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Reiraku: Ability to see ribbons signifying spiritual power in people.

Quincy: Race of humans that can summon spirit bows with which to destroy hollows. Uryuu is the last of them.

Chapter 4

The lights flickered when he passed, shadows swelled around him. He mingled with the shadows, vanishing despite his white mane of hair. A star in the night, blinking in and out of existence from one moment to the next. One's eyes would lose him if they didn't have any purpose to follow.

However, one had purpose.

One that walked with arrogance, his sneakers crunching on the sidewalk. No shadows hid him, the light ricochetting off his glasses to play games on the buildings and signs. Through his eyes, he could see threads of light drifting from each and every person. His eyes flickered and narrowed as the shock of white disappeared once more. Almost every person.

The shock appeared in the spotlight of another lamp. A black thread swirled around him, causing the light to flicker before the shadows consumed the figure.

Earlier, the stalker had noticed a grey ribbon coming from the same figure, but now, that ribbon was strangely absent. He intended to find out why. The longer the night dragged on, the shadow figure slid into the shadows more often and quickened his pace.

The figure stopped. He turned to glance at his stalker, who saw only a glint of red before he took off running, no longer caring for the cover of the shadows.

Uryuu cursed and sped up as well, not one to give up chase. The number of people out and about dwindled the farther they went until they came to deserted streets. By then Uryuu found himself gasping for breath, but the one to start running showed no signs of fatigue.

He glanced behind him again, this time Uryuu discovered the red was the color of his eyes. He closed those eyes and reached out, as though holding hands with close friends. The person clearly concentrating on something, Uryuu tried to figure out what.

An inhumane roar was enough to alert him about the rampaging hollow. Uryuu started to reach for his spirit bow, but stopped, remembering he no longer had that power. Instead he shouted, to at least alert the person to the danger.

The person jumped, and cursed loudly in another language. The hollow noticed Uryuu at the same time and switched direction, obviously intending to have a nice Quincy dinner.

Fear seized Uryuu, but he shook it off and ran for his life. He could hear someone cursing in what sounded like...annoyance? Uryuu just saved him!

The anger and sense of having saved someone fueled Uryuu for a time, but not forever. He slipped into an alley to try to escape, but of course, the hollow followed his spirit pressure and quickly had him cornered.

"Now I have you," the hollow sneered, breaking into a cruel laugh.

"I summon Dark Necrofear!"

A blue, bald woman appeared in front of Uryuu, the broken doll in her arms turning its head to chatter its teeth at him. Within moments, both the hollow and woman were gone, leaving nothing between Uryuu and the shadow figure.

Uryuu stepped forward, and the figure vanished, having walked in the shadows once more.

Halfway across town, Bakura emerged from the shadows, as though he had been there the entire time.

Bakura mentally prodded Ryou, who soon appeared in spirit form beside him, yawning.

"Get back in your soul room!" Bakura hissed.

Ryou, surprised, did as he was told, though the question leaked through the link.

"I don't trust this town-"

/You don't trust anyone./

"Quiet," snapped Bakura, "Too many mortals here can see hollows. I don't yet know for sure if that means they can also see us in spirit form."

/Then why can't I come out and test that theory?/

"I'd prefer to remain a secret."

/Why are you talking out loud, then?/

"Yadonushi, I've told you before. People will think you're insane, and thus, stay away from you."

/How will that help you?/

"Your 'mood swings' will be expected, and so less suspicion will be cast on us. Now, I believe I had a bit of training for you in mind."

/What kind of training?/

Bakura's wicked grin, combined with his ghostly skin, gave him the appearance of a poltergeist. He turned a corner to a dark alley.

/Yami?/

Ryou found himself in control, staring at a bone-white mask.

Mentally pounding on the door to Bakura's soul room, Ryou reached to the shadows, brushing against the evil aura, trying to ignore the sudden feeling of despair. His hands went forward, careful not to touch the mask. If he touched the hollow, it would become aware of his presence. And that would not be good.

The shadows leapt from his fingers, snapping at the suddenly trembling creature like starved hounds. It disappeared without a sound, devoured by beings far more grotesque.

/Yami?/ Ryou tried again. Bakura appeared in spirit form.

"You forgot to say the words," Bakura stated. He leveled his gaze at Ryou. "You're getting much better. We'll move to teleporting soon."

Ryou said nothing, already patting himself down in another one of his searches. Ryou whirled on Bakura.

"What did you do?" he accused, having found nothing.

"I went hollow-hunting for you. Last night I scouted out the area. I must say, I enjoyed your panic over that. You gave me a few ideas, too."

Ryou bit his lip. Bakura chuckled.

"Seeing as we're on the other side of town, I'll teleport us back to the apartment."

Shadows consumed them.

"I heard you're popular for playing some card game. What's that about?" Ichigo asked as everyone gathered on the roof for lunch. The memory still troubled Ryou, but he answered anyway.

"I've taken part in Battle City, a worldwide Duel Monsters tournament, and made it to fifth place in the worldwide rankings."

"What was it like?"

"I can't really remember. It's all a blur. I think it was because I managed to electrocute myself during a duel," Ryou said. In truth, it was because Bakura had full control the entire time and kept Ryou asleep in his soul room.

The group pouted at the lack of interetsing details, but stayed optimistic and asking questions.

"Have you ever moved before?"

"Tons of times. I lived in England for the first seven years of my life before my mother and sister lost their lives in a car accident."

Sympathetic gazes all around and a single "I'm sorry." A few heads bowed as they recollected the memories of their own losses.

"After that, I went to all sorts of different schools and foreign countries. Japanese is my second language, French is my third."

"Wow. You have a gift for languages," Orihime commented, "I'm barely passing my English classes!"

Ryou shrugged. "I had to. But for once I'd like to finish a school year without any problems."

"What does your dad do that requires you to move so much?"

"It's not what my father does. He's an archeologist; he works in Egypt and a few museums."

Uryuu asked, "Then why do you move so much?" at the same time Ichigo asked, "Why doesn't your dad live with you?"

They glared at each other. Ryou could sense a rivalry between them.

"Father is constantly excavating archeological digs in Egypt. Since I'm albino, I'm very sensitive to the sun and can't stay outside very long over there. There aren't many schools there, either."

"Albino?" Orihime cut in, peering intently as Ryou's eyes. Ichigo leaned forward as well. "I thought albinos had red eyes. You have brown."

"That's a myth," Uryuu refuted, "Not all albinos have red pupils."

Uryuu returned his attention to Ryou. "You still haven't answered my question: Why do you move so much?"

Ryou strained a smile. "If you don't mind, I'd rather not answer that."

The group wanted to pester him about it, their curiosity peaked, but fell silent.

"So," Ryou started, breaking the silence, "Do any of you play role-playing games?"

When Uryuu stepped inside the apartment, the first thing he noticed was the sheer amount of things that had some relation to Egypt. Posters, statues, books, a tablecloth, coasters. A small cardboard box in the corner spilled over with more possessions, all of them Egyptian in some way, waiting to be put in their proper places.

"You can put your bag anywhere," Ryou said, setting his own shoulderbag next to a recliner. Uryuu followed his example.

"Make yourself at home. I'm going to change out of this uniform."

Uryuu settled himself in the recliner as Ryou vanished in to another room. He picked up a book, titled Egyptian Tombs. The book had tales of treasures and legends of ancient curses.

"Would you like something to drink, Uryuu?" Ryou's voice carried from the kitchen. Uryuu realized he spent some time reading the book and hadn't noticed when Ryou went in the kitchen. "We only have tea, if that's alright."

"That's fine."

Uryuu closed the book and looked at its cover. There was the picture of a dog's head on a man's body.

"Anubis."

Uryuu's head jerked up, coming almost nose-to-nose with Ryou- No, not Ryou. Ryou had a gentle smile and brown eyes. This look-alike had a blank expression, glaring through narrow red eyes.

The copy disappeared, without sound and without warning, as though he had never been there in the first place.

"Ryou? Is there anyone else here?"

"What? No, it's just me." Ryou's head popped up from around the corner. "And I was in the kit-" he froze mid-sentence before picking up several seconds later, "-chen the entire time."

Uryuu frowned in confusion and put the book back. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, I didn't tell you yet, did I?" Comprehension dawned on Ryou, and he gained an apologetic look. "I have absence seizures."

"Oh." Uryuu blinked, all thoughts of doppelgangers dissolving from his mind. "Are you on medication for it?"

"N-no," Ryou stuttered, obviously not expecting that question.

Uryuu frowned. "Why not?"

"The treatment-" Ryou cast his gaze to the left. "-doesn't work for me. They kept increasing the dosage, with no decrease in the number or severity of the seizures, until I passed out."

"Which drug did they have you on? There are a lot of antiepileptic drugs."

"All sorts of drugs. I can't remember exactly how many."

"My father owns a hospital. He can check your medical file and prescribe you something that might work."

Ryou's eyes widened. "I've been to many places and many hospitals, all of which prescribed something that didn't work."

"You're in a new town. Ryuken might have something new."

"Maybe, but it probably won't work and I'll just get sick. Ah! The tea!" Ryou disappeared once more into the kitchen. He appeared a moment later, two glasses in his hands. Uryuu accepted a glass and Ryou set his on the table.

"Do you want to play Monster World-" Ryou's soft features gained a sinister smile and leering eyes, even a creeping low voice. "-or Duel Monsters?"

"Ichigo."

Ichigo blinked. "Keigo?" He'd seen his friend trying to hide and appear sneaky the past few days, supposedly spying on the new kid.

"Ichigo," Keigo repeated, as though that would somehow increase the importance of whatever he wanted to say, "There's something wrong with that new kid."

Ichigo said the first thing that came to mind: "He's an albino."

"Not that," Kigo insisted, sounding like a whine, "I've heard rumours about albino-boy."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the nickname, but for the most part ignored it. "So? they're just rumours."

"All rumours have some root in truth. They say he's put kids in comas, and they didn't wake up until last year!"

"You sure about that? Sounds a bit far-fetched."

"It's true! that's why he's always moving! His old man doesn't want him in trouble, so they move before the police can pin the blame!"

And eerie feeling crept on Ichigo as he realized he was starting to believe his friend. "But he's kind and polite," he protested.

Keigo shook his head disapprovingly. "Albino-boy ain't got no pancake mix, Ichigo."

Longest chapter I've ever written. I could get into the habit of this.

All medical information is true. It's amazing how many ideas you can get from researching medical conditions.

The Q&A sessions with Ichigo's friends are getting annoying.

I think the next chapter is quite hilarious.

I'm starting a new YGOxHP fanfic soon. It's somewhat the same as this one; same timeline with YGO and I have Ryou and Bakura with the same personalities as they do in this story. The difference is that, instead of going to Karakura after waking from the coma, Ryou goes to Hogwarts (no hollows, either). See my profile for more details on Dissociative Magics.