With the knowledge of the true nature of the Millennium Items still fresh in his mind, Ryou retrieved his from his treasure room in the company of Malik and Yugi. He knew neither of them was paying much attention to the Items' location - they were far too busy staring in astonished silence at the sheer amount of material possessions that littered the room.

He couldn't say he blamed them.

For someone as rich as he was, he certainly lived as if he was still a struggling high school student. His house, large and majestic as it was, was by no means perfect and in most rooms there were no signs of life at all. The house was far too big for him, really, but as the Bandit King he knew what was expected of him. Not to mention - those empty rooms had once housed his Bandits.

He lived, most days, off of ramen and tea rather than the expensive meals he knew Yugi and Seto Kaiba indulged themselves in. They'd probably think him insane if they knew that, of course, so he went out of his way to make it seem he was eating well and eating expensively.

He shook the thoughts away and shoved the Millennium Rod into Malik's hand while he threw the thin rope on the Ring around his neck. He had no need for the Rod, nor did he have any need for the ridiculous thoughts of material wealth and his weight. Yet those thoughts plagued him still.

His action, of course, snapped Malik out of his stupor, and he, in turn, snapped Yugi out of his.

"You stole all that?" Yugi asked, tone clearly disbelieving.

"At some time or another… Yes."

Somewhere at the back of his mind, Yugi's morals nagged at him that it was wrong. He kicked that part of himself. Hard. "That's… Impressive."

"You're having some kind of moral dilemma, aren't you?"

"Not at all. See, my morals piped up and I silenced them because I don't have time for that." Yugi gave him a smile. "I'll probably think about it a lot tonight, though, wondering about the original owners and the stores that lost profit because of you."

"Will you laugh about it?"

"Probably."

"You two are terrible." Malik informed him while Ryou closed the door behind them.

"Oh, like you're any better." Yugi rolled his eyes.

"I'm much better, thank you very much." Malik stuck his tongue out. "I'm a lowly tomb keeper, you two are thieving Kings."

"You forget your place." Ryou snickered. "You're a thieving King as well."

"I wish I wasn't. Being a tomb keeper seems much easier."

"... It really does." Ryou agreed.

Yugi gave an affirmative noise as well. Once they'd exited Ryou's house, Malik swiftly took the lead and neither of them questioned their destination. It wasn't like they really had anywhere to be, so following him was their best bet for actually getting something of any kind done

Whether that something turned out to be something productive or just sitting around talking all day didn't really matter.

Sitting around talking to each other was better than laying around in their houses alone and talking to themselves. There were certainly better things for them to do, of course, but they weren't going to go out of their ways to do them. It wasn't like they were under any sort of time constraint, anyway.

All they were waiting on to enact the next stage of their plans was Seto Kaiba finishing up the paperwork to sign over Kaiba Corp. to Yugi. Until that was done, they had all the time in the world and nothing to do with it. What was the use in trying to get business done?

Ah, but Yugi was thinking far too hard about it.

Not that he didn't always think far too hard about things that didn't need to be thought about too seriously. It was one of his many talents, really. Overanalyzing things was too easy for him not to be good at it. He snickered at the thought and moved just a bit closer to Ryou when a wind gust threatened to knock him over - Ryou, not him.

"Christ, Ryou, do you even eat?"

"Sometimes." Ryou gave a weak smile. "Why?"

"Don't think I didn't just see that." Yugi rolled his eyes. "I always thought Atem was kidding when he said that a particularly strong gust of wind could knock you off your feet, but now I know the truth."

Ryou rolled his eyes as well. "Fight me."

Yugi only chuckled at that one and gave him a gentle shove. Ryou smiled.

"So, speaking of Atem…" Yugi figured now was the best time to ask about that particular issue...

"What about him?"

"... I let him in on the plan. And he wants to know who the other Kings are."

Malik stopped walking, causing Yugi to run into his back. Ryou stopped as well and while Yugi backed up a bit and shook his head, Malik turned around. "You told him?"

"It was tell him and possibly get his help or hide it from him and chance never seeing him again." Yugi put his hands up in surrender. "And guess what? He wants to help."

"Are you sure?"

"He wants his brother back, Malik." The Pharaoh gave him a long look. "Surely you know that feeling."

Almost immediately, Malik deflated a bit. "I do."

"And about him wanting to know who the other Kings are…" Ryou raised a brow. "Have you told him?"

"I told him I wasn't going to chance pissing you guys off." A shrug. "And that I'd ask you guys about it and whether or not he gets an answer will depend entirely on you."

"If he's going to be helping us…" The Phantom King murmured, "We might as well tell him who we are. Ryou?"

"I have no qualms." Ryou shrugged. "But I insist on telling him myself."

"No problems with that here." Yugi put his hands up again. "I'll have fun watching him pick his chin up off the floor when he sees you."

The resumed their walk, then.

"Where are we headed, my dear Phantom King?" Ryou asked, stepping up his pace a bit to keep up with the somewhat taller man.

"To see my sister." He replied gruffly. "She's going to want to sort out who really needs the Items."

Ryou hummed at that. Yugi found himself wondering if he'd end up with the Puzzle - he liked the idea of that, really. It would be kind of fun to be able to use it for Shadow Games like Yami used to. Sure, he knew that Shadow Games were dangerous and losing would have disastrous consequences, but it sounded fun to have his soul on the line.

Call him an adrenaline junkie. He didn't care. He could always use a bit of a thrill nowadays.

Arriving at Malik's house, Yugi did feel somewhat apprehensive. He'd never been to the Phantom King's home before, nor had the Phantom King been to his. If they met at a house, they tended to meet at Ryou's, not only because it was bigger than both of their homes combined but because Ryou was a wonderful host. He was also quite insistent upon their occasional meetings taking place at his home. Yugi would go out on a limb and assume that that was probably because of some of Ryou's remaining anxiety preventing him from feeling comfortable with hanging out at their houses. Or at least at Yugi's.

He wasn't sure how Ryou felt about them hanging out at Malik's instead, but the subject had never really come up before.

Probably because Malik was a little bit self-conscious about his house. He didn't know.

Yugi really wasn't expecting the first thing that happened when they entered the door would be an Egyptian woman emerging from another room and beginning to speak in rushed Arabic. He had no idea what she was talking about, but Malik and Ryou were both flinching from time to time, so he assumed she was probably scolding them. Or at least Malik.

Suddenly, she stopped. "Ah, my apologies. A native Japanese?"

Yugi nodded.

She resumed her tangent in Japanese, then, and Yugi kind of thought the way that her Arabic accent crept into her words was cute. He was relieved to find that she was not scolding them, merely inquiring about the Items and insisting that they come into the living room to sit down.

Malik did not argue with her, even though he probably would have usually had a few words for anyone who tried to tell him what to do in his own home. Yugi allowed Ryou to sweep him off into the living room.

Sitting on the floor was a man that Yugi could only assume was Malik's brother, and he supposed the woman was probably his sister. They did look quite alike, despite the woman's hair being leagues darker than Malik's platinum blonde. He tried to shake the thoughts away and concentrate on what was currently happening. He forced himself to tune back into what the woman was saying.

… Something about needing to give the Items to their rightful owners.

Ryou and Malik laid the Ring and the Rod on the coffee table in front of her, but she shook her head. "No, these two have already found their owners." She said. "You will have great need of them in the future."

Her eyes moved to Yugi. "You. You are destined for one as well, but I sense it is not nearby." Her hand moved to her neck, to the golden necklace there. "It is with someone who is also more than right to wield it."

"That's not ominous at all." Yugi sighed.

He hoped she spoke sarcasm, and, judging by the way her lips curved up, was relieved to find that she did. "Not at all." She said smoothly. "Would you like to know which Item you are destined for?"

"Nah." He leaned back on the couch slightly. "I'd rather be surprised."

"Very well." Her smile widened. "That said, these are not the only gifts that today shall bring."

"Oh?" Malik raised his brow. "Did the Necklace show you something?"

"Yes." She said as she headed to the other side of the room and retrieved a box before returning to the coffee table. "You will need these…" She opened the box and set three smaller boxes on the table in front of the three Kings.

Malik hesitated, but was still the first to open his. Contained within was a glowing gem. It continually changed color with a watery sort of ripple. Ishizu explained calmly that it was something of a failsafe. As long as he carried it with him, he would effectively be invulnerable to most injuries.

Ryou raised a brow and opened his box next. Three beautiful rings glittered at him. He was informed that they were enhancers. One would make using the Millennium Ring easier, the second would help prevent demonic possession, and the third would give him better control over something he had difficulty with. He knew what she meant, of course. She was talking about his mind. His breakdowns. The flashes of green in his irises. But neither of the others needed to know that, so he merely nodded.

Yugi took a shuddering breath and opened his own slowly. He felt like his whole body went cold, for a moment. He could have sworn shadows were lashing out at him from under the lid. But then it was gone and all that was left was a locket on a thin golden chain.

"That is, perhaps, the most powerful item we can give you." Ishizu said, staring at him directly as he swallowed and carefully removed it from the box. "That locket contains more power than I have words to describe. It can do whatever you need it to. All you need to do is concentrate."

Belatedly, Ryou began to wonder how Ishizu suddenly knew all about them needing things and if she realized what they were doing. He doubted that Malik would keep their plans from her, though, so he let the subject drop.

"... Thank you." Yugi said softly.

"It is nothing."

He didn't think she understood just how much it was, but he didn't think he could ever possibly explain it. So he merely nodded to her and looked to Ryou, who was slipping the rings onto his fingers, rearranging the ones he already wore to accommodate them. Malik merely slipped his rock into his pants pocket.

With a shaky breath, Yugi donned the locket.

Of course, he knew he'd have a great deal of trouble using it - if concentration was required, he was fucked. He had no attention span anymore. Maybe he'd get lucky and he'd only have to concentrate for a couple of seconds. He could manage a couple of seconds.

But this was such a good thing… So why did he feel like his lungs were swollen shut?