Ennead: What if there had been the spirit of a Pharaoh in the museum when the exhibit was on?

Khayu didn’t want to be here but there was no choice.

When he’d been ripped out of the afterlife it had hurt more than anything he had experienced in life and he’d spent months raging at those who had desecrated his tomb and ripped his body out of its resting place, ending up, against his will, at a ‘museum’ in ‘Domino’ where his body had been put on display and  left for visitors to gawk at, while he had been left in a horrible state of being that had left him separated from the rest of the world, unable to be seen or interact with those who were living.

It was torture. To be forced to go through this ‘non-life’ when he had been through Anubis’s Judgement and earned his place in the afterlife and he had been furious for weeks, even as he took in everything that had changed in the, apparently, thousands of years since he had been on the throne, his anger slowly getting blunter and blunter as time passed and he had no one that he could rage at, since no one could see or hear him.

By the time his body had been put on display in Domino museum, his anger had boiled down to a simmering anger and that too had all but disappeared when a man from Egypt, his homeland, one who called himself Shadi, had dealt with those who had invaded his tomb and given him another thing to focus on. He remembered the tales of the Age of Shadows and the ‘golden treasures’ that had kept Egypt safe from invasion, but he had never thought that he would see them for himself.

Yet alone two of them.

He still didn’t know exactly what had happened between the man from Egypt and the girl was who clearly a local, but it had ended with Shadi returning the ‘Millennium Puzzle’ to the girl before making what was obviously a hasty retreat and the girl, who had looked frightened, leaving quickly without a second glance at anything.

He hadn’t expected to see either of them again, so when the girl, golden treasure hanging around her neck, had returned with a friend a couple of days later he’d found himself more interested then he otherwise would be. Normally he would ignore what was going on around him, using the time to freak out the museum staff or explore the local area since there was nothing else he could do, but when he’d heard the girl’s name being called, he’d found himself wondering why she had returned.

He’d wandered across the museum to join them, unable to add anything to their conversation but curious as to what they found so fascinating considering that they’d spent almost a full day here not that long ago, only to walk in on what was the oddest conversation he’d ever heard.

“Are you sure you’re alright with this?” The girl, a small but rather cute teen with multicoloured hair and royal purple eyes, was asking her friend, “I mean my Other Self can be...”

“It’s fine. It’ll be interesting to say the least.” Her friend, a tall, heavy set blonde haired, brown eyed male, possibly her guardian or lover, maybe both, reassured her, “Besides it might jog Oneesan’s memories.”

The girl nodded, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The golden treasure glowed for a moment and the girl appeared to gain an inch in height. When her eyes opened, they didn’t look the same. Instead of the soft purple that they had been a second ago, they were a harsh red.

“Oneesan.” The friend bowed to the girl, an odd expression on his face that was somewhere between respectful and nervous.

“Jonouchi.” The girl nodded back as her friend straightened, “You don’t need to bow. I can’t hold a higher rank than you if I don’t remember what my rank was.” She looked around, her eyes resting on Khayu, startling the Pharaoh for a moment and making him wonder if she could actually see him, before moving on around the room, confusion slowly becoming more and more obvious on her face, “Where are we and why did you want my attention?” She asked quietly, causing Khayu to have to edge closer to hear.

Jonouchi snorted, amusement clear, “Yugi wanted me to escort you around the museum. She hoped that the Egyptian exhibit might help you remember something.”

Khayu blinked at the girl, confused considering that he had thought that she was Yugi, as the girl nodded her understanding, looking a combination of grateful, amused and wary as she turned to examine the exhibit. Khayu found himself slightly grateful when her eyes darkened when they rested on his body.

“Something wrong, Oneesan?” Jonouchi asked her, noting the slight change in the girl’s attitude.

“I don’t remember why, exactly,” She said, wandering over to the case and resting a hand against the glass, Khayu following, intrigued by what she had to say considering that she was acting odd, at least by the standards of people he’d seen so far, “But something about having him on display like this feels wrong. Really wrong. This poor person...” The girl let out a frustrated growl, “I wish I remembered...”

“I know.” Jonouchi sounded sad for her, “But that’s why we’re here. To see if you remember anything.”

“If I could just remember my name...” The girl sighed, “I could go without the rest of it if I had that.” She paused and looked at the blonde male, “Not that I mean to sound ungrateful...”

“No, I understand.”Jonouchi waved it off, “I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes. Thousands of years ahead of yourself and without your name or memories...” Jonouchi shuddered.

“I owe Imoto-chan far too much.” The girl breathed, shivering herself, her voice just audible, “Without her I’d still be nothing but a lost spirit, wandering around in the dark.”

“Yugi’s special.” Jonouchi nodded his agreement, earning himself an amused look from the girl as Khayu stared at her, wondering what she meant by her words. “Where do you want to start?” He asked, gesturing around at the exhibit.

Oneesan hesitated for a moment, her eyes resting on the spot where she thought she’d seen someone, “If I might, Jonouchi, I’d rather go around on my own for a while, but if you could keep your guard up I’d be grateful. I think we’re being watched.”

“You can call me Jou, you know.” The teenager told her as he shook his head, then he paused, “Watched?” He asked, looking around sharply and not seeing Khayu, who was right in front of his eyes, “By who?”

“I don’t know.”

Jou let out a soft growl. He wasn’t a fan of Oneesan’s ‘I don’t knows’. They sometimes led to trouble. “I’ll give you some breathing room, but I’ll stay close by, okay?” He asked, giving the room a second glance and wondering what the spirit of the Puzzle was seeing that he wasn’t.

“Thank you.” The girl gave the teen a small, tense, smile and darted off ahead to look at the rest of the exhibit.

Khayu followed her, far more intrigued by the girl than her friend, who was as good as his word, keeping a big enough distance that Oneesan had space, but close enough to get involved if trouble struck, reminding Khayu of his own bodyguards and making him wonder who the girl was to need such a protector.

The Pharaoh took a few steps back, not wanting to distract the girl any further, for now at least, not until he’d worked out how to communicate with her, and watched her as she carefully examined every piece, drinking in the culture, seeing everything as if it was for the first time.

From what he could gather of their conversation it could well be. He didn’t understand all of it, but from what he could gather this girl, the one wandering around the museum’s Egyptian exhibit, wasn’t the same one as the girl who had been here just the other day but that didn’t make sense…

Still that wasn’t the part that confused and interested Khayu. The part that did that was the talk about ‘Oneesan’ being thousands of years ahead of herself, without her name and memories. If she’d been a ghost like him, he might have asked if she was from his time, but she was very much alive.

Of course this was unless she really was a ghost like him, but Yugi was allowing her to use her body.

It was a fanciful notion, or it would have been if he hadn’t been one himself. He had never really believed in the tales of those who had fallen coming back as angry spirits to harm those they had left behind until he had been ripped from the afterlife and left in the world of the living as no more than a shade.

The question was if Yugi could see and hear ‘Oneesan’, whoever she had been in life, would she be able to see him? She certainly hadn’t seemed to when she’d visited the other day, yet Oneesan had definitely looked at him. In fact she’d warned her friend that someone was watching…

Oneesan’s eyes flickered around the room as she moved to the next case, still confused as to why she felt like they were being watched when she couldn’t see anyone around. Not any more anyway. There was definitely something odd around here, but she didn’t know what and it was putting her on edge. She could have just been being paranoid, but somehow she doubted it.

She had SEEN someone around, a man with short black hair in strange clothes that had been in a very similar style to some of the clothes on display and golden jewellery, and quite frankly she was concerned that he was a friend of Shadi’s. It was part of the reason why she wanted Jonouchi close. After the stunt Shadi had pulled, Oneesan didn’t want Jonouchi left on his own, nor did she particularly fancy getting dragged into another Shadow Game.

Still, even with the odd feeling hovering around it was interesting to see everything from the dig in Egypt, even if she still wasn’t certain that having them on display like this was a good thing. Though they weren’t reawakening any of her memories, it was interesting to read the plaques by each display and learn a little more about her culture with each one. Some of the information on them she had felt like she was supposed to know, some of it had been completely unknown but it had been a good plan on Imoto-chan’s part, even if it hadn’t worked quite the way that she had hoped.

As she reached the last of the cases she looked around again, wary of leaving her sister in control while she still had that odd feeling but when the only person she could see in the room was Jonouchi, she sighed and ushered her friend out of the room, glancing back for a moment or two and wondering how much of the information in there she should know and if she’d had things like the ones in the exhibition room when she’d been alive.

“Was it helpful?” Jonouchi asked, catching Oneesan’s look.

“Yes and no.” Oneesan admitted. “I felt like I should know some of it, but nothing came back to me. It was like learning it all over again and I don’t even know if this Pharaoh was from the same dynasty as me. Still, I thank you for your patience.”

“I had nowhere to be.” Jonouchi shrugged as they headed for the exit, where the museum staff were ushering people out of the door for the end of the day. “And if it helped…”

“It did.” Oneesan nodded, glancing around, not sensing anything and relaxing slightly before speaking again, “And I’ll say goodbye now.”

With that she left Yugi in control.

Jou was thrown by the abruptness of the exchange and he wasn’t the only one, Yugi blinked around, trying to get her bearings, having been shoved into control a little more forcefully than usual and a little dazed by the experience. “Did it help?” She asked Jou finally as they started making their way home, oblivious to the fact that they had a stalker.

“She said it helped. Then she pulled a switch and vanished.” Jonouchi shrugged, “She was acting a bit stranger than normal though. Thought we were being watched.”

Yugi glanced around, worried that there might be someone following them, but she couldn’t see anyone unusual among the evening shoppers.

“Of course if we are being followed, I’ll protect you.” Jou postured absurdly, earning himself a giggle from Yugi, “What?” He asked mock innocently, just causing Yugi to laugh harder, calming down quickly when her ribs started aching.

“Sorry. Sorry.” Yugi waved it off, a grin on her face even as she cringed, her hand going to her side.

“Zero respect.” Jonouchi half jokingly grumbled as he kicked a can on the ground that bounced down the road and rolled into an alley way.