Chapter 12: Bakura (in which the Thief King acts like Rumpelstiltskin…or Bumi from Avatar)
Out in the desert, unending and vast,
the voices are carried in breezes.
They whisper the secrets of future and past,
and time shall slow down 'till it freezes.
"Come closer," they chant. "Come forth if you dare."
They follow the will of the Ring lord.
But no matter how much you struggle to hear,
there's only so much looking inward.
As a general rule of thumb, whenever one presents a challenge to someone else, it has to be a task that one would be able to complete oneself. This was a criteria of being a noble thief…or at least that's how the Thief King reasoned to himself.
"I'll go first and wait for you in the next room," the Thief said to Ryou. An honorable thief always set examples for others, even if they were about to die. Plus, this would be a good opportunity to show off his skills.
The Thief threw himself into the pit and swiftly ran through the obstacle course, dodging the swords with ease and laughing the whole time. He seemed to be enjoying this immensely, and in almost no time at all, he had reached the other side. He glanced at Ryou with a cocky smile and said disappeared through a door that immediately shut itself after he went through.
Ryou placed his hand against the wall behind him to see if he would fade through. No such luck. How did I get myself into this mess? he thought.
"Che, the moment I leave you alone, you get into trouble," said a familiar voice.
"Spirit!" Ryou cried out joyously.
The Spirit of the Millennium Ring emerged through the walls of the passageway and floated down in front of Ryou with crossed arms. "What did I tell you about exploring my soulroom without my supervision?" he demanded angrily.
Ryou rolled his eyes and sniffed. "What did you expect me to do? You disappeared for an entire week and a half! What the heck have you been doing all this time?!"
The Spirit waved his hand dismissively. "Just personal things. Nothing you need to know about."
"Ugh, you're just like my father!" Ryou erupted into a fit of rage. "You never tell me anything, plus you left me by myself for an extended period of time." He crossed his arms and turned away to face the obstacle course.
The Spirit rolled his eyes and snorted. "You didn't exactly mind my absence. I could've come at any time if you had called for me sooner, but instead you waited until after you got into trouble."
Ryou stubbornly avoided eye-contact and continued to watch the statues run back and forth. "I just don't understand you," he muttered bitterly. "First you kept pestering me to work on the diorama, and then one day you disappeared on me without warning. You completely contradict yourself. I just don't get it."
"You don't have to get it," the Spirit said with a sneer. "Aren't you forgetting that you're in the middle of a crisis right now?"
Ryou shuffled his feet. "How did this happen anyway? None of the ancients are supposed to be able to see me, plus it doesn't make sense for them to know how to speak Japanese."
"This only happened because you triggered the Ring's security system by trespassing. This underground chamber is top secret and you never should've entered it." The Spirit glared at Ryou like a parent chastising a child.
Ryou rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well how was I supposed to know that? You left me all alone."
"My mistake. I'll have to keep closer tabs on you from now on," the Spirit said.
"How do I get out of here?" Ryou asked as he finally turned back to face the Spirit.
"You have to complete the trials. The sooner you complete them, the sooner things will go back to normal."
"In that case…" Ryou held out both his arms, and it almost looked as if he were asking for a hug. "Carry me," he said.
"What?" the Spirit spat out in disgust.
"You can fly, so I want you to carry me across the pit," Ryou said.
"It won't work because I can't touch you right now. See?" The Spirit reached out his hand to meet one of Ryou's. At the moment that their fingertips should've collided, they faded through each other.
Ryou sighed in dismay. "It was worth a try," he mused, withdrawing his arms and turning around to face the obstacle course again. He would have to do this the old-fashioned way. "Go fly over there," Ryou ordered as he pointed towards an area on the other side of the pit.
"Why?" the Spirit questioned.
"Will you just do it?" Ryou said exasperatedly. He didn't feel like explaining. "Please?" he added as an afterthought.
The Spirit was annoyed but decided to go along with it. Meanwhile, Ryou climbed down the ladder into the pit.
The first trial wasn't as hard as it looked at first glance. After all, he was used to playing these types of games on the computer. Ryou had been analyzing the statues' patterns of movement during his conversation with the Spirit, and by now he had figured out how to cross it.
Ryou made his way through the obstacle in a more deliberate and tentative manner than the Thief had done. Each step was chosen with care as he slowly made his way across. Somewhere along the way, he reached a safe area where the statues could never him as long as he didn't move, though he quickly realized that real life was different from the world of computers. When a statue began coming closer to him, his heart beat faster and he became frozen with fear. At the last possible second right before reaching him, the statue turned its course and went the other way, just as Ryou knew it would. Nevertheless, this was pretty scary.
Then Ryou looked up and saw the Spirit floating overhead, and his confidence returned. No matter what happened, he knew that the Spirit would never allow him to die.
Ryou continued to slowly make his way forward, and whenever he felt uncertain, he glanced up at the Spirit for reassurance. He was getting close now, almost there. The last several meters would be tricky because there were two statues that followed a complicated course of movement, and the only way to get past them was to sprint across at exactly the right moment. After one last glance up in the Spirit's direction, Ryou ran forward as fast as his legs could carry him, and he didn't rest until he made it all the way across and climbed up the ladder on the other side.
Ryou sat down at the edge of the pit near where the Spirit was floating and took a moment to catch his breath. "I bet…you thought…that I couldn't do it," Ryou said between deep breaths of air, smiling with an aura of smugness. Despite how scary it had been, he had fun.
At first the Spirit looked annoyed, but all of a sudden he smiled back with a touch of fondness. "Not bad, but your physical stamina still needs work."
"Oh hush," Ryou said laughing.
After regaining his breath, Ryou ventured into the next room with the Spirit floating along next to him, and the cup of water began to overflow right as the door shut itself behind them.
The Thief grinned to himself when he saw Ryou enter. It was never any fun when people failed at the first task, especially when the second one took so much time to prepare. In front of the Thief was a large block of stone with five brightly colored jars arranged in a row on top of it, and behind him was a trench that extended all the way from the left side of the room to the right.
"Here," the Thief said as he tossed something into the air towards Ryou, who fumbled as he tried to catch it. It bounced off Ryou's hands and landed on the floor, but he quickly picked it up to see what it was.
It was a gold coin. "Uh, thanks?" Ryou said, looking up questionably.
The Thief studied Ryou's reaction. There was no hint of greed, which meant he wasn't after money. So what was he after? Maybe he really had stumbled inside by accident, but either way it didn't matter.
The Thief ducked down behind the block of stone and flipped something. Immediately afterwards, the trench behind him erupted into an enormous wall of blue fire that reached halfway up to the ceiling. The flames were silent and somewhat beautiful, and Ryou couldn't help but feel fascinated.
"One of these jars contains a black powder that will temporarily dispel the flames," the Thief started explaining. "Your job is to pick the right one. Be careful though, because if you get it wrong," and he paused for dramatic effect, "it will result in an explosion of fire that will engulf the entire room."
At this, the Thief turned around and sprinkled a bit of black powder in the trench, causing a section of the fire wall to die down long enough for him to walk across. Then he went ahead into the third room, for he wasn't going to stick around in case the second room caught fire.
"That was rude. He didn't even give me any sort of hint," Ryou mused. He began peering into the jars one by one, but the powders inside of them all looked identical.
"He's you, isn't he."
The Spirit stared blankly.
"He's you in a past life," Ryou clarified.
"Why do you think that?" the Spirit said doubtfully.
"He sounds just like you. He says 'che' a lot, and he laughs in the same manner as you do. Also he manhandled me in the same way that you once did," Ryou twisted his own arm behind himself to demonstrate.
The Spirit narrowed his eyes, unimpressed. "Those are just character tics. They don't mean anything. It's probably nothing more than a coincidence."
"He's also a thief," Ryou added, and the Spirit's eyes sparked with interest. "Probably the best there is in the history of humankind. I've been following him around for the past couple of days and I've seen him steal all kinds of things, mostly stuff from the Pharaoh. He's highly skilled at it, and he never gets caught unless he deliberately wants to. If I remember correctly, you once told me you were a thief too."
A conceited smile appeared on the Spirit's face. "How good of a thief did you say he was?"
Ryou's face twitched for a fraction of a second. "The best there could possibly be," he said dully. He was aware that he was feeding the Spirit's overinflated ego, but one had to make sacrifices for the sake of persuasion.
"Hmm. I can see where you're coming from. You might be on to something." Despite not having seen any proof, the Spirit decided to believe Ryou's conjecture, mostly because he was flattered by the compliment.
"Don't you recognize yourself at all?" Ryou said, throwing out his hands in exasperation. The Spirit's lack of memories was really starting to bother him.
"There's a difference between being told who you are and actually knowing. I'm not going to remember anything just by meeting my past self," the Spirit said.
"Then what's it going to take to get you to remember?"
The Spirit's expression turned solemn. "Once the Pharaoh unlocks the door to his memories, it's possible that my memories will also return."
"Oh! I see," Ryou clasped his hands together excitedly. "That's certainly something to look forward to, isn't it?"
The Spirit nodded in genuine agreement.
Suddenly Ryou had an idea. "Wait but if he's your past self, then I can ask him questions about your life! We don't have to wait for the other Yugi to bring back your memories. We can find out right now!" He grinned eagerly and waited for the Spirit to grow excited.
However the Spirit's expression didn't change. "He's never going to tell you anything," he said gravely.
"Why not?" said Ryou.
"Because he's the Ring's pawn, and destiny won't allow it."
Ryou scowled, unsatisfied with that response. "It can't hurt to try. And besides, maybe he knows something about the Millennium Items that you don't."
At this, Ryou ventured into the third room with the Spirit right behind him, and once again the door shut by itself. The Spirit frowned to himself when he saw the room's state of affairs. All four corners were littered with piles of human skeletons, and the front of the room had a platform with a variety of weapons laid out neatly in a row, including spears, cudgels, maces, and daggers, and there was two of each kind. The Spirit could sense an ominous threat of danger looming ahead, but he didn't voice it.
The Thief was sitting on the edge of the platform, sharpening his knife with a rock. Once he saw Ryou, he stood up and walked over to him. "Are you ready for you final test?" he said.
"Just a moment," Ryou said with a formal bow of his head. "Before we begin, why don't we take some time to get to know each other? I don't believe we've had a proper introduction." He stuck out his hand and said, "It's very nice to meet you. My name is Bakura Ryou. And you are…?"
There was an awkward moment of silence as the Thief stared at Ryou without moving.
Ryou retracted his hand with a frown. It wasn't often that someone resisted the maximum strength of his polite mode. Was the idea of handshakes nonexistent in Ancient Egyptian culture? He would have to try a different approach. "I love how you decorated this place!" he said, smiling his bishounen smile, the one that made the fangirls melt. "The skeletons are a nice touch. Very spooky."
The Spirit covered his eyes in secondhand embarrassment. "I'm telling you, you're never going to get anything out of him. Give it up already."
But Ryou was persistent. "Say, I have an idea! How about we sit down and talk about your friends and family? I'd love to learn about them."
The Thief continued to stare incredulously for several more awkward moments. "Are you done?!" he eventually snapped, for his patience was dwindling. In his point of view, Ryou was only making small talk as an attempt to wheedle his way out of having to complete the trials.
Ryou's mouth pressed into a thin line. This was getting nowhere, but he couldn't give up just yet. "Could you at least tell me about the Millennium Items?" he tried one last time.
Something stirred within the Thief's eyes, but he quickly hardened into an unreadable expression. "Never heard of them," he said guardedly.
"Oh but you must know something!"Ryou exclaimed with growing excitement. This was the first time the Thief had given him any sort of favorable reaction. "Can you tell me how they were created? Or why they were created?"
"Why do you want to know?" the Thief suddenly asked.
The question caught Ryou off guard, for nobody had ever asked him that before. "Why?" he frowned. "Because… uh… because…" He furrowed his brow, struggling to find the words. "Because I think it's important?"
Nobody spoke for a while after that. Ryou rubbed his hands together and blew on them for warmth, as the chamber was a little chilly.
At last, the Thief broke the silence. "How about this. If you successfully complete my trials, I will answer any questions you have about the Millennium Items."
Ryou brightened for half a second, but his face quickly fell when he noticed the Catch 22. "But I can't wait until after the trials! You have to tell me right now!" he pleaded.
"Why?" said the Thief.
"Because… because…" Ryou's voice trailed off.
Because after the trials are over, you won't be able to see me anymore, he thought but couldn't say out loud.
"I told you it was pointless," the Spirit said.
The gears were turning inside the Thief's head. Originally the third trial was supposed to be a one-on-one fight to the death, but if this Bakura Ryou person knew about the Millennium Items, then perhaps it would be better to take him as a prisoner rather than killing him. Thus, the Thief invented a new task for the third trial on the spot, one that would be nigh impossible for Ryou to fail at.
"Here's the third test," the Thief announced. "All you have to do is answer a simple question, and even if you don't know the answer, you're allowed to guess as many times as you'd like."
Ryou sighed. "Okay, what's the question?" he said, finally giving up.
"What's my name?" the Thief said.
Ryou immediately turned towards the Spirit for an answer.
"Don't look at me. I have no idea what my own name is," the Spirit said.
Ryou groaned in frustration, but meanwhile the Spirit felt a wave of relief wash through him. He was sure that the third trial was going to be a lot more dangerous than this, but perhaps he had been mistaken.
Ryou shifted his feet, thinking deeply to himself. What's an Egyptian-sounding name? he pondered. He took a wild guess and said, "Namu."
The Thief broke into an amused smile and shook his head in the negative.
"Shadi?" Ryou tried a second time.
The Thief shook his head again.
"This isn't going to work. You're not going to get it right by guessing randomly," said the Spirit.
"Well do you have any better ideas?!" Ryou snapped at him.
"Who are you talking to?" the Thief said.
Ryou covered his mouth, realizing his mistake. "Just thinking aloud to myself," he made a quick excuse.
For the next hour or so, Ryou continued to guess every Egyptian-sounding name he could think of, including ones he made up on the spot. The Spirit joined in and offered hundreds of different names he had heard in the past three thousand years, but none of them turned out to be correct. The Spirit grew bored, but the Thief seemed to grow more and more amused after each of Ryou's attempts.
Eventually Ryou became totally exhausted so he sat on the floor and took a break. He let his mind wander and thought about how the Thief's personality compared to that of the Spirit's. They were almost exactly the same, but not quite. Ryou couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something about the Thief that was a little more conscientious. A little more human.
Then Ryou thought about the Pharaoh-turned prince who seemed to resemble both of the Yugis at different points in time. Suddenly he made a connection and an idea formulated itself inside Ryou's head, but before he could express his suspicions, he had to make sure. Determinedly he got up from the floor and strode over to the Thief, stopping right in front of him and leaning forward in order to peer closely at the Thief's face. Ryou had to bend down a little because the Thief was, in fact, slightly shorter.
"What are you looking at?" the Thief growled, and he shot Ryou a powerful death glare, one that had sparked fear in the hearts of hundreds of his victims.
But Ryou didn't care. He was already quite used to receiving those types of glares from the Spirit. Instead of being intimidated, Ryou leaned even closer.
Never before had the Thief met anyone so fearless. This Bakura Ryou person had to be one of the bravest, most determined individuals in all of Egypt…or maybe he was just a hopeless idiot with no sense of self-preservation. But either way, the Thief was intrigued.
Ryou turned his head to briefly look at the Spirit, then turned to look at the Thief, then back at the Spirit, and back at the Thief again.
"What are you doing?" the Spirit deadpanned.
Ryou finally leaned away and asked, "Is your name Bakura by any chance?"
The Thief broke into a satisfied smile. "Took you long enough."
Suddenly the light left the Thief's eyes, and his memories of meeting Ryou were wiped clean. The Thief blinked a couple of times, trying to remember what he had just been doing and muttering something to himself in Ancient Egyptian.
"Pause!" the Spirit said, and the Thief froze in place like a statue. "That's better. This guy is really annoying."
"But he's you," Ryou said, a little confused.
"Doesn't mean I have to like him," the Spirit murmured in a voice low enough that Ryou wouldn't be able to hear it.
Ryou looked at the Thief, then looked at the Spirit, and then back at the Thief again.
"Why do you keep doing that?" the Spirit said irritatedly.
"I can't see much of a resemblance," Ryou said, scratching his head. "He's got white hair, but that's about it."
The Spirit's face twitched with contempt. "Of course there's no resemblance. Why would he look like me if I look like you?"
"I'm not comparing him to you, I'm comparing him to me," Ryou said as he circled around the Thief to study him from every angle. "I'm trying to see if I could be his reincarnation."
"That doesn't make any sense. If I'm him, how can you be his reincarnation?" The Spirit asked more out of obligation than anything else.
Ryou stopped circling and said, "Maybe his soul got split in half? The Millennium Items have the power to do that."
All at once, Ryou and the Spirit turned to face each other and exchanged wary looks of resentment. If they were truly honest with themselves, they had both known deep down all along that they were two different versions of the same person, but having it confirmed was like a slap in the face. Now that they were standing next to living proof, each of them was forced to begrudgingly acknowledge the other as his other half.
"I'm still not going to refer to you as the 'Other Me,'" Ryou spat out stiffly.
"And I'm not going to refer to you as my "Partner,'" the Spirit returned the sentiment.
"Hmph," they both said, crossing their arms and turning away from each other in unison. In the silence that followed, they gradually made eye-contact again, and each of them was somewhat freaked out by their similarities.
"Get out of my underground chamber already. The trials are over," the Spirit said gruffly.
"You're kicking me out? Can't you let me explore for just a little while?" Ryou pleaded.
"Absolutely not. I told you, this place is off limits." The Spirit started floating towards the door and motioned for Ryou to follow.
Ryou hesitated. It was obvious that this underground chamber held a lot of hidden secrets just begging to be discovered, and if he were to leave now, he'd lose his opportunity to learn more about the Ring, and possibly the Spirit.
The Spirit let out a frustrated sigh. "For fuck's sake, can't you just do as I say for once and not ask questions?"
Ryou sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Why do you have to be like that?" he muttered in a small voice. "We've been through so much together. I don't understand why you still won't trust me."
Ryou gloomily took off into the air and floated ahead of the Spirit towards the chamber's exit. Based on the vibes he was sending off, it was clear that he was on his way to his own soulroom to mope for a while. He was too upset to work on the diorama for the next couple of hours.
But the Spirit couldn't let that happen. There wasn't much time left. After catching up to Ryou, he placed a hand on his host's shoulder to get his attention.
Ryou looked up and blinked rapidly a few times at the Spirit.
"Tell you what. After the exhibition opens, I'll let you explore this chamber as much as you want," the Spirit said with a charismatic smile.
Ryou's expression brightened. "Really? You mean it?"
The Spirit nodded. "You can't right now because you have to complete the diorama, but once you're finished with it, you'll have all the time in the world to learn more about me."
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Ryou sprang forward and wrapped his arms around the Spirit's torso, engulfing him in a tight bear hug. The Spirit's eyes widened in surprise as he felt the wind get knocked out of him.
"Get off of me!" the Spirit snarled in anger.
Ryou loosened his grip but didn't let go just yet. "Does this mean we're finally friends?" he said hopefully.
"Don't press your luck," the Spirit grunted.
XXX
Most of you are probably wondering, "Why did the Spirit disappear?" So I'll tell you.
Because he wanted to be mysterious!
…just kidding. The real reason is, he got lost inside the labyrinth while snooping around Atem's soulroom, and when Ryou cried out for help, the Spirit was able to follow the sound of Ryou's voice back to the Ring. When he got back, he didn't have a sense of how long he'd been gone because time flowed weirdly in the labyrinth. I thought about writing a scene about this in the beginning of this chapter, but in the end I left it out because it would make him seem more mysterious.
Others might be wondering, "Does the Spirit remember Kul Elna?" My answer is no, not consciously. Unlike the Thief King, the Spirit isn't seeking revenge; the only reason he wants to summon Zorc is to gain power for the sake of gaining power, and because destiny wills it.
Games are hard to write – that's why it took me longer than usual to update. I can respect Takahashi even more now, though I'm still annoyed at him for focusing too much on games and not enough on plot. I wanted to be original, but all of the trials turned out to be a copy/different version of something else, such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the King of Omashu episode of Avatar. Come to think of it, the plot of chapter 1 was suspiciously similar to the opening plot of Big Hero 6. I get subconsciously influenced by fiction more often than I realize.