Ryou awoke on the hard wood floor of his bedroom, a thin sheet half covering him but succeeding more in trapping his legs within its cotton confines. He ached everywhere but managed to force himself to his feet after a struggle with the white fabric. Glancing in the mirror on his wall caused him to sigh. A black eye and a scratch on the cheek was nothing new but it was still frustrating. His hair was even more untidy than usual and when he lifted his shirt in response to a stabbing pain, he saw a long, still bleeding gash across his chest. This was going to be difficult to explain.
The boy has become accustomed to these mysterious injuries and periods of black out rather quickly after gaining the Ring but it seemed they were happening much more frequently and becoming more aggressive. Ryou figured the stealer of souls had been in fight again, probably with another spirit of one of the items, but it was very possible that he had simply been taking his anger out by mutilating his young host. It wouldn't have been the first time either happened.
The white haired teen looked at the glinting gold artifact and against his better judgment, slipped it around his neck. There were times when he wished his father hadn't found the ring, but more often, he wished the item wasn't possessed by such a malicious being. Still, other times it felt less lonely with the thief within his mind, a friend that could not abandon him. Within his mind, Ryou could hear the deep chuckle of said spirit. He was listening. Why did he always do that at the most inopportune moments?
"You think of me as a friend?" the criminal mentally grinned mockingly.
"I didn't say that."
"But your thoughts are not private when I am here."
"…I know," Ryou sighed.
He shuffled to the washroom and dampened a cloth to clean the wound across his torso and cover it with scraps of tissue paper, having no better means of bandaging it. He then washed the scratch on his face and scrubbed the dirt which covered him. What had the spirit been doing?!
"You have no need to know," the Egyptian hissed.
"I didn't ask you. I was only wondering, and I think I have the right to know since it's my body your using," Ryou, usually such a gentle soul, had quickly become irritated with the parasite within his mind.
But he had no way of stopping the thief from taking over. He was too weak to resist and it happened so randomly that it was difficult to predict or expect.
"Did you forget I'm a thief?" the monster chuckled, "A soul stealer. A convict," he spat the last word, but Ryou could not tell if it was out of spite or sarcasm.
"No. How could I? You already stole my body and my mind."
"Never forget what I am, boy."
Ryou bandaged his cut, pressed lightly on his injured eye before retracting his hand quickly from the pain it caused, and then sighed. No. There was not a time when he didn't wish the ring his father had gifted him with hadn't been possessed with such a strange, greedy spirit, but sometimes, the boy had to wonder just how evil this thief truly was.
"As evil as I need to be to get what I want."