Return of the Kings

Chapter 23

The next day Yugi allowed Atem to play the racing console game again until their friends all arrived shortly before lunch time.

"Hey Yug! Ah playing the game I left here ah?" Joey said happily as he made himself comfortable beside him.

"Hey guys. Yes it's very fun. Yugi's been watching me play for a while now. I'll just finish this map and we'll swap back over." Atem said cheerfully.

"Oh buddy! I didn't realise it was you! Sorry." Joey laughed nervously.

"It's fine Joey." Atem giggled.

"How's he doin?" Tristan asked.

"Much better now he's rested. He slept all day so we were up all night again but I think he'll be able to fix his routine soon."

"Thats good. Yeah those work orders are always pretty rough." Tea agreed.

"He tells me it's not the first time he's had to pull all nighters like that."

"Oh dude once he was literally up for like 4 days. He basically slept through handing over the paperwork and talking to his boss. Trust us, 2 days is nothing new." Tea said.

Atem achieved the victory screen and in less than a second from achieving this Yugi stole his body back without warning.

"You guys are going to get me in trouble you know." He sighed as he saved Atem's progress for him.

"Sounds like there's still a bit more you have to tell me." Atem said in mock annoyance as he sat beside them all.

They laughed and relaxed as Yugi brought them tea to enjoy.

"Alright, so Yug. You wanted to talk to us yeah?" Tristan asked.

Yugi looked to Atem, who nodded and waited. He then brought out his journal and placed it in the middle of the coffee table.

"Inside that journal is extremely delicate instructions on how to use the Millenium items to bring a person back to life." He started.

Silence followed: appropriate. He wasn't sure how else to break the ice other than to come out right and say it. When he was satisfied their silence meant they were ready for more he continued.

"I started this journal after I recovered the artifacts. When I put them away is also when I put this away. For 3 years I haven't touched it... until now. I'm absolutely certain I haven't missed anything; anything unaccounted for is unknown to me but I'm certain I have as much covered as I can given the extremely limited knowledge out there."

"Yugi... bringing people back to life?" Tristan asked more in dismay and to confirm than to actually ask.

"Why do you wanna bring someone back to life?" Joey asked.

"You're not thinking of publishing this are you?" Tea asked.

"No. This is staying private. In fact I actually know the spell off by heart so I should be burning this. And I dont want to bring anyone back from the dead... not entirely anyway. Strictly speaking, bringing someone back from the dead is still impossible."

"But you said..."

"I can bring a body back to life using this ritual... but it wont last long without it's soul anchoring it down."

"Okay... so... I'm not following." Joey said slowly.

Tea's eyes lit up as her gaze shifted between Atem and Yugi, realising what he was getting at. Atem smiled to her, indicating she should wait so the boys could catch up.