Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Nor do I own Batman. I just noticed that Kaiba is a lot like Bruce Wayne, and decided to run with this story. So sue me (on second thought please don't)!
Author's Note: I'd like to thank Blot-of-Blood, Nightcrawlerlover, and Alexandra Valerious for their amazing comments (which helped to spur me back into re-typing the story. Thank you all for the wonderful motivation!
Night.
The sound of rapid footsteps
A frightened man runs through a dark limbo-land of crevices and jagged peaks, lit only by the orange light of subterranean fires. Panting, he pauses to look around frantically, beads of sweat shaking from his brow. He recognizes the landscape, and his face crumples in despair. "Oh, no…"
"Ryou… Ryou…" The voice is guttural, rasping, familiar. Ryou starts to run again.
"Go away!" he shouts, "I said I don't want you!"
A tall figure looms out of the darkness up ahead. From its fingers it flips a silver coin which soars into the air with a piercing, singing sound.
"Nooo," Ryou moans. He turns and runs back the other way. The figure rises in his path. Ryou jams his palms against his ears as the coin sings in the air. "Please…" This time when he turns around the figure is already standing there, directly in front of him. Another flip of the coin, and Ryou winces as if in great pain. "Who are you?"
"Come now." The figure grabs him by the wrist, a tight, painful grip. "Don't you know?" it chides with an eerie laugh. The figure uses its old on his wrist to push Ryou backward It steps out of the darkness and Ryou gapes at its face in the orange light. It is his own face, but subtly different - a twisted even countenance.
"No!" Ryou wails. "It's me!" Forced backward by the agonizing grip, he comes to within an inch of falling into the chasm yawning out of nowhere behind him. He strains back against his twisted double, arm-wrestling for his life. With a final grunt of exertion the thing wins the battle, pushing its opponent over the edge. Ryou hurtles into the crevice, his cry of defeated despair echoing as he plummets down the endless shaft.
The district attorney woke up screaming.
He came to his senses sitting bolt upright in bed, sweat beaded on his face and chest. Gasping for breath, he fumbled with the covers, grabbed the phone from his nightstand, and stabbed with his forefinger at a speed dial button. A series of electronic beeps danced in his ear.
"Hello - Dr. Ashita? Ryou Bakura." His words came mingled with gasps. "It's getting worse, much worse. I have to see you. No, not tomorrow - now!"
Ryou took a three-minute hot shower to scald himself fully awake, dressed hurriedly, and rode the elevator to his private garage. As his sports car screeched out of the garage and onto the main road, he failed to notice the black sedan sitting in front of the apartment building.
Inside the sedan, Mai tilted her head in the direction of the speeding sports car. "Step on it, Valon," she said to the man behind the wheel. The black car hummed to life. A few moments later it had slipped onto the highway a safe distance behind the other vehicle.
Dr. Ashita Crest was a short, skinny woman with the face of a kindly mother, whose keen, probing eyes were partially hidden by her long red bangs. Like her comfortably furnished office, Dr. Ashita radiated a calm and reassuring presence that inspired confidence in her patients.
Ryou sat in a cushioned chair across from Dr. Ashita, his posture relaxed but his eyes half shut. She spoke to him in soothing tones, her hands and body swaying slightly back and forth as she eased the troubled district attorney into a deep hypnotic trance. His eyes closed gradually.
"You are now in a very deep sleep, Ryou. You are relaxed and happy. Can you hear me?"
"Mm-hmm." Ryou gave his head a small nod. He settled deeper into the chair with a sigh of contentment.
"Good." The psychiatrist watched him closely through her bangs. "Now, Ryou, I would like to speak with your other personality. I would like to talk to Big Bad Kura."
A tremor passed through the calm features as the DA squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. "I don't think he wants to talk," he said.
Dr. Ashita shook her head. "He must, if we're to help you," she said firmly. "Please try."
A long moment passed. Ryou's face twitched once, then again. A malevolent look crossed his placid features like a shadow. His eyes opened and he glared at the small psychiatrist, his hand fumbling at an inner pocket of his jacket. He pulled out a silver coin and held it cradled in the palm of his hand. Then he flipped it into the air.
Dr. Ashita made a brief notation in her manila folder on her lap. She tilted her head to one side. "Big Bad Kura?"
"Speaking." His voice was thick and rasping. He stared at her as he flipped the coin, caught it, and flipped it again.
"Thank you for coming to talk with me," she said. "It appears you and Ryou are having trouble again."
Big Bad Kura sneered broadly at the mention of his alter ego. "The guy's a wimp," he said, continuing to flip the shiny silver coin. "Useless."
"Well, Ryou has special problems, as we both know," Dr. Ashita replied in a reasonable tone. "When he was young he was made to feel very guilty about his angry feelings. Unlike most other people, he felt so guilty that he tried to hide them deep inside. He hid them so deeply and for such a long time that they became an illness." She lowered her head slightly and locked stares with the menacing figure. "You, Big Bad Kura, represent those feelings."
The man in the cushioned chair almost missed the spinning coin. He snatched it out of the air and held it clenched in his fist.
"Ryou needs to learn not to feel so guilty," Dr. Ashita continued. "Everyone has angry feelings from time to time, and they do no harm - as long as they don't result in undesirable behavior. When bad feelings make us do bad things, then we must find a way to deal with them."
"You're talkin' to me like I'm a kid," Big Bad Kura said sullenly.
"In a sense you are," Dr. Ashita agreed. "A very angry child, who's been locked away in an attempt to keep him under control. Once Ryou understands this-"
"Then maybe I'll go away." Big Bad Kura rose slowly from the chair, his gaze still locked on the doctor's. He had an ugly expression on his face. "Right?"
"Well…" Suddenly uneasy, Dr. Ashita also got to her feet. "It's not a question of -"
"I'm going nowhere, lady!" The big man kicked aside a small metal waste can and knocked over a mahogany coffee table. He stepped closer toward the doctor. "If anybody's leavin', it's Good Little Ryou," he said. "And maybe you with 'im."
Dr. Ashita backed up nervously, stepping behind he own chair to put it between herself and Big Bad Kura. He reached out and wrenched the chair from her grasp, tossing it aside like a piece of doll's furniture. There was a loud crash as one of the office windows shattered, and cold rain began to spatter onto the carpet. With a twisted smile, Kura crossed the braided rug and began to back Dr. Ashita up against the far wall of the office. As he lowered his face toward hers, she thrust up her thin hand and snapped her thumb and second finger once, sharply, in front of his eyes.
The man blinked and swayed slightly, his expression softening. Ryou looked around the room in astonishment at the overturned furniture, his shoulders slumping at the sight of the shattered window. "Good lord, did I do this?"
"Not you," Dr. Ashita told him. She took a deep breath and pulled her hair out of her eyes. "You other personality. It's stronger than I suspected." She led the shaken Ryou across the room. He collapsed back into his chair.
"What am I going to do?" Ryou moaned. He cradled his head in his hands. "I've always been able to keep him inside before."
Dr. Ashita righted her chair and resumed her own seat. "Multiple personalities are as difficult as they are rare, Ryou." She picked up Ryou's file and jotted down several words. "I want you to admit yourself to the psychiatric ward at County General for a few days."
"Huh?" Her comment affected Ryou like a splash of cold water. "No way." He sat up straight and shook his head vigorously. "You know I'm trying to get re-elected."
"You're also trying to save you sanity," Dr. Ashita reminded him gently.
"Isn't there any other way?" Ryou's tone was pleading, almost child-like. "Please?"
"Well…" Dr. Ashita got to her feet and moved off toward her desk, her face thoughtful. "Your schedule has been our biggest stumbling block so far. I suppose if you agreed to cut back on your campaigning, and if we intensified our sessions…" She looked over at him. "I suppose we might be able to come up with something."
"Great!" Ryou bolted out of the chair and rushed to her side. "I'll do it - I swear! You just set up the schedule and I'll be here. Oh, and bill me for the window, all right?" Beaming with gratitude, he put his hand on her small-boned arm. "The important thing is to keep all of this confidential, right?"
Standing silently in the doctor's unlit reception room, Mai gave a short nod and leaned back from the quarter-inch crack at the doorway. "Right," she said softly to herself, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. She tiptoed away from the door and slipped into the dark corridor.
Remember, I love to hear what you think and sometimes I need a little encouragement in order to get up the guts to actually post, so comments are whole-heartedly appreciated.
~Cazuuki