I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Puzzle

The next week, Yugi brought the puzzle to school. In a box. In many, many little pieces. "See? I told you." Ryou said cheerfully.

-Hah. Some Pharaoh's reincarnation he is. He should have put it together by now.-

"Well, to be quite fair, he has started," Ryou said, peering over the little boy's shoulder into the box. There were two corners, and the eye was nearly complete… but it looked like he'd never get it done.

-Ryou…- Sudden inspiration had struck me. –Go take a piece.-

"What? Why?"

-So he can't finish it. If I destroy even one piece, it'll never be completed.-

"I… I don't know if I can do that," Ryou said worriedly. "Whenever I try to do something bad, people notice like I'm lit up with a spotlight."

I grumbled slightly at that. –Aren't you supposed to be my reincarnation?- I asked pointedly.

"I think I might be your reincarnation the way you would have been if you weren't a thief…"

-Fine. Then let's just go throw the box across the room and not worry about stealth.-

"Yami!" Ryou said, sounding more snappish than I'd ever heard him. "That's not very nice."

I blinked mentally. –Nice? Since when have I ever been nice?-

"I think you could be… but that's not even the point. I don't go around being a bully, people would look oddly if I did."

I picked up on the undercurrent there. –Do people bother you, Ryou?-

"No!" he replied quickly. "No, I'm just fine. And you wouldn't be allowed to do anything about it if they did."

-Hikari,- I sighed, -There's something you'd better learn about me. I'm a very protective sort of spirit. Live with it.-

"You're still not allowed to go throw his box across the room."

A few minutes later, when a rather violent, irritating blonde did toss the box, Ryou was a bit testy. "Yami, I told you not to do that!"

-I didn't,- I said. -As you never left your chair.- And we weren't likely to any time soon, I discovered. Ryou was holding us down with an iron will until he was done talking.

"You made him do it!"

-Did not.-

"I can tell when you're lying to me, Bakura," he stated, sounding somewhat hurt.

-I didn't really make him do it. I barely had to prod him in the right direction.- I hated it when he sounded hurt. Absolutely hated it. A spirit like me shouldn't have guilty feelings. It's just wrong.

And by that point, nearly everyone on that half of the room had gotten up to help with the pieces, and I'd missed my chance. –You know, Ryou, that was probably the least violent chance I'll ever have to destroy that Puzzle.-

"I don't want you hurting anyone to do it."

-I wouldn't have hurt him! That's my point!-

Then Ryou just withdrew from me, acting all misunderstood and hurt. I got a vague thought of how it would have hurt him emotionally. Emotionally. Ridiculous. Although… once I thought about it, having Ryou knock the pieces over would probably ruin his image of being sweet and trustworthy. And, perhaps, it would be more useful to have the whole puzzle to myself. Easier to destroy the items if I had them all.

I kept hoping Ryou would talk to me again, but it wasn't until the end of the day that I realized he was waiting for an apology. An apology! From me! He must be mad…

By ten that evening, I was going a little mad. It's very disconcerting to have your hikari pretend you don't exist. Like standing directly in front of someone, and just have them keep on doing whatever they were doing. Finally, just before he fell asleep, I grudgingly said, -Fine. Sorry.-

"Thank you, Yami…" he mumbled before drifting off to sleep. I tried not to be so cheerful that he was speaking to me again.

The next morning at school, Yugi was there looking very proud of himself. He came bounding right over, saying excitedly, "Ryou! Look at this!" And he very innocently shoved the completed Millennium Puzzle right in our face.

Ryou gently squashed me while he carried on a normal conversation with Yugi. "Wow. Wasn't that the thing in the box yesterday?"

"Yeah!" he said happily. "I just started working on it when I got home, and it all kind of fell into place. It was kind of creepy actually, like I'd done it before or something."

"That's odd," Ryou said. "Well, it's a neat thing now. What is it?"

"I have no idea," Yugi said brightly. I swear, that boy must not have any other emotion than happy. "Grandpa bought it back from Egypt years ago, and decided that I should try to put it together."

"Well, congratulations on your success then," Ryou said politely, before walking away as quickly as could be considered normal. "Would you calm down a little? You're being very distracting."

-You didn't have to be quite so overbearing, you know,- I grumbled. –I wasn't about to kill him in the middle of the school.-

"You were drooling."

-I was not. I have no salivary gland inside our head.-

He blinked. "You've been reading my science textbooks, haven't you?"

-Maybe…-

By the end of the day, he was getting very irritated by me. "Would you please stop trying to think of ways to steal that thing? They're all so violent…"

-Not all of them…-

"Well, no," Ryou said, "But they're so constant! Can't you give it a rest?"

-The sooner I do this, the less likely that the Pharaoh wakes up. And if he's still sleeping, it'll make life much, much easier for everyone involved.-

"You… you aren't going to hurt him, are you?"

-Why are you such a pacifist?- I asked, sighing. –I've told you over and over. If I can possibly avoid hurting him, I will. My quarrel is with the Pharaoh, not Yugi.-

"So, do you know how to find the rest of the items, then?"

The change of topic threw me a bit off. -I… I suppose. I can feel them when they're close, of course.-

"Are any of them close? Or do you know where any of them are?"

-Shadi is in possession of the Key, and the Scales, I believe. The Ishtar family has always been guardians of the Necklace and Rod… that means a trip to Egypt is in your future.-

"I'll stock up on sunscreen."

-You do that. The Eye, on the other hand… Was last seen in the possession of a Maximillian Pegasus.-

"Pegasus? The inventor of Duel Monsters?"

-Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying the inventor, they've been around far longer than I have.-

"That's beside the point," he said. "If he's got the Eye, I have no idea how you're going to get it. He's one of the richest men on the face of the earth! The security on his house is unsurpassed! Not to mention that it's on his own private island. Nobody goes there except his own most trusted people."

-Then we'll just have to find a way. At least he's easy to find, right?-

Ryou didn't seem to share my optimism. Strange.

Author's Note: For those of you who don't know, I know very little about the actual timeline here. I'm twisting it to my own ideas. Consider yourself warned.