Every sense Tea possessed was reeling. The heat of Bakura's hard, lean body burned through her flesh. He pressed against her, not a breath between them, as if determined to brand his touch upon her. Revulsion roiled inside her, but, for all her disgust, she wasn't immune to the raw sexuality he exuded. She had no opportunity to ponder her body's troubling reaction. Her mind was already whirling, faster and faster, endlessly revolving around the words she still couldn't believe she had really heard not ten seconds ago. "In four hours time, you will no longer be a virgin. You can offer yourself to Ryou freely…or I'll take you for myself—by force if necessary."
The words were seared into her memory, yet they still seemed unreal. Impossible. No matter what her ears told her, her mind refused to accept it. The Spirit of the Ring allowed her no time to process any of it. Neither was she given a chance to ask any questions, least of all why he was insisting on this bizarre course of , mere seconds after his shocking announcement, he shoved her away from him—as if she had been the one to initiate the contact—though he didn't let go. "Enough," he growled. "It's time." His left hand tightened painfully on her forearm. With his right hand he grabbed the back of Ryou's sweater and hauled him, more or less, to his feet. Ryou was still comatose, a fact for which Téa was grateful, given the scene that had just taken place.
"We'll all go in at the same time," the Spirit explained brusquely to Tea, propelling all three of them towards the gateway's soft light. "What I told the runt was true, more or less. We can't be certain of the pathway staying put once you go through."
They now stood right in front of the portal. Though from a distance, its light was dim, up close, it was overwhelming intense after the perpetual gloom they'd been slogging through. The light dominated Tea's vision, banishing the rest of this infernal dimension to black patches welling up in her peripheral vision. She shivered. The light was almost more frightening than the darkness had been. She felt terribly exposed—and completely blind. If something came up behind her now…
She wouldn't think about it. She grit her teeth and pushed the prickling feeling at the back of her neck as far out of her mind as she could. Oddly, the Spirit's steely grip on her arm was almost comforting. At least anything that tried to come after her would have to go through him first.
"I'll give you a little shove forward," the Spirit told her, his gaze fixed ahead, "and I'll try to slow us down a little."
Tea frowned, confused. "Why?"
Bakura sighed, clearly exasperated at having to spell everything out for her. "You'll want a head start, obviously. I know I said the boy was head over heels for you, but even he's not besotted enough not to question why you're in front of him half-dressed. If you want to seduce him properly, you'll need a fresh start." He made a face. "And a shower might not be a bad idea. You did sleep in all your clothes last night."
Tea couldn't even muster a glare at this less-than-gallant comment. She was too stunned by his matter-of-fact explanation. I can't believe we're discussing this, she thought. Well, they weren't exactly discussing it. She hadn't said anything, after all. But the casual way Bakura was talking about it was nothing short of surreal. Suddenly, she had to suppress the urge to indulge in a hysterical giggle.
The Spirit nudged her forward, into the light. Cold tingles washed over her legs, creeping steadily up her spine. It was almost as if she was dissolving into the light. The thought sent a burst of panic through her belly, and she would have bolted if it weren't for Bakura's firm grip restraining her. "Relax," he told her. "Just keep going into the light."
Tea forced herself to breathe and the panic ebbed to a bearable level. The tingling sensation enveloping her was still unsettling, but now she was feeling a different sensation along with it… a kind of yearning. An urge to go deeper and deeper into the light, until she was completely immersed in it. Her feet edged forward.
The Spirit nodded, satisfied. "Good. Get going now." For an instant, his hold on her slackened, and she almost slipped away, but in the next instant, he pulled her tight against him. He brought his face close to hers, his oxblood eyes burning into hers. "Do not forget our bargain," he growled in a low, menacing tone. "I will keep my end of it, make no mistake about that."
Before Tea could do more than stare at him, all the breath sucked from her lungs, he released her arm and flung her forward. "Now, go!" He gave her a shove on the rear end.
Tea stumbled forward. The light filled her entire vision as the tingling sensation intensified. Now I know how a bottle of Coke feels when it gets shook up, Tea thought dizzily. All of her was effervescent, icy bubbles dancing wildly, though painlessly. Then, in one shattering instant, the cap came off and all of her fizzy self came shooting out of the bottle and into solid being.
Her head swam. Everything was too bright, too vivid, too real. Her eyes closed, then opened, blinking over and over as she tried to regain her bearings. Gradually, her senses adjusted and came slinking back to her. The air smelled musty, with hints of Lysol and dry-erase markers, chilly as it slid over her bare skin. Worn, industrial carpet prickled under her knees. Patches of color in her vision solidified and became bright posters plastered on drab, off-white walls.
Her breath escaped in her in a sigh of relief. The portal had worked. She was back.
Tea lost no time in scrambling to her feet. She glanced around the empty classroom, re-orienting herself. She pulled up short when she saw Ryou's body slumped on the floor less than foot away from her. His shirt and jacket were both off, and he was wearing his dark blue uniform pants, instead of the jeans she'd last seen him in, but otherwise he looked so similar to how he'd appeared in those last minutes in the Shadow Realm that her breath caught. She bent over him, shaking him gently. His eyes stayed closed, and he was just as unresponsive as before. A good thing, she realized belatedly, looking down at herself. Below the waist, she was neatly dressed in her uniform skirt, neatly belted as always, white knee socks, and loafers. Above the waist, she was completely nude. The Spirit's snide comment about her state of undress echoed in her head, and, much to her annoyance, she had to admit he was right—about this at least. She couldn't let Ryou see her like this.
Frantically, she scoured the room until she found her bra, cotton undershirt, and pink jacket and scooped them up in her arms. In her frazzled state, every second seemed an eternity, but it was really the work of a moment. She was out the door and halfway down the hallway when a horrible thought dawned over her. What about Ryou? Her stomach plummeted. Surely, he'd wonder on awakening why he was shirtless and not tied up the way he'd been before the Spirit took over.
She didn't have time to re-dress fully, but she pulled the undershirt on, just in case the Spirit didn't slow Ryou down quite enough, and hurried back into Ms. Evans' classroom. Adrenaline pulsed in her veins as she snatched up Ryou's undershirt and uniform jacket off the floor where they had been fallen. She leaned over Ryou. The Millennium Ring gleamed dully around his neck. Tea's breath caught. Her fingers itched to rip it off his neck and chuck it out the window. But that hadn't done any good before and she was too afraid to touch it for fear it would pull her back into the Shadow Realm—or worse, trap Ryou inside it forever. After a few agonizing seconds of indecision, she decided to leave it be.
As carefully as possible, she pulled the thin white undershirt over his head and down over his torso. It was a delicate operation, and Tea was terrified that at any second Ryou's eyes would pop open. If he had actually been asleep like he looked, he almost certainly would have woken up. But sleep was not what held him still and quiet now, and so her clumsy fumblings did nothing to disturb him. Tea quickly realized the real enemy here was time. Tea didn't quite understand how the Spirit was delaying Ryou from returning to consciousness—and she was not at all sure she wanted to—and so there was no telling when the spell would be broken.
Abandoning all her efforts to be careful in favor of speed, Tea dragged the dark blue uniform jacket around Ryou's shoulder, stuffing his arms down the sleeves. It wasn't an easy process; Tea had dressed her fair share of baby dolls and Barbies in her day, but a full-sized living, breathing human with limp, fleshy limbs was another matter entirely. But at last she got the jacket on, pretty neatly, she thought, and fastened the long row of buttons. There. He looked presentable now.
She got to her feet and half-carried, half-dragged Ryou to the principal's chair. She hauled him onto it and arranged him in a sitting position. She didn't bother to fasten all the cords and ties that Bakura had left littered around the wheelbase. Ryou was obviously aware that the Spirit had taken him over; it wouldn't be a shock to discover he'd gotten out of his bounds in the bargain. In any event, since the restraints would clearly not hold Bakura, there was no reason to inflict them on Ryou.
At last, as satisfied with her work as the panicky pounding of her heart would allow, Tea hurried out of the room, mouthing a final "Sorry" in the unconscious Ryou's direction. Now to get away before he woke up. She didn't want him to realize she hadn't listened to his advice about lingering around the Spirit, and she didn't want to answer the awkward questions that would inevitably result. Not to mention that she wasn't exactly presentable right now. Tea paused only to scoop up the rest of her clothes off the floor of the hallway, and then she was hustling down the stairs—one flight, two flights, three. She'd have to face Ryou sooner or later, she knew. But not until she was fully dressed and not until she had sorted out exactly what she planned to do about Bakura's ultimatum.
She felt slightly nauseous just thinking about it. How could the Spirit demand such a thing of her, like she was some kind of cheap whore? She swallowed, remembering how Ryou had wanted to leave the Spirit behind in the Shadow Realm. She'd actually stopped him. She'd actually argued that it would be immoral to leave him, as if the very notion of morality even applied to a being of pure evil like Bakura. How could she—even for a second—dreamed that there was something heroic in the way he'd made her and Ryou run for safety, taking on the shadow demon himself? How could she have imagined that someone like Bakura could have even a glimmer of goodness about him?
And now, because she hadn't had the sense to run when she'd had the chance, she was in this impossible situation. Her arms tightened around the bundle of clothes she carried. Did the Spirit really imagine she would seduce Ryou just on his say-so?
The memory of his menacing gaze blasted over her and she shivered. Yes, yes he did. And for good reason, too.