He gazed into the fire for another moment, then turned away. Akira and Bakura were waiting for him, but chances were Akira didn't know the latter even existed.

Her parents were standing off to the side - Freya had her hands around some sort of hot drink, sipping it slowly, her gaze unfocused. Sato was talking with friends and relatives, a rather brusque manner about him. A small group of teenage boys, probably Tadako's schoolmates, we're just gazing at the fire, silently. It suddenly occurred to Marik that they'd be about his age. He pushed one hand into the pocket of his jeans, holding the millennium rod (as always) in the other.

Finally he wandered over to Akira. Her face lit up slightly when she saw him. "I'm glad you stayed."

Marik nodded. "Me too."

Bakura frowned, shooting Marik a quizzical look. You were going to leave?

The duelist just ignored him. "Hey, Akira, I was wondering, were you filming Tadako's duel?"

Akira paused, then nodded. "Yes, on my phone. Tadako would have killed me if he didn't have it on video." She grinned, adding, "Then you'd have been investigating my death."

A smile played at the corners of the duelist's lips. "Good think you did then. Do you think you could send it to me? I want to check something against the official copy..."

He glanced at Bakura, who nodded. They could both see whether the static happened in Akira's footage too. The girl nodded. "Sure." She shifted her weight onto her back foot and pulled her phone out of the pocket of her coat. "Can you type in your email address?"

Marik did, then she spent a minute or so tapping and clicking things, a frown slowly forming on her face. "The file's too big. Could I give it to you on a USB?"

Marik nodded, grinning. Thankfully, he knew how to use one of those now. "Good idea. When should we meet again, so that I can get it from you?"

"I'll come to wherever you're staying - don't you go to any trouble. Is it okay if I do it in a few days? I need to catch up on a lot of school stuff."

"Yeah, no problem. There's no hurry."

Akira shrugged. "By the way...I have questions for you too. About the shadow stuff and the millennium items."

Before Marik could respond, Bakura's eyes widened. "What have you told her?!"

We can't talk now! he thought, trying to ignore him. "Yeah?"

She shrugged. "I don't know...it's just...I don't know! It's so weird...like, how come no-one knows about them? Why can they do the things they do? Is it actual magic?"

Marik gave her a sympathetic look, ignoring the outraged spirit behind him. "I'll explain somewhere else," he said quietly.

Akira sighed, nodding. "Okay. See you soon, Marik."

With that, she walked off, towards the teenage boys, waving enthusiastically. Bakura rounded on Marik. "Why didn't you tell me she knew things?!"

Marik stepped away. "Later. I don't want to look like I'm talking to myself."

"But-"

"Instagram."

Bakura rolled his eyes. "I don't care. This is more important!"

"Yeah, but it can wait until I can talk to you without looking like a total psycho!" he hissed, glancing around nervously. "They already think I shouldn't be here - I shouldn't be doing this investigation. I don't want to give them another reason."

Bakura paused, then nodded. "Good point. But don't think it's worth staying much longer," he added. "We know the killer was after Yugi. If Tadako had any sort of personal drama, it probably isn't relevant. We'd be wasting our time."

Marik cast him a sideways glance. "You're sure?"

"If I'm wrong, we can ask Akira about any personal stuff. After all," he went on, narrowing his eyes, "you've told her about the Millennium Items."

Marik rolled his eyes. "I get it. That was a little out of line."

"A little-"

"Please, shut up."

Bakura's expression shifted from 'miffed' to 'peeved'. Marik grinned. "Let's go home."

The next day, Marik was up early, wearing his usual midriff-revealing attire, riding a motorcycle. Marik loved motorcycles. As much as this had probably already been established to like, everyone, he felt it necessary to make it as clear as possible. He loved the wind in his hair, tugging at his clothes, and watching the ground race by beneath him.

It was also insanely amusing to watch Bakura try to keep his balance while sitting on the end.

"Isn't this fun!" he called back, for once not caring that people would think he was crazy, talking to himself. After all, he was whizzing along fast enough that not many people would hear.

Bakura was sitting on the end of the large seat, facing sideways, clutching on for dear life. "Marik, I have no idea how you think this is fun! You're going to bloody kill us both!"

Marik shrugged. "Well, you're already dead, so there."

Bakura sighed, rolling his eyes. "How much longer will I have to sit on this thing?"

"Depends," Marik grinned, mischief lighting up his violet eyes. "I might decide to go the fun way."

Bakura's eyes widened. "Marik, no."

"Marik YES!"

Marik put a little more pressure on the accelerator, taking the next turn as sharply as possible, watching, on the verge of cracking up, as Bakura clutched the seat harder, gritting his teeth. "Marik, slow down!"

"Never!"

"Marik, stop this bike right now!"

He glanced over his shoulder and stuck his tongue out at the once-formidable spirit. Then it came to him. "Bakura."

"Oh God."

"Bakura, I've had the best idea!"

"Bloody hell."

He grinned like a maniac, and threw one fist into the air. "Card games on motorcycles!"

Bakura actually took one hand off the bike to facepalm. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Come on, it'd be great."

"Marik, that will never happen."

"Sure it will. It's genius."

"It's stupid," Bakura repeated.

"It's fabulous."

Bakura rolled his eyes again, giving up. "So, where are we actually going?"

Marik shrugged. "The museum. Ishizu hasn't been responding to my texts."

Bakura nodded, clenching his teeth. "And how far away is it?"

"Not far. Don't worry."

About 10 minutes later, Marik pulled up outside a large building in the middle of the city. Domino City was only really a major tourist destination for card game fanatics, so the square wasn't exactly crowded, but he could hear a couple of languages other than English and Japanese being spoken. He parked his motorcycle, and took the steps two at a time as he approached his sister's workplace.

The museum was pretty much what you'd expect. There were large posters for an exhibition of historical photographs from Stalin's Russia, and another about Medieval China. Marik still wasn't quite sure what Ishizu's job actually was. She'd co-ordinated the Egyptian exhibition, but he didn't think she had anything to do with this. Sometimes she did admin stuff. Sometimes tour guides. Whatever it was, it was somehow flexible enough for her to go on leave for a month to play card games during Duelist Kingdom.

With Bakura just behind him, Marik approached the front desk. A young girl with very pale skin, black glasses, and long, blonde, almost white hair, dusted with pastel colours, was at a computer, dealing with people's queries. According to her name-tag, her name was Charlotte. The duelist got in the line, impatiently waiting to get to the front. It was weird that Ishizu wasn't texting him, especially about this. Card games. Shadow games. It made him more convinced that she knew something.

He asked after Ishizu, and Charlotte frowned. "Who?"

"Ishizu Ishtar."

"Oh, her! She's in Egypt at the moment, I'm afraid. She left yesterday."

Marik blinked, glancing at Bakura, who shrugged. "What?"

The girl shrugged. "She's probably on the plane now. What did you need her for?"

"I'm her brother. I thought she was in Japan."

Charlotte shook her head. "Didn't she contact you?"

Marik shook his head, unable to stop a little bitterness creeping into his voice. "No, she didn't. Thanks anyway."

She shrugged, turning back to her computer. "No problem."

He and the spirit turned away, sitting down on a long, rather stiff couch near the door. Marik was totally confused. She watches the news, right? Wouldn't she, of all people, know I'm here? Unless she needed to talk to Rishid...

"Well, this sucks," Bakura mused.

Marik nodded. "My sentiments exactly..."

He pulled out his phone and checked his messages, his emails, his facebook, (and Neko Atsume, but that had nothing to do with Ishizu,) everything, but Ishizu hadn't contacted him. He bit his lip. "What if it wasn't about me? What if she had to go to Egypt for some other reason?"

Bakura narrowed his eyes. "Well, whatever the reason, it probably wasn't for some sort of holiday, knowing your luck."

"Thanks. Loving the moral support," he said sarcastically, putting his phone back in his pocket.

The spirit ignored him, his brow furrowed, deep in thought.

Marik sighed. "What now? We still haven't spoken to Hiroki guy." He pulled out his phone again, looking at his last messages with Ishizu, still anxious. Maybe I should have contacted her earlier. Does this have anything to do with all the shadow games? Does she know something?

Then he realised. "Ishizu must know about the millennium scales!" he suddenly said, a little too loudly. Several people looked over, including Charlotte, who gave him a classic 'you're a weirdo' look. But he didn't care.

Bakura paused. "Why?"

Marik was grinning now, feeling as if he had made some sort of headway. "Taylor's family had the scales for ages, yeah?"

"Yeah..."

"But eventually her brother sold them to someone we know nothing about. Yet somehow they got back to Ishizu before the duel between Yugi and Atem!"

Bakura blinked slowly. "Marik, that's bloody brilliant. I mean it."

He grinned. "I know. We should talk to Lucas Whitchurch then, too."

Bakura nodded. After a brief moment of silence, the spirit's eyes lit up with mischief. "What if I went to talk to Whitchurch?"

Marik rolled his eyes. "He can't see you."

"You couldn't either, initially," Bakura explained. "Not until I showed myself. Which is why it was so strange that Taylor could. But I can easily just present myself to Lucas."

The duelist inclined his head slightly. "Okay. But can you ask him that I can't?"

"Think about it. I can pretend I'm, I don't know, some sort of vengeful spirit who wants the scales back or something, and interrogate him about what he did with them. If I scare him enough, he wouldn't lie."

The duelist considered this for a moment. It made enough sense, and he could visit Hiroki at the same time. "Alright, 'vengeful spirit', what will you do if he won't tell you?"

"Oh, he will," Bakura replied, standing up.

Somehow, Marik didn't doubt that. At all. "Right. So you'll talk to Lucas, and I'll find Hiroki."

The spirit nodded, and they walked out of the museum, silently parting ways when they reached the exit. Marik couldn't help checking his phone again as he walked, back to the apartment to get his laptop.

I really hope Ishizu's okay.