Yami Yugi watched from the end of the hallway. The sound of Ryou's tears pained him more than he was willing to admit.
This was his eternal nemesis that was dying on the couch. The tomb robber that desecrated his father's final resting place, that brutally murdered his temple priests, and that nearly destroyed him as well, until they were both sealed into the millennium items. It was a grudge they both held for countless centuries, millennia even. And suddenly, the pharaoh felt a pang of regret surface from deep within the puzzle.
"Poor Ryou…" Malik whispered from behind the pharaoh. He had known the white haired teen only a little while. And he was already surprised how forgiving the young man could be. After everything that happened, he was still more than willing to befriend Malik.
Even Isis was starting to feel sympathy for Ryou and his yami, although she still felt she had done a good deed in the long run. It was all so simple, she thought to herself. Of course, where spirits are concerned, things are never as simple as they seem.
"He's been through so much…" Yami Yugi sighed. "And we can't even comfort him…"
Again he felt the pang of regret, except this time, it was much more powerful. So much so, he nearly fell backwards under its sudden thrust.
"Pharaoh, are you all right?" Isis jumped up from a chair by Ryou's Monster World board, and rushed to Yami Yugi's side. He clutched the puzzle in one hand, and his chest in another.
"I… I'm not sure… I don't know what just happened. I just felt… a little faint…" He gasped. He looked over to where Isis was sitting. "But you… you dropped something…"
She looked over her shoulder. A box of figurines had fallen from the game table. She must have hit them when she leapt forward. Malik walked back in the room to pick them up. He didn't recognize any of the characters, except for one that looked an awful lot like Ryou.
"He did a good job on these." Malik finally whispered, as Isis was helping the pharaoh to a chair in case he felt faint again.
Yami Yugi looked over. He remembered the White Wizard Bakura figure from before.
"He did indeed." The pharaoh smiled. "That one gave its life for its game master."
Malik put the figures back in the box.
"What do you mean?"
"When my hikari and his friends first came over to play Monster World, Yami Bakura managed to seal our souls into miniatures. My aibou managed to pull that n.p.c. out of Zorc's left arm. And Bakura was able to use that character to help us defeat his yami."
Yami Yugi looked at the board. Not much had changed over the years. There was still some dried blood left on Zorc's castle.
"He sealed you into the figurines?" Malik asked.
Yami Yugi nodded.
"He was able to seal a soul, any soul, into anything." He explained. "He even sealed his soul into a pair of dice."
"Then how'd you finally defeat him?"
"By defeating his avatar in the game." Yami Yugi continued. "Of course, he came back later, as long as part of his soul remained sealed in something. Eventually it found its way back into the ring from the shadow realm, and his power grew again…"
Yami Yugi gripped his chest, which suddenly hurt a great deal.
"That's why we finally turned to the ritual… to expel the evil spirit for good… so he couldn't keep coming back…"
Isis nodded.
"And it was the right choice…" she insisted. "The spirit of the millennium ring has no conscience. There is no telling what he would have done next."
"I know…" Yami Yugi sighed. "But Ryou…"
"Sister… I have a question…" Malik finally broke his silence.
"Yes?"
"Would the ritual still have worked if Bakura did not have complete control over his soul? As in… what if he already sealed part of his soul somewhere else before we even began?"
Suddenly Isis froze.
"I… I do not know." She paused for a moment. She tried to quickly explain away what seemed like such a valid question. "But that is an ability based completely in darkness. It cannot explain his human form outside of the ring."
"But what if there is more than one piece of his soul… what if… and Yami Bakura must have done this many times in order to survive as long as he has, given what happened in the Battle City finals… What if several other pieces of his soul exist, in a pair of dice, or in a lead figurine… or something else?"
"When his current form is destroyed, it will come back!" Yami Yugi gasped. "Somehow… it will always revert back to the ring!"
"His will to survive is stronger than I thought…" Isis whispered.
"Then the ritual may not have been complete…" Malik added.
"No… perhaps not…" Isis gasped. "But that would mean…"
They looked up, and at each other instantly.
"Ryou might have been right!"