Hi hi!

This is chapter 2 of To Await Your Arrival. This next piece introduces a few characters from Yu-Gi-Oh. This chapter is mostly used as an intro to more characters-the main story line will fully come into play in a couple more chapters. I'm sorry if this chapter may be a bit confusing-it was hard for me to really convey my thought process.

Let me know what you think & happy reading!

-wormyapple

A soft ringing was heard until…

"Moshi Moshi"

Earlier that day…

Ryou—soft-hearted, soft-spoken Ryou Bakura—was so close to snapping. Only very few could incite that sort of reaction from the 16 year old teen. Yet here he was in Seto Kaiba's office knowing that his migraine will soon become worse.

It has been a little while since the final showdown duel between Yugi and Atem. Everyone thought that once all was said and done, not only would the spirits rest in peace, but that shadow magic would also be put down to rest.

That was as far from the current reality as near possible.

It was for an interesting reason why Kaiba had called Ryou in that day, as the entire meeting had to be about magic—not that Kaiba would admit anything to anyone other than Ryou and Mokuba. It was actually quite hilarious for Ryou to see Kaiba vehemently deny magic on what amounted to be a daily basis.

Well...us magical folk "need" to hide from mundane society due to the statute. Though it doesn't make it any less funny to watch the denials. Not only that, but technically speaking, our shadow magic is a completely separate entity...so it isn't like Yugi or the others are in the know.

As Ryou pondered the differences between the two types of magic, Kaiba cleared his throat.

"Do you know why you're here?"

"Not quite, but I can probably guess," was the response. The two have tutors for learning their magic (Kaiba wouldn't be caught dead in a school for magic), however, they both know the shadows are rising and want to be used. They are apart of the very few alive able to even weave the powerful magic, but they needed training to keep it under control.

As it was Ryou who had the older spirit of Akefia residing within him for years, Kaiba was essentially (indirectly, of course) asking Ryou to tutor him. Which then caused Ryou's current irritation to crop up.

"As you know, after the duel ceremony occurred, Akefia was officially sent to the afterlife and unofficially, I gained back the remaining half of my soul. However, things are different for me than what happened with Yugi. Yugi and Atem became quite similar by the time the soul halves merged, so he was able to easily deal with both light and dark with all the shades of grey in-between. Because there wasn't much difference. It is a completely different story for me. I was the 'nice, quiet, shy kid with an infatuation with divination'…

Kaiba scoffed: "Of course, as you are a bloody seer."

Ryou ignored that comment and continued: "...and Akefia...well, the nice way to say it was that he was my complete opposite"

"Understatement"

"Anyways. I am still trying to blend the two halves together—hence my current, restless, state. I can't teach you or even see Akefia's memories easily without the two halves of my soul accepting each other. I just don't know how long that can take."

The glare Kaiba then gave was quite palpable. "That better be soon. You and I both need to control this quickly, as much as I am loathe to admit…."

He was interrupted by a trill ringtone, triggering his already intense stare to be even harsher.

Ryou took a look at his cell.

Wait a minute. This number… Ryou nearly dropped his phone in panic, but then quickly recovered, flipped the device up to his ear, and began: "Moshi Moshi."

Harry let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure what would happen when he pressed send. Would the line be disconnected or would someone else pick up the phone? But the moment he heard those two words (even if he didn't know the meaning), he felt relieved. He knew that voice.

"Hey, umm 'Kura. Do you remember me, Harry?"

"Well, yes. What is it that you need?" Ryou's voice then changed slightly; it turned menacing: "Who is it I need to kill?"

"No one you can easily get to at the moment. Can you get me out of the country though? And make it impossible for anyone to find me?"

Ryou chose that moment to change his phone into speaker mode. "So. Smuggling you out of the country. That's easy. Getting you to effectively disappear might take a bit longer….Hm. How soon do you need to get out of the country?"

"The sooner the better. The longer I have away from my house, the longer it will take for them to notice I am missing."

Looking curiously at Kaiba, Ryou asks, "illegally or legally?" The implied Shadows or plane flight was inferred. Either way Kaiba could make it legal and get immunity for the boy, however, there was some concern as to which method was safer to Harry himself.

Seto thought for a bit. "Let's go through the realm to get there and help put his affairs in order, then figure out which method to take getting back."

"Alright Harry. Give us a couple hours and we'll be there to pick you up. And we better hear an explanation as to what is going on."

"Thank you."

Ryou hung up the phone. "Since when are you nice like that? Graciously helping someone out? Let me rephrase: helping out someone that is not your brother and you don't know?"

"Based on that kid's accent, he's British. I am highly annoyed at those british idiots as they still live in the medieval times..."

"You wouldn't care, except the fact that they won't buy your technomage technology" Ryou muttered under his breath. Seto heard it anyways.

"True. So, what better way to spite those people except to help remove from them their 'only hope' or 'scapegoat'?"

Bakura was startled. "How do you know who that was?"

"How many British magical 'Harry' characters do you know near our age group?"

"Dang"

"The better question to ask is how do you know him?"

"Short version or long version?"

Kaiba gave a deadpanned look toward Bakura and even drummed his fingers in waiting.

"Okay, okay. As you know, I used to live in England. Thanks to Akefia shadow-gaming everyone though, my family and I kept moving around. At one point, we moved to Little Winging—where I met Harry. He was a super quite, shy boy, but we got along pretty well. Shadow games never came up when I was around him, which was quite the odd behavior from the thief. I only found out why a few months ago, but I digress. Well Harry's cousin had a gang that tried to make sure that I stayed away from their 'toy.' One of them ended up in the shadow realm for ticking Akefia off. They stayed away completely at that point. A few days later was when Amane and my mother past away. My father wished to move again—this time to Japan. The last time I saw Harry, I gave him my sister's cell phone. (Yes, yes. We were on the young side to be having them at the time, but our parents wished us to have a way to contact them in case of emergency.) At that point, Akefia took over and told him something completely out of character: 'Only use this if you feel like you have no hope left. No one to turn to. You will then be free.'"

"So why was he so nice?"

"Apparently Harry was another one of us reincarnated souls from Ancient Egypt."

Seto raised his eyebrow and motioned for Ryou to continue.

"His name was Heru. He was apparently Akefia's cousin and second in command. Heru's parents died a few years before the massacre of Kul Elna occurred, so he ended up moving to another town to live with his other aunt and uncle. Akefia found him a few years later living in miserable conditions—as a slave to his so-called family. Though Akefia was only a year older, he took and raised Heru."

"So after re-finding the boy in this present time, he tried to make things alright for him best he could as he was family?" Seto asks.

"Yes."

"Alright. Let me make a few phone calls, then we can go."

After calling Mokuba to tell him goodbye, Roland to temporarily run the corporation for him, and the magical tutors to say he was leaving the country for an emergency, Seto Kaiba was set to leave.

"I don't think either of us have traveled this far using the shadow realm," Ryou exclaimed as he set about to open the portal.

Kaiba came over to help. It wasn't that neither of them could open the portal on their own—far from it in fact—but rather it took less energy, as Ryou concentrated on location and Kaiba supplied the power. The magic was also less likely to destabilize with the two of them opening the portal together; the destabilization was only one of the few issues they were currently having with the release of the shadows.

Seeing the portal ready, they took their first steps through the darkness.

Harry got up and started pacing, wondering when Ryou was going to come. Who was that talking with Ryou? He'd find out soon enough though. Turning after seeing a flicker of something out of the corner of his eye, Harry realized that some sort of portal was opening.

Out walked his friend Ryou and the mysterious person he was with.

Kaiba took one look around the room—were those rags the boy was wearing?-and turned up his nose in disgust. He then zoned back into the conversation between the other two in the room:

"...can you tell me what happened?"

"Not here. It...it isn't safe. I can't do magic, so I don't know if the house is bugged. There are guards posted outside though."

Kaiba cut in: "Where is you stuff?"

"Locked in the closet beneath the stairs."

Kaiba immediately turned and left the room. The locked door was no issue—just one singular movement from the shadows unlatched them all with no issue.

Seeing an immaculate house, but a little broom cupboard labeled "Harry's Room" in crayon print, disgusted him. But it brought back memories. He understood the pain of loneliness and suffering; he himself broke long ago because of Gozaburo. Mokuba was his only source of hope. However he became a cold, hard person until Atem forced him to re-piece his soul back together. He knew Harry had reached his breaking point and needed Ryou to get him out of it, hence why he left the room. To give them some privacy.

I wonder if what happened to me would happen to Harry if we were not able to come. Anyways, it has been long enough. They can rekindle their friendship later.

He went back upstairs.

"Let's go."