Syaoran

Chapter 3-Ryou

It was late one night, as I remember. I was alone in my room, Syaoran having gone out with Jou to one of those arcades. ( Could you believe Syaoran has never been to one?) Outside it was dark and cool, with a nice breeze blowing. I was outside, simply breathing in the fresh air, when he appeared.

It was several weeks since I last saw him. I thought he had left for good Perhaps it was too much to think-I knew it was just a fantasy. At the sight of him I shrank back, fear gnawing at my heart. But he didn't advance.
" Where is the boy?"
" Nani? Wh-what boy?" I asked.
" The boy, good god, that was with you!" Yami growled.
" I can't tell you." I replied, as steadily as I could.

His response was a blow in the side of my head. I fell over, clutching it.
" Now tell me where he is."
" What do you want him for?" I was ready to die to save Syaoran. I am not letting my Yami near him.
" It does not matter." He lifted me by my collar. " Now tell me, where is he?"
" I'm not letting you near him," I seethed. Yami threw me up and kicked me in the stomach. I cried out, doubling over.
" Where is he?!"
" He's with Jou..." No...no I did not say that out loud...

Yami whipped around and started out. I climbed to my feet and ran after him, holding my stomach.
" Yami, iie!" I shouted. " Don't hurt him, onegai!"
" Get off!" He threw me off of him. I nearly fell, but caught my footing, and ran after him, who was starting to run.
" Yami, onegai, don't hurt him! He's only a child!"

But he was running too fast. I could barely keep pace, let alone catch up. Slowly he drew nearer to the arcade-he knew where Jou always was. Swinging the door open he entered. I followed, now completely helpless.



Jou was showing Syaoran how to control the game figure. Syaoran was saying something about it actually being much easier without the bobs and buttons. Both turned around and saw the two of us, who stopped at the sight of him. I tried one more time to hold him back. This time he did not throw me off, instead grabbed me wrist and squeezed it.

" Syaoran, get out of here..." I begged,
" Iie, you stay right there."
" I don't know who you are," Syaoran began warily, " But I don't think you're very nice. What is your name?"
" My name is not important-" Yami stopped because Syaoran had slipped away with Jou-outside to the night.
" Urgh," He growled, then pulling my wrist we ran outside, chasing Syaoran. I was doing my best to hold him back, but he was pulling me forward.

Syaoran suddenly stopped. Jou stopped a few feet before him.
" Syaoran, what are you waiting for?" Jou cried, staring at him and us.
" Who are you?" Syaoran asked. " I've been looking for you."
Yami flinched. " I am Bakura." His eyes grew dark. " And your worst nightmare."
" If you think I'm going to just stand here for you to beat me up you're wrong." Syaoran glared at him. " Because I am certainly not weak when it comes to fighting."
" Oh, is that a challenge?" Yami smirked. I gasped, horrified at Syaoran's boldness.
" It is if you turn it into one. What do you want." Syaoran replied.

Yami blinked at the child's bluntness. " You are a very brave child."
" Bravery has nothing to do with it." Syaoran answered. " I have nothing to fear except the past. Especially not from you." He looked Yami up and down. " What are you. What do you want."
" What do I want?" Yami seemed...amused? " I want you to get me the Millenium Puzzle."
" You're out of your mind." Syaoran hissed. He was still in those green robes of his, and I began to wonder if there was more to him than I had previously thought.

Yami blinked. I felt something wet trickle down my cheek. It was blood.

Syaoran studied me for a minute.

" Well, Yami, as I heard Ryou call you," Syaoran began, " I don't suppose you're simply in a bad mood today. But it seems like you don't remember your name." Yami flinched. " So, Zei, you have no right to treat any of us human beings the way you treat any of us. Go back to that childish toy of yours and don't show your face in front of me again."

Yami growled, but Syaoran faced him with courage I do not possess. " Go, you child." His eyes began blowing a bright golden color. " Go back to that ring. Play with your toy cards. This world is already turning black as it is. We do not need you to darken it further."

Yami inhaled and I prepared myself for whatever he was going to do to Syaoran.

Instead, he let go of me and disappeared back into the ring.

What had intimidated him? What had frightened him? Because undoubtedly Yami was frightened, or ' Zei' as Syaoran called him. I did not understand why he had retreated away from an eleven year old, weak, famished, and tired. Syaoran was not weak at heart as I am, but he cannot endure as long as Yami. So why did Yami back off? Come to think of it, why did he bother to look for Syaoran at all?

For a long moment we remained in the darkness of the night, Syaoran looking steadily at me. I wondered what he saw. Perhaps a frail, tall but weak boy, with white hair and brown eyes, features too womanly to be male but male he is, a heart too weak to hold any pain, blood dark red on his skin, panting, completely intimidated by someone stronger than he.

" Ryou."

His voice woke me out of my thoughts. I stared at Syaoran, now no longer just a ten year old but a leader, a royal prince that embraces the ancient traditions. He was eyeing me steadily, almost tenderly. His voice was gentle.

" Ryou, you are a weakling."

The words were harsh, but the way he said them was not. It was almost sympathetic, the way he said it. I could not answer. My voice was lost.

" Ryou, if you could do what I did, you wouldn't be bleeding right now."

How can you be so sure? I thought to myself. But I didn't say anything out loud. The child looked at me sadly.
" Let's get you home Ryou." He said quietly. Jou was a little annoyed with him, but he didn't say anything.

" Are the others going to come tomorrow night?" Syaoran suddenly asked. " It's raining tomorrow."
" Ano...hai." Jou said. " Why?"
" I heard you guys like ghost stories." Syaoran replied mysteriously.

I had a feeling that it wasn't just any ghost story.



It turned out, he had two stories to tell. After Honda's lousy story about the girl who found out she was running from her brother all along, it was a relief to finally hear Syaoran talk.

We had all been looking forward to the story that Syaoran was going to tell. We didn't know much about him other than...he's a Li, and news of the doom of the Li clan had been widespread. We had thought we could get to know Syaoran a little better.

" Five thousand years ago," Syaoran nodded at Yami, who was also listening, " There was once a child that was different from all others. He who seemed to be made from the moon itself, is actually just like it, coming out only at night and timid during the day. Weak and frail he was, at the age of five both his parents were killed by the pharoah, a young pharoah he was, because both parents planned treachery. The young child was thrown into poverty, with no food or money, forced to wander on his own. Beaten by the guards, he slowly covered and blinded his eyes from the light, and went towards the path of darkness.
' At this point, he was thirteen, having lived eight years this way. The game of Shadow had been introduced by an unknown immortal to the Mortal Realm, to save the empire from destruction. The game was soon made popular, and its secrets reached the hands of the moon angel. Devil now he was, he soon became the champion, and having now only the pharoah to defeat, he challenged the young king."

Yugi looked at Yami, who had suddenly turned very pale.

" Vengeance ran his very blood," Syaoran continued, " In the darkness of a rainy night, and a rare night it was, for Egypt was hot, the Nile flooding smoothly to bring the silt onto the farmlands, the Pharoah and the young man dueled their battle. The moon angel lost, and the pharoah in his wrath sentenced him into the Shadow Realm.
' Little did he know of the boy's powers, who now knew only of darkness. Little did he know of the hate in the boy's heart, of the rage, the innocence long lost. But little did the boy know, too, of the pharoah's magical powers, the reason for his name, but still the pharoah lost. The moon child knew only of strength and might, despising those who are weak and hating those who are strong. In the dark of night, many years later, a shadow loomed over the pharoah's bed. Twinkling gold was heard, as if the pieces were hitting each other. Red eyes glowed from the darkness of the night, and the pharoah, scooting up from bed, shouted,
' Who are you?'
' Don't you remember me, your Majesty?' the all too familiar voice answered with contempt. ' Remember the little one? The one you sentenced to the Shadow Realm?'
' You.' was all the Pharoah said.
' Yes,' the shadow answered. " Twelve years ago you murdered my parents. Twelve years ago. Twelve years ago you sentenced them to death and sentenced me to a life or contempt and scorn. Twelve years ago you executed them. Did you have any thought of their five year old child? No? Well, here he is. You have sentenced him to an unliving life of loneliness and darkness, filled with shadow and hate. But I have not finished what I came here to do, your highness.' And the shadow took out a dagger and plunged it into the pharoah's head. ' Now you shall know what the Shadow Realm is!'
' When the morning broke, the maids entered the room. But no pharoah was there. Only scattered pieces of a puzzle, sprawled out upon the bed, golden surfaces glistening. The dagger was never found."

He really spooked us, whether the story was told nicely or not. Especially poor Yami, who couldn't speak for a few minutes and was deathly pale. Because the story, ghost or not, is completely true, explaining how Yami had been sealed within the Millenium Puzzle and how Yami Bakura had been sealed within the ring. The next story was confusing though, but much more scarier.

' Once there was a young man, very young, about twenty or so. He was considered handsome to many, with his white hair and deep brown eyes. He was not very poor, wealthy in fact, but very unhappy. His name-well, his name cannot be told, but he met a young and beautiful woman in a ball dance. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life, with her fair golden hair and the loveliest eyes.
' The two met a few times afterwards, and soon fell in love. Their families approved of one another and soon they were engaged. But days before the wedding, the soon to be bride was murdered, by whom no one ever found out. The young man was devastated, mourning for his lost love.
' One night, as he prepared for bed, there were whispers coming from the walls. The young man whimpered and looked around him, still heartbroken from his loss. A whisper from the walls told him, ' you are not born to love or be loved...' and a shadow loomed out, striking him in his left eye. The eyeball was crushed and deleted from the world, but the blood poured out from the young man's eye, terribly frightened, cowering under the shadow's presence. Out came a golden eye, a sennen eye, and a curse was laid upon the man.
From now on, you shall possess the power of the Millenium Eye, never to hear from your loved one again. You shall obey us, you shall turn evil, you will be deprived of your consciousness of reality. From now on, you shall not be.
' The words were repeated, every night, every night the young man tried to take the cursed eye off, but it wouldn't. It stuck on, held on, until someone other than he takes it off, and he will be in pain. Every night, the same deathly voice entered his head, and soon it spread into morning when he woke, dreams when he slept, noons when the sun is burning and yet all is dull. And slowly, ever so slowly, the heartbroken man lost his mind. Pictures on the walls followed where he went. He, as the shadow had said, indeed lost his consciousness of reality, was not, is not, will not. And losing all moral sense, in the dark of nights, over the murmuring of the deathly voices, the man forgot his lost love, forgot all. In his hand was the first card." Here Syaoran looked at us. " His first card: The Blue Eyes White Dragon."



If we were spooked before, we were seriously spooked now. We knew that Pegasus was insane, but never bothered asking why. So...



That night as I lied on my bed I thought about the boy who lost his parents. I thought about the pharoah who wiped all innocence out of the child, wiped all sense of morality and hope and replaced it with hate and rage. I thought about the man who lost his love and after, his mind. How Duel Monsters had come back into the modern world. But mostly I thought about the boy who also went insane. And I stroked the ring and decided if worse comes to worse, if I can bring any comfort to my Yami, all beatings would be worth it. Everything would be worth it.