Author's Notes:
Thanks to all those who've reviewed the first chapter!!!
I don't OWN Yu Gi Oh!!!
Thanks for all those constructive criticisms!!!
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Here and Thereafter
Chapter 2: The Abode of Souls
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Ryou was highly disconcerted, and there were three reasons why. First, he couldn't remember anything except excruciating pain before indefinite numbness spread all the way to his legs. Second, the scenery around him changed completely; Domino City had suddenly vanished, only to be replaced by this great and empty landscape where he floated. Third, he looked at his hands and to his horror, he found them bathed in gentle white light and transparent.
"What has happened to me?" Ryou asked himself nervously as he looked around at the unending white plane. "Where am I? Where are Yugi and the others?"
"Ooh, a new soul!"
Ryou nearly jumped out of his skin in fright. He turned wildly around and his eyes rested upon the most bizarre creature he had ever seen. The thing resembled Blue Eyes White Dragon, blinking up at him with huge blue eyes. The thing was also smiling and holding up what looked like a crystal throbbing with a gentle pinkish light. Ryou drifted backward, his mind racing.
"Ooh, the white-haired boy is scared!" said the creature. "You're just like them, you know, you can't accept the truth."
"Truth?" Ryou repeated, discovering that his voice had become echoey and faraway. "What truth? What are you talking about?"
The Blue Eyes look-alike tilted its head on one side. "The truth, boy! The general truth that you're dead!"
It was like being hit on the head with a frying pan. Ryou blinked and shook his head.
"You lie!" he said in the same echoey voice that seemed to come from everywhere, not from his own mouth. "I'm not dead! I didn't even know how or why I ended up in this place! I'm just dreaming!"
The creature laughed. "Ah, so very much like them! Look, here are a few more!"
It pointed a single, clawed finger. Ryou followed it with his gaze. A soft moan escaped his lips. At least a hundred more souls came floating above him, every single one of them transparent and wore confused and disbelieving looks. Ryou followed their progress and saw them float toward a nearby passage that was so bright he couldn't see what lay beyond it.
"See, boy?" said the Blue Eyes clone. "Only souls and tunnel drivers like me are allowed here. This is limbo. Purgatory, if that's what you like to call it. You're dead, boy, there's no use trying to refuse the fact. You did die in a rather painful way, you know, I saw it when I was looking down earlier. Your body was a mess."
Ryou tore his gaze from the bright tunnel with difficulty. "But I can't be dead! I'm only sixteen years old! I haven't even finished high school! You're lying!"
"Tunnel drivers don't lie." The Blue Eyes clone frowned deeply at him. "Now if you'd excuse me, Saint Peter wants me to tidy up the western regions. I haven't got all eternity to make you accept you're dead."
There was a soft whoosh as the Blue Eyes clone soared away. Ryou was panic-stricken. Was he really dead like what that creature said? Although it was very preposterous, Ryou was presented with solid evidences that told him he was indeed, now deceased. For one thing, his voice and his hands were scary enough.
"Somebody's got to answer me!" Ryou muttered helplessly as he floated upward toward the bright tunnel. "I want answers! I need them!"
He floated down the tunnel with the other spirits. Ryou took his time to look around at his ethereal company. Priests, political leaders, kids, gruff-looking men, whores and all sorts floated past him. Many of them bore agony on their faces, while very few even looked excited. He swallowed.
Sixteen-year-olds didn't die! He was just having a bad dream, that's all…
A mighty roar that seemed to shake the whole place tugged Ryou from his thoughts. He covered his ears as the roar echoed all around the place. The sound itself was very frightening; it made the hairs at the back of his neck rise.
There, at the left side of the tunnel, was a great fissure. Ryou could tell he wouldn't want to go there. The fissure glowed bright red with flickering flames, and many of the souls were being sucked up into it like what a vacuum cleaner does. Ryou shuddered as he saw something very black having the shape of a man, but with horns and a pointed tail. He looked away.
He floated there for what seemed like hours, until the tunnel was divided into two. The left branch went downward like a steep cliff, while the right branch sloped upward. Then he felt it as an invisible force began to tug his body, drawing him to the tunnel's right branch.
"Oh, oh!" said Ryou as he was pulled irresistibly up.
Next he found himself standing before an old man with silvery hair and beard. The man was busy scribbling notes on his clipboard and didn't even look up as Ryou walked toward him.
"Name?" the man asked in a Jewish accent.
"R-Ryou Bakura." Ryou replied nervously.
"Age?"
"Sixteen."
"Origin?"
Ryou blinked. "Excuse me?"
"All right, all right," said the man impatiently. "Hometown?"
"Domino City, Japan—"
At this, the man's head snapped up. There were hundreds of deep lines etched into his face, and his eyes were of the most vivid green. He was frowning at Ryou.
"Can I have your name again?"
"Ryou Bakura, sir, I was wondering why—" Ryou started.
"Hmm, that can't be right." The man frowned, standing up and cutting off Ryou's sentence.
The man went to an expensive-looking mainframe just a few meters behind his desk. Ryou floated behind him curiously.
"Please, sir, I need to know where I am and what I am doing here." Ryou said desperately. "I met this weird creature a while ago and he said I was dead—"
"And Fluffy wasn't lying to you, you are dead." The man cut him off again as he opened a window in the computer's monitor. "Tunnel drivers aren't allowed to lie. You're at the gates of Heaven, my boy, and you are dead, but there is something seriously wrong about your record…"
Ryou felt his strenght leave him. His hands fell limply to his side. "I'm…dead…?"
"Now, this is definitely not right…"
Ryou looked up as the man faced him.
"What are you doing here," said the man, frowning. "When your body is still alive and is currently in a hospital's ICU?"
Ryou's confusion increased even more. "What?!?"
Ryou's body was lying in a deep sleep, a dozen tubes inserted into it. Machines also surrounded his bed, all glowing and kept emitting whirring noises. The window was shut with thick curtains to keep the light out. But something was happening.
A finger twitched, followed by a throaty grunt.
Then the eyes opened. The very first image that greeted the brown orbs was the white ceiling of the ICU. Then the eyes darted around the room. Another finger twitched.
Golden light erupted from where the Millenium Ring appeared. Then Bakura smiled in spite of the tube inserted into his mouth and nostrils.
After more than 3,000 years of existing as a disembodied spirit, he was finally alive again. Alive, truly alive, now with this body under his complete control.
That damned pharaoh had better prepare himself.
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Whew! That's a wrap for this chapter! Please leave a review!