"What kind of story would you like me to tell you today?" Ryou asked his class. A small girl raised her hand, but answered before he could call on her.
"Tell us a scary story!" She cried. The class let out various sounds of agreement. They all loved Ryou's stories, and trusted he wouldn't scare them too much.
Ryou stared off a moment, before finally coming to a decision.
"I know just the tale."
The students gathered onto the carpet in the corner of the room, and Ryou took his seat on the reading chair. Sometimes he would read them stories out of books, but the children liked it best when he told them his own stories.
"Once upon a time," He began, the gaggle of students shushing each other to listen closer. "There was a great thief king, and his name was Bakura."
A student raised their hand.
"Yes?" Asked Ryou, pointing to the child.
"But isn't that your name? Were you the thief king?" Asked the little girl.
"In a way." Answered Ryou. He cleared his throat and continued.
"The thief king Bakura came from a village called Kul Elna. It was small, and his family was not rich, but he was happy. Until one day, the priests of a neighboring kingdom came with hordes of soldiers, and destroyed everything. Only the thief king was left alive, since he had hidden, watching as these people destroyed his home and family."
The crowd of children looked horrified.
"The priests had destroyed the village to create the millennium items: powerful objects forged from the souls of the village, that would allow the users to remove the darkness from people's hearts. There were seven of such objects and each had different powers attached.
The young thief was left alone and scared in the remains of his village. On that day, he swore vengeance on the pharaoh who had ordered the destruction of his people. The remnants of the villagers' souls went on to guide and help him, but fuel his anger and hatred.
He left the village to find shelter, hoping he could tell somebody about the destruction of his people and find someone who could help. But nobody believed him. Who would believe one boy over the beloved pharaoh, who had used the millennium items to end war and bring peace to the kingdom?
Seeing that the boy had nowhere else to turn, a powerful demon called Zorc appealed to the boy.
'Awaken me, and I will help you avenge your people.' The demon said." Ryou lowered his voice several octaves, sending a shiver down his audience's spines.
"The young thief king agreed. He vowed to destroy the pharaoh and his family, as the pharaoh had done to him. But he was not strong enough yet. He was only a small child, not much bigger than you." Ryou gestured to the students with a sweeping motion. The children tried to imagine themselves in the thief king's place.
"So he grew to become the greatest thief in the country. It was a hard life, living only off of what he could steal, with only a demon and his anger pushing him forward.
Such anger created a monster inside of him, named Diabound. While the kingdom had many monsters, that only the high priests could summon, Diabound was one of the strongest. So many years of boiling rage and need for vengeance rivaled the powers of the gods.
Before the thief king could reach him, the pharaoh died. But that did not deter him. He would just have to move on to the next best thing, the old pharaoh's son, Atem.
On the day the new pharaoh was to be crowned king, the thief king made his move. Diabound was stronger than anything the priests could summon, but Atem was chosen by the gods, and was able to stop the thief king from his mission. The thief king ran away, but would not give up." Ryou checked the clock. He still had plenty of time.
"The thief king tried to rob a tomb, as he had done many times before, but one of the priests, Mahad, set a trap. They fought hard, and the thief king nearly destroyed Mahad, before he fused himself with his monster and was able to use an attack strong enough for the tomb to collapse, killing him and supposedly killing the thief king in the process.
Though the thief king was hurt and Diabound was weakened, he survived. He took Mahad's millennium ring, granting him even more power than he had before.
Once again, the thief king attacked the pharaoh, this time even stronger. But despite how hard he tried, the pharaoh defeated him with the strongest of the gods, The Winged Dragon of Ra." Ryou paused to take a breath. The kids took this as the story ending and looked disappointed.
"But wait, the story does not end here, children." They sat back down, eager to hear the rest.
"In his final moments, the thief king sealed all the darkness in his soul, along with a small piece of Zorc, inside of the millennium ring. His body was destroyed in the fight, and all he could do was wait to find the right host and fight the pharaoh once more.
Thousands of years later, the light half of his soul was reborn."
A child raised their hand. "Was that you?" Ryou nodded. The class exchanged gasps.
"The thief's light half grew up fairly normally, until his father found the millennium ring and gave it to the child.
The dark half had been alone with only Zorc's influence for a very, very long time, and had grown twisted and evil.
The light half wished for only one thing, and that was to be with his friends forever. As innocent as a wish it was, the dark half twisted it in a horrifying way, trapping all of the lights' souls inside figurines.
The light never knew what was causing all of his friends to go into comas, and had to keep moving schools because of the surrounding suspicion. Eventually, he found another person with a millennium item like his. His dark half decided it was time to reveal himself, and told the light that he was going to take the millennium puzzle for himself. The light tried to stop him, but he was not strong enough yet.
The dark half challenged the light's friends to a game, trapping their souls in figurines forever if they lost. But, the light managed to overpower the darkness, destroying them both in the process.
But, the boy's character in the game was able to revive them both. The dark half was still there, but he had learned that the light half would not be so easily pushed around.
The dark half soon learned that the pharaoh had been reincarnated, and that they were destined to fight again. But not then. He needed all of the millennium items so that he could go into the pharaoh's memory world and fight him again, this time even stronger.
The dark half knew struggling against his host would only hurt them both in the end, so he took a more diplomatic approach. He asked for control, and even helped out the light's friends on a few occasions. All to set up his plans, of course.
The light half, too, learned that they were going to have to live with each other. They would never be the best of friends, but they learned to work out a system that benefitted both of them.
The light and the dark spent a lot of time together, learning to be as reasonable as they could. One day, the dark half made an alliance, agreeing to do this person's bidding in exchange for another millennium item. Throughout these plans, the dark half had to hurt himself numerous times and put himself in dangerous situations in order to do what that person wanted, because he was so desperate for the millennium items." Ryou decided it would be better if he left the names of Marik, Yugi, and so on unmentioned.
"In a climactic fight against the reincarnated pharaoh, that person wanted to use the light half, who was weakened and unaware of what had been going on, so that the pharaoh would surrender the fight. The dark half reluctantly agreed and gave his host control. The light half was scared and confused and had no idea where he was or what was going on. He cried out for help, but nobody came. The pharaoh had to choose between his friend's health and the fate of the world.
Finally, the dark half decided to take over again to protect his light. That was the first time the light had really seen his dark protect him.
Later, the person the dark had been working for had his body stolen by an evil spirit, and the dark tried to defeat him, but wound up getting him and his light banished to the shadows. They were there for a very long time.
In that time, they had a long talk. The light was grateful for being protected, and for the first time in many years, the dark felt bad for putting his light in danger. After so long being trapped in darkness, the dark was learning how to be human again.
The pharaoh saved them, and everyone else who'd been trapped in the shadows.
For a while, things were okay. The dark was waiting for pieces of his plan to fall into place, and the light was living peacefully. Those were good days.
But like all good things, it came to an end. The piece of Zorc had grown restless and was tired of the dark's stalling and waiting. The demon took over the dark half, and forced control of the light half, who was powerless to stop it.
The pharaoh began his journey into the world of his memories. You see, while his soul had been trapped in the millennium puzzle, he'd lost all his memories. He was on a mission to remember them again, and defeat the thief king as he'd done so many years ago.
The demon was able to go back in time with him, taking control of the ancient thief. This time, much, much stronger.
The fight played out as it did before, but this time, the demon was able to manipulate the battle in order to make itself stronger. Finally, Zorc was fully awakened, the thief king's soul along for the ride.
But, the pharaoh was able to defeat it once more. The dark half should have been destroyed, as he had merged with Zorc, but he was able to diffuse and return to the modern world with the pharaoh.
The dark half returned to his light, who'd been unconscious in the modern world the entire time. The light kept it from the pharaoh, but he and the dark were happy to be back and free of the demon that had been plaguing them for so long.
The pharaoh's soul was finally put to rest. But as the light kept it a secret, the dark half was kept inside the millennium ring, safe with me. And we're living every day as best we can. The end." Ryou finished the story, clapping his hands together and then resting them on his lap.
The class was awed by his story.
A child raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Did that really happen?" He asked.
"Of course it did." Ryou replied, smiling warmly.
"No it didn't, magic isn't real, my mom told me so!" Interjected another student.
"Are you sure?" Asked Ryou, a look of mischief in his eyes.
"Mm-hm!" Answered the child defiantly.
"You can choose to believe-" Ryou held his hands to his chest, summoning the Millennium Ring. It glowed brightly, filling the room. When it settled, he looked similar, but seemed very different. It was clear to the class what had just happened.
"-Whatever you like." Bakura finished, enjoying the looks of the astounded children.