Dark Inheritance

Loss

Kame Game Shop, Domino City, Japan

Week 1 - March, 2014, Monday...

Darkness blanketed the city, the half moon only occasionally peeking through thick gray clouds. Most lights in homes had been extinguished for the night, the only remaining being the street lights. The small yellow game shop with the green turtle on its sign was an exception to this rule.

Inside, two men sat hunched over a table, upon which reposed a game of shogi. Seeing his chance, the younger of the two made his move, taking the elder's queen off the board and cornering his king.

"Checkmate, Grandpa!" the young man declared, large lilac irises shining with exultation.

Mutou Sugoroku smiled tenderly at his grandson.

"You've done it, Yugi. You've surpassed me," the old man said, aged lilacs glowing with pride.

"Thanks, Grandpa!" returned Yugi warmly as he gathered the pieces.

"And as a celebration of your achievement, I want you to have... this!" announced Sugoroku, reaching behind him and pulling out a beautiful golden box covered in hieroglyphs, the chief of which was a large eye that seemed to stare at one from the front of it. This, he proffered to Yugi.

"Grandpa!" breathed Yugi as he opened the lid, revealing solid gold what appeared to be puzzle pieces inside it.

"I found it in my home as a boy," Sugoroku explained as Yugi pulled out a piece and gazed at it. "I worked on it for years, but could never solve it. I think you'll succeed where I failed."

"I'll solve it, Grandpa, and show it to you as soon as I'm done," Yugi promised as he raised his eyes to his grandfather.

"I'm so..." Sugoroku's eyes went unfocused as a gasp was ripped from his mouth and he clutched his chest. "Ha-ah!"

"Grandpa!" cried Yugi, puzzle piece slipping from his grip as he lunged toward his grandfather.

Catching Sugoroku in his arms, Yugi gently lowered him to the floor and pulled him onto his lap.

"Grandpa?! Grandpa?! Talk to me!! What's wrong?!!!" Yugi cried as tears of panic flooded his eyes.

"Don't cry... Yugi. I've been living on... borrowed time..." said Sugoroku, even as the light slowly faded from his eyes. "Live with honor and pride, my grandson."

"Grandpa, please..." sobbed Yugi.

But Grandpa's eyes were glazed over as he looked at things seen only to him.

"I kept my promise, At..."

Sugoroku exhaled a final, rattly breath as his head lolled to the side.

"Grandpa? Grandpa?!! Uuaaaaahhhh!!!" Yugi cried, lowering his head and sobbing into the green denim of Sugoroku's overalls.

Taking a deep hitching breath, Yugi forced himself to regain his senses. He had to call someone, get help. With shaking hands, he fumbled to pull his phone from his pocket and dial his best friend since high school.

'Please be there...'

"Yuug?"

"Jou... my grandpa just died," Yugi announced, choking back a sob.

"Wha?! Wadda hell? Wha' happen'd?!" asked Jounouchi Katsuya.

"I dunno. We were playing shogi and he just collapsed and died!" Yugi answered, voice rising and breaking as grief overwhelmed him again.

"'K, man. Hang on. I'll be right ovah. Ya gotta call 119 in 'a meantime," advised Jou.

"OK..." sighed Yugi as they hung up.

Soon...

Yugi felt as though he were watching through someone else's eyes as his grandfather's body was stuffed into a bag, put on a stretcher, and loaded into the ambulance. By his side, Jou laid a supportive hand on Yugi's shoulder by way of grounding him.

Grateful for Jou's stabilizing presence, Yugi followed the blond mutely out of the shop and sat in the passenger seat of his buddy's red convertible for the long ride to the hospital.

Domino General

Early Tuesday...

Yugi and Jou listened mutely as the doctor explained that Sugoroku had died of a heart attack. Jou thanked the doctor as Yugi turned and walked mutely away, staring at the linoleum floor.

The ride home was silent, neither friend able to think of anything to say or do.

"Tex' me if ya need anythin'," Jou said as he pulled up to the curb.

"I will," Yugi sighed as he opened the door and stepped out.

"See ya," said Jou with a sad smile as he watched his friend shuffle slowly toward the door to let himself into the shop.

After Yugi gave a final, spiritless, wave through the window, Jou threw his car into gear and peeled out.

After closing the curtain, Yugi began his slow journey through the silent solitude of the shop, stopping at the doorway of each room and remembering Grandpa doing different things: selling games and toys in the shop, cooking meals in the kitchen, watching TV in the living room, working in his office, perhaps reading a novel in his bedroom. And of course their games together: chess, checkers, shogi, Monopoly, all manner of card games.

'Just memories now,' Yugi thought sorrowfully.

When Yugi entered Grandpa's office, he saw the hastily discarded puzzle box still reposing on the game table and the center piece he had dropped to the floor when Grandpa had collapsed. He stooped down and picked it up, staring at the Eye of Wadjet, which gazed steadily back at him. Abruptly, Yugi threw it back into the box and banged the lid down.

With the urgency of the situation now past, Yugi could feel the sleeplessness of the night before catching up with him as his eyelids began to feel like lead. He blundered to his bedroom and collapsed on his bed, asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

But even in sleep, there was to be no succor for him, as his grandfather's smiling face filled his dreams, causing his heart to soar before eventually crashing down as he headed for wakefulness and the reality that his grandfather was no longer with him.

Wednesday...

Yugi stood in a daze as the charred fragments of what had once been his jolly grandfather were passed directly between sets of chopsticks and deposited in the urn he held in a special pair of long chopsticks at the head of the pyre slab.

He was beyond thankful when the Adam's apple was set into the urn and the ofuda sealed everything up. After the soshikigumi took the urn to inter, he was finally able to leave that morbid place.

Yugi climbed into the passenger seat. The key was turned and the engine roared to life.

"How ya holdin' up, Yuug?" asked Jou as they pulled out.

"I'll live. Thanks for coming, Jou. I couldn't get through this without you," replied Yugi, throwing a quick, but sincere, gaze in the blond's direction.

"'No sweat. Dat's wut buddies do fer each othah," returned Jou.

"Right," sighed Yugi.

"Want me t' spend da night?" Jou asked.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Yugi answered.

"No trouble 't all," said Jou with a reassuring smile Yugiward.

That night...

Yugi sobbed heartbrokenly into his pillow while Jou tossed and turned in his bed in the guestroom, the sound of Yugi's sobs muffled not one iota by the hallway separating them.

'Mah poor lil buddy,' the blond thought sorrowfully, blinking at the suspicious moisture in his own eyes.