Meanwhile, Ryou neared the Turtle Game Shop after about five minutes of straight up sprinting. He entered.
Aura sighed rubbing her eyes, "this is exhausting, I need sleep," she sighed to herself having her secretary bring another cup of coffee.
Ryou returned about an hour later, card in his hand. After a ton of dodged questions, Yugi had finally caved.
The door opened and she looked over hanging up the phone, "got it?" she asked with a smile
He nodded, handing her the card. "It's here alright."
She took it smiling, "now, I really don't know if this is going to work." she sighed softly then told her secretary to not bother them for any reason. She followed it by locking the door, then looked at the card taking a deep breath.
Ryou sat against the wall, unconsciously drumming his fingers against the floor.
/this is going to kill me,/ she thought and closed her eyes concentrating, after a moment, she began muttering a chant, then rose the card up in the air, there was a bright flash of light and she closed her eyes. /please work, please work/ she thought
Ryou watched until Bakura took over, watching even closer and more interested.
Opening her eyes she was shocked, "cool, I did it." she smiled wiping sweat from her forehead and managed to steady her breath. "Dark Magician, I have a question, are you indeed Mahad?" she asked, oblivious that Bakura was now there, not Ryou.
Bakura folded a hand in his lap, the other still drumming.
For a moment the Magician and her only crossed glances, staring at one another and she smiled just as he did, "Princess I presume? You've hardly changed over the millenia." he said and she breathed sighing in relief.
Bakura bit back a chuckle as he watched.
"Mahad," she smiled. "I was summoned you because I was curious about the magic you taught me." he only nodded, "I remember what you said about when black magic infuses with white magic, but I can't remember what you said about when white infuses with black."
Bakura continued watching them.
He frowned narrowing his eyes on her, "why is it you ask this?" he asked.
"Well we kind of fused white into dark."
Bakura sat up straighter, eyes focused on the two.
He looked displeased, "it's the same with mixing black into white if done properly the user will enhance their powers to a point where it will be hard to control also they should experience an overabundance of energy. Same thing happens both ways. Please tell me you trust the person you enfused your magic with." He said
Bakura stood, amused. "You called?" he said, feigning innocence.
The magician looked towards Bakura and only a moment passed before his eyes went wide "I sense an immense darkness from you. My lady you didn't," He said looking back at her and she smiled a bit
Bakura smirked. "You and your compliments..."
"Yea, I kinda did," she said, "I was trying to heal him and well things just kind of happened that way." the Magician looked back at Bakura.
"I remember you, you were the thief who killed me." he turned the staff towards him, she quickly moved forward and stepped between them.
Bakura chuckled lowly. "And your point is...?" he said in amusement.
"Alright, first of all, we're in my office, so there will be no fighting here. Mahad, lower your staff," she growled and he did. "What I did to Bakura was an accident, I didn't intend on fusing my magic with him alright?"
He nodded, "Very well, but by being the cause you are also held responsible for any of his actions, now that you have helped his powers increase. Be forewarned princess." he said and she grunted.
'Powers increase, hmm?' Bakura grinned darkly, the words music to his ears.
"I really think you've said too much Mahad," she said rubbing her eyes. "Thank you for all of your help, you can rest now."
"As my lady wishes," he bowed and disappeared.
"Absolutely great," she growled sitting on the couch.
'Power increase, heheheh...' Bakura sat beside Aura, his thoughts elsewhere.
She ran her hands over her face thinking, /his actions, that means either way I'm screwed, but he also said it happens both ways, so maybe I could become just as powerful to stop him if I had to?/ she thought
"What's up?" Bakura asked, finally pulling himself from his thoughts.
She looked over at him, "when did you decide to pop back in?" she asked.
He shrugged. "When you summoned Mahad," he told her.
"Oh joy," she rolled her eyes sitting back on the couch and closing her eyes, "just be good until I can figure out how to use black magic alright?" she sighed
Bakura looked at her sharply, frowning. "What are you talking about? Why would you learn that?"
A thin grin appeared on her face, "why did you want to use white magic?"
"I didn't," he hissed.
"Liar," she opened her eyes looking over at him, "you did too, you asked me to teach you one of my spells, my magic is white magic, therefore you wanted to learn white magic."
"I was bored and had nothing better to do," he then replied in all honesty. "I couldn't care less about white magick."
"Blah blah blah is all I hear coming out of your mouth," she teased resting her head back and closing her eyes again. "Doesn't matter much whether you help me or not, I can always do it myself."
"Why would you even want to?" he asked in annoyance. "The only reason I'm in this mess is because of curiosity. Don't bloody follow my direction!" he said.
She laughed, "you heard what Mahad said, your power has grown, allot. I can't trust you to run around with that power without being able to keep you in check, so if the same thing works for me as it does you, I want to give it a shot, besides I've messed around with black magic before, what would the harm be doing it now?"
Bakura sighed, groaning. "I can control myself," he told her. "At least give me a chance to handle things before you go drabbling into dark magick once more."
She shrugged, "fair enough, last thing I want is to lose control and end up almost killing you." she chuckled, "too bad for you, you got pretty close." she ran her hand over the bandage around her neck
He sighed upon seeing it. "A one time fluke," Bakura promised her.
"Sure, just like all the other 'one time flukes'" she laughed loudly thought it hurt for a moment.
"Like...?" Bakura asked, frowning.
"Come on, how many times have you tried to kill me and failed?" she lifted her head and opened her eyes thinking. "hmm, four maybe five times total, not counting what happened last night."
"I'm done trying to kill you on purpose, Aura. It's not fun anymore," he told her, rolling his eyes.
"Splendid, that means I get to live on pestering you." she chuckled.
He rolled his eyes one more, smirking. "Yeah, yeah..."
"Oh joyous day!" she teased, "never did I expect to hear such words from you." just to piss him off she ruffled his hair and stood, "well, I'm off to return the card to Yugi, care to join?"
He slapped her and, though lightly, still left a red mark on her arm. "Sure, whatever."
She shot him a glare but smiled and headed out of the office out onto the street, where , instead of calling for her car, she walked down the street.
Bakura jogged circles around her as they walked, still hyped up on energy. "Ra..."
She watched him and chuckled, "maybe I should have had you summon Mahad, you could lose the energy."
He nodded. "I suppose..." 'Though I could probably summon ten of him with all this energy..'
"I wouldn't doubt it, seeing you dance like this." she said walking around a corner. "it's amusing if I should say so."
He shot her a glare. "Irritating is more like it," he muttered.
"for you, maybe." she laughed, "I'm finding this amusing Mr. Dark-and-gloomy, all full of energy and jumping around like some puppy."
He kicked her as he jogged around her. "It's not my fault!" he yelled as he walked forward, tripped, and began to fall only to fall through a portal and vanish.
"ow hey!" she looked over to see him tripping then vanished. "God, not this again." she turned around looking for him.
However, he didn't appear for some time.
Grunting, she turned back around and crossed her arms. "I'm so not waiting forever for you to show up." she growled.
From right in front of her face, Bakura's head alone popped out. "Uh, hi."
She freaked and stepped back, slowly she reached forward and poked his forehead, "how are you doing that?"
He looked down. "Um... I'm really not sure..." Just as confused as she was, he vanished once more and appeared beside her, whole once more.
Jumping when he appeared next to her she took a deep breath, "I really hate it when you do that." without waiting, she started waking forward again.
He followed after her mumbling, "It's not like I try to do it..."
She glanced back at him smiling, "keep up puppy." she laughed as she rounded another corner, the game shop in sight.
"Bitch," Bakura replied.
"Oh, that's so cold. Why do you hate me so much Bakura?" she pouted turning towards him and walking backwards towards the shop.
"Because you make it so easy to do so," he mused.
She laughed aloud, "at least I know I'm doing something right." turning on her heel she turned back around and opened the door to the game shop walking inside. "Yugi!" she called out.
Bakura followed, now bored.
There was a quick patter of feet and Yugi appeared from down the steps, "hey Yugi, I just wanted to return this." she said handing him the card. "just needed to see a friend."
Yugi smiled politely and nodded. "Thank you so much for returning it without damage!"
"Sure, and of course if any damage was done to it, I would have made a new one, personally." she smiled, "thanks for trusting Ryou with it, it means allot." to add salt to the wound she wrapped an arm around Bakura like she would with Ryou.
Bakura glared deeply at her and shoved her off. Yugi, feeling a tad awkward, smiled and nodded once more. "Yes, thank you."
"No problem, see you in school!" she waived him off then exited the game shop, as soon as she was on the sidewalk she laughed, /this is too fun!/ she thought
The moment they left, Bakura slapped her roughly.
"Never again."
She chuckled rubbing her cheek, "you need to relax. The more aggravated you get, the more amusing it is for me."
"That's it." Bakura stopped. "I am under no circumstances someone else's amusement." He turned to glare at her.
She looked at him, still smiling then raised an eyebrow, "oh? Is Mr. Prince of Darkness upset now?"
Bakura's glare only increased. "Fine, be that way. I'm going home." Flicking her off, he vanished in a cloud of fast-fading mist.
She rolled her eyes shaking her head, "puppy." turning, she went home /at least I can get some rest now/
Meanwhile, Bakura went home to sprint laps in his house.
Showering, then taking a three hour nap, she woke up grunting and dressed moving down into the kitchen to grab food.
Meanwhile, Ryou was at home preparing his supplies for school the next day.
Sighing she lounged around the house with Mokuba and later than night decided to head to bed early.
Ryou spent the entire night pacing as he finished all the assignments he was behind on.
The next morning she decided to walk to school since it was a nice day, Seto skipped like her normally did but Mokuba walked along with her, the path to his school would cut right past Ryou's house, so she knocked on his door as she passed.
No one answered immediately, but Ryou called out, "Coming!" A few minutes later, he opened the door. He had large bags under his eyes as he smiled at the two. "Hey."
"Hey, couldn't sleep?" she asked with a smile.
"More like couldn't sit still!" Ryou retorted, joining the two and walking. "At least I got my homework done though."
She laughed, "I'm surprised you could sit down long enough to do it."
Mokuba looked over at Ryou, "did you eat too much candy or something?"
"Uh, I didn't sit all night Aura," Ryou told her, then turned to Mokuba. "Yeah," he lied.
"Yea, I know how that is," he laughed looking away and Aura giggled looking up at Ryou.
"Sorry to hear Ryou, maybe eat the candy in smaller doses?" They came up to Mokuba's school, he hugged her than ran inside, she then continued down the street.
"Cute kid," Ryou murmured. "If only it were due to candy..."
"Yea, he's fun, he's just as energetic as either of you when you're all hyped up." she smiled, "but it's all the time with him. Other than the energy, how are you feeling?"
Ryou shrugged. "I feel... Odd. Like two things in me keep clashing. The magic I suppose?"
"I don't know, most likely, I'm sure in time everything will settle down, until then you'll just have to bier with it."
He sighed. "I sure hope so..." Ryou murmured as they neared the entrance.
She followed him inside the building and straight into the classroom. "well, I guess only time will tell," she sighed looking at Ryou.
Ryou sat in his desk, immediately switching to tapping his foot. He sighed, laying his head on the desk.
She chuckled resting at her seat and crossing her arms /I wonder what could relax him, something other than fighting/
Ryou found focusing in class almost impossible as he tapped, drummed, and fidgeted all day in his seat.
Aura watched him out of the corner of her eye and chuckled softly, paying attention to the teacher though it was mundane and boring
Finally, Ryou could take it no longer. He asked to get a drink so that he could stretch his legs.
Eyeing him as he left she waited a moment before she stood and left as well without saying a word. Following him out into the hallways she smiled, "everything alright?"
Ryou shook his head and puke into a nearby garbage can. "I'm fine now," he murmured.
She lost her smile, "why are you puking?"
He shrugged, breathing deeply.
"Hell if I know..."
"After school, we'll go back to my place, try a bunch of remedies see if we can't find some mix to calm you even a bit."
He nodded thankfully. "Thanks, Aura!"
She smiled again nodding, "sure thing, are you feeling alright to go back to class?"
Ryou nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
She nodded back and returned back to the classroom. Now her mind was running through different foods, drink and medicines to help him rather than paying attention
After a few classes and lunch, the final class Ryou had was gym.
When final period came around, she had a study period where she would normally go to her office, but she stuck around in the yard doing her homework and enjoying the sun.
Ryou's class was outside doing the one sport a boy like Ryou typically failed at: football. They were currently funning laps to warm up.
Glancing up from her paperwork she watched the gym class run laps and chuckled looking back down.
Shocking everyone, Ryou was at the front of the pack sprinting. After a few minutes, the actual game started.
Aura couldn't help but look over again as the game began, a thin smile appearing, "this should be interesting."
And interesting it was. Ryou dominated the game in a way he had never done before. He crushed the other players and managed to outrun every single jock in the class. The gym teacher, along with the students, were dumbfounded at this sudden transformation.
She watched in disbelief, either Ryou was secretly an amazing student, Bakura had randomly appeared, or somehow the powers enhanced Ryou's abilities as well. With a little hum, she began notching down notes about it.
By the time gym was over, Ryou had shown everyone and he wasn't even sweating.
Aura, with another hum scribbled more down in her notebook as if she was inspecting some test subject.
Ryou stretched high into the air but then frowned as a teacher came up to him. His expression went from confusion to hurt to anger in a flash and Ryou stormed back into the locker room.
"Interesting," she chuckled watching him disappear into the building, then wrote something else down. "oh testing is so much fun."
The bell rang a few minutes later and Ryou stormed out of the building furiously muttering to himself.
By the time the school bell rang she already had her stuff packed away and was standing on the sidewalk waiting for Ryou.
Ryou unknowingly stomped past her, his eyes narrowed in rage and fists clenched tightly.
She followed after him quickly, "hey, what's wrong?"
He turned to her, trying to smile but his response came out as a hiss. "That motherfucking teacher!" he yelled, cursing colorfully in a way he usually didn't partake in.
She was taken aback and blinked staring at him, "what did he do?"
"He... He..." Ryou screamed in frustration and, in his rage, kicked a trashcan over and left a huge dent in the metal.
"Ryou, deep breath, try to calm yourself," she said ignoring the mess of trash now all over the ground.
"How can I be calm!" He yelled then lowered his voice. "The gym teacher thinks I'm on steroids!"
"Steroids?" she muttered and smiled, "it's alright, that's quite an easy fix actually. All it would take is one phone call, the teacher would be fired and no one would question you again." she tried consoling him.
"But to even THINK it!" Ryou raged. "To even CONSIDER it! Me, an A student and probably the only reason this school gets such high remarks! How dare he!"
"I know but raging about it isn't going to solve anything." she watched him, "you need to have a level head or things will blow out of proportion."
"I think it was HIM who blew things out of proportion!" Try as he did, he couldn't seem to calm down. "I should march back there right now and give him a piece of my mind!"
"No, no, no, don't do that, let's just head to my house, we'll get things settled there." she said.
Ryou turned around and started walking back. "It'll only take a minute, I'll meet you there," he told her.
"No, absolutely not!" she jumped in front of him, "you aren't going back there. You're enraged you'll do something you'll regret later."
The white-haired male pushed her out of his way. "I'm leaving and you aren't going to stop me!"
"Ryou, stop this, you're being ridiculous!" she followed after him. "what do you plan on doing once you get there?"
"..." Ryou didn't respond as he approached the building and walked inside.
She remained close by his side, worried that this was going to turn ugly before she could stop it
He made his way all the way to the locker room before turning to her. "You can't come in," he said simply. "I'll meet you in a few minutes."
She grunted, "Ryou, don't do anything stupid, I'm serious!"
He didn't answer as the door to the locker room slammed behind him.
As soon as he was gone, she paced the hallway before the door, "I should just go in, just go, he's gonna do something stupid I know it."
There was silence for a few minutes, then hushed, angered voices. They grew louder and louder by the minute.
She hesitated opening the door and as the voices got louder she grabbed the handle of the door
There was a sudden yell followed by an enraged scream. Yells grew louder and louder until there was a chilled silence. Ryou opened the door and walked out, right passed Aura.
She stood there dumbstruck, "Ryou what just happened in there?" she asked walking up to him.
"Nothing of importance," Ryou said simply.
She growled in anger and grabbed his arm stopping him, "Ryou, what the hell happened in there?" she snapped.
He yanked it away from her, eyes growing almost as dark as Bakura's natural eyes. "Nothing!" he said in a tone of anger but laced with fear.
"You're a horrible liar! Now tell me!" she matched his stare, glaring at him
Ryou's bottom lip quivered slightly as he felt the act crumbling before his eyes. "N-Nothing..."
"Ryou, stop playing games, I need to know what you just did in there. Or so help me, I'll go in there now and find out myself!" she growled angrily.
"NO!" Ryou screamed suddenly, grabbing her arm painfully tight. "Don't go in there!"
"Then tell me, now." she said wincing in pain, trying her best to hide it from her face. This grip was unlike Ryou.
The white-haired boy shuddered, staring at the floor. His grip grew unconsciously tighter as he whispered, "It's nothing. I want to go home now."
She grunted in pain, "Ryou." her face tightened.
"Now, Aura," he deadpanned quietly, finally releasing her. He turned and walked off down the hallway.
She rubbed her arm but didn't move, "not until you either tell me what you did or I walk in there and find out for myself."
But Ryou was already down the hall and out of sight, a tear sliding down his cheek as he thought, horrified with himself, 'What the hell happened...?
Turning, she walked down to the locker room and paused, then slowly opened the door
The room was, to say the very least, torn apart. There were huge, deep dents made in the lockers and papers thrown all over the floor, speckled with red. It was completely empty, but signs of struggle were prominent.
"S-shit," she stuttered and closed the door stepping out into the hallway and pulled out her cell phone. "I have another mess...no, at the high school, boys locker room." she ran her hand down her face. "I pay you to clean this mess, not ask questions, just get down here asap." she hung up and grunted. "Damn it Ryou."
Ryou, meanwhile, was waiting outside for Aura and shivering. 'Those... Those things... What was it? What even happened?'
Not more than five or ten minutes passed before a man was standing in front of her. "use the budget, replace what needs to be, you know the drill." she said and he nodded. He walked into the room as she walked down the hallway, pissed off. She met up with Ryou, "let's go." she started walking
Ryou shivered, nodding and following after her wordlessly.
She walked down the sidewalk thinking, /how many times am I going to have to cover his tracks?/ she glanced over at Ryou, /he probably doesn't even know what he did./
The white-haired male stared at his feet as they walked, shuddering still. 'What were those... Those... And why..'
"What happened?" she asked him lightly looking over at him, "if you don't know what happened at least try to explain what you saw."
Ryou, sighing, finally caved. "It all seems kind of blurred. I walked in, furious, and started talking with the coach. He was trying to calm me down, but I wasn't listening to him. Then... Then..." Ryou broke off.
She grunted. "Ryou, it's important you tell me everything you remember."
He leaned on her as they walked, laying his head on her shoulder. "Well, it was like the stuff that's in the Shadow Realm appeared out of nowhere. I don't know how or why, but it was suddenly everywhere. I heard screams and a few crashes, and..." He was shivering harder now. "I... Don't know... What else..."
"Like dark whips or rope?" she asked moving to wrap an arm around his shoulder. "or more than that?"
"E-Exactly like that..." Ryou whispered. "There were so many and they were everywhere... There was more, but I can't quite remember it..."
"That's alright, you don't have too anymore." she walked him into the large mansion and down the hall to the living room where she sat him on the couch. "everything's being taken care of, so don't worry."
Ryou nodded slowly before a bright flash lit up the living room. When it vanished, Bakura was sitting before Aura.
When the light faded she stood upright and frowned, "care to explain how he was able to do that?" she asked him.
"Do what?" Bakura asked her, stretching out on the couch. "I've been asleep all morning."
"Of course you have." she sat on the couch across from him and rubbed her eyes, "well Ryou killed someone."
"He did? Oh, I'm so proud of him!" Bakura feigned a teary-eyed expression. "They grow up so fast..."
"Shut up Bakura," she sighed. "he's really messed up right now." she wanted to go on but she doubted Bakura cared. "never mind."
Bakura laughed. "Sorry, I just find it funny that you think I'd believe something like that. I mean, Ryou? He's pathetic!"
"That's why I'm just as shocked as you are. You said yourself last night, you wondered if the effects of the mixing carried over onto him, well I think it did. Bakura, I'm serious, he killed a teacher, I think I covered it up well enough but his anger is out of control."
Bakura stopped laughing. "You're... Serious?"
She nodded, "yea and his strength's increased." she removed her jacket and raised her arm, where a dark bruise shaped almost like a hand print sat on her forearm.
Bakura stared at it, shocked. "He... did that? Ryou?"
She nodded then lowered her arm, "I don't think he realized what he was doing, with me or the teacher. I mean he was enraged, it was intense. I tried talking him out of it but that didn't work too well."
"...And this is Ryou you're talking about?" Bakura couldn't wrap his head around it. "He's so level-headed... I don't think he physically gets mad!"
"It sure as hell wasn't you." she growled, "he was full of energy this morning, then through the day I think his mood went downhill, he was puking in the hall. Then during gym, he was playing football all of his skills increased, speed, agility, everything, the teacher accused him of using drugs and he went off." she sighed and pulled the same small notebook out as before then began scribbling in it.
He stared, utterly shocked. "Woah, woah, woah! Slow down! Ryou's doing drugs? And him? Athletic? The two don't mix at all!"
"No, no gah, baka." she rubbed her eyes sighing, "he was extremely good athletically, so I began watching him curious myself. The teacher accused him of doing drugs, I never said he was doing them." she continued writing something down.
"...So now he's a jock?" Bakura asked, still confused.
She sighed and glared at him, "are you even paying attention or am I the only one who's even slightly understanding this?"
"You're the only one," Bakura deadpanned, tapping his fingers on his leg.
"Of course I am, cause you can't pass a test without taking notes, and guess what?" she sighed and then grinned holding up the notebook, "I've been keeping notes on you two."
"The hell?" Bakura stood. "What, why?" He walked over to her, then stood while tapping his foot.
"Well, I needed to keep tabs," she looked down at the book opening it up again ignoring him. "I needed to figure things out, and since I think analytically it helps if I see it on paper. So I can read it over and not miss a note."
He rolled his eyes. "So, did you figure anything out exactly?" he asked, "Or was it a waste of time?"
"It just started, besides Rome wasn't built in a day." she sat back on the couch and kicked her feet on the table reading her notes with the end of the pen in her mouth thinking. "all I do know is this." she looking over and dropped the book onto the couch as she used her hands to talk, shaping the images. "Image your body as an empty cup, the water you pour into the cup slowly fills it up right? Well, what happens once it reaches the top of the cup?"
Bakura thought for a moment. "It spills?"
"Exactly. but, the water never stops flowing, so it just keeps overflowing, but that water has to go somewhere. For you, your soul was so over-tapped with power when we fused my white into your black that it overflowed into Ryou and now he's sharing it with you." she sighed, "at least that's what I'm assuming."
"...So you're telling me that Ryou too can harness dark magick?" Bakura thought for a moment. "And what happens when both cups are filled to the top...?"
She thought, "it all goes somewhere."
"But... Where exactly is the question..." Bakura murmured, staring down at his hands.
She shook her head, "I honestly don't know, normally I'd suggest drinking the water to make room. but as we've discovered that's quite dangerous."
He sighed, nodding. "Well, what do we do when both cups are filled then...?"
"You have to dump them out," she muttered tapping the pen rapidly on her knee.
"You do realize that could destroy all of Domino, right?" he asked her honestly. He began drumming his fingers as his feet kept tapping.
She frowned but didn't answer, she only sat there thinking. /I wonder if I can design a machine to read power levels within a body/ she thought, /something/
Bakura stood, pacing and thinking. 'I wonder... Aura said Ryou brought out that power when he was enraged. Could it be..?'