Chapter 15
Bakura to the Rescue
A wonderful aroma filled Yugi's nostrils and made his mouth water. He opened his eyes, sat up, and looked at his alarm clock. It was 9:30 in the morning. He never slept that late on a school day. Yugi then sniffed the air again. Something certainly smelled good. It smelled like food, but Yugi knew all too well that his grandfather wasn't the best of cooks.
Yugi slipped out of bed and changed his clothes, and then he ascended down the hall towards the kitchen, which seemed to be the source of that scrumptious smell. As he stepped in the range of the kitchen doorway he could hear the sizzle of food on the stove. The smell was just too good to bear. He closed his eyes and let his nose guide him into the kitchen.
Yugi opened his eyes after stubbing his toe on the table. "Ow!" He yelped. He saw that Bakura and Salomon were both in the kitchen looking at him. Salomon sat at the table with a cup of what looked like coffee in his hand and the newspaper was laid out in front of him. Bakura stood in front of the stove with a spatula in his hand.
"Good morning, Yugi." Salomon said in his kind and elderly voice.
Bakura smiled at Yugi softly and gave him an assuring nod before returning to the stove and continuing to cook.
"Morning, Grandpa. Morning, Bakura." Yugi said with a smile and blushed slightly because of his slight mishap with the table leg.
"You're just in time. Breakfast's almost ready. Isn't that right Bakura?" Salomon said, returning to his newspaper.
"Yes, it is, Sir." Bakura said, still cooking away.
Yugi walked up behind Bakura and peeked around him to see how the breakfast was coming. There was a skillet filled with a large omelet that had an oh-so delightful fragrance. A pan that was next to the omelet contained a package of sausages and they were making a delicious sizzling sound. And there was one more pan on the stove that was turning a batch of pancakes a delectable golden brown.
All the food looked so good. Yugi could practically taste the food. It teased him from the stove. Yugi looked up at Bakura who looked back with a sweet but tired smile.
"Can you get me two plates please, Yugi?"
"Alright, Yugi reached into the cupboard and pulled out two large plates. He handed them to Bakura, who turned off the stove and began to pile food onto the plates.
Yugi drooled as he watched Bakura stack the food onto the plates. Yugi followed Bakura to the table as he served the food. "Eat up." He said with his usual sweet but tired grin.
Yugi sat at the table and picked up his fork, ready to dig, in when he realized something was missing. "Bakura?"
"Yes, Yugi?" Bakura said with a curious voice.
"Something's missing..."
"Oh! Whoops." Bakura spun around and grabbed the bottle of maple syrup off the counter, spun back and placed it on the table. "I'm so sorry about that."
Yugi looked at Bakura wide-eyed and speechless.
Salomon looked at Bakura with a worried look. "Bakura...I think Yugi means that you forgot make any food for yourself."
"Oh, I know." Bakura said. "Just because I'm not having any doesn't mean it's poisoned. Go ahead and eat. Do you not like it?"
"I know you didn't poison it, Bakura." Salomon said with one of his lecturing voices. "And it looks very good. But I'm worried about your health. You need food to live."
"I'm fine. Really, don't worry about me." Bakura said then looked down at his stomach, which was empty again. "I will eat...later. I'm not too hungry now." Truth was that Bakura was really hungry, but he didn't want to upset his stomach by eating like he had the other night. The sandwich Yami Bakura had given him wasn't very much.
Bakura stared down at Yugi's Millennium puzzle. 'I'll eat later...much later...I hope that sandwich can hold me over until I get that puzzle. I'm so sorry, Yugi...'
Yugi took a nice big bite of his omelet. The taste was unbeatable. "Wow, Bakura. You really can cook. Are you sure you don't want any?"
"I'm sure, Yugi." Bakura said with a smile. He shortly left and went downstairs to the shop.
"Done with the comics, Grandpa?" Yugi asked between bites.
"Sure, Yugi." Salomon said ruffling the papers. He pulled the comics out of the paper and handed them to Yugi. Salomon then handed the comics to Yugi, who took them gratefully.
Salomon looked back at his paper. His jaw dropped. His hand stiffed around his coffee cup. His eyes grew large.
"Grandpa?" Yugi looked worried. After Salomon didn't answer, Yugi got up and stood behind Salomon, looking over his shoulder to see what was making Salomon act so strangely.
Yugi also grew speechless as he saw the article.
There, on the page, was an article about a car accident that had happened 2 days ago. It had collided with a train. There had been a women and a teenage boy in the car. What startled Yugi most was the teenage boy's picture. It was Bakura!
Yugi and Salomon were both speechless, but kept reading on.
It appeared, from the witness reports, that the car had slid and hit the train on the driver's side. Bakura had pulled his aunt out of the car and took her a safe distance before the car had exploded. Bakura's aunt was severely injured in the accident, but lived, and had a leg amputated, but she was making a full recovery. Bakura, however, had run from the scene shortly after the car had exploded. His injuries looked pretty severe with glass lodged in his skin. A man had caught him and tried to take him to the hospital but Bakura had been delusional at the time and refused to be taken there. By now, he was believed to be dead.
Yugi was the first to say anything, and his choice of words wasn't much. "Oh, Bakura..."
"I don't understand. Why didn't he tell us?" Salomon said. He put the newspaper down slowly and took a long sip from his coffee cup.
"Grandpa..." Yugi said, almost in terror. "Bakura's aunt...she was a bad person...she did terrible things to him..." Yugi took a quivering breath. "She made him work hard, and she starved him. He lived in the basement. She didn't even care about him. I read a part of his journal. He was planning suicide because he thought no one cared."
"Yugi..." Salomon said, holding out his arms to comfort Yugi.
Yugi welcomed the embrace. He began to cry it Salomon's arms. He cried for Bakura. Poor Bakura who had always worked so hard and been so nice about it and never got anything pleasant from anyone. All he got was pain and suffering. To Yugi, it just didn't seem fair.
2 hours later, Yugi stood in the shop and watched Bakura work. He watched as Bakura lifted heavy boxes full of merchandise and moved them. His muscles strained under the weight of the boxes but he was able to lift them and carry them. One by one, he picked them up and trudged with them to the back of the shop.
Yugi knew he should be on his way to the diner; it was only half an hour till his friends would meet there. There was only about one box at the front of the shop, so Yugi walked over and attempted to pick it up. Yugi clutched the edges and pulled with all of his strength. He just managed to lift the box off the floor about an inch or two before dropping it. "Wow...these are heavy..." Yugi said after a deep breath.
Bakura came back and picked the box up with some strain. "It's alright Yugi..." Bakura said with a huff. He then trudged off to the back of the shop with the large box.
"Bakura," Yugi said as Bakura returned to the counter, "are you sure you don't want to come?"
Bakura looked over at Yugi with a small smile. "It's alright, Yugi. I have way too much work here."
"Nonsense." A voice said coming down the stairwell. It was Salomon's voice and you could see him as he stepped off the last step and into the light. "This place is spotless. You've done a fine job." Salomon took a step closer to Yugi but he still looked at Bakura. "Why don't you go with Yugi and have a good time with your friends?"
"Well," Bakura said. "There's still a lot of work to be done here. I have to unpack the stock and arrange the cards in Alphabetical order..."
"Bakura. Even I'm leaving. I need to go shopping and I wont be back till later."
"I'll be fine here. Don't worry. I can take care of myself. Please. Go ahead."
Yugi looked at Bakura, knowing that Bakura actually could be quite stubborn if he wanted to be. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then. Bye." Yugi open the door and the little bell above it jingled as he left.
"I guess you can stay then...But be careful." Salomon slipped his wallet into his back pocket and he too left, making the little bell over the door jingle.
6 o' clock rolled around. Yugi had spent countless hours with Joey, Tristan, and Tea; Eating, talking, and skating. It had been great for all of them, but good times end. Tristan and Joey had gone back to their homes. Yugi walked next to Tea. He was walking her home.
"Well, this is it." Tea said, coming up to a cute, well taken care of house. "Thanks, Yugi. I had a lot of fun with you and Joey and Tristan."
"Yeah, it was fun, wasn't it?" Yugi said and laughed slightly. "So would you like to, you know...go somewhere next week?"
"Where?" Tea's voice was decorated with curiosity.
"I don't know...just out...somewhere, just with me. Would you be willing to come?"
"Yeah. I would." Tea smiled at Yugi sweetly. "You're a real good guy, Yugi. You know that?"
Yugi laughed slightly and blushed. "I've been told that."
"It's true." Tea smiled and giggled and her cheeks turned a rosy pink. She turned to her left and looked at the setting sun. "Ah, what a beautiful sunset."
"Almost as pretty as you." Yugi said without thinking or turning away from Tea. After realizing what he had said, his face flushed with color and he could feel his ears grow hot.
Tea turned back to Yugi. Her cheeks were even pinker. "Oh...thanks, Yugi. You're really sweet." She then ascended the stairs to the door of her cute little house. "I'll see you Yugi. Call me."
"Bye, Tea." Yugi said, waving to her.
Tea waved at Yugi before closing the door.
After Yugi was sure that Tea was out of earshot and that no one was looking, Yugi let out a loud, "Whoop!"
He pranced down the street happily. He felt as light as a feather, as if he could almost be picked up by the wind. It was such a good feeling; Yugi wished it would never end. But then again, who in their right mind would want it too? His joy was seen as he skipped down the empty streets. He probably would have thought it strange that the street was empty if he were paying any attention to what he was doing. Then again, he would have also seen the upcoming danger.
As Yugi skipped down the street, he passed an alleyway. Something grabbed him, stopping him in his tracks. It was a hand, a large one at that. It had gripped the back of Yugi's shirt and had stopped his forward momentum.
Yugi could feel his fear rising. He had almost made it home. He was right next to his and Salomon's shop.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yugi could see a large man stepped out of the shadows. He was attached to the hand with kept its grip on Yugi.
Yugi squirmed. He kicked his legs and waved his arms. The man pulled Yugi into the alleyway in which he came. He chucked Yugi against the brick wall. Yugi slid to the ground and slumped against the wall. From where he was he got a better look at the man. The man was apparently a mugger. He dressed in a black sweat suit and black sneakers. He was pretty tall and brawny, especially compared to little Yugi. The mugger's face was covered in one of those skiing masks. It was black, to match his sweat suit and sneakers. The whole outfit looked very warm, also considering it was a warm summer day.
"Alright, punk. Gimme your goods!" The man said in a deep surly, tone.
"I - I...don't have anything..." Yugi stuttered. Sure he had stood up to big bullies in school, but now it was life or death, and the man was a lot bigger and seemed more dangerous than a bad-tempered school bully.
"You got something valuable, twerp!" He grunted. "You had better, or else..."
Or else?! Yugi didn't like 'or else's'. They always resulted in something painful.
"I don't have anything...I'd like to so I could give you something, though..." He said quietly.
"Well, we'll just see how truthful you are." The bully bent down and stuck his almost-too-big hands into Yugi's pockets. All he managed to pull out was a bit of pocket lint and a ticket stub for the ice skating rink. "What?!" He said, standing to his full height. "You got notin'? You're holding out, tiny." He placed his large foot onto Yugi's stomach and pressed down.
Yugi could feel the bruise on his back, from being thrown, start to ache. He let out a loud scream. There was nothing else he could do. Where was Yami Yugi?
Since Yugi was right next to the shop, Bakura, who was still posted at the counter of the shop, could hear Yugi's scream loud and well. Bakura rushed outside to see what all of the commotion was about. He peered around the corner of the building and saw the bully, squishing Yugi like a bug.
"Leave him alone!" Bakura stood at the head of the alleyway. He puffed out his chest, to try to make himself look bigger, but his slender figure didn't look much bigger. "He didn't do anything to you!"
The mugger looked at Bakura and at once started laughing. "Look! The rest of the freak show is here! Hey, midget, your skinny albino circus friend has come to save you! This is just too funny!" The guy laughed harder at his rude joke.
Bakura charged. He rammed into the mugger with his shoulder and all of his strength and weight thrown in.
The mugger lost balance and fell over, off of Yugi, because of the force of the hit. He hit the ground with a large thud.
Bakura stood where the mugger had stood. His posture showed his courage. His fists were clenched and it was easy to tell his teeth were gritted behind his frown.
Yugi looked up at Bakura and saw something in Bakura he had never seen before, anger. Bakura had always seemed so mild-mannered. Yugi had seen that Bakura was brave, strong of heart, and intelligent. He had never shown otherwise. But Yugi had never seen Bakura really angry. The thought of it actually scared Yugi. Sure Bakura had been angry, but never like this. This was more like enraged.
The mugger got up, angrier than before, "I'm gonna rough your skinny ass up real good!"
Bakura stared at the mugger, unafraid. It even occurred to him that he, himself, had changed. "Leave my friend alone...do what you want to me, but leave him alone...he did nothing to you."
The mugger grabbed Bakura's wrist and spun Bakura around, then grabbed Bakura's other wrist and pinned his arms to his back. The mugger pushed Bakura up against the brick wall and began to search through his pockets. "You don't, got anything..."
"No, I don't." Bakura said, anger still burning like a fire inside of him.
"I'm gonna kill you and hang your head off the flagpole in Washington..."
Bakura actually found that comment somewhat stupid. 'What a moron...' Bakura thought to himself. He was too angry to be scared. "Go ahead. Kill me. I have nothing to live for. It'd be a favor."
"Alright, wise guy!" The mugger threw Bakura to the ground and the mugger put his foot onto Bakura's back and began to add pressure.
Bakura struggled under the weight. It hurt felt as if a boulder was slowly being put on his back. A loud cracking noise came from Bakura's chest as the mugger, about ten times Bakura's weight, applied more pressure. Bakura gasped for air as his lungs collapsed but couldn't get any because there was no room for his lungs to inflate. It didn't take long until there was another cracking noise. Bakura would have howled, he was still alive, but there was no air in him to make any noise. He was practically flattened. It wouldn't be long before his ribcage collapsed.
Yugi watched helplessly. What could he do? He was afraid and was panicking on the inside.
Yugi felt strange for a second, and then he felt a powerful force push him out of the way. Not physically, but mentally. Yami Yugi.
Yami Yugi had finally come, and was standing where Yugi had been. "Let him go! You have no business here!" He said in his powerful pharaoh
voice.
The mugger turned around, lightening his weight on Bakura's ribcage.
Air filled Bakura's lungs and his body literally regained its shape and size.
The mugger looked confused as he saw Yami Yugi, "Who the hell are you and where did you come from?!"
"It's none of your concern who I am. You shouldn't even be here." Yami Yugi raised his hand, palm toward the bully. The Senen eye on Yami Yugi's forehead glowed. "Mind Crush!" He shouted.
The mugger felt, what felt like, a terrible rattling of his brain. As if the sound waves of the words were so powerful, they caused physical damage. He fell over, knocked out.
Bakura to the Rescue
A wonderful aroma filled Yugi's nostrils and made his mouth water. He opened his eyes, sat up, and looked at his alarm clock. It was 9:30 in the morning. He never slept that late on a school day. Yugi then sniffed the air again. Something certainly smelled good. It smelled like food, but Yugi knew all too well that his grandfather wasn't the best of cooks.
Yugi slipped out of bed and changed his clothes, and then he ascended down the hall towards the kitchen, which seemed to be the source of that scrumptious smell. As he stepped in the range of the kitchen doorway he could hear the sizzle of food on the stove. The smell was just too good to bear. He closed his eyes and let his nose guide him into the kitchen.
Yugi opened his eyes after stubbing his toe on the table. "Ow!" He yelped. He saw that Bakura and Salomon were both in the kitchen looking at him. Salomon sat at the table with a cup of what looked like coffee in his hand and the newspaper was laid out in front of him. Bakura stood in front of the stove with a spatula in his hand.
"Good morning, Yugi." Salomon said in his kind and elderly voice.
Bakura smiled at Yugi softly and gave him an assuring nod before returning to the stove and continuing to cook.
"Morning, Grandpa. Morning, Bakura." Yugi said with a smile and blushed slightly because of his slight mishap with the table leg.
"You're just in time. Breakfast's almost ready. Isn't that right Bakura?" Salomon said, returning to his newspaper.
"Yes, it is, Sir." Bakura said, still cooking away.
Yugi walked up behind Bakura and peeked around him to see how the breakfast was coming. There was a skillet filled with a large omelet that had an oh-so delightful fragrance. A pan that was next to the omelet contained a package of sausages and they were making a delicious sizzling sound. And there was one more pan on the stove that was turning a batch of pancakes a delectable golden brown.
All the food looked so good. Yugi could practically taste the food. It teased him from the stove. Yugi looked up at Bakura who looked back with a sweet but tired smile.
"Can you get me two plates please, Yugi?"
"Alright, Yugi reached into the cupboard and pulled out two large plates. He handed them to Bakura, who turned off the stove and began to pile food onto the plates.
Yugi drooled as he watched Bakura stack the food onto the plates. Yugi followed Bakura to the table as he served the food. "Eat up." He said with his usual sweet but tired grin.
Yugi sat at the table and picked up his fork, ready to dig, in when he realized something was missing. "Bakura?"
"Yes, Yugi?" Bakura said with a curious voice.
"Something's missing..."
"Oh! Whoops." Bakura spun around and grabbed the bottle of maple syrup off the counter, spun back and placed it on the table. "I'm so sorry about that."
Yugi looked at Bakura wide-eyed and speechless.
Salomon looked at Bakura with a worried look. "Bakura...I think Yugi means that you forgot make any food for yourself."
"Oh, I know." Bakura said. "Just because I'm not having any doesn't mean it's poisoned. Go ahead and eat. Do you not like it?"
"I know you didn't poison it, Bakura." Salomon said with one of his lecturing voices. "And it looks very good. But I'm worried about your health. You need food to live."
"I'm fine. Really, don't worry about me." Bakura said then looked down at his stomach, which was empty again. "I will eat...later. I'm not too hungry now." Truth was that Bakura was really hungry, but he didn't want to upset his stomach by eating like he had the other night. The sandwich Yami Bakura had given him wasn't very much.
Bakura stared down at Yugi's Millennium puzzle. 'I'll eat later...much later...I hope that sandwich can hold me over until I get that puzzle. I'm so sorry, Yugi...'
Yugi took a nice big bite of his omelet. The taste was unbeatable. "Wow, Bakura. You really can cook. Are you sure you don't want any?"
"I'm sure, Yugi." Bakura said with a smile. He shortly left and went downstairs to the shop.
"Done with the comics, Grandpa?" Yugi asked between bites.
"Sure, Yugi." Salomon said ruffling the papers. He pulled the comics out of the paper and handed them to Yugi. Salomon then handed the comics to Yugi, who took them gratefully.
Salomon looked back at his paper. His jaw dropped. His hand stiffed around his coffee cup. His eyes grew large.
"Grandpa?" Yugi looked worried. After Salomon didn't answer, Yugi got up and stood behind Salomon, looking over his shoulder to see what was making Salomon act so strangely.
Yugi also grew speechless as he saw the article.
There, on the page, was an article about a car accident that had happened 2 days ago. It had collided with a train. There had been a women and a teenage boy in the car. What startled Yugi most was the teenage boy's picture. It was Bakura!
Yugi and Salomon were both speechless, but kept reading on.
It appeared, from the witness reports, that the car had slid and hit the train on the driver's side. Bakura had pulled his aunt out of the car and took her a safe distance before the car had exploded. Bakura's aunt was severely injured in the accident, but lived, and had a leg amputated, but she was making a full recovery. Bakura, however, had run from the scene shortly after the car had exploded. His injuries looked pretty severe with glass lodged in his skin. A man had caught him and tried to take him to the hospital but Bakura had been delusional at the time and refused to be taken there. By now, he was believed to be dead.
Yugi was the first to say anything, and his choice of words wasn't much. "Oh, Bakura..."
"I don't understand. Why didn't he tell us?" Salomon said. He put the newspaper down slowly and took a long sip from his coffee cup.
"Grandpa..." Yugi said, almost in terror. "Bakura's aunt...she was a bad person...she did terrible things to him..." Yugi took a quivering breath. "She made him work hard, and she starved him. He lived in the basement. She didn't even care about him. I read a part of his journal. He was planning suicide because he thought no one cared."
"Yugi..." Salomon said, holding out his arms to comfort Yugi.
Yugi welcomed the embrace. He began to cry it Salomon's arms. He cried for Bakura. Poor Bakura who had always worked so hard and been so nice about it and never got anything pleasant from anyone. All he got was pain and suffering. To Yugi, it just didn't seem fair.
2 hours later, Yugi stood in the shop and watched Bakura work. He watched as Bakura lifted heavy boxes full of merchandise and moved them. His muscles strained under the weight of the boxes but he was able to lift them and carry them. One by one, he picked them up and trudged with them to the back of the shop.
Yugi knew he should be on his way to the diner; it was only half an hour till his friends would meet there. There was only about one box at the front of the shop, so Yugi walked over and attempted to pick it up. Yugi clutched the edges and pulled with all of his strength. He just managed to lift the box off the floor about an inch or two before dropping it. "Wow...these are heavy..." Yugi said after a deep breath.
Bakura came back and picked the box up with some strain. "It's alright Yugi..." Bakura said with a huff. He then trudged off to the back of the shop with the large box.
"Bakura," Yugi said as Bakura returned to the counter, "are you sure you don't want to come?"
Bakura looked over at Yugi with a small smile. "It's alright, Yugi. I have way too much work here."
"Nonsense." A voice said coming down the stairwell. It was Salomon's voice and you could see him as he stepped off the last step and into the light. "This place is spotless. You've done a fine job." Salomon took a step closer to Yugi but he still looked at Bakura. "Why don't you go with Yugi and have a good time with your friends?"
"Well," Bakura said. "There's still a lot of work to be done here. I have to unpack the stock and arrange the cards in Alphabetical order..."
"Bakura. Even I'm leaving. I need to go shopping and I wont be back till later."
"I'll be fine here. Don't worry. I can take care of myself. Please. Go ahead."
Yugi looked at Bakura, knowing that Bakura actually could be quite stubborn if he wanted to be. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then. Bye." Yugi open the door and the little bell above it jingled as he left.
"I guess you can stay then...But be careful." Salomon slipped his wallet into his back pocket and he too left, making the little bell over the door jingle.
6 o' clock rolled around. Yugi had spent countless hours with Joey, Tristan, and Tea; Eating, talking, and skating. It had been great for all of them, but good times end. Tristan and Joey had gone back to their homes. Yugi walked next to Tea. He was walking her home.
"Well, this is it." Tea said, coming up to a cute, well taken care of house. "Thanks, Yugi. I had a lot of fun with you and Joey and Tristan."
"Yeah, it was fun, wasn't it?" Yugi said and laughed slightly. "So would you like to, you know...go somewhere next week?"
"Where?" Tea's voice was decorated with curiosity.
"I don't know...just out...somewhere, just with me. Would you be willing to come?"
"Yeah. I would." Tea smiled at Yugi sweetly. "You're a real good guy, Yugi. You know that?"
Yugi laughed slightly and blushed. "I've been told that."
"It's true." Tea smiled and giggled and her cheeks turned a rosy pink. She turned to her left and looked at the setting sun. "Ah, what a beautiful sunset."
"Almost as pretty as you." Yugi said without thinking or turning away from Tea. After realizing what he had said, his face flushed with color and he could feel his ears grow hot.
Tea turned back to Yugi. Her cheeks were even pinker. "Oh...thanks, Yugi. You're really sweet." She then ascended the stairs to the door of her cute little house. "I'll see you Yugi. Call me."
"Bye, Tea." Yugi said, waving to her.
Tea waved at Yugi before closing the door.
After Yugi was sure that Tea was out of earshot and that no one was looking, Yugi let out a loud, "Whoop!"
He pranced down the street happily. He felt as light as a feather, as if he could almost be picked up by the wind. It was such a good feeling; Yugi wished it would never end. But then again, who in their right mind would want it too? His joy was seen as he skipped down the empty streets. He probably would have thought it strange that the street was empty if he were paying any attention to what he was doing. Then again, he would have also seen the upcoming danger.
As Yugi skipped down the street, he passed an alleyway. Something grabbed him, stopping him in his tracks. It was a hand, a large one at that. It had gripped the back of Yugi's shirt and had stopped his forward momentum.
Yugi could feel his fear rising. He had almost made it home. He was right next to his and Salomon's shop.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yugi could see a large man stepped out of the shadows. He was attached to the hand with kept its grip on Yugi.
Yugi squirmed. He kicked his legs and waved his arms. The man pulled Yugi into the alleyway in which he came. He chucked Yugi against the brick wall. Yugi slid to the ground and slumped against the wall. From where he was he got a better look at the man. The man was apparently a mugger. He dressed in a black sweat suit and black sneakers. He was pretty tall and brawny, especially compared to little Yugi. The mugger's face was covered in one of those skiing masks. It was black, to match his sweat suit and sneakers. The whole outfit looked very warm, also considering it was a warm summer day.
"Alright, punk. Gimme your goods!" The man said in a deep surly, tone.
"I - I...don't have anything..." Yugi stuttered. Sure he had stood up to big bullies in school, but now it was life or death, and the man was a lot bigger and seemed more dangerous than a bad-tempered school bully.
"You got something valuable, twerp!" He grunted. "You had better, or else..."
Or else?! Yugi didn't like 'or else's'. They always resulted in something painful.
"I don't have anything...I'd like to so I could give you something, though..." He said quietly.
"Well, we'll just see how truthful you are." The bully bent down and stuck his almost-too-big hands into Yugi's pockets. All he managed to pull out was a bit of pocket lint and a ticket stub for the ice skating rink. "What?!" He said, standing to his full height. "You got notin'? You're holding out, tiny." He placed his large foot onto Yugi's stomach and pressed down.
Yugi could feel the bruise on his back, from being thrown, start to ache. He let out a loud scream. There was nothing else he could do. Where was Yami Yugi?
Since Yugi was right next to the shop, Bakura, who was still posted at the counter of the shop, could hear Yugi's scream loud and well. Bakura rushed outside to see what all of the commotion was about. He peered around the corner of the building and saw the bully, squishing Yugi like a bug.
"Leave him alone!" Bakura stood at the head of the alleyway. He puffed out his chest, to try to make himself look bigger, but his slender figure didn't look much bigger. "He didn't do anything to you!"
The mugger looked at Bakura and at once started laughing. "Look! The rest of the freak show is here! Hey, midget, your skinny albino circus friend has come to save you! This is just too funny!" The guy laughed harder at his rude joke.
Bakura charged. He rammed into the mugger with his shoulder and all of his strength and weight thrown in.
The mugger lost balance and fell over, off of Yugi, because of the force of the hit. He hit the ground with a large thud.
Bakura stood where the mugger had stood. His posture showed his courage. His fists were clenched and it was easy to tell his teeth were gritted behind his frown.
Yugi looked up at Bakura and saw something in Bakura he had never seen before, anger. Bakura had always seemed so mild-mannered. Yugi had seen that Bakura was brave, strong of heart, and intelligent. He had never shown otherwise. But Yugi had never seen Bakura really angry. The thought of it actually scared Yugi. Sure Bakura had been angry, but never like this. This was more like enraged.
The mugger got up, angrier than before, "I'm gonna rough your skinny ass up real good!"
Bakura stared at the mugger, unafraid. It even occurred to him that he, himself, had changed. "Leave my friend alone...do what you want to me, but leave him alone...he did nothing to you."
The mugger grabbed Bakura's wrist and spun Bakura around, then grabbed Bakura's other wrist and pinned his arms to his back. The mugger pushed Bakura up against the brick wall and began to search through his pockets. "You don't, got anything..."
"No, I don't." Bakura said, anger still burning like a fire inside of him.
"I'm gonna kill you and hang your head off the flagpole in Washington..."
Bakura actually found that comment somewhat stupid. 'What a moron...' Bakura thought to himself. He was too angry to be scared. "Go ahead. Kill me. I have nothing to live for. It'd be a favor."
"Alright, wise guy!" The mugger threw Bakura to the ground and the mugger put his foot onto Bakura's back and began to add pressure.
Bakura struggled under the weight. It hurt felt as if a boulder was slowly being put on his back. A loud cracking noise came from Bakura's chest as the mugger, about ten times Bakura's weight, applied more pressure. Bakura gasped for air as his lungs collapsed but couldn't get any because there was no room for his lungs to inflate. It didn't take long until there was another cracking noise. Bakura would have howled, he was still alive, but there was no air in him to make any noise. He was practically flattened. It wouldn't be long before his ribcage collapsed.
Yugi watched helplessly. What could he do? He was afraid and was panicking on the inside.
Yugi felt strange for a second, and then he felt a powerful force push him out of the way. Not physically, but mentally. Yami Yugi.
Yami Yugi had finally come, and was standing where Yugi had been. "Let him go! You have no business here!" He said in his powerful pharaoh
voice.
The mugger turned around, lightening his weight on Bakura's ribcage.
Air filled Bakura's lungs and his body literally regained its shape and size.
The mugger looked confused as he saw Yami Yugi, "Who the hell are you and where did you come from?!"
"It's none of your concern who I am. You shouldn't even be here." Yami Yugi raised his hand, palm toward the bully. The Senen eye on Yami Yugi's forehead glowed. "Mind Crush!" He shouted.
The mugger felt, what felt like, a terrible rattling of his brain. As if the sound waves of the words were so powerful, they caused physical damage. He fell over, knocked out.
