Disclaimer: I won the Yugioh characters in a game of chess yesterday. Not.
"Come on," he called. "I haven't got all day you know."
I quickly pulled on the swim trunks he'd gotten for me and ran out to join him. I didn't understand what was going on or why he had decided to take me with him to the lakeside but he had and that was what mattered. I was going to enjoy this while I could.
Tomorrow is the day for the kingship fight and everyone seems to be simply relaxing. I don't understand it. Tomorrow there's going to be a huge battle and it's going to be their job to keep it contained and make sure that the mortals, people like me, don't find out what's happening, yet here they all are swimming like it's a party.
I shrugged and slid down into the water. Brrr, it's freezing! How can they stand it? Malik's here too, I notice with some surprise. I thought that he would never be allowed out again after what Marik said last time. Yami was here, and Otogi, and all the others I'd seen who had been involved with the planning of this, along with hundreds of people I had never seen before.
"This is an unofficial gathering." Bakura said softly. Officially none of us will have ever seen any of the others before tomorrow but really we all come here the day before the fight to size up the competition. Even those who, like Marik and I, aren't actually participating, show up to see what strength the people they're going to have to restrain are. It's considered good manners to bring your own food, drink, and, if you have any, slaves." Bakura shrugged and gestured towards Malik. "That's why he's here, and why I brought you."
I nodded, staring up at him and waiting to see what he wanted me to do. "There isn't really much for you to do here so just enjoy yourself. Go play with Malik if you want, but first give this to Marik for me all right?" He pulled a black sphere out of... somewhere and tossed it to me.
"Yes master," I said quickly, before hurrying to get this over with. I would prefer to be around Marik as little as possible. Even though he'd never actually hurt me he always acted like he would if it weren't for the fact that Bakura didn't want him to. So I tried to stay out of his way, and normally it worked. The only problem with that plan was when something like this happened.
"Marik-sama?" I asked hesitantly, as I got near him. I would rather not have him attack me for not warning him before I came too close.
"Yes," he snarled, "What do you want?"
"Master Bakura said to give this to you." I quickly handed him the black thing and backed away, treading water, trying to stay as far away as possible without him getting mad.
"Good then," he said coolly. "Now go."
I obeyed, swimming away as fast as I could in Malik's direction. Malik was sitting on the bank staring at the water moodily when I got to him. "Malik?" I asked, "Are you all right?"
"Huh?" He looked up, obviously surprised. "I'm fine, just not allowed to go swimming. How are you? Is Bakura here?"
"I'm fine," I replied quickly, "And of course Bakura's here. I wouldn't be here otherwise. Do you want to do anything? I'm sort of at loose ends at the moment."
"Okay," He said happily. "What should we do then? I'm not allowed in the water so that's out."
"Let's see if anyone else wants to play tag." I suggested. "There are lots of others around here who must be just as bored as we are."
"Let's go then." He stood up as I pulled myself out of the water. "Over there first I think." He gestured towards the picnic area, where groups of slaves were congregated around the tables, setting out the food their masters had brought. We ran over together and asked everyone if they wanted to play with us. Not many of them could. Most had been told to do something, or to stay where they were, but we did manage to get a group together who could play.
The people who agreed to play with us seemed to already be a cohesive group. There were quite a few of them, but they all, it turned out, belonged to the same master. Yami. I hadn't expected him to have any slaves, let alone so many, but it made sense. He was the king of vampires after all. He had to have something to show that he was. They all seemed to like him, and as far as I could tell, as they ran around on the grass with us, trying to catch each other, and eventually collapsing in a panting heap, none of them was injured in any way so they probably had a reason to like him.
And from what they said then they had better reason to like him than I had to like Bakura. Still, it didn't matter. He may not have been perfect, but I still loved him. I wonder if he likes anyone? If he does it's probably some really gorgeous girl. They'd have to be good looking to attract his attention. That's pretty hard to do too.
To get Bakura's attention you have to be either exceptionally beautiful or strange looking, or really, really good at fighting. I'm none of those, and the only reason he ever even looked at me is because Marik dumped me in the middle of his living room. I suppose I should be grateful.
It's strange though, they all seem to think that Bakura's really powerful and really scary. I don't get it. The only thing he's done, other than his teleporting, that's magical was to use illusions to send the dragons away that one time. He seemed to think that the giants should be scared of him after that that though. I don't understand. I wonder what they mean by it.