33 – When You Don't Answer Mom's Call...

Regardless of how we had gotten here, things were progressing rapidly.

Clothing had been shucked off, the sheets were already a mess from our rolling makeout session, and our hands held to one another tightly. 

Ishizu embraced me with the fervor of a woman finding an oasis after many days of traveling without water. The intensity of her passion was without equal, and I loved how she had chosen to show it...but I started to feel that something wasn't quite right when she would break from our kisses every few seconds to laugh or sob. 

For some reason, even with the adoration and love she was radiating, it felt...misplaced. 

'Am I overthinking this...?' I wondered internally, trying not to let the odd feeling ruin this moment for us.

My thoughts were proven to be correct a minute later when we broke apart again and she moaned out, "Oh, Taleem...How I have waited...wished for this day!"

Oooook - Full stop.

Even if it was still technically me, -Well, past me- her saying a name other than mine was like a bucket of ice water over my head. 

I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her gently back. 

"Ishizu," I said in a firm voice, trying to get her to listen to me.

Her eyes were misty and looked to be staring past me instead of at me. When she felt me push her back, her face scrunched up in consternation and she fought against my hold on her. Even then, she was not looking at me...not really, anyway. 

"Ishizu!" I yelled, shaking her shoulders to wake her from whatever had overtaken her.

She jolted at my voice, and blinked several times in confusion, her eyebrows coming together as if trying to figure out a strange puzzle. 

"Who...Taleem, who is Ishizu...?" She asked, her eyes still distant, as her body started to shake.

What really got to me, however, was the fact that she was speaking the dead language of Ancient Egypt, not Japanese. 

Ok...I can panic now, right? This was a good time to freak out, right!?! I think it is. 

I wrapped my arms around her bare caramel body and hugged her tightly to me as I whispered into her ear with a trembling voice full of worry, "You are Ishizu Ishtar, my Zushi, my love. You are not Isis...Baby, come back to me...please?"

There was a twinge of desperation in my words, and that, more than anything else, seemed to grab her attention. 

Ishizu groaned in my embrace and lightly hugged me back. 

"T-Toshi? My head...hurts..." Her words were like an icepick to my heart, but at least they were in the right language this time. I wanted to help her, but I had no idea how! 

Deciding to keep on with what was working, I continued whispering into her ear - Fighting as best as I could to stay calm. 

"I'm here, I'm right here, Ishizu. We are in my suite from Regionals, remember? I just lost in the 16th round against Rex Raptor. You were comforting me all night, remember baby? Please come back to me."

"Yes...You were...a big crybaby..." Ishizu whispered back weakly, an endearing smile slowly making its way onto her face. 

My eyes narrowed and I pulled back from her a bit with a fake scowl. "We agreed to never talk about that."

Ishizu's beautiful, musical laugh broke through all the tension of the last few minutes as her eyes finally focused back on me, clarity returning.

"Maybe you did, I just smiled." She snarked...before blinking, looking down at our very naked bodies practically glued together, and then looking up at me with a raised eyebrow. 

"Your idea, not mine," I answered her look, raising both my hands in a shrug as if to push all the blame onto her. 

I was innocent. Yup, completely innocent. 100%.

...Forget the fact that I had pulled off all her clothes personally, I was only following her lead!

"We...didn't, right?" She clarified.

"Not yet. You were trying pretty hard, though."

Ishizu paused, considered, seemingly remembered something, blushed furiously, then scowled at me. "You didn't fight it all that much."

This was a witch hunt!

I was innocent of all charges!

She glared at me and I took on a look of shocked indignation...before we both burst into laughter and collapsed back onto the bed. 

After a few minutes of just holding each other, my hand running lovingly through her raven black hair, I ventured a question.

"Ishizu?"

"Hmm?" She answered lazily. She loved it when I did this and it often put her to sleep when we cuddled at night. 

"What the fuck just happened?"

Ishizu sits up, pulling the sheets with her to cover her modesty...and completely exposing my immodesty...as she answers.

"I'm not really sure...I...I think it had to do with how deeply I integrated with Isis' memories. They kinda...I don't know, became mine. All her thoughts, emotions, and..." She trails off as her cheeks gain color once again. 

"Pent-up horniness?" I offer helpfully.

Ishizu smacks my arm playfully in outrage, but can't fight the smile from coming to her lips.

"Yes, her lust. She was celibate her entire life and pined for Taleem all throughout." 

"Well...can you...like, not do that again? Control it somehow?" I ask, not really sure how to phrase this and trying to be delicate. 

"I think so," She answers with a nod, "The feeling I had seems to have faded now...though I imagine our first time together might be rather...intense...as a consequence of this." She explains with a dry smirk.

"Oh, no! How terrible! I supposed I will just have to take one for the team..." I respond with a dramatic sigh...before looking up at her seriously, "But, for real, no calling me Taleem when that happens. That was a major boner killer."

Ishizu raises a dainty eyebrow again and flicks me in a certain spot that has certainly not died down.

I flinch in response and cross my legs protectively. 

"That is a relief boner, totally different!" I explain, "Besides, we are still very much naked and my hormones are confused as fuck right now."

She laughs, more of a throaty purr really, and says, "Well, I suppose I could help you out with-"

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

We both freeze as we hear a knock at the front of my suite door. 

I groan and she laughs again as we quickly start to dress. 

I pull my mask on first and walk out into the living room section of the suite so I can answer through the door.

"Yes?" I call in my deep Anubis voice. 

"Um...Mr. Anubis? Yamagata Kimiko is waiting in a conference room for you...She says she had an interview scheduled with you today and you missed it? She looks pretty pissed and said if you didn't answer, she was going to come and break down your door..." Said a woman awkwardly from the other side. 

"She...What?" I ask, completely baffled.

A tug on my arm made me turn towards Ishizu as she looks up at me. 

Her face is completely pale and she holds up her phone to show me the screen. 

11:57 am. 31 missed calls, 21 voicemails, and 42 messages - Most from, you guessed it, Yamagata Kimiko.

I paused in my inspection of the screen to quietly question, "You have her in your phone as 'Future Mom?'"

Zushi blushes, but shakes her head and whispers back hurriedly, "She put that in herself when she gave me her number, but this is not the time. I think we are in trouble!"

"You think?" I ask sarcastically.

"...Mr. Anubis, Sir?" The woman outside questions me again. 

"Yeah. I'll be right out. Please stay and lead me there." I finally answer the woman, before turning back to Ishizu.

"You go, I will sneak out in 10 minutes!" Ishizu offers in a panic.

I scoff, rip off my mask, and whisper-growl, "You're abandoning me? Why is she even here? And why is she so pissed off!?!"  

"I...sorta told her that something might be wrong with you and that she needs to come to pick you up ASAP...To be fair, you looked like you were having an epileptic fit at the time..." Ishizu explains with a sheepish smile, poking her two pointer fingers together in front of her.

"Wha-Why did you do that!?!" I demand, this time more in shocked dread than confusion.

"Because I care about you! When I saw you like that I had no idea what was going on and felt helpless! I thought you might need to go to the hospital! ...Then I saw Isis' memory...and kinda forgot about it when we...you know..." Her voice gets quieter and quieter as she explains. 

"I'm going to die, Zushi! She is going to kill me! Don't make me go alone!!!" I beg is my loudest whisper yet.

Ishizu, turns her head to the side and shrugs, "We can't let other people see us leaving the room at the same time! We live together, it would be totally obvious!"

"You- Argh!" I groan.

"You're right," I admit after rubbing my face viciously with my hands.

There was nothing wrong with her solution, and it was, objectively, the correct one.

But it still left me to deal with an angry momma bear all by myself...

"...You'll come to save me later, right?" I ask my lovely girlfriend.

She looks away and mutters, "Well, I really should be getting back to the museum, I have to turn in my reports and-"

"You'll. Come. Save. Me. Later. Right?" I demand, grabbing her cheeks and turning her head to face me.

"You're mom sounds really scary when she is mad! Toshi, I'm scared!" She admits past her adorably smushed face a second later.

"Join the club!" I retort back.

"...Mr. Anubis? Are you talking with someone?" The woman outside asks through the door.

"On the phone," I answer back, pulling the mask over my face once more. 

Ishizu sees this as her chance, gives me a quick hug, then sprints back into the bedroom of the suite without looking back, yell-whispering, "Love you!"

Oh. 

We were not done.

She would pay for this later.

In very sexy ways.

...If I was still alive, that is.

I checked my own phone.

11:59 am. 29 missed calls, 20 voicemails, and 32 messages.

'Great. This will be fun.' I think, psyching myself up to enter a warzone.  

* | * | *

When I entered the meeting room that Yamagata Kimiko, my unofficial adoptive mother, was in, I did not face a woman so as much as I did an Oni. 

Maybe a Devil?

The point is, as soon as the door was closed, I was wrapped in a bone-breaking hug, my mask was ripped off as my face was checked, and I had to answer the question of if I was okay about 50 times. 

Luckily, there were no cameras in the conference room and there were no windows open into the hallway, otherwise, everyone would have been able to see the intimidating new duelist, Anubis, on the floor prostrated before a woman nearly a foot shorter than himself. 

After 30 minutes of reassuring her that I was okay and that nothing was wrong, Kimiko finally agreed to take this conversation back to her house. We would be leaving separately and reconnecting back in the parking lot of a sushi restaurant 3 blocks away, where I would be taken to prison and forced to atone for my sins. 

Still, as I sat in the back seat of the car on the ride home, I had a wide smile on my face.

The reason? 

The currently sulking Ishizu sitting right next to me.

When Kimiko heard that the fugitive was going to be heading back to the museum, she called Ishizu and "Politely Asked" her to be waiting by the entrance in 15 minutes so that she could join us for this friendly discussion.

Ishizu had been sending me scathing, betrayed looks every few minutes, but I, somehow or other, managed to weather them just fine.

"Wipe that smirk off your face, Aki." 

A polite reminder of me being in trouble was all it took to sit quietly next to my accomplice in whatever fictitious crime we were being accused of. 

The car ride to the Yamagata household was intensely silent after that.

When we arrived, we were escorted into the front entrance, and, by some stroke of misfortune, both Kin and Ren were there giggling silently behind one hand as they used their other hand to point at us. 

This earned them the honor of joining us for our amicable chat. 

Kimiko was really mad it seemed. 

Finally settled down in the Yamagata families' living room, we were asked to explain what happened. 

Ishizu had the great pleasure of telling how she found me shaking in bed, was worried, and sent the message out.  She then immediately passed the torch on to me to figure out an excuse that didn't mention our secret Egyptian items. 

"When I woke up, I felt fine, Ishizu cried a lot, and then we made out and both fell back asleep."

That was the best I had. It was almost all true too! 

...I work in plans, okay? I am still learning my improvisation skills!

The whole situation with Pegasus should have been proof enough of that, and they all knew who I really was! I couldn't go back to my tried and true "Intimidating Silence" method as I could with Anubis! 

It was not well received, as one might expect.

Kin look impressed that I had the balls to say such a bold statement to our mom with a straight face, but no one else seemed to appreciate my straightforward answer. 

Least of all, Ishizu...who was currently glaring a hole in the side of my head. 

"...I see." Was Kimiko's response after about 5 minutes of straight silence. 

She then sighed deeply and cradled her head in her hands. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? How worried Ren and Kin were? Ishizu, how could you send such a message and then forget to check your phone? Toshiaki, why would you not call one of us after you experienced an epileptic fit? You both were incredibly irresponsible today and put an enormous amount of stress and worry on people who care for you! This is not acceptable behavior from anyone, but I would have expected better from the two of you. You left us panicked and thinking the worst may have happened to you for 4 hours!"

Kimiko looked absolutely exhausted as she continued, "Aki, you need to think about the consequences of your actions and how they affect the people you care about. You also need to not let your baser instincts overrule your sensible brain. How could you just move on after experiencing something like that, as if it was no big deal? Were you not scared, or do you truly believe it is all fine now just because it stopped and you survived it? Your health is not something I, or anyone in this house, would ever want you to gamble with. I expect you to go for a full checkup and get this looked at. We need to know if it was a one-time thing caused by stress or if we should expect this more in the future. What would happen if Anubis suddenly collapsed on a dueling stage and they had to rush you to the hospital? Your real identity would be exposed and you would have lost the secret you have worked so hard to keep. I hope you realize that people can die from epileptic seizures and this might affect you for the rest of your life!"

Properly chastised, we both offer our apologies. It feels hollow after the fact, but we both truly mean it. 

She was right, we needed to be better and smarter. We couldn't just get wrapped up in our own little world, especially since we couldn't be completely honest with them. 

"I hope you both remember this in the future. We are your family...at least we hope you consider us to be. Family helps one another above all else. Thank goodness you both are okay." Kimiko finishes, standing up and coming to lean over both of us. She pulls us into a tight hug and kisses my forehead before letting go.

As she walks back to her chair, we find a lip-quivering Ren standing there with hands on her hips.

"What the fuck!" She shouts, her eyes starting to leak tears. "I was so worried. Don't ever d-do that a-again!" She finishes this by launching herself at both Ishizu and me. We hugged the diminutive girl as she cried and expressed her worries for both of us. 

We each apologized to her as well, and when I looked over to where he was sitting, I find Kin standing next to me. He then hits me on the shoulder. Pretty damn hard too!

"Don't worry your family like that." Was all he said, before joining in on the hug.

It was nice to know that they all cared so much about us, and Ishizu started crying because of how much their feelings of care and love meant to her. 

Her remaining immediate family wasn't much for mushy love talk, and by that, I mean none at all, so she almost never got to express these kinds of emotions; Always having to be the stoic leader. It was cathartic for her to be able to express her own worries and concerns and have someone worry about her in turn. 

There was no real punishment, but Ishizu and I both apologized profusely for the worry we caused. After that, they surprised us with a party they were planning to celebrate how well I did in Regionals.

With all that had happened, I had nearly forgotten that the tournament was only a day before, still going on in fact! Today had seemed like a week all on its own. 

 The party atmosphere eventually picked up from its lackluster start, and, when Kin's father, Ryo, got home from work, it kicked off in full swing. 

We stayed together late into the night and, despite the awkward circumstances of our arrival, we left feeling much closer to everyone.

Back at home, there were more tears to be spilled as Ishizu cried at how nice it felt to be with a family that cares. She gathered both Marik and Odeon together and made them promise that we would all spend a family night together soon.

I thought Odeon was going to strangle me, luckily, Ishizu explained they were happy tears. She just wants us all to spend more time together, and to try to rebuild what her family once had when they were younger...When her mother was still alive.

They could not really argue considering she had tears in her eyes as she hounded them for a promise. 

At the end of the heavy night, we went to bed both physically and emotionally exhausted. 

Ishizu and I promised each other we would be more cognisant and aware of how our actions affect others. We couldn't tell them all of our secrets, but we could make sure we never caused a scene like this again. 

As Zushi drifted off to sleep, I pulled up a screen that I hadn't seen in, what felt like, ages. 

Today had been a rollercoaster, but I couldn't spend time dwelling on it. It was time to prepare for the next stage of my adventure.

Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom was just around the corner, literally days away, and both Anubis and Isis would have to be ready.

Staring at the golden outline of Egyptian Heirogrliphics on the edges and a black box with golden letters within, I chuckled to myself as I realized I could now read what the symbols said.

In short, it was nonsense. Clearly, whoever put this together had no idea what these symbols meant.

But that thought gave me pause.

'So they are not a God, then...or at least not an omniscient one.'

Ignoring the internal question, I turn my attention back to the golden words within.