Koumori
When the darkness lifted and the box was opened, the Spirit awoke with speed and excitement. He couldn't see the boy, but he could hear him.
"What?" the boy mumbled to himself, briefly touched the Ring when he picked up the card tucked inside the box. It was the opening that the Spirit needed. He probed the boy's mind, reading his memories.
There were games with his sister, making pancakes with his mother, hiding with his sister in a closet as yelling occurred between his parents. There were school days, where the boy calculated what blows to take from bullies, just as he had with his father. Most of them emotional blows from both.
Then there was the car crash, and the ka that came forth from the boy, to protect him, was bright and strong, a god like ka. The spirit felt like it was his birthday, with all the presents he was getting. He could make good use such a powerful guardian. The ka protected the boy, and darkness fell. Then he stood beside his father in a graveyard.
However, the Spirit's joy was short lived. As he was looking through the boy's memories, one of his own resurfaced. The brute force with which the memory came to him, brought him unexpected pain and grief. Seeing the burning buildings of Kul Elna only meant one thing, the Evil one, the darkness had awoken. Don't you dare think, that you can get...sidetracked. The voice spoke, dripping in hatred. I rescued you for one thing and you are useful to me for only that one thing. I sense we are closer to achieving..our...goal, of obtaining the other Millennium Items, then ever before. I command you to make this goal your number one priority.
The voice faded back into the darkness, but the Spirit was still trembling. He knew with all his being, or whatever was left of it, that he couldn't disobey this direct order. But he thought of the boy who calculated what blows to take, and who quietly and calmly accepted what was dealt to him in life,...except when he didn't. Except when he found a loophole. Which was exactly what this boy would be for him, now. He probed past the boy's memories and into his thoughts.
Hello...things are about to get rough. But I'm sure that you can manage. After all, that is why I chose you. We have a very important thing to accomplish.
Oddly enough, or maybe not, the pale boy responded to this. "What is this important thing?"
The Spirit paused. There was only only one way out for him. You are going to help me, to die.
If Ryo Bakura seemed confused by this, it didn't show. "Why, would you want this?"
You will understand soon enough.
Ryo fingered the game pieces that he had pulled off his shelf. One by one he looked over the trapped souls of his friends, his schoolmates, and anyone who was foolish enough to play him, anyone that interfered. The Spirit of the Puzzle had managed to free the more recent ones, the ones that were in the room with the RPG game, but there were so many more in this back room.
The Spirit was sulking, but secretly glad that his plan hadn't worked. After all if it had, then the Evil One would be running amuk now.
Ryo didn't even wait for him to speak before talking aloud, assuring that the game pieces could hear his thoughts as well. "Did you really think it was going to work? To just rush head on into this sort of RPG game with opponents that you don't know, one who has powers to match your own."
The Spirit didn't respond, but gave a soft growl to show he was listening at least.
Ryo continued outloud. "In order to win, you must think of more then just the prize. You were thinking too big. My father says whoever has all the knowledge, has all the power.
Your father is a weak bully and an idiot.
Ryo didn't respond to that comment. "Perhaps you don't understand what you seek, and why you seek it, enough to gain it. You don't have all the answers." He spoke calmly, but the Spirit could sense the tension and weariness in his voice.
The Spirit sighed. Don't share, what you don't wish others to know then. Why would you tell me this?
He thought of the Evil One, who could easily comb his mind and hear all of this if he wished. In fact, he was probably listening right now.
Ryo shrugged. "I personally dislike having that kind of power over people. In a game of this magnitude, one wrong move could be the end for you and everyone around you."
How right you are, doll. If you ever try anything like that again, disrupting my plans, you will be the next to die. I will have to erase their memories, perhaps we can then try another surprise attack. But you will keep yours, so you will know why you should fear me.
And with one fell swoop, the Ring lit up and the dozen or so dolls that sat on Ryo's shelf, shattered into a million pieces, becoming like dust in the air. There was silence and Ryo and the Spirit stood in shock.
That what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger...
And with that the Evil One faded back into the Ring. The silence was so thick, that you could cut through it with a knife. Ryo stood with wide eyes at the empty shelves. He rubbed the bandaged wound on his hand, perservatively.
The Spirit stood next to Ryo and watched him carefully. Was his plan over? Had Ryo's spirit been crushed? Or worse, was it stronger, stronger and darker, vengence taking seed in his heart?
Ryo spoke quietly, as though he knew what the Spirit had asked, without hearing the question. "I've been broken for a long time. Sometimes it's the little things that do the most damage."
The room was quiet, and Ryo's body was lying still in his suite on the blimp. His eyes were closed but his mind was restless. Why did it feel like every loss, was a win, but not for him? His ultimate game to destroy the Evil One was well on its way to success, and the Evil One had no idea, which was a great feat by itself. The Spirit and he had come to an agreement at least, not to make any stupid moves without consulting each other first and he had finally come to accept his proposal to win against Zorc, even if it meant losing the little duels. At least for now. However, Ryo was certain that he had gained nothing, through all this; instead losing more then he had started with, which was very little.
In fact, Ryo felt like, with every fake smile, every stupid, naïve remark he made, every lie he told, that his heart skipped a beat, and that his soul was becoming less his own. Maybe this was the Evil One's plan all along? To let him beat himself again the bars of his cage, in fake success, only to crack his head open, or submit and accept defeat permenantly, never leaving the opened cage, because he had lost all strength of spirit to fly away.
Ryo? The Spirit prodded his mind, more gently then in previous times. Perhaps he could sense Ryo's battle for his soul. Ryo didn't know, but he appreaciated it. "Hmmm?" He mumbled, just show that he was listening, for he was too tired to do much else.
What now? We lost, as you planned. I am keeping Marik at bay for now, but he is going to want some sort of next move, and it better sound convincing. He isn't quite...understanding, though the potential is there, I think.
The Spirit prodded Ryo's mind again, with the images that he and Marik had gained through Tea's eyes, watching the rest of the semi-finals. Ryo pushed them aside. "No more."
The Spirit looked confused. We are finished? Or are you finished?
Ryo blinked. Did the Spirit seemed worried? He steeled him, and closed his eyes. He could do this, it might kill him, but he could finish what he started. He had to. To leave it half done, would accomplish nothing, perhaps even make things worse. It almost felt to Ryo as though the Spirit was making progress of his own. If he quit now, all of that would be lost too. Ryo spoke weakly. "No more running. We are going directly to the source."
I thought by dueling the Pharaoh and his ushabti, that we had done that.
Ryo shook his head and gave a half smile at the Spirit's nickname for Yugi. "The Pharaoh, or Yugi Mutou,while they aren't our allies, neither are our enemy in this fight. With the Pharaoh's memories gone from his mind, we need a higher source of information. I thought perhaps that we could awaken the darkness within the puzzle, to obtain those memories, but all I succeeded in doing was hurting Yugi." There was a long pregnant pause. "When I wept in fake confusion over my lot in life, I could see the darkness eating at him, watching him with its eyes. He would have succumbed, he would have attacked. He would not have stopped the Pharaoh, as he had done with Kaiba."
I know. That is why I took back over. The Spirit paused, watching Ryo's face.
If we destroy the Pharaoh, then the darkness that he has joined with will die with him, and then many people can be...satisfied as well. But maybe Marik is right, if the only way to defeat the Pharaoh might be to destroy Yugi, who is his weakness now, then so be it. Yugi is slowly becoming...tainted... anyway.
"No!" Ryo nearly screamed at him, with strength and conviction. The Spirit smiled, in a dark, but teasing manner.
Ryo blinked.
There's the fighting spirit I know so well. It is not so far gone, yet.
Ryo gave a sigh and then a soft chuckle. "Koumori. You make such a big sound, just so that you can see the smallest truth."
I'm not sure whether I should feel honored or insulted to be called a bat.
Ryo made no response, but smiled teasingly back. The Spirit prodded him with the images again. Ryo accepted them and spent many hours while the rest of the blimp was asleep, musing over what they could mean. "Okay, here is what we are going to do." Ryo began explaining his plan to duel Marik's darker half and lose. "When we lose, he will get the Ring, and I will be waiting, the information must be in the Rod, for Kaiba to have seen it, this is our source of information. The rod is where I must go to find the answers." Ryo glittered once again, full of hope and promise and the thrill of a chess game that was coming together.
The Spirit frowned. The darker Marik, the one fueled from vengeance and hatred, was a powerful foe. One who liked to take things from his victims piece by piece to savor the triumph and the pain. If they lost, Ryo would be without the Spirit or the Evil One or...a body. Stuck forever, if his body never came back.
You realize what happens if this fails. If the Pharaoh doesn't defeat him.
Ryo nodded grimly. "I won't become you." His unspoken faith in the strength of those who shared their fate was strong.
The Spirit nodded, understanding that he couldn't dissuade Ryo, even if he wanted to.
Not if Yugi is even half the man you are.
"Now that sounded like a compliment, to me...and Yugi." Ryo gave a broad, but closed mouthed smile.
The Spirit, Koumori, made no response. But Ryo, knew that no comment meant no disagreement.
They were so close, but now it seemed like all of their work was for nothing. Ryo had somehow managed to get the Evil One to think that an Egyptian RPG board to gain the Pharaoh's memories was his own idea. And then Ryo had spent all summer making this elaborate RPG board, while the Pharaoh and the rest of his posse, spent their summer running around in America, doing who knows what. Ryo had spent the summer also pretending to be weak and therefore depressed by being forced to do the task at hand. But the acting was done so well, that even the Spirit had trouble telling the difference between Ryo's act and his true feelings. Maybe they were one and the same. The more that the Spirit shared about his past, (purely to help create an accurate game, or course), the closer they seemed to be. But with knowledge, sometimes comes understanding. And with understanding, then there can be grief.
The Memory World board was drawing up some unwanted feelings on the Spirit's part. Feelings the Spirit thought he left behind, when he had left behind his body and sold his soul. Mostly feelings of panic and fear, both things that the Spirit hated But he hated most, the remorse. And so of course, of all Ryo's ideas, the Spirit hated this one the most. Even just looking at the board, as it developed, would cause unwanted pain and grief to surface.
And now that the Evil One had become suspicious of their conversations, Ryo had taken to long periods of silence, and used words or ideas that were hidden in code, items left lying about, marks made on the wall, and messages were hidden in art, music or prose that was left sitting in sight around the apartment.
Any actual conversation between the two of them, was something that the Spirit looked forward to. However, the Evil One was about to turn them against each other, the Spirit could feel it. Sitting in his soul room inside the Ring, he could feel the dark presence pulsing, like a giant heart beat, pumping poison through its veins. Ryo seemed to sense it too, because he actually let him in one evening, into his soul room, as a reprieve. So different from the dark cave and tombs that filled the Spirit's room, Ryo's room looked like a meadow with rocks and a waterfall. However upon closer inspection, the Spirit could see that the grass was two different shades, and was one giant board game. The rocks and the waterfall were merely obstacles the various playing pieces had to walk around. Playing pieces that looked like anything from stuffed animal cats to various looking characters that looked straight out of a fantasy novel, to amorphous shapes that moved and distorted as they stood on their spots.
Ryo spoke suddenly out of nowhere, startling the Spirit. "Just as mental in here as it is out there, eh, Koumori?" Ryo had taken to calling the Spirit that in private, having discovered that the Spirit never even had a real name several thousand years ago. His mother called him little boy, and his father just called him 'you there'. And then he had stole half the kingdom's worth of bounty, everyone just called him the Thief King.
The Spirit didn't even get to reply, because in that moment, the Evil One entered the room. Ryo was shocked, the Evil one having never managed to get in before. But then the Spirit sighed, Ryo had never let him in before either. And wherever the Thief went, so could the Evil One. The Spirit recovered first, and took charge. He started yelling at Ryo as though he had come to torment him. Ryo took the mental barrage, cringing in all the right points, almost as if it was rehearsed. However, the Evil One didn't seem to be buying it. He took form behind Ryo, wading into the pond, turning it black and muddy. Stroking Ryo with one of his long smoke-like fingers, the Spirit watched as Ryo's well acted part, started to fall apart, for real. "You think you can just manipulate me, just the same as my father, well I am tired of putting up with it." Ryo's voice became tense and cold, and his eyes were closing just trying to maintain some level of composure.
The Evil One looked up and stared directly into the Spirit's eyes. What the Spirit saw there, was something he never wanted to see again, and he was seeing it seep into Ryo's eyes. He had to end this, and the only way out was to provoke a real reaction from Ryo. To sate the Evil One's twisted desire for pain.
The Spirit took a deep breath, How is that any different from what you do? You aren't any less like your father then I am.
From Ryo's reaction, the Spirit had hit home. Deep, deep wounds. If Ryo hadn't been broken before that, he had broken at that moment. Ryo's eyes clouded over and his fists clenched. And then he took a swing at the Spirit. The Spirit ducked, but not fast enough, because the fist made contact and he hit the grass. The Evil One gave a merciless, cold laugh and disappeared.
Ryo however, wasn't finished. Even the Spirit was on the ground, Ryo proceeded to kick him sharply. And for once his life the Spirit didn't fight back. For once, he had felt remorse for his actions, justified as though they might have been. He had thrown many punches in his life, and that hadn't solved anything for him. But right now, he felt Ryo was quite justified in his attack. The Spirit closed his eyes trying to think of something to say, to seal over the wound he had opened.
Suddenly the kicking stopped and sobbing could be heard. The Spirit opened his eyes. Ryo was sobbing in a pile in the grass.
I didn't mean it.
"Yes, you did. You meant every word." Ryo sobbed. "And I deserved it. Because it is true. Even more so then before." He took a deep breath. "I hate who I have become. I can't tell who I am, anymore then anyone else can. Lies and deceit have become as much a part of my nature, as my father's. He lied about what he was doing, who he was seeing, and I lie about what I am doing, and who I am working with. And now I am beating you up while you are already down."
A disturbing role reversal to be sure. Usually I am the one making...marks. The Spirit unconsciously rubbed his upper arm, thinking of the gash there from his pact with Marik.
The two of them spent the next few moments in silence, lying several feet from each other on the checkered grass. Ryo spoke up first. "Promise me, that if this all fails, that you will...destroy me. I refuse to take your place. I refuse to lose that particular game."
The Spirit contemplated this for a few moments. Agreed. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Of course you have to promise that if this works, that you will live out the rest of your life as you ought to.
Ryo sighed. "Agreed." Thinking of what High Priest Seto had communicated to him when he had been in the Rod, he vocalized what he was thinking. " A dead man can't redeem himself as easily as one who is living."
So very true.
"So you wouldn't even wish your kind of existence on anyone, not even on the Pharaoh?" Ryo asked curiously.
The Spirit paused. Sometimes I wish I could go back, with all my memories, and do it all over again, differently of course. That was as good as Ryo was going to get from him.
Ryo briefly smiled. "Well, you will soon get your chance."
The Spirit shook his head. Not if we are playing by his rules. And it was clear to both at that moment just how true that statement was.
Ryo Bakura lifted his head out of the sand. The board was in ruins, and the game was over. Finally.
The Ring was gone from around his neck, but Ryo knew where it was. Yugi could lie all he wanted, but he could feel it, sitting in Yugi's backpack. But he didn't try to reclaim it as he had done countless other times, this time Yugi had earned it. The Evil One had tried his absolute hardest to beat the Pharaoh, so this time, with no interference from Ryo and even reluctant assistance from the Thief, he had still lost, and that meant the Ring belonged to Yugi. None of its powers would work for him anymore. Ryo felt a hundred pounds lighter and a sense of clarity fell over him. He had finally been beaten at his own game. He hadn't been sure it would work, but Yugi had dueled wonderfully on his own, and the Pharaoh had pulled out a move at the end that Ryo hadn't anticipated. Perhaps the Pharaoh had something he wished he could change too and he had learned a thing or two from Yugi.
Of course, I knew that this would work. It was your game.
Ryo visibly twitched, but no one noticed. Inside his head, he replied confused. "You are still here?"
You aren't the only one who makes Plan B's. You and I seem to be stuck together. A side effect I didn't quite foresee when I bonded with you back when I...skewered your chest with the prongs of the Ring.
Ryo frowned. "No offense, but I was hoping you would be gone."
None taken. I had hoped to be gone as well.
The Spirit could feel Ryo's strength draining. "I think that this is perhaps more exhausting that when we used the Ring."
I'm certain that two souls are not meant for one body. I will stay quiet for now.
Ryo was thankful for this. In fact he didn't hear the Spirit speak for a long time after that. With all the craziness after the game board was cleaned up, and then the trip to Egypt for the Ceremonial Duel, Ryo almost forget he was still there. Everyone acted like he was gone, and so it was no difficulty to pretend such, when the Spirit kept quiet. It wasn't until the end of Yugi's duel with the Pharaoh that Ryo became conscious of the Spirit's presence again. As the doors opened to admit the Pharaoh, Ryo felt a twinge of jealousy that didn't belong to him. The Spirit said nothing, but it was clear he had been watching, and now was sulking. He sulked during the boat ride back, during the talk with Marik, and on the airplane. When they were alone in Ryo's apartment back in Japan, Ryo addressed him. "You could have the same thing, you know."
There was a scoff sound from the Thief. I haven't really earned anything like that.
Ryo smiled looking in the mirror for the first time in months, maybe even years, with a smile. "There is time for that."
However, this optimism was short-lived. A few weeks later, Ryo's father called and pulled him out of school in Domino. When Ryo refused to leave, his father merely texted him a video of him breaking into his father's museum with a lock pick and the words, I could have you arrested. Ryo clenched his fists and breathed deeply. He packed with speed and sorrow.
When Ryo arrived in Egypt, things didn't improve, in fact they got worse. The constant presence of his father, was grating, and his father saw it fit to use whatever new form of blackmail that he wanted to control even the simplest of Ryo's choices. However, Ryo's darkness seemed to be more then what his father produced. Even simple things, were stretching Ryo's patience more so then ever before.
When Ryo punched his father out at a bar, for attacking a prostitute, the Spirit rejoiced, but he also cringed. Despite Ryo's best intentions, and valiant efforts, with the removal of the life and death drama, and the constant fear of the Evil One gone, apathy was high and impulse control was low. And despite Ryo's best efforts, the tendency to be like his father, ran deeper then Ryo liked to admit. And the Spirit would rather die a thousand deaths, then live, knowing that dark seed, had taken root under his watch.
When Ryo smashed his cell phone, during a dinner with Marik and Yugi, the Spirit knew that what he feared was true, the Evil One still owned the Spirit. Now that the Spirit and Ryo were fused, the Evil One didn't need the control and power that he once had, just his constant presence would be all the fuel needed for Ryo to destroy his own life. For the first time in Millenniums, the Spirit didn't want to die, but now he knew he must. Because despite his best intentions and valiant efforts, he had finally learned to care for someone besides himself.
The Spirit knew what needed to be done. He was going to have to lose, in order for Ryo to win. Ryo was going to have to fight one last duel, this time against his greatest challenge, the one that existed inside himself.
See Chapters 9 and 10 of Trifecta, if you want to see the Duel between the two-three of them! Then see Chapter 23 to be introduced to Nisaa briefly before this next section.
Nisaa was motionless and silent, with wide eyes. Ryo wasn't sure whether she had understood any of what he had tried to explain;her face was unreadable. She blinked back into focus. Ryo waited nervously for her to say something. She looked between the Battle City DVD's that she had confronted him about, the book the Scarlet Pimpernel that he had requested that she read, and multiple letters and pictures that had been taken over the years of Ryo and the rest of the people, he was glad to call his friends.
Then she laughed. A deep, laugh that came in waves. When she stopped, seeing Ryo become even more nervous, she smiled and spoke. "All my life, I have wondered if I would ever find someone who saw past my beauty, and then my scars, and then didn't think my renegade past was too loose for them, and didn't fear when it occasionally came back to haunt me." She laugh briefly again. She handed the computer she had stolen back to Ryo. "Now I know, I've got it made. You aren't worried about my past, you are too busy worrying about yours. You wonder if someone will see past your pretty face, and your scars, physical and otherwise, and your money that comes from being a doctor."
Ryo briefly met her eyes. "You didn't leave because your wounds were healed and you had no need for me or my insurance, did you?"
Nisaa shook her head. "Nope, I was being blackmailed, into helping a past...friend is just the wrong word...with a bank job and I needed the computer. I barely escaped with this and my life. If it wasn't for that freak lighting at that playground, I'm sure that gang would have gutted me for deserting the job."
Ryo blinked. He surveyed the beautiful woman, with her long snake like scar down around her neck, covered in days worth of dirt and mud. "Which playground?"
Nisaa cocked her head in confusion. "A cute little playground, somehow sitting in the worse part of Luxor, without a mark on it. Why does that matter?" Ryo smiled, internally laughing at the irony. "Take a shower, make yourself at home. That story can come later."
Nisaa nodded. She surveyed the strange man who had legally married her almost 5 years ago, just so she could have his doctor's quality insurance. A man that was content to let her come to him, on her own terms, who expected nothing from her, and who was very patient, especially with his newly discovered Autistic half-sister. She thought about everything that she had learned about him in the past few days, and she almost had trouble picturing the darkness that he had described in his own mind. Almost. His eyes occasionally betrayed his broken past, or his tightly reined, justified, fury. And her mind jumped to the ancient spirit in the Ring, he had described. She wondered whether he realized, just how similar this character seemed to be, to her. No doubt, this was a source of embarrassment. She smiled mischievously.
"I am not going to make myself at home. I am home."
Ryo smiled broadly for the first time in a long time. A real smile, that continued long into the night and into the next morning.
See Chapter 26, for more about Ryo and Nisaa and his half-sister before reading the next chapter here. Or of course, you could just read all of Trifecta :)