Set- I'll be fillin' in this chapter, mates! (I picked up the damned habit from a certain someone…) Well, back to the subject at hand, Rath is "attending to some business which requires my presence. I'll be back this evening." in the words of the note that I was left. This chapter is my domain now. Well, technically… 

- We no own Yu-gi-oh-

Have fun, kiddies!

            Bakura sat quietly and patiently, watching as the seven teenagers chatted of seemingly nothing important to him. He passed the time by looking out the window and occasionally saying something very Ryou like. Such as "Now, now, please, settle down…" He waited and waited as patiently as he could for their conversation to end. It all seemed very pointless, most of it inside jokes and "half conversations" that he never could believe to decipher and its not that he would want to anyway. It didn't quite understand how these children could go on for about two hours now talking about practically nothing. Half of him was amazed and the other half was growing impatient and becoming very disgusted with them. He did try to put himself in their shoes, but with over several thousand years passing since he himself was a teenager, he found it very hard and gave up within a minute of trying. And yet, he managed to keep his face serene and happy, despite the urge to lash out and tear them limb from limb. Nothing interested him, nothing, not even a hint of local news or anything that may be of any signifigant importance. Except for the one comment that turned out to bring an interesting response.

" Dudes, does anyone know where Cedric is?" Mariko asked, looking around.

" Oh, uh, yeah, he said that he had to go home and help his Dad with somethin'." Arata said, crossing his arms. A silence followed. A very curious one at that… It didn't make sense why they'd go quiet suddenly. They had never been quiet before; this was something new… Bakura understood this rare chance to escape and he immediately formulated two plans to get out.

Number one, kill them all, jump through the window into a BMW convertible and speed off to Tokyo where he wouldn't have to deal with these morons. Or number two, which was find an excuse to get out of the room and go see what Cedric and his father were up too. Which was the best plan to choose was fairly obvious. Not the most fun plan, but the simplest and not attention-drawing plan.

 Bakura coughed to break it and said simply, while getting out of the bed that he was going to "fetch a drink." He didn't quite think Ryou would ever use that phrase but he figured why not and left the room, all children still in silence, a slight nodding, their only acknowledgment to him. He left the room, hands in his pockets. He was so damned right. The lot of them were all freaks. Pure, 100%, grade 'A' freaks. It was only surprised that Ryou didn't agree with him in the least.

He strided down the hallway smiling, happy that his body was still functioning properly and that the fall did no more harm than earn him a few bandages on his hands. And an ankle brace, which someone had put on him while he was asleep… He realized to himself. He knelt down to take it off, after all, he could feel no pain, and this wasn't his body. It was an odd side effect of possessing a mortal, but it was a good one. You could still feel a slight ache, but nothing more, so over-all, it wasn't acknowledged as a "pain" at all. At least until the original owner of the body took over, then usually he'd have to come to terms with how serious (or not) the condition the body was in. Normally, he could tell himself, but now his mind was on other matters.

He threw the ankle brace into the trashcan as he walked by it and his smile widened with a smug satisfaction that it actually landed in the trashcan. For that small piece of victory, it still made him a bit happy, he'd never know why it did, but somehow, it just did. Perhaps its just a male pride thing, he though to himself.

He left the building with ease, still set in his smug mood, forgetting about how he just sat through what he acknowledged as "one of the ultimate misery provokers." Hence, sitting with a bunch of overly hyper teenagers that would not shut up for almost anything. Almost, that was. The silence still hung in his mind, but he didn't know what to make of it. It could have just been that they had finally run out of things to talk about after two hours, but that seemed very unlikely. Something was definitely wrong with what Cedric and his father partook in. He doubted that it was child-abuse of anything of that shit. Cedric was a tall, well-built 16 year-old male. He obviously did more than your average workout per day. He was already taller than his father it seemed, Bakura thought comparing the heights mentally. And also considering where and who he hung out with, Bakura wouldn't be all surprised if he carried weaponry of sorts around with him on a daily basis. Bakura did anyway, making sure he could feel the knife still in his pocket. But as he did, his fingers felt something else metallic. He brought his hand out and looked at what it was. The ring, resting on his finger… Even when drifting back to reality he though he could feel something sliding onto his index finger, but dismissed it as his imagination. But obviously, it was not… He looked at it in horror.

Something, for months now, had visited him in his sleep, talking of salvation, talking of how his fate could be re-written. It was always the same, trapped in the dark, the voice calling out to him… He didn't know what to make of it, but it was most likely hostile, rather than it's intentions of "saving" him. Not giving it a second though, he ripped the ring off and flung it into street, watching it roll into the gutter. He would not get himself tangled further into the mess, or into any other mess anyway. He didn't really care if it was going to "save him," as it said it would, but even if it did, it would surely come with a price, one far worse than the fate that was now at hand.

He walked out of the schoolyard with no problems or interruptions, especially considering how it was still school hours. He walked down the side walk, meeting hardly anyone else but a few adults dressed formally to go to meetings and appointments, and a few other rebellious teens that decided skipping out on their education and having a fun time and smoke now was worth living the rest of their lives in constant struggle with the world, whose opinion of IQ and test scores were becoming much more important. Not that any of that bullshit applied to him, that was. After all, he was over a thousand years old, and he didn't have to work. And, even so, school would have been pointless today; Ryou was still unconscious.

He continued to walk home, undisturbed, finally making his way into the quiet neighborhood in which their house was located. He was glad to see the pale house growing larger and larger, but then paused as he realized which house he was currently in front of.

The Craven's… He turned to look at it, feeling the urge to go in and see what he could see growing stronger and stronger. Common sense yelled at him that it would be extremely foolish and not worth the trouble. Not that he listened to it anyway. He was surprised that he still even had common sense after so many years anyway. Considering what he had done in the past, and how unclean his track record currently was, he wouldn't be surprised if others thought he had no common sense what so ever. And personally, he was perfectly fine with that.

He walked up to the porch and peered through the windows that surrounded the door as decoration. Though he couldn't see quite as clearly as he would have liked, he could see no blurry shapes that resembled a human being in anyway. He quickly ran to the end of the porch and swung his head around to see if any cars were parked either on the street or on the small driveway. Nothing, no cars anywhere actually… He smirked than went up to the door and twisted the handle feeling it budge slightly, but not nearly enough to open. He frowned at this then looked around the porch for a spare key. None under the door mat, not on top of the lamp that hung on the wall, no trick bricks, nothing.

He looked at it, and cocked his head, quietly calculating the strength of the handle. It looked weak enough. And judging by how much the door let, he guess the top lock wasn't locked either. Easy enough. He grasped the gold handle firmly and fished through his jacket for his lock picks. There were many things that he carried with him that Ryou didn't know about. And surely, if he did, they would be immediately confiscated. He had already made that mistake with one of his beloved knives. Ryou had sold it to a local shop for fifty dollars. But it was worth much more than that… And Bakura had gone through a lot to steal it, from its original owner and from the shop.

He picked the lock after going through several sizes and such, and then entered the hallway, closing the door behind him. He heard clicking sound on hard tile as he did. It stopped then suddenly burst out into a full out run. The dog, Amon, came through the kitchen door, barking madly at Bakura. He braced himself, not pulling out a knife to kill it, as it would be far too messy. This dog wasn't the biggest of breeds and could be taken on, just very carefully. The dog went for his ankles (as most shepherd dogs would) he felt the dull ache in his ankle grow a bit, but now by much, on his terms anyway. It immediately began to bleed beneath the teeth of the dog as he continued to bite and scratch. Bakura dragged his foot along with the dog (and his futile attempts) out onto the porch. He then swung his leg out as if to kick something and the dog unlatched itself and skidded to a halt about three feet away, not at all prepared for what had just happened. And it wasn't about to make that mistake again. It bounded towards Bakura just as he slammed the door shut.

Ignoring the barking that resounded in the hallway, despite the thick door, he looked around the elegantly decorated house. He had forgotten how nice it was actually. Not that he really had a chance to anyway as the last time he was in a rush to get out.

And now, for some time, this house was his to explore and figure out what exactly, the Craven's were up to.

Okay. That's done. Had a nice read, ladies and gentlemen? Okay, 'till the next chap. "ja ne" and later.