Chapter 9

Enjoy!

Once Ryou and Kim joined their friends, they realized that Pegasus's employee and Mokuba had disappeared. The six searched for them with no luck,and eventually, they just had to call it off.

"More than likely, he was taken to Pegasus's castle." Kim said

"Isn't there anything we can do for him?" Honda asked

"No, not until we obtain ten star chips anyway." Yugi said. Currently, Yugi had six, and Jounouchi only had two, as he had not really had the opportunity to duel anybody lately.

"Well, let's go ahead and find some star chips for Jounouchi." Kim suggested. "He needs to catch up to Yugi."

"yeah, that's a good idea." Ryou agreed. Jounouchi seemed a little excited about this and began to search for duelists.

He stopped every duelist that they happened to come across, each duelist seemed about to take him up on his offer, but once they looked past him and saw Yugi, they would hastily decline and move on.
This was starting to dishearten Jounouchi.

"They probably think Jounouchi is a tough opponent." Ryou commented when the blonde had been rejected for the seventh time.

"Or they just feel his powerful angry aura." Honda muttered.

Jounouchi was about to move on and find another duelist, when suddenly, they heard a familiar feminine laugh.
"Ack! that can't be-" Jounouchi turned and the friends saw a familiar blonde woman approach them.

"We meet again Jounouchi." Mai said

"Look at you guys, all klutzing around like little ducklings."

"Ducks?" Everybody questioned.

"Yugi, doesn't it annoy you? having these clowns follow you around everywhere you go?"

Yugi just stared at Mai, frowning slightly but didn't say anything.

"Anyway, Jounouchi, you got lucky in our duel, but this time, my manservant is going to beat you!"

"Man servant?" Jounouchi asked. Mai smirked mischievously, before gesturing to a boy beside her.

"Rex Raptor?" Yugi and Jounouchi both exclaimed a little surprised.

Just minutes prior, Mai had been relaxing after another duel and Rex Raptor approached her, challenging her to another duel after being humiliated on the boat the night prior. Mai had refused, saying it would be no fun to duel him again. But then, decided that if Rex could beat Jounouchi (and she was sure he could) then she would duel him.

Rex eagerly agreed, and the two set out to find Jounouchi.

"But, wasn't he a runner up?" Ryou asked looking between the two duelists with a little concern.

"Jounouchi, I don't think-" Honda was about to protest, but Jounouchi walked forward

"I'll take you on!"

"Perfect, we can duel at that box over there."

"Fine." Jounouchi agreed, ignoring his friends spluttered protests.

The smaller boy led the way, followed by Mai. Jounouchi began to follow them but then paused in his step.

"Hey Yugi, can you do me a favor?"

"Sure." Yugi agreed

"It's just...I don't want your help." Jonouchi looked at his two star chips "I'll bet all of my star chips on this. But I want to win by myself." he said.

"Ok Jounouchi," Yugi agreed and giving him a smirk, the puzzle gave a soft glow and the spirit disappeared, letting the normal Yugi take over.

"Go Jounouchi! you can do it!" Yugi said pumping his fist, this caused everybody else to pause, before deciding to just cheer on Jounouchi. There was no point in trying to convince him to not go against the runner up.

"So I get the mountains, and you get grassland, the mountains give my dinosaurs a power up." Rex said.

"Alright..." Jounouchi agreed, the grasslands would give some of his warriors and beasts a boost up as well.

"Let's start this duel!"

"You're on!"

The duel was a struggle for Jounouchi, he knew just how good Rex was in dueling. In just the first round, Jounouchi had lost his trump card, Baby Dragon which had been used to defeat Mai in their duel.

the loss of his dragon was a little hard, but Jounouchi did have other cards, such as Flame Swordsman which had saved him for a few rounds.

Finally, he was cornered with Rex's powerful dinosaurs, but as luck would have it, he had time wizard and was able to use its special ability to go a million years in the future, destroying the dragons and winning the duel.

Not only did he gain two star chips, he also won Red Eyes Black Dragon. A rare and powerful card Rex had won in a competition.

Halfway through the duel, when Jounouchi first used Time Wizard, Rex realized just how useful it could be, especially against Mai. So he gambled his Red Eyes Black Dragon, for the chance to gain Jounouchi's Time Wizard.

"Wow, Jounouchi has been winning by pure luck." Ryou said to Kim who was grinning excitedly for her friend.

"I know, but still!" she said shrugging it off. "Hopefully as time goes on, he'll have a better strategy."

With Jounouchi's victory, the group decided to wander the island, hoping to catch at least one more duelist before night fell.

However, the sun began to set quickly, and they assumed everyone decided to just camp out for the night instead. With Anzu's encouragement, the friends decided to call it a day and found a spot in the woods to rest at.

"What time is it?" Honda asked a little wearily.

"Just past eight." Kim said checking her watch.

"Man, I'm starving." Jounouchi grumbled. Honda and Ryou just "mmhm-ed" in agreement, Kim herself felt her stomach rumble and groaned. At least everybody else had a decent meal of fish earlier, she only had a granola bar!

"I could really go for a hot bath." Anzu complained. "I thought this island would be like a resort, but it's awful!"

"I could care less for a bath, I just want some food." Kim grumbled, she too thought that it would be like a resort or at least have a few restaurants, so she had brought some money. But now that money just seemed useless.

"Hey! A mushroom!" Jounouchi said excitedly "I'm going to eat it."

"Jounouchi, no!" Ryou, Honda, and Kim all cried running to him to stop the hungry blonde from potentially poisoning himself.

"Wow, what a crowd." they heard a voice say behind them and turned to see Mai munching on a chocolate bar. Everybody except for Anzu stared at the woman longingly, only this time, it was for the chocolate bar she had. "How about it Jounouchi? I'll give you my chocolate for your star chips."

"what? No way! These star chips are my life!" he protested.

"I'm just joking." she said with a smile, "How about we just call it a truce huh? We're all duelists and need a break once in a while."

"That sounds fine, we're all tired from dueling all day." Yugi agreed quickly. Knowing Jounouchi's mouth might just ruin this one opportunity.

"So do you guys want something to eat? I brought all sorts of food and things." she invited before dumping her bag and spilling the contents.

Packets of dried noodles, chocolate, potato chips, dried fruit and meat, water, and soda lay on the ground. As well as a tent, a lantern, pots and pans, and an oddly shaped package.

"Wow, you brought all this yourself?" Yugi asked

"well I wasn't sure what all I would need,nor could I trust other duelists to do the same." Mai said with a shrug "Alright, since I brought this all, men, it's your job to cook."

"You can leave the cooking to me." Ryou volunteered. "I'm actually pretty good at it."

"Really? Thanks Bakura." Yugi said happily.

"I can get started on the fire." Kim said as she stood up to go look for some wood. "I know the fastest and best ways to get one going."

"Oh, awesome." Honda and Yugi looked a little excited at that prospect.

"Ok, Jounouchi, Honda, you get water." Mai instructed. Jounouchi looked ready to protest, but his hunger outweighed his indignation of being ordered around.

Kim stood from her spot on the grass and decided she better get to work looking for some wood.
"I'll get some firewood with you Kim." Ryou offered, standing with her.

"Oh, thanks Ryou" Kim beamed, before the two went off into the woods.

Together, the two found some pretty decent sized logs and branches lying around."We'll need some thinner branches or sticks." Kim remarked "It'll help the fire keep going."

"well, I'm not really seeing any just lying around."

"That's ok, the trees should have some thin enough branches." Kim said, before going over to a tree. The branches were just slightly out of her reach. While it made sense that she should climb them, since she was more than likely lighter than Ryou, she was still considerably short.
However, she decided that maybe if she jumped high enough she might be able to reach the nearest branch. Kim braced herself, before leaping in the air, putting as much power into her legs as she possibly could.

Her finger tips grazed the branches and she fell to the ground, scowling at the tree. The high schooler didn't want to be deterred by a tree, so she backed up before running as fast as she could and leaping into the air, again, missing the branch just by centimeters.

"Do you want some help?" Ryou asked, trying to hide his smile as he watched the smaller girl run and try to grab the branch again.

"No, I think I can get it." Kim said stubbornly. Ryou shook his head and set the pile of wood they had gathered and went over to her. Swallowing a bit, he wrapped his slim arms around her hips before hoisting her up. Kim squeaked a bit in surprise, but to her credit, she stayed still, and stretched her arms

Ryou tried to hide any discomfort he was feeling as he lifted his friend. She wasn't that heavy, but a hundred or so pounds wasn't an easy lift!

"tch, pathetic" he heard a voice say in his mind and tried to shake it off.

"J-just a little higher," Kim encouraged him, Ryou complied, lifting her a bit higher and was slightly relieved to feel her weight leave his arms as she grabbed onto a sturdy branch and began to hoist herself up the tree.

Kim scurried up the branches easily, her weight making it easier to climb higher and higher, as Ryou watched with slight fascination.

"Aren't you too high up?" he called after her, when he could no longer see her small form weaving through the trees.

"No!" she Kim's voice insisted through the leaves and branches "Watch out, I'm tossing some branches your way." she called down to him.

the young Brit moved and sure enough, a few pieces of wood fell where he had been standing. He gathered them in his arms and watched carefully as she began to climb down. Kim wiped her hands on her jeans and went over to Ryou to inspect the wood.

"we should have enough." she said nodding in satisfaction. "We'll get more later if need be."

Ryou only nodded and the two headed back to their group to begin setting up the fire. Kim piled up the logs and used the matches Mai had brought to get the fire going.

As soon as she managed to bring the fire to life, Jounouchi and Honda returned with the water and they put it over the fire to get it going so Ryou could cook up the noodles.

"Hey Kim," Mai called, Kim turned her head to look at the blonde woman, who was setting up what seemed to be a stall from the package Kim thought was shaped odd. "We're going to use some of that water to make a shower, do you want one?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess that would be ok." Kim agreed, she wasn't sure when she would be able to next time, and she might as well now. She turned back to the fire, prodding it to make it hotter, to get the water boiling. Ryou began breaking apart the noodles so he could stir them a little easier, and tried not to think about his friend showering.

Kim let Mai and Anzu shower first, wanting to watch over the food, and once they were done, she took her turn.
She quickly stepped into the stall and discarded her clothes, wanting this to be fast. Kim had never been a big fan of showering when camping, especially since she hated bugs and spiders. As well as, she just didn't want someone stumbling upon her, even though Mai promised to keep watch.

The water did feel good against her. It was warm and sprayed gently along her hair and skin. Even so, she did a quick rinse and sighed a bit in satisfaction as she redressed, and towel dried her hair.

Upon stepping out of the stall, she caught the smell of food and realized everybody was sitting around the fire, including Mai.
Scowling just slightly, she walked back to the fire, hastily combing through her wet hair.

"I thought you were going to keep watch?" Kim said slightly accusingly at Mai.

"well, I figured with the food done, the boys wouldn't bother you, besides, nobody could sneak up on you either without my knowing." Mai explained. Kim huffed just slightly, but her stomach growled, reminding her of her hunger, and she decided to just let it go.

"It looks so good." she complimented Ryou, taking a seat next to him.

"Oh I'm glad," Ryou spooned up a bowl of noodles and turned to hand it to her. However, he paused once he caught site of her.

"W-what?" Kim asked.

"It's just...your hair is down."

"Ah, well, I let it down so it can dry faster." she said and fingered her brown hair a little self consciously.

"It looks nice..." Ryou offered, smiling a little shyly at her. Kim just smiled back at him weakly before pulling her hair out of her face and accepting the bowl of noodles. She suddenly felt shy with letting her friends see her with her hair down. It was long and just not really styled. It stuck out in odd angles, especially since it was slightly humid out and her hair was just uncontrollable. Now she wished she thought of packing a brush.

"So Mai, you have eight star chips already." Yugi said smiling "You'll probably be the first in the castle!"

Mai just shrugged "Maybe, I'm more so looking forward to going against you."

"Hey, let's stop talking about dueling..." Anzu said "We're in a truce right?"

Mai just waved her hand "yeah, yeah." she agreed, "But, come morning, our truce is over, that's what it means to be a duelist." Finishing up her food, she stood up "well, I'm going to my tent, Kim, Anzu, you're more than welcome to bunk with me. You never know what could happen sleeping out here with these guys."

"What was that?!" Jounouchi cried indignantly. Kim just smiled and kept eating. Yugi and Anzu began to talk a little bit, and then Anzu finished as well.

"well, I think I'm going to take Mai's offer. Kim, are you coming?" she asked smiling a bit. Kim shook her head in response, and kept eating.

"What? You don't want to be in the tent?" Anzu asked, a little shocked Kim would deny the opportunity of the safety of a tent and dry ground to sleep on.

"N-no..." Kim began playing with her hair again "I-I think I want to sleep outside, it's so nice out,"

"Oh, well, ok." Anzu said, "Well, you can join us if you change your mind."

"Thanks Anzu." Kim sighed and finished up her meal.

"Um, do you want more?" Ryou asked, there were still some leftovers.

"Yeah sure," she smiled "your cooking is excellent by the way."

"Thanks." he smiled back at her, feeling flattered. Even though she had complimented his cooking a lot in the past few weeks, (they did share dinner together a few times) it still always made him happy to hear it.

"So Kim's not coming?" Mai asked, once Anzu had entered the tent.

"She said she wanted to sleep outside." Anzu said shrugging. "But, I sort of think that she's just more comfortable around Bakura."

"Bakura...is he the one with the white hair?" Mai asked, Anzu nodded and Mai just laughed a little. "I saw those two sneaking glances and they seem more content with the other, rather than the whole group itself."

"well, Kim's always been the quiet one in our group," Anzu began to explain. "And I think accepting help or handouts is really hard for her. It took her a while to start warming up to us, and we've been friends since the start of our first year of high school."

"well, it just means more space for us, and besides, you don't get in the way of a high school crush." Mai said winking.

"You think that's what it is?" Anzu asked slightly surprised. Imagining Kim with a crush on anybody was a little weird to her, especially since she seemed to have no interest in the boys at their school. Then again, hardly any of them seemed interested in her.

"Oh come on, you can see it in their faces, and that compliment about her hair was no ordinary compliment. Speaking of which, you have a crush on Yugi right?"

"w-what?!" Anzu asked, a blush blooming on her cheeks. "W-what does that have to do with anything?!"

"well, I told Yugi to meet you at the cliff, 'cuz you had something to say to him." Mai said slyly winking. "You better get going before you're late."

Anzu exited the tent, a little dazed and her thoughts racing, what on earth would she and Yugi talk about?

Mai grinned to herself,

"Next I just gotta get Kim and that guy going, it's so easy to pick on these two, they're so young." however, before Mai could think about what she could do for Kim, a fist grabbed the entrance of the tent and a head poked in. Mai jumped slightly in surprise at the sudden and intrusive appearance.

"It's time to duel!" A gruff voice spoke.

Meanwhile, Kim was tending to the fire. Jounouchi had asked that they keep the fire going, and Kim had a suspicion that he was afraid of the dark. But she didn't mind, because she wanted her hair to dry faster so she could pull it back into her usual pony tail.

Not to mention, the warmth of the fires glow was comforting.

Ryou sat next to her, enjoying the warmth as well, but in truth he was unable to sleep. The young boys thoughts kept wandering to the castle, wondering if Pegasus had more knowledge of the millennium items.

"There are those who guard the items. So if there are guards, there must be a thief to steal them." The spirit had once told Ryou "I am that thief, and also a collector of souls."

"Then where did you come from?" Ryou wondered. "what is your purpose, and intent?"

"Hm, we're out of firewood." Kim said, breaking the whitenette's thoughts. "I'm going to go get some more, do you mind keeping the fire going?"

"Are you sure you should go alone?" Ryou asked.

"I'll still be in sight." Kim promised with a small smile, "I'm just going to grab a few branches."

"Ok, yell if you need assistance." Ryou said and she nodded before leaving.

Ryou watched her figure retreat into the darkness and sighed. He continued to keep an eye on her, watching as she climbed another tree and break off a few weak branches before tossing them to the ground.

"she's so light, and I could barely pick her up." he thought to himself, a little ashamed of his physical strength. To be fair he had gained a little more muscle, thanks to Karita's gym lessons. While the boys always had to do pushups, laps, situps, and other exercises, the girls always played some sort of sport. He always watched Kim play soccer with the girls, and admired how her small form was able to maneuver around the girls and score some good goals.

"I wouldn't mind playing soccer with her" he thought to himself, he had always wanted to play when he was younger. But due to circumstances, he never did.

He saw Kim hop down from the tree and gather up the branches she had snapped off, and come back to the fire.

"this should be enough until Jounouchi goes to sleep." she said a little happily, dumping the wood onto the ground.

"That's good." Ryou leaned back, stretching his legs a bit. Kim began to feed the small fire a few branches and blew some air onto the coals to encourage it to burn the wood

The two sat quietly for a few minutes. While Kim was enjoying the sound of the water crashing against the cliff, Ryou was lost in his thoughts.

"There are those that guard and if there's a guardian, then there has to be a thief."

Ryou thought back to his millennium item. It had been a gift from his father many years back, and a younger Ryou had been quite intrigued with the notion that it was related to a game that had just been released. Duel Monsters.

Now, he was more intrigued with what lay within the item and how and why was it there? His brown eyes flickered up, the castle was not far from them. And hopefully Pegasus had a few answers.

Chocolate brown eyes stared towards the castle for a moment, before they wandered to the girl sitting beside him. Kim was looking up at the sky, admiring the thousands of stars. The fire's glow catching on her hair, and Ryou realized that she had golden highlights.
The teenagers heart beat faster and he turned his head away. He mumbled a feeble excuse of "be right back" before he stood up hastily and went to the tree Honda and Jounouchi were sleeping against.

"I know I've seen her before" a cold voice said in the back of his head. Ryou shook it, his white hair spreading along his shoulders with the shake.

"But where did I see this girl before?"

Ryou reached the tree and unzipped his bag. His hand shifted through the spare clothes he had before he found what he was seeking. However, as his hand curled around the cool metal, and pulled it out, he couldn't help the gasp that escaped his lips.

"Ryou?" Kim asked looking over at him

"Sorry it's just..." He turned to her, holding the ring. Kim's body stiffened at seeing it, and for a wild moment, she almost thought that he would become possessed again. "It's glowing," He said coming back to her and showing her the rings glow. One of the little pointers was also pointing to an area in the woods, like a needle on a compass. "It did this once, and that was my first day at school." he admitted.

Kim continued to stare down at the millennium item and looked to see where it was pointing at."Do you think it's something menacing coming our way?" she asked a little nervously, staring into the dark woods.

"Oh no, I think it reacts towards other millennium items." Ryou said shaking his head. "I mean, Pegasus has at least one, so it's probably reacting to that."

"Oh, ok." Kim relaxed a bit,

"Sorry, it just, surprised me is all." Ryou said inching away from Kim

"No it's ok,"

"I just hope, that Pegasus has some answers for us." He said looking back towards the castle. "I just want to understand."

"I know Ryou" Kim leaned closer to him. But before she could do anything, they heard a high pitched shriek pierce through the woods. The two teens both jumped in surprise, as well as Jounouchi and Honda jumped out of their slumber.

"what was that?" the blonde grumbled.

"sounded like a woman screaming." Honda said.

The four listened closely, then they heard another voice echoing against the trees.

"That sounds like Yugi." Ryou said.

"What is going on?" Honda and Jounouchi questioned before getting up.

"They might be in trouble." Jounouchi said and scowled "Come on, let's go check it out." Kim stood as well, ready to follow after them. She turned her head to tell Ryou something, but found he was no longer behind her like she initially thought.

Instead, the white haired teen was wandering in the forest, opposite of where Jounouchi and Honda were running to.

"what is he doing?" Kim asked herself, before she began to follow him.

The Ryou's brown eyes turned towards the castle, frowning. It would be easy to ditch those idiots, and get there himself. His legs itched to break into a sprint and get far away from the camp as possible and find another way into the castle!

But no.

He would wait patiently, it wouldn't be long until Jounouchi and Yugi would qualify and get him in. He waited for years, what was one more day going to do?

"Ryou?" a soft voice spoke behind him. Abruptly, he turned to see the girl coming towards him, Ryou blinked, a little dazed and slightly confused as to why he had wandered from the group.

"Kim..."

"what are you doing?"

"I uh, just wanted to be sure nothing was following us, I-I had an odd feeling." he said quickly, hoping that would suffice.
His friend stared at him for a long moment, Kim's thoughts racing a mile a minute before she finally nodded.

"Ok then, fair enough. Do you think we're ok then?"

"Should be." Ryou smiled weakly, grateful Kim wasn't going to question him further.

"Well, let's go catch up to the others." she said and he nodded before falling in step beside her and they began to retrace their steps back to camp, and hope that they would be able to hear Yugi's voice and follow that as well.

As they were walking, Kim kept glancing at Ryou. When he had turned, she could've sworn his eyes were narrowed a little more, and even darker looking. A memory surfaced in her mind, it was the same appearance of the Ryou she had seen, the first time she went to his apartment.

Kim's heart began to beat a little faster against her chest, was it possible that her friend had been momentarily possessed? He was still clutching the ring, and she knew there was some dark power in there that made Ryou into someone he wasn't.

But, maybe she was blowing things out of proportion. Yugi said that they defeated this darker spirit in Monster World, and it was really dark in the woods, so that would explain his eye darker appearance.

But even so, his sudden departure and excuse as to why, still made her suspicious.

Yeah, edited that slightly, I didn't like how I had written it, so I decided to change it.

I appreciate feedback!

~DSSM