The 'office' that Oka led them into upstairs was more of an odd lounge than a meeting place. Cushions sat across the floor, and as the group slowly took their own seats (Kaiba standing by the door), Oka moved to the end of the room. Collapsing into his own pile of cushions, the ojama took a drag from his cigarette before turning to the others with narrowed eyes. "Now then," he said with a drawl, tapping the end of his cigarette on an ash tray to the side. "As I was saying before dears, I can see how this would be so important to your friend..." His eyes, at least one of them anyways, looked at the Dark Apprentice a moment before turning their focus back to the group as a whole. "But the fact remains, there's too many good folk in this town; y'all ah gonna have to find me somethin with enough power to take its place before I can hand it over..."

Kaiba frowned as Oka said this, his arms crossed as he leaned against the door frame slightly. "An energy creating card then," he muttered with a scowl. They didn't have any cards like that, at least nothing that could support an entire field card. Maybe a few small 'heals' and 'level ups' to compliment the mostly shield and attack based deck, but nothing like that... What they needed was a battery...

"I still hold my offer, Oka," Bakura said, breaking the silence as he shifted his weight. "Perhaps we can figure something out, a compromise of sorts..."

The ojama held firm, shaking his head with a sad frown. "As I said sugar," the duel monster taking another drag from the cigarette. "No can do... There's too many good people here, an' I ain't lettin this place collapse on 'em." He sighed, adjusting his seat before continuing. "Now then... If anyone has an' idea, I'd be grateful..."

Malik and Ryou both sighed, while the others gained more thoughtful looks. Ignoring the look the Dark Magician had (Bored), Ryou blinked and turned to the CEO behind him. "Er... Kaiba?"

He scoffed. "What am I, a dictionary of solutions for you morons?" His frown persisted, and he continued into the conversation more seriously. "Had this been the real world, I could have simply bought you a giant battery. But something tells me that getting one here is going to be irritatingly difficult to do, even by normal standards."

As he said this, Malik leaned back into Bakura and looked over at Oka. "Er... You're 'Ojama King' right? You know any battery type monsters here?"

The ojama waved a hand chuckling. "Please, call me 'Oka' hun- short for 'Okama'." He smirked, eyes narrowing in mirth. "Y'all could say it's a nickname for my special friends. I just couldn't stand the speedos that th' other ojama were wearin'," he said, shaking his head and taking another drag off the cigarette. The others merely held back a shudder at the image of the ojama 'king' in a speedo. "Now then," he began, closing his eyes in thought. "Battery type... Now that I think about it, a small tribe of folk callin' themselves 'Batterymen' stopped by sometime last week..." Ignoring the fact that 'weeks' and 'months' didn't exist there, he continued. "They moved on fast though, so y'all won't find 'em here..."

Ryou butted in, bowing his head in apology before speaking. "Where would we find them, Oka-san?" While Bakura and Malik both snickered at the semblance to 'Okaa-san', the others watched as the ojama simply stood up to grab something from a nearby chest of drawers.

After a moment of digging, he pulled out what appeared to be an old, worn map. Rolling it out on the floor in front of the group, Kaiba raised an eyebrow. His thoughts were likely mimicked by a few others- for a realm of floating rocks and timeless space, there appeared to be a number of established places. In fact, he thought with a slight frown, a number of them appeared to be named after field cards themselves. "Here yah go hun," Oka said as he returned to his seat. "Last I heard, the Batterymen was headin' for th' Tower of Souls..." There was a pause, before his expression became grave. "Best watch yourselves there though... I hear Bazoo's been takin' residence in those parts.."

At the mention of Bazoo, Kaiba's thoughts on what card corresponded to 'the Tower of Souls' were cut short, the Dark Apprentice having suddenly decided to hide behind his cape. "Now what's your problem," he said with a scowl, Ryou giving the CEO a frown at his treatment to the boy. The boy merely whined, burying his face further into the cape. "Ugh..." Kaiba rolled his eyes. "If you're so scared just stay with this guy then..." Honestly, he had long since gotten tired of small children... And watching a Yugi look-alike act like one was not helping his nerves in any way at all.

"Ohhhh sugar," the ojama said with a sweet smile, coaxing the little duel monster out from behind the cape. "You don' have tah go if you don' wanna... Listen to you're brothah sweetie, an' stay here with Oka..."

This gained a deeper scowl. "We aren't related," the CEO said fairly quickly, Malik snorting.

"He acts enough like Mokuba that he mind as well be though!"

Before Kaiba could say anything more on that, (Though a muttered 'don't even compare the two' was heard) Bakura jumped in the conversation as well. "Please, the brat would last less than a minute alone with Oka..." He looked at the Ojama from the corner of his eye, smirking. "No offense meant of course."

The ojama huffed. "Really, y'all are assumin' I treat e'ryone alike... I'm quite good with kids I'll have y'all know..."

Ryou blinked. "Really," he said with a light look of disbelief. "I can't see you with children myself..." As Bakura laughed at the thought, Oka continued pouting.

"Really now, be that way then... Don' come runnin' tah me when Bazoo is on your tail though..." As Oka said this, the Dark Apprentice whimpered again, aiming to duck back behind Kaiba's cape again only to find that the CEO had moved.

Malik and Ryou looked over at the boy with a light frown, before they went to comfort him. "Hey," the albino said, watching as the Dark Apprentice nervously edged away from Malik's fairly lethal armor. "If you don't want to do, you don't have to..."

The boy fixed them with a determined frown, shaking his head. "N-Nuh-uh... M- not s...Shcared!"

The former tomb keeper shook his head at the statement, before Bakura decided to calm Oka down. "Don't worry Oka... He's just shy is all." He crossed his arms, smriking. "He'd probably stay here more than willingly if he didn't have such a large attachment to big brd out there." He chuckled, before said 'big bird's head poked through the window.

"Is everything alright," he said as the others turned to stare. "I thought I heard something."

There was a moment of silence, before Kaiba snorted. "Speak of the devil, the turkey is back." Atem's head abruptly fell from the window, before his voice sounded up through it. "I AM NOT A TURKEY!"

Bakura shook his head, the others already heading out as he turned to Oka. "We'll be back Oka... Take care in the meantime. Oh," he added, pausing as he headed out the door. "You should really get rid of the fool outside advertising a bar with no fights... It's very..." He paused, smirk growing. "Misleading, to say the least."

The ojama chuckled, waving them off. "Oh is that who it was?" The chuckling continued, and he shook his head. "An' here I thought he was jus' sore abou' gettin tha boot!" As Bakura laughed and headed downstairs with the others, the duel monster reached out to stop Kaiba. "Hold on sugar..."

He tensed, scowling as he slowly turned to face the ojama. "What. Is it," he said with a tone that clearly showed his distaste for for the grip Oka had on his arm. "And quickly."

Oka's expression was severe, far more so than it had been before. His tone lowered from its usual, almost playful manner of speech, and he narrowed his eyes. "Listen here boy," he said slowly, keeping his voice down to a whisper. "Ah saw your lil' smirk when ah mentioned Bazoo. Y'all probably are thinkin' he's jus' th' same lil' half-wit monkey yeh saw on the cahd... But listen well boy," the ojama said, leaning in far too close for Kaiba's comfort. "They say Bazoo's been makin' some deals wi' th' soul stealin' bone towah... An' I don' think anyone's gonna like th' result... 'Specially not wi' what th' ol baboon's been braggin' about as a' late." He let him go, Kaiba frozen for a few moments. "Yah know what ah'm talkin' about boy..?"

"No," he said with a snarl. "I don't know. So why don't you hurry up and clarify for me?"

The ojama merely whispered in response, causing the teen to pale. "Les' jus say... Tha' if yah thought he could get pow'ful wi' his limit ah three monstahs... You see what 'e does wi' moah..." He leaned back, Kaiba standing there with silent horror before he finally moved to head outside. He felt something... Cold in the pit of his stomach, like a nasty feeling he just couldn't shrug off...

As Kaiba exited the building, Marik's voice called out from above the bar sign. "And the Priest finally returns... Have some fun up there, Priest," he said with a grin.

He merely scowled, turning to Atem. "If I were you, I'd get a few defense cards ready, unless you plan on becoming fried chicken." The teen ignored the bird as he prepared to shout out an insult in response, before turning to face the main street of the city.

"Hey, Kaiba!" Joey ran after the teen, his outfit visibly 'altered' from what he had starting out at 'level 0'. "Yah notice anythin'... Different?" He was currently at the same height he was prior to becoming a duel monster; and he appeared to enjoy it considerably. As for the rest of his outfit... His initial tunic appeared to be forming some sort of coat almost similar to the ones that Kaiba wore, flaring out at the bottom to hide his tail. Everything else had simply become more... 'Sharp' as opposed to 'rounded off'.

Kaiba, however, merely snorted. "Besides the fact that your breath smells worse than a toilet," he said as he continued walking. "No."

The dog growled, clenching his fists. "NYYYEEEEEE- MP!"

A curtain of feathers were flung in Joey's mouth, and he sighed. "That's enough..."

Behind the three, Ryou merely shook his head, the others all laughing rather hysterically. "So... We're all following Kaiba I take it?"

Bakura shrugged, before walking down the road with the rest. "Given that he has the map-" He paused as Kaiba halfheartedly tossed said map to Joey, the dog having just escaped the feathers. "Follow the mutt."

Said mutt looked over the map, which Oka had marked before leaving it with them. "Sooo... What exactly are these 'battery' guys? And what th' heck is th' tower of souls!"

Behind him, Malik shuddered. "Don't know, but it sounds creepy to me..."

From ahead, Kaiba scoffed. "You were there when he mentioned the tower the first time, Tomb Keeper." He turned, narrowed eyes of course unseen under the helmet. "Granted, it doesn't surprise me that your tiny brain simply didn't catch it the first time around."

Malik scowled. "I was busy with the little one!" As he began muttering something in Egyptian, Bakura and Marik both burst into fits of laughter.

"Of course you were," the CEO said in response, a majority of the others grumbling about this happening all the time; seriously... Why now? WHY were they fighting about THIS?

As the others ignored the now whispering trio of tomb-robber, keeper, and guardian in the back, Ryou and Joey looked over the map with a frown. "Nyhhh... Where th' heck is the scale on this thing!"

The albino nodded in agreement to the question,crossing his arms with a frown. In the center of the map was their destination, the 'Tower of Souls'. At the southern-most edge was the place they'd just left, 'Karakuri Village'. Everywhere else on the map was labeled by names that also corresponded with field type spells or even monsters. There was, however, no way of telling the distance between each one.

"Well," he began, still frowning. "I would guess that if the Shadow Realm is endless that they're too close for inhabitants to bother with scale." He pointed at the direct line they could take from the village to the tower', continuing. "The rest is just space after all, so the fact that there is land is probably good enough for anyone traveling."

At that moment, Marik flew over to look at the map as well, before grinning. "Hehehe... That's an interesting coincidence there..."

Ryou frowned, looking at the imp. "What coincidence?" He honestly wished Marik would stop grinning like that... It reminded him of when Bakura was the 'jackal'. Except with a lot more teeth.

The grin grew, and he pointed at the center. "Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the 'Tower of Souls' is the 'Soul Absorbing Bone Tower'- it's always in effect, takin' cards outta play..." His eyes narrowed with mirth as he sent Joey a chilling stare. "Course, in this case, it's souls not cards... And I can bet that there's a pretty interesting reason why it's in the center of the realm..."

He paled, almost drawing back before remembering he was supposed to 'head' the party. "Hihhh... Y-Yep... That... Sounds a lil' too much teh be a coincidence..." As they began moving, quickly leaving the streets of Karakuri to hit the wastes of the Shadow Realm again, Atem gave the dog a reassuring look.

"It'll be fine, Joey," he began with a smile. "We're all still attached to bodies. The only exception is the little one," Atem continued as the Dark Apprentice in question looked up. "And as he is still soul 'fragments', he will be just as affected as we are. Which," he quickly added at both Ryou's and Joey's incredulous stares, "Is essentially not at all."

Marik nodded, grin vanishing. "Don't ask me how the hell those batterymen are handling it... But if this is a wasted trip, I'm getting the fuck out of here!"

As the imp grumbled about how he hadn't 'signed up for this bullshit', Joey gave a nervous frown. "H-Hey... I thought I was a duel monster..."

From ahead, Kaiba scoffed. "You must be more of a moron than I thought, Mutt." He turned for a few moments, before continuing. "You're attached to a CARD; something that, last I checked, is still considered a solid object."

While Atem nodded, seemingly ignoring the sting of the comment (Joey certainly wasn't), Malik scowled, having picked up enough speed to come up behind Kaiba now.

"Hey, Kaiba," he asked, the billionaire not even turning. He did however, stop briefly, the silent 'What?' rather evident. After another few seconds of silence, he continued. "Why the FUCK are you such a royal PRICK?"

Though no one could see the reaction, Kaiba raised an eyebrow in response. Did he seriously just ask him that? Really? As he turned to continue moving, he heard the mutt but in. "Sometimes, it's best not tah ask Malik..." Really... Better not to ask...

Malik merely snorted, pushing the dog to the side. "Fuck you 'Mutt', I asked him a question. Didn't I, KAIBA?" Still glaring, he ignored the 'screw you too pal!' that came from both Grim and Joey both as they walked off to the side.

"And I said," the CEO calmly responded, arms crossed as he walked, "That we should move, Tomb-keeper." Honestly... What kind of moronic question was 'why are you such a prick'... Pathetic.

His walking was cut off rather quickly, when Malik ran to catch up again. "Hey, ASSHOLE," he shouted, the noise making Kaiba turn slightly. "Answer this!" Unseen by the helmet, Kaiba's eyes widened as Malik's fist slammed into the bottom of his chin. The blades attached to his wrists barely struck the helmet covering his face, and as the others stood staring, the CEO stumbled back slightly to wipe a bit of blood from his chin; Malik had a few blades on his knuckles as well it seemed.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments, Malik seething as his target merely scoffed and resumed walking. "Is that all, tomb-keeper?" No answer, aside from a steady glare. "Good. Then lets move, before the magician wanna-be looses the other half of his soul..." He turned to send a look to the others, partially visible through the cracks in his helmet now. "Unless you missed that part as well."

Before Atem could attempt to change the subject to focus on that last point, Malik resumed the argument yet again. He held his head in his hands as they walked, groaning. For a brief moment, he looked down at Marik. "I don't suppose," he asked with a somewhat resigned voice, "That you know how to make them stop..."

The imp snorted. "Psh, the hell if I know!" As Atem groaned yet again, Marik turned to continue listening to the (somewhat) amusing argument going on ahead.

"Well," the former tomb-keeper was saying through gritted teeth and a sarcastic smirk. "At least I didn't just shrug him off when he was crying- I can't even imagine how much it must suck to be Mokuba, with an ass like you for a brother."

He froze. Silence filled the air yet again, Malik's smirk still on his face as the CEO stood there. It quickly vanished however, as Kaiba began to chuckle darkly. "You seem to have forgotten something, Tomb Keeper," the teen said as he hid a scowl, continuing. "When a 'Kaiba' sees that something needs to be done, he forgoes EVERYTHING, to make it so." His glare intensified, the small slivers visible through the helm drawing shivers from a few that saw it. "Because in the end, it means that instead of someone losing money, or say, their SOUL... They only suffered a little bit of discomfort, rather than facing potential DEATH."

As he finished this, Malik's frown softened, at a loss for words. Damn it... The words made sense, but all the same.. "Hnp!" Bakura snorted, coming up to drape an arm around Malik while continuing to hold the stare. "Maybe so, 'Seto', but you could stand to lose the attitude; because trust me when I say," the thief continued, tone growing dark. "Some here have had it far worse than you."

Kaiba continued walking, his attention turned back to the front. "As if I care about who has the worst life story," he said with a scoff, eyes turned on the growing image of the Tower of Souls in the distance. "Do you see me crying over my childhood, or something else as insignificant? I didn't think so."

"Well," Malik said, glaring from beside his partner. "Last I checked being a douche-bag was another way of hiding something like that."

By this point, Atem was looking at Joey as well to stop the argument. "Do you-"

The dog quickly shrugged. "Got me pal; I don't know anythin' more than th' fact that when things get this far, it's the best point tah cut out and be happy with what yah have."

"Lovely," the bird said as he resumed rubbing his head in agitation. Meanwhile at the front, Kaiba turned on Malik with a sneer.

The CEO's fists were clenching slightly, but he was somehow managing to keep a relatively cool head. "Is that so," he 'asked', venom dripping from his voice. "And here I thought it was violence. Running solves NOTHING tomb keeper," he said as he looked down at the Egyptian. "But I suppose it's completely pointless to tell you that, isn't it?"

Malik froze at those words, the others stopping as well. Surprisingly however, he said nothing. Kaiba turned to look at the teen from the corner of his eyes, narrowing them with slight suspicion. He'd expected an outburst. A shout, an expression of rage. Not this... Kicked puppy face he was getting.

He mentally groaned. He was getting soft if that affected him. Nonetheless, he muttered just above silence under his breath to the teen. "That comment," he said, Malik frowning slightly as the CEO continued. "...I take it back," he said before turning away. "Don't expect me to do it again," he continued, resuming his walk.

The teen merely stared at Kaiba's back, silent in shock. Did he just... Apologize... As the crowd resumed the trek to the tower, he found himself staring off into the distance. It wasn't long, before he found himself watching the 'fog' in the air with a nervous stare.

The tower was indeed made of bones, even from that distance they could tell. Skeletons of all sizes supported its weight, and as Malik watched the 'fog' swirl into the top, he felt a pit of ice land in his stomach. The tower of souls... "It really holds true to it's name," he muttered, gulping.

They were there.