It was cold, cold enough to regret not wearing sleeves (he could really do with a jacket), and Otogi's breath misted in the feeble light. He imagined it dripped down the sign of his shop - had to imagine it, because the sign wasn't really there anymore.

Or... it was there, somewhere in the twisted wreck, and he just wasn't seeing it. He scanned the pile again, and again, and - wait, so was it there? Was it not there? Was it both at the same time?

Was this what his life had come down to? Schrödinger's sign?

Didn't matter. He stopped looking, and shivered for a while instead. Man, was it cold.

But it was okay. He'd just forgotten the pride and joy of his life, and now, here it was. He hadn't meant to find it, but now the Black Clown lay quite literally at Otogi's feet; not exactly prostrating, but something like it. Languishing, he supposed. Here at some point, then forgotten, now here again, and he was going to forget all about it. Schrödinger's forgotten sign.

... But that was an impossibility, wasn't it? Not thinking about such things could only make him think about the things, and eventually they were going to make his mind up for him. Maybe they already had. Actually- yes, yes they had.

He turned and walked across the road, towards the yellow banner that lay, lifeless, just waiting to be hit by passing traffic.

He could sympathize with that.

"So, how did you get here? You look like the type to have a car."

An interesting question. Was he trying to... was it somehow about the furniture? Otogi squinted, trying to figure out how he should handle this mess. Come clean? No, not an option. Lying? Definitely an option, but that option had options. Stay off the topic he didn't want to get into, and therefore on Kajiki's topic? Possible. "I walked," he ventured after a moment, and watched carefully for a reaction.

Kajiki was, apparently, not one for showing subtle expressions. With a wide smile, he shoved Otogi into the fishy-smelling back-room, which was only acceptable at all because Kajiki was so much bigger than him, and as such his striding was much faster than Otogi's efforts. It was either get shoved, or get stepped on. "Ah, so you're one of those climate hating naturalists types! Me too, me too. But I mean, I was just asking because you probably don't want to go back that way now you've gone and said that stuff to Kaiba? Seriously, those hitmen and all. Though they're pretty good for... you know, hitting? I guess?"

Hitmen: good for hitting. If that wasn't a Jounouchi-ism, Otogi didn't know what was. Maybe this guy was some sort of long lost, definitely adopted cousin? He had the whole idiot routine down, just with more muscle to back it up. Kind of a Jounouchi 2.0, but then that would be admitting that Kajiki was an improvement, which he certainly wasn't. "He won't mess with me," Otogi grinned, and tossed his hair a bit just to prove the point. Yes, he did have very unmessable hair. "I'm pretty much... Well, you could say immune. See, he's not going to hurt a friend of Yugi's."

(Or, at least, someone who hung around Yugi a lot. And been there to watch all his triumphs, including that one time at his own expense. And had accidentally slept in his bed at least once on that stupid airship. On top of him. Shirtless. Sleepwalking, definitely not a fun thing - though in his defence, everyone had done it. Otogi had always blamed the weird movements of a craft thousands of feet in the air.)

"What, Yugi-?" Understanding dawned almost immediately - because of course. Everyone knew Yugi Mutou, who was effectively the coolest kid in the school without actually fulfilling any requirements for the cool part. The guy everyone knew, whether they liked it or not, wanted to or not. Whether Otogi liked it or not, come to think of it - he was just about chained to the little king's side.

"Yes. Yugi." Whoops. Had that come out just a little too scornful? A little too rude?

No, Kajiki's eyes were as wide as those ugly two-dollar dinner plates Otogi had accidentally smashed back there. "Yugi? As in the Yugi?!" The big guy puffed out his chest, drawing himself up to quite the towering height. It was probably meant to be more pride and less intimidation, but it almost made Otogi want to reach for a weapon. There was just something about someone so obviously capable of murdering him right here... doing that. Something about the muscles, maybe. Lots of aggressive flexery under the ill-fitting apron and even worse-fitting white cotton singlet, however unintentional it might have been. "I actually lost once to him. I know, that sounds totally unbelievable, right, but I lost to the Yugi."

"The Yugi?" Otogi asked. It came out a lot fainter than he intended, but he couldn't help sounding stunned when he actually sort of was. The Yugi? That's a thing now? And people seriously boast about... Oh, when will it end?

"THE Yugi!" Kajiki laughed; it rang all around the room. One of those audio-controlled toy dogs actually started scrambling across the big table reserved for donations of all kinds, emitting the sorts of noises Otogi felt belonged firmly in the 'cat' category. "I mean, what else can you call him, right?! You say THE Yugi, and everyone totally knows. You say Yugi, and it's like, oh, but I know another Yugi. But THE Yugi? It can only be THE Yugi..." He scratched his head. "Made sense when I was thinking it, I swear. He totally whooped me. Anyway, so - let's get you signed up..." And without waiting for an answer, Kajiki strode over to the aging, battered filing cabinet. He started to go through various drawers - the ones he could actually drag open, anyway. Soon, the floor was littered with forms apparently intended for the police, and blue-and-yellow brochures labelled with cheerful titles such as HOW TO SAFELY DISPOSE OF NEEDLES and POISONOUS SPIDER IDENTIFICATION GUIDE.

"Volunteer form... volunteer form... let's see... It's been a long while since anyone signed up here! Under me, anyway. Gee, wonder if we have any forms left?"

In the interests of not scaring himself silly via brochure titles before Kajiki could even start explaining the job, Otogi let his gaze trail around the backroom. Anywhere but the cabinet would do, really. There was the table covered in donations, some cages full of clothes, a toy dog now kicking and meowing on the floor, and a kitchen off to the side (or at least a closed door marked KITCHEN). No people besides himself and Kajiki, certainly no manager. The most notable thing in the room was the grubby screen, split into four quarters; four views of the shop. The cameras cycled every few seconds, showing views of the staff room at times, but never whatever room laid behind the door marked KITCHEN.

Over on the donations table, Otogi thought he spied a white oval coffee-table's top, but couldn't be totally sure about that one. The brown stains made him think coffee, though.

No wait, that hole... it wasn't a coffee-table's top at all, but a...?

Otogi swallowed. "Kajiki. Is that a toilet seat?"

Kajiki looked up, like this was the most normal thing in the world, and honestly Otogi asking this question was just a little bit silly. He even did that stupid thing Jounouchi did sometimes, scratching at the back of his neck. As though sensible questions made him itchy-! "Yeah. Donated this morning. Okay, so you wanted to work with..."

Anything to get off the topic of toilet seat donations. Used toilet seat donations. That he might have to deal with in the future. "Katsuya Jounouchi?"

"Hey! HE whooped me too! But in a good way!" Kajiki grinned. So he did know these guys, or maybe was just horrendous when it came to boasting. Otogi would ask more, but figured that with someone like Kajiki, it'd probably all get told at some point in the next few seconds. Sure enough: "Did you know, I actually kinda gave up on Duel Monsters after that? I just can't compete with guys that tough. Man, if you know both of 'em you must be REALLY good, though. And Kaiba, too? Wow, you really just know all the good players."

Otogi smirked. All the good players... Perhaps, but he was still the best at his own game. Besides that one incident. "I guess so. I mean, I used to run a game shop."

"Did you?!" Instant excitement from Kajiki, instant regret in Otogi's mind. Oh, that was definitely not something he should have mentioned, though then again, better he mention it first than Kaiba. He did want to work here, after all - without any horrible rumours drawing attention to him. That would only make things harder."Man, was it like... Duel Monsters? Was it? Wait, what happened to it?!"

Nothing I wanna talk about, thanks very much! His fault for bringing the topic up, though; now he would have to make it disappear. Speaking of which - Otogi looked about again, just in case the manager had suddenly appeared. They had not, so he was obliged to ask: "Uh, where's the manager again-?"

"Oh, just behind you."

And at the moment Kajiki said that, Otogi felt warm on the back of his neck. He whirled around, topping his chair, and came face to face with a- nothing. What the-? He'd surely be in full fight-or-flight mode, if not for the guy's uproarious laughter. "Kajiki! That's not funny!"

"Oh wow, you startle! That can't be so good for your card game skills. Personally, I'm ready for anything!" Turning back, Otogi found his new co-worker sporting quite the shit-eating grin, leaning back in the most punchable way he'd seen since Jounouchi had gone and done some similar pose. This freaking guy... "Nah, but really! You have to be really careful, he's really quiet and likes to stand right behind you sometimes. I've trodden on him before and stuff." Kajiki pointed over to the kitchen door behind Otogi, those massive shoulders still shaking with laughter. "Now, see, technically he's behind you. He's just on lunch break at the moment."

"I am? But I just got off-"

It was officially Kajiki's turn to fall out of his chair, scrambling about for some sort of weapon he didn't currently have. "Jesus!" he exclaimed, and then said some other things not worth putting down on paper. Mostly concerning sea life, which was a bit odd, but whatever floated his boat.

Otogi blinked, for his part, and did his best to look like a neutral employee of a respectable shop that definitely didn't sell toilet seats and meowing identity-confused dogs. He also did his best not to make any sudden movements, just in case. Kajiki might think he had startled, but the guy standing over him was the prince of startling. Or at least, the sort of startling that usually ended with multiple suspicious disappearances, if what Otogi had heard was at all correct. "Ah, hello. I... didn't know you worked here?" He adjusted his headband, and tried to find some sort of comfort in the newcomer's features. In comfort, there was safety. Usually. "Or... are you..."

Bakura blinked back at him. Clearly uncomfortable, but then again, he always was. Otogi was pretty sure if he was Bakura, he'd be awfully uncomfortable as well. Being Bakura had to be a very uncomfortable thing, just generally. "...Are you okay, Kajiki?"

"Whoa! You know him as well?!" Kajiki squawked. Bakura tried to help him up off the floor, but the guy hardly needed it; he was already halfway to standing, bracing himself on the donations table. Otogi automatically grabbed onto the other side of the table, so no more furniture would be upended today. "Just wow. How many good duelists do you even know? Me, I'm pretty good, and Yugi, and Jounouchi, and Kaiba, and now you're telling me... Oh! Yeah! I'm fine. Hey, Otogi wanted to work here. You good with that?"

Blink, blink. Bakura could really hold silences, and it never felt like he meant to. He just seemed to space out at fairly inopportune moments, such as right now. And it just got Otogi's brain racing in all kinds of extremely unfortunate directions. For instance: Was he going to have to touch that toilet seat at some point? Did Bakura remember any of what he'd done when the game shop had burned down? Was Bakura really the manager, or was he just assuming because Kajiki had mentioned it? Did that mean Bakura had owned some sort of business or... done something else that somehow qualified him to be a manager? Just how much did Otogi know about the guy? For the love of all things not Slifer, Obelisk, or Ra, would that dog toy ever shut up?

The white-haired teen coughed, and in doing so seemed to remember he should be doing something, like answering. "...Oh, sure. Yep." And picking up the demonic meowing dog, Bakura sat down at the donations table himself, sorting through a pile of tags. He seemed to be rather careful to keep his stare off Otogi; he must be feeling awkward beyond awkward. Otogi would have said something helpful about that, but it'd only have made things more awkward, so he opted to just stay quiet.

Since Bakura was hardly doing anything related to getting Otogi that volunteer position he wanted, it seemed to fall to Kajiki to fetch various forms from the filing cabinet. Which he did - and promptly left, muttering something about the furniture. A bit of a relief, considering the whole fishy smell he had going; it was getting a bit strong in the backroom.

Only then did Bakura shake his head, apparently remembering something or other. Going off his facial expression, Otogi was half expecting him to explain how many had died here; it was nothing short of miserable. "When you've filled out everything, we can decide which shifts are yours. I hope that's all right." He smiled the saddest freaking smile Otogi had ever witnessed, sad enough that he almost wanted to ask Bakura to go back to the miserable-looking one. "Please don't miss anything..."

Seizing the pen, Otogi gave it a couple of good shakes, getting ready to sign his name with a minimum of embarrassment. He'd had quite enough embarrassment, thanks very much. "That's easy."

"It is?"

Oh yes, yes it was. Otogi smiled his most winning smile, and hoped it was careful enough. But not too manipulative. Bakura might just catch onto that, if he wasn't careful. "Yeah, I want whatever shifts Jounouchi got."

"Meow?"

If the apparently-a-manager was suspicious of this, he didn't show it. Instead, he picked up the meowing dog toy, and started looking for an off switch. Which really, he should have done about five minutes ago, but who knew what was going on in the guy's brain. "Of course, that's every Thursday. Afternoons..."

Delivered with the kind of tone usually reserved for funerals, naturally. Otogi pretended to think about this riveting piece of information, while he signed away his Thursdays in blue ink. Few other personal details were filled in, of course - no need to overcomplicate what was already rather overcomplicated. Not like he'd expected one of Jounouchi's actual friends to show up! "I had a question, actually." And despite Bakura's squirming, he did his best to make eye contact. "Do you know anything about the Black Clown? What happened to it, I mean?"

"I'm afraid I don't." Bakura's gaze went completely unwavering. Unnerving, even; he picked up a screwdriver to deal with the dog toy, and held it like a knife he was about to stab with. Clearly, this was a subject he had feelings about. Great. "I don't remember things. You... I thought you'd know that." He frowned a little. "I thought I told you. Did I remember that wrong, too...?"

Oh yes, you've given me that before. Quite a few times. And between that and the fact that I think my friends are keeping secrets from me, excuse me if I don't believe your bullshit!

But it did seem like Bakura was being honest - or was he? Sure, he was frowning, and usually Bakura only frowned when he actually meant something, but... If he couldn't be trusted to remember things, could he really be trusted at all? Otogi bit his lip, thinking, deciding, and Bakura apparently decided that meant he needed to say more. "I don't remember how I got this job, you know. This manager position. I just woke up to Kajiki banging on the door and saying I was the manager now, so I've been coming here every day. It's... it's kind of scary, to be honest."

How that was relevant, Otogi had no clue. Well, maybe it was a little relevant, but it certainly wasn't the information he was mining. A waste of time, all round; time to get out of here and come back on a Thursday. Like... today. Today was a Thursday, wasn't it? So he'd be spending some time here today. With the weird fish-smelling man, and Kaiba. And completely unprepared for Jounouchi. If it'd just been tomorrow...

Otogi sighed, signing off on the last of the papers. "It sure seems like an important thing to just forget, Bakura."

A screw finally came out of the dog toy, and rolled off the table. Bakura thoroughly ignored it. "Yes! I know! I really need someone to help me figure it out-!" Such enthusiasm, and so suddenly! Bakura seemed to be on the verge of asking Otogi outright, but then he stopped and hung his head. "Well, anyway, I'm... just glad you're here. That you're listening." The papers were thumbed through; the parts Otogi had left blank were simply left alone. Typical Bakura - probably too scared to even ask for him to redo. All the better for Otogi, as much as he had to wish that Bakura hadn't been here at all. "And you really want to work here, right? You're not just worried about me?"

Otogi shrugged. "I didn't know you were the manager," he said. "I thought I'd work here because Jounouchi did, is all." True enough, maybe too true. But it was pretty useless outright lying to Bakura. He knew that from experience; Bakura might look a bit frail, but his mind was like a steel trap in reality. If he lied to Bakura's face, he'd just end up tangled in it down the line.

"I see." The dog toy finally stopped moving, and Bakura put the batteries down next to it. Like he'd just reaped a soul, say. Otogi shuddered, without really meaning to.

What's this feeling-?

Bakura stood then, hands immediately going into his pockets. "I guess I might as well show you the till."