Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Here's the one-shot sequel to "Bakura Is..."!

Just so you know, ten years have passed since the end of the last story!

The Return…?

A ten-year-old with gray eyes gazed at a photo on a bedside table and questioned in English, "Who are you?"

"Ototo!" a slightly-older boy's voice called in a sing-song voice.

"You're gonna be late for class!" another, similar voice continued.

"Do you want a big fat 'tardy' on your record?"

"Otou-san would sure love that!"

"Coming, Onii-chan!" he called back, straightening the collar of his jacket. He ran out of the room, closing the door carefully behind him. As he did, a blue-eyed, white-haired man giving a nuggie to a similar girl, yet he was tan and she was as white as her hair, came into view. Both were laughing, even if he had a fierce look in his eye. The date of the photo was eleven years before this.

"It's that kid again."

"Just because he's one test away from being the top of the class doesn't mean he can look down on us."

"No, he just points his nose in the air! The little snot!"

"Ototo!" a pair of voices called through the din of muttering.

"Onii-chan," the younger boy greeted back.

Two eleven-year-old boys, one with brown hair and sky blue eyes, the other with white and cobalt blue, came up to him. They wore identical jackets done up exactly the same way, the collars undone, while the rest of the buttons were fastened. Tall and gangly with carefully spiked short hair, they were twins through and through.

"No need to be respectful at school! I'm Akio," the white-haired brother started, while the brown-haired one finished, "And I'm Fuyuki." And in unison, they pointed at their younger brother. "And you're Akefia."

"Akefia" twitched. "You know I hate it when you call me that."

"Your name is written on all the rolls like that, A-ke-fi-a-chan," Akio enunciated as he poked the boy's forehead.

"I'm gonna beat you someday."

The boys stumbled back, in complete ecstasy. "Threaten us more, Akefia-chan! It brings the uttermost joy to our hearts!"

Akefia scowled and got up, walking around them on his way out. "You're a spectacle, go drown yourselves."

He walked to his class dorm and entered, the plaque "Ra Yellow" on the side. He picked up his deck and sat down, the cards resting in his lightly clenched hands. "Those idiots, ever since I enrolled have they been teasing me about Mom's mistake. Why did she give such a weird name, anyway? 'Ryu Kaiba' is noticeable enough without my dragon deck."

He ran a hand through his messy brown hair, muttering darkly, "I have to deal with everyone thinking I'm riding on my dad's coattails already, let alone being the heir to Kaiba Corporation because my brothers refused to take it! I want to make a name for myself, and it's not this 'Akefia' everyone keeps calling me."

Slamming his deck down, he growled. "Who is this 'Akefia' in the first place?!"

After passing his test for the top rank in Ra Yellow (his brothers were in Obelisk Blue), Ryu sat on one of the beaches on the island the Duel Academy was situated in, the water lapping at his shoes. "What am I doing here? Is dueling a curse to my blood? Everyone duels in my family, yet I'm the only one with Shadow Magic, which only is used in vengeful duels and games, so I have to keep my emotions in check. I don't even know where it came from, and no one will tell me, even Atem!"

He scrubbed his hands through his hair and groaned, "I'll never find out who that guy is in that picture on Mom's beside table!"

He stood and kicked at the sand, sending a bunch of damp grains into the waves. He clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes shut as an udjat appeared on his forehead. "No…not again!"

"Impressive Shadow Magic, boy."

He whirled around and struck out, only for the stranger to bat the spell away like it was a thrown child's toy. The stranger chuckled as he grinned, his wild hair in a ponytail. "Very good for a boy your age, but not strong enough to harm me. If you harnessed that anger, you'd be twice as powerful."

Ryu narrowed his eyes as he hissed, "Says you. Who are you?"

The large cap the man wore was pulled off and the stranger introduced, "Just call me Bakura."

Ryu stared in shock. "You…you're the one from the picture! The one on Mom's bedside table!"

Bakura frowned and crossed his arms. "Who's your mother, boy?"

"Ryo Kaiba, everyone knows that!"

"Ryo…I haven't heard that name in ten years…" Bakura mused as he looked Ryu up and down. "Follow me."

"But I have class this afternoon!"

"Class? What kind of classes would you have on this tiny island?"

"Dueling classes, duh! Where have you been the past seven years?! My dad was the one who founded the Duel Academy!"

"Ah, so Kaiba thinks it takes actual schooling to become a great duelist, does he?!" The white-haired man laughed maniacally, before a wild grin replaced his jovial features. "Perhaps he needs a Shadow Game to change his mind."

Ryu jumped in front of Bakura. "Don't you hurt my dad! I know what Shadow Magic does to someone who doesn't use it, and my dad doesn't have any!"

Bakura laughed again and placed a hand on the boy's head. "Dear boy, you have no idea. Now come with me, we'll have a 'talk' with Dear Daddy before I talk with your mom."

"How do you know where they are?! They're not at the Kaiba Mansion, you know!"

"That was a fact I did know. They're on the island and…let's just say your mom and I have a special connection."

Ryu ran after Bakura as he trekked in a straight line to a villa that the Kaiba family resided, entering without announcing himself. He went straight to the master suite and threw open the door, only to find Kaiba sitting by himself in front of a computer. His eyes flew about the room, trying to find Ryo, but he couldn't see her.

"Kaiba! Where is she?!"

The brown-haired man turned and glowered at him. "So, you were alive after all. Now that things have gone completely wrong with my wife, you come. How ironic."

"Where. Is. She?!"

The CEO pointed at the gold pendant on the desk next to him. "In here."

Bakura stared at the Millennium Ring. "That can't be! I'm the only wielder of the Millennium Ring!"

"So we thought as well, but just a month ago, it sucked her inside and no methods I've tried have gotten her out. Perhaps your Millennium Item wasn't happy that a pure soul was wielding it, not a dark one. Take it, and don't come back until you've figured out how to get Ryo out of that prison."

Ryu watched the whole thing and was even more confused. How would Bakura bring his mom out of the Millennium Ring? He didn't know, but he missed her a lot and hoped it would work.

Bakura went into a spare bedroom and reached out to Ryo, only to find her presence trapped deep within his soul room, which he'd abandoned when he'd died. He entered it through the Millennium Ring once he'd placed it around his neck and delved inside the dark, dank soul room full of tarnished and dusty treasure and bloody walls, traps broken and useless. He sneered at the place and knew that he'd have to give it a major makeover once he found his other half and brought her to the physical world again. This was remnants of what he used to be before he abandoned who he was in the past and turned over a new leaf.

/Ryo! Are you in here?\\ he called, since there was nothing to challenge him in his own soul room.

/…wh…o…th…e…re…?\ a faint voice answered from within the shadows.

He ran, quite aware that if the voice got any softer, it would disappear. /Who do you think it is? The Boogie Man?\\

A slight wave of recognition went through the presence. /Ba…ku…ra…? I…s…th…a…t…y…ou…?\

/Well it bloody ain't the Pharaoh! I come to see you after being revived through the Millennium Ring and what do I find?! You trapped inside my old soul room sounding like you're bloody dying! You'd better not let yourself get any weaker or I'm dragging you back from Hell!\\

A tiny light appeared in the darkness, which became clearer as he reached it. It was a faint outline of his light half, the point of light here her heart was. It was shrinking at an alarming rate, and he noticed right away why.

A horde of Shadow Creatures surrounded her and their auras were consuming hers, for they craved the light she gave off, since their master didn't give them meals of Shadow Power.

The former Tomb Robber snarled and the Millennium Ring lit up, which caught the monsters' attention. They swarmed around him, reaching for the Millennium Item and his flaring aura with increased hunger. He shouted, /For your insolence, you'll all be banished to the Shadow Realm forevermore! BEGONE!\\

With wails of pain, they all vanished, save one: the Dark Necrofear. It reached out to Ryo and her light spread through her body until she was no longer a silhouette, but her normal self. It gave her a nod as she sat up tentatively, then vanished back into the shadows. She blinked and pushed herself to her feet, her wide eyes surprised by the strength she had now.

/What happened? Why am I in Bakura's old soul room?\

Bakura chuckled. /That's what I want to know, Ryo.\\

She whipped around to face him and her face lit up in joy. /BAKURA! YOU'RE ALIVE!\

He winced as she pounced on him and squeezed, although he patted her back in return. /What did I tell you about the screaming? It hurts my head.\\

/I can't believe you're here! Alive! Our link was broken!\

He felt his shirt getting slowly soaked by her gushing tears. /Enough of that. I'm here and well. You should be thankful I came at all, or else those monsters would've sucked you dry and you would've ceased to exist.\\

She looked up at him with a watery grin. /I wondered why I had the Millennium Ring on when you died. You needed a safe place to be while your soul recovered.\

/We can continue outside. Your brat and Kaiba are about to burst from anxiousness.\\

/Really? Seto is anxious?\

/Close enough to it.\\

So when Ryo appeared on the bed in front of Bakura, she was laughing at the image of her husband fidgeting and pacing like a complete worrywart, out loud. Her jovial emotions made her other half smile. He'd missed being with her so much these last eleven years.

The sound of hurried footsteps preceded Kaiba and Ryu bursting into the room, the father and son embracing Ryo as she giggled.

"Mom! You're back!" Ryu cried, sobbing into her left shoulder.

"You disappear like that again I'll have to hunt you down myself," Kaiba growled as he kissed her.

She smiled into the kiss and pulled away. "I'm glad to be back, but the greatest shock was when I realized who'd rescued me." She turned her gaze on Bakura. "When did you find where I was?"

"A few weeks ago. You weren't at the Kaiba Mansion, so I searched amongst the Pharaoh and his friends. They told me that you and Kaiba had started up a dueling academy. A dueling academy! Have the skills of the current generation of duelists fallen so far they have to be taught about it?!"

Kaiba snorted. "Apparently so. I went to America and was unpleasantly surprised when I found how mediocre the newer duelists were."

Ryo smirked. "All three of our sons are enrolled, although Akio and Fuyuki don't take it as seriously as Ryu does."

Bakura's eyes went to the younger Kaiba, who was clinging to his mother like she was his lifeline. "You didn't name him after me? I don't even deserve that, after dying for you and dragging you from certain death?"

Ryo giggled and patted her youngest son's head. "I made a mistake when we enrolled him in the Duel Academy. I called him Kaiba Akefia by mistake, so everyone calls him that instead of his real name."

The thief cackled maniacally and Ryu jumped at the sound. "So you did call him after me, even if it was by mistake. You should be using it proudly boy, I was the Pharaoh's greatest enemy in the past."

Ryu's eyes lit up before they became confused. "You were? Then how come I've never heard of you before this?"

Ryo murmured in his ear, "It was too painful for all of us to talk about it, because he died so suddenly. Besides me, Atem and Marik were the most broken up by it. He and I share a soul, like Yugi and Atem do."

"So they won't be angry anymore, now that he's back?"

Bakura grinned. "That's right…I should pay everyone a visit, just to make them wet themselves now that Dark Bakura is back."

" 'Dark' Bakura?" Ryu questioned, squirming out from under his mother's arm. "Are you like Atem and have Shadow Powers?!"

Bakura grinned. "Of course I do. The Pharaoh was once called 'Dark' Yugi, when he hadn't given himself a name."

"Can you teach me how to control my powers?!"

"If you get out of my face, I might."

"Alright! It's going to be so cool, being able to not worry about them flaring up whenever someone ticks me off!"

As the boy celebrated, Bakura asked Kaiba, "Why does he have a yellow jacket? I saw red and blue as well when I was coming over here. Do they mean something?"

Kaiba smirked. "Of course they do. They're fashioned after the Egyptian God Cards."

"Osiris Red, Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow. Is your son in the highest class, being Ra Yellow?"

The Kaiba couple shook their heads in unison. "You have the order wrong. From lowest to highest is Osiris Red, Ra Yellow, then Obelisk Blue," Ryo explained. "Ryu is just a couple ranks shy of joining Obelisk Blue."

Kaiba placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. "He passed his test today to be the strongest in Ra Yellow."

"That's wonderful. We'll have to give him something as a reward later, since he's so stoked about Shadow Magic lessons right now he wouldn't pay attention to it anyways."

Bakura grinned. "And here I thought he was fretting about being late for class."

Ryo glanced at the clock in alarm and called to her son in English, "Ryu! You're going to be late for class!"

The boy yelped and raced out of the house, sounding like a herd of spooked elephants. The door slammed shut and Kaiba sighed. "That boy will never learn not to slam doors when he's in a hurry."

Ryo smiled. "He's ten, let him be a kid." She stood from the bed and asked, "What's happened since I was sucked into the Millennium Ring, Seto?"

"Not much besides how worried all our kids were and my tried and failed methods of getting you out without Shadow Magic."

"How have Akio and Fuyuki fared with their rankings and grades?"

"Effortless, they're just going to school for fun, as always. They've both risen another three ranks in their class."

"If they were serious, they'd be the top of the school by now. How did we get such unmotivated children?"

"Perhaps they know that being on the top means nothing unless you have a worthy rival, and they're waiting for their younger brother to catch up with them," Bakura surmised.

The parents turned to the thief. He smirked and nodded.

"I never thought about it that way. They probably want to have a rival just like you have in Atem, Seto," Ryo realized with a smile.

Kaiba shook his head and replied, "They might just find one before they reach the top. From the records, there's one Yuki Judai who's rising through the ranks like wildfire. He seems like an unstoppable force, even though his sit-down class grades are terrible."

"Where is he now in class ranks?"

"He should be in the middle of Ra Yellow, but he refuses to take the rank."

"Perhaps he just likes red?"

"Sounds like he's loyal to the Osiris Red class," Bakura put in. "Much like Yugi and how he was always so loyal to his friends. We may just have another King of Games on our hands."

Ryo grinned at her other half and asked, "Would you like to see the Duel Academy?"

"Might as well, just to see the mettle of these students."

They walked to the Duel Academy, where classes were in full swing. They went to the Obelisk Blue class first, where she knocked on the door. The teacher paused in his lecture and called, "Come in!"

She slid the door open and many of the students whispered, "It's Kaiba Ryo, the founder's wife," to each other excitedly, before Akio and Fuyuki stood and ran over to her.

"MOM!"

They hugged her while hiding their tears in her hip-length jacket. She rubbed their backs and one of the female students asked, "Kaiba-sama, are you finally back from that trip?"

Ryo smiled and answered, "I was out to find my missing cousin, who I hadn't been able to contact for ten years. I just found him and brought him with me a few days before this."

"You left out the part where I saved you from certain death, Ryo."

Bakura stepped into the room, and the twins gaped at the man from the picture Ryu always stared at. A cousin? He looked very similar, but his indigo eyes, tan skin and insane grin made him seem very different! They were shocked when their mother teased, "Now, now, not in front of the children, Bakura."

That comment made the whole class sit forward in interest.

"Tell us! Tell us!" one male student begged.

The teacher sighed. He'd never get the attention of his class back, now that there was a life-and-death story to be told.

"...and there she was, covered in blood—"

"I was not!"

"—y bites from the various Duel Monsters who'd fed off of her, her soul almost completely devoured… I activated my Shadow Magic to draw them away from her and…BOOM! They were sent back to the Shadow Realm. The Dark Necrofear was all that remained, and it gave back the energy that the other monsters had taken, so Ryo was healed.

"And that, children, is the story of how I saved Kaiba Ryo from certain death."

Every student sighed in relief at the end, Ryo crossing her arms as they walked out of the classroom. /Half of that was lies, Bakura.\

/You saw how they hung on to my every word. I made it more interesting with the exaggerations.\\

/You scared the twins more than anyone else! They'll probably think from now on that whenever I have an injury, a rogue Duel Monster's attacked me!\

/It will never happen again under my watch.\\

/I'm sure you'll be hovering over me for the next month or so, just in case.\

/Naturally.\\

She grinned and said aloud, "It's good to have you back, Bakura."

The bell rang for classes to end and students poured out, mingling as they found friends and classmates they wanted to talk to.

"It looks like there won't be anything else happening today, sorry if this was boring to you."

Almost like magnets, Ryo's three children found them, Ryu chattering about how his last class went. Fuyuki and Akio teased their younger brother, and Bakura smirked, knowing that his better half was happy in this situation. Even if they eventually parted because he found someone like she had, he knew they still had their bond and they'd never lose it again.

He had nothing to complain about.

THE. END!

No really, that's it!

Please review!