Chapter 9: Necropolis (City of the Dead)
Name: Bakura
Begin Entry
So yeah. After finding Marik and his boy-toy, Malik, there were another two days of boring monotony before the funerals. Some things just get slower with time, and funerals are one of them. When I was still a normal, people got buried the day of, or the day after, their death. No screwing around, no matter what. Period. So with all this 'improved technology,' why am I still wasting almost seventy-two hours to see my child get buried? (And that's only because we got a vampire at the morgue to let some stuff slip, and edit some papers to hurry it along). 'Improved technology', my ass. Just a fancy way of saying 'we're taking our own sweet time, so screw you!' Well, there's this handy finger for technology freaks!
However, I was busy the day of the funeral. I heard that Marik's boy-toy was being buried on the same day (there was probably a hunter at the morgue as well), so I took a little trip before Marik's funeral to… ahem… 'pay my respects'.
I know you're laughing. Fuck you.
I went alone because Ryou was still upset. Crying and moping all day! We both knew the funeral would kill him, so we never even discussed him attending.
There was also the fact that he was a little more nervous around me than usual. I'd like to say, here and now, that what I did was not malicious in any way, shape or form. What would you do? The idiot was standing there, screaming his head off because he saw the dead body of his friend. We were gonna get caught! I tried shaking him and shouting at him, but he only screamed louder. So I punched him. Twice. A right hook and an upper cut. Just enough for him to pass out. Who wouldn't have done the same?
… Right. Where was I? Oh, the funeral. Well, I waited a while to give everyone at the funeral time to clear out. The last thing I wanted was for some hunter to find out that I was a vampire. There were bound to be plenty of hunters there and I, sure as hell, didn't want to become Swiss cheese.
I finally found the place and I hopped the fence. I searched for the stone with that Malik's name engraved on it and quickly spotted it. I didn't even realize that there was that hunter there until he started to walk towards me. I stared at him and he seemed to pause for a second. Taking my chance, I ran like hell towards a family vault and leapt onto the small building to wait.
After a few minutes of looking around for me, the hunter gave up. Or at least, I assume him did. However, I didn't wind up with a bullet in my head, so at the very least he didn't hunt my ass down. In all honesty, which is hard for me, the hunter scared me a little. I could tell he wasn't a push over, not in the least. He was definitely someone to watch out for.
And I did watch out for him. I was watching my back the entire night and I didn't even dare to go home for a while, in case he was following me. My habit of not inviting anyone into my house wasn't going to stop a hunter. So I hung out for a bit and bought myself a coffee. Around eight o'clock, I went back to my house and got Ryou, who had managed to find some of my black clothes that fit him.
(He'd been wearing a white sweater and blue jeans. Nothing suitable for a funeral, he told me. I assured him that Marik wasn't going to care, but he replied that it was a respect issue, so I left him to his own devices. Apparently in his home country of England, one wears black to funerals. I was aware that certain countries have customs concerning wear to funerals, but I'd never thought about it since vampires don't have any silly restrictions like that.)
Ryou and I were the last to arrive at Marik's grave, because when I arrived, the real funeral got started. I mean, sure, Marik had been buried earlier that day in a normal's ceremony, but I don't think anyone had bothered to attend, since it didn't mean anything to us. The only ceremony that matters to vampires are funerals for our kind. (I had to run Marik's, since I was the closest vampire relative to him.)
When Ryou and I got there, we found Jou, Yami, his slave, and Mai already waiting. There were a few others, but I didn't know them too well, so I mostly ignored them. I walked straight over to Jou, ignoring the vampires who were busting a gut about Ryou's presence, and we bowed to each other.
"I am sorry about your master," I sighed, repeating my lines.
"And I am sorry about your child," Jou nodded, before looking over at Ryou. "Who's the hunter?"
"A slave," I shrugged.
"Ryou!" A young vampire squealed as he ran from behind Jou and hugged Ryou violently. I felt Jou grab my shoulder as I moved to pull the punk off… my Ryou.
… Shut up.
"Mokuba!" Ryou laughed, almost crying. "I thought you were dead. Oh, Christ, we all thought you were dead!"
"But I am," Mokuba smirked showing off his fangs.
"Who's the kid?" I asked looking over at Jou.
"My child."
"Since when?"
"Over a month."
"Was he the one in the attack?"
"Give me a little credit; I wouldn't have changed him if he wasn't," Jou snorted. "He is rather young, isn't he?"
"He'll mature," I shrugged, before I stalked over to Ryou and pulled Mokuba off him. I glared down at Mokuba, before narrowing my eyes and giving him a once over. "Humph. What a punk."
Taking Ryou's hand, I walked over to the grave, and tried not to smirk when I heard Jou explaining to Mokuba that, for me, 'punk' was positively a compliment.
I reached Yami's side and Yami nodded to show he was ready. The others, excepting Ryou and Yugi, quickly lined up and quietly waited for me to begin. I pulled out a silver switchblade and let out a small sigh.
"Bakura. Master," I began and looked over at Yami.
"Yami. Friend."
"Kujaku Mai. Friend."
"Jounouchi Katsuya. Child."
"Kaiba Mokuba. Uh, child's child."
And so on down the line. When everyone was finished, I slid the silver blade across the palm of my hand, reopening an old scar, and let some of my blood fall onto Marik's grave.
"One last meal for Marik," I sighed and everyone repeated the process down the line. Once they were done, the group slowly disbanded, muttering condolences to me as they left.
"There's a council meeting in an hour and a half," Yami told me as he turned to go. "Will you be there?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "I might be a bit late, but I'll come."
"Good. Don't dwell on this; he was old."
"I know," I frowned and Yami left, taking Yugi with him. I waited until he was out of sight before finishing my thought. "But so am I."
"Bakura?" Ryou asked, when the visitors had finally left. I had been standing silently near Malik's grave, not having said a word since Yami had left.
"What?"
"We're the only ones here. Shouldn't you… we be going?"
"Scared? No one here is going to do you any damage, you know."
"I'm not scared," Ryou snapped, but I could hear a bit of hesitation in his voice.
"Good. Now shut up. I need to talk with Marik," I told him, before I went over to the grave and knelt next to it.
"Well, Marik," I began with a smirk, after a moment of silence. "I told you so."
