The alarm on his phone blared in his ear. He threw his phone at the distant wall to shut it up, but it continued to play, and Bakura had to roll out of bed, onto the floor, and stumble over to the other side of the room to shut it off.
His eyes were bloodshot. Hikari approached hesitantly, rippling with his silvery tendrils. "... Bakura? How are you feeling?"
He'd had another of the old nightmares last night, and it hadn't ended until his phone had dragged him from sleep's heavy clutches. He rubbed at his temples and groaned under his breath. "Like horse shit," Bakura rasped. His voice was rough and cracking. "Look it, too."
"And smell it," Hikari added.
Bakura glared. "Not helping." It was far too early to be dealing with something like this from a wisp.
"No, wait," Hikari said slowly, drawing a bit closer. His color pulsed from dark to light to dark to light. "No, not just smell, you reek."
"How can you even sm-"
"No, not physically. You reek of black magic. It's all over you. It's... Ugh." Hikari cringed and curled inward, and he floated backward. He sounded like he was going to be sick. "It wasn't this bad yesterday."
Bakura frowned. "What do you mean, wasn't this bad? I smelled like magic before?"
Hikari nodded, still curled inward. He held a pair of tendrils an inch apart from one another. "Little bit."
Bakura made a noise of disgust. "Lovely." Of course it wasn't enough for the book to turn his eyes a different shade of red. It had to make him smell too, and it had a vaguely familiar scent. Something that made him slightly nauseous in spite of himself.
He stomped off to take a shower. Out of courtesy, Hikari lingered in the room.
Bakura was toweling off his hair when he came back in, red mark gleaming on gaunt, white skin. "Better?" he asked. He sniffed his arm. It smelled like soap and something burning.
Hikari curled inward once more. "No, it's still there." He drifted slowly down. "Hmmm. What herbs does your aunt have in the house?"
Bakura shrugged. "Probably not many."
Hikari ambled aimlessly, as if pacing. "Huh... There might be candles in the attic... Those would work, I think, if I remember right."
Bakura stuck his head up there and found a sack full of votives near the chest. He shook the sack, and the glass rattled noisily. "What are they for?"
Hikari cringed as Bakura stepped slightly closer, and he mimed gagging. Bakura rolled his eyes. Goddamned drama queen.
He brought them down. Hikari struggled to talk Bakura through some sort of ceremony involving lighting them and washing his hands off several times with water from the bathroom faucet. The ritual chants were strange, and Hikari had to lead him through it a few times to get the wording correct. He finished by blowing the candles out one at a time.
"So. That accomplished...?" Bakura asked, sniffing his arms again. Now he smelled like soap and tallow, but the burning smell was gone.
Hikari bounced. "A lot, actually! Much better! Yes, I remember! That's a way to cleanse you of shadows to go undetected!"
"Who would be looking for the shadows?" Bakura asked. "Besides you and me?"
Hikari shivered. "I- I can't remember right now. But... There's a reason practitioners stayed quiet most of the time. I'll try and remember what it was."
Bakura snorted. "Right. Well. At least I don't smell like tar and campfire anymore."
Yugi was staring again. It was becoming more than a little bothersome. The pest was looking at him like he'd grown a second head in the night, and it was getting old really fast. He knew he didn't smell. He showered just that morning, and anyway, no one else seemed to have a problem with him. Bakura kept to himself, and that was good enough for most students. They were scared enough of Bakura's warning growl to keep their distance.
Bakura drummed his pencil on his desk. Yugi was a mild annoyance and nothing more. His real problem had a hell of a lot more to do with shadows. This thing with getting Hikari out of the house was getting thornier and thornier.
He knew he could do better than some sort of compromise between the drain he felt with the sigils and the pain Hikari felt without them. There had to be a way to make the design better. Bakura was better than this.
But getting Hikari out was just one thing. Refining the design and improving the sigils would make it easier on Bakura, for certain, but it wouldn't be a real solution. Getting Hikari out of the house like that was a temporary work-around at best, and it was no better than putting a bandage over a problem when what it really needed was stitches.
What he really needed to do was sever the connection between Hikari and the house, somehow. And to do that, he needed to find out why it was that Hikari couldn't leave in the first place.
He sighed to himself. This would take more reading, he was sure. And since he'd picked his way through most of the section in the Necronomicon already, he wasn't sure how much good that particular work was going to do. Maybe it was time to go back to the Compaendium…
He heard his name called and he glanced up. Naraki-sensei was looking at him, beckoning him to the front of the class. He glanced left and right. The other students were hard at work on their assignment. Naraki had never given a damn about whether or not Bakura had paid attention before, so Bakura didn't know what this could be about.
He made a slight face as he stood. Maybe Naraki had figured out that he wasn't allergic to anything and that his excuse yesterday was bullshit. As if Naraki would do anything about it though.
He stood in front of the desk.
"Yes?"
"Bakura, would you be able to stay after class today?" Naraki asked.
Bakura narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"You aren't in trouble. I just have an assignment of yours that I need to go over with you. It shouldn't take too long, I promise."
Bakura tightened his expression but agreed. Resisting would seem more suspicious at this particular point. It was obvious enough that Naraki was lying. The slight flaring of nostrils and a downshift in how often he blinked was reason enough to suspect. This was not about some assignment.
Bakura smirked to himself. What was the worst thing that could happen? They'd suspend him? Oh no, a free opportunity to spend all day lounging in bed reading his black magic books. The horror.
After classes had finally finished and the final bell had rung, Bakura sat back in his desk as he watched the other students leave. Yugi couldn't stick around and chat, despite how much Bakura knew the kid must have wanted to talk. Bakura wasn't used to being the popular one. He didn't particularly enjoy it.
When the classroom was empty, Naraki finally glanced up. His red pen paused its grading. "Thank you for staying Mr. Kurokawa. Could you please shut the door for me?"
Bakura rolled his eyes but stood up anyway. He kicked the doorstop out of the way and let it fall shut. He started to turn.
Naraki was already standing, and he was smiling darkly. His eyes flashed bright orange. That was when Bakura noticed the huge ball of shadows coming right for him.
"Shit!" He jumped out of the way as two more were launched at him, crackling with residual darkness as they struck the wall and vanished. He dodged them too, and found himself right in the path of one more.
He brought his hands up and willed the shadows to stop in his hands. They curled obediently within his fingertips, and he hurled it back without hesitation.
Naraki snapped and it vanished before it could get anywhere near him.
"Good, good," Naraki said, strolling away from his desk. "Rough, but lots of potential. Lots to work with. Good."
"What the deuce?" Bakura snapped.
"How long have you been at it, kid?" Naraki continued.
What had Hikari said just that morning? Something about someone looking for shadowtouched?
Bakura snapped upright quickly and arranged his face into the most innocent mask he could muster. "Pardon? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Been at what?"
Naraki huffed and rolled his glowing orange eyes over dramatically, the way a teenage girl might. "You're almost a grown man. Don't play coy. You know what I'm talking about, shadowmage."
He pointed his finger at Bakura's chest and gave it a flick. The buttons on Bakura's uniform jacket popped open and the collar of his shirt dragged down low enough to show the edges of the red mark over his heart. The mark started to glow slightly and the shadows under the skin began to churn visibly. It flared briefly with a bit of pain.
Bakura gaped. He jerked the collar back up quickly. "The fuck, man!?"
"Obviously it hasn't been a long time," Naraki continued, "seeing as you clearly don't know much. I could tell that much from the moment you first stepped into my classroom. To be honest, I figured the ability was latent, and that you weren't even conscious of it. But you've learned to mask your presence, so clearly you know something."
"I don't know what the bloody hell you're talking about," Bakura snapped.
Naraki smirked. He had the look of a preening, pompous bird of paradise, particularly when he gave his fingers a sassy snap towards Bakura's face.
Something cold washed over his skin, targeting his eyes, and he felt a strange warm flicker within. The flow of magic cut off.
"Red. Interesting. It's pretty rare to get a color like that," Naraki continued. He clicked his fingers beside his own eyes, and their old brown color reappeared briefly before it melted like chocolate into a vaguely goldish color. "Orange for me. Not as unique, but it's good for blending in with our kind."
"Our... Kind?" Bakura asked. He glanced at his reflection in the glass of the window. Colors were hard to see, but the shape of his pupils was plain enough. Naraki had somehow cut the magic off. But how had he managed that?
Naraki made a face. "Huh. You really don't know anything. I thought you did. I'll have to ask about the eyes later..."
"Stop getting off topic," Bakura growled. "What the hell is going on?"
Naraki swept his arms outward and then snapped his fingers, letting a few tendrils of smoky black shadows curl just above the skin. Lines traced themselves onto the floor, leaving a smoking sigil on the cheap, scuffed tile. The shape of it was foreign, but appeared vaguely, unmistakably similar in origin to the mark on Bakura's chest. "I'm taking you under my wing, my shadowmage friend. I always did want a pupil, and you're making a mess of things as you are."
Bakura looked from the curling bits of shadow in Naraki's hands to the glowing orange eyes set into his face.
"I'll think about it."
Naraki sputtered and his shadows went out. The tile wiped clear. "What? Don't you want to do cool stuff like this?" He tried again with the shadow balls and made them spin in circles. It was like a juggling circus monkey.
Of course Bakura wanted to know how he did this. But he knew when he was in unknown waters, out of his depth. He knew when to tread more carefully around things when other people knew infinitely more than him. Hikari was a very unreliable source of knowledge, but was at least unlikely or incapable of turning on him.
Bakura set his expression and crossed his arms. How was he going to play this? Casual? Excited? Cautious? He had to decide what he wanted quickly.
It would be nice to have someone who knew this stuff. But then again, Bakura preferred working alone and already had more than enough tag-alongs to speak of. And on top of that, someone like this could probably kill him if he wasn't careful. It was difficult to navigate those particular waters and it would be nice if he didn't have to.
How much information could he pump out of Naraki in this tutorial stage, Bakura wondered, before he was forced to make a choice...?
He opened his mouth in artificial wonder, trying to channel some of the same joy that came from an amazed Hikari. "I just- wow! This is so much to take in. What did you call me? Shadow...?"
Naraki was visibly relieved. Hook, line, and sinker. "Shadowmage. One of our kind. My teacher told me when I was young and just starting out that we are unique in this world. The only beings who can harness the shadows beyond the veil. And we can do it all because of our special connection with the shadows that touch our hearts."
Bakura oohed and aahed as appropriate. "And you would be willing to teach me, no cost or anything? I'm here on scholarship after all. I can't afford to pay you."
Naraki smiled and nodded happily. "Yes, I can! You would just have to help with my rituals on occasion and do as I say. Shouldn't be a problem, right? It'll be just like normal school, except with more interesting subject matter."
Bakura nodded slowly. Shit. He could read between lines, and he wasn't so sure that he liked the payment cost.
Some of the rituals in the book, especially a few of the higher ones meant for powerful mages who no longer needed the sigils for most things, could get highly specific with their needs. That, or they asked for things like human souls and blood from a newly dead animal. And the drain from participating in them would be... severe, to say the least. He was already feeling the drain from his own explorations. Adding more could be too much.
He needed more time to think. He needed to stall Naraki. What else to ask? He quickly went over the conversation as it was in his head. Then he scowled. "What did you mean when I said I was making a mess of things?"
Naraki made a childish face. "You brought a shadowwatcher with you and you're going to get me in trouble if I don't help you get rid of him."
"What is a shadow-watcher?" Bakura asked.
"You really don't know anything, do you? Shadowwatchers are like cops. Except they don't think there's any good shadowmage except for one that's dead or on the force. Corrupt bunch of bureaucratic assholes..." Naraki started to mutter on and on.
"Well, you've got that wrong. I don't have anyone like that. Trust me, I would know if someone followed me here. They'd stick out like a sore thumb in England, or they'd stick out in Japan." Bakura grinned.
"Are you that dumb?" Naraki asked. He jerked his thumb toward Yugi's desk. "Kid sticks out in both places."
Bakura sputtered. That twerp was the one Naraki was concerned about? "Motou? I thought he was just annoying!"
"Oh, he's annoying," Naraki grumbled. "Making it hard for me to get anything done. I've lived here for two years, kept my head down, no watchers. Now you show up with one on your tail and I have to walk lightly and hope no one catches on."
Bakura stared at the table. That would explain some things, mainly why Yugi was so intent to pry. Maybe he could smell the magic on Bakura's skin, the way Hikari could. That would explain the jarring reaction when it was suddenly gone.
"What happens if Yugi... I don't know. Gets me? Or you?"
"They get you, then they're going to try to get you to come peacefully. If you resist, they'll try to shut that down with shadows. Then they'll give you the choice to join, becoming an obedient little worm the rest of your life, or die. They come for me... I bring down as many with me as I can before I go. And I'll probably take a few out, with any luck." Naraki wore a pleased grin that did not suit his narrow face.
"So watchers are dangerous to us... Good to know," Bakura said, nodding consideringly. He used the delay to run details over in his mind one last time.
Naraki wasn't making this up, as far as Bakura could tell. Hikari had mentioned being hunted, and the idea of the watchers was directly in line with that. But did he need Naraki's help? It went down to how big a deal these watchers were, and how much Naraki knew that wasn't in the books.
It was impossible to size Naraki up just by looking at him, but he was undeniably more experienced than Bakura and only expected to be able to resist a few of the watchers at most. But that wasn't the important thing Bakura had gotten from this.
Clearly, it was death or capture with the watchers, so Bakura could expect lethal force from them. But it didn't matter if he killed one or killed a dozen watchers to keep under the radar. There would be more to take their place, and they would not roll over so easily as that. Numbers would overwhelm any shadowtouched eventually.
So if he was in their range, he had to convince them of his innocence. Which meant, unfortunately, killing Yugi to rid himself of the problem wouldn't work. Bakura would have been okay with that. He'd had the mind to do so several times already before today, and this was just sort of the icing on the cake.
Well. No suspicious accidents for Yugi then. At least, not for a while. Bakura could also keep his head down for a while until Yugi left. Probably wouldn't take that long. But that was so slow, and Naraki seemed to have a mind to stop the problem quickly...
Which left just one thing.
"So, what kinds of things can I learn, if I wanted to join you?" Bakura asked.
Naraki drummed his fingers on his desk, wearing a Cheshire smile. "Everything, Mr. Kurokawa. Everything and anything. There are but a few limits to those who know how to take what they want or need."
Bakura blinked for a long moment, and then a lazy smirk drew across his face like a knife wound. "Really? Where do I sign up?"