7 – Who Am I?

Turning to see Yugi Muto (Muto Yugi in Japanese) was so incredibly odd to me. The hair, the style, the millennium puzzle, all of it was real and his curious and innocently happy face was smiling up at me as if I was a friend of his he hadn't seen in a while.

"It is you Arakaki-senpai! I never got a chance to thank you for before!" He says and walks up in front of me before bowing. "Thank you for looking out for Tristan, Joey, and me. Things might have gotten bad that time if you didn't intervene."

'Yup. I have no fucking clue what he is talking about-Ah. And there it is.'

"Sure, no problem Muto-san. I hate bullies and Ushio had it coming for the way he relentlessly picked on you. I am just glad the others stepped in to help before things got too bad."

Ok - I still need to unpack this - but basically, I had stopped Yugi and the gang from getting bullied by the school delinquent, Ushio, and his lackeys. He punched Yugi and, when I saw it while passing by, I rushed over and kicked him in the nuts before knocking him out with a right hook to the jaw. His lackeys then tried to jump me, but with Joey and Tristan's assistance, we fended them off. 

Afterward, I laughed it off, patted my juniors on their backs, helped Yugi up, and waved to them over my shoulder while walking away. 

'Why did I do that, though? And...I think the original Toshiaki is cooler and more popular than I might have originally assumed.'

Not looking into my new memories might have been...okay, no, it was a huge oversight on my part. One that I was currently paying for.

"I am 'Muto-san' as well!" Solomon says with a bark of laughter while patting my shoulder. "So just call me Solomon, Arakaki-san. You saved my grandson and proved to be a very kind and generous man, so I think you have more than earned it." 

"Yes! Please call me Yugi, Arakaki-senpai!" Yugi asks me with eyes shining with respect.

Chuckling to myself, I wave my hand in front of me. "How is it fair that I am the only one still stuck with my last name? If I am calling you by your first name, then feel free to call me Toshiaki." I say with an easy smile.

"Alright, Toshiaki-senpai!" Yugi exclaims with excitement in his voice. 

'Ah, right. Yugi was a bit of a loner and was picked on before his once bullies became friends...Now that I think about it didn't they become friends in a similar...way...?'

Uh oh. Looks like I may have jumped in on that first fight where Yugi tried to defend Joey and Tristan from Ushio and won their friendship in return. Based on the fact that he has the completed puzzle, I am guessing that Joey already helped him find the piece he threw in the canal. 

Oh well, it looks more like he respects me than us being close friends. I can work with this. At least I now know where we are in the story.

"Looks like your flyers are done," Solomon says and walks over to retrieve them. He then glances at them for the first time and frowns. "Are your parents alright with you renting out your-" He stops abruptly at Yugi's frantic arm waving and neck cutting motions.

I smile sadly, playing the part. "My parents passed away, unfortunately. I am on my own now and I am planning on renting out the house to earn a bit more income for the future."

"Oh...Toshiaki, I am so sorry for bringing that up. That was out of line." Solomon says with a sad frown while Yugi facepalms.

"It's alright. I am old enough now to live on my own and I have good friends to help me through it. Maybe even some new ones to talk Duel Monsters with?" I answer with a smile and nod at Yugi and Solomon.

"I would be honored to be your friend," Solomon says with a bow and Yugi practically jumps in joy.

"Yes! Yes! Me too!" He yells. 

"Well, I should probably head home. Lots to prepare for!" I say with a laugh while raising the flyers to indicate what I was talking about. The leftover awkward energy dissipates with my dismissal of the sad situation.

"Please come by anytime. Maybe you can join us for dinner whenever you are free?" Solomon asks.

"I would enjoy that very much. See you at school Yugi." I answer and nod to them both. I then turn and walk away, doing what I have realized is my trademark: waving while walking away. 

"He's so cool..." I hear Yugi say from behind me and have to hide my victorious smile. It might have started out bad, but I think I benefited from that exchange immensely. 

* | * | *

Back at home, I sit on my bed and close my eyes. It was time to find out who Arakaki Toshiaki really was.

I had briefly glanced through some of my new memories, but I never considered them MY memories and so they were not that important. That was a mistake. One I was going to fix now.

Arakaki Toshiaki was a 17-year-old half Japanese, half Egyptian young adult born on January 3rd, 1981. He was born and raised in Japan and spent most of his life here. His father was Arakaki Kenta, an electrical engineer for KaibaCorp, and his mother was Arakaki Nubia, an Egyptian-born painter.

They met when Kenta visited Cairo and stopped in to see an ancient Egyptian art exhibit. Nubia was working at the museum and they hit it off immediately. They quickly fell in love and were married. Nubia agreed to move to Japan and they started their life together here, having Toshiaki 3 years later.

Growing up, Toshiaki had a good life. He lived in an upper-middle-class gated community, had a loving and caring family, and wanted for very little. He was bi-lingual as his mother said it was important to learn both of their cultures.

In school, Toshiaki was always part of the popular group. He was not the most popular by a long shot, but he was someone most people knew or had heard of. He was known for his upbeat personality, cool and laidback, but polite demeanor, and fierce loyalty to his friends. He was a good student and athlete and was on the basketball team in middle school and for the first year of high school. 

In his first year of middle school, he and his parents moved to Egypt to a small village near the Valley of the King. They wouldn't tell him why, but he didn't mind all that much and found that he loved it there. He was very interested in learning about his Egyptian heritage. 

During his time there, he met 2 people who helped him find his way home when he got lost, Rasha, a girl 2 years older than him, and Namu, a boy 1 year younger. They became fast friends, though mainly him and Rasha. Namu always was dragged along and seemed depressed, but would rarely show a smile and admit to having fun.

The time I spent in Egypt was eye-opening and world-changing for me. Rasha and I would go everywhere to explore, sneaking her out from her strict family. We looked at ruins, tried out new foods, visited art galleries and museums, spent hours perusing the many bazaars, and in my last week there, I even managed to convince her to go on a trip to Giza to climb the Great Pyramid with me at night.

Sitting on its peak, trying desperately not to get caught, we stared out over the city and ruins around us. The lights in the night sky were dazzling and Rasha and I, lost in the moment and in each other's eyes, shared our first kisses there.

The next day, we had hell to pay as both of us got in serious trouble from our families, but we just laughed it off and knew that the memory was well worth the punishment.

Our last goodbye was a heart-wrenching experience with both of us crying. Even Namu shed a tear or two, though he pretended to get sand in his eyes. I hugged Rasha one last time and the moment seemed to stretch on for eternity but ended much too soon. 

When I came back to Japan, I was sad for a bit, but quickly got back into the swing of things. It was not within my nature to be depressed and I knew we would meet again if the Gods deemed it fit. 

School was different when I returned, being the transfer student made me even more popular, but I was accepted back into my old friend group easily and things soon got back to a sense of normalcy.

I earned a reputation as "The Heart Breaker" in my last years of middle school and first year of high school as I was confessed to many times, but I always turned them down. There was someone in my heart and it was not fair to others to try and use them as a replacement. 

Tragedy struck late into my first year of high school as my parents died in a car crash. There was nothing suspicious about it to make me think it was planned, just a drunk driver ruining another family's lives.  

When they died my estranged uncle, Hiroto, came trying to pretend to care about me and wanted to adopt me. I could see through his fake smile a mile away and I denied him and decided to live on my own since I was 16 now. This made him fly into a rage and he struck me several times. I managed to get away, but he would show up at my door nightly to demand I give him what he was owed.

Being a kid, I didn't know how to handle this, but, luckily, my best friend's dad was a lawyer and after hearing what happened, he stepped in pro bono to deal with my Uncle. No criminal charges were given, but I did get a restraining order against him and he was promised that if anything else happened, he was going to rot in jail.

Yamagata Kin, my best friend and one of the 3 princes of our school, really helped me through the loss of my parents and the abuse from my uncle. I owe him more than I could ever pay. Him and his entire family. Yamagata Ryo, Kin's father, was the lawyer I talked to in order to draft my lease agreement and I frequented their dinner table. His mother Yamagata Kimiko considers me her second son. 

This brings us up to today, we were 3 months into our second year at Domino High, and as I open my eyes, ending this remembrance, I feel incredibly dizzy. I realize that while reliving the memories, they stopped being Toshiaki's and started being mine.

I am different, changed forever.

I am no longer Josh in Toshiaki's body, I am both at once. His thoughts, feelings, and memories all merge with my own and my very soul completely meshes with that of Toshiaki's. There is now no longer a difference between us at all. We are one. 

'We are Venom.' I think with a laugh - Wrong universe, but it is similar in premise.  

I stand up from the king-sized bed in my house, the house I had lived in nearly all my life, and look around the master bedroom. Memories of my parents and I watching movies on this very bed with a laptop while laughing and throwing popcorn at one another creep into my mind. Unbidden tears fall from my eyes at the loss of two of the most important people in my life. 

But they would not want me to cry. They would not want me to give up and wallow in pain and sadness. No. They would want me to move on and live a good life.

So that is what I will do. I will live a life to make them proud. 

This, ultimately, changes nothing in my plans. I will still be Anubis and take the Dueling World by storm. I will still free my dad, Josh's dad, from the Shadow Realm. But instead of living a mob life while doing that, I will be living my real life. Toshiaki's life. 

I walk to the master bathroom and splash water on my face to clear it from the tears and, as I look into the mirror in front of me, I truly see myself for the first time. Before I would only see Josh, now I see Toshiaki and Josh merged together. 

I give a ruefully smile. 'Damned ikemen.'

I stood at 6'1" and had medium-length brown hair that fell down and was swept from my eyes stylishly. Golden yellow eyes stared back at me and the olive skin tone showed my heritage being Japanese and Egyptian. My face had both soft and sharp features, almost androgynous in a way. My body was athletic and I had light muscle on my chest and abs, not an 8 pack, but the outline of a six-pack was there. All in all, not too shabby.

I left the bathroom after drying off and sat on the bed. It was time to go over my friendships of the last few years to make sure I knew everyone and acted the same. I also had to build a deck that was mixed with my parent's cards. I had no idea where my real parent's cards were, but since the car they were in had crashed and was set on fire, I can only assume they were lost. 

Either way, I had to make sure the deck was something that would let me win some duel points tomorrow. 

As I was in the process of building the deck, after summoning the cards from the Transmigrator Shop to my bed, I heard my doorbell ring. 

'I swear to all the Gods, if my uncle is back, I am gonna rip him a new asshole.' I thought as I quickly made my way downstairs. It was the evening at this point, 8:36 PM, so I didn't know of anyone else who could be here.

I got to my front door and unceremoniously ripped it open...only to find three people that I never expected to see again. One in particular that set my heart aflutter. 

"Rasha...?" I ask into the darkness of the night.