(Oh, and one thing... could someone explain the japenese terms on the stuff like... somethin'-chan, Yugi-san- ect. I really don't get it, and I read it everywhere....)
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
"This is talking"
'These are thoughts'
"After that I woke up in hospital..." Ryoura whispered, hugging his arms as his sat cross-legged on the hospital bed, Bakura sitting at the foot of the bed with his arms folded, expression blank. Ryoura's head was lowered, gazing blankly at his feet as he took in a shaky breath and continued, his voice slightly higher then it's usual tone. "I wasn't told they where dead until a few days later, not that I didn't know already..." he swallowed hard. "Then I had to go to court, until eventually they decided to lock him away. I never paid attention to what he'd said before, I thought... I thought that-"
"What did he say to you?" Bakura asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft. Ryoura looked up at his other half with tear-filled eyes, trying in vain to dry them before continuing. "He said, 'I'll get you, you little brat... I'll get you like I got your parents'..."
Bakura couldn't help but growl at those words. To such a thing to a five-year-old was something even Bakura found to harsh, given his own childhood. He was surprised how similar he and Ryoura were; both had lost their families at a very young age (though he was sure Ryoura was younger, his memory not completely clear after so many millennia) and seen their family murdered for the sake of the Millennium Items. Sighing, he stood and walked around to the top of the bed beside Ryoura, sitting next to the boy who slid sideways subconsciously. "Better to get it all out now Ryoura."
Sighing heavily, Ryoura took a deep breath. "When the trial was over I had to live with my aunt, seeing as she was my only other relative..." he explained, then mumbled. "Though she wasn't exactly what you'd call nice..." Noticing Bakura's confused expression his sighed heavily. "She was a little gone in that head, and kind of abusive to me... But life's never that nice to me is it? She decided I was nothing but trouble and I was stuck in an orphanage. I lived there for years, but went to the same school as Yujhi and the other."
"When I did go to school, kids used to always ask me why my parents where never there, and why I was always so sad. In the end I just faked happiness to keep them off my back. Eventually I grew into that personality and tried to forget about my past. I made friends with Yujhi and the others, as well as lots of other people, so life wasn't so bad."
"When I turned sixteen last year I left the orphanage and moved back to my old house, seeing as I owned it after my parents died and it was fixed up by the insurance company. It was hard living by myself... but I'm glad I have my old home, though at times it brings back bad memories..." Ryoura sniffed hard and hugged his knees to his chest, shutting his eyes as fresh tears began to form.
Bakura shook his head in pity, but Ryoura did not notice. He kept that bottled up all these years? To be honest, Bakura, in a way, felt partly responsible for how Ryoura's life had turned out. The whole thing had started over the Millennium Ring, which belonged to him more then anyone. If he had not been trying to steal the Millennium item's to begin with, Yugi would not have had to separate from Yami, Joey and all his friends to seal away the magic of the Item's, Ryou would not have spent five millennia of solitude only to be released in the end, Kage may not have been searching for the Millennium Ring and this whole mess wouldn't have started.
"Wow... I've really messed up a lot of lives..." Bakura thought, frowning. He had never looked at it from that perspective before, and now it had hit him hard. Ryoura was the closest thing to family Bakura had since, well, his own family, and to be the cause of all his pain was a stab in the heart. "Ryoura... it's not your fault this happened." He began, a little uneasy, placing his hand on Ryoura's shoulder, flinching inwardly as Ryoura's tear-filled eyes looked towards him. "And I'm sure your parents wouldn't want you to beat yourself up about this. Do you think after all this time they'd want you to be acting his way?"
"But..." Ryoura swallowed hard, drying his eyes with the back of his hand. "I miss them..." he choked out in a barely audible tone. Bakura sighed and put his arm around Ryoura, rubbing his arm in an attempt to comfort him slightly. "I know, and I'm sure they miss you, but wouldn't they want you to make the best of your life? And... and I'm always there."
"I guess..." Ryoura whispered, leaning into his yami but gaze reverted back to his feet. "But... what if-?"
"I'm not going to abandon you." Bakura stated firmly, knowing where Ryoura was going with this. He shook his head and smiled down at the younger boy, glad in a way that Ryoura was worried about losing him. "Look, I'll make a deal with you." he let Ryoura go and shuffled so he was sitting in front of him.
"Ryoura, look at me," he snapped his fingers a few times to get the teens attention. When he finally got eye contact he continued. "I promise I'll never leave you, but only if you promise to stop living in the past. You can't dread and what has happened... Our lives involve to much attention on what will happen to worry about the past." He smiled as Ryoura laughed a little at his last playful remark. He held his hand out to Ryoura for a handshake. "What do you say? Is it a deal?"
Ryoura looked down at Bakura's hand with such confusion Bakura was tempted to ask did he know what a handshake was. But, before Bakura had a chance, Ryoura launched himself forward and latched around his other half, hugging him tight and pinning his arms to his side. "I promise Pep'..." he stated, smiling as he hugged Bakura tighter.
Taken by surprise, Bakura froze when Ryoura clung to him, looking at his hikari with confusion before smiling. "Ya ok, ok, get off." He said, trying to push Ryoura off but not forcefully. When Ryoura let go, Bakura jumped off the bed and stood up, looking back at Ryoura and grinning. "Ready to get our Millennium Ring back?"
Ryoura grinned and jumped up, punching the air with his fist. "Ya!"
"Aww.... worried about your protector? He's obviously off duty seeing as you're all alone."
Yujhi sat up quickly and looked over at the door, narrowing his eyes. Mark stood in the doorway, Millennium Rod in hand and a proud smirk on his face. He slammed the door shut and took a few further steps into the room, holding up something on it's usual gold-coloured chain; the Millennium Puzzle. "I challenge you to a Shadow Game Yujhi Mouto. The winner becomes possessor of the Millennium Puzzle." A grin spread across his features as he spoke, his eyes showing a spark of amusement.
"What?" Yujhi was surprised to find no signs of a joke as Mark was speaking. "No way, I'm not going to fight you for the Millennium Puzzle, you just want it's power to rule the world."
"But what about your yami? I take it you don't care as much for his life as he cares for yours...?" Mark smirked as Yujhi's face paled. That had struck a cord. He threw the Millennium Puzzle to the boy and twirled his rod slightly like a baton, before holding it out in front of him. "Then let's begin, shale we?" A fast explosion of black, red and purple erupted from the Millennium Rod, surrounding both players in a tornado before halting, the darkness of the Shadow Realm consuming them.
Yujhi growled, but pulled the Millennium Puzzle over his neck. A warm tingling wave of magic coursed through him and he smiled at the familiar feeling. A soft glow escaped the Millennium Puzzle, as if recognising it's master as it had done many times before when Yugi would wear it. Yujhi closed his eyes and decided to try and contact his yami. "Yugi?"
There was no response. Yujhi tried again, and again, and again, before he realised the Puzzle was unoccupied. His eyes shot open and he glared at Mark angrily. "Where's Yugi?!" he yelled angrily, surprised at the volume and anger in his own voice. Mark simply chuckled and waved his hand nonchalantly. "He left on a trip, he's still alive if that's what your wondering."
"What did you do to him? Where is he?" Yujhi was fuming with anger now, but he didn't get a response. He was also worried as to what he was going to do about the Shadow game. The last time he had fought without Yugi was against Bakura, but even then he could see Yugi, giving him a little more confidence. Now he was completely alone and facing an opponent he knew nothing about.
Mark smirked as a glow erupted from the Millennium Rod, causing a deck of cards to appear before each player, shuffling itself before landing seemingly in thin air. This was going to be interesting... "Let's begin."
"Well sor-ry if I don't spend the whole day running around the city!" Bakura yelled after him, grumbling in annoyance. Ryoura wasn't one for lazing about, and running was seemingly his favourite pastime, meaning he was much faster and energetic then his counter-part. Bakura sped up his pass slightly. "Do you even know where you're going?!"
"Oh." Ryoura stopped dead in his tracks, looking up. "I never thought of that..." Bakura, who had been unable to stop, crashed into his hikari and sent both of them to the floor. Recovering quickly because of the adrenaline coursing through him, Ryoura pushed himself to his feet, grabbing Bakura's arm and dragging him to his feet. "What do we do now?"
"Ryoura! Bakura!"
"Hm?" Ryoura looked back in confusion at the people running towards them, before waving excitedly. "Hey Steve, yo Joe! ... Hey, aren't you guys supposed to be in school?" he asked curiously, tilting his head. Steve and Joe stopped in front of him, stopping to calm themselves down.
"I was about to ask... you... the same... question..." Steve said through deep breaths. "Where were you? I was looking for you all lunch."
"Hospital." Ryoura stated, pulling the side of his shirt up just enough to show them the bandage, pointing at it. "You?"
"We're looking for you." Steve explained, looking over at Joe. "We got a huge problem..."
"And... you turned to me why?" Ryoura asked. Sure, he was commonly known for helping almost anyone and everyone, but why was he so important in this situation.
Joe was the next one to talk. "Bakura, Yugi's in danger."
"Marik?" Bakura was surprised to say the least, but the Millennium symbol on Joe's forehead and the one in his voice was proof that his former enemy was possessing the boy. "What do you mean?"
"My hikari is another me..." Marik mumbled in annoyance. "His family kidnapped Yugi and Yujhi to try and win the Millennium Puzzle, and it looks pretty bad. They already have the three God Monster, and they've somehow separated Yugi from Yujhi. The hikari can't win by himself, he hasn't mastered the powers of the Millennium Puzzle yet, unlike your hikari from what I've heard..." he glanced over at Ryoura, who grinned.
"And you thought we could help?"
'Joe' nodded and looked over at Steve who was speaking now. "Well we can't fight Millennium Magic held by the Ishtar's, and Marik only has temporary control over Joe. You and Ryoura are the only other people we know who control a Millennium Item."
Bakura sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, but there's a little bit of a problem... Someone stole the Millennium Ring this morning, and without it we can't summon very much magic... We have to get it back before we can help-"
"But it may be too late by then!" Steve yelled.
"Well do you have a better plan?" Bakura yelled back angrily.
"Um... guys?" Ryoura tried to speak up, but he was ignored.
"Bakura we have to act fast."
"And how do you propose we defeat the Ishtar without a full force of magic?"
"Guys....?"
"So your not going to help? Your just gonna sit here?"
"You talk pretty loud for a Kaiba."
"You talk pretty loud for a senior citizen."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Your ten thousand, duh!"
"Guys!" Ryoura yelled, quickly catching the attention of the group. He took in a deep breath and released it, talking in a calm voice. "Would you shut your faces for a second?" he asked in a fake innocent voice. He turned to Joe. "What's your hikari's name?"
"Mark Ishtar."
"Heh..." Bakura snorted. "Not very creative on names are they?"
"Bakura I know him." Ryoura said looking over at his yami.
"You do? How?"
"I met him the day of Kage's trail, Kage is his dad. He has a sister too, and I'm pretty sure all of them have Millennium Items."
"Great..." Bakura mumbled. "Three Millennium Items verses two mortals, a tomb-robber and a sugar-run teen with very little magic... this keeps getting better and better!" he exclaimed in a bittersweet tone. "Well... at least we know where to look..."
"Right, so what are we waiting for?" Ryoura asked, looking around at the group. "Let's go get our friends and item's back!"
"Marik told me where they live, let's go!" Steve ordered. At that second Marik released his control over Joe, leaving a very confused teen looking around. "Huh? How'd I get here? Why aren't we in school?"
"Come on Joe!" Ryoura yelled as he ran passed him, dragging Bakura with him by the wrist. Joe looked back in confusion. "Ryoura? Where are we going?" He took off after the other three. "Hey! Come on guys, slow down! What's going on? Guys? Guys!"
To Be Continued
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Now I'm trying to show a tiny bit more of Ryoura's character, because, well, let's just say this Ryoura has so much about him you guys may never know about. It's hard to have a character thats developed so much out of the story and then trying to create him for you guys.
Ryoura is literally like a yami to me. When I'm brainstorming idea's with my sis it sometimes involves a bit of role-playing, and when I, as my sister and me put it, go into 'Ryoura mode' I suddenly have a whole different way of thinking and wording stuff. It's kinda weird... but oh so fun!
...
I'm scarin' yaz ain't I -sweatdrops- heh heh... Welp, I've been to therapy before... no really I have! Cross my heart! (speech therapy! heehee)
Welp, guess I'll shut up now... please review and slán slán for now!
Bay Bay!
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