Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Visions of the Heart ❯ Yami no Niisan, Mou Hitori no Boku ( Chapter 13 )

Unmei: *blinks at the chapter*

Chiot: *suspiciously* WSJ, you didn't...!

WSJ: *grins* Hai, I did! Completely new chapter, peeps! ^_^ That's part of why it took so long to get up. Enjoy!

Chiot: *sigh* Disclaimer as usual, blah blah blah...

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Visions of the Heart

Chapter 13 - Yami no Niisan, Mou Hitori no Boku
(Big Brother of Darkness, My Other Half)

~3rd person POV~

Everyone regrouped back at the Wheelers and sat around staring in puzzlement at the TV, which was broadcasting the news. Apparently, everyone now thought that Seto Kaiba had died in a car accident due to a drunken chauffeur. No security camera tapes, no broken window, no kidnapping, no nothing. It was like everything had been erased from everyone's minds, and then drawn back as something completely different. Yugi and crew seemed to be the only ones who actually remembered the true events of Seto's demise.

Seto himself had departed back to wherever his brother was, by way of simply entering his new soulroom.

"What the hell happened?" Tristan demanded the moment that Joey and Bakura walked through the Wheelers' front door. Ryou was still unconscious, cradled in his yami's arms.

"How should I know?!?" Joey demanded. "If anything, ask them," he jerked his thumb back at Ryou and Bakura. "Something really wacky happened, but I couldn't see what! And he won't tell me!!!"

They turned to the silent yami in confusion. "Is that true?" Yugi asked. "Do you know what happened Bakura? Is Ryou okay?"

Bakura pressed his lips together for a moment. "It was a spell, of sorts. That is all you need to know. Ryou cast it, and it's exhausted him. He needs to go home and rest."

He turned to leave, but Yami stood in his way, his face stern. "Bakura, you'd better tell us! I could Mind Crush you so fast it would make your head spin."

Bakura just glared back at the ex-pharoah. "And I could erase your minds long before you had the chance."

Yami let out a short, barking laugh. "Erase our minds? It seems that your little stay in jail has caused you to forget tomb robber! Or have you so easily dismissed the fact that you are now mortal, through and through?"

Tea, Isis, Tristan, Joey, and Serenity let out gasps of surprise. "Mortal?" Joey asked in disbelief. "As in, human?"

Bakura growled, his lip curling upward into a sneer. "I outta..." Unconsciously he tightened his arms around Ryou until the boy whimpered in his sleep.

Bakura blinked and it seemed his quarrel with Yami was suddenly forgotten. He turned all of his attention to his hikari, and noticed how pale he still looked. 'It must have been all the energy he spent on... that whatever-it-was earlier.' Bakura realized. 'Plus how much blood he's lost...' he winced and didn't continue that train of thought.

"Let me by Pharoah. Ryou needs to be home, in bed, and his room needs cleaning before that can happen."

Yami, as well as the rest of them, were momentarily stunned to silence. Bakura, the evil, soul stealing tomb robber, had just completely dropped a fight with Yami and was apparently more worried about his hikari's well-being. After a small bit of mental prodding from his other, Yami stepped out of the way and let them pass. Yugi stepped up beside him and the two stood frowning slightly as they watched his back becoming smaller in the distance.

"Are you sure it was wise to just let him go?" Yami asked in a low voice as the others went back to talking amongst themselves.

Yugi shook his head, still frowning. "He's mortal now, and somehow I doubt he would hurt Ryou anyway. Not after what has happened."

"If I were you I wouldn't underestimate his heartlessness that way."

"He can't be totally heartless." Yugi protested. "After all, you aren't. And not even Ishtar is. He's gotta have a heart in there somewhere."

"I hope so aibou..." Yami said quietly. "For Ryou's sake..."

Bakura made it home fairly quickly, and gently laid Ryou down on the couch. Once he was sure that he was comfortable and not about to roll off the couch, Bakura went upstairs and began straightening Ryou's room as best he could. He stripped the bed of its bloodstained sheets and put fresh ones on, though he muttered under his breath the entire time he was doing it. Not much could be done about the carpet at the moment, so Bakura just left it the way it was.

"Dear Ra..." he muttered to himself as he headed back downstairs. "I'm becoming domestic..."

As soon as he stepped into the livingroom he stopped, realizing that Ryou was awake and sitting up. The hikari looked distacted, and hadn't seemed to have heard Bakura's footsteps. Suddenly, it occured to Bakura that this was the first time they'd been alone in the house together since Ryou had gone blind.

He went cold all over, wondering why that suddenly made him feel sick.

Ryou turned to face him then, a strange, hesitant look on his face. It was as though he didn't really know whether or not anything had changed between them. "Master..."

Bakura shook his head fiercely, stepping over to sit down on the couch next to him and wincing when he cringed away. "No, don't ever call me that again. No one is your master, Ryou."

Surprise registered on both their faces a moment later. Bakura had just called his hikari by name... again. During the Locking Rituals they'd both just attributed it to stress, but now...

For a long moment they sat in silence together, then softly Ryou asked. "Why?"

Bakura winced again. "Why what? Why did I hurt you, or why did I stop?"

"Why everything."

Bakura sighed and sat back in his chair, looking upward at the ceiling. This would be a long story. "Insanity, pure and simple. I'm afraid I have no better reason. When I was alive, in Egypt, I was an assassin. Occationally a thief, but more often an assassin. My village had been slaughtered by the priests of Ra so their blood and bones could be used in the making of the Items, and all I wanted was revenge. I spent my life killing every priest I met, and my ultimate goal was to kill off the seven sacred priests who wore those damnable Millenium Items."

Ryou's hand rested absently over the Ring. "But why do you hate Yami Yugi? It wasn't his fault, it was his father's. We found that out at the end of Battle City."

Bakura nodded wearily. "Yes. Actually, I never believed it was. Atemu's younger than I am, he was only six when his uncle ordered my village destroyed."

"How old were you?" Ryou asked softly. Atemu. That must be Yami Yugi's real name. Yami and Yugi hadn't found it yet, but Bakura knew it. Ryou wondered if the mortal spirit realized he had one up on the pharaoh.

Bakura ran a hand through his hair. "Eight. My twin brother Jonathon and I hid, but I lost him in the chaos and thought he'd been killed too." He shook his head. "Anyway, the reason I hate Yami Yugi is because I once tried to sneak into the palace to kill Akunadin, the corrupt priest who orchastrated my village's slaughter. Atemu stopped me. I swore to kill him. That's all."

"But that's all years and years in the past!"

"Yes," Bakura sighed softly. "I know."

Ryou was quiet a moment. "You said you were insane..."

"Yes, I was. When I was twenty-two, Atemu finally caught me. By that time, I'd stolen the Ring from Mahaado, murdered Aishizu, Shadi, Akunadin, and scores of lesser priests, and thouroughly desecrated his father's tomb. Needless to say, he didn't like me much at all. By that time, the priests were beginning to abuse the Shadow Games, and Atemu was afraid that it would turn into a full-scale war, so he desided to seal them away. But with that much magic, it takes a whole lot more magic to seal it up. So instead of just having me killed, Atemu used my life energies along with his own to seal the Millennium Items and the Shadow Games away."

"Until Yugi woke them up again."

"Until Yugi woke them." Bakura agreed. "Something had gone wrong, though. Atemu and I weren't meant to be sealed into the Ring and Puzzle, we were just supposed to die. But something went wrong, and our souls were sealed away along with our magic." He went quiet for a moment. "Because the Puzzle is made of many different pieces, when it was shattered so was Atemu's memory. I have a feeling that that sent him to sleep, unconscious of time passing until Yugi managed to complete the Puzzle and release him."

There was something wrong about what Bakura had just said. "What about you?"

Bakura smiled bitterly. "The Ring has always been whole, and my soulroom is small. I was trapped, awake and aware, staring at the same walls for three thousand years. Sometimes, if I had a host, a window of sorts would appear to let me look through their eyes, watch the world change, see things I could never touch or taste or do. It drove me mad, Ryou. Very, very insane. You were the first host I ever had that when you put on the Ring, not only did a window appear, but so did a door. You were the first host I had that I could ever possess. So I did. You used to wonder why you'd wake up with a hangover, or a stomach ache from eating too much, or other people's blood under your fingernails. All of that was me."

"I figured so." Ryou said softly. "But why-" he stopped, unconsciously lowering his head in sudden timidity.

"Why did I hurt you?" Bakura asked, his voice surprisingly gentle.

Ryou nodded.

Bakura sighed and ran a hand through his hair, an unconscious gesture that was quickly becoming habit. "Insanity. I know, that's no reason at all, but it's the only one I can give. I hurt you just because I could, because it put me in control of something in my miserable existance, because it made me feel powerful..." He was shocked to realize that there were tears in his eyes, and he stubbornly shook them away.

Ryou hesitated only a moment, then laid his head against Bakura's shoulder and wrapped his arms around the yami's waist. Bakura stiffened at the gentle touch, then pulled the boy closer to him, burying his face in Ryou's hair. "Ryou, I promise," he murmured, tears soaking into the white hair. "No more hurt, ever. I'm going to do what a yami's supposed to, and protect you. Always. I promise."

Ryou went very still, his blind eyes going wide. Then he hugged his yami fiercely. "I forgive you."

Bakura jerked back to stare at him, eyes almost popping out of his skull. "You what?!"

"I forgive you." Ryou laid his head against Bakura's chest, arms wrapped firmly around his waist. "It wasn't you, yami. You were insane, it wasn't you. It was someone else that hurt me, so I forgive you."

Bakura's eyes filled with tears and he hugged the boy close. "Oh Ryou...."

And together at last as a yami and hikari should be, they cried. Bakura from regret and guilt and sorrow, Ryou from relief and thankfulness. Things were just as they should be.

After awhile they both calmed and just sat holding each other, enjoying a new understanding. "Yami," Ryou finally said, but Bakura shook his head.

"Just call me Bakura."

"Bakura, then," Ryou smiled, then sobered. "It's... weird. Something weird's going on."

Bakura laughed lightly, the first he had in a long while. "Let's see, I nearly lose you to the Shadow Realm, get snapped out of my insanity, see my brother again, and turn Seto Kaiba into a ghost, and you'd think something weird isn't happening?"

Ryou smiled. "No, not like that. I mean what I did at the jail, to make everyone forget so Yugi would be innocent. I don't know what I did but I just... knew what to do. It was really weird. And I can see things, too."

Bakura's eyebrows went way up. "See things?"

The hikari nodded. "Yeah, like, colors, and stuff. You're blue, all of you. I can't tell what your features are, but somehow I just know it's you."

"Auras..." Bakura murmured half to himself, then smiled. "Ryou, this could be the start of something very big...."

Ryou snuggled against him. "You think?"

Bakura smiled softly, stroking his hair. "....Yeah, I do."

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WSJ: *Grins*

Unmei: *Rolls his eyes* Well, at least it makes a little more sense now...

Chiot: Slightly.

WSJ: I'm SO sorry this took so long!!! I have had writer's block in a MAJOR way. Hopefully now things will start running smoother. *Crosses fingers*

Chapter 14: Time for school! Although things might not be all fun and games....

God bless minna-san!