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Post by mugenginga on Oct 25, 2011 19:30:04 GMT -5
After New Year's, the housing situation had been shifted once again. There was simply not enough room in Yuugi and Atem's apartment to handle six people, they'd been struggling with five and they'd added a spry but still elderly man to the mixture. Jounouchi had almost tripped over himself explaining that he and Honda could take Souji's apartment, at least until the guy recovered. It was still crowded in Yuugi's place, but at least they'd lowered things down to four.
Atem was as reticent as usual, although he did try to start a few conversations with Atsuro, who seemed gone more than not. Yuugi offered encouragement when he could catch him. Neither of the two spiky-haired teenagers were home when Atsuro came back from his "job" as he'd been calling it, but the spiky haired old man was. He came out of the kitchen mentinoing something about Yuugi not being home yet when he noticed Atsuro, and frowned. He crossed his arms, looked the half-dead boy up and down, and finally sighed and shook his head.
"You're worrying Yuugi and while he's as convinced he's hiding his issues as you are, Atem. What are you looking for and how is it tied into whatever's eating at you?" Sugoroku said suddenly, his voice rather serious and in sharp contrast to his usual goofy tone. He managed a smile at this point, although once again it wasn't goofy. A mixture of confidence and reassurance laced with arrogance, really, "I'm not as senile as I look."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 25, 2011 22:19:40 GMT -5
Of course, he couldn't find "Aswad". Nyarlathotep, plain and simple, didn't want to be found. It wasn't like Atsuro could kill him in his current state; he had no contracts, no weapons, not even a COMP. The one COMP available to him he didn't dare use; it was Yuugi's and could easily be traced back to his friend. Besides, he'd have to steal it for that, and there was no way he was going to be a thief like that.
So he'd been wandering aimlessly, trying to do bits of research for Yuugi-tachi when he wasn't looking for Nyarlathotep. He tried to find a lead on that book Yuugi had mentioned, the one that had been used in Ancient Egypt to create the Items. He hadn't been able to find much of a lead on the internet, though. All his searches were doing were circling around to Nyarlathotep again. He doubted that this book, whatever it was, was actually the Necronomicon.
He shifted the laptop bag draped over his shoulder a bit as he walked up the stairs to Yuugi's apartment. It was an effort for him to even make it up the two flights of stairs; probably a result of his malnutrition. Muscles were the first to go when you starved yourself, after all. With how Atsuro was almost literally skin and bones now, that was no surprise. He turned the knob on the door and walked in, only to be greeted by Sugoroku. Who then immediately turned to trying to get some information out of him.
"I-It's nothing really," Atsuro said out of slight panic. Sugoroku had picked up on the fact that his "job" was anything but, it looked like. And of course he noticed that something was eating at him; everyone had to have noticed by this point. "My job's just really stressful, that's all..." At least that part was true. Nothing said "stressful" like a hopeless mission that would end in his certain death. He wasn't sure he minded that part, though.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 25, 2011 22:49:01 GMT -5
Sugoroku didn't react so much as he turned away and reached into one of the two pockets at the back of his pants. He put in two fingers and after a bit of rustling managed to pull out a stack of mismatched papers and stained. He unfolded them and thumbed through a few of the top ones without returning his attention to Atsuro. He finally seemed to find what he was looking for and pulled the rest off the top, patting them back into a rudimentary sense of order on his chest before opening his mouth, closing it, sighing, and pressing the papers practically against his face. He muttered something about age under his breath.
"Nyaruratohotepu. Pharaoh. Faceless..." Sugoroku didn't look up from the papers, instead folding it up and flipping to another page two sections down. Atsuro would be well aware of what he had now, papers he'd thrown in the trash outside, "Laywers. Inpu equals Anubis... Bakura," Sugoroku looked up towards Atsuro with a frown for a moment at that. Atsuro wouldn't have a chance to object because Sugoroku was back to rifling through the papers.
"What gets me the most with all those names, though, Kihara, is this," he pulled one piece of paper to the top. He held up the paper, "Millennium Tome? I could count the number of people alive that know that term on my fingers. And I don't get the impression Atem brought it up, either."
He let out a sigh and dropped his hands to his side, "You can't expect me to just sit when you've got something this major going on. I haven't played a serious game in decades, but Yuugi has. Why haven't you told him about most of this?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 26, 2011 22:30:29 GMT -5
Atsuro nearly cried out in indignation when he realized what Sugoroku had. Those were the notes he'd thrown away over the past few days. He'd taken care to make sure he'd thrown those away where no one in the apartment would see them. It wasn't just sections of his notes either, those were the full collection.
"H-How did you..." Atsuro began, but stopped. It didn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to figure that out. He'd obviously dug them out of the trash after he'd left. All of his notes on Nyarlathotep, Bakura's situation, and... His breath caught at that last one. The Millennium Tome.
"W-Well," Atsuro began. He considered dodging around the question, but the time he'd spent with Naoya had taught him that there was nothing he could slip past someone who was that observant. He sighed. "Actually, they know about the Tome already. You see, we're trying to find a way to destroy the Items. And if there's anywhere that a way to destroy them would be, it would be in the manual itself. After all, who would be stupid enough to make something like this without giving instructions on how to destroy it?"
He rather noticeably didn't comment on the Nyarlathotep or Bakura parts, though. Nyarlathotep was kind of a personal issue and the Bakura bits were a little complicated. He'd rather not bring up the terms of his working with Kousei, too.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 26, 2011 22:37:37 GMT -5
"Uh-huh," Sugoroku said. He didn't sound convinced. He folded the papers up and stuck them back in his pocket. The look he gave Atsuro now was actually concerned, "Look, I'd like to call it your business but I've got a feeling you know what you're doing to yourself. Yuugi's a smart boy, he at least suspects."
Sugoroku let out a chuckle that somewhat contrasted with the situation. He seemed to catch the problem with it and turned his expression serious again, " And I haven't gotten Atem figured out yet, but he's almost as smart as Yuugi. If you're trying to destroy the Items, I won't claim to know what happened to prevent that before. But that isn't what's bothering you."
"You're starving yourself, Kihara. And if Bakura's caught up in this, I'd like to know what's up. I know his dad, you know. He's not home much, but I'd hate to get back to have to tell him his son got locked up for something I question he'd do."
"What has been going on here?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 27, 2011 22:49:16 GMT -5
Atsuro had figured that wouldn't be enough to make Sugoroku happy. He'd noticed his physical issues, so there wasn't going to be much that would throw Sugoroku off.
"Bakura is locked up, but it's not him. There was a spirit in the Millennium Ring," Atsuro began to explain. "And that spirit's an Egyptian thief, and he's taken over Bakura's body. And then that thief got in trouble with the police and now he's in jail. But Bakura's in the Ring itself still, and we need to get him back in his own body."
He tried to brighten his expression a bit. "So I'm working with his attorney to try and help get Bakura out of jail so we can get him back into his own body again."
Which was still cutting details quite a bit. For one thing, he'd rather conveniently left out the part where Kousei was manipulating him in all the ways.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 29, 2011 3:38:13 GMT -5
Sugoroku listened as Atsuro spoke. He didn't look surprised at any of it, including the fact that Bakura had a Ring that had him possessed and that he was now stuck in it. He lifted a hand to his face and rubbed under his mustache a bit as Atsuro tried to perk up. There was a heavy silence after Atsuro finished.
"Alright, fair enough," Sugoroku said, before he dropped his hand. He stuck both of them in his side pockets, "But you haven't explained why you're starving yourself to death. Or for that matter, why you're attempting to dodge that part of the question."
Sugoroku gave a slightly reassuring smile, "Normally I wouldn't consider it my business, mind you, but I'm worried about Yuugi."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 30, 2011 0:05:16 GMT -5
"Urk..."
Atsuro couldn't think of a way to dodge this one. The man before him was direct, and no matter what he did, there didn't seem to be a way to derail the conversation. How long had Sugoroku known there was something wrong with him? Since they'd met? Was that how he'd known to check the notes he'd thrown out?
"I-It doesn't have anything to do with Yuugi," Atsuro said. "I'm not even intentionally doing anything... I just don't eat much. I guess I'm just stressed out, so I'm losing a lot of weight..."
It would be clear to Sugoroku from how Atsuro continued to dodge the question that he wasn't getting the explanation for this out of him that easily.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 30, 2011 0:17:03 GMT -5
Sugoroku frowned a bit as Atsuro dodged again, but it didn't seem so much upset as observant. He was staring Atsuro in the eye, or would be if Atsuro wasn't avoiding keeping that contact. It was clear he was trying to figure something out.
"How old are you, Kihara?" he finally asked.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 30, 2011 0:30:07 GMT -5
How old was he? That seemed like a really innocent question considering their discussion thus far. He looked up toward Sugoroku's face, only to look away once more once he saw the calculating look on his face. The man was definitely searching for something with this info.
"Eighteen," Atsuro finally answered.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 30, 2011 0:37:28 GMT -5
Sugoroku nodded to himself at the answer. There was a very slight indication Atsuro had confirmed something the old man was thinking, but an even stronger sense that the only reason he was able to read that was because Sugoroku had let it show. Sugoroku frowned for a moment and let out a sigh, walking over and pulling a chair up and sitting down in it. It seemed fairly innocent, the man wasn't young and had been standing there, but it also created a bit of an awkward silent delay.
"Still in high school, then?" Sugoroku questioned. He gave an elaborate pause for a moment.
Well, supposed to be in any case. Gonna have to make sure Yuugi doesn't fall too behind in his studies here. He's smart, but give him a game and he'll procrastinate his homework right into the bottom percentage," Sugoroku winked. The air seemed to have dissipated a bit, and it was almost as if he'd dropped the previous conversation and was not just making small talk, "Can't say Jounouchi's helped his grades much either, but what can you do?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 30, 2011 1:31:47 GMT -5
Atsuro chose to stay standing after Sugoroku sat down out of a sort of respect. He remained standing awkwardly near the doorway, aware that he would need to move should anyone decide they were coming home early today. The conversation moved on to a topic Atsuro hadn't been expecting though.
"Well, uh... I haven't been going to school lately," Atsuro said honestly. "I could probably try to help them out if they needed it though. My grades aren't perfect but they're way better than K1's--"
He trailed off, suddenly aware of what he'd said. A nervous chuckle came next, and Atsuro tried to say something else, but nothing sounded quite right. After a few seconds, he gave up.
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 30, 2011 19:19:47 GMT -5
Sugoroku seemed a bit more concerned with knuckling his lower back than Atsuro's response, although there was no way he wasn't listening. He didn't turn back towards Atsuro until he started stumbling over himself, which meant after he'd cut himself off over K1's name. It wasn't clear if he'd noticed or not, although earlier evidence did lean that towards a yes. It was pretty evident the old man was not the sort you'd wanna get stuck in a poker game with.
"You know you could sit down?" Sugoroku said. He let out a chuckle, "Thanks for the respect, but I only sat cause of this back of mine. It's not what it used to be, y'know. School doesn't seem all that important right now given what Yuugi and everyone seems to be going through, it was just a thought."
He leaned back and crosses his arms, "Is K1 someone back from your world, then? I haven't heard that name come up, but he sounds like a friend."
It seemed an innocent enough question...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Oct 30, 2011 21:25:02 GMT -5
It was an innocent enough question, but the expression Atsuro had gained when he trailed off did not fade. It was an almost mourning expression. He tried to force himself to smile, but combined with his expression, it only made him look goofy and awkward.
He sat down in another chair and pulled his laptop bag off, setting it gently on the floor next to him.
"Yeah he's... a good friend," Atsuro said. "He's gone now though."
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Post by mugenginga on Oct 30, 2011 21:28:18 GMT -5
Sugoroku gave a sympathetic smile. He looked sorry for what Atsuro had just said. He leaned forward in his chair, winced, and had to knuckle his back again. He let out a sigh and shook his head. He seemed to be thinking about something, and after a moment spoke up again. His tone of voice reflected a shift in where the conversation had gone.
"Recently?" He asked. He really did seem concerned.
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