Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: Getting closer to catching up!
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"If we're bringing Anzu, we should check with the twins first. We'll see about getting Anzu to join in for Josie next," Bakura announced as he sat down and bracing his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward. Malik reclined easily back into the couch on Bakura's left, while Jounouchi took up the lone seat at the head of the table on Maliks' left. Reclining in much the same way as Malik, though he had both his arms resting on the provided armrests, while Maliks' arms were crossed over the guys' chest.
Bakura was now a stark contrast to his apartment now, with the bright colored walls, the overall ascetics of a normal apartment. As though a family lived here instead of a lone teenager with the skills of a master thief. The temperature in the room began dropping, and if not for the dark coat that Bakura wore it would easily have explained his posture. Given his white hair and pale skin how could he 'not' suffer from anemia one would easily wonder.
Yet to look beyond the physical even beyond Bakuras' ability to see the Spirits and the room blossomed into something that was far from 'simple'. There were ancient sigils all along the walls protecting the apartment from demonic invasion. Most written neatly tracing along the edges where the walls met each other, the ceiling or the floor. There were other symbols for various other purposes that were far less neat, some looking more like someone slashed the symbols into the surfaces with a blade of some sort.
Mostly stuff to keep the place silent from outside intrusion, but also protections were written in such manners. There were also sigils to protect the wiring in the apartment from the presence of spirits, allowing the energy in those strange, thin wires to continue flowing properly. Despite it being unintentional, when the Spirits showed up en mass the lights would start to flicker. Not an issue originally when they started showing up, but over time they realized their very presence was causing unwelcoming side effects.
While amusing, especially when Jounouchi was around with his comical fear of ghosts, Bakura had explained the technical issues it caused. Thus the spirits had begun protecting the apartments' electronics, after all a good thief didn't advertise that they were a thief. For it was better to not draw any attention to Bakura's under the table talents. Especially since he normally strove to leave the Thief trade behind, it would be an act of good faith to help him out.
While Spirits came and went on their own accord, the Village Leader and Bakura's parents stayed near Bakura almost consistently. Yet when Bakura started making plans for this trip the Spirits became increasingly interested and began staying over more often.
Thus now, that the trio was prepared to make their trip, the apartment was quickly filling with all of the Village showing up. Yet their mass arrival was starting to affect the air in the apartment, drawing away the warmth from both the living and the mechanical. Causing Jounouchi to draw in his arms and shiver in his school uniform.
"So what we waiting for?" Jounouchi asked, trying not to rub his arms at the increasing chill in the room.
For which Bakura lifted up his head and blinked in answer before nodding, passively reminding himself that he hadn't bothered to tell Jounouchi. "Some of the spirits made friends with a few of the hunters from the Native Tribes. So they went off to hunt down the group, if they're still in America."
Jounouchi blinked in surprise before slowly nodding in agreement, "right, at least it saves us from having to look around right?"
"Sooner the better, nip this in the bud now before the rest of the world has to de-," Malik began when Bakura turned his head away sharply from the pair. He almost flung himself back into his seat as he kept his eyes on the wall facing Jounouchi. His expression dour as his mothers' ghostly hand gripped one arm in sympathy, regretting that at the 'best' her touch was nothing but a cold breeze to her baby. When clearly he needed the warmth of human touch. "Bakura?"
"Its already started," Bakura answered closing his eyes before rolling his head a bit to face the pair again. "Our trip to America might as well been the sun going supernova. I've had spirits from every major part of the world, both parts of America, Australia, Europe, China and Africa. Its happening every where in every nation. Hence why some Villager Spirits have been putting up wards along the apartment. I can't see the wards, but the wards let me know when theres a host of spirits around. I swear it feels like a Wild Hunt is going on through my apartment..." Bakura explained with a disgruntled sigh.
"Bakura?" Malik reached down to his left leg to one of the several pockets his pants had and flipped open the strap to the one that held their means of travel, pulling out the rings that would take them to America. "You're not fighting alone, this group is an enemy to all of us, so don't forget us and go charging off," pointed out.
Bakura closed his eyes as he tried to process the encouraging words from 'Malik' of all people. Not to say that Malik was skilled at knowing how to be encouraging... but in this particular frame of mind, it was more like listening a five year old trying to be comforting.
"He's right, you gotta save some of this for me, they got a lot to answer for and I want payment." Jounouchi joined in, a reminder of the loss in Yugi's life and the injuries sustained by Honda.
"I'm amazed at modern medicine when I see Honda, its amazing to see how far he's come from that day," Malik confessed as he began twirling the rings around his right index finger.
"Further than what is normal," Bakura corrected thoughtfully. "It shouldn't be as good as he is right now. But I can't understand how it happened," Bakura elaborated upon the confused expression from Malik and Jounouchi's torn one.
Which was understandable, on the one hand they wanted Honda back to where he was before that horrible day. Yet reality dictated that it was impossible to be where he was now so quickly, it was a mystery no one wanted answered. Like believing in Santa, you wanted that belief to last forever because the truth was so disappointing.
"Find the twins, see if we can get them to tell us how they're related to Egypt, get Josie and find out what happened that night," Malik went over their itinerary out loud. Observing as both Bakura and Jounouchi nodded in answer before continuing. "And amid all of this, find Travis and hope he's not dead."
"At this point I don't care what his situation is, if he's like me, its better to just slit his throat and be done with it now. Far better than letting him live his life bound to a demon," Bakura commented as he stood up. Facing the wall again as a couple of the Villagers walked through that very wall.
"Bakura just casually suggested slitting a throat..." Jounouchi remarked, trying hard to sound nonchalant.
"Sure did... You know that cut on his arm when I was on my plan to kill Yugi? Yeah... that wasn't me that cut him." Malik pointed out, while the two blonds watched Bakura have a conversation with people they couldn't see.
"Bakura if you're thinking about cutting yourself," Jounouchi warned earning an unamused over the shoulder glance from Bakura.
"I don't take the act lightly, wasn't in control of my own body, and duly noted," he snarked at them before turning back to the pair of spirits before him.
"Mut has blessed that woman, her sons are visiting for a bit, returning to their family home above the shop. This will be a great opportunity to find them easily," the Baker's Spirit boasted, his clothes still dusty from the work he did when he was still alive.
The potter who had accompanied said baker nodded, "it was a surprise that we met up, whatever darkness keeps these people apart can not compete against the bond of twins. They act like their coincidental meet up was unplanned." Despite being dead and only a soul, the potter began digging at his nails again. Trying to pry out those bits of dried pottery clay that had lodged their way three thousand years ago.
'Which leaves us only with Josie and Travis,' Bakura thought to himself before relaying the information to the pair behind him. There was no need for discussion on such facts and as such he kept his attention to the pair before him. "We'll go to California than, we know where she's been kept, if you would, go see if you can help locate Josie and Travis. But be careful, we can't be fools and assume these people are completely unaware."
The two spirits reacted in surprise, sharing a glance between each other in confusion, before the baker spoke up for the pair. "Wait, we thought that you were going to see the woman first?"
"Yes, isn't that why you're ready to go now?" The potter asked in confusion as he gestured at the change of normal attire that two of living people wore. As Jounouchi was the only one wearing his typical school uniform instead of anything that would hint they were up to anything. Of course Jounouchi usually undid the front of his school jacket so it could 'maybe' pass as regular street clothes.
And again, Halloween was coming.
Bakura shook his head slightly while saying, "change of plans, besides you got back first so this works just as well."
"Ha, better than those trackers!" The potter bragged while the baker rolled his eyes and began walking back to the wall they had used to enter in at.
"Come along," the Baker called out as he left, the potter following behind with an extra hop in his step.
"Remember to be wary of any who look to be part of this group we're hunting. Keep an eye on them, but be careful, you may be dead but, we don't know the full abilities this group has yet." Bakura warned as he had warned the trackers when he sent them off the first time. At the same time he couldn't bring himself to point out that the trackers weren't tracking all the stage magicians, instead just a few were assigned to hunt down Travis exclusively. The majority of them were hunting down any potential trails to this group. Making up for Bakura's inability to do any research due to school.
Malik and Jounouchi had exchanged glances during the seemingly one sided conversation between Bakura and thin air. Though realizing that Bakura was taking into consideration the possibility that the Spirits could be in danger by this group, showed how far in advance Bakura had been planning. But what he said sounded encouraging so the pair waited it out until they had his attention again, being rewarded with Bakura giving a sharp jerk of the head to indicate for the others to rise.
"The twins are visiting their mother, so we can go back to town, they're visiting and crashing at their parents place." Bakura reported dutifully as Jounouchi pulled himself up from his seat to stand and retrieve the shoes that the group was going to be wearing. "Also you 'did' leave a spare set of clothes here for this, don't you think you need to change Jounouchi?"
"Nah, way I see it, if someone sees me there and tries to trace me back, well I was in class today. How would I be in Japan one minute and in California the next right? I figure when we go see to finding Josie I'll change into that outfit. One time seeing a guy in the same outfit and same looks in two vastly different areas? That's a fluke. Two times? And it can have people start asking questions." Jounouchi explained as he reached the small stand with all the shoes grabbing a sizable piece of cardboard resting against the wall next to it.
Bakura blinked at the creative logic that Jounouchi just passingly showed, making him reevaluate Jounouchis' ability to learn. It was certainly useful and reassuring that Jounouchi wasn't just dumb muscle. Since Rashid was a far and away better 'muscle' type, even Mahaado was pretty impressive compared to Jounouchi.
"Point taken, not like I can do anything about how I look," Malik agreed with a nod, reaching up and tugging a bit at the edge of his hair. "Its kind of a shame really, there's no where I can go that I won't stand out. Egyptian, African, its all the same to strangers and here there's very little racial diversity outside of 'Asian'."
"And in America the diversity is far and away more substantial, but the notion of a natural straight, blond haired Black teenager is outright unheard of." Bakura agreed with a sardonic smile forming on his lips. "Now taking Yugi to America would be fascinating. In and of itself."
"Can we go to Vegas?" Malik asked, and started to get a little concerned when Jounouchi, returning with the shoes, gave thoughtful expression that was turning amused... And Bakura looked down right 'evil'. "What? I saw an advertisement about it being a vacation spot... What is it about Vegas?"
"Yes, let's go to Vegas... grab Kaiba's bank card, and Yugi can come back financially secured for the rest of his life... And anything else would be cake." Bakura answered already imaging the pure chaos that would be unleashed when the King of Games arrived in Vegas. "Won't even use the plane, a nice little sign to our enemies that we can move anywhere through out the world when we feel like it so don't get comfortable."
"Black Jack," Jounouchi tossed out for the group.
"Poker." Bakura added just making this mental image all the more amusing.
"Think the slot machines would work like card games?" Jounouchi asked, now genuinely curious, as he dropped the cardboard on the ground so they didn't put the shoes on the carpet.
"Is it a game?" Bakura replied with a raised eyebrow while Malik continued to watch the pair bantering on something he didn't understand.
"Guys? Hi, someone explain?" Malik asked as he began pulling on his shoes, placing the rings by his feet for a moment.
"I'll explain it while we walk," Jounouchi offered as he followed suit leaving Bakura waiting for the other two to finish before he put his own shoes on.
Thick, strong sneakers with a good grip for when he had to do any hard running, and this pair was an old new pair. It was the same brand that the Spirit of the Ring used, but it was a new pair, as Bakura had gotten rid of the other pair. Indeed, everything regarding his thief gear was new, what the Spirit had amassed before, he amassed a replica set ensuring that Zorc had not defouled any of it with its corrupt essence.
Even if that wasn't true and the demon hadn't, it just felt better to get rid of the demon's property. It balanced out the quiet horror in Bakura's mind when he realized he needed to at least have a set with him. The shame that he got rid of these tools of the trade, and then went about buying the same exact things again. Not for the reason that it would needed to face a group bent on bringing the demon back. Rather because he had found it impossible to sleep without it, even filling the bag with pointless nick knacks had done nothing. Only when he knew he had a thief's tool kit in the apartment had he found any peace of mind.
And that was just wrong.
A thief was one who stole property, that was what Kul Elna became when they stopped building tombs for the Pharaoh. He looked at the pair with him, thinking about how simple the plan was, find the people in the picture. Find the soul in the graveyard and save Travis, see about getting the Book in their hands and be done with that damn demon. Only he feared he was going to have to become an assassin, because while Malik and Jounouchi only sought the destruction of the Book. Bakura sought to take the life of whoever was involved in this group.
He knew what the Book would do, he had first hand experience and now he had to judge and decide each member to see if they were worth sparing. It would be no easy task, and even with the aid of several of the spirits, the ones more on the side of justice, it could be extensive. The Book could not be allowed to pass on to another person via its own pages or someone learning it and passing that knowledge on verbally.
Before it was card games, the final threat a demon of terrible power, far easier for the group to deal with and process. Once victory was attained they moved on with their lives, only to have this be dropped on them. For which Bakura could see their coping mechanisms coming into play, as everyone kept focusing on the 'Book'. Like that was the threat before them all. While the truth was that it was a human this time. There was a human who actively got their hands on it, and allowed themselves to be seduced by its power. That Book was no different than a knife after all. It couldn't do anything without someone to wield it. Even if it was a mere gateway to the demon, it still needed a living soul to work with it to unleash its power.
And Bakura needed to make sure no one ever touched it again.