Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: its kind of funny as I edit these chapters while at the same time write the outcome of the questions presented in these chapters.
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Bakura made a line straight for his bedroom, unbuttoning his school uniform as he moved having already checked the weather before he went to school. Now all that was left was just getting the clothes on and then putting on the rest of his accessories. He saw the bag he had set aside while the children ran along around him and out the walls. But so long as they maintained a positive relationship with the native souls, Bakura was fairly confident that he wouldn't have to deal with a sizable amount of resistance from the adult spirits.
Once he was in something looser he pulled out his bag, weighed heavy with tools used in the trade. Torn more by his inability to get rid of it and the necessity of keeping it around, as he walked to the couch in the living room. He sat down next to Malik before removing a roll of cloth out of the bag he had brought with him. It was an old smokey gray cloth that looked dirty from years of exposure to oils and other chemicals used to keep and maintain specialized metals. Rolling it out along the table showed a series of knives and small pins. Well maintained as Bakura began selecting which blades and pins would be the best for the current situation.
The plans didn't involve breaking and entering, but there was 'always' a chance that it would be necessary. He'd need to bring lock picks for houses and stores, daggers for self defense as well as pins and wires. A few bags of spiky surprises in case people tried to chase them, there was the smoke grenades as well and rope as well.
There was this passive voice in the distant part of his mind that wondered what his fangirls would say if they saw the spread. Not from the aspect that he was a trained thief, thank you Sennen Ring you abomination. But that the muscle tone that he had came from years of carrying well so much metal.. On a regular 'basis'.
He picked up the pins and began delicately braiding it into his hair sheathing it so it didn't make noise when he moved, and could be easily extracted in times of need. The lightest of the pins always located higher up in his hair around the upper ear parts of his hair line. From there he would braid in the heavier pieces, closer to the neck line. Regretting both that he didn't get his hair cut, and that he was in a situation where he couldn't get his hair cut.
"Well that explains why you're so fluffy," Malik noted trying to be cocky and arrogant but quickly becoming hypnotized by just how skilled Bakura was.
The guy was 'literally' pulling as much as only three to nine strands of hair to pull off these braids and with such precision. It reminded him that Bakura 'was' a thief, not just the spirit in the Ring or perhaps it was a lasting 'gift' to Bakura. Even before this Bakura, when it came to the whole Demon thing, was showing an incredible amount of maturity.
Where as Malik was strangely charged up, and he wasn't sure how he couldn't be excited about this. Traveling to another land, literally taking part of a covert operation to find out about this group that bombed the Game Shop. It was something that he shared with Jounouchi, the chance to 'do' something more than sit around. Yet every time he or Jounouchi had started to get 'over their heads' as Bakura put it, it was the thief who reminded them of the seriousness of the situation.
In a way that brought Rashid and Isis to Malik's mind. Often leading to him being reminded by various sources in the know that, Bakura was a full grown man back then and carried that weight with him now. When forced he would use the tactics associated with back then, which would passively cause him to 'act' the age he would feel more suited to the task.
Or to be less theatrical about it... being a stupid, young, adult would be suicide and he was subconsciously using his more experienced past to work from.
For that matter Bakura didn't even seem to hear his comment and was more fixated on doing his hair. And Malik had to admire that level of skill as he sat there. As the pins disappeared into that thick white mane of hair it never weighed anything down. Malik was impressed how he was literally sitting 'right next' to Bakura. Yet if someone were to ask him where the pins were he couldn't answer with confidence that Bakura even 'had' these pins or lock picks in his hair.
There weren't many pieces that ended up in Bakura's hair and once the thief was done he shook his hair out. Letting it settle down naturally on his shoulders again and leaving Malik speechless at how there was no 'sound'. Only the soft rustle of hair and not a single metallic ring from the metal he just braided into his mane. It was almost unnatural how well Bakura just went back into this life style, especially when it wasn't 'his' life style. That the Spirit knew how to do this was understandable, but for Ryou? It raised an irritating question in the back of his mind, that he found himself voicing, "What good am I to this group?"
"Hmm?" Bakura didn't look over at Malik as he stood up. Instead he walked to the bathroom and dug out his kohl stick. It should have felt strange how he automatically wanted to do what Spirit did when he possessed Ryou's body. Donning the same gear and eye make up, but than a part of him felt this was 'his' normal. But who really knew? Maybe the spirit just stole it from Bakura. Regardless, there was something soothing about the feeling of applying his eye make up. Each stroke of the kohl pencil was coupled with a softly spoken prayer for protection and aid.
"Its nothing important," Malik replied suddenly feeling like a kid being told to hush by a grown up. Instead he leaned over and examined the gear that Bakura already had laid out. The assortment of gear was interesting, considering he never saw the tools of a thief's' trade. Each curl, hook, sharp point, or thread had a purpose that Malik didn't know off hand, making for an interesting bit of study while Bakura was busy.
The items passively calling out Maliks' limited use in this operation since. He couldn't speak English and lacked any special skill set that would make him useful. Unlike Jounouchi who 'could' fight and Bakura who was a thief. Though he feared the answer and wanted to stay silent, this felt too important. "Say, Bakura?"
Bakura finally walked out of his bathroom, his posture and movements making it hard to believe that he wasn't in possession of a particular gold and bone combo item. But his expression was still the Ryou that Malik knew. Even though his eyes were what caught Malik's attention the most, now that Bakuras' eyes were lined in black kohl. He looked like a benevolent version of the Spirit that used to possess him.
But the fixation on his eyes showed he was paying attention to Malik in a way as to say 'what?'.
"What am I doing here exactly? You have your skills, Jounouchi can fight, am I really the best person for this job?" Malik asked, hating himself for having to confess this sense of uselessness. But swallowing his pride for the sake of the importance of the mission. He leaned back in the couch, his arms crossed as to punctuate his statement with an indifferent shrug.
"Historian." One word, given with calm, rational, practicality as though to say 'hey stupid what did you think you were doing here?'.
"Yeah right smart ass," Malik retorted with a semi eye roll for effect. "But you 'remember' Ancient Egypt, what good am I? I don't know anything American, while you have the language down, and all those thieving skills."
Bakura blinked at him, unsure if they were having this conversation or he was going crazy, before he shrugged and made his way back to the couch. Goofy kid this one. "I may have the memories of a 30something year old man from Egypt. But I was a 'thief' I don't have the education of someone who lived 'in' the palace. If it helps though, I thought about replacing you with your siblings, either one of them would have been more useful, because they 'were' raised in the same rigorous training as at the time of Yugi. Where as the information you have is from around that time, but its skewed because of what Kaiba was doing to protect the seal and Yugi."
Malik blinked in surprise at how easily Bakura could rattle off 'Oh sure I was going to replace you like a tire on a motorcycle'. But any offended argument was drowned out by Bakura carrying on oblivious to Maliks' moody outrage.
"But after a conversation I had with Yugi, I realized that Isis is busy working with him on a particular project. So that nixed her, and Rashids' facial marking makes him a problem because it makes him look like a criminal. Sure I have white hair, you're black with natural blond hair and wearing eye make up, and Jounouchi is Japanese who bleaches out his hair to that shade of blond..."
"He 'bleaches'?!" Malik blurted out in surprise, only to get steam rolled by Bakura continuing to talk.
"But facial scarring can be attributed to prison life and would make people more wary of him thus taking more note, where as we have Halloween on our side. And I don't do 'let people be able to recall me if pressured'. Whereever we go, I want to be in and out and forgotten as fast as possible. So no to Rashid, from there its pretty obvious that the royal family and head magician were out of the running. Kaiba is mostly the walking dead, Yugi is working with Isis and doesn't even 'have' all his memories. And yes, he was my 'first' above all choices save we both know his memory state. Mahaado, while possible is so riddled with restrictions about what he 'can' and can 'not' talk about. Its just easier to skip him all together if Yugi isn't with us."
Bakura finished out before giving a slight shrug, "Beyond him well, Honda's knee and hearing is a no go, Anzu isn't a fighter, and while she's 'great' for distraction the ring only has three spots on it and I felt knowing priestly duties might prove more valuable... Ryuji and Mai are both out of the country at the moment... So yeah, you get to be stuck with me for this journey. Let me know when you start regretting this fools trip we're both on." Bakura explained as he began extracting knives of various sizes from his cloth roll.
Malik sighed at the sudden analytical thought process that Bakura showed, marginally because he was impressed. He fancied himself as a solid planner and thinker, but in retrospect he really didn't put any thought into this beyond the three of them going to California, a road trip if you would. It made him rather self aware of how different this mission was compared to what he had committed himself to before.
Of course 'his' mission had been to take the Sennen Puzzle and kill the Pharaoh, he didn't care about the idiots who he took over with the Rod. Which may have been a leading cause why they were in 'this' particular scenario now. Or perhaps it was the only reason they had this lead to begin with, in retrospect, it was only because of Pandora that they were even aware to go to California. It was just pure luck that this group involved Pandora. If not Malik and company wouldn't have known about the strange occurrence in the graveyard.
This wasn't a grand plan with the intention to kill someone, rather it was intended to find and rescue Travis. But maybe not just him, what if the rest of the picture were in danger? "Think there's enough time to find the group and have them reach the graveyard?"
Bakura was in the middle of sliding a small strange knife down between his hip and his jean when the question made him pause. "What?"
"It occurred to me, the group was supposedly close right? The Pharaoh always had a circle of priests who served him. Would it be possible that whatever happened may have bound the group together and that's why they scattered? Trying to break a circle of friends sounds a lot like what happened to Yugi's circle. They may not have understood what they were experiencing and tried to escape the binding." Malik explained as he thought about the duty of the high priests and how they related to the Pharaoh. "We know there's a high chance that the person who sealed them was Egyptian, and we know there is 'some' Egyptian going on with the twins bloodline."
His line of thought was cut off as a knock on the door distracted the pair and without thought Bakura got up to answer it. "Like how they had those protections? That perhaps the 'priest' was an ancestral spirit protecting the family in some way?" He asked as he pondered the thought himself.
"Yes, possibly the sigils that were used aren't the only ones and they managed to unleash some other family member from beyond the grave." Malik elaborated as Bakura began to slowly nod.
"Yes, the spirits said that the wife is in a seeming shock or trance and barely able to interact with the world. I guess it could be possible that it would be her doing this without understanding exactly 'what' she's doing." Bakura replied as he opened the door, because Malik 'did' make sense. But... the only thing that didn't fit was that the seal on the graveyard happened 'after' the death and burial... wouldn't it make more sense to do that 'before' the burial? "Hi Jounouchi."
"AHH BAKURA!" Jounouchi cried out and literally threw himself against the wall on the opposite side of where Bakura stood. Although, to be fair to the poor teen, he honestly didn't expect the door to open and be brought face to face with the Thief of the Ring.
Bakura, unamused and unimpressed, stood there sighing as he closed his eyes and started counting to ten before he turned on his heel and walked back into the apartment. "He's all yours Malik."
"Huh wait... Ryou? Oh! Sorry man. Geeze my heart," Jounouchi got himself together as he walked into the apartment, the door left patiently open for him by the irate Bakura.
"My patience," Bakura retorted as he returned to his seat and began pulling up his pants leg to strap on a dagger before sliding it down so the tip was in his shoe.
Malik was cracking up from the antics before giving Jounouchi a welcoming wave, "don't worry, Bakura explained it to me."
"Explained?" Jounouchi asked clueless for a moment, glancing at Bakura's disinterested self working with, wow look at all those knives. Then the light bulb went off and his expression soured a bit, "Oh, that. Yeah she couldn't cheer in that outfit, but Anzu waited for me and I walked her home just in case."
"So what happened?" Malik asked, glad to have someone to talk to that didn't make him feel like a kid. He watched as Jounouchi walked in and dropped himself in the seat at the end of the table. The guy dropped his bag beside the seat and leaned back as though trying to relax.
Jounouchi was quiet for a bit, just long enough to roll his head so he could look over at Malik, then at a glance at Bakura he shrugged. "So Kaiba doesn't hang out with us in school, but the problem is that Mahaado is faintly a social type of guy. I get the impression he doesn't like a 'large' social circle, but he does like to have people around. Which doesn't work when your posing as Moneybags who spends all his time either working or reading between classes. Made worse by that regardless of what Kaiba says, Mahaado is Yugi's personal bodyguard."
Jounouchi rolled his shoulders a bit before he sat up and gave Malik a better amount of his focus, "so in short. Mahaado, as Kaiba, tends to try to find locations where he can pretend to read or work and keep an eye on Yugi. And you guys have fangirls, oh do you guys have fangirls."
Malik nodded slowly as he thought about it and given what he had experienced he could see people who intentionally stalked any one of the guys. Picking up on changes in pattern or behavior, only, "but why pick on Anzu?"
"Because Anzu treats Mahaado more warmly due to knowing its him and his responses are unlike Kaiba's more ice cold ones. So her fearlessly walking up to 'Kaiba' and treating him warmly and being acknowledged by Kaiba, moreover without Yugi's presence?" Bakura elaborated for Malik who turned to look at the white haired thief then back at his fellow blond.
Just to see the rueful, limp smile of agreement on Jounouchis' face. "The girls that fangirl over Kaiba got jealous when 'Kaiba' acknowledged her, and those are the ones that are giving trouble. She didn't think about it at the time, just thought she would help Yugi out by asking Kaiba about the R&D department of the company. Kura and Yugi have nice, sweet fangirls, they pout mostly when they feel ignored. But the two of them treat their fans better by acknowledging them, Kaiba treats them like they don't even exist in the same part of the world as he does. So they got jealous accusing Anzu of cheating on Yugi and got some of Yugi's fangirls in on it... They shred her whole uniform, soaked it in some nasty stuff, and honestly we're getting worried that Anzu might get attacked."
"Sounds like a bad way to end high school," Malik noted, wincing at both the idea of Anzu getting attacked, and the automatic guilt that came with the fact that 'he' used her at one time. More over, what happened to Honda and Yugi's family served as a reminder how dangerous things were for them 'now'. This secret group was bad enough, they didn't need high school drama threats to compound the issue. "Think its too late to get Mahaado to adjust this thing and bring Anzu with us?"
"Man I wish we could, maybe on the next trip," Jounouchi agreed with a faint grin on his lips. "Two people who speak English would make it possible for us to split up after all."
"Yes, and Ma'at forbid you actually pay attention in class so that you could speak English at all..." Bakura blithely added as he stood up and gave a small light hop. Half the metal in the roll he brought out was gone now, stored everywhere on the Thief King. But his hop was soundless save the weighted sound of fabric being rustled.
"Hey! English is hard!" Jounouchi argued, earning a flat unamused glance from the corner of Bakuras' black eye lined eyes.
"And riding Yugi's coat tails isn't, yes, but you did make 'some' effort to distinguish yourself from his shadow. You should keep doing that in your academics as well," Bakura retorted.
"I miss teenage Bunkura," Malik finally muttered loud enough to be heard.
"Me too," Jounouchi grumbled.