Eventually the gang had decided to go Kaiba's game centre, where Joey and Yugi had duked it out with three games of Duel Monsters. Yugi had won the first two games, as expected, but managed to score a win in the last game. Now the group was walking down the wide, semi-cobbled streets of Domino City. They'd spread across the width of the street, yelling back and forth to each other, window shopping, and buying snacks at some of Domino City's many cart vendors. Joey visited more than a few, and ended up with an armful of soda cans, pretzels, and novelty candies. They sidled off to one side of the street, in a small mezzanine to wait for Joey to finish his snacks. Téa came up to Yugi from behind.
"Yugi," she whispered in his ear. Yugi jumped a mile.
"Téa!" he admonished, "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry," Téa said, "but anyway, you let Joey win, didn't you?" Yugi didn't answer, but just smiled at Téa. Téa was mildly surprised; Yugi always thought it insulting not to give someone a run for their money, so to speak. Téa was about to reply but was interrupted by Joey's muffled shout through a mouthful of food.
"Hey, any a' you guys got some money I can borrow? I'm still hungry!" Tristan regarded Joey scornfully.
"We just spent all our money for the use of Kaiba's increasingly expensive dueling arena. Which, I noticed, was not at all funded from your pocket." Joey grinned and popped the last remaining bite of a pizza pretzel into his mouth. He looked up in the sky, thoroughly enjoying every unhealthy particle. His eyes landed on a forlorn looking figure across and down the street a bit.
"Look!" Joey over-enthusiastically shouted, "There's Bakura! He's always good for a duel!"
"If only he wasn't always after souls…" Tristan muttered, but it was too late. Joey was already half way across the street. Tristan, then Téa, and finally Yugi got up and followed him across the concrete to the white crown of Bakura's head that was facing them.
"Bakura! Ya' up for a bout of D-M?" Joey called. Bakura didn't respond. Tristan pulled Bakura's head up by his mop of hair and looked him in the eyes. Again, no response.
Bakura peered out at the people in front of him, through grief-stricken eyes. Was that… Yugi? The look of despair started to disappear from his face.
"Yu…gi," Bakura stammered, mildly relieved, "My… ring…" Yugi's eyes widened.
"Your ring? Your Millennium Ring? What about it?"
"Gone…" the boy exhaled. Despair returned to his normally determined complexion and his head dropped back down.
"Gone?" Yugi questioned, "Where? Who took it?" Bakura didn't respond.
"Looks like we may have another wannabe Millennium Item collector," Tristan smirked.
"Oh, no… Better watch out, Yugi," Téa warned, "The collector might come after you next." There was a brief pause. Joey, full of exuberance, broke the silence.
"Don't worry, 'Kura. We'll get your ring back!" Bakura only mumbled illegibly under his breath
"That must have been some defeat," whispered Joey loudly to the rest, "He's completely nutty."
Téa looked at Yugi. Surely he wouldn't go after the thief. If the thief won a match against Bakura to take his Millennium Item, and left him crazed, it would only take a bit more effort to do the same to Yugi. Téa looked at Yugi again; he was occupied trying to gain Bakura's attention. Yugi had his Duel Monsters cards out, and was waving them in front of Bakura.
"Hey, look!" Yugi said, "Bakura, look! Duel Monsters! Wanna play? What happened, huh?" Yugi realized there was Bakura's own cards in his hand. Yugi took them with his other hand and gestured with both sets.
"Look, we can play. Hey, wha… Oops!" Yugi had dropped both stacks of cards. Luckily they landed in relatively neat piles. Yugi scooped them up and put Bakura's pack back into his hands.
"This is futile guys… and girl," Yugi said, noting Téa's gaze, "Let's go." Nobody had any problem with that, so they stepped back on to the road and started toward the city center once again. All except for Tristan. Trying once more to capture Bakura's attention, he delivered a swift kick to the shine of the lump of a person with his head in his hands. Nothing. Tristan looked at the rest of them, shrugged, and then jogged up to join the posse of four.