Life After Death
By Katia-chan
A/N: I think I should stop promising quick updates, because they never happen. Shall I say it again? Ok, I am so sorry! I really do try to update, I do, but it never seems to work, and there has been much busyness in the life of me. I hope you can all forgive my lack of updates and that you will be unangered enough to read this chapter and leave me a review, flame or otherwise.
Bakura: I have the votes for the "Will Katia live to reach Halloween pole, and since no one said no and no one said yes then I guess she's goin to purgatory!
…Do you have to talk? Really, is it that necessary that you annoy the world?
Bakura: I like to think so.
I beg to differ, but my opinion will not penetrate that lovely thick skull of yours, so I shall just bow gracefully out of the argument and say adios.
Enjoy!
Chapter 11: Misplaced Eulogy
Yami, Yugi, Kaiba and Tea stood outside of the church, plastering sad looks on their faces and greeting people in the most somber of tones.
"I'm really starting to believe he's dead." Tea whispered to Yami. The spirit looked grim and squeezed her hand quickly.
"I know." He mumbled, then took the hand of their teacher who clutched at a handkerchief in one hand and offered the other to Yami.
"It's so nice to see that his friends are taking care of the arrangements." She said.
"Thank you." Yami mumbled again, turning away so she couldn't read his face. He also wondered if she had used that innocent looking hand with another kerchief. As she passed he surreptitiously rubbed it on his pant leg.
Kaiba stood a little distance away, his face stony and gloomy. He really did look for all the world as if his acquaintance had passed on and he was greeting out of charity. "Thank you for your condolences." Came his gruff voice across the crowd, and he sounded so bored and uninterested.
"Excuse me, Mr. Motou?" Yami looked over, across Yugi's head, which was bent in mock tears, to the minister.
"Yes?"
"We are ready, the. The coffin is in place and we are ready to begin." Yami nodded and took Yugi by the hand, patting his shoulder.
"It'll be alright Yugi; he's in a better place." Yugi hurried ahead of him and into a pew where he kicked Yami hard.
"What did you do that for?" he hissed.
"I was play acting, like you were, and hey, you're really good at that, how many times have you used that on me?" Yugi glared up, but then burst into silent laughter, which he disguised behind a cleanex as tears.
"You almost made me laugh in front of the minister." He choked. "And how many times I've faked you out is not for you to know." Yami gave the hikari a withering look, and then returned to staring at the coffin. He wondered if Ryou was doing ok in there. He certainly hoped nothing happened here, because if it did then they all went down with him.
The crowd, which had been quiet enough, now hushed completely. Yami looked at it all with sadness, there were not many people there, the white haired boy, who slipped through life invisibly had done a good job. Only the people who had direct dealings with him were here. A few people from school, their teacher and principal. Some people who had worked with him, a few friends of the family. That was about it. He was glad Ryou couldn't see the small turn out. It made him sad to think about it.
The minister walked to the front of the church. "We are here today to mourn the loss of a truly wonderful boy. He was intelligent, he was hard working, but most of all, he was kind." He went on, and Yami tuned out. He was fuming, it was the standard eulogy given for someone no one knew anything about. Even though he knew a living breathing person lay in that casket it still made him angry and he wondered how Ryou felt.
The sermon went on for about another 15 minutes, and then the minister stepped aside. "If there are any who would like to come and speak of Ryou Bakura, they may come up now." Yami heard a ragged sobbing coming from closer to the front and he looked over to see Bakura, up until now the white haired man had kept quiet, but he couldn't contain his sobs any longer. He felt each one like a hot poker, twisting in his gut. How could they have let this happen?
"I have to go up." He heard Bakura whisper to Marik, who sat between him and Malik. The other boy was inconsolable.
"You can barely talk, please don't." Marik whispered.
"I have to, will you come with me?" the voice was not Bakura's, it was the voice of a lonely frightened child. Marik glanced back at Yami, and then stood, giving the other boy a hand. They owed Bakura this much, to redeem himself in his hikari's eyes and make this whole cruel trick worth some of the pain it had caused. Bakura walked slowly up to the front, supported by Marik.
When they reached the platform Bakura took the microphone with shaking hands, and Yami flinched at how haggard he looked. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin was a sort of grayish color from lack of food and sleep. "Hello, I am Ryou's brother." Yami knew this was the standard lie they had always used. "I don't know many of you, but I do know him, and that's why I had to come up here and say something, because for all your good intentions, no one here knew him. I. I didn't even know him myself." Bakura wiped his eyes and struggled on. "I came to live with him, after spending much of my life in Europe, and the first time I saw my little brother I knew he was special. I have never met someone with as patient a spirit as he had. He. He never got angry; never let you know something was bothering him. He thought that his problems were minimal, or at least that's how he acted."
Ryou lay stiffly in the casket, holding his breath as Bakura spoke. The raw pain in his yami's words was enough to make him sit up and take all that suffering away, but he knew he couldn't. All of the people who had helped him would go down with him if he did that. Instead he let the tears run silently down his face as Bakura continued. "I loved my brother, and it kills me to know I never showed it. Ryou was a truly amazing person, and I would give anything to have him back." Bakura faded off into muffled sobs. He knew Marik was up with him, since he'd heard their exchange, and he heard him gently lead Bakura away from the platform. His own tears continued to flow, and he felt like Satan himself. How could he stand to cause so much torment just for his own piece of mind? He couldn't stand to hear anymore, but luckily for him no one else came up and spoke, or he didn't think he could have controlled himself.
"Now, if we could all be silent for a few moments and pray for peace for the family nad friends of this young man." Came the deep voice of the minister, and Ryou prayed.
"God," h silently prayed. "Please let them suffer no more, please don't allow me to tare them apart, I was so selfish, I still am, and those I love most are paying for it. Make him stop crying." The tears coursed faster and it took every bit of energy he had to keep from sobbing audibly, which would've been loud through the air holes.
Yami glanced at Kaiba, and almost fainted, the CEO was wiping tears from his eyes. "Do you feel like dirt like I do?" he whispered. Yami nodded and looked down, but his gaze was drawn sharply back to where Marik had taken Bakura to compose himself.
"I can't stand this!" he cried, sounding hysteric. "I have to see him!"
"You can't Bakura, don't you remember? He was in an accident; he probably doesn't look like the Ryou you remember." Marik pleaded, taking a hold of Bakura's arm.
"I don't care!" he screamed, ripping himself free from Marik's grasp. Yami was on the verge of standing up to grab him when Kaiba grabbed his arm.
"Don't worry, the casket's locked, he can't get. . ." he stopped when there was a small sound from Joey. Kaiba looked at the blond with furious resignation in his eyes. "It isn't, is it."
"No." Joey whispered. Now it was Kaiba's turn to shoot from his seat, but it was too late. Bakura stood at the coffin, staring at its wooden surface.
"How could you leave me!?" he screamed at it. "Why would you leave me behind!" His fists beat hard on the surface, tears running in rivers down his face. "I trusted you to always be there and you weren't!" All Yami could do was stare in paralyzed horror. Bakura heaved up the wooden lid. "Come ba! . . .:
He stopped in mid sentence and stared down into the fear stricken and very alive face of Ryou Bakura, deceased September 15th, 2003.
A/N: Sorry Sorry Sorry. I couldn't resist another cliffy; though I'm sure you all had a vague idea of what was coming. Well, I'd love to go on discussing my poor fic ideas, but I have to get up early tomorrow. I'm really sorry, but I will not be able to post review thank yous this time, I really want to get this up and I know you all feel thanked, or at least you should. I will post thank yous for both this one and the last one next chapter, which will be out god, knows when.
One review I do have to thank however is QueenofGames2, who gave me my 100th review for this story!
You are loved!
As are all of you. Please review this in some form, and I'm sorry if it's a bit short, hope it wasn't to bad.
Review!
TTFN
Katia-chan
