Seto crosses into the afterlife to settle unfinished business — a duel Atem fought without him. What starts as a rematch neither of them will back down from turns into something neither of them quite names: a room prepared before he arrives, a duel deliberately postponed, a night neither of them has any real reason to share. Two men who move by different logics, circling the same unspoken thing.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 始まりの始まり
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor₋yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
A hard sound rang through the stone corridor.
Even though Seto's shoes should have been striking the floor, the sound never seemed to linger. Absorbed somewhere, or perhaps this world itself simply had no need for the phenomenon of sound.
Either was fine, he thought.
This wasn't the living world.
How much of physical law applied here was never really the point.
Only one thing mattered.
Whether something existed, or not.
Lifting his gaze, the massive doors at the end of the corridor were already open.
As if his arrival had been assumed from the start.
Seto didn't slow his pace. No hesitation, no wariness. As always, he simply walked his own path, straight into the throne room.
The man he'd come for was there.
On the throne, a man draped in gold ornaments. He only smiled; he offered no words.
But Seto understood.
He knew the shape of that silence. Seto Kaiba knew it well.
Atem blinked once, slowly. His gaze didn't change.
Seto stopped a few paces short, as if measuring the distance between them.
It was Seto who spoke first.
"Yugi told me. That you'd appeared..."
His voice was flat.
Atem's eyes seemed to waver, faintly.
"...I see."
A short answer.
Nothing more was explained.
"But I wasn't there, that time."
There was no reproach in it.
Simply a fact. Atem didn't deny it.
"That's right."
Silence fell.
Seto fixed his eyes on Atem. Not an image from a record — standing right there.
"So. This time, I've come."
Atem's gaze wavered, his eyes narrowing.
Seto didn't try to read what that meant. There was only one reason he'd come here.
Seto crossed his arms.
"Let's begin."
The corner of Atem's mouth moved, faintly.
Not a smile. But not a refusal either.
"—Yeah."
A low reply. That single sound was enough.
The air shifted.
The throne room reclaimed its function as a throne room.
This was no longer the world of the dead — it became a place for settling things.
The hem of his coat swayed in a wind that didn't exist.
Atem took a step forward.
The distance closed, their gazes crossing completely.
There was nowhere to run. Not that either of them intended to.
The long emptiness between them was, at last, laid over the same stretch of time.
Light burst forth.
The Blue-Eyes' roar tore through the space, and, as if answering it, the Dark Magician swung down its staff. At the moment of collision, the very sky of the afterlife seemed to creak.
Seto's voice was sharp, without hesitation.
Atem's voice overlapped with it.
Light and darkness clashed, canceled, and burst apart.
The aftershock seemed to gouge the stone floor, kicking up dust.
Neither side gave ground, not a single step.
No — the option to retreat had never existed for either of them, from the start.
Life points were already down to a sliver.
"Not yet!"
Seto slammed down a card, and Atem answered in kind.
Their skill was evenly matched, the exchange unceasing.
Three rounds passed like that.
And then, silence fell.
Atem bowed his head slightly. His breathing was ragged.
Even the king of the afterlife couldn't escape the toll of a duel.
But Seto, composed as ever, raised his Duel Disk again.
Atem lifted his face. An expression mixing exasperation with the faintest smile.
"...Wait. Let's talk a little."
Seto's movement stopped, his brow furrowing at the unexpected suggestion.
"There's nothing to talk about."
At the instant answer, Atem shrugged.
"Don't say that. ...A break."
Seto stayed silent for a few seconds.
"...Fine."
Atem's eyes narrowed slightly.
"But after the break, one more match."
At Seto's words, Atem lost his words for a moment. Then he let out a deep breath. Not hiding his exasperation.
"...You really are only ever about that, aren't you."
Seto didn't answer. He only let out a small breath.
Atem laughed softly.
"You never change, Kaiba."
At those words, Seto narrowed his eyes, just slightly, for the first time.
"Naturally."
Atem sat down on the throne's steps.
Seto remained standing.
"Not sitting?"
"No need."
An instant answer.
Atem looked up at the sky through the window. The unchanging sky of the afterlife.
Silence fell.
Only the heat of the fight still lingered between them.
The silence didn't last long.
"What is it you want to talk about."
Seto remained standing.
Arms crossed, his gaze already fixed not on Atem, but on the spot where the duel space would surely unfold again.
Atem gave a wry smile at that blunt attitude.
He wanted this over quickly. And wanted to start the next one.
Atem thought for a few seconds.
There wasn't really anything he'd wanted to say. Words weren't what he needed.
Only — outside of battle, sharing the same stretch of time — he'd wanted, just a little, to confirm that.
Atem lifted his gaze.
"...The other day."
Seto's eyes moved, faintly.
"In the living world, the world was nearly swallowed by darkness. And you fought."
Atem went on.
"From the very start."
The scene from that time rose up in his mind.
A collapsing world, distorted dimensions.
And, from beginning to end, a man who never stopped resisting.
Atem said, quietly.
"My thanks."
Seto's brow furrowed, slightly.
"...Thanks?"
Not the words he'd expected.
"Yeah. The world was protected."
Seto fell silent for a moment.
Then, short, almost spitting the words out:
"Don't misunderstand. It wasn't for your sake."
Atem's eyes narrowed, slightly.
Seto went on.
"If the world disappears, the place to settle things disappears with it. I won't allow you to do as you please, in front of me."
He said it as if it were simple logic.
A faint smile rose at the corner of Atem's mouth.
"...I see."
He didn't deny it.
"Is that all you wanted to say."
Atem nodded.
"Yeah."
"Then... let's continue."
Atem closed his eyes for a moment, and laughed softly.
Just as I thought. This man.
Exasperation, and a faint relief, mixed together deep in his chest.
Atem stood up.
"Yeah. Bring it on."
The air shifted.
The truce was over.
Time to become duelists again.
The light faded.
The remnants of that final clash slowly dissolved into the air of the afterlife.
The outcome had already been decided.
The Blue-Eyes remained on Seto's field.
On Atem's field, nothing remained.
Silence.
A long silence.
Atem steadied his breath.
Something deep in his chest was hot.
Fatigue. Even in the afterlife, a duel wore down the soul.
Seto didn't move.
Not lingering in any glow of victory, only watching Atem.
"...So that's how you'll accept it."
He said it, as if confirming something.
Atem nodded, faintly.
"I suppose so."
The result was accepted.
Seto kept his arms crossed, glanced away once, and looked back.
"About what you said before... answer me one thing."
Atem's brow moved, slightly.
The tone was closer to a command, but Atem listened in silence.
"If you meant to thank me, why didn't you say it there, at the time."
Seto's eyes pierced straight through Atem.
A quiet question, but there was nowhere to escape it.
"Why did you disappear without a word. If you intended to give thanks, you should have said it then."
Seto took a step closer.
Atem lost his words.
He had stood in the living world, that time.
Yugi had been there. Seto hadn't.
But he could have waited.
It wasn't that he couldn't say it.
He simply chose not to.
He couldn't answer.
But Seto waited. A silence that allowed no escape, no evasion.
Atem looked away.
A rare thing. Even in the middle of a duel, he'd never looked away.
He couldn't find the words.
Why hadn't he said it.
There was an answer.
There was one, but whether he should speak it — hesitation rose in him.
"Can't you answer."
There was no reproach in it.
Atem shook his head, faintly.
"...No."
His voice dropped, slightly, lower.
There was an answer.
Whether to say it, or not.
Seto moved by reason, and had no grasp of the irrational.
But even so — no, precisely because of that.
Atem drew a breath. The words still wouldn't come. They stayed caught in his throat.
His gaze returned to Seto.
Deep within those red eyes, hesitation lingered.
Not the face of the king of the afterlife. The face of a single man, hiding his answer.
After a moment's thought, Atem opened his mouth.
Not reason. Not something he could prove. But not a lie, either. More than anything, he understood he wouldn't be released until he said it.
"...Because I thought you'd come."
Seto's eyes narrowed.
"I thought we'd meet again, like this."
That was all he said.
Seto watched Atem for a few seconds.
"That's all?"
The voice could have meant he was satisfied, or that he'd judged it not even worth evaluating further. It could be taken either way.
Then Seto turned his back. The hem of his long coat swayed quietly.
With unhesitating steps, he headed for the exit of the throne room.
Atem watched that back.
He couldn't stop him. There was no reason to.
The duel was over. The matter settled. The purpose fulfilled.
And yet, Atem's feet moved on their own. Following after Seto.
Keeping a certain distance, quietly.
Stepping into the corridor, the palace guards noticed at once.
"Your Majesty!"
One stepped forward with a salute.
"We'll accompany you."
A natural offer.
If the king of the afterlife was leaving the palace grounds, an escort was standard.
"No. Not necessary."
The guard raised his face.
Atem stopped him with only a glance. Don't follow any further.
The guard halted.
"...Understood."
Nothing more was said.
As Atem faced forward again, Seto's back was there, ahead in the corridor.
Not far, but not close either. If he hurried, he'd catch up. Atem followed that back.
Not as king. Only as a fellow duelist.
Seto didn't look back.
Whether he noticed Atem following, or not.
Whether he thought it didn't matter, either way.
Eventually, the gate leading outside the palace came into view. The outside air flowed in.
Seto's pace didn't stop. Nor did Atem's, following him.
Only that distance remained, unchanged, between them.
At the outskirts of the palace.
The sky of the afterlife was, as always, deep and bottomless.
At its edge, Seto stood. At his feet, an unusual device.
A mechanism built on the logic of the living world, out of place in the afterlife.
A faint light pulsed, low and steady.
Atem stopped a few paces behind him.
"...Will you come again?"
Seto's hand paused for an instant, but he didn't turn around.
After a few seconds of silence,
"Don't assume things will go the way you want."
He said it, flat and cold.
Words that could be taken as refusal, or denial.
But Atem smiled, faintly.
"...I believe you'll come again."
He murmured it, quietly.
Seto's shoulders moved, just slightly.
But his hand reached for the device's power system without hesitation.
Checking the wiring, adjusting the connections.
"You come to the living world."
He said it, still working, as if it were something simple.
Atem didn't answer. Because he knew he couldn't.
That time had been an exception.
A one-time intervention, close to a miracle.
Not a boundary that could be crossed by will alone.
But that applied to Seto as well.
There was no guarantee anywhere that this device would truly return him to the living world.
He'd been able to come here. But whether he could go back was still, unproven.
Even so, Seto's hands didn't stop.
Atem watched that back and murmured, quietly.
"...You could stay a little longer, you know?"
A voice faint enough to be lost in the wind.
Words far too weak to hold him back.
Seto's hands didn't stop.
"My business here is finished."
An instant answer.
The device's light grew stronger, its activation preparations coming together.
Seto looked up at the sky, once.
The sky of the afterlife. Endless darkness.
Then he faced forward again.
Atem said nothing more, either.
He only stood there, as one seeing him off.
The light began to open the boundary.
The air of the afterlife hadn't changed.
In a place where the flow of time was ambiguous, it was hard to say what meaning the unit of "a few weeks" even held.
But for Seto, it had genuinely been a few weeks.
The light of the transfer faded.
Stone floor spread beneath his feet, the edge of the palace grounds.
The reproduction had gone off without a problem. Seto looked around him.
The same coordinates as before. No margin of error there.
That was when several presences stirred.
Guards. But they didn't raise weapons. No trace of wariness — more like a look of confirmation.
"...A visitor."
One of them murmured.
Then, looking at Seto, gave a small bow of the head.
"We've been expecting you."
Seto's brow moved, faintly.
Expecting?
The guard continued.
"By the king's order, we've been told to prepare a room."
Seto only urged him on with a glance.
He was led inside the palace.
A corridor he hadn't passed through last time. And they stopped before a single door.
"This way."
The door opened.
Inside, it was properly arranged.
Simple, but unmistakably a "room meant for someone to use."
Seto looked around the room in silence. It had already been prepared, on the assumption that he existed.
"Where is your king."
A short question.
"In the audience hall."
The audience hall.
Before the throne.
Atem stood there.
When Seto entered, Atem's expression shifted, faintly.
Only for an instant. But it unmistakably softened. Then it vanished at once, returning to the face of a king.
"Kaiba. So you came."
His usual voice.
Seto closed the distance by a few steps.
"My room was prepared. ...Why."
Atem stayed silent for a moment, then spoke.
"...I told you, didn't I. That I believed you'd come again."
Quiet, and nothing more.
But Seto knew there was more to it than that.
Seto looked at Atem.
That one instant of expression from before said everything. Not the king — the face of a single man.
"...I see."
That was all.
Atem quietly looked away.
He was covering something up. He knew it himself. But the words wouldn't continue any further.
Silence fell.
It was a different silence from before.
The Blue-Eyes' light was swallowed by the curtain of night, and vanished.
The afterglow of the duel field slowly faded from the stone floor.
Before he knew it, the world outside the palace had grown dark.
Whether the afterlife had a clear division of day and night wasn't certain.
But at least now, it was a time when the light had receded.
"...Let's continue."
Seto said it, as if it were only natural.
But — "Wait."
Atem stopped him again.
Seto's brow furrowed.
"It's late already today. Stay the night."
Without missing a beat, Seto answered.
"No need."
"There is."
An instant answer.
Seto narrowed his eyes, but Atem went on.
"A settled match should be fought at full strength."
The logic of a fellow duelist.
Seto fell silent.
A few seconds.
"...Fine."
At that answer, Atem's eyes lit up, faintly.
"But, one match, tomorrow morning."
Conditional. The purpose remained, right there.
Atem let out a breath. Exasperation, and a smile tinged with something like resignation.
"...Yeah. Bring it on."
Just as I thought. This man is like this, to the very end.
Night.
Seto's room.
A space prepared in the afterlife.
Seto was adjusting the device. Stabilizing the return route. Recalculating the coordinates. Confirming reproducibility.
That was when the door was knocked, quietly. He lifted his face.
"Atem, come in."
The door opened.
It was, indeed, Atem.
Seto said nothing. Atem said nothing either.
He only stood there, with no sign of having any business to state.
At a natural stopping point, Seto set his work aside and looked at Atem.
"...I doubt it, but..."
Atem's shoulders tensed, faintly.
Seto went on.
"You came without any actual reason, didn't you."
That struck the heart of it. Atem understood.
He's been noticed.
He fell silent for a few seconds, then laughed softly, as if giving up.
"You really can't be fooled, can you. ...It's a little too quiet here... I was lonely."
Light, like a joke, and like putting on a brave face. And he added:
"And I figured you'd come here anyway..."
But all of that was the honest answer, beneath everything he'd been hiding.
Seto listened in silence. His expression didn't change.
"...Don't drag me into your own circumstances."
Cold words. A shape of refusal. But there was no anger in it.
Atem's smile didn't break.
"Yeah. I'll be careful."
He nodded, obediently — but it was a promise he had no intention of keeping.
For a while, they shared a stretch of silence.
Atem turned toward the door.
"...Sorry for the interruption."
He set a hand on it.
He paused for an instant before opening it.
Then, without turning around, he only said, "Tomorrow."
"Yeah."
Seto answered shortly, and the door closed.
Seto lowered his gaze to the device again. But for a while, his hands didn't move.
The night of the afterlife was quiet.
The sky was the same color as yesterday.
In a world that should never change, something, even so, was different.
Seto stood before the device.
Preparations for the return were already complete.
Atem stood a little behind him.
The same distance as last time. No closer than that.
The promised duel had been fought. There was no reason left to stay here.
Even so, Atem opened his mouth.
"...Will you come again?"
The same question as before.
But its meaning was no longer the same.
Seto's hand finished the final check on the device. Without turning around, he answered.
"Believe what you want to believe."
Atem's eyes widened, just slightly. Then brightened, more than he could hide.
"...I see. Next time, I'll have a feast prepared, then."
"Not necessary."
A voice tinged with exasperation, and a sigh.
The device's light strengthened, the boundary beginning to open.
Seto lifted his gaze, once.
He looked at the sky of the afterlife, then faced forward again. The light swallowed his figure, and he was gone. Silence returned to the place.
Atem stood there, unmoving for a while.
Saying nothing, not following, simply standing there.
Eventually, he let out a small breath.
The sky of the afterlife remained, as ever, quiet.
But between the two of them, something, unmistakably, remained.
Something that didn't need to be put into words.
Something that connected to what would come next.
