Ryou Bakura, a 16-year-old exchange student currently staying in Japan, slowly came to himself after a long rest. Ryou sat up tiredly, yawning and rubbing his eyes. For a short while things seemed normal, until he realized his wounded right arm wasn't stuck full of tubes and wires anymore, and he wasn't lying in an infirmary bed. He blinked, confused, and looked around the room he was in: It wasn't another infirmary room as Ryou had been expecting, but appeared to be a small metal room with rounded windows. Posters of teenage girls in bright bikinis had been taped to the walls, their smiles frozen on their flawless faces, a duel disk and a deck of cards lay on the bedside table, and a wide variety of things: from dirty clothing, to unfinished homework sheets and even toothbrushes were strewn across the floor. Ryou wasn't sure whether to feel frustrated or worried in this situation, it probably wasn't anything to fret over though, this had his Yami's name written all over it. He groaned and put a hand to his head, the memories of last night returning to him- he had a headache. Ryou pulled his face from his hand after a time. He knew now that this must be a tournament participant room, since his Yami had entered him in the Battle City tournament. Now he needed to get out of this room, whoever's it was. Slowly he pushed himself onto the floor, and after straightening his nightclothes turned and made the bed behind him. Once he finished making the bed, Ryou walked out of the room, and to his surprise heard people shouting his name:
"Where is he?"
"Ryou!"
"He must be somewhere!"
"Ryou, where are you!"
Walking steadily, not eager to make himself known to those looking for him, he followed the noise back to the main room of the blimp. There he saw four people, searching the room frantically, but not very well: did they truly expect him to be hiding behind the couch or under the coffee table? "Good morning? You can stop looking for me, I'm right here." Those looking for him immediately stopped their search at the sound of his voice, and turned to face him. Anzu, Jonouchi, Honda and Yugi were the ones who had been searching for him, Ryou's Japanese friends. Now, my readers, I'm sure all of you noticed the mentioning of Yugi's name- but similar to Yami Bakura and Ryou, Yami Yugi and Yugi were two entirely different people. "Ryou!" Anzu shouted gleefully, running for him. "What-? No!" Ryou acted too late, Anzu pounced on him and they both fell backwards, Anzu on top and Ryou landing painfully on his back. "Oh, Anzu-" Yugi mumbled, scratching the back of his head. "Are you alright, Ryou?" he asked cautiously, worried Anzu may have harmed him. "We were really worried about you earlier!" Anzu stated playfully, her high voice scratching against Ryou's eardrums as badly as nails on a chalkboard. Without replying Ryou glared at her and pushed Anzu off: who fell to the floor laughing. Ryou stood to his feet, dusting himself off, and very nearly cried out in sudden pain: now not only was his head hurting, but his back was aching from the fall.
"Yeah." Jonouchi added, agreeing with Anzu while running a hand through his thick, blonde hair. He indicated this with a mere shrug of his shoulders. "I'll bet you heard Anzu, she just kept shouting your name! It got pretty annoyin' after awhile, though." Ryou nodded curtly, forcing himself to smile, he felt his patience waning. "Well, that's very good and all, but there's really no need to worry about me. I'm feeling fine, I have a bit of a headache, but once again, that's nothing to worry about." The three of them were giving him a 'look', but Ryou chose to ignore it. Ryou turned quickly and began to exit the room. He had thought of an excellent plan of escape, he would go to his bedroom, and go back to sleep. It was as simple as it sounded. Just when he was a few feet from the exit, Ryou thought of an even better idea. "Hey, mates?" Ryou turned around, putting on his most innocent, fake smile. "Could you help me with something? I'm looking for Mar- I mean, Namu. Have you seen him?" Ryou knew very well Marik's code name, Namu, he had learned it from Yami Bakura. No matter how much the spirit despised him, since they shared one body neither could keep secrets from the other: this included the secrets of other people as well.
The four of Ryou's friends only exchanged glances, until after a time Yugi answered. "Last we saw of him, he was helping to look for you, although he was searching the patio. Why, do you need him for something?" Ryou rolled his eyes, "It's nothing important, but I wanted to speak with him. You said the patio, right? Thanks." Ryou flashed them another fake grin, the other had faded when Yugi questioned him, and walked right past- leaving the others behind with confused expressions on their faces. As he went on his way to the patio, Ryou wondered if he should have referred to Marik by his codename, he could have very easily have given Marik away to his friends: they were, after all, looking for the man named 'Marik'.
'Marik has done so many awful things to me, my friends, and even his own followers! All for his stupid "revenge", the conclusion being the death of one of my friends! I know this better than anyone, not only being one of the people Marik used, but having seen his work firsthand. I am, after all, the body of Marik's only true ally. If I'm really a good person, I should turn back now and tell them everything I know about Marik. I mean, Yugi's life is at stake!' Ryou paused, and looked to the window beside him- staring not at the view below, but his reflection in the glass. 'But, why don't I want to? I don't want Yugi to die, but I don't want to give Marik away, either.' Ryou bit his lip, feeling his chocolate eyes beginning to mist over. 'It's not right. I don't know why Marik wants to kill Yugi, but Yugi is my friend! Marik hasn't done anything for me, other than given me this wound in my arm.' Ryou looked to his right arm, which was heavily bandaged near the shoulder. The memories of how he had achieved the wound were fuzzy, but he knew for a fact that it was somehow connected with Marik, and possibly even Yami Bakura. Just as Ryou was about to turn around, and tell his friends the truth, another voice spoke. 'True, Marik hasn't done much for you, but neither have your friends.'
Ryou, who had been two steps in the opposite direction stopped again, that had been Yami Bakura's voice. 'What are you talking about, Bakura? My friends have done lots for me, and that's an understatement!' Ryou didn't say the words outloud; Bakura was able to hear him either way. It was important not to act oddly around other people, and who knows who could walk down the corridor? 'Is it?' Bakura continued, 'then tell me, why it always seems they are ignoring you?' Ryou gave a small laugh before answering Bakura, what was he going on about? 'Ignoring me? They don't ignore me: they were looking for me, and I spoke with them just earlier.'
'They were looking for you out of curiosity, not love. You may not have noticed, fool, but they weren't looking very hard.'
'They were still looking for me! What would you know about it anyway, Bakura, you don't have any friends!'
'Maybe I do, maybe I don't, either way I used to. They aren't your friends. Haven't you ever wondered why they never speak with you? Why they never notice when something's wrong? Why they don't care?'
'Shut up, you wretch! I hate how you're always lying to me!'
'But I'm not lying, my sweet Ryou, not this time. Think about it logically. You came to their school as an exchange student with your mother and your sister dead, you were living alone in an apartment away from your father because he didn't want you, and you were friendless in a new place. They were kind at first because they felt sorry for you, being a group of sentimental fools. That's when they met me, and discovered you were the owner of one of the seven Sennen Items. That's when The Pharaoh became interested in you. That's why they let you play around with them, because of me!' Ryou let out a little sob, he felt as if he was about to cry, but he wasn't going to let Bakura know he was getting to him. 'The Pharaoh?'
'Yugi refers to him as his other self, but The Pharaoh is the spirit of the Sennen Puzzle, Yugi's Sennen Item, like I am the spirit of the Sennen Ring. But he is not the subject. Ryou, you must understand the truth about your "friends". They're the enemy, your enemy, my enemy.'
'I still think you're lying! What about the last round of the tournament, when you were fighting The Pharaoh? You and Marik threatened him with my life! Since I'm not as strong as you are, Bakura, you had me take control of our body right when he was going to strike the final blow- if he had attacked me then, I would have died, but I didn't!
Until then, Yami Bakura had been conversing in a casual tone, as if this conversation concerned a topic as simple as the weather. Now though, his voice changed, becoming low and raspy with anger. 'How dare you say The Pharaoh spared you there! The Pharaoh underneath all his talk is nothing more than a pompous ass that will do anything to win! In that fight, when everything went dark you thought you had fainted from our injuries, didn't you? Well, you didn't! That was me, I took control of our body before The Pharaoh had a chance to kill you, he attacked me right afterwards! Stupid Ryou, The Pharaoh doesn't give a damn about your life!' Ryou blinked, Bakura's words coming as a shock to him. 'So, you're saying that Yugi would have killed me to win that duel? You're saying that you, of all people, saved me?'
Bakura didn't answer right away, instead Ryou heard growling as though he now regretted saying what he did. 'That is exactly what I have been trying to tell you. It is not Marik and I who are your enemies, but your so-called friends. You had wanted to speak to Marik about something earlier, why not go get aquatinted?' Afterwards Bakura's voice died away, and Ryou was left feeling rather awkward in the hallway. He felt so confused, more than he had in a long time, if Bakura had been telling the truth, his friends didn't care about him at all: but could he be trusted? Bakura had been the cause of so much of his pain- and so much of his happiness? A childhood memory, faded with age, returned to him.
...
From a child's perspective, the world can be a very dark and scary place. Even if to the eyes of an adult, it is unthreatening. A much younger Ryou of barely 6 years of age sat up in bed, his blue and white quilted blanket wrapped around his small, shaking shoulders. His parents and older sister, Amane, were sleeping soundly in their bedrooms. Ryou wondered how they could, with this terrible thunderstorm raging outside: the very ground seemed to shake with every roar of thunder, and the room so very dark until the silver light flashed for a second, scaring him, before fading again. Small sobs escaped his pink lips and fat tears rolled down his rounded cheeks, sticking to his long eyelashes.
It was so silent in his bedroom, the sound of rainfall was the only thing Ryou could hear. Although the lack of noise would normally have been a peaceful thing for the child, it now seemed eerie and empty. It felt to him as though there was someone else in the room with him, watching him. Deciding to be brave as his parents and Amane always were, Ryou pulled his small hands away from his tear-streaked face, and opened his large eyes to see his dark bedroom. His stuffed animals' beady eyes were no longer a source of happiness, but frightening in the dim light, his mirror showed his reflection from across the bedroom, and in the dark that too was contorted. Feeling about ready to close his eyes again, he looked straight forward to see the scariest and strangest sight of all: there was another person sitting on the edge of his bed.
This was the first meeting between Ryou and Yami Bakura, and as it was now, Yami Bakura was very nearly a mirror image of Ryou. Their small bodies and clothing were identical: but the spirit's white hair, so much like Ryou's, stood up in the front in a way that reminded the young Ryou of a rabbit's ears. His eyes were still a dark brown, although they were considerably crueller looking and narrower. The difference that was most noticeable, though, was that Bakura was transparent. To state it blandly, Yami Bakura looked exactly as he did now, only much younger. Ryou sat completely still, until in fear let loose a small hiccup. It was then that Yami Bakura noticed Ryou was looking at him and that the spirit turned to face the trembling child. Ryou wasn't sure what to expect, although it was an understatement to say that he was scared. A silence hung between them until Yami Bakura turned to face him completely, and asked in his current voice, only slightly affected with the tones of youth "Why are you crying?" Ryou hiccupped again, unsure of whether to answer the mysterious figure that resembled him so. "I-It's just the storm. It scares me." The words were barely above a whisper. "Why though, does the storm frighten you?" Bakura replied, smiling at the youth. Although Yami Bakura appeared so young, he still had his current mind. He was a spirit, after all, and only looked the way he did due to the owner of the Sennen Ring's appearance. "You live in a place where it rains and thunders often. You should be used to it by now."
Ryou nodded silently, staring down at his pudgy hands clutched in his lap. It was a habit he still had today. "I shouldn't be scared, I-I want to be brave, but it's so loud- and I'm so alone. I wish 'mane or mummy or even daddy were here." Bakura smiled, he didn't smirk, but smiled warmly at the child. He felt in his cold heart a love for this child, his new host, although he couldn't fathom why. "You're not alone. I'm here." Bakura moved closer and closer until his face was merely an inch away, on his hands and knees, his eyes hooded and lips parted with his wispy spiritual form glowing silver in the dark. Ryou hiccupped again, feeling the spirit's hair float about him and tickle his cheeks. He stared into those eyes, not brown as they had appeared, but a blood red- and fell in love with the person he saw. Bakura whispered, "I'll watch over you. Not just tonight, but always- from now on I'll be with you, inside you, forever." The spirit brought his lips even closer, pressing them to Ryou's cheek in a kiss. Ryou's round face lit up in a watery smile, now that he wasn't so afraid, his young body felt overcome with exhaustion- "Who are you? Are you my guardian angel?" He remembered his mother telling him that there was an angel looking over him, that they were a beautiful being from another world that would protect him. Yami Bakura laughed softly, such innocence, "Something like that."
...
Ryou blinked as his current life came rushing back to him, from what world had that memory come from? That had been almost ten years ago, and he had very nearly forgotten it. Realizing that he hadn't, Ryou wiped away the tears that had fallen during his and Bakura's most recent conversation, and set his face. For now, at least, he wouldn't tell his friends about Namu's true identity. Besides, Ryou had wanted the chance to speak with Marik. There were some things he had wanted to ask him. Although personally, Ryou was feeling rather crushed, and only wanted to go back to his room and think, but Bakura had given him an order to talk to Marik, and he knew better than to disobey.
Walking onto the patio of the Battleship, Ryou saw Marik at the edge of the balcony, leaning forward on the railing. His pale hair was blowing in the wind, his dark skin had a faint glow in the weak sunlight, and something about the way he stood there seemed almost surreal. Just looking at him gave Ryou a weird tingling feeling all over. Taking a deep breath, he tried to build up the courage to go over and speak with him. Ryou had always been extremely shy. It was in this moment, seeing Marik, that Ryou realized why he hadn't been able to give him away to Yugi and the others. You see, the secret was that Ryou was attracted to Marik, ever since his other had stopped him in the alleyway where they had met: he had just looked so powerful, maybe even powerful enough to save his condemned soul- The small memory served as a boost, and Ryou let out the breath he had been holding, walking over to Marik and tapping him lightly on the shoulder. "Marik?"
Marik turned around quickly, his lavender eyes wide with surprise. The Egyptian had been very deep in thought, and Bakura's vessel had surprised him. "Oh-" Marik sighed, taking in a deep breath, "Sorry, Ryou? That is your name, isn't it? You surprised me." Ryou moved up beside Marik, trying not to let the fact that Marik had forgotten his name get to him. "Yes, Ryou. What were you thinking about, Marik?" He asked the question innocently, his eyes not looking into Marik's, but straight ahead at the view. Marik only shook his head, "Nothing you'd understand. It wouldn't interest you."
In all honesty, Marik had been thinking about Yami Bakura. Even though he was only a spirit using another's body, the way he changed that body- Not to say that Ryou was unattractive, but considering that he barely knew the boy's name, how could he ever bring himself to think about him like that? Marik felt disgusted with himself for thinking this way, when he had first met the deranged spirit he hadn't loved him, what had changed? Ever since that night when Bakura had slept in his bed he had been having difficulties tearing his thoughts away from the Yami. It was strange for him- he had never felt like this before, not for another man, anyway. Ryou blinked, his dark eyes narrowing to slits at Marik's comment. "I'm not stupid, I'm sure I could understand." Once again having to disconnect himself from his thoughts, Marik looked to Ryou and watched Bakura's little vessel tremble. Marik had to fight to keep himself from laughing, he looked so silly there, he could almost be mistaken for cute- The Egyptian's strange reaction stopped Ryou from continuing. "I agree, Ryou-Chan, you probably could. But the thing is, you don't need to know. I might consider telling you though, if you would be willing to answer my question."
Ryou blinked, his face changing from that of defiance, to a look of confusion. What would Marik want to ask him? "Well, alright. What is it you want to know?" Marik didn't hesitate in asking, although it was a very strange question, "Why are you here, when only yesterday I tried to kill you?" There was a silence, in which Ryou was unsure of how to answer: so Bakura had been telling the truth. It was Marik who had tried to kill him, not his Yami. In the end, Ryou didn't know what to tell Marik, so he answered with a question of his own. "Are you also the reason my arm is wounded?" Marik laughed curtly, and shrugged his shoulders, "Partially, but it was your Yami that gave you that wound." Ryou's brown eyes widened, Yami Bakura had done this? But this was his body too! "Why?" Marik rolled his eyes, "Because it was necessary. Your Yami and I met at Domino Harbour at exactly 6:31 PM. He wanted my Sennen Rod, and I wanted Yugi's God Card and his life." Here Ryou took an intake of breath, his worst fears confirmed, but did not interrupt. "I told him that currently I needed my Sennen Rod, but after my revenge on The Pharaoh and after receiving my God Card, it would be as worthless to me as a hunk of metal. He could have it, for all I cared. Do you know Ryou that the easiest way through The Pharaoh is through his friends? He let me 'borrow' you, he stabbed himself with a switchblade and forced you in control." Ryou stared at Marik, unable to speak, "He was laughing, I remember."
Ryou didn't want to know anymore, to think that he had been used to hurt his friends, to think that he had been used by someone he had felt so attracted to. His frail heart wavered, and his already pale face drained of all colour. "What were you thinking about?" Ryou asked again, softly and shakily. Did he even want to know? "You never answered my question-" Marik taunted, a smile spreading across his face. "I-I don't know why I'm here." Marik snorted, and wrinkled his noise at Ryou's distasteful answer. "Fine then, I was thinking about your Yami. Dearest Bakura. You know him only as your other, but he is so much more, Ryou." All the emotions Ryou had been feeling moments before emptied like bathwater through a drain, now he was left feeling rather hollow inside. Ryou breathed in deeply, struggling to hide his emotions, or lack of them. "Oh- Well, anyway, I guess I'll be seeing you around. Good day, Marik." With nothing more to say, and feeling a need to escape the situation, Ryou turned and hurried away feeling more wretched then he ever had before. Marik noticed, but did nothing.
