Disclaimer: Yuugiou (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters) is the property of Takahashi Kazuki and respective publishers, including Shueisha, Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems, Toei Animation, 4Kids, and others. I would never claim to own it or attempt to make money off of it- just think of this as a written, free doujinshi and hopefully we'll get along fine ;)

Notes: Added into my Mukashi Tales series which explores ancient times, actually written for the second challenge, The Past, of the LiveJournal community YGO Drabble.

Vocabulary: Haha-ue is a respectful term for mother, while Oyakata-sama means master, here referring to the head of a village.


Ashes to Ashes

It's strange, really, the things he remembers- the things which drive into his memory like knives, tattooing themselves into his skin and deeper, even as the rest turns to dust in an abandoned village, blood still staining the walls and pathways.

Haha-ue never lost her temper with him, not even when he stole from old Ay who could kill him in an instant. She'd raised him to look out for himself, and he didn't need telling to know when he'd put himself in danger and was a damned fool for it. Her lessons served him well, well enough so that when the soldiers came marching he was the only one to survive.

She'd also taught him that he should use the spirit possessing him rather than be afraid of it, and that probably saved his life too. Small as he was back then, white hair dirtied enough not to stand out in the light, he still doubted that magic hadn't played any part in his survival that night. Those priests would never have allowed any witnesses, after all…apparently they knew their evil just enough to fear retribution, if not enough to actually halt their actions.

Bakura is greatly looking forward to the blood of their Pharaoh on his hands, those filthy 'holy' artifacts removed from their position of false exaltation along with him.

It was Oyakata-sama who taught him how to hate, how to kill. He'd started by refusing to acknowledge the possessed child of a woman he wasn't even married to, and strengthened that hatred when he tried to enter their lives later, pretending that nothing ugly had ever been in their pasts. Bakura has never cared for his father, but he can't deny that he's learned much from him.

He's learned much from all of his people: vengeance, hunger, and deathdeathdeath when life runs out and things greater than the next meal and stolen trinkets become his purpose.

They're demanding but reliant on him, the only one who survived- Thief King Bakura-sama, for who else but the last member of Kul Elna could claim that title? But the memories of the people he's fighting for are slipping away.

It's a bit hard to remember the people they once were when that screaming is going on in his ears all the time, after all.