Chapter Two: No Diving!
0800 Friday (Holiday), street:
Ryou, Shadow, and Key (shadow's sister) were walking along a canal in the ghetto of downtown Domino. Ryou was wearing a black T-shirt under a black leather vest, a pair of black jeans, and a black backpack. On his black, braided-leather belt, he had a long bladed knife, which had a unique hilt. There were twin dragons twined, in silver with black tarnish in the crevices, and at the end, in gold, was a miniature Millennium Ring, at least in model. Shadow was wearing jeans and a white tank top under a red button T-shirt and Key, a short ten-year-old with naturally brown hair was wearing a denim skirt and a white blouse. Both of the Blades had dyed their hair blue and Key had a red ribbon in hers. The Siamese kitten was curled up on a red-and-white checkered picnic blanket in the little basket Key was carrying. Some freshly baked biscuits and cookies and a jar of apple butter were nestled underneath the blanket, letting wafts of fresh baking seep through.
The area around the four was the downtown ghetto, where all the gangs seemed to congregate, and they had a cease-fire - or any kind of fighting - because otherwise no one would be able to get anywhere. It was Shadow's idea, of course.
When the four reached a certain building that looked like any other building on the street except for the fact that it had been a high-tech office building in the street's good old days, they turned into the doorway of the building across the street, an old hotel.
In the foyer, the four started talking.
"Oh my gosh! Did you see that Fang? We almost got shot!"
"MEOWW!"
"Hey, where's the rest of your gang again?"
"Where's Izzy? Wasn't he gonna meet us here?"
"MROWWW!!"
"What is your cat trying to communicate, Ryou?"
"She's not my cat, Key, I just found her in my room before I left."
"Hey Key, open this elevator door, we need to get further into this motel in case someone broke the cease-fire."
"Sure!"
"Cease-fire?"
"Yeah, all the gangs decided that this is a no-warring zone, but occasionally, someone gets knifed and there's a drive-by." The elevator door opened and Shadow slipped down a rope inside the shaft.
"We hung this rope when we took the building cause the stairwell is one-way and the elevator is broken and crashed at the bottom of the shaft. You go next, so I can close the door. It's highly tricky unless you know how."
Ryou grabbed the rope and slid down to the bottom slowly. On his way, he passed a couple of openings: one that gave off a soft hum as if some generators were there and the other that was full of wiring. The next opening was the one where the elevator had stopped, and it was partially blocked. But there was two feet of space, and Ryou squeezed through, dropping into a well-lit den, with old arcade games lining one wall, every kind of gaming system imaginable on the facing wall, couches facing the huge TV on that wall, and a pool table, foosball table and air hockey table out in the center. The wall Ryou was standing near had quite a few folding chairs, and the other wall had two doors: one led to a kitchen, which had a huge window, marked "Feeding Trough," where the food could be handed through, and the other door was on the opposite side of the first and was marked "The Only Way Out". It was the stairwell. There was a door on one side of the 65" TV marked "The Bathroom." The door on the closer side was marked "Computer Room" in the same handwriting as all the rest.
Ryou walked over to the 'Computer Room' and pushed open the door. He gasped when he saw that the room was full of computers, eleven, to be exact, and one was lit up.
Ryou crossed to it, and read, "Welcome to the Tigers, Ryou." He pressed enter, and the screen changed to read, "Please go back to the main room now."
Ryou walked back out to the main room, and found Key just climbing down from the elevator. The kitten had left the basket and was yowling at her. When Ryou entered, Sanura yowled at Key once more and then jumped effortlessly onto Ryou's shoulder and climbed onto the top of his head, where she settled comfortably on her brisket.
"Ookay…" He said, as Shadow walked into the room from the stairwell. Key carried her baked goods into the kitchen and set them on the counter. A small boy, about ten, followed Shadow as well.
"I'm sorry Shadow, I tried to come out but there were strangers up there that I couldn't let know that this was down here."
"Who were the strangers?" Key asked, worriedly.
"They were Fangs… And they seemed to not want to leave, but they couldn't open the stairway door, and they didn't see the light from our den, so they walked out like just before you three showed up, I guess. One put a bullet through the door of the stairway, and then I didn't want to move, for fear they'd put another through, closer to my head. And any closer with the first bullet, I would've had another piercing- one I didn't want!"
"You must be Izzy." Ryou said, changing the subject. Izzy nodded.
"And you must be Ryou. Hey, look at all this stuff we have. The older kids got it, and me'n Key arranged it like this. And I got the computer stuff and networked it all together. Shadow said you liked computers, so I made yours really fast. See, Naral's, he doesn't use it much, so it's one of the slowest we have. But your ethernet speed is 50 gigabytes per second."
"Blah blah blah computer blah blah blah." Said a new voice, a girl's. "Hi. I'm Keyna." The blue eyed blonde sitting on the elevator smiled, jumped down, and smoothed her orange blouse. She had paired it with a green skirt and had tied a loopy green bow under the collar of her blouse.
"Hello, Keyna. I'm Ryou."
"Nice to meet you." She said, with an infectious smile.
"You too." He echoed.
Keyna walked past him and up the stairwell, and Ryou caught the smell of strawberries.
Ryou looked around the room, and found that Key was beating her brother badly at a Star Wars racing game on the Nintendo 64. Izzy was trying hard to evade the rolling barrels of flame on a Donkey Kong game that Ryou hadn't seen around for five years. The graphics were horrible, but the game was still challenging enough to catch people's attention.
Ryou sat down in a couch and watched Key beat her brother. At the end of the race, he plugged in a third controller and commanded first on the next one.
"Hey, that's funny! No one can beat Key at this game!" Izzy gasped.
"Well," Ryou responded, smirking, "it looks like I just have."
2100 Friday, Ryou's suite:
Well, lets see. I have officially met all of the Tigers: Shadow, Key, Izzy the computer genius, Keyna the flirty blonde, Naral, the official weapons master, Shanal, girl with long hair also Naral's sister, Tenshi, voice of reason, Kawaii, our little charmer, Reagon, the ladies' man, and Liz, Reagon's girlfriend, jealous of Keyna. But I think that Keyna should be jealous of Liz, because Liz has got Reagon, and Keyna doesn't have a boyfriend. Hmm, oh well. Not my problem.
Ryou was lying in a soft bed in one of the rooms on the floor above the noisy den. It was going to be open all night.
"Ryou." Thief-King Bakura was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Hey, Ryou, do you want to go see the Diamond of the Sun?" He smiled. "The foolish owner brought it to Domino Museum. However, it's not open to the public, but I bet I could get to it."
Ryou sat up. Sounds like fun… "I'd have to just be an observer at first."
"Fine by me."
1000 Saturday, Tiger's Den:
The next day, Ryou slept in until 10:00 and when he came downstairs, was unexpectedly cheered for.
"THREE CHEERS FOR THIEF-KING!!"
"YIPES!!" Ryou yelped in surprise.
"Hip hip hooray! Hip hip Hooray! Hip hip Hooray!"
Ryou was welcomed as a hero and Thief-King's face was three times larger than life on the TV. Ryou nearly hyperventilated in shock.
Thanks for two days ago, Bakura.
Hindsight: Ryou There was a crack in the door. I was gonna die if Mr. Binion got in here. I did the only thing I could think of. I know it was cowardly, but I've never had a mad adult tear down my door before.
Bakura! Help me! Instantly, I was stronger, more powerful. I had a sense of purpose, not just sit there and be killed sort of thing. I knew I was important, I knew I could do something.
I knew I was Ryou/Bakura, Thief King Bakurae. A joint of Hikari and Yami to make a more powerful being.
A lonely thought crossed my mind, unrelated to the chaos I was feeling: Is this how Yugi/Yami feels?
"Ryou?"
Ryou shook his head hard. "What?" He asked.
"Hey, Look!"
"Huh?"
"Your friends are like saying that you're dead." Key said. "Look!"
Ryou stared at the TV screen. "Aww, you missed it!" Izzie flipped the channel. "There, this is news all the time. You'll come back up eventually-"
"Concerning the disappearance of Ryou Bakura," the TV showed a picture of Ryou when he had first arrived at the Binions.
"Geez, you look happy." Shadow said, sarcastically.
"If you've seen him, call 1-800-NO-CRIME."
"What, are you a criminal?"
"We interviewed some of Bakura's friends from school." Screen faded to Yugi, shot live, from the sign in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
"Well, he wasn't the closest of friends to anyone, and he was pretty mysterious about some things, but yes, he did actually talk to me, and he had a good heart."
"Motou, what do you mean by, 'had'?"
"Well, um, if Ryou was really kidnapped by this thief king person, then the chances of him still being alive are pretty slim." Anzu walked up beside him. "You mean nonexistent. Thief King Bakura has not been known to leave a single soul alive." Anzu smirked. "Literally."
"So in other words, he- Ryou- should be dead."
"And you don't care?"
"Honestly, I do, because Ryou is my friend. However, he was going through a tough time, you know, foster home and all, and I found a few rough drafts of suicide notes-"
"Liar." Ryou calmly remarked.
"Bad one, too, look how he's rambling. I betcha his heart's racing and he's getting really thirsty and nervous." Key added.
For another hour, the gang sat there and listened to Yugi, Anzu, Jou and Honda babble about Ryou's fake suicide notes.
1700, Saturday, Tiger Den:
Ryou got pretty bored of living in the Tiger Den, and he wanted to see the sun, since he only ever came out at night.
"Hey, guys, I'm tired of cooking the same old food every night. Can someone name another food that they like?" Key one day said. "You name it, I'll cook it."
No one felt up to the challenge until Ryou looked up from his air hockey game and said one word.
"Pizza."
Key looked at him like he was crazy, and all the rest of the gang were thinking about that.
"Pizza? What's that?" Someone asked.
"Pizza," Ryou said, enjoying the attention, "is a flat, circular piece of bread with certain toppings on it. It originated in Italy, but was quickly picked up by America, and now is, along with hot dogs 'n chips and hamburgers 'n fries, one of the most popular dishes in America."
"You mentioned Hot Dogs, served with chips, and Hamburgers, served with fries, but what is pizza served with?" Key asked.
"Nothing, usually. Whatever sides you would want are on top of the pizza."
"Well, you've got me beat. I can't make a decent pizza, the crust always burns."
"Pizza is the one dish I can make besides macaroni and cheese." Ryou grinned. "And I haven't had it in a while, so why don't I make it, and we can pig out on fattening food till the cows come home."
"Can you teach me how not to make the crust burn?" Key asked, standing up.
"Sure!" Ryou went into the kitchen, followed by Key.
1200 Monday, apartment complex in London The tall rich boy with brown hair was roughly pushed deeper into the shadow realm. His little brother with black hair was struggling in the arms of a Controlled blonde teenage boy dressed in a puppy costume as a full figured, brown haired girl, with the same widened irises of Mind Control walked up beside them… she carried a rag soaked in chloroform… the teenage girl detective's world reeled for a moment then came crashing to a halt as a bullet whistled past her ear… Sukayna spun as she realized there was an enemy behind her… and she came face to face with her twin… She raised her gun, smirking… Sukayna Akila sat up in bed, tangled in the covers. She was soaked in sweat as her heart raced faster than the boy on the news and her blood pounded louder than a freight train in her ears.
"Talieah..."
It wasn't the first time she had had that dream, and it wouldn't be the last.
Sukayna's room was bare in the moonlight, but she rolled off of the wire frame bed and went to her window over the furnace in the one room apartment. She pushed it open, and the air outside was cool and refreshing.
Dressed in her summer pajamas; sleep shorts, a T-shirt from her elementary school and a robe, she leaned out the window to look at the view. She reached out to touch the brick wall on the other side of the decrepit alley, but her arms were about two inches too short.
Abruptly, the girl spun, sending her straight, shoulder-length black hair flying around her head. Scanning the room for danger, Sukayna's violet eyes showed a micro-expression of fear. "I need to get out of this country and relax..." So saying, Sukayna glided noiselessly to her bed, and started pulling the sheets and blankets off of it, shoving them into a box.
0630, Monday, Tiger's Den "Hey Ryou!" Key called, walking into Ryou's room of the motel, a floor above the den and below most of the electric-run generators (whoever came up with that had to have been a genius. They started with just enough electricity to get one running, which generated enough to run the rest, and now one of the rest is hooked up to the first, completing a loop and ensuring that there will always be electricity here.
Key had dyed her hair purple, and was holding a can of black hair dye. "Let's dye your hair black so you can go out into public. And Shadow bought you some camouflage clothing, so you can be just another Tiger."
"Camouflage clothing?" In Ryou's mind was an image of a US marine.
"Yeah, you know, clothing like his, so you blend in more to a crowd. We should also cut your hair, just trim it, you know, so it is different."
"We shouldn't do anything permanent to it, at least nothing that will stay overnight, because otherwise people will get suspicious."
"The dye washes out in one shower. You can't exactly go swimming, but it's good for school."
"Okay, I'll take the clothing and the dye, and how about instead of cutting my hair, I tie it back in a ponytail? With one of those band thingys that your brother and Naral wear."
Key tilted her head, imagining it. "That should work. And with makeup and you hanging around the other Tigers, you could pass for someone different - especially with sunglasses!!"
Ryou grinned. This was sounding like a lot of fun already.
1200, Monday, Tiger's Den:
After lunch that day, all of the Tigers were hanging out together and laughing when Yugi walked up. The Tigers fell silent.
"Hey, um, Ryou?" Yugi said, looking around, then spotting Ryou, even with the disguise. "We've been worried about you, you know, and my grandfather's not too happy with our lie."
"Sorry." Ryou didn't know what else to say, and obviously, Yugi's whole endeavor had been only half thought out. Luckily, well, at least for the sake of not being embarrassed, they were interrupted by the Fangs, who ran up and attacked the Tigers, who weren't even all there.
The Tigers put up a flimsy excuse for a defense but had split and run off before they got hurt.
However, Ryou and Yugi were noticed especially and the chase ensued.
As they ran, Ryou ran around and around, getting Yugi hopelessly lost.
"You do know where you're going, right?" Yugi gasped, having collapsed. Ryou looked around and yanked Yugi's arm and nearly dragged him a few more feet where he dropped the exhausted boy and turned, facing the gang. He had gotten his second wind and was in perfect shape.
Suddenly, he taunted them and turned and fled, nearly flying over the assorted parked cars on the side of the road.
The Fangs raced past, but two or three stopped to get Yugi. Suddenly, Jou and Honda pulled over in Mai's car (Mai was driving, of course) and hopped out.
o
"Hey, Yugi. Why're you so tired?" Honda asked. Yugi sat up and looked at them, as the Fangs stared at Jou and Honda, and then Yugi in turn, then looked at each other. They turned and fled.
"Oh, that explains why Ryou left." Yugi said. "He must've seen you three coming."
"You realize, Yugi, now you're one of the Fang's targets. They'll be hunting you." Honda said.
"Why?"
"Because you 'fraternized with the enemy' as they call it." Jou added.
"That sucks."
"That was Ryou?" Mai asked.
"Yeah. I guess he dyed his hair so that he could be seen in public without an uproar. But even with the shades and bandanna, I knew it was him."
"Oh! Ryou was that freaky dude hanging with the Tigers?"
"Yeah. Weird, huh."
"Well, guys, get in the car. It's twelve thirty and your grandpa's worried about where you are, Yugi."
"Oh no! I forgot! I have another tournament to participate in today!"
"Oh shit! I forgot about that too!" Jou said, and the three boys jumped into Mai's convertible. "To Yugi's house!"
"Wait!" Yugi said. "Where's my puzzle?"
.o Ryou Bakura nearly flew down the sidewalk, his blue overshirt flapping behind him as he tripped over the occasional dog walker. Behind him raced the Fangs, angry and about ready to beat him into pulp.
"Wow, that kid has a whole gang after him… the only person I've seen that can make a whole gang mad was Ryou… too bad he was killed by Thief-King, he was a nice boy." Said a lady packing groceries into her car.
"Kidnapped! Not Killed!!" Ryou gasped as he ran by the lady.
"Hey, wha'd you do this time?" She called, accepting that he wasn't dead with hardly a blink of the eye.
Ryou vaguely wondered the same thing, but he had reached the cliff, where a sign read, 'no diving'
"Hah! We have you now! There's no escaping us, kid!" The Fangs had closed in on three sides, and Ryou backed up against the fence - which suddenly gave way! Ryou fell off the cliff and barely turned his fall into a perfect reverse dive that should've been in the Olympics. He surfaced, shaking his head, and wiped off the black dye that was running down his face.
Sighing, Ryou pulled off the bandana and washed the rest of the dye out.
"Hey! That kid's Ryou!" But as the Fang had said it, Ryou dived and swam away underwater like a fish.
1500, Monday, street by canal:
"Sheesh! You really know how to get on the news!" Shadow said as Key shook her finger at Ryou, who had pulled himself up out of the canal, dripping wet, with his bandana tied to his wrist and his sunglasses in his pocket.
"Yeah. I know. But I'm famous, wha'd you expect."
"They even interviewed the lady who had heard you say that you were kidnapped by Thief-King, not killed!" Key said.
"Yeah, now maybe people will relax a bit when they realize who I am. Not look like they've seen a ghost."
"Well, we better get you dry and in bed. You'll catch something for sure!" Key said. Ryou, panting lightly shook his head, laughing. But Ryou noticed that he was shaking from the adrenaline letdown, so he went along, took a hot bath, and went to sleep early.
"What is it with this kid and having hard days?" Shadow asked Key as he walked out of Ryou's room.
"Just his luck, I guess. But at least he's been well prepared for it."
0900, Saturday, Motou residence, Yugi's room:
Yugi was lying in bed, blissfully dreaming of a field of flowers and butterflies. His sheets were the same juvenile print as his Pjs, a star and moon theme, but his white comforter lay on the floor, along with a pile of clothing and duel monster cards, the only reminder of the tournament last night, because the trophy had been stolen before it could have been given to Yugi.
Yugi had almost not won, because aside from the fact that Yugi hadn't found his puzzle, that last opponent, Akila Sukayna, had been tough. So tough, in fact, that Anzu was willing to lay money on the idea that Akila had lost on purpose. Especially after Anzu had found an opened letter addressed to the finalist that said, "sometimes there's a duel that should be lost, in order to win the greater cause." Signed, Tamela.
Yugi rolled over, still asleep, and fell of his bed.
"Oof! Ouch, that hurt." He said, rudely woken up. Wafts of Bacon-and-Egg smelling air came through his open doorway, so Yugi got up, yawned, and walked towards it. A thought about last night popped into his head as he slipped on a duel card and fell on all his stuff.
"Ouch. Hey look, I wonder if I get my three wishes- I just saw the 'flying fish' in flight." He said to himself.
"Yugi! Breakfast!" Soguroku called up the stairs. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah! Be down in a minute." Yugi stood up again. "Got to stop falling!"
Yugi crossed to the stairs and started to go down but his feet never connected to the top stair and he fell headlong with a yelp.
Yugi looked dazedly at the spinning ceiling as his grandfather knelt down beside him.
"Yugi!" Yugi winced at Anzu's voice as it pounded through his head, pushing away the fog of unconsciousness. "Yugi? Are you okay?" Jou was there too, but that was all Yugi could realize before he was overcome by the clouds of darkness.
.o Anzu gasped. "We need to get him to the hospital right away! He might have a concussion!"
"Congrats, Yugi." Jou said, faintly angry, as a card, a Duel Monster card, floated down the stairwell and landed face-down next to Yugi's unconscious body.
"A Duel Monster card?" Soguroku asked.
Jou and Anzu picked up the card at the same time, read it, and looked at each other.
Honda read it over their shoulders.
"Mind Control?"
2300, Saturday, dilapidated apartments, Akila residence:
Sukayna sat on a rented futon, watching cable on a rented TV in a rented apartment. At least the food's not rented, she thought, as she ate a bagel and drank some milk. Checking the time, she flipped to the basic news channel as Yugi's picture came up.
"- this morning, at the Motou residence, last nights Duel Monster Tournament champion, Yugi Motou, had allegedly fallen down the stairs and gotten a slight concussion, causing him to pass out and alarming family and close friends. Yugi's condition is not serious, but he is out of action for a few days at the least. Police, however, did find reason to believe that someone broke into the Motou's house earlier that morning."
"What?" Sukayna stared at the TV.
On the television, a news reporter told something to the newscaster.
"the latest development- Yugi was kidnapped from his hospital bed not two hours after he was placed there."
"Shit."
Sukayna flicked off the TV, got up and walked to the only thing she owned in the cheap apartment, her precious computer. She softly touched the tower, full of hardware that she would rescue before any jewelry, and flipped the master switch.
As the computer slowly booted up, Sukayna surveyed her apartment before picking up a couple of computer magazines and putting them away on her makeshift bookcase- plywood boards and cement blocks. She got some salami out of her 'classroom' fridge and chewed on it.
Sukayna's new housing spoke of poverty, from the cheap futon, cheap TV, to the makeshift bookcase that seemed to be the theme of her room. But even though nothing (besides the computer) cost over $30 separately, the whole room was clean and smelled fresh. The wall had been whitewashed recently, and even though it wasn't painted the white gave the room a cheerful feeling. In Sukayna's window hung a starched angel, a crocheted bag of potpourri, and a sun catcher of a butterfly that a little kid had made. A single picture adorned the wall, of a little girl cut out of a magazine. The girl was smiling, and she sat in a swing, but there was sadness in the way that Sukayna looked at the picture.
Everything else in the apartment was gray. A gray futon, smelling of Febreeze. Gray fridge, smelling of baking soda. Gray and black clothing lying folded in some plastic crates, smelling of Dawn. Gray suitcase for carrying around her silver laptop and important papers smelling of money (literally, did you know money has a smell?). Even her computer was gray, and it was booted up.
Sukayna tapped her Internet Browser, and a cat entered through the cat door. The cat was tough but she had shadowy silverish fur.
"Hello, Sariyah." Sukayna picked up the cat. "Look, this is that brat Mokuba's 'diary', and I am going to see what he put down for today." An expert hacker, Sukayna was able to access Mokuba's journal in a matter of seconds.
"Hmm, let's see, oh, look at this. Here's yesterdays, and here's today's." 'there may be no connection,' Sukayna read aloud, 'but Monday Yugi lost his 'precious' puzzle and a reward that got on the news was shown, a couple of kids in for murder three counts broke from jail, and Friday, Yugi almost lost the tournament. What, is it his 'good luck' charm? And Seto says that the other Yugi didn't come out for the tournament. Maybe the other Yugi is in this strange necklace… I gotta get my hands on it!
'Next article of business, Yugi's disappearance today from the hospital. Who would kidnap him? I'd guess my brother, but he was busy cleaning up the media burst about our adoption… speaking of which, I wonder how that happened, Seto says it was someone named Akila…'
Sukayna logged out, and reached for a can of tuna, which she opened with an army knife at her waist. She offered some tuna to the cat.
"Food for thought, Sariyah, do you think that there is a connection between the disappearance of Yugi's puzzle and the Hadria Twins out of jail the same day?"
Sariyah ignored the tuna for a minute, being interested in a fly buzzing around over the keyboard. She pounced, hitting the keys y, e, and s in that order. Then, she twirled like an acrobat and ate the tuna.
"Hmm, I thought so too."
Sukayna brought the downloaded version of Mokuba's journal onscreen. "Hmm, here's earlier, Yugi against Seto duel, the same again, and…" Sukayna paused as a message popped up.
Original Document changed, bring up new document?
CancelOkay
Sukayna clicked Okay, and the screen flashed, one moment please before the document was onscreen, just how Mokuba had left it.
Sariyah was sitting in Sukayna's lap, and Sukayna stopped petting her for a second. Sariyah glanced up at the screen, jumped away with fur puffed, and yowled like no tomorrow.
"Mind Control??" Sukayna muttered, breathless. "That's Draco Hadria's signature card!!" She looked at the cat, squished into a corner. "And there's a reason he's a criminal!"
.'
0800 Friday (Holiday), street:
Ryou, Shadow, and Key (shadow's sister) were walking along a canal in the ghetto of downtown Domino. Ryou was wearing a black T-shirt under a black leather vest, a pair of black jeans, and a black backpack. On his black, braided-leather belt, he had a long bladed knife, which had a unique hilt. There were twin dragons twined, in silver with black tarnish in the crevices, and at the end, in gold, was a miniature Millennium Ring, at least in model. Shadow was wearing jeans and a white tank top under a red button T-shirt and Key, a short ten-year-old with naturally brown hair was wearing a denim skirt and a white blouse. Both of the Blades had dyed their hair blue and Key had a red ribbon in hers. The Siamese kitten was curled up on a red-and-white checkered picnic blanket in the little basket Key was carrying. Some freshly baked biscuits and cookies and a jar of apple butter were nestled underneath the blanket, letting wafts of fresh baking seep through.
The area around the four was the downtown ghetto, where all the gangs seemed to congregate, and they had a cease-fire - or any kind of fighting - because otherwise no one would be able to get anywhere. It was Shadow's idea, of course.
When the four reached a certain building that looked like any other building on the street except for the fact that it had been a high-tech office building in the street's good old days, they turned into the doorway of the building across the street, an old hotel.
In the foyer, the four started talking.
"Oh my gosh! Did you see that Fang? We almost got shot!"
"MEOWW!"
"Hey, where's the rest of your gang again?"
"Where's Izzy? Wasn't he gonna meet us here?"
"MROWWW!!"
"What is your cat trying to communicate, Ryou?"
"She's not my cat, Key, I just found her in my room before I left."
"Hey Key, open this elevator door, we need to get further into this motel in case someone broke the cease-fire."
"Sure!"
"Cease-fire?"
"Yeah, all the gangs decided that this is a no-warring zone, but occasionally, someone gets knifed and there's a drive-by." The elevator door opened and Shadow slipped down a rope inside the shaft.
"We hung this rope when we took the building cause the stairwell is one-way and the elevator is broken and crashed at the bottom of the shaft. You go next, so I can close the door. It's highly tricky unless you know how."
Ryou grabbed the rope and slid down to the bottom slowly. On his way, he passed a couple of openings: one that gave off a soft hum as if some generators were there and the other that was full of wiring. The next opening was the one where the elevator had stopped, and it was partially blocked. But there was two feet of space, and Ryou squeezed through, dropping into a well-lit den, with old arcade games lining one wall, every kind of gaming system imaginable on the facing wall, couches facing the huge TV on that wall, and a pool table, foosball table and air hockey table out in the center. The wall Ryou was standing near had quite a few folding chairs, and the other wall had two doors: one led to a kitchen, which had a huge window, marked "Feeding Trough," where the food could be handed through, and the other door was on the opposite side of the first and was marked "The Only Way Out". It was the stairwell. There was a door on one side of the 65" TV marked "The Bathroom." The door on the closer side was marked "Computer Room" in the same handwriting as all the rest.
Ryou walked over to the 'Computer Room' and pushed open the door. He gasped when he saw that the room was full of computers, eleven, to be exact, and one was lit up.
Ryou crossed to it, and read, "Welcome to the Tigers, Ryou." He pressed enter, and the screen changed to read, "Please go back to the main room now."
Ryou walked back out to the main room, and found Key just climbing down from the elevator. The kitten had left the basket and was yowling at her. When Ryou entered, Sanura yowled at Key once more and then jumped effortlessly onto Ryou's shoulder and climbed onto the top of his head, where she settled comfortably on her brisket.
"Ookay…" He said, as Shadow walked into the room from the stairwell. Key carried her baked goods into the kitchen and set them on the counter. A small boy, about ten, followed Shadow as well.
"I'm sorry Shadow, I tried to come out but there were strangers up there that I couldn't let know that this was down here."
"Who were the strangers?" Key asked, worriedly.
"They were Fangs… And they seemed to not want to leave, but they couldn't open the stairway door, and they didn't see the light from our den, so they walked out like just before you three showed up, I guess. One put a bullet through the door of the stairway, and then I didn't want to move, for fear they'd put another through, closer to my head. And any closer with the first bullet, I would've had another piercing- one I didn't want!"
"You must be Izzy." Ryou said, changing the subject. Izzy nodded.
"And you must be Ryou. Hey, look at all this stuff we have. The older kids got it, and me'n Key arranged it like this. And I got the computer stuff and networked it all together. Shadow said you liked computers, so I made yours really fast. See, Naral's, he doesn't use it much, so it's one of the slowest we have. But your ethernet speed is 50 gigabytes per second."
"Blah blah blah computer blah blah blah." Said a new voice, a girl's. "Hi. I'm Keyna." The blue eyed blonde sitting on the elevator smiled, jumped down, and smoothed her orange blouse. She had paired it with a green skirt and had tied a loopy green bow under the collar of her blouse.
"Hello, Keyna. I'm Ryou."
"Nice to meet you." She said, with an infectious smile.
"You too." He echoed.
Keyna walked past him and up the stairwell, and Ryou caught the smell of strawberries.
Ryou looked around the room, and found that Key was beating her brother badly at a Star Wars racing game on the Nintendo 64. Izzy was trying hard to evade the rolling barrels of flame on a Donkey Kong game that Ryou hadn't seen around for five years. The graphics were horrible, but the game was still challenging enough to catch people's attention.
Ryou sat down in a couch and watched Key beat her brother. At the end of the race, he plugged in a third controller and commanded first on the next one.
"Hey, that's funny! No one can beat Key at this game!" Izzy gasped.
"Well," Ryou responded, smirking, "it looks like I just have."
2100 Friday, Ryou's suite:
Well, lets see. I have officially met all of the Tigers: Shadow, Key, Izzy the computer genius, Keyna the flirty blonde, Naral, the official weapons master, Shanal, girl with long hair also Naral's sister, Tenshi, voice of reason, Kawaii, our little charmer, Reagon, the ladies' man, and Liz, Reagon's girlfriend, jealous of Keyna. But I think that Keyna should be jealous of Liz, because Liz has got Reagon, and Keyna doesn't have a boyfriend. Hmm, oh well. Not my problem.
Ryou was lying in a soft bed in one of the rooms on the floor above the noisy den. It was going to be open all night.
"Ryou." Thief-King Bakura was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Hey, Ryou, do you want to go see the Diamond of the Sun?" He smiled. "The foolish owner brought it to Domino Museum. However, it's not open to the public, but I bet I could get to it."
Ryou sat up. Sounds like fun… "I'd have to just be an observer at first."
"Fine by me."
1000 Saturday, Tiger's Den:
The next day, Ryou slept in until 10:00 and when he came downstairs, was unexpectedly cheered for.
"THREE CHEERS FOR THIEF-KING!!"
"YIPES!!" Ryou yelped in surprise.
"Hip hip hooray! Hip hip Hooray! Hip hip Hooray!"
Ryou was welcomed as a hero and Thief-King's face was three times larger than life on the TV. Ryou nearly hyperventilated in shock.
Thanks for two days ago, Bakura.
Hindsight: Ryou There was a crack in the door. I was gonna die if Mr. Binion got in here. I did the only thing I could think of. I know it was cowardly, but I've never had a mad adult tear down my door before.
Bakura! Help me! Instantly, I was stronger, more powerful. I had a sense of purpose, not just sit there and be killed sort of thing. I knew I was important, I knew I could do something.
I knew I was Ryou/Bakura, Thief King Bakurae. A joint of Hikari and Yami to make a more powerful being.
A lonely thought crossed my mind, unrelated to the chaos I was feeling: Is this how Yugi/Yami feels?
"Ryou?"
Ryou shook his head hard. "What?" He asked.
"Hey, Look!"
"Huh?"
"Your friends are like saying that you're dead." Key said. "Look!"
Ryou stared at the TV screen. "Aww, you missed it!" Izzie flipped the channel. "There, this is news all the time. You'll come back up eventually-"
"Concerning the disappearance of Ryou Bakura," the TV showed a picture of Ryou when he had first arrived at the Binions.
"Geez, you look happy." Shadow said, sarcastically.
"If you've seen him, call 1-800-NO-CRIME."
"What, are you a criminal?"
"We interviewed some of Bakura's friends from school." Screen faded to Yugi, shot live, from the sign in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
"Well, he wasn't the closest of friends to anyone, and he was pretty mysterious about some things, but yes, he did actually talk to me, and he had a good heart."
"Motou, what do you mean by, 'had'?"
"Well, um, if Ryou was really kidnapped by this thief king person, then the chances of him still being alive are pretty slim." Anzu walked up beside him. "You mean nonexistent. Thief King Bakura has not been known to leave a single soul alive." Anzu smirked. "Literally."
"So in other words, he- Ryou- should be dead."
"And you don't care?"
"Honestly, I do, because Ryou is my friend. However, he was going through a tough time, you know, foster home and all, and I found a few rough drafts of suicide notes-"
"Liar." Ryou calmly remarked.
"Bad one, too, look how he's rambling. I betcha his heart's racing and he's getting really thirsty and nervous." Key added.
For another hour, the gang sat there and listened to Yugi, Anzu, Jou and Honda babble about Ryou's fake suicide notes.
1700, Saturday, Tiger Den:
Ryou got pretty bored of living in the Tiger Den, and he wanted to see the sun, since he only ever came out at night.
"Hey, guys, I'm tired of cooking the same old food every night. Can someone name another food that they like?" Key one day said. "You name it, I'll cook it."
No one felt up to the challenge until Ryou looked up from his air hockey game and said one word.
"Pizza."
Key looked at him like he was crazy, and all the rest of the gang were thinking about that.
"Pizza? What's that?" Someone asked.
"Pizza," Ryou said, enjoying the attention, "is a flat, circular piece of bread with certain toppings on it. It originated in Italy, but was quickly picked up by America, and now is, along with hot dogs 'n chips and hamburgers 'n fries, one of the most popular dishes in America."
"You mentioned Hot Dogs, served with chips, and Hamburgers, served with fries, but what is pizza served with?" Key asked.
"Nothing, usually. Whatever sides you would want are on top of the pizza."
"Well, you've got me beat. I can't make a decent pizza, the crust always burns."
"Pizza is the one dish I can make besides macaroni and cheese." Ryou grinned. "And I haven't had it in a while, so why don't I make it, and we can pig out on fattening food till the cows come home."
"Can you teach me how not to make the crust burn?" Key asked, standing up.
"Sure!" Ryou went into the kitchen, followed by Key.
1200 Monday, apartment complex in London The tall rich boy with brown hair was roughly pushed deeper into the shadow realm. His little brother with black hair was struggling in the arms of a Controlled blonde teenage boy dressed in a puppy costume as a full figured, brown haired girl, with the same widened irises of Mind Control walked up beside them… she carried a rag soaked in chloroform… the teenage girl detective's world reeled for a moment then came crashing to a halt as a bullet whistled past her ear… Sukayna spun as she realized there was an enemy behind her… and she came face to face with her twin… She raised her gun, smirking… Sukayna Akila sat up in bed, tangled in the covers. She was soaked in sweat as her heart raced faster than the boy on the news and her blood pounded louder than a freight train in her ears.
"Talieah..."
It wasn't the first time she had had that dream, and it wouldn't be the last.
Sukayna's room was bare in the moonlight, but she rolled off of the wire frame bed and went to her window over the furnace in the one room apartment. She pushed it open, and the air outside was cool and refreshing.
Dressed in her summer pajamas; sleep shorts, a T-shirt from her elementary school and a robe, she leaned out the window to look at the view. She reached out to touch the brick wall on the other side of the decrepit alley, but her arms were about two inches too short.
Abruptly, the girl spun, sending her straight, shoulder-length black hair flying around her head. Scanning the room for danger, Sukayna's violet eyes showed a micro-expression of fear. "I need to get out of this country and relax..." So saying, Sukayna glided noiselessly to her bed, and started pulling the sheets and blankets off of it, shoving them into a box.
0630, Monday, Tiger's Den "Hey Ryou!" Key called, walking into Ryou's room of the motel, a floor above the den and below most of the electric-run generators (whoever came up with that had to have been a genius. They started with just enough electricity to get one running, which generated enough to run the rest, and now one of the rest is hooked up to the first, completing a loop and ensuring that there will always be electricity here.
Key had dyed her hair purple, and was holding a can of black hair dye. "Let's dye your hair black so you can go out into public. And Shadow bought you some camouflage clothing, so you can be just another Tiger."
"Camouflage clothing?" In Ryou's mind was an image of a US marine.
"Yeah, you know, clothing like his, so you blend in more to a crowd. We should also cut your hair, just trim it, you know, so it is different."
"We shouldn't do anything permanent to it, at least nothing that will stay overnight, because otherwise people will get suspicious."
"The dye washes out in one shower. You can't exactly go swimming, but it's good for school."
"Okay, I'll take the clothing and the dye, and how about instead of cutting my hair, I tie it back in a ponytail? With one of those band thingys that your brother and Naral wear."
Key tilted her head, imagining it. "That should work. And with makeup and you hanging around the other Tigers, you could pass for someone different - especially with sunglasses!!"
Ryou grinned. This was sounding like a lot of fun already.
1200, Monday, Tiger's Den:
After lunch that day, all of the Tigers were hanging out together and laughing when Yugi walked up. The Tigers fell silent.
"Hey, um, Ryou?" Yugi said, looking around, then spotting Ryou, even with the disguise. "We've been worried about you, you know, and my grandfather's not too happy with our lie."
"Sorry." Ryou didn't know what else to say, and obviously, Yugi's whole endeavor had been only half thought out. Luckily, well, at least for the sake of not being embarrassed, they were interrupted by the Fangs, who ran up and attacked the Tigers, who weren't even all there.
The Tigers put up a flimsy excuse for a defense but had split and run off before they got hurt.
However, Ryou and Yugi were noticed especially and the chase ensued.
As they ran, Ryou ran around and around, getting Yugi hopelessly lost.
"You do know where you're going, right?" Yugi gasped, having collapsed. Ryou looked around and yanked Yugi's arm and nearly dragged him a few more feet where he dropped the exhausted boy and turned, facing the gang. He had gotten his second wind and was in perfect shape.
Suddenly, he taunted them and turned and fled, nearly flying over the assorted parked cars on the side of the road.
The Fangs raced past, but two or three stopped to get Yugi. Suddenly, Jou and Honda pulled over in Mai's car (Mai was driving, of course) and hopped out.
o
"Hey, Yugi. Why're you so tired?" Honda asked. Yugi sat up and looked at them, as the Fangs stared at Jou and Honda, and then Yugi in turn, then looked at each other. They turned and fled.
"Oh, that explains why Ryou left." Yugi said. "He must've seen you three coming."
"You realize, Yugi, now you're one of the Fang's targets. They'll be hunting you." Honda said.
"Why?"
"Because you 'fraternized with the enemy' as they call it." Jou added.
"That sucks."
"That was Ryou?" Mai asked.
"Yeah. I guess he dyed his hair so that he could be seen in public without an uproar. But even with the shades and bandanna, I knew it was him."
"Oh! Ryou was that freaky dude hanging with the Tigers?"
"Yeah. Weird, huh."
"Well, guys, get in the car. It's twelve thirty and your grandpa's worried about where you are, Yugi."
"Oh no! I forgot! I have another tournament to participate in today!"
"Oh shit! I forgot about that too!" Jou said, and the three boys jumped into Mai's convertible. "To Yugi's house!"
"Wait!" Yugi said. "Where's my puzzle?"
.o Ryou Bakura nearly flew down the sidewalk, his blue overshirt flapping behind him as he tripped over the occasional dog walker. Behind him raced the Fangs, angry and about ready to beat him into pulp.
"Wow, that kid has a whole gang after him… the only person I've seen that can make a whole gang mad was Ryou… too bad he was killed by Thief-King, he was a nice boy." Said a lady packing groceries into her car.
"Kidnapped! Not Killed!!" Ryou gasped as he ran by the lady.
"Hey, wha'd you do this time?" She called, accepting that he wasn't dead with hardly a blink of the eye.
Ryou vaguely wondered the same thing, but he had reached the cliff, where a sign read, 'no diving'
"Hah! We have you now! There's no escaping us, kid!" The Fangs had closed in on three sides, and Ryou backed up against the fence - which suddenly gave way! Ryou fell off the cliff and barely turned his fall into a perfect reverse dive that should've been in the Olympics. He surfaced, shaking his head, and wiped off the black dye that was running down his face.
Sighing, Ryou pulled off the bandana and washed the rest of the dye out.
"Hey! That kid's Ryou!" But as the Fang had said it, Ryou dived and swam away underwater like a fish.
1500, Monday, street by canal:
"Sheesh! You really know how to get on the news!" Shadow said as Key shook her finger at Ryou, who had pulled himself up out of the canal, dripping wet, with his bandana tied to his wrist and his sunglasses in his pocket.
"Yeah. I know. But I'm famous, wha'd you expect."
"They even interviewed the lady who had heard you say that you were kidnapped by Thief-King, not killed!" Key said.
"Yeah, now maybe people will relax a bit when they realize who I am. Not look like they've seen a ghost."
"Well, we better get you dry and in bed. You'll catch something for sure!" Key said. Ryou, panting lightly shook his head, laughing. But Ryou noticed that he was shaking from the adrenaline letdown, so he went along, took a hot bath, and went to sleep early.
"What is it with this kid and having hard days?" Shadow asked Key as he walked out of Ryou's room.
"Just his luck, I guess. But at least he's been well prepared for it."
0900, Saturday, Motou residence, Yugi's room:
Yugi was lying in bed, blissfully dreaming of a field of flowers and butterflies. His sheets were the same juvenile print as his Pjs, a star and moon theme, but his white comforter lay on the floor, along with a pile of clothing and duel monster cards, the only reminder of the tournament last night, because the trophy had been stolen before it could have been given to Yugi.
Yugi had almost not won, because aside from the fact that Yugi hadn't found his puzzle, that last opponent, Akila Sukayna, had been tough. So tough, in fact, that Anzu was willing to lay money on the idea that Akila had lost on purpose. Especially after Anzu had found an opened letter addressed to the finalist that said, "sometimes there's a duel that should be lost, in order to win the greater cause." Signed, Tamela.
Yugi rolled over, still asleep, and fell of his bed.
"Oof! Ouch, that hurt." He said, rudely woken up. Wafts of Bacon-and-Egg smelling air came through his open doorway, so Yugi got up, yawned, and walked towards it. A thought about last night popped into his head as he slipped on a duel card and fell on all his stuff.
"Ouch. Hey look, I wonder if I get my three wishes- I just saw the 'flying fish' in flight." He said to himself.
"Yugi! Breakfast!" Soguroku called up the stairs. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah! Be down in a minute." Yugi stood up again. "Got to stop falling!"
Yugi crossed to the stairs and started to go down but his feet never connected to the top stair and he fell headlong with a yelp.
Yugi looked dazedly at the spinning ceiling as his grandfather knelt down beside him.
"Yugi!" Yugi winced at Anzu's voice as it pounded through his head, pushing away the fog of unconsciousness. "Yugi? Are you okay?" Jou was there too, but that was all Yugi could realize before he was overcome by the clouds of darkness.
.o Anzu gasped. "We need to get him to the hospital right away! He might have a concussion!"
"Congrats, Yugi." Jou said, faintly angry, as a card, a Duel Monster card, floated down the stairwell and landed face-down next to Yugi's unconscious body.
"A Duel Monster card?" Soguroku asked.
Jou and Anzu picked up the card at the same time, read it, and looked at each other.
Honda read it over their shoulders.
"Mind Control?"
2300, Saturday, dilapidated apartments, Akila residence:
Sukayna sat on a rented futon, watching cable on a rented TV in a rented apartment. At least the food's not rented, she thought, as she ate a bagel and drank some milk. Checking the time, she flipped to the basic news channel as Yugi's picture came up.
"- this morning, at the Motou residence, last nights Duel Monster Tournament champion, Yugi Motou, had allegedly fallen down the stairs and gotten a slight concussion, causing him to pass out and alarming family and close friends. Yugi's condition is not serious, but he is out of action for a few days at the least. Police, however, did find reason to believe that someone broke into the Motou's house earlier that morning."
"What?" Sukayna stared at the TV.
On the television, a news reporter told something to the newscaster.
"the latest development- Yugi was kidnapped from his hospital bed not two hours after he was placed there."
"Shit."
Sukayna flicked off the TV, got up and walked to the only thing she owned in the cheap apartment, her precious computer. She softly touched the tower, full of hardware that she would rescue before any jewelry, and flipped the master switch.
As the computer slowly booted up, Sukayna surveyed her apartment before picking up a couple of computer magazines and putting them away on her makeshift bookcase- plywood boards and cement blocks. She got some salami out of her 'classroom' fridge and chewed on it.
Sukayna's new housing spoke of poverty, from the cheap futon, cheap TV, to the makeshift bookcase that seemed to be the theme of her room. But even though nothing (besides the computer) cost over $30 separately, the whole room was clean and smelled fresh. The wall had been whitewashed recently, and even though it wasn't painted the white gave the room a cheerful feeling. In Sukayna's window hung a starched angel, a crocheted bag of potpourri, and a sun catcher of a butterfly that a little kid had made. A single picture adorned the wall, of a little girl cut out of a magazine. The girl was smiling, and she sat in a swing, but there was sadness in the way that Sukayna looked at the picture.
Everything else in the apartment was gray. A gray futon, smelling of Febreeze. Gray fridge, smelling of baking soda. Gray and black clothing lying folded in some plastic crates, smelling of Dawn. Gray suitcase for carrying around her silver laptop and important papers smelling of money (literally, did you know money has a smell?). Even her computer was gray, and it was booted up.
Sukayna tapped her Internet Browser, and a cat entered through the cat door. The cat was tough but she had shadowy silverish fur.
"Hello, Sariyah." Sukayna picked up the cat. "Look, this is that brat Mokuba's 'diary', and I am going to see what he put down for today." An expert hacker, Sukayna was able to access Mokuba's journal in a matter of seconds.
"Hmm, let's see, oh, look at this. Here's yesterdays, and here's today's." 'there may be no connection,' Sukayna read aloud, 'but Monday Yugi lost his 'precious' puzzle and a reward that got on the news was shown, a couple of kids in for murder three counts broke from jail, and Friday, Yugi almost lost the tournament. What, is it his 'good luck' charm? And Seto says that the other Yugi didn't come out for the tournament. Maybe the other Yugi is in this strange necklace… I gotta get my hands on it!
'Next article of business, Yugi's disappearance today from the hospital. Who would kidnap him? I'd guess my brother, but he was busy cleaning up the media burst about our adoption… speaking of which, I wonder how that happened, Seto says it was someone named Akila…'
Sukayna logged out, and reached for a can of tuna, which she opened with an army knife at her waist. She offered some tuna to the cat.
"Food for thought, Sariyah, do you think that there is a connection between the disappearance of Yugi's puzzle and the Hadria Twins out of jail the same day?"
Sariyah ignored the tuna for a minute, being interested in a fly buzzing around over the keyboard. She pounced, hitting the keys y, e, and s in that order. Then, she twirled like an acrobat and ate the tuna.
"Hmm, I thought so too."
Sukayna brought the downloaded version of Mokuba's journal onscreen. "Hmm, here's earlier, Yugi against Seto duel, the same again, and…" Sukayna paused as a message popped up.
Original Document changed, bring up new document?
CancelOkay
Sukayna clicked Okay, and the screen flashed, one moment please before the document was onscreen, just how Mokuba had left it.
Sariyah was sitting in Sukayna's lap, and Sukayna stopped petting her for a second. Sariyah glanced up at the screen, jumped away with fur puffed, and yowled like no tomorrow.
"Mind Control??" Sukayna muttered, breathless. "That's Draco Hadria's signature card!!" She looked at the cat, squished into a corner. "And there's a reason he's a criminal!"
.'