Chapter Three: Identity Thief
"Rare card...rare card..." The two words echoed in my mind. I snapped to alertness. There were voices in the tomb, those of the moaning wind and whispering sand. Yet they never spoke this clearly. Though I feared I would behold only blackness heaped upon dark as I had so many times before, I opened my eyes. I bit back a gasp. I was back in my old classroom at Domino High School. I touched the desktop cautiously, bracing for disappointment. Surely my hand would pass through the smooth, polished wood. It must be a hallucination, this classroom. Starvation or thirst had set in, transforming the tomb into this familiar place. My finger trembled atop the desk and remained there. I clenched my fist tightly. Looking down I realized I was clad in my navy blue school uniform. The gold hoop glinted upon my chest. Impossible! I seethed mentally. It hadn't been a dream!
A gleam of light caught my eye. I looked toward the window, where Mutou Yugi sat. I realized it was he who had mentioned the rare card. In fact, quite a crowd had gathered around him. I joined them, not really understanding my compulsion to do so. The card game I recognized as Duel Monster, a game quickly growing popular in the city.
Yugi rose, again victorious. My heart beat faster. Around Yugi's neck glinted a golden pyramid the size of my two fists. In the exact center of the pyramid, a single eye stared tirelessly. It seemed to lock gazes with the eye I myself wore. I squeezed my eyes shut. Somehow I had to get away from that stare!
Nausea swept me down the hall into the deserted bathroom. Before the sink I waited for the sickness to come. It had vanished, however, overcome by dread. For the smooth glass showed someone tall lurking behind me. Beside him, I appeared a frightened effeminate parody of myself. He had my wild hair, but towered over me by a head. His eyes were fathomless pools of boundless darkness. My pulse quickened. Even now I could sense that if he struck, it would be as quick as a snake and deadly as serpent's poison. Slowly I turned to confront him. There was no one behind me, however. Puzzled, I looked again to the mirror. My sinister other self sneered and cupped his hands around the ring that he too wore around his neck. The possessive glint in those demonic eyes was unmistakable. You, the sinister eyes said without a word, belong to me.
Shaken, I fled the room. In the deserted halls, there was noone to impede me. I started to walk home. My hands trembled, and I soon broke into a run. The ring bashed against my chest. At last, gasping for breath, I came to a stop beside a sewer grate. Shaking violently, I snatched the ring from my neck and gripped it with my sweaty palms. I felt certain that now it was the source of my trouble. It would cause no more, however. I would see to that. I bent over the grate and let the slender gold hoop fall. Long I listened for the splash, but hearing none, was forced at last to be on my way.
My heart, though relieved of its burden, strangely felt heavier than before. I strode home in the waning sunlight, my shadow long across the pavement. At my house, I let myself in. Mother and Father were in the kitchen. They greeted me, but did not behave as if I had been missing at all. In fact, they seemed tight-lipped as if concealing tremendous anger toward me. It worsened as the evening wore on. At last at dinner I inquired about their silence.
"Why, Ryou!" Mother chose her words carefully. "You've been so sullen these past few days...like you haven't been yourself at all..."
Chills overtook me as I thought of the other reflection of myself I had glimpsed in the mirror, the image that had vanished when I had turned around. His blazing eyes framed a heart formed of time-sharpened stone.
"Ryou." Father broke the silence. "I realize that you must see me as an intruder in this house." He sighed deeply. "You've every reason. I haven't been much of a husband or father."
I almost choked. "I..."
"For that reason, I have accepted a job at a dig in Iraq. I will leave tomorrow. Your mother and I have talked it over. She agrees that it is best."
I noticed for the first time how red and puffy Mother's eyes were. Rage ignited in me as the reality of the situation sank in. Whatever harm that being in the ring had caused, I had to undo!
"You can't!" I burst out.
"Ryou!" Mother shouted. "Just stop! You selfish, arrogant, manipulative...!"
I gasped and swallowed hard. What had I done save for making matters worse? In that instant I realized that my father was probably the only other person who knew of the strange properties of the hoop, the only one who would not find my own observations delusional, ranting, raving - utterly insane. The ring somehow knew this and had gotten rid of him. Never in my life had I felt so alone.
My mother rose from the table, hiding her face in her hands. Father remained silent, making no effort to stop her.
"Wait! Mother!"
"Don't, Ryou!" Father's anger set the dining room shadows fluttering.
I stared at him. Something inside of me gave way. Furious, I strode to my room and slammed the door so hard that the walls jumped. Despair clawed at my heart. I had so much damage to account for. How much more remained for me to uncover?
I began to wonder about Mutou Yugi. Where had his item come from? Perhaps, I thought, he could explain my strange experience. As I lay on my bed, my mind wandered. Why dwell on what had happened? The hoop would be staring through a blur of sewage right about now, after all.
Is it? The raspy whisper turned my blood to ice. The serpentine tone bespoke of cunning and confidence.
I could conceive of only one man who could be its keeper. "It is!" I shouted aloud, determined to be strong.
Look about your neck. The dangerously soft voice had an almost hypnotic effect on me. My traitorous hands stole to my neck, where my fingers closed around the rope. I tore away as if I had been burned. I lay staring at my shaking hands. Sewer slime coated my fingers. "No," I groaned. "How can this be?"
I have chosen you. We will never be parted now, despite your most desperate wishes.
"Show yourself, coward!" I snarled. I leapt from the bed and stared about the room. However, I could discern no figures, even in the deepest of the shadows.
I am no coward! His voice, once sinister, yet melodically sneering, turned harsh and ferocious. Fool! Each time you look on the Sen Nen ring, you look upon me. Aren't you the coward for fleeing me?
"Shut up!" I cried, losing control. Terror had seized me and was choking the sanity right out of me. I threw open the window and flung the Sen Nen Ring into the night. Panting, I slammed the window shut. Apart from my ragged gasps, nearly sobs now, the room remained silent.
Trembling violently, I made my way back to bed. There I lay for an indeterminable time in the half-light that had brought me to this hell. My mind, though aswarm with thoughts, could not isolate one of them. I remained this way, paralyzed atop the bed, neither dreaming nor sleeping, nor resting nor thinking until the first gray of morning crept in through the windows.
I rose with foreboding that resonated with my every heartbeat. Today, I sensed, the problem would only worsen. Sure enough, the instant I stepped into the hallway, my mother cried out an almost hysterical plea. I sluggishly moved toward her bedroom door. It was bolted.
"Dear, you simply can't leave! Ryou has been acting stranger since he's found out that you're leaving! He was tossing and turning all night! I doubt that he slept for a minute. Then I found that hideous eye ring by the dumpsters this morning... I can't understand it, darling!" She began to hiccup and sob by turns. "While you were here, he wouldn't even let me touch that loathsome thing. He was as vicious about it leaving his neck as a lion losing its catch of meat. Yet yesterday...he acted as if it repulsed him."
I could almost imagine her fingers closing around the icy gold as my other self's lips curled into a smirk.
"I can't deal with it myself! If anyone's to blame, it's you! You're never here when it's important!" she raged.
"Aren't you being selfish?" Father asked after a fitful silence.
"If there's any selfishness involved, I'm almost certain that it's yours! Your other terrific gift to the poor boy!"
I tore away from the door. Sick curiosity kept me in the hall, however. Had she really found the ring by the dumpsters? How was it possible? They were outside of Mother's window, on the opposite side of the house to me.
"Ryou!" Mother gasped when she opened the door. Her eyes were red from crying and her knuckles white. Sure enough, the Sen Nen Ring dangled from her wrist, a giant's bracelet. "I think that we need to get help! This is too much for the two of us to deal with alone, even though we have..." She sniffled, searching for the words. "A pretty good track record in the past." She smiled at her own bitter joke.
I did not smile with her, however. Beside her hovered opaque mist formed of ghost's clothes and shadow capes. I stared at it.
"Ryou? What are you looking at?"
It was as if I had been punched in the stomach. I reeled backwards, out of my body. "Don't just stand there, idiot!" That cynical, appalling voice...that of my other self. As if in a dream, I watched as I snatched the Sen Nen Ring from Mother. She gasped and jerked away, cowering. My other self made as if to lunge at her. Mother screamed and slammed the bedroom door shut.
My other self darted down the hallway to the door and flung it open. I was propelled along, irresistibly, as if I were a kite looped around his wrist. He sprinted down the boulevard that ran in front of our house, upsetting pedestrians and traffic alike. He seemed to have no regard for his own safety. Yet, I mused, why should he? It was my stolen body after all. It was as if he had a destination in mind. We rounded many corners, his tennis shoes slapping the pavement, his breath coming in ragged spurts. I on the other hand, did not tire. I simply followed, shapeless mist formed of the cobwebs that cloud mind and memory. I vaguely could tell that we were en route to Domino Piers. Through a haze confusion and apathy, I wondered what he sought there. Beside the warehouses, my other self threw himself to the ground. His shoulders and breath moved as a bellows, expelling a woosh of air with every powerful compression. I crossed my arms, doing my best to imitate his sinister expression. "Why is it that I can now see you?" I demanded. "And why did you...save me?"
My other self snorted. "I did nothing for your sake!" He held the Sen Nen Ring before him, admiring it. "Surely you realize that without your body I am useless? If your body is imprisoned as that horrid woman meant to do, it is the same as death to me."
Chills raced up and down my transparent arms. My other self, with his savage eyes, wilder hair, and ferocious, animal-like breathing, burned with fiery hatred of all who would bar his will. He would be a prime candidate for a mental institution.
He laughed. "Your analysis is only partially correct," he said.
"You can read minds..." I said it dully. My fear had long spilled over. It would only be a matter of time before it drowned me. My other self was stronger, infinitely so!
"A facade of madness tricks people into carelessness. They make mistakes that they would not usually. Of course with you," he leered at me. "Such a game is unnecessary."
Somehow I held his gaze. "You can see me, and I can see you. Why?"
The spirit of the Sen Nen ring looked up from admiring his former prison. "I took you by force. You resisted those other times, and you saw me. Yet when I did not... I simply vanished. It has something to do with this body we share in common." He appraised my slim, white limbs with a sneer.
As I endured these humiliations, I found myself thinking of Mutou Yugi. Why had I simply reappeared in my body when he had been there? Was it possible that one eye could offset the effects of the other? Perhaps Yugi could help me get my other self under control. Did he have these sorts of problems with his item?
I looked at Yami Bakura as I had come to think of him. Had he heard my thoughts? No. He couldn't have. He continued to look from the body he infested to the Sen Nen Ring. Suddenly I seized upon a plan. If he could knock me out of my body then surely I could do likewise to him. Clearly I would never be without the Sen Nen Ring. Nonetheless, if I could reach Yugi in time, the problem might never repeat itself. I drew on all my mental reserves and flung myself at Yami Bakura.
He grunted, but flew out of my body, resuming that opaque, misty form. Though my body was already tired, terror fueled my spirit. I repeated my Yami's mad dash in reverse, from Domino Piers to my house. It was farther than I ever imagined. I sagged by the gate, gasping. My lungs dripped fire; my body pulsed with myriad tangled emotions I might never unknot. Even as I leaned against the gate, which swung open and shut with almost spectral abandon, I realized that I could not stop here and go back to the life my Yami had abandoned for me. Bitterness, acrid and sharp ballooned in my lungs. My hand strayed to the Sen Nen Ring, to the eye that never shut. I had to find Yugi! I looked about for the curls of smoke that meant my other self was nearby. Finding none, I set off again for the Game Shop. It was only a few streets away. These I sprinted as if pursued by Yami Bakura himself. Panting, I sighted the Game Shop in the distance. The neon lights were a beacon, beckoning me to safety. At last I stood under their comforting illumination. I composed myself as best as I could and entered the shop. Cards lined the shelves and colorful posters crowded the walls.
"Irashai!" Yugi's grandfather, Sugoroku Mutou, called to me. "How can I help you today?"
"I'd like to speak to Yugi about something important," I said.
"Gomen ne," Sugoroku said. "Yugi's not here."