Disclaimer: I do not own this story, anime, manga, etc. Created for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 4
While Duke slept uneasily upstairs, Tristan and Yugi saw to the easiest of tasks, taking photos of the damage to submit to the insurance company and then picking up everything that had been dumped onto the floor. The store's employees swept up broken glass and wood and cleaned up as best they could, though they would have to wait until some of the stronger guys came in for the afternoon shift before they had enough manpower to move the busted arcade consoles into the storeroom. Yugi sorted stock while Aiko used the office phone upstairs to call all of the employees and inform them what happened, so she could rearrange work schedules to get as many helpers in to clean up as possible. Duke was the only one who could decide how many days they had to be closed in order to put the store back into workable shape, and he was sleeping now, but everyone pitched in to make his decision easier. At last, Yugi had to excuse himself to go home and take care of his own shop, and by then Duke was awake again and glad to share a hug and a few more honest words of thanks for his help. Tristan was still going to be there, anyway, so Yugi left certain that his friend and competitor was in good hands.
As he walked home, Yugi's heavily burdened mind was already rambling, sorting through his thoughts and feelings on what he had witnessed. Without even needing to ask, he sensed the pharaoh's spirit beside him, as if drifting along at the same pace as he just over his shoulder, keenly observing and listening to everything he might want to say. Yet, for now Yugi only sighed and walked on, his brain not settling on any one thought long enough for the partners to share it. At last, he heard the gentle purr in his mind: "Yugi? Are you all right?"
Shrinking down into his warm winter coat, Yugi huffed another sigh. "It's just so awful," he responded mentally. "Things like this…you hear about them, but it always seems like they only happen on soap operas and stuff. Never to you or your friends." He closed his eyes briefly. "Why is it, you and I could go around for two years being open about our relationship, and no one ever did anything to hurt us, but all of two days after they come out, Duke gets beaten up? It's not fair," he added with a little whimper.
"I know," Yami said understandingly. "But it's not as though we've sailed through those two years without a care in the world. We've had our own problems."
"Yeah." Yugi glanced briefly to check traffic before crossing the street, keeping his eyes down on his path as he walked. "And nobody knows what the future will bring."
Yami studied him as he walked with his head bowed. "Are you frightened?"
Yugi considered it for a few paces. "No," he answered at last. "There's no reason to be. I know the world sucks, and there are people in it who treat others with that kind of hatred, but that's not going to make me hide out at home and never let anyone catch me holding your hand in public ever again. That means they win. I don't want that."
"It's enough to be aware that such things are always possible," Yami mused, "in the same way people get in accidents or lose their jobs or fall in love every day."
"Yeah." Yugi walked on in silence, his thoughts returning to their previous incoherent state. The pharaoh's spirit allowed him his space, simply remaining connected enough to listen should Yugi seek his advice or comfort. Some blocks further along his path, Yugi mustered one more thought to share. "It's just hard not to be disheartened by this," he lamented. "Nobody should have to suffer just because someone disapproves of who they love."
"No," Yami concurred. "It's all right, Yugi. You have a right to feel for your friends, I'm not going to try to tell you to forget it and be happy. Empathizing with their pain is the most you can do right now, with your own life and responsibilities to attend to."
Yugi nodded absently, letting that be the end of the conversation. He walked the rest of the way home without comment to his partner, his mind going numb. All any of them could do was hope that the police caught the jerks who trashed the game store, and gave them their just desserts, so Duke could pick up the pieces and carry on. At least he had the benefit of a legion of caring friends who would be there for him long after the shelves had been straightened and the broken glass swept away.
The darkness and quiet of late nights were Seto Kaiba's preferred time to work on his own projects, he felt like that was the time his mind was at its most active and creative, enabling him to forge ahead on future plans and ideas. Now that the calendar had flipped to March and he got a good look at the new month's schedule, he made the most of his after-work hours writing software code or drawing up plans for gaming upgrades. It also afforded him the time to make his nightly rounds of the wireless dueling network, investigating and trolling for secrets while all the time keeping an eye to his buddy list for ShandyCandy to log in and be available for dueling. While it was so late in Japan, England was enjoying proper daylight hours in which she was more than likely to be up and about. From his administrator's account, Kaiba had been spying on her habits and knew he was often missing her by just that much, but he left his lurker account open to watch the networks anyway. He was learning some fascinating things about online duelists, like when traffic was at its highest, what deck styles tended to be played the most often, and how the hierarchy between hardcore players and wide-eyed newbies was sorting itself out. Seeing it all from ground level through Blue-Eyed-Dragon also allowed him to catch a few minor bugs and see what issues plagued duelists enough for them to complain about it on the message boards. As a result, he was spending this particular evening in early March writing up plans for upgrades to the system that would eliminate many of those issues, while eyeballing the monitoring screen in the corner where he could pluck words straight out of the chat and dump them into his document to wave in the faces of his incompetent programmers. Then, he heard an odd little sound effect, and glanced to see a flag wave in the tracking window. The tiny popup informed him, "ShandyCandy is now online."
Kaiba stared at the blinking window for a moment, wondering what he would say, what she would do when a random stranger messaged her out of nowhere. But the draw of finally facing his opponent again, and taking back what he had lost in the tournament, proved stronger than his hesitation. He kept his duel disk near the computer on nights like this, just in case, and pushed himself out of his desk chair long enough to grab it and plug the headset into it. In moments, he was swiftly typing a message to the English duelist: Hey, want to duel me?
An instant after sending it, he got a response. Do I know you?
Just answer the question, he typed. Do you want to duel?
A slightly longer pause preceded her response. You're just some kid with a sad dueling record. What makes you think I'm interested in dueling you?
Kaiba smirked to himself as he replied. Because things might not be as they seem.
Sorry, ShandyCandy came back with, I'm only into dueling people my speed. And you, kid, don't seem like it.
Expecting as much, Kaiba snorted and was ready with a comeback. What's the matter? Scared? I would think a world-class duelist such as yourself didn't back down from a challenge. He hit enter, thought of something else, and grinned as he added, Oh, but that's right. You only made it to third place. You couldn't even beat that hack Joey Katsuya.
Shandy's response was curt and immediate. All right, kid. I'm here to duel, and you just made it worth my while.
So you'll duel me?
Right now. Let's go, you little rat bastard.
Snickering under his breath, Kaiba got up and clamped his duel disk to his arm, pleased to have the wireless connection light up right away. His challenger on the other end had already connected and was waiting for him. Settling the headset onto his head, Kaiba flipped the monitoring screen down before his eye and smiled coolly as he heard the connection in his ear indicating that their microphones were both online. "Yo," the female voice from far away said as soon as she knew he was live. "I don't take kindly to people trashing my record, you know. I'm only dueling you to put you in your place."
"I thought you said you were open to a rematch, anywhere, anytime?" Kaiba said calmly, keeping his voice even despite the undercurrent of excitement and tension running through him.
There was a long pause. "Wait a minute," Shandy said, more seriously. "I know that voice."
"You should."
She gasped suddenly, with excessive drama. "Kaiba?" she yelped across the connection. "Holy shit! I had no idea it was you! Why didn't you say something? Hang on a minute," she added. "I thought you were an admin. What's up with this loser newbie name and stuff?"
"It's a spy account," Kaiba willingly admitted. "I've been using it to keep track of the users online."
"You didn't actually lose the duels it says on your record, 'Blue-Eyed-Dragon?'" She then laughed. "Oh, brilliant! Blue Eyed Dragon. I totally get it now. Good show, mate!"
A light smirk crossed Kaiba's lips as he stood with his arms loosely folded. "So, are we going to duel, or what?"
"You're serious about that rematch, aren't you?" Shandy chuckled warmly in his ear. "All right then. I'm not scared of you, no matter how much you want to sneak up on me out of nowhere and bother me like some troll. Shuffle your cards, mate, and let's duel."
Kaiba's deck was already prepared, but he gave it one last shuffle just to be sure before returning it to the deck tray on his disk. "I'll duel you using the same deck I had at the tournament," he said darkly. "I haven't touched it since coming back."
"Oo, I had that much of an effect on you?" Shandy teased him. "Fine, then. Let's see, which deck do I want to play with today…?"
Kaiba frowned. "You have more than one deck?"
"Oh yeah. I run at least two simultaneously," she said airily. "Plus a third to play with my friends who don't know the game too well. Hmm…I beat you down hard with the Union deck, but let's see if the Hellfire deck can be just as much of a challenge." Kaiba heard her laugh happily while she shuffled her cards. "Brilliant! I came online between classes just to see if there was any fun to be had, and look what I got! Truth be told, I've been looking for you. Just to see if you took my advice and played around on your own system. Never seem to be on, though – but now I see why. I was watching the 'Kaiba1' name. You've been hanging around on this one instead."
"I haven't actually dueled anyone with the system since the network went live," Kaiba said. "The record in my profile is faked."
"I was going to say, I'd feel bad about beating you again if it turns out I started you on a nasty losing streak," Shandy giggled, obviously not feeling bad at all. "Damn, but it must be late, there."
"Middle of the night, yes."
"And you're still up for it?"
Kaiba brandished his duel disk to no one in particular, since he was standing alone in his dark study under the moonlight coming in through the big bay windows. "I want this rematch. I've been waiting for it."
Shandy's voice took on the same eager, wicked tone as his. "Cool. Then let's duel."
Kaiba straightened up and pulled his first hand, glad to see one of his Blue Eyes White Dragons right away. It wouldn't be summoned on his first turn, though, so he kept it to himself while he ordered an opening move. "Classes," he repeated, thinking about something she had said. "You're in university?"
"Yeah, first year," Shandy replied, waiting for him to lay out his cards before making her move. "I usually pop on the network whenever I have a little free time. Dueling helps me to unwind."
"I can assure you," Kaiba said as he laid out his cards and watched the glowing monitor before his eye register them, "this will not be a relaxing duel."
"I'd believe it," Shandy snickered. "Apologies up front for my language. We're not at the tournament around all the little kiddies, I'll probably revert to my usual impropriety. Hope that doesn't offend your Japanese sensibilities," she added tauntingly.
"I don't care," Kaiba said curtly, watching the screen as she laid two cards face-down and summoned a defensive monster. "I'm just here to duel and win."
They both came out swinging, using their first turn each to lay a defense before striking out, and the battle heated up quickly. In contrast to his opponent's casual attitude and flippant comments, Kaiba was all business, studiously glaring into his headset monitor to watch the progress of the duel while he tested a couple of strategies against her. It was quickly apparent why she called it her "Hellfire deck," for it was stacked with heavy-hitting monsters, Archfiends, and the sorts of magic and trap cards that immediately stung him for card or life point loss. Yet, he held his own, and never became rattled even when she saw his Crush Virus before he could activate it and struck it down with the right Effect. He hadn't intended on it working anyway, he just wanted to see what she had up her sleeve. Truthfully, he wanted only one strategy to work, and he kept the Dragon in his hand waiting for it.
One of Shandy's favorite cards was the Greed Trap, particularly useful against Kaiba to keep him from using magic cards to help him draw more cards from his deck. She had it out, and it was doing well to stymie him, forcing him into apparent retreat. He laid a monster in defense and let it pass, eyeing the blinking cards on his display to see what she would do next. Shandy drew and summoned yet another monster, giving her three, and paused to gauge the threat. "You must be getting tired," she teased him. "Laying such an amateur scheme in front of me? I guess the late hour isn't doing you any good."
"On the contrary," Kaiba said confidently. "I feel I'm at my best at this hour."
"And you still expect me to fall for some monster effect by attacking you? Well, let's see. Which one of my monsters do I feel like losing? Hmm, how about…Battle Ox. That'll do."
On the tiny screen, the image of the Battle Ox flashed, and then the face-down card on Kaiba's side of the field, indicating that one was attacking the other. The sight of his pixelated card disappearing made Kaiba laugh out loud into the microphone. "Tough break," he said snidely. "You're not just going to lose your Battle Ox. That was Cyber Jar."
"What? Oh, for fuck's sake!" Shandy cried at him. "Oh, fine. How many cards do we have to draw? Hey, you do realize we're both going to lose almost all of our life points doing this, thanks to my Greed card…"
"No, we won't," Kaiba retorted. "Cyber Jar's effect tells you to pick up, not draw, the top five cards of your deck. Neither of us will lose a single life point."
"Damn," the young girl said in a complimentary fashion. "Saved your ass by semantics. That move would have lost you the game otherwise."
"I know my cards inside and out," Kaiba said arrogantly. "Now dump your monsters in your graveyard and pick up the new cards."
She did so, clearing the field, and Kaiba paused to look over his hand. He could only summon level four or lower monsters, and in a deck such as his that meant he probably wasn't going to get more than one in a hand. But one was all he needed. He smiled confidently to himself when he saw what the Cyber Jar had netted him, adding four cards to the ones in his hand. In his earpiece, he heard Shandy casually say, "You know, there's only one real drawback to this fancy network of yours, Kaiba."
"Oh?" He lifted his head in order to focus on her voice. Requested improvements to his system always mattered to him. "What's that?"
"There's no function to let you see your opponent while you're dueling," she complained. "Sometimes, I want to see who I'm up against. For all I know, you're dueling me naked."
"What?" A blush dashed unexpectedly across Kaiba's cheeks. "I am not!" he instantly added. "I'm not that obsessed with the game."
"And how am I supposed to know?" Shandy flirtatiously crowed. "So what are you wearing, then? I already know what you look like."
"What are you, a phone sex operator?" he sniffed.
"Yeah, baby," she laughed at him. "Seriously, mate. I'm just curious. Since it's late and all. Are you dueling me in your jammies?"
Kaiba seethed, trying not to be ruffled by the extremely personal inquiry. "A t-shirt and pajama pants," he grumbled under his breath.
"Cute," Shandy responded.
"I suppose you're punked-out as usual."
"Nah, not this early in the day. I got one more class, gotta look respectable for the professors. I only get all dolled up when it's time to go out on the town." She giggled sweetly. "That's later tonight. I'm just casual schoolgirl right now." There was a pause, and then Kaiba noticed his screen flicker as monsters appeared – she was summoning the ones Cyber Jar allowed. Two of them. "What, you're not curious to see your opponent?"
"Not really," Kaiba said curtly. "I'll take your suggestion into consideration. Developing a visual interface might be more trouble than it's worth, but I'll research it along with the other upgrades to the system."
"Always the business tycoon," Shandy sighed. "What, you could only summon one monster? Poor you. Guess that ends my turn, I'll leave these guys on the field till next round."
Kaiba straightened up as his turn began, knowing that he had everything to win the game right there in front of him. Her two monsters were both extremely high-pointed four-star monsters, but he wasn't going to attack them. Cyber Jar had given him all the magic cards he wanted, and it was time to put them to good use. "This duel is mine," he reported as he drew, and glanced with evil glee at what he had just drawn. "First, for good measure…Malice Dispersion." He jammed the magic card into a slot on the duel disk, and plucked a second from his hand. "I'm discarding one card to remove your Greed Trap."
"Shit," Shandy muttered. "All right, what else you got?"
"Just this." He played another magic card, proudly announcing, "Enemy Controller! I'll use the Right-Left-A-B code to take control of your Gagagio." The icons on the field on his display switched sides, indicating that her monster had now become his, as his life points dropped to their last 150 after making the tribute to use the magic card. "And last, but not least…" One more magic card. "Soul Exchange, to sacrifice your other monster along with the one that I now control…"
"Oh, you are not!" Shandy protested. "I kept you from getting more than one monster out at a time just so you couldn't!"
"There are so many other ways to call out a dragon, without having to tribute all of my monsters," Kaiba said with dark glee. Her captured monsters vanished, and the Blue Eyes White Dragon was finally out on the field. He studied her side; he had forced her to activate all her traps, leaving her field completely bare. "Oh my," he mocked. "You have no monsters on your side of the field…and no Mirror Wall to stop me this time. Blue Eyes, attack her life points directly!"
"Fuck!" the voice in his ear yelped. "Not so fast, I'm playing Scapegoat!"
Four tiny icons popped onto the field, just in time for one of them to be blown away by the Blue Eyes attack. Kaiba growled at her. "I hate that card," he spat.
"Picked up the trick from Katsuya," Shandy said. "I freely admit it."
"Figures." Kaiba huffed a short, annoyed sigh, and decided to wait until his next turn to complete his perfect combo. "That's it this round. Hurry up and go."
The voice in the earpiece grumbled, but for once Shandy was left without comment. Kaiba tapped his bare foot on the carpeted floor as he waited for her to make a move, paying close attention to the screen in front of his eye. "Tricky," she said after a long silence. "You're almost out of life points. Using Enemy Controller was a risky move there."
"Are you going to summon anything or not?" Kaiba snapped.
"Take it easy!" the girl implored, trying to remain casual even though a worried tone was creeping into her voice. She wasn't so quick to taunt him now. "I'm gettin' there. Shit," she added. "Where's that Dragon Capture Jar when you need it? Oh well. This face down. And that's it."
Kaiba studied the single card, either magic or trap, standing behind the three remaining Scapegoats as her last defense. Now was not the time to be conservative, no matter how bad the Trap waiting for him might be. He drew, and smiled to see Graceful Charity. Now that there was no penalty waiting for using it, he played it and drew the last two cards he needed to make this combo more than perfect – spectacular. "Sorry to have to cut this short," he said condescendingly, not sorry at all, "but it's late here. I'll be ending this duel now. Only one thing left to do." He plucked up the defense monster on his side and flipped it over, sending it into attack mode. It was the Lord of Dragons. From his hand, he added the Flute of Summoning Dragon to it, and boasted happily, "so unless you have any more quick-play surprises in your hand, I think you're about to lose this game."
"Fucking hell," Shandy swore at him. "You couldn't possibly have gotten all those cards in just one draw."
"I had the first Blue Eyes in my hand already," Kaiba reported. "But the rest, yes – all thanks to Cyber Jar and Graceful Charity. You do know how the Flute works, right?"
"Oh, just summon your bloody dragons and get it over with!" Shandy griped.
"Fine." The last two monster cards from his hand went onto the field, a second Blue-Eyes and another sizeable dragon. Kaiba took a moment to just look down at his duel disk and admire the sight. This was how it was supposed to be. Finally, he mused to himself. I can put it behind me. This is the way it's meant to go. This is how the tournament should have ended. "Lord of Dragons, attack one Scapegoat. The two new dragons will attack the last two," he commanded.
All of the icons were now cleared away. The only thing left on Shandy's side was the lone face-down card, which hadn't been activated at all, and a field magic card that worked with the Archfiends in her deck, none of which were there to save her now. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" she was cursing across the connection. "Fuck you, Kaiba! You weren't supposed to get those out! Fuck it, I had you! I had you pinned down!"
"Blue Eyes," Kaiba sighed, "attack her life points and end this."
Not even Shandy, at this point in the game, had three thousand points to waste. The duel was over in the blink of an eye, giving Kaiba the space to take a deep breath and sigh. After a pause to collect herself, Shandy also sighed. "Damn. That was a hell of a duel. That's the Seto Kaiba I heard about. Show no mercy." She sniffed in annoyance. "Are you happy now? You won your rematch?"
Kaiba stood there, lowering his duel disk to his side. "Satisfied," he said. "Now I can go to bed."
"I won't make you stay for another round," Shandy agreed. "But this isn't over! I swear, Kaiba! Next time you're online, I'll duel you with the Union deck I used at the tournament! I'll prove to you that I can hold my own against you! The right deck, it'll work."
"If you think so," Kaiba said arrogantly. "I'll take that challenge. I'll beat any deck you have, no matter what's in it."
"Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that, Mr. Big-shot," Shandy snapped. "That deck took you down a major peg. I'd like to see you duplicate this lucky break. That's all it was. You lucked out tonight."
"Whatever you need to tell yourself," Kaiba said with a shake of his head. "I won, fair and square. Nothing on the line except my pride."
Shandy sighed at him. "Yeah, you haven't lost your touch after all. But we'll see how long that lasts. Next time?"
"When I have the time," Kaiba said coolly. "You have my secret username, now."
"Yeah, totally," Shandy enthused. "I'll keep an eye out for you. And, uh, I guess I had fun. Even if I did lose."
Kaiba blinked for a moment, at the calming change that came over her voice. Fun? "Well," he said abruptly, "I need to go to bed. I have a company to run first thing in the morning."
"Sorry – yeah, you go get a good night's sleep," she said, the flirting lilt returning to her voice. "I'm gonna go smack down some undeserving newbie to get the taste out of my mouth. Thanks for the match, Kaiba. Nighty-night."
The connection terminated. Kaiba removed his duel disk and set it aside, leaving the two Blue Eyes White Dragons out on the field for now. He could put his deck away in the morning, it was safe there and he wanted to let the dragons bask in their glory. Winning against Shandy was more than satisfying, but he found himself strangely glad that she wanted to duel him again, as often as she could. Maybe she had the same thing to prove as he did to himself. As far as he was concerned, though, this win put the ghost of the tournament behind him. Anything from here on out would indeed be merely for fun, since he didn't want anyone else finding out who was behind the Blue-Eyed-Dragon, but he resolved never to lose a single duel to her. He couldn't let himself be humiliated that way. Only one person had ever beaten him more than once, and to Kaiba, that should be the only lingering rivalry he needed. As he turned off his computer and went upstairs to fall into bed, he decided to put Shandy into the same category as Joey – someone who would never beat him no matter how many times they tried. It was a thought that sent him to sleep with a smile on his lips.
One week to the day after the attack, Yugi went down to Duke's store to see how he was doing, and how the place was recovering. He had been in contact over the week, not only with Duke but with Tristan, so he had kept abreast of the details, but he really wanted to get back down there and see for himself, to assure himself that everything was getting back to normal. The toughest part was walking through the door and seeing how odd the place looked, with several arcade machines missing and the DDR stage silent, since it didn't have a screen at the moment. It was the last lingering reminder that something terrible had happened here, now that everything else had been cleaned up, repaired, and righted. Even Duke looked none the worse for wear, all his visible cuts and bruises healed or covered by the long sleeves of his sweater. He was going over some inventory lists with Aiko when Yugi came in, a distraction he was more than pleased to indulge, judging by the smile that broke out on his face. "How are you doing?" Yugi asked him. "Feeling better?"
"Yeah, pretty much back to normal," Duke shrugged, as Aiko politely excused herself elsewhere. "I thought it was going to take at least this long for my black eye to go down, but it disappeared pretty quick."
"And you only had to stay closed those two days?"
"That's all. Though, people kind of notice that something's not right." Duke looked around the store, quiet at this time of the morning. "The arcade games being down, of course. I don't really want too many people to know, I'm fine with them finding out just that someone broke in and tried to steal from the register. That's bad enough."
Yugi gave his friend a plaintive look. "Is there any news from the police, at all?"
"Oh yeah, actually…" Duke took on a grim frown. "I got a call about it yesterday. They arrested Nakano."
Yugi's eyes widened. "So it really was him?"
"Apparently." Duke's expression darkened even more, as he lowered his eyes. "He got a bunch of his friends to do the break-in, he gave them the code to the security system." He shook his head. "He's been my publicity manager for years. He never had a problem before, and then all of a sudden, he just completely flips out. I don't get it."
"Me neither," Yugi said sadly. "But I'm glad you're okay, now. It terrifies me to think that if those people had just been a little bit more serious, or a little bit more angry, they could have killed you."
Duke looked away uncomfortably. "They were just out to teach me a lesson, not kill me," he said quietly. "Good thing I'm too dumb to learn. What I do in my private life is nobody's business but mine."
Yugi leaned against the counter, mustering a smile. "At least it isn't making Tristan second-guess himself. I could hear it in his voice when I talked to him the other day on the phone. He's going to stick it out, no matter what."
"Yeah, he's stubborn all right." But Duke began to smile as well. "I hate to say it, but it is kind of a test, to whether or not he's really up for a relationship like this. Looks like he is."
Yugi's eyes glowed wistfully as he glanced up at his friend. "Tristan has a lot of love in his heart to share. His friends have always known that about him, that's what makes him such a good friend. He's just been waiting for the right one to come along. I think you guys were smart to hold off before telling us, it gave him a chance to adjust to the idea of 'the right one' being you."
Duke chuckled to himself. "Joey was here the other night, checking up on the both of us. We got to talking about it. He didn't believe me when I said it was perfectly logical for Tristan to be only 'a little bit gay,' instead of one or the other. I told him…" He turned to Yugi, gesturing with his hands to illustrate his point. "There aren't two separate camps in the world, a 'straight' one over here and a 'gay' one over there, and we all have to decide which one we're going to belong to. It's not so black and white. I think there's all kinds of shades of gray in between, and any one of us can have our own personal degree of straightness. That means, yeah…Tristan's not necessarily gay, but he can still choose to love another guy if he wants to."
Yugi gazed at him in interest. "That's an interesting way to put it," he mused. "And it makes a lot of sense, for a guy like Tristan to suddenly find himself with you instead of some girl. But I don't think a lot of people in the world subscribe to that idea."
"'Course not," Duke snorted. "That would mean they'd have to think about it, and realize that no one's totally straight. That would blow their puny minds." He gestured toward the freshly-painted back wall. "The people who painted that insult are the kind who think you can only be one or the other, and if you're not one of them, you're not normal." He shrugged it off. "All we can do is live our lives, and stand up to anyone who might bully us around. I don't care what people think of two guys loving each other, but they have no right to tell me how to live. They should keep that to themselves."
"I agree," Yugi said with a faint, sad smile, "but I wish I had your courage. The last time someone insulted me and Yami, I just wanted to slink off and hide rather than confront them about it."
"Confrontation isn't for everyone," Duke admitted. "Don't make yourself a target, Yugi. I don't want anything bad to happen to you, either."
"I know."
"Say, what are you up to right about now?" Duke glanced over his shoulder at the clock on the wall above the registers. "If you're not in a rush to get back to the store, you wanna go out for a cup of coffee or something? I just need to get out." He sighed in exasperation. "Tristan's been driving me crazy, mothering me like I can't take care of myself. I haven't been out of the store or the house or doing something that doesn't involve taking care of the store in a week. I need a break."
Yugi lightened up and chuckled. "Sure, I have time. Let's get out of here for a little bit." He waited while Duke found a light jacket behind the register and threw it around his shoulders, and then told Aiko he was on break for a half an hour and would be back. As they stepped out of the doors into the bright spring sunshine, Yugi glanced aside at him and smiled. "If you want me to tell Tristan not to smother you…"
"Nah, don't worry about it," Duke said modestly, zipping up his jacket. "It's annoying, but it's also good, I guess. He just cares about me that much. I should be counting my blessings." He winked at Yugi and started down the steps. "It's my problem to handle. If he gets on my nerves, I'll have no problem kicking his ass. C'mon, let's go."
Winter was beginning to turn to spring, and all across Domino City students and parents and anyone in love looked forward to White Day. It was March, now, the time of year when university students were looking unhappily forward to midterm exams and deciding what classes to take in the next semester. Joey had told Yugi all about the way his upcoming courses would shift from basic requirements to serious subjects relating directly to his major – he wouldn't be able to back out now. But with Mai living with him, making a life together and looking forward to getting married sometime in the next year, he could see his future beginning to unfold before him, and became serious about completing his schooling. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what made him interested in becoming a teacher, but it held a pull for him that he couldn't pass up. Yugi was glad to hear it, as he had seen the way Joey had been changing as he grew to be an adult and had to think about what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Mooching off Mai wasn't his way, he needed to be doing something and feeling good about it. Adding to that Tristan's willingness to explore himself and the boundaries of his desires, and Yugi's own approaching coming-of-age that would bring about a half-ownership in Kame game shop, and it looked like their lives were bursting with potential.
Not everyone was able to walk through life with chin bravely held high. While the people he liked to call his friends grew and changed and often forgot to tell him, Ryo Bakura was sinking deeper and deeper into darkness. It wasn't school, for he was an intelligent young man and thrived in the university curriculum. The year off hadn't put him at a disadvantage at all, he was holding his own and breezing through basic courses with ease. But being so able to immerse himself in school and research didn't allow Bakura to have any more of a social life than he had in high school, and aided him in withdrawing even more completely from his handful of friends. He hadn't spoken with Yugi since Valentine's Day, wanting to distance himself for a while until he could get over the heartbreak of having his crush rejected, and didn't know anything about Tristan or Duke or even the engagement ring Mai was flashing around. Most days were simply quiet, lonely, and boring, filled with classwork, homework, after-hours research in the labs or library, and very little else, but every once in a while a day came where Bakura found himself lapsing back into the dark despair that had driven the spirit of the Millennium Ring to finally come out and speak with him, to threaten him and take control of him so he wouldn't do himself any harm. Over the past month, Ryo had heard the spirit only once or twice, grumbling somewhere in the back of his mind as he lay on his bed in a haze or sat in the dark fighting back tears. One benefit of the mind-numbing depression was that it made it easy to ignore the evil influence inside him, and rendered the spirit even less willing than usual to intrude on his thoughts and try to take control. Yet, the dark Bakura was not completely ignorant of his vessel's fluctuating moods – he remembered the cold seriousness with which Ryo had gotten up that one day to find a means to hurt himself, and monitored him for any signs of a repeat. He had meant what he said about threatening to take over and roam about the world in his guise just to prevent Ryo from doing himself damage, though it had less to do with care and more for self-preservation. As much as the spirit hated to have to pay attention to the trivial matters of Ryo's life and the things which soured his mood and plunged his thoughts into loathing and despair, he had to, lest the young man's desire to be free of the controlling spirit flare up when least expected.
Some days later, a simple bad day that weighed on him worse than usual sapped all of Bakura's will to sit at his desk and finish his research, rendering him mostly useless. Night had fallen, but apart from the reading lamp over his desk in the main room, there were no lights on in his flat. Ryo had pushed everything aside, and was now lying in his room in cold misery, staring at the opposite wall. It was bad enough that everything that day had just gone wrong, but then an older student in the same work-study program had gotten annoyed with Ryo always doing the best and getting the most praise from their advisor, and had bullied him around and called him several derogatory things regarding his appearance, intelligence, and sexual preference. It shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did. Ryo didn't care if people called him names, even if some of them did hit a little too close to the mark, but sometimes that brought up painful reminders of things he would have rather kept buried and sent his mind on a rambling journey through memories of things he couldn't change and still regretted. And so, there he was again, lying on his bed with his eyes unfocused, his vision blurred with tears, vaguely wondering why he bothered to get up and go through each day when so many of them kept turning out like this. What was the point to living?
That phrase was the key the spirit of the Ring was waiting for. Hearing it, sensing it course through Ryo's mind, alerted Bakura and stirred his presence. He insinuated himself in his vessel's awareness by heaving a grumbling sigh. "Will you stop it already?" he complained so that Ryo could hear him in his mind. "You're just having a bad day. Get over it."
Ryo groaned softly at the arrogant voice in his head. "Leave me alone," he whispered aloud. "You can't possibly understand, so don't try to pretend that you do."
"What's not to understand?" Bakura said irritably. "You're wallowing in your self-pity again, and at some point in this conversation I shall either be berating or threatening you – possibly both. You're certainly more trouble than I expected."
Ryo rolled over and buried his face in his pillow. "Go…away," he breathed sullenly. "Get out of my head. My thoughts are my own, you have no right to intrude on them. If I want to hate myself, what business of yours is it?"
The voice chuckled warily. "You already know the answer to that. Everything you do is my business, because I'm along for the ride. You should thank me for my patience," he added, more sternly. "I could have just taken over your body a long time ago, and rendered you completely out of the picture, but no. I allow you to have your mind, and conduct your life as best you see fit. The least you could do in return is allow me a little peace and quiet once in a while instead of always going on about how bloody awful your life is and how no one cares about you."
"I owe you nothing," Ryo murmured, turning his head away from his pillow to look at the Millennium Ring lying in his line of sight, on the edge of his bureau. "You're a parasite. A cruel joke played on me by destiny. You don't belong here, and I have no reason to give you any ground." He sniffled dejectedly, brushing back a lock of silvery hair that tickled his nose. "It's because of you that my life is like this."
"I hardly think that's fair," the spirit sniped. "I'm in no way responsible for your predilection for other boys or your inability to deal with your bullies. If I had my way," he said with evil glee, "you wouldn't cringe in fear of them. You would stand up to them, and put them in their place. No one would challenge you, ever. I can do that, you know." The voice lowered to a cajoling purr, oozing through Ryo's soul. "I can make you into the man you want to be. With my help, you could be a great influence on the weak, a powerful figure against whom your enemies would dash themselves to pieces."
"I don't want it," Ryo said, a little more strongly. "All I want is my life, to live as I chose or let go of at will. For better or for worse, it's my life, not yours."
"It was your life," Bakura said snidely. "But the minute you picked up the Millennium Ring, it became ours. You can't get rid of me by simply wishing it were so. We are connected now, Bakura. See? You don't even have the Ring on you, and you can hear me so very clearly."
Ryo pushed himself up, and got up just enough to reach and take the Ring off the bureau. He laid back down with it, flat on his back with the Ring resting on his chest. The smooth circle of gold was chill to the touch, after lying in his unoccupied flat all day. "I suppose if I were to carry it with me, you would do more than just haunt my mind with your nasty comments," he said quietly, staring blankly at the ceiling while he stroked the Ring with a thumb. "Is that why you haven't leaped in to control me? Because without the Ring, you can't?"
"Don't be foolish," Bakura hissed. "I've taken over your body many times without the Ring being near. I can take you over now, or later, or any time you start whining about wanting to kill yourself again. I'll do it as often as I have to in order to prevent you from doing yourself harm. I'm the only one who can save you from yourself – you can't count on Yugi to whisk in unexpectedly and save you again."
Ryo blinked back tears as he laid there, holding the Ring to his chest. "Why does it even matter to you?" he complained. "You hate being with me, and I hate you. If I were dead, we would both be free, so why stop me? It isn't because you care about me. I know you don't."
"I care," Bakura argued, "though not in the sense you're thinking of. Your heart means nothing to me. I need your body." His voice lowered again, almost sensually. "You and I are one, and as much as you need me to protect you from all the baddies, I need you to live. If you died, I would be destroyed. You are my vessel, and my spirit can't survive without you. So you see? I do care whether you live or die. In that sense, I care about you more than anyone else does."
Hearing that, Ryo heaved a long sigh. He suspected as much, but hearing it confirmed only made it that much clearer that the spirit of the Ring would never leave him alone. They were stuck together, for life. For life… A slight frown creased Ryo's forehead, as he lay staring up. The answer was right there in front of him, too obvious, but he was sure the spirit knew it as well. He fingered the contours of the Ring blindly, following the curve of the ring to the dangling tines hooked to its sides. "That isn't care," he accused, trying to keep the spirit distracted while he thought desperately of what to do. "You're just using me. I'm nothing but a vessel to you."
"I have news for you, Bakura," the spirit growled, saying his name like an insult. "There isn't a soul in the world who isn't using you for something. Those who can't use you have no interest in you. Why do you suppose you're all alone, hm? Not even little Yugi has wanted to speak to you in a month. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you'll be able to let go of those foolish notions of love and care and friendship you have and just give in to me, partner with me so we can bring about the shadow games and put an end to the pharaoh. Your desires are worthless, they've brought you nothing but pain. The only way to stop being hurt is to stop caring about whether anyone loves you. Grow a backbone and stand up for yourself, grab hold of the power I'm offering you. You'll be so much better off."
A fresh burst of courage welled up in Ryo's heart, listening to the spirit's rant and seeing the truth for himself at last. "You're wrong," he murmured. "There is one other way to stop being hurt. And it's the only way I can stop you from doing harm to anyone else."
The presence in the depths of his mind went cold. "What?"
Swiftly, before he could second-guess his choice, and before the spirit could leap into control of his body, Ryo picked up one of the sharp tines of the Ring he had been absently admiring and, gritting his teeth, drove it into his chest right there where it lay. The sudden shock of pain made him gasp, and his body recoiled, curling up on the bed. He could hear a screech in his mind, as the dark half realized what he was doing, and sat up to give himself enough leverage to push on the end of the tine and drive it even further in. Looking down, seeing the Ring piercing his chest, seeing the blood beginning to soak his shirt, Ryo figured it was finally over. "You told me," he whispered, his lips trembling from the agony, "that if I died, you would be destroyed. I can end the struggle for Yugi, he doesn't have to worry about you taking…his…" Waves of dizziness overwhelmed him, and with a last gulp of air, Ryo passed out. His body flopped flat onto the bed, his hands falling away from the Ring, leaving it resting on his chest with one tine plunged deep into his flesh.
Bakura was one second too late to take control of Ryo, but the moment he fainted, a clear path was made for the spirit to have his body in his place. No sooner had he landed on the futon with arms outspread and Bakura awoke in Ryo's place, immediately letting out a gasping shout of pain. Ryo had not known that the tine of the Ring, though sharp, was not long enough to penetrate all the way into his chest to pierce his heart, which was what he intended. But it was deep enough to hurt like hell, and even with the metal spear still in him, enough blood was seeping out of the wound to soak his clothing and let him potentially bleed to death. There was no time to lay there grumbling and cursing the young man for taking initiative and doing something so daring to try to end his life, he needed help, now. Bakura closed a hand around the Ring, trying to hold it in place so the embedded tine wouldn't slide back out and send blood gushing out of the wound, and pushed himself up on one hand, hunting around the room. He didn't know where Ryo had put his cell phone, and the main line was in the other room. He forced himself to his feet, but the sudden shift of blood to his extremities made him unbalanced, and he stumbled into the wall. Pausing there to catch his breath, Bakura growled to himself. That stupid boy! He's really gone and done it! I'm not about to give up control that easily. Looks like I'll have to play the part of savior. He pushed himself away from the wall, leaving a smear of blood, and staggered into the main room in search of the phone. It seemed so far away, over on the desk near the door. Halfway there, Bakura's strength left him and he collapsed, wincing and wheezing against the pain in his chest that made it hard to take a breath. He was forced to crawl the rest of the way across the room to the desk, and drag himself up with one arm until he could reach the phone. His vision was starting to swim, and he realized his entire hand holding the Ring was slick with blood. Batting the phone off its cradle, Bakura picked it up and sat for a moment glaring at it, trying to search through Ryo's blank mind for the number to call. Precious seconds ticked by before he was able to dial. Hearing the businesslike voice on the other end answer, Bakura gasped, "I need help."
"Sir?" the woman wondered. "What's the emergency, sir?"
"I'm injured," Bakura growled. "You must send help, now, or I'll die."
"What's the address, sir?"
Bakura froze. He didn't know Ryo's information. "I…I don't remember," he stammered, sucking his breath sharply at another jolt of pain in his chest. He gave a strangled cry and demanded, "you must hurry! I…it was an accident. I fell…it entered my chest. I'm bleeding everywhere…"
The operator heard the urgency and pain in his voice and responded quickly. "It's all right, sir, I can trace the call if you stay on the line," she said crisply. "I'm sending an aid car now. What did you fall on?"
Bakura could feel the same sense of dizziness that had overwhelmed his vessel's mind, and closed his eyes to try to concentrate. "Please," he seethed into the phone. "Hurry. I don't know how much longer I can…stay…" His head fell back, and with a last sigh he collapsed onto his shoulder on the floor, still clutching at the Millennium Ring. The phone tumbled out of his limp hand and fell beside him.
The operator heard the clatter and began to ask with alarm, "Sir? Are you there? Sir! Hello! Are you still there? Please, answer me! We're sending an aid car to your address. Is anybody there? Hello? Hello!" But her voice fell on deaf ears, as Bakura's unconscious form lay crumpled on the floor, blood running along the curve of the Millennium Ring and dripping onto the rug beneath him.
