Hard Prizes (Part 1)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

The Game Shop

Jounouchi darted into the shop, demanding the code. Yuugi still dazed, let him in. Jounouchi shouted for Mai, while everyone else was . . . slow.

Destiny, their pet cat, walked past them and jumped on the game counter, while someone who never would have let her on there. Stood. As a spirit, yet clear enough for them to see.

"G-?" Yuugi closed his eyes a second and opened them again. The man who raised him. The man who spent the most time with him. The one who shared with him everything he knew about life and games. "Grandpa."

"Yuugi." He nodded toward him, and Atem. "And Yuugi." He smiled. "Everything is fine now, what you did, the kingdom was freed. When you and Yuugi return much later on, you'll have a new kingdom waiting for you. No worries. Thank you."

Atem nodded. "I'm glad your back."

"I'm sorry for the circumstances. There was a nice cat god that thought this moment was hard enough, and it should be shared with someone once cared for." He moved from the counter. On it, was a long box of red velvet and gold trim. On top were the engravings everyone could read as God's Game- Mankind's Last Chance. "Open it. They are the wins and losses for the god game, written out by Thoth himself I've been told. I am here for questions needing answers and support."

"Grandpa," almost everyone said at once.

"Where's Honda?" Jounouchi asked right away. "Is he okay? Will Mai be okay?"

"Read this first, Jounouchi, and then we can talk," Grandpa insisted. "This is more than a shadow game."

Atem took one side of the latched box while Yuugi took the other. They opened it and looked in. There were now two boxes, one in black and one in red. The black had the name Winnings on it, while the red had the name Losings.

Atem opened the black box and there were small black envelopes with the word winnings. Inside of them felt like memo-sized cards. He took them out and waited for Yuugi to open the red box to take out his small red enveloped memo cards.

"Don't open the little envelopes. Read off the names in full first," Grandpa insisted. "There's a small list between the boxes. Every written player has been forced into this game. If the one written down doesn't play, the game is forfeited."

Atem nodded as he reached for the small list between. It was the only thing below the box. "Players: Nameless Spirit Trapped In Man." He sighed lightly after reading that. "Nameless Spirit Trapped in Woman, Yuugi of the Mutoh family, Katsuya and Shizuka of the Jounouchi family, Anzu of the Mazaki family, Seto of the Kaiba family, and Bakura The Bandit Thief King."

"Yep. Now, pass out everyone's cards and leave the others there," Grandpa said. "You can choose to tell what your cards are, or not. Just sign the card inside, and put it back in it's box in the envelope." He smiled at Yuugi. "I promise, we'll all get to talk a little bit soon, okay?"

Yuugi nodded. He had to do his duty first.

"What?!" Jounouchi shot upstairs after looking at his card, only to shoot back downstairs to relook at it. "This contract is shit! It's giving him Mai?" He read his part out loud. "Set will be awarded a new wife, Mai Kujaku, with a special child, Mana, that was once a sorceress. She'll enable him to leave wherever he wants." He slammed his fist into the wall. "Those cats want to give my family away!" He grabbed at his neck where Sekhmet bit him.

"Jounouchi." Atem tried to be as delicate as possible. "If you don't. This is the end of humanity. I don't . . . have any tricks up my sleeve. I don't have any power. I don't have the puzzle."

"Man." Jounouchi looked at the lists. He looked at the winnings. "I don't care if I get powers bestowed upon me with a guaranteed good afterlife. That's nothing to me. Not compared to what I can lose."

"Which is all of humanity if we don't all agree on this," Atem repeated.

"How can I say yes?" Jounouchi shook his head. "How can I say no? How can I say anything? This is my baby girl I never got to know. The woman . . . I never got to marry." He grabbed his head. "This god's game is bullshit!"

"Jounouchi." Grandpa spoke up. "You are putting your all on the line. It's not your life this time, it's your happiness. This isn't something you have a choice in though. Your happiness versus the end of humanity. Can you just throw up your hands and give up? That's not the Jounouchi I ever remembered."

Jounouchi jiggled his leg. "I would have put up my own life, hell, my own afterlife. I'd wash everybody's feet every day for eternity if they didn't pick this. I don't get a choice though. I get that." He took his sleeve and wiped at his eye slightly. "They either go with him or die with everybody else." He looked toward the boxes. "Those really fancy hieroglyphic gold pens for signing?"

"Yes. Sign each card and put them in their box," Grandpa assured him.

"Are we sure we can't choose what we lose?" Jounouchi asked. "There's not a way, is there?" No. He wrote on the cards, stuffed them back in the envelopes and tossed them in, along with tossing the pen down in the main box.

Anzu took the pen and went ahead and signed both her winning and losing cards, fast, not sharing what it said. However, she looked miserable. She put her cards in. Masika did the same. Neither sharing what they would win or lose.

"We will eventually tell," Masika said. "We don't plan on hiding it, but we need time, so leave us alone."

Atem and Yuugi both nodded, each of them looking at their own cards.

///Yuugi: Set is getting the eternal souls of both Atem. We'll be his servants?///

///Atem: We'll be whatever he wants. I will also lose my god and goddess.///

///Yuugi: The cat goddesses?///

///Atem: After I depart this world, I may have been able to summon the gods again.///

///Yuugi: Mine says that too.///

///Atem: We are both Atem, Other Me. Everything seems the same for each of us.///

Yuugi and Atem both signed their cards, put them back in their envelopes and put them in.

"Great!" Grandpa put down the box lid. "Kaiba and Shizuka will come later, probably tomorrow. If you give the ring to Bakura, he can find him. The goddesses will come in time. You have about twenty four hours before it's collected for good." Then he grinned. "Yuugi!"

"Grandpa!" Now he could talk. It probably wouldn't be long. "How have you been?"

"I am doing okay, Yuugi. I'm out of the empires," he smiled. "I'm? I'm happy. Don't worry about me, I'm just worried about you now. How are you doing?"

"Missed you," Yuugi admitted. "Especially with what I heard. You're okay?"

"Better than okay." He looked toward Atem. "I promise. No standing around and rejecting chairs for me. When everything is all fixed, you'll be so busy, there will hardly be time to even sit."

"That is how it should have been," Atem said. "I'm glad you escaped, Grandpa. You do look better."

"Yes. Now? You two be gentle to everybody involved, whether they tell you their winnings or losses or not. I am here for support, for a little while. So? I know all of them. Um. I would visit Jounouchi, but I'm sure he doesn't want to hear from me right now."

"Yeah." Jounouchi went probably straight to Mai right now. "They can just take whichever room," Yuugi insisted. "We can't afford to lose."

"No, you can't. You really can't. You really, really can't," his grandfather answered. "Honestly? I don't know which one would have been better. There is so much at risk. I trust you and Atem, I know you are going to do your best. But? If it had just been the end of everything, then that would be it. There will be major consequences if you lose, so you have to win at any cost! I came down personally from my happiness, something I didn't want to do. A part of me is a little scared that I won't get back," he admitted. "But? I wanted you to see me when it comes down to this." He smiled at the the both of them. "If you win? Both of you are going to be okay. Better than okay, I'm sure you'll be fine! Past the shock of it all."

"The world as it is," Yuugi had to ask. "Even if we win, we never really win." Yuugi rubbed his mouth. "I really, really want to believe we're in some giant game again. Bakura was good at making us believe we were in Egypt."

"No," Atem corrected Yuugi. "Zorc did, not Bakura. There is no millennium puzzle to do this. Even if there was, these aren't my memories. The other time, we could see the outside. There was only so much on the field."

"I know. I know it's not a game this time," Yuugi admitted. "I still want to believe."

"No. This is no game, Yuugi. You are now out of the Modern World Era," his grandpa said. "If you win, you'll be in the Shared Dynasty. It's a big change, but look at you. You've been a man for some time. And? Well, if your old grandpa would have just listened a little harder-"

"It was bound to happen, Grandpa, don't think about it," Yuugi corrected him. "Everyone was in trouble. I'm just glad you didn't have to see the world like this." He left when it was still peaceful. "Thank you for everything."

"I'll see you both again one day. One day hopefully much further away," he noted. "Win. Both of you will have to be the best King of Games. The main game, I've been told, is based off a game in this shop." He looked around. "Now? I need to see the young ladies."

"You really have to go?" Yuugi asked. He nodded. "It wasn't a long visit, but . . . thanks. Thanks for everything." Yuugi wiped his eyes. "I love you, Grandpa. You. You be happy."

"You be strong, you be smart, and you be happy too. Both of you. Also? Be very nice and kind and decent to your young women. They have a difficult choice ahead," Grandpa noted as he started to disappear. "And for gosh sakes, get some basic duel cards back in here! You're losing money!"

Yuugi just smiled and waited for the sound of his grandpa startling the girls. "That wasn't a good idea, Grandpa."

Atem just smirked. "He is much better after all." He looked back toward the box. "All that is left, is Seto Kaiba, Jounouchi's sister, and Ryou Bakura." They would have to speak with Ryou Bakura.