The stone tablet engraved with the "Millennium War," the container sealing the Pharaoh's memory, was now quietly standing in front of the group.
Marik and Ishizu explained that as members of the Gravekeeper Race, their mission was completed once they led the way here. According to tradition, they could not be present for the Pharaoh's memory retrieval ceremony, so after leading everyone to the chamber where the stone tablet was sealed, they went outside to wait.
So in this chamber were left Youyu, Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu...
...and the few jokers who came along with Youyu.
According to the plot of the previous life in the Linked World, Yugi and his friends bought tickets themselves to fly to Egypt, and only those players with high enough affection levels in the game would trigger this opportunity to go with them.
But now, Yugi and the others followed Youyu on a borrowed plane, so which lucky joker could come along was naturally up to Youyu.
So, naturally, those who accompanied them were the ones chosen by him.
But speaking of Yugi and the others' schooling, it's quite interesting. It seems like they go to school whenever they feel like it, and not when they don't.
President Haima is rich and capricious, so it's okay that he didn't go to school after the first episode. Throughout the series, it seems Yugi and his friends only spent a few days at school.
In the Duelist Kingdom arc, they went to Pegasus's island to play cards, then participated in the Duel City Tournament to play more cards. In between, during the Noah arc, they went to the Virtual World to play cards for a few days, and later in the Orichalcos arc, they fought the Doma Organization from their island nation to the United States, skipping school for a long time. Right after, they went to the KC Cup to play cards...
Overall, it gives the impression that this school might be managed with a sheep-herding style, where everyone comes to class when they feel like it, and skipping doesn't seem to have any impact.
See, so many of them took leave simultaneously to go on a trip to Egypt, and it seems the teachers didn't care at all...
At this moment, Yugi had already switched to the King taking over the body. He gazed up at the stone tablet that sealed his memory, took a deep breath, composed his complicated emotions, and then pulled out the cards of the Three Egyptian Gods from his back to show the stone tablet.
In an instant, the ancient stone tablet, sealed for a thousand years, showed a reaction.
The depictions of the Three Egyptian Gods engraved at the top of the tablet suddenly lit up. Red, gold, and blue lights flew out from the tablet, shooting into the three revealed cards of Yugi.
A vast energy swept through the hall, golden light spreading quickly, shooting out from the entire stone tablet, dazzling everyone in the hall into momentarily closing their eyes.
The power unleashed using the cards of the Three Egyptian Gods as a medium seemed like an invisible hand pulling Dark Yugi's soul out of the body. He drifted out, feeling weightless, following the flowing golden light, soaring into the eye-shaped engraving at the center of the tablet in one breath.
In just a moment, the light faded, the stone tablet resumed its dimness, as if nothing had happened.
Everyone directed their gaze at Yugi.
"How is it?"
Yugi lowered his head, holding the Millennium Pendant in his hand, feeling lost.
"He's... no longer here."
His friends fell silent for a moment.
Although Yugi, on the surface, always acted strong in front of the other himself, it was only because he was afraid his confusion and reluctance might shake the other's resolve to move forward.
This didn't mean he wasn't filled with emotions of reluctance.
Since the moment the Millennium Pendant was assembled, they had always been one in heart and mind, with both their souls residing in the pendant.
Until now, he'd never felt so lonely, guarding this empty pendant all by himself.
Dark Yugi felt afraid; why wouldn't he also be afraid?
He feared that once the other regained his memory, he would become a different person, no longer recognizing them as friends.
He feared even more that after the other left like this, he'd never return, forever living in their memories.
"..."
Yugi and his friends remained silent, seemingly afraid to break the heavy atmosphere by speaking.
Until Miss Yue Hua, who was recording and observing, quietly reminded them: "Uh... where is Youyu-san?"
Only then did everyone come back to their senses in surprise.
When the stone tablet activated just now, the golden light blinded everyone for a moment... and it seemed Youyu had disappeared too.
...
The violent turbulence felt like it would churn the sour water right out of his stomach.
Entering the "King's Memory" tunnel felt to Youyu like being rudely lifted and tossed into a rushing waterfall. He felt the world spinning, his whole body like a feather floating in the water, spinning and spinning, dazed and confused...
He didn't know how long it lasted or how far he was flung until he finally felt his body collide solidly with the ground.
...Damn, finally here.
He felt he should suggest to the Ancient Egypt designer who conceived this whole memory layout — the login experience for this game is just terrible.
Now he felt like a ragged cloth tossed into a washing machine for three days and nights, nearly forgetting who he was.
Luckily, his stamina was high, and his endurance strong and lasting; otherwise, any regular person wouldn't have likely survived such an ordeal.
The golden, brilliant sunlight made Youyu squint temporarily. Throughout the journey, his ears were filled with the constant roar, like having a cement mixer installed in his ears that wouldn't stop rumbling, so much that even the sound was barely audible.
He only vaguely sensed that someone seemed to be exclaiming in surprise, and it seemed others were pointing and murmuring about him.
Youyu took a while to get his hearing and sight back working again. When he lifted his head, he found himself surrounded.
Nearby was a group of dark-skinned, retro-dressed men and women, all encircling him, pointing and murmuring with expressions of fear and terror on their faces.
His hearing wasn't fully back, and with the crowd being noisy, Youyu barely made out words like "heretic" and "monster" amidst the chaos.
Monster? Talking about me?
Youyu chuckled softly.
But then he touched his face and thought—
—Perhaps it's understandable.
After all, it's not common for a regular human to be this handsome.
Speaking of which, based on the anime, President Haima's wife, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon's form in Ancient Egypt, Kisara, was considered a heretic by ignorant people because of her fair skin, beauty, silver hair, and blue eyes, vastly different from others, so she suffered bullying and beating since childhood.
That's just bizarre. The girl merely had fair skin, slightly blue eyes, and silver hair, yet was deemed a heretic.
Yet, look at their Pharaoh, with his colorful starfish hair since childhood, and no one seemed to find anything odd...