Yu-Gi-Oh!: Forgotten Memories
Bakura looked down the empty hallways. "That's odd," he said. "It's already eight thirty and no one's here yet." He looked into one of the empty classrooms of Domino High School. No teachers. No students. Why, even the custodians had taken a day off. It just doesn't make sense, he thought, pacing up and down the halls, trying to recall if there had been a notice about school being cancelled, but the day before was just a big blur that involved a duel between him and another student when the teacher had left the room and then a long detention when the instructor had come back with Mrs. Brannigan, the principal. There had been no mention, as far as he knew, of the cancelled school day.
"Ahhh, lay off, Bakura," his shadow said. "You probably just missed daylight savings time or something stupid like that. Maybe it's really eight o'clock and you just missed it. Or maybe someone dropped a biological bomb on the place and killed all the teachers—hehe...I wish... Or maybe Mrs. Brannigan called it off and you were just off in your little world and didn't listen. Or maybe—"
"—Or maybe," Bakura said, cutting him off, "My Yami had better shut up or he's going to loose some teeth!"
"Yeah, I'd like to see you try to pull that one off!!!"
Bakura stepped on his shadow's face. There was a muffled cry, and then it threw his foot off and piped—"DON'T DO THAT!!!"
"Well, I warned you. You shouldn't talk about the teachers at this school like that! They don't get paid very much, you know, and they work very hard!"
"AND SINCE WHEN DID YOU BECOME A TEACHER'S PET, B'KURA?" the figure underneath him said irritably. "You're just like that little Yugi brat—you just gotta be a goody-good all the time! Next thing you know, you'll be helping little old hooters across the street!" He said in a high, screechy, impersonating voice, "Oh, thank you, young man! Such a kind boy! C'mon, buddy! Don't turn boy scout on me!"
Bakura tried to imagine himself in a Boy Scout uniform and a disgusted look crossed his face. "I think NOT!" he said, louder than he meant to say it, trying to keep a little dignity.
All of a sudden, a small, lightning-haired boy ran down the hall, muttering to himself between gasps, "Oh...great...I'm late again...Mr. Tylers is gonna be...really mad if I'm...if I'm late again..."
"Mr. Tylers isn't here, Yugi," Bakura pointed out.
Yugi turned around to face Bakura. "What? You mean we have a substitute?"
Bakura gazed around the halls. "Well, look around. No one really seems to be here, do they?"
The boy in front of him looked down each hall. He didn't see a single person. No one was out of class going to the bathroom. No teachers were walking down to another's classroom. The janitors had taken a holiday. Noise wasn't blasting from the band and orchestra rooms. The gym was empty. No one seemed to be there but the two of them.
"See?" Bakura said at last. "I just don't understand it. I didn't hear anyone say school was cancelled..."
"Neither did I..."
"Well, since no one's here and the door's unlocked, this could be a perfect time to wreak some havoc!" Bakura's shadow said loudly.
"Yaku!" Bakura hissed, stepping on its face again so it wouldn't attract Yugi's attention.
Yugi looked up. "Did you hear that?"
"Err...hear what?" Bakura said nervously.
"Uh...never mind," Yugi said. It must have been the spirit of my Millennium Puzzle, he thought. Who else I know would want to wreak havoc on a school?
So, Bakura and Yugi walked on for some time, however, Yaku, also known as the tomb robber Yami Bakura, was getting tired of Bakura stepping on his face every time he opened his mouth to say something, and had noticed something else.
That kid's got a Millennium Item! he said in Bakura's head.
You just now noticed that, Yaku? Bakura said.
Well, I didn't see it! I wanna take a look at it! Move over!
No way! For all I know, you could be trying to steal it! Or even worse, you could hurt him once you've got me out of the way!
OH, I WON'T DO THAT!!! Yaku showed a fake smile.
Yaku, I'm not going to let you—!
Bakura suddenly stumbled. "Bakura!" Yugi said with deep concern, stopping immediately. "Are you alright?"
He straightened up, but in a very un-Bakura-like fashion. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said sharply in a lower, raspier voice. And, unless Yugi was seeing things, his eyes had become much darker and narrower.
"Are you sure you're all right? You sound like you've got a cold!"
And, as Yaku knew how perilous it was to tell little Yugi you had an ailment of any sort, as he would chain you to a bed and wouldn't let you up until he was satisfied you were better, he stepped back and cautiously said, "No, I'm not sick, alright? It's just..." He tried to think up an excuse for the sudden change. "...It's just part of becoming a man, Yugi!" he said at last. "Sometimes your voice is high, other times it gets low! It's all part of human growth and development!"
"Err...right..." Yugi said, who understood nothing about that particular subject.
"So..." Yaku said, glancing at his Millennium Puzzle. "You...have a Millennium Item."
"Uh...yeah. The Millennium Puzzle. I don't know much about it yet," he added. "But it's kinda weird."
"May I take a look at it?"
"Sure!" Yugi said right after his mental danger alarm went off. Yugi ignored it, but the Millennium Puzzle didn't like it at all. Who he thought was Bakura picked up the Puzzle and examined it carefully and thoroughly, and for a while he was silent.
Finally, he said softly, "It is a very odd sort of amulet, isn't it?" He didn't look at Yugi. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the Puzzle. "With a golden eye. Do you know what it is, Yugi? The eye, I mean?"
"The Millennium Eye, of course," Yugi said. "My grandpa told me it was on almost every Millennium Item."
"So, you know more about them than I thought..."
Yaku was jerked back into reality with a thump as a girl cried out just outside the school. "HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?"
"Err...I don't think she's talking to us...but c'mon...let's not doubt—we ought to get out of here!" Yugi turned and ran toward the exit.
Someday, Yugi... Yaku thought, dropping the Puzzle and staring at the boy running toward the nearest exit, gritting his teeth in frustration. Someday...that puzzle will be MINE!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yugi tried one door. Then he tried another. And then another. Each one was locked. They were both trapped inside the school. The only way out was the way they came in—and that would lead them past the girl.
"Don't worry, kid..." his companion said. "I've been in lots of situations like this before, and I've turned into quite the escape master. C'mon...let's go into the cafeteria. If she really wants to catch us, she'll have to come into the school, leaving the exit open to us. What d' ya say, buddy?"
Just then, someone who didn't really sound like the girl they heard earlier said loudly, "But, Say! We're NOT going to get in trouble! I'm not going to sign my name on the wall or anything! I'm just going to put someone ELSE'S name down to get THEM in trouble!!!"
"Shadow! THAT'S MEAN!" the girl from earlier cried.
"I KNOW!!! ISN'T IT WONDERFUL?" The other girl didn't really seem to care.
"Or...maybe not...it's just another goody-good trying to convince someone what they're doing is wrong when they don't actually care," Yaku said.
"Hey, Bakura," Yugi said, "are you sure you're okay? I've never heard you use the term 'goody-good' before."
"Err...then you haven't been listening!" Yaku snapped. "I've been saying it A LOT!!! YOU just haven't noticed yet."
"Alright! Alright! No need to yell!" Yugi headed off to the door where he'd come in. Yaku followed close behind, making sure the poor, unsuspecting boy didn't leave his range of sight.
Yugi opened the door and peeked cautiously through it, when all of a sudden, he was jerked through it and taken hostage by the troublemaker girl (he knew who she was because she had a bottle of graffiti in one hand and a pocket knife in the other and was halfway done writing "DEMONS RULE" on the wall of the school). She had black hair just like the other one, but she had crimson bangs instead of blue, like the one trying to get her to stop.
"Okay, Sara. I will say it one more time. Back off and no one gets hurt." She held the little knife up to Yugi's neck. This was going way too far.
Fortunately, Yaku realized what was happening and strode over to them both, pulling the knife out of her hands in one swift stroke. "Someone your age shouldn't be messing with such things, Shadow!" he said scathingly. "You could poke someone's eye out with this thing. Oh, yeah...since when are you still alive? Didn't you throw yourself off a cliff, or something?"
"I DID N—well, I did, but—STILL! DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT THERE IS A MORTAL PRESENT HERE AND YOU COULD BE BLABBING ALL OUR SECRETS TO THE PUBLIC?!?"
"No...my abiou is here. Why can't..." He hesitated, smirking. "...Why can't Pharaoh's be here?"
"Ph-ph-pharaoh?" she stammered. She looked down at Yugi, noticed the Millennium Puzzle, cussed, and dropped him (his feet had been dangling while the girl had him in a headlock).
Yugi got up and brushed himself off. "Err...thanks for putting me down...but...what was that all about?"
"Err...NOTHING!!!" the troublemaker said, looking at Yugi as if he were a bomb about to explode at any second.
"Sorry about that," the other girl said. "Shadow gets violent sometimes when she's trying to get her way."
"I wasn't trying to get my way!" she said, sticking her nose into the air. "I was just trying to convince you my way was better!"
"Oui ve. Listen. The point is, Shadow, you owe him an apology!!!"
"Aw, do I gotta?"
"YES!!!"
"Fine." Shadow turned to little Yugi. "Sorry, kid." Sara cleared her throat. "I'm very sorry about what I did," Shadow corrected herself.
"That's better." The well-behaved one turned to Yugi. "Um...by the way, I dun think either of us has introduced ourselves, right, Shadow?"
"Err...right," she said.
"I'm Sara Kennitharian," she said, not putting her hand out, but instead bowing low. "Everyone calls me Say, though."
"I'm Shadow Hirakon," the other girl said quickly and shortly.
"I'm Yugi," he said. "Yugi Motou. Pleased to meet you."
"Yugi Motou? So you're that kid who kicked Seto Kaiba's ass?" Shadow blurted out rudely.
"Shadow! Be polite!" Sara snapped.
"No, that's alright," Yugi said. "So...I guess you've already met Bakura?"
"Who's Bakura?" Sara asked.
"Um...or maybe not," Yugi said. "Hey—wait a minute! You were just talking to him like you knew him, weren't you?"
"I wasn't talking to anyone," Sara said, pointing to Shadow. "She was doing all the talking!"
"I dun know nobody named Bakura," Shadow said.
"That's Bakura!!!" Yugi pointed over to him.
"Oh, him?" Shadow asked. "No, no, no, kid. You've got it all wrong. Either that, or you rrrrrreeeeeeaalllyyy shortened his name. So anyone who is called Bakura could get mixed up with him pretty easily. Wait—is dat a bad thing?"
"I dunno. It depends whose side you're on, I guess..." Sara looked from little Yugi to the guy behind him. "I suppose it's bad, but I'm with the kid. It's probably good for the other guy, though, if he wants to gain his trust or something...but who would want to make fun of a cute little ten-year-old boy?"
"He's four," Shadow said.
"Make that fourteen!" Yugi snapped.
"FOURTEEN?!?"
"Here!" Yugi pulled out his student ID. "See? It says fourteen!!!"
"Oh, FINE. Fourteen," Shadow admitted. "Oh yeah...and just so you know! I'm STILL about FIVE THOUSAND YEARS older than you, so dun get any idea dat we're equal."
"You are five thousand years older than me, Shadow," Sara said. "But you're five thousand one years older than him. He's fourteen. Not fifteen."
"Fourteen, fifteen, fifty. Just so you know—I DON'T CARE!!!"
"Geez! You dun gotta yell, Sha—hey! Where'd lil' Yugi and Yaku go?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yaku threw Yugi up against the wall on the other side of the school. "B-bakura......what are you...doing...?!?" Yugi stammered.
The white-haired boy pulled him up by his front collar and pinned him to the brick barrier. "I'm doing what I've been waiting to do for a long...long...time, kid!" He smirked and pulled Yugi up higher on the wall. His eyes took on a look that made them seem hungry for power...thirsty for blood. "I intend to take your Millennium Puzzle!"
"The Puzzle?!?" Yugi repeated nervously. "Nooo! Let me go!!!"
"Ohhh, I'll let you go," He said, his eyes looking hungrier than ever. "...as soon as I take it!"
"N-noo!" Yugi grabbed the chain to protect it and tried to kick him, but his little legs were too short. "I...I won't let you!"
"Yesss!" Yaku said, and reached for the little amulet...
WHAM!
Yugi's feet hit the pavement right after Sara came down from the roof—right on Yaku's shoulder! "Yugi, run!" she said. "We'll deal with him!"
Yugi nodded and started sprinting off in the other direction. Or, he would have if Yaku hadn't grabbed his ankle.
Sara tried to stomp on his wrist, but Yaku grabbed her foot and flipped her over (This obviously didn't fit his definition of "hitting" a lady). Then he seized Yugi and turned to make a run for it, but Shadow was standing in his way.
"Let...him...go..." she said slowly and forcefully.
"Oh, yes...that...ahh..." He pulled out the pocket knife he'd taken from Shadow and looked it over. It seemed sharp enough. "Um...NO! I don't feel like it!" He held the knife frighteningly close to Yugi's neck. Yugi felt his skin go pale.
"Let...him...go..." she repeated.
Yaku kept the knife moving in a threatening way, up and down, up and down...Yugi tried to watch it, but it made him dizzy, so he closed his eyes, trying to think of a way out, Yaku rambling on scathingly to Shadow about the past ("I remember when you were this protective of Pharaoh, Shadow...made me sick!). And then, a voice, a voice lower and clearer than his own said in his head—
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yugi opened his eyes. Yes, of course! In order to escape, he'd need to do something on his own. But, he couldn't do that...although, he could...only if he could summon—
"I'll say it one more time..." Shadow said, obviously loosing her patience. "Let...him...go!!!" Yaku didn't move. Shadow opened her mouth, but Yugi—or who had been Yugi—said it first.
"Time's up, tomb robber!"
He somehow found a way to make his feet touch the ground and flipped Yaku over. The tall boy went headfirst into the pavement.
"Ooo!" Sara said, getting up and cringing. "That's gotta hurt!"
"There's no way he's still conscious after that one!" Shadow walked closer while Yugi had his back turned. "Nope! Hey, that was a good one, kid! I never knew you knew Tai kwon d—uh...oh..." Shadow went pale as Yugi turned around to face her. She squealed, "Pharaoh!" and ducked behind Sara.
"Shadow! Whassamotta you? You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"Well...technically...yes...she has."
Yami Yugi walked up. Sara examined him carefully. Shadow shrank smaller, cowering before him. Finally, Sara said, "Ohhhhh! So this is Pharaoh! I thought he looked familiar. You showed me that photograph a—"
Shadow covered her mouth quickly and glanced nervously at Yami. His face looked like a mixture of surprise, amusement, sadness, and anger. Mostly surprise, although who knew what someone like that was thinking all the time? Shadow, for one, did not want to take the chance of catching him in a bad mood.
Which, thankfully, he wasn't.
"I...thought you..."
"Well...I...uh...decided to keep it...I mean...err...well...you see...it was...like...the only thing I really had left of those years in Egypt...so...I kept it! NOT because you were in it!"
"I thought you hated to be reminded of those days, Shadow," Yami said.
"Well......"
Sara would have rescued her had she said something else, but she wasn't in the mood to help the poor and needy.
"Hey! You're right, Shadow! He is sexy!"
Shadow went a brilliant shade of crimson. Yami went a pale scarlet. Sara's face got red, too—but only because she was giggling herself to death.
"I SWEAR, SARA!" Shadow yelled in her ear. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AS SOON AS I'M DONE WITH KILLING HIM!" She thrust a finger towards Yami.
"OW! OW! OW! THAT HURTS! YOU FORGET—MY EARS ARE SUPER-SENSITIVE—" She yelled in Shadow's ear, this time—"JUST LIKE YOURS!!!"
Yami, however, wasn't yelling, but was worrying about the figure on the ground. He'd been unconscious until the girls had started yelling at each other. And now he'd woken up and was tapping him on the shoulder.
But it wasn't Yaku tapping him on the shoulder—it was the principal of Domino High—Mrs. Brannigan!
"And just WHAT do you think," she piped, in a high, irritating voice, "GIVES you the right...to WALK AROUND THE SCHOOL on a TEACHER WORK DAY?!?!" Sara and Shadow stopped bickering and looked up. There was Mrs. Brannigan, grey, wavy hair in a tight bun, spectacles sitting on the bridge of her crooked nose, eyes burning with anger, and her lips going so thin that the kids almost thought they would disappear altogether. Not to mention the fact that she was holding Yaku by the ear, and, although she was no taller than five foot one, he cowered before her like a scared little puppy and begged for mercy.
Yami swallowed. Err...Yugi?
I don't know what to do!
Yami bit his lower lip nervously, but finally stepped up and opened his mouth—
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. We just thought—well—that the teacher workday was called off because of all the plans the other teachers had," Sara said.
Yami turned around, surprised. So did Yaku (The principal had finally let go, but he kept rubbing his ear). So did the principal. "Well." She stepped forward to speak to her. "To whom am I speaking?"
"Sara Kennitharian," she said, bowing low. "I'm new here. I came from America. I didn't know you wouldn't cancel the teacher work day."
"Hmm..." Mrs. Brannigan said, thoughtfully. "Be that as it may..."
"—err...pardon me, missus..." Yaku interrupted, trying to be polite only so he wouldn't get himself in trouble, "but...if it's a teacher workday...what are you doing here? And why is the door unlocked?"
"Because I forgot to lock it and have come back in order to do so." She turned back to the others. "Well, I just hope you realize the seriousness of what you have done. You were breaking and entering, and—"
"Well, not necessarily breaking, since the door was unlocked, but—"
"Ba-ku-RA!" she piped, accenting the last syllable of his name so it sounded even more high-pitched. "Do NOT interrupt me WHILE I am speaking!" Yaku shrank back and she continued, "If you would be SO kind...as to LEAVE right now, NOT in a few minutes, NOT when you get your things, I would GREATLY appreciate it."
So, Mrs. Brannigan turned on her heel and walked swiftly to lock inspect the school to make sure no one else was inside before she locked it.
Yami Yugi turned to face Sara. "You...didn't have to do that..."
"You're welcome," Sara said, and turned to her yami and bopped her on the head. "Shadow! Stop shaking like that! He's only some short dude with really really spiky hair!"
"Never," Shadow said, firmly, but nervously to Sara, "call Pharaoh a dude!!! Okay? NEVER!"
"Why not?"
"Because he's not! And he's gonna get mad at me if you do!"
"Why?"
"I DUNNO, HE'S A LUNATIC, THAT'S—OOOOOOWWWWWWWW!" Yami had grabbed her ear and was pulling on it—hard. She had four ear piercings, two at the bottom, one at the top, and clip in the middle, and they were all new and all still hurt. And, this would be a good time to mention that her ears were particularly easy to grab onto, because they were huge and fuzzy—she had long, pointy ears that were one of the trademarks that she was not entirely human.
Wait— Yugi said telepathically to Yami, Is she an elf?
Fire Elf to be exact, but if you haven't noticed, she's got a tail, and doesn't have nails—she has claws. Trust me—I know from personal experience. He rubbed his cheek, remembering the first time she'd slapped him—it had been painful.
Sara was the same way, but she had five ear piercings and no claws, but her nine bushy tails made up for that. At the time, no one knew it, but she was also a Water Elf.
"PLEASE LET GO! OH, MERCY! MERCY! MERCYYYY!!!" Yami let go. Shadow sat down and started rubbing her ears very fast, but very effectively—in about ten seconds she'd gotten up and yelled in his ear, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!?"
"BECAUSE I FELT LIKE IT!" he yelled back, and bopped her on the head a little lighter than Sara did (that proved he wasn't afraid to hit a girl, even if she was the one he—well—we'll go into that later). "NO, DUH! YOU CALLED ME A LUNATIC!"
"SHE CALLED YOU A DUDE!"
"Is that bad?"
"Oh geez," Shadow said, mouth open. "Tell me you know what 'dude' means!"
"You baka mesuemu!" Yaku stepped on Yami's foot. "You don't do any of the modern lingo, do you?"
"I understand it well enough!" Yami rubbed his foot painfully (as Yaku was plenty heavy, and when he put his foot down, you'd better make sure your foot isn't under it, which Yami forgot) "Oh...by the way...I think I want to set Bakura loose."
"What do you mean, 'set him loose'?"
"I mean...I'm going to let him gain control."
"OH NO, YOU'RE NOT!"
"And just what makes you think THAT, Yaku?
Yami raised his hand, palm facing Yaku, said something in a distant tongue, and Yaku went unconscious, stumbling backward. And Sara was standing there, so she caught him.
If somebody told you that at that moment when the real Bakura looked up, they seemed to have found their only purpose in life, if somebody told you that the chemistry between them began the moment their eyes met, if somebody said that each of them was thinking they had died and gone to heaven, I'll tell you now, somebody was right. Sara was thinking that where a ruthless criminal had been standing, a sweet, handsome, sensitive boy was in her arms. Bakura was thinking he was being held by an angel.
Shadow smirked and stepped on Yami's other foot, and, as she had planned, he got really pissed off and started chasing her. She would be back a few minutes after she'd lost him to see if Sara and Bakura would kiss.
Bakura went extremely red and got up. "Um...sorry...I...didn't mean to—"
"That's alright!" Sara said, and smiled. "It wasn't your fault."
"Well...still..."
"Hey! It's alright! It's no big deal!"
"Uh...well...alright...but...are you sure?"
"Positive!"
"Um...okay...if you say so." Bakura went even redder as he suddenly remembered his manners. "Uh...I'm sorry...I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Bakura Ryou!"
"Sara Artemis Kennitharian," she said, bowing low, as before. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Bakura! So...you're the one Yugi was talking about when he called your counterpart 'Bakura!'"
"Yep! That's me!" He smiled, but then he suddenly noticed something around her neck. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the amulet.
"Oh, th—OH! NOTHING!!!" she said, pulling her overcoat tightly around her. Bakura still looked suspicious. Sara bit her bottom lip, wondering if he would attack her and try to grab it, but Bakura merely laughed.
"Oh, come on! Let me see it! No one will ever know!"
"Uh-un!" Sara turned up her nose. "I ain't letting you see it, and I ain't letting no one else see it!"
"Oh, come on...please?"
Sara just couldn't figure out what made the boy look so damn innocent. But, whatever it was, it worked. "Oh, fine." Sara took off her overcoat, and clashing with her bright blue shirt (which matched her hair identically) and hanging from her neck was a Millennium Item that looked similar to the Millennium Ring, but it had all seven—err...make that nine...—miniature models of the Millennium Items. "The Millennium Ross," Sara said. "The Millennium Item nearest to it glows. I expect you have the Millennium Ring?" Indeed, the miniature Millennium Ring on the Ross was aglow.
"Well, yes, actually," he said, showing her his own Millennium Item. "I don't exactly know what it does yet—err...except that it holds a spirit that's trying to get all the Millennium Items for himself—...but he's not something I have to worry about unless he comes into his form where he has a separate body. And he's not doing that any time soon," he added, stepping on his yami's face again.
Sara smiled. "Well...then...if you want, you know...uh...you could probably come over to my place for a little while..."
"I'd like that very much," he replied, smiling back.