Two in Harmony... (Invite Only)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

When Yuugi mentioned twenty-two Arcana, Souji suddenly went to thinking. There were twenty-two... but that didn't explain the strange new Arcana the two of them used.

"...There's not twenty-two. There's twenty-three." He looked up at Yuugi and Atem. "I don't know how, but the two of you use a Persona arcana I've never seen before. And the shadows in your realities were that same arcana."

[mugenginga]

That got Atem's attention. He looked up as Souji continued with his comment. Yuugi remembered the comment Souji had made about the strange mask. Atem shook his head.

"That doesn't make any sense. Even if you tried to use the different dimensions explanation, there were only twenty-two major arcana in Ancient Egypt," Atem turned to Yuugi, "Did more develop while I was sealed?"

Yuugi shook his head, "Bakura-kun had an interest in them... although I think that was more Dark Bakura and his abilities with the occult. But he never mentioned that there were more than twenty-two. And even if it was a holdover from Zorc in Ancient Egypt, I'm sure he would have learned about any new developments."

"That's probably what we'll be dealing with, then. Souji, do the Arcana tend to follow any kind of theme? If we know the theme we might be able to prepare better."

That whole conversation might have seemed odd to Souji. After all, historical texts stated that tarot originated in the fifteenth century. As a card game rather than for divination purposes at that. Granted, some texts mentioned the origins could have been Ancient Egypt or early Jewish religion, but no evidence existed to support this. Then again, Yuugi and Atem were from a different world, a good way to pass off the situation, and the Thoth Deck was based on the concept that the cards originated as divination tools in Ancient Egypt. All of this were things Souji would have learned in his research on tarot.

(OOC: Here, take a wikipedia link on Tarot: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot )

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Typically the various Arcanas will have a theme among Personae and Shadows, but other than a heavy Egyptian influence, I haven't noticed much of a theme among the Duelist Arcana. If Rise was here, I could do a much more detailed analysis... Then again, if Rise was here, we wouldn't need Kikuri-Hime to get us out of the other side," Souji said. He sighed. The mask on that one Arcana Shadow they'd fought before was different from the Duelist mask... so he was thinking that was a different shadow, one that Minato had never fought.

So this coming up shadow was a Duelist shadow...

"I'm going to go do some research. 'Scuse me..." He pushed past Atem and Yuugi. "Keep an eye out for Minato."

[mugenginga]

Atem looked focused about halfway through Souji's first part of speech. Duelist Arcana? That was a bid unsettling in its own right. Calling those who used "Duel Monsters" and "Duelists" hadn't even occurred until the modern era. Those that harnessed the monster spirits in Ancient Egypt were limited to the nobility, particularly the current high priests and Pharaoh. How did Souji know the name of this twenty-third Arcana, anyhow?

Souji was already pushing past the group before Atem could ask him. Yuugi nodded at his suggestion to keep an eye open for Minato before turning to Atem, "Is something wrong?"

"Duelist Arcana. I don't know why it got that name. If the power of Persona is always sleeping inside you, that means I had it back in Ancient Egypt. And those that used monster spirits weren't known as Duelists then," Atem looked down at Yuugi, "That's not the most important thing right now. Apparently the Arcana do follow a theme. I know that your Persona seems to favor healing. Mine favors attacking and skills that lower the opponent's ability in battle."

"I think Nefertum will learn skills that raise allies' abilitiy in a fight. I don't think he'll learn much more in the way of attacks though... wait, that means Nefertum is balanced for support and Temu is balanced for attack, right?"

Atem nodded slightly, "Which means it's not unlikely that the theme to the Duelist Arcana is centered around either attack or support. I doubt we'll have the fortune of running into a support based Shadow, either."

"Should we tell Seta-kun?"

"No. He said he was leaving for research, and I don't doubt that, but I think it's more to get away from Adachi. I want to talk to Minato-kun when he gets back. If Souji knew the name of the Duelist Arcana, Minato-kun might know something about it."

Yuugi nodded, and the two teens headed down the hall. Yuugi chose to focus on how they were going to get another bed in there. Atem kept insisting he use the bed, but it didn't seem fair to the former Pharaoh that he always had to sleep on the couch. Yuugi had gotten a one bedroom apartment. There had been no way to predict Atem leaving the now Pendant like he had...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Later on that night, past midnight, Minato snuck into the apartment complex again. He really didn't feel like dealing with anyone else at the moment. Igor had felt the need to bring Orpheus back up again, and then the Universe fusion had very nearly gone awry. And then that TV that he most likely had hallucinated had appeared in Tartarus. It was enough to make him want to go straight to bed.

Of course, that would involve getting to his room before Yuugi and Atem decided to ask him any questions.

He started walking up the stairs leading to his floor.

[mugenginga]

As it was, Yuugi and Atem (along with K1 and Naoya) were on the floor above where Minato's apartment was. Third floor compared to Minato's second. Even if either teenager had been awake, there was really little chance he'd be caught unless he went around making a bunch of noise. Atem had fallen asleep wishing he knew someone who was good with things like Tarot. The only person he really knew was had been thankfully destroyed in the events of his Memory World. He'd never really known Bakura that well. Yuugi had only recently acknowledged him during Death-T when Bakura had shown up, and Atem wasn't sure after they had supposedly defeated Dark Bakura how much of Bakura's actions had been his own. He'd been rather throughly controlled by the demon. All he could really claim to know was that Bakura liked games, something Dark Bakura... that is, Zorc, had manipulated.

And the only person on the Island he thought might be an expert on that kind of thing was a creepy shop owner and her eerily similar grand-daughter. He had fallen asleep wishing they could run into a friendly person who happened to know Tarot...

As for Minato, there were those that could catch him. He did have to pass the floor that Naoto and Kanji were on, and then pass both Souji and Adachi's apartments. While Adachi likely didn't want anything to do with the "brats" at the moment, it would not be unlike Souji to catch Minato trying to sneak past...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato had almost made it to his room at the end of the hall when Souji had walked up the stairs and spotted him. Almost immediately, Souji walked down to Minato as the blue haired teen was in the process of unlocking his door. The stupid key was stuck in the lock, and the door wouldn't open... just lovely.

"You know you're trying to open your door with your Velvet Room key, right?" Souji asked. Minato looked down, and realized that he was indeed trying to open the door with the glowing blue key from the Velvet Room. With a final tug, he managed to pull it out, hopefully without any damage to the lock itself.

"...I didn't know you could go to the Velvet Room." Minato stated.

"I can summon multiple Personae too. They had to come from somewhere."

"...Good point." Minato said. He pulled his real apartment keys from his uniform pocket and started trying to open the door this time. Before he could enter his apartment, Souji asked, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine."

"No you're not." Souji grabbed Minato's shoulder. "Listen! I don't want you to die! None of us do! And you're just doing all of this without even asking anyone how we feel about you going off and using your soul as a goddamn seal on Nyx again! You're worrying Yuugi almost literally to death! He knows when you're going to die!"

Minato paled. "...How does he--"

"It's part of the functions on those COMP things. One of them is this thing called a Death Clock. If someone has less than ten days to live, the Death Clock says so. And the Death Clock said that you had nine days to live back when we were still at the resort. It's seven now," Souji said. Minato looked to the side before brushing Souji's hand off of his shoulder.

"We're going back to Himitsu-san's shop tomorrow. Something's probably going to happen there tomorrow... she told Kaini to stay away tomorrow, and with that Throne of Bel thing K1's involved in, it probably means that that Bel demon K1 came here to fight, Belphegor, will show up there tomorrow," Minato said. He walked into his apartment and locked his door behind him. Souji stood outside Minato's door for a few moments before walking back to his own room.

...Belphegor, huh.

[mugenginga]

Whether Souji had any idea just how loud he'd yelled or not didn't really matter. Atem twitched awake. He couldn't make out the words, but he recognized Souji's voice. With Adachi across the hall from the silver-haired teen, Atem sat up and listened intently. No sounds of crashing or anything of the sort occurred. He lay back down on the couch. It was probably Minato getting home. Souji seemed to have it covered, so Atem closed his eyes and let himself fall back to sleep.
-----

Yuugi woke up to a few clanging sounds. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, glancing over at his COMP and flipping it open. He used the thing more as a clock than anything else. It was only 6:30? He swung his legs over the side of the bed. He was in pajamas. When he and Atem had gone clothes shopping before the trip, they had gotten a few other necessities. Clanging...? It took a few moments for the fuzz to clear from Yuugi's mind. Right, Atem was probably up. Why was he up so early?

Yuugi walked out of the bedroom, having to rub the blur out of his eyes. He wanted more sleep, actually. With no school to attend, he tended to sleep later. Atem stuck his head out of the kitchen as he heard Yuugi's footsteps.

"I'm surprised you're up, partner." Atem said.

Yuugi mumbled something incoherent. Atem had to take a few moments to translate it, "I'm used to getting up early... I just hadn't had the chance to with recovering from the TV World. I'm making ramen, you want some?"

"For breakfast..?" Yuugi said.

Atem frowned, "You never cooked much when I was still in the Puzzle, and I never really did this kind of thing for myself in Egypt. I only really know how to boil water."

"I didn't mean to be rude... are you sure you don't need help?"

"I'll be fine," he seemed mildly annoyed. It was actually a softer reaction than he showed most people.

Yuugi wasn't sure he was convinced, but nodded. Really, they could have picked something up while they were out. Atem was already annoyed, though, so Yuugi kept it to himself. Atem ducked back into the kitchen. A few minutes later he was coming out with two bowls. That smelled rather strongly. Yuugi looked at the one set in front of him for a moment and paled.

"I... think you used too much of something..."

Atem looked down at the bowl, seeming a little confused, "Are you sure? I thought I followed the instructions on the packet..."

Yuugi hesitated, but seemed to be resigned to something and wrapped a few noodles around the fork. He put it in his mouth and his face got red. He managed to force to swallow it. He nodded a few times during it as if trying to force the food down. He looked at Atem, who seemed to almost be wincing.

"...that bad?"

Yuugi pushed the bowl away almost as if he expected it to attack him, "You try it..."

Atem put a few noodles in his mouth and had a rather similar reaction to Yuugi. Except his skin almost seemed to turn green for a few moments. He didn't even manage to swallow it. He let it fall out of his mouth into the bowl and was far more enthusiastic about pushing it away.

"See?" Yuugi said.

"It's... strong?" Atem seemed to have settled on the word rather than feelin it was the right one.

"What instructions did you follow?"

Atem got up and walked into the kitchen, coming out a few moments with a wrapper. He handed it to Yuugi wih his finger indicating the spot. Yuugi read it and almost facepalmed, his kinder personality really being the only thing that prevented it.

"You added enough for eight servings... And you made two."

Yuugi handed the instructions back to Atem, who read them over again. He did facepalm as his fingers traced the packaging. He had read the wrong line. It had seemed a bit much...

(OOC: Pausing so other things can happen. XD)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji, on the other hand, was already done eating. After the previous night, he decided it would be a good idea to prepare for battle now, and looked over his sword collection before grabbing a katana. He was better with those, and plus, it wasn't like a katana was a golf club. It hurt less than one.

Next, he checked to make sure that he had a boxed lunch packed for everyone. Somehow he didn't trust the rest of the group too much when it came to cooking, and while Himitsu had seemed like a nice enough lady, he wasn't sure he trusted her cooking too much.

After making sure he had everything he needed, Souji headed out the door.

--------------------

Minato was feeling less emo today. Probably because when he tried putting his hand through the TV this time, it didn't go through. So that lent more support to "Orpheus going Crazy = Me Halluncinating" theory of his. Not that that was a nice thought... but it was better than some other ones. Like that a TV had really appeared in Tartarus.

Of course, that didn't change the fact that Orpheus had gone completely psycho, so now he couldn't fuse Personae. Nor did it change the fact that the Evokers had caused this. Fun stuff.

In any case, he headed out the door as well, and met up with Souji by the stairs. They said nothing of their conversation from the previous night.

[mugenginga]

In the short time between Atem's example of his cooking prowress and Souji and Minato meeting by the stairs, Yuugi had gotten himself dressed. In his school uniform. It had reached the point of running gag. Atem had understood why his partner wore it in Domino City. Even after Ushio's "mysterious" snap, the school had been rather heavy handed with the rules. At one point it had almost gotten Anzu expelled, and the teacher behind that had been another of Atem's early victims. But they weren't dealing with the "wear your uniform outside of school" rule on the Island. Nor any level of unity that could come from it. Rather, it made Yuugi stick out rather badly. The few variations were a single copper bracelt around his left wrist, the Pendant from its usual chain, and a belt-like choker. Nefertum's card was in a hard plastic case in his pocket, the same one that held the spare Duel Monsters cards. He'd never gotten it back to Atem, although the former Pharaoh had switched out cards to put the God Cards back in the deck.

Atem had his usual fashion statement going on. Actually, the shirt he wore was a bit more out there than he'd often been seen wearing, although not out of the questio. It was tight, the kind of fabric being unclear but rather shiny. The front had two belt like straps put through silver buckles. He had on black bracer like bracelets with raised silver rims and and four silver studs arranged evenly. Above the bracers on both hands were a thin silver and a thin copper bracelet, crisscrossed. He had the cartouche hanging out as usual. His pants were rather tight jeans and his shoes were the black leather with silver stud boots he was known for wearing. His black leather jacket was attached over his shoulders in the usual cape-like fashion. He'd gone back to the two belt route. A farily normal one that functioned as a belt and an angled leather one with a silver metal buckle from which his card pouch hung. Temu's card was in the card pouch as well.

"Are you sure you're going to wear that...?" Atem asked.

Yuugi looked up as he adjusted his choker. He'd gotten his old one replaced, "Yeah... why?"

Atem shook his head, "Nothing. You're going to that shop again, aren't you?"

"....yeah. I know Motomeru-san told us to stay away..."

"Belphegor is probably going to show up there. I don't think we can fight him, even with our Persona. Kaini is probably going to have better luck of it than we are."

"Are you saying we should just wait for something bad to happen?" Yuugi sounded a little insulted.

Atem sighed. When his partner made up his mind, it was useless trying to convince him otherwise, "No. We need to go now if we're going to go. It will be better if we get there before the demon."

Yuugi nodded. Atem stood up and walked towards the door, opening it.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato and Souji had both come up the stairs to Yuugi and Atem's room when Atem opened the door. Souji walked a little closer. He was wearing his sword case over his back, and it was hanging from a backpack strap he had over his right shoulder, while at the same time, he was carrying a duffel bag filled with supplies. Obviously, Souji seemed to be prepared for any long fights with Belphegor.

"Are you two ready to go?" Souji asked. "We'll need to hurry if we're going to make it to the shop before anything bad happens."

Minato's eyes went to his Evoker. Right. Avoid using that if possible.

It was very obvious the two teens were prepared for a fight. They had swords on them and everything.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi had run into the bedroom to grab his sword. He had a double belt thing going on just like Atem did now. The sword hung from a far more proper sheath loop from his second belt. Yuugi grabbed his still open COMP on the way past, his eyes flicking up to above Minato's head for just a moment before he fell beside Atem. He hoped Minato hadn't seen, but somehow doubted he was that lucky.

"It's why we were leaving now. Souji, do you have any bows in there? I know how to use them as part of my training growing up, and between Yuugi, Minato-kun, and you, we have swords rather well covered."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji shook his head, but Minato looked up at the mention of bows. "I've got a practice one in my apartment. Give me a second and I'll go grab it."

And without a second thought, Minato rushed down the stairs. Souji sighed.

"...Let's just meet him downstairs," Souji said, and headed down after.

[mugenginga]

Atem nodded. He saw Yuugi holding back a bit and went forward anyways. Yuugi waited for Souji to go forward before falling into step beside him. It was pretty clear who the two spiky haired teens seemed to identify with more.

"Minato-kun seems differnet this morning... did you meet him last night?"

Atem had made it down the stairs rather quickly. He glanced up and didn't continue on until he heard footsteps. Minato had already made it into his apartment. A practice bow isn't what he would have preferred, but he hadn't been kidding when he said they had words covered. He wondered if he should have asked about a spear. Despite not being allowed on the front lines in the rare fight that occurred, he had been expected to learn how to use all the dominant weapons of his time. And spears were actually often favored by backline fighters due to bows not being infinite. He waited by the stairs for Yuugi and Souji to catch up, keeping hs eyes on Minato's door. Seven days now. He wouldn't have admitted it, but Atem was rather worried as well.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji nodded. "He was way more depressed when I saw him last night though... so I don't know what's up."

After a few more minutes of searching, Minato came out of his room carrying what was clearly a practice bow and a quiver of arrows. Apparently whomever he bought the bow from didn't trust him with anything more than a practice bow. After making it down to the rest of the group, he handed it to Atem.

"Here you go. Alright. Now are we ready?" He sounded more like they were going on a trip, not to protect their friend... and his cousin, Souji added to himself.