And Koromaru was his Namaeru (Rei no Kaado)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro's eyes were practically sparkling at the disorganized mess of cards on the desk. The way he was looking at them meant that part of him wanted to pick them up and never let them go, but another part of him didn't want to spoil the pure awesome of these cards. Had there been any doubt about Atsuro's otakuness previously, it went out the window the moment the cards had been placed on the table.

Minato smiled as Honda noticed Koromaru. "Just today, actually. This is Koromaru. He's an old friend of mine."

Koromaru squeezed his way past Honda and Minato and into the room just as Jounouchi freaked. He walked over to Jounouchi and gave a bark.

Atsuro craned his head so he could see Koromaru better as the dog came into the room. "Oh hey, cool dog!"

[mugenginga]

Which had given Jounouchi a bigger head than he needed, really. He'd been about to take a flying leap off the actual topic of the conversation with the way Atsuro had all but glittered over Red Eyes, Black Dragon. Yuugi had been giving a nervous laugh at his reaction, still not sure if Jounouchi got the concept of being an animated character in another reality but having no intentions of crushing Jounouchi's enjoyment of the situation. Atem had been staying no topic with the suggestions, actually. The knock had been a somewhat pleasant derailment.

Jounouchi had intended on continuing to feed Atsuro's interest with the situation when Honda had mentioned a dog. He was nothing if not distractable, so he'd gotten on his feet. He'd jerked in surprise as Koromaru barked at him, giving a noticable sweatdrop.

"I don't have anything to eat, shoo!" He didn't really sound all that malicious, just surprised.

Honda had given a bit of a pained smile as Minato mentioned Koromaru's name. He pulled the door back to let the group in before walking over to Koromaru.

"Don't mind him, he's more bark than you are," Honda said. Jounouchi gave him a flat and annoyed look in response.

Atem tapped Yuugi's shoulder, causing him to turn back. He put Multiply on the table and shook his head, "I don't want to give you advice here, Partner. This is something you should do on your own. I don't care what Kaiba thinks about it, but I want to be sure you know it was your victory. Without access to the rest of your cards-"

"Our cards, Atem," Yuugi said.

"Without access to them, borrowing may be the best bet."

"Yeah, but I'm not attached to them," Yuugi said. Part of Atsuro was probably having a geek out over the conversation, "Even Time Magician connects to Jounouchi-kun. I just don't think they'd respond to me."

"And this," Yuugi picked up Black Magician, "He responds to your heart, Atem. I don't think it's really possible to fight Kaiba fairly with a deck that's so equally shared between us. If I have to fight him myself, I really should use my own deck."

Yuugi looked towards the group that had come in and gave an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry I'm not a good host right now."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Koromaru gave a confirming bark at Honda's words, which made Minato laugh. Koromaru actually wasn't that hungry right now, but he obediently walked away from Jounouchi and back over toward Minato, who had entered the room after Honda moved.

Atsuro stayed silent during Yuugi and Atem's conversation. He actually wasn't internally geeking as much as one would think he would be over Yuugi and Atem's conversation, mainly because he understood how important this duel with Kaiba was. Sort of.

"It's alright," Souji said in response to Yuugi. "We arrived at a bad time."

[mugenginga]

Yuugi shook his head, putting Black Magician back on the table, "We're mostly done here. I think I'm going to have to buy some boosters once Kaiba-kun relaunches Duel Monsters."

"You should at least let me pick, Yuugi," Jounouchi shifted through his cards and picked up his Angel's Dice and Devil's Dice cards, spreading them so that both clearly showed, "After all, the Goddess of Luck does like me."

Yuugi gave a smile and shook his head, "No, I can do it myself Jounouchi-kun."

"Was introducing Koromaru to us the only reason you came over?" Atem asked.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji gave a chuckle over Jounouchi's comment about the goddess of luck. "Benten! Nice girl, spends too much time around pachinko parlors for my likes..."

"Souji, what on earth are you going on about," Minato asked, and Souji gave a nervous grin. The two of them looked toward Atem as he inquired about their visit. Minato's expression became a little more serious.

"No, not just that... we ran into Adil, that guy from Angel Mort, earlier. He was talking to this blond haired Egyptian who Souji says is probably Ra," Minato said. "And after the blond guy ran off, Koromaru sensed a ghost. We think it's following Adil for some reason."

[mugenginga]

(OOC: Sorry I didn't get this up last night. I had issues that are best left out of public discussion, I'll let you know when you get on. XD)

Jounouchi blinked in confusion at Souji's comment. No one had ever accused him of being the sharpest knife in the drawer, and none of Yuugi's friends were all that religious. When Minato indirectly mentioned Haytham, Honda got an irritated look on his face. Atem frowned, looking rather serious and it wasn't clear it wasn't directed straight at Minato.

"Do you have any idea why he was speaking to Adil?" Atem asked.

"Sensei-tachi think he might be Osiris," Teddie offered.

Atem looked a little startled and looked at Souji, "Could he be muting his aura that much?"

"Adil's that guy from Angel Mort?" Jounouchi said, "I don't think he's Osiris. Hey, don't give me that funny look! Don't that Haytham and Asim guy dress all in the colors of the God Cards? I don't remember any red on Adil at all!"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji shrugged. He honestly had no clue. The most likely possibility if Adil was Osiris was that he hadn't awakened yet, so he probably wouldn't be giving off that distinct energy yet. He looked toward Jounouchi as he spoke up.

"...Well, that's true. Though they could have chosen the colors after awakening to go with a common theme," Souji said. He sighed and put a hand on his head. "Right now we've got more questions than answers."

"I don't think we should assume Adil's Osiris quite yet either," Atsuro said. He'd finally very gingerly picked up a card, and was staring at it, like he wasn't quite sure what to do with it. After a moment, he put it back down and looked back up at the others. "As far as we know he's a normal human, and we should go with that assumption for now. What's bothering me more is the ghost..."

Minato had said Koromaru had sensed a ghost that was probably following Adil. Atsuro wasn't sure what to make of that, honestly. "Did Adil know anything about it?"

Minato shook his head. "No, he just said to tell him if it was a ghost, because he's into that kind of thing."

[mugenginga]

"Could we ask Haytham-san or Asim-san?" Yuugi suggested. This caused several annoyed looks, most notably a prominent one from Honda and a not quite neutral one from Atem, "We can't just keep treating them so much like enemies! I mean, if it hadn't been for them we'd have never gotten the Items seperated, right? I think they could be friends, and if we just keep avoiding them we'll never be able to convince them that Atem isn't Pharaoh!"

"I do have a feeling I could get an audience with Asim or Haytham without much issue... However, the odds of Osiris having not awakened seem low to me," Atem dug into his pocket and pulled out the hard plastic case, popping it open and pulling out the three god cards. He put them on the table so that each were fully visible, "I get a feeling that these cards contain a power. They've never fluxed, and they are the same. Given the approximate age of both Haytham and Asim, I would think thsi would be an indication the power is split the same way."

He looked over at Souji and lifted up Obelisk and Osiris, "These two stand equally in power level in the hiearchy of the god cards. Souji-kun, is there any difference? We know Obelisk has awakened, and I would assume there would be a power level difference if Osiris had not."

"Wouldn't that mean that Adil-san was being followed by a ghost for a different reason, then?" Ryoji asked, "If he isn't Osiris, that puts us back at square one..."

"Why is Jounouchi-kun so pale....?" Teddie asked.

"I am not pale!" Jounouchi shouted, wincing at the sound of his own voice. He looked nervous at everyone turning to him and waved his hands, "I-I just don't think if its not connected to the god cards we should mess with a ghost! It's none of our business, right? .....Right?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji frowned as Atem held up the cards. He could sense a power from those cards, and the power was about equal. Atem was right; if Adil was Osiris and just hadn't awakened, there would be a difference in power. So that threw that theory out the window.

Everyone looked toward Jounouchi as he began to freak. Souji blinked, and then grinned. "Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts, Jounouchi!"

"Wow, that's surprising," Atsuro said. Not really, but he'd learned not to talk about little canon details like that when around these guys, mainly because of how creepy it came off.

[mugenginga]

Jounouchi gave Souji an annoyed look, "Is it wrong for a guy to think dead things should stay dead?!"

Yuugi seemed to be trying not to laugh. Honda had his fingers in his ear, but did seem amused with the situation. Atem shook his head.

"Whether he's Osiris or not, we can't just ignore Haytham taking an interest him. Not if there's a ghost involved as well. He's seeing Anzu, we can't forget that."

"You don't think she's in danger, do you?" Honda asked, "From that Adil guy or the ghost?"

"Why does it have to be a ghost?!" Jounouchi shouted, "...although Honda's right. Should we be worried here?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"I think so," Souji said. "Ghosts following people tends to not be for any kind of good reason. If it's following Adil for some reason, and Adil keeps hanging around Anzu..."

"Well, we needed to go down by Naoto and Kanji's place anyways. We can warn her there if we need to," Minato said.

Koromaru barked. That meant he was going to meet new people. The seriousness of the situation was not lost on him, he just wanted to meet new people.

[mugenginga]

"I want to talk to Asim-san or Haytham-san first..." Yuugi said after a long pause, "Before we bring the ghost up to Anzu, I mean."

Jounouchi looked confused, "Why?"

"We don't know enough," Yuugi said, "I don't want to worry her if we don't have to. Atem, did you mean it when you said you could get Haytham-san-tachi to show up if you wanted them to?"

Atem nodded, "I think I can get one of them here to talk. The language barrier won't make it practical for us to all be here though."

"How about we go drop in on Anzu then, Yuugi?" Jounouchi asked. He stood up and gestured towards Honda, "Besides, this guy'll probably end up getting his ass handed to him by Asim if they're in the same room again."

Honda seemed annoyed at the jab for a moment. He let out a sigh and crossed his arms. He looked like he was going to object for a moment but he nodded. He leaned over a bit and scratched Koromaru's head, which would likely make the Shiba Inu more than aware of his annoyed tension.

Atem looked relieved by Jounouchi's suggestion, "We'll just be speaking in Ancient Egyptian, so it may be better. Atsuro, you should go too."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Koromaru gave a concerned whine as Honda scratched him. He could tell Honda wasn't in the best of moods. No one in the room really seemed to be in the best of moods. Honda was just the one transmitting it most directly at the moment.

Atsuro stood up. "Alright. Don't do anything stupid, okay? I wanna come back here and find you in one piece."

Souji raised an eyebrow. That seemed like a strange thing for someone to say, especially to Atem, who had never struck him as rash in any way, except when it related to Yuugi.

"Should we go then? We're not getting anything done just sitting around here," Souji stated.

[mugenginga]

Atem gave a soft smile of thanks in response to Atsuro's concern before he nodded. Yuugi looked relieved at the direction the conversation had gone. He really did believe they needed to talk to the Egyptian gods. There really was no reason they couldn't get along. Honda had hesitated as Koromaru whined and then given a sort of relieved smile. This guy was more sensitive than his own dog was.

"Let's get out of here then," Jounouchi said. He looked towards Yuugi, "If she wonders why we all showed up, we'll just tell her it's cause Atem's working on his deck."

Atem grimaced a bit at that. Anzu wasn't all that blind. Odds were, in fact, that she was going to get the actual situation out of them. But he didn't say anything and hoped that Souji wouldn't note his expression, or at least would keep quiet about it.

"I'll see everyone in a bit, then," Atem said.

He waited until the group had filtered out of the room and the door had clicked shut before giving a tired sigh and collapsing into his chair. Asim was probably closer to the apartments than Haytham was. Honda hadn't been the only one aware the man had set himself up as a slight bodyguard. He rearranged his cards so that they were neat and the god cards were still prominent. He was reaching for one when a voice behind him had him on his feet in about one and a half seconds.

"You seem to have developed an aversion to remaining alone as part of your growth, Pharaoh."

"Who... Shadi?!"

(OOC: I figure there is enough space put between Atem and the group that Koromaru wouldn't sense Shadi. XD)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

The group filtered out of the room and into the hallway. Atsuro stopped for a moment to look back at the door to Atem and Yuugi's apartment before following after the others. They continued downstairs to the first floor. Upon reaching Naoto and Kanji's door, Souji stepped forward and knocked on it a couple times.

"I'm comin', give me a sec..."

After a moment, Kanji opened the door. "Oh, hey Souji-senpai..." He looked past Souji at the others, and his eyes widened in surprise. "...Woah. What're you guys all doing here?"