And Koromaru was his Namaeru (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

Teddie was still giving Koromaru an annoyed look, but he had stepped back to let Souji past. His expression softened when Koromaru gave a puzzled look, which was more apparent to him then a lot of the humans. He looked over at Minato as he shook his head. So... just how many gods were then running around now?

"He had kind of long blond hair and was wearing a lot of yellow. Heavy black jacket. Seemed to have a thing for gold though..." Ryoji said, "He was talking to that Adil guy from Angel Mort."

Ryoji thought for a moment. Actually, if he had been a god it seemed weird the way Adil had reacted to him. Hadn't Adil said that he had no idea who he was? And that Haytham had creeped him out? These opinions weren't voiced. There was enough going on without adding pointless speculation to the mix. Koromaru still looked unsettled, too.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji frowned. A lot of yellow...? He thumped the side of his head to try to think of who that could be referring to. Atem had said only two of the three God Cards' gods had shown up yet, so...

"I think he's one of those avatars that have been 'guarding' Atem," Souji said. "So far only the ones for Ra and Obelisk have shown up, so... I haven't met that blond before, but I think the blue haired man I ran into was Obelisk's avatar."

Minato looked very confused. "Wait, what? Back up for a second, what do you mean 'avatars'?!"

Souji sighed and stood up again. "It seems that the gods the God Cards represent have taken human avatars and have appeared on the island. They still regard Atem as their pharaoh, which has caused some tension."

[mugenginga]

Ryoji looked like he'd just realized something, "That's why Atem-kun seemed so concerned by Adil yesterday. You said you didn't sense anything of that sort from Adil-san, right? Then why would one of them have talked to him? Adil-san seemed really confused and said he didn't know the guy..."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji frowned. That, he didn't know. Asim hadn't seemed the type to like small talk, either, so he assumed Blond-san didn't do small talk either.

"...I don't think I'd be able to sense anything if he wasn't aware of his true self yet," Souji said. "He might be the third god... What's the big red dragon one again?"

"Osiris?" Minato suggested.

"That's it," Souji said. "He could be Osiris and not know it."

Koromaru gave a whine. What about that stupid ghost? He'd tried bringing that up earlier, but that Shadow had been annoying. At least someone could understand him.

[mugenginga]

"Osiris is a god of the dead, right?"

Ryoji winced a bit as everyone looked at him in response to that. At least Teddie looked confused, he hoped he was just imagining it with the others. He knew a bit about Egypt due to historical relations between it and Greece. He gave a nervous smile.

"He mentioned liking ghosts, right? And something about skulls? Doesn't that have some sort of relation to you? If Haytham is Ra, the head of that pantheon, it's possible he might be trying to wake up Osiris?"

Teddie looked over at Koromaru as he whined, "Uh, would that have any relation to that ghost from before?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

The others looked toward Ryoji as he spoke up. Minato frowned. He guessed Osiris was the god of the dead. He honestly had no clue. Out of the four of them, Ryoji was the only one with any real knowledge on the Egyptian pantheon.

Souji frowned. "Possibly. If that's the case, I can't say I particularly approve of his actions." He looked a bit pained. His case was more than a bit unique, but who knew what would happen if Adil awoke?

Minato and Souji looked toward Teddie and Koromaru as they mentioned a ghost. "Ghost? Oh crap, I nearly forgot about that. Souji, I think that demon that Abel had following you's following me now."

"...That's not good," Souji said. He was obviously concerned. "He might go after you again like he did in Bakura's reality."

Minato gave a small nod. Yeah, he'd thought of that too.

Koromaru gave another whine in response to Teddie's question. I think so. There was definitely a human spirit of some sort watching them. Not some demon like Minato-san thinks.

[mugenginga]

"Minato mentioned this place called the Velvet Room before. He says he doesn't think this... Igor-san, was it? He doesn't think he'll help, but that Nya... that demon, that it was going after you before," Ryoji said, "So it might have something to do with Wild Card."

"Sensei, Koromaru-san says it wasn't a demon," Teddie said, "He thinks it was just a human ghost."

Ryoji looked confused, "Why would a ghost have any interest in Minato? Even if you said it had to do with Osiris and Ra, I'm not seeing a point."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Teddie had spoken up before Souji had a chance to talk. He looked rather confused. So a ghost had been following Minato?

"...Maybe it wasn't interested in me?" Minato said. "Adil was there too, after all. It might have been watching him."

Koromaru gave a bark. It ran off before anyone could get a good look.

[mugenginga]

Ryoji shook his head, "But why would a ghost be following Osiris or Ra? Souji-kun, avatars grow normally, right? So if it was connected to Osiris, which only makes sense given its a ghost, it would have had to have been following him since before Adil was born. Why would it even know he was Osiris if Koromaru-san or you can't tell?"

None of this was making sense to him. Ryoji looked a little concerned. A lot of what he was doing was thinking out loud here, and he was worried it would show. He didn't want to lead any one down the wrong path, either. But there didn't seem to be anything he could come up with. He looked at Koromaru.

"Please excuse my rudeness, but can you remember anything about it? Was it violent or something? I mean, if you can even sense that. I don't want to put you on a spot..."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"It might have been a guardian spirit," Souji said. "His previous incarnation might have instructed a particularly loyal ghost to protect his next avatar for some reason."

Koromaru gave a whine as he tried to remember details. It disappeared not long after I sensed it. But it felt odd somehow.

[mugenginga]

Ryoji blinked. Souji actually had a really good point, and it was better than the circles of nonsense he was stuck in. He gave a nod at the suggestion. If it didn't intend on communicating with them, there wasn't really anything they could do about it.

"If it's not related to Minato at all, that's great! And maybe that demon gave up after all? That's why we came here first, right? We should introduce Koromaru-san to the others."

Really, he wanted to ask Souji to keep Koromaru. But given the apparent tension between him and Teddie, it was probably better to keep him themselves. He didn't want to cause any more trouble than he had to. Teddie was still looking at Koromaru, though.

"What do you mean?" Teddie blinked.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Yeah, I think everyone should meet him," Minato said with a grin. "Man, I still can't believe Koromaru showed up. It's just been me and Ryoji for the longest time."

Souji nodded. He still didn't even understand how the dog had gotten there. Minato hadn't quite explained that yet.

Koromaru whined again. It wasn't like a normal ghost. I can't explain it. It was different somehow.

[mugenginga]

Teddie looked a little stressed. He couldn't really ask Koromaru to explain. If he didn't understand, he didn't understand. It didn't make it any less annoying, but it wasn't like it was Koromaru's fault. If Souji was right about the whole guardian thing, it seemed pretty likely the ghost was special.

"Let's go to Yuugi-kun's place first," Ryoji suggested, "There's more people there, right? Isn't it just Kanji-kun and Naoto-kun at the other place?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato nodded. "And Anzu, but yeah, we can see them later."

The group of them headed upstairs from there. Koromaru stayed close to Minato, only ever getting ahead a little bit on the climb upstairs. They walked over to the door, and Minato knocked on the door a couple times.

"Someone's gotta be home," Minato said. He looked down at Koromaru, who looked like he'd cheered up a little bit. Kind of. Minato couldn't really read animal emotions well.

[mugenginga]

"Yo, Honda, you get it!"

Jounouchi's voice was a little loud considering. There was some shuffling around before Honda pulled the door open. Inside the others were arranged around the short coffee table in the living room. A bunch of Duel Monsters cards were scattered over the top. Everyone was looking towards the door by this point, but the lay of the cards indicated a few had been looked at more closely.

On top of the most disorganized mess was Red Eyes, Black Dragon. It also happened to be closest to the back of that distinct area, putting it closest to the door of it. Black Magician and Black Magician Girl were both visible in a more organized pile. The most organized pile was near the one side of the table that didn't have a chair next to it. Visible there were several military and machine-like cards. A fair number of the less signature but still famous cards were laid out in a rather orderly fashion in front of where Atsuro was sitting. They included things like Kuriboh, Raise Dead, and Holy Barrier - Mirror Force.

Honda looked grumpy, actually, "What are... hey, when did you get the dog?"

"Did he say dog?" Jounouchi asked, his hand hovering over Red Eyes.

"I wasn't talking about you!" Honda barked back. Yuugi gave a nervous chuckle in response and Atem had an amused slight grin as he rubbed his temple.

Jounouchi flew to his feet, almost knocking several cards to the ground, "Are you trying to start a fight?!"