A/N: Well, now for number three. I really have no idea if many people are reading this

thing, because I barely got any reviews. The lack of reviews is actually the reason

why I haven't been working on this chapter. It is now the middle of August, I must

of started this chapter a few months ago, but I got discouraged 'cause I haven't

been getting much reviews. I love it when people say good things about the work

I've done, and it encourages me to continue. So please, readers, review my stuff,

'cause it gives me confidence. Thank you for reading, if you did.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu – Gi – Oh, or any of it's characters. But I do own my

very own characters.

A Promise

Ryou took a deep breath, relieved that he was finally able to go home with his sister, who was accompanying him at the time.

He was feeling a bit nauseous still; his head was hurting and his mind and body was feeling tired. Once he had told the school nurse about his symptoms, she had suggested Amane coming to pick him up and take him home. Ryou agreed, and so did Amane the principle had phoned her.

To be honest, he didn't really care if he was going home or not. He just wanted to get away from the school. Away from the nurse's office, away from the principle, his teacher, the students, away from everybody and everything else involving the school. After his most embarrassing scene back in the classroom/lunchroom, what kind of kid wouldn't want to? He had, nearly, screamed in front of every kid in his class and, worst of all, he had fainted while everybody's attention was completely towards him. Fainted! In front of every kid in his class! How could he? Would they laugh at him tomorrow when he came to school? Would they ask him about it? Would they care? Surely they would care. Even if it was only by a little bit. Hopefully they would.

Beginning to dread going back to school the next day, which he knew he was going to have to do, he looked out the window on his side of the car. Right now, he and his sister were about halfway to the house. He knew this by seeing all the restaurants and parking lots. All the restaurants marked 'the halfway spot', dubbed by the one and only Ryou Bakura.

Ryou didn't live too far away from his school, but far enough to require a ride there in the mornings in order to get there on time. His sister, Amane, had gotten her car before he was in kindergarten, and so she had always given Ryou a ride to school every single morning.

"As long as you pay me back all the gas I used to give you rides when you get yourself a job. And as long as you give me rides with your car when my car is in repair or something." Amane had told him.

Ryou grinned and gave her a shake of his head.

"It's a deal." A pouted look then came across his face and a bit of a frown, "But do I really have to get a job when I'm older? Why can't I just go to downtown and beg for money?"

Amane just looked at him with a frown as well, take aback.

"What? Beg? Ryou, why on earth would you want to do that?"

Ryou's pout turned into confusion.

"Because it's easier than getting a job. All you gotta do is find your way over to downtown somehow, find a place to sit, put out your palm, and ask people for money as they walk by. A lot of other people have lots of money that they would give up for a homeless person."

There were emotions on Amane's face which were hard for young Ryou to read. But from what he knew, he could tell that she was completely struck with surprise, shock, confusion, and he even noticed a hint of anger. Or what seemed like anger. He knew then that he had said something terribly wrong.

He waited for Amane to speak first, not really knowing what to say himself.

"Ryou, that is the most absurd, foolish nonsense I have ever heard come out of you. Where did you hear such things?"

Ryou put his head down, his chin almost touching his chest.

"Jeff and Curtis told me about that. They said that they do it all the time and that they get lots of money for doing it. They said it's just like a job. They also said tha – "

"Well, what those boys said to you is wrong, Ryou. It's just plain wrong!" Amane exclaimed, "Pretending to be a homeless boy when you're not and going out to beg other people for their money is not a way to make money. It's certainly not better than a job, either. I need you to understand that."

Ryou nodded his head, feeling tears well up in his eyes. Amane noticed this and rubbed his back in comfort.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you, Ryou. But you've got to stop listening to what those boys tell you. They won't do you any good. Try to not hang around with them anymore, okay?"

Ryou looked up at her and a tear rolled down his cheek. He nodded again and quickly wiped the tear away.

Ryou, the present Ryou, shook his head from his thoughts. He always had moments where he would get lost in his memories, and this was one of them. Did that happen to other people as well? Them getting lost in their own memories?

Amane came across a red light and stopped. Just like her, all traffic around them stopped. A red convertible slowly came to a stop beside them. This prevented Ryou from looking straight ahead out of the window, so instead, he looked up toward the blue, cloudless sky.

Now, it was daytime, and even young Ryou knew that you couldn't see any kind of reflection in glass during the day, unless there was a bright light on behind or beside you. Or, of course, if it was daytime and you were inside somewhere. But these facts didn't apply for Ryou. He, and Amane, were out in the middle of the road. And what he saw was a reflection.

He had a number of reactions.

At first he blinked in confusion. How could he be able to see a reflection at where he was?

He looked at it a little closer when he saw that there was something wrong with this reflection.

He saw that his hair wasn't the same. It seemed to be a little more…messier than usual. A little more big and wild. Did his hair get messy when he fell on the floor earlier?

Then he saw the eyes. He didn't really look at his eyes much, but he knew for a fact that his eyes weren't that dark. They couldn't be. Could they?

He became taken aback when he saw that the reflection moved. The lips on "his own" reflection moved to shape some kind of a smile. Ryou knew that it wasn't a smile, because there was something about it that gave him shivers down his spine. He shivered. But not until he noticed that he wasn't "smiling". He moved the muscles around and relaxed them again to make sure of that. But how was that possible? He wasn't smiling, so how was his reflection smiling?

He saw sharp teeth in the reflection's mouth, one sharp tooth on each side in the top front row. Ryou saw those before. Were those……fangs? Ryou quickly checked his teeth to make sure that none of his teeth felt sharp. His teeth were normal.

Ryou froze before slowly moving his head back up to face the "reflection". Was this his reflection? This couldn't of been a person standing outside the car, obviously, because the car was in the middle of a busy street. But then…..who, or what, was it that Ryou was looking at?

(Hello, Ryou) the smiling lips moved to form words. It was weird, because Ryou was only able to hear these words in his head. (It looks like you're my new host. Welcome and congratulations. My name is Bakura.)

Ryou couldn't take it anymore! He didn't know who or what this person was, and he definitely didn't know what this "person" was talking about. He knew for a fact that this wasn't his reflection and he knew that nobody was standing outside the car. Amane would've heard the words too.

Ryou didn't know what else to do, but scream.

…………………………………………………………………..

"Ryou! Ryou, calm down! You've got to calm down now!"

Those words were the only ones he could hear, along with someone's screaming, as Ryou bolted upwards. He stopped screaming once he realized it was coming from him. He quickly looked around to check his surroundings, making sure that he couldn't see any kind of reflection, be it a mirror or a window. He relaxed once he saw that he was in the nurse's office. He flopped himself back down onto the bed he was on with his eyes closed. The words he had heard were coming from the school nurse.

"Ryou, are you still awake? Stay with me."

Ryou swallowed, but it felt like he had swallowed a fuzzy ball. He nodded in response to the nurse. He kept his eyes closed.

"Ryou, can you tell me how you're feeling right now? Do you feel tired, does your head hurt…"

"I feel a bit tired and my arm hurts." He suddenly felt like something was eating the insides of his stomach, "I also feel a little hungry." He was able to hear a pencil on paper, so it must've been the nurse writing down his symptoms.

"Is that it? You don't feel dizzy, or you don't feel like you're going to throw up?"

Ryou shook his head. A moment of silence.

"Allright, Ryou," the nurse started, "I just want you to know that it's 1:30 in the afternoon right now and you passed out at around twelve noon, so you've been unconscious for about an hour and a half." Ryou didn't say anything, "While you were asleep you had a fever, and you have a bruise on your left arm from when you fell to the floor. That explains the pain you feel in your arm."

It was then Ryou opened his eyes to lift up the short sleeve to see a purple blotch near his shoulder. He winced slightly before releasing his sleeve. He had never had many bruises before, but he did have a few during some times in his short life. This had to have been the biggest one ever.

"Mr. Wood, the principle, called your sister about half an hour ago, and she's going to be here as soon as she can. She might be another few minutes, still. She got mixed up with work." Ryou, now distracted from the bruise, smiled in relief, knowing that he's going to see Amane soon, "In the meantime, I think you should have some lunch. You must be starving."

Ryou nodded, still smiling. The nurse chuckled at the innocence returning to his face.

"I'll be right back, Ryou, I'll bring you a lunch. It's best if you eat in here and not in the lunch room, allright? Lunch time is over for everybody else." Ryou nodded again in response.

With everything explained, said, and done, the nurse got up from her stool and walked out of the room. She left the door a couple inches open.

Silence now filled the room. The only thing that could be heard was the clicking of the clock on the upper wall above the nurse's desk, and muffled noises of the talking and scuffling of kids in their classrooms.

Ryou was now sitting at the edge of the bed with his legs hanging over.

This was his first time actually being in the nurse's office for getting sick somehow, so he got a good look around the place. There was the clock, obviously; the nurse's desk that had a folder (Ryou's file), a pen, a box holding rubber gloves, and some jars that contained cotton balls, cotton pads and Q-tips. There was a stool, the one that the nurse was sitting on earlier, in front of it, and a small garbage can beside it.

The walls in the room were a creamy white, and on the wall across from the bed Ryou was sitting on was a sink and some paper towels. Above the bed there were the devices used to check one's ears and throat, to check one's blood pressure, and all the other things someone would find in a nurse's office. The door that the nurse walked out of was at the foot of the bed.

There were no mirrors, Ryou noticed.

'Wait a second,' thought Ryou, 'Why am I here again?' A couple seconds, 'Oh, right. I fainted. But…why did I faint?'

(Ryou.)

Ryou jumped in surprise so hard and fast that he nearly slid off the edge of the bed.

The voice. The voice! It was back! The reason why he fainted was because he was hearing this voice and it wouldn't go away!

Ryou clapped his hands over his ears.

"No…" he mumbled, breathing heavy, "I don't want to hear. Go away…"

(Ryou, don't be frightened. I'm not here to harm you.)

Blinking, Ryou slowly took his hands off his ears, looking into nowhere. His hands eventually landed back on his lap. He didn't really know what to feel or do.

"R-Really?" he asked finally, outloud.

(Yes, Ryou. Believe me. You fainted earlier because you were hearing me, and you got scared. There is no reason to be scared of me.) A moment passed. (I'm you're true friend. I want to be your true friend. Don't be scared of me.)

Ryou could feel his heart beating faster. His breathing quickened slightly.

His friend? This voice was…his friend? It actually wanted to be his friend?

He didn't have very many friends. And there were times when he would find himself feeling very lonely, especially when both his sister and father were gone and he was left with a baby-sitter. He didn't really like having to stay with a baby-sitter.

(It's okay, Ryou. With me around, you won't have to feel lonely anymore. I'm going to be with you always. We'll be best friends forever.)

"Really?" he asked once again.

(Yes, Ryou. Forever.)

Ryou slowly began to smile. This was unbelievable. He had a best friend! And they were going to be best friends forever!

(But you can't tell anybody, Ryou. You can't tell anybody that we're best friends. Nobody likes me, and if they knew that you are my friend then they won't like you either.)

"What? Why doesn't anybody like you?" Ryou asked, frowning.

(I don't know why. They all think that I'm a bad person. But I'm not, Ryou. I'm a very good person. And I'm also a very good friend.) Ryou smiled again. (Please, Ryou. Please promise me that you won't tell anybody about me. They will hate you too if you do. I don't want people to hate you because of me.)

"What about my sister Amane? I always tell her everything. Even if I tell her about you, she won't hate me. I don't even think she would hate you."

There were a few moments of silence before the voice spoke again.

(Don't tell her about me yet. We shall her about me sometime in the future. But not now. Promise me that you won't tell anybody about me.)

Immediately, Ryou nodded.

"I promise."

TBC

R/R please.