Chapter 15-Ryou
Afterwards, Syaoran was much more relaxed, so Seto invited Touya and Yukito over for dinner. The only problem was Seto had to get back to work; he couldn't hang out very long. So he quickly left, telling us all that dinner is at eight.
Chinese food seemed to be Syaoran's favourite, just as green was his colour. We couldn't exactly have chocolate for dinner, and besides, just because Syaoran adores chocolate doesn't mean we all want to get fat. We were all, including Jou, wise enough to know that there's nearly nothing good about chocolate just as there's nothing good about tobacco. Quite frankly Chinese food was the safest.
Syaoran didn't like sushi or raw fish of any kind. It's strange, because after all, he lived in Japan for a year. But can you blame him?
Yukito and I had a little talk. I told him my father was an archaeologist, and Yukito mentioned Fujitaka being one too, although he's more of a professor now. I told him about how this town really was. He noticed.
" I guess we were separated from the rest of the world, somehow." Yukito smiled. "
Tomoeda is a peaceful place. This town isn't. We nearly forgot that there's still
darkness in this world. By the way," He whispered. " Why is Yugi living with his
grandfather?"
" His parents died when he was very young." I told Yukito. " Although I do not
think their deaths are as graphic as Syaoran's father's."
" Syaoran's father?" Yukito asked thoughtfully. " Hai, Syaoran never mentioned his
father. Do you know what happened to him?"
Yami Bakura did not choose that moment to come out, and storytelling wasn't my favourite thing to do, nor was it my talent. So I just told Yukito that when Syaoran was three, he saw his father beheaded by several dark beings. And then the poor boy was traumatized.
Yukito did not need any graphic images. He suddenly looked troubled, muttering something about telling this to Kero.
We talked for a while. Yukito asked me where I was from, as I did not look purely Japanese. I said I came here from England, and that I was half English half Japanese-my father being Japanese. Yukito nodded, and mentioned that Eriol was also English, although more pure. He asked me about my mother. I told him she died when I was three, although it's not too graphic-she just died.
Yukito stopped and stared at me. There's this look in him that I found quite queer. He slowly told me that Sakura's mother died when she was three also.
Needless to say, I was quite freaked out. Not only is my father and her father studying ancient history, our mothers died when we were the same age.
Then Yukito told me a funny story about Sakura.
" She was four at the time." He said. " Very cute. I just came to Tomoeda for a year
or so, and we heard that there was this type of oil from fish brains, and that if you
drink it, you will have long life. This type of oil was stored in a bottle-one that only
allows one drop at each time. What was it? A dropper. So Sakura heard about this
and she climbed, pala pala pala, up into the cupboard, took out a bottle and dropped
the drops into her mouth. She finished the whole bottle. Later, Touya and I were
entering the house and we found the empty bottle on the counter. Touya was like, '
who did this?' and Sakura smiled and said, " I did! Now I'll live for a long time!"
Touya said, " What are you talking about? This is the eye dropper! It's for the eyes!"
And Sakura began rolling on her stomach muttering, " I'm doomed, I'm doomed,
I'm gonna die." Later, Fujitaka took her to the doctor and the doctor ordered her to
eat raw egg yolk so that the medicine would flush out."
" She drank the eye dropper?" I laughed.
" She was four. She couldn't read." Yukito chuckled. " But she was smart." He
sighed mournfully.
" Yami once asked Syaoran to tell us a funny story in his lifetime." I sighed
solemnly. " He didn't have any to tell. Not even about Tomoeda. It seems that his
life was simply unhappy before."
Yukito nodded, understanding.
" The thing was," He told me, " We all care for him. But none of us understand who
he is really. Or why he was the way he was. He never told us everything, and
because our lives were so rich, we never really bothered to find out."
It wasn't until dinner when we all realized that Seto seemed very sickly and pale.
But he was very enthusiastic, and for once, pretty sociable. It was a large dining
room, with a long table to fit the eleven of us ( including Kero). Syaoran had
warned Seto that Kero was a big eater, and it turned out he was. Luckily, there was
plenty of food to spare, so we all ate a great deal.
Kero and Syaoran didn't get along very well; Kero kept on hurting Syaoran's feelings. So Yukito was smart enough not to let Kero and Syaoran talk to each other. Syaoran and Touya, on the other hand, seemed to be getting along very well, of course, throwing bits of magic at each other, with Touya trying to intimidate Syaoran and Syaoran trying to fry Touya with bits of electricity. Touya and Jou didn't get along very well; Jou was awfully rude most of the time, and Touya didn't like Jou's attitude. Yukito and Jou, on the other hand, seemed to be getting along normally, not talking very much though. Touya and Yukito was very interested in Yugi and Mokuba, as well as me, and Touya seemed especially close to Seto. Yukito and Touya also paid some attention to Anzu, and I'm wondering about how the relationship is between Touya and Anzu. Kero was just plainly interested in Mokuba and no one else.
At dinner, Seto told us some funny stories, which he didn't find funny at the time
but found funny now.
" There was one time when I went to New York." Seto smiled while looking up,
trying to remember everything. " I walked into the building with some of my
employees. We rode on the elevator and when we reached the floor...there was a
sign that said, ' Notice: No Snoring Allowed. ( Fine: $300.)"
" What kind of rule is that?" Touya laughed,
" It's true!" Seto blinked. " And when I read that, my employees began to laugh. It
later turned out there was some child of the manager that had ran around putting
these signs up all over the place."
" Kero won't be able to handle that." Yukito laughed. " He snores even when he's
awake."
Kero glared at Yukito, while we all burst out laughing anew.
" So Syaoran." Yugi tried. " Tell us something in your past that was funny. Come
on! I'm in the mood for a good laugh here!"
" Hai, c'mon Syao, you must have had some funny incident some time ago." Jou
encouraged. I looked at Yukito, and then watched Syaoran.
He was smiling, thinking back, trying as Jou had encouraged. But soon his smile
faded, slowly, and he looked down.
" Before I usually learned not to laugh too much." He began. " Because as soon as
something good happened something bad happened right after. But I remember this
one time, when I was...six, I think. We were at this swimming pool, and there was
this guy in the showers that wouldn't stop singing. So what happened was, one of
the managers, who got annoyed, turned off the water. The singing immediately
stopped. Then another one, who liked to listen to the singing, went back to turn it
on. The guy started singing again. On off, on, off, and pretty soon, our showers
were being turned on and off." We started laughing at the picture. " The guy
sounded like a CD being repeatedly played and paused."
" What was he singing?" Jou asked.
" " O sol mio." Syaoran smiled. " The swimming pool also lowered its level. There
was shoutings." He laughed fakely. " But of course later it no longer was funny."
" Why?"
" They got into a fight right when I was coming out." Syaoran rubbed his head. " A
guy nearly split open my head."
" What a lousy life." Jou muttered to me as we walked home. " Funny things right
before tragedies? That's just not right."
" I guess this means Tarkot was no much happier." Yugi said to Yami. " Before he
met you."
" I guess not." Yami wasn't looking very well. " But he certainly was not happy
even after that."
" That's the difference between Syaoran and Tarkot." I pointed out. " Syaoran
seems happy. Because of Seto, maybe. Who would have thought!"
" What a lousy life." Jou repeated. " There's just nothing cool about him. Could you
believe that he actually prefers spendin time in the library? What kind of lamebrain
would do that? He's totally a nerd!"
" What's wrong with the library?" I asked in Syaoran's defense. " You know Jou, if
you spend some time there, maybe you wouldn't fail so many of your tests."
At this Jou blushed. I really didn't care that I embarrassed him, making a mental
note to apologize to him later. I was busy thinking that Jou was getting a little out of
control. He ought to refrain a little. Yugi looked at me.
" Is something wrong, Ryou?" He asked. " You don't seem to be yourself lately. All
this snapping at Jou and Honda."
I sighed. " Iie. I guess I was just getting protective of Syaoran. He did save my life
back there. Akira feels close to him too."
" No wonder." It was Yami this time. " After all, Tarkot might be the only one who
understands him."
" He is." I answered. " I guess it's just that we're protecting him every way we can, I
mean, so far the immortals did not attack us yet, but Syaoran is really nervous."
" You chatted with Yukito for some time, Ryou." Yugi said after a pause. " What
did you two talk about?"
" He told me that Sakura's father was an archaeologist, or a professor, I should say,
and that her mother died when she was three."
" Hai, ain't it strange? It seems the female Kinomotos die early." Jou blinked.
" Don't say such things, Jounouchi." Yami scolded.
" How come it is that Touya does not seem very sad?" Honda asked. " His sister
died for heaven's sake!"
" He is practical, unlike you." I muttered; it was not me who said it, but Akira. Yugi
and the others knew it, I guess, because they didn't say anything.
" What Akira means is," This proves my observation, " Is that Touya realizes that he
still has Syaoran, and that these enemies are still out there. They could mourn later,
or they have finished already."
" True." Yami nodded, and Yugi sighed, having been the one who spoke.
" I'm just glad that the kid seems alright now." Jou chuckled. " Remember how he
was when he first came? He laughs a little, not a lot really, and then he went all cold
and statuelike like Yami."
" You have a reputation of offending people." I joked. Jou gave me this sad
expression that made everyone laugh even more.
" In any case, I'm glad everything's settled; Syaoran seems to be more comfortable
with his old pals now." Honda snapped his fingers. " That Touya guy really does
look a little like Seto, now that I think of it. Same glare."
" Same ' Don't mess with me' look." I agreed. " But they don't really look the
same."
" Yukito is nice." Yugi added. " He's very friendly and polite."
" They all are. They come from Tomoeda."
" Seto and those two really get along well. I don't like the stuffed animal though. It
hurted Syaoran's feelings too many times."
" They had hard feelings before. I'm sure Syaoran would let this one pass."
" I hope so." We turned around. We were going to split ways here. I walked home,
alone, in the dark night. I got home safely, at least.
Once home, Yami Bakura appeared in my room as I had come out of the showers, dressed in my pajamas and ready to go to sleep. I was tired as I flopped down on the bed. Yami didn't say anything when I looked at him in question.
Finally, annoyed, I asked him what was the matter.
" I have a distinct feeling that today is not going to be a good day, for starters." He
looked at the clock. Two in the morning.
" Why?" I asked.
" Because I don't want Syaoran to go back to Tomoeda."
" You care about him, don't you?" I asked softly.
He studied me for a brief moment, and I think I must have looked sincere because
he decided I was not mocking him.
" I don't really know." He answered, truthfully, and then I lied back and sighed.
" You seem rather fond of him for now." I pointed out. " Why do you think he's
going to go back to Tomoeda?"
" Don't you see, you baka?" Yami snapped. " Syaoran didn't lose everyone yet. He
still has four people left, two of which had come out of nowhere. He would
definetely want to go back, instead of living in this dump with us."
" Well," I was fairly unconcerned for the moment. " If that's what's best for him.
Tomoeda is a better environment."
That was not what Yami wanted to hear. I didn't really care though. It wasn't because I did not love Syaoran. I just felt that Syaoran deserves someplace better than I can provide, which is why so far Seto and I share responsibilities. I guess Seto is going to think about taking over guardianship. Which is only if Syaoran decides to stay, but that's perfectly alright if he goes. Yami, on the other hand, wasn't taking this idea very well.
" I just don't like the idea." Yami admitted.
" You never liked anything." I closed my eyes. " You never liked the idea of
Syaoran coming here. You've never liked the idea of Seto taking him in as well.
You never liked the idea of Duel Monsters destroying the world or any of that sort.
You don't like Touya or Yukito or Kero."
If Syaoran never existed in our lives, perhaps at this point I would have been half dead. But something kept Yami from losing his temper. Something also gave me courage. We regarded each other in silence, before he sighed and lied next to me on top of the covers of my bed. We stared up at the ceiling.
" Truth to be told I don't want him to go either." I admitted. " But I'm thinking this
is not the best place for him."
" Mm." Yami's eyes were closed, his expression full of surrender and defeat.
For a while we lied there in silence. I was beginning to wonder when Yami would
go back to his ring. Then he spoke, which startled me slightly.
" His appearance changed our lives, didn't it?" He asked. " Just like Pegasus had
changed our lives, and Kaiba had changed our lives. But I think Syaoran changed
our lives the most, because we've never really understood how great and powerful
our friendships were."
" He was lonely and frightened." I muttered. " The first time I saw him."
To my surprise, I felt a hand close around mine, and when I turned my head I saw Yami staring at me. And that stare was filled with a certain fear that I couldn't comprehend, mixed with a certain sadness I've never seen before. He was looking at me hopefully, as if praying for something. Then I understood. I gave him a reassuring smile, but he never looked away. Instead he turned around fully and pulled me to his embrace. I felt wet drops fall down on my neck and I realized he was crying.
I had never felt more love for my Yami before. I understood that there was a reason I had met him in the first place. That night when I had nearly died Yami nearly died too. And Syaoran saved both of us. I wondered if Syaoran understood Yami as much as I do. I had always known Yami wasn't evil; no, he was not evil. Just a raging spirit, restless and forgotten, bitter with thoughts of death which he will never rest, and a life he shall never live.
