The Pharaoh and the Wayfarer (Atem/Yami Yugi x Spirit! Reader)

Prologue: An Unexpected Partnership

(1 Year From the Present Day)
While having a teenager wield an artifact of unknown, ancient, and most likely devastating power was perhaps the last thing any tribe of mystical scholars would ever want, they could not change what had been decided. Rain was chosen to wield the power of the Millennium Bracelet, and that only meant a catastrophe must be on the horizon for it to choose a new master now after all these years.
After that terrifying night, Carter began having his granddaughter trained in the traditional manner of the heirs of the Wayfarer Tribe. The traditions had long since fallen out of practice, but Wayfarers tend to keep knowledge close enough at hand that it could be relearned fairly quickly, and with Carter sounding the alarm, it seemed the whole of the tribe was united again overnight. The (L/N)s began exploring across the world, traveling from place to place, immersing themselves in the culture, and understanding the histories of the world. They were housed by members of the tribe who greeted them as family, for they were united in their mission after millennia of waiting. Carter tried to shield Rain from the burden of her destiny for as long as he could, wanting her to enjoy her childhood before the threat of whatever enemy the tribe had sealed away returned for its revenge. However, she was his granddaughter, and Rain noted the signs. She knew the legends just as well, and there were periods in time, when she was in mortal danger, such as surrounded by cutthroats or left to die while exploring ancient ruins, that her memory lapsed and she would emerge unharmed, while her assailants were usually incoherent or crushed under the weight of guilt.
There was another unexpected situation that seemed to trigger these bouts of amnesia: Duel Monsters.
With all of the traveling the (L/N)s did, the teenager had to pick up a hobby to satiate her boredom, and she was inexplicably drawn to the card game. The strategies, the mind games, and the understanding needed just spoke to her in a way no other game seemed to. Rain was good, raking up an impressive number of tournament wins across the continents, and this of course drew negative attention as well. On a few occasions, her cards had been stolen, they were denied passage to leave, or someone outright insulted the Wayfarers. On these occasions, the girl would blackout, and when she awoke, she was victorious, and her opponents were usually remorseful.
Rain knew something was happening to her and she couldn't help but feel as though someone was...watching her, like a person lingered in her shadow. However, the discovery of the truth behind the powers only came during a fateful trip to Egypt, one year before the craziness really started in her opinion.
"And so, with no spells or traps on your field, I attack your Ancient Elf with Ori the Forest Guardian, taking out the remainder of your life points."
Samson groaned, flopping on his back as, yet again, he lost the duel to the guest his family was hosting. Rain smirked slyly at his immature reaction.
"So, that makes 4 wins to 0. Want to make it a clean 5?"
"Shut up and shuffle."
Rain laughed at Samson's tone as a knock came from the door.
"Come in!"
Carter walked in, adorned in older explorers clothes his granddaughter playfully referred to as outdated.
"Are you kids still playing that card game? You remember we have ruins to survey today!"
"Aw, we were just playing, gramps!" Rain insisted. "Besides, we're all set to go! Right, Samson?"
"Yup, completely!" He said, standing up and marching out.
Carter chuckled, noting the sour expression on his face.
"She trounced you that badly, huh?"
"Shut up!"
(Timeskip)
Rain was diligently taking notes regarding the style, approximate age, and overall condition of the ruins, just as her grandfather had taught her. These ruins had only been recently uncovered thanks to a particularly violent season of sandstorms, yet all things considered, they were in great shape.
"I can't believe the state this place is in! It's hard to imagine it was completely buried less than a month ago."
"Well that just goes to show you how capable the Ancient Egyptians were as architects." Samson responded, sketching out the structures and even taking measurements.
Rain smirked. "You think these were built during the time of the Wayfarer Queen?"
The raven haired boy rolled his dark eyes. "Oh, don't tell me you believe that old fairytale."
"You don't?" Rain said in an accusatory way. "What descendant of the Wayfarers doesn't believe in the Legend of the Wayfarer Queen?"
"One that has done his research. There's no way any of what that bedtime story said is true. I mean, a Pharaoh marrying a nomad and making her Queen of Egypt? It's impossible and yet it's the most reasonable part of the story."
"Aw, Sammy, you don't believe in true love?"
"I believe marriage in the ancient times was about power accumulation and convenience, not love."
Rain stuck her tongue out at him. "Leave it to you to gripe about perhaps the best love story our tribe retained."
"That's not it. I enjoy a good romance story, but that's all it is, a story, a myth to explain the origins of our tribe to children. We shouldn't try to view it as fact, especially with all that talk about monsters and dark magic."
The (H/C) haired girl shook her head at him disappointedly. "Oh gods, you're a Wayfarer who doesn't believe in magic. That is the saddest thing I have ever heard, and we have some pretty depressing stories in our archives."
"Oh, ha ha. Mock me all you want, but the closest thing to monsters and magic we're ever gonna get is Duel Monsters. I highly doubt some darkness from gods knows how many years ago will rise up to smite the world."
Rain dangled her bracelet in front of him. "I'm sorry, who has the Millennium Bracelet? You know, the artifact that our tribe was founded around?"
He shoved her wrist away. "You know as well as I do that all cultures have some sort of creation myth. It's human nature. Our people just based theirs on a piece of fancy jewelry."
Rain fiddled with said fancy piece of jewelry. "You know, grandpa has tried to have the bracelet tested, to see what it's made of, but every machine or chemical that touched it would short circuit or burst into flames. To this day, we don't know what it's made of!"
She made creepy noises to try and spook the boy, only for Mason to give her an unimpressed look.
"We still don't know what true Damascus steel is. I will concede there are things we can't explain yet, but I'm not ready to throw my hat in with magic."
Rain crossed her arms. "You are perhaps the most boring member in our tribe that I've met, and I had to sit through a six hour history lesson with an elder as an 11 year old. Also, I am willing to bet there's someone out there with the old recipe to Damascus steel tucked away in their archive."
Samson smiled. "That I will concede."
"Samson! Rain! Come here! We may have discovered something!" Carter called.
The teenagers bolted towards the elderly man and their guide.
"What is it, gramps?" Rain asked, kneeling next to him.
Carter grinned, pointing to an image engraved into what seemed like a sealed gate beneath their feet.
"Look familiar?"
His granddaughter's eyes widened as she recognized the symbol: it was the same eye emblem on the Millennium Bracelet.
"That's amazing, grandpa! Do you think these ruins are connected to the era of the Millennium Items? To the Wayfarer Queen?"
Carter began jotting down notes. "It's quite possible. The Valley of Kings isn't far from this place, and the Millennium Puzzle was found in the tomb at the heart of it. Actually, I really should have gotten into contact with the explorer who navigated the tomb. What was his name? Solomon?"
Rain smirked slyly at Samson as her grandfather rambled to himself.
Samson pouted, turning his head away. "Okay, so they are related to the time of the legend. That doesn't mean you're right."
"Keep telling yourself that, Sammy."
"Mr. (L/N), I believe we should regroup with a larger party and return. I fear we are not prepared for any further investigation." Aton, the guide, warned.
He was a very upstanding man in Rain's opinion. He was knowledgeable, well spoken, respectful to those deserving, and he tolerated her endless barrage of questions regarding Egypt's history and their mythology.
Carter nodded, standing up and brushing sand from his pants. "Right as always, Aton. We should go back and organize with local curators. They'll probably have more insight than we could hope to find."
Samson tilted his head, something catching his eyes as the older males began to move out of the way.
"Hey, what does that inscription say?"
At the top of the gate was a set of hieroglyphs, worn down by the sand. Aton squinted, trying to make them out.
"Hmm, give me a moment. The sands have left it very faint, but I believe I can translate it."
Rain tilted her head. What was he talking about? The inscription wasn't faint at all. In fact, it was probably the most clear set of inscriptions that she had ever seen.
"What do you mean, Aton? The inscription is about as clear as you can get. Have you been letting the sun get into your eyes too much?"
The men stared at her in disbelief. Maybe they would chalk it up to a poor joke, but Rain said it with such confidence that it was hard not to believe her.
"Ms. Rain, you can read this?" Aton asked, moving aside so she could see it better.
"Yeah. Give me a minute though, I'm not as good as you or gramps, Aton. Let's see...okay, I think it says...the gate? No...oh! The door! It says "The Door of Darkness has opened"! Whatever that means."
There was a loud bellowing beneath their feet as the ground seemed to jerk. Samson, trying to keep Carter from falling over, stared down.
"What was that?"
In an instant, the gate beneath slid open, causing the entire party to plummet into darkness. They all shrieked in terror as Rain covered her eyes, not noticing the glow of her bracelet. The wind seemed to tear her away from the party as they vanished from each other's sight. Feeling faint, Rain heard her grandpa in the distance calling her name as she blacked out.
(Timeskip)
Rain woke up to a void above her and the feeling of smooth stone beneath her. With a groan, she sat herself up and looked up. She must have fallen for some time because she couldn't see the opening they had fallen through, yet she wasn't hurt in the slightest. Glancing around, she noted torches lining the walls, illuminating illustrations of people playing various games or part taking in what seemed like battles with powerful monsters. She also noted how completely alone she was.
"Gramps? Samson? Aton?"
No response.
Rain sighed, smacking the side of her head.
"I just had to read that inscription out loud."
"You do not belong here."
Rain shrieked at the unfamiliar voice. She had been pretty certain she was alone, but evidently not as a man emerged from the shadows behind her with a rather unfriendly expression. He was, obviously, Egyptian with plain white robes, a white turban, and gold hoop earrings. Rain, already on the short side, was intimidated by his height as he walked towards her. She held up her hands.
"Wait! We're not thieves! We didn't even mean to come down here! The door opened beneath us, and we just fell through! I mean, I read the inscription, but I didn't think it would trigger a trap door!"
The man stopped as she rambled, starting to believe that this was not in fact a thief or trespasser, but an innocent bystander caught in one of the ancient traps. That's when his eyes caught sight of Millennium Bracelet, rattling as Rain made exaggerated gestures as she tried to explain herself.
"That bracelet. You...are you a descendant of the Wayfarers?"
The girl stopped, somewhat relieved the man knew this. "Yes! I am! I guess you could say I'm the granddaughter of the leader...though we don't really do leaders anymore. I mean, we seemed to have started it back up..."
"The heir to the tribe, chosen by the Millennium Bracelet." His expression softened. "So it has begun again." He suddenly bowed to her, respectfully. "Pardon my rudeness. To think I would accuse a member of the Wayfarer Tribe of being a common thief."
"No, it's my fault. We shouldn't have been down here to begin with. We weren't trying, but..."
The man nodded. "Yes. Follow me, I will reunite you with your companions and lead you out."
"That would be great! Wait, you know how to get around this place? It's been buried for centuries!"
The man smiled. "The sands hold many secrets, young Wayfarer."
"Okay, so you're the crypt type of stranger, got it. Well, I don't really have any other options. My name is Rain. Rain (L/N)."
The man nodded with a smile. "Shadi."
Shadi suspiciously knew his way well around the ruins, weaving through the corridors as though he had them all memorized. They didn't even run into any traps. Rather than try to get Shadi to admit how he knew about this place, Rain decided to just find out what he knew.
"So, Shadi, you obviously know a lot about this place."
"I have kept watch of it for some time."
"Right...so what exactly is this place? It doesn't seem like any tomb I've ever studied."
"It is not a tomb, it is a trial ground."
"Trial ground? For what?"
He held up a torch taken from the wall, revealing an image of a very familiar item, the Millennium Bracelet.
"To determine if Wayfarer heirs were worthy of wielding the very bracelet on your wrist. After several unnecessary deaths, these grounds were abandoned."
"Lovely. I don't have to worry about you shoving me into one of these death trials, do I?"
He chuckled. "Fortunately not. I believe if you weren't worthy, the bracelet would have made it known to you by now."
"Do you...happen to know anything significant about it?"
"Your people would have the most knowledge about it. It is the origin of your tribe."
Rain sighed. "You would think, but oddly enough, a lot of our knowledge surrounding it seemed to vanish during the time of the Wayfarer Queen. It is so strange, this artifact is integral to the history of the tribe, but we have so little knowledge about it."
"Unless the knowledge was purposely forgotten."
"Wayfarers don't try to forget knowledge, Shadi, we're knowledge seekers! Why would we choose to forget something so important?"
"Because the knowledge itself was dangerous."
"What do you mean?"
"Are you familiar with the legend of the Wayfarer Queen?" Rain gave him a look. "My apologies, foolish question. From the legend, the darkness emerged seemingly to challenge the power of the Millennium Items. The Wayfarers were the original keepers of the knowledge to create them."
Rain pursed her lips. "I see what you're getting at. If the knowledge got into the wrong hands, it could cause another catastrophe, so it was safer to forget."
"Precisely. The pursuit of knowledge is a noble goal, but it should never be at the cost of innocent lives."
"Agreed. Knowledge is supposed to help people."
Loud screams filled the corridors and Rain immediately recognized the voices.
"Gramps! Samson! Anton!"
She bolted down the corridor, leaving Shadi in the dust. She kept following the screams until eventually coming to an ominous chamber. There was a platform in the center, seemingly suspended above a bottomless pit with a table at the center. On the other side of the room was a cage split in two by a thin wall. On one side was the rest of her party.
"Guys!" She started to run towards them.
"RAIN! DON'T COME CLOSER!" Carter tried to warn, but it was too late.
Both the way forward and the way back were blocked by walls of flame, leaving her trapped on the central platform.
Rain gritted her teeth. "Are you guys okay?"
"A little worse for wear, but we'll live." Samson said. "You?"
"I'm fine."
"Rain, stay right where you are." Carter insisted. "We'll find a way out and come to you!"
A loud click and the sound of panels sliding suddenly filled the room. A low rumble followed, freezing Rain to her core.
"What was that?" Samson asked, scared.
From Rain's perspective, the beast that appeared wasn't some animal, but a shadow, a shadow with teeth, claws, and piercing red eyes that looked hungry. It slammed itself against the thin barrier separating the two halves of the cage, causing the men to skitter to the far side. The creature howled in protest as the barrier began to slide into the floor.
"Rain, I take it all back!" Samson screamed. "I believe! Get us out of here!"
"How!? I don't see a switch or any sort of trigger for the cage!"
"Check the table!" Aton insisted. "Maybe there's a key!"
With no other clues, Rain raced to the table and found what appeared to be a board. The board itself was a deep cobalt color. 30 squares were divided into three rows, some etched with symbols. On one side of the board were a set of five white pieces while the other side had black. Rain recognized the game.
"It's senet!"
"Senet?!" Samson yelled. "Why is there an ancient board game in the middle of a death trap?! Where's the key!?"
"I think the game is the key! I think I have to win to unlock the cage!"
"Who are you supposed to play against!?"
Just as Samson said this, a mirror appeared across from Rain. She stared deeply into it and her reflection changed into a shadowy figure. The figure motioned at the board.
"Okay, definitely having nightmares tonight."
Rain started the game. Senet was ancient, one of the first board games in human history. Each player would have five pieces and the goal was to get them off the board. The strategy came with using your pieces to block your opponent's way while also trying to get off the board, not to mention the many 'trap' tiles on the board. The mirror double seemed to be reading Rain's mind as it had a counter for each of her strategies. As precious seconds ticked away, the girl realized the doppelgänger wasn't trying to win, it was just stalling long enough for the monster to get to the rest of the group.
By now, the wall was a quarter of the way down and the shadow beast's giant paw began reaching into the human side of the cage.
"Hurry up, Rain!" Samson screeched.
"I can't pass it! It knows all my plays!"
"Ms. Rain, it's a test of mind!" Aton yelled. "You're facing yourself, so you can't fight as yourself!"
"Then who am I-,"
Rain voice cut off as the bracelet shined with golden light. When it died, she refocused her efforts on the game. Carter, even as the claws of death crept closer, noted the change of demeanor. It was just like the night he gave her the bracelet. Rain seemed to be a completely different person. Whereas a fairly standard casual player had started the game, the person now in control seemed to be a master, outmaneuvering the shadow clone, whose tactics were rendered useless now that the target of its copy was gone. As the shadow monster started to push itself through the ever widening gap, 'Rain' successfully got her last piece off the table. The shadow figure vanished as the back of the cage opened, allowing the men to escape. The monster attempted to pursue them, but the girl held up the bracelet which glow with alarming might.
"Shadow monster! Your trial is won! Begone!"
The creature whimpered in fear as the light drove it back and it eventually vanished into the shadows. The walls of fire died down as the girl looked into the mirror. For a moment, her eyes flashed to their original color and her expression was a bit more soft in the reflection. She blinked and Rain seemed to return to herself as Samson and Carter ran to her to thank her for saving them and for a game well played. Aton immediately suggested they vacate before any more traps were sprung. It was then that Shadi finally caught up to Rain and volunteered to lead them out. As they left, Rain lingered behind to look into the mirror once more.
The face staring back at her was not quite her own.
(Timeskip)
Needless to say, everyone collapsed on their beds the minute they returned home, not even bothering to explain to Samson's parents what had happened. Rain was the only one awake. With her room only lit by moonlight, she gazed deeply into the full length mirror by the dresser.
"You can come out. I know you're there. You've been there this whole time, right? I was just too stubborn to see it." No response. "Please, I want to talk. I know you don't mean to harm me because you've been saving me all this time. You saved everyone in the ruins today. Please, just let me see you."
A cloud covered the moon and plunged the room into darkness for a moment, and as the light returned, Rain saw the spirit in her reflection, waiting for her question.
"Who are you?"
The spirit looked down. "I...don't know."
Rain blinked, not expecting that answer. "Where did you come from?"
"The bracelet." The spirit held up the reflection of the artifact. "I was asleep within it. That night years ago, your voice awoke me."
"You take over my body whenever I'm in danger, right?" The spirit nodded. "Why?"
"You're my only link to the outside world, Rain. Without you, I am a spirit trapped within darkness."
"Why were you, or are, trapped in the bracelet? Do you know about the Wayfarer Queen? The calamity?"
The spirit frowned sadly. "I don't remember anything."
"Do you at least have a name?"
The spirit opened her mouth to say no once more when a terrible noise filled her head. It was a man screaming in anguish, calling out a name. His voice was hauntingly familiar and his pain brought her sorrow.
The name he called, it was...
"...(Y/N)."

Sorry for that extra long prologue guys, I felt it necessary to get plenty of backstory, character building, and relationship building for Rain before we meet the rest of the cast. I also decided to give (Y/N) her own Season 0. If you guys have any suggestions for how to handle Rain since she is meant to be Yugi's counterpart for this, let me know.