Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters
Title: The Tale of the Sinister Statue
Romance: Thief King Bakura x Mai (light hint of Yuugi x Bakura as well)
Word Count: 10,632||Status: One-shot
Genre: Supernatural, Drama||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 11, Round 4: Thief King Bakura x Mai: Lonershipping
Notes: This is an AU, though it has strong similarities to canon.
Feedback: All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Summary: [one-shot, Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 11, Round 4: Thief King Bakura x Mai, Lonershipping, au: otherdimensional] Mai notices a strange statue in the park. That is just the beginning of an adventure she doesn't want to have.
Mai first noticed the statue while she was on her way to work. It hadn't been there the day before. She didn't stop and look at it, though, no matter how it pulled at her attention. She much preferred the dueling circuit to work, but bills demanded payment no matter what, and this time of year, all of the dueling circuits closed down for a few months.
If I could make a really big win… Oh, how she wanted that. With people like Yuugi and Kaiba no longer taking the top prizes, she hoped her chances would be better. As much as she liked Yuugi, the fact he'd always won didn't do her bank account any good. Friendship didn't pay bills either.
Had that been a gleam of gold on the statue's neck? Of course not. Statues didn't sit around with gold on them. If someone left it there, then one of the local gangs would've stolen it within a matter of moments.
Mai spent her working hours in a coffee shop. Not serving; but in the back working on their finances and helping the owner keep everything running smoothly. She got free coffee and doughnuts out of it, and got to spend her lunch hours in the same park she'd seen that statue in. It was a good enough deal, at least for now.
The thought of the statue lingered in the back of her mind all that morning. Hints of familiarity tugged at her, but she couldn't place it, no matter how hard she tried. It wasn't quite as if she knew who the statue represented, but as if she'd met who it was before, from a distance.
"How are we doing?" Her boss leaned in the door of her small office, a quite smile on his lips. He was always quiet, she noticed, no matter what happened. She liked that; she didn't want to hear a lot of chatter going on while she was working.
"I think you'll be able to open up the new branch next year." Mai knew he'd looked forward to that news for a while; the coffee shop wasn't one of the largest or most famous, but he made great coffee, and provided a place for kids to hang out after school. Gang members knew if they showed up here and got rowdy, they would be out on their ears. She'd helped with that a few times herself.
A flash of a warm smile lit up his features. "Great. Everything paid up for the month?"
"All taken care of." She closed her laptop and got up without looking at the clock. She knew how long she'd been working by the rumbling of her stomach. "I'm going for lunch."
With a wave and a grin he let her go by him. She worked her way through the noon rush of customers, heading for the park, picking her lunch along the way. Once again the statue swirled around in her thoughts, hovering just behind everything.
She didn't think about it to the point she made an effort to sit on the bench near it, but she ended up there anyway. She did make an effort not to actually look at it as she settled in to eat, enjoying the warm caress of the sun on her shoulders and the teasing fingers of the wind in her hair.
It wasn't like sitting next to a person, but it was likely the next thing to it. She could've sworn there was an awareness there. She glanced once or twice at it, trying to figure it all out and not able to see anything other than a statue.
Who is it? She couldn't see any sort of plaque or notice as to who'd suddenly had a statue erected in the park. That made it unusual in and of itself, since most people who set up statues wanted visitors to know who it was they were staring at. She took another look; why was there that edge of familiarity?
She made the look a longer one this time, trying to take in everything that might clue her in. Gray, of course, as it was unpainted stone. Whoever he was, his clothes were definitely not in fashion. No one these days wore kilts and cloaks. Yet they did suit him in a way she didn't think anything else would have. His head tilted back, his teeth bared in a frozen snarl, a scar carefully carved across one eye…
"I should know you, shouldn't I?" She murmured the words to herself, glad that no one else was around to hear her talking to solid, unmoving stone. Silly as they were, she knew she was right. Maybe if he wasn't stone, she would know him.
Recognize him, idiot. You can't know a statue. Maybe someone had put something in her food, since she hadn't ever thought of a statue like this before.
She wrapped up the last of her lunch and tossed everything into the nearest waste bin before she got up and took another long look at it. Wild hair, that snarl…he'd definitely not be a quiet type, no matter what. She spied stone rings on his fingers, and wondered what they would be if he wasn't stone
Gold, of course. Yes. He'd wear gold. Nothing else would do for him.
Then she rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Idiot." She headed back to work, intent on forgetting everything about this statue, even where it was. She'd find a new place to have her lunch. Someone would probably come along and move it soon anyway. It didn't belong there and it would have to get taken to wherever it did belong.
Mai didn't look behind her as she left, but she knew very well what it felt like to have someone watching her, and she could feel eyes on her all the way back. Eyes that didn't belong to anyone human.
Or at least not to anyone alive.
Mai focused on her work all of that afternoon, putting every single thought of strange statues out of her mind, or at least tried to. The sensation of being watched faded once she was back inside of the coffee shop, and she started to dismiss the whole experience as some sort of trick her mind wanted to play on her. Why bother changing where she ate lunch over a statue?
By the time the coffee shop closed, dark streaks of night already crossed the sky and the first star twinkled high in the heavens. Mai gave it barely a passing glance as she headed down the street, her thoughts more on making a trip to a couple of card stores. Industrial Illusions promised a release of new cards soon, one that would feature some new Amazon cards, and she wanted to get her deck sorted out and in order.
She almost didn't notice when she passed the statue again. Only the strange sensation of once again being watched caught her attention and she looked around at first to see who it might be. It wouldn't have been the first time some up and coming new duelist trailed after her for a while. Or it was someone who wanted her autograph. Being one of the world's most famous duelists (female or otherwise) meant that happened. She'd given one to a pretty little girl just the other day, who'd expressed dreams of being a pro duelist herself.
But only the ordinary crush of people met her attention this time, and it took another moment before she realized she was in sight of the small park once again. Mai frowned, then picked up the pace to get home. Statues could wait. It would be there tomorrow, if she even wanted to look at it.
Try as she might, Mai couldn't get to sleep that night. She tossed and turned, staring up at the ceiling, her mind as awake and lively as it had been when she woke up that morning. She ground her teeth, pulling her pillow over her head, and wondered if she had any sleeping pills. It would probably put her at a risk for being late, but if she managed to get some sleep because of it, it would be worth it. Her boss would just have to understand.
She stuck her head out from under the pillow for a moment to stare at the clock. Three a.m. And she hadn't closed her eyes for more than a few seconds. She groaned again and stuffed her head back under the pillow once more. Morning would come much sooner than she wanted it to and she needed at least a little something in the way of sleep under her belt.
The idea of going for a walk teased at her but she didn't move out of her bed. Sleepless it might be, but she knew the neighborhood, and she wasn't in a huge rush to put herself out where some of those gangs could get to her. She didn't doubt she could take at least a few of them if she had to, but why smear her makeup if she didn't have to?
She turned onto her other side and kept her eyes firmly shut. Maybe if she stayed like this for a while, she'd be able to convince herself to fall asleep. She refused to move for a moment, letting her thoughts wander around wherever they chose. Faint images and thoughts stirred through her, with one of them slowly growing into sharper focus with each passing moment.
The statue. She hadn't thought about it all afternoon and evening, not since her lunch trip. Well, perhaps if she counted that little moment on the way home. That sensation of eyes followed her until she was in her apartment.
It has not been that long since my last boyfriend. She almost spat the words, even in her own thoughts. It really hadn't been; she and Jounouchi hadn't been separated more than three months. She could even call him up if she really wanted to; they both still had each other's numbers. But she doubted he'd appreciate a call at this hour.
Regardless, if she really wanted to obsess over something unusual, there were so many better choices than a strange statue that would be covered in pigeon droppings inside of a week. She had vibrators and she had batteries if she really got too much in need.
Mai kept her eyes shut so hard and so long and forced herself to think about anything that wasn't the statue that she almost didn't notice the sensation of rough fingers going through her hair. A warm hand, rich with the scent of sand and heat, pressed against her back and she sighed. Finally. She was getting some sleep. Already dreaming, at that, though this was a very vivid dream.
"Give me your name." The words weren't in Japanese, or English for that matter, the two languages she spoke the best. But in dreams, petty little matters like that didn't matter.
"Mai." She murmured it softly, relaxing under those probing hands on her shoulders and back. "Kujaku Mai." She couldn't remember having been this relaxed before. "What about you?"
"Bakura." The name shimmered and twitched at the corners of her mind. She knew a Bakura, sort of. They'd met once at a tournament, though he'd washed out before she had. But his voice was nothing like this. That Bakura was soft and quiet and could slide away from one's attention like a thief in the night. This one was darker, stronger, the sort of person that no one could ignore, or would even want to.
His hands moved around her shoulders and back and she sighed as the tension knotted in there from lack of sleep began to fade away. "Where did you come from?"
"You wouldn't know it if I told you." His breath blew softly in her ear when he spoke, as warm as the desert. "Rest."
She had no intentions of arguing, not when doing so felt this good. She let herself drift away into dreams that she couldn't remember when she woke in the morning.
Now Bakura and the statue both lurked in Mai's deepest thoughts. They seemed to go together somehow, but she didn't have enough pieces to this puzzle to figure it out. The statue remained a statue, though pigeons didn't come anywhere near it. The dreams remained dreams, though she couldn't seem to see his face, no matter how hard she tried. Whichever way she turned, he remained behind her. Sometimes he spoke, sometimes he didn't, but she always knew when he was there.
Days inched by and Mai looked forward to the inevitable end of the break and the start of the new dueling season. Her fingers itched to shuffle cards and her heart yearned to look across the field and see someone stronger than she was, just for the sheer thrill of defeating them or the frisson of seeing her own life points drop and to know she had farther to go.
Her dreams of Bakura hadn't stopped, and didn't look likely to. Even when she could fall asleep normally, he appeared regularly. If 'appeared' was the right word anyway. She didn't stress herself about terminology, though.
She still ate by the statue, and she could still feel those eyes on her whenever she grew too close to it or when she walked away. The more time passed, the less bothered she found herself by it. If anyone tried to bother her, that was what they made boot heels for. One of those crunched into someone's foot or knee should convince them to keep their eyes to themselves.
"Mai?" Her boss stood in the door to her office once again. "Last day, huh?"
"That's right." She'd already finished up everything she needed to do. The temp that did this job while she dueled would find everything in order, just like always.
He nodded for a moment. "Mai, I wanted to know…if you're all right?" He hesitated before he spoke again. "You've been acting a little strange lately and I'm worried."
Mai blinked, looking up from packing her gear up. "I've what?" She hadn't even noticed anything different. The statue and a few dreams didn't even cross her mind. "What are you talking about?"
"Well…" He shifted a little, not meeting her eyes. "It's like you always have something on your mind, even when you're not doing something."
"What?" Mai had heard quite a few strange things in her life, but this one jumped into the top ten without even trying. She couldn't even remember anything she might've done that would've spurred something like this.
He shook his head, still not entirely looking at her. "I don't really know how to describe it. Maybe it's just because you're about to start dueling again? I mean…" He waved one hand in a vague attempt to convey something Mai guessed he didn't even understand. Her boss didn't duel; only followed dueling to the extent he needed to in order to know when she would be coming into work and when not.
"That's probably it." He likely enough had seen her when she was thinking about some of the new tricks she'd devised with her Harpies and Amazons. Bakura had murmured a few ideas that she couldn't wait to put into practice.
The faintest of shivers trailed its way down her spine at that, but she put the thought away without a quiver. Bakura was nothing more than a dream, and maybe someone she'd met once. She'd not yet gotten around to calling him up to find out if he had a long lost brother or anything of that nature, and didn't plan to do so any time soon.
"Well, good luck." He stepped out of her way and she strode out, nodding to a few of the regulars she recognized. She stopped in her tracks when one of those in particular caught her eye. She stepped over there quickly.
"Bakura?"
He looked up at her, not a hint that he recognized her in his expression for the first moment or two. Then she could almost see the click in his mind. "Mai-san?"
"That's right." On quick reflection, she suspected it wasn't that surprising he didn't know her. They'd only crossed paths that once, after all. She only recalled his name thanks to hearing it in her dreams so often the last two weeks. "I haven't seen you around in forever."
Bakura ducked his head for a moment. "I've been busy." He glanced back toward her. "Would you like a cup of coffee or something? My treat."
"I…" She hesitated, then mentally shrugged. Why not? "Sure." A quick glance at her technically former boss sent him back behind the counter as she set her possessions down and settled into the empty side of the booth.
He fiddled with his own cup briefly. He hadn't changed that much, she thought, the same white hair and soft brown eyes. "So what have you been doing?" he asked, in the tone of someone who wasn't at all used to conversation.
"Dueling. And working here." She accepted the cup and took a deep breath of the aroma before sipping at it. "The pros start back up next week. Am I going to see you there?" From what she recalled, he was very good. He'd just had the bad luck to come up against Yuugi.
He shook his head. "No, I don't really duel anymore." His gaze slid across to a bag of books next to him on the seat. "I've been taking classes at college."
"Good luck, then." She'd taken a few classes, but never bothered to get anything like a degree, not when dueling called to her soul. She sipped her coffee, considering how to phrase what thoughts were on her mind. Just asking if he knew the person that she dreamed about had the same name as he did didn't seem the right way to go about it.
A sort of odd, comfortable silence fell in between the two. Mai toyed with her napkin. "Have you seen Yuugi lately?"
A quick flash of red across his cheeks startled her. "W-what?" He looked away, then looked back, still with that hint of a blush. "A little. Why do you ask?"
"Just wondering. How's he been doing since he retired?" She still couldn't wrap her head entirely around Yuugi having chosen to bow out of professional dueling, but it did clear the way for some of the lesser talents to show their skills.
"All right. He's enjoying running the shop. You should probably drop by there sometime. He's usually there." Bakura quickly finished his coffee. "I hate to go so soon, but I've got a late class to take care of."
"No problem." She waved one hand in farewell, finishing her own drink, and waited until he was out of sight before she left. She'd seen people blush like that before, and while it didn't always mean what she thought, it usually did more often than not. Huh. That's kind of cute.
She headed down the street, refusing to dwell on the thought this might well be the last time she came this way until the end of the season. She'd be too busy traveling the world to wherever she needed to go in order to duel.
Perhaps that was why her feet led her once again to that park, stopping this time, as she seldom did on her way home. She didn't tell herself she wanted to say good-bye to the statue. She wouldn't even think of such a thing. But one last look before she got caught up in the whirlwind that made up her dueling life wouldn't hurt anything.
She wasn't at all surprised to see it hadn't changed from how it looked during her lunch hour. And no matter what, no pigeons or birds of any kind left their droppings on it. Yeah, the park supervisor probably cleans it up. Domino City took their sanitation seriously. Still, it was a little strange that she'd never even seen so much as a drop, before whoever cleaned it up came by and did so.
She took a long look at it, letting every little detail sink into her mind. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, something she'd never fully realized, and might not have if she hadn't met Bakura at the coffee shop that day, clicked.
They weren't the same, not by any means. Wild hair, the scar, the clothes, other details she knew and could never have explained how she knew, all of those differed. But there were other points: the shape of the features, a sort of feeling that she couldn't explain at all. Not identical, but enough to send chills through her.
Without thinking about it, she quickly pulled out her phone and took a couple of good pictures of the statue. Come by the store, huh? Sounds like a really good thing to do tomorrow. Hope you'll be there, Bakura.
"So you're going away." That familiar voice whispered into her ear, and warmth behind her that could only be that of a body pressed closer to her. She didn't move; her dreams grew more vivid with each passing day, and she wanted to get as much sleep as she could without them interfering.
"This is my job." She'd wanted to ask something, but as she sank into the folds of slumber, she realized that she couldn't remember what it was. It seemed a little silly now. To ask a dream about a statue…
His fingers brushed against her forehead and she let the idea slip away into the dark reaches of her mind. It wasn't that important. Instead, she relaxed into the blankets.
"I'll still be with you. You can't get away from me." Was that an edge of possessiveness in his tone?
"I didn't say I was trying to. And of course you'll be with me. You're in my head." She certainly wasn't going to leave her head behind while she went off to duel. She needed it.
A soft, warm chuckle, yet one threaded through with shadows she'd never thought possible. "In your head, am I?"
"Of course. Where else would you be?" He was a dream. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.
"More than you can imagine." His hands trailed across her shoulders to her wrists, tracing the lines of her veins before going back up, feather-soft and whisper-quiet. "You haven't guessed who I am, have you?"
"Should I?" Was this some kind of a riddle game? Something she was supposed to solve? No one had ever mentioned anything like that to her.
Now his fingers worked their way down her other side, circling her wrists for a few seconds before returning to her shoulders. "I doubt you could, yet. But you might soon." Again his breath hissed in her ear. "You're going to the…to that game store."
"So?" She wondered when the dream would end; like most of those she had featuring him, it felt a breath away from being in reality. Only she knew she was sleeping since she never noticed the hours passing and woke up generally refreshed. Not to mention that no matter how she turned and wiggled, she could never see his face, nor even look him directly in the eye.
"You've met him. The other me." Raw distaste twisted around his words and she tried to get a better look at him, as she had countless times before, wanting to know what he looked like, especially when he talked like this. All she could catch a glimpse of were eyes of violet, much like her own, but with a hint of something she had never seen before.
"What on Earth are you talking about?" Mai thought she'd read somewhere that dreams couldn't actually tell you anything that you didn't already know, given that they came from your own mind. They could just present it to you in a different fashion, so you thought it was new information. If that was what was going on now, she really wondered what it was that she knew.
Words whispered into her ear but she couldn't hear them, couldn't understand them as deeper sleep claimed her at last, and when she woke in the morning, all she could remember was that she'd dreamed of that Bakura once again.
She stood outside of the Kame Game Shop just before it opened; if anyone had asked, she would've told them she was there just for the cards. After all, today was when the new boosters came out, and she knew that Yuugi and his grandfather would have them in. They'd never missed one yet.
She wasn't the only person in line, far from it. Multiple people of all ages fidgeted, waiting for their chance to grab hold of some of the new cards.
So far, no one had asked her for any kind of autograph, and she hadn't yet made up her mind on if that bothered her or not. Fame was nice, but so was not being bothered when she didn't want to be.
Once the doors opened and the line began to move, Mai slipped her phone out of her purse and checked on the pictures she'd taken. The supernatural wasn't her forte, but she'd heard more than one story about people having taken pictures of potential ghosts and coming up with nothing more than a few interesting shots of the area they were in. She wanted to double-check to ensure this didn't happen to her.
"Mai?" She looked up to see Yuugi looking back at her, head tilted to the side. "I wasn't expecting you here."
"Well, it is a new release date." Mai tossed one of her better grins at him. With all of these kids around, bringing up a sinister statue didn't seem like the best conversation starter. "And I saw Bakura at the coffee shop yesterday. Thought it might not be a bad idea to drop in and see what you're all up to." He looked back at her, a sudden thoughtful set to his shoulders. "Yeah, it has been a while. Come on, we still have plenty of packs." He motioned her on by and as she passed, she heard a soft whisper. "We can talk after they all leave." She wasn't going to turn that down, not when it was the very core of what she'd come here for in the first place. For now, though, she made her way to the front of the line and bought half a dozen packs, some of the newer ones and a few old releases that had cards she hadn't managed to acquire just yet.
While Yuugi spent most of this time chatting with the younger players and fending off half-hearted challenges (whether or not he played professionally, everyone here knew he was the best duelist the world had ever seen), she could feel his attention flickering toward her now and then as she stood to the side and sorted through what her packs offered her. Two cards in particular caught her attention and she set them aside to look into later at home.
Once the main rush vanished and his grandfather could, presumably, handle everything by himself, Yuugi came over to her. "You wanted to talk about something?"
"Right." She picked up her cards and followed him out of the store and into the living room area of the house. She'd never been there before, and nodded an absent greeting to someone she guessed was Yuugi's mother.
Yuugi sat down and looked at her. "So, what's wrong?"
In all truth, Mai hadn't put much thought into framing all of this into words. Most of it she didn't even know how to describe, let alone talk about. "I saw a statue in the park near where I work in the off-season." Might well just go with it and see where it took her. "I didn't think a lot of it until yesterday, when I met Bakura again."
Yuugi said nothing, only sat and waited for her to finish. She fished her phone out, figuring that pictures were worth far more than talk in this case. "This is the statue." She hoped he would see in it what she did, and handed it over.
Yuugi glanced at the images almost casually, then said words that she would've taken a bet he didn't even know existed. She wasn't entirely certain all of what he said was in Japanese, either.
"Yuugi?"
He didn't even seem to hear her, but reached for his own phone. "Ryou?" It took her a moment to realize he'd called Bakura. Not only that, but called him by his given name at that.
Huh. Maybe I wasn't wrong after all.
Yuugi hung up after a few quick words that he spoke far too low for her to hear. "He'll be here in a few minutes. He was expecting this."
"Do you think you could tell me what it is?" Mai snapped, annoyed. It was bad enough when her subconscious kept things from her. People she called her friends didn't need to do the same thing.
His smile was a little weak, but he smiled it all the same at her. "Not yet. But Ryou'll be able to help. Or at least tell you more than I can right now."
If it hadn't been for that, she might well have gotten up and left right then and there. As it was, she accepted a cup of tea from Mrs. Mutou and discussed the chances she had against some of the other duelists she would face in the pros.
"Why did you retire, Yuugi?" That was a question that no one she knew had ever been able to answer in the year since he had. "You're the best." Besides, she wanted the chance to fight him herself one day, when they were at the top of their strength.
He fiddled with the fringe on one of the sofa cushions. "I had my reasons." If he intended to explain anything more, it was interrupted by Bakura entering the room. He carried that same bag he'd had the day before, but Mai suspected that most colleges didn't require leather bound textbooks with titles written in gold on the spine. At least they hadn't when she'd gone there.
"Hello." Bakura nodded toward them both and Mai didn't miss the slight shift of his attention toward Yuugi, a hint of warmth toward him that hadn't been directed at her.
It's so cute. They're trying to hide it. She let them keep their secret, if that was what they wanted. Her own issues had more of her attention right now.
"So what can you tell me about this statue?" She tapped her phone's screen and looked at both of them. She wanted to ask a few more questions, like why Yuugi'd been so surprised at the sight of it, but one step at a time.
They looked at one another, a quick exchange that conveyed a lot she didn't understand, but could feel just by the way it happened.
"Mai, you wanted to know why I quit dueling professionally, right?" Yuugi asked as Bakura sat down in the chair nearest to him. She nodded, wondering what in the world this had to do with anything. "I quit because…well, if I didn't, it could've destroyed the world."
If she didn't know that Yuugi wasn't in the habit of lying, she would've accused him of that right away. Instead, she stared at him, eyes narrowed and suspicions strong. "Could you make a little sense?"
"It's simple. There are two worlds. Probably more, but there are two that we know of for the moment. One of them is our world." Bakura waved a hand to encompass everything around them. "The other is a world of magic. The people who live there are a lot like us in many ways. Sometimes there are even parallels." He flicked one hand toward Yuugi. "Yuugi's parallel in that world is a great king named Atemu. Kaiba Seto's parallel is his high priest Seth."
Mai blinked several times at that. "Say what?"
"Explaining everything could take forever, but those aren't the only parallels. There is at least one more, though." Bakura flicked his fingers toward her phone. "That statue is my parallel: the King of Thieves, Bakura."
"What?" Mai didn't think she'd used that word so often in one conversation before.
"Parallels are kind of like…alternate universe copies." Yuugi struggled with the words; it was clear he'd never tried to explain this to someone else before. "They're very similar to one another, but not all the time. Atemu's as good a duelist as I am. Seth and Seto are the same like that as well." His lips twitched for a moment. "Though Seth is Atemu's cousin, and as far as we know, Seto and I aren't related."
"As far back as we've traced my family, we've been archeologists and historians. The Thief King…" Bakura fidgeted, his eyes cast downward. "He's a tomb robber."
Mai winced, then returned her attention to what mattered most. "So what does all of this have to do with that statue?"
"For years now, we've all fought the Thief King in a number of ways. We thought we'd defeated him last year, actually." Yuugi traced his fingertips on the table between them all. "The amount of energy the battle gave off turned him to stone. He should've stayed like that. Everything I've heard from Atemu says that he has."
"I think I would've noticed some kind of huge battle in the park." Mai replied dryly. She didn't doubt that Bakura and Yuugi believed this, but if they expected her to, then she wasn't going to sit here and just take it without some kind of proof.
"That's because it didn't happen in the park, precisely. It happened in Atemu's capital city, which parallels Domino City. The park is where his statue sits in that world." Yuugi said quietly. "And no one else can see it but those who are connected to that world."
Bakura took up the thread now. "I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think the worlds are a little closer together because of that. So, people who normally don't have any connection to that world can see things from it. That's why you can see it."
She didn't want this to make sense. She wanted this to turn out to be some kind of practical joke they were running on her, for whatever reason. But she knew Yuugi didn't joke, and Bakura wasn't the type, either. She set her jaw for a moment.
"I've been having dreams." She hadn't been sure if she'd wanted to mention this part, but it wasn't any more unusual than anything else she'd heard so far. "I can't see his face, but he speaks to me, and he calls himself 'Bakura'."
Yuugi and Bakura shot yet another speaking look toward one another, and Bakura reached into his bag, pulling out one of the hefty books and paging through it. From her angle, it didn't look like it was written in any language she could've read.
"It's possible." Bakura said after a few silent minutes. "We never could actually kill him. His soul is still alive in the statue, just prevented from affecting the mortal world. That mortal world, anyway."
He hesitated before he said anything else. "But he still had the Millennium Ring with him when he was defeated. That could've helped him."
"The what?" Mai really hated feeling as if she'd come into the middle of something without any preparation or background reading. It was like opening the third book in a trilogy or starting a television series only partway in. You just didn't have all of the information necessary to know what the hell was going on.
"There are seven magical items crafted in that world that help forge bonds between a person and their parallel. That's not their only function, and they're not the only tools that can be used for it, but the strongest of the warriors and duelists can use them." Yuugi looked around, then closed his eyes, brows bending in concentration. Around his neck, something glimmered and shone, and a heartbeat later, an upside down pyramid appeared there, with a strange eye set in the center. "This is the Millennium Puzzle. It first appeared here a couple of years ago and I had to put it together. That was when Atemu and I first met."
"The Ring came to me a little before that." Bakura said quietly, looking away again. "I'd rather not go into what happened, but one of the powers it has is to seal souls into almost anything. No one knows everything that the Items can do. He could've used its power to send his image into your dreams."
"Why me?" That was one question Mai really wanted answered above all else. Why would this thief king want anything to do with her, when she'd never had anything to do with this war?
"I don't know." Yuugi said. "He might've hoped to latch onto Ryou's mind and control him so that he could be free in a sense, and he found yours instead." He reached out to wrap Bakura's hand in his. Mai studiously pretended not to notice.
So I'm a mistake. Mai ground her teeth at the thought before she looked up at the other two. "If that's what he wants, then how do we stop him?"
"That, I don't know." Bakura touched the book in his lap with his free hand. "This is a collection of what they do know about the Items over there. It's not nearly everything there is to know. Some of the knowledge was lost in a fire a few generations back. I'll keep looking. I still haven't read it all and I've had this for a year now."
Yuugi traced his fingers over the eye emblazoned on the Puzzle. "I'll talk to Atemu and see if there's anything he or anyone there knows that might be of help." He lifted his head to meet Mai's eyes. "Whatever he tells you, don't listen to him. He lies to get what he wants. And he's going to want out of there. He'll tell you anything that he can get you to believe."
"That doesn't mean that some of it won't be true, though." Bakura added, closing the book and putting it to one side. "He mixes truth and lies more than he outright lies." He shook his head, flickers of regret in his dark eyes. "Sometimes I think he tells the truth more. The truth can be more dangerous than the worst lie."
Yuugi tapped his fingers for a moment. "You're going off for the pros tomorrow, right?" At her nod of agreement, a small smile lit his features. "That should help a lot. There's only so far that he should be able to send his spirit. That's why so many things happened here in Domino. They mirrored what happened in Atemu's capital."
"Right." Mai pushed herself to her feet. "Well, let me know if there's anything you need me to do." If distance was what it took to separate her from those dreams and a spirit in a statue, then she thought perhaps she might look into moving to Paris. She'd miss Domino, but not being used by someone from another world.
The normal trip between the Kame Game Shop and her apartment didn't take her by the park and the statue. She couldn't have said why she found herself there anyway, but there she stood, looking at it for what felt like the first time all over again.
As much as she wanted to think on some level that everything they'd told her had been wrong somehow, the more she looked at the statue, the less she could convince herself of that. There hung around his neck what could only be the Millennium Ring; they hadn't described it to her, but the stone image there held the same sort of eye that the Puzzle Yuugi wore had.
No one else who isn't connected to that world can see it. Well, that explained why no birds left droppings on it. And why no one else seemed to even look at it.
"What is it you really want?" She murmured, settling herself down on the bench. Her flight out wasn't until the morning and she'd packed up everything she needed already. Staying here for a few minutes wouldn't hurt, even if she dreamed about him. She knew what he was.
Do you? The words didn't precisely come from inside of her mind, nor from outside her head. She just knew that was what the statue, or the spirit inside of the statue, wanted to say.
"Shut it." She growled under her breath, not wanting anyone around her to catch her talking to a statue. That kind of thing showed up in tabloids and while she didn't object to giving them something juicy to talk about, she usually preferred it not to be the condition of her sanity.
No one else here can hear me. The statue didn't move, but she had the uncomfortable feeling once more than someone watched her. Had it been him all those times? If he hadn't been stone, she would've smacked him. She thought hard about doing it anyway.
"Leave me alone." She turned her attention away from him, staring up into the clear blue sky. "I'm not going to help you."
I'm not here to ask for your help, Kujaku Mai. I came to give mine to you.
Mai refused to let herself be deceived. She hadn't forgotten what she'd been told. "I don't need anything from you."
Are you certain of that?
She ground her teeth together and shot to her feet. She wasn't going to sit here and listen to whatever fairy tales he chose to spin. "I hope an otherdimensional pigeon finds you." Maybe she could catch an earlier flight. The sooner she was out of Domino, the better.
There was an earlier flight out, and Mai changed her reservations as quickly as she could. She didn't want to think about being afraid, but the whole idea of being caught up in some interdimensional war or whatever this was didn't interest her. She was a duelist, not a soldier.
She didn't even try to sleep. She didn't want to hear that voice murmuring once again to her, telling her anything she wanted to hear, trying to fill her ears with who knew what kind of nonsense.
Why do you believe them? Unfortunately, it seemed that Thief King Bakura didn't believe in leaving those alone who left him alone. What have they done so you should?
She ground her teeth and ignored the voice echoing faintly in her thoughts as the cab she'd called carried her to the airport. She didn't know how she could even hear him when she was awake.
Because I want you to, Mai. You'll hear me wherever you go now.
Well, that was just wonderful. She dug into her purse, remembering the cards she'd stuffed in there. Those would be much better to think about than him. Even as she touched them, she could almost feel his awareness fading away. Good.
Those two she'd spied earlier sat on the top of the stack she had. Amazoness Queen and Amazoness Shapeshifter. She admired both; they'd be very useful in her deck. Amazoness Shapeshifter especially; when she was summoned to the field, Amazoness Pet Tiger could also be Special Summoned from her hand or deck.
One she'd not paid much attention to before now caught her eye. Amazoness Spellbreaker. She took a better look; just an ordinary level four monster, but the effect…
She breathed just a fraction faster and stuffed the cards back in her purse. She'd go through them again later, when she was much farther away from Domino.
"What?" Mai stared at the woman, not quite believing her eyes or ears. "You're kidding."
"I'm sorry." The clerk shook her head and gestured at the screen before her. "The flight out to Paris has been delayed. A typhoon is forming up and all flights out are on the ground."
Mai took a slow breath. She hadn't paid a great deal of attention to the weather in the last day or so, being more wrapped up in trying to figure out what was going on with that statue and her dreams. "How long?"
"An exact departure time hasn't been specified just yet but it shouldn't be more than a day or so."
"Thank you." Mai didn't want to say it, but she knew it wasn't anyone's fault. The weather didn't care about what anyone wanted.
This certainly wasn't the first time this happened to her, and she doubted it would ever be the last. She knew just where the waiting rooms for those stranded by the delay would be, and even better, she knew where the bar was. Taking that as a clear sign of what she needed to do, she headed right over there.
As she expected, the bar had quite a few people already there, most of them local duelists who'd been on their way back to the Pro Leagues just like she was. She nodded to those she recognized and headed right over to get herself a good stiff drink.
"Let me pay for that."
Mai started to refuse that when she caught a glimpse of who'd actually said it. There were few white-haired people in Domino, and only one with eyes that shade of warm brown. A little of the tension slipped out of her as she nodded to Bakura.
"What are you doing here?" She'd thought he would still be busy researching in an attempt to find out what his parallel was up to.
She really didn't want to believe any of this was actually true. Only the fact nothing made sense without that inclined her that way.
"I found out a few things that I think you'd like to know. I think I know why he wanted you." Bakura held a drink of his own and knocked it back with a skill Mai wouldn't have expected that he possessed. "Here probably isn't the best place to talk about it, though."
Mai glanced toward the screen that showed the departure time. Her flight still hadn't changed: delayed. "Where?"
"My place. It's not that far. We can walk there."
Somehow, Mai'd had the image that he lived in far quieter surroundings than anywhere within walking distance of an airport. She had to admit she didn't know him well enough to know for certain, though. Maybe he liked the noise. Maybe the rent was cheaper here.
"All right." She could keep track of what was going on here with her phone, and if he really did know something that could help, better there than a crowded airport anyway.
Together the two of them headed outside, to gray overcast skies just beginning to drop the first drops of rain from the oncoming typhoon. Mai tossed an annoyed look toward them, but Bakura didn't seem to notice at all as they hurried down the street. He kept his head tucked down, not looking at where he was going, but taking turns effortlessly. She had to step along to keep up with him.
"What is it that you found?" They'd turned down a sparsely populated side street and Mai wanted to hear as much about what he knew as she could.
Bakura shook his head, though. "Not here. My place is protected. No one can overhear us once we're in there."
So far as she could tell, there was hardly anyone around to hear them here anyway. She opened her mouth to say just that when Bakura cut her off.
"There are people who can listen to what's being said whether they're there or not. It's better not to give them any chances."
Mai nodded; she hadn't thought a lot about all of this, not enough to work that sort of thing out anyway. And I don't want to have to. The sooner she could get that Thief King to leave her be, the better.
She expected some sort of apartment building; what he led her to was a warehouse of some kind, one that looked a little run-down, and not at all in the kind of neighborhood she would expect Bakura to want to stay in. What else don't I know about him?
A small door in a recessed area gave them entrance, leading to a narrow, dark hallway. "What is this place?" Someone would probably have had to pay her to get her to live here.
"I do things here." Bakura shrugged. "It's a good place to keep things about the realm hidden."
"The realm?"
"It's what we call the other world." Bakura led her along, one hand on her shoulder to guide her through the shadowed corridors. She got the impression they were going down, but nothing more. The farther down they went, the more something about his hand drew itself to her attention.
When did Bakura start wearing rings on his hand? It wasn't even his left hand; it was his right. She'd never seen rings there before. Yet she could feel the edge of a band on her own skin.
"Bakura…" She didn't say it the way she would've said the name of her friend, the one who wanted to help her. She said it in another way altogether, the name of the one who haunted her dreams.
He chuckled a little when she spoke, his grip tightening. "You remembered, didn't you?"
Oh, she had indeed. Not just the ring, but something Yuugi said: He might've hoped to latch onto Ryou's mind and control him.
She tried to twist around, and even as she did, a glittering golden glow rose up from behind her. Where Bakura Ryou had stood just a moment earlier, the King of Thieves occupied that same position, a golden ring she'd only seen carved in stone around his neck.
"What are you doing?" She tried to pull away but his grip hardened, keeping her in one place. There wasn't enough room for her to give him a good kick, nor to squirm past him and run, not with how he had her held.
"You're going to free my true form from the spell that holds me." He shoved her back against the wall, eyes now pale violet gleaming at her in the shadows.
"What makes you think I can do that? Or that I would even if I could?" Mai tried to push away, but he didn't budge even the smallest fraction.
"I told you that I mean to help you, and I do." He bared his teeth and it took her a moment to realize that he was smiling. Sort of. He looked more like he wanted to tear her throat out. "A person isn't complete until they accept their parallel."
An image of one of the cards she'd bought flashed through her mind and she struggled even harder to get away from him, even as he wrapped one hand around her neck and pulled her down the corridor.
"Why don't you just accept it? You lost!" Mai managed to get the words out even as she stumbled after him, trying to get her feet under her at least. She didn't know what he had in mind, but she had to do something to stop him.
"Would you?" The thief didn't even stop to look at her. She had to flinch a little there; she didn't think she would have. Words she'd spoken years ago flashed through her mind, of the nature of defeat and how one dealt with it. He wasn't giving up. No more than she had that day.
The corridor expanded abruptly into a circular room, the only entrance or exit being the one they'd just came through. The ceiling vaulted high overhead, painted with designs she found unnervingly familiar, with a sphere of light illuminating the area. In the center of the room rested that same statue she'd seen so many times already. She didn't know how he'd managed to get it here and now wasn't the time to ask, not as he dragged her closer to it.
Two sets of chains and manacles lay on the ground near the statue. Mai didn't have to ask what they were for since he dragged her right over there and quickly snapped them into place around her wrists and ankles. Then he rose to stare her in the eyes.
"Amazoness Spellbreaker." He spoke the words, reaching around to run his fingers through her hair as he had so many times in her dreams. This time she did her best to pull away, though the chains didn't give her any more room to work with than the corridor had. "You know your own effect, don't you?"
Mai drew in a sharp breath and glared. "I don't have an effect."
"But you do. They didn't tell you, did they? The realm is connected to your game of Duel Monsters. Some of those who have parallels have them with the monsters instead of humans. And yours is Amazoness Spellbreaker." He gripped her chin, still staring deep into her eyes. "Sacrifice Amazoness Spellbreaker and all of your opponent's spells are sent to the graveyard: broken."
And since it was a spell that kept him frozen in stone in that other world…Mai struggled even harder, straining at the chains until her shoulders ached. He let her do it, a sick smile of amusement on his lips, while he moved around doing things that she paid no attention to in favor of escape attempts that didn't work at all.
Great. Just great. She barely knew anything about him, but the thought of someone this clearly insane being unleashed on any world sent chills down her spine. She needed a way to stop this from happening and the only way she could think of to do that was to not die.
Not die…
If it would work…she had to try, at least. Better than hanging there and letting herself get killed by a madman.
She still had her purse hanging by her side and she wriggled harder, trying to at least get the cards out. I didn't want my first time using these to be like this! Though if she could manage it like this, the pros would be a piece of cake.
"Amazoness Queen." She whispered the words, hoping he'd be too caught up in whatever he was doing by the statue to notice her. "I need your help." Mai didn't like asking for help. She never had. But for this time, she'd put pride aside for the sake of saving her own life. "Please."
She closed her eyes as tightly as she could and called the words out again, hoping, needing an answer, needing it more than she'd ever needed anything in her entire life.
Footsteps grew closer to her and she tightened up, knowing he was coming. She refused to give up. She wasn't dead, which meant it wasn't over.
An image formed in her mind, one of a small collection of thatched huts, with a few chickens scattered here and there, pecking at the ground. Warriors, women one and all, stood in guard position at what she guessed were strategic points. One of them turned toward her and Mai's breath caught in her throat.
Amazoness Spellbreaker. The warrior bore her own face and form, though dressed in an outfit Mai'd never seen in her own wardrobe. It wasn't bad, though. Maybe she could start a new fashion trend if she tried it.
Those thoughts would be for later, though. Amazoness Spellbreaker smiled at her.
Hello, other me. I've been wondering when I'd find you.
Mai wanted to shout, to scream. Nothing came to her lips, though. Perhaps she didn't need to, since Amazoness Spellbreaker's smile shifted to a thoughtful purse of her lips.
Yes, we are going to have to take care of that. Your calls have reached the Queen, but she can't come without help.
Mai wanted to scream even louder at that. Amazoness Queen was a level five monster: she needed a tribute of some kind, and she didn't have one.
Of course you do. We Amazons are always there for our sisters. Look again.
Mai's eyes followed the wave of the Spellbreaker's hand until she saw another tall, well-built woman. At least she thought the other was a woman; her vision seemed to double, and a tiger stood there for a heartbeat.
Taniya will help you, if you ask. So will Bass.
A sudden sharp shake broke her out of the vision or whatever it was, and she stared into those mad purple eyes once again. In his hand there gleamed a long, sharp knife. He began to chant, words that she didn't understand but knew she needed to be grateful for, since they gave her a chance.
"I summon Amazoness Shapeshifter!" She'd never tried this outside of a duel. She'd never even thought she could. But she needed to. Her options were faith in something she'd never done or being cold meat and she'd never liked cold meat.
As she uttered the words, she could see the thief's eyes widening, but he didn't stop his chant. She didn't dare let herself stop, either, not even as a cloud of warm golden light coalesced into the same warrior woman she'd seen before.
"Well, this should be interesting." Amazoness Shapeshifter smiled, arms folded over her chest. "But we need just a little more help here. Bass!"
Mai formed the words even as the other called out the name. "When Amazoness Shapeshifter is summoned to the field, I can Special Summon Amazoness Tiger from my hand or deck." Right beside the other Amazon there now stood a fierce tiger, flexing his claws as he stared at the thief. Not sure of which rules applies and which didn't, she didn't let herself stop. "And I tribute Amazoness Tiger to summon Amazoness Queen!"
Somewhere in the middle of her summon, the thief finished whatever it was he was saying, and began to bring the knife down hard. Brilliant white light burst everywhere, and for the first moment, Mai wondered if she'd failed. Was this what it was like to die?
"What are you doing?" The thief's words, sharp and angry and cold, convinced her otherwise a heartbeat later. The light faded from her eyes and she looked up to see him looking a short distance away, to where Amazoness Shapeshifter stood.
Not just that warrior, though. Next to her stood a slightly taller Amazon, with a cascade of brilliant blue hair and a long sword in one hand.
"Naughty, naughty, king of thieves." Amazoness Queen smiled the kind of smile Mai had seen on her own face when she fought opponents who overestimated themselves. "You should know that while I stand here, no Amazon will fall by battle."
She glanced toward Amazoness Shapeshifter and jerked her head toward Mai. "Take care of her."
Mai strained once again at her bonds as the other Amazon came over to her, and in a few moments the chains were no more, severed by a single sharp slash of the Shapeshifter's daggers. She rubbed her wrists, then glared at the thief. "I don't think you belong in that body."
"It's as much mine as my own is. He belongs to me more than he ever would to the king's counterpart." The thief spat the words out harshly. He started to lift his knife once again, only to jerk his head around toward the corridor as footsteps echoed swiftly along it. "You'll see me again, Amazon."
The Ring around his neck flared up brightly enough for Mai to cover her eyes. When she could see again, she not only decided that investing in a pair of sunglasses would be a good idea, but Bakura lay slumped on the floor. She started to approach carefully, only for Amazoness Shapeshifter to block the way.
"He's tricky. Let Deanna take care of it."
Mai frowned; that was her friend there, as little as she did know him, but before she could object, something else drew her attention. The racing footsteps resolved themselves into a clutch of people bursting in the doorway. She could identify Yuugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, Otogi, and Kaiba right offhand, along with a few others who looked more as if they'd been diverted from their cosplay gathering than anything else. Are those two dressed like Black Magician and Black Magician Girl?
"Are you all right?" Yuugi asked, stepping forward. His voice sounded a little deeper and his hair looked different, Mai realized, and the same Puzzle she'd seen him wear earlier gleamed on his chest. An air of regality hung about him that she'd never noticed with Yuugi before.
"I'm fine. Thanks to my new friends here." Somewhere in her deepest mind, behind everything, Mai could feel the presence of Amazoness Spellbreaker. Despite only having met the other person…her other self…minutes earlier, she wanted to know everything about her. She wanted to know her.
Amazoness Queen, Deanna, turned toward the new arrivals as Bakura began to sit up, rubbing at his eyes. "He's all right. The other has left him."
"For now." Bakura murmured, looking down. "He's right. He'll try again. Maybe not with you, Mai, but he'll keep trying until he can find a way to break free."
Yuugi took two quick strides towards him and by the end of those steps, that odd regal air had vanished, leaving him with nothing but concern as he knelt down beside Bakura. "He won't. We'll stop him."
"Save the sappy speeches for another time. I have work to do and if he's already gone, I'm going to go do it." Kaiba snapped. Mai spied a slender golden staff in his hand for only a heartbeat before he put it away somewhere. Then he looked directly at her. "And you're going to need training." He jerked a head toward the person dressed as Black Magician. "Mahaado, you do it."
Mai shook her head, trying to clear it. She didn't understand half of what was going on, and the half she did understand still confused her. "Look, is that typhoon still out there? Because I'm either going to Paris or going to get some sleep, but either way, I am out of here."
She looked toward Amazoness Shapeshifter and Queen, both of whom nodded back at her. "You're welcome at the village any time." The Queen's lips curved upward. "Once you learn how to get there, of course."
With nothing more than that, the two faded away. Mai picked up her cards and purse before she looked at the others. "Let me guess." She eyed each one of them who she knew and those who she didn't. "You all knew about this other world and never said a word to me." And her attention landed right on Jounouchi.
"Well, Mai…we kind of couldn't." Jounouchi rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the others, none of whom seemed that interested in meeting his eyes. Most of them snickered, some louder than others.
"We're going to have a lot to talk about." Mai declared, and headed right for the door, leaving behind the place that had almost seen her death, and had instead given her a new life.
The End
Notes: Amazoness Spellbreaker is my own invention. While Taniya and Bass are from Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the card Amazoness Shapeshifter is my own invention as well.