Cursed Millennium Puzzle (Part 1)

DIMENSION: ANIME

Domino City

YUGI

Yugi had fetched Atem and had driven him to his home. On the way, he apologized for their last meeting. It had just been a real surprise. Atem was okay, and he complimented his home, noticing his success.

He told him about his new game briefly, wanting to know if the Ishtars said anything else. Instead, Atem was way more interested in hearing about his space game. They spoke about fifteen minutes, he showed them some of the things he'd done, and how his friends were all doing.

"It's good to hear you are all still friends," Atem said to Yugi.

"I think when it comes to friendship, we've had way too much life experience knowing the importance of it. We all stayed in touch. Even Téa, I see her at least once every two years." Although, he wished it was more. "Joey is currently in trouble, trying to do the right thing by taking down someone evil."

"That's good," Atem said.

"That led him to Mai Valentine again. That is leading him into even more trouble." Yugi sighed. "I think Joey used to like Mai when he was younger, so I'm worried about this."

"How is she involved?"

"Marrying the bad guy. Apparently, Joey said she's stuck with him. It's not a love thing."

"Throwing around power?" Atem asked.

"Yeah. It's got Joey messed up. I agreed to help for a little while. I didn't know you were coming too."

"I will help however I can to either situation," Atem volunteered.

Yugi took him toward one of his favorite rooms. His game room. It was about as big as the Game Shop itself. He settled down into some chairs and started to play some older games with Atem. Not Duel Monsters, just random games he loved to play that came out after Atem left.

Atem was just as intrigued. It was one thing they both always loved. Games. "Do you still play with Bakura too?"

"Oh, yep, every three months he makes a big campaign for his role playing games." He became a game designer too. "Sometimes I even get to beta test new ideas for his games, and sometimes I let him test out some of my ideas."

"Sounds fun." Atem moved a piece. "It's good to see your life turned out well. This body being gifted back though, I am worried about it."

"We've saved the world more than once," Yugi said. "The Bandit King. Leviathan. Marik. There wasn't any kind of conversation about this ever being possible. We were trying to get you back to the afterlife. This?"

"Shouldn't be possible." Atem didn't know about it. "This may be temporary."

"You think you'll head back to the afterlife after you do whatever it is you do?" Yugi asked. "Or are you . . .?"

Joining him again. "I don't know." He hoped not. "I would hate to interrupt your life again."

"It . . ." Yugi paused. "It wasn't . . . bad." He moved his own piece.

Well? At least, that was a good sign.

"You would have to turn the filter up though, a lot, for certain things. Like last time."

"If push came to shove, I remember the filter levels," Atem promised. He waited for a response from Yugi, but it didn't come. Yugi didn't look so good. "Yugi?"

Yugi was feeling extreme pain, enough that it pulled him straight away from the game. He got out of his chair and walked a couple of steps. He heard Atem yell out for him as something burst out of his chest.

Then, he started to heal and the pain went away. Probably due to Atem's power. Yugi opened his eyes and viewed what was on his chest. "The millennium puzzle." Fully placed together and shining like the sun before the shine faded away. "Why?"

Yugi tried to pull at it, but it just pulled at him too.

"This isn't right, Yugi. This is attached to your body. Your . . . ribs, I think."

Attached to his body? "Are you sure?" He yanked again, and again, he just yanked himself. Like he was yanking his own arm.

"You carried the millennium puzzle before, but you were never cursed with it growing upon your body. Whatever reason this is happening, it's not a good one. This is some form of punishment on you."

Yugi didn't tug again. "Oh no. Just . . . a millennium puzzle attached to my ribs. What's unusual about that?" He said sarcastically. "Atem, can you get this out of me?"

"I wish I could, Yugi."

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New York City

Téa

When she woke back up, all of the gore that befell her body was gone. "The necklace." It was around her throat. Téa pulled herself up, the pain having subsided and she tried to unbuckle it to lift the necklace off. She could not though, there was no underside? Téa felt all the way around the necklace, trying to find an opening. All she ended up doing was hurting herself with her fingernails. She cursed softly. "It's attached to my collar bone?" She noticed some workers looking at her after saying her collar bone line. "Nevermind, I'm not feeling well. Phone, please? Anyone?"

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Domino City

Yugi had cut off the middle part of his shirt (now a stretchy T-shirt) so that most of the hole was tucked over the puzzle. "A heavy chain and it'll look like it's around my neck instead of bursting out of my chest."

"I am sorry," Atem said. "That cannot be a pleasant feeling."

"I'm fine. Most of the pain is gone." Yugi decided the first thing he should do is contact Joey. He's the only one that was on tour playing Duel Monsters. In his experience, things usually happened because of a tournament. "Joey is on a Duel Monster's tournament. I'll check on him and see if anything happened besides Mai's involvement." Yugi dialed his cellphone. "Joey?"

"Yugi, Man!"

Yep, that was the sound of something happening. "What's wrong, Joey?"

"Skeezy, Yug, I'm sorry."

"What about Skeezy?" Yugi asked. "Is Mai okay?"

"Yeah, Mai is fine, but someone real important isn't."

"Who?"

"Téa."

"A . . . Téa?"

"Yeah. Skeezy is sending us to go and get her in New York City. He said he's saving her, getting her out of a human traffic ring about to nab her. I've been trying to contact her, but I think he made sure that-

"We gotta get to her now!" Téa! He glanced toward Atem. "The evil person Mai is marrying set up Téa!"

"I am trying too, Yug, a plane only goes so fast. *scuffle*"

"Yugi, this is Mai. Joey's so upset he almost dropped the phone. He's right, it's Skeezy. He doesn't even know Joey's trying dumb stuff, I've been friends with her for a good three years again. He's just trying to make sure I know not to run. We're leaving out of here and heading to the airport. Chances are good she'll be fine as long as- *another scuffle*"

"Mai's daydreaming, she hasn't talked to Skeezy like he did to me on the phone! He said we'll never see her alive again if I screw things up for him, and if I somehow magically do find her, he'll have it so she'll wish she was dead. *scuffle*"

"It's just hogwash to hold me near him, I'm sure she'll be fine *scuffle*

"Those were his words. Yug. This is no game."

Yugi trembled. His hands could barely hold the cell phone. Téa. "Joey, how . . . how could . . . Why? Why, why, why? Whyyyy did you have to get involved in something that was none of your business!" He dropped to his knees.

Téa. His friend. His first crush. So far away, yet she was still so close to his heart. He could hear Atem getting to the bottom of the details. Atem took over the phone because right now, Yugi couldn't handle it.

Téa.