Me: hey there, all you wonderful readers/reviewers! So sorry about the time gap! (bows repeatedly) I had exams, and auditions and tonnes of stuff to do that had priority over typing only because mom says so. ;-; My life sucks.

'Leanne: Just be thankful I'm in a good mood, and not about to whine again about being forced to do the typing and such... (regardless, she goes off to pout and whine)

Me: (ignores her yami)

Warning: huh...that is different. This is a relatively sane author's note. And short, too! Greeat...that means Erin-chan'll have more time to work on the actual chappie:D Ooo...look out for more OOC Yami, possibly... -.-

Disclaimer: Erin-chan has no ownership of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Hey, I think that's the first time in a while since I said it like that! Without weird inserts and the like:D

Me: hey! Roll with it! It might mean the beginning of a new era in the writings of Erin-chan...ooo...

Thanks to all of the wonderful reviewers last time! It's because of you that I haven't decided to roll over and take both my stories and I out in a bizarre murder/suicide! Domo arigatou! ; )


Myoni had finished his journey. Ryou had become bored yet again.

Sigh.

"I wish ... I could create longer stories and the like..." The HalfAngel rolled over onto his side. Lying on his back all the time was starting to irritate the wound the Yami and left there. "Would make this time pass quicker..." But Ryou did indeed have too much to think about. For example: all of the memories he had received from his apparent Egyptian past. This was the first time he had time to think about them since he escaped from Yami's prison, really.

That, and the story told by the shadows still lurked in the nooks and crannies of his mind. Somehow, Ryou couldn't get over the fact that Bakura had once been a ruthless criminal. And those two murdered men...was that what had condemned his soul, even before the trial of Heaven?

Even while mulling these thoughts over in his head, Ryou's eyes wandered elsewhere, resting on the sword Bakura had brought into the Soul Room upon his arrival. Still thinking about the memories, he found himself picking himself up off the floor, and approaching it.

"Unusual..." the albino mumbled to himself, after inspection. "This sword is totally blunt; the edges have been eroded off..."

It was true. The Sword of Aki had no sharp edges. And when Ryou took himself from his thoughts to focus on the item, he decided to pick it up. In doing so, it instigated two things. One, it seared right across Ryou's palm, scalding it with a rune of some sort. Because of this, he had peeled back off of it, and missed the next occurrence. It had transformed into a different kind of metal. However, the sword had disappeared before Ryou could even notice.

He bit his lip until it bled, trying to distract himself from the pain. Ryou could not focus nearly enough healing energy now. Withering on the floor, he clutched his burned hand and waited for the pain to subside, which did soon after.

Ryou took a strained intake of breath and let his arm fall limp to the floor. His hand bore the rune of Death.


Bakura stood perfectly still for the first minute or so in the Shadow Realm, anticipating everything, and yet, nothing. Truer to the latter, the Demon found nothing unusual about the place, if one didn't include the fact that all he could see was himself, the book, and black. Black skies, black ground, a black horizon. It really would have been quite depressing to someone so used to light. Bakura, however, was not, and so it didn't matter to him. Actually, he had his tanned demon body back, so that must mean that he was solid again. Good thing, too. That whole 'soul' Bakura was starting to creep him out.

He took his first, cautious step forward. Seeing that again, nothing happened, he gritted his teeth, and took off, flying straight ahead. After all, if direction is indistinguishable from itself, then it didn't really matter what direction he chose. Perhaps that was one of the properties of this 'Shadow Plane'.

Though he flew at near mach speed, Bakura made it a point to keep his eye out for any sign of white. Ryou's hair, and its perfect snowy white, would stand out against the endless Black better than Bakura did himself. And considering that he had just basically entered a plane he knew virtually nothing about, through a book given to him from Sariel, both the Angel, and Demon of Death and the like, any kind of help was welcomed, even if Bakura would never admit to it himself.

So, he flew and flew, until his leather wings had begun to ache unbearably. Up until that point, Bakura had seen no Ryou, and for that matter, no sign that he had even been moving at all. It was this that allowed his mind peace without regret as he stopped to rest. Bakura figured that wasting precious energy for no particular reason was not a bright thing to do. Especially because he was not sure how quickly his physical energy would replenish here.

Bakura wasn't really sure of anything anymore, to tell the truth.

The stability of his and Ryou's relationship relied solidly on some faint remembrance both had briefly experienced when they first met. Though the feeling was uncanny, Bakura was having second thoughts. They had occurred to him after experiencing some of his apparent past, and running into that strange Ryou-clone.

Sure, Bakura had some memories of his past, but what was there was either trivial or still shrouded in confusion and uncertainty. When Ryou had called him by his Egyptian name for the first time, something had clicked inside of him. Whatever that feeling was, Bakura hadn't a clue on what it was, or symbolized.

What he didn't know was that it was the feeling of regret.

Bakura knew that he loved Ryou. He really did. But even though he felt like he wouldn't care if the world collapsed as long as Ryou was okay, something had crept into the back of his mind. It was a question that had been left unanswered for a while. Why did Ryou mean so much to him? They just met not over a month ago, but it felt like they had been together for years, already. And if Ryou really was from his Egyptian past, what did that mean to him, and why couldn't he remembered what had happened? But then, why couldn't Ryou remember either? As in, he had made no sign that he had known any more than Bakura did when they met, and from there on in, so he assumed that their state was the same.

It was about then that the Sword of Aki started to materialize in front of the Demon. Slowing, it came together as swirling blobs of light, and slowly changed into what Bakura had accidentally removed from the Temple of Ashita from his first quest.

At first, Bakura didn't notice it, ironically, too lost in his thoughts of the past. But after it had completely re-made itself, it had attracted Bakura's full attention.

'Eh...?" 'What's this doing here...?' he thought to himself. Bakura stood up to walk over to the hovering sword. It, too, stood out brilliantly against the Blackness. He had left it with Ryou in their Soul Room, so why had it chose to come with him, even into the Shadow Realm? So, Bakura picked it up and spun it around in his fingers, much like a baton. The thing really was a hunk of useless metal, but then, he already knew that the edges were gone from rotting in that pitiful excuse for a temple...

However, Bakura never noticed that the symbol of Death was missing from the hilt. It was usually things like this that the ex-thief would notice, but today, Bakura had decided not to be like his Egyptian self for the sake of his remaining sanity.

As he ran his fingers up and down the broken blade, a slight lustre began to cultivate where he had touched. Finding this interesting, Bakura continued until the entire sword, hilt and all, was shining like a lantern. And indeed, it had lit up the Shadow Realm. Now, instead of seemingly endless Black, there was colour, a dirt path, and two, gigantic, humanoid-like shadows.

"And in such a short time, we have another visitor, Azunith. Aren't we luck-" Suddenly, the first shadow person stopped in mid-sentence as it appeared to notice the change of scenery and the person's identity just now.

"You! How dare you summon the nerves to visit us here in our final resting place!"

Bakura looked casually up at them, still spinning the Sword of Aki in his right hand. "You sound vaguely familiar. Have I met you before?" The coolness of his tone had been meant to provoke them, and it did its job well.

"Insults upon insults!"

"You dare not remember us! The ones you killed so eagerly and mercilessly!"

The Demon let the thought roll around in his mind for a bit, then raised his finger to indicate his remembrance. "Ah, yes. You're the rats that got me caught that one time while I was just a runt, right?" His crimson eyes flashed. "I gave you the ending you deserved. You earned your way even past Hell, and blame it on me! You two are lower than the rubble of the desert bedrock!"

To prove his point, he raised his dull, yet weapon of choice for the moment. "And I will kill you again if I must!"

He leapt at them, with both hands on the battered sword. They let loose a deafening screech, and split up, each going in the opposite direction.

"Why don't you just stay still so I don't have to waste more energy than I need to!" the only material being screamed. All that was received was a hiss from the one that was called Azunith, and them moving even faster. "Fine..." Bakura stopped completely. "Have it your way..." Silently, he prayed to himself and any higher being that was listening that this sorry excuse for a sword had some use in it left.

Slowly, he raised the blade so it was pointing to where the heart would have been on one confused shadow. At first, nothing appeared to happen, until Bakura felt a slight pulsating in that arm. The sword wanted him to attack for it.

"Sure thing..." he muttered under his breath. He smirked before leaping at it again, this time letting the sword do the work. And, true to what he had expected, the sword appeared to move on its own, and regardless of its dull edge, it had slashed a sizable gash in the shadow's chest.

The victim screeched once more, before seemingly evaporating into the 'air' of the Shadow Realm. The other made a motion that suggested that it had glanced at its fell brother, and then back at Bakura. "You...will not make it out of here alive, you know. It doesn't matter whether we both die again or not. This place will always be where our souls make it back t-!"

The Sword of Aki obviously thought little of this little departing message, as it ripped through its second soul for the night.

Bakura spat on the ground, which he discovered to be frozen indeed, and sheathed the now-sentient sword in his belt. "Yeah, yeah...we'll see."

Shortly after the shadow episode, Bakura had continued on the path laid out before him and eventually spotted white on the horizon. Upon flying closer, it did indeed appear to be Ryou's wingless, and soulless, body.

Despite Bakura already aware of the fact that Ryou had no wings now, he could still feel a rush of anger in his veins. If Bakura ever saw Yami again... Regardless of what he thought of his ex-friend now, the faerie shell that Kyokae had granted him was taken out of his belt pocket, and readied.

Muttering lowly into it, Bakura calmly stated that he was done, then sat and waited. He cradled Ryou's cold body like he had when Bakura had first met the Angel. Because of the time lapse between the material plane, the Shadow Realm, and Kyokae's demi-plane, there would be no telling when she would take him out of here.

The book that had travelled with him remained on the floor, now that its currant possessor's arms were occupied for the moment. Left unnoticed, the page regarding the Shadow Realm slowly shone for the very last time, then crumbled into a fine dust. Its existence had been fulfilled.

It was an 'hour' later when both the body of Ryou and Bakura where salvaged from the Shadow Realm by Kyokae. If only they had stayed just a moment longer, they would have encountered someone Bakura would have loved to lay eyes on with this new sword of his.

Yami's soul had dragged itself from where the Shadow's manifestation of the Kame Game Shop had been to where he had spotted something around here. He had arrived just in time to see the bodies disappearing.

"..." He was at a loss for words for the first time in his life. Even if no one else in the world knew about the Shadow Realm, Yami most definitely did, and what he knew did not sit well with him at all.

Above all else, the Shadow Realm required balance. A soul for a body, and right now, it had just been put out of balance. When Ryou left his body here to return to Bakura's mind, the caster, Yami, had been ripped from his own body, and thrown in here to keep balance. Bakura balanced himself out by having both a body and a soul. But now...there was only one mind left without a body...

The pain was insufferable, as the Shadow Plane made its final decision. Yami, the prince of the undead, was ripped apart as a sacrifice to his own craft.


Bakura had not appeared on the material plane after Kyokae had summoned him. No, instead, he was taken right into the goddess's own home, her own plane.

She sat awaiting, regal upon the throne of what seemed like the Demon's judgement. "Now, Nahkti-ahmose-kha'y-bakura. You have brought me both the Sheath of Mortality, and now your lover's shell." Her smile was dark and eerie, and Bakura did not like it at all. "As you did before, with the item before, please give his body to me for-"

Bakura shot up from the floor, which he wasn't even aware that he had been sitting down on. "Absolutely not! How dare you even ask something of that from me? After everything you know I...he's been through!"

She glared coolly at him. "You do not posses nearly enough power to restore 'Ryou' to his body. It would be no different to you. He would remain outside of his body, and inside your mind." Bakura paled, and felt his hand grow limp, then tightened it again, realizing it was the one holding Ryou to him.

"But! There must be a way! You! You must have enough! Please..." He lowered his head, as to hide his anguish from her. "Please...save him...do something..." Bakura fell to his knees, but refused to wipe the tears from rolling down his cheeks for fear of appearing vulnerable.

"...You did not even let me finish. There was a reason why I wanted to keep his body with me for now. I said that I'd help you, and I do not go back on my word. Never." Kyokae threw one of her legs over the other, and placed both arms on the outstretched throne. "I can reverse Yami's spell, but it will be difficult, even for me. He was preparing it for quite some time, and many of the material components are so obscure, it could take days to collect them all, if you knew where they all where. However, all I need to avoid this process of working it in reverse, is a piece of the caster."

"A...piece...?" Bakura's voice went hoarse, as he imagined himself finding Yami's dead body and taking back the head, bloody and all.

"Yes...and even a lock of his hair would do." Bakura sighed in relief. "That will be your third quest."

This time, however, she needn't rise from her seat as the blue flames licked through the air.

'What destroys thy soul,
But tears his own?
Glowing with hatred And weeping in bloodshed'

"What...is that supposed to mean?" Bakura spat. He was back from his shock, now that he realized what was happening. He hardly had time to see Kyokae's expression before he was plane hopped, though somewhat violently, back to the material plane.


Me: yes….longer than I expected the time it took to finish this. Speak like Yoda I do. Yup yup.

'Leanne: Shoooo. Now that it's over, you'll do the rest of the typing right: )

Me: You have high hopes.

'Leanne: ;-; yes…far too high…

chibiRyou: ja ne, mina-san! Hit the pretty purple button if you dun want Kyokae to be mean to me…yes, I have been threatened…