He stopped me at the red light and opened up the map again.
"What is this area by the water called?" he pointed at the kanji.
"Domino Peer"
He nodded and pointed at the boulevard leading to it.
"And this?"
Then I realized something.
"You can't read Japanese?"
"No."
"That makes no sense! You're speaking Japanese right now!"
"I'm not speaking your language, you're speaking MINE. The Millennium Ring probably acts as a translator between us." he emphasized by rattling the item a little, making it chime as the pointers hit the hoop.
"Then, can't it translate text as well?"
"It probably does, but it doesn't matter. I can't read or write, period."
I frowned.
"So, you're illiterate?"
That actually explained a lot.
"Most people back home can't afford schooling, you know. Heh, my mother used to say I have a good head on my shoulders. She thought I'd make a great philosopher if I ever got a formal education"
He rubbed the back of his neck smiling as he recalled the memory.
"So, what stopped you?"
"I actually wanted to try it at first, but after a while, there was no point anymore" he shrugged.
"Why not?"
He glared daggers at me and ignored my question.
"Alright, so if we go this way, we can get to the peer by mid-afternoon" he traced the street upwards.
"You're kidding! There's no way we can get that far on foot!"
"Why?"
"This map is scaled down considerably. Domino City is twenty times bigger than you think!"
He looked taken aback by this. Change of plans.
"We'll need a horse"
"There aren't any horses in the city. We've moved past that."
"Those carriages racing in the street?" he pointed at the traffic flowing around us.
"Cars. Yes."
"Alright, we're getting a car then"
"You can't just get a car. You have any idea how expensive these are?"
"Who cares about money?"
What world did he live in?
…
I said it before, but now it was undeniable. This guy was clinically insane.
He just stopped a car in the street, dragged the driver out and told me to take his place.
"I don't have a license!" I shrieked as he forced me behind the driver's seat.
"I don't know how to use your crazy contraption! You'll have to do it!" He yelled back as he got in next to me. "Now go!"
I panicked as the deposed man started banging on the car window to let him back in. In the spur of the moment, I pressed the accelerator, leaving him in the dust.
We didn't get too far before my reckless driving led to us being chased by a cop car.
"We have to pull over" I cried as the sirens got closer and closer.
"I'll handle it, you keep this thing steady" he said to me and before I could ask what he was planning, he opened the door and climbed on top of the car.
'Steady' he said, but watching him do that made my hands quiver on the wheel and we started zig-zagging through traffic at high speed.
I heard him curse at me in frustration as he rocked back and forth on the roof before a bright light blinded me for a moment and the cop car fell behind.
The light forced me to close my eyes shut and I didn't see the Toyota turning the corner in front of me. By the time I reacted, we were too close to avoid the impact. I didn't even know which pedal the break was. I swerved hard, as did the driver in front of me, and we managed to only blow each other's rear-view mirrors off. The car stopped as the battery died from the abuse and I sighed in relief.
I heard the thief's yell as he was flung off the roof and into the street at full speed, rolling into traffic as he fell.
I watched in horror as the drivers tried their best to react to this unforeseen event, avoiding him by mere centimeters. He recovered quickly, pulling his arm away as a van breezed by.
He staggered to his feet, clearly battered after the whole ordeal.
I heard the cops again. They weren't down, just temporarily set back.
He limped back and pulled me out of the car.
"Run!" he screamed at me to snap me out of my daze and dragged me away.
Even wounded he moved faster than me.
He noticed I lagged behind and threw me over his shoulders, picking up the pace.
I had a hard time processing the situation. I wasn't overweight, but I wasn't that light either. He had a bleeding right arm and an unsteady left foot and yet he still outran the cops who were chasing us. I didn't know if it was brute strength or sheer determination that kept him going, but he wasn't relenting in the least. The chase lead us into a narrow alley between two buildings.
"Wait, this is a dead end!" I cried as I saw the wall in front of us.
"Yes, it'll do" he stated as the cops finally caught up to us.
He picked up a trash can and chucked it at them with full force.
"Close your eyes" he warned me as the ring shined again. I heard the cops scream as the heavy trash can dropped onto them and they started flaying their arms in horror as if it was attacking them.
What did he do?
"This'll keep them busy for a while" he smirked as he jumped to grab the drainpipe. I yelped as the pipe creaked under our collective weight, but he didn't flinch and started rapidly climbing to the top. He reached the second floor before the pipe gave in and started falling with us in tow. I braced for impact, but the thief calmly jumped off to grab a balcony ledge on the other building.
I couldn't comprehend how he did it, but he jumped from one building to the other until he reached the roof of the 4th floor convenience store. Once we stopped going, I unclenched my grip, dropping to the ground like a rock. I stayed there, breathing hard and trying my best to calm my racing heart.
"You're acting as if you did all the work" he came up to me, shaking his head in disapproval.
He barely seemed affected at all. What incredible stamina.
"You're a goddamn juggernaut" I growled, coughing as I talked.
"I told you, it's experience" he smirked as he walked out of view.
He took a few minutes to come back into my vision range and bent over to look at me.
"I scoured our situation and we're not doing so great. Most buildings are too far and too tall to reach from here. We'll have to get down to street level and lay low for a while."
Best news I heard all day.
"We need to get back home and treat you" I pointed out at his wounded arm and he shrugged it off.
"We don't have time right now. We're behind schedule." he stubbornly kept to his plan and pulled out the map again.
"Judging by the scenery, we made it up to here" he marked the map with his own blood.
My mind screeched to a halt. I just stopped trying to understand him.
"We can still cover some ground before sunset. Let's go" he clapped at me to get up and follow him.
Is this guy even human?
I managed to convince him to use public transport and we somehow got to our destination and back before 9 PM. We didn't find anything, but we did make the evening news. I felt like dying of shame as my thankfully blurry-filmed face was placed on the wanted list.
Worse yet, since he had such a distinctive look, my 'guest' couldn't walk outside anymore or else he'd get identified immediately. "Middle eastern" was all people needed to point him out to the cops.
"I warned you" I told him as I brought the bandages and rubbing alcohol into the living room.
He was watching the news coverage on TV, frowning.
"This is in real time?" he pointed at the screen and I nodded.
"Yes, anyone can watch this at home and know who you are"
"Things are a lot more complicated in this world than I imagined. Nonetheless, it's not that bad. We'll just have to be more subtle"
Stubborn till the end.
"No, you need to stop. Just let it be. We'll find another way to rescue my brother" I contradicted him and he winced a little as I cleaned his wound. He had multiple cuts on his arm as the skin scraped off on the harsh pavement earlier.
"Stop doubting me, woman." He growled and bit his lip as the alcohol burned into his flesh. "This is nothing."
"Stop calling me things. My name is Bakura Amane."
"I won't call you 'Bakura'. That is my name and mine only"
"You don't have any other name?"
"No. This is the name my parents gave me and it's important to me. It defines who I am."
I don't think I've ever met anyone that clung to their name like that. It's not even a good name.
"It's hard to call someone else by my last name, you know" I pouted.
"It's only a last name because I made it so. You only have it because of me granting it to you."
He...Bakura shifted his weight on the couch and gestured for me to sit down next to him.
"You can't bandage properly. Give it here." he ordered as I handed him the roll and he used the TV screen as a mirror to patch his arm up. He was right, he did a better job than I did.
"Yesterday I got buried under a collapsing pyramid while getting the ring. Today has been a vast improvement by comparison" he stated without any emotion whatsoever.
At this point, I was willing to believe him.
"Didn't that terrify you?" I wondered aloud.
"No, I'm used to it by now"
What kind of life did he lead?
"Look here" Bakura pointed at his knee as he lifted his left pants leg "see this dent? It's what's left after my knee got shattered by a blacksmith hammer."
He pushed his thumb into a small gap on the tibia of his right leg.
"They had the courtesy of breaking this one lower than the other. Knees hurt more than calves, though a broken leg is useless either way. I have matching ones on my arms as well. So, no, a little scratch doesn't worry me"
He recalled this as if it was a funny story.
"How…" I stammered.
"My first solo heist didn't go as planned. It was my first time doing something of this magnitude and I was weakened by hunger as well. I got caught immediately and made an example of. They broke all my limbs and threw me into a trash heap to die a slow death while my remains were to be pecked at by vultures. I was 7."
No emotion at all.
"And even then, weren't you scared back then?"
"Of course I was. I didn't want to die. I still don't, even if you don't believe me. I cried a lot that day. But I learned that crying and sniveling only helps you give in faster. If you truly want to survive, you need to pick yourself up and try again. Find that fire inside you and learn to wield it. That's what I did. I waited until dark and crawled away like a worm. I stayed hidden until I healed enough to walk again, then tried a second time with the knowledge I gained from that experience. It got easier from there."
I stared at the floor. He was so relaxed throughout it all. It felt uncomfortable.
"In hindsight, it wasn't as bad as this one" he said, running his hand over the neck scar. The one that caught my eye this morning. Very faint, but at a strange location.
"How did you get it?" I asked, my curiosity piquing. I was getting past my nervousness and just wanted to know.
"Another failed attempt at a robbery. This happened when I was about 9. I wasn't as bad at running away at that point, but I was bad at fighting. I had picked a difficult target as well: a mountain of a man, as tall as he was wide. He was a most nasty local aristocrat in that town and rich beyond your wildest dreams. He couldn't be picked easily, since he had a lot of guards. I tried to force my way through, grab anything I could and high-tail it out of there."
I cupped my face in my hands and drew closer. His stories fascinated me, like something out of the movies.
"Despite being a fat bastard, he had good reflexes. One swipe to the back of my head and he knocked me to the ground. His arm was as thick as my torso. By the time I got back to my senses, I realized he had pulled his jewel-encrusted sword at me. I went for my own but he was already in mid-swing for my neck. I was lucky to react just fast enough to get grazed by it. I remember it happened at the same time. The moment I backed away he lunged forward and I struck my sword into his soft belly as deeply as I could. I gutted him like a pig then ran for it as his guards took priority in trying to save his life. I ended up with no reward, an open throat wound and my first kill under my belt."
"You have a good memory." I nodded.
"Unfortunately"
"Why do you do this? What would your parents say if they saw you like that?"
"They'd probably be very disappointed with me. My mother wanted me to be a scholar and my father wanted me to continue the family business" he chuckled.
"What happened to them?"
He frowned deeply and left the room.
"It doesn't matter" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
He was lying. It mattered a lot. But he didn't feel like sharing it with me.
I didn't even notice as he brought a pack of beer with him to Ryou's room before he shut himself in for the night.
He was being chased through that alleyway.
The guard noticed him as he made the mistake of wandering out into the street, searching for others. He should've known better, even at his age. His father told him not to come out from the hidden room, no matter what.
But, he was afraid. Afraid of what would happen to his family after being captured. He had to find help. Instead, he bumped into one of their assailants.
The man had fancy armor. A royal guard most surely. What was a royal guard doing in their village? What did they want from them? They were all poor, they weren't a threat to the Pharaoh!
Why did they burn down the village?
He ran as fast as he could. He was nimble, but too small to out run a fully-grown adult. He was about to get caught. The alleyway was a dead end. The guard sneered, knowing he had cornered his prey. He didn't know about the small crack in the wall. Large enough for a child, but too small for a man.
He made it out. But he was still in danger. There were so many guards around, herding everyone out of their homes. Men, women, even children like him…or worse. Toddlers.
In the midst of the chaos, he managed to remain undetected as the rest of the villagers got forced into an underground temple.
What were they doing with them?
His parents wanted him to run away, but he had to know. There wasn't anybody left that had escaped the mayhem except him. He had to do something. Anything.
He slowly and quietly crept down those stairs to the central room. It used to be a temple dedicated to Isis, but ever since the village fell into abject poverty, the temple was torn down as a sort of petty revenge. Still, the inside altar was standing and the room was spacious.
He hid behind a wall and watched as the villagers sat tied up before a large smoldering cauldron. It had some kind of alloy being mixed inside it, about half full. It looked like…gold.
He covered his mouth to hold back a scream as he saw a man in a royal outfit give the order to slaughter everyone.
One by one, the people were untied, cut to pieces and thrown inside.
Friends, neighbors, people he only knew by face and people he knew fully well ever since he was little. Nobody was spared. None of the 99 villagers.
His father didn't even resist. He just let them sacrifice him, as if he deserved it.
He couldn't breathe. He wanted to go in and help. He had to.
His mother's eyes told him to stay put, though.
'Run away, Bakura' they pleaded with him.
She saw him there, tears streaming down her face as she was forced to her knees. She looked straight at him as the sword struck the nape of her neck.
Her eyes were still fixated on him even as her head rolled to the floor.
And now, all the guards had noticed him as well.