Notes for this story can be found on my Livejournal.
Disclaimer: YuGiOh is Takahashi's. I'm just temporarily subletting it.
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His first name was given to him when he was born. It was the name that his friends yelled out when they ran by his house, the name that was shouted after him when he swiped food from the kitchen, the name that accompanied a kiss on the forehead when his mother tucked him in at night. He was known by that name for seven years.
His first name burned with Kuru Eruna.
His second name, he chose for himself. Even before he was well known, before tales of the half-mad boy thief with hair as white as an old man's began to spread, he whispered it to himself: Thief King, King of Thieves, Thief King Bakura. More than a promise of greatness to come, it was a promise to himself and to the other names he whispered at night - the long list that began with Mother and the other, shorter list that ended with Pharaoh - that the memory of Kuru Eruna would be carved into Egypt with fire and blood.
His second name, like his promise, was sealed into the Millennium Ring.
His third name is not really his name at all, but it suits him well enough, and it amuses him to be named interchangeably with his weak little host. It doesn't matter, anyway; he doesn't need a name of his own to exact his revenge.
His third name is not really his name at all, but it will serve well enough to bring the world into eternal darkness.