Alright, guys...the second chapter.
I also want to use this chance to say that Emiko does /not/ have a
yami! She just likes talking to herself.
Also, I apologize for the style in the first chapter. In order to post it I had to email the chapter to myself on a different computer and...Yeah.
So, enjoy!
So, Emiko, what are you going to do?
The girl answered her conscious simply; You know very well what I'm going to do.
Her pesky conscious pushed, Oh really? Care to enlighten me, o smart one?
Emiko rolled her eye, Stupid conscious. Think you know everything.
Before she gave her conscious a chance to snap back, she mentally told it, I'm going to go to Malik, tell him about Ryou, go to sleep, and wait for this whole thing to blow over...
That sounds all and well, but it might do you good to look where you're going!
Before Emiko could figure out what her conscious was trying to say, she ran into someone.
Looking up, she snapped, "Watch where you're-!"
She stopped her snap when she saw Rishid looking down at her calmly.
He asked, "What do you want?"
Emiko answered, crossing her arms, "I need to see Malik right now."
Rishid shook his bald head slowly, "I'm afraid that you can't do that."
"What? Why not? I demand an explanation!"
"Because Master Malik is getting ready to sleep."
"So? This is an emergency!"
"An emergency?"
"Yes!"
"Like the snakes?"
"...fair point, but still, I have to speak with him! Now!"
"Is this urgent?"
"Yes!"
"Is this important?"
"Very, yes!"
"Is this desperate?"
"Oh for the love of-yes it's desperate!"
"Then why couldn't you have told him this earlier?"
"..."
"Exactly. Now go back to your room."
"No, I need to-HEY! Let go, baldy!"
Emiko squirmed as Rishid had grabbed the back of her cloak and began to drag her to her room, which I feel inclined to add was in her hallway.
He opened the door and dropped her in her room. "You can wait until morning until you tell master Malik your urgent message."
Emiko muttered, just loud enough for him to hear, "Bloody bald-headed guy, thinks he knows everything."
Rishid only said coolly, "Go to sleep."
He closed the door as Emiko stood up, dusting herself. She did not appreciate being dropped on the ground!
She grinned sneakily, though. There was no way that Baldy was getting the last laugh (though Emiko highly doubted that the man was capable of positive feelings).
She decided to wait in her room for a couple of hours before going to
Malik, in case Rishid decided to stay in her hallway until she gave up.
Hmph, he was more annoying than Malik. No wonder they're related. Kind of.
To pass time, Emiko decided to play around with her Duel Monsters cards.
"'So, Poison Mummy, who are you going to the dance with?'...'I'm going with none other than Shadowslayer, of course!'...'No way! That can't be right, Dark Blade! I'm going with Shadowslayer!'...'What? He said that he'd come with me!'...'Me too! That jerk said he loved me!'...I need more friends..."
After it was completely silent and she was sure that Rishid went to sleep, Emiko slid out of her room, not daring to let her door squeak.
She tiptoed down her hallway, then down the stairs, then into the lobby. She made sure to press herself against the wall to blend in with the shadows, and then dashed into the hallway where Malik's room was. Before long, she was standing in front of the hotel room that
Malik slept in,
She knocked lightly and called softly, "Malik, wake up. I need to tell you something."
No answer. Again, she knocked, "Malik? Get up."
Aw, to hell with it.
After a series of loud knocks she near shouted, "Oi, Ishtar! Get off your lazy butt and open the damn do-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the door slammed open, revealing a very unhappy Egyptian.
If he weren't currently glaring daggers at her, Emiko would've laughed. His hair was a mess, he was wearing nothing but baggy pants, and his face looked dull, confirming that he did in fact wear make-up.
He narrowed his eyes dangerously, "Minami, you have five seconds to tell me what you are doing outside of my room before I slam the door on your face."
"I have something important to tell you."
"I figured."
"In private."
"You're not going in my room."
He might as well have saved his breath as Emiko pushed him aside and walked into her room casually, as if she weren't pretty much walking into an active beehive after maiming it with a steel baseball bat.
She reached for the light switch, but Malik slapped her hand away,
"No, it stays dark!"
"Why? Trying to keep something hidden?"
"No, I just don't want light blinding me!"
"Aw, wook at wittle Mawik, scawed of the wight."
"You're swimming in shark infected waters here, Minami..."
While his guard was down for a quick second, she once again reached for the light and managed to turn it on this time.
She looked around the somewhat large room with tan walls. Huh, maybe he was telling the truth about the light-
Her thoughts plummeted into nothingness when she spotted the poster hanging above his bed.
Oh my god..., all of the jokes Emiko had made about Malik's sexual orientation seemed to be legit as she stared at the poster.
There were four men-or teenage boys, whatever-on the poster. All of them seemed to have punk-ish black hair, except for one boy who had long red hair. They were all wearing tight, leather clothing, and
Emiko mentally noted that each of their completely hairless chests were revealed in some way. From what she could see, all of them were wearing make-up.
This was too much for Emiko to take. The corner of her lips began to twitch, and Malik let out a threatening, "Don't even think about laughing, Emiko..."
Knowing better than to laugh at a boy with gender issues and a golden rod of magic, she quickly covered her mouth with both her hands, though obvious giggles were heard.
Malik sighed, his cheeks very pink, "I was afraid that you'd see that and take it the wrong way. They're a talented band."
Emiko stared at him, still covering her mouth to hide the smiling,
"They're a band?"
Looking at the poster again, she saw dark red letters over the four band members that spelled out 'Gesshoku'.
After giving the poster another long look, she pointed at one of the band members that seemed particularly close to another member, who didn't seem to mind the physical contact, "I think that he's not straight."
Malik, for some reason, was furious at this, "Kohaku Tsukino is not gay! He happens to have a girlfriend!"
Emiko pointed at the boy he was touching, "Then why...?"
Malik answered stubbornly, crossing his arms, "Kohaku Tsukino and Yuki
Mori happen to have been childhood friends! It was their idea to make Gesshoku in the first place! With the help of Isamu Kimura and Daichi Fukui-", he motioned to the other two band members, "-who /also/ wanted to make a band, they were able to do that!"
"...are they not straight?"
"No! Daichi Fukui is actually engaged to a girl named Ayoko Wakahisa!
Their wedding is going to be in France in a week!"
"You know all this?"
"Of course!"
"...Malik..."
"What?"
"You are so much like a teenage girl it hurts."
Malik narrowed his eyes, "Didn't you come in here for a reason?"
Huh? Emiko gave him a blank look."
He growled, "The emergency? Ringing a bell?"
...oh yeah! In the midst of trying to figure out Malik's sexual orientation (aka the most difficult job ever for a narrow minded individual), Emiko had forgotten why she had come here.
Malik looked like he was getting more annoyed by the second, "Well, Emiko?"
Emiko blinked, Now how was she going to say this...?
She had to make it as simply and least direct as possible...
"Bakura has a split personality."
Yeah...least direct as possible...
Malik's expression changed from being irritated to an expression that
Emiko couldn't quite understand, "A...split personality?"
He cleared his throat; as if to regain his authority, "Explain."
Emiko then explained everything she knew about Bakura, and the real owner of the body.
"...and his name's Ryou, and he's really nice," she concluded, a little confused at how Malik hadn't interrupted her at all, but hung on her every word.
Malik asked coolly (or perhaps too coolly in Emiko's opinion), "Why are you telling me this?"
Emiko told him, "He says he's going to try to take him body back at times, and I told him that Bakura had only checked into an innocent hotel, because I don't think he'd take Bakura joining the Rare Hunters too well. So when he takes over his body, I want you to treat this like a normal hotel, got it?"
Malik nodded obediently, which is something that Emiko thought that he'd never do, especially at her suggestions, "I understand. And I want to be called Namu while he's around."
Emiko blinked a couple of times, "Namu? What's wrong with Malik?"
"Word's going around about the Big Bad Malik Ishtar is the leader of the evil Rare Hunters, and I don't think that this Ryou will want to he associated with the leader of an evil organization. So when he's around, my name is Namu Tsukino."
"Isn't that the last name of one of the band members?"
"..."
"Ah-ha! You have a crush on a member of a boy band! Oh, I'm actually not that surprised..."
"I do not have a crush on him! It was the first last name that came to mind!"
Emiko didn't hear this, as she began clapping and chanting, "You have a cru-ush, you have a cru-ush..."
While the two teased (mostly in Emiko's case) and threatened (mostly in
Malik's case), Rishid stood outside of the door, frowning and yet feeling slightly happy.
He had originally came to his little brother's room when he had heard
Emiko's shouting of wanting to get in. He had correctly assumed that she was just waiting for him to go away until seeking out Malik.
Rishid had appeared to Malik's room after the boy band conversation, and stayed to hear about Bakura's alter ago.
He had heard the curiosity in Malik's voice as he talked about 'Ryou', and how he wanted to help.
Rishid knew as well as anyone else why Malik was so keen to help Ryou.
This was because he needed Ryou to help him.
Sure, Rishid helped keep Malik's evil form, Yami no Marik under control, but he could only do so much for Malik personally. He didn't have an evil being inside him, fighting to get out and cause mayhem with the blame falling on someone else's shoulders.
Rishid could just imagine Malik using his smooth talk on Ryou, saying that he had an evil imaginary friend who's been plaguing his nightmares since he was a child, and Ryou (who, according to Emiko, seemed very nice) sympathizing, telling him that he knew how it felt.
Rishid sighed. It seemed like a good plan and all, considering both sides would get a load off their shoulders with the comfort, but why did he have the strange feeling that this wouldn't end well?
He broke away from his thoughts when he heard Emiko's voice, "As much as I'd love to stay and try to lure you out of the closet, I want some beauty sleep. I can see very clearly that you need it."
Rishid quickly walked away from the door, as if just passing by, not hearing Malik's loud rebuke.
He heard the door open, a surprised noise, and footsteps running back into the room. Peeking over his shoulder, he just saw the end of a purple cloak.
He fought against rolling his eyes. Why master Malik chose someone so childish to join the Rare Hunters, I'll never know...
He heard Emiko ask, "Can I stay in your room tonight? There are creepy bald people roaming the halls, and I know that you won't do anything to me because you'll be too busy snuggling with your Kohaku Tsukino plushie-NOT THE HAIR! NOT THE HAIR!"
Rishid saw in the corner of his eye Emiko being tossed out of the room and the door slamming quite loudly behind her.
He tried not to smile in amusement when Emiko rubbed her head and glared at the door, muttering something that sounded like 'she-males these days'.
She then looked nervously at Rishid, whom she now saw was staring at her.
Before she could say anything in her defense, Rishid said, "Just make sure that everything goes alright between Ryou and Malik and I'll be happy."
He walked away, though he just managed to see Emiko's confused look.
Sure, okay, Emiko now knew what was expected of her to unknowingly help Malik. But would it be enough? And why did Rishid have a bad feeling that only tears and pain would come out of this?
Couple of things, guys:
-Gesshoku is not a real band. I just randomly made it up. The band members are fake too.
-Yes, Rishid is going to become a regular character. Come on, the guy never gets any screen time in the show or in fanfiction.
-Emiko isn't a homophobe (the very opposite, actually), she just likes to bother Malik. A lot.
-The Rare Hunter's headquarters are in an abandoned apartment in a town right next to Domino City. They've been there a while before
Battle City.
Reviews are appreciated!