Three Red Leaves
Dear Amane,
How are you and mother? I apologize for not writing in so long. A lot has happened. The voice I mentioned in my last letter is gone, thanks to my friends. I don't know what I would do without them.
Did you know I got to go to Egypt? We all went together to see one of our friends off. Have you seen him where you are? If you see him, please tell him I said thank you. His name is Atem.
Egypt was wonderful. I got to ride a camel! I'm sending you a picture of me and my friends all there together.
Father is also doing well. He just left on another expedition. He's going to study some ruins in the Philippines. The apartment is normally quiet when he's not there, but it seems emptier than usual. Sometimes I drink tea to help me sleep. But don't worry about me! New Year's is in less than a month and I have a lot of plans with my friends.
With love, your brother,
Ryou
It's unseasonably wet for December, as soon as Ryou steps out his front door he can tell that it rained during the night; the sidewalks are still gleaming with moisture and the air is musty. Dead leaves decompose in wet clumps on the side of the road: the thick, herbaceous smell rising to meet the dark clouds that look like they're ready to fall on the city at any moment.
Ryou almost turns back to grab an umbrella, but he's already late and the forecast yesterday didn't call for rain, so he takes the risk and goes without.
He's always grateful for the walk to school; the fresh air wakes him up even on days like these, when he's only had a few hours of sleep.
He makes it to school with a few minutes to spare. When he enters the classroom, Jounouchi nearly bowls him over in desperation.
"You'll duel me, right Bakura? Promise me you'll duel me!"
Caught completely off guard and still trying to regain his balance, it takes Ryou a minute to comprehend Jounouchi's words. "Duel-?" He looks across the classroom toward Jounouchi's usual opponent, who shrugs at his desk.
"I'm in the middle of reconstructing my deck," Yuugi says. "I don't have a complete one right now."
"A true duelist should never be without his deck," Jounouchi grumbles, following Ryou back to his seat. Across the room, Kaiba grunts in what might have been agreement. It's hard to tell, as his face is completely buried in a book.
"I'd be happy to duel you, Jounouchi," Ryou says. "But, um…"
"But what?"
"Well, I mean…last time…"
Ryou hears a snort and turns to see Honda unsuccessfully trying not to grin.
Otogi, who's sitting on top of Honda's desk, looks up. "What happened last time?"
"Jou couldn't even finish the duel," Honda says. "You know how he is with ghosts and stuff. I thought he was gonna piss himself."
"I was not!" Jounouchi complains. "It's not my fault those holograms are so real looking!" He glares malevolently towards Kaiba's corner of the classroom, but the CEO ignores him so he turns his attention back to Otogi and Honda. "Stop laughing! I could duel either of you into the ground and you know it!"
"Excuse me?"
"Yeah, dice-boy, I know your excuse about studying is a lie. Just face it, you're afraid of dueling me!"
Ryou and Yuugi watch the argument with amusement until Anzu appears and leans against her desk, yawning. "Oh, geez. What's the problem today?"
"I think Jou's craving some competition," Yuugi says.
"What? Jounouchi, don't you have exams to study for?"
"Oh, come on, Anzu. I still got a few weeks!"
"Yeah? So then explain last term's grades!"
"I had other stuff to do!"
"Like what? Dueling? Your studies are important, Jounouchi!"
"So is dueling!"
"Honestly, Jounouchi, if I can keep up with work and dance and school and still go to all your duels, you can at least study."
"I will! Just not today!" Jounouchi turns to Ryou. "At lunch, right?"
Ryou nods a hasty assent and sits down. Tadeshi-sensei has arrived.
He tries to pay attention to the lesson, he really does. History is one of his favorite subjects, but his lack of sleep is catching up with him and he can't focus.
To stay awake, he writes in the margins of his notes. Nothing significant, really, just the words to some spells he had read in a book last night. He'd mostly been reading because he found the spells interesting and because he couldn't sleep, but one in particular one had caught his eye and it had been stuck in his head since. The spell was in English, and stood out against the rest of his notes:
Red leaves, gift from earth,
Birth to death and death to birth,
Keep all evil far away,
Day to night and night to day.
You were supposed to say the spell three times around an array with a candle and red leaves, but Ryou just liked the way the words sounded. Anyway they weren't allowed to light candles in his building.
He can't help but notice when Anzu, on his other side, begins to nod off. When Tadeshi-sensei isn't looking, he reaches across the aisle to tap her with his pencil. She jerks awake and glances around guiltily before flashing him a smile of gratitude.
Ryou smiles back and returns his attention to the front of the room.
At lunch, he duels Jounouchi and loses, but only by a small margin. Jounouchi seems gratified by the win and complains less when Honda mocks him for being scared of Ryou's cards.
The rest of the day passes more or less uneventfully; one first-year girl seems intent on approaching him in the hall after school, but she loses her nerve at the last minute and saves both of them the awkward conversation that's sure to follow.
It's not that he doesn't appreciate the attention, or that he doesn't like girls. He just doesn't know how to handle that kind of social situation. He never has. It doesn't help that until recently it wouldn't exactly be safe for anyone to date him in the first place. He's grateful for the steadfast company Yuugi and the rest of his friends provide, but he doesn't see the need to disrupt his comfortable anonymity.
After school, Ryou has a habit of hanging around so he can use the track. Usually he runs four or five kilometers, but he doesn't really feel up to it today and quits after two laps. He's just leaving the school when he hears a familiar voice.
"Bakura!"
He turns. Anzu jogs to catch up with him and stops, breathing lightly, at his side.
"Anzu," he says. "I didn't think you'd still be at school."
"Ah, well, I had the day off today and I promised to help out with cleaning duty." Her smile is bright, but this close, Ryou can see the dark circles under her eyes.
"Are you getting enough sleep, Anzu?" he asks. "In class…"
"Oh yeah, that. Thank you, by the way." She smiles again, less convincingly. "It's just all this stress, you know? I've been having trouble sleeping."
Ryou nods.
Anzu laughs and looks away, as if she's embarrassed. "To tell the truth," she says. "I've been having a lot of bad dreams." She looks up at Ryou, searching his expression for some sign of affirmation. "Have you been sleeping? You look tired, too."
Ryou is taken aback, but he doesn't want to make Anzu worry. "I've had some trouble," he says carefully. "My father's on another expedition, and it's hard to sleep in an empty apartment."
For some reason, the news makes Anzu look relieved. "I'm glad it's not just me," she says, laughing. "I always feel like it's stupid, not being able to sleep. I mean, Jounouchi could sleep standing up, if he needed to." She sighs.
"Well, I'm gonna run on down to the studio," she says. "You going home?"
Ryou shakes his head. "I was going to visit the temple today. And I'm behind on my schoolwork."
"All right," She smiles at him again and jogs on ahead toward the next intersection, turning back once to wave.
The temple smells of incense and Ryou finds it a relief after experiencing the dampness everywhere else. He buys incense from the vendor and waves it above his head for the purification ritual. When he's done, he breathes the smoke just a little longer than necessary before putting it in the incense burner. On his way out, he puts some coins in the offering box and claps twice, but he can't think of anything to pray for.
He ends up muttering the spell he had read that morning, the one that's still stuck in his head.
Even though no one's around to hear him, saying the words out loud makes him feel uneasy and he hurries home before he does something really weird.
Despite how tired he is, Ryou puts his homework off in order to start writing a new RPG adventure, and he's still up studying his notes and nursing a cup of Oolong tea when his phone rings just past midnight. He doesn't hesitate to answer; his father sometimes forgot about the time difference when he was traveling.
"Hello—"
"Bakura?"
The urgency in Anzu's voice catches Ryou off guard. Anzu continues, the urgency in her tone making way for apology.
"You weren't sleeping, right? I'm sorry it's so late, I just didn't know who else to call-"
Ryou finally gathers his wits and grips the phone just a little bit tighter. "What's wrong, Anzu?"
"…Oh," Anzu's tone turns embarrassed. "Well, I couldn't sleep and I remembered what you said about your apartment being empty all the time, and I just needed to talk to someone. Is that okay? I'm not bothering you or anything?"
"Not at all, Anzu, I was just writing." Ryou glances back toward the table. In his rush to answer the phone, he had knocked a few sheets of paper to the floor. He twists the phone cord in his hand. "But Anzu…"
"Yes?"
"Why are you calling me?" Ryou tugs on the cord; it's starting to get tangled around his fingers. "I mean, why don't you call Yuugi?"
Over the phone, he can barely hear the sudden intake of breath accompanies Yuugi's name. When he waits and no answer seems forthcoming, he sighs. "Or is that what's bothering you?"
"It's just…" Anzu's voice sounds surprisingly weak, "It's hard to talk to Yuugi. You know. About him."
For a split second, Ryou doesn't know which him Anzu means, and his hand starts to cramp before he manages to collect himself. "You mean Atem."
"…yeah."
In the distance Ryou hears a police siren.
"I know Yuugi's strong enough manage without him," Anzu says. "And that the world isn't in danger anymore. But sometimes I just…I start to worry. What if something else happens? What if we need him again? I don't want to ask Yuugi something like that.
"I believe in him," she says. "I don't want him to think that I don't."
"I understand," Ryou says. "Sometimes our thinking gets distorted late at night."
"Yes!" Anzu sounds relieved. "That's exactly what it is."
The siren sounds again, closer this time, and Ryou distantly wonders if it's coming to his neighborhood. He used to hear those sirens all the time before the Memory World.
"Bakura-"
"…Yes?"
"Do you ever have nightmares? About back then?"
Ryou's fingers catch in the telephone cord. "I don't remember a lot of what happened, you know."
"Oh. That's right, I'm sorry-"
"But yes."
"…oh."
There's another bout of silence, and Bakura twists back toward the table. "Um, Anzu, could you hold on just a minute? I'm going to switch to the cordless."
"Oh, I'm sorry! I should let you go-"
"Anzu, it's really fine-"
"No, it's late. Listen, Bakura, thanks for listening. I'll see you at school tomorrow?"
"Yes. But Anzu-"
She hangs up before he can get another word in. Bakura holds onto the phone just a moment longer, as if there was a chance she'd pick up again and the conversation would resume. After a while, he takes a deep breath and puts the phone down.
A few minutes are enough to prove he's too tired to keep working, so he turns on the TV and finishes off his tea. There's a marathon of classic black-and-white American horror movies on, and he watches with interest as a group of inappropriately-clad scientists discuss their newest acquisition: a mysterious creature trapped in ice.
Some part of him thinks that he probably shouldn't be watching this type of movie before bed, but another part of him dismisses the idea as absurd. For one, the plot was painfully predictable; it was obvious the monster encased in ice would break free and kill most of the cast before someone discovered a clever way to destroy it. For two, he'd never been bothered by these type of movies before, and he'd seen far worse without having trouble sleeping.
The futon smell musty, as if it's been sitting out in the rain, and Ryou makes a note in the back of his mind to air out the apartment the next time the weather's nice.
He can't stop smelling that damp smell even after he drags himself to bed, and he lies awake for what seems like hours, watching the progression of light across his ceiling.
He doesn't remember his dreams, he rarely does, but he feels cold when he wakes up, and not even a hot shower can rid him of the chill that has seeped down into his bones.
Dear Amane,
How is everyone where you are? Did you meet Atem? I've been very busy; tests are coming up and I've been working hard to catch up on my schoolwork. The stress is hard to deal with sometimes. I wish father was home more often.
I was waiting for him to call last night when my friend Anzu Mazaki called. She's been having trouble sleeping too. I think she misses Atem. Can you send her some good dreams? I feel like I can't really help her.
I hope you and mother are doing well. I send you both my love.
Your brother,
Ryou
At school the next day, Anzu doesn't mention the phone call, and Ryou is content to let it go undiscussed. He looks, but doesn't see, any indication of how well Anzu slept.
Yugi has finished his deck, and Ryou gladly lets Jounouchi return to his normal opponent at lunch.
After school, he decided to forgo his daily run altogether and goes straight home, where he changes and studies in his bedroom. It only takes him an hour to fall asleep.
He wakes up several hours later when the phone rings and he falls half off the bed in bewilderment. He'd forgotten that the cordless phone was next to his pillow.
"Hello?"
It must have been obvious that he just woke up, because Anzu immediately begins a round of apologies.
"Oh, Bakura, I'm so sorry, I didn't think you'd be asleep this early—"
"It's fine," Ryou says, yawning. "It was a nap that went too long. It's a good thing you called."
Anzu doesn't contest the point. "Um, well, listen, I wanted to apologize for last night."
"You don't need to," Ryou says. He gets up and carries his books into the living room. "Did you end up sleeping?"
"Ah, some, I guess," Anzu admits. "Better than I have in a while. That's why I called. I wanted to ask you something."
Ryou is staring in dismay at all the work he still hasn't done and barely hears her. When he doesn't reply immediately, Anzu sighs in exasperation.
"Bakura, are you listening to me?"
"Ah, yes. I'm sorry. Please continue."
"If I'm bothering you, just tell me."
Ryou puts the homework down. "I'm sorry," he says, a little more sincerely. "I'm still a little confused about why you're calling."
"Well, that's what I was telling you, wasn't it?"
"That's not what I mean," There's that musty smell again. It's evolved overnight; now it seems more bitter than dank. He pulls his knees up to his chest and picks at a loose thread in the futon. "I mean, why me?"
"Huh?"
"Why are you telling me about all of this? I guess I understand why you wouldn't want to talk to Yuugi, but why don't you talk to, I don't know, Jounouchi? Or Honda?" It makes more sense to him that she talks to people who were actually there.
Anzu doesn't reply for several seconds, and Ryou takes the opportunity to tuck the phone between his jaw and his shoulder so that he can use both hands to pull at a stubborn red thread.
"I guess…" Anzu says, "I mean, you know how they are. They wouldn't admit it if something bothered them, not to me, at least. And if I told them about—about being afraid, they'd tell me I don't need to be. But I know that! I know I don't need to worry. It's just, it's like you said: even if you know something's true, it might not feel true. Not at night."
Ryou's hands still, and he catches sight of the scar on his left hand. He's grown used to it over the last year, but something about it still makes him uneasy. He takes the phone and switches ears.
"But you understand," Anzu says. "That's why."
Ryou considers her statement. Yes, he knows all about what he called "distortions in thinking," but not from experience. Until recently, his waking life was far more terrifying than anything he could dream up.
"You had a question you wanted to ask me?" he asks.
"Ah, yes. Um…well, this is a little weird, so you don't have to answer. But, um…"
Ryou waits, twisting the piece of thread in his hands.
"You said last night that you have nightmares sometimes. What do you do? You know, to fall asleep again?"
I don't. "Um…"
"Sorry, I don't want to pry. I know, it's a weird question, but honestly, I slept much better last night after I talked to you. I thought maybe you'd have more experience with…this kind of thing."
"It's fine," Ryou says, standing up. He needs some tea. "I mean, it makes sense, when you think about it."
"Do you think so?" Anzu asked. "See, that's why I wanted to call you. The guys would just make fun of me."
Ryou refrains from pointing out to Anzu that he's also a guy and turns the gas on, watching with grim satisfaction as blue flames jump up to meet the kettle.
"I usually just read," he says, opening the cupboard and rifling through it. Something herbal would be nice. "Sometimes I write letters."
"Letters?"
Lemon ginger, matcha, licorice spice, Oolong, chrysanthemum, pomegranate, vanilla chai…he finds a box labeled "herbal mixer" and pulls it out, flicking through the teabags.
"Yes," Ryou says. "Letters to the dead." He finds chamomile and tears the bag open.
Anzu doesn't ask which dead.
He opens the packet and drapes the tea bag over the edge of the cup. When he pours the water, the color from the leaves swirls around the cup before slowly rising to the surface. The tea is so pale he can clearly see the bottom.
"I'll be right back," Anzu says. "Don't hang up."
Ryou takes his tea back to the table and starts catching up on Trigonometry. The class has already learned this, but he's missed a significant amount of school in the past year; the Ring hadn't cared if he had good grades or not.
He leaves the phone on speaker, it seems easier than holding it to his ear. He works in silence for several minutes, and has almost forgotten that he's left the phone on when he hears a tiny sigh.
"Bakura?"
He taps his mechanical pencil against the table. "…Yes?'
"I should probably talk to Yuugi, shouldn't I?"
"Yes."
Anzu sighs again, more deeply. "I don't want him to think I don't believe in him."
Ryou thinks to himself that Yuugi would never interpret Anzu's worries so pettily, but he knows Anzu has to know that, too.
"Do you remember when we all came over to play that RPG? The first time?"
Ryou doesn't remember all of it; lately everything from back then seems like a dream, but he's heard the story enough times to know how it goes. "I do."
"I keep having these dreams," Anzu says. "That we're playing it again, and we're all the little pieces on the board. I can see everyone's bodies lying around the table, and we're all going to die if we don't roll a super critical. Just like it happened in real life. And I can see Zorc in front of us, and behind him, the oth—the Spirit of the Ring."
Ryou runs a hand through his hair and doesn't give into the impulse to ask Anzu to stop talking.
"But when I turn around to see if we're going to live or die, Atem isn't there, because he, he went back to the spirit realm. But the rest of us, we're on the board. There's no one to roll for us."
"…And then what?"
"Then I wake up, I guess," the phone crackles as Anzu moves. "It's kind of a silly dream, but—"
"It's not silly," Ryou says.
"It's gone forever, right? The Millennium Ring?"
Ryou stares at his notebook. The page is full of equations, but there's an equilateral triangle drawn in the margin. He adds a circle around it, making sure that the line just barely touches each corner.
"Yes," he says. "I believe it is."
Ryou works on homework late into the night; he knows his nap would have kept him from sleeping anyway.
He lies down around four: he's finally getting tired and two hours of sleep would be better than none at all. He knows from experience that when he doesn't go to sleep, everything starts to take on a hazy quality and his sense of time gets distorted.
He wakes up at five thirty with a jolt. He doesn't remember the dream, but his racing heart and clammy skin are enough evidence to prove it wasn't a benevolent one.
Despite feeling too warm, he's doesn't move out from under the quilt; he knows the darkness is only a mask for more unbearable things.
By his bed, he can see the steady blinking light of the charger for the cordless phone. He watches it for a few minutes, briefly considers calling Anzu, and then dismisses the idea. No need to wake her up when he's had so many other nights like this one.
Instead, he lies stiffly on his back, staring at the ceiling until his alarm goes off and he pulls himself out of bed to take a shower.
Dear Amane,
I hope everything is going well. Things are about the same here. It rained again.
Anzu called last night. She wanted someone to talk to while she fell asleep. She asked me if the Millennium Ring was gone forever. I said yes, but after I went to bed, I started to wonder. But there's no point worrying about it, right?
I haven't told father I've lost it yet. Do you think he'll be angry? I'm sure he'll understand.
I miss you.
Ryou
Anzu seems more relaxed the next day, and Ryou sees her walking with Yuugi after school.
He doesn't hear from her that night, which he tells himself is just as well; it probably means she's sleeping better.
The day after that is Sunday, and Yuugi calls him in the morning to invite him to go with the gang into the city. Apparently Shizuka was visiting and Jounouchi wanted to show off by dueling with the tourists.
Ryou reluctantly declines: he's close to catching up on his schoolwork and he's tired from yet another sleepless night. But he knows Yuugi wants him to go, and to soften the blow, he mentions that he's almost done with his newest RPG campaign, if the gang was interested in trying a version where their souls aren't in danger.
The idea seems to enthuse Yuugi a bit, and he says he'll mention it to everyone else.
True to his word, Ryou spends the entire day studying. Being so close to catching up with the class spurs his motivation and he works nonstop until late afternoon. He might have kept working if he wasn't so hungry; the sky's been overcast all day and the passage of time was almost impossible to measure by light alone.
He's in the kitchen washing vegetables when the phone rings.
"Ah, hello—"
"Hey, it's me."
Ryou pauses and wipes a hand on his jeans. "Anzu?"
"Yup. You done studying?"
"Almost...I thought you all went into the city?"
"We just got back. Is it alright if I stop by for a few minutes?"
"I…I guess that's fine."
"Good. I'll be by in a few. I have something for you."
Anzu hangs up and Ryou, bemused, goes back to the sink.
The entire apartment, small as it is, smells like ginger and garlic when Anzu finally arrives. Ryou rushes to the door, apologizing for the apartment's messy appearance, but she just shrugs and steps inside, shifting from one foot to the other impatiently. She's carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder, and she puts her free hand on her hip as she tilts her head back to take a deep breath. Her demeanor is astronomically different from that of her recent phone calls, and Ryou wonders if the difference is due to his involvement or just the time of day.
"Wow, it smells good in here. You making dinner?"
"Um, yes. Do you want anything? I'm just about finished."
"Oh no, don't worry about it. I've got to run off to dance practice."
Ryou registers that she's sporting a sweatshirt and legwarmers. "I see…"
She smiles at him and then bends down to dig through her bag.
"So we were in this little souvenir store and I found this, and, um, well, don't take this the wrong way, but it reminded me of you."
She holds an object up to Ryou and he takes it in his hands. One look tells him what she means.
The bulk of it is a willow hoop with red string wrapped around it to form a net-like pattern in the center. Several strands of leather hang off the bottom, and tied to each one is a black and white feather. In shape and size, it's incredibly similar to the Ring.
Anzu tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's called a dreamcatcher. I guess it's some kind of American thing. There was this flyer that came with it—I've got it in here somewhere—it says that if you hang it over your bed, you'll only have good dreams."
"…I see." Ryou runs a hand over the net; it's studded with beads.
"I know it looks like the Ring," Anzu says. "But when I talked to Yuugi, it helped me a lot, and I thought, maybe…if you needed to talk to someone..."
Ryou's fingers tighten around the hoop. "Thank you, Anzu,"
"No, I wanted to thank you, for listening to me and encouraging me to—Bakura, are you alright?"
Ryou tears his eyes away from the dreamcatcher. "Ah…yes, sorry. I just, um…"
The timer on the stove goes off, and their heads both jerk toward the sound.
"That would be the rice," Ryou mutters as he heads into the kitchen, setting the dreamcatcher on the counter.
One his way back to the door he notices that he's knocked a sheet of notes to the ground and picks it up, nervously folding it in his hands as he returns to the door.
Anzu straightens when she sees him. She's clearly lingering. "Um, Bakura…"
"…Yes?"
"I was thinking about what you said, about writing letters when you couldn't sleep..."
Startled, Ryou looks up. Anzu shrugs. "Last night I tried it. I wrote a letter to him."
"…Oh." he folds the piece of paper in his hands again, then shakes his head. "How'd that go?"
"It helped a lot. It was a really good suggestion."
"I'm glad it helped," Ryou says.
She looks unsettled for some reason. "Great. Um, look, I've got to run, but I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Right," Ryou says. "Thanks for coming over, Anzu. And thank you for the dreamcatcher."
"No problem," she shoulders her duffel bag and winks as she walks out the door. "Sweet dreams!"
When she's gone, Ryou stands still in the center of the room, ignoring the sharp ache in the center of his left palm. Slowly he turns around to regard the kitchen counter, where the dreamcatcher sits askew, two feathers hanging off the edge and pointing precariously to the floor. The room suddenly seems flooded with the bitter, musty scent from the futon.
One of the feathers flutters in the still air, and Ryou takes a step back. Everything is rushing forward and he feels a blast of cold air. He barely has time to register what's happening when he hears his own name.
"Bakura!"
He turns. Anzu is in the doorway.
"Check this out!" she says. "You gotta see!"
He must have taken too long to get to the door because as soon as he's within reach he grabs him by the wrist and forcefully pulls him out onto the landing, where the cold seeps through his socks to the bottom of his feet.
"Isn't it gorgeous?" she says. "I was just going down the stairs when I saw it."
There's just enough of a break in the clouds to frame the western horizon. It's a perfect winter sunset: the clouds glowing opalescent around a freezing white sun, the sky playing variations of gold and silver that rise to a crescendo of deep purple as you look straight up. Ryou can barely see the ocean from the landing, and cranes his neck to see that the water is frothy with activity. There's a good chance there'll be a storm tomorrow.
"I thought those clouds were never going away!" Anzu says, leaning forward over the balcony. "But it looks like it'll be sunny tomorrow."
Ryou chooses not to dampen her enthusiasm.
"I hope so," he says, shifting his weight and thanking himself for putting on a sweatshirt this morning. Despite Anzu's opinion, it's still a crisp winter evening
"What is that?"
He looks up. "Huh?"
She gestures toward his hands. "That piece of paper."
"Oh," Ryou unfolds it to show her. "It's just a page of notes from, um, history. I dropped it earlier."
She leans forward to look at it and nods, and then she frowns. "What's this?" she asks, taking the paper from him. "I don't remember it being in the notes." She begins to read, slowing to sound out the unfamiliar English words.
"Red leaves, gift from earth, birth to death and death to birth…" She pauses, quirks an eyebrow at Ryou. "A poem?"
"No," he says, taking the paper from her. "It was, um, just something I read."
"What does it mean?" Anzu moves closer to look over her shoulder. "It sounds nice."
Ryou resists the impulse to fold the paper back up by smoothing out the creases. "It's a spell," he said. "You're supposed to collect red leaves and then say it three times."
"That's cool. So then, what about this second part: 'keep all evil far away, day to night and night to day'? That's what it does?"
Ryou nods. "It's supposed to prevent negativity." A sense of urgency takes hold of him him and he holds the paper out toward Anzu. "You should take it."
"Huh? Why?"
"Well, I mean…" Ryou stares down at the sheet outstretched between them. "If it's supposed to prevent negativity, then that includes nightmares, right? It might help you."
When Anzu smiles uneasily, Ryou feels his chest tighten. "Look," he said. "It won't work for me, but it might for you. And since you gave me the dreamcatcher—"
"Bakura," Anzu says, half-laughing, "Keep it: it's written on your homework. Besides, why would it work for me if it didn't for you?"
Ryou withdraws the paper. "Sorry," he says. "I just—I thought it might help."
The sun has already disappeared over the horizon, but there's still enough light for Ryou to see Anzu's expression soften.
"Tell you what," she says, reaching out to take the paper from him. "I have the day off tomorrow. Let's do it after school. Together."
"But—"
"What?" She says loudly, as if she wants him to challenge her. "It's your spell. I'm not going to do it unless you're there, too."
"But it won't work for me—"
Anzu waves a hand. "We'll make it work. Don't worry about it." She scans the words of the spell once more, murmuring the words to herself. She nods with satisfaction and hands it back.
"We'll do it," she tells him. "Just you wait. It'll work this time."
For once, he thinks she might be right. A breeze brushes by them and makes him shiver, and he reluctantly nods assent.
When he does, her smile is radiant.
End
Three Red Leaves Spell
Use this spell to protect yourself from "invasions of evil" like negative thoughts and nightmares. Gather three red leaves from any plant and lay them in a triangle on a flat surface. In the center, place a lighted candle, and then put a few drops of chrysanthemum oil on each leaf. Then say the following incantation three times.
"Red leaves, gift from earth,
Birth to death and death to birth,
Keep all evil far away,
Day to night and night to day."
The "Three Red Leaves Spell" is a Wiccan spell; I found it when I was searching for occult cures for nightmares. Dreamcatchers are traditionally Native American, I see them all the time, but I live near a lot of reservations. You hang them above your bed and the net in the center catches the bad dreams and lets the good ones through. Some people find them kitschy, but they sell them a lot in souvenir stores where I live. It's apparently pretty hard to find authentic ones, the one Anzu gives Ryou was definitely fake. (Apparently only dream-catchers for children use feathers).
This story was full of things I know nothing about. I've never been to Japan or studied Wicca or Buddhism, so if there are any glaring inaccuracies I'd like to know, haha. I cross-post notes on my stories to my LiveJournal, you can see the ones for this story at http : / oxeyed . livejournal. com / 8135 . html