Jounouchi excused himself from the breakfast table and went upstairs to retreat to his room. He needed some time to think about everything that had happened and to form a new strategy. Now that Yuugi was safe, he could focus on rescuing Kaiba. The CEO would be appalled at the thought of being rescued, let alone Jounouchi being his rescuer, but it was obvious Kaiba was in big trouble. Maybe Bakura hadn't killed him right away, but his usefulness was going to run out anytime soon... he sat down on his bed and stared outside the window, just to clear his mind. This mansion had such a calming effect on him, strange but true. It probably had something to do with Mahaado's magic. Maybe he could ask him... a knock on the door interrupted his train of thoughts.
"Come in!"
Yuugi stuck his head around the door and saw that Jounouchi was alone. He slipped inside and closed the door behind him, cradling his grandfather's notebook to his chest.
"Jounouchi-kun, are you all right?"
"Sure," he answered. "Why are you asking me?"
"Because of... well, what happened."
"I'm not the one who got kidnapped. Are you all right?"
"I don't know. My inner psychologist is telling me what I should feel and what I should do, but my inner Yuugi just doesn't know what to do."
Jounouchi chuckled. "Don't worry; I'm sure your inner Yuugi will figure it out. This is the weirdest situation you and me have ever been in, and I've been through a lot."
"Yes, you're absolutely right. Who would've thought that Hirutani-san was such a manipulator? Who would've thought that Bakura-kun... that something would come over him, turning him into someone else? A dark personality, a kidnapper and a possible killer?"
Jounouchi didn't answer to that. He was convinced that Dark Bakura was a killer, but he didn't have solid proof, not yet.
"At least now we're all together," Yuugi continued. "I'm here, you're here, Mokuba-kun's here, Ishizu-san, Mahaado-san, the Pharaoh... and soon enough, Kaiba-kun will be here as well."
Jounouchi knew that Yuugi had a positive outlook in general, but his friend had gone through something traumatic and he was worried about his well-being. "Yuugi, you've been kidnapped, abused and threatened... you're not all right at all, you need to take care of yourself."
He was silent for a moment. "I was very afraid," he finally admitted. "I... it all happened so fast. Big, burly guys who grabbed me and dragged me out of the bed. They didn't hurt me, though - I mean, I wasn't beaten or punched."
"Did they drug you?"
"No, but I couldn't see anything anyway. It was so dark. They didn't speak, I could only hear their breathing. It was terrifying. I kept yelling, begging them to say something, to talk to me... but nobody said a word, and when I finally heard a voice, I was scared out of my mind."
"Bakura spoke to you?"
"Yes, yes he did. He wasn't the Bakura Ryou I know, of course."
"Wait... what, you know him?"
Yuugi nodded. "I told Honda-kun all about it. You don't remember him from High School either, do you? Quiet, shy transfer student? He sometimes watched us play games, and I believe he loved tabletop games too. I never really interacted with him much, something I regret... maybe if I had, none of this would've happened."
"You don't know that," Jounouchi protested. "Things in life... happen, Yuugi. There's no way you could've had any influence on Bakura Ryou's life."
"Maybe, maybe not. But if I'd been more of a friend, he wouldn't have to go through this all alone."
Jounouchi didn't know what to say to that. He wasn't even sure if Bakura Ryou was still alive. What if Dark Bakura had used him to gain his own body? "What did Bakura say to you?" he returned to the previous topic.
"He was pretty forward with me, actually," Yuugi said. He sat down on the bed, looking tired despite a night's rest. "He told me that he was going to use me as a bait to get the Pharaoh. That I was weak and could never withstand the darkness." He hugged himself. "So much menace, so much vitriol... he frightened me."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Jounouchi said. He remembered very well how scared he had been of Bakura himself, in the interrogation room. "What about Malik?"
"Very upset. He just kept saying it was his fault, that he should never have left home... I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. His darker... eh.. personality was with Bakura. He was also menacing, but in a different way. He said that I was pretty, but not as pretty as the Pharaoh. I wanted to take a scorching hot shower so bad!"
"Never mind Marik, he isn't right in the head," Jounouchi said. "I'm glad you made it out safe, Yuugi."
"Thanks to you," he beamed, "and the Pharaoh, of course."
"Yeah, which reminds me," Jounouchi said. "What's with all this 'mou hitori no boku' and 'aibou' stuff? You know each other for barely a day!"
"Have you ever had the feeling," Yuugi said softly, looking up at Jounouchi from under his golden bangs, "that when you met someone, your entire world was turned upside down? That your breath was taken away, that your heart was beating faster, that your mind immediately connected to the other? That you loved someone at first sight?"
Jounouchi shook his head. "I can't say I've ever experienced love at first sight," he answered. "I'd like to be happy for you, but I have bad news." He hated to crush Yuugi's hope, but it was better to do it now than later.
"Yes, I know. Mahaado-san. I could see it in his eyes."
"What?"
"You saw it too, Jounouchi-kun. I hurt him so much when I adjusted the Pharaoh's blanket. ...his Pharaoh. You heard his misaddressing. He said "my Pharaoh". He loves him more than anything in the world, and I... may all the Gods forgive me, but I want to be with the Pharaoh, more than anyone or anything else. He's the other half of my soul, Jounouchi-kun."
"Don't get me wrong Yuugi, but... didn't you have a major crush on Anzu back in high school? Or..."
"I wasn't faking it," Yuugi said. "I really loved, and love, Anzu-chan. She's a wonderful friend and a good person. I was convinced I could be with her, as husband and wife, for so long... but as you know, I didn't act upon my feelings, and she married Otogi-kun. I was devastated at first, and then I was devastated to discover that it wasn't bothering me as much as I thought it would. I don't know how to explain it, Jounouchi-kun. Maybe I never asked Anzu-chan to marry me because deep down, I felt I didn't belong with her. That I would end up hurting her, as time was going to teach me that my feelings weren't with her, but for someone else... and a man to boot. My true preference would've surfaced, sooner or later. And now that I've met the Pharaoh, I know to whom I belong. It's with him."
"Yuugi, when you've got it, you've got it bad, don't you? Your Pharaoh... he's not... easy accessible." Jounouchi didn't want to use the word 'dead', as he didn't know if that was the right word to describe the Pharaoh's current state. Both Ishizu and Mahaado had mentioned that he was the one to keep them grounded in this plane of existence, but what did that make him? A magician? A God?
"I know, I know!" Yuugi shivered. "Let's talk about something else," he abruptly said and opened the notebook. "I think there's a way to figure out his name."
"Really?" Jounouchi didn't protest about Yuugi's change of topic.
"As you know, my grandfather visited the Pharaoh's tomb in his younger years. He copied the hieroglyphs and the layout of the tomb. I take it that the Pharaoh's name had already been removed when my grandfather was there, but I believe he figured it out anyway, and hid clues to finding it, in his notes."
"So he knew the Pharaoh's name but never wrote it down, safe for some clues? Yuugi, we don't have the time to puzzle it all out. It'll take ages to cross-reference and discover the clues in the first place. You don't know what to look for! Why should your grandfather have hidden it? If I discovered something big like the name of a long forgotten Pharaoh, I'd announce it to the world!"
"We can at least give it a try," Yuugi said, stubbornly.
"All right, all right." Jounouchi sighed. It couldn't hurt, could it? He stared at the notebook, but the hieroglyphs bored him within minutes. "Look, Yuugi, even if you discover something, this mansion is the only place in the world to not have any Internet or wifi. We can't go online to do our research. Besides... what are we looking for, anyway?"
"Some kind of code," Yuugi said, engrossed. "My grandfather loved word riddles and cryptograms. There has to be something in this notebook! It's the only memento left of his archaeological career. He disposed of everything else, why would he have kept this?"
"I don't know, nostalgic value? We're wasting our time, Yuugi."
Yuugi studied his grandfather's handwriting, lost in thoughts. Jounouchi heaved a sigh. Just as he was about to comment, a knock on the door announced Mahaado's arrival.
"The Pharaoh wishes to speak to Yuugi," he said, his voice sterner than usual. Yuugi and Jounouchi exchanged an uncomfortable look before following the magician-priest, whose firm stride was hard to keep up with. They went downstairs instead of going to the large room with the open fire place. Mahaado led Yuugi into the garden, where the Pharaoh was sitting next to the fountain, raking his hand through the calm, floating water.
"Yuugi is here as you requested, Great Pharaoh."
"Thank you, Mahaado." The Pharaoh barely acknowledged his Priest's presence, and Mahaado bowed stiffly before retreating into the mansion again. Jounouchi stopped him, well out of earshot of Yuugi and the Pharaoh.
"Mahaado.".
"Yes, Jounouchi?"
He was sure he wasn't the right person to comfort the man, but Jounouchi wanted to get it off his chest. "Look, I might be a detective and all, but sometimes I don't see things unless they're happening right in front of my eyes or when it's rubbed in my face," he started. Mahaado looked bored. Not a very fitting look. "I know that you and the Pharaoh are close, very close."
"I am honored to be in his service and I will continue to serve him in every way possible, to the best of my abilities." A robot couldn't have delivered it better. Jounouchi wanted to stomp him against the shoulder, as he used to do with Honda. Time to ditch subtlety, as far as he was ever able to be subtle.
"Mahaado - I know you love him, and that he loves you. I can see it," he said. It had taken him days to realize it, while Yuugi had deduced it within hours, "But Yuugi, he..."
"The Pharaoh has found the other half of his soul," Mahaado cut him off. "I know my place, and so should you."
"I know I'm not high up in the Pharaoh food chain, but that doesn't mean I don't care, all right?"
Mahaado bowed to him - not a sarcastic, small or degrading bow, but almost as deep as he would bow for the Pharaoh. Jounouchi took a step back, feeling embarrassed at being shown such honor. Finally, Mahaado straightened himself again.
"Do not underestimate the Great Pharaoh," he said. "He holds you in high regard, Jounouchi Katsuya. He will protect you like you were one of his people." With that said, Mahaado disappeared into the mansion, leaving Jounouchi behind, completely baffled.
"Crazy ass Egyptians," he mumbled.
Mokuba had installed himself at the large kitchen table, behind an expensive looking laptop and a large arsenal of routers and other electronic equipment Jounouchi didn't recognize. He wasn't that computer-savvy anyway and admired Mokuba's fast typing skills, his fingers racing over the keyboard.
"Did you find your brother?"
Mokuba shook his head. "No, but all of his appointments have been cancelled," he said. "His computer and cellphone are offline, I checked. I tried to access the main server, but the passwords have been changed." He cracked his knuckles. "Don't worry, I'll get in. Just give me a moment."
"Before you start, I'd like to ask you something."
"Sure!"
"Yesterday, when we discussed your brother's whereabouts... you mentioned "Gozaburo and his war material". Yuugi seemed to know what you were talking about, but fill me in, please? You both were upset."
Mokuba wasn't shy to share his life story with Jounouchi. He told him about his adoptive father, how he had made his elder brother's life to a living hell, and how much of a warmonger he had been.
"So... you're telling me that all this war material still exists?" Jounouchi asked.
"Yes, but don't ask me why." Mokuba stared at the laptop screen, but he wasn't focusing on the scrolling text. "I figure my brother wanted to keep it as a permanent reminder that we wouldn't allow this to ever happen again. That's why he's so hung up on Duel Monsters. It's a card game, beloved and popular... it's for children, not for adults and their guns and rifles and tanks."
"I understand," Jounouchi said. His mind raced a mile a minute. KaibaCorp.. War material. Electronics. Computers. Bakura with that controlling device. Bakura had kidnapped Kaiba. Bakura has access to all of that war material and computers through Kaiba. The Darkness has access to tanks and guns and oh jesus fuck we're screwed.
"Hi, Ishizu-san," Mokuba said cheerfully while Jounouchi was still processing that train of thoughts. He hadn't heard the woman enter the kitchen, but then again, all of these Egyptians moved around in complete silence.
"Does everything work according to your wishes?" she asked.
"Yes, thank you so much, Ishizu-san!"
She put a large basket with fresh vegetables on the kitchen counter top. "When I lived underground as a member of the Tomb Keepers clan, I accepted our nomadic, basic lifestyle. But when I grew up and went to Cairo to become a historian and a museum director, I fell in love with modern technology. The luxury of a water cooker for instance, instead of having to keep a pot of water hanging over an open fire for hours - that was really an eye opener to me!"
"Why did you live underground, Ishizu-san?"
She looked sad while she grabbed a cutting board and a knife to chop the vegetables. "The elders of the Tomb Keepers talked all day about the interpretation of the vows they made to the Pharaoh, and how to protect the Sennen Items from falling into the wrong hands. The Rod and the Tauk had been in our possession for ages."
"Wait a minute - the vows they made to the Pharaoh? This Pharaoh? The one upstairs?"
"The very same, or so I believe." Ishizu sighed. "Unfortunately, we did not have computers in the old ages Jounouchi, or else we would have written down exactly what kind of promises or vows had been made. Remember what I told you before?"
"Yes. 'The Tomb Keepers are ready to atone for their sins and vow to protect once more'."
"You have an excellent memory." Ishizu took up the knife and started to cut the spring onions in neat, even pieces. "I have been told this my entire life: keep the vows of the Ishtar clan, protect the Sennen Items, do not anger or disappoint the Pharaoh. To live up to all of this, the elders decided it was best to live underground, to distance ourselves from the outside world. It had become such a tradition that nobody questioned it."
Mokuba stopped tapping at the keyboard and listened intently. As if she wasn't telling a downhearted story at all, Ishizu continued to prepare ingredients in advance for lunch "I am one of the last generation, together with my brother," she said. "The Tomb Keepers, the tribe, our clan, has died dwindled down to this branch. We never fought against the rites and traditions that were put upon our shoulders, the responsibility we had to bear. The few questions we asked, were answered in a way that rose even more questions. What were we supposed to do? Malik was my life, he was my entire world. I promised the world to him, and in doing so, I also planted the seed of his anger and hatred."
"How come, Ishizu-san?" Mokuba asked.
"Because of my stories of the outside world," she answered, setting aside the bok choy. "The women were allowed to go outside every now and then, to go to the market or run other errands. You do not grow many crops underground. I described everything to Malik: the sun, the people, the desert. He grew impatient, wanting to know when it was his turn." A small hitch in her voice. "It broke my heart to tell him that he was not allowed to go outside, if ever. Instead, he had to undergo a certain ritual, that... scarred him for life. It gave birth to even more pain and hatred, and when Malik finally got above ground, he had a look of ecstasy on his face that I will never forget. But he was not followed by his brother Rishid, but by his dark side. I will never forget the look on his face either."
"Marik."
"Marik, yes." Ishizu filled a pot with water. "The embodiment of all that is painful and dark." She fell silent after that and Jounouchi understood that she didn't want to talk about it anymore, at least not for now.
"There!" Mokuba shot up in his chair. "I've found him!"
"Kaiba?" Jounouchi looked over Mokuba's shoulder, at a laptop screen filled with text boxes. but he couldn't make heads or tails out He turned his attention back to Mokuba.
"A lot of energy is being redirected to the lower levels of KaibaCorp.," Mokuba pointed at a graph on screen that told Jounouchi absolutely nothing. "This comes from an old server that only a few people know about."
"You and Kaiba," Jounouchi said.
"Exactly. My brother is alive and at KaibaCorp.. I knew it!"
"Well, I guess the Pharaoh was right to believe that Kaiba was safe, and valuable to Bakura," Jounouchi grimaced. Bakura was a patient man who worked from the shadows, and he was also very fond of having others do his dirty work for him. Varon, Amelda, Rafael... and now Kaiba. What did Dark Bakura want from him? What had Ancient Egypt to do with modern technology?
"Oh, while I was searching for my brother," Mokuba said, "I did some digging around, Jounouchi. About your 'friend', Hirutani."
"Yes? What did you find?"
The youngster scrunched up his face. "A memorial service was held in his honor."
"Well, that's no surprise." Jounouchi shrugged. "To the police force, he was an esteemed colleague and a hero. To us, he was a double-crosser who had more darkness in his heart than we could ever imagine. Not everyone knew his true nature."
"You're right. Still... I couldn't find anything about you, Jounouchi. No memorial service or honorable mention. And what worries me the most... nothing about Honda either. He's even completely disappeared from the payroll."
"What?" Jounouchi balled his fist. "If something has happened to him..." then it's all my fault.
"We will help your friend as soon as we have rescued my brother and Set," Ishizu said, stirring in pots and pans. Jounouchi wanted to scream. How could anyone of those Egyptians stay so calm all the time? Fuck yes, perhaps because they were all so fucking old and thought time was totally on their hands. If Honda was in danger... what about Shizuka's safety? If Bakura had done something to his sister, he was going to kill that thief with his bare hands!
Yuugi ventured into the kitchen, stifling a yawn. Mokuba greeted him happily and brought him up to speed.
"I hope Honda-kun is all right," he said. "What if I tried to call him?"
"We can't risk anything at the moment," Jounouchi said, wryly. "If anyone of us tried to contact him, we would give our safe location away. It's painful, but we have to keep hope that he's all right for now."
Mokuba put the laptop aside, the screen faintly glowing as Yuugi sat down, yawning again.
"So, what have you been up to, Yuugi?"
"I talked to the Pharaoh," he answered and tapped on his grandfather's notebook that he carried around everywhere." He translated the hieroglyphs for me, but alas, we couldn't find a clue to his name." Another yawn.
"How come you're so tired?" Jounouchi asked. "Was sitting in the backyard that fatiguing to you?"
"I dunno," Yuugi said. "I feel like I've ran a marathon. I did sleep well last night, despite everything. Anyway, the Pharaoh encouraged me to continue my search, but to keep anything I would discover, to myself."
"Yes, because Zorc was sealed with the Pharaoh's name, he can also be resurrected with his name, right?"
"Exactly, Mokuba-kun. I just keep wondering what the key to the riddle is... I know I can figure it out. I used to crack all of my grandfather's codes and clues."
"You can use my laptop if you wish. Ishizu-san has brought me a very nifty one," Mokuba offered.
Jounouchi wondered if Ishizu could get him a gun. His previous one had been destroyed, and he felt naked without a weapon, especially when facing dark forces. He'd seen for himself that bullets and guns didn't help much where magic was involved, but still... he turned around to ask her, but Ishizu wasn't behind the stove. Where had she gone to? All the ingredients for lunch were laid out neatly on the kitchen counter top, ready for further preparation. An ominous feeling crept up on him.
"I'm going to take a look upstairs," he said. "It's far too silent to my liking."
"Something wrong?" Mokuba asked.
"Nah, I'm just going to check up on them and see if they're interested in lunch." Jounouchi sauntered out of the kitchen and went upstairs. Was it really that surprising to find all the bedrooms empty?
"Assholes," he muttered to himself. "Fuck!" He thundered down the stairs and stomped into the kitchen again.
"What's happened? Where's everyone?" Mokuba asked. "Are we going to have lunch soon?"
"They left without us," Jounouchi said, grumbling. "They're gone!"
"I didn't even hear the car start," Mokuba said, confusedly. Jounouchi didn't answer. The Pharaoh had other means of transportation at his disposal. He couldn't believe that they had done this behind his back! He threw on his jacket.
"I'm leaving."
"Oh no, you're not going to KaibaCorp. alone," Mokuba said and grabbed his own jacket.
"He might be an ass, but the Pharaoh was right. I don't want you to come along. It's too dangerous..."
"Shut the fuck up, Jounouchi!" Mokuba put on his shoes as well. "Yuugi, leave the laptop alone! Do you want to come along or not?"
Yuugi looked up, his eyes half-lidded from fatigue, but his smile was bright and warm.
"I know his name."