Chapter 8: Acquaintance of the White-Haired Kind

I found the phone booth. Silence and I were both cooped up in that thing like a couple of chickens. I leaned over the yellow pages, repeating the kid's name, wondering perhaps he'd be listed. I was being hopeful. Silence stood behind me, still writing in fluent pen strokes. Was it just me, or did they seem smoother than before?

I blinked, surprised when I found a Bakura listed in the phone book. Turned out it was a last name. Interesting. Friends sometimes call each other by the last names. Then again, so do enemies. I was thinking about it as I dialed the number, the receiver pressed against my ear as I hummed a little bit. Ringing. I hummed a bit while it rang.

Then:

"Hello?"

"Hi! Is a Bakura there?"

"Speaking." Now what? I twirled the phone chord around my finger, deciding that I should have thought out a plan to this before calling. I hate being an idiot.

"Erm…Did you volunteer to help set up the Egyptian section of the Emerald Museum?" I made up some random name. A pause.

"…No, I don't recall volunteering for that role, how did you get my name?"

"A Mr. Hawkins must have mentioned you; my superior must have wanted me to call... Would you have any interest in volunteering?" I invented, making my voice a chipper secretary as I picked the phone chord. A pause.

"No, no thank you. I have some things I must attend to."

"Oh yes, of course, wouldn't want to detain you. My boss wrote one more thing on his sticky note here…ah yes, we were hoping to contact a Mr. Yugi Mutou, it seems he has an artifact that was supposively belonged to a Pharaoh Atem-"

There was a sharp click and the dial tone kicked in.

Hung up.

I stared at the phone, startled, before slamming it down on the hook seething.

"Shit!" I snarled. I did not seem to have very good luck with phones. I scribbled down the address of Bakura before flipping around and found a column of Wheelers. I took down all their addresses, there were ten in all. I sighed.

It was going to be a long day.

I visited six of them ten by evening. My face hurt from smiling so much and coming up with a bunch of idiot schemes. Most of them was I went to school with Joey and wanted to know when school started, or what our homework was, or if he could come out and play. Silence trekked behind me, living up to her name fully.

After the sixth, after getting told to go the hell away and having the door slammed into my face, I decided it was time to take a break. I found a fast food place and put some of that 'burrowed' money to good use. I got four burgers, two boxes of French fries, and two large sodas. I gave Silence her half of the feast and pulled the ketchup bottle. I commenced shooting my burgers up, squeezed and watched the vegetable red ooze before taking a big bite. I don't know the last time I ate. I felt hungry. Part of me wondered if they were letting me starve to death out there.

Silence took her burger with one hand, and wrote with the other. Her eyes never left the page beneath the hat brim. I didn't expect a thank you anyway. I took out the crumpled paper, now looking a lot like graffiti, and drew a line next to Bakura and wrote 'knows something'. I wolfed down both my burgers and was picking at my fries while leaning on one hand. I watched the cars go by outside. Bright blinding lights moving like living comets.

I sighed.

"This is getting ridiculous." I muttered to Silence.

It was more like talking to myself. I didn't say anymore. What else was there to say? This whole thing seemed like stop and go. Stop, go, and go again. Halt! That sort of junk. This was breakdown lane. I was drumming my fingers, sipping my soda, waiting for her to finish her meal. It's surprising how fast one adjusted to having company. I didn't even know her and I was hanging around like we were best friends. I didn't even feel awkward at all.

When she stood up, the action said that she was done and it was time to go. One of the waitresses took it and looked at me funny when I left. I ignored it, but studied her face just in case. Short brown hair and blue eyes. She was pretty to look at. I could see some boys staring and drooling in different booths. On her name tag it said Tea. I filed it in my brain and left.

It was cooler outside, and my eyes adjusted against the dark in seconds. The whirling comets kept chasing each other, some blaring horns, others vibrating the air with bass. Silence still wrote even though it seemed too dark for it. I wondered if she could see the page when a blast of frost bit into the back of my neck, making the hair there stand like privates before a general.

For a moment, through the corner of my eye I was sure I saw someone watching me, but as expected, when I turned there was no one. Glance at Silence and found there was no reaction with her. That was usual too. I yawned and decided it was time to find a place to sleep. A near-by bench was the only thing that presented itself.

I waited for Silence to stop her writing and pull her hat down. I waited long after I heard her breath change as she sunk into sleep. I waited with tired drooping eyes before I finally saw the shift. I blinked sharply to wake myself up, stretched, and gazed boredly across the street.

He moved like a patch of midnight. I was rather impressed, but didn't show it as I watched him approach. His coat fluttered a bit, with his hair, a bright silvery white that seemed impossible to me to have been hidden before. The locks hid his face. His hands stayed in his pockets. He had a walk that crept without trying. He came towards me like a shadow. And I waited for him.

He stopped about two feet in front of me, face still hidden, and trench coat swaying to a stand still as the wind stopped. The street lights around us glowed softly and created more shadow. I had my hand resting on the butt of my gun.

"Was it you?" he asks in a different voice. I frowned immediately. This was not stranger, nor anyone did I know. I had expected the Bakura-kid at least, or maybe one of the Hackers. This voice was totally new and held a dark sharp edge. I looked at him warily.

"Was what?" I asked in my own dark tone. It sounded more kid-like than I wanted. I could sense him smiling with amusement.

"Did you call?"

"That depends on if you're the kid, and you sound nothing like him." I replied. Silence dozed quietly to the side of me. The pen was still in her hand. It didn't even quiver. A tilting moment.

"You're looking for the Pharaoh?" he asked.

"Yeah." I said, "You know something?"

"I know everything." He replied. I raised my eyebrows at this. My hand still remained hovering above the metal grip. Silence still didn't move.

"Are you inviting me to ask questions?"

"Are you willing to pay?" More consideration. Somehow I found the whole thing amusing.

"What if I shoot you?"

"You'd be hurting Bakura."

"So you're saying you are Bakura."

"No."

"Then how would I be hurting the kid?"

"He's here. He's just asleep. You could say I was borrowing him."

"Borrowing huh." I said, a smile twisting onto my face.

"I can prove it."

"Nah. Demons seem to be popping out of the cracks for me enough, no need to wake the poor kid up." I said, waving my hand boredly. He finally lifted his face enough for me to catch dark brown eyes with a pale white face. Serious look. I considered him again.

"You don't look like the type to share." I said thoughtfully.

"I usually don't."

"Or play fair." A wicked smile.

"An observant one, aren't we?"

"I get around…what's the price you were thinking of?" I raised my eyebrows again when he shook his head. Something jingled loudly near him. I traced a brown chord near his neck curiously. Thing it led to was covered.

"No, that little offer is gone."

"Too smart?" I asked. He shook his head. I smiled anyway. After some silence I realized what had to be coming next.

"You're going to try and kill me now?" I asked, humored. He smirked something wide. Of course he'd try to kill me. I knew where he lurked. Beasts and evil kings hate for the goody-two-shoes to know where their secret lairs where. That took the fun out of everything.

"I would've anyway, deal or no deal." I knew he was being honest.

I stared at him a moment, before shrugging and getting to my feet, and lazily pulled the pistol out. At the sight of it, he started laughing. I paid no attention. Just pulled the clip out and looked at it carefully before slapping it back in. Glancing at him again, I found he had pulled out a heaping deck of cards.

"Monster cards?" I asked. He looked through them with a calculating look.

"Yes, you've done this before?" He asked, a little curiously.

"You could say that…any rules?" He shook his head, pulled out a card, and I knew it from the smirk he had started his own game.

And I watched it form in a whirl of wind and light, looking up with a dull look of boredom as a creature twice my size rose up against me. Something with pinchers, I assume some sort of bug, standing on two tree trunk sized legs and arms equally wide. It roared and the ground quaked, drove up my legs and made them feel it.

I pointed my gun and aimed for on of the black eyes. It should go through and take out the brain. The only time I had ever felt this calm before was down in the museum basement. That had been a near death experience. I figured this should be the time I was defeated.

Silence moved in front of me before I could squeeze the trigger. It's strange how fast you can change from one emotion to the other. The calm was slammed down into nothing by a greater force of frightened panic. I reached out to grab her arm, shove her out of the way, and I did grab her arm, but found something clasped tightly in her hands.

A deck of cards.

An ocean of whirling wind and bright blazing light hit again, but seemed more dazzling because it was aided my surprise. I heard the distant roar of something before watching it appear in complete white light, like the other monster had, but far more massive. Watched two great wings unfurl and dim as a huge roar exploded around us. The card in her fingers flapped slightly, but her silver eyes stared on at him.

I watched the immense white dragon hover slightly in front of its master, a creature three times my size and fiercer than his. I watched Silence wave her hand out in a gesture towards his monster, felt the prickling sense of familiarity. It was lost when an orb suddenly blossomed inside the dragon's mouth, grew in size as its jaws widened, and finally get out a blast of white light that made me cover my eyes.

When the light died down, the bug-monster was gone, a smoking spot was left. Silence was looking meaningful at him. He was glaring back at her with almost black angry eyes.

"When did you obtain the fourth Blue Eyes White Dragon?" He asked heatedly.

Silence said nothing. Held her deck tightly and looked at him with eyes made of silver flame. She answered with a wave of her arm, and the Blue Eyes attacked again. He blocked, somehow, I don't know. Held something up in a fist that glittered bright gold against the blast, and I saw the faint blackened shadow of a circle and triangle.

Lights dimmed and I saw an eye that looked much like Yugi's eye on his puzzle. I looked at Silence, surprised, before looking back to him and finding he fled. That wasn't surprising. I turned back. Silence was tidying her deck of cards, making them neat, before placing them gently into her pocket, removing the pen behind her ear, picking the notepad off the ground, and continuing to write.

I stared at her questioningly for several minutes. When she didn't respond, and I found myself extremely weary, I decided to sleep on it. I went back to the bench and found I was finally able to nod off to the lullaby sound of scribbling.