Title: A Persistent Shadow (Chapter 19)
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.


"The Pharaoh has the Millennium Ring," Marik repeated, words nearly a groan. "Of course. That explains why the first attack was so weird. If he was just walking around following where it pointed him, he wouldn't have known he'd have to break into somewhere to get it. "

Ryou nodded. "Before Yugi had them, the Millennium Items were all with their owners all the time."

"But what was he doing all that time between the two break-ins?" Marik asked, playing with his spoon, mostly-finished breakfast now completely forgotten. "It can't have taken that long to figure out a way into your apartment. Even if he did decide to do it the most difficult way possible."

"He was seeking the remaining two Millennium Items," the spirit declared, as though trying to sound like he'd known the whole time.

Marik blinked. "But Shadi's back in Egypt. Isn't he?"

"You know him?" Ryou asked, wondering if this was another thing he'd missed while the spirit had been in control.

A pained look crossed Marik's face for a moment before dissipating. "Um. Yeah. I know him from back home," he said. "I didn't think you knew him."

"I only met him once," Ryou said. "It was about a week after the first break-in attempt."

"You're sure it was him?" Marik asked.

"Um, as sure as I can be?" Ryou said, glancing at the spirit for confirmation. "He had the key and the scales. He said some things that didn't make any sense, then weighed our souls. After that he just sort of disappeared."

"Yeah," Marik said, face blank. "That sounds like him. What exactly did he say?"

"He said that he'd come because he sensed an attempted theft of a Millennium Item – the eye, I guess," Ryou said, wishing the man had simply told him that outright. Or that the spirit had explained it, for that matter. "Then he said that several items had actually been stolen, and that one of them was the Millennium Ring."

"Wait, so the ring was stolen?" Marik asked. "That means the Pharaoh might be innocent after all."

"Er. Not really. Yugi showed up right after we finished talking," Ryou said, remembering Yugi's strange behavior that day. "I got him to let me see the items, and they were all still there in the game shop."

"That's... weird," Marik said, sounding confused. "Shadi should know when an item's been stolen, and I can't see why he'd lie about it happening."

Ryou shrugged, not having any idea himself.

"Perhaps he simply meant they were being misused," the spirit said. "And just felt like being intolerably cryptic."

"That wouldn't surprise me," Marik said, rubbing his eyes. He looked at Ryou. "So, you said Yugi appeared right after you talked to him?"

"Yeah," Ryou said. "And he tried to go in the same direction. I didn't see the ring with him," he continued, trying to recall the scene in his mind. "But I wasn't expecting it to be with him. He hid that map in his bag really quickly when we first ran into each other..."

"Okay, so he probably was going after the key and the scales that day, at least," Marik said. "And leaving the eye alone because it didn't seem to be going anywhere."

"Wait..." Ryou said, having a thought. "If that's why he was leaving the eye alone all this time, wouldn't that mean he has them now?"

"Maybe..." Marik said. He stood up. "We should go to the game shop."

"Now?" Ryou asked, not feeling entirely ready to face what might be either his friend or the Pharaoh, and also feeling guilty about feeling that way. He'd always been upset at his friends for acting like that toward him.

"We need to find out if I'm right about the Pharaoh being in control," Marik said. "We can't do anything until we know."

"Let's go, Landlord," the spirit added impatiently.

Ryou felt outnumbered, but it was the thought of Yugi possibly being trapped in what had used to be his nightmare that finally convinced him. "Okay."

They quickly cleaned up and headed out the door. They marched to the game shop in relative silence, brooding for most of the way. Ryou spoke up about a block away from their destination.

"Will you really be able to see the Pharaoh if he's in control of Yugi's body?" Ryou asked quietly, eyes darting around. He half-expected the Pharaoh to be hiding in every bush. "It doesn't seem like it would be the same as seeing a disembodied spirit..."

"It isn't the same," Marik said. "But if Yugi's body is possessed, he should glow when I see him." They walked to the front of the shop. Marik put his hand on the door. "Well, here we go..." He pushed the door open and the two walked inside.

Ryou looked around, seeing Yugi's grandpa smile and wave at him before returning to helping a customer. Yugi (or the Pharaoh) was nowhere in sight. Ryou also noticed that the spirit had disappeared somewhere.

I'm looking around back here. Your friend is here... or his body is, anyway.

Ryou had a disturbing image of Yugi lying dead on the floor of his room. You really could have phrased that differently. He followed Marik up to the counter, where Yugi's grandpa had just finished ringing up the customer.

"You boys here to see Yugi again? Go right in," he said, letting them in through the back.

Ryou and Marik walked to the door of Yugi's room. Ryou knocked on the door softly, still instinctively trying to avoid disturbing anyone, even in the current situation.

When nothing happened for several seconds, Marik knocked hard on the door. "Yugi?"

Sounds came from inside the room, then the door opened. "Hey, guys."

Ryou watched as Marik's eyes widened, then closed for a brief second before his expression returned to normal. "Hey," Marik said, a slightly forced-looking smile appearing on his face. "We were just going to the movies. Want to come with?" Marik's eyes were briefly drawn to the inside of Yugi's room.

Ryou looked in that direction and saw the spirit walking around the room, sticking his head through various pieces of furniture. What are you doing?

I'm looking for the items. He has the eye hidden with the rest of them under the bed, the spirit told him, tone radiating contempt for the hiding place. The key is there as well.

What about the scale? Ryou asked. The thought of all the items being united felt ominous, though he didn't really know why. It wasn't like the scale would give the Pharaoh much more power than he already had in the six other items.

Oh, but it would. You're right to be afraid, Landlord, the spirit said, voice lacking any of the mockery Ryou would have expected.

It made the small, niggling fear grow much larger.

"I would, but I have to study," Yugi said, making a face.

"That's too bad," Ryou said. "Um. We should get going, or we'll, uh, miss the beginning."

"Yeah," Marik said. "Another time, maybe."

"See you later," Yugi said.

The two boys fled the shop. Marik started heading back toward his apartment, but Ryou stopped him a short distance away, just out of sight of the building. "I think the spirit is still searching the room..."

The rest of the shop, actually.

Ryou looked at Marik. "So... Was he...?" he asked, though he was already fairly certain what the answer would be.

"Yeah," Marik said unhappily. "He was."

"What are we going to do?" Ryou asked

"I don't know, but we probably shouldn't talk about it here," Marik replied.

The spirit appeared in front of the two of them. "He has the eye and the key, but the scale is nowhere to be found."

"You're sure?" Ryou asked.

"I'm certain," the spirit replied. "I searched every possible hiding place, including ones I doubt the Pharaoh is intelligent enough to think of."

"That's good..." Ryou said, feeling a little relieved.

The three walked back to Marik's apartment, settling in Marik's room. Marik took his desk chair. Ryou sat on the edge of the bed, while the spirit freely sprawled out on the lavender bedspread.

"So. The Pharaoh has six of the seven items," Marik said.

"How can he have the key and not the scale?" Ryou wondered. "Shadi kept it right around his neck. Wouldn't it be more difficult to steal?" he asked, looking at the spirit. At least the spirit's thieving knowledge would come in handy for once.

This is hardly the first time my skills have been useful to you, Landlord, the spirit told him over their mental link. He continued aloud. "He may have kept the key around his neck, but he kept the scale concealed in his robes when not using it. For an idiot making a direct attack against him, the key would have been easy to simply grab and rip away from him."

Ryou nodded. "What does he even want with all the items?"

"He might just want to keep them safe," Marik said. "He doesn't seem to trust anyone else to do it."

"I guess..." Ryou said, but he was still eying the spirit, remembering what he'd said earlier. Is there something about the items we should know about? Why did you want them all before, anyway?

The spirit tilted his chin. You know how I enjoy taking things of value.

Then why don't you want them now? Ryou thought, face show exactly how little he believed what the spirit was telling him.

The cost of having them is far more than they're worth.

What does that mean? Ryou asked exasperatedly.

"Um. Am I missing something?" Marik asked, looking between Ryou and the spirit.

"Huh? Oh." Ryou realized that having a drawn out mental conversation while someone else was there might be a little impolite. "Sorry. I think he knows more than he's telling us."

"There is a reason why someone might wish to bring the items together," the spirit said reluctantly. "But as much as I dislike the Pharaoh, I don't see him doing it for that particular purpose."

"Well, that was nice and vague," Marik said.

"Earlier you said I should be afraid of the Pharaoh bringing all the items together," Ryou persisted.

"Just make sure it doesn't happen," the spirit warned.

"You know, it doesn't really matter," Marik said, seeming to see getting information out of the spirit as a lost cause. "We don't know where Shadi is, so we can't protect the scale directly, and we still have to get the Pharaoh out of Yugi's body, which should solve that problem anyway."

"Is it possible to do the ritual you used on us?" Ryou asked, remembering the spirit's suggestion from earlier. "Or is the Pharaoh the only person who can say the spell?" Ryou added, hoping it wasn't the case.

"No, either of us should be able to do it," Marik said, pulling out his desk drawer and rifling through the mess of stuff inside. "The Pharaoh insisted on being the one to do it last time."

"Didn't trust you, did he?" the spirit commented, sounding amused.

"No," Marik said shortly, eyes focused on the papers in his desk. "Neither did the others."

Ryou glared at the spirit. Don't say things like that. It's not nice.

The spirit stared back at him unapologetically. It's true.

Ryou shook his head, turning his attention back to Marik. "Do we have everything we need to do it?" he asked, mind straining to remember what had been involved in the ritual all those months ago.

"Most of it," Marik said, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from the bottom of the drawer. "The artifacts belong to my family, so most of them are in the museum..." Marik frowned for a second. "We'll have to tell Ishizu what we're doing."

"Do... do you think she'll be okay with it?" Ryou asked. Ishizu seemed fairly reasonable, but he wasn't sure how she would react to them attempting to exorcise the Pharaoh.

"If we explain everything, I think so," Marik said, skimming the list in his hands. "We'll also need Duel Monsters cards, but I still have my old ones in my closet somewhere. The only thing we're missing is the bowl..."

Ryou cringed. "Er. You don't by any chance mean the bowl I broke, do you?"

"Um. Yeah, actually," Marik said. "We can make another one, though," he rushed to assure Ryou. "The main requirements are that it be the right size and shape, as well as being made by someone with a connection to the spirit world." Marik glanced at the spirit, then back at Ryou again. "I think you qualify."

"Does the material matter?" Ryou asked. "I have a kind of clay that solidifies on its own after a few hours."

"That should work," Marik said, putting the list in his pocket. "We'll still need to figure out a way to lure the Pharaoh into position without him suspecting anything, but we should probably get everything together, first." He stood up from his desk. "I'll go to the museum to talk to Ishizu. You stay here and make the bowl."

Ryou nodded. "It shouldn't be that difficult..."

The two left to complete their individual tasks.


About an hour later, Ryou looked on his creation with satisfaction. Despite not have any kind of pottery wheel and using the wrong sort of clay to make a bowl, his had come out to exactly the size and shape Marik had specified. Ryou had propped up the sides, so that they wouldn't collapse before they solidified, and was now letting it dry on the coffee table. He wiped his hands on a towel and lay face down on the couch, feeling ready for a nap.

Ryou felt the spirit sit on top of him, then lightly squeeze his shoulders. Ryou sighed softly. He'd missed this for reasons completely unrelated to what they'd done that morning. Or mostly unrelated, anyway.

"Heh. You more than deserve your usual reward, Landlord," the spirit said, caressing Ryou's back.

Marik walked in the front door at that moment, then seemed to reconsider his decision to come inside. "I'll just, um... yeah," he said, looking ready to flee his own apartment.

"W-wait!" Ryou shoved the spirit off him, sitting upright on the couch. "He's not... H-he just means a massage."

"Look, you don't have to call it--"

"An actual massage," Ryou said, covering his burning face with his hands.

"Oh." Marik looked a little surprised. "He likes to give you massages?"

"I merely like to reward cooperation," the spirit said, disappearing from where he'd been thrown to the floor and reappearing behind Ryou on the couch. "Working to defeat the Pharaoh certainly counts as cooperation."

"Wouldn't that mean I get a massage, too?" Marik asked.

Ryou dropped his hands, looking at Marik in a panic before noticing the joking tone. He immediately felt ridiculous.

The spirit seemed mildly annoyed. "You get to be happy to have the opportunity to make up for casting me out of my home."

"You don't seem all that upset about that," Marik commented.

"Yes, well, luckily for you, I happened to be in need of a good exorcism," the spirit said. "It helps to make up for what you did, but only partially."

Ryou attempted to puzzle out what the spirit was talking about, but quickly gave up on it. He watched Marik close the door. "What did Ishizu think?" he asked.

Marik sat down in the chair next to the coffee table, looking Ryou's bowl over. "She was... quiet, but I could tell she was upset about it. She says we can use whatever artifacts we want, and we can use the empty room in the back for the ritual itself."

"That's good," Ryou said. He still felt terrible about what was happening to Yugi, but it relieved him to know that things were falling into place, that they were actually doing something to help him. "Did you tell her about... um... him?" he asked, gesturing at the spirit. His eyes widened at his next thought. "Did you tell her about this morning?" he squeaked, horrified at the idea of Ishizu thinking about him in that situation. They might not actually be related, but she was enough like an older sister for it to disturb him that much more.

"I told her about the spirit," Marik said. "But I didn't say anything about your... um... reward system," he added, looking uncomfortable. Whether this was at the 'reward system' or the thought of talking about it with Ishizu, Ryou wasn't sure.

"Thanks," Ryou said. "I don't think I'd be able to look her in the eye ever again if..."

"You don't have to worry about that," Marik said. "She's a lot more sensible than I am, so she probably wouldn't ever walk in on you the way I did. Which I won't ever do again either," he added emphatically. "If your door is closed, I'll just stay away." He waved his hands to indicate distance. "Far, far away."

"H-hey," Ryou protested, not liking what Marik would be assuming every time he had his door closed. He briefly considered leaving it open all the time, but he liked privacy in general far too much to do that. "I'm not going to be doing that while I'm here. It shouldn't even have happened this morning."

"But it did happen," Marik pointed out.

"L-look," Ryou said, feeling a little like running to hide under his blanket again. "I'm not doing it again. I don't think I could do it after what happened this morning," he finished weakly.

"Wait, you can't just give it up forever," Marik said, sounding guilty. "It's not healthy."

"Well, I am," Ryou said, forcing himself to sound firm.

"Okay..." Marik said uneasily. He cleared his throat. "So. Um. Does this mean that if I walk by your room and hear you making strange noises while he's saying things, I should come in to rescue you?"

There were a few moments of complete silence before Ryou mumbled out his answer. "Er. Probably not." Ryou caught a glimpse of the spirit smirking next to him. Ryou tried to ignore it, reaching for the bag of clay sitting on the floor, intending to put it away.

The spirit put a hand on his. "You haven't practiced creating my form all week. Everyone here knows about me now, so you no longer have any excuse."

Ryou set the bag back down on the floor and groaned, not wanting to go back to the endless practice sculpting the spirit's features. He was perfectly satisfied to use the clay for making bowls.

"What spell were you guys intending to use, anyway?" Marik asked. "Actually, let me get the book." He got up and retrieved the book from the other room, sitting back down and setting it in his lap afterward. He opened it up and started flipping through it. "Now, what are you trying to do?"

"It's the one all the way at the back," Ryou said. "About making a form out of clay, then turning it to flesh..."

Marik quickly found the spell, facial expression growing ever more disbelieving as he read through it. "Uh... Are you sure you guys can get all this stuff? Some of these plants are extinct. And the clay..."

"The clay merely needs to be retrieved from the valley," the spirit insisted stubbornly. "And it's perfectly possible to find modern equivalents for the plants, the same way you intend to use trading cards in the ritual you're about to do."

"Still... I'm not sure there are modern equivalents of these," Marik said. He flipped backward through the book. "Surely there's something else? Something in the section about spirits would make more sense."

"We went through the whole book," Ryou said.

"Yeah, but I thought I remembered us talking about..." Marik turned the pages, stopping midway through the book. "Here it is. To bind an in-between spirit..."

"That spell won't work," the spirit said, tone oddly defensive to Ryou's ears.

"Just a minute," Marik said absently, skimming through the pages covering that particular spell and looking up when I was finished. "It's as I thought, you meet all the criteria. It wouldn't take all that much to pull off, either."

"Yes, but as I told you, the spell won't work," the spirit said, sounding angrier now. "We don't meet the requirements."

Marik blinked. "Which part don't you...?" He turned back to the first page of the spell, then started naming the different requirements, nodding at each one. "You're bound only to each other; he's alive; he can perform magic; you have a sympathetic bond--"

"We do not," the spirit said vehemently, arms crossed in front of him.

Marik stared at the spirit. "What do you mean you don't?" he asked, disbelief plain on his face. "All that requires is some kind of positive feeling toward each other. If you care about him even a tiny amount--"

"I don't," the spirit said. "So you should just drop it. Now."

Ryou, who had been quietly watching the exchange from his vantage point, deflated instantly, shoulders sagging and head dropping to stare at the floor. He knew he shouldn't have expected anything else, but it was still depressing to hear it put so bluntly. He almost expected a comment from the spirit to bring him even lower, but the spirit seemed to be actively ignoring him at the moment, not even turning his head in his direction.

Marik reached over to rub Ryou's arm, face concerned.

Ryou forced a smile onto his face and pulled away.

Marik didn't look satisfied with this, but he dropped his hand, turning back to the spirit. "Are you sure?" he asked, tone almost challenging. "The spell is simple. It would take less than half an hour to attempt, and if you really don't meet the requirements, it just won't work. Why don't you just try it out?"

The spirit scowled. "Because there's no point in wasting half an hour on something doomed to fail."

"You're wasting a lot more time on the other spell, and you won't even be able to get half the things you need for it," Marik said.

"Wouldn't we have to get things for this spell, too?" Ryou asked, hoping to end the depressing argument going on in front of him. "It doesn't make sense to divide our attention between multiple spells..."

"All this one requires is a special kind of doll," Marik said. "One that is capable of holding a soul."

Ryou frowned. "You mean, like a Monster World doll?"

"A what?" Marik asked, looking confused.

"Yes, like a Monster World doll," the spirit said impatiently. "Like one of the ones you have, anyway. I modified them a little."

"Oh," Marik said, seeming to understand what they were talking about, though Ryou wasn't entirely sure how much he knew. Ryou hadn't told him much himself. "So you have everything you need, then," Marik declared.

"He would still need to cut his hand to perform the spell," the spirit said, moving to stand right in front of Marik, legs intersecting with the table. "Aren't you concerned about him having to feel all that pain for nothing?"

Marik looked right back up at him. "I might be," he said. "But I wouldn't think you would be, if you really don't care about him at all."

"He would probably damage his hand beyond repair," the spirit said. "It would make sculpting the figure for the other spell impossible."

Ryou looked at Marik in alarm, wondering why he was trying to get them to do something so dangerous.

"Beyond re..." Marik noticed Ryou looking at him and met his eyes. "It's a small cut. There's no way you'd damage your hand that much."

"He's very clumsy," the spirit insisted. "He'd manage it somehow."

Marik seemed to give up on talking to the spirit. "You know, you don't need his help to do that spell," he said to Ryou.

"What?" Ryou asked, wanting to look at the spirit's reaction, but stopping himself. He didn't know what he'd feel if their eyes met right then.

"The conduit does all the active work," Marik said. "You could just ignore him, try it, and see if it works."

Ignoring me is unwise, the spirit threatened.

Ryou finally looked up at him and was met with a completely blank face. There's no actual harm in me trying it, right? Ryou thought, more to himself than the spirit. All the same, he imagined trying the spell and seeing it fail right in front of him, proving how little the spirit cared about him in a way he couldn't possibly ignore; having to continue living with the spirit, completely aware of just how little he really mattered... "It's probably not a good idea," Ryou said softly, looking away from both of the others.

Marik looked frustrated at both of them. He sighed. "Fine," he said, though he sounded like he didn't consider the matter truly settled. "We should start gathering things for the ritual." He walked to the hallway.

Ryou followed after him, feeling considerably drained, but determined to throw himself into whatever Marik wanted him to do.

He desperately needed the distraction.