Once again I apologize for lack of updates all summer, I've been to busy acting like an idiot and forgot. ::bows over and over:: I will make lots of updates though to make up for it! Once again I apologize once more!!

::hands out crystal goblets of steamy chai tea:: thank you all so much! Even when I wasn't updating, I still got reviews! Thank you all!!

By the way, Mai gets manipulated a little in this chapter, not a lot; in fact… the manipulation upon her is subtle in my opinion, but nothing that will hurt her. Don't worry; I'm a Mai fan, so I got the girls back. … lol.

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"What the?! Reha, you don't understand what I'm saying! This is my body, it's my soul… you can't just go making bets against my own will!!" Mai hissed, furious at being forced to have such a yami.

"I'm sorry. I just don't like cocky men. He's trying to take advantage of the fact that you're a woman." Reha looked down, a few golden strands falling into her face.

"Sorry?! Is that all you can say, is sorry?!" Mai seethed, staring at her counterpart with fury. "I know I am a good duelist, but what makes a duelist great also, is knowing that there will always be that chance of losing." Mai took deep breaths to calm herself now. "You disappear for a few months and now you just spontaneously come back AFTER NOT TALKING TO ME and decide to make a deal with some weirdo that you don't even know that involves ME LOOSING MY SOUL?! Forget loosing my soul, YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME LOOSE MY SANITY!! And just how are you housing your own body?"

Reha finally looked up, grinning.

"I know you'll forgive me and love me when I tell you what I've done. I 'disappeared' as you so strategically call it to do nothing but devote my time to studying old spells and stuff that my minds knows, but cannot remember-" Reha was interrupted as Mai blurted out what she was thinking.

"How can your mind know something… but can't remember it?"

"Well… there's mortals like modern day people, right? … There's only you and three others that have yami's… which means they have access to their soul rooms. What humans don't know is that when they 'forget' something, due to time or just simply other reasons, their mind still has retained it, meaning it just has to go somewhere… somewhere inaccessible to normal people. So, people with Yami's have access to their soul rooms, where the knowledge lies dormant until remembered or refreshed. You, however, don't have to be a normal, modern day human. So, with me, things in my past that I 'can't remember', I can. I simply just look into the many books and other things in my soul room."

"…" Mai raised an eyebrow, her mind processing what she had just heard. "So that's what all those books in the soul rooms represent…"

"Yes." Reha smiled at having been able to finally pass something of use down to her hikari. "And unlike the other idiot yami's around, I actually remember my past, or at least know that little book trick so I have a lot more knowledge than the others. I know my past as well as the hidden, great powers of the Sennen Scales."

"Mmhm…"

"Anyways, this all means that in my past life, I was a sorceress. A great and very powerful one. Feared by many. I learned a lot of things constantly. Including a way to make souls and bodies apart."

"You mean like… astral projection?"

"Something similar to that, yes. But that's just a childish term for it. While I was learning this knowledge and studying it, the Sennen items were made… AKA Kurun Eruna was being burnt and the ninety-nine thieves were being sacrificed to create the items. I was one of a very few to realize that they could seal souls in. I was fascinated by this and eventually found out a way that if it were to happen, the soul trapped into item could take on its own appearance and body apart from the host."

"How?"

"Extensive meditation and use of a lot of energy plus reading a few scrolls that I managed to write with special incantations before biting the dust. You see, the more I save energy and meditate, or just bottling up all my power, the longer I can take on my own body and my own space. Therefore, I meditated and bottled up my energy for two months.

"Wow. So how long to you have before you are in spirit form again?"

"Quite a while, actually." Reha smiled, beaming with pride.

"Good. So now I can kill you properly for that deal you just made." Mai grinned at the other woman who looked shocked. Eventually it was a game of 'tag'.

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Mai sighed as she headed out for the lobby. She didn't bother turning on the lights or any other form of vision aid. The dimly lit lamps along the walls were enough to see what she desired. After digging through the cupboards and other such cabinets, she seated herself in a squashy chair and shifted slightly to get comfortable. Reha had retreated into her soul room, greedy for more energy so she would be almost human again for the duel coming up. She was fired up to show the exotic enemy just who was boss. Slowly raising her hand containing a cherry in which she was snacking on, she bit into the fruit, enjoying the way it trickled over her tongue in its bitter sweetness.

"I was wondering when you'd notice that you had just sat across from me." Came a familiar voice that sent shivers down the blonde's spine. She jumped, looking up with wide eyes.

"Merik! I- I didn't see you there…" She mentally scolded herself for acting so dumb. He chuckled lowly at this, obviously finding her actions sweet entertainment.

"No harm done, my dear." He smiled, lazily leaning back into his chair, studying her carefully. ((a/n ::drools all over self::))

"Alright then." She countered, regaining her usual composure again. She went back to eating the cherries once more, her furry slippers tucked up underneath her thighs as she sat indian style on the chair. Merik's lavender eyes never left her. His lips twitched upward slightly once more as he spoke.

"Are you enjoying having a yami as much as those cherries?" His smile grew more visible as he noticed her cheeks tint slightly. She grew embarrassed at the fact that he had taken note of the way she licked her lips after each cherry. damn him.she thought angrily.

"I guess. It was strange at first, but I've gotten used to it." She looked up, catching eye contact with the yami. The dim lamps seemed to make his bronze skin glow, like a god arigantly leaning back on his throne. She didn't mind the conversation, even though tomorrow she could lose Reha, as well as her soul in the shadow realm to him. Even down to those circumstances, she didn't mind making conversation. Although she knew Joey would probably tell her something about it if caught. He had been extra jumpy about him.

"I see." He smiled. "At least you enjoy her presence and are in pure bliss before being banished into a world of darkness." His thick lips curved upwards more, yet never allowing himself a full fledged smile… not yet anyway.

"You're very confident." She stated obviously.

"That and more." He chuckled, leaning his left arm against the chair's arm and resting his chin upon ringed fingers; still not taking his gaze off of her. She didn't know whether to be flattered or irritated that she had all of his complete and undivided attention. He was studying her so intently. ((a/n:: I wish I had all of his attention like that… okay I'll stop now…))

Mai only let out a small laugh, finding his strange version of self-centeredness amusing.

"Where's your other half?" He asked slowly blinking at her.

"She's…" Mai hesitated while staring into his lavendar orbs, wondering if Reha would want her to say anything that might give away her 'remedy' for being a yami. "She's meditating in her soul room." Mai wasn't sure if saying this would give anything away. After all, any spiritual person would meditate, right?

"Meditating? How interesting. Is she religious?"

"Not sure. She just likes to be alone and doesn't like talking about it much." Mai lied, nervous under his seductive gaze.

"…" he just watched her, as she mentally kicked herself in fear that he knew she was lying. What unnerved her even more, hower, where the way his half-lidded studying never changed. "anything you wish to tell me?" He ever so slightly cocked his head, fingers still supporting his chin.

"No… why?"

"You..." He stared into her eyes so piercingly, Mai could have sworn her heart would pound out of her chest. "… just seemed like you wanted to, that was all."

"Well, for the first time your 'reading' of me hasn't been correct." Mai felt superior at teasing him.

"The first… and the last, my dear." He chuckled, knowing full well he was simply allowing her to believe in what she wished.

She only put another cherry into her mouth in response to this before offering him some of the red fruit. He took one, staring at her the whole time while biting only half of it, allowing red liquid to trickle down his lip. He licked it back up slowly.

"So. Why arnt you practicing to beat me?" Mai said, finding the table interesting all of a sudden.

"I don't need to." He stated simply, popping the other half of the small fruit into his mouth.

"Well, when I'm finished with you, you'll wish you had."

"I believe you were the one that called me 'confident' earlier." This comment caused Mai to smile.

"Touche."

Merik was definitly a unique person to Mai, but she could only wonder whether or not Reha would scold her for having such a converstation with him, fearing him, yet finding him intesting all the same.