Chapter Text
The air in the obsidian throne room of the Vampire Realm was always cold, but since the Great Witch War, it felt entirely frozen.
King Akefia sat hunched over a massive oak table, his crimson eyes scanning maps of border patrols he didn't care about. Standing just a few paces away was Lord Atem, Akefia’s closest confidant, highest-ranking noble, and best friend. Atem’s arms were crossed over his chest as he stared blankly out the stained-glass windows at the eternal twilight outside. They were two powerful vampires bound by an unwanted, agonising tether: they had survived the war, but they had lost their families to the witches’ final, desperate curse. Queen Bakura and Lady Yami were gone.
The heavy double doors of the throne room didn't just open—they slammed against the stone walls with a deafening CRACK.
"Father! Uncle Atem! You have to look! You have to!"
Akefia pinched the bridge of his nose, a sharp sigh escaping his lips. "Ryou, how many times have I told you not to burst in—"
"But we found them!" seven-year-old Yugi cried out, tripping over his own oversized boots as he rushed toward the table. His violet eyes were wide, glittering with a mix of exhaustion and manic excitement. Right behind him, Prince Ryou was panting, his silver hair a tangled mess from running.
Atem turned slowly, his expression a mask of practised, exhausted patience. He looked down at his young son. "Found who, Yugi? You two were supposed to be in your quarters hours ago. The castle guards have been frantic."
"We went across the veil," Ryou gasped, slamming a small, glossy piece of human paper onto the centre of the strategic map. "Into the human world. We found Mother and Aunt Yami!"
The room went dead silent.
Akefia’s shoulders went rigid. He slowly lifted his gaze, his eyes flashing a dangerous, warning crimson. "Ryou. Stop this. We have spoken about these fantasies."
"It's not a fantasy!" Yugi insisted, tears welling in his eyes as he stepped up beside Ryou to back up his best friend. "They’re alive! They look younger, and they wear strange clothes, but it’s them! We followed them down a human street. A boy shouted across the road at them—he called them Bakura and Yami! We heard it with our own ears!"
Atem closed his eyes, a pang of deep, familiar sorrow striking his chest. He walked over and placed a heavy, comforting hand on Yugi’s small shoulder, looking up at Akefia with a pained expression. "Yugi... the human world is vast. Your minds are playing tricks on you because you miss them. We all do. But your mother and Aunt Bakura are gone."
"They're not!" Ryou shouted, his voice cracking with all the defiance a seven-year-old prince could muster. He pushed the paper directly into his father's line of sight. "Look at the picture! I used the human device we found! Look!"
Akefia looked down, fully intending to tear the paper to pieces to end this painful delusion once and for all. But as his eyes locked onto the image, his heart stopped.
It was a candid, slightly blurry photograph taken from behind a human brick wall. In the frame were two teenagers in dark blue secondary school uniforms, school bags slung over their shoulders. One had wild, spiky hair with distinct crimson tips; the other had long, snow-white hair blowing in the wind. They were laughing.
Akefia’s breath hitched. Atem, noticing the sudden rigidity in his king's posture, stepped closer and looked down at the photograph over Akefia's shoulder. The Lord’s breath caught in his throat. The faces were identical. Identical to their lost wives.
"This... this is impossible," Atem whispered, his stoic noble facade instantly shattering as he looked at Akefia. "A spell? A trick by the remaining witches?"
"It cannot be," Akefia growled, his voice trembling as a dangerous cocktail of hope and fury coursed through his veins. "It's a coincidence. Doppelgängers. The human world is full of them. Atem, I won't let these boys break their own hearts over a ghost."
"We're not breaking our hearts!" Ryou cried, desperate. He grabbed the heavy gold Millennium Ring hanging loosely around Akefia’s neck and dragged it down toward the table. "Look! If it's a lie, why is the magic doing this?!"
Before Akefia could pull his son away, Ryou slammed the golden ring directly onto the photograph. At the same moment, Yugi grabbed the Millennium Puzzle from Atem’s chest, pulling it downward until the tip of the golden pyramid brushed the glossy paper.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, the throne room erupted.
The five pointed needles of the Millennium Ring suddenly snapped forward, locking into place like compass arrows, all pointing directly at the white-haired boy in the photo. The crimson gem at the centre of the ring began to pulse, casting a blood-red light that beat like a frantic, living heart. Simultaneously, the Millennium Puzzle broke free from Atem’s grip, hovering completely on its own in mid-air. The golden Eye of Anubis etched into the metal flared with a brilliant, blinding light.
Instead of just glowing, the combined magic of the two artefacts shot forward, tearing through the fabric of reality itself. A massive, swirling vortex of golden and crimson energy ripped open right in the centre of the throne room. The vortex stabilised, clearing like a window, revealing a live, real-time view of the human world.
Akefia and Atem froze, their eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated shock. Ryou and Yugi squeezed each other's shoulders, completely mesmerised.
Through the portal, they could see a sunny human school courtyard. Standing by a brick wall were the two boys from the photograph.
"I'm telling you, Yami, if I have to sit through another hour of history, I'm going to tear my own hair out," the white-haired boy—Bakura—groaned, leaning back with a scowl that Akefia recognised all too well. "Let's just ditch. There's an arcade down the street."
The spiky-haired boy—Yami—smirked, crossing his arms in a gesture that made Atem's heart skip a beat. "And get detention again? Though, I admit, the weather is far too nice for calculus."
Before they could finalise their escape, a group of human students approached them, waving and trying to get their attention. "Hey, Bakura! Yami! Are you guys coming to the club meeting after—"
Bakura completely snapped. His head whipped around, and a terrifying, venomous glare crossed his features. "If you pieces of human garbage don't open your eyes and notice that we are clearly busy, I will personally make sure you regret waking up today! Get your pathetic, screeching faces out of my sight before I lose my mind!"
The students paled, stumbling backwards in absolute terror, entirely frightened away by the sheer intensity of the insult and the sheer aura of malice radiating from the teenager.
Yami let out a sharp, amused laugh, stepping up beside him. "You really have no patience today, do you?" Yami asked, though his eyes flashed with a familiar, dangerous amusement as he looked at the retreating students. He then placed a calming hand on Bakura's shoulder, his tone softening into something much more grounded. "Calm down, Bakura. Don't waste your breath on them. If we're going to ditch, let's do it quietly before the teachers spot us."
Bakura huffed, crossing his arms but visibly relaxing under Yami's touch. "Fine. But you're paying for the tokens."
With a sudden, violent crackle of magic, the portal snapped shut, collapsing back into the Millennium Ring and Puzzle, leaving the throne room in dead silence once again.
Akefia and Atem stood completely paralysed, staring at the space where the window to the human world had just been. The fierce attitude, the specific way they interacted, the undeniable bond—it was them. There was absolutely no doubt about it.
Breaking the stunned silence, Ryou and Yugi turned to their fathers, crossing their arms with proud, triumphant grins on their small faces.
"See?" Yugi said, a massive 'I told you so' radiating from his violet eyes.
"We told you we were right!" Ryou added proudly.