A/N: Author's notes have been removed due to ff.net's notice about chat dialogue being used in this.. x.x oy.. gomen-nasai!




Watashi no Tenshi Sukuinushi
(My Angel Savior)
Chapter 6: And The Distance Grows
By: Nadako-Mika

Yami frowned and stared at the spot where Bakura had once stood. Why hadn't Bakura shown him the pendant earlier? It would have saved time! This ornament... the ruby... it could have saved Bakura from being drawn back into the Sennen Ring, forever having to wander through his lost memories. The former pharaoh shook his head and placed the pendant in his pocket before turning back to the storage room. It was too late for that now.

Magic hung in the air around the shop. Dark magic.. Magic from the Shadow Realm. The same thing that had dragged Bakura unwillingly back into his item. It had left a mark in the area; a mark that would go away with time, but was very noticable at the moment. Of course... only Yami could sense it, maybe Mariku had sensed it too...

"Yami?.." game a quiet, shy voice.

Yami turned around and saw Yuugi standing behind the counter. His head barely able to peer over the top. "What is it aibou?" he asked.

"What are we going to do about Ryou?"

Yami froze, he had forgotten about him. Ryou was still stuck in that hospital. He had been too caught up in other thoughts, that he had completely forgotten about Ryou's situation. "I..."

"Are we going to get him out?"

"I.. don't know..."

Bright amethyst orbs shone with tears. "What do you mean you don't know? We can't just leave him there...can we?" Yuugi felt tears threatening to spill. He didn't like the idea of leaving Ryou all by himself.

Yami pulled his hikari into a warm embrace, trying to sooth the younger one. "Don't worry Yuugi.. We'll find a way to get him out..." he cooed. He had no idea how he was going to fullfill that promise though. He was quite sure that the institution wouldn't allow Ryou to just go free, and wouldn't let either of them (himself and Yuugi) persuade the hospital into letting the boy go. Yami sighed in frustration. This wouldn't have happened if that Tomb Robber hadn't sent his own hikari off to a mental house.

What about his father? Yami thought. Maybe they could somehow get Ryou's father into talking to the institution about the mistake they made. Afterall, Ryou wasn't mentally disabled was he? No. His mind functions properly. Yami frowned. Something didn't seem right about that theory. He knew Ryou wasn't mentally difunctional... but there WAS something strange about Ryou when he last saw him. He could see it in the boy's eyes. Looked like something was...missing.

Yami shrugged it off and walked to their home. It wasn't far, considering that the shop was conjoined with the Motou house. He walked into the kitchen and made himself a warm cup of tea. He sat down at the kitchen table and rubbed his temples. Everything seemed so misplaced at the moment. Nothing made sense.

The bells from the shop door rang loudly, startling Yami out of his thoughts. He quickly made his way back to the shop counter. Yuugi was upstairs in his room, so the store was left to Yami himself. He was surprised to see Isis, Mariku and his hikari standing by the doorway. They never come into the shop.

"Pharaoh, what happened here?" Mariku asked, "We traced the Shadow Realm magic here."

"Bakura," was all Yami said.

"What about him?"

"He's gone,"

"Where did he go?" Malik asked, "Did he leave Domino?"

Yami shook his head. "No...," he answered, "He's been dragged back into the Sennen Ring."

"What? What do you mean by... 'dragged'?"

"He was forced back inside," Yami said quite calmly, sounding as if the subject was not improtant.

Mariku walked up to Yami and pointed the Sennen Rod's dagger threateningly at him. "What did you do to him?" he asked quite angerly.

"I did nothing," Yami said, glaring into those psychotic lavender eyes.

Mariku, however, didn't sound too convinced. He thrust the dagger closer to Yami's skin, scratching it, and causing a slight trickle of blood. "What, Did you do?" he asked again.

Yami cleared his throat as he proceeded to recall the days events. "Well.. Bakura first arrived at the shop looking exhausted. Strange thing was... he was dissappearing, his limbs were slowly fading out. He asks me to help him get the Ring back to Ryou. He already knew what was happening, I had told him earlier. Just before the magic trapped him inside the item again, he handed me.. this..." Yami pulled the ruby pendant from his pockets and held it up for the three guests to see.

"I remember that," Malik said, "He had taken it when we were at the mall."

"Yes. It had caused him quite a bit of trouble too," Mariku added.

Yami ignored the statements and continued on with the explanation, "This... is Setsuzoku-Tama Jemusutoon. Otherwise known as the Soul Connection Gem...."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Something felt out of place. Had Bakura-sama been forced into the Sennen Ring already? Something was missing. It was as if a piece of him had been torn out. Ryou frowned, Bakura's probably gone now.

It was quiet, so very quiet. Where was that demon of mine? Ryou pondered. He felt quite stupid asking such a question. He should be glad that the demon was not mocking him with its low cackles at the time. But he felt incredibly lonely. There was no one or nothing around. Bakura-sama wasn't there anymore to mock him, if Bakura-sama wasn't around then neither was the demon. That meant that the angel wasn't around either; since the angel only ever appeared if Ryou wasn't being harmed by the demon.

The boy sighed. What could he do to pass the time? His head shot up, he remembered something. Ryou quickly ran to the small table on the other side of the room, and grabbed the small cell phone from under it. He peered around the room to make sure no one was watching him. Surprisingly, he found a small white camera in the corner of the ceiling. If he didn't have such sharp vision he would have missed it. Acting like he hadn't seen a thing, Ryou hurried to a corner of the room, hidden from the camera's view.

He punched in a familiar number, and held the phone near his ear. The ringing tone was replaced by a familiar voice.

"Hello?"

"Yuugi?"

Yuugi's voice sounded soft and sad. With the slight sniffling, Ryou could conclude that the boy had been crying. "Ryou? Is that you? Is everything alright?" Yuugi asked frantically.

"I-I'm fine. I just needed someone to talk to." Ryou answered. A sudden rush of coldness ran by him. His body tensed and he gasped, sighing in relief as the warmth of the room came back to him. But a moment later, the same icy cold started to seep through his skin.

"Ryou? Are you alright?" Yuugi asked hearing the sudden gasp and silence.

"I'm alright. I just feel.. cold."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Silence followed Yami's explanation. Isis shifted slightly in her seat, the silence making her uncomfortable. She looked at her younger brother and his yami, observing their confused expression.

'They still don't understand the concept' she thought.

She knew about the Setsuzoku-Tama Jemusutoon. Her family had been gaurding the precious gem for several years, but when it came down to her own generation, it had seemed to dissappear. The Setsuzoku-Tama Jemusutoon had the ability to connect two souls. A person with the stone would be able to enter the mind and very soul of another. If the person's will was stronger, he or she would be able to control the other. The stone generated a pathway from one mind to another.

"But.. pharaoh... What could the stone have done in a situation such as this?" she asked. She did not see what use the gem was right now.

"There couldn't have been anything we could have done," Yami answered, "Unless we knew where the other half of the gem was."

"Other half?"

Yami nodded, "The council feared that evil may use the stone for destructive reasons. So they parted the stones powers into two. Two souls who wished to be conjoined would each need to hold each half of the gem; this would complete the pathway. But we only have one half." he explained. "If Ryou had the other half and Bakura had worn this piece into the Sennen Ring, then Bakura would still have been able to keep in contact with his hikari."

Mariku opened his mouth to comment, but was interupted by someone rushing in. Yuugi came in from the back door, tears streaming down his face. He sobbed, clutching the cordless phone within his hands.

Yami stood up quickly. "Yuugi, what's wrong?" he asked worridly.

Yuugi brushed away a few tears and sniffled. "It's Ryou. Something's wrong!..."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

A/N: Author's notes have been removed due to ff.net's notice about chat dialogue being used in this.. x.x oy.. gomen-nasai!