(A/N: ~This story is based on the novels as well as the films; hope you enjoy!)
It was a rather dreary day- the sky was heavy with large, grey clouds. A chilly wind was racing around the buildings and streets of Domino City; possibly heralding a fresh wave of thunderstorms.
A teenaged boy slowly made his way down the sidewalk outside his school. Classes were over, but he didn't seem terribly excited by this freedom.
'Home to an empty house, in a dull neighborhood, with no one to hang out with.'
Ryou Bakura sighed. He knew it was a bit selfish of him to want more out of life- he lived in a nice town, in a nice house, with nice comforts. He had never gone hungry, or suffered poverty.
But still... he felt something tighten in his chest as he looked around. Was it wrong to wish for others to share it with? His beloved mother and sister had died several years ago in a car accident; and his father was never in the country, much less at home. His uncommonly pale skin and pure, white hair made him a bit of an outcast at school, and while his neighborhood was nice, there were no other boys (or even girls) his age.
And if those factors weren't difficult enough; Ryou had recently found that he preferred looking at the boys in his class, instead of the girls.
Although technically most of the younger generation in Japan was more accepting, Ryou had no illusions when it came to his own situation. The school bullies he had to constantly dodge would surely turn savage upon hearing such a juicy tidbit.
The forlorn student sighed and continued his dreary march. Ryou was barely three blocks away from his school when he heard a strange noise. He looked up and down the sidewalk, but he only saw the usual bustle of pedestrians moving through the busy city.
The noise suddenly started up again- but this time the pale teen could pinpoint the direction it came from. He turned to his right and saw a narrow gap between two aged business buildings.
"Hello?" Ryou cautiously called towards the gap. "Is someone there?"
He thought he saw something moving at the end of the alley- something dark-colored and alive. His curiosity overcame his common sense, and he stepped into the dingy alleyway to investigate.
Sure enough, there was a small, black animal hiding near a metal garbage container. It appeared to be a young rabbit, and it was squirming frantically. The fair-haired teen slowly moved closer, watching the furry creature's actions. It seemed to be twisting and turning with all its might, but it never moved more than a few inches one way or the other.
'That's odd- why would it do that? Surely it would be eaten by a stray dog or cat if it keeps writhing in one spot-?"
Ryou's eyes widened when he saw the reason. Some cruel jerk had wrapped twine around the animal's hind leg, and now it was stuck. The little rabbit looked exhausted, as though he had been fighting against the thread for hours. But it still twitched nervously as the young man came closer.
"It's alright, little guy- try to stay calm- I'm not going to hurt you, ok?" Ryou spoke softly as he slowly made his way forward. "I'm going to try and help you, see?" He carefully knelt down, wincing as he felt the gravel scrape against his covered knees. Yes, the alleyway was filthy, but he couldn't just leave the poor creature to suffer like this.
The beige twine had been wrapped around one of the legs of the dumpster- and it looked like a rather nasty knot.
'Oh dear... maybe I should try and untie the end on the rabbit's foot? But he might bite me...'
The dark rabbit eyed Ryou nervously, and the boy felt very frustrated.
'He's scared... and I can't risk him biting me, he could be ill... but if I leave that cord tied to his leg and just cut the off dumpster side, it could still get caught on something else...'
As he looked around, Ryou felt his backpack starting to slide off his shoulders.
"Ah-hah!" The kind student gasped as he realized what might work. He smiled in revelation.
"Ok, little guy; just try and stay still for a minute- I promise I'm trying to help."
The rabbit blinked at the words. If Ryou didn't know better, he'd swear that the animal's face bore a look of incredulity.
He fully un-zipped the top of the backpack, and slid his books and notes onto the cracked asphalt next to him.
"Ok... here goes nothing..."
In one swift move, Ryou carefully brought the entire bag down on top of the trapped critter. He used the cloth pack to cover everything except the leg with the twine.
The animal panicked at first, but the makeshift enclosure soon soothed its natural burrowing instinct. The fabric of the bag slowly stopped twitching as the creature relaxed.
Ryou quickly set to work on the bound leg- it was difficult, as the rope had dug deep into the fur from the rabbit's struggles. Ryou kept softly whispering words of encouragement, not sure if the animal understood what was going on. "Shhh... there we go, you're doing great... almost there..." It didn't take more than a minute or two before he had successfully undone the knot.
"Smashing!" Ryou grinned widely as the cord began un-twisting from the furry, black paw. "All done!"
He triumphantly lifted the backpack upwards, revealing a surprisingly calm mammal.
"Ok, Mr. Rabbit, you can go now!"
But the rabbit didn't leave.
Ryou made gentle flapping motions with his palms. "Go on, shoo! Find someplace nicer to stay!"
The animal stared at him, before slowly turning around and hopping away.
'Thank heavens that worked... what an odd place to find a rabbit...'
Ryou was just leaning down to put his books back into his backpack when he saw a dark blur.
"Eh?" The little rabbit had hopped back by the pile of his belongings, bent down, and then scarpered out of the alley.
Ryou was baffled by the strange action, but chalked it up to the poor animal's confusion from the rough event. He had just about re-packed his bag when he looked around, confused. Something was missing.
"Wait- ack! My wallet!" The confused student quickly glanced about for the brown rectangle, when he realized what had really just happened.
The rabbit had taken his wallet!
Ryou was baffled- why would a rabbit want a faux-leather wallet?- but decided the creature was probably still disorientated from everything. He could just see a glimpse of black fur darting around the outer edge of the alleyway.
"Hey, wait! Stop!" He gasped as he staggered to his feet, barely shoving his books and notes back into his backpack first. The bemused student ran back to the sidewalk, his backpack hanging off one shoulder while he frantically searched for any sign of the rabbit.
His disheveled appearance garnered many stares from the other pedestrians, but he ignored them. 'There!' He gasped as he saw the small creature turning into another alley- this one was even darker and more decrepit than the first. The walls were almost too narrow to pass, and Ryou had to leave his overly-heavy backpack near the opening.
'Oh, I hope he drops it- this is probably a bad idea...' He saw the rabbit, sitting on its haunches at the end of the alley. As Ryou shimmied awkwardly down the alley, he noticed that the animal wasn't moving. In fact, it almost seemed like it was waiting for him to catch up.
'But that's ridiculous.' Ryou reasoned with himself, 'A wild animal wouldn't want a human to get too close to it- the poor thing is probably still confused.' As he got closer, the black creature suddenly turned and darted behind what looked like an upended dumpster.
"Oh no..." Ryou sighed as he reached the rusted metal container. "I'm going to ruin my uniform at this rate..." He assumed the rabbit was hiding behind the large waste container, as there seemed to be nowhere else to hide in the grimy little alley.
"Well, here goes nothing..." The teenaged boy braced himself before grabbing the top edges of the aging receptacle. With one strong tug, he was able to pull the corroding metal bin away from the brick wall. But rather than revealing a black ball of twitching fluff, he instead found something much stranger.
"What on Earth..." A sizable, half-moon shaped hole had been carved into the very brick of the building. It almost looked like an old ditch for waste water. There were faint words carved roughly into the bricks, but they were so old that they were no longer legible. 'Probably just graffiti...' Curious, Ryou knelt down to inspect this odd discovery. He could hear the rush of running water, but the tunnel was too dark to see anything. 'How odd... it looks like a large storm drain... but why isn't it covered?' He carefully balanced on his heels as he tried to see if the rabbit thief had somehow gone down the drain.
"This is very unsafe, not even a netting or grate on the opening... poor little rabbit- I do hope he didn't fall in, that could mean troubl-OH!" Ryou let out a startled yelp as he suddenly lost his balance. He gasped as he was suddenly plunged bottom-first into a tunnel of knee-deep water. "Oh... ugh." He groaned as the cold dampness quickly soaked through his dark blue uniform. "How disgusting..." He started to stand up, when he noticed that the water wasn't nearly as strong-smelling as he had feared. 'At least it's rather clean water... thank heavens it rained yesterday, otherwise this would really stink...'
Deciding that his wallet was officially a lost cause, the unlucky youth turned around to see how best to escape. 'Alright, time to get out of here...' His jaw nearly dropped as he realized that the walls surrounding him were all sloped upwards and outwards- he couldn't climb back up! The concrete slopes were clearly designed to only allow rubbish water to flow downward. "No... oh no..." Ryou felt himself starting to panic- his cell phone was still in his backpack!- but he was distracted by a new sound. "Eh?" He could hear something faintly roaring down at the opposite end of the tunnel. "That almost sounds like...!" Ryou barely had a moment's realization before he was swept off his feet by a massive surge of water.
"WAHHHH!"
The relentless current carried him further and further down the drainage system. Ryou tried to yell for help, but the powerful tide threatened to completely overwhelm the terrified teen. Fearful of being drowned by the flood, he closed his mouth and silently prayed for safety.
'Oh no... I can barely stay afloat-!'
There was horrid moment of realization as the entire world suddenly seemed to flip upside down. Ryou let out an involuntary scream as he found himself falling through an empty space. The tunnel had apparently taken a downward turn, and now he was dropping like a stone-
Falling through nothingness,
Falling,
falling,
falling...
There was a flash of golden light, and then Ryou felt himself faint.