Partnership

The door opened and Bakura watched from his vantage point hovering over the Ring as the Pharaoh passed through. He stared into the light, seeing all the people gathered to greet Atemu, their glorious Son of Horus, but he could neither see nor feel the presence of any of his people. There was no one there for him. He hadn't really expected that any of his people would be able to enter the Blessed Lands, but he hadn't realized just how much he truly hoped to be wrong until now.

Closing his eyes tightly, Bakura returned to his soul room inside the Ring and proceeded to throw his knives into the wall one after another. Once he had finished, he stared dully at the picture formed by the knife handles against the wall. His mother stared back at him lovingly, and he dashed the tears from his eyes as he stared at her image. She was long dead and her body destroyed to create the Items, including the one he was currently residing in, but that hadn't changed his love for her. "Mewet," he whispered leaning forward to press his hand against the image. The illusion was broken when his hand encountered the knife handle, and he angrily yanked the rest of the knives from the wall, watching as the marks faded away as if they had never been.

A soft light suffused the room and Bakura relaxed slightly as the furtive, terrified presence of his host flooded through the link. The terror, though, brought him out of his soul room and he took possession of Ryou's body, dodging the chunks of rock that fell from the ceiling and grabbing the rest of the Items before he fled, following the faintly remembered path out of the shrine. Once he was out safely and had stuffed the rest of the items into the backpack Ryou had so helpfully brought, he allowed Ryou to take back control of his body, and retreated into his soul room, watching Ryou from there.

His light staggered at the weight of the gold in his pack but didn't bother opening it to see what was inside. He must have known that Bakura would insist on bringing them. Bakura felt a wave of affection for the boy and acted on it impulsively as he was wont to do when not threatened.

/Now that they believe I'm gone, I believe your friends would find it safe to play Monster World with you again./ The rush of happiness that flooded through him after that was more than worth the annoyance of having to watch his light play with the idiots. Besides, Yugi would be there, and Bakura wanted to watch him. Perhaps it would be safe to tell the petite boy that he was still alive.

Shaking off such relatively mundane considerations Bakura spoke to his host once again. /I'm going to be using your body most nights while we're here, so try to get as much sleep as you can in the mornings./

Ryou didn't argue. It was one of the things Bakura liked about the boy. Instead his light agreed silently, simply ducking his head slightly and plodding through the sand back to their rooms. After a moment he spoke/Will you be needing anything, Bakura-san/

This time Bakura felt his desperate desire to be needed and his remembered pride at the set he had created for Bakura's last game and considered that before speaking. /Look for a library or museum with copies of the old books we can acquire. We're going to need to do some research if my plan is going to work./

/Yes, Bakura-san./ Ryou replied with cheerful alacrity. /I'll do my best./ Bakura could feel the boy's mind going over all the possible places where he might be able to find ancient works and marveled at his light's willingness to help him. He had hurt his friends before, after all, and the boy had no guarantee he would not do so again, but he was still helping Bakura.

/I know you will, Ryou/ he replied softly, letting his approval wrap around the trusting boy. /You always do./