Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

The Butterfly Effect

Chapter LXXXVI

I should not have been as happy or as calm to know, to realize that Bakura Ryou was alive.

"You have got to be shitting me…"

"Was that Bakura?!"

"How in the… I thought he was dead!"

"…"

I should not have felt any elation, should not have been capable of smiling as Yami met my gaze, if only for a moment, while we headed back inside.

I still did. I still felt like the world, the situation we'd been in readjusted itself, and that we now needed to move forward. I still was able to breathe, to take a deep inhale and exhale before excusing myself from the next match when my number didn't come out — Jonouchi against the semi-decent man, somehow, I doubted this would go poorly — and watching Yami hesitate before nodding. And I still went to my room, with the full knowledge, with the full idea that this… this wasn't just a break.

This was me doing what I was best at.

I settled in my chair with a breath, looking outside for only a moment before spilling out the contents of my pack onto the table in front of me. I pulled out my deck, laid it in front of me with the cards that I had pulled out previously or, in Silver Screen — Mirror Wall's case, still had to put in before setting up my traveler's notebook and looking through the information that I had accumulated before starting to jot down the additional knowledge that I had accumulated throughout the tournament along with the extra Jonouchi had just given me. And I couldn't help but settle back once done, doing something I hadn't done in way too long.

… Five. Six counting mine. The sun was shining brightly, even brighter than it ever had with the addition of a god card to his arsenal. The darkness was sleeping somewhere in the medical bay, held down by flimsy strings that, I doubted, would last the entire quarterfinals. A well, a familiar well was close to the darkness, absorbing the little light the latter would let through. A sword, sharp and unyielding was getting ready to strike and using every tool at its disposal. And, in a corner, in a room one away from mine, an eye broke the barrier of time and before returning with little more than what it left with.

Ishizu. That meant… Can't say I was surprised.

I took a breath, and leaned towards the table again, this time towards the cards. There was no way I was powerful enough. There was no way, no matter what the Agents believed, that I was pulling out of this unscathed. He was going to attempt the worst and the best I could do was struggle to get an edge in and get him to reveal the worst. I was going to be fighting against the devil and a god with no way to avoid it, and there was no way to tell in what state I'd come out of it on the other side, certainly after the Dragon God's answer to the Thief.

… To think that I'd been hoping to talk to Mokuba after all this.

I pulled out Spirit of the Gentle Breeze and slotted in Silver Screen — Mirror Wall. I put my pencil into the refill after adding a few notes and putting my deck back together before slotting it into my Duel Disk. I hesitated before grabbing one of the refills, the one that Mokuba had poured his heart into, and slotted it into my jacket's inner pocket which I then put on before heading out.

And I stopped as I got right outside my door, finding myself looking into the direction I could feel the eye… and its holder's sudden hesitation.

Fritz, I'd shifted something again. Not enough to change the future, but enough for upset. Not surprising, I wasn't trying to change it. Kaiba was.

And would.

I smiled, shook my head, and headed towards the top of the blimp. I halted to take a breath as I got back up there, knowing, just knowing that, whatever I saw on the other side, it would only be confirmation of my deductions.

This was what Lilith had, ironically, been preparing me for. This was where I proved my dedication. And I would.

I opened the door and found my heart stopping.

The Sky Sage: Things never go as planned, and this is no exception.