Broken

Chapter One

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Moonlight shone through a lone window to illuminate the room of Yugi Mutou. The young man was searching his room desperately for something, clothes and various items were strewn about as evidence of his urgency. He was on his hands and knees in his closet tossing his many possessions behind him as he continued to scrutinize every corner of the room. He stood and wormed his fingers through his tri-colored hair, grasping his head in immense frustration. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

"Where could I have possibly put it?" He whispered to himself angrily.

He left his closet and moved toward his desk where every Duel Monsters card he owned lay in a messy pile. He frowned at the pile as he tried looking at every card again. It has to be in here somewhere! Yugi thought frantically. After the last card had been turned over to no avail, he tossed the cards in his hand at the table angrily.

He turned to look out the window, only to get a surprising glimpse of his reflection. Lately Yugi had refused to look in a mirror, so this was a rare and unpleasant sight to behold. Yugi glared at the other Yugi coldly. He reached up and touched his face warily. Two years had made all the difference. For a while his friends had wished that they could somehow have a photograph of him, to remember him by. Those comments weren't made anymore. They didn't need a photograph. Yugi was an exact copy.

Yugi turned to the desk and grabbed his Duel Disk. He took one final glance at his reflection, and hurled the device at the window with an angry yell. It cracked all over, Yugi was surprised the Duel Disk hadn't it broken all the way through. Satisfied, Yugi smiled to himself.

Suddenly, the door to Yugi's room burst open and a distraught Solomon Mutou walked in. "What in blazes is going on, Yugi?" He demanded.

Yugi said nothing, he didn't really have to. Solomon took one look at the window and knew what had happened. He shook his head sadly and surveyed the rest of the room. "What did you do to your room?" The old man asked.

Yugi tilted his head to the side as he looked at his grandfather. "My Dark Magician is missing."

Momentarily forgetting about the window, Solomon raised an eyebrow. "But why would that be? You haven't dueled in…" Solomon stopped himself.

Yugi's jaw visibly clenched. He closed his eyes and nodded slowly. "Two years."

Yugi opened his eyes again to see that his grandfather was obviously uncomfortable. Yugi chuckled. "Go to bed grandpa."

Solomon shook his head emphatically. "No, Yugi, we need to talk. We've needed to talk about this for a while. You haven't been the same since-"

Yugi's eyes flashed angrily. "I don't want to talk about it."

Solomon's brow creased in concern. "You don't have a choice. You have put your life on hold for two years, you've pushed away your friends, you still haven't applied for college, and you have even given up dueling! You have to do something. It's like you don't even care about your life anymore…" Solomon trailed off as he saw Yugi's empty smile return. "That's it. You don't care anymore."

Yugi shrugged. "I don't know if I'd put it that way. If I lose something that matters to me, it hurts like a knife in my chest. But if nothing matters to me, nothing hurts. I won't have to feel anything. My eyes have been…opened." Yugi replied coldly.

Solomon shook away angry tears. "No Yugi, you have been blinded!" Solomon yelled. He turned around and left the room, slamming Yugi's door behind him.

Yugi stood frozen in place, staring at the door his grandfather had just left through. His grandfather's rage had surprised him, but it didn't compare to what he felt. Yugi sighed and shook his head. I need to get out of here, he thought.

He walked to the cracked window and pushed it ever so slightly with his hand. The glass collapsed and Yugi smiled with satisfaction. He pulled himself through the window and slid down the roof until he was sitting comfortably on the edge. For a long time he just stared up at the night sky in deep thought. Eventually he pushed himself off the roof and reveled in the feeling of falling. It brought the first genuine smile to his lips in a long time.

Yugi stood on the sidewalk and glanced around. His eyes locked onto the top of a very familiar building. He began walking, now sure of where he wanted to be.

--

Seto Kaiba scrawled his signature on yet another batch of the endless paperwork that always seemed to await him in his office. His tired eyes glanced at the massive pile of requests and contracts that still required his attention. He sighed and dropped his pen. He buried his face in his hands and closed his eyes. He massaged his forehead with one hand in an attempt to rid himself of a severe headache.

This is what my life has become, Kaiba thought bitterly, an endless pile of paperwork…

Kaiba heard the door to his office open, but he didn't bother to look up. It had become a daily routine for Mokuba to come to his office and force him to stop working for the night. He waited patiently for Mokuba to tell him he needed his rest. He waited for his little brother to yell at him for how Kaiba Corp had become his life…but Mokuba's voice never came. No reassuring hand rested on his shoulder, no impatient tapping of a foot reached Kaiba's ear. Just silence.

Kaiba realized at this point that it wasn't Mokuba that was in the room with him. Even then, he was too tired to care.

"Good evening, Kaiba."

Kaiba's eyes opened in surprise. I know that voice. "Yugi…? What are you doing here…?" He inquired in a hoarse whisper. Kaiba was too exhausted to turn his rival away.

"Well, I just know how much you love visits from old friends," Yugi replied with a hint of sarcasm.

Kaiba chuckled. He looked up at the man he had grown to respect. A rare smile graced his features.

Yugi approached the desk and looked down into the face of the young CEO. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of Kaiba's exhausted face. "You take workaholic to a whole new level." Yugi mused.

Kaiba clasped his hands together and nodded. "Not everyone has what it takes to do what I do," He replied.

"I see your ego hasn't changed." Yugi chuckled darkly.

Kaiba wasn't offended by the statement, but he was surprised by Yugi's attitude. "It's just the truth, Yugi. Now tell me, why are you here? You could be elsewhere with those friends of yours."

Yugi walked past Kaiba's desk and stopped in front of the window behind Kaiba's chair. "We don't exactly contact each other very often."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "You finally ditched those losers? Yugi, I'm impressed…and surprised."

Yugi didn't move. He stared out over Domino, admiring how the city looked under the light of the stars. "They're still waiting for me to tell them that I'm okay, that I'm still the boy they knew and loved. I can't do that. I don't need them. I don't need anyone. They wait in vain."

Kaiba was unnerved by this. He watched Yugi's back on shock. That's not Yugi, Kaiba thought. It can't be, Yugi loves his friends more than anything in the world.

Yugi turned around. He chuckled when he noticed Kaiba's surprised expression. "Where is your support now, Seto Kaiba? Haven't you been sporting that speech since we met? You were right this whole time."

Kaiba felt a lump forming in his throat. He's right, I have been saying that for years…but I never thought Yugi would be this way. He shook his head. "Don't be like me Yugi. Look at what my life has become," Kaiba gestured toward the massive paper work resting on his desk. "You don't want to be alone. If I didn't have Mokuba as my brother, I would be."

Yugi laughed. It wasn't joyful like laughs normally were, it was cold. Yugi knelt next to Kaiba's chair and looked up into the billionaire's wary face. "I didn't come to you for life advice, in fact, you are the last person that should be giving it," Yugi retorted icily.

Kaiba frowned. "Why are you here then?" Kaiba growled.

"You remember my favorite Duel Monsters card, right? The Dark Magician?" Yugi asked.

Kaiba nodded. "Yes, why?"

"It's gone. Get me another one."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Yugi Mutou, a boy he had known to be extremely timid, had given him, Seto Kaiba, an order. "Who do you think you are, Yugi? You might be a skilled duelist, but you have no right giving the likes of me the demeaning task of running errands for you."

Yugi smiled. "Get me that card Kaiba."

Kaiba said nothing as Yugi rose from his knees and walked toward the door. When he reached it, he turned around to look at Kaiba once more. He looked more like the old Yugi might have, the menacing aura about him almost unnoticeable. "Every single one of us is alone in this world, Kaiba." Without another word passing between the two, Yugi left.

Kaiba stared at the door. I said those exact words to Yugi once. I never thought the roles would be reversed. Kaiba let his face fall into his hands again. Barely holding onto consciousness, his thoughts lingered on Yugi. That's not Yugi, it can't be.