Ba-Ku-Ra!

By: Miss-DNL & RenagadeRexRider

Chap 24 Preparation

As Ishizu walked off, Ryou found himself trying and failing to understand what exactly had just happened with his Yami. The conversation had been mostly a cryptic message, but it seemed that Akefia had found ways to twist it in other manners. His attitude and character had taken an odd turn around the Egyptian woman for a few reasons he was sure of… and yet he found himself looking to the still smirking spirit and voiced himself, "Akefia… I'm sorry but I'm confused. Do you… like her or not?"

Akefia who was still mentally toying with the unusual occurrence paused and looked to his clearly confused host, quirking a brow at the question, "How do you mean?"

Ryou rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of how best to approach the subject, "Uh well… you started off calling her a Goddess, then got shy, then threatened her several times, called her the enemy and finished it by acting like a gentleman basically saying you wished to meet her again…" he listed as he looked Akefia over for any notable reactions to his words, "I'm confused and I'm pretty sure she was too."

Akefia blinked as Ryou presented his questions and huffed, "When the hell did I threaten her?" surely he hadn't, let alone been that openly blatant?

Ryou sweat dropped and face palmed at the response, surely he himself could not have missed that, "You made a couple of comments about taking the Necklace from her… that's a threat."

Akefia merely shrugged at his host's mention, still not sure what the boy was getting at and moved on, "Her being an enemy was true in technicality. She works for my enemy…" he commented before his grin returned, "That can be overlooked though. Makes it interesting." He paused at his own comment and momentarily wondered why he'd even bother to explain such a thing to his host, but decided it had just slipped out prior anyway, "Bottom line is yes, I do find her attractive and want her. Seemed clear enough to me."

Ryou felt his shoulders droop at the Thief's matter of fact and yet round about manner. Clearly the Thief was only focused on what he saw and not much else. Still unsure of the awkward situation he gave a sheepish smile, "I'm happy you like her, she seems like a very nice person, but," he paused and looked at his Yami skeptically seeing his grin remained unchanged, "Have you ever gotten a girl's attention before? I'm not an expert at reading people but she seemed confused when she left…"

"Really?" Akefia mused with a small smirk still on his lips as the boy spoke, finding the boy's confusion in of itself amusing. Clearly the boy was unfamiliar with the art of teasing. His smirk fell somewhat flat however at Ryo's sudden inquiry, "Of course. Look at me!" he retorted as he more or less gave an open armed prideful gesture to himself, "I used to have plenty of women vie for my attention in taverns." Attention both amusing and annoying, he recalled amusedly, he never actually returned.

Ryou felt himself deadpan and sweat drop at the Thief's answer, somewhat thrown by his blatant comment, "I wasn't talking about your looks…" he managed, face palming at his Yami's vanity.

Akefia, sensing his host's disorientation and expression over his methods, hummed as he crossed his arms, giving him a pointed look starting to see he was judging his approach, "I take it that I fucked up. Is that what you're telling me?"

Ryou rubbed his face, how had he even gotten into this conversation? Looking back to the Thief he rubbed his neck noting Akefia seemed to have gotten somewhat defensive. Perhaps Akefia was acting accordingly to his own knowledge; after all… he was from a very different time. His approach was just dated. So maybe it was an honest mistake, "No, not exactly. She didn't look frightened… just try and be a bit more careful with your wording and I think things will be clearer to her." He offered with a smile.

Akefia listened to the boy while gouging the boy's emotions before quirking a brow realizing what the boy was getting at. In honesty, he had simply been toying with the woman; merely playing off his own blunder as well as play with the fact he could actually commune with her. Given he liked what he saw, he had opted to prod at her, a tact that yielded the results he wanted, but in terms of courting he supposed, not so much. It was obvious he was well out of practice by a few thousand years and she might require a different method in that aspect, so the tip could prove its use, "Is that all?" he said at last, "Just talk differently?"

Ryou blinked in surprise that the Thief seemed to actually have thought his words over before nodding a bit, "Well, you want to get your point across clearly don't you? I'm not claiming to be an expert…" he said with a slight pause, "I haven't picked up a girl either because I haven't had interest before, but being respectful and acting like yourself is always best."

The King of Thieves looked off half muttering to himself, "I was acting like myself..."

Ryo smiled lightly catching what the yami had said, "Merely a reminder."

Akefia hummed upon recalling the rest of what he said, "Respect, eh?" He smirked; the woman didn't harass him about being the Thief King so that was reasonable. "I think that's doable." He said at last before he cleared his throat moving the conversation along to more important matters, "Now, what was that about a duel and what to get into the tournament?"

The young teenager tilted his head a little, "You didn't hear her? Well, she said we need a duel disk, rare cards and an acceptable duelist ranking to enter."

Hearing this the Thief King huffed dully, "Of course I did." He paused a moment recalling what was listed by Ishizu, "I just have no idea what a "Duel Disk" is...and rare cards?" He looked to Ryo, "Does that entail Diabound and Necrofear then?"

"The duel disk is the thing Kaiba used to duel Yugi's Yami in Duelist Kingdom. Meaning it's probably going to be expensive..." Ryo rubbed his neck, dreading the amount Kaiba could be charging for one. He didn't exactly have a lot of money to spend and he didn't want to have to ask his father for some.

Ryo then nodded to the second part of the thief's question and glanced at his deck case, "Yes, some of the other cards I have are rare too; it probably means the tournament has an ante rule." Ryo's voice suddenly fell to worry, "Meaning the loser has to give up a rare card to the winner."

"Ah right, that weird thing..." Akefia recalled with a nod, hearing of the cost he smirked and chuckled a bit, "Expensive eh? We'll work on that one." Cost was never a problem for a thief, if need be he'd find a way to get his host one "free of charge".

The Egyptian spirit quirked a brow at his host's sudden worry about the ante rule, "Interesting, a gamble," He smirked at the bow confidently, "but not something I fear. You have proven to be an excellent duelist-just means more for us."

Hearing the praise Ryo perked up and smiled, "We could probably check a card store and get more details about the event there. Getting new cards is another good idea, I should also update the deck too."

"Good enough." Akefia hummed in agreement, "and a good idea as well. Don't want people getting familiar with the deck's weaknesses."

"Yeah," Ryo said in agreement. He frowned recalling the times he dueled Bandit Keith, "If Malik's here then Keith probably is too." He furrowed his brow into a tense "V" shape, "Both of them have seen my deck twice already."

Heading up the stairs Ryo says, "Let's go, there's a card shop around here."

The Thief felt even his astral form bristle at the mention of their enemies, "Exactly my thoughts." Hearing the mention of leaving Akefia looked back at the stone tablets, the only thing he'd seen that reminded him of his home, during his time in this new land. Disappearing into the ring he mutters his response, "Right..."

Ryo blinks at the sudden mood change but stays quiet until they leave the museum before saying through their link, 'Is everything alright Akefia? You sound a little homesick.'

Akefia could feel the worried emotions coming from his host, but thinking of his real home he huffs not wanting to speak of the matter, "I have no idea what you're talking about..."

For a moment Ryo mulls over the idea of pushing for an answer but sensing the Thief throwing up barriers he decides to go against it, getting the feeling his yami needed to be left alone for a moment. So after disappointingly saying, 'Alright, my mistake...' He lets the Thief King sulk within the Ring.

Finally spotting a card shop he wasted no time in entering and, after glancing around briefly, goes up to the counter. Inwardly he hoped that the Duel Disk wasn't an outrageous price. Getting over his nervousness he asks the clerk, "Hello, I'm here to enter the Duel Monster's tournament that being held by Kaiba Corp."

"Oh, the Battle City tournament." The worker said as he recalled the tournament's name before turning to his computer, "Would you mind telling me your name?"

Finding the question to be a bit odd Ryo blinked but answered anyway, "Ryo Bakura."

Typing his name into the computer the clerk began to explain why he asked, "Ah okay, you see according to Kaiba Cooperation only duelist of a certain rank can enter, but then there's duelists who can get the duel disk for free."

The promise of something free caught the sulking thief's attention, "Ah-the most reasonable fee. Free." He said smoothly, a grin coming back to his face, but only for a short time before it faltered into a skeptical frown, "But I'm no idiot...what's the catch?"

'Guess we'll just have to see.' Ryo responded simply as he watched the man type on the keyboard.

The young adult behind the counter was quiet until Ryo's profile finally appeared on screen, "Here you are, now let's just have a look at your profile and see if you qualify." He announced as he looked over his profile, explaining as he did, "Kaiba Corporation collected all data on all duelist across the country."

"Let's see you have an Occult deck, have plenty of rare cards to use as ante's that's good..." The counter clerk said in a slightly offhand manner. Reaching Ryo's dueling stats he perked up suddenly, "ah! You're the second place finalist of the Duelist Kingdom tournament, very good! You haven't been dueling very long it seems but you have a winning streak of three in a row one including Bandit Keith. You're duelist rank is...5! You just qualify for the tournament!" With that the shop clerk turned around taking a box off the shelf behind him and handed it over to Ryo, "Here's your free duel disk!"

Akefia chuckled to himself as he took down the item and handed it to Ryo, "Well done."

Looking down at the item Ryo was surprised to see the Duel Disk wasn't actually a disk any more, 'This looks a lot different from the one Kaiba dueled Yugi with. He already improved it?'

Inspecting the item as well Akefia was stunned by what he saw; to him it was not only surprising but a blast from the past as well, "A DIADHANK?" He shouted in alarm.

The sudden yell startled Ryo enough that he nearly dropped the box. Catching this, the shop keep looked at him giving him a vaguely worried look when he spotted the odd look on Ryo's face, "Something wrong?"

Quickly as he could Ryo removed the expression from his face and replaced it with a reassuring one, "No, no just remember something. I'm going to look at the cards and then I'll be done." The clerk looked at Ryo for a moment before dismissing the brief occurrence as unimportant and went back to his work. Walking away from the counter Ryo moved over to a case full of cards before questioning his yami, 'A what, Akefia?'

Akefia took astral form beside Ryo and looked the box over with obvious intrigue, "It looks different, but there is no mistaking it. This is a DiaDhank! They were used by priests in my time, but more notably they were reserved for the Pharaohs." The thief explained as he looked at the shape on the box that so closely mirrored the DiaDhank he had used in the past, "They used them for calling forth and commanding Ka! "

Upon hearing this Ryo looked down at the Duel Disk with renewed interest, this new model closely resembled something in ancient times? That was fascinating to him. 'DiaDhank. Kaiba might not believe in the supernatural but it seems he's subconsciously recreating what he saw in a past life. Though much easier to get a hold of in a sense.' He thought to himself while he looked the box over for a moment longer.

Akefia chuckled at the idea the Priest was replicating what he had seen in past life, "Perhaps. Best pray they aren't too accurate." He stated remembering the all too real effects of losing a Ka during a duel. Though from what he'd seen he severely doubted modern tech could replicate such a feet.

The thought of a truly realistic duel caused Ryo to sweat drop nervously, though like his yami he truly doubted even Kaiba could replicate such a thing with holograms. 'That's something to hope for...' He said to the spirit warily before looking at the cards in the case. Ryo looked at each individual ones over one at a time, reading the effects to see if they could be useful, 'Let's see if there's anything to add to the deck here...'

Humming curiously Ryo paused as he noticed Akefia likewise looking at the cards in the glass case, "Lot of interesting cards by the look of it..." He stated before quirking a brow at some rather strange looking ones, "Or some just weird looking ones..."

Looking to towards the cards once more Ryo let out a soft laugh, getting an idea of which ones the spirit was referring to, 'Yes, some certainly leave you scratching you're head...' He agreed sheepishly, then again from what he had seen of Pegasus he wondered why all of the Duel Monster cards didn't look weird-considering the man's strange preferences and all. As he thought this a group of cards caught his eye causing him to point them out to his yami, 'Hey, Akefia look at those three tablet cards up top. They remind me of the carvings of the monsters on the slabs at the museum.'

Catching sight of the ones his host pointed at Akefia blinked in surprise at the familiarity of the cards, it was a nice sight to see to say the least. "Ah? They do..." He hummed a moment still unable to read the text on the card so he had to resort to using his memory to figure what they did. Thankfully he had good memory, disregarding his final moments before dying, and was able to recognize a tablet with an Ankh on it.

Pointing to it he explained what it did, as far as he recalled, "That one there, if I'm not mistaken, was used to resurrect a fallen beast. Very useful, and that one there..." He moved his figure to the one next to it, a tablet with a mirror on it, "absorbed the power of a Ka that killed another and gives it to a surviving Ka you own." Finally Akefia looked at the third one, this one was a bit trickier to place but he managed, "Hmm that one there can be a hindrance, but banishing it can inflict quite the injury to an opponent." The thief turned his head back to Ryo, a grin on his astral face, "Powerful spells indeed if I recall. Could prove useful if done right."

The young teen listened attentively to the spirit while reading the card descriptions; surprisingly the thief was right about each one. 'Sounds like it...' He responded before looking at a few others that caught his eye, 'There are a few others that could help. I'll get those too and work on the deck with them.'

Raising his head up Ryo called to the man standing behind the counter, "Excuse me," When the man looked to him he pointed out the cards he wanted, "I'll have these cards and those."

One by one the clerk pulled the cards off the shelf and rang them up at the cash register. Once Ryo paid the amount necessary the man put them in a small plastic baggy and handed it to the young man, "There you go, have a nice day."

"You too." Ryo responded as he waved the man good-bye before exiting the store.

"Well that should help..." Akefia said as they exited the store. He then he looked around at the crowds of people that were walking the streets. Somewhere in the city were their enemies. A familiar feeling of caution came over the Thief King as he growled to himself, 'Now all that need be done is watch for anyone unusual, that scrawny little bastard is slinking about SOMEWHERE.'

Beginning to head home Ryo looked at the Duel Disk he was carrying though the plastic bag it was in, thinking of the oncoming task, 'Kaiba will be starting the tournament in a couple of days. Like Pegasus there's going to be danger. We don't even know what the other threat is. Ishizu didn't even seem to know.'

"There's always something..." Akefia said overhearing Ryo's worried thoughts. He hummed as he continued to scan the streets for anything suspicious, "I don't doubt that it will have something to do with the Shadow Realm itself. With the items gathering, anything from it will be converging on it..." Inwardly he glanced at the sealed soul room that lay within the Ring; No doubt that would be good for him. Shaking it off he continued to speak to the boy, "Would explain that odd Yami actually. What he is I'm not sure, and yet I feel as though I really should."

Ryo shuddered at the thought of being controlled by him again; he nodded grimly, 'I figured that as well.' Then he suddenly stopped and looked at Akefia in surprise, 'Wait, you don't know who he is either? Odd...he's bound here because of your soul, maybe something happened over time?'

The yami nodded slowly to the boy, "That's what bothers me. I've been bound to the Ring for a long time but a large portion of it I was..." He paused a moment trying to find the correct word to describe it, "sleeping I guess you could say. I don't remember HOW I was put here. Only that I am holding him here-I can feel it. I really don't recall a large portion of my memory..." The thief's voice dipped into a somber tone, "I don't even know how I died."

Ryo looked at the thief a moment picking on traces of sadness in his tone; he didn't address it though, he knew the Thief King didn't like pity. So instead he moved along in the conversation, 'Ishizu, Malik amd the Tomb Keepers seem to have an idea of what happened but not all of it.' He said to the yami, via their link. Trying to keep positive he continued, 'hopefully, everything will become clear at the end of all of this, that and find a way to free ourselves from...whatever he is.'

"That's true…" Akefia admitted before he chuckled, amused by the teen's optimism-he was correct, "Only time will tell."

'Yeah.' Ryo responded with a nod. Making it back home Ryo opened the apartment door, calling to his father as he shut said door behind him, "I'm back Father!"

Ryo's blue haired father was sitting on the couch watching something; inwardly he was relieve his son had returned when he did. He had been about to call him when he arrived. Still he wanted some answers, though he didn't sound upset when he asked, "What took you? You were gone a lot longer than I thought you would be. Did something happen?"

In the hall Ryo stopped while holding the reason why he had been out so long. He wondered how his father would take this. Slowly he took off his shoes, remaining in the entrance hall he answered his dad, "Oh nothing...just decided to go get some things. Sorry, I got caught up and forgot to call."

"Oh okay, how did it go? Did you meet Ishizu?" Rikai answered, easily taking his son's answer.

"I did, she seems like a very nice person." Ryo answered before mentally sweat dropping as the odd meeting played out in his head, "it was interesting to meet her."

"Not to mention a Goddess' share of beauty." Akefia chimed in with a sly grin on his face.

As expected the comment got another sweat drop from his host, 'You really like her don't you?' Ryo questioned, if that was true any future meetings were likely end up being awkward for him.

Unfortunately for him his yami laughed amusedly, "Oh, I do and I always get what I like."

'Being a spirit won't stop you will it?' For the third time Ryo sweat dropped, it seemed like his yami was taking this as a challenge for himself.

"No." Akefia answered with blunt honestly, whilst grinning confidently.

'Yeah...I figured...' Ryo said with a mental sigh, he'd have to prepare himself for those most likely upcoming awkward moments it seemed.

Noticing his son was staying in the entrance hall for an oddly long time Rikai leaned out from the couch to try and see what he was doing. Arching a brow he spoke up again, "So Ryo what did you get on your way back? More supplies for your art projects?"

Hearing his father, Ryo moved out of the hall and showed him the device-which was still in the box, "A duel disk..." Seeing his father pale at the clearly expensive looking device Ryo quickly explained, "It was free! I entered a tournament and my duelist rank was high enough that I got it for free..."

His father quickly calmed and looked at him a moment when he said he entered a tournament, "You entered a tournament?" Rikai turned his head back to the television and pointed to it with the remote he was holding, "The Battle City one right? A commercial was on for it just a while ago. Kaiba Corp is sponsoring it."

Ryo immediately looked to the TV in surprise, 'He works fast! Kaiba is really pulling out all the stops.' Then again, this was Kaiba they were talking about so it should have been expected. Ryo nodded to his father, "Yeah, it's only a few days long Father."

"If Kaiba is sponsoring, everything will be put on hold for this..." Rikai sighed, he already knew this was going to be a city wide event from the commercial he'd seen, "he's very serious about this stuff and it wouldn't be the first time he's done it." Looking to his son he smiled at him brightly, "Alright, have fun. I'm sure you'll make it to the finals son."

Listening to the conversation from his room in the Ring Akefia smirked confidently, "Better believe it. We have a lot going for us not too." He said, despite the fact the father couldn't hear him.

Ryo smiled, happy his father had confidence in him, "Thanks Father! I'll do my best!" he said surely, turning to head to his room he looked over his shoulder and said, "I'm going to go figure this out in my room."

"Alright." Rikai responded with a nod before turning back to the program he had been watching.

"But of course!" Akefia exclaimed with a chuckle, slightly amused by Ryo's promise to do good. Looking at the device-manifesting his astral form again-he hummed thoughtfully, "I doubt I'll be much help in this one." This was a bit too advanced for him to help with.

Entering his room Ryo shut the door behind him and laughed slightly, he wasn't very tech savvy either, least not to Kaiba Corp tech standards. He was honestly worried he'd have to put the Duel Disk together. If so that was going to be an issue. 'This is going to be a learning experience for both of us then.' He replied back to his yami.

Opening the box Ryo let out a relieved and grateful sigh; no assembly was required, "Oh good it's in one piece. That's a big relief." Taking out the manual Ryo started to read the instructions, to his surprise the device was really user friendly and much simpler than the Duel Disk version he'd seen Kaiba use at Duelist Kingdom.

"Oh, this is pretty straight forward!" He exclaimed as he slipped the Duel Disk onto his arm, "Just put it on and as you play the cards the machine does the work making the holograms."

"Is that so?" The King of Thieve commented as he looked the device over. He doesn't wait for an answer and he grinned saying, "Well then, it really IS a DiaDhank! Simply a new look."

'I guess so just no magic.' Ryo responded lightly, he hummed as he lifted the arm the Duel Disk was mounted on up and down, feeling its weight. 'Pretty light considering it's made of metal.' Done with the device for the moment Ryo takes it off and looks at the tournament rules set for Battle City, reading them over carefully, 'Let's see. The tournament duels will be played at Expert Level. Duelists will have 4000 life points each. Higher level monsters will require sacrifices. Four and higher need one, eight and above need two and max level monsters need three. Either way Necrofear needs three graveyard scarifies.'

"Sacrificing now are we?" Akefia echoed thoughtfully. Considering their deck though, he didn't see that as much of a problem. The graveyard was their source of strength. As such he chuckled, "that works in our favor one way or another, this should go over well."

'It should,' Ryo said hopefully before putting the rule book and Duel Disk instruction manual away. Afterwards he pulled out his deck, new cards and card binder, getting ready to adjust his deck for the tournament. 'Now to get to work.'

It took some time but eventually the young teen managed to go through his monsters, traps and spells thus finishing his revisions to his deck. The new deck geared to work with Diabound and Necrofear. Setting down the adjusted deck he smiled feeling good about his new deck, 'There, that was harder than I thought I'd be, but it's finished.'

The Thief King had watched the process silently, not being able to read he could only go off how his host felt. Occasionally he asked questions so he could better learn the game. Once the work was done he nodded in agreement, the boy clearly had skill in the game so no need to second guess him. "Yes I think that will work well," He chuckled briefly, "Not to mention you'll be gathering stronger creatures as you win…"

The thought caused the Thief King to remember something, causing his voice to drift as he thought aloud, "I wonder if Pharaoh's little scapegoat was just trying to get under my skin about that..."

Ryo was smiling at his work when he heard what the thief said, he tilted his head a bit out of confusion not getting where the question was coming from or just who the yami meant, 'Pharaoh's Scapegoat? Who? Yugi?'

"Eh...? Ah. No." Akefia responded easily catching how he confused the boy and quickly explained, "I meant that Malik brat. Something he said back at Duelist Kingdom that's bugging the hell out of me."

Ryo thought for a moment and seeing Diabound's card sitting on top of the deck he got the feeling he knew what he was talking about, 'Oh, You mean when he mentioned the other Diabound card? You're wondering if he was lying about it?'

The Thief King nodded, "Yes...If Pegasus could envision so many of the Ka from back then, even to be able to see the Gods. Then surely he'd know Diabound was far more powerful than what you know him as." He grinned remembering the raw unbridled power his Ka had possessed at its peak of power, "Truly an engine of pure power."

Hearing that Diabound was originally more powerful than he already was Ryo looked from Akefia's astral form back to Diabound in awe, 'The only thing I can say is...wow.' Curious and wanting an answer as well Ryo quickly gets and idea, 'I got it!' He exclaimed mentally, getting up and leaving both the room and his confused yami behind before coming back with his laptop. Setting it down on his desk he turned it on saying, 'we can look it up on the internet!'

Completely stumped by the sudden happenings all the Thief King could manage to respond with was, "The WHAT?"

Okay guys! We're getting closer to the Battle City! Still a few pre-Battle City chapters to go but we're getting there. Next chapter will be number 25! A mile stone for sure! :D

Now the first 10 or so paragraphs were written by Renagade Rex Sphinx due to a slight change from the rp this was base off of, and I wanted to keep the alteration correct. Just saying this so she gets the credit but the rest of this was me!

This chapter was mostly written by Me and edited by Renagade Rex Sphinx

Ryo & Shop Keep-Me

Rikai & Thief Bakura-Renagade Rex Sphinx

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