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Summary: Ryou decides it is time for his yami to learn household appliances and other modern day technology. But when an accident happens, Yami Bakura, Marik, and Malik start to de-age. What could happen now?
/........./ Yami thinking
/........./ Hikari thinking
'.........' Normal thought
"........." Normal speech
(A/N:.........) Author's Note
Just so you know, I have been in Michigan and have forgotten a bit about the story, so I might jump ahead or mention something that is wrong, and I'm sorry.
There is some brother/sister affection, and hikari/yami affection and sympathizing, but that's it. To the disappointment of some, I don't do yaoi.
Chapter Four
Yami Bakura laughed as the two other twelve year olds fled the basement in a hurry, with the Man-Eater Bug crawling after them.
/Bakura! What are you doing?/ Ryou's voice echoed across their mind link.
/Nothing, hikari./ Yami Bakura thought back, completely innocent. (yeah right.)
/Bakura./ Ryou said, and the Evil Spirit of the Ring sighed.
/I summoned a Man-Eater Bug./ Yami Bakura said, defiant still.
/What?/ Ryou exclaimed, both across the link and aloud in the school's restroom, which caused Yugi to began asking questions.
/I'll deal with you in a moment, Bakura./ Ryou said, sounding stern and making sure Bakura knew he was in trouble.
Then he cut off the mind link.
In the school bathrooms, Ryou rubbed his temples. Yugi was there with him, getting nervous. They needed to be going back to class soon.
"What happened?" Yugi asked, fidgeting with the edge of his school uniform.
"Bakura summoned a monster in Isis's basement, and evidently doesn't feel like getting rid of it." Ryou said, heading for the bathroom door.
"What are going to do? You know Yami will go down there and sparks are sure to fly." Yugi said, walking quickly to keep up with Ryou's longer strides. Ryou sighed.
"Tell Yami to do what he needs too."
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Yami headed towards the basement after his little chat with Yugi. He had to go delicately about this, for though Yami Bakura was twelve now he was just as dangerous as before. Maybe even more so, for he was younger and less likely to give thought to his actions.
"Tomb Robber?" He called, standing at the top of the steps leading to the basement.
"What?" The voice floated back to him from the darkness of the room.
"Ryou has told Yugi what you did, and Yugi told me. Dismiss your monster now!" Yami commanded, thinking that the tomb robber would be difficult.
He was right.
"No."
"Ryou will be very disappointed with you." Yami said, trying to play on Yami Bakura's bond with his hikari.
"So?" Yami Bakura's voice dripped with scorn.
"He says I can do what I want to control you." Yami said, his words stained with smugness and superiority. That gave the Tomb Robber a pause.
"You can't do anything."
Yami scowled into the darkness, before reaching over and flipping the light switches.
Instantly the basement was as bright as outside, and Yami Bakura was there, shielding his eyes from the sudden glare. The Man-Eating Bug was just sitting there, not three feet away from Yami, waiting to be commanded.
The ancient pharaoh jumped back, startled at the proximity of the monster. Yami Bakura must have sent it sneaking up on him.
"If you do not dismiss you monster, then I shall lock you down here until Isis gets back, and let her deal with you. She has told us she is bringing Shadi to figure out how to reverse this, and if you do not want to be dealt with by him, you will obey me." Yami said.
Yami Bakura paused again. Isis he could deal with, her item was not as powerful as his. But Shadi.........the Tomb Robber did not like Shadi. He had the Scales, which could weigh one's heart for sins, and the Ankh, which could refigure his mind.
"Fine." Yami Bakura said, waving a hand and dismissing the Bug.
"Now come on, enough play. We have to do something, I'm bored out of my mind." Yami said, turning and walking away.
Yami Bakura scowled at his back, eyes flashing red in anger, but he followed.
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The rest of the time waiting for school to be over was spent watching TV or trying to stop the three de-aged kids from killing each other or destroying the house.
When school let out, everyone decided to go ahead and go to Isis's.
The knock on the door was a blessing for Yami Bakura, who had been admonished and yelled at by Yami countless times in the last few hours they had waited before school let out.
Ryou walked in, followed by Yugi, Joey, and Tristan.
"Any troubles?" Ryou asked brightly, taking in the sullen group of people.
"None what so ever, hikari." Yami Bakura snapped.
Isis walked in a little later, and nodded to those in the room.
"So how many days do we have before they de-age again?" Joey asked, plopping down onto the couch next to Yami.
"Let's see, they changed Friday, and today is Monday, that means..........." Ryou looked up, wide-eyed.
"Today is the third day." Ryou whispered.
For a while, they just sat and thought. The three de-aged kids were thinking on how they were going to de-age even more now.
Nine years old.
It has been a long time since Yami Bakura was nine years old. He was over three thousand years old, nine years is a long way back.
Marik had never been a kid, so this was completely new to him. He was experiencing new emotions here, new sensations.
Malik never got a proper childhood, but at least he could remember when he was nine. But it still didn't make it easier. His whole childhood had been evolved around being prepared for a tomb keeper. He never got to play often, never had much fun, and now he was, despite the severity of their position.
"When did they turn?" Isis asked, breaking the silence.
"It was late in the day." Ryou said.
"So it stands to reason that they will de-age at that same time." Isis said.
Soon then. Soon they will change.
"Oh boy." Ryou whispered.
----------------
Yami Bakura sat on the couch in Isis's house. Marik and Malik sat nearby, both silent as well. The others were a bit livelier, talking together.
Malik lifted his head as he felt a light-headedness that matched the feeling he got when he was first de-aged. The other two perked up as well, locking eyes with each other.
Yami Bakura scowled, slipping off the couch and backing off so that the others didn't notice, with Marik and Malik right behind him.
"I'm not one for having them gawk at me in a time of weakness." The Tomb Robber growled, going into one of the spare bedrooms and shutting the door behind them.
"Looks like it is starting." Marik mumbled, eyeing the glow that was appearing around them.
--------------
Ryou smiled as Joey acted like his usual dumb self. He was not dumb, he could be quite smart if he tried, but he didn't try.
He looked over to see how Bakura was doing, before starting and looking for them.
"They're gone!" Ryou said, as the others began looking at him oddly.
"Drat. Now we have to go and find them again?" Yami muttered, earning a poke in the ribs from Yugi.
Sighing, they went to look for them.
Ryou searched around, checking the basement at one point and all the closets, though he didn't think Yami Bakura would go as far as to hide in a closet.
"What's the matter, Ryou?"
The white haired hikari snapped around to be confronted by a very young Yami Bakura, with Marik and Malik stationed behind him as always.
"Oh boy." Ryou muttered again.
Everyone met in the living room, discussing what to do. Yami protested on watching the kids again, but he was met with excuses on why.
"We have school. We can't leave them at the museum with Isis, Shadi would not take kindly to them, nor them to him, so you are the only choice short of having them stay alone, which is not going to happen." Ryou said, trying to reason.
"They could stay with my grandpa for a while. He's coming back tomorrow." Yugi mused, and they agreed that was a good idea. Yami sighed with relief until Yugi said he was going to be there as well.
With another sigh, Yami settled down and glared at the three nine year olds, who looked as miserable as he felt.
How was he going to survive this?
--------------------
They went to their various homes, Ryou and Yami Bakura following Yami and Yugi to his house, and settled down for the night.
Yami Bakura couldn't sleep. How was he supposed to be able to? Another three days and he would be six, then three more would make him three, and then.............then whatever would happen.
Isis had mentioned talking with Shadi to figure this out, but that wasn't reassuring since Shadi had the Millennium Scales which judged a person of their sins, and he had done his share of them, as had Marik and Malik.
Sighing, he paced the house aimlessly, pausing whenever he got to a mirror to examine his new form. Finally, tired of this, he vanished to his soul room and curled up into a miserable little ball within Ryou's mind.
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Malik was having problems, but not the same kind.
Marik was taking his new youth with amusement and energy, bouncing around the house as would befit his new age, excited to the point that Isis threatened to leave him outside as he tried the end of even her vast patience.
Malik sighed and brooded on the couch. He had been there since everyone else had left, and he didn't expect to be moving anytime soon either. He curled up closer to the couch pillow he had wrapped his arms around, falling into deep thought. He didn't mind the change as much as Yami Bakura.
He could tell that the other was getting depressed and angry about his condition, for the other's eyes had been flaring red ( a sure sign of anger) and he had been moody more than usual.
"Are you alright?"
Malik glanced up to see Isis standing above him, real concern on her face.
"I'm fine." Malik whispered, and turned his head towards the blank wall ahead of him once again.
He jumped slightly when warm arms embraced him, and one hand reached up to stroke his hair. He stiffened for a moment as Isis tried to comfort him, then relaxed after a moment.
They never had been very close, what with what their past was like, but it-felt good right now.
Without knowing the cause, Malik's eyes filled with tears. To be loved felt so good, and to know that you were not alone when for a while you thought you were felt just as good.
Malik's eyes flicked to his yami, who was pestering Rishid. He was not alone. Even if his 'yami' was born of his dark emotions, the two had made up and were as close as brothers.
Isis pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and he did begin to cry.
He turned and clung to Isis, sobbing quietly into her robe. She rubbed his back and embraced him again.
The tears exhausted him, and he fell asleep, there within the protective circle of his sister's arms.
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Yami Bakura woke again in the middle of the night, and left his soul room, to wander Yugi's house once more.
He was bogged down with black emotions of despair and such fury that it left him shaking. He was never one for misery or self pity, he erupted into anger instead. Such as it was now. He stalked the house, snarling silently and shaking with barely contained anger and despair.
He needed something to take his mind off his condition. He needed something to distract him.
But there was nothing.
He muttered a curse that would've had Ryou admonishing him in seconds had the boy heard, and went to one of the large windows. It was starting to rain, lightning raking the dark clouds, bright streaks that caused dark spots to dance before his eyes.
Thunder rumbled constantly, so close that it was like one big long growl. The rain increased, pounding and drumming on the windows and the roof.
A storm to match his mood.
Growling, he turned and slammed his hand into the window frame.
He then yelped in pain. He had succeeded in forgetting his new form. His delicate, weak, vulnerable new form.
He rubbed his hand ruefully, before shoving away from the wall and entering the kitchen. He scanned the items there. The thrice-cursed microwave, which had started this in the first place (though only at Ryou's house and not here.) and all the other things.
There.
The knife rack.
He reached up to grab one, but realized he couldn't reach. Growling, he used his experience and all the agility he still had and leaped onto the counter, pulling himself up.
He grabbed a knife, watching its silvery shine in the flash of lightning outside.
He sighed, and twirled it around his fingers. It was as if nothing would harm him when he held a knife. Knives were his center, they were steel, so could not break easily. They could attack someone, defend their wielder.
They could take away life.
How he had been obsessed with them in his past. He had stolen many of them as well as other treasures. He had taken ones that were encrusted with priceless jewels that had gold tracings on the blade, or were made of black obsidian. There were steel ones, gold ones, silver ones, even one fashioned from hard stone.
They were straight, curved, twisted, wavy, matched in a pair, or small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. There were so many, and he liked them all.
He had one favorite one, long ago. One taken from the Pharaoh's treasury itself. It was carved of black obsidian, with a cobra head making up the handle. The cobra was picked out in gold tracing, with rubies making it's eyes. Its blade was silver, with dark tracings down its length. He had been very fond of that one, and had been angry to have it taken from him when he was finally caught.
He had no clue where it was now. It might not even be in this world anymore.
He continued to stare at the knife through the night, sleep fogging his mind but being ignored, pain from his hand lancing through him but being fought, black despair and the burning of raging red fury clouding the corners of his mind but being shoved aside.
What was there for him to do with his new form? He couldn't go on raids, for his young body was not as quick or strong, and while he retained all the skills and experience he had while older, he couldn't use it as well with his younger body.
Leaning his head back against the wall, he dangled his legs off the counter. He glanced at a clock, seeing the glowing numbers with a tinge of frustration. Two thirty and he was bored with no escape.
Looking out at the pouring rain, he made a decision.
Once again, forgetting the limitations and side affects and vulnerability of having a mortal body, he climbed through a window and crawled up onto the roof, battered by wind and rain, with thunder rumbling around his ears and lightning blinding him in sudden flashes.
His hair was plastered flat, dripping onto his sodden clothing and down his face. He stared up at the dark clouds above, idly ignoring the pain of his hand, the anger and despair, the sleep his body desperately needed, and the rain that pelted him.
He sat, and stared up into the heavens.
---------------
Come morning, he had scarcely moved.
He heard clattering as Ryou obviously woke up and began making breakfast.
Today would be Tuesday, they had to go to school. Yugi's grandfather would be arriving back today as well, making two people that he didn't want to be around taking control of his day.
Marik and Malik would probably stay at Isis, leaving the Tomb Robber bored until school let out.
Ryou didn't notice Yami Bakura's absence until he counted how many people were eating breakfast. Bakura had been getting up when he did, so this was an odd change, for Yami Bakura had not been in the bed or on the couch, which were his usual places.
"Have either of you seen Bakura?" Ryou asked Yami and Yugi as he gave them the oatmeal he had made up. They had school, after all, so one couldn't be fancy.
"Actually, no. I thought I would have heard his complaining by now." Yami said, getting an elbow in the side from Yugi, and a frown from Ryou.
"I wonder where he is." Ryou said worriedly.
"Right here." Yami Bakura's voice sounded from the entrance to the living room. His voice was laced with exhaustion, and Ryou snapped around to look at him with such concern that he startled himself as well as Yami Bakura.
The Tomb Robber was soaked, hair straggling down his back, dark circles under his eyes, a large knife gripped in one hand that was black and blue, the other was as deathly pale as his face, which nearly matched his hair.
His eyes were red with anger, but filled with a great sadness and frustration as well.
"Bakura! What happened?" Ryou cried, moving towards the ex-thief, only to have him back away and flinch at his hikari's touch.
"Nothing. I just spent the night outside." Bakura said dully.
"Outside? But it was storming!" Ryou exclaimed.
"Yeah, so?" Yami Bakura said, finally giving his hikari an reaction, though not the one he had been hoping for as Bakura's eyes shot daggers at him.
"Bakura........" Ryou began, but his little yami snarled and waved a hand in dismissal.
"Leave me alone." He muttered, before retreating up the stairs.
Ryou was heartbroken. He and Yami Bakura had been getting along so well, and now this? Why must things always happen when something was going good?
Yami and Yugi looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
Upstairs, Yami Bakura paced the room, fighting the urge to scream or rage or just send everything to the Shadow Realm.
Unlike Malik and Marik, who were getting along better with Isis and each other now that they were younger and easier to comfort, Yami Bakura was going the opposite direction and snapping at any who tried to help him with his thoughts and emotions. Why was Ryou stuck with the difficult yami?
"O' Ra, why me?" Ryou whispered, bowing his head.
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Thanks to all reviewers!
First off, thanks to all who wished me well on my trip to Michigan, I had a blast!
Yami No Marik: Thanks a lot, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Sanosuke-and-megumi-fan: Thanks a lot and glad I was able to make this story "cute", since that was what I was aiming for!
PerfectCell17: Well, I hope this chapter had enough of all three of them together to make it a funny story!
Chaotic Demon: Thanks for your review!
Lilmatchgirl007: Never, I think. I don't think "fair" is in Yami Bakura's vocabulary, really. Lol, thanks for your review!
Lucky the Evil Talking Puppy: Cool. In what part of Michigan? I visited Hart, a bit away from Grand Rapids.
Kathleen: Glad I made the story intriguing! The Man-Eater Bug was just a thought, and I'm glad so many people liked it! Lol, here's another chapter for you!
Kage Koutetsu Yume: "o.o" is that a good sign? Lol, thanks for your review.