Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters. Please don't sue me.

AN: I would just like to clarify something here, incase it's needed. None of my stories contain Shonen-ai or Yaoi, nor are they likely to in the near future. Although some of the characters are really good friends, nothing else is going on. I'm not against it, but can people not just be friends anymore???? Okay, now I've gotten that done with, let's go on.

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A week had passed and Yuugi was much better, better enough to go back to school, in fact. Yami was a little suspicious of this but, as he did not particularly want to be hit in the face with the frying pan Yuugi had taken to carrying, he didn't say anything. Yuugi was very happy with this, but he continued on with his "how to swing a frying pan" lessons, which he was taking from Jounouchi and Honda, being a non-violent sort of person and not knowing very much about these sorts of things.

Yuugi was now walking down the streets on his was back to the Turtle shop, Yami in the millennium puzzle playing tiddlywinks or whatever it was he did with his free time. He glanced up as a large silhouette appeared between him and the sun, throwing his face into shadows. Yuugi looked up. And up. A tall teen, about eighteen perhaps, dressed in cut-off jeans and a loose black sweatshirt was standing in front of Yuugi, grinning nastily. Yuugi grinned back in his oblivious way. The teen snickered.

"Hey, kid, how 'bout handing over that gold pyramid? Looks pretty valuable to me." He made a fist as he spoke. Yuugi kept smiling.

"Sorry, but I need this. Besides, there's really nothing interesting about it. _Really_"

Yuugi shrugged away and continued on, giving the teen a wide berth. It did not help, as the teen reached out and grabbed Yuugi's shoulder tightly, squeezing hard. Yuugi shrugged more obviously, but the teen thug didn't move his hand. Yuugi's eyes widened slightly.

"Could you, uh, please let go of me. I kind of need to get home." Yuugi tried to pull away again, without success.

"Yeah well, I kind of want your gold pyramid. So hand it over. Now." He grabbed the Millennium Puzzle, pulling it forward aiming to break the string. No luck, the string held fast and Yuugi was hauled forwards, held up only by the string cutting into his neck. He gasped and grabbed at it, trying to get his hands in between it and his neck. The thug pulled out a large knife and made to hack through the rope. Yuugi's eyes widened and he twisted the rope away, the knife coming down on his shoulder instead, leaving a deep gash behind. Yuugi cried out and fell backwards, scooting away from the advancing thug.

/Yami! Help! Please!/

//Yuugi?//

Yami woke up from a light nap at his Aibou's cry. In a second he had traded places with him and was staring at a snarling man with a bloody knife in his hand. Yami's eyes widened considerably, but not out of fear for himself.

//Yuugi! Are you alright? Yuugi? What happened?//

/I'm okay... he tried, tried to take the Millennium ... puzzle. I'm okaaa.../

//Yuugi? Yuugi!//

No answer. Yami snarled and leapt forwards, tackling the thug and landing squarely on him. He grabbed the knife by its blade ignoring the pain and pulled it away from the thug, tossing it into the grass.

"What did you do to him? What?" Yami's eyes had become stone hard again, and the thug suddenly had the feeling that the kid now holding him by the shirt collar was far more dangerous without a knife than he (the thug) would ever be with one.

"I tried to take the pyramid, cut the string. He moved, I got him. If you, you give me the pyramid I won't, wont' hurt you." Bluffing obviously, even stuttering, the thug still tried to get something out of a fight picked with the wrong person. Apparently he didn't realize just how much more dangerous Yami was.

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Yami ran away, the thug lying in some bushes. Yami frankly didn't care whether he got out of them or not.

//Yuugi! Yuugi, can you hear me?//

/Ya...mi?/

Yami sighed, reassured, and skidding to a stop under a tall tree. He wasn't sure where he had been running to, it was just a gut reaction. He climbed up into the tree easily, hiding himself in its branches. There he closed his eyes and separated himself from Yuugi. The younger boy lay supported by branches next to Yami, his face pale. Blood stained the left side of his shirt, and a red rash covered the front part of his neck. Yami tore the shirt aside where it had been ripped and sighed. Yuugi was only cut deeply, not stabbed. He would be alright. If Yami could get them out of the tree.

Anyone walking by at that moment would have seen a middle-sized youth with very odd starfish shaped red, black and blond hair climbing out of a tree with what seemed almost to be a miniature, cuter version of himself slung over the taller boy's shoulders. And then no doubt they would have called a nice psychiatric hospital somewhere. Fortunately for both Yuugi and Yami no one did see them, and they made it safely back to Yuugi's house with very few incidents along the way.

Once there Yami proceeded to bandage Yuugi's shoulder and then sit anxiously on the end of the bed, waiting for Yuugi to wait up, mostly to make sure he was alright although a small part of him also wanted to scold Yuugi, and it was no fun yelling at unconscious people.

Yami would have to wait a while though, because Yuugi was otherwise occupied at the moment.

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"Sire, you should really be spending more time seeing to the needs of the people, rather than all this time with conferences between other countries. It is important to have good relations, but relations with your own people are more important than ones with neighboring countries, especially those that pose no threat to Egypt or her empire." Aloke was preaching about Yami's duties to his people again. For two weeks all Yami had been doing was trying to locate those affected by the Shadow Games. He had learned that the king of a small country, which had now been assimilated by a larger one, had recently disappeared along with his family. This was not an uncommon occurrence, but he just happened to match Yami's description of one of the beaten players from the Shadow Realm.

Now Yami wanted to find those who were willing to give up their families and possessions for a game and stop them. It had the potential to be disastrous, putting all that importance and wealth into an unknown game, in an unknown place. So he had been having conferences with all those who were leaders, trying to find ones who had been to the Shadow Realm. He had not found any, nor had he found any kings matching the description of "Bakurah."

"Sire. Sire?"

Yami looked up. Aloke was frowning at him.

"Are you listening to me, sire? You must pay more attention to your people." Aloke tapped the table with a ring to accent each word. Yami rolled his eyes slightly, but said nothing. He knew his advisor was right.

"Very well, Aloke. Re-schedule the hearings that were cancelled. I will see to them after midday."

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Yami continued his search for the other rulers involved in the Shadow Games, but most of his time was taken up with hearing and attending to his peoples problems. And so he did not hear about the Shadow Realm or any related subjects until a briefing with Aloke a week later.

"'s second son, Bakurah, will be attending in his place so-"

"Bakurah?"

"Yes sire, I believe that is his name. Is something wrong?" Aloke looked at his master, eyebrows arched.

"No, nothing, it just seemed an ... unusual name. Continue."

"As I said sire, he will be here tonight, so you will have to greet him and dine with him, and then entertain him for the night. He is here to speak about 'water negotiations.'" This was an ongoing joke between Aloke and Yami; most of the smaller countries and states were eager to scope out Egypt's power and came for small visits with even smaller reasons, usually something about water problems, or land disputes, and always left with nothing settled but a good idea of Egypt's power.

"Very well, you know well enough what to do. Make sure extra servants are posted, and use the western hall for diner. Perhaps a show of some of our finer statues and vases could be temporarily moved to it. And have the royal guard parade by a few times, in ceremonial dress of course. That should do it. I will be in the main hall for today's hearings, don't worry." Yami rose from his elaborate chair and walked out the door.

A slow walk around the palace grounds brought Yami to the river side. He stopped and sat, staring into the murky waters. The young Pharaoh skipped a few stones into the water, watching as the ripples ran to the rushes, washing up against them and shaking the tall green strands back and forth. Yami bent over, waving his hand through the water and watching the larger ripples violently shake the rushes. He bend down even farther so he could see his reflection and felt the bottom of the river's edge, his fingers jerking as small fish swam through them.

Yami smiled slightly, his reflection mimicking it. Behind his flickering reflection another appeared, a dark tall shape with a shining object in its grasp. Yami's eyes widened, but he didn't move. The shining object, a scythe, was raised higher above Yami's head. Gathering his wits the young Pharaoh pulled his legs up tightly under him and sprang away, propelling himself high into the air and then falling head over heals into the river.

As he plunged into the water he heard another splash, and muffled cursing. The river's current pulled him under and before he could right himself to swim against it someone had grabbed his ankle and was pulling him farther under. Yami kicked, landing a few solid blows on his attacker's arm but apparently not solid enough for him to be released. He was running out of air, the murky water was growing far darker by the second. Pulling himself together, Yami brought body down to meet his knees and then kicked off as hard as he could, breaking free of the grip and rocketing towards the water's surface.

Before he made it something sharp dug deep into his shoulder, feeling like a fiery knife had just been plunged into it. Yami gasped involuntarily, the last of his air escaping in large bubbles. He watched as they rose to the surface, weakly struggling after them himself, wishing to be able to follow them. A strong current grabbed hold of him and Yami went limp in its grasp. 'This is it then. I probably won't even be found. They'll think I've run off with some serving wench.'

Warm dry air cut against his face as Yami was raised above the water's surface. The current carried him to the bank, washing him up between the reeds. The young, and still living Pharaoh stared blearily at the reeds. 'But currents don't...' He passed out.

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Yami woke up in the heat of the late afternoon to find himself still partially immersed in water, held up by the reeds and rushes on the riverside. His shoulder burned painfully, a good look at it showed Yami that he had not quite succeeded in avoiding the scythe wielded by his unknown attacker, it had scored on him underwater. Crawling out of the rushes, Yami staggered up the shore, happily finding himself only a few minutes walk from an entrance which would take him straight to him chambers. The gash on his shoulder was still bleeding, and Yami felt sick and weak. Upon reaching his rooms he collapsed on a relatively hard bed, nearly passing out a second time before rousing himself. 'You can't fall asleep until you've cleaned out your wound, you'll get sick. And we wouldn't want that now would we?' Yami realized belatedly that he had started talking to himself again, and then continued washing out the gash.

When he was done, and the wound had stopped stinging like mad, Yami dug his way through his wardrobe until he found a skirt with a shoulder attachment that was long and loose enough to easily hide his injury. He changed into it, pulling the long piece of linen over his shoulder from the back and attaching it to the front of the skirt. 'A little odd looking, but who would dare to mention it?'

Had he not at that minute remembered his promise to meet Bakurah he would probably have gone to sleep again, but as it was he swore softly under his breath and pulled on various adornments, running a comb through his prophetically evil hair. 'It would seem a lot more evil to the prophets if they were the ones who had to clean it out after a romp in the river.' Of course, Yami could have called some servant to deal with his hair, and anything else, for him but he really wasn't in the mood for blundering servants who, when around him, developed a fear of their own shadows.

Rushing out of his chambers he met Aloke who was making his way to the main hall. His chief advisor stared a little strangely at Yami's choice of clothing but, as Yami had suspected, said nothing. At least about the clothes.

"May I ask, Sire, why you were not there to attend the hearings today?" Aloke frowned at Yami, who shrugged and then winced.

"I was ... otherwise occupied. It won't happen again. I certainly hope not, anyway."

They made it to the hall just in time to hear Bakurah being announced in the outer hall. Yami slipped into his throne and waited. The great doors opened and Bakurah, surrounded by an entourage of dancing girls, minstrels, sorcerers and servants holding very large and elaborate fans, entered with his head held high. He looked up at the throne, the only thing in the room high enough to be in his current line of sight, and Yami had the pleasure of watching his eyes grow wide as Bakurah recognized who was sitting on the throne of Egypt. Yami rose slowly.

Silence blanketed the room as all but Bakurah bowed immediately. Even though all heads in the room were bowed, Bakurah knew all eyes were on him in his current erect position. Yami stood and walked slowly down the platform steps. All in the room flattened themselves on the floor save Bakurah who remained staring, perhaps a little defiantly, straight at Yami. Yami reached the bottom of the stairs and walked towards Bakurah. All in the room held their breath. The tension could have been cut with a knife. Or maybe a scythe.

Yami was now standing directly in front of Bakurah. He spoke, his voice quiet but deadly. Much more deadly than anyone would have expected from someone with his appearance.

"Will you bow before the Pharaoh of Egypt, Prince Bakurah?"

Bakurah looked at him, unsure and very confused, before his face settled on a malicious expression. He crossed his arms. Before they could move again he was lying face down on the floor, Yami's raised arm on the other side of his body held perfectly straight. The room echoed with the sound of the strike. The prince slowly began to pull himself up.

"Will you bow before the Pharaoh of Egypt, Prince Bakurah?" Yami's voice held exactly the same tone as it had before.

Bakurah slowly lay himself down flat before Yami on his chest. The Pharaoh nodded and backed away.

"Then I shall welcome you to Egypt. Where you shall be treated as an ally as long as you behave as one." Yami looked significantly at the guards who were only kneeling, holding their weapons in their hands, looking very much like lions ready to spring. Bakurah spoke, his voice muffled by the stone he was speaking to, but the sarcastic tone was still very apparent.

"Thank you, Pharaoh. We shall not cross you." Bakurah held back anything else he would rather of said in light of the guards that he as well had noticed.

"Shall we proceed with the tour then?"

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Yuugi woke to find Yami staring eerily at him. Yuugi raised his eyebrows slowly.

"Can I help you?"

"Can. You. Help. Me? Yes, you can help me by NOT DOING FOOLISH THINGS THAT RESULT IN A BAD ENDING FOR BOTH OF US, as neither of us really wants me to be here yelling at you, now do we Aibou?"

"Uh, no?"

"Right. So, in the future, YOU WILL CALL FOR ME BEFORE YOU GET YOURSELF STABBED AND STRANGELED, is that clear?!?"

"Yes...?"

"?" Yami glared daggers.

"Yes, sir?"

"Better. Do you promise?"

"Yami..." Yuugi looked down. He couldn't promise not to try to help and protect his friends, could he? Even if it earned him an earful from Yami, he wouldn't promise not to protect him.

"Yuugi, I just don't want you to be hurt. You're my best friend. The reason I'm here is to protect you and your friends. You have to let me do that." Yami knew perfectly well why Yuugi was stalling and it made him feel more loved than he had ever in his life, but he couldn't let Yuugi or his friends get hurt trying to protect him.

"I've already had my crack at life, Yuugi. So now I'm here to make sure you get yours too. You don't have to worry about me, I can protect myself."

"Oh, so I can't?"

"Well..."

"Yami, would you like to meet Mr. Frying Pan again?"

"No. Yuugi? Yuugi, really! Yuugi! Put the frying pan down! YUUGI!!!"

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Hooray! Chapter... What chapter is this? 4! I suppose it's a little sad when you can't keep track of your own stories, but I'm just like that... Hope you enjoyed it, I love hearing from all of you!