Philtreshipping (Yami no Bakura x Mana)

(During the Shadow RPG otherwise known as Millennium World arc or Dawn of the Duel arc, using one of his various Bakura pieces, and also, heads up on a definition: a Philtre is basically a love potion. That's important ;D)

Oh, the thrill of thievery! It was one major part of Thief King Bakura's soul that would never truly vanish; it was almost the only reason that Yami no Bakura retained anything at all of the mortal from three thousand years ago. If not for that, he might have been entirely Zorc.

And his target this time...oh it made his blood boil with anticipation...a certain little NPC by the name of Mana.

Yami no Bakura, using one of his pieces in his glorious Shadow RPG, leaned against a sun-baked building. Behind him, the paths of the Royal Gardens spread out, perfect in every detail. The Dungeon Master in him prided himself on such: he had recreated this land of Egypt as close as possible to the real place he had once attempted to destroy. The pharaoh wouldn't know the difference.

His lip started to curl, though. There was one little detail that he had tried to eliminate. Her name was Mana. And the key word was tried.

Currently, the pharaoh walked down the path, his pet magician skipping along on the raised stone beside him. Her smile was as bright as Bakura remembered it, and her eyes sparkling with that sickening sweetness and naivety. Mana: the magician's apprentice, the pharaoh's childhood friend, and the only one so close to the pharaoh that her name and face were among his few latent memories. Her presence was grating, and the threat she posed irritating. He had tried to cut her out of this RPG; her being here gave the pharaoh too many openings to finding his memories.

But there she was, the NPC. How had she entered his little world without his consent? Only one option presented itself: the real Mana had reached beyond the grave to force her appearance.

Yami no Bakura snorted. Very well, Mana, he thought. You have won round one. But watch as I take round two...I'm sure you'll enjoy this.

He only needed to wait for a few more minutes. The pharaoh and the apprentice spoke for a few more minutes. And then, right on schedule, Mahad appeared to call the pharaoh away. Mana was left behind, fiddling with her wand in the middle of the gardens. Yami no Bakura glanced around the corner. The young magician had gotten over being left behind rather quickly, and she was now trying to practice magic on the fruit trees to bring the fruit over to her. The first attempt succeeded, but the second attempt made several fruit explode, splattering her with bits of juice.

Bakura smirked. And then pushed himself off of the wall and came around the corner. As he did so, he layered a few coats of magic around himself, using a few well-placed disguise tokens to make his player piece appear like none other than the pharaoh himself.

"Ugh, not again!" Mana was exclaiming. "Gross, it's everywhere..."

Then she paused. She glanced behind her.

"Huh? Prince – I mean, pharaoh? I thought you just left. What are you doing here?"

"I gave Mahad the slip," Bakura said in the voice of the pharaoh. He flashed a small smile to put her at ease. She half-smiled back.

"Um, that's great and all, but should you be doing that anymore? It was fun when we were kids, but...you've got a kingdom to run now."

Oh, this was fun! Stealing little Mana, right out from under the pharaoh's nose! Bakura reached out and took Mana by the hand. A hint of redness came to the apprentices' cheeks.

"Of course I do," Bakura said smoothly. "But I don't want that to change us, Mana. I don't want that to ruin our time together."

Mana blushed even harder.

"P-prince – I mean, pharaoh..."

Bakura took her other hand now, drawing both of her hands towards him, and by default, the rest of Mana too. His face came inches from hers. He could almost feel the heat from her face. Her eyes were so wide, with just the barest hint of hope – it made Bakura want to throw back his head in laughter. She was so smitten with the pharaoh that she couldn't even see through his disguise from this close up!

"Mana..." he said quietly.

Mana tried to open her mouth to respond – and then her expression dropped away. She tried to jerk back away from him.

What? He tightened his grip on her hands and practically yanked her into him. His disguise dropped away as she struggle from his grip. He twisted the wand out of her hands and flung it away. Mana may have had the use of magic, but her skills in physical fighting were minimal. It didn't take long for him to wrestle her to the ground and pin her down by her wrists. Mana glared at him, shaking with the fury in her eyes.

"You – who are you?" she said. "You look like Bakura, but different."

"That's not important right now," Bakura said. Damn! He had almost had her – how had she seen through him? The anger was making him tremble slightly, and it took him half a second to get it back under control. He could still manage this. "How did you know it wasn't the pharaoh?"

Mana huffed.

"You got the shade of his eyes wrong. They're more crimson than red."

Bakura frowned. But then that quickly turned into a predatory smile.

"Oh, so you've been looking at the pharaoh's eyes, have you? Pretty closely, it sounds."

Mana's face turned sunset red. She struggled upwards, but Bakura's grip on her was firm.

"Let me go," she said.

"Oh? And if I don't?"

Without warning, Mana's leg snapped upwards, catching him right in the groin. The attack threw him off guard, and it took him precious seconds to alter the playing piece to not feel that excruciating pain. Seconds that Mana took to wriggle away from him. The young magician threw herself towards her fallen wand. But by that time, Bakura had suppressed the pain. He grabbed the girl by the shoulder and yanked her back into him. After a few moments of struggle, he managed to pin her arms to her sides with one arm and bring a knife to her throat with the other.

Mana froze, the blade pressing into her neck.

"Got you," Bakura hissed in her ear.

Mana trembled slightly against him. She might only be an NPC, but her fear was invigorating. It put Bakura back into a good mood again.

"W-what do you want from me?" she whispered.

"I want to break the pharaoh apart," Bakura said. "I thought I'd start by stealing you."

"I won't hurt him – you'll have to kill me!" Mana said.

Bakura grinned, and even though Mana couldn't see him from her position, he could feel a shudder go down her spine.

He turned her around to face him, the knife still held within her sight. But with a deft flick of his fingers, he pulled a small vial from his pocket and popped it open under Mana's nose.

She breathed in before she could stop herself, and then sneezed loudly. The widening of her eyes made him grin even wider.

"Judging by your expression, I take it you know what this is," Bakura said.

"T-That's Hathor's Breath," Mana said. "A-a love simulator –"

"This beautiful little potion," Bakura said, glancing at it admiringly. "It creates intense false feelings of love, blocking out anything that might interfere with that love, and it has no noticeable other symptoms. And it only needs a single activator."

Bakura showed his teeth with his next grin.

"Won't it be beautiful to watch the pharaoh's expression when he sees his best friend betray him?"

Mana tried to fling herself backwards, to scream. But Bakura blocked it out by finishing the potion's activation – he pressed his lips against hers.

And the NPC called Mana was his.


A/N: I feel like I could expand on this...I might one day. :D Still, I'm not too happy with it. It feels clunky. Still, I wanted to show off my headcanon about why Mana was able to see Yugi and the others in the RPG... Next is Phantomshipping (Noa x Cyndia x Amane).