(A/N) Ok, just so you people know, I am not angling for pity; I am simply stating a fact. Updates will now become erratic and basically whenever I feel up to it, because my entire world has been taken for a loop.

My head is screwed up, and my life will probably follow while I try to find out where I stand. High school is cool and all, but I don't really like the feeling that I have responsibility for myself and everything's all…hard. I understand that reading about my personal problems is not what you really wanted, you wanted the next chapter of Split Up, and it's coming, really. I just need to get this off my chest.

I am not angling for pity or sympathy or anything like that, I just think that you all deserve to know why this is going to get a little messed up. My grandmother is in the hospital with pneumonia, and she's not doing so well. She's actually on a respirator, and everything is really messed up right now. So, I apologize again for the way things are going screwy, but my life is messed up, and that's having a drastic affect on everything.

I really shouldn't need to do this on top of everything else, but: I do not own Yugioh. I do not own Cristina Aguilera. I do not even like Christina Aguilera. Get it? Got it. Good.

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Chapter Seven

Monsters

Coplain grimaced to herself as she stared into her scrying ball. If left to themselves, those bumbling nit-wits would meet up in no time at all, and her mistress would be very, very angry.

Well, she would just have to see to it that one or both of them died before either reached Navaan. Either that, or one of the companions…

Coplain broke into a malicious grin as a plan began to take form. Yes…that would stop them…

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Jonouchi trudged slowly along the path, Ryou following behind him. There was still quite a ways to go before they would reach Navaan, and the needed to get there before his somber companion disappeared completely.

He risked a glance back at the white haired man, and was unsurprised to see empty brown eyes locked on him as Ryou mindlessly followed.

'This isn't right,' Jonouchi thought to himself, 'Why do I have to be the one to help Ryou find this Bakura person?' The golden-haired fighter was so preoccupied with contemplating his companion that he failed to notice the nine-foot ogre until he walked into it.

'What's a tree doing in the middle of the path?' was his first thought. The second was voiced aloud when the thing picked him up. "Oh, shit!"

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Ryo had no control lover his body, he simply observed the dulled down world as he followed Jonouchi, a bright spot in a sea of shades of gray.

He was helpless, unable to call out a warning when his friend actually walked into an ogre. The thing was fairly small, as ogres go, merely nine feet. It wore only an old loincloth, and had thick, matted hair that hung down to its elbows. While the hair, and the ogre itself, for that matter, looked black, it was so filthy it could have been any color.

Its eyes were hidden by matted bangs, and its teeth were uneven and overlapped each other. Now Ryou was glad he couldn't see color, because those teeth were probably a sick, yellow-green color.

It picked up Jonouchi by one leg and held him upside down, causing him to swear. And drop his sword, which he had pulled out when it picked him up. Ryou couldn't move. He just stood there, the entire world muffled, except for his friend, whom he couldn't help.

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Jonouchi began to panic. When the thing picked him up by his leg, he'd pulled out his sword, but then it shook him, and he'd dropped it. Ryou was just standing there, staring at him. He probably didn't even understand what was happening.

"Ryou!" the fighter managed to gasp, "Ryou, run! Get out of here!"

Vacant brown eyes continued to watch him. Damn! Ryou either hadn't heard, or was so far gone he hadn't understood.

Suddenly, in a blur of speed, Ryou had darted forward, picked up Jonouchi's sword, and slashed it along the ogre's arm. The creature soared in pain a dropped Jonouchi on his head.

Everything spun, went all covered in little spots, and faded. Jonouchi had passed out.

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Ryou was aware only of the ogre he was fighting and the way it took nearly all of his concentration to swing the sword. He was so focused on actually fighting the ogre that he didn't bother to do anything else. Like maybe dodge.

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The ogre grinned. This was easy. The first enemy was on the ground, not moving. The second enemy was swinging at it clumsily.

It brought its club around in a deceptively slow swing that caught the enemy with the white hair in the abdomen. He flew up and landed down the path. The ogre began to laugh. This was too easy! Far, far too easy.

Yes. It was too easy. The white haired enemy was getting up. And now he was picking up the sword. And now he was running forward. The ogre lifted its club, and the white haired enemy disappeared.

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It took all of Ryou's concentration to use the trick Bakura had taught him. While the ogre was distracted, he forced his body to run behind it. He then jumped up, and used Jonouchi's very sharp sword to cop the monster's head off.

He then dropped to the ground, dropped the sword, sat down, and proceeded to wait for Jonouchi to wake up.

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Coplain scowled. She'd sent an ogre—an ogre!—against the weaker two, and that pathetic, weakling, good-for-nothing Ryou had killed it!

Her ancient, wrinkled face contorted with fury, the hairy wart on her nose turned a bilious green, a sign that she was angry. The strands of dirty white hair that sprouted from her scalp flapped about in her raging aura, and pitch-black eyes shone with rage.

So…a new plan, then…

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Honda jogged to keep up with his dangerous companion. Bakura was walking, but it was a fast walk. It was the kind of walk people either had to run or jog to keep up with.

At least they'd been avoiding the bandits. Sure, sometimes they'd be ambushed, but Bakura could take those out, easy.

"Wa-wait!" the brunette puffed, collapsing.

"Wait for what?" Bakura snapped. "For you to get your breath back?

"Y-y…yeah," Honda wheezed from his position facedown in the dirt. 'Ugh, how does he move so fast? I can barely breath!' The brunette swordsman bemoaned in his mind.

He groaned as a foot turned him over onto his back. Looking up, he dazedly saw evil-looking red eyes glaring down at him. Honda shuddered as he blacked out.

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Coplain's hunch-backed figure stood before a great gold-edged mirror that, fortunately, didn't reflect her hideous visage, instead it showed swirling reds and purples and golds. It took up an entire wall, and the gold bordering its sides was shaped into screaming faces, grotesquely contorted parodies of humanity.

"When can I do to sop those fools? She ground out in her cracked, gravely voice.

Separation, the mirror spoke in an echoing voice, red, purple, and gold spiraling about faster, as if sensing its mistress's agitation.

The hag grinned, displaying teeth that made the late ogre's seem like Christina Aguilera's.

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Bakura absently stared down at his unconscious companion. He could simply leave the fool here and head to Navaan on his own, but coherent thought wasn't exactly one of this strong points right now. The red eyed haired fiend sat down by his friend and settled down to wait, deciding to go just a touch slower.

(A/N) Hey, how was that? And yes, the chapter is over. I was thinking of trying to write a Bakura-centric chapter next, what do you think?

Also, any ideas for Coplain's plots are very welcome. And if anyone goes to I use the same penname there. KK? K.