The Return

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I think the book I refer to in the beginning is Matilda, by Ronald Dahl.

If you know how the end of Yami Bakura's duel with Yami Yugi is drawn in the manga, then the ending should make more sense.

Rampant skipping of episodes in this chapter. I skipped the hospital and Yami Bakura's duel with Bones and went straight to Ryou's arrival at the stadium, because this chapter was long enough as it was. I also cut the bulk of Bakura and Yugi's duel, mostly for this same reason, but partially because I like Bakura's occult deck the way it originally was. "Destiny Board" my ass.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

He'd read a book once, with a box in it.

The book hadn't been about the box, Ryou felt. In fact, he was pretty sure that the box had only been briefly mentioned. He couldn't even remember the name of the story, or what it had been about.

But the story didn't matter much. Just the box.

The "box" had been more like a locker; it was just tall enough and just wide enough that a child could stand up straight within it, and had nails and jagged pieces of glass embedded in all four inside walls. There might have been something on the ceiling, too, but he didn't remember. All Ryou recalled was that the glass and nails prevented the children who were put in the box from being able to lean or sit, so they had to stand straight for however long they were locked inside, or risk being cut.

Ryou was beginning to feel like he had spent his whole life inside that box. Or, if not his whole life, then enough of it that he no longer cared if he got cut by leaning on the sides--because underneath the pain was some kind of reprieve.

Ryou stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk.

He shook his head to clear away his thoughts and began paying attention to where he was walking. It was getting pretty dark--he didn't want to accidentally walk past the stadium and then have to backtrack. He was tired enough without that.

The Battle City entry tournament was already over, and he found it hard to believe that so much had happened in just two days. One day. Something like that. Ryou's head was still a little fuzzy. He guessed it was from blood loss. He was pretty sure he remembered a doctor saying that his burn looked like it was covering up a stab wound.

Though, Ryou wasn't sure if there had actually been a doctor, or if he had been in a hospital. It was hard to tell apart what he'd been living and what he'd been dreaming in the past five hours. Nothing was very clear until the minute that the spirit had directed him into the right subway car.

If Ryou had been in the hospital, then after he'd left it and reached the subway, he'd wasted half the trip downtown trying to piece the weekend together. But eventually, Ryou gave up and just tried to figure out how the duel disk that was suddenly on his arm worked, while ignoring the noise in his head. That had been more that enough for him to focus on--he hadn't felt like continuing to ponder something that was steadily refusing to make sense.

Ryou's thinking hadn't distracted him from the pains in his body, anyway. His arm was throbbing with every heartbeat, and it burned from being jostled so much on the subway. The heavy weight of the duel disk wasn't helping, dragging on his wrist and making his muscles ache on top of the throbbing, and the cuff chafed his skin. His feet hurt as well, from walking so much, and his throat was dry. He wanted water. He wanted food. He wanted to sit down. He wanted some painkillers. He wanted the spirit inside the Ring to die and leave him alone. None of these things seemed likely.

At least the voices in his mind were quiet for the moment. That was a small favor. But everything else still sucked.

For some reason, there were two people speaking in his head now. They were soft and muted all the time, but he could make out a voice that was not the spirit's. Ryou would have assumed that he'd gone mad, but he didn't think Fate would be that kind. So he decided that he didn't want to know how or from where the voice had shown up, and he'd proceeded to ignore it in favor of fulfilling the spirit's instructions, since he knew the second voice couldn't really be a threat. The spirit would never have let it inside their mind if it were.

That still didn't mean that he'd enjoyed waking up in a graveyard, with orders to get to the stadium downtown.

He had actually just come into sight of said stadium when the inside lights burst on. Ryou blinked and instinctively took a step back.

[Hurry up,] the spirit snapped, and he began walking again.

He’d just passed through the open gateway in the stone wall that separated the stadium parking lot from the access road when a voice he recognized as Joey's rang out down the street. Once again acting instinctively, Ryou stepped back until he was against the wall and sat down, pulling his legs close to his chest. He let the arm with the duel disk rest on the blacktop, and he listened.

When Ryou heard Yugi and the others enter through the gate farther down, away from him, he stopped holding his breath and rested his forehead on his knees.

Ryou wasn't sure why he was trying to hide. He knew he would have to speak to them when he went inside. And they were his friends; he just...didn't want to deal with them yet.

Ryou continued sitting quietly, and several minutes later he noticed someone else cross the parking lot before striding confidently into the stadium.

So there would be at least one stranger inside, then. Surely they wouldn't bother him too much if there was a stranger, at least not about things that couldn't be mentioned without all of them sounding crazy?

He might as well take that chance; it was the only one he had. Ryou pushed himself onto his feet, being careful not to put any weight on his injured arm, before standing and walking slowly rds rds the stadium.

Moving caused the edges of the six strange, transparent disks he'd found in his pocket while on the subway to press his leg once more. Ryou slid his free hand inside his pocket and touched them. What are these? he asked.

[Locator cards,] the spirit snapped, sounding irritated at being distracted from the biting conversation he'd been having with the other voice. Ryou realized that there was nothing he could do to prevent the spirit from becoming more annoyed, so he kept asking questions.

What are they for?

[They're the requirement to enter the finals. Shut up and walk.]

Ryou ran his thumb over the edge of the cards once more before pulling his hand out of his pocket. He walked.

He watched the ground as he passed underneath one of the dark entryways, to keep himself from tripping on anything.

And then he was back in the light and Yugi was yelling his name while running towards him. Ryou kept his head down until he could make his smile perfect.

The others were surrounding him, too, and Joey's feet practically appeared out of nowhere. "You should get back to the hospital!"

Oh, so he had been in the hospital, then. Good to know.

"Bakura, you should really be resting," Téa said with concern.

"Yeah!" Yugi added. "Grampa told me you were in pretty bad condition! They let you out?"

I hope so, Ryou thought. The alternative would be that he....

He didn't finish the sentence. His smile was now as good as it ever got, so Ryou lifted his head. "I'm fine," he said cheerfully, noting that Kaiba and his brother were standing off to the side and that the stranger he'd seen walking into the stadium was standing at a distance. Devlin was there also, and Ms. Mai, and a younger-looking girl with reddish hair whom Ryou had never seen before.

Tristan stared at him with narrowed eyes. "Look, I don't know how you found us here but you better get back to the hospital."

Ryou's smile faltered slightly, but he was spared from trying to figure out an answer to the underlying threat in Tristan's voice when Yugi said, "Wait, why're you wearing a duel disk?"

Ryou lifted his duel disk and masked both the pain it caused to his arm and his mad scramble to figure out an answer with another casual smile. "How else could I win six locator cards and enter the finals?" he replied, hoping that the number was sid thd the spirit hadn't just picked up a few more for the sheer bloody hell of it.

Apparently the number was right, because no one corrected him. They just gaped.

Ryou might have been amused at their expressions if he hadn't been desperately searching his memory to find the necessary information to lie to them. The spirit had stopped talking to the other voice, but it wasn't giving him any answers, so Ryou had to figure out what he could with just his eyes.

Yugi and Joey were both wearing duel disks, as was Kaiba. That made e. e. Mai had one on as well, and so did the dark-skinned duelist standing behind everyone. That, plus himself, made six.

While his friends were still staring at him, Ryou reached into his pocket and pulled out the cards. "Just look," he said, fanning them out a little, and hoping that they would distract the others long enough that he could get a better look at the foreign duelist in the back. Something about him nagged at Ryou's memory.

Joey found his voice first. "Hey, rewind a sec!" he exclaimed, leaning forward. "When did you join the tournament?"

Tristan leaned forward as well, looking just as dumbfounded. A small part of Ryou was vindictively amused by that. "Join?! How'd you make it all the way to the finals?"

Yugi didn't say anything, but the look on his face was extremely suspicious. Ryou had no doubt that the other Yugi was being fully informed of what was going on.

"This is freaking me out," Joey muttered.

Ryou spotted someone walking in the entry behind everyone, and he jumped on the chance to change the conversation. "Hey, look, it's the seventh duelist!"

It worked.

In fact, it worked better than Ryou could have dreamed, because once he heard Joey's snarled comments and saw Téa gasp and step back, he realized that they must have already met the man. But it wasn't until he heard Mokuba yell, "He's the one that kidnapped me!" that Ryou realized something really bad must have happened while he was asleep or unconscious or wandering around trying to ignore the voices in his head.

Kaiba's nory coy cold voice had dropped twenty degrees. "State your name right now."

The man paused in mid-stride. "I am Marik."

Tristan started to say something, but it was drowned out by Joey's growl and yelling. The blond teenager stepped forward, and Tristan moved so that he was at his back, arms crossed and ready for the fight that Joey looked about to begin. Ryou missed most of what Joey and Marik said--it was all insults and threats anyway, though he heard something about brain-washing--because Tristan's new position put him too close for comfort, and Ryou was trying subtly to edge away.

Joey straightened. "The only reason I'm not tossing you out by your cape right now is so I can save my energy to take you down in the finals! Got that, pal?!"

"I should disqualify you right now, for capturing my little brother Mokuba," Kaiba sneered. "But you have something I want." He unfolded his arms and pointed at the older man. "And before the finals are over your Egyptian God Card will be mine!"

Egyptian God Card? Ryooughought confusedly. Brain-washing? What is going on?

[You don't need to know that, host. Just be quiet and don't draw attention to yourself again.]

But I need to--

"All right, can I have your attention please." Ryou was pulled out of his conversation by the voice of one of the guards. "Seven out of eight of you are here. So now it's time to announce that although your locator cards led you here, this is not the site of the Battle City finals.

The second guard brought his hand down from the headpiece he had been speaking into. "The actual tournament site should be arriving here any second now, folks."

"I'm lost," Joey said flatly.

"Where are the finals?" Yugi asked.

It was about that time thae lie lights, which had been centered on the ground, snapped up to focus on the sky. Ryou looked up, and proceeded to wonder if he were actually still in the hospital and just hallucinating all this.

Then, as the blimp began to lower to the ground, Ryou recollected that it was Seto Kaiba who running this tournament, and that made things a little more understandable.

The others murmured around him, and then the second guard said, "Stand back, we'll be boarding shortly," before turning back to his headset and giving landing permission to the blimp.

"Aw, man," Joey said with grudging appreciation.

Yugi looked as disbelieving as Ryou felt. "So we're dueling in...the sky?"

"Four thousand feet in the sky, to be exact!" Mokuba said with a grin.

"Ah...."

Ryou's private opinion of the entire Kaiba family's sanity was cut short as the blimp landed. He braced his feet against the ground and raised his free arm to cover his face, grimacing slightly as the grit thrown up by the blimp's descent struck him in the face.

When the engines were turned off, Mai patted down her hair and muttered something derogatory about Kaiba's technology obsession, making Joey snicker. Mokuba moved forward to stand in front of the group. "All right, listen up! It's time to board Kaiba Craft Three, for the start of the Battle City finals!"

Ryou fell into line behind Yugi and in front of Joey, walking past the guard as he said something about an eighth duelist and listening to Mai comment enthusiastically on the interior, the damage to her hair apparently forgiven.

Once they reached the main hallway inside, Yugi glanced over his shoulder with an amused look. "Can you believe this?" he asked.

Ryou gave him a small grin. "Well, Kaiba has never really believed in subtlety...."

Yugi chuckled, before glancing back at the entrance where Tristan and Devlin's voices were getting louder. "Oh, I bet they're having trouble getting in." Yugi began walking back to the entry, and as soon as the other teenager had turned his back Ryou moved forward quickly. He didn't want Yugi to ask him to go back as well.

He was a good distance away from the entrance when he spotted Kaiba standing in front of a set of floor-to-ceiling windows.

Ryou had no sooner stepped into the area than Kaiba turned partially alanclanced at him. Ryou hoped that was a good sign. "Hello," he said politely. "Do you have anywhere that we can rest before the finals start? Or a place where I could get some water?"

The other teenager's gaze narrowed, and he turned to face Ryou ful Kai Kaiba folded his arms and frightened Ryou by restating Tristan's question from earlier: "I've seen you around Yugi, but I've never seen you duel. And you weren't on the list of invited duelists. How did you make it here?"

The spirit was still absent, or distracted, or doing something that prevented it from noticing that Ryou really needed some answers, because damn it, he didn't know what he was doing here either.

He settled for shrugging lightly and giving Kaiba another casual smile. "They lost."

It was the vaguest answer he could give while still probably telling the truth, but apparently it satisfied Kaiba. Or, what Ryou guessed was more likely, was that the brunet didn't really care. The other teenager gave him another examining glance before dismissing him as inferior and saying coldly, "You're in room number six." Kaiba pointed further down the hallway, then reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small key card, tossing it to Ryou before refolding his arms. "Enter it with this ID card. Or go wherever you want until the PA system gives you instructions on where you have to be."

He turned his back on Ryou after that, and Ryou left before Yugi and the others could catch up to him.

~~~
The first thing he spotted in the room was thni-rni-refrigerator. Ryou waited until the door was closed before stumbling over to it, sliding the duel disk off his wrist and letting it fall to the floor, kneeling down, and yanking the fridge door open. He grabbed a bottle of water--the closest thing at hand--and twisted the cap off violently before gulping down the liquid.

Ryou drank over half the bottle before he pulled back in order to breathe. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, ignorine pae pain in his upper arm, and studied the rest of fridge's contents. There were more water bottles, a carton of milk, a plate of sandwiches, blocks of cheese, and a few small cakes with strawberries on them. Ryou absently wished that there was some real meat, since he wanted something solid, but he settled for the sandwiches.

He tore one in half and crammed part of it into his mouth, without tasting enough of it to even know what it was. He polished off the rest of the water and ate the other half of the sandwich as he opened a new bottle.

As he drank, Ryou asked, How did you win all this stuff?

The spirit snarled. [I told you, you don't need to know anything!]

Three people have already asked me how I got here¸ Ryou said evenly. And Yugi is suspicious. Do you want me to stutter for an answer and obviously be lying when they ask again?

[....] The spirit didn't speak for several seconds, and then Ryou winced as memories of a duel were forced into his mind. He drank the second bottle of water a little more slowly as he went through them from the beginning.

Fifteen minutes later, he had eaten two more sandwiches, drunk the rest of his second bottle of water and half the milk out of the carton, torn off a piece of one of the cheeses and tried it, ignored the fact that the spirit had killed people to get here, and eaten one of the cakes in hopes that the sugar buzz would get him through whatever else was going to happen tonight. Ryou was nursing his third water when a television screen set into the wall blinked on.

"Attention duelists. The Battle City finals are about to begin. Mr. Kaiba requests the presence of all finalists in the main hall."

Ryou closed his eyes as the screen blinked off, but at a wordless shove from the spirit, he set down his water and picked up the duel disk again.

It was so much heavier on his arm this time.

~~~
Ryou wasn't sure where the main hall was, so he traced his steps back to the area he hhe hallway with the tall windows. Once he got there, he spotted the blond, dark-skinned duelist walking across it towards a perpendicular hallway. Ryou walked a little faster and caught up to him.

"Hello!" he said with a smile. "Do you know which direction the 'main hall' is in?"

The stranger nodded. "It's this way."

"Ah, thank you," Ryou said. He fell into step beside the other teenager, and then held out his free hand. "I'm Bakura."

"Namu," the blond said with a smile, shaking it. "Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise," Ryou said, before hesitating. "Actually....This might sound weird, but have I met you before? Or seen you somewhere? You seem familiar, but I've never met many...um, foreigners. Or are you from here?"

Namu shook his head slightly, but didn't seem offended. "Yeah, actually. We have met before--but you weren't really in the condition to be exchanging greetings."

Ryou frowned in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"I found you in an alley, after it looked like someone had worked you over." Namu glanced down at Ryou's arm. "Are you doing okay? Will you be able to duel properly?"

There was a quiet, irritated noise from the spirit, but Ryou didn't pay attention--a few of hisorieories had finally clicked together. "That was you?!" He stopped in mid-step and turned slightly so that he could bow properly. "Thank you so much for getting me to my friends!"

Namu shook his head self-deprecatingly. "I just did what anyone would do."

Ryou gave him a grateful smile. "No, no. Thank you for your trouble. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't found me." Especially since the spirit hadn't even bothered to tell him what happened before leaving him to deal with the bad end of one of its fights, Ryou added to himself.

Luckily, the spirit didn't seem to notice that thought, either. Ryou was getting away with a lot lately. He couldn't remember being this unregulated since before Duelist Kingdom.

"It was nothing," Namu assured him, as they walked into a large area that Ryou could only assume was the main hall that the announcer had been talking about.

There was a stage against the back wall, and in front of it were two tables, also piled with food. Everybody else seemed to already be inside; Yugi and his friends, plus the red-haired girl, were gathered around the closest table.

"Gah," Ryou heard Joey mutter as he piled shrimp onto his plate, "I just realized, if this tournament runs overnight, I'm not gonna be able ta make my deliveries t'morrow."

"Sucks to be you," Tristan commented.

Joey shrugged. "I'll call Jared before it gets too late and tell him to take over my route. ...But I'm gonna need a good story so I don't have ta bribe him. Hm...." He bit off one of the shrimp and chewed thoughtfully. "Hey, Téa, you were supposed ta work tonight, weren't ya? What're you gonna tell 'em?"

Téa rolled her eyes, but she didn't look up from the empty plate she was toying with. "I already got permission to be off work tonight. So sorry, you're gonna have to think up your own lie."

"Dammit," Joey mutte "H "How'd ya pull that off? I've eaten at yer restaurant--you guys don't have enough staff to let someone take off! You ain't got more than three people workin' each shift."

Téa put a hand on her hip. "We've got five, and that's plenty to have somebody skip a day, thanks. Drop it already."

Joey snorted. "Then why's the service so slow every time I go dere?"

"I guess they just don't like you."

"Hey!"

"Or they're afraid of brea an an arm, carrying out all the food you'd eat," Téa added, sticking out her tongue. "I know I was worried about that."

Joey grumbled. "I bet you just flirted with the manager. Must be nice ta be a girl."

"Drop it, Joey!"

Ryou had only been paying passing attention to the conversation, but he looked over at that. So did the rest of the room.

Joey had started and jumped backwards, miraculously managing not to spill his plate in the process. Téa was glaring at him, clutching her plate too tightly, and her face was slightly flushed.

"Geez," Joey said, holding up a hand in a peace-making effort. "I was just joking...."

"Well, don't!" Téa snapped, before seeming to notice that the rest of the gathering was paying rapt attention to the two of them. She covered her face with a hand, muttering an embarrassed "Ugh...."

Mai, probably driven by a sense of feminine solidarity, walked across the room and rested an arm on Téa's shoulder. "Just ignore him," she said with a brief pat and a pointed smirk at Joey. "Guys never learn tact until they're at least thirty."

"I have tact!" Joey said defensively.

Téa made a choked snorting noise. Mai raised an eyebrow. Tristan leaned over and whispered, "Joey, man, just give up now."

"I have tact!" Joey insisted. "Ask me a question, I'll show you how much tact I have!"

"Do you even know what 'tact' means?" Devlin asked.

Mai looked way too amused. "Okay, Joseph," she said, before putting a hand on her hip and leaning forward. "What do you think of my shirt? Does it bring out the color of my eyes?"

Joey glanced at the shirt and turned a very painful-looking red. Ryou felt a little sorry for him. "Um, it--uh, 's very...eyes?"

Mai rolled her eyes and straightened up. "Sorry, but you fail the tact quiz. Better luck next time, Joey," she said over her shoulder as she walked off to where the other Yugi was watching with a bemused expression.

"Hey!" Joey spluttered. "You cheated!"

Tristan patted his shoulder. "Let it go, Joe. You don't stand a chance."

"Stop snickerin'!" Joey called over to Devlin. Devlin ignored him and continued laughing, but at a hurt look from the red-haired girl he did half-cover his mouth.

Ryou walked around the other side of the table and tilted his face slightly away so they wouldn't see him chuckling. Namu had moved over to the far wall, apart from everybody, and Ryoesseessed he was a little nervous about the familiarity that everyone else in the room was exhibiting. Well, everyone with the exception of Marik, was was leaning against another wall, also at a distance to everyone; but after seeing his friends' reactions to the man, Ryou had decided that he just didn't want to know what was going on with him. He had enough troubles already.

Ryou noticed that there were lunchmeats on one of the platters on the first table, rolled up and toothpicked into place, and he picked up a turkey one as he passed by. He was crossing the area in front the space between the tables, where the other Yugi and Mai were speaking, before he realized that he had no actual destination. Téa had escaped to the second table, the one farthest from the way he'd come in, and the red-haired girl and Tristan had followed her, so Ryou didn't want to go there. But he didn't want to backtrack to the first table, because the other Yugi currently had his back to him and if Ryou moved the other teenager might notice him out of the corner of his eye.

As there was nowhere to go, Ryou just stopped where he was and ate the turkey wrap.

He was glancing around the room for a trashcan so that he could throw away the toothpick when someone ran into him from behind. "Ah!"

Joey checked that he hadn't spilled anything on his plate, before looking up and giving him a sheepish grin. "Sorry, my bad."

Ryou smiled and slipped the toothpick into his pocket. "That's quite all right. Everyone seems on edge."

"Yeah. Pre-final jitters," Joey commented. "By the way, how'd you qualify so fast anyway?"

I'm psychic, Ryou thought without humor. Or maybe they're predictable.

Then he had a thought, and his gaze flicked to Tristan before focusing on Joey again. Ryou held up a finger and closed his eyes briefly, giving Joey a bright smile. "Well, I won all six locator cards at once."

Joey's eyes grew astoundingly wide. He took a step back before exclaiming, "Huh? No way, Bakura! You won six cards in one duel?! It can't be!"

"It was simple," Ryou said, still smiling pleasantly. "I battled Bones and his gang of zombie duelists in the cemetery. When I defeated them using some ghosts of my own, I got them to give up all their locator cards."

That was an innocuous version of the truth; and he'd been able to repetitively use words about the supernatural, which he knew Joey hated.

The blond looked like he was about to develop a twitch. "But how?!"

"Well...." Ryou shut his eyes just in case. He didn't need to be caught in a semi-lie, not this close to...whatever he was close to. "Let's just say that I didn't give those fellows much of a choice."

"You forced them!?!"

Ryou shrugged. "Sort of."

Joey's expression was priceless for a few moments. Then he managed to get control of himself, and started edging past Ryou, towards the second table. "Heh. See ya later."

"Right," Ryou said, blithely ignoring Joey's abruptness. "Cheerio, and good luck in your first duel!"

Joey didn't reply, and tried to make running look like walking. Ryou made his face go pleasantly, politely unreadable, and watched Tristan.

It didn't take long. Joey exchanged a few words with Téa and Tristan, and though he didn't make any indication towards Ryou, the muscles in his shoulders were still tense. And then, once Joey was distracted and talking with the red-headed girl, Tristan looked over his shoulder and glared at him.

Ryou gave him a smile before turning his back on the group.

[What part of 'don't draw attention to yourself again' did you not understand, Bakura?]

I didn't realize you would notice, Ryou replied.

The spirit's voice was cold and flat. [I am busy,] it said, [but it's your folly if you think that I'm not paying attention to your clumsy efforts to draw their suspicion.]

Ryou actually blinked at the misunderstanding. No, that wasn't....

When he didn't finish the sentence after a moment, the spirit snapped, [Wasn't what, host?]

Ryou remained silent at first, but when he felt that push at his mind that meant the spirit was about to go through his thoughts, he spoke up. I thought...it would be fun.

There was a pause, and then Ryou managed not to wince as he felt the spirit pull through his mind anyway. It didn't take long for it to find his resentment of Tristan, and the idea Ryou had had of using the brunet's threat from three weeks ago against him.

There was another pause, and then it chuckled.

Ryou blinked again, but could think of nothing to say to that unexpected reaction.

[Idiot,] the spirit said, its voice still laced with amusement. [Just shut up and stay quiet. You wanted them to stop attempting to see through your façade--so quit trying to attract their attention now that you're finally getting your wish.]

Ryou bent his head slightly, then remembered that he was in the middle of a crowded room and straightened up again. Realizing that he had been standing in one place for too long, he headed back to the first table and picked up another rolled up slice of meat, this one ham.

He was starting to feel full for the first time in...weeks, at least. Ryou hadn't been the one physically eating his meals for the past two weeks--that was all the spirit, especially since Ryou had been skipping lunch while he was in control of his body at school. He ate this roll more slowly, and slid the second toothpick in his pocket as well.

"Bakura!"

Téa was waving him towards the second table. Ryou glanced around and saw that Tristan and Joey had moved to speak with the other Yugi, so he walked over. "Yes?"

"I just realized--you've never met Serenity, have you?" She indicated the red-headed girl.

"Serenity?" Ryou thought about it. "The name sounds familiar, but I'm afraid I don't recall why."

"She's Joey's little sister," Téa explained. "Serenity, this is Bakura. He's in our class."

For a moment Ryou wondered since when had Joey gotten a sister; and then he recalled their time in Duelist Kingdom where Joey had seemed to talk about her every third hour. "Oh! Hello!"

"Hi!" she said cheerfully, and Ryou blinked at the absence of a Brooklyn accent where he had been expecting one. "Pleased to meet you!"

"The same here," he said with a smile.

"Hey, Serenity!" Tristan called. "Come over here and cheer Joey up--I think he's getting nervous at the thought of dueling Mai or Kaiba soon."

"Shut up!" Joey snapped. "I am not!"

Serenity giggled. "Bye!" she said, before waving once as she jogged towards Joey.

"What's wrong?" Téa asked.

Startled, Ryou turned to look at her. "Eh? Nothing's wrong."

"You looked surprised when Serenity said hello."

"Ah," Ryou said. "It's just...have you noticed? She doesn't have Joey's accent."

Téa nodded. "Yeah. It's kind of weird, but I guess it's 'cause they were raised in different places or something."

"But still...they grew up together as children, right?" he asked, trying to remember what he'd heard of Joey's childhood. "So they ought to be a little the same. And accents don't fade that easily. Mine hasn't."

"Huh?" Téa said quizzically. "How is that similar? You've only been here from England for about a year, right? Serenity and Joey have been apart since they were kids."

Ryou realized that he'd said too much, but he couldn't take it back now. And he didn't want to lie about small things, if only so he could tell the truth once in a while. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I never lived in England."

Téa looked surprised, and Ryou smiled at her. "I transferred from another school district, not another country. It was my mother who was English--my father met her while he was traveling abroad. She raised me the most as a child, since he was busy or absent, so I sound like her."

"Ohhh," Téa said. "I...but, wait, if she lives with you, then doesn't it make sense that your accent is still there?"

"They separated about five years ago," Ryou said, feeling his smile fade slightly and wishing that he just hadn't said anything at all.

"Oh," Téa said quietly. "I'm sorry."

Ryou shrugged a shoulder half-heartedly. "It was a long time ago. And all the rest of my life I've been surrounded by people who talk like they're from this country, except for her. But I still sound like I'm from England...so that's what I meant. It's just a little odd that they speak so differently. I didn't mean to be confusing."

"No," Téa said with a wave, "you weren't. I'd never thought of it that way."

Ryou made a murmuring noise, and turned to watch as Tristan fidgeted in his movements around Serenity when he wasn't trying to shove Devlin away from her. He privately thought that Joey's sister couldn't be too bright if she wasn't noticing that Tristan was nearly drooling in her presence, but he didn't feel the need to say it out loud.

Téa noticed him watching and laughed. "Sad, isn't it? He's so head-over-heels, I almost feel bad for him. It bites to like someone who doesn't even notice."

Ryou smiled slightly. "I guess. Thank you for introducing us."

Téa made a little motion with her shoulders, but her smile faded. "It was nothing. Really, I just was looking for an excuse to get you over here."

Ryou tilted his head questioningly.

Téa wrapped her arms across her chest, clutching her elbows slightly. She nodded to the side, motioning towards the man who was still leaning against the wall, unmoving. "It's Marik. I...it sounds pathetic, but I don't want to be in a room with him without having somebody else near me. But I didn't want to spend the whole time tagging behind Joey or Yami, either--I'm sure they want to have some time to talk with each other before the finals start."

"Oh," Ryou said quietly, wondering who 'Yami' was. Then, knowing that the socially acceptable thing to do was ask what had happened between everyone and Marik, he did that.

"It's a really long story," Téa replied, unfolding her arms a little. "After you and Mr. Mutou drove off to the hospital, Joey and I were talking with Namu when these guys--"

She was interrupted by the voice of Seto Kaiba. "Let's go."

He snapped his fingers, and Ryou blinked as the lights went a dim blue, before a spotlight lit up the center of the stage. There was a whir of machinery, and then some kind of lotto-looking machine, decorated with Blue Eyes White Dragons, began to rise out of the floor.

Honestly, that was getting a bit obsessive, even for Kaiba....

Joey summed up everyone else's reaction, with the possibility of Mokuba and the guards. "Huh? What's that thing?"

The first guard, or maybe the second guard--all Ryou could tell was that he wasn't the one with the stripes in his hair--cleared his throat. "Finalists and guests," he said, pronouncing the last word with only a hint of a sneer, "may I have your attention please? Now, the first two duelists for round one will be chosen by lottery."

"What's the jackpot?" Mai drawled. Ryou moved away from Téa, shifting to stand behind her and Yugi.

Ignoring Mai, the announcer went on. "To guarantee fairness, each pair of opponents will be selected completely at random. You've all been assigned numbers from one through eight. The selector will now choose the first two numbers. The second pair of numbers will not be drawn until a winner is declared in the first duel. Thus you will not know your opponent's identity until just before you duel."

Ryou didn't really see what the point of that was, but there was probably one somewhere. And it probably involved strategies and opponents and whatever else there was to take into consideration. Ryou couldn't say for sure. He had never been the one that cared much about this game.

"I'm fightin' the urge to yell out 'Bingo,'" Tristan muttered.

"Go ahead--I'll laugh," Devlin replied.

Téa rolled her eyes. "Guys, grow up already."

The announcer was doing a really good job of ignoring all of them. "All eight balls are of equal size and weight. The selector produces results that are one hundred percent random. Does everyone remember his or her number?"

Ryou suddenly got the feeling that someone was staring at him, but he couldn't think who it could be. He'd deliberately placed himself behind the rough line that everyone else had formed.

The spirit was talking with the other voice again.

The guard brought his hand down sharply, and Ryou realized he'd been missing part of the speech. "Random select!"

"Is he really getting paid to say such corny stuff?" Devlin muttered, but all the people who were potentially about to be dueling were too busy watching the machine to pay attention. Tristan made an amused noise.

There was a clatter and a 'whooshity-woosh' from the machine, and then one of the mouths of the Blue Eyes White Dragon spit out a ball. Ryou leaned up on his toes slightly and tried to see around Yugi's hair.

"And the first duelist is--number six! Bakura."

....

...he didn't live right. That was the only explanation. He'd never desecrated churches or vandalized temples or done anything else to incur this kind of divine wrath, so that had to be the answer.

Ryou pointed a finger at himself. "Me? I duel first?"

Tristan looked over at him. "You sure you're all right, man?"

There was a point where it would be painfully obvious to everyone in the room that he was lying, so Ryou gave up on that effort and just laughed. He slid his free hand behind his head as he did, hoping that it would draw eyes away from the bandages still prominently wrapped around his other arm.

"Yeah Bakura, you should really be in bed resting," Téa added, taking a step towards him. "You just got out of the hospital, remember?"

Tristan frowned, moving towards Ryou as well. Yugi and Mai had both turned around, and Joey was leaning over Serenity's shoulder to look at him. "You shouldn't even be walking, let alone dueling."

Ryou let his laughter trail off before rubbing the back of his head slightly. He closed his eyes and kept smiling. "Oh, don't worry. I'm fine." Please, stop crowding around me. "Being the first duelist chosen just took me by surprise," he added with a slight nod.

Absolutely no one seemed satisfied by that, but luckily the announcer was still ignoring them and had plowed ahead in his spiel. "Stand by, while we choose the next duelist."

Mai, Yugi, and Joey all faced the stage again at that, and Téa looked away from him and towards it as well. For one moment, Ryou was intensely grateful towards the man.

"When the second duelist is chosen, both participants must proceed directly to the arena. Bakura's opponent in the first duel is--" Another clatter, another 'whooshity-woosh,' and another ball in the mouth of the second Blue Eyes. "Duelist number three! Yugi Mutou!"

Oh, God....

The spirit chuckled. [Heheh. Ereshkigal favors me once again. That's all I needed you for, host--go back to sleep now.]

Ryou couldn't even manage to grab Yugi's arm before he was thrown back into his soul room.

~~~~~
He was losing.

He was losing, and he knew it, and Peribsen knew it, and Marik knew it, and everybody else knew it, and it was pissing him off.

It wasn't pissing him off to the point that Marik's plan sounded spectacularly good, but since his temporary ally could control minds, he felt it to be a wiser move to let Marik have his way at first and then demand a change when it looked like things were about to fall apart. Plus, the bald guy Marik had conned into playing him was already speaking.

But he didn't like it. The stakes were too high. It was too risky to hinge an entire duel on putting Bakura in control, because if there was even a trace of Seth-Peribsen's old self left in this new version....

Still, it was too late. The bald guy was brandishing the Millennium Rod dramatically, speaking about his control over Bakura. The most he could do was not send the boy in completely clueless.

He wrenched abruptly on the link between himself and his host, mildly pleased when he found that Bakura hadn't been asleep for once. Good. They couldn't have afforded that.

Bakura!

[What.]

I'm putting you in control. When you get on the arena, try your best to look like you're dying.

[Eh? What?!]

Just do it! You'll see when--

He was cut off then, forced back while Bakura fell into control, and he realized that Marik actually had used the Rod. 'Hey!' he snapped. 'What the hell do you think you're doing? I was about to send him out there!'

'I was just making sure that his appearance coincided with Odion's performance,' the teenager replied arrogantly.

He snarled at that, but was distracted by Bakura's mental startlement as the boy found himself facing down Peribsen's sky dragon. The sudden awareness of pain crashed through their link as well, the result of the shocks that Kaiba's sadistic disk design had been sending straight down Bakura's injured arm with each hit he'd taken in the duel.

He stood behind with Marik, incorporeal, and watched. Don't screw this up.

After seeing the Egyptian dragon god, it took Bakura less than a second--less than a breath--to clutch at his wounded, abused arm and crash to his knees on the deck of the arena, pained noises half-strangling in his throat. "My arm...it...hurts...."

Despite the situation, he couldn't help a brief thought of admiration. His boy was an excellent natural actor.

Below, Yugi's court was yelling from the sidelines, but their words had no place in the scene that was unfolding here. Bakura looked up, and his gaze didn't even flicker to the dragon. He focused solely on Yugi. "Yugi? Help me. I--I don't know where I am. What am I doing here in this...duel?" The boy looked down at the disk on his wrist with that, as if seeing it for the first time, and then glanced further up his arm. Bakura pushed up his sleeve slightly and stared at the bandages. "What happened to my arm?"

"It is him," he h Per Peribsen whisper, and he was mildly pleased.

"He's in pain," the false Marik said to Peribsen. "Without the spirit of the Ring he is weak. Therefore, you may wish to reconsider your attack. The devastation caused by Slifer the Sky Dragon could make your friend's condition even worse."

Peribsen jerked his head to stare at the man. "What?!"

"Would you risk the health of your friend?" the false Marik asked evenly.

He tensed up despite Marik's presence.

[What have you done?!] the boy screamed at him, even as he continued to clutch his arm and pant heavily. Bakura was clever enough to have realized that everything was hanging on Yugi's reaction to his pain.

"Only a coward would do something like this to win a duel," Peribsen snarled. He felt insulted--he was risking more with this than any coward ever would. Marik just looked amused.

[Oh God, she's here, she's here, I don't want to die!]

What?

Amid more shouts from Yugi's court, the false Marik left the dueling area. He only vaguely noticed his passing--his host's inexplicable comment drew the bulk of his attention. What?

[She's here! No! I don't--not like this, I don't want to die like this!]

"I don't feel very well, Yugi...."

Nothing in Bakura's pathetic, innocent tone gave away the near hysterics in his mind. That was impressive, but all the same, the boy was havi bre breakdown. It was beyond time to make Marik change tactics.

'No,' Marik replied lazily, and he immediately pulled some of the Ring's energy away to make a shield for his thoughts. 'Just watch--we've nearly won.'

Irritatingly, the teenager was right. Peribsen was starting to run towards them, and at that, the announcer issued a warning of disqualification. The king paused.

But he was still displeased. This was a cheap tactic, and it would only give a cheap victory. Not only had Marik made it look as though he'd fallen prey to his mind tricks as well, but he was also depriving him of a chance to really defeat Seth-Peribsen.

To hell with the god cards; he could get the Millennium Rod without a trade. Marik was only a child, and knowledge of the Items or not, he could defeat an untrained child in a Shadow game.

"Yugi, help...." Bakura's voice was getting quieter. The boy was giving up.

He shouldn't have let Marik put him out there. He could get the Millennium Rod without a trade, but not without a host body.

Damn you, Yugi, can you not hear him? How similar were the king and his host, anyway? He knew how much Yugi had influenced Peribsen--but how much of Peribsen had rubbed off on Yugi? What matters more to you, friendship or winning?

Despite all the noise, of Yugi's friends' shouts and Bakura's harsh pleas and the rapid internal conversation that the king must have been having with his host, Kaiba's voice managed to be well heard.

"Yugi, I'll make this very easy for you. Finish him off."

[No!]

There was more going on in the sidelines: Joey was creating one hell of a commotion by climbing up to the arena until Tristan pulled him back down, the announcer was demanding that the duel continue, and Kaiba was still urging Peribsen forward. The eternally rational and calculating portion of his brain made a note to, once the Rod was in his possession, use it to utterly destroy Kaiba's life. Perhaps something involving his little brother.

The rest of him watched as Peribsen remained still, one hand clenched in a fist and the other still gripping his cards tightly.

You never listened to your Horus priest before, Seth-Peribsen; don't start now.

[Please!] Bakura continued to hiss. [She'll--no, please no....]

Then he spotted the faintest motion from the king: just a slight loosening of the fingers holding his cards, nothing more.

And with that, some of the tension inside him dissipated. So Yugi is winning the argument....

He stared down at Bakura, mock-casual, attempting to get back a piece of the image that he'd lost in his panic. 'We're about to win this duel,' he said to Marik, sending the words to the boy as well in an effort to get him to stop babbling about "her," whoever the hell "she" was. 'Yugi would never attack his friend Bakura.'

[That's not Yugi!] Bakura nearly cried, the desperation hideously obvious in his voice. [He'll attack! He did it before!]

...what?

The event Bakura was referring to was running through the boy's memory even as he spoke. He grabbed a hold of it through their link, watched it unfold--a piece of Duelist Kingdom that he hadn't been aware of, because he hadn't been there to see it.

Kaiba, standing on the edge of the turret, ready to fall to his death at the moment of his failure. The same all-or-nothing priest he had always been.

Seth-Peribsen, ordering the Celtic Guardian to attack. Victory over kinship.

The same king he had always been.

He saw that Yugi had stopped him in time, and allowed Kaiba to win the duel, but that didn't change the fact that Peribsen had attacked. The king was not entirely Yugi's puppet--there were still traces of the man he had once been.

So. That settled everything.

~~~~~
There was no comment from his other half, and Ryou knew there would be no help from him. And Kaiba wasn't going to allow his friends to step in; and the other Yugi wasn't going to risk losing this duel just to prevent him from being injured further; and she was still standing there, waiting for him.

If he'd realized that pushing his friends away would have led him to this, he....

...He still would have done it, but it would have been nice to be prepared.

"Please. Someone help me. I don't feel well at all. I must lie down and get some rest." Ryou wasn't even sure what he was saying anymore--it was just a continuous string of pleas for mercy from someone who he believed the word was foreign to, at least when it came to him. It didn't matter, anyway, since Ryou's voice had grown too soft to be heard by anyone other than himself. "Please!"

He glanced up at the other Yugi, and behind him Amane smiled and held out her hand. Ryou watched her for a heartbeat, wavering.

And then he gave up and closed his eyes.

But I don't want to die here....

[Be quiet, host. You're not going to die.]

Ryou shuddered. He's going to attack me!

[He's going to attack,] his other said flatly. [But not you.]

Ryou opened his eyes again. He would have blinked, if terror weren't still overriding his confusion. What...?

[If I absorb Slifer's attack into the Ring, you'll be relatively unscathed. Be grateful that I need your body to physically exist here, Bakura.]

And then he was thrown back. But not back into his soul room. It almost felt like his other self had thrown him out of his body, and a moment later Ryou opened his eyes to see the spirit standing in front of him, laughing.

"What?" the other Yugi said, summing up everyone's reaction.

"I'm back, Yugi!" his other said amid a second burst of laughter.

"It's you!"

"That's right. I'm back in control of your frienkurakura. I need him."

The other Yugi's statements were perhaps a little repetitive, but this was a pretty mind-blowing situation, so it couldn't be held against him. "What?"

Ryou assumed that his other half disliked having to admit a weakness, even as part of a plan, because he continued speaking rapidly. "So if you plan on using your Egyptian god card, Yugi, why don't you use it on me right now?" He flung his arms out to the side, his voice sounding incredibly amused about all of this. "Come on, Yugi."

There was a moment's worth of hesitation from Yugi, and the expressions of both the teenager and the king flickered across his face in that heartbeat.

And then the hesitation was gone and the king stood there. He lacked his blue crown of war, but from his stance his choice was clear. "All right!"

Would Yugi really...? Would his other self really...?

"Slifer the Sky Dragon, attack!"

The dragon tilted its head back and opened its first set of jaws wide. A ball of light began to collect between the rows of teeth. Ryou watched it through the transparent form of his other half.

Transparent....

Oh....

Oh, God, it was a trick, the attack was going to go straight through the spirit and hit him. No Yugi, don't....

There was a crackle, and a roar, and then the dragon attacked.

Ryou blacked out.

~~~
He vaguely felt the floor beneath him vibrating, and heard the rumbling of machinery; but Ryou didn't really come to until he felt someone forcing him into a sitting position.

It hurt....

The other Yugi's voice was more concerned than Ryou would ever have expected. "Bakura."

Ryou forced his eyes open and turned slightly towards that voice. "Hey," he murmured, barely remembering to pull together the trappings of his earlier act, "so where am I?"

"You're with your friends now, Bakura."

Yugi's hand felt warm on his back, and Ryou was exhausted. He attempted to reply, failed, and closed his eyes again. He was close to drifting back to sleep upon the murmur of the voices around him when he felt himself being lifted up.

Ryou grunted as he was moved around, but he went quiet again when he felt someone grip his legs. And then he was being hefted into the air, and Ryou managed to force his eyes open long enough to get a glimpse of a gray coat and the other Yugi's worried expression.

How many people had he misjudged today? The other Yugi hadn't attacked until provoked, the spirit actually had protected him, Tristan was carrying him out of this God-awful place....

Why didn't he feel the Ring pressing against his chest? He was laying on Tristan's back.

Ryou couldn't hold on to his thoughts long enough to make them truly coherent, and the trip out of the dueling area didn't help him. Tristan stumbled to the right on his way down the steps, and someone else's hands kept the both of them from falling over.

"You okay?" Joey asked.

"I got him," Tristan replied. "Oy, Bakura?"

"Shit," Joey said under his breath. "I think he's unconscious again."

"That ain't good. The spirit must have been pushing his body to the limits--we've gotta get him back to th' hospital."

"Where'd Kaiba go?" Téa's voice now. "We have to make him turn this ship around!"

"Don't ask Kaiba," Tristan interjected. "Ask Mokuba. He's still human."

A snort, probably from Joey. The whir and clank of an electric door.

The faint beep of a button being pushed. Another whir and clank.

His friends had fallen silent. The hum of the elevator was low, monotonous, and Ryou fell asleep.

"Under the monster's claws and in-between his teeth
Was the shadow and a silhouette of what I'd thought I'd be"

-- "Scars and Stitches," Guster

~