Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

Jizo is my favorite bodhisattva, because he screams Bakura at me. But then, Prince Mute from Princess Tutu and Ari from Okage: Shadow King, U2's song "I've Got You Under My Skin," and Guinness ads scream Bakura at me; so my judgment is perhaps not of the most discriminating type.

The rock-mound ritual that Ryou performs is one for children who died young. While it has nothing to do with this story, the reason behind the ritual is mildly disturbing. Information on it and on Jizo himself can be found here: onmarkproductions. com/ html/ jizo1. shtml.

The official drinking age in Japan is twenty, but from what I can tell, establishments will sell it to people younger than that provided they don't make an ass of themselves.
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#15: The Devil

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Several days later, Honda came up behind him while Ryou was in the graveyard near his neighborhood. Ryou didn't bother to turn around to greet him. He continued piling his stones in front of the shrine to Jizo, and when he felt it was tall enough he folded his hands and sat quietly for a moment.

He no longer prayed. He didn't know if it would help Amane or hurt her, so he chose not to risk it.

Finally, Ryou stood up and began brushing the stray grass off his jeans.

"I don't think even he's going to listen to you anymore," Honda commented.

"It's not for me," Ryou replied. He brushed away a remaining bit of dirt and turned around, beginning to walk toward the exit. Honda straightened up from the grave marker he'd been leaning against and fell in step beside him. "I had a little sister."

Honda slid his hands into his pockets. "Ah," he said after an awkward pause.

"What do you want, Honda?" Ryou asked as they neared the gate.

"I had an idea," the brunet replied. "How we won't have to kill them."

Ryou faltered for a moment before turning to look at him. "How?"

"We have to eat," Honda said flatly, "but if we do it more often than every two weeks, we ought to be able to take less." He scratched the back of his head absently and leaned against another grave marker. "The problem is that we could be recognized. They'd have to either not see us or not be capable of remembering in the morning."

"Just knock them out from behind," Ryou said, pushing his hands into his jacket pockets.

(Get away from the fence, landlord. You two look suspicious.)

"Too risky," Honda replied. "If we were spotted we'd probably be arrested for being muggers."

Ryou pulled his hands back out of his pockets and motioned for Honda to follow him further back into the graveyard. "We're too close to the street -- people will notice us."

Honda snorted, but followed. "Using mickeys or anything like that is just gonna hurt us, too, but I figure if we just find someone really drunk, they might not remember anything the next morning."

"Alcohol goes into the blood stream."

"I know that," Honda said with irritation, stopping again. "But it's worth a try. If it affects us too badly, then we can just go back to killing. I just thought you'd like some way to get around that."

Projection, Ryou thought absently. Bakura snorted.

"Okay," he said. "I guess it's worth a try."

"Fine." Honda turned around and began walking away. "I'll see you tomorrow."

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Honda showed up at his apartment half an hour before sunset the next day.

"I thought it was easier to do this during the day," Ryou said as he climbed onto the motorcycle.

"Idiot," Honda replied. "You attract more attention if you go into a bar during the day."

Ryou didn't reply, and took the spare helmet from Honda.

"I have a fake ID," the brunet continued, "so we can use that. Just try not to be noticed, and they probably won't ask to see any from you."

"I have one, too," Ryou replied as he strapped on the helmet. "I brought it."

The tone of Honda's voice made it sound like he'd raised an eyebrow. "You? What do you use it for?"

"Things," Ryou said impassively.

Honda made an irritated noise, but didn't ask for an elaboration.

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They left the city completely. Honda drove through the small suburb towns surrounding Domino as well, and it was late before they reached a city he considered a decent distance from home. Finding a bar there wasn't much of a problem, and he picked one that was off the main streets but still looked busy enough that they wouldn't be too memorable. Ryou personally thought they would have been better off in the entertainment center of a large city, but he kept quiet and followed the brunet inside without a word.

Honda shoved him into a small, free table against the wall and ordered two bottles of Asahi's Super Dry at the counter. The man rolled his eyes when he looked at his ID, but sold him the beer anyway; and Honda just said "Thanks" and headed back to the table.

Ryou had switched seats while he was at the counter. Honda glared. "Move back."

"No," Ryou said, looking past him.

"I'm not sitting with my back to the door."

"I'm studying something," Ryou replied, reaching up and taking one of the beers. "Stop standing, you're making a scene."

Honda made a comment on Ryou's questionable parentage and took the other seat.

They stayed there for over twenty minutes, nursing the beers and talking to each other without listening just for the sake of looking like they were there to socialize. Honda glanced around the bar occasionally, but Ryou kept watching some point over his shoulder. It irritated the brunet, because he couldn't see what the other teenager was looking at without turning around, and finally he let out his breath in a hiss.

"What the hell are you staring at?"

Ryou glanced at the spot over the edge of his beer one more time. "That woman at the counter. She's been there since before we came in, and she's had three liquor drinks that I've seen. And she's wearing her jacket."

Honda gave him a look. "What?"

"The women who walk into bars without jackets, even when it's cold, are usually showing off," Ryou explained, still not looking at him. "They're more jaded and you can't tell much by their drinking. This one's wearing a jacket but taking hard liquor, so she's probably coming from a bad breakup, or maybe a turn-down or a fight with her husband. She should make a good mark. He didn't care about us, right?"

Honda was openly staring at him by now. "'Mark'?" he repeated, but Ryou set down his beer and stood up without replying. "Hey!" he hissed as Ryou began to walk away.

Honda turned partly in his chair and watched Ryou sit down at the counter, one stool between him and a mid-twenties woman in a dark jacket. He assumed that was who the other teenager had been talking about, but Ryou ignored her presence and made a motion like he was ordering another drink. The man behind the counter didn't even bother to ask Ryou for an ID, and handed him another beer.

Honda frowned, turned back around, and picked up the bottle on the table that Ryou had been drinking from. It was still almost full.

After a moment he set the beer back down and left the table. He took a seat closer to the counter, still mostly shadowed but near enough that he could hear.

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When the woman ordered her fourth drink, Ryou finally looked over and politely asked what she was drinking.

"Shochu," she replied, looking over at him.

"Ah," he said. "What brand? It looks delicious."

She smiled a little patronizingly. "It might be too potent for someone young."

Ryou returned the smile with a self-deprecating one. "I'm actually in college, madam."

"Did you skip a grade?"

Ryou continued to smile pleasantly. "No. I just look younger than I am. It was a real trouble when I was applying for my driver's license," he added with a slight laugh.

"Oh," she said, possibly believing his story and possibly not caring whether he was telling the truth. "Please excuse my assumptions, then."

He shook his head. "That's quite all right. I'm told that a lot." Ryou gave her another smile, before bowing his head slightly. "My name is Kishiro Yukito," he said. "May I ask who you are?"

The woman giggled faintly. "Like your hair." She waved a hand. "I'm sorry, you must hear that a lot, too." She bowed to him as well. "I'm Shouko."

Ryou's smile quirked up to the side, just a fraction, when she failed to give him her family name. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Shouko-san."

Honda hid a snort in his beer and tried to remember the last time he'd heard so much politeness.

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Ryou and Shouko spent almost forty more minutes flirting before Ryou convinced her to leave with him. Honda waited until the two of them were through the door before leaving as well, and he followed the path Ryou had taken without seeing the other teenager.

He'd made his way into the first level of a nearby parking garage when there was a bright flash of light. It only lasted a second, but Honda immediately started running towards it.

When he reached the second level and jogged halfway down it, he found Ryou kneeling next to Shouko between two cars, pulling on a pair of plastic gloves. He'd pulled his hood over his hair, and the Sennen Ring was dangling outside his jacket.

Honda stopped where he was, and Ryou looked up at him calmly.

". . . What did you do?" Honda finally managed.

"She's unconscious," the other teenager replied. "And she won't remember anything past the moment before I sat next to her. I didn't take her soul, so quit looking at me like that. She'll be fine. . . . Unless she's anemic. I should have found a way to bring that up."

Ryou was talking to himself by that last comment, and Honda interrupted him. "You can use the Ring?"

"No," Ryou said, looking down at the woman again. "But I can ask enough that he'll get irritated and do it to shut me up."

Honda didn't have a reply to that, and Ryou unzipped his jacket. He pulled a switchblade out of the inner pocket and opened it before looking back up at Honda. "Is anyone coming?"

Honda immediately pressed back against the car on the right and looked around. ". . . No."

Ryou nodded once, and he shifted Shouko around slightly before pushing her skirt up to her hips. He tapped the handle of the knife against his lip a few times as he studied her legs, and finally he pressed the blade against the outside of her right thigh.

"What are you doing?" Honda said before Ryou could push down. "You'll get more if you cut the inside."

"It will look more like an accident, at least at first glance, if it's on the outside," Ryou replied. "It's going to be obvious that it's a cut and not a scrape either way, but she won't question an injury on the outside as quickly."

"Fine," Honda said. "Whatever. Just hurry up before a car comes by."

Ryou pushed the blade in and yanked up, leaving a small, semi-deep wound that started bleeding immediately. He absently licked the blade clean as he stood.

"Here," Ryou said, taking a step out from between the cars and facing Honda. He held the knife loosely in his left hand.

The brunet stared at him. "What?"

"This was your idea, so you can have the first drink," Ryou told him. His lips curled up into an expression that couldn't be called a smile.

"Honda-chan," he added.

Honda's glare narrowed; and then he realized that in the sickly yellow light of the parking garage, he couldn't tell whether Ryou's eyes were blue or red.

He grabbed the switchblade out of the other teenager's hand, snapping the blade in and jamming it into the pocket of his jeans that was the farthest from Ryou. Then he stepped into the space between the cars and knelt down next to Shouko.

Ryou tucked the Ring back beneath his jacket and zipped it up, watching for any approaching cars or people.

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The alcohol did make a difference -- her blood tasted funny. Ryou stopped drinking before he began to feel light-headed. He decided not to pick anyone so inebriated next time.

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The wound wasn't bleeding anymore when they were finished, and Ryou insisted on respectfully resetting Shouko's skirt and putting her inside her car, using the keys he found in her purse. One they were finished and walking away, Honda watched as Ryou tugged off his gloves and tucked them into the inner jacket pocket along with the knife that the brunet had returned.

"So what was that 'mark' stuff?" he asked finally. "And all that junk about women and jackets?"

"It's just a term," Ryou replied. "And the jackets are something I noticed over time."

"Because you spend a lot of time in bars?"

"I don't go to bars much, except for one reason. I prefer street stalls. Does it matter, Honda?"

"I'm just curious how you picked up somethin' like that. . . ."

"I'm attractive," Ryou said flatly. "People like to sleep with me. I notice these things."

He ignored the fact that Honda was staring at him and kept walking, looking steadfastly forward. "After all, sex is like a role-playing game. You figure out what the other person wants you to be and act it. So you have to be able to understand small details like that."

". . . You're more screwed up than I thought you were," Honda told him, still staring.

"Did you park to the left or right of here?" Ryou asked.

"Right. A block from the bar."

"Then let's leave before anyone else sees us."

They walked back to the motorcycle in a cold silence.