Akutenshi
Ok, today, I think, is almost the last chapter. Maybe one more after this? Depends... I dunno. I think this'll be the ritual chapter, and next will be tying up the ends. I tried to lengthen it, but couldn't!
Chapter 4-
Yami Bakura's POV:
"Wait a second, they let you just walk in?" My eyes bulged, I imagine.
"Yeah, I guess so. Only a fee for entering. Guided tours if you want them." Seto's eyes scanned the brochure.
"Damn, something of this much importance and they just let people walk around? Why, if they were back in my time, they wouldn't be able to be here, period! Unless they were workers!" I'm sorry, it pissed me off that this holy place could be overrun by... tourists!
"Hence why the documentary talked about reluctance..." Seto mumbled.
"Huh?"
"Nothing." He shook his head. "Just, this little documentary I watched once on the Valley of the Kings. Tourists strip the land of its beauty."
"You should have seen it back when it was young. The beauty of my time, so exotic compared to this."
He put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me with this... look of faith in his eyes. "I believe you." His sapphire-colored eyes penetrated my soul and made my stomach twist in a good way. He was so easy to fall back in love with...
So, as we had exchanged money earlier at the hotel, we paid the Egyptian pounds and entered with groups of other bustling tourists from every corner of the world. Mostly Americans, duh.
I guess we stood out some, given the multiple glances, second glances, and full-out stares that we were gaining. Seto was about a head taller than most of the people. And he wasn't wearing his jacket, so his long, powerful arms shown from the short sleeves of his dark green shirt. Me? I had white hair and was only... Ok, so my body was about nineteen. I myself was millenniums old. But that's beside the point.
I sound I sound rather annoying and chatty, but it's because I'm focusing my mind off of what was coming. I had rather liked having Seto all to myself, not sharing him with my lighter half. But the smile on his face erased any rebellious thoughts I had.
Suddenly, I felt my Ring jerk.
"Whoa!" I started running with it, as not to look even more strange.
"B-Bakura?" Seto chased after me.
My Ring led me outside of the crowds and to a more secluded area. No one was around, given that there were no tombs here. At least, none that were found...
"Here! It's here, somewhere." Yes, I remembered the landscape. Ah, those ruins there, the place where guards stood to direct the workers. And there, a smaller tomb that was hardly worth pillaging. Yes, Malik had found that one, not me. And over there, a worker's burial grave. Yes, it was all coming back now...
"Where's the entrance?" Seto looked around, Copenhagen blue eyes scanning the desert for any clue to the puzzle in which we were partaking.
"Around here somewhere... hidden." My Ring stopped pulling and just glowed. Not just from the sun, but from the power it was receiving from the tomb in whence it came.
"So, where is it?" He sounded a little impatient.
"I don't know..." I started scanning around and walking. "It should be here..."
"Ah!" Seto yelled.
I whipped around in time to see him fall into a hole in the sand.
I started running to the spot. "Seto! Seto, are you ok? My God, if you fell and got hurt-"
"Hey, ow, I'm all right. Just fell down a hole and landed on my ass. Nothing broken, just..." He was silent. I could see the top of his head in the darkness, just barely. "I think we found it."
"Ok, I'm coming in!" Then I realized that we didn't bring any equipment...
"Now Bakura, you're going to have to jump. I'll catch you, ok? And be sure to bring the flashlight, ok?"
I willed myself, and jumped-
"Oof!" I stopped suddenly as Seto caught me in his arms.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, just not used to jumping like that... shoulda brought a ladder." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the flashlight. Turning it on, I saw the ruins in which I remembered from so long ago... Turning to Seto, I saw that he had a few scratches on his face, two near the corners of his eyes.
"You're hurt."
"Hey, a torch." Seto changed the subject and pointed to the wall that my light was trained on. "Too bad we don't have a lighter."
"Actually..." I pulled one out of my other pocket. I started walking to the wall.
"You carry around lighters?"
"Yeah, in case of emergency. I thought there may have been a situation like this, so I brought one. Remember, I was in this tomb before, and I knew how dark is was."
"Oh."
I lit the torch and saw within a radius of our surroundings. Light glimmered off of the jewels that were still here, what Malik and I had not taken. And there was the sarcophagus, against the wall. The lid glinted of gold and jewels, the finally resting place of the High Priest.
"This look familiar?" Seto held a hood of sorts, a type of ancient head protection against the sun. A familiar name was embroidered in Egyptian on it.
"Yes..." I took it. It was mine, from way back then. I put it on, remembering last time.
Across from the sarcophagus was a statue of a jackal. It was made of black stone and in the lay-down position with its delicate front paws curving over the edge. My Ring drew me to it. It glowed brighter than ever as I drew closer and closer.
"I-I think this is where we need to be." I took off the Ring as Seto drew closer. "Here. Hold this." I handed it to him and placed a hand on the giant emerald that lay on the jackal's breast. "Now, concentrate..."
"On what?" But then he seemed overtaken by something- a mystical force. He started chanting in ancient Egyptian, the language of the Pharaoh, the High Priest, and the Sennen items. It was almost as if the High Priest himself had re-risen and was performing it.
I smiled and concentrated on Ryou, and chanted to myself in the ancient tongue. The Sennen Ring glowed and an image of Ryou came from it. Seto's expression did not change; his eyes seemed dead, as if he were a moving statue of the finest stone.
But then, he snapped out of the trance and shook his head. His arm drooped down. "W-what happened?"
"I don't know." I should be unified now... but I didn't feel any different.
"The soul in question cannot be revived." A powerful voice declared.
Seto gasped. "What? We performed the ritual and everything! And we aren't out of time, we still have a few more days until the new moon! Why not?" He hit at the statue, pounded on it till his wrist bled on the worn, chipped stone. He cried, and blood flowed from the wound near his eyes, which had opened up from the stress. Tears of blood, ketsurui, mixed tears of sadness.
"Why-why can't he? Why? Damn you! Damn you... why?" He let out another sob.
"Seto..." I felt so helpless. He was despaired and I felt myself to blame. "Why?" Tears flowed from my eyes as well, droplets at first, then fell as a stream down my cheeks. I don't know what the hell I started doing next.
"I invoke Ra." I whispered. "Anubis, take the soul of the damned and renew the soul of the pure. Ra, remove the darkness with light, replace my soul on the Earth with my light." As I said, I was mindlessly babbling. But what came out seemed to work.
The jewel on the statue's breast glowed a brilliant green. A light shot out from it and pierced straight through my heart.
"Ah!" Pain engulfed my body, my god!
"Bakura!" Seto tried to pull me from the light, but to no good. It just hurt more than helped, it was as if a bar had actually materialized through my body. "Bakura, no..." He cried, this time for me...
I forced a smile. "Yami Ryuu, I must. For you and Shiro Tenshi to be together again, I must. I-I don't mind dying if it brings your happiness."
Sure, he'd be trapped for eternity with the Ring as I was, but he'd have Seto.
I resolve, for now and forever, I resolve. May my sacrifice do something good, my worthless life now have meaning. I resolve. I felt myself fading into light.
"Whoa." The light echoed my voice, magnified it. I saw normally, I saw my self from all angles, I felt as if my mind would explode!
I took a step. I felt nothing, but heard the steps as if I had been on tile.
"What is this, limbo?" Was I going to heaven or hell? "Probably hell."
I guessed why it didn't work. Some part of my brain backed out of it, I can tell. So because of me, it didn't work.
"Yami Ryuu... Seto!" Warm tears flooded my eyes and fell. "I don't want to leave you! I-I don't..." I didn't even know if it worked, so he could be all alone... I sank to my knees.
My vision returned to normal and I heard footsteps coming towards me. Looking up, I saw my other half.
"Yami? You and Seto came to get my back." He reached a hand to help me up, which I took.
I only nodded in reply.
"But in your heart you still wanted to be with him."
I nodded again. I didn't feel bad for it, that's how I was.
"And yet here you are, standing at the crossroads, willing to give yourself to let me come back. Why?" He stared at me, his deep dark-brown eyes filled with confusion.
"Because, I couldn't stand Seto being so depressed." I put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched. "He's missed you."
Ryou touched his ring, his wedding ring. "The truth is, another reason it didn't work is because I myself wasn't willing either. Yes, I wanted to come back, but wasn't willing to be a part of you."
"We both want him."
"Love him."
"We both want to go back."
Ryou smiled. "Maybe we really are closer than we thought." He shuffled nervously. "Seto still has your Millennium Ring, so we can use mine." He took it off and held it out towards me. "Take it as well. We both need to be holding it."
I put my hand over his. It was warm and shaking. The Ring hung between us.
He started whispering something, and something flowed from my lips. Egyptian. Our voices flowed together, I felt a strange new sense. I don't know what it was. I felt as if there was another part of me, a new extension to my mind, my very soul.
"Bakura! Ryou!" It sounded so far off, Seto's voice.
Let's go.
Ryou Bakura's POV:
"Seto!" A ringing started in my head. It turned into the chant of ancient priests, louder and louder. "Ah!" I held my ears shut. "Seto!" I squeezed my eyes shut, the pain...!
"Ryou!" I felt arms wrap around me and hold me close. A warm body I knew so well, held me close so many times, and yet didn't. The memories of both halves flooded my mind. Who was I now? Both of them. They were me, they made me up.
My hand grasped a shirt, his. Slowly, the world grew lighter, as if candles were being lit in a dark room, one by one. His silhouette, his smile, his eyes.
"Seto."
"Ryou, you're back." He hugged me again, tears flowing freely down his cheeks, wetting my face and mixing with my tears.
Tears of pain, tears of hope, renewal, gratitude, and love. True love, that could not be described by words. Even if it could, no adjective could express the intensity... only actions could say it.
"Yes, we both are." My whispered. My lips touched his cheek and searched for his lips. To kiss his now...
I felt his tongue enter my mouth. Oh God, the warmth I felt from him... I felt so near him, like we were as one as my two halves.
Slowly, we stood up and I looked around the dim tomb, amazed by it all. Seto walked around me and fastened the Ring around my neck.
"There, now you are Ryou Bakura."
I nodded, happy to be back, happy with the results of this union.
"So, Shiro and Akutenshi as one. Who do they become?"
"Light and Dark create shadows, both yet neither. Kurayami."
"Kurayami Tenshi? Yeah, I like." He pulled me close. Not to kiss me, but to embrace me. I felt his heart beating in unison, my love. If only words could describe... Then we pulled apart and he sighed. "Well, let's get out of here. This place kind of scares me."
I nodded and followed him to the hole.
"We have a problem..." He suddenly mumbled.
"Oh yeah..." We hadn't brought a ladder...
Looking around, I went to see if Malik and I had left anything useful.
I saw a figure out of the corner of my eye. A spirit seemed to apparate before me. The spirit of the priest who rested in this tomb. He pointed to the corner, where a ladder stood.
I nodded.
He too nodded, then waved. He didn't want to bring us harm, but wanted to help. I could see it in his beautiful Copenhagen Blue eyes.
"Seto, a ladder!" I ran over and grabbed it, within inches of the spirit that only I could see.
"Good! You and Malik were smart to have left it."
"We kind of had no choice..."
It was rotted some, but not enough to pose a danger. It was well preserved, and something told me that the High Priest had to do with that somehow.
We climbed up, me behind Seto.
"Thank you, Seto." I whispered, looking at the figure, who nodded and disappeared.
"Here." Seto Kaiba held out an arm and I took it. He helped me up.
"That was interesting."
"Oh yeah." He nodded. "Let's never do that again." He took another look at me. "There are so many restrained emotions in which I wish to put forth right now, but cannot. I would not mind tackling you right here and now, but will control myself."
I smiled. He was being a little perverted, but I so wanted him now too. Ryou had missed him all that time, and so wanted him.
He took my hand and we left.
"Ok Mokuba, calm down. I already have your brother refusing to let me go." I sighed. He was taking it a little hyperly... for good reason.
"Yeah, but oh God! When will you two be home?"
"We're getting back to Cairo tomorrow and a plane the day after. We'll be back by that evening. Hopefully by six or seven."
Seto was laying non-too-gracefully on the bed in his underwear, asleep, his arm still wrapped around my waist.
"Mokuba, I have to go. Go to bed, ok?"
"Do I have to?"
"Yes."
"Aw... guess I'll see you and Seto in a few days."
"Bye Mokuba." I hung up. The sound woke Seto up. Funny, he wasn't usually a light sleeper. He sat up and yawned.
"How's Mokuba?"
"Fine, just waiting for us to some home." I got up and changed into my light shirt and shorts. Then I turned out the light and crawled under the covers.
"So, about what I was restraining earlier..." Seto drew me closer and I let him. I felt his chest against my back. "I missed you, so badly."
"I missed you too, Seto. Half of me was with you, but half was lost."
"But now I have all of you at once." He kissed my neck. I missed him doing that, I've missed him, period. And yet, I had been with him all that time.
It's complex really... but what did it matter now? I was back in his arms, complete. There was nothing I wanted more.
Seto's POV:
We boarded a flight back to Japan. I was so happy and relieved, I didn't notice the stares Ryou and I were receiving. He was asleep the majority of the trip. He must still be tired out from the ritual and... other... never mind.
But sitting there on the plane while others slept, reading a long book, and having Ryou sleeping with his arm around mine and leaned up against me was just peaceful. Lord of the Rings, great book.
Somehow, it was evening, despite the fact we left in the afternoon. It has to do with the rotation of the Earth and all. On the way here, we were moving with the sun, now we were moving against. Complex...
We started going down and people woke up one by one. Each yawned and rubbed their eyes, checked their belongings, and started packing their carry-ons.
"Come on Ryou." I called as I grabbed the luggage and started for the parking lots.
"Coming." He caught up and relieved me of part of my burden. "Was-was my Light half really worth the journey?"
Seto smiled sadly. "Of course, and I would have done the same for your Dark half as well."
"Thank you Seto."
"Welcome. Anything for you, Kurayami Tenshi."
I was going to flag down a taxi, but a car honked.
"Seto, look!" Ryou pointed.
I turned and saw my car. My car. Jounouchi's head was sticking out the driver's window.
"What are you guys doing here?" Ryou asked.
"What are you doing in my car?"
The door opened and Mokuba jumped out. "Seto!" He hugged me and I returned the embrace. "I missed you so much!"
"You were successful?" Yugi asked.
"I'm not trying to kill anyone, am I?" Ryou smiled.
"Hop in!" Jounouchi yelled. "I'm in a particularly good mood. It's not every day one gets to drive one of Kaiba's cars."
This particular one was a limo, so everyone could fit.
"Jounouchi, who let you drive it?"
He pointed at Mokuba, knowing that I couldn't be mad at my little brother.
"Welcome back Bakura!" Anzu greeted.
"It must have been awesome." Honda speculated. "What happened?"
"Yeah, I want to know." This phrase or others like it hovered around.
I told them everything. Err, both of us did. I don't know if they grasped it all, but I told them.
Ryou had fallen asleep again. He could have heaven's slumber when we got home, but I let him fall asleep anyway.
"Hey, who's hungry?" Jounouchi asked.
Various forms of "me" replied.
We ate out at a GOOD restaurant, despite the casual, if not slightly dirty, clothing. I caught a few people mumbling about "kids".
Ryou and I paid for it. What, did you expect Yugi to? The kid works in a card store with his should-be-dead-by-now grandfather. Never mind.
"Luckily, it's summer. School's not back yet." Ryou sighed, leaning against me and putting one arm around my waist. He's going to be a second year in law school. He's trying to become a lawyer, and he's damn good at it in my opinion. He could lie with the most innocent face...
Song of the Chapter:
If Tears Could Bring You Back To Me
Midnight Suns
How will I start tomorrow without you here
Who's heart will guide me
All the answers disappear
Is it too late, are you too far gone to stay best friends forever
Did you ever have to go awayWhat will I do you know, I'm only half without you
How will I make it through
If only tears could bring you back to me
If only love could find a way
What I would do, what I would give if you returned to me
Someday, somehow, someway…
If my tears could bring you back to me…
I've called you a notion if you'd sail on home again
Waves of emotion will carry you and all they can
Just luck will guide you and your heart will chart the course
Soon you'll be drifting into the arms of your true north
Look in my eyes; you'll see a million tears have gone by
And still they're not dry…
If only tears could bring you back to me
If only love could find a way
What I would do, what I would give if you returned to me
Someday, somehow, someway…
If my tears could bring you back to me…
I'd hold you close and shout the words
I only wish were before
For one more chance, for one last dance
(?)
And I would laugh and know…
If only tears could bring you back to me
If only love could find a way
What I would do, what I would give if you returned to me
Someday, somehow, someway…
If my tears could bring you back to me…
If only tears could bring you back to me
If only love could find a way
What I would do, what I would give if you returned to me
Someday, somehow, someway…
If my tears could bring you back to me…
Ok, I admit that woulda been better towards the beginning, but that's beside the point. Rather, I was trying to find a song having to do with reuniting, but found that this came to mind. Thank you Pokemon... I love this song, even if I did hear it on a Pokemon CD. But I liked Pokemon, so blah. And no, I could never find all the lyrics...
So, what do peeps think so far? I'm definitely going into a writing career, maybe write the original story that I'm working on now, then publish it when I turn eighteen. Damn the fact I'm only fourteen.
Bakura looks like he could be a lawyer, I swear!
Ok, maybe two more chapters if I can extend it... yeah, maybe. The chapter with Mokuba... then ending... yep, two more! -^_^- Short chappies, but oh well! But this chapter sucked! It sucked! It wasn't angsty enough nor anything else! It sucked! **slaps self**
DeathStar... **sniffles** That was mean...! I tried...! **sniffles cough hack gag choke die**
Aiden: Crap...
Micheal: **pokes her with his foot** I think she...
Quatre: I'll use this card! **places a card on some invisible... thingy** Author reborn!
Wildwolf: Nani...?
Wolfmon: Quatre, stupid joke. Very, very stupid joke. Bad joke, joke doesn't deserve to live.
Quatre: -^_^-'...
Wildwolf: Yeah, that's my view on things that hurt mentally, see them as comedy. At least try, lest I go depressive. Blah... And I do admit that MANY other stories are angstier. I've probably written angstier. But hey, I thought it was good for my capabilities. Neh... I'm in an angsty mood, still cause of Saturday. Seto-san... **sniffles**
But hey, it's cool being one of the only Seto/Bakura writers. I'm not the ONLY one, that has pros and cons. Pro: I'm not alone. Con: I'm... not alone. Loss of uniqueness. But hey, I released something and changed something, so I feel damn special! I released the plague of Seto/Bakura kawaiiness! Sayonara minna-chan!
-Wildwolf
The infamous Seto/Bakura writer