom beyond the counter.  There lay a stout old man who had weathered far more than he should have, and loved far more than his grandson could yet understand.

            But Yami could relate.

            He smiled.

            "Good night... Grandpa."