The sun is setting over the Domino City port.
Tea is sitting on a cardbox, which she has been gently placed on by her friends; it took them a lot of time to calm her down. It's no small deal one moment to hang out with your friend at a cafeteria and the next moment to regain consciousness in a port, realizing that you have been brainwashed for the last 24 hours or so!
Yugi is kneeling next to his female peer, holding her hand and speaking to her, softly and in a low voice. Too low for the people around to hear what the two of them are saying. Yugi is still in his Yami form. Oh, boy, he will have to fill Normal Yugi in on a lot of stuff, when the latter resurfaces!
Good thing, though, Yami Yugi was in control of their shared body when all those things happened. The Pharaoh shudders to imagine how badly his sensitive partner would have been affected if those things had happened before the latter's eyes. If the physically underdeveloped, kinda naive, poor boy had seen his lifelong friend brainwashed by a madman and fighting a life or death duel against Mai, who, come to think of it, also is a good friend of his.
Meanwhile, close to Yugi and Tea, Joey is sitting on the ground, hugging one knee and lazily caressing the concrete with the other hand. He has a melancholic, pensive expression on his face. Duke and Tristan are kneeling next to him, trying to console him.
Duke and Tristan! The latter saw the former kissing Joey just a few minutes ago! And, under different circumstances, he would now be giving his blond besty a ton of (well intended) teasing over the revelation that he's gay.
However, right now, there are other priorities.
'Dude, are you okay?' Tristan gently shakes his besty, trying to make him more responsive.
'Joey, speak to me,' Duke caresses his lover's blond hair.
Joey sighs and, still without raising his eyes to either of the two other lads, finally graces them with a response. 'Look, guys, sorry about all those things I said earlier about hating Yugi and wanting to destroy him...'
'What are you talking about, dude?' Tristan cries. 'That wasn't you speaking. It was that Marik bastard who...'
'Umm, actually,' Duke interrupts Tristan, shyly and hesitantly. 'If I got it right, it wasn't just that Marik jerk speaking. That brain controller exploited Joey's jealousy, a negative feeling that already existed, so that was also a part of Joey speaking...'
Tristan gives Duke a death glare, thus shutting him up.
'Sorry,' Duke whispers, blushing.
'You're so punched, Duke,' Tristan whispers, angrily.
'Umm, on another note, there is no point in whispering, guys,' Joey strokes his nape, with a sad but meaningful smile. 'I'm like inches away from either of you, so I can hear what you're saying anyway!'
Now feeling stupid, both Tristan and Duke take embarrassed expressions.
'Listen, I know that I have been acting like a jerk lately,' Joey stands up. 'I don't know whether it was that incident at the Duelist Kingdom, when I lost my qualification card, that changed me. Or maybe it was the fact that, after the Duelist Kingdom, Mai left with Pegasus. I mean, she left with a man who had priorly tried to kill us. With a man that had tried to kill her! Without even saying goodbye! Who wouldn't be furious in my place?'
With serious expressions on their faces, Tristan and Duke slowly stand up too, listening to Joey, who keeps babbling.
'Or maybe it was that incident the night before my sister's operation, when those scumbags working for Marik humiliated me in that alley. Or, maybe...'
At this point, Joey makes a pause. He sighs and runs his fingers through his blond hair. From now on, he is not babbling; he's talking more slowly and with an even more troubled expression on his handsome face. 'Or maybe it was none of the above. Maybe I had always been envious of Yugi, because, myself, I was just a good for nothing comic relief character. And now I realize that it is not Yugi whom I hate. It is myself!'
Duke and Tristan wide open their mouths in shock.
'I hate myself,' Joey repeats. 'It is my destiny to always end up screwing up and becoming a laughing stock, no matter how hard I try. I'm glad that, at least, my sister got her eye operation and can see again. I would never forgive myself if she remained blind forever.'
'Umm, yeah, about that,' Tristan awkwardly strokes his nape, with a grim expression nonetheless.
Duke glares at Tristan. 'And yet I'm the one saying things he shouldn't say?' he cries sarcastically.
'He has to find out sooner or later, Duke,' Tristan insists.
Joey gasps. 'What's wrong?'
His eyes are now darting from Duke to Tristan and vice versa. Neither of them dares to say out loud that Serenity has gone permanently blind.
'What has happened to my sister?' Joey demands to know.
Once more, silence.
Joey charges at Tristan, grabs him by the collar and violently shakes him. 'I asked, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH MY SISTER?'
'Do you need anything, honey?' a female voice is heard, coming from outside the bedroom.
'No, mom, I'm fine,' he answers. 'Go to sleep. I will play chess some more and then go to bed too.'
'Okay,' his mother replies and walks away, with the sound of her footsteps reaching the lad's ears.
He sighs. He takes his eyes off the chessboard (on which he has been playing chess against himself!) and looks outside the window. The moonlight is falling on his eyes. On his hair, which happens to be a color matching the moon rays.
Ryo Bakura! Not the spirit of the Millennium Ring, mind you! This is the ordinary boy from the modern world, the boy who occasionally hangs out with Yugi's crew.
The boy who never gets a lot of screen time, be it the original series or the youtube parody thereof or an AU fanfic written by a guy in his mid 30s who has nothing better to do!
He hasn't contacted Yugi or his friends since they returned from Pegasuses island. Even though he knew he should. He should have informed them about what happened back there.
Not that he himself knows exactly what happened, mind you. One moment, he was at the stadium, watching the Duelist Kingdom finals. The next moment, he found himself in his room, with no recollection of how he had ended up there and, most importantly, with his Millennium Ring missing.
Why did he not tell Yugi's group about any of this? Well, he was afraid. That golden shit had been ruining his life for so long.
Ever since his father gave this artifact to him, all it brought him was misery, fear, anxiety, isolation. In short, a constant hell. Even whenever he tried to get rid of it, it would somehow magically reappear. That demon in his head, worse than 1000 tinnutuses, deprived him of a normal life.
And now that, for whatever reason, that demon had decided to leave him alone, Bakura didn't want to risk getting into a new hell. That's why he didn't say anything to anyone about it.
However, as it has turned out, his remorse is even worse than what that demonic spirit was doing to him. He has to get this off his chest. He has to talk to Yugi. Tonight!
Yes, he has decided it. The boy puts on his shoes and walks towards the door.
It has got dark. The moon is shining above the Domino City port.
Joey is hollering like crazy, with Tristan and Duke trying to restrain him.
'NO, SERENITY, MY SISTER, NOOO...'
Yami Yugi approaches him. 'Joey, it is not your fault. You did what you cou...'
Joey shoves him away, causing him to step back and almost fall on his butt.
Yugi is gaping at him, not knowing how to react, what to do, how to help his friend.
'Leave him alone, Yugi,' Tea places her hand on her peer's shoulder, with a compassionate expression. 'Unfortunately, we cannot help him right now.'
That moment, Yugi notices Mai doing something. What is she...
'Mai!' Yugi yells. 'Do you think this is the right moment to put together your locator cards to see where the finals will take place?'
'Why not?' Mai shrugs, seemingly with insensitivity, though she actually does care about Joey too. 'It seems our little group will always face one drama or another. So this moment is as right as any other moment. And I want to finally find out where the Battle City finals will take place.'
Yugi sighs.
When Mai has finished assembling the puzzle, a map appears. And, above the map, a tiny hologram appears. It's Mokuba.
'Greetings, proud duelist,' the underage heir smiles. No, he's not speaking right now. This is a recorded message. 'First of all, congratulations for qualifying for the quarter finals of the KaibaCorp's tournament. The next duels will take place tomorrow in the evening, at the stadium the map is showing you. Until then, you have ample time to rest and prepare your deck as well as yourself for the next challenge. Just try not to be late, for the KaibaCorp airship will take off at exactly nine o clock. If you're late... well, too bad for you!'
And, with those words, Mokuba's hologram disappears.
Some silence follows. Well, Yugi and Mai are silent, each of them lost in their own thoughts, with Joey's screams reaching their ears, as if they were coming from far away, though Joey is so close to them and screaming almost at the top of his lungs.
Mai sighs. 'Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow in the finals,' she says and walks away, gracefully.
Yugi turns his head to Tea. 'I guess you, too, should go home, Tea,' he says to his friend. 'After all you have gone through, you need a rest.'
'And a bath,' Tea adds. 'I have been out wearing these clothes for over 24 hours. I shudder to imagine the stink that will be emitted once I'm back home and take off my shoes.'
Yugi and Tea share a laugh. Then they say their goodbyes and walk away, in opposite directions.
In the meantime, Joey has managed to calm down. A little!
'Where is Serenity right now?' he runs his fingers through his hair. 'Is she still in the hospital?'
'Yeah... I think so...' Tristan answers, tentatively.
'I have to go to see her,' Joey declares. 'I know she must hate me right now. I, too, hate myself. I know she will never forgive me. But still, I need to see her.'
'I will come with you,' Tristan announces determinedly. 'In such a moment, you need a friend by your side.'
'I'll come too,' Duke declares. 'In such a moment, you also need by your side a... umm... whatever I am to you, I guess you could use me coming along...'
'Fine, just move your asses,' Joey fumes and starts running, with Duke and Tristan having a hard time keeping up with him.
A tall man is pacing the hotel room. Or is it a tall man?
Nah, it's just Weevil and Rex. The two goofy semi villains have perfected their disguise. They now look like a security guard. Sorta. Well, at least to the extent of being able to trick the security guards at the airship door, if the latter do not look at them very closely. Let us hope the guards will let them in without starting asking many questions. Because, the more time they have to remain like that, with Weevil standing on Rexes shoulders, the greater the chances they will be exposed.
Weevil smiles. 'Tomorrow in the night, Rex,' he says in a low voice, with a meaningful smile. 'Tomorrow in the night, we will put our plan into motion. Now let's get some sleep.'
'Have you realized that this might be the last time we sleep in these bodies?' Rex chuckles.
'Oh, yeah,' Weevil drawls and chuckles as well.
