Chapter Thirty-Three, Complicated procedures

The next few days seemed to pass by in a dream for Anzu and Yami. They were mostly unbothered and for those few days, Yami spent his time at her apartment, but every night, out of respect, he would creep out of bed and sleep on the couch as he had done the first night that he had slept over. None of the others tried to contact either of them and for awhile, they were left at peace, caught up in their romance and Yami, for his part, was trying very hard to resist the urges that Anzu's surprisingly bold tactics had provoked. However, just as Yami had suspected when he first arrived in Domino, all things could not last forever and Kaiba seemed to believe that he had given Yami a big enough reprieve to at last contact him. Rather than calling him and allowing him to easily be ignored, Kaiba showed up during Anzu's recital, a silent, looming figure. Yami spotted him after the recital and Kaiba merely inclined his head to the side, indicating that they needed to talk in private. Anzu hadn't yet spotted him and after Yami crept from the stage, the bustle obscuring his view of her, Kaiba led him outside.

"I appreciate you coming without needing me to force you," Kaiba told him mildly.

"And I appreciate you giving me some rest when I first came back," Yami replied in a similar tone.

"It wasn't for you." Yami blinked, surprised by this. "But I didn't come for idle conversation. Malik called me awhile ago with some disturbing news that I think you'd be best to know. I've kept it from you long enough because I didn't want to start a panic." Yami frowned, appearing somewhat uneasy, but nodded, a subtle indication for him to continue. "Rebecca's head was found in Malik's apartment in Yokohama."

"And by found, you mean it was delivered there," Yami said in a steady tone.

"Yes. Yokohama is dangerously close to Domino. Now, I don't know if they're being led here because of Sakura or because we left ourselves open, but regardless of why, this is going to put everyone here in danger. Malik is trying to find a way back into Domino as soon as he can without damaging his contract there, but he's not sure when he'll be able to make it back in. Ryou made a call and had someone come into town as Malik's replacement until Malik can get here. I'm sure you can imagine who that would be."

"But he's not even involved in the arts community," Yami said, frowning. "Why would he care?"

"Because he's family and apparently he owes Ryou a favour, so he's here. Reluctantly, but here. What I'm most concerned about is that we get Anzu trained to protect herself. Right now, she's in danger of being taken and I don't want to draw attention to her by protecting her too much just in case we have some enemies in Domino already. We have to be cautious. After the recital, we should go to Ryou's apartment to meet the two of them."

"I really don't want to get involved with him," Yami mumbled. "Much less set him up with Anzu alone."

"It's better that we do than not," Kaiba told him reasonably as Anzu poked her head around the corner and saw them talking backstage. She smiled and waved at Kaiba. "We're going over to Ryou's to meet someone," he said without preamble as soon as she was in hearing distance. She cast him a puzzled smile and then looked to Yami, who was still frowning, his mind occupied. "We'll explain everything when we get there. Let's take my car."

"Did something happen?" Anzu asked Yami as they left backstage.

"No, no," he assured her, reaching out and taking her hand, brushing a kiss over her knuckles. "No worries. Just a precaution." Kaiba shot him a disapproving glance over his shoulder that Anzu didn't catch and Yami pointedly ignored it.

The drive to Ryou's apartment was quiet and full of Kaiba's cigarette smoke. Rather than attempting to quit, it seemed like he was smoking more than ever and Anzu irritably snapped at him to open a window when the car seemed to be getting full of a cloud. He scowled, but did as asked, remarking that she had better not nag at him for the rest of the night. She sent him a surly look and Yami, situated in the front seat, merely shook his head at the exchange, amused in spite of their situation. When they arrived at Ryou's apartment, Anzu looked around curiously, surprised at the quaint complex. Ryou answered the door with a bright smile, greeting, "Hello, hello. Anyone want tea?"

"I'll have some," Anzu said, smiling, stepping in after Yami. Ryou gave her a bright smile and then shut the door, hurrying into the kitchen. As Anzu moved to follow her, she noticed there was a man seated in the living room, already helping himself to some tea, looking bored out of his mind. "Uh, Ryou – "

"Not yet, Anzu, not yet," he interrupted, flashing a nervous look to Kaiba and then hustling her into the kitchen. "Will you help me make the next batch of tea? I've been drinking it all day."

While the two moved into the kitchen, Kaiba and Yami settled themselves in the living room, although Yami did not sit down, eyeing the other male with dislike. "Oh, Yami," the male sighed, a tiny smirk lifting his mouth, "don't look that way. You know you missed me."

"Hardly, Akefia," Yami said shortly.

"Please. You know I prefer to be called by my last name. Just call me Bakura. Keep it simple." He flashed another of his tiny smirks and then took another drink of tea. Bakura looked for all the world at home in Ryou's plain settings and quite unbothered by the negative energy that had erupted as soon as he and Yami had set eyes on each other. A moment later, Ryou and Anzu emerged from the kitchen carrying a tea kettle, cups, and some scones. "For God's sake, Ryou, we're not having a tea party," Bakura told him in an irritable tone, glaring at the items over his own tea cup.

"This could take awhile, I might as well have it out in case someone gets hungry," was all Ryou said, in his most polite demeanor. Bakura continued to look irritated by this, but said nothing further. After the things were set, Ryou cleared his throat and urged Anzu to sit in the loveseat where Kaiba had taken a seat. Anzu did so, casting another inquiring look to Bakura. "Now, um, Anzu...I'm sure no one has told you and I certainly try to keep it a well-guarded secret – "

"I'm wounded," Bakura cut in with a mocking, devastated look.

" – but this," he indicated Bakura, ignoring his comment, "is my older brother, Akefia, although he prefers to be called by our surname."

"Wouldn't you, forced with a ridiculous Eastern name like Akefia?"

"Would you please keep quiet with the smart remarks for a moment?" Ryou said, frowning. His brother shrugged his shoulders and busied himself with preparing another cup of tea. "Anyway...ideally, we would have liked to have Malik here, as you're well accustomed to him and his attitude, but he can't get away from Yokohama quite yet. He's tied up in a contract and given that his reputation in the dance community is still mending, he was obviously reluctant to break it to come to Domino. We thought, with Yami's return, it would be in everyone's best interests to give you a little practice in defending yourself and as Malik is unavailable, I asked my brother, as he has the...skill-set...for such an endeavor." Anzu surveyed Bakura with some trepidation as he sat back with a new cup of tea. He blew on it for a moment and then raised his blue-gray eyes to hers. Instantly, she turned her gaze back to Ryou.

"And by skill-set, you mean...?" she asked, trailing off expectantly.

"Ah...well, his line of work has allowed him to develop certain useful skills for this situation."

"Oh, don't sugar coat it, Ryou, you never have for anyone else," Bakura said.

"Fine," Ryou bit out. "Bakura is in charge of a drug cartel in Europe, transporting opium from Middle Eastern countries to our country, Britain, and some of the other western European countries. He has a lot of experience in defending himself from people trying to kill him and a lot of experience in getting rid of other cartel lords. I would almost say he's more experienced and better at this type of thing than Malik, which is why I've asked for him to help, in addition to the fact that I was able to help him with my own insight some time ago, so he owes me."

"I'll be glad to not owe you after this, too," Bakura added. "You've been holding that over my head for quite a while, little brother."

"And I knew it would come in handy not letting you forget and weasel your way out of it."

"This is outrageous," Anzu muttered, putting a hand to her head, leaning back. "You don't even look like a drug lord!"

Bakura did not, in fact, look anything like the movies tended to portray drug lords. With the exception of a scar that ran across his face, he was dressed casually in blue jeans and a long-sleeve, black button up shirt and his hair was dishwater blonde and cropped short. With the exception of his Eastern complexion and appearance, he did not at all look out of place. At her remark, he flashed a grin and his languid demeanor and devilish smile reminded her of Malik. "That's good. I wouldn't want that to get out to the wrong people."

"Malik and him met a long time ago when Malik's family still lived in the Middle East, but they never really kept in contact until I became acquainted with Malik," Ryou explained.

"I try to keep quiet about who I choose to contact," Bakura added to Ryou's explanation.

"I see." Anzu paused and then turned to look at Kaiba. "Can I talk to you in the kitchen?" Kaiba frowned.

"Anything you have to say, you can say in front of us," Bakura said with a smile. "Or should I leave the room so you can talk to your little group?"

"No, I want to talk to Kaiba alone." She stood up and went to the kitchen. Yami darted a questioning look to Kaiba as he rose to his feet, but he merely shook his head. When he joined Anzu in the kitchen, she was leaning against the sink with her arms folded and her eyes narrowed. "I know that this isn't just a precaution like Yami said," she said bluntly. "Something's happened. And I want to know what happened in Europe when Yami was delayed. He wouldn't tell me and I respected his decision, but I think I have a right to know. I'm already in danger."

Anzu met Kaiba's cool stare calmly, unwilling to back down. She knew that she was being left out of the circle of information and was certain that she was the only one, with perhaps the exception of Bakura, who did not have the full picture of what was happening. After a pause, he glanced at the kitchen door and then stepped a little closer to her, asking her in a low voice, "Do you think that you really know Yami?"

"No," she answered honestly. "I know that there's a lot about Yami that I haven't seen yet...and I know he's ashamed of it and doesn't want to let me know, but regardless of what he's done in the past or how he has to act in that other world of his, it doesn't matter to me. I'll accept him no matter what."

"Even if he's killed people?"

Anzu sighed. "Is that what he did in Europe?"

"To my knowledge, that is the only thing that he would never admit to you. He turned away from that a long time ago and didn't think he would ever be in a position where he would have to kill again. He's not like Malik or Bakura, who can do it ruthlessly and live with themselves after the fact. It tortures him. He wouldn't want you to see him that way, to know that he's capable of doing that. He isn't going to be happy that I told you this."

"I'll find out eventually, even he has to know that. But then, is that the only reason we're taking this precaution or is it something else?"

"A friend of Yami's was killed and her head was left in Malik's apartment. It's too soon to say whether they are coming to Domino or if they are simply nearby, but it's enough to put us on edge. Our primary concern is making sure that you're safe and that you'll be able to protect yourself. We can't have people guarding you, it will look too obvious. Hopefully, if they are in Domino, they will see you as nothing more than what you are – a dancer that needed an accompanist."

"How awful," she whispered, raising her fingers to her lips. She closed her eyes briefly. "I'm afraid for him..."

"Don't be," he said brusquely. "Yami hasn't survived this long by luck alone." Anzu nodded and stood a moment, staring at the clean kitchen floor, tapping her fingers on her lips thoughtfully. There were so many unknowns to her. Yami had spent years training in order to survive, how could she possibly manage to fight these people off by herself? She raised her eyes to Kaiba's and he must have read the question in her eyes. "Bakura will be able to help you. You need to know just enough, I don't expect you to be able to do the things that Yami can." She nodded again.

"Okay. I'll do it."

"Good. Now let's go back in there, Yami's probably having an anxiety attack."

Anzu smiled at this and followed him back into the living room. Yami had been sitting in the loveseat with his hands clasped, his brow creased in worry. He sprang to his feet as soon as they entered and she simply smiled at him, taking his hands and squeezing them, settling back in the loveseat. "So," she took in a deep breath. "What exactly do you think that I need to know, sir?" Anzu directed the question at Bakura.

"Sir?" he repeated and then laughed. "I doubt I'm much older than you, my dear."

"Alright then, Bakura," she corrected with a tiny shrug. She could almost see the question marks coming from Ryou and Yami, seeing their confused faces at her sudden initiative, but ignored them both, keeping her eyes trained on Bakura. He considered her for a moment, an amused smile lifting his lips. Somehow she knew that he was clever enough to know better than the other two why she was suddenly more collected and willing in this venture. Bakura traced his mouth thoughtfully and then glanced at the two standing males, Kaiba and Yami, as though expecting them to supply some sort of information.

"What do you know?" Bakura asked her at last.

"Nothing, really. I've never had any self-defense classes or anything like that. I never thought I needed it."

"Then let's start there," he suggested. "You're a dancer, right?" She nodded, puzzled as to why it was relevant. "I think that will work in your favour."

Anzu laughed and it seemed to break the tension in the room and both Yami and Ryou seemed to relax. "Bakura, I promise you, if you're as hard as Malik had been on me, then it will be nothing new." She smiled at him, her eyes gleaming with amusement. "Just expect to get yelled at a lot."

"I expect that any time I talk to a woman," he returned with a mischievous smirk. He reminded her so much of Malik that she couldn't help but laugh again, although she dearly missed her friend. She didn't even notice Yami glaring daggers at Bakura's flirtatious attitude, even though she, herself, was dismissing it.

"You remind me a lot of Malik," she said, smiling, feeling more comfortable. She looked to Ryou then, asking, "He's going to be okay, isn't he? I haven't heard from him much since he went to Yokohama."

"Malik can take care of himself," Ryou assured her. "He always manages to get himself in and out of bad situations. And tries to drag me into them while he's at it." His mouth twisted wryly at that. "But I wouldn't worry about him too much, Anzu. For now, you should just worry about yourself. And, in regards to that, when do you think you'll be able to start, Bakura?"

"I'm here on vacation, little brother," Bakura told him with a touch of sarcasm. "Your wish is my command."

"As always, you tickle me silly."

"I do try."

"I can tomorrow before work," Anzu spoke up. "I have recital after work, but I'm willing to wake up early. If you don't mind, that is, Bakura."

"Not at all." He gave a lazy grin. "Sounds like a date."

"Bakura," Ryou said in a warning tone, glancing at Yami, who seemed unable to say a word, as though he didn't trust his own voice.

"He's just joking," Anzu said, getting to her feet. She smiled at Yami and took his hand, twining her fingers in his. "I think that's all, right?" Yami stirred from his murderous thoughts, all of which involved Bakura and some sort of torture method. He returned her smile and nodded.

"Yes, I think that will do," he agreed.

X

Bakura had spent the majority of the night doing some researching on his laptop, sending emails and getting as much information as he could before he met Anzu that morning. While he was sure that his brother and his friends thought that they were being adequately sneaky, they underestimated his network of resources. By the time Ryou had woken up, yawning and blinking blearily, Bakura knew all that he needed to deduce the type of situation they were in. He closed his laptop and Ryou looked at him in some confusion, asking. "Did you not get any sleep?"

"I had some business to take care of," was the vague answer he offered. "See you when I get back."

Bakura had rented out a studio for meeting at Anzu with and had given her the address before she left the day before. When he got there, she was already standing outside with her arms folded across her chest. He didn't quite know what type of temperament that Anzu had, but from their brief interaction, he found her to be fairly level-headed and less prone to temper tantrums and fits of crying. This would work best for him, as he had little to no patience for those type of women and unfortunately, given the type of world Ryou and Malik were in, he'd had to deal with those types on a regular basis. But it's best not to dismiss that too early, he decided, eyeing her thoughtfully. You never know what a person is when they're in a normal situation.

"Early riser?" he queried.

"I work at a coffee shop, so I'm used to it," she answered, following him into the building. After getting their key from the man at the desk, they went up to the third floor where their studio was located. When they entered, it looked identical to a dance studio. There was a long, wooden bar along one side of the room while on the opposing side the entire wall was of mirrors. The other wall, facing out to the street was windows and the opposing wall of that was padded and had huge rolls of padding for the floor against it. "Wow, this is amazing," she said in awe. "I didn't realize they came this big."

"They're used for dance teams mostly, I think," Bakura said, shrugging out of his jacket and throwing it to the side, along with the duffle bag he had brought in with him, going to the padding and pushing it out onto the shiny surface of the floor. "I know a lot of martial artists practice in these, as well, though. Give me a hand, would you?" Anzu followed him and helped him roll out the pads, spreading them out until they covered more than half of the floor. "That should do. Alright...now, let's have a chat before we start this. I wasn't given much context for why I'm helping you or what's going on, so I did some research and figured out what I could, made assumptions and filled in what I could with that. I suppose you're trying to protect yourself against Yami's parents."

"Well...yes, I think so. Kaiba was vague about whether it's his parents or people they're sending out."

"It doesn't matter," he said, dismissing her statement with a wave of his hand. "Either way, they're going to be strong. So here's my question for you, what are you expecting of my helping you? I have to do as Ryou asked, since I owe him, but let's be honest, there's no point if you don't feel confident in yourself."

"I don't think that I'll be able to fight them and still live. Maybe hold them off for a little bit, but...I mean, they'll have spent their entire lives training for it and I've only got a week or two at most to prepare myself and I can't even spend as much time as they would because my production is coming up in less than a month."

"You're right," he agreed and considered her. She didn't look worried or depressed, but as if what she said was matter-of-fact and seemed unbothered by the fact. "There's a lot of areas that you would need to cover for that kind of training, but...there's nothing wrong with learning to run and hide better."

"What?" She stared at him blankly.

"You're a dancer," Bakura told her patiently. "You're in shape, you're fit, and your endurance is excellent. You're at an advantage there. How do you think Ryou managed to keep out of this type of stuff? If there were people wanting to involve him, he learned to make himself scarce, how to sneak off, how to hide, and how to keep his tracks hidden."

"But how does someone train for that?"

"A lot of on hands training." He smirked at her raised eyebrows. "But first, we should at least get you familiar with a little bit of defensive training today, just in case they catch up to you. After today, it's going to be nothing but running around in the city and learning to dodge bullets. Don't worry," he said as she opened her mouth to indignantly protest, "it's just going to be from an airsoft gun. It'll sting a bit."

"And I guess paintballs would leave too big of bruises," Anzu said with a sigh, rubbing her head. "Ugh, what have I gotten myself into?"

X

Yami heard his doorbell ring and looked up from the newspaper he had been reading. He sighed, tossing it aside, and went to the door. Just as he was about to about it, it swung in and he backed away to see Bakura standing there. They stared at each other for a moment and Yami frowned, taking notice of the instruments in his hands. Kaiba was standing a few feet from him, appearing nonplussed. "Did you just pick my lock?"

"Were you expecting anything less? You didn't answer. I wasn't going to stand on your doorstep."

"You only rang the doorbell once!"

"Time is money," Bakura cheerfully said, patting Yami on the shoulder as he walked past him, tucking the instruments away in his jacket. Yami stared after him in disbelief and turned to look at Kaiba, who didn't even bother remarking on the unnecessary break in, stepping in after Bakura and following him into the living room. Sighing, Yami shut the door and followed them, rubbing his forehead with the palm of his hand. "So, Kaiba says that he hasn't heard from Malik yet. Have you?"

"No," Yami replied as Bakura tossed himself onto the couch, picking up the newspaper and flipping through it casually. "He's probably taking extra precautions to make sure nobody follows him here. I wouldn't worry about it until it's been more than a few weeks. He can take care of himself."

"Oh, I'm not worried," Bakura said, his face hidden behind the newspaper, "but I am interested to know how long I'll be involved in this. Anzu's ballet is coming up soon, right? I'd like to have her prepared by then. Malik should be here by then. But, even so, I'll be stuck here for at least a month. I'm not complaining, just making an observation. I do owe Ryou, after all. But that extends to him and his favor." He folded the newspaper and tossed it aside. "That doesn't extend to either of you, though."

"Meaning?"

"Listen, I didn't want to get involved in your bullshit," Bakura bluntly told him, his face twisting into an annoyed, unpleasant expression as he pointed an accusing finger at Yami. "I had enough of a time when I was associating with Malik regularly. I've heard about the type of shit surrounding you and I'll be damned if I have to deal with it for long. If I'd known that was what Ryou was getting me in, I wouldn't have came."

"You act as if I wanted you involve you," Yami irritably answered, his eyes firing up.

"You may as well have. You got Ryou in this mess by having him help that girl and now you're putting everyone at risk because you're in Domino. You should have left Ryou with the girl if you really cared. She would have been safer then."

"I had already agreed to be her accompanist, I couldn't simply turn back on that."

"Then why did you agree to that in the first place?"

"I didn't expect to develop feelings for her." Yami crossed his arms over his chest, looking frustrated. "I thought that I could hold them off for awhile and if I had to, I could disappear and leave her to find another accompanist. I was only doing it because I was bored. I didn't think things would turn out this way..." Bakura surveyed Yami with a critical expression and then picked up the newspaper again.

"And I suppose you think that this is completely unrelated?"

Yami sent him a quizzical look before taking the newspaper, scanning the articles before pausing on one. He read through and then looked to Kaiba, asking, "Did you hear about this?"

"Mmm," was Kaiba's noncommittal response. "There have been a few of them in the past few days. Malik must have finally been able to get out of Yokohama – or was forced to."

"I didn't lie when I said I wasn't worried about Malik," Bakura said, "but these deaths that have been happening around Domino are a good indication that he's being tailed rather closely. There's these deaths at the club, with the fire, and then there's others. Malik is making sure that he's leading them into shady areas so that it doesn't seem too out of the ordinary, but I can tell that it's him. They haven't been able to identify any of the bodies. Malik's known to be meticulous about that."

"Most of the places that this happens are at high crime areas," Kaiba supplied.

"So what's your point, Bakura?" Yami said at last, tossing the newspaper onto the coffee table. "If you have a problem with staying here for this long, that's something you need to talk to your brother about."

"Didn't you hear what I said when I got here? I'm already stuck here, there's nothing for me to do about that. But I'm not going to sit here and work based on assumptions." Bakura leaned back in the seat, resting an arm on the back of the couch. "I've got a handful of information and Kaiba's not willing to give anything up without your permission. Ryou very politely told me to come talk to you and Anzu doesn't know hardly anything either, and she doesn't like it, but she trusts your judgment. I, on the other hand, can't be placated that easily. So here I am, since your friends are so loyal."

"Imagine that. Something you're not used to?"

"Don't push your luck, Yami. Like I said, that agreement protects your girlfriend, but it doesn't protect you." Bakura smirked at him, spreading out a hand. "So? How about it?"

Yami hesitated briefly, glancing at Kaiba, but the businessman made no indication of how he felt about the situation. However, it had been him and Ryou who arranged Bakura to come here and Bakura would be here for some time. Malik was clearly having trouble getting rid of the people trailing him and Yami wouldn't be surprised if he went to China just to lead them somewhere else to keep Domino safe. With Malik otherwise occupied, they would need someone to stay close with Anzu and Bakura was their best bet. Ryou didn't have the type of qualifications needed. "Fine," Yami said in a resigned tone. "I'll tell you what you need to know."

"Perfect."

X

DIS: As always, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, especially given the wait and how long this story has been out. From now on, I'm doing deadlines on updates so that I don't leave stories lying here for such a long time. Because this story usually takes longer since there's more that goes on in it, I'm giving it two weeks for each chapter, so on March 5th will be the next update. With that said, please leave a review letting me know how you liked it - or if you didn't like it. Constructive criticism is embraced and encouraged. :) Cheers!