Bakura and Kaaaagu!!!
Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon come together to bring you;
Thief King Ninetails
Chapter Ten: Pulling Into Port
Fire. Flames. Fury.
His family – mother, sister, his father already killed by Articuno – are herded into the underground temple.
He followed the Aura Guards in, slipping inside the doors as they slid shut.
"Bakura!"
He hurried down the corridor after the voice. The voice of his sister.
He broke into the main room of the Temple of Giratina. There sat a bulging cauldron. What looked like molten gold merrily splashed around inside, heated by three Arcanine steadily blasting flames underneath it.
He scanned the crowd – there had to be at least a hundred people there – and spotted his mother. She clutched the hand of his sister as they were pushed along a walkway that stopped above the cauldron.
His sister – Amanra – cried out as she was jabbed with a spear. She yelled at the Guard; "You just wait! My brother will come! He'll save us!"
The only white-robed Priest in the Temple – one of his priests – glared at the eight-year old girl. "Your brother? I don't see him. Perhaps he has deserted you."
"No…" Amanra fell silent. "He can't… He wouldn't…"
The priest turned to a Guard with gold-lined uniform – presumably the captain. "At your leisure, Captain."
"But, Priest Akenaden, Is this really right?"
"We are at war, Captain. Cresselia outlined the instructions perfectly – Ninety-nine souls, into the cauldron of flowing gold. Our Guardian of Aura – Lord Aknamkanon – saw this as an opportunity to rid Takato of this rats nest. I say again. At your leisure, Captain."
The Captain looked between the villagers of Kul Elna and his superior. He sighed, and a solitary tear rolled down his cheek as he raised his arm and brought it slashing down.
The other Guards saw this signal, and began to jab the villagers with their spears. One by one, the people that Bakura had known and loved fell into the light.
He howled with pain – the breaking of his heart. He dashed forward, his partner Vulpix moving with him as he jumped onto the back of one of the Guards, stabbing at him with the dagger that was his fathers' last gift.
The guard cried out, his face now a mess of blood and flesh. He fell backwards, and Bakura jumped off.
Vulpix went straight to the Priest, who savagely kicked it as it tried, but failed to set his clothes alight.
Bakura gasped as he felt his Partner's pain and another of the guards slashed at him with his spear. It sliced open the left side of his face, and he howled with pain as his eye went dark. He fell backwards, and Vulpix ran to his side. It couldn't stop him from falling into the dark of unconsciousness, though, and it fell too.
Akenaden scowled at the boy. Then, he turned back to the Captain. "Is that all of them?"
"Yes, master Akenaden. Ninety-nine souls."
"Good." Akenaden frowned at the boy at his feet. "Move out. I will take it from here."
"Yes, sir. But…"
"What?"
"What do we do with the boy?"
"Leave him there. He'll be dead by morning."
"Aye, sir."
The guards retreated, leaving the unconscious twelve-year old and the cauldron of flowing gold.
Ryou jolted awake, the image of the cauldron still imprinted in his mind. The woman and girl, who looked so much like his own mother and sister… Of course, his own family were dead now. Killed by a rampaging Rhyperior.
He became aware of a weight on his chest. Looking down, he saw a small brown fox-Pokémon curled up on his chest, purring. It yawned and stretched as he sat up, and licked his face before scratching its ruff and jumping off the bed.
Ryou shook his head, and put the dream out of his mind. He'd been having these dreams since he'd received the FireBrand Ring, and so far they hadn't let up. He shook his head and swung himself off the bed as Kaguya walked in.
A strange scent drifted into the room with her, and he sniffed. "Pecha?"
Kaguya grinned, packing the towel she was holding into her rucksack along with her shampoo and conditioner. "Yup! I usually use Iapapa, but I ran out last week, so I've been using my reserve one. Remember, you used it yesterday?"
"Right. Yeah, that's great! I like Pecha."
Kaguya smiled warmly at him, noticing his slightly hounded look. "Bad dream?"
"Yeah." Ryou shook his head and refused to say anything else.
Kaguya looked at him concernedly. "Never mind, huh? I guess it can't be that bad."
Ryou looked gloomily at her.
"Smile!" Kaguya flashed him a dazzling grin. Ryou couldn't help but grin back.
"There, that's better! Smiles make the world go round!" Kaguya shifted her bag on her back and exited the room. Ryou followed her onto the top deck, where they watched Zeta City – Takato's major port – come into view.
Ryou shifted uncomfortably. He thought back to Kaguya's question the previous day – "What are you going to do?"
"Kaguya?"
"Hmm?"
"What did you come to Takato for?"
Kaguya smiled at him, and the wind whipped at her hair. "I came to take the Gym Challenge. But first I need to enrol in the Trainer School."
Liar, Cresselia stated. You came to look for him.
Oh, shush. Anyway, I need to do something now I've found him.
"Oh." Ryou looked downcast. "Do you think… Uh… They'd let me enrol?"
Kaguya frowned. "Well, I guess… But you need a Pokémon, first."
Ryou recoiled. "Catch a Pokémon? Do you know what it's like inside a Pokéball?"
"No. Do you?" Kaguya was interested now.
The wind changed as they pulled into port. Kaguya's hair swept the other way, and the Pecha scent from her hair coupled with her own scent made Ryou blush wildly.
"Uh… I've been told, yeah."
The deckhands began to usher all the passengers off the ship. Kaguya glared at a guy who jostled her, and the guy in turn glared at her back – then spotted Ryou.
Pulling a mobile out of his pocket, he scurried away.
"What was that about?" Kaguya said to Ryou, who was looking worried. His red – Hang on, red? – Eyes flashed and he began to push through the crowd, heading for a secluded place in the port town.
Kaguya hurried after him. That was him, right?
Indeed it was. Be careful.
Kaguya followed the Ninetails-boy into the shopping center, and then stopped as he beckoned her into an alley between the shops.
He's going to ambush you, and threaten to kill you.
What!?
That's his method.
Great.
Kaguya walked into the alley.
The next thing she knew, she was pinned against a wall, a very sharp object at her throat. A demonic voice growled into her ear.
"Undo the binding or die."
Kaguya tried not to swallow as the sharp thing – a shard of glass, maybe? There was a lot of it on the floor – threatened to make a bloody red line across her throat. "I… I don't know what you mean!"
"You think I'm a fool? Your Cresselia friend placed a binding on me while I fought her last night. She thought I wouldn't notice. Get her to remove it or both of you die."
"A… A binding?"
Yes. In accordance with the ancient Thieves Code, if I beat the King of Thieves I become the King of Thieves. I took the opportunity to place a binding upon said disgraced king, so that he could not use his Shdow power to escape from us.
And now he's going to kill us. Why are you so calm!?
Bakura shifted his grip on Kaguya. The glass shard accidentally scored a bloody red line across her throat.
"Well?"
Kaguya shut her eyes. Cresselia! He's going to kill meeee!!
Let me take over.
Kaguya instantly withdrew, letting Cresselia take the forefront. Her eyes opened, and glowed slightly as a blast of Psychic energy flung him from her, landing facedown in a pile of similar glass shards.
As soon as the pressure on her neck released, she let Kaguya take over and she hurried to his side.
"Ryou? Ryou?"
She gently turned him over. His face and hands were cut, due to the glass, and he seemed to be unconscious.
Whoops. I think I went a little overboard… My intent wasn't to knock him out.
Kaguya sighed and pulled a roll of gauze out of her backpack, tearing strips off and wadding it over the places where blood flowed freely.
That would do until she could get him to a Pokémon Center, where they could patch him up properly.
Yay! Oh, wait... Not yay?
Bakura: Of course it's not bloody yay, you foolish mortal! What the hell did you have to knock me out for?
Ryou: ^^'
Bakura: You people had better review. I'm in a foul mood today!