Useless Atem (Part 2)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

Yuugi took a deep breath, exhaling air. Atem was still gone. How is he meant to fight this? He watched as someone appeared in front of them.

Beside this person was Atem and Satiah.

"No." This figure was pointing at Anzu. "No, no, how could no one catch this?" He pointed at Yuugi, and then toward Atem. "You, what scheme is this against Pharaoh?"

"No scheme. It happened," Atem said truthfully. That's when the truth stopped.

"I demand you tell me." This man withdrew swords. "This host was very good with these, and those abilities linger like the language. I will dice you to pieces if you don't tell me how you got a body."

"The curse followed him into the afterlife." Yuugi spoke up for him. "He wanted to uncurse it. He was told to insert the puzzle into another stone. After that, he came back."

"We'll find out. I will find out." The enemy left.

Anzu went over and hugged Satiah. "I'm so glad you are alright. We knew Mai saw the future, but it was still unnerving."

"I am okay, Anzu." Satiah rubbed her back. "So is Mai and Mokuba. Bakura saved us and brought us to the Game Shop."

"What about Honda?" Anzu asked.

"No word. I'm sorry," Satiah admitted. She looked around. "It looks normal here. All the way around, like the world is fine. There was a price to pay for that though." She looked back toward Atem. "I don't think knowing of Anzu made that man happy."

Mm. "He won't be coming back for a time," Atem agreed. He sat back down where he once sat. She sat on the other side of Jounouchi. ///Atem: This is it. This is all I can do?/// The Dark Magician was powerful, and so was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Against this though? Countless lives were already lost. The people tasked as helpers were the only ones he could talk to. Even Bakura was considered above him. "I couldn't summon the gods, Yuugi," he confided in him. "I have the ring and Masika gave me some power. It showed up, but then left. As if I am unworthy to listen to anymore."

Yuugi was quiet for a time. "We'll figure it out, Atem."

"Billions upon billions have been sacrificed for this." Atem just couldn't get over it! "Even if I could summon gods, this world will never be the same way. He damaged so many out there. Reaked havoc on humanity and nature and I can do nothing!" He looked at his hands. "I can't do anything."

"I know," Yuugi answered.

"No, you can't know this." Not that feeling. "I always help, I save the day, it was my meaning for even existing. I can't just sit back and let this happen, I have to stop it somehow." But how? "I'm useless!"

"Did Grandpa ever tell you about his death?" Yuugi asked him. He didn't look at Atem, just directly ahead.

Grandpa's death? "He fell in the Game Shop from attackers." Was there something else?

"I am connected to Mokuba, I kept contact with him," Yuugi said. He looked toward Anzu, and then over toward Jounouchi. "I knew cards were becoming only more popular. I saw the progress that was happening. I went to Grandpa and said he needed to get different cards in and get some protection over the expensive ones. More than a glass case. He bought a lock for it. I told him that wasn't good enough and once card prices exploded, I told him he needed a security system. I told him I'd even pay for it. He waved it off." Yuugi casually waved as his eyes filled with tears. "I just got a 'This old man's been selling for a long time, Yuugi, I know what I need to do.' I told him and I told him and he finally gave in to a tiny security camera. He needed so much more though. I even thought about coming back to live with him so that I would get some more say on protection." Yuugi wasn't able to hold back the tears anymore. "I tried and I tried and I couldn't do anything. Nothing! I knew something would happen, he was sitting on literal gold now. All of the rarest, high end cards sat in one tiny Game Shop in Domino City! In the end, he locked up some of his rarest cards so no one would see them, but . . ."

"You did everything you could, Yuugi." Anzu held him back.

"If I had moved in, maybe I could have changed it. Maybe I should have tried earlier," Yuugi said. "Short of doing that though, I was useless. I couldn't do anything, I could see it, something coming, and I couldn't save him."

Atem took a moment to hear him. He wasn't just sharing the grief of his grandfather's death, but the futility of it. It couldn't be stopped. Yuugi's Grandpa always had a mind of his own. He never mentioned once that he regretted any decisions. He was a man who had always gone with his gut.

"Sometimes, we just have to accept . . ." Yuugi paused. "That we can't do anything." He glanced back at Atem. "I'm not saying give up, because we shouldn't. To save the world, we have to find a way. But."

"But I am not in control, and I must accept that." Yuugi did know how he felt. After being in charge of countless lives in Egypt, to seeing lives now lost with his lack of power.

"We'll find a way," Jounouchi agreed. "Yuugi? You okay over there? You never shared like that before."

"I didn't want anyone to think Grandpa was being stupid, or think less of him. I didn't want anyone to think I was saying 'I told you so'," Yuugi admitted. "I don't want anyone knowing how he looked or acted or what he said before he died either, and I'm taking that with me."

"Rightfully," Anzu said. "Those secrets can stay in your heart forever if you want."

To keep those two apart would be so wrong. Even Masika seemed to see it. Anzu kissed Yuugi on the forehead and then pressed her own to his.

There is nothing Atem could do now, but eventually there would be. ///Atem: Yuugi could not have changed his grandfather's outcome. I cannot change what happened, nor can I help right now./// But if he held on and had faith. ///Atem: Someone has been helping us. This is not over. Patience.///

"Yeah, nothing we can do about anything." Jounouchi said. "Boy, that doesn't sound like me. Probably 'cause I feel like shit 'cause Baby Momma is missing. How is my Mai?"

"Your woman is fine," Masika answered. "She is sleeping upstairs in The Game Shop."

"It goes on," Jounouchi said out loud. "The Game Shop. We got ourselves a home because of that whole over the top security system Yuugi had. We just need to get there now."

"Oh, there's a good sign." Masika moved away from the wall where she sat and started to crawl forward.

Yuugi watched the odd scene. "Cats." Four cats were moving toward them.

"The best luck to have," she said as she pet one.

"Sure. Great. Best luck ever apparently, the world is getting destroyed, Honda is lost, Shizuka is lost, I'm separated from Mai because I left her alone like a deadbeat and a lot of people are dead period!" Jounouchi lost it on her. "No, but go you, go ahead and say 'best luck to have'!"

Oof. Yuugi watched as Anzu went off on Jounouchi. He knew that would happen.

"She is trying to see some positivity in this sinking world, what is wrong with that?" Anzu shouted back at him.

"What's wrong?" Jounouchi asked. "Gee, I don't know, maybe that it feels pointless." He held up his hand facing inward, a sign of where the happy face used to be. "I don't feel the circle right."

"That was the millennium puzzle," Yuugi said, trying to calm Jounouchi down. "It strengthened connections."

Atem watched Masika crawl back to where she'd been but the cats continued to move forward to them.

"I am not in the mood for petting cats right now," Jounouchi warned the cat coming near him.

"It would be good luck." Masika had not been swayed by the way Jounouchi had been with her so far.

Anzu petted the cats coming near. "Cats shouldn't be walking up to us all like this."

Atem started to pet one that came into his lap too. "This is strange behavior." He watched the cats fur stand on end as someone drew near to Jounouchi. Appreciate them or not, these cats were being protectors.

Yuugi watched one come into his lap and purr.

"I don't care." Jounouchi refused to bend.

"You should be nicer to animals," a random person not too far from Jounouchi responded. The cats near Jounouchi all looked toward the stranger and hissed. "Hey? I was on your side?" Still, the random person left.

"Okay. I admit, that wasn't bad." Then, another cat appeared from the side, carrying a kitten. She came over to Jounouchi's lap and laid her kitten down in it. It meowed. It was old enough to see and move around, but young enough it's tail still shivered. "I give up." He pet the kitten and it's mom. "Not their fault either."

The cats hung around Yuugi and his friends, and whenever someone else came close, they growled and snarled and hissed. The cats kept coming too. What started as twenty had evolved into at least a hundred.

///Yuugi: Could it really be?/// Yuugi watched as many of the cats just lied down and nursed their kittens or watched the border of them. ///Yuugi: There is someone mighty watching over all of us. Could it be the goddess Basset? Sekhmet? She was known to protect Pharaohs. Right? Basset was the goddess of cats and was nicer. Maybe? Oh, it's hard to say. Mythology has several stories and names. Everything's confusing. But, is there an actual goddess sympathizing with us this time?///

Then? Several people left the area, and even ran as howls roared. What? Everyone started to move, but now the cats hissed toward them. They tried to move just like everyone else, but the cats only followed.

As much as they ran though, they couldn't escape the roars. Finally, stuck between two buildings and roars, they saw it.

The four lions of Domino City's zoo were free. Two on each side of them. Atem was about to summon the Dark Magician when-

The cats from before. They were coming in through the front, the back and from the windows. Some still even brought their kittens in their mouths, prepared to fight.

The lions roared but didn't attack. The cats hissed and snarled. Atem didn't summon the Dark Magician. They all waited, seeing as the cats and lions had waited. In the end, the lions turned around but didn't walk away. They prowled from one side to the other, looking outward.

Now, the lions were guarding them?