Hello, everyone! Thank you all for the lovely reviews!
Mirai Panda: yes, these silly Egyptians are pretty stubborn, aren't they? We'll see how long it takes for them to bend.
Eschatology: Thank you for the well wishes, and the song that Jou and Honda sing is my (rough and probably terrible) Japanese translation of the 'Kick the Can' song that Joey and Tristan sing on the Capsule Monsters series.
Sweetie Cutie Pie: oh, don't worry, Mai will be coming back before too terribly long. I promise polarshipping, and I fully intend to deliver.
Wilbell: I'm glad you liked my inclusion of the nickname "fluffy" for Bakura. It does rather suit our wild-haired thief, doesn't it?
Inori no Uta, Pusheen the cat, v flower, Fluffy Plushie, and everyone else reading: I'm glad you're all enjoying the story as much as you are! I think everyone's going to like this next chapter, so let's get on with it.
Chapter 7:
"Bye-bye, Cinderella!" Mariku said as the Winged Dragon of Ra beat down upon the unfortunate princess. "I guess you're not going to the ball after all!"
Leon watched with some dismay as his beloved fairy tale heroine was devoured by the Egyptian God, but he smiled afterwards and willingly gave one of his star chips over the the Kenyan girl, even going as far as shaking her hand.
"That was a great duel, Mariku!" he gushed happily. "But, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my big brother now! See ya around!"
With that he skipped off into the forest, happy as a clam.
Mariku and Ryou watched him go, Mariku seeming a little confused. "Do you think he wears enough pink?"
Ryou giggled. "Let's not make fun of him, 'Riku. He seems like a sweet enough boy."
Mariku nodded. "Alright, little boys are okay. But I still don't trust any male over the age of ten!"
"I think he was eleven..."
"You know what I mean!"
The silver-haired girl shook her head in slight amusement. "Whatever. Well, let's be getting back to camp."
"Yeah, okay. I guess we'd better, or else Anzu will get sick with worry."
Yugi scampered happily beside Yami, feeling safe when she was by his side, the same way she felt when walking with Jounouchi.
"What's wrong with Bakura-kun?" she asked quietly, watching the white-haired man worriedly. The others had seen Malik whisper something to Bakura out of the corners of their eyes, but they hadn't actually heard anything other than Bakura's outburst immediately afterwards.
Yami shrugged almost dismissively. "With Bakura, it's hard to say what's bothering him for certain, little one. All I know is that here lately he's been angry with everything and everyone around him in general, but I don't know why."
He sighed. "Hopefully, it blows over soon. I remember when I first met him he was so mad at the world; it was three years before he began to trust me."
"Three years?" Yugi blinked in amazement, realizing just how deeply complex Yami's friends seemed to be.
Yami grinned at her. "And if you think that sounds like a long time, you should hear how long it took for us to convince him not to kill Malik on sight!"
She giggled just a bit, which made him smile even more.
"Where have you losers been?" An irritated-sounding voice interrupted them.
Realizing that they had just made it back to camp, Yugi looked up to see Kaiba glaring at them.
"Do you morons have any idea how long I have been sitting here being forced to listen to Otogi's incessant whining?"
Otogi sneered at him and looked away. "You're just jealous because Mokuba wanted to play with me this morning and not you!"
Before the usual battle between the kids could escalate any higher, two mysterious figures stepped out from behind a couple of trees, startling the group. The first one was tall and blonde, and the other was short and almost zombie-ish in appearance.
"Boo!" They both smirked evilly.
The group of friends each about jumped out of their skin.
"Who are you?" Yugi asked, trying to hide the squeal that was sneaking into her voice.
The tall blonde smirked evilly. "Name's Bandit Keith, an' my partner here is Bonz. Bonz here is lookin' for someone to duel against. Right, Bonz?"
The creepy midget chuckled. "Right, boss!"
Anzu openly snarled at them, not liking either one a bit. "Yeah? And which one of us did you have a mind to duel? Yugi? Yami? Jounouchi? Kaiba? Malik? Bakura?"
Bonz ignored her as his eyes ran over the group, clearly searching for the duelist that looked easiest to him. His gaze wavered on Anzu herself for an instant, then Mokuba. "I think I'll challenge..."
Just then, Ryou and Mariku returned. "We're back, everyone!"
Bonz's eyes lit up when he spotted Ryou. He raised his index finger and pointed at her. "Her! I choose her! I challenge you to a duel!"
Ryou blinked in confusion, her usual happy smile fading from her face. "But... I'm not a duelist."
Bandit Keith looked her up and down, approving very much of his partner's choice; she'd go down in a snap! "If you're not a duelist, why do you have a deck of cards sticking out of your pocket?"
Ryou looked down at the cards protruding from the pocket on the back of her jeans, blushing and stammering. "But... I'm not here to compete! My cards aren't for competitions! They're just for playing for fun with! I don't want to-"
"Too bad, too sad!" Bonz cut in. "I challenge you! Now duel me!"
"But, I don't even have any star chips!"
"She's got a point," Keith admitted. He turned to Yugi and Yami, who each had the most star chips of the lot, having already dueled a number of people. "The girl duels Bonz. She loses, one of you has to give one of your star chips to Bonz. She wins, Bonz will give one of you a star chip."
Yugi's mouth dropped. "But that's not fair!"
Bonz smirked. "Either that or... she can go on a date with me!"
This caused Ryou to cry out and dive further behind the others, trying to hide. To her own surprise, she was immediately offered a shield and a hiding place by one who seemed unlikely to help her.
"Just a moment!"
Everyone turned to look at the one who'd interrupted the discussion, seeing Bakura standing in front of Ryou, a very irritated look on his face.
He sneered at Keith and Bonz, as if daring them to mess with him. "You want to duel the girl so bad? Let's make a deal: she and I will duel as a team against the two of you."
"A tag team duel?" Bonz asked. He exchanged a look with Bandit Keith, then they both looked back at the Egyptian. "Go on."
Bakura held up his glove, showing off his star chips. "If we win, you each will give me a star chip. If we lose, I will give you each one."
Keith grinned. "Acceptable." He and Bonz turned to walk away, gesturing for their opponents to follow them to a specific dueling field.
Ryou stared at the scar-faced Egyptian, her face a mixture of expressions. "Bakura..."
"Shut up," he answered. He grabbed her hand and dragged her along with him, following behind Keith and Bonz.
The rest of the group started to follow behind them, but they were cut off by two more kooks.
"I'm Sid," the first one said. "This is Zygor. An' the boss don' wan' no one messin' wit' his duel."
Honda scowled at the pair, beyond angry. "Hey, pal. Those are our friends, and if we want to watch them duel, we're going to watch them duel!"
He fell into a fighting position, Otogi and Jounouchi right beside him. Kaiba prepared himself to glare the two offenders into submission, the way he did with his opponents in the business world.
Malik suddenly broke into a half-crazed grin. Finally! Some real action!
The two chosen opponents followed the two challengers into a creepy cave, going into the deep, dark bowels of the earth beneath Pegasus's castle. They passed by many skeletons that hung from the ceiling, which at first made Ryou tense up.
Bakura felt a brief moment of pity for her and tightened his grip on her hand. He wasn't exactly an expert on the whole 'comforting' thing, but he felt inclined to try. "It can't hurt you if it's already dead, you know."
"Chickens!" Bonz called from somewhere up ahead. "They're just plastic Halloween decorations!"
Ryou visibly blushed and fixed her eyes on the ground. Bakura felt stupid too, so he said nothing.
Soon they arrived at a dueling arena that had been hidden deep in the very back of the cave, and Ryou couldn't help but ask why there was an arena inside a cave with 'Halloween decorations.'
"Because," Bonz explained. "This is the zombie arena. It's designed so that any ghost or zombie type monsters gets a power boost." He grinned. "My entire deck is made up of zombie and ghost monsters and their special traps and magic cards, so your boyfriend there had better be ready to give up two of his star chips!"
If Bakura didn't know any better, he would have thought that Ryou was trying to hide a slightly wicked looking smile.
Bandit Keith and Bonz took their places on the red side of the arena, leaving the blue side to the others. Bakura settled in beside Ryou; he was ready to take care of most if not all of the dueling, but Ryou pulled out her own cards and began shuffling, seeming overly eager to get the match started.
When she finished, she looked up at Bakura expectantly, and he nodded to her, signaling that he was just as ready as she seemed to be.
She grinned across the arena at Bonz and Keith. "Let's duel."