Title: A Persistent Shadow (Chapter 5)
Pairing: Ryou Bakura x Yami Bakura, possible others
Rating: M
Summary: The Pharaoh uses a spell to force Yami Bakura out of Ryou's body, but unfortunately for Ryou it doesn't work quite as well as intended.


Ryou awoke to Yugi shaking his shoulder. "Bakura, wake up. Class is over. You fell asleep."

Ryou opened his eyes tiredly, not really wanting to wake up just then. "Huh?" He sat up and saw that his friends were crowded around his desk. He yawned, stretching his arms out. He looked around, but he couldn't see the spirit anywhere.

"You fell asleep in class," Téa said. "These guys must be a bad influence on you." She gestured at Tristan and Joey.

"Hey, don't blame us for this," Tristan said.

"Yeah, it's not like we told him to take a nap," Joey said. "Though to be honest, your technique could use a little work. It's better to time the nap so that you wake up just as class ends."

"Oh," Ryou half-said, half-yawned. "I'll keep that in mind next time."

"This is what I mean by a bad influence," Téa said, shaking her head.

Ryou laughed.

The five walked home together. Tristan and Joey eventually broke off to go in another direction; Téa did the same shortly after. Soon Ryou and Yugi were alone.

Or... mostly alone. The spirit chose to show himself shortly after the others parted ways, though he didn't say anything. Yugi was looking a little distant and Ryou recognized the signs of him talking to the Pharaoh. He gave the spirit a warning glance.

"Really, now. You just risked far more by looking at me."

Ryou realized the spirit was probably right about that, but he still feared the Pharaoh being able to detect the spirit's presence somehow. If anyone could do it, it would be him.

"Oh, honestly!" Yugi exclaimed, stopping right in his tracks.

Ryou had a moment of alarm, half-assuming Yugi had seen the spirit somehow. "W-what?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was talking to the Pharaoh." Yugi looked a little uncomfortable. "Um. Listen."

Ryou waited expectantly, but Yugi didn't continue. "What is it?"

"The Pharaoh's being..." Yugi looked annoyed. "...the Pharaoh. He doesn't believe the Spirit of the Ring is really gone."

Ryou forced a blank look onto his face, not wanting to give anything away in his expression. He tried not to panic. This didn't mean the Pharaoh knew anything. Yugi certainly seemed to think the Pharaoh was being paranoid, which suggested he didn't in fact know anything. "I can tell you he hasn't taken over my body since you forced him out. I haven't had any gaps in my memory." All technically true, so it wasn't really lying.

Heh. You tell yourself that, Landlord.

Ryou focused on Yugi. "Does he think the spirit is just hiding?"

Yugi glanced at a spot over to his right. "He thinks the spirit is trapped in the Millennium Ring."

The spirit took that moment to look incredibly pleased with himself. It seems the Pharaoh is as clueless as usual.

Ryou was relieved. The Pharaoh didn't suspect anything then. "So he isn't gone, but he's not possessing me anymore?"

Yugi nodded. "That's what the Pharaoh thinks, anyway." The uncomfortable look returned. "Um... He wants you give us the Millennium Ring."

What?!

Ryou almost handed over the ring right then and there, just because the spirit so obviously didn't want him to. He settled on taking it off, but not giving to Yugi just yet. "Does he think this will keep the spirit away from me?"

It won't keep me away from you, so don't even think about giving that ring away.

Ryou frowned. It was true that getting rid of the ring had never helped before. He'd only been separated from it a few times – the spirit normally took over to prevent him from doing it on purpose – and the spirit had still had no trouble taking over his body. The ring itself always seemed to find its way back to him somehow.

Yugi nodded. "We can't be sure, but the Pharaoh thinks it's safer that way."

The spirit planted himself right between Ryou and Yugi. Don't listen to him, Landlord. If you give him that ring, we'll be stuck like this. Unless you want me next to you for your every waking moment, everyday, for the rest of your life, just leave it alone.

Ryou paused. The spirit had lied to him so often in the past, and he knew the spirit wouldn't hesitate to do it now. But the spirit also knew far more about the ring than he did. What do you mean?

I mean that I'm not connected to the ring anymore. I'm connected to you. If you give the ring away, we will have no way to put me back. The spirit closed in on him, grabbing his shoulders and putting his face nose-to-nose with Ryou's. We'll be like this forever.

Ryou turned the ring over in his hands. Put you back into the ring? The thought of not having the spirit around to bother him was tempting, but... You mean back like you were. Able to possess me again, Ryou thought angrily.

That's not--

No. Ryou shook his arms free of the spirit, flinging him to the ground in the process. He handed the ring to Yugi. He smiled. "Here you go. Good riddance."

Landlord--! The spirit disappeared from the ground and reappeared behind him.

Yugi took the ring from him. "Are you sure?" he asked, though he was already opening his bag to put the ring inside.

"Entirely sure," Ryou replied firmly, paying no attention to the spirit, who had begun ranting at the back of his head. "I'll see you at school tomorrow." He ran off in the direction of his apartment before Yugi could even say goodbye in return.

He slowed down to a normal walk after Yugi was out of sight.

The spirit appeared in front of him, blocking his path. What did you think you were doing?!

Ryou walked around him. Getting rid of your only chance of taking over my body.

Foolish mortal. This is for the rest of your life. You have no idea what that truly means.

Ryou had to admit that the spirit had a point. He had no idea what his life would be like a year from then, let alone what the rest of his life would be like. But that was the spirit's fault – he'd learned not to think too far ahead, not to have any hopes or goals, simply because he'd known the spirit could take over at any moment and destroy anything he held dear. He couldn't even have known whether he'd be able to go to school on any given day, so even planning as far as the next day had often been futile.

Don't try to pin this on me.

Ryou reached his apartment building and unlocked the door. It's your fault I resigned myself to life with you indefinitely. You can't say you never encouraged it. He climbed the steps to his apartment and went inside.

The spirit fumed silently, unable to argue.

Ryou went to his room and sat down at his desk, pulling out his homework. He started on his math homework first, since it was the most time-consuming. The spirit paced around the room a few times, then sat on Ryou's bed. Ryou managed to get two problems done before the spirit got back up and came over to his desk to pester him.

"Landlord."

Ryou groaned. "What is it now?"

"I have nothing to do." The spirit stood next to Ryou's desk, arms crossed.

"Take a walk. Look around."

"I saw every inch of the area around the apartment this morning. Several times."

"Oh." Ryou turned a page in his math book. "Well, people are awake now. Maybe you'll see something more interesting."

"Nothing I could see in your neighbors' houses is likely to interest me." The spirit leaned over Ryou's desk. "But even if it were, it wouldn't last long. I don't believe you understand the reality of the situation."

Ryou rolled his eyes. "I get it. You have nothing to do. You're bored."

"That's not all it is." The spirit put one hand under Ryou's chin, pressing upward. The force wasn't enough to move Ryou's head at all, but Ryou played along, looking up at the spirit.

"What is it, then?"

"I won't have anything more to do tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the day after that. Or the year after that. Even if I hadn't already tired of wandering around your neighborhood, unable to have any effect on anyone or anything, I soon would."

"Perhaps this is your punishment for all the things you've done," Ryou said, trying to sound unsympathetic. But while he was still very angry at the spirit for what he'd done and tried to do in the past, he couldn't help feeling a twinge of sympathy. It was a punishment he couldn't truly wish on anyone, not even the spirit.

"If you help put me back in the ring, you won't have to."

...And the thought of the spirit being able to possess him again killed the little bit of sympathy he'd had. "Not happening."

The spirit made a frustrated sound. "At least find me something interesting to do. You're the only thing I can interact with. If you don't find me something else," he said menacingly, "I'll have to invent my own fun."

Ryou snickered. "What, like rubbing my back again?" He'd have been more worried about the spirit's not-quite-a-threat if over the course of the day he hadn't seen so much evidence that the spirit simply couldn't hurt him. But while he didn't think the spirit could hurt him, he knew the spirit could thoroughly distract him from finishing his homework.

"I'm glad you understand your predicament," the spirit said smugly.

"But you can't touch anything." Ryou looked around the room. "What can you do without..." His eyes lit on the small TV on his dresser. He walked over to it and turned it on. "Here. Even you can watch TV."

"So instead of wandering around watching idiot mortals in your neighborhood, you want me to sit around watching idiot mortals in a box. Marvelous." The spirit stood next to the TV, looking at it like it was utterly useless. "I've never understood the appeal of this thing."

"Well, now you get to find out," Ryou replied. "With all the shows on TV, there has to be something you'd like." As Ryou flipped through the channels, he had to admit that the odds of that might be a little low at the moment. It was still the afternoon, which meant that the programs currently on the air were limited to soap operas, talk shows, cartoons, and TV judges. "What sort of thing do you want to watch?"

The spirit sat back on the bed. "Whatever has the most blood."

Ryou thought he probably should have expected that. "Right now that would be... um... talk shows, I guess." He switched to one at random, finding what appeared to be a couple screaming at each other while the audience jeered. "There'll be more interesting shows on later," Ryou assured the spirit as he returned to his desk, hoping it would be enough to get the spirit to leave him be while he finished his homework.

"There had better be," the spirit replied, though he had already settled in to watch the show Ryou had picked out for him.

Ryou returned to his homework and worked on it with relatively little interruption from the spirit, who had become engrossed in what was happening on the screen. The spirit made the occasional comment about what he was watching -- "Foolish woman. He runs off with your sister and all you can come up with is a slap in the face?" -- but on the whole refrained from actively distracting Ryou from what he was doing.

Once Ryou finished that day's homework, he decided to work ahead. He couldn't know whether the spirit would be this cooperative the next day (or any other day), so he thought it best to get in what studying he could while he had the opportunity.

He called it quits at dinnertime. He hadn't been shopping for a while, so he just heated up a frozen dinner for himself. Afterward he returned to his room and, having nothing else to do, sat down to watch TV with the spirit.

The spirit had gotten completely caught up in an action movie. Ryou hadn't seen the beginning, but the main character seemed to be on a mission to destroy the man who'd murdered his family. The spirit reveled in every henchman's death, in every bit of the villain's property the hero blew up or otherwise destroyed, only complaining when the hero did something stupid or careless just to move the plot along. Ryou didn't know what to make of the spirit's enthusiasm, though he was glad the spirit now had something around to interest him.

Even more puzzling to Ryou was the spirit's reaction to the villain's actions. He seemed genuinely enraged whenever the villain won a minor victory, or had someone killed or tortured to serve his own ends. He'd have thought that the spirit would have been rooting for whoever was the most ruthless and efficient about reaching their goals or even just whoever caused the most bloodshed. It seemed bizarre to Ryou that the spirit could be so angered by what Ryou saw as his normal behavior.

The spirit didn't take kindly to that thought. "Nothing I have done is even remotely similar," he seethed.

Now it was Ryou's turn to be angry. "Really? And what do you call challenging people to shadow games and trapping their souls in dolls?"

"I call it justified revenge."

"Justified..." Ryou could hardly believe what he was hearing. "The first time you did it was on a 10-year-old boy! How could that be justified?"

"He was a bully," the spirit said plainly.

"And the boys at my last school? Those were the first friends I ever made," Ryou said, feeling bitterness at the memory. In some ways it was worse than anything else the spirit had done to him. He'd been so happy at finally making a few friends that what had happened shortly afterward had completely crushed him.

"They weren't your friends. They were luring you into a trap."

Ryou refused to believe it. "They were nice to me. They invited me over to play a game. We were having fun."

"Yes, so you should be glad I took over before your memory of them could be tarnished by reality."

Ryou laughed almost hysterically. "As opposed to what you did, which didn't tarnish my memories at all." He knew it wasn't a good idea to continue the argument, but he couldn't help but have a sick fascination at the spirit's twisted reasoning for his actions. "What about me, then? What did I do to deserve having my hand impaled on a spike?"

"You prevented me from getting at the Pharaoh," the spirit said fiercely. "No one in this world more deserves to have vengeance rained down upon him than the Pharaoh."

Ryou had no idea what the spirit was talking about, but then he never had known why the spirit hated the Pharaoh so much. As far as he could tell, the only negative things that could be said about the Pharaoh could just as easily be said about the spirit himself. "And what did he do to you? Look at you the wrong way?"

The spirit went completely still, his face a mask of utter fury. "What he did to me is none of your concern," he said, voice low. "But you're well informed enough of ancient history to have a good idea of all the things he would have been freely allowed to do as the great and beloved Pharaoh."

Ryou went quiet. He did know, but he'd never thought about what the Pharaoh would have been like back when he had still been a real reigning Pharaoh in Egypt. He would have had slaves... Ryou snuck a glance at the spirit, who had returned all his attention to the movie. Had the spirit been a slave at one point? There would have been far more peasants and slaves than royalty. It certainly fit with being a thief.

The Pharaoh could also order executions. Maybe the spirit had been executed by the Pharaoh for thievery.

The spirit had to have heard Ryou's thoughts – he always did, after all – but he didn't confirm or deny any of what Ryou had speculated. In fact, he seemed to have decided to ignore Ryou entirely for now. Ryou supposed it was better than arguing. He turned his own attention back to the movie.

Once it was over, Ryou decided to get ready for bed. He packed up all his school things, changed into his pajamas, brushed his teeth, and got his uniform ready for the next day in short order. When he'd finished everything he needed to do, he automatically went to turn the TV off.

"You don't intend on sleeping tonight, then," the spirit said, his tone sharp. "That's good. We'll have such fun."

Ryou sighed. "I can't sleep with the TV on." He thought a moment, then unplugged the TV and picked it up, heading for the living room. "Follow me."

The spirit appeared on the couch before Ryou even reached the room, having known what Ryou intended the moment he thought of it.

Ryou set the TV on the coffee table and plugged it in. He turned it on and made sure it was at a low enough volume not to bother anyone (including him). "There. Now you can watch TV all night long." He half-kicked himself for not thinking of it earlier – getting his homework done would have been even easier had the spirit been occupied in another room entirely.

He returned to his room and got into bed. Without any distractions to keep him awake, he soon fell into a deep sleep.


Ryou was sitting at his desk at school. He couldn't remember what day it was or even what class he was in. The clock kept changing times whenever he looked at it, at one point saying it was one o'clock, at another nine. He had a vague idea that there was a teacher at the front of the room speaking, but he couldn't figure out which one it was or what they were talking about.

Ryou noticed fuzzily that the spirit was behind him, running his hands over his back. Ryou also noted that his uniform was missing, which he knew wasn't normal, but he couldn't remember why it was important at the moment. It certainly felt much nicer having the spirit touch his bare skin.

Soon his teacher and the classroom faded away, and he was left sitting in his chair in an empty, shadowy space. Ryou sighed contentedly as the spirit pressed himself against his back, shifting his exploration to Ryou's chest.

Ryou thought he heard the spirit laughing uproariously somewhere in the distance, but found he couldn't keep his focus on the sound for very long. It confused him a little – the spirit was right there with him and definitely wasn't laughing.

The spirit let go of him for a moment, coming around to face him. Now Ryou was no longer sitting in a chair, but on his bed. The spirit pushed him down on his back and leaned over him, slowly continuing his caress down Ryou's chest... over his stomach... further... Ryou gasped.

The laughing grew louder, now accompanied by another sound Ryou found even more irritating. He tried to shake it off, but couldn't, and soon sat up in his bed, blinking his eyes open. He was momentarily bewildered to find that he was, in fact, fully clothed in his pajamas. His gaze drifted over to the source of the laughter, finding the spirit sitting on his desk looking like he'd never seen anything more hilarious in his entire existence.

It took nearly a minute for the fog to fade from Ryou's mind, leaving him fully conscious of his surroundings. He froze in place, his eyes wide and mouth open slightly in shock, his mind now sharply, painfully aware of the situation.

Crap.