(A/N) OK, I realize that this is a shockingly fast update for me, but school starts in, OMG, like, three days! So, yeah, I'm trying to catch up on my backlog before I wind up swamped in homework.

As you know, I DO NOT own anything except for the notebook I write the chapters for my fics in, and a pair of headphones and my ideas. I'm sorry for those of you that wanted Ryou pining, but the fortuneteller is making him feel better. There shall be more pining in the future.

I will use any and all ideas that you give me in your reviews, so if you see something you suggested, then, yeah, I used the idea you gave me.

Thank you, to everyone who has reviewed, and your reviews need not have a point. It's just nice to get some ()

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Now, let's get some things straight.

"talking"

'thinking'

/mind-link/

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Chapter Five

Opposites

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"Well, since we know where to go, we should go!" cried Jonouchi, "We're not gonna get nothing done just sitting around here!"

Ryou nodded, suddenly hesitant.

"Madame Zemphonia—" he began.

"Don't worry, please. Just find your darkness before this world destroys you. The light half of a person's soul shouldn't go about unprotected."

"But what do we owe you?" Ryou managed to finish, "I mean, you gave us the information we need to find Bakura!"

"Find your darkness. Once you are reunited, things will return to a semblance of normal. However, there is a great evil you must defeat before you can return to what you were before. I will assist you in your quest to defeat this evil."

'Whoa,' thought Jonouchi, 'this is way more of a quest that I thought I'd get when I picked Ryou up. I mean, finding a friend I can do. Maybe even help find his other half. But…defeat some 'great evil'? I don't know if I can handle that…'

"Jonouchi!" snapped Madame Zemphonia, startling him out of his reverie.

"What?"

"I have a special task for you."

"Great," he muttered sarcastically. 'Just what I needed. A special task.'

"It is nothing you wouldn't do normally. Without his darker half, Ryou has no protection from this world. You must accompany him until he can find the other half of yourself. You, Jonouchi, must be his protection."

"Okay, I can handle that."

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Madame Zemphonia looked skeptically at the young adventurer. 'I know he is the one who must assist Ryou, but I wonder if he will take his duty seriously enough.'

She glanced toward Ryou, who was sitting on her couch, smiling. She had put a completeness charm on him, so he would feel complete, the way a normal person would. The youth was clearly reveling in the sensation. How sad, that it would pass once he left her home.

"Well, I guess there ain't nothing more to do here! Ryou, let's hit the road!" Jonouchi cried.

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Ryou snapped out of his silent contemplation of how he felt. It was complete, like when his yami was with him, but lonely.

/Yami/ he called/Yami, where are you? Are you going to go to Navaan, or will we wait for you forever/

"C'mon, let's go!" called Jonouchi, already out the door.

"Coming!" Ryou called. "Good-bye, Madame Zemphonia, and thank you!"

"It was nothing! Come back after you find your darkness, and good luck!"

As Ryou steeped out of the door, he felt his happiness drain away. It was as though he'd lost his other half all over again.

He watched, helpless, as everything turned hazy and dim. An aching emptiness formed inside him, and he didn't remember what he was doing here. He sank to his knew.

"Ryou? Ryou, are you OK?" a voice, a clear voice penetrated the hazy world. Ryou looked up, and there was a clear figure there.

Everything about him was easy to see, and his colors were sharp and clean.

"Jonouchi…" he heard himself say.

"Can you stand?" his friend asked, worried.

Ryou shook his head, so the blonde held out his hand and pulled the slim man to his feet.

"Follow me," Jonouchi firmly ordered, then he turned and walked away. Ryou followed him, as though it were his only thought. Which it was.

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Honda nearly stumbled as he tried to keep up with his frightful companion.

"Bakura! Could you…slow…down?" he managed to gasp.

Bakura spun around and halted. His feral, blood red eyes glared at Honda. His face was twisted into a terrifying mask of anger and pain.

"If you can't catch your breath, I suppose we have no choice but to stop!" the dark man growled.

"Thanks," Honda breathed, and collapsed. He had a stitch in his side so bad it felt like he'd been ripped open. As he pulled out some dried meat, Bakura snarled impatiently.

Rather than hand him anything, Honda tossed him some food. Honda knew better than to approach anything that looked like that. He'd seen a cat that acted like Bakura acted now. He'd tried to help it, because it had a badly broken leg, you could see where the bone had ripped through the skin, and it had scratched him all over. He had the scars to prove it.

"Honda," Bakura began, his mouth full of meat, "I have a feeling that we need to find Ryou soon."

"How soon?"

"Within the next few months."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but I don't think it's just that that's how long it'll take me to loose my mind completely. There's something else…"

"Well, no matte how urgent, looking around randomly won't help. Think, Bakura. Where would Ryou go? What would he do? He's your other half, you know him as well as he knows himself!"

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'Yes, I do,' Bakura thought. 'What would Ryou do…?'

It was so hard for Bakura to think. He felt as though her were being ripped apart from the inside. In addition to that, he felt as though Honda had no right to suggest anything!

He could feel his senses sharpening, everything he saw hurt his eyes, and everything he heard mad his hears throb, every light touch stung. He felt like lashing our at someone, anyone! And he had so much energy, he couldn't sit still.

Only Honda seemed normal, like his companion was the only thing the world that couldn't harm him. Well, his companion and his opposite.

Then it hit him.

"I know what Ryou would do," whispered Bakura, his eyes haunted.

"What?" asked Honda, suddenly fearing the answer.

"He would wander for hours, calling in his mind, then collapse and lack the willpower to rise. He would lie where he fell until he either died or someone made him get up."

"What? But…wouldn't he be full of energy, too?"

"No. Ryou and I are opposites. Where he is weak, I am strong. Where he is gentle, I am harsh. He enjoys what I despise, and nothing has ever affected us both the same way. My senses are growing sharper and I have too much energy. So—" he broke off.

"—Ryou's senses will dim to nothing, and he'll have no energy," Honda finished, horrified. "We have to find him!"

"We won't stumble across him like this, you were right. He'd head to Navaan."

"Why?"

"Because he knows that's where I would go. We should go to Navaan and wait for my other half."

"That's a two-week hike!"

"Then if you're through sitting on your ass, let's go."

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(A/N) OK, that was kind of long. So, what did you think? And don't expect updates this often on a regular basis, either. It's just that my mom thinks writing fanfiction is better for me than reading fanfiction is all.

So, R&R, or I shall sic the pink bunnies on you! Wrar!