Defector from Decadence (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

Yuugi's eyes widened in surprise. Even Atem almost missed a step. The former Pharaoh looked towards Souji as if trying to find the joke. There wasn't one there. Yuugi seemed pleased though.

"Really!? So it wasn't a case of someone having to get sealed away? That's great!"

Atem had looked in thought after recovering. It was great that there wasn't an issue with Souji or Izanagi any more. But there was a way it weighed on the situation far different now. He wasn't sure how to look at this, so he finally asked the question most prominent on his mind.

"If you're a god... Souji-kun, forgive me if this question seems unusual, but I need to ask due to recent developments," Atem stated. He held a hand up to indicate himself, "Do I give any impression of being a god?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji nodded at Yuugi. It was indeed great. In fact, the worst parts were the not being able to use Personas anymore and the endless confusion over actions he'd done when separated from himself. Actions Izanagi had done. Izanagi who was a part of himself. So... he'd been trying to kill himself after all, albeit on a metaphysical level? He really needed to stop thinking about this so hard; it was making his head hurt.

He looked toward Atem as he asked his admittedly very odd question. He shook his head.

"No, you seem like a normal human to me," Souji said. "I'm guessing something happened the other day that I missed?"

[mugenginga]

Yuugi looked a little nervous at that. Something had happened, but even now he only understood part of it. The fact that his English was poor and neither Asim nor Haytham could speak Japanese made it hard. Atem had tried to explain later, but he still only understood the important parts. Atem didn't respond until he had pulled two cards out of a small box he had in his pocket. He didn't keep his full deck on him at work, but he did keep fifteen in the box that served to hold his side deck. He pulled out two and held them up.

Now that Souji had regained himself as Izanagi, he'd be quite aware of an extremely dull presence in the two cards. One remaining in the case held a similar presence. Worth special note was of the two cards Atem had, the blue one would have a vaguely familiar aura. It seemed to be related to Asim.

"I've been approached by two people claiming to be the avatars of Egyptian gods. They claim to be Ra and a sort of anthropomorphic representation of the Nile, Obelisk. They aren't lying, the knowledge they possess makes that clear," Atem looked at the cards for a moment and then back to Souji, "Obelisk claims I stand above him as a god. Ra is less forceful, but I get the impression his sentiment is at least similar."

Atem indicated the still open case. Osiris' card rested at the top, face up, "I've yet to meet Osiris, but I can't help but think I will soon."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji frowned as Atem pulled out the cards. The aura about the blue one was similar to the aura that blue haired man from the previous day had given off. His expression didn't change as Atem explained things. Souji was aware of the pharaohs being seen as gods thing from school (mainly thanks that one Egypt obsessed teacher of his), but he hadn't thought the actual gods of Egypt would believe that.

"I met Obelisk's avatar on the way home yesterday," Souji said. "Judging by the evidence, though, I agree, you're probably going to meet Osiris' avatar too. What I can't understand is why they claim you're a god... you're not even a pharaoh anymore, technically."

He sighed. "Honestly, I'm not really sure about any of this. I'm a Shinto god; I don't know much of anything about the Egyptian pantheon other than what I've learned in school, and that's not much," he admitted. "You seem annoyed by them. I suppose they've been badgering you since they first appeared on the Island, from the sound of things."

[mugenginga]

"It's hard for anyone but Atem and Malik to talk to them," Yuugi interjected, "Neither of them know any Japanese. Anzu and Ra's Avatar, Haytham-san, could talk cause he knows some English. Asim-san doesn't, and he spoke to Atem in Ancient Egyptian."

Atem put the cards back in the case as Yuugi spoke. He put it in his pocket and spoke up after Yuugi paused, "It's more that they've been making their presence known. Asim has been hanging around the apartments, likely because he sees himself as a sort of bodyguard."

"We can't really be mad at them, Atem... I mean, Haytham-san is the one who told us about Zorc..." Yuugi blinked, "Oh, Souji-kun! We haven't told you about that yet, have we?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji frowned again. Yeah, he already knew about at least Asim not being able to speak Japanese just from his interactions with him. Them not being able to speak Japanese would definitely cause some problems.

He shook his head as Yuugi mentioned Zorc. "No, not yet. What happened that involved Zorc?"

[mugenginga]

Atem looked over at Yuugi as he mentioned Zorc. Yuugi was right, they hadn't really gotten together and talked about what had happened lately. Souji had done his part with the mention of Izanagi. Atem looked back towards Souji and held up the Ring he was still carrying around his neck.

"Ra told us we can't keep the Millenium Items in the same place. Their demonic origins link directly to Zorc, and keeping them togetheris apparently enough to summon him back," Atem looked annoyed at that. He was leaving out the part where it was his fault they hadn't been sealed. It was in the past, in any case. He dropped the Ring and looked towards Souji, "Is there any reason a god couldn't keep some of them? Haytham implied that, and the other option seems to be he was just refusing them."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji thought about that. "It's possible the demonic nature of the Items would cause a power conflict of sorts. In that case, I'm pretty sure the Items would do the same thing to a god's avatar that they'd do to any normal human they rejected, meaning the results... likely wouldn't be pretty."

He looked toward Yuugi and Atem again. "Where are the Items now? You didn't keep them all at your apartment anyways, did you?"

[mugenginga]

Atem grimaced as Souji explained things. Yuugi didn't know exactly what happened, Atem tended to not go into detail. He had mentioned that people died in less than pleasant ways, though. Yuugi couldn't help but think of some of the news reports he'd read in regards to people he was now convinced Atem had dealt with. So it was enough to understand what Souji was saying.

Atem looked annoyed at Souji's implication with the next statement. Yuugi handled the answer, "We gave two of them to K1-kun. Haytham-san said that a demon could keep them safely because of their origin..."

The reason for Yuugi's trailing off was likely clear. It still seemed odd to him to think of Abel as a demon. He sure didn't look it, and Yuugi had never really seen him act it. Even at his worst, it was still clearly K1. At least to Yuugi. Atem frowned and gave Yuugi a somewhat pained look at the way he trailed off. It only lasted a moment before he was focusing on Souji for his reaction.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji had a shocked expression on his face at Yuugi's answer. "You gave them to Abel?" Unlike Yuugi, he wasn't as optimistic when it came to Abel. Maybe it had something to do with the fact he had been there when Abel defeated Belphegor. Or the fact that Abel had sent Nyarlathotep to stalk him for weeks on end. He felt justifiably bitter over that. Being stalked, especially by a demon that seemed to get its kicks out of goading him and Minato, was not fun.

He eventually sighed and dropped his shocked expression. "Well, I guess it's alright if you trust him enough with them..."

He still didn't think it was a good idea to leave two Items with Abel, though. Maybe it was because Abel was a demon, or maybe it was because Abel was a demon who had sent another demon to stalk him for weeks on end.

Yep. Definitely still bitter.

[mugenginga]

All three of them had come to a stop as Souji reacted to Yuugi's statement. It was a result of Souji's stop that Atem and Yuugi had. Yuugi gave a nervous grin and a nod. Atem was, as usual, more serious about it. Yuugi nodded as Souji finished up.

"It's not that I'm not aware that K1-kun has done... a lot of things, Souji-kun. But I know he's my friend. That's the most important part."

"As for our choice to give him them, we did consider other options. Our choices were Bakura, Malik, and Kaiba. You know of the situation with Bakura and Malik. Kaiba refused the Items outright, and seems to want Zorc to resurface because of a case of injured pride in regards to his Blue Eyes, Ultimate Dragon. I don't think he's accepted the full weight of what Zorc is."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji scowled as Atem went into details about the others. Malik and Bakura were both non-candidates, and Kaiba was too stuck with his stupid pride issues to give a damn. No wonder they had gone with Abel; Abel at least didn't have the issue of injured pride toward this Zorc demon.

"Compared to Kaiba, I suppose that would make Abel the lesser of the two evils..." Souji said with a groan. "I almost can't believe he's that stupidly prideful..."

He started walking again at that. From the looks of things, he'd missed a lot while he was dealing with his own issues. He really needed to pick better times to try to kill himself.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi decided to take the comment at face value. Even he had seen Kaiba's stupidity there, but after he'd recovered from the events of Death-T, he hadn't really struck the short teenager as "evil". And no matter how much he trusted K1, Kaiba had been their first choice.

Atem closed his eyes and sighed as he walked along with the main group. While he had full awareness of Kaiba and Set being two different people, it didn't change that they had a lot of similarities. His cousin had held strong pride issues as well, it thankfully hadn't extended in the same directions his uncle's had. Set had only taken the throne because he'd insisted it, not because he felt it was owed him.

However, once he'd gotten it into his head to "harvest" the Ka of those who had not committed a crime, Atem hadn't been able to convince him otherwise. He worried about putting too much stock in that Dark Game Zorc had run, but the interactions of the Set there with that white haired woman seemed a bit much to ignore. It seemed likely something about her had been what actually convinced Set of the insanity of his actions.
-----

The conversation had gotten back to small talk somewhere between the store and the apartments. It was actually a bit refreshing giving the general life of the group. Somehow or another the topic had gotten onto Duel Monsters, at which point Atem had gotten quite involved. The Egyptian teenager was at this point smiling and talking rather animated. A pleasant change of pace from what seemed to be his norm.

"Although under the rule change that occurred in Battle City, I wouldn't be able to do that," Atem stated as they reached the building, "I think Industrial Illusions opted for a simpler mechanics system after Duelist Kingdom, even though KaibaCorp seemed to be the one to enact it in Japan."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

In truth, Souji hadn't been too interested in the conversation once it drifted to Duel Monsters. Most of what he said was simple comments and nods; he couldn't really contribute due to not being into the card game itself. He hadn't ever had time for card games when he was a kid, and plus, he would have been too young to actually play it when it was at its height. It was times like this that reminded Souji that were it not for crazy dimension traveling and Naoto and Kanji, he would actually be the youngest member of their group. Of course, due to crazy dimension traveling, he was the oldest in their group. He wasn't quite sure how that had worked out.

"From the sound of things, that simpler rule system was a good idea," Souji said. "Though I think my main issue is visualizing some of these combos really being thought of without the Solid Vision system already being in use to give you a visual aid. Then again, I'm terrible at games like these, so what do I know?"

He shrugged. By this point, the three of them were already on the second floor landing. Souji looked toward Yuugi and Atem.

"Alright, I suppose I'll be seeing you guys later," Souji said. He waved goodbye to Yuugi and Atem before heading down the hallway toward his apartment.

[mugenginga]

"If the cards that exist here followed the same rule, I'd be happy to teach you... But the only ones that belong to Industrial Illusions' system are all in the deck's everyone has."

"Well, the other cards to seem to follow a similar pattern," Atem said, "I've been interested for some time in some of the other cards, as well."

Yuugi nodded towards Souji as he said goodbye, "See you later, Souji-kun! If you ever want me to teach you about Duel Monsters, let me know! I'm not as good of a teacher as Jiichan, but I'll do my best!"

"See ya," Atem said, his smile still remaining as Souji turned. Atem turned to Yuugi after that, "I'm pretty sure Honda-kun and Jounouchi-kun are still at the apartment."

The pair headed up the stairs. Atem opened the door and Yuugi headed in first. Atem almost ran into him coming in behind him due to the way Yuugi had stopped, even cutting off in mid sentence about being back home.

"Atsuro-kun...? Is everything okay?"

"Hey, you're back!" Honda stated. He glanced at Yuugi as he addressed Atsuro, "Oh yeah, this guy showed up about half an hour ago. I think he wants to talk to you about something."