The Cursed Millennium Puzzle (Part 5)

DIMENSION: ANIME (The One That Pays to Save the Day)

MASIKA

Ebonnee? This random black cat rubbing upon her had the same ankh design, just like her lovely passed on cat. She picked it up and felt the same comfort Ebonnee used to give her. That same velvet feel. That same kind of purr. ///Masika: Téa, this is Ebonnee, my cat from ancient Egypt.///

Téa looked toward Masika. ///Téa: From ancient Egypt? Are you sure?///

///Masika: Yes, my cat that had once been in the card Yugi Muto had brought./// She placed her back down and watched as Ebonnee moved toward . . . The Greatest Pharoah? He was watching as it came closer, and she relived her past briefly.

Ebonnee was heading toward him once again. Flicking her tail.

She went over the few steps to try and grab her. "Don't bother The Greatest Pharaoh."

"The cat." The Greatest Pharoah spoke. "It has an ankh on it."

Masika grabbed her and brought her back over. She stood behind Bakura with Ebonnee.

"What was your position in ancient Egypt?" The Greatest Pharaoh spoke to her.

Speaking to her? "Nothing."

"You must have some position." The Greatest Pharaoh continued to show Masika favor for conversation. She honestly wished he wouldn't. She honestly wished Mokuba hadn't shared her damn real name with everyone too.

"Leave her alone." Dark Bakura's voice was deeper. That was the sound of her old friend. "She didn't know you, she knew me."

"How?" The Greatest Pharaoh asked him.

"She was just an old friend," Dark Bakura said again. "Leave her be."

Oh no! The Greatest Pharaoh was ascending up the steps all the way more towards her.

"Why did she grab the cat?" he demanded of Bakura.

"It's her cat," Téa spoke up toward him. "That's the same cat that came from the Ties of Friendship card."

"Then that's more proof she wasn't no one," The Greatest Pharaoh declared.

///Masika: I am not lying to him, I am no one important, Téa!///

"Yugi?" Light Bakura's weaker voice sounded out. "The spirit is better, but maybe you could help with something? He's very angry right now."

"Atem," Yugi said to the Pharaoh. "I don't know if anyone has the answers, but Téa is glaring at you again."

"I'm not doing anything," The Greatest Pharoah assured his vessel Yugi. "I am trying to speak civilly. She is the one who is hiding with the cat."

"She wasn't anyone," Téa said to The Greatest Pharaoh. "She was a wife, stuck with a bunch of husbands her whole life, and a bunch of kids, since like eleven." She put some firmness in her age. "She was just a spirit trapped in a card that went to me."

"There must be some kind of significance. That cat has an ankh on it." He tried to move toward Ebonnee again.

///Masika: Téa, I don't want him bothering my cat! I mean? Oh, that was completely rude but- he was the one who killed Ebonnee!///

"What?" Téa actually spoke out loud. ///Téa: Are you serious? On accident?///

///Masika: He was busy fighting a monster with a god. He trampled it with his horse in his rage.///

"Cats are pretty significant in Egypt," Téa said to The Greatest Pharaoh. "Right?"

"Right," The Greatest Pharaoh agreed. "No one dared to hurt a cat."

"Well? You did." Téa gestured toward Masika. "You killed that cat when you were chasing a monster. That's why Masika really isn't letting you near it."

He seemed quite surprised. "I killed a black cat?"

"I'm sure it was an accident," Yugi assured her. "Atem would never really hurt your cat. We just want to see it."

"I am sorry," The Greatest Pharaoh said to her. "I am sorry that in whatever haste I was in, I ended the life of that cat. I promise, I will not hurt it. A cat from Ancient Egypt does not just appear suddenly without reason. You have a body. I have a body. That cat is now here."

Seeing it wouldn't do any good, but she couldn't disobey the Pharaoh, Masika let Ebonnee go again.

Ebonnee eagerly went over toward Atem and encircled his legs, purring against him. As if she understood that he was sorry for ending her life in such a dreadful way.

The Greatest Pharaoh bent down and she jumped into his arms. He stood back up and held her, looking at her decorative Ankh. In the meantime, she was cuddling him constantly, as if he were just a toy for her amusement.

Being as finicky as Ebonnee was, when she had her fill, she jumped down and went toward Téa. Tea sneezed briefly. She had been struck with an awful cold, probably due to running for her life in that cold weather.

Téa picked her up and cuddled her, treating her like Divinity. "I have a black cat at home called Divinity. Home." She looked sad.

Ebonnee left Téa and went toward Yugi. Yugi picked her up, still concentrating on Téa. Yugi scratched behind Ebbonnee's ear. It wasn't something Masika did often with her. She looked irritated but she remained in his lap. "There must be a reason that . . . that . . ." Yugi sneezed. He wiped himself with his sleeve. "Sorry? I didn't even know I was under the weather." His voice had changed.

"Don't worry, I know the feeling," Téa assured him. "My voice is all scratchy and my nose is runny. I'm gonna be sick for sure tomorrow."

"Yeah, I feel that exact same way," Yugi said as he sneezed.

Ebonnee jumped down from Yugi.

"Strange," The Greatest Pharaoh said as he stared at Ebonnee. "It makes sense Téa would get sick in her situation. Yugi, you were never out that long, yet you sound like you have the same sickness."

"It's just a cold," Yugi said.

Ebonnee moved away from everyone.

"What's wrong, Pharaoh?" Yugi said concerned. "The cold doesn't spread that fast, and I wouldn't get . . . Atem?" Atem's body was gone, like he was never there.

"Masika is back with me," Téa said to Yugi. "She disappeared. Atem just left. Is he . . .?"

"He's with me," Yugi confirmed to her. ///Yugi: I'm sorry, Atem.///

///Atem: I had a feeling a body was only a short time, it's fine, Yugi. We are being punished somehow, not rewarded. There is something beneath the cat.///

Yugi saw it too. There was some kind of letter the cat was sitting on now. He went over toward it. "Hello, Kitty, I need to see what's under you." He tried to grab at the letter. He gave it a good yank before the cat decided to move.

He opened up the letter.

He read it. ///Yugi: Oh. Oh no. Oh no! Pharaoh?! I-is this real?///

///Atem: I would never choose this for you or Téa, Yugi.///

They really were being punished. Yugi looked at the millennium puzzle growing from his chest. There weren't any words about reversing it. It was plain. It was simple.

It was bad, real bad.

Masika was the owner of this cat. She might not have any importance at all, just chosen by the cat since she knew it.

///Yugi: So it is all because of that cat.///

///Atem: Not just a cat. I have a feeling it is being guided by a god to dictate it's demands.///

Yugi was quiet, in his thoughts and his mind. Trying to deal with what was in front of him. ///Yugi: This isn't the first time I was pulled away, and I do get to come back. Still.///

///Atem: If there is a way out, Yugi, we will find it. But, I clearly had no choice.///

Téa or this. ///Yuugi: I'd pick Téa, forever./// He closed the envelope. ///Yugi: I want to be the one to tell her.///

///Atem: As you wish, Yugi.///