See chapter one for disclaimer.
Many thanks to everyone reading, and especially for reviewing! :D
Chapter Four
(In which Sugoroku Motou has a few unpleasant déjà-vu experiences...)
The boy blinked a few times, seeming fully awake but completely disoriented; yet he could tell he was facing someone who was as used to this as someone could ever get. He remembered how his mind slaves would react when they were suddenly freed and left to themselves: many of them would simply crumble down, like a puppet whose strings had been cut off, no matter how brief the possession had been.
He turned his attention back to the road: they were in the very centre of the city by now, and to his annoyance, he had to slow down considerably (a motorbike would be so much more handy!), but in the corner of his eyes, he saw the boy look around once more, and straighten his seat back up and fastening his seat belt.
"Do you even have a driver licence?" was the first thing he asked.
Malik threw him another critical glance. He still seemed pretty lost, and Malik wasn't sure he had registered his less than helpful comment at all.
"Don't worry about it," he answered confidently, which wasn't a very reassuring answer either, and accelerated briskly to pass a smaller car, amused by the angry shouts that were thrown at him from behind.
His passenger winced.
"Where... are we?" he asked after a moment, at which Malik spared another look at him: not that used to it, after all. Domino had been his home town, right? "Who are...?"
He trailed off, and Malik decided to take pity on him. Or something like that. He wasn't certain he'd be trilled by the answer, after all.
"We're in Domino-city. And I'm Malik Ishtar. Though you can call me Namu, if you want."
He smirked again; the boy just stared at him for a moment.
"Malik Ish..." His eyes suddenly widened in realisation; Malik hadn't thought he could get any paler. "Oh." There was a pause: the boy looked around once again, maybe wondering if he could flee from a car in movement. "Oh." With that he sacked down against his seat.
The next few minutes passed in silence; Malik was sure he must have missed a turning.
The silence was broken by a sudden gasp; Malik looked at him again, and, following his gaze, understood what must have frightened his passenger even more: the millennium rode was dangling on a loop on his belt, securely fixed but easy to draw out; the boy was staring at the eye of Horus as if hypnotised.
"Why-" He managed to sound both accusing and brave and terrified. "-do you have this?"
"It's a long story," Malik said curtly.
"Yuugi had it," the other said slowly; his voice was trembling, but Malik wasn't certain if he was actually afraid, or unsure of his own statement.
"He's fine, if that's what you mean. Really."
The boy looked at him for another moment, then bit his lips, and sacked down once again, his mouth twitching, as if he was trying not to cry.
"Where are we going?" he asked after a moment of silence, in a much softer tone.
"Turtle Game Shop."
This time, the boy seemed really about to jump out of the car.
"Stop attracting attention" Malik hissed. "Don't worry," he added after a silence, as his passenger sacked back against his seat. "Yuugi isn't even there."
"Then – why?"
"We're only getting a card."
"You're... just buying cards?" the boy inquired cautiously, seeming to think this was too nice to be true; Malik didn't answer right away, suddenly feeling guilty at the hopeful, pleading tone of voice... "Na – Malik?!"
"Well... No. Probably not. He won't want to sell it."
"You were supposed to be..." The boy's voice was beginning to rise. "You – you gave up your duel against Yuugi!"
There went his hope that maybe the boy wasn't too well informed about what had been going on in Battle City. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised.
"No-one is going to get hurt," Malik said.
There was a silence; Malik could see Ryou scrutinising him from the corner of his eyes.
"What card are you looking for?" Ryou asked.
"Not a real card. A destroyed one."
"The Blue Eyes White Dragon?"
"Yes." Malik threw him a quick glance, surprised. "I didn't know you knew."
"Yuugi's my friend," Ryou said, looking down on his lap. "What do you want with it?"
"I'll have it copied."
"That's all?" He sounded almost reassured to have fallen into nothing but art fraud "You're just after a fake Blue Eyes?"
"No," Malik replied. "It won't be fake if it's made by the original artist."
"Pegasus won't make any more of them," Ryou answered carefully, but there was something in his tone suggesting that he was quite aware there had to be more behind this. "He decided to stop producing them because they're too powerful."
Malik smirked.
"He won't have much of a choice..."
"What... did you do?"
"Check your pocket?" Malik suggested with a smirk.
Ryou stared at him with wide eyes; getting possessed by an evil spirit on a regular basis, this was no joke to him; he could find the weirdest things in his own pockets at any time, and he often tried to avoid even finding out. It wasn't worth it, most of the time...
Slowly, he reached into his pocket, and drew out a duel monster card: Funny Bunny. It looked ridiculously cheerful and – ridiculous.
"Here you are," said Malik.
No, no no!
"What is that?" Ryou whispered, horrified.
"Pegasus' soul card, presumably. The one he identifies with. I only met him once – is it fitting?"
"Pegasus' –" Ryou's hands were trembling "Oh Go- Ishtar!"
Malik jumped at the sudden change of tone, as the gentle boy suddenly hissed his name venomously, but he managed to remark:
"God Ishtar, really?" He grinned. "What do you want? I thought you said you'd leave him in control for a bit."
"What were you thinking, telling him all this?"
"Why shouldn't I?" He took a turning, sharper than necessary or advisable – he loved driving.
"What if he'd thrown the card away?!"
"He'd do that?" Malik sounded vaguely impressed. The spirit shrugged, indicated he didn't really think so. "Then maybe I should keep it after all..." He flashed the spirit a grin and slowed down a bit.
For a moment, it looked as if Bakura was about to rip out his throat; then he seemed to decide otherwise, and handed over the card without a word. Malik pocketed it without taking his eyes off the road. A moment later the boy's face was back to normal.
"What...?"
"You could stay out now!" Malik snapped, ignoring the boy. "We're almost there."
"What are you going to do? Where's the card?" Ryou asked frantically.
"It's safe." Malik rolled his eyes. "Bakura!"
"W-" the boy began, but his voice was cut off, as the spirit came back into control.
"We're there."
"I know," the spirit said, removing the seat belt. "Stop here, he doesn't have to see you."
"I could get it; he won't know."
Malik took the millennium rod out for emphasis. The thief shot him a glare.
"I'll do it," he snapped irritated, and jumped out of the car, leaving the door wide open behind him.
Malik glared at his back as he left in direction of the game shop, quickly jumped over his own door without bothering with opening it, threw the door on Bakura's side closed, and ran after him just as he heard the jingle of the Turtle Game Shop's entrance.
When he reached it, it was just in time to be confronted to the sight of Sugoroku Motou's face twisting into a shocked expression; the spirit, his back to him, was facing the man, arms outstretched on both sides; the ring's magical light hit Sugoroku, and he collapsed behind the counter without a sound.
Malik stared at the place where he'd disappeared, feeling ill at ease; he had a strange urge to go and check if the man hadn't disappeared into nothingness.
"What are you doing here?" the spirit snapped at him, turning round. "I told you to stay in the car.
Malik shrugged; he wasn't going to start to even defend himself for not following Bakura's orders.
"Will he be alright?" he asked, motioning the counter with his chin.
"Who cares," Bakura snapped, clearly still annoyed at him.
Malik watched as he broke open the drawers, and rummaged through their content with professional ease; he was wearing gloves, and Malik carefully stayed in the centre of the room and didn't touch anything.
"I don't want to end up being involved in a murder, you complete –"
"I told you to stay in the car," Bakura interrupted him, then glanced up, and relented. "He survived it last time, no reason why he shouldn't again – ah!"
He triumphantly held up a board with a tick glass panel on one side: the card had been placed behind it, shreds carefully laid down next to each other, but without touching; there was no attempt to create the illusion that the card was still intact. Bakura looked at it with satisfaction.
"Perfect," he drawled, sounding pleased with himself; the irritation seemed to have vanished; he even smiled at Malik as he sauntered over to him. "Let's go."
He walked out the door; Malik glanced back at the counter, his eyes lingering on the till regretfully for a moment, then followed.
"Are you sure the chips are intact?" he asked, when he had started the car again (and he was emphatically not thinking about Yuugi's grandfather, lying on the floor in his shop); he wasn't entirely sure about Bakura, but he needed the new card to be able to pass for real, and for that he needed the microchips embedded in this one.
"How am I supposed to?" Bakura threw back, looking unconcerned, which confirmed Malik's suspicions that he needed the painting alone. "Brainwash some technician into testing it for us, or tell Pegasus you did." Malik made a face. "Well? Get us back to the hotel. I erased his memory, but that'll be for naught if we're still here when he wakes up. And then get rid of that car, it's showy."
Malik made an affronted noise in the back of his throat and gently caressed over the wheel, before he started the car and dove forwards briskly, satisfied by Bakura's small outcry of surprise.
The four of them had found place in Malik's abandoned room; Yuugi was sitting by the head of the bed, knees drawn up to his body, and head resting morosely over his crossed arms and his knees, Anzu half sitting half laying next to him, a tentative arm put around his shoulder. Jounouchi was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed, while Honda had taken the only chair. Each of the latter two were skimming through one of the many motorcycle magazines they had found in the room, Jounouchi with blatant disinterest, and Honda with distraction.
"Are you sure Rishid doesn't know where he is?" Honda asked in a hushed voice; from the kitchen, Rishid and Isis' voices could still be heard from time to time, when they raised them.
"I believe him," Jounouchi said back, unhappily: strangely enough, he trusted and respected Rishid, even after this; he caught Honda's look and shrugged. "He wouldn't tell us anyway, it doesn't matter." He threw the magazine aside with distaste. "I can't believe we've come here to help that asshole."
"I don't understand why!" Yuugi's voice came from the bed, prompting the other three to turn towards him. "He didn't have to give the rod to me after the tournament. Why would he do that and then steal it?"
There was a silence.
"Isis says he hasn't been well," Anzu eventually offered. "Maybe – he thought he was better off before, when he had it."
Jounouchi huffed out irritably, but didn't say anything. The resulting silence was broken by Isis knocking on the door, and opening it an instant later. She came inside, phone in hand.
"Kaiba again?" Jounouchi asked; Seto Kaiba had called once to inform them that Pegasus had been suspiciously quiet of late; then, that there was suspicious activity on Duellist Kingdom; then, to demand Rishid tell him what Malik was up to; then, again, for the same reason, at which point Jounouchi got into a fight with him, arguing back against the accusations he had himself thrown at Rishid not long before.
"No." Isis held the phone out to Yuugi. "It's your grandfather."
"What?" Yuugi straightened up and took the phone. "Grandpa ... what? Are you okay!?... Did you check– ... Are you sure? ... Remember when mom was there and you thought she'd thrown it away and it was... Yes. But why would anyone? ..."
The other four, Isis included, listened while the one-sided conversation carried on; eventually, after asking once again if everything was alright, no, aside from that, their friend hung up.
"What was it?" Jounouchi asked eagerly. "Anything happen?"
"He was attacked," Yuugi answered, slowly letting the mobile phone sink. "He says he's fine, but someone stole his Blue Eyes."
"Why would anyone do that?" Honda asked.
Yuugi shook his head to indicate he had no idea; Jounouchi pushed himself to his feet.
"Well, I bet Kaiba's just gonna love that."
end of chapter four.
So... saw all of it coming? Saw none of it coming and still think it makes no sense? Something in-between?
I hope some of what might be going on is becoming clear, even if the why isn't...
All comments are always greatly appreciated!
In the next chapter, we don't actually get to witness Kaiba's reaction but... there's a boat. Malik likes boats.