Note for those of you who've read Spirit Keeper: I'm going to be reusing some of my old writing. Hope you don't mind reading the same thing twice, even if some of it is slightly altered. I did say this was a rewrite, didn't I? And it's not really stealing if I'm the one who originally wrote it.
After classes ended the next day, Ryou went to the school library to look for some books. He sat at the computer and looked up where to find the books he was looking for; first the history section, and then the mental health section.
In the history section he found a bunch of books about Ancient Egypt which would help him with his research. However the mental health section of the library was disappointingly limited. Ryou picked up a few books on autism that looked helpful, but none of the books about ASPD seemed to be any good. Many of them contained the big fat word EVIL on the covers, so they were clearly written from a biased point of view. Ryou signed despondently.
"Need some help?" said a voice.
Ryou spun around and saw Otogi standing behind him.
"Oh hi Ryuji!" Ryou said.
"Hey Ryou. Whacha looking for?" Otogi asked.
"I'm trying to find a book about Cluster B personality disorders that isn't biased."
"Cluster B? What's that?"
"You know, the sociopaths, narcissists, borderlines, and histrionics. The four personality disorders of Cluster B. Haven't you heard of them?"
"I've heard of most of those, expect histrionics. What are histrionics?"
"They're exactly the same as the sociopath except just more extreme. Sociopaths are attention-seeking and dramatic, and histrionics are basically the same except just more attention-seeking and more dramatic," Ryou explained. "Personally I don't know why they don't just put both disorders together in the same spectrum. It's like having Asperger's Syndrome as a separate disorder from autism. What's the point of making them separate when one is just a different functioning level? It makes no sense to me. But whatever. Haven't you noticed that every time someone writes a book about Cluster Bs, it's from the perspective of an outsider? I want to know the experiences of people who actually have the disorders and the struggles they go through. It's very disappointing that these are all we have," Ryou said, gesturing to the bookshelf.
"Why are you researching them?"
"I just think it's important to know the perspectives of marginalized minority groups, that way we can learn to understand each other better."
Otogi nodded. "I figured you'd be the kind of person who'd care about the most marginalized members in society. I take it you're a LGBT supporter too?"
"Yes of course!"
"That's good," Otogi said with a breath of relief. "I hope you find what you're looking for. Maybe check the Domino public library. They might have a better selection."
"That's a good idea! I was planning to go there next."
"Well, I'll see you around. Bye now."
"Bye Ryuji! See you in class tomorrow."
Ryou went to the Domino public library, but unfortunately didn't find what he was looking for there either. He took whatever books he had gathered and went home, where he started researching Ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, the books didn't seem to offer enough details on what Ancient Egypt looked like for him to be able to create the diorama. He began to feel anxious about whether he would be able to build it after all.
Whenever Ryou got anxious, his go to solution was to lie down, get some rest, and visit his soulroom for a little bit. So that's what he did. He lay down in bed and used the magic of the Millennium Ring to enter his soulroom, where he sat down to ponder his predicament.
Ryou sensed the soulroom door opening. There was only one other person who could be entering the room, so he didn't bother to look around to see who it was.
"Something on your mind?" the Spirit asked.
"I'm having second thoughts about the diorama," Ryou muttered despondently. "I don't think there are enough records of what Ancient Egypt looked like for me to be able to do enough research. I'm thinking maybe I should tell Malik I can't build the diorama after all."
"That's quitter talk."
"I know, but what can I do? I don't have much of a choice."
The Spirit was silent for a moment, but then walked up to Ryou and stood next to him, reaching out his hand. "Come, Yadonoushi. I think it's time I show you what my soulroom looks like."
Ryou's eyes widened. "Really? You mean it? You're letting me see your room?" He sprung up and started to close in for a hug. "Oh thank you! I…"
The Spirit took a step backwards away from Ryou. "Hey back off! I told you I don't like to be touched!"
"Sorry! Sorry! I forgot." Ryou rubbed his arm awkwardly and stared at the floor.
The Spirit sniffed and folded his arms. "Before we go, let's establish a rule first. You are only allowed inside my soulroom as long as I'm there to supervise. No going in when I'm not around. Understood?"
Ryou nodded. "Understood."
"Alright, come on, follow me."
Ryou followed the Spirit into the hallway that divided their rooms, and then he watched as the Spirit unlocked the heavy bolted chains on his soulroom door, opening the door to reveal a large, expansive desert at nighttime where miles and miles of sparkling sand stretched on as far as the eye could see. A river flowed in the distance and glistened with moonlight. Beyond the river laid the splendid buildings of an ancient civilization.
"Welcome to Ancient Egypt," the Spirit said smiling.
Ryou took a tentative first step into the Spirit's soulroom and looked around in wonder. The desert sand was soft and sparkly underneath his shoes, and the view of the civilization beyond the river was wonderful. He dug his hand into the ground and lifted up a handful of sand, letting it run through his fingers.
"Do you like it?" the Spirit said.
"It's beautiful," Ryou said.
"You haven't seen anything yet. Watch this." The Spirit jumped into the air and took off flying, high up at least several meters.
"Woah, you can fly?" Ryou marveled.
"You can fly too. Come up here."
Ryou did a light jump at first to test it. He floated up a little ways and fell back down slowly as if landing on the moon. He tried again, jumping higher this time, reaching almost the same height as the Spirit before he began to drop back down.
"This is…hard to get the hang of," Ryou breathed.
"It's okay. Follow my lead," the Spirit said as he held out his hand.
At first Ryou was hesitant, because he knew the Spirit didn't like being touched. But if the Spirit was holding out his hand to take, it should be okay. Ryou took the Spirit's hand and together they flew across the skies.
Soon they began to descend into the streets of a marketplace. Due to the fact that it was nighttime, the street was mostly empty except for a few beggars, street venders, and stray animals.
"Wow," Ryou breathed. "Wow. Look at all this!" He sprinted down the street like a child exploring a playground, taking in the details of his surroundings. "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh."
"Don't run off too far," the Spirit cautioned.
Ryou stopped in front of a street vendor selling cheap jewelry. "Excuse me, may I take a look at this?" he asked, pointing at one of the necklaces.
The street vendor didn't even look up.
"Hello?" Ryou waved his hand in front of the man's eyes.
"He can't hear you or see you," the Spirit said. "In this world, you and I are like ghosts, which means that nobody can perceive us at all. It also means we can't touch anything. Everything will fade right through us."
"Oh," Ryou said, crestfallen.
"Would you rather be gawked at like a zoo animal?" the Spirit said.
"No, it's better this way. It means I can study their society without being noticed." Ryou attempted to pick up a piece of jewelry, but faded right through his hand just as the Spirit said it would. At first Ryou was disappointed, but then an idea came to him. "If I'm a ghost, does this mean I can walk through walls?"
"Yes," said the Spirit.
Ryou immediately threw himself at the nearest wall to test it out. He entered a tavern where a group of jovial, drunken men were eating a meal and having a good time. Ryou laughed like a giddy schoolchild. "This is so cool! I can't believe this is actually happening."
Over by the corner, two men were shouting at each other in a language that Ryou couldn't understand. It was clear that they were arguing with one another. Suddenly, one of them lifted up a chair and smashed it down on the other person, knocking him out cold. Several angry men ran towards the one who was left standing, and soon a fistfight broke out.
"No! Don't fight!" Ryou said, forgetting that no one could hear him.
The Spirit grabbed Ryou's arm and pulled him towards the wall. "Come on."
"But what about– "
"The tavern-keeper will take care of it," the Spirit said. Sure enough, a woman was already at the scene, breaking up the fight and kicking the men out of her tavern.
The Spirit and Ryou returned outside into the streets. "So where do we go next?" Ryou asked.
"Wherever you want. The world is your oyster."
Ryou and Malik had been texting each other all week about when they wanted to meet again, and how to go about building the diorama of Ancient Egypt. Ryou had started gathering the materials for the diorama, but the amount of materials he had was so immense that it was filling up his bedroom and he simply didn't have enough space for all of it. Luckly, Malik said there was a room at the museum Ryou could bring all his stuff.
One day after school was over, Ryou packed all of his materials for the diorama into his schoolbag and took it to the museum. Malik was standing in front of the Tablet of Lost Memories, carrying a large brown tote bag.
"Hi Malik!" Ryou greeted with an enthusiastic wave.
Malik waved back. "Good to see you, Bakura. You ready to see the room I told you about?."
Ryou nodded. "Of course!"
"Now don't tell anyone about this room. It's not supposed to be open to the public yet." Malik pushed against the door where the Tablet of Lost Memories was hanging, and the wall rotated to reveal a hidden door. He pushed some more, and the wall rotated all the way, providing enough room to enter the secret room behind it.
Inside the secret room it was brightly lit and spacious. There were a bunch of artifacts from Ancient Egypt lying around, so it was slightly messy, however there still was a lot of empty space.
As Ryou followed Malik into the room, he looked around in wonder. "Woah, this is amazing! I never knew there was a room here. Was this always here?"
"This is the room where the new exhibition on Ancient Egypt is going to be located," Malik said. "For now, no one knows about it except for me, my siblings, and your father. We're still in the middle of getting all of the Egyptian artifacts set up and ready." He gestured towards the middle of the room, where there was a gigantic table. "Your diorama is going to go here, right in the middle. There's plenty of space for you to build it here."
"Wow…" Ryou walked up to the table and examined it in reverence.
"I can't stay today because I have to make a phone call, but if you need anything just shoot me a text," said Malik.
"Sounds good!" Ryou began to unpack his supplies and get settled. "Also, Malik, I really wanted to thank you for your help with getting me to go to therapy. You giving me the idea to pretend to have DID really worked!"
"Glad I could help," Malik said.
"Thanks to you, the Spirit and I can start working towards healthy multiplicity. And perhaps he can start getting help for his ASPD."
Malik froze. "Wait, what? Who has ASPD?
"The Spirit does. Or at least, that's what I thought until I learned more about the disorder."
"The Ring Spirit has ASPD?" Malik stated tonelessly. "Huh, why am I not surprised. That certainly explains a lot of things."
"Actually, ASPD isn't diagnosable for anyone under the age of eighteen, so he's not legally old enough to have it."
"Ryou, the Ring Spirit is like three-thousand years old. I think he qualifies as old enough."
"Oh yeah, I forgot." Ryou laughed and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Are you not worried?" Malik asked.
Ryou looked confused. "Worried? About what?"
"Well, you're sharing a body with a bona-fide sociopath. Doesn't that scare you at all? Is it really a good idea to be friends with him?" Malik said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Hey now, I'm not going to discriminate against him on the basis of him being mentally disabled. Who do you think I am?" Ryou said annoyedly. "It's funny, the therapist asked me the same thing about whether it's a good idea to be friends with you, considering you hurt me so much during Battle City."
Malik flinched, and then looked down at the ground in shame.
"And apparently I'm not allowed to be autistic because of the 'All of None' Rule." Ryou said with a sigh of disappointment.
"Wait, what?" Malik gaped. "You think you're autistic?"
"I had been suspecting it for many years. But the brain's neurology can't change during a switch, which means if the Spirit doesn't have autism then I can't have it either. I can only be autism-presenting."
"I mean that's true for DID systems, but you guys are a Millennium system so there's magic involved. It's possible that your brain's neurology actually does change during a switch."
"You mean I can be autistic for real?" Ryou's eyes sparked with joy. "That makes me so happy!"
"Yeah…good for you." Malik stared at the ground.
"I have you to thank for that as well! After you told me to get checked out for ADHD, it solidified the idea in my mind that there might be a deeper explanation for why I'm different. So I did some research, and it turns out I have both ADHD and autism, and that's why I never seem to fit in with people," Ryou said.
Malik turned around and slowly walked away until he exited the room, his head held low the whole way.
"Malik? Where are you going?" Ryou asked, but Malik was already gone. "Was it something I said?"
The Spirit laughed hysterically.
"What's so funny?" Ryou asked.
"You really have a way of making people feel bad about themselves, don't you?" the Spirit said.
"What are you talking about?"
"I think it's fairly common knowledge that autistic people are very easily traumatized and highly likely to be abused or bullied, and now Malik has to deal with the fact that the person he hurt the most just happened to be autistic? It really piles on to the guilt."
"Oh dear. Maybe I shouldn't have told him," Ryou said worriedly. "I hope he doesn't treat me any differently now that he knows."
It was almost closing time at the Kame Game Shop. As Solomon Mutou was sweeping the floor and getting ready to close up for the night, the phone suddenly rang.
Solomon picked up the phone and said, "Hello, this is the Kame Game Shop. How may I help you?"
"Hi, could I speak to Yugi please?" said the person on the other side.
"Sure thing, one sec." Solomon covered the receiver and shouted up the staircase, "Yugi! There's someone on the phone for you!"
Yugi came running down the stairs in his pajamas, having just been getting ready for bed. He took the phone from his grandpa and said, "Hello?"
"Hi Yugi, it's Malik."
"Oh hey!" Yugi quickly took the phone with him into his bedroom and shut the door to make sure that they wouldn't be overheard. "How's the search for the Millennium Items going?"
"We almost have them all. We know who has the Scales and Key. Now the only one we don't have is the Millennium Eye," said Malik.
"The person who has the Scales and Key is Shadi, isn't it?"
"So you know him! It makes sense that you would. Anyways, I have a message for the Pharaoh that I'm supposed to deliver. Is the Other You listening? It's really important for him to hear this."
"Yep he's listening," Yugi said as Yami Yugi manifested himself in transparent form.
"Good," said Malik. "So the Domino Museum is going to have a new exhibit on Ancient Egypt in about nine months. In order to get his memories back, the Other You has to bring the God Cards to the stone slabs at the Museum sometime before the exhibit opens, and the closer to the opening day of the exhibition the better. In fact, it's recommended that you do it exactly a day or two before the opening day or else it might not work properly."
"Nine months huh?" Yugi was quiet for a moment, thinking to himself. Nine months was longer than he had originally anticipated, which meant he had more time to spend with his Other Self before he left for the afterlife. That made Yugi very happy.
"Shadi will probably give you the Key and Scales when the time is right, and the Eye should turn up eventually. Anyways, I don't want to keep you up any longer than I already have. It must be getting late where you live considering the time difference, so let's talk some other day."
"Wait Malik, I've actually been meaning to tell you something," Yugi said in an apologetic tone. "We lost the Millennium Ring."
"Oh don't worry about that, I already know Bakura has it."
"He does!?" Yugi gasped.
"I knew it!" said Yami Yugi.
"But he told me he doesn't have it! Why would he lie to me?" Yugi cried. "We have to ask him to give it back!"
Malik sighed. "No, we should let him keep it. It belongs to him."
"What do you mean we should let him keep it?!" Yugi's voice suddenly became angrier and deeper, indicating a switch in personalities.
"Hello Pharaoh," Malik greeted.
"Malik, this is serious! What if the Ring's evil personality comes back? What if he hurts the real Bakura?"
"The Spirit of the Millennium Ring won't hurt Bakura," Malik reassured. At least not more than necessary, he thought but didn't say aloud. "And even if he did, there's not much anyone can do about it. The Ring chose Bakura, which means he's stuck with it no matter what. Even if you try to take it away from him, it'll always make its way back to him somehow. That's just how destiny works. It's better to just accept it and move on."
"You really think I can just sit back and accept it? All of my friends could be in danger!" Yami Yugi seethed.
"I'm really sorry but like it or not, Bakura was destined to own the Ring, just as Yugi was destined to own the Puzzle. There is a very specific set of events that need to take place and everyone who's involved has been assigned to a role that can't be changed. Bakura's role just happens to be less than desirable. I know that you want to help him but trust me; you might only make things worse."
Yami Yugi grumbled into the phone.
"Look," Malik said tiredly, "if it makes you feel any better, I can tell you for certain that Bakura's situation isn't as bad as you would think, based on what I saw when I looked into his mind. His life sure as heck isn't ideal, but he isn't suffering per se."
Malik crossed his fingers and prayed to the gods that Yami Yugi wouldn't ask for more details about Ryou's life. There were two important reasons why he couldn't divulge any more information: one, it would be impolite to talk about Ryou's family situation without his permission. And two, Malik would not dare to interfere with the Ring Spirit's planning.
Ryou's naivety blinded him from the truth, but Malik knew what was going on; he knew that the Spirit was deceiving Ryou. However he would not dare tell anyone about it; he just didn't have the courage to challenge destiny anymore after all of the crimes he committed during Battle City.
Luckily, Yami Yugi asked no questions and returned to the Puzzle. "We'll trust you for now," said the regular Yugi.
"Thank you Yugi. I'll call you again in a couple of days to give you an update on how things are going."
"Okay. Goodbye Malik."
"Bye Yugi, bye Pharaoh."
As soon as Yugi ended the phone call, Yami Yugi said, "Alright let's go."
"Go where?" asked Yugi.
"To save Bakura, of course. Destiny be damned, our friend is in danger! We have to get the Millennium Ring away from him. Now let's go."
Yugi shook his head. "No. I don't think we should do that."
"Why not?"
"If Bakura needed help, he would've asked us already. And besides, he did say that if he found the Ring he wouldn't wear it."
"Yugi, you and I both know how dangerous the Ring is, especially when it's around Bakura. He's in danger of being possessed again!"
"But there might be a good reason for why Bakura's lying to us. If we act without knowing the full story, we might make things worse for him." Yugi sighed. "I want to believe I can trust him."
Yami Yugi was silent.
"We'll keep a close eye on Bakura from now on. If we sense something is off, we'll rush in to save him. But for now, why don't we just wait and see what happens," Yugi said.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Yugi."
"It should be alright. Bakura's not stupid. He wouldn't do anything to put himself or his friends in danger again."
Yami Yugi didn't say anything in return. All he could think was that he hoped Yugi was right.