She finishes the letter with flourish. The last "e" in the last sentence looks almost like a checkmark and the name "Amane" is once again drawn in a different type of calligraphy than the last letter she sent. There was a time that she hated writing anything at all. Talking was much faster and she had felt that she could better express her true thoughts. The fact that Amane had loved calligraphy, some stuffy way of writing that only old people tried, had made this favor unbearable at first. Of course, that was before she had learned that this type of writing was so colorful and beautiful and could help accent the intended meanings of her words so much better. Now, she absolutely loved writing.

The girl sighs and stretches her hands above her head. One glance at the clock tells her that she finished soon enough for the ink to dry before she delivered it to Ryo's apartment today. She cannot wait to see his face brighten. It always makes him so happy to see a letter sent by his "sister." His happiness often makes her feel warm inside. At least, when she does not dwell too much on the fact that she is writing the letters of a dead girl.

Yugi is the first one up the stairs to Bakura's apartment. Even though the stairwell is dark, the puzzle hanging from his neck appears as if under a bright light. The others trail behind him in silence. None of the times that they have visited Bakura have been so similar to the events of Monster World as now.

"He is probably just sick, like the person on the phone said." Tea blurts out when the tense silence becomes too much.

"Like the evil spirit on the phone said."

"Tristan, shut it." Joey's voice is sharp, but it has a hint of a tremble to it that the rest of the gang pretend not to notice. The concept, let alone the real deal, of dark magic and evil spirits have never really sat well with Joey.

"Who else could have been on the phone?" Miho's voice is subdued for once. "A few days ago, Bakura said that his father was still on his trip and would not be home for months."

Joey stops at Miho's words and turns towards her. Tristan nearly slams into him from behind.

"He probably has other family. Cousins, uncles, a grandpa, you know, someone who was not sent to oblivion by the Other Yugi."

"I need a name."

Yugi stops at his Other Self's unrelated comment.

"You're not worried that the Ring Spirit is back?" Yugi's furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

"No, the Ring Spirit would not have announced his presence like this. He knows that the moment I thought he had returned, a confrontation would be inevitable and would be hard to win while facing all of us again." Other Yugi hesitates before speaking again.

"If I was him, I would target us at a time when we are normally separated. For example, Joey still does delivery runs on Wednesdays, one of the same days that Tea has dance lessons. He would have went after Joey first and then Tea, who has parents who might notice her missing in time for us to be aware of his presence before he attacks again. Tristan and Miho are too risky of targets to go after before us. They might be conversing on the phone with each other, a situation that would allow the one he did not go after to alert… Sorry, you probably do not want to hear this."

Yugi blinks out of his horror-filled trance only after Joey's voice echoes through it.

" Hey, Yugi, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Other Me was just explaining that it is unlikely that the Ring Spirit has returned." While Yugi looks back at his friends, the group visibly relaxes at this statement.

"Well then, let's go. Bakura's probably going to need cheering up since he is sick." And with that, Yugi turns back and starts walking up the stairs again.

"I should have been more…careful in my wording. I am still not used to you hearing my thoughts, so censoring-"

"No, it's okay. What you said was oddly comforting. It is good to know that you are trying to predict the moves of any who would harm our friends." Yugi gives a shaky smile that the spirit senses rather than sees.

"We should hurry, though."

Yugi frowns at the darker tone his Other Self takes.

"Why?"

"There is a significant possibility that it was a blood relation who answered the phone. However, it is just as likely that one or more of those who had been bound to the Ring Spirit's dolls have decided to get back at him for their torment."

Yugi is sprinting the rest of the way up the stairs. His friends are soon shouting questions and running after him.

"Why didn't you mention that sooner!?"

There is a sense of embarrassment from Other Yugi.

"I just thought of it."

It only takes a minute and a rushed explanation to his friends before they are all standing in front of Bakura's door. Since Yugi is leaning against the wall and catching his breath, Joey pounds on the door.

"Bakura, are you-" The door opens and a red-haired man appears.

"What-" It is either the snarl or the fingerless gloves with studded knuckles or, perhaps, the full body coat with padded shoulders that cause Joey and Tristan to slam and hold the stranger against the wall. There is a flash of almost red eyes from the boy leaning against the wall outside of the apartment.

"You don't look like you're related to Bakura, neither do you look like you're up to any good. So, who are you and where is he?" Both Joey and Tristan look furious. Miho has her hands covering her mouth and looks like she is about to run searching for some horrific sight in the house. Tea is already sliding past the mess of three men and down the hallway. Yugi is silent, the shadow behind him flickers and changes as Other Yugi prepares to take over.

"Wait! Joey, Tristan, put him down!"

Six pairs of eyes turn towards the sight of Tea returning with a terrified looking Ryo Bakura behind her.

"He has not done anything to me, if that is what you're thinking. He is-"

"His cousin" finishes the clipped voice of the one pinned to the wall. "And who might you hooligans be?" Cold grey eyes travel to each one before finally settling on Yugi and his now well-behaved, positively ordinary shadow.

"These are my friends. They're just overreacting. Please, put him down."

Both Joey and Tristan reluctantly comply.

"Sorry about that… umm." Says Joey.

"Alister." The man replies before giving one last round of glares, turning, and walking briskly down the hallway to the kitchen. The remaining people stand in silence.

"Sorry, Bakura." Begins Joey.

"We did not know that he was a relative." Says Tristan.

"Yeah, Yugi said that it was one of the angry people the Evil Ring Spirit turned into a doll."

Yugi cringes at Miho's words.

"I said I thought it might be." Yugi protests, his voice low with embarrassment. Ryo blinks owlishly. There is another stretch of awkward silence until the white-haired boy smiles.

"It is okay. I would have been worried about the same thing." The boy pauses for a second. "It means a lot that you skipped school and came so quickly."

Yugi notices when the smile fades slightly. He also notices the dark circles under Ryo's eyes and his unnaturally pale face.

"Are you alright?" Yugi asks. "You don't look well."

Ryo blinks slowly and then responds. "I…I don't think that I slept well this weekend, so I am a little worn down."

"Oh, we're sorry for barging in like this. If you are not feeling the best, we could-"

"No." Ryo says as he interrupts Tea. "It is okay if you guys stay. I would feel a lot better with some company." The boy smiles again, however-

"It is not reaching his eyes." Says the dark voice in Yugi's head.

"I know, Other Me, but I don't think that he is lying about not minding if we stay." As he converses with the puzzle spirit, Yugi moves away from the wall and, along with Miho, comes into the apartment.

There is another period of silence that stretches too long. Ryo's smile has faded again and his gaze is unfocused as he looks in Tea's direction.

"Bakura?" Yugi asks. Ryo blinks rapidly before his eyes finally focus on Yugi.

"Oh…Sorry about that. Like I said, I have not been sleeping much lately." The white-haired boy clenches both fists as he speaks. Yugi's shadow flickers.

"Would you guys feel more comfortable talking in the bedroom? There is something I wanted to discuss." Ryo states in a monotonous tone. Miho is the first to respond.

"Of course we would! Miho was getting tired of standing here." While speaking, she moves closer to Ryo until they are only a few inches apart. "It would be really cool to explore a part of your home that Miho has not seen yet, Ryo." Miho reaches out a hand to grasp Ryo's arm, but the boy steps out of her reach and turns to walk a little ways down the hall.

"It is this room." He says in a distant voice as he points to the first door he passes. "While you are getting comfortable, I will get some snacks from the kitchen." He does not glance back when he leaves the gang standing in the hall.

"Uh…ok." Says Joey to an absent Ryo.

As the group file into the bedroom, Yugi feels his Other Self's desire to communicate.

"There is something that he is not telling us, isn't there?" Yugi asks Other Yugi.

"Yes, although I do not know what. Did you notice when he clenched his hands?"

Yugi thinks for a moment before responding. "Yeah, there is a bit more to his sleeping troubles than Bakura is telling us."

"That is not what I was pointing out. He clenched his left hand as well as his right. That certainly had to have hurt, yet he did not respond to it at all."

Pain would not have been the only issue. The wound should have bled, too. A sense of unease creeps down Yugi's spine.

"Is that even possible?"

"As possible as the magic of the Puzzle." Responds the puzzle spirit.

"Do not let your guard down. The Ring Spirit may not have returned, but something else is amiss."

Yugi nods as he and his friends settle in.

The second that Ryo enters the kitchen he stops at the door and scans the room for Alister. When Ryo notices Alister leaning against the wall right next to the door, he breathes deeply before speaking.

"I am sorry for my friends behavior. They can be quite reactive sometimes."

Alister just stares at Ryo. The boy stays silent and still for a moment but then steps towards the cupboards. Ryo digs through the contents of one cupboard. It is only after he extracts four bags of pretzels, crackers, and chips that Alister decides to respond.

"I won't tell them anything that's not my business to."

Ryo glances at Alister. At first, the boy's eyes are filled with confusion, but then they clear up.

"Oh, they already know all about the moves and comas, so don't worry about driving them away."

What the hell are you talking about?

"When I first moved here, I was worried that the rumors would drive everyone away, but they actually helped me deal with the…problems associated with it." By this time, Ryo has turned his attention to leaving the kitchen, so he does not see the baffled expression on Alister's face.

"Kid, what-"

"It is a good thing that you decided to visit now. They were worried about me living on my own." The boy's voice is significantly louder than Alister's cut off words.

"Having my cousin over will definitely help ease their worries." The smile that Ryo directs in Alister's direction is warm and grateful.

After the boy has left the room, Alister stares at the spot he last was for quite awhile.

Was that a show for his "friends" or…?

Alister pushes himself off of the wall the second he hears the bedroom door close. His footsteps are light as he sneaks down the hall. He only stops when he can hear the voices of the adolescents in the bedroom. As he settles in to learn something more about Ryo Bakura, the apparent honesty in the boy's voice and eyes as he spoke in the kitchen plague Alister's mind.

Joey and Tristan had not stopped apologizing since Ryo entered the room.

"We didn't know he was your cuz."

"Yeah, Yugi here had us all worried he was-"

"And Yugi could have easily been right." Ryo states firmly as he hands them each their own bag of chips. "In fact, I am surprised that I have not had any visits." As he speaks, Ryo gives the bag of crackers to Tea and Miho and offers to share the pretzels with Yugi, who declines.

"It is all right." Ryo continues as both Tristan and Joey are about to speak again. "Alister is not the friendliest of people, so it is not really your fault for making that mistake."

Yugi, who was just about to protest Tristan's statement, switches his focus to Ryo and his responses.

"Don't speak yet. I want to continue observing his reactions to the others."

Due to Other Yugi's interruption, Joey speaks before Yugi has the chance.

"So, Bakura." Joey says between mouthfuls of chips. "Who is your commando cousin, anyway?"

Ryo just stares at Joey. His eyes are a little too wide and a bit too dull for anybody's comfort. It is only when everybody shifts uncomfortably that Ryo speaks.

"Oh, you sort of guessed right about his occupation. He is in the military, actually."

Tea responds next. "So, he's staying with you because…?"

Ryo blinks slowly.

"Alister is on leave, and since he is kind of a black sheep of the family like I am, I am the only one he can stay with." Ryo opens the bag of pretzels that Yugi declined and starts to devour its contents. The group watches him eat while he stares at the ground with unfocused green eyes. Yugi frowns and feels the spirit inside of the puzzle frown, too.

I-

"Oh!" Ryo's eyes widen and brighten.

" I almost forgot. There was something I wanted to show all of you."

While Ryo places the now empty bag on the carpet, Miho responds. "What do you have to show Miho, Ryo?"

Tea rolls her eyes at Miho's self-centeredness.

"You'll see." Ryo responds while unwrapping the bandages around his left hand. Once the bandages have been unwrapped, he first holds up his hand with the palm facing the group and then rotates it so that they can see the back of his hand.

"Aah." Joey turns pale at the sight and leans away. Tristan and Tea both gape. Miho leans closer and looks at the wound with utter fascination. Yugi is the only one capable of speech.

"It's… It's almost completely healed… How? It has not even been a week since you received that injury. Wounds like that are supposed to take months to heal over."

Even Ryo looks surprised as he stares at the nearly closed wound.

"Well, when I last looked at it yesterday, it was just not bleeding, and I could not see through my hand any more. This is even farther along than I expected today to be." Ryo smiles in excitement at his discovery.

"How?" Yugi repeats in a quiet voice.

"I do not know. It probably has something to do with the RPG we played. One of the White Wizard's abilities was a minor automatic recovery of his own injuries every turn."

An understanding dawns in Yugi's eyes, yet before he can speak, Joey asks-

"I don't get it. How does a Shadow Game relate to what's happening to your hand, Bakura?" The same nervous confusion that is evident in Joey's voice can be seen in the eyes of the others except for Miho and Yugi.

"Well, I…"

"The minor healing ability of your avatar is manifesting itself in the real world." Says Yugi when he sees Ryo losing steam. The white-haired boy nods.

"How cool!" Miho's voice pierces through the room. "Ryo has super powers now!"

"Or he has been infected by Shadow magic." Mumbles Tristan. Ryo deflates.

"Hey! That wasn't nice." Says Tea. While she smacks the back of Tristan's head with one hand, her voice is sharp enough to cause everyone to wince.

"Tristan, that was mean." Whines Miho.

"Sorry, Miho."

Yugi disappointedly glances at Tristan while trying to comfort Ryo.

"I'm sure it is nothing like that."

It could be.

Yugi ignores the voice in his head as he continues. "The White Wizard used a type of white magic, right."

"I suppose." Ryo's eyes are still downcast. "I just wanted to know if any of you have shown any talents that your avatars had." Ryo's voice is awfully quiet.

"He is going through these mood changes too quickly and extremely."

"I know, but I can't concentrate on that problem until after we cheer up Ryo."

Yugi thinks that he senses a spike of annoyance towards his response, but if it was there, any trace has already been erased.

"Sorry, Ryo, but I would need to own a sword to test that out." Says Joey. The empty bag in his hands is crunched into a ball at the word "out."

"Guns and other illegal-for-juveniles items are needed to test mine." Says Tristan. He eyes Tea nervously.

Both Yugi and Tea shake their heads.

"I still only have the magic of the Millennium Puzzle."

"I have not shown any odd magical signs, either."

At each comment, Ryo looks more and more disappointed. Miho seems to be grinning more and more at each comment.

"Well, that must mean Ryo and Miho are special." The purple-haired girl claims while sporting a sly smile.

Everyone turns to stare at her.

"Miho has been having a lot of interesting occurrences this past week."

"Really, Miho?" Tristan's voice cracks from its temporarily high pitch.

"Mhmm, mhmm. First, Miho found a hairbrush in her room that she lost months ago the night after the Game."

Tea's expression quickly becomes annoyed.

"Really, Miho? That is just coincidence."

"Two days later, Miho found three hundred dollars just sitting on the ground outside the school gate. Then, the results for the sweepstakes that Miho always likes to enter came back." As she talks, her purple eyes travel from person to person until they settle on Ryo.

"There have been three prizes so far. Miho now has a four thousand dollar coupon for that high-end clothing store a few blocks from Black Rose Academy, two free plane tickets for a month long trip for my mother and I in Paris, and a new Mercedes that Miho will somehow convince her parents to let her drive really, really soon."

There is a long, stunned silence.

"That…Those prizes…There is no way you could have gotten all of them without the Gypsy Luck talent from the game." States Yugi. His already large eyes are nearly popping out of his head now. Ryo looks positively cheerful.

"It makes sense that both you and I would demonstrate some capabilities first, Miho."

Miho glows at the use of her name by her crush. Tristan drops his shocked expression and scowls.

"The Gypsy and Wizard's talents include noticeable passive abilities. If someone like you, Yugi, were to show any powers, it would have to be during certain situations, such as if Yugi was attacked by monsters while he walked to school and reacted instinctively on his taming techniques."

"Or Joey and Tristan would need their respective weapons." Interjects Yugi. His eyes meet Ryo's.

"Exactly." Ryo's smile is at the largest it has been all day.

"Wait, so I might be some Conan now?" Joey's voice is filled with awe.

"Man, give me a sword. I want to have super powers, too." Shouts Joey as he punches one hand in the air.

"Pipe down. I'm sure the neighbors-" Tristan's words are cut off by the ring of the doorbell.

Alister's feet tread silently as he shoots to the kitchen. He would head towards the front door first, but that might give away the fact that he was camped outside of Ryo's door. Once he reaches the kitchen, the Alister turns around and walks briskly towards the front door. His footsteps are audible. The bedroom door opens right before he passes it, and Ryo steps out of his room. The smaller boy steps past Alister and reaches the front door before him. The boy does not open it right away. Instead, he looks through the eyehole and then glances back at Alister.

"It is probably better if I answer the door for this one."

Alister merely nods in response then steps back. The door opens and reveals a mousy brown haired girl. Her hair is on the verge of being uncontrollable, and its thickness and length are unrivalled by anyone in the apartment. Her skin is a mocha shade. The grin she already wears widens when she sees Ryo, and her eyes glow as she looks up the half-foot or so between her line of sight and his.

"Hey, Ryo." Her voice brims with excitement.

"Hello, Maya." Ryo responds.

Back at the bedroom, Miho tries to discreetly poke her head out the doorway to observe the visitor.

"I don't have long to talk today, since Risa and the others are expecting me to meet them in the park real soon. So, here is the mail." The girl, who Alister judges to be either thirteen or fourteen, pulls out one of the hands that was hidden behind her back to reveal that she holds a stack of four envelopes. Ryo takes them, glances at the top one, and then smiles. Before the girl turns to leave, she points to the letter that Ryo just looked at.

"Her letter arrived two days early this time. I am certain Amane will be happy to hear that later in your response." Standing off to the side and out of sight of the door, Alister stiffens. That was one of the people that the kid was crying about last night, so isn't she dead? A phone call with news from a relative would have travelled far faster than the letter the boy now holds. Alister prepares for the inevitable to happen.

"I am sure she will. Thank you, Maya, for getting the mail again." Ryo says cheerfully while he closes the door.

Did his mother only die then? Why is he acting so cheerful?

It is only when the boy freezes and his eyes dart to the empty hall that Alister starts to receive the actions he expects.

While Ryo closes the front door, he feels a brush of whiteness at the edge of his mind. He knows there is something that he is forgetting about Amane, but he cannot remember what it was. Perhaps it was something he wanted to talk about in his next letter.

Ryo.

As he looks at the rest of the mail, the fifteen-year-old boy furrows his brow. He thought he heard Mother's voice, but that is impossible. She is still living in Europe.

Don't do this again, Ryo. Look at me.

The boy stops moving completely. Feelings of ice flow down his back.

You mustn't forget again. Ryo, look at me.

The voice is coming from the hall, but he cannot look up. That is because-

Ryo, you cannot hide from this forever. It will kill you. The darkness will consume you like it did to us. Look at me.

-Because Amane and Mother are living in Europe. They are safely living halfway across the world from him.

Ryo, I want my sons to acknowledge me again, so, please look at me.

The boy's eyes are wide and tormented. His heart pounds in his ears, and his body trembles. The Ring feels like ice against his chest. Why is he wearing the Ring? The heavy whiteness in his head thins and images of rain and bridges and other terrible things try to crawl their way inside his head. He still will not look up.

Ryo, you cannot run away anymore. You need to know who you are running from. Look at me.

It is just a dream. It cannot be real. He just has to wake up.

Oh-

The voice sounds so sad.

-But you are waking up. My Ryo is finally opening his eyes again, and I see him. I want to see his eyes. I need to see my boy again.

The boy whimpers at the tearful sounds from the voice of his mother. His resolve has broken, but he is scared.

Be brave. Just look up, Ryo.

The boy looks up into amber eyes. The thing standing in the hallway has blue skin. Oh god, is that a puppet? The monster creaks as it moves and shifts the baby in its arms so that Ryo can see its damaged head and painfully familiar green eyes.

Its head was damaged from hitting the pavement. His own mental voice cuts through his head.

He cannot breathe. He cannot breathe because he now knows. That puppet, that monster is…

It creaks and reaches out a hand.

That monster is…

Mommy.

"Run," says a broken, tattered body. "Run," says the person who is practically a corpse.

There is a roaring in his ears from the sound of someone screaming.

"I did not mean for you to run forever." Says the puppet. Says the tattered corpse of a soul.

The hallway melts away to be replaced by the sunlit place, and his mother drifts away to the far end of it.

"Come, Ryo. We were just about to redesign your room."

The important part of Ryo runs down the hall with only two doors and towards his mother. His body, which Alister has been shaking and shouting at to snap out of whatever trance its in and to stop screaming, goes limp and falls into Alister's arms. The important part of Ryo does not hear the calls and shouts of his friends nor does he see them gather around his still breathing body, which Alister slowly lowers to the floor. He does not see anything besides the dark chestnut door in front of him. He does not feel anything but the cool metallic doorknob in his grasp and the hard stone floor touching his bare feet. He does not hear anything except for the click the door makes as he turns the knob and pushes it open.

Behind him, the windows have been replaced by stone walls. The same stone walls that surround a dark iron door.

The room he enters is white. That really is its defining trait. The walls are white. There are pictures of different colors on all the walls, but they are blurry and barely distinguishable at best, so they do not diminish the whiteness. The pile of blankets and pillows that sit for an unknown reason in the corner are white with traces of light blue throughout them. The plush carpet beneath his feet is actually off-white, but that just adds to the overall brightness of the room. As he walks further into the room, Ryo squints his eyes. It is too bright here in this bedroom. (No, that is not the name for this room, but no label that Ryo can think of fits this odd place.)

The brightness obscures his vision enough that he ends up tripping over some object in his path. As he goes sprawling to the floor, his right foot throbs. For a moment, he lays stunned on the padded floor before turning around to look at what tripped him. A squarish object covered by a white sheet, like the ones people use to cover furniture during cleaning, sits there with his right leg propped over it.

A surge of emotion courses through the boy's body. Instead of the white heaviness of before, a sense of grey dread overtakes Ryo. Pupils dilate and the leg that touches the sheet tingles as if spiders run across it.

This is wrong. This thing is wrong. Get rid of it. It does not belong here. His inner voice trembles, as does his body. One blink of an eye later, the boy has pulled his leg away from the sheet-covered object and has ripped off the sheet. A compulsion overtakes him and he finds himself tearing the sheet apart. As white strips of it are torn off, they first turn grey, then black, and then finally disintegrate into ash. By the time all that is left of the sheet is soot on the floor, the boy heaves from his efforts. Wide pale green eyes stare at the uncovered object- a diorama of a mansion with many large windows.

Wait, this is where Mother, Amane, the baby, and I lived. I rememb-

The dream he had earlier that day comes rushing back to him in perfect clarity. So does the memories of the bridge and of the horrors he has faced every night for the past few days. As he holds his head against the pain of regained memories, the whiteness of the room seems to brighten and a heavy cloud of forgetfulness descends upon the boy.

No.

The brightness stops increasing.

I will not forget this time.

It dims then increases in luminosity again.

I refuse to let whatever is hidden in this room, in my soul-

The name for this room finally clicks.

-Be kept from me. This is my soul room.

The boy looks up. Determination is set in his features. It courses through him, through this room. The overabundance of light reduces to levels lower than when he first entered this room.

And I refuse to let whatever is intruding into it to hide my own memories, my own life from me.

His quiet, but strong-willed, words cause the white to pulsate. The other sheet-covered objects finally become visible as the sheets covering them turn grey and contrast with the carpet and walls. The white wallpaper starts to peel as if some extreme heat passes by it. The boy finds himself helping whatever power his thoughts had by crawling to the nearest object and tearing at the decaying sheet.

When the boy is finally done, the room is in a chaotic state. The carpet is stained a light grey, and ash particles fall like snow around Ryo. Most of the picture frames on the wall have fallen or been torn off and many have broken glass coverings. The original pictures of these broken frames have been torn out and into pieces, but many had another picture hidden behind them. Although, most of the true pictures are still blurry to Ryo's eyes.

There are objects scattered everywhere throughout the soul room. Some are broken and others are covered in piles of soot. The pillows are a feathered mess, yet the blueish blankets have been folded neatly into a pile in the center of the room. The white wallpaper is still peeling and falling off in chunks off the wall. However, underneath it is a pale blue and lavender pattern wall.

Besides the blankets, the only objects untouched by the chaos sit in the center on top the blankets. Ryo looks over them.

The diorama from earlier is unfolded- revealing every detail within the house. There is one picture leaning against the diorama. It is an ordinary picture of his family. His mother and father are sitting down in it and smiling while Amane and him are being held in place on a lap. It is extremely important. Ryo knows this. Yet, he does not remember the reasons for its importance.

The last object is the case that he made that contains the miniatures of his friends. Warmth radiates from it. It is the only warmth in this cold room, so Ryo stands close to it. He kneels down next to it and reaches one hand out to it. When the boy's fingers brush its surface, the room around him disappears and Ryo falls back into himself.