Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. "The Hollow Men" belongs to T. S. Eliot, whom I forgot to credit in the first chapter. Shame on me.

Mai lives in the only American-style apartment complex in Domino. Go her.
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#11: Justice

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"The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars . . .
In this last of meeting places"

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Ryou shut the door behind him, noticing absently that the 'snick' of the lock seemed louder than it had before. He checked again that there was enough yen in his pocket before heading down the stairs, on his way to the store several blocks away.

(You're wasting money.)

I like soda, Ryou replied.

Bakura snorted, but said nothing.

The convenience store was just a few blocks down from his apartment, and Ryou had used to do his small shopping there. Sometimes he had grabbed a can of coffee from the vending machine outside it on the mornings when he'd overslept and hadn't had the time to eat a real breakfast.

He was two feet from the store when he spotted the brunet walking across the street and past the corner. It wasn't hard, since there were only a handful of other people on the sidewalk -- but even if there had been a whole crowd, Ryou would always be able to spot him now.

He walked by the store's entrance without thinking and turned the corner, speeding up slightly until he was a few steps behind Honda. The other teenager didn't acknowledge him, and Ryou didn't say anything either; not even to ask if Jounouchi had finally talked to him after running off that afternoon. They just moved through the streets in a self-imposed silence.

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It was already dusk when Ryou had left his apartment, and by the time he and Honda arrived at a much nicer apartment complex the streetlights were beginning to come on, even though there was still some light in the sky.

Honda strode past the gate, around the corner, and down the small alley created by the wall around the apartments and the gourmet food store beside them. Ryou followed, still saying nothing.

When they were a decent enough way in that they couldn't be seen instantly from the street, and there was still a bit of space before the apartments backed straight against the wall, Honda tensed and jumped over it.

Ryou blinked for a second at the wall, which happened to be a good eight feet high. Then he shook his head, took a few steps back, and ran forward and jumped over as well.

He was accustomed to jumping over hurdles and landing at a run rather than vaulting and landing flat, so he wound up losing his footing and scraping his jeans and palms on the concrete of the parking lot. Honda, who had barely waited for him to get over, made an annoyed noise and started down one of the roads within the complex. Ryou pushed himself onto his feet and caught up with him.

". . . Do you know where you're going?" he asked finally.

"I looked up the address," Honda said brusquely. "I guess she's not so great that she can't not be in the phone book yet."

Ryou began to get a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He also began to think it should have been there a long time ago.

And once they had gotten through the streets, climbed the stairs, knocked on the door, and had Mai answer it, Ryou seriously debated jumping over the railing and taking off at a run. But then Honda caught his arm above the elbow with a grip tighter than it looked, and Ryou just watched as a man walked towards his car on the pavement below instead.

Mai frowned in perplexity and said, "Honda? Bakura? What are you. . . ?" She trailed off, and Honda took advantage of the quiet.

"Mind if we come in?"

Mai raised an eyebrow briefly, then stood aside and held the door open wider. Honda stepped inside, keeping his hand on Ryou's arm until Mai shut the door behind them. Then he slid his hands in his pockets, watching the blonde with a blank expression. Ryou let his own hands hang at his sides.

The silence dragged on as Honda and Mai decided to have an impromptu staring match. Ryou shifted uncomfortably on his feet and glanced around the room in an attempt to distract himself. He spotted a vase of flowers sitting on the small table against the wall, and wondered vaguely if Mai had arranged it herself.

It was Mai who finally spoke. "Did he send you here?" she asked, a hand on her hip.

The corner of Honda's mouth curled up. "How could he?" he asked. "After you left, he took off in the opposite direction and we haven't seen him for the rest of the day. Even Yuugi can't find him."

All three of them knew the severity of that statement.

Mai pressed a hand to her forehead, shaking her head as she did. "That guy . . ." she murmured, the worry discernable beneath the veneer of annoyance as she turned away from them.

"Yeah," Honda said, pulling his hands back out of his pockets. "I just wanted you to know that."

Mai started to turn back around, but Honda moved too fast.

Ryou's vision went fuzzy for a moment -- he saw Honda move forward and wrap a hand around Mai's hair, wrenching hard and causing her to fall backwards, but he knew it had happened faster than he was supposed to be able to see. It hurt his eyes.

Mai started to yelp in pained surprise, but when Honda sank his teeth into her throat it turned to a scream that was smothered by the hand the brunet clamped over her mouth. Honda used the fist still wrapped in her hair to yank her head back further, and even through the brunet's hand Ryou could hear it when the pitch of her scream heightened.

Ryou wanted to cover his ears, to close his eyes, to run out the door -- but that seemed . . . disrespectful, almost. He'd come here of his own free will, so he couldn't look away at the last moment.

He shouldn't have come in the first place . . . if he had realized. . . .

(You knew this was going to happen as soon as you saw him, landlord,) Bakura said lazily, nothing in his tone revealing that he was seeing the same thing Ryou was -- Mai struggling futilely to break free of Honda's grip, half-screaming and half-begging Ryou to help her. (I don't know why you keep putting yourself into these situations. You aren't stupid. . . . Do you enjoy feeling powerless?) he asked curiously.

Ryou's hands clenched into fists. Shut up he hissed. Just . . . shut up!

Bakura made an irritated noise, but then Honda let go of Mai, drawing Ryou's attention. She hit the carpet limply, her chest heaving with heavy gasps. Ryou immediately noticed the blood smeared around the ragged wound on her neck, and saw that very little was actually coming out of the wound. A detached part of himself was surprised that she was still conscious, and guessed that Honda had been hurting her more than actually feeding.

"Here," Honda said, kicking Mai in the ribs and causing her to cough violently as her body was pushed slightly closer to Ryou. "Drink."

Ryou looked at him, startled. Honda wiped off his mouth with the back of his hand before giving Ryou an angry look. "What is it, Bakura-chan?" he asked nastily. "I'm not letting you off that easy. Besides, you've done it before."

Ryou stared at him. Honda stared back.

After a moment Ryou looked away. He gazed at the flower arrangement briefly, before closing his eyes. Then he looked back at Mai.

The pleading expression on her face was pitiful. She'd always been such a strong woman -- Ryou didn't want to see her reduced to this.

He tried to slip into his mind, to give Bakura control; but the thief stopped him.

Don't make me do this.

(You chose to come here, landlord. Accept the consequences.)

Ryou closed his eyes and shook his head. Honda said something to him, but Ryou was only listening inside himself. You said you would do the . . . don't make me.

(So you would rather leave her last moments to me?)

When the meaning of Bakura's words sunk in, Ryou shuddered violently.

He opened his eyes again. Honda's glare had shifted slightly to a frown, but Ryou barely spared the other teenager a glance.

He stepped forward and knelt next to Mai.

"Ba . . . k-kura. . . ."

(Fingerprints,) Bakura snapped, and Ryou started. Then he tugged on the long sleeves of his shirt until he'd pulled them over his fingers. He curled his hands into loose fists around the ends of the fabric, then slid an arm beneath Mai's side and lifted her up. He braced her back with his other arm, and her head sank against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," Ryou said quietly.

Mai squeezed her eyes shut. ". . . no. . . ." She managed to make a fist and hit him on the chest. There might even have been some force behind it, but Ryou felt nothing. "No. . . ."

Ryou bent his head and bit into her neck before she could hit him again.

He scraped his teeth along the wound Honda had already made, using his incisors and tongue to make it a little wider, before beginning to drink. Mai whimpered in pain again, but it was quieter and muffled against his shoulder. When she tried to push away, Ryou's arms tightened around her; and soon she quit moving at all.

He hadn't been hungry when he'd followed Honda to the apartment complex, but . . . it was like eating a decent-sized meal, and then being offered some of his favorite dessert. He found room.

Soon, it was harder to get blood out of the wound, and Ryou vaguely realized that he was making undignified sucking noises as he drank.

He really needed to bring his knife, for the next . . . time. . . .

He jerked away with a small grunt. Mai hung limply in his arms; and when he let go she fell to the floor and didn't move.

Ryou was still as he stared at the wall across the room. Mai's arm had partially fallen across his lap, but Ryou didn't move to push it off. His hands were shaking, though it was hard to see with the shirt sleeves still pulled over them.

Ryou stayed like that until Honda grabbed his shoulder and yanked him onto his feet. He barely thought to lick his lips cleaner before the brunet shoved them both out the door.