Paradocs: Yes, folks, it's another lame one-shot fanfic from the nether regions of my mind. No idea how I do these things...

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or pretty much anything in this 'fic. Just the little story I wrote.

I can't remember the last time I was able to have fun. I haven't been able to relax enough, not since I met you.

I've gone on trips, played games until my hands were numb and I was barely awake. I've tried to make friends, tried everything the books and television and movies and people say is fun.

It hasn't done anything for me. I always end up lost, floating in a haze of shadows, watching the world go rush by me, unable to say or do anything to change things.

I want to have my own life. I want to be able to what I want, when I want. To feel happy when I want, to tell Yugi and his friends to go away whenever I want. I want to be free of you so very much.

You say I'm selfish. You granted all my wishes, every single one of them. You've kept me safe all these years, punished anyone who looked at me the wrong way, given me countless friends to be with.

I never asked for this fate. I never asked to be someone's puppet, to be your vessel for this long. I never wanted to be used, to be a tool in all of your thefts and crimes.

I've lost count of all the times I've lost my link with the world. My memory is little more than a patchy string of events, as solid as a spider's web. I can't remember a single day where I didn't black out. I remember what happened before, and then the aftermath of the carnage you'd inevitably wreak.

You've taken me places, true. But I never remembered where we were, how we got there, anything. When we went to Egypt, I didn't remember anything until I woke up face down on a stairwell. You took us to a duelling tournament; I nearly died.

Did you want me dead, alone, out of the world in anyway possible? No. But you did a pretty good job without trying, didn't you? I've been in the hospital so many times, I've lost count. I've been in so many different schools, I can count the number of consecutive terms in each on one hand. My friendships even now are strained, tentative.

I don't want to hurt anyone, never wanted to do any harm. But you made me do that much.

They said that you'd go away after I got rid of it. They said that you were dead, that you had been killed completely. That you'd never come back to haunt my dreams again, to control my actions or emotions. They said you'd just go away.

But you didn't go away. You're still here, even without the Ring. I hear your voice, telling me to comply, to obey your orders. To stop asking so many questions, to just be a good boy and let you do what you will.

But I can't stop asking questions. I want to know, and you never answer my questions. Never. You let me sink in a pool of whys and hows and whens and wheres, and you never stretch out your hand to save me. Not like everyone else I dare to call friend. But they can't save me from you, can they?

All I want to know is why. Why did all this happen? Why did it happen to me? Why won't you just go away?

But you never answer those questions, except with a laugh that's followed by my loss of conciousness.

But the question still stands. You can't hide from it, just as I can't hide from you. Just as I never could hide from you, mou hitori no boku.

And yet...

Why?