Important : these drabbles are in cronological order


the hundredth soul

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Ryou cannot cope.

He's a good guy, you see, he's very decent and very polite and loveable, but he knows he's just warped and barren inside- and that's what no one seems to notice and it drives him MAD.

He cannot cope, you see, because now he doesn't know for sure if the dead ever really stay dead, and good and bad don't make any more any sense, and what does that make him? The space in between, the music in the elevator when all you want is either silence or conversation, but you get neither, so shut up please . He cannot cope. He's not even trying.

He doesn't want to give up, just yet, you see, because... because time is a barely conceptual notion, right?

What if he gave up and he just never waited enough?

He's waiting, I forgot to mention. He waits for...

He knew it since Yugi placed the Ring into its slot in the tablet, he could tell from the swell of violence in his chest and that so out-of-character need to scream, to screech, to rip the precious object from the other man's graps and clutch it to his heart and claim, "You can't have it, you can't have him... he's not ready to go just yet."

Him, the spirit, the Thief King, the presence; or just another figurine in his RPG board (he's got one in his soul room, did you know? One exactly like the one the other him had made that one time, because Ryou had never seen such a perfect board, such a perfect... scheme. It was beautiful in a deranged, pathetic way.)... whatever it is the name he chose to die by, Ryou knows that he was not ready to go, he was a man that loved life so much, and... well, how could he tell?

He could tell from his soul, that was his soul too, if you bothered to scrape off that veneer of time and Zork Necrophades and revenge... deep down at the bottom of the jar, Ryou saw the tanned man that sat, hugging his knees, as grain by grain the sand clock eroded it all away, and he slowly became no longer a prince, no longer a king, but raw, earthen Bakura... and they even shared the name.

How could he ever cope? He has not ever let go.

If he did... shuddering, he doesn't want to think of what would become of the memory (no! he was not a memory yet!) of the Spirit. The bad guy of the story... unless the story was not over.

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A/N: What I mean when I say that they are in cronological order, is that not all Yamis will come back at the same time, you'll see. The first to return was Yami Malik because he was not really a reencarnation of anyone, and Ra decided to take matters into his own hands.

But it'll all will be explained later in a more sense-making way :P

(on a side note - this story is my 99th soul! He, he, he.)

Review? Please? I really care about your opinion...

Edit: fixed a typo thanks to a wonderful review. I wish you'd left a name or a username... no matter, I'll write you a good response next chapter, "nobody" :)