So, this is just something I thought of randomly. I dunno if I should eep going with this. It kinda ends with a cliffhanger, but I wonder if I should just make it a one-shot... Isn't it cool, though? The setting is sort of fantasy/adventure... The time period is around when guns and swords both were used. But, it's fantasy! Don't worry about the little details!

"One... two... three... One is missing, where has it gone~?" The young boy looked around curiously, his head tilted. Streaks of blond hair fell over his face, whilst the rest of his dark hair framed his violet eyes. He wore a simple jacket, with a white shirt underneath. Strolling beneath the moonlight, he looked child-like.

Except for the sword, that is. The boy sighed, recounting the number of bodies lying on he ground. "Eh," he said, sounding surprised, "now I'm missing two. Was one playing possum..?" The violet eyes glinted. Stepping nonchalantly through the carnage, the young boy said, "Couldn't have gone far..."

Using his sword, the boy pushed away some of the surrounding brush. He peeked, then withdrew his face sharply as a gunshot sounded. A small smile played on the boy's lips as he spotted the people hiding beneath the bush. A soldier, panting and bloody; and a noble, shivering fearfully in his fine silks.

"Found you!" The boy cried out happily in delight. He then proceeded to dodge the next series of bullets the soldier desperately fired. In the moment when the soldier ran out, the boy cleanly sliced the man's head off. Then he looked to the noble. Ignoring the man's desperate offers of money, he killed him as well.

Sighing, the boy let his gaze roam over the scene. "Are any missing?" he wondered aloud. He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "If I missed anyone," he said cheerfully, "they might kill me! A fatal mistake, but is there anything I can do about it?" The boy strolled off, leaving the bloody meadow behind him.

Eventually he ran into a man dressed in the same attire as him. "Yugi," the man said in a bored tone, "welcome back." Yugi nodded back respectfully, making it all the way into the hideout before he burst out into giggles. "That was fun," he said quietly to himself. "Was it?" Yugi looked up.

A blonde stared angrily down at him. In a moment, Yugi's childish attitude vanished, replaced by an empty smile. "Yes, sir," he said even softer than before. The man grunted. "You little freak," he heard, and was pushed aside as the blonde forced his way through. Yuugi hung his head, quickly shutting himself in his room.

"Joey is so mean," he whined to himself, lying on his bed. The sword lay on the table, and he knew he needed a bath, and needed to clean his blade... but he didn't want to. Finally he forced himself to sit up. He did everything as fast as possible before lying down again. "Now I'm bored," he murmured, closing his eyes.

A clunk sounded in his room. In an instant, Yugi was up, reaching for his sword. But it was only an object. He stared at it for a moment before he looked up, seeing a figure still against his darkened ceiling. "Who are you?" Yugi asked curiously. The intruder was silent. "Hey... Don't ignore me!" He chuckled suddenly,

"Oh, but I guess you wish I'd do the same to you. I won't though." The figure dropped lithely down onto the floor, where Yugi was able to see him for the first time. It was a boy his age, with long white hair. Yugi absentmindedly fingered his own oddly colored hair as he made the observation.

The boy smiled shyly. "I... I'm sorry I dropped it." Yugi shrugged. "What is it, anyways?" he questioned idly, kneeling to look at the object. It was a golden triangular object, with a cord threaded through the square base. There was also an engraving of an eye, which was so odd the boy forgot himself for a second, letting down his guard to reach out towards the strange image.

"Don't touch it!" the stranger said sharply. Yugi looked up, but his finger had already lightly brushed the golden object. A flash blinded him, causing him to instinctively throw up his arms. He inhaled, waiting. Then jerked back as soft fingers touched his arm, a hiss emerging from his mouth.

He looked up, violet eyes meeting red ones. Red? The intruder hadn't had red eyes. Yugi was certain he would have noticed. Slowly the boy shifted his arms down, clutching his sword as he gazed at the man. He saw the man looking confused... and transparent. Transparent. The word caused Yugi to tilt his head wonderingly.

"What are you?" Yugi asked. The man looked at him. "I'm Yami," the man said haltingly. "I'm your shadow." Yugi looked around in confusion, but the white-haired boy had gone already. So he looked back at the transparent man. "You are my shadow..? Yami..? It can't be. I don't understand."

Yami looked frustrated. "I was trapped in that puzzle, and-" "Puzzle," Yugi murmured, interrupting the self-proclaimed shadow's explanation. "It can be taken apart?" He examined it to find grooves where it could be pulled apart. As an experiment, Yugi tugged, but then the man said, "Wait, don't."

Startled, Yugi left it as it was. "Look, I-" the man tried, but then Yugi's eyes went flat for a moment. "I have an appointment," he muttered. "I forgot." He spun, sheathing his sword as he darted out the door. "Eh? Wait!" Yugi ignored the man's call, hurriedly entering a room. "You're late," came the greeting.

Yugi smiled childishly, apologizing to the woman sitting behind the desk. "Sorry~! Did I make you mad~?" The lady scoffed. "Stop acting that way. I've already marked that you left, so hurry up."

"Okay!" The boy nodded, a genuine smile now playing on his lips as he left the hideout, running. "Where are you going?" He ignored his shadow's question as he skidded to a stop, listening intently. "One... two... three... six. Six horses... Four voices..." Yugi murmured softly as he listened.

He clambered up a tree, watching intently as a carriage passed below him. "What are you doing?" Yami asked curiously. His question was answered as Yugi dropped from the branch, plunging his sword into the carriage roof. Inside were two people who were dressed in fine clothes.

Yugi casually swung his sword, beheading the two. The whole affair was silent - the drivers hadn't heard anything yet. He hummed as he scrambled back onto the roof, carefully jumping off. "My shirt is stained," the child muttered unhappily as he looked at the blood. "You..." Yugi looked up.

Yami was staring at him, shocked. Yugi tilted his head, grinning. "Are you okay, Yami? You look sick." Yami blinked. He couldn't believe what he had seen. The child who'd unlocked his soul was unbelievably... blood-thirsty.

Yugi looked sadly at the carriage, which was disappearing in the gloom of the forest. "I left two alive this time... I can't believe I made a mistake again!" Yugi chuckled, stifling the sound with his fist. "I'm breaking down already?" His face was angry.

"You're not breaking, you're fixing," came a soft voice. Yugi and Yami looked up to see the white-haired boy standing near a tree. Yugi growled, a long, drawn-out sound. But the boy didn't flinch. "My name is Bakura," he said. Yugi stopped, his eyes going wide. "You're-!" he said incredulously.

"I'm the one who escaped three years ago," the youth completed for him. "I had help from this," he added, holding a circle of gold, from which hung seven points. An eye like the one on Yami's puzzle rested in the middle.

"What is it?" Yugi asked. Bakura explained, "They're... shadow artifacts, meant to take the darkness out of someone. The darkness then becomes a reflection of the person." Yugi frowned, his mind whirling.

Abruptly he pulled out the puzzle, which he had stuffed into his jacket in his rush to leave, and threw it in the ground. "This is yours, right? This is what's breaking me." His voice had turned cold, causing Bakura and Yami to flinch. "Take it back. Leave me alone. My darkness is mine!" With that, he turned and ran.

"...Why would he want to keep his darkness?" Yami asked, confused. Bakura sighed. "We were orphans," he told the shadow. "In this world of strife and war, it's an awfully painful thing to be... We were orphans, made into killers. We were children, made into killers." Bakura looked sad as he said this to Yami.

The shadow could not help but wonder what had happened to make the children this way. "But... Was it only you two?" Bakura shook his head. "No, but the third one died a while back." Yami thought about that.

"What was his name?" Bakura took a long while to answer that, but finally he replied, "Her name was Anzu."