Prologue
The history of games: It is said to extend five-thousand years into the past, stretching back to Ancient Egypt. In ancient times, games foretold the future of both man and king and were magic ceremonies to determine one’s fate. They were called “Games of Darkness.” Now, there is a boy who has solved the Millennium Puzzle, inherited the Games of Darkness, and become a keeper of the just. Light and dark, the boy who holds two hearts is known to others as the King of Games.
プロローグ
The blue shine from the fluorescent lamps waver on the water surface like glowworms. In the school pool at night, Katsuya Jonouchi searched the bottom while still in his uniform. Getting himself soaked, his eyes, as they look under the water, are bright with earnestness. That very day, with the intention of teasing a small, shy and withdrawn, game maniac classmate, Jonouchi threw a piece of his jigsaw puzzle into the pool.
However, that boy stood in the way of the toughest kid in school who even racked Jonouchi in fear. He called Jonouchi, who was felled and beat up all over, his friend and tried to protect him. His classmate’s name was Yugi Mutou.
Jonouchi had realized. (I didn’t throw just the piece into the pool. It was a piece of his…Yugi’s heart. Yugi called me his friend, and yet I threw a piece of his heart and hid it in the pool…I’m…I’m…such a pathetic human being.) Yugi had taught him about the plight of his heart which he had forgotten about.
(I have to look for it…I have to look for that piece….)
As soon as Jonouchi meant that from the bottom of his heart, the puzzle piece glinted sharply amidst the thick underwater darkness. That being the “Eye of Wdjat,” located at the center of the reverse pyramid, the Millennium Puzzle, and Wdjat being the eye of the Horus, God of the Heavens. It is said that it holds the meaning of being a “something good” and one of the only charms fit to guard over the kings.
“Got it! I got it!”
Once Jonouchi gripped tightly to that puzzle piece of the eye of an Ancient Egyptian god, a “something good” came about in his heart.
The first floor of Sugoroku Mutou’s house in Domino City is a game shop with the second floor being its living quarters. Once a group of ominous clouds cluster and swirl around the skies above Sugoroku’s game shop, the air gets clammy and grave, and an evil presence began to fill the area.
Clank, clank, clank—In a child’s room on the second floor, Yugi Mutou was feverishly assembling the Millennium Puzzle without any concern to the signs outside. Eight years ago, he was told that the puzzle he received from his grandfather would grant a wish once it is completed. The memos analyzing the puzzle which liter the entire room make it apparent that it has been an uphill struggle over the past years.
“…What you can see yet have never seen…” Yugi repeated like it was a spell. “It’s the puzzle…” Yugi stops moving his hand and scratches his head out of shape.
Yugi looked through the memos he had on the wall and the memos scattered about for one of them and re-checked it.
“You can see it, but since it hasn’t been completed yet, you have no idea of what it’s going to look like done…” Something came into Yugi’s head as he was looking at the memo and pondering. “That’s it! I got it, now.”
He starts to fiddle with the puzzle with a clatter once more. Pieces he thought would never fit for all this time were gradually taking form. The Millennium Puzzle, readily being assembled, released a creeping and suspicious form of plasma from it.
As soon as he assembled all the pieces he had on hand, the concealed figure of the three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle finally showed itself as an upside-down pyramid and shined an eerie golden color. The Millennium Puzzle, unsolvable to any and all over the span of several millennia, was taking shape for the first time ever. Only the yet-to-be inserted last piece in the center of the upside-down pyramid leaves the gaping black hole in it open.
“I-I-It’s done! As soon as I fit the last piece in, it’ll be complete!” Yugi had extended his trembling fingers to the chest modeled in the likeness of a tabernacle which held the puzzle pieces.
However, the tips of his fingers search all four corners of the cold chest.
“Gone! The last piece is gone…! No way…I must’ve…dropped it somewhere…Mm-hmm…Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm!”
Yugi, beside himself, foraged through his entire room.
The ominous clouds swirl in the skies above. Jonouchi stood outside of Sugoroku’s game shop, soaking wet. As he looked up at the lights in the windows, Jonouchi’s body may have been cold, but there was a faint bit of warmth within his heart.
He gently opened his clasped fist and there was the Wdjat Eye piece of the Millennium Puzzle he had carefully brought back from the pool, but he was hesitant about ringing the doorbell.
As if someone knew that Jonouchi was standing there, the door opened from the inside with a click. Behind the door, a small old man with bulging eyes was smiling with raised lips.
“You must be Yugi’s friend.”
Looking past his movie alien-like face, there was kindness in the old man’s tone.
The Millennium Puzzle, missing only its Wdjat Eye piece rests all alone on the desk in Yugi’s room. In front of it, Yugi was sitting with his head bent down. For that single moment, even Yugi’s spiky and pointed hairstyle looked like it was drooping.
“I’ll never, ever be able to complete the Puzzle…None of my wishes will get through!” Yugi finally put his head on his desk and started to cry.
It was exactly then that the door placed directly behind his desk opened with a slow creek. There, behind him, stood Sugoroku with his arms folded.
“Oh-ho…This is incredible! You’ve completed the Puzzle…”
“No…I wasn’t able to do it, after all…Grandpa…”
“I’m sure that your wish will come true.” In the palm Sugoroku’s outstretched hand laid the Wdjat Eye.
“Ah!!” Yugi had forgotten to wipe his tear-stained eyes. “G-Grandpa!? Where was it at!?”
“A friend of yours just dropped by the shop…I was asked me to give it back to you…For some reason, his clothes were wet even though it hadn’t rained…”
“Huh…? A friend? Did they really say they were my friend?” Yugi asked dubiously since he thought he didn’t have any friends.
“I believe he said he was ‘Jonouchi’-kun or something. Once he handed me that puzzle piece, his face took a sign of relief and he took off. I even called out to him about coming inside, too.”
“Jonouchi-kun called me his friend…?” Yugi muttered with a confounded look on his face.
“Good night, Yugi!”
“Thank you…Good night, Grandpa.”
Sugoroku shut the door behind him with a thud.
“I can’t believe he actually completed it…However, those who complete the Millennium Puzzle become ruler of dark powers…Perhaps I’ve placed too heavy a fate on his shoulders,” Sugoroku muttered with a complex look on his face as he went down the stairs.
In his room, Yugi was oblivious to the concerns Sugoroku had.
“I’m finally going to complete the Millennium Puzzle…!”
The tips of his fingers spontaneously trembled from his seething excitement. Setting the final piece, the Eye of Wdjat, into place with a click, the upside-down shaped Millennium Puzzle was finished.
“I did it! It’s complete!” Yugi put the chain of the Millennium Puzzle around his neck and held the true, metallic form of the upside-down pyramid in both of his hands. “O Millennium Puzzle…Hear my wish…I want a friend…A best friend who has bonds strong enough to tie both our hearts together….”
His heart racing, Yugi waits for the Millennium Puzzle to grant him his wish. As soon as the Puzzle in his hands got warm, the entire Millennium Puzzle shined with a sharp chime. “Did my wish reach you…?”
In that next instant, the entire room is hit with rumbling vibrations.
“Wh-What?!” An evil force gushed forth from the Millennium Puzzle. “A-A-Aaaah!!” Within a split second, the black mist assumed the form of different kinds of dark demonic beasts. The released demonic beasts fly around and about the room.
“Waaah…!!” When fear racked Yugi’s mind, the Eye of Wdjat shined with a ping. A uniform mark formed on Yugi’s forehead to respond to the shine of the Eye of Wdjat. When the kind Yugi was engulfed by light, a different person emerged to coincide with him at the same time. He is the soul of the Egyptian Pharaoh locked within the Millennium Puzzle.
The Ruler of Darkness—the other personality also better referred to as the Yugi of Darkness, had taken control of Yugi’s consciousness.
“….”
The demonic beasts circle around and about the room and spread open their jaws with a cackle, scouting for their chance to feast on the Dark Yugi. The Dark Yugi watched the demonic beasts with resolve.
“—Silence, demonic beasts!!”
Once Yugi’s voice echoed throughout the room, the evil spirits scampering about were drawn into the Millennium Puzzle.
In the completely silent room, Dark Yugi stared at his own reflection off the window’s glass and tilted his head in mystery. The soul of the nameless Egyptian Pharaoh checked how he looked reborn in the world of the living for his first time.
“Who are you…? I’m…Yugi Mutou…”
“Who am I…? I don’t even know that myself.”
プロローグ
Prologue
The blue shine from the fluorescent lamps waver on the water surface like glowworms. In the school pool at night, Katsuya Jonouchi searched the bottom while still in his uniform. Getting himself soaked, his eyes, as they look under the water, are bright with earnestness. That very day, with the intention of teasing a small, shy and withdrawn, game maniac classmate, Jonouchi threw a piece of his jigsaw puzzle into the pool. However, that boy stood in the way of the toughest kid in school who even racked Jonouchi in fear. He called Jonouchi, who was felled and beat up all over, his friend and tried to protect him. His classmate’s name was Yugi Mutou.
Jonouchi had realized. (I didn’t throw just the piece into the pool. It was a piece of his…Yugi’s heart. Yugi called me his friend, and yet I threw a piece of his heart and hid it in the pool…I’m…I’m…such a pathetic human being.) Yugi had taught him about the plight of his heart which he had forgotten about.
(I have to look for it…I have to look for that piece….)
As soon as Jonouchi meant that from the bottom of his heart, the puzzle piece glinted sharply amidst the thick underwater darkness. That being the “Eye of Wdjat,” located at the center of the reverse pyramid, the Millennium Puzzle, and Wdjat being the eye of the Horus, God of the Heavens. It is said that it holds the meaning of being a “something good” and one of the only charms fit to guard over the kings.
“Got it! I got it!”
Once Jonouchi gripped tightly to that puzzle piece of the eye of an Ancient Egyptian god, a “something good” came about in his heart.
The first floor of Sugoroku Mutou’s house in Domino City is a game shop with the second floor being its living quarters. Once a group of ominous clouds cluster and swirl around the skies above Sugoroku’s game shop, the air gets clammy and grave, and an evil presence began to fill the area.
Clank, clank, clank—In a child’s room on the second floor, Yugi Mutou was feverishly assembling the Millennium Puzzle without any concern to the signs outside. Eight years ago, he was told that the puzzle he received from his grandfather would grant a wish once it is completed. The memos analyzing the puzzle which liter the entire room make it apparent that it has been an uphill struggle over the past years.
“…What you can see yet have never seen…” Yugi repeated like it was a spell. “It’s the puzzle…” Yugi stops moving his hand and scratches his head out of shape.
Yugi looked through the memos he had on the wall and the memos scattered about for one of them and re-checked it.
“You can see it, but since it hasn’t been completed yet, you have no idea of what it’s going to look like done…” Something came into Yugi’s head as he was looking at the memo and pondering. “That’s it! I got it, now.”
He starts to fiddle with the puzzle with a clatter once more. Pieces he thought would never fit for all this time were gradually taking form. The Millennium Puzzle, readily being assembled, released a creeping and suspicious form of plasma from it.
As soon as he assembled all the pieces he had on hand, the concealed figure of the three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle finally showed itself as an upside-down pyramid and shined an eerie golden color. The Millennium Puzzle, unsolvable to any and all over the span of several millennia, was taking shape for the first time ever. Only the yet-to-be inserted last piece in the center of the upside-down pyramid leaves the gaping black hole in it open.
“I-I-It’s done! As soon as I fit the last piece in, it’ll be complete!” Yugi had extended his trembling fingers to the chest modeled in the likeness of a tabernacle which held the puzzle pieces.
However, the tips of his fingers search all four corners of the cold chest.
“Gone! The last piece is gone…! No way…I must’ve…dropped it somewhere…Mm-hmm…Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm!”
Yugi, beside himself, foraged through his entire room.
The ominous clouds swirl in the skies above. Jonouchi stood outside of Sugoroku’s game shop, soaking wet. As he looked up at the lights in the windows, Jonouchi’s body may have been cold, but there was a faint bit of warmth within his heart.
He gently opened his clasped fist and there was the Wdjat Eye piece of the Millennium Puzzle he had carefully brought back from the pool, but he was hesitant about ringing the doorbell.
As if someone knew that Jonouchi was standing there, the door opened from the inside with a click. Behind the door, a small old man with bulging eyes was smiling with raised lips.
“You must be Yugi’s friend.”
Looking past his movie alien-like face, there was kindness in the old man’s tone.
The Millennium Puzzle, missing only its Wdjat Eye piece rests all alone on the desk in Yugi’s room. In front of it, Yugi was sitting with his head bent down. For that single moment, even Yugi’s spiky and pointed hairstyle looked like it was drooping.
“I’ll never, ever be able to complete the Puzzle…None of my wishes will get through!” Yugi finally put his head on his desk and started to cry.
It was exactly then that the door placed directly behind his desk opened with a slow creek. There, behind him, stood Sugoroku with his arms folded.
“Oh-ho…This is incredible! You’ve completed the Puzzle…”
“No…I wasn’t able to do it, after all…Grandpa…”
“I’m sure that your wish will come true.” In the palm Sugoroku’s outstretched hand laid the Wdjat Eye.
“Ah!!” Yugi had forgotten to wipe his tear-stained eyes. “G-Grandpa!? Where was it at!?”
“A friend of yours just dropped by the shop…I was asked me to give it back to you…For some reason, his clothes were wet even though it hadn’t rained…”
“Huh…? A friend? Did they really say they were my friend?” Yugi asked dubiously since he thought he didn’t have any friends.
“I believe he said he was ‘Jonouchi’-kun or something. Once he handed me that puzzle piece, his face took a sign of relief and he took off. I even called out to him about coming inside, too.”
“Jonouchi-kun called me his friend…?” Yugi muttered with a confounded look on his face.
“Good night, Yugi!”
“Thank you…Good night, Grandpa.”
Sugoroku shut the door behind him with a thud.
“I can’t believe he actually completed it…However, those who complete the Millennium Puzzle become ruler of dark powers…Perhaps I’ve placed too heavy a fate on his shoulders,” Sugoroku muttered with a complex look on his face as he went down the stairs.
In his room, Yugi was oblivious to the concerns Sugoroku had.
“I’m finally going to complete the Millennium Puzzle…!”
The tips of his fingers spontaneously trembled from his seething excitement. Setting the final piece, the Eye of Wdjat, into place with a click, the upside-down shaped Millennium Puzzle was finished.
“I did it! It’s complete!” Yugi put the chain of the Millennium Puzzle around his neck and held the true, metallic form of the upside-down pyramid in both of his hands. “O Millennium Puzzle…Hear my wish…I want a friend…A best friend who has bonds strong enough to tie both our hearts together….”
His heart racing, Yugi waits for the Millennium Puzzle to grant him his wish. As soon as the Puzzle in his hands got warm, the entire Millennium Puzzle shined with a sharp chime. “Did my wish reach you…?”
In that next instant, the entire room is hit with rumbling vibrations.
“Wh-What?!” An evil force gushed forth from the Millennium Puzzle. “A-A-Aaaah!!” Within a split second, the black mist assumed the form of different kinds of dark demonic beasts. The released demonic beasts fly around and about the room.
“Waaah…!!” When fear racked Yugi’s mind, the Eye of Wdjat shined with a ping. A uniform mark formed on Yugi’s forehead to respond to the shine of the Eye of Wdjat. When the kind Yugi was engulfed by light, a different person emerged to coincide with him at the same time. He is the soul of the Egyptian Pharaoh locked within the Millennium Puzzle.
The Ruler of Darkness—the other personality also better referred to as the Yugi of Darkness, had taken control of Yugi’s consciousness.
“….”
The demonic beasts circle around and about the room and spread open their jaws with a cackle, scouting for their chance to feast on the Dark Yugi. The Dark Yugi watched the demonic beasts with resolve.
“—Silence, demonic beasts!!”
Once Yugi’s voice echoed throughout the room, the evil spirits scampering about were drawn into the Millennium Puzzle.
In the completely silent room, Dark Yugi stared at his own reflection off the window’s glass and tilted his head in mystery. The soul of the nameless Egyptian Pharaoh checked how he looked reborn in the world of the living for his first time.
“Who are you…? I’m…Yugi Mutou…”
“Who am I…? I don’t even know that myself.”
Tatsunoboshi Horoko - 2007/02/23 02:51
