We'll Be There

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Part V

"Hello, Ryou."

Oh, great, Ryou thought sarcastically. Now it's Mr. Righteous Pharaoh here to reprimand me for insulting his precious hikari.

I blatantly ignored Yugi's darker half, and continued to nibble on my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"How are you doing today, Ryou?"

If the baka Pharaoh wants to make a fool out of himself trying to talk to me, it's fine by me!

"I can sense your anger towards me. I'm not here to chastise you."

Anybody could figure out that I'm pissed off right now. It doesn't take a freakin' Millennium powers to 'sense' someone's mood!

"What you said to Yugi was wrong, but I think you already know that."

"You're a hypocrite and a liar, Yami."

Yami looked taken aback. "What makes you say that?" he asked calmly.

"First off, you did, in fact, come here to chastise me," Ryou retorted through clenched teeth. "Second--who are you to preach about what's right and what's wrong, after what you and your father did as Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt?"

The color seemed to have drained from Yami's face. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

Yami glared at Ryou through searching eyes. "Refresh my memory; frankly, I don't recall."

Ryou clamped his mouth shut.

"You don't know what you're talking about, do you?"

Ryou was grinding his teeth painfully. It was true; he didn't know entirely what he was talking about.

"Yes, I do," Ryou declared. It was worth a shot. "I can sense it in Bakura's behavior. Something happened to him in Ancient Egypt, during the time period your father reigned, and then you ruled soon after." Ryou felt himself fill with the choking rage that Bakura showed the last time he'd beaten Ryou. He was drowning in that same anger that surged through Bakura all those years. "You and your father did something to Bakura!" Ryou was now on his feet, shouting at the former Pharaoh. "You HURT him!!" He was in Yami's face, breathing heavily through his tightened jaw. "I don't know what you did to him, but I'll find out!" he swore.

"Ryou, just calm down…"

"'Calm down'?" he repeated. "You're kidding, right? I've just realized that after all these years Bakura simply hated me, he was actually redirecting his anger towards you onto me! But at the same time, he was trying to warn me to watch out for people like you! He didn't want me to be hurt the same way he did!"

"Ryou, I don't know what's going on…but please, just calm down," Yami begged.

"You bastard!!" Ryou launched himself at Yami, smashing his fist into his face, ripping Yami's hair--doing damage to anything he could find.

"What the hell, Ryou?" came a voice from behind the two of them. Jonouchi grabbed Ryou and pried him away from Yami's cringing form, securing Ryou's hands behind his back. Ryou struggled against Jonouchi's grip, swinging his legs in an attempt to connect with flesh. "Honda, give me a hand here!"

"Let go of me, you freaks!"

"I thought I told you to talk to Yami, not beat the crap out of him. Though I must admit it was amusing to watch the almighty Pharaoh cower."

It was that cold, sneering voice again.

It was the voice of none other than Seto Kaiba.