Normally, I prefer the English dub names, but since this is manga inspired, I'm going with the manga names. There shouldn't be any names that are confusing to the dubbers, though. But I should translate these words anyway:

Aibou: partner. What Yami calls Yugi.

Mou hitori no boku: the other me. What Yugi calls Yami. But this will be in English here.

Disclaimer: Rurousha does not own Yugioh. No, she is just a poor wanderer with no rights to anything but... well, nothing.

Shadow of a Hero

Two years.

Her son had been in this coma-like state for just under two years. The doctor's had run tests and taken observations for over four months before they finally gave up. No one could find anything wrong with him. They had told her that, physically, her son was perfectly healthy. They said that the cause for his coma had to be all in his head.

The hospital bills had been expensive at first, but when he got moved to long-term care, his father, who worked overseas, had started sending money to pay for it.

The woman sighed, pushed a silver strand of hair behind her ear, and sat down in the chair next to her son's hospital bed. He never got visitors other than her. Sadly, that didn't surprise her. She loved her son but knew that he had been far from perfect. She knew the things he had done during high school. She had known. She simply hadn't known how to stop him.

She looked around the hospital room, as she did every time when she came to visit. Just to make sure that nothing had changed since last Tuesday, as it was every Tuesday. The TV on the wall was off, the life-support equipment was pushed into a corner, unused and unneeded. No cards, no flowers. The only things in the room that got any regular use were the chair she was sitting in and the medical chart at the foot of her son's bed, labeled Ushio Tetsu.

"So, why are we going to the hospital, again?" Yugi asked as he walked downtown towards Domino Hospital. A woman passing him looked at him oddly. Yugi reminded himself to stop speaking out loud when talking to Yami in public.

I told you, there's just something I need to do there, the deep voice of Yugi's other replied.

At the hospital? Yugi paused at the guest entrance as the glass doors slid open. He moved to the side to allow a small group to get out before stepping in himself.

Yes, aibou, at the hospital. And I'm sorry I can't tell you about it, but… Yami paused. I'm sorry, aibou, but this is important.

Okay, other me. I trust you. Just don't challenge anyone to a shadow game. And remember, those shiny scalpels are for doctors, not you.

Yami smirked as the Millennium Puzzle flashed, and he took over Yugi's body. "Brat."

Yugi just giggled inside Yami's head before he closed the door to his soul room, cutting off their connection. Then the former Pharaoh breathed in deeply, focusing on what he had come here to do.

It was time to make amends.

A knock on the doorframe startled her back to reality. She looked over her shoulder to the open doorway, expecting a nurse to tell her that nothing had changed. Instead she saw a teenage boy with dark, upswept hair and gold bangs. He was dressed in leather pants, a black tank-top, and more jewelry and chains than any man should wear. The icing on the cake was a gaudy gold pyramid hanging from a chain around his neck.

He was standing rather awkwardly at the door, as if afraid to come in.

"Can I help you?" she asked. That seemed to snap him back to attention, because he straightened up to his full height (such as it was) and looked her dead in the eye.

"Yes," he said in a surprisingly deep voice. "Are you Ushio-kun's mother?"

She nodded once.

"I came to see your son."

"Are you… a friend of his?"

The boy looked over to her son and paused, as if studying his face. Then he shook his head. "No. But I used to go to school with him."

She sighed in understanding and looked back at her son. "You mean he used to bully you."

He paused again before nodding once.

"Why don't you take a seat, young man?"

He nodded his head once more in thanks and pulled the doctor's stool over to the bedside. Then he sat down next to her and resumed studying her son.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Mutoh Yugi."

Now it was her turn to pause in question. "The Game King?"

Yugi looked over at her, clearly startled. "You've heard of me?"

"The game was just getting popular before… before this happened to Tetsu. He liked it, wanted to duel the champion, Kaiba Seto, one day. We watched Battle City together." She indicated the TV on the opposite side of the room.

"I'm sure he appreciated that."

"No, Yugi-kun, he didn't. He didn't even know we were watching."

He looked down at his shoes. "I'm sorry."

There was an awkward silence for a while. She was about to open her mouth to apologize for snapping at him, but he beat her to it.

"When this happened to your son, I was happy. I thought that he had gotten what he deserved. His heart was filled with greed and selfishness, and now he was being consumed by it."

The woman thought back on when her son had first been found, clutching at leaves, crying, "My money. Mine!" It did seem as though he had been tortured by his own greed.

Yugi continued. "But I was a hypocrite. My heart was just as consumed by anger as his was with greed. I would lash out at anyone that I felt threatened me. Only no one ever used that against me. No one ever twisted what I felt until it was all I felt. Instead, I was saved. Someone reached out to me until the anger in my heart was replaced with the goodness of his own."

He stopped and turned so that he was facing her properly. "I was given the second chance that your son never got, Ushio-san. He deserves better than this."

The woman sniffled a little a wiped at the tears gathering in her eyes. "Thank you, Yugi-kun. No one's ever said that about him before."

Yugi cleared his throat self-consciously. "Yes, well…I…should be heading home now."

She nodded in agreement. "Thank you for coming to visit. Do take care of yourself."

"And you as well, Ushio-san." He stood and looked once more to the boy lying beside them. "Goodbye Ushio-kun." He then bowed a farewell to them both and left. The door closed with a slight shake behind him.

The woman smiled as she watched him go – the first time she had ever done so in this room.

She heard muttering beside her. This was not uncommon. While Tetsu would usually just remain comatose, he would sometimes almost appear awake as he mumbled to himself. The only words she was ever able to make out were "money", "greed", and "shadow". She never knew what they meant, never knew what was going on in his head.

But this time, when she looked back to him, his half-opened eyes were not darting everywhere, seeing what only he could see. They were steady, if a little clouded, and looking right at her.

"Mother?" he rasped out.

She gasped so hard that it hurt her chest, and her hand flew to her mouth.

"Mother? What're you doing here?" His groggy eyes took in the rest of the room behind her. "Where is here?"

He tried to sit up but was immediately grabbed around the neck and pulled to his mother's shoulder. She sobbed into his hair. "My son. Tetsu, you're awake. Tetsu, my son. My son."

"Mom?"

"Yugi, I think you should read this."

Grandpa Sugoroku folded the newspaper and handed it over the breakfast table to his half-awake grandson. Yugi took it, opened it to the front page… and nearly did a breakfast cereal spit-take.

Right on the front page was a picture of Ushio Tetsu, scowling as he sat in a hospital bed with his mother's arms wrapped around his waist, smiling and crying happily.

Other me, do you know anything about this?

I believe it's called a newspaper, aibou, came the reply from within his head. People generally read them, wrap fish in them, etcetera. Supposedly, it holds interesting or otherwise note-worthy events that happen on a day-to-day basis.

"Brat."

"What was that, Yugi?"

"Nothing, just talking to myself, Grandpa."

Yami chuckled from within his soul room. Don't worry, aibou. It's just a long-delayed second chance for him.

And, Yami added to himself alone, perhaps another chance at redemption for me.