Mrs Moto hummed as she dusted, moving from the kitchen out into the Game Shop proper, where her father-in-law was waiting on a customer. "Soloman, have you seen Yugi?"

Soloman Moto bid farewell to his customer and turned to her. "Nope, not since breakfast. Has he run off again?"

"No," she sighed, leaning against the counter. "I haven't checked his room yet, so he's probably in there. I was just hoping that maybe he's been down here."

Soloman sighed. "That poor boy..."

"I know. But I understand, at least. It has only been three months since his father died."

"But he can't stay in his room forever." Soloman said. "Maybe I'll give him that Egyptian puzzle I found a couple years back, just to cheer him up."

"That old thing's too hard for a seven-year-old." Mrs Moto admonished. "I couldn't get it to fit together and neither could you."

Mr Moto smiled mysteriously. "Oh, you never know..."

Yugi's mother rolled her eyes. "Well, anyway, I'll go up and talk to him." She turned and left the shop, dropping her duster onto the livingroom couch as she passed. She mounted the stairs, and made to enter her son's room. She stopped, however, when she heard his tiny voice singing tunelessly. She paused outside the door to listen.

"...And they burried the king in the valley,

With gold upon his brow.

Wrapped in linen and sealed with tar,

They sealed the tomb behind them.

And the king lay still, forever still,

Until awake'd once more..."

Yugi's mother blinked, wondering where he'd heard such a nasty song. She nudged open the door and stepped inside quietly, looking over her son's shoulder without his noticing as he sat at his desk drawing. The little boy grinned happily to himself and launched into the second verse of the song.

"...And when I had awakened him,

He swore he'd never leave me.

Said he'd be my friend forever,

As the gold shown 'round his neck."


"Yes mama?" Yugi asked, turning around in his chair to look at her, his eyes shining in happiness she hadn't seen in them for weeks. She paused.

"What... What are you doing?" she asked finally.

"Singin'! I made it up myself." he said proudly. "And look!"

He held up his picture. It showed brown sands and a blue river and an impossibly blue sky, the way all children draw. A triangle (which Mrs Moto decided was supposed to be a pyramid) was set near the river, with a small stick figure near it. The little person had purple and black spikey hair, and she grinned at seeing her little boy drawing himself. The little person also had something gold and vaguely triangle shaped around his neck. "Very good Yugi, is that you?"

Yugi looked at her strangely. "No mama. I was drawing the pharoah!"

"Ah, of course, silly me," Mrs Moto said, smiling at him. She was thinking at the same time that maybe she should get Soloman to stop telling him stories about Egypt, it was beginning to warp his mind. "You just keep drawing then, and I'll call you when supper's ready."

"All right mama." Mrs Moto left, and Yugi turned back to his drawing and song.

"And he said he'd be my friend forever,

The Pharoah-King and I..."


WSJ: Oo; Dunno where that came from...

No own YGO! ^^v

God bless minna-san!