I'm really sorry I've been so late it updating! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I'll try to update faster this time (I already started chapter 10). I'm so happy though! I just found out that there's a new Fushigi Yuugi series! That is sooooo cool! It's all about the Genbu seishi. Oh, and I dyed my hair purple. Enjoy the chapter!
ChangeRyou opened his mouth, then closed it, not sure what to say. Of course, this had to happen. His father just had to decide to return on the one day of the month that he turned human. Now how was he going to explain it? His first thought was to explain the situation truthfully. How bad could-
~You can't be serious! Tell your father 'Oh, it's really simple, you see, one day I woke up and found out that I'm actually a demon. No, I'm not crazy'~ his yami sounded exactly like an overly sarcastic Ryou.
Um. That did sound rather dumb, come to think of it. But what else was he supposed to say? A thought occurred to him. Did it actually matter? His father was hardly home anyway! He was never around for Ryou, always off on his digs. Even if he could find a way to make his father believe him, why should he bother trying? He could manage without him. He wasn't sure he even knew this man anymore. One thing was certain- this was not a person he could confide in.
Yami Bakura followed his hikari's thought process in astonishment. At first, he had thought his hikari was actually considering just blabbing the whole thing, and was preparing to take over and try to talk some sense into him before that happened. It was a mark of how their relationship had changed: where before he would have just taken over and done as he pleased, now he waited to see what Ryou would do with the situation. Now though, he could feel his hikari mirroring some of his own feelings of resentment towards the man who just waltzed in and out of his life, leaving him to fend for himself the rest of the time. What kind of father was that anyway?
Ryou smiled, and lied calmly. "Oh, I just did this for school! It's temporary dye, my hair will be back to normal by tomorrow."
Evidently, Ryou could be an excellent liar when he put his mind to it.
His father sighed. "Well, in that case, I suppose its okay." He smiled at Ryou. "Come sit down, I made some spaghetti for lunch."
Ryou took a plate and filled it, then sat down across from his father at the table.
~Coffee with spaghetti? Now that's sacrilege~
Ryou stifled a giggle. Ryou had once tasted what his yami called coffee. It was dark brown, the color of mud, and extremely bitter. Ryou had gagged, and tried to pour out the evil stuff, but his yami had taken over and said that if there was no appreciation in this god-forsaken country for good coffee, then more for him. Stupid hikari…
Ryou snapped to attention, as he realized his father had asked him about school. He answered that yes, he had nice friends, no he wasn't being bullied, yes his grades were good, no he didn't have any problems with the teachers, etc. The kind of conversation you usually have with a grownup you don't know very well, and are trying to be polite to. The kind of conversation you usually want to escape from as quickly as possible.
"Ryou," his father said seriously, "I know I haven't been a great father, but I'm starting to worry about you. I don't think this is a safe place for you anymore, what with all these murders-"
Anymore? Ohhhh, so when gangs roam the streets its fine, never mind that the police here is so incompetent as to be nonexistent, when anybody with money can do whatever they want that's no problem, people can have criminal organizations as much as they like, steal explosives, kidnap, whatever! Come one, come all! But when a few lousy youkai kill a few people, then his father decides to get worried!
Yami Bakura shook his head mentally. When did his hikari get so cynical?
"I think maybe we should move again, there are some nice digs in Brazil that are being uncovered now, and you can live close to where I work!" he said all this with a smile, as if conferring a great favor.
Ryou stared at his father in shock. "Move to Brazil? That's…" several words competed for the honor of completing the sentence, including 'ridiculous', 'crazy', and 'just plain stupid'. He settled for 'awfully sudden'.
"I finally lived in one place for more than a few months, I have friends, and you want to drag me away because of your dig?"
"Ryou," his father said agitatedly, "I know I haven't been the best parent-"
Understatement of the century here!
"But I can't leave my job! And I feel that we have grown too far apart lately. I don't even really know you anymore."
Gee, what tipped you off about that?
Ryou shook his head. "I'm not leaving. I finally have a life, I'm finally happy! If you care about me at all, then just leave me here!" he turned and ran into his room, slamming the door behind him, and collapsed on the bed, clenching his fists. His yami came out and sat down next to him.
"What's wrong with you today? First the sarcasm, now this…"
"This day just sucks! First of all, I feel completely lousy, and I've got a headache, probably from this stupid transformation, I've spent the morning feeling like some zoo animal, with everybody staring at me all the time, the guidance counselor was bugging me half the morning, I've got a ton of homework, youkai are running around on a killing spree, and now my father wants me to move to Brazil. Brazil!"
Yami Bakura had never seen his hikari in such a state. Ryou was sitting on the bed, practically hysterical, his clenched fists shaking, an angry glare on his face that looked incredibly out of place. He wondered what to do. Normally, he would just ignore him, but…but. He spoke hesitantly, feeling rather stupid. "Want an aspirin or something?"
Ryou shot him a look that managed to be surprised, grateful, and annoyed at the same time, then hugged his yami around the waist, taking him completely by surprise.
"You don't think he can really take me away…?" Ryou whimpered.
His yami gave him a gentle hug in return. "Don't worry. No matter what, I won't let him do anything against your wishes!" he disentangled Ryou from himself. "Why don't you take a nap? You'll probably feel better after some rest." Yami Bakura quickly jumped out of the window, and went to his favorite tree-perch, putting his face in his hands. Ra, he thought shocked, I can't believe I said that! I'm turning into a fluffball, like Yugi and his pathetic friends. Gotta go steal something, quick.
He was walking along a shady path, proudly carrying a bag of herbs and a quiver of arrows for his mother, who was walking beside him. Soon they reached a small clearing, in front of a big tree, from which a well could be seen to the left, through the trees. His mother pointed at the tree, and said as she always did:
"See, Ryu? That's where I first saw your father, pinned to the tree, when I came out of the well there. Back when it was called Inuyasha's Forest. Now they just call it Goshinboku Forest." She trailed off into memories. Ryu nodded, as he always did. He had heard the story many times.
Ryou woke up, the image of the large tree still in his mind. So, it was true-the Inuyasha they had been reading about had been his yami's father.
~It's strange, to think that we're reading about your family in history books~ he commented.
~Not only that…~ his yami answered. ~We were wrong. We're not half-youkai, we're only quarter-youkai. I'm sure my mother was human. But what did she mean by 'when I came out the well'? I just can't remember…~
Yugi couldn't sleep. He kept on waking up, the nagging feeling persisting in preventing him from sleeping properly.
~Hikari, what's wrong?~ his yami asked tiredly, after the tenth time Yugi woke up.
~I swear, Yami, it's driving me nuts! There's something wrong with the mirror!~
Yami Yugi gave a mental groan, and tried to talk some sense into his hikari. ~Yugi, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the mirror! You're probably just overtired or something.~ Normally he wouldn't disregard his hikari like that, but it was the absolute middle of the night, and he was tired. ~And besides, who ever heard of a haunted mirror?~
~I tell you, it's watching me!~ Yugi got out of bed, the darkness in the room seeming suddenly sinister as he made his way over to where the body-length mirror hung on his wall. The whole room looked different in the dark, full of lurking shadows. Yugi looked in the mirror hesitantly. All he could see was the dark silhouette of his reflection, looking both eerie and familiar, and yet somehow normal.
~See?~ his yami said reassuringly ~it's nothing~
Abruptly, the reflection began changing, taking on a strange horrible form, that seemed to be fighting to be released from the mirror. It stretched long, ethereal arms towards Yugi's neck, mad eyes glowing red as mist began clouding the room. Almost petrified with horror, Yugi did the first thing that came into his mind. He picked up the nearest thing (which happened to be his duel disk) and smashed the mirror. Amidst the flying shards, reality abruptly reasserted itself, as the creature vanished, leaving only an awful, heartbroken, animal wail that echoed through the night.
Malik sat up abruptly, the details of his nightmare quickly escaping. He put his head in his hands tiredly. When was the last time he had slept well? His body tensed in anger at what she had done to him. The quiet silhouette of his sister watched him from the doorway.
"Malik?" she said quietly.
"I'm going to kill her," he hissed. His eyes had a half-insane intensity to them, which had not been seen since Battle City. "I'm going to kill her!"
Isis silently left the room. In the hallway, she abruptly leaned against the wall, and closed her eyes, fingering the unresponsive Millennium Tauk. Not again, she prayed. She gave a sad sigh. She wished Yugi hadn't insisted she keep the Millennium Item. It didn't work for her anymore, but she could understand that it made sense for the Items to be distributed among many people, so anyone looking for them would have a harder time of collecting them all. It was a burden she would be happy to be rid of.
Joey ran out of his house in a rush. He had overslept, and was going to be late meeting up with the gang. He was pelting down the stairs of his apartment building, when he heard a shrill scream from one of the other apartments. He paused for a minute, uncertain, when a door at the end of the hall burst open. Out rushed a cockroach, about the size of a cocker spaniel, its huge antennae spread wide, its six legs carrying it quickly into the hall. Joey stared aghast at the monster, which immediately began advancing towards him. He pulled off his backpack, swinging it like a club at the creature's head, to ward it off. The blow from the heavy backpack stunned it for a minute, but definitely wasn't enough to kill it. Joey prepared so smite it again, when he heard a piercing war cry from the apartment the cockroach had emerged from. A young woman wielding an enormous knife leaped at the thing, and stabbing it repeatedly in the head while yelling, "Die, youkai! Die! Diiiiiiiiie!", ignoring the black blood splattering all over the place. Joey quietly backed away, and made a run for the stairs, slightly shell-shocked by the display of ferocity. Who had said that women were the weaker sex?
The city was in general turmoil. No one knew exactly how to deal with the changing reality. The city ministers were conferring with the police, trying to decide whether to bring in the army to deal with the problem, and what could be done to protect the populace. People were warned not to go out in groups of less than three, and were also advised to carry something that could be used as a weapon with them. The authorities were reluctant to hand out firearms, as they already had enough trouble with gangs, thanks a lot. Surprisingly, the populace was adapting to the crazy situation rather well, all things considered. At least, they weren't panicking…
As they walked out of the schoolyard, Tea was regaling them with her own youkai story.
"-Anyway, there was this young ballet dancer who used to live near my house who died of cancer, and now every night in the moonlight you can see this glowy form dancing around her front yard, all night. It's scary, but also rather beautiful…"
Tristan shuddered. "At least I don't seem to see as many youkai around where I live. I don't think I could deal with it."
Abruptly they heard a call from Mai, who came running towards them. "Hey, guys!"
"Hey Mai!" Joey said cheerfully, "What happened to your car?"
Mai made a face. "I had to leave it a few roads back, where a pipe burst. So I figured I'd come meet you guys, I'd rather not be walking around alone if you know what I mean."
"Well, you're definitely welcome!" Yugi said cheerfully. Malik turned to where his motorcycle was parked, then made a strangled noise.
The others turned towards him, questioningly, and then in the direction he was looking. A scaly lizard youkai was sitting on top of his motorcycle, which was smoking slightly. It was electric green, with red blotches, and was about a meter long. It appeared to be trying to eat the motorcycle, and was doing a rather good job of it.
"My…motorcycle…!!!"
The monster just hissed at him insolently. Malik growled, pulled out a gun, and fired six shots into the creature's head, between the eyes. It twitched and fell dead. He ran over to the fallen machine and shook his head sadly, then kicked the youkai corpse viciously.
"Malik, do you have a license to carry a gun?" Yugi asked hesitantly.
"No."
"You don't seem to be losing much sleep over that…"
"Nope."
A few blocks later, the group split up. Joey, Mai and Bakura went one way, as Ryou's house was in the same direction as Mai's hotel, and he and Joey volunteered to walk her back. They chatted on the way, but fell silent as they walked into a block that looked…well, sinister didn't begin to describe it. A pack of zombie dogs were snuffling around the street. All the windows of the nearby houses were closed, and several cars showed signs of being chewed. A thorny green vine wound its way around the cars and telephone poles. As one, they stopped walking.
"Isn't there some other way?" Mai asked nervously, as the zombies began shuffling towards them.
"Don't worry," Joey said, "Ryou's a youkai too. He can get rid of them, right Ryou?"
"Um, I'll try." He said. Actually, he wasn't sure. He was about to ask his yami for help, when the vines abruptly began moving. One wound its way around his ankle, yanking him off his feet. Another knocked Mai into a car, and sent Joey sprawling. In the middle of the street, a pile of them was coming together, finally becoming a humanoid creature with vines trailing from its hair and fingers, its legs made of vines as well. It smiled.
"You have a Shikon shard!" it said gleefully. A vine curled itself at Ryou quickly, snapping the cord around his neck that held the Millennium Ring and sending it flying. More vines came to encircle his arms and legs, the thorns tearing into his skin.
"But first, I must get rid of this part-youkai trash…"
And now for my end-of-chapter rant. I've noticed that many people seem to hate Kikyou. The truth is, I think she's more of a tragic character that just a bitch. I mean, the reason she acts the way she does is because she doesn't have the option of acting otherwise. Since she died hating Inuyasha, she's forced to continue in the same state she was in when she died, because she's really still dead. So, that fact that she keeps on trying to drag Inuyasha into hell with her or whatever is not really her fault. It's rather sad, actually…I mean, she's static, forced to stay in the same state in a world that is not equipped to deal with something unchanging. She shouldn't be there at all, really, b/c the world of the living is no place for someone who's dead.
I also want to say something about Malik's name. I know that there's a lot controversy about what his name actually is. I mean, the dub version called him Marik (*shudder*), but that makes no sense whatsoever. The name Malik is an Arabic name, which makes perfect sense, as Malik is an Arab. The proper pronunciation of the name is actually with the emphasis on the second syllable, Malik, ('a' like in 'ah' and 'i' like 'ee'). So the American dub is mispronouncing a Japanese mispronunciation. That's…sad.
