Chapter 7: The Millennium Ring

"Hey, Bakura, will you be alright catching up with the school work?"

Bakura: "It'll be a little hard..."

Anzu: "Why don't you help him out, Akia?"

While saying this, Anzu winked at Akia. Akia fully understood what her friend was trying to do. She knew that Anzu misunderstood that she liked Bakura, when, in fact, she was actually more interested in Jounouchi. Now, Anzu was trying to hook them up.

Bakura: "That would be really nice of you, Akia. But... I don't want to trouble you."

Jounouchi: "Oh please! You're asking Akia to help? I think you've got the wrong person. She's probably the laziest student in school."

Anzu: "Shut up, Jounouchi-kun!"

Yugi: "I think helping Bakura will help you get more into school work, Akia. It's worth a shot."

"...Fine, I'll help you."

Bakura: "Thank you so much!"

"You're free now? We can get some stuff done since school's over for today."

Anzu: "Well, we'll leave you guys to your studying! See you tomorrow!"

Anzu dragged Jounouchi and Yugi along, leaving Akia and Bakura alone in the classroom.

"It looks like everyone else is gone. They'll be closing the school off soon, we should go somewhere else. Where do you want to study?"

Bakura: "I don't know. Is there a library nearby?"

"The closest one is like an hour away. I would bring you over to my place, but we probably won't have any peace over there with Yugi and my grandpa."

Bakura: "If you don't mind, you can come over to my place."

"Your parents won't mind?"

Bakura: "They won't. Besides, they're not home."

'Wait... I'm going to be alone... in a guy's house? On top of that, I just met that guy today? He seems innocent enough... Besides, if it's an extreme emergency, I have my millennium scale with me.'

Akia knew she still wouldn't use it. It was simply an excuse to make herself feel safer.

Bakura: "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable, though. If you don't want to come over, I totally understand."

He didn't seem like the type of guy who would try anything funny with her.

"It's alright, I'll come over. You need to know where we're at in the school stuff anyway."

A faint blush appeared on Bakura's cheeks as he smiled sweetly. Bakura then led her to his home. It was a normal looking place, making Akia feel more at ease at the familiarity of it.

"That's a pretty nice place you got there."

It was a very simple modern style house. It had two floors with just the essential rooms. Akia followed Bakura to his room. It was just as simple as the rest. Akia scanned the room quickly with her eyes. It was the first time for her to be in a guy's room, other than her brother's. She noticed how neat Bakura was. His room was more organized than hers. Then again, she wasn't the type of person who really cared about how neat her room was. There were also many books in Bakura's room, just like hers. She looked more closely at the books and she was surprised to find that many of them were about Ancient Egyptian history.

"You're interested in Ancient Egyptian history?"

Bakura: "You could say that... My father went to Egypt a few years ago and brought me back a souvenir so I wanted to know more about it."

"You know, I actually have a lot of Egyptian history books back at my place. You should come visit, maybe you'll find some interesting stuff."

Bakura: "You're also interested in it?"

"Yeah, since I was a little kid... I even went on one of my grandpa's expeditions to Egypt and found myself my own souvenir."

Bakura sat down on the floor and motioned for Akia to sit next to him. She went to sit next to him and brought her backpack full of her school books so that they could start studying.

Bakura: "Your bag looks really packed."

"Yeah. Well, let's start by getting the books out of there."

Truth was, her bag was packed because of her millennium scale that took up most of the space. She didn't want to show it to Bakura just yet, since she didn't really know him all that well. She tried to take out her books without showing too much of what was inside her bag. Bakura, however, had already been able to get a glimpse of the item. He didn't know what it was exactly, but he recognized it had the same material as Yugi's puzzle and his own millennium ring, the one that his father had brought him back from Egypt. The ring hosted an evil spirit that would take over Bakura's body without him knowing it. The only thing he'd notice is the random gaps in his memory and how suddenly it'd be night, as if he'd been in a coma for the whole day. He had a feeling it was related to the ring, but he didn't know how.

Bakura: "Akia... In your bag..."

'Oh crap! He saw it! Wait... why is that bad? Maybe I'm just being paranoid...'

"Oh... this?"

Akia took out her millennium scale to show it to Bakura. The feather somehow always stayed on its plate, never falling off.

Bakura: "I actually have something similar."

"You do?"

Bakura took out his millennium ring from under his school vest. It was attached around his neck.

"So... There are actually more of those items than the ones Yugi and I have..." 'And Shadi's...'

Bakura: "I might sound crazy to you, but it feels as though there's another presence inside this ring..."

'Just like what Yugi told me... Is every one of those items like that? Then, why don't I feel any presence in mine? All I feel from my item is something similar to a dark aura, but nothing like another presence.'

Bakura's millennium ring suddenly started glowing.

"What's happening?"

Bakura: "Akia! This is dangerous! You have to get out of here!"

Even though Bakura didn't know what was happening either, he had a feeling that whatever was inside the millennium ring reacted to Akia's millennium scale. He also had a feeling that whatever it wanted with the millennium scale wasn't going to be anything good. Akia was feeling very confused, but she also felt some sort of danger. Just as she was getting up, a hand caught her ankle, making her fall flat on her face. She turned around and found Bakura's hand holding her ankle. He looked different, darker.

"What are you? Bakura's evil twin?"

Bakura: "Smart little girl. You figured out that it wasn't sweet little Bakura anymore. However, I'm not related to that weakling."

"What do you want from me?"

Bakura pinned her wrists to the ground with his hands, hovering over her, and gave her an evil-looking grin. Now that Akia had a better look at him, his hair was more spiked up than before. His eyes were definitely not sparkly anymore. He started lowering his face until she could feel his breath on her lips.

Bakura: "What I want? It's simple. First, I want your millennium scale. Second, I want an explanation regarding why I feel like I've met you before."

"Well you won't get either of them. How would I know why you get the impression that you've met me before?"

Akia noticed that she was still holding her millennium scale. She did tell herself that she would use it as a last resort if anything happened. This was definitely the case here. She just needed to bring it close to Bakura's heart.

Bakura: "It's not like I'm giving you much of a choice. I'm taking the millennium scale."

"Get off!"

Akia succeeded in kneeing him in the stomach which caused Bakura's hands to let go of her wrists. She took that chance to bring her millennium scale to his heart. It was the first time she had used it, so she didn't know what to expect. The empty plate started moving. It was as if something extremely heavy was put on it, because it went plummeting down.

Bakura: "You..."

That was the last thing Bakura said before he passed out on top of her. Akia started to panic.

'Wait. Is Bakura going to be okay? Did I just do something stupid? Oh please, be okay!'

"Bakura... Bakura... Please wake up..."

Slowly, Bakura started to open his eyes. Those were definitely the big sparkly brown eyes that Akia found extremely adorable. He slowly sat up just to be pinned back down by Akia's hug.

"You're alive!"

Bakura: "A... Akia! W-W-What happened?"

Bakura was as red as a tomato. He did not expect a hug right after opening his eyes from a coma. He then heard sniffling. He realized that Akia was crying. He wrapped his arms around her and patted her back.

Bakura: "D... Don't cry. I'm fine, don't worry..."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to use my millennium scale on you, but I didn't know what else to do!"

Bakura: "It's okay. We're both alright, that's what counts."

Akia finally let go and tried to dry off her tears. Bakura also dried off a few of her tears with his finger. He didn't like seeing her cry.

"Bakura... There's some weird other person inside your ring. He's... dangerous."

Bakura: "I figured as much... I'm really sorry you had to go through this."

"I'm okay... I don't think we'll be able to get any work done today, though."

Bakura: "It is getting late..."

"I can help you out tomorrow if you want."

Bakura: "I want to, but... What if he attacks you again?"

"Well I know now how to handle it. Besides, I doubt he will try the same thing again."

Bakura: "Alright. Can I walk you home? It's a little dark outside."

"Sure, I'd like the company."