Author's note: Oh, look, I'm super fast! Go me, go me, go me *victory dance*

All right, this chapter is really important, so read carefully and um, yeah. Derp.

Thanks so much for the reviews!
Small note: I fixed the summary and wanted to thank mikidagreat for their suggestion. x3

Happy reading!

There was a deafening silence after his outburst. It felt like time had stopped since neither of them moved and Yami couldn't breathe anymore. Then, Atemu's lips parted.

It couldn't be true. There was absolutely no way that the words that were coming out of Atemu's mouth were the truth. The thought itself was close to making him want to jump out the window to end it. The words were vague, but enough. Even though rain was clattering against his windows, he barely registered it because he was too transfixed by Atemu's disturbing story.

Yami swallowed when Atemu vanished and he wasted no time. He jogged over to his closet and pulled out a sweater along with some sweatpants, practically ripping his pajamas off his body as he changed into the warmer clothes. The door opened and Yami whirled around to face his worried mother.

"What are you doing out of bed?"

"I thought you had to go back to work," Yami snapped and he walked past her, yanking his arm out of her grip after she tried to hold him. All he could think about now was finding Yugi's body to get it over with and maybe, just maybe, things would get back to normal. He ran to the living room, put on his shoes, grabbed his jacket and opened the front door.

"Yami! Wait, wait!" Elena called out desperately, placing her hand on his that was holding the doorknob. "I know you're mad, but I came back because I know that your father and I have been incredibly busy lately and we haven't been spending enough time with you. I couldn't leave you alone, especially after what happened at school."

Disgusting images flashed in front of his eyes and Yami tried very hard not to start retching. "This is not about you. I gotta go."

"You're not making any sense, sweetie, it's nine o'clock and it's not safe—"

"I'm leaving."

Wham.

He had half-expected her to follow him out, but he didn't. Probably because rain was pouring down like a gigantic waterfall and he was soaked within seconds. The sky was so dark that Yami was having trouble making out the streetlights. Cold water seeped through his clothes, his bare hands were turning red, he felt hot and cold at the same time and water blurred his vision, but he kept running. Light flashed in front of his eyes and the clouds above him growled loudly, almost hurting his ears.

It didn't take long for him to reach the destination and secretly, he had hoped it would've taken longer, but he had to do this. Blood red eyes scanned the area to check if anyone was around. The last thing he needed was to get caught and he really didn't want to explain the current situation. His feet carried him to the grey building, and Yami was about to lean against the wall to catch his breath when he saw a small, black cat sitting next to the front doors.

"You can't be here," Yami muttered hoarsely and he winced at the sound of his voice. That was when he noticed his throat was burning and that his mouth was awfully dry.

Blue eyes stared up at him curiously and the cat waggled its long tail. Yami knelt down at gently pushed her away from the door. As soon as his hand touched its fur, the cat mewled softly and obediently moved out of the way. His smile dropped the minute the tiny animal started growing. To make sure he wasn't seeing things, Yami rubbed furiously at his eyes, but the cat kept growing until it was slightly taller than him and it had turned into a…

Human. Standing in front of him was a woman who had long black hair that reached her waist, piercing blue eyes, tanned skin and Yami nearly lost his balance when he recognized her as his very own history teacher, Ishizu Ishtar.

"W-wait, what? How did— I can explain, ma'am," Yami managed to bring out. However, Ishizu didn't say anything, merely looked him up and down with a satisfied smile, while Yami was standing there, eyes wide in horror and shaking like no tomorrow.

"You don't have to explain anything. I've been waiting for you," his teacher reassured sincerely and she dusted off her uniform. "Let's go inside."

Without waiting for a reply, Ishizu reached inside her pocket and opened the front doors of the school. Yami followed her and cautiously walked past the lockers he had seen so many times, but they seemed completely different now. It made him feel sick. They stopped in one of the main halls and Ishizu used the same keys to open the classroom. She pushed it open and held out her arm to Yami who brushed past her, bowing his head.

After she had closed the door, she turned on the lights and Yami squinted, his exhausted eyes having to adjust to the fact it was no longer dark. Ishizu motioned for him to sit down so he awkwardly sat down on one of the desks while she pulled out the chair from behind her desk and slowly sat down.

"It's me who has to do the explaining, Yami," she spoke matter-of-factly and Yami casually nodded. "I was there when Yugi was murdered and I'm here to talk to you about what really happened fifty years ago."

Yami's heart was hammering painfully against his chest. This was almost too surreal, and no matter how many times he replayed her words in his head, it still didn't make any sense to him. Ishizu was waiting patiently for some kind of answer that he couldn't give her, so instead of answering, Yami nodded once again to let her continue.

"It all started when Atemu transferred to this school and instantly became one of the most popular students. His grades were great, he was one of the kindest people I've ever met, showed interest in everyone around him, and of course, everyone wanted to be friends with him or maybe even more than that," Ishizu started and she folded her hands together with a small sigh. "One of the people who wanted to be his girlfriend was your grandmother and my best friend, Lea. You probably already know she had been in love with him for quite a while."

"Yeah, I do," Yami breathed and he rubbed his hands together nervously.

"They became best friends not too long after he moved here and it was easy to see she was falling for him. She always told me everything and clung to her emotions for support because the situation at home wasn't good at all. Her life outside of school was absolutely terrible because her father never took her seriously for being single. He told Lea that she had to have a boyfriend on her sixteenth birthday and that she had to lose her virginity in order to become a woman. I tried to reason with her, but she was very close to her breaking point because she fought with her father everyday and was desperately seeking for a way out.

Since her and Atemu were best friends as well, she told him about her problems and, like me, he tried to help her, but never could. Though, when she told him that she was supposed to have a boyfriend and have sex, Atemu decided to help her out."

Yami hung his head, trying to imagine what it must have been like for his grandmother to ask such a favor from someone. It was beyond messed up and he couldn't believe it was nothing but the ugly truth.

"A few days later she told me what happened and of course, she was ecstatic. Her father was proud of her that she had finally managed to get someone to love her, and on top of that, she got what she wanted from Atemu," Ishizu continued quietly and Yami noticed her voice sounded different. "Atemu didn't know she had feelings for him, so I urged her to tell him, and she tried, but on that same day, April 2nd 1959, our teacher introduced Yugi Mutou to us and Atemu instantly fell for him."

"He did?"

"Yugi also became very popular because, like Atemu, he was nice to everyone and very fun to be with. He and Atemu started spending time together and Lea told me it was getting harder and harder to be alone with Atemu. She knew he was slipping through her fingers and that she couldn't do anything about it. After many futile attempts, she gave up and watched them slowly falling in love with each other. On May 15th, Atemu and Yugi officially became a couple and her world collapsed.

On top of that, homosexuality was frowned upon and so, both Atemu and Yugi, started losing their friends. Nobody wanted to talk to them anymore, let alone be friends with them. Lea was the only one who still tried to talk to Atemu every now and then, but he had started avoiding her. One day, she confronted him and Atemu accused her of using him and taking advantage of his friendship. He pushed her away and told her that their friendship was over."

Even though it was hard to admit, Yami thought it was understandable from his grandfather's point of view since he had no idea that Lea had fallen in love with him. It explained why Atemu never knew that Lea was pregnant and that he had a grandson.

Yami's eyes widened at the thought. "What happened to Lea afterwards?"

"After Atemu had told her he was done with her, she was quite depressed," Ishizu answered and her eyes shone with sorrow. "Not long after that things got a lot worse."

"She found out she was pregnant," Yami whispered and pressed his lips together when Ishizu nodded.

"It was horrible. She couldn't believe she was pregnant and that Atemu was the father. A few weeks later, she dropped out of school because she couldn't take it anymore, but the very reason things hadn't gotten out of hand yet, was because of her constant presence around Atemu. Now that she was no longer there, people started getting violent. Everyday students would steal their stuff, their money, call them names, and even though, the teachers knew what was going on, they didn't interfere. In fact, I heard a rumor that they were actually disgusted by the relationship as well.

The bullying became worse and at some point, students started abusing them. Yugi always wore long sleeves and Atemu had become vigilant. They pretended they had broken up to avoid the trouble and to some extent, it worked. Yugi came up with a plan to meet every Friday at school and because of that, I assumed that their parents weren't fond of their relationship, either. But it was not enough."

Yami wasn't sure whether he wanted to hear the next part because he knew what was coming. So far things were starting to make more sense in his head because now he was finally able to get all the necessary information. He could connect the dots, but still…

"Students still ignored them, humiliated them, called them horrible names and beat them up whenever they could. I saw Atemu falling apart and that he had gotten this certain look in his eyes while Yugi tried hard to stay positive. There was also the fact that Atemu missed Lea dearly."

"What?" Yami straightened up, confused. "I thought he hated her."

"No, he loved her as a friend. He just felt betrayed and that's why he cut ties with her. But I think it's quite understandable that after losing all his friends, Atemu missed having her around, since he didn't have anyone to talk to anymore. He was close to falling apart and after a year of getting bullied, Atemu had had enough."

Instead of continuing like Yami had expected her to, she reached under her desk and pulled out a black bag. She laid it on the table, opened it and Yami froze when he saw she was holding a large knife.

"This knife took two lives in one night," Ishizu said, holding up the knife and Yami could see the brown patches of dried blood on it. It was a very sharp knife, one that could easily slide through human skin and Yami shuddered at the thought.

"Two?"

"Atemu killed himself after he had killed Yugi." Ishizu put the knife back in the bag and closed it. "That was his plan all along. Kill Yugi and commit suicide so they would both be dead and end up together. I saw him walking over to the river after he had gotten rid of Yugi's body and he slit his wrists. The knife fell the ground after he let himself fall in the river and I picked it up."

"Wait, you were there?" Yami jumped up from the desk and glared at her. "You could've stopped it!"

"No, Yami."

"Why not?"

Then, Ishizu reached for her collar pulled it down, revealing a golden necklace around her neck. "My necklace allows me to foresee the future. I know that this was going to happen and knew that I couldn't interfere with destiny. Atemu had to die and there was nothing I could do about it. Yugi had to die, too."

This was almost impossible to believe, but after witnessing a cat transforming into a teacher, seeing dead people, getting that weird flower on his hip, Yami was willing to believe anything. Yet, this was so unfair that it still pissed him off.

"Is that why he's still here?"

"Yugi's spirit cannot be free because his soul was torn," Ishizu told him and Yami's jaw dropped in response. "His love for Atemu was so pure that as soon as the knife went through his heart, their bond broke and so did his soul. A part of his soul remained here on earth and because he was buried somewhere in this school, he can't leave. No one was able to find the body, not even me, and I think I know why. I knew that you had seen him, Yami, I could see it in your eyes. The hurt, the confusion, the distress…"

"He thought I was Atemu," Yami uttered, trying not to get carried away by the awful memory of seeing Yugi for the first time.

"I do have to admit that you look so much like him." Ishizu got up on her feet and smiled kindly at him. "The only differences are your eyes and your skin tone."

Yami was not exactly proud he looked so much like his grandfather and he quickly motioned for her to continue so he didn't have to think about it too much. His teacher reached for her neck and took off the small, golden necklace.

"I want you to have it. Use it when you're ready to see the truth."

"What?" Yami asked, confused again.

"You'll find out soon enough," Ishizu brushed him off and she reached for the bag with the knife in it, holding it out to him. "This also belongs to you now."

"No, it doesn't," he argued, not liking this at all.

"Yami, listen to me," Ishizu said, her voice stern and serious. "The only reason nobody has been able to find the body is because you're the only one who can. I knew it from the moment I saw you and your friend breaking into school to find out more information."

It took a few seconds before Yami realized what she was talking about. He saw himself standing in front of the school, looking around to check if they were alone, and recalled seeing that cat looking for shelter. "… The black cat."

"Yes, that was me."

"Right. Of course."

"I was born with powers and so were you."

Now he was close to losing it. "Excuse me?"

"You have your own power, Yami. And that power is linked to an ability, which I'm sure you're aware of?"

Yami had seriously no idea what she was talking about. No one had ever told him about this, not even his parents, but then again, his parents were always quite secretive and it didn't surprise him that they would've kept this secret from him as well.

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," he eventually said.

Much to his dismay, Ishizu sighed. "That's rather unfortunate in this situation. Everyone has to find out about their power and ability by themselves, otherwise there's a chance the power will be affected. I am allowed to tell you that once a power is used on another person, it will leave a permanent mark on their body. And don't worry, you'll find your power soon enough. Now we have to focus on finding Yugi's body."

There was a short silence until Yami broke it. "I have no idea where to begin. Atemu did mention it was where they met for the first time but's way too vague."

"You have all the needed information, Yami," Ishizu assured him and placed the necklace in his hand. "All you need to do is put the last pieces of the puzzle together."

Before Yami could protest, she turned into a cat again and ran out the door. "No, come back!"

Groaning loudly, Yami dropped the bag onto the floor and heard a loud clank. He jumped off the table, put the necklace in the bag and slung it over his shoulder. On his way to the hall, he tried to gather all the information he had collected so far. The things Yugi had told him left him with nothing but gory images, Atemu had only given him vague clues, Ishizu's story was very helpful but still very hard to analyze and then there was Atemu's journal.

The journal. "I'm so stupid," he hissed at himself after he realized he hadn't brought the journal with him. He squeezed his eyes shut, using his photographic memory to see if he could bring back the pages.

Several random sentences appeared in his head and he swept them aside, close to giving himself a headache as he tried desperately to look for something helpful. Stories about how Atemu fought with his parents, him hanging out with Yugi, the gruesome last page, the painful conversation he had had with Lea… And finally, there it was.

"We got a new student during English today."

That had to be Yugi. Yami started running, but as he reached the classroom, he stopped right away. Yugi's body couldn't be in there. Surely, someone would have noticed the vile smell after all those years, or found the rotting bones and the blood and… Retching, Yami placed his hand on his stomach, and tried to control himself but he knew he wasn't going to be able to hold it in anymore.

He bolted for the nearest restroom, kicked the door open and threw up in the first sink. Tears leaked out of the corner of his eyes as he continued to vomit until he was gasping for breath and panting. Shaky arms held him up as tried to pull himself together. His throat and mouth burned and he ripped off a piece of paper towel, wiping off his lips.

"Damn it," he breathed, coughing a few more times and splashing some cold water on his face. His body ached and his brain was screaming at him to go home and get some sleep.

No, he would not go back.

After a few minutes of allowing himself to catch his breath and calming down, Yami went back to the classroom and placed his hand on the doorknob.

"Please be open, please be open," he whispered and fortunately, it clicked and opened. The door swung open with a loud squeak and Yami slowly walked in, turning the lights by tapping the switch. One by one, he started moving the desks and chairs to back of the classroom so he could walk around freely.

Now he was facing an empty classroom, which made him think he was stuck in some sort of nightmare. He had no idea where to begin, hell, he didn't even know if this was the right place.

Yami pursed his lips and let his eyes roam over the entire classroom until they looked down at his feet. The floor.

He straightened up, drew imaginary lines over the wooden floor and started in the far left corner. He started stomping on the planking, digging his heels into the wood, hoping that he would be able to find a weak point. Minutes went by while he padded the classroom, stomping his boots on the hard floor. Sweat was starting to trickle down the back of his neck, but he pushed himself to keep going.

When he was about to give up, his left boot bore through one of the planks. At this point, his heart was beating so fast that his entire body was shaking and he could barely control his hands when they tried to pull out the broken plank. A hammer, covered in earth and other dirt was lying there and Yami felt like he was going to throw up again.

This was it. He snatched the hammer and used it to remove the rest of the planks, leaning on his other hand for support because he could barely hold himself up. After he had removed a good amount of wood, he was left with dark earth and sand.

"Okay," he breathed to himself. It had to be here. It had to. His shaky hands started digging, covering his fingers and nails in dirt and making them shiver even more. He only had to dig for a few seconds before he felt something really soft. It gave him more energy to dig and he continued until a very dirty blanket was revealed.

Taking another shuddering breath, Yami felt around and frowned when he didn't feel any bones. His hands roamed over the blanket, his fingers pressing on random spots, but he was absolutely clueless as to what could be underneath it.

With his heart almost popping out of his chest, uneven breaths and trembling fingers, he reached for the edges and started pulling the blanket down. Hair became visible and Yami swallowed, pulling more until he saw an unnaturally pale forehead, round cheeks, bloody lips, a thin neck, a tuxedo and finally, a large cut and a lot of dried blood.

"…" An indescribable sound came out of his mouth. Yami stopped thinking for a moment and roughly pulled the blanket towards him.

It was Yugi's body. Except it wasn't rotten, distorted or mutilated. If Yami overlooked the gaping wound, it would've looked like Yugi was just asleep. Yami leaned closer and carefully placed his dirty fingers on Yugi's eyelids, feeling the eyeballs. He gently ran his hand over the cold skin, noticing how soft it was and that there were still dried tears on his cheeks. Even the baby hairs next to his hairline were still intact and when Yami touched Yugi's lips, it finally dawned on him.

"This can't be real," he whispered almost inaudibly.

A loud crash woke up him out of his trance and he looked out the window, up to the dark sky, reminding himself that the clock was still ticking. He couldn't stay and he definitely couldn't leave Yugi's body here like this. Yami moved a bit closer, slipped his left hand under the shoulders and the others behind the knees and lifted the body up with a small grunt.

Yugi's head lolled back immediately, exposing his ghostly white neck. His arms hung lifelessly across Yami's torso, his small fingers slightly curled. Yami closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to calm down and steady his breathing.

"You found me," a familiar voice said and Yami's eyes shot open, locking on Yugi's. He was standing in front of Yami and looked down at his body with a sad smile before he looked back up at Yami. "Thank you."

Yami felt like he was going to collapse any second, but he forced himself to remain on his feet. Yugi disappeared again and a new voice entered his ears.

"Well done, Yami. I'll bring you home now."

It was as if a large hand yanked him off the ground and he shut his eyes, instinctively tightening his grip on Yugi's body until he felt solid ground beneath his boots again. Slowly opening his eyes, he found himself back in his room, and this time, he did fall to his knees.

Author's note: … Yep. PHEW, long-ass explanation. I fixed a few things and basically tried to clear things up, nyuh~.

Please review!