Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Insert Cool Yu-Gi-Oh! Related Title ❯ Chapter Six: Rings are Heavy ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer!

No, I don't own YuGiOh! If I did, the dress code in schools would be leather, belts, buckles, and chains. And the sailor fuku, regardless of gender.

//Are the yami mentally speaking to their hikari.//
/Are the hikari mentally speaking to their yami./
And Italics are thoughts.

Chapter Six: Rings are Heavy

There seemed no point to any of it. It was all darkness, nestled in more darkles, coupled with even more darkness. All swirling about him, like a gentle midsummer's breeze, curling up his leg and purring to his very soul, like a demon cat, chilling him, like a soft cube of ice running down his smooth, white skin. The cold numbed his thoughts while the dark burned his flesh with a freezing grip. It hurt only because his mind told him it hurt. If he just let go, stopped thinking, made himself not care… The cold could feel so good. The hurt could feel good. The darkness seemed so inviting suddenly. And Ryou let it in, let it touch him everywhere, like water milling around his waist in a cold spring of lava. It crept up his legs, engulfing them in fire, and up his torso, like living flames, consuming him alive. The vines of darkness reached out to suffocate the already willing victim, to brandish his soul with its dead luster. Onto the small boy's face it crawled, slithering, and clawing, like the paws of a terrible beast. It sought to destroy, and Ryou didn't care anymore. He wanted the pain. He enjoyed it. He wanted destruction. He wanted his death. The invitation was spoken by the darkness and Ryou answered. And so the darkness entered him, through his mouth, past his parted lips, down his throat, into his body it pushed, fulfilling his wish and killing him as part of the payment. Ryou let his body float limp in the abyss of darkness, and waited for it to fade. In the end, it all faded. In the end he was always alone.

Ryou opened his eyes and winced as a sharp gash of light hit their sensitive nerves.

Where am I?

His hand lifted, feeling far too heavy for its size and cradled his head hoping the dull thumping would soon subside.

"Oh, good! You're awake. I knew it wasn't as bad as those boys were making it out to be."

"Huh?" Ryou moaned. "Where… What happened?" Last he remembered opening the class room door and then-

"Well, apparently, some boys got a little rough in class and you ended up getting hurt. Feeling better?" asked the nurse, Ryou noticed. A rather slim woman with a kind sounding voice, but with strong features. She took Ryou's temperature and asked him to follow a light in her hand judging his reaction. "Everything seems fine. From what the boys told me, you slammed into the wall pretty hard. I was afraid that maybe you hit your head, but you seem to not have. If you start feeling dizzy or lightheaded I want you to go see a doctor immediately. And you seem rather tired. Are you sleeping enough? You`ve been here for almost six hours-"

Ryou had tuned her out a long time ago. He was busy trying to figure his dream out. It confused him worst than anything else he'd ever dreamt before. And he'd dreamt some pretty odd stuff.

"Are you listening?" he heard the woman call out.

"I.. Uh, yes. No. I'm sorry. I was just… My head hurts," the white haired boy finished, still holding his head, but now sitting in the cot he had previously laid in. "How long.. I'm sorry, what time is it?" he asked her, at the same time searching the walls for a clock.

"About time for the bell to ring. Tell you what, how about you go home and get some sleep, hm? Call it a day?" she smiled at him.

Sleep. Heh. Funny.

That's what he most needed right now. And most did not want.

"Sure. Thanks." Ryou stood up, slightly disoriented, got his jacket and put it on. He noticed the Sennen Ring lay next to the nurses desk.

"May I… May I please have my Ring back," he gestured toward the golden item.

"Oh! Of course. You should have seen the fuss those boys were making over this thing!" she handed it back to him. "I took it off so it wouldn't disturb you while you slept. Seriously, the things you teenagers wear!"

Ryou placed the Ring around his neck and stepped towards the door. "Excuse me, who was it that brought me here?"

"Oh, it was that nice young Mutou Yugi and a whole bunch of other students were with him. All very concerned about you, I might add. They wanted to take the Ring with them, but I didn`t let them. After all, it belongs to you, isn`t that right? I wouldn`t want them stealing anything while you were unconscious, now would I?"

"Oh… Thank you," Ryou said. His hand quickly darted over the Sennen Ring as he left the room, and made his way down the school halls, and out of the school building all together.

He walked home, rarely glancing up for any reason. He barely even noticed that the day was gray and cloudy outside. It would most likely rain that night. Both mentally and physically, he was exhausted, although thanks to his `during school sleep' his body at least felt the strain of fatigue a little less vaguely. He walked into the apartment building were he and his father lived, although his father hardly ever came home nowadays. He was always off on digs or archeological related stuff, always doing something, always far to busy to ever come home. Far to busy to ever say hello; to ever even acknowledge his existence

Ryou put away his key as he walked into the large apartment and locked the door. He walked into the kitchen, not bothering to turn on the lights. He wasn't hungry. He walked into the living room, past the pointlessly long sofa, and looked at the television with contempt as it stared back at him, shinning with the reflection of himself on the screen. Then he strolled into the master bedroom, his bedroom, and sat on the edge of the large bed. Such beds were uncommon in Japan or so he'd been told. Also, that he was lucky that his father made enough money to lavish onto him such a large apartment. He didn't feel lucky. In fact, he was feeling rather low and depressed and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.

His fingers traced the contours of the Sennen Ring unconsciously, feeling the cold, metallic gold's smooth surface, savoring the indents and rough protrusions. Ryou closed his eyes and a sudden flash of Bakura's image filled his mind. He opened his eyes immediately, but Bakura's figure still stayed imprinted on them. No, Bakura's figure now stood before him, in his bedroom, arms crossed and looking ticked off. Ryou felt fear grip at him, then suddenly change to a strange sort of gratefulness, followed by disappointment and finally back to a lack of caring. He was too tired to care.

Ryou looked down at the ground and remained motionless, sitting on the bed's edge. He realized he was still fondling the Ring and forced himself to stop.

Bakura still stood with his arms crossed, and his eyebrows furrowed. He shifted his weight onto his left side and spoke, "So?"

The voice seared through the darkness of the room and startled Ryou. "So.. What?" he basically whispered.

"So, what's going on?" the ancient tomb robber asked, now slowly shifting his weight onto his right side. "And don't lie to me. I know something's up. Lately you've been all gloomy and stuff lately. And today… You're dream scared me Ryou."

Ryou's heart froze. The blood in his veins stopped flowing as his vision shot up, with wide eyes, to gasp in Bakura's direction. "How!? You saw my dream?! Do you… Have you seen all my dreams!?!"

Bakura was a little taken back by Ryou's response. "No, just that one… Are you OK?" he asked, actually concerned, but Ryou seemed to visually calm down and release a seemingly pent up sigh. "Why? What have you been dreaming?" He took a few steps closer to Ryou. "I'm really…" Bakura seemed to struggle for the right words. "I'm worried about you. You're freaking me out Ryou. You really are. And that`s saying something… What`s happened to you?"

Ryou let out another tired sigh. "Nothing," he repeated his mantra. "Nothing at all." Ryou looked away and felt the darkness return. He felt the icy grip on his throat.

"You're lying," Bakura looked angry once again. "You once had light surrounding you, Ryou. But that light is gone." He took a few steps closer to the boy. "Don't think I can't see it. I'm darkness, Ryou. And I can see myself all over you."

Ryou's face turned a hot shade of pink as he looked up with fearful eyes to meet Bakura's cold stare. His mouth moved, but no sound came out.

"In your dream, you invited me in. And I followed, I hurt you, and you liked it. You wanted more." Bakura's glare faltered a bit and his eyes lost their anger. "I'm… It scared me Ryou. You wanted me to kill you. You really did… You still do. Right now, Ryou, right now, my fingers are around your neck. I'm squeezing the air out of your lungs, and try as I might, I can't stop! You're asking me to do this! And I can't stop! Why…? What`s wrong with you?" Bakura looked troubled, almost hurt and scared. "I'd never…" He stopped speaking and stood there, now looking at the ground, looking for the correct words. He swallowed and looked up to meet Ryou`s surprised and slightly ashamed eyes. "I'd rather die before I ever hurt you again. Please. Don't ever ask me to do that to you again. I… I don't want to."

"Bakura…" Ryou finally found his voice. "Gomen," he whispered and looked away.

Bakura just said… He actually said… God! I'm so stupid! What was I thinking!

"Bakura!" Ryou stood up, tears festering in his eyes, threatening to break free. "I didn't know! I didn't know it was you! I.. I…" Ryou stopped and felt the darkness tugging at him again. He wanted it to feel him, to burn him, to touch him and make him numb. He wanted it to take him and make everything stop and go away. He wanted it to hurt him and, yes, he wanted it to kill him! "I…" He felt himself loosing his grip on reality. Suddenly, everything in his vision was being obscured by a darkness that made him feel light and woozy, and heavy and… "Bakura!" Ryou fell to the floor as his dark rushed to catch him. "I'm so sorry!" the boy cried out in torrents of sobs holding onto Bukura. "I'm so sorry!" he screamed into the others shirt. "I just… I.. I… I just want you to hold me like this." Ryou felt everything around him loose consistency. Like butter, it all melted away, but Bakura was still there, his arms wrapped tightly around him, holding him, softly rocking him back and forth in a soothing manner, whispering sweet nothings into his ear, reassuring him that he would be fine in the morning. It wasn't like the darkness that was so cold and sharp, that it pierced through his soul and made him feel the fingertips of death… This was different. It was warm. This was Bakura.

"Baka hikari…" he heard his dark say. And he smiled. He didn't care anymore. Bakura was right. He just didn't care anymore. So long as Bakura held him, the world and everyone in it be damned! He just didn't care anymore!

Chapter 7 preview: OK, so while Ryou's having a mental breakdown, what's going on with Yugi and his group? They now know about the Ring. What will they do about it? What about Kaiba and Jounouchi's little fight? Obviously, the school's gotta punish them somehow! And what about the major school project that's due?

Whoo! Another chapter down! Sorry for going all serious in this chapter, but, well, Ryou //is// having a damned nervous breakdown! Next chapter will be a lot funnier, I assure you! It's about Jounouchi!