Starlight Aurate
Ad Jesum per Mariam | pfp by kintsugi
- Location
- Route 123
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Hi everyone! I've been on the forums for a bit now but haven't actually posted anything, so I figured I'd post this one-shot. It's based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Toei Animation "Season Zero." Enjoy!
“Aw, crap,” Megumi whispered. Burying her head in her hands, she leaned forward on her desk just as the class got up to depart for lunch.
“You look upset. Is something wrong?” Hanako later asked as they stood in the lunch line.
Megumi turned to her friend and nodded. “I just realized that I left my history homework at home.”
“Oh… That’s not good.”
Megumi turned away. She was too nervous to say anything; she had already missed three homework assignments and her teacher told her that if she missed any more, she was going to get detention. Megumi continued through the lunch line silently, only nudging Hanako when they were about to sit down.
“Hey, that kid’s all alone again.” She gestured to a table in the far corner of the room, where a kid with shaggy white hair sat.
“Oh, that’s Bakura. He’s always alone,” she said nonchalantly as she sat down at their usual table.
“Don’t you think we should invite him with us or go sit with him or something? I feel like a jerk for leaving him by himself.”
“Sit with who?”
Megumi jumped as Nozomi suddenly appeared behind her. Megumi cursed while she picked up her spilled food, and Hanako answered, “Megumi feels bad about leaving Bakura over there by himself.”
“About him?” Nozomi’s pencil-thin eyebrows disappeared into her dark bangs as they rose in disbelief. “A couple of us tried to be nice and get to know him. And he is pretty nice, he’s just really weird.”
“Weird in what way?”
“All he wants to do is play games or do puzzles or stuff, and he liked talking about creepy things. A bunch of us showed him around school in the first week, and he just wanted to be left alone. It’s like he doesn’t even want any friends.”
“It doesn’t look like he’s happy now,” Megumi noted. The boy’s eyes were downcast, and he had a small, troubled frown on his face.
“But he doesn’t seem to want to be with us, either.” Megumi looked over to see Kenta and a few other boys sitting at their table. His uniform was unbuttoned, exposing his wrinkled white t-shirt.
“If any teachers catch you with your uniform like that, you’re screwed,” she told him.
He shrugged. “I’ll take my chances. But that Bakura kid—we’ve invited him to hang out and play different sports with us, but he’s not really good.”
“You’re not one to talk,” she shot at him.
Taken aback, he insisted, “I know, I know. But at least I enjoy doing stuff with my friends. He looked like he was trying really hard to like it, but just didn’t really care for any of it.”
“Then try asking what he wants to do for once. Now come on.”
“Who? Me?” Hanako asked.
“Yes, you. We should at least try to talk to him! Besides,” she stated as her friend looked worriedly at Bakura, “if he is one of those ‘weird’ people or whatever, it’ll be easier to get along with him if we hang out in a group.”
“Have fun,” Nozomi said distastefully.
“Thanks, I’ll try.” Making her way across the room, Megumi smiled at Bakura as she approached him.
“Hi there!” He jumped up as she spoke, his brilliant green eyes open wide in shock. “Sorry if I startled you. Do you mind if we sit here?”
“Oh—no, go ahead,” he said demurely. Megumi sat down, and a smiling Hanako sidled in next to her. “I’m Ryou Bakura, by the way.”
“I’m Megumi Orihara, and this is Hanako Hoyashi.”
Hanako waved a greeting and asked, “Are you new to Rintama High School?”
He shook his head. “This is my second year here. I just haven’t been at school much since my dad was on a trip to Egypt and just got home last week, so I’ve been helping him out.” His eyes turned downwards as he added, “Of course, he’s leaving at the end of this week to go on another business trip.”
“Egypt? What was he doing there?” Megumi asked as she twirled a strand of navy-blue hair around her finger.
“He’s an Egyptologist, so he’s been studying tombs and working on excavation sites.”
“Tombs?” Hanako’s eyes popped open worriedly. “Aren’t those supposed to be cursed and extremely dangerous?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Megumi snapped. “All that’s just made up to scare people. The ancient Egyptians were harmless.”
“Oh, no, she is right! My father said that inside the tombs he found multi-headed skeletons and disfigured and burned bones.” Bakura’s eyes were alight with excitement, and he spoke with such alacrity that Megumi was a more than a little creeped out by him. “There are also tons of stone tablets filled with pictures of monsters that the Egyptians would use in battles to the death.”
Hanako made a disgusted noise. “That’s horrible!”
The smile fell from Bakura’s face and his shoulders drooped. “Oh. I thought it was really interesting…”
Megumi’s heart panged with guilt and resentment at the boy’s sudden despondency. “It’s not that bad. Anyway, Bakura, do you want to hang out with us later on? I have ballet practice after school, but a group of friends and I were thinking of getting together this evening.”
“Oh, thanks,” he said unconvincingly as he glanced at the group of friends Megumi indicated. “I’ve played basketball with them once before, but they were pretty upset when I kept passing to the wrong team. And the only basket I made was our own. Then I accidentally knocked a girl to the ground and she skinned her elbow…” His voice trailed off when he saw the two girls staring at him uncertainly. “But if you want me to come, I will.”
“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I just thought it’d be nice to get to know each other. After all, the school year’s just started and a lot of people are still making new friends.” Megumi shrugged. “I can understand if you’re busy or would rather do something else; I just thought you might like to join us.”
Bakura smiled, and though it wasn’t a cheerful, enthusiastic smile as before, its gentleness and sincerity warmed Megumi’s heart. “Thank you, Orihara. I’ll see if I can come.”
+++++++++++++
“What’s up, Megumi?” Takeshi asked as Megumi buried her head in her hands. She was sitting on a park bench, tired from ballet practice and mentally stressed from having to explain to her teacher why she didn’t have her homework even though it was only the second week of school. In front of her, a group of kids were sprinting up and down the court, passing a basketball to each other. The brown-haired boy shook her shoulder gently and repeated his question.
“I just found out that I have detention this Thursday,” she groaned.
“Detention? What did you do?!”
“Nothing!” When she met his accusatory glare, she clarified, “I’m serious. I didn’t do homework four times in a row, so now I have to spend two hours after school cleaning gum off the bottom of desks.”
Takeshi stood straight up and crossed his arms. “Why wouldn’t you do your homework? Especially if it’s Karekura—you knew that this was coming.”
“I forgot! And history is so dumb anyway, why does it matter what crops the Chavin grew in South America in the fourth century or whatever it was?”
Takeshi shrugged. “It’s school. Ninety percent of this stuff won’t ever be useful, but we have to go through with it anyway.” He looked over at the people playing basketball. “It’s the same with them. All of our friends are probably just temporary. I doubt I’ll be seeing any of you once we’re done with high school.”
“Don’t say that,” Megumi objected. “Of course we’ll keep our friends.”
“Will we, though? Or are we just forcing ourselves to get along with each other so that we aren’t so lonely for a certain period of time?” He turned away from the people playing basketball, a wistful look in his eyes. “Besides, I can’t see myself holding on real closely to people. Not if I’m going to do what I want.”
“And what’s that?”
“To see the world. Look at me; I’m too young to spend my whole life in this town and not do some traveling! I want to get out, visit other countries, live in other cultures, speak other languages, see new scenery, study different architecture, see new environments—everything,” he finished with a sigh.
Megumi looked away. She could understand his desire to travel, but she honestly felt that she could be all right staying in Japan her whole life. A part of her did want to go to Russia to see and train with the ballerinas there, but with the money her family had, she accepted that it wasn’t an option for her.
She shrugged. “It’s just that I’ve known you forever, Takeshi. It’s weird to think of not being friends with you…” As she studied her friend group, her heart sank. “I’d like to think we could all stay friends.”
“Even with that freak?”
She turned her head as Takeshi jabbed his thumb to the side. Bakura was walking over, studying the basketball players and looking unsure.
“Don’t you call him a freak,” Megumi hissed.
“Why not? Hanako told me what he said earlier about Egypt and whatnot. Guys like that are going to be living in their moms’ basements all their lives.”
“Shut up.” Standing up, she shoved Takeshi. “He’s really nice. And if you’d even try to get to know him, you’d see that he’s really not bad.”
He smirked.
Shaking her head in disgust, Megumi walked over to where the shaggy-haired boy stood. “Hey Bakura! Good to see that you made it.” He turned around, and even when he left behind his school uniform for a white button-up shirt and green shorts, he still seemed uncomfortable.
He smiled back at her. “Yeah, my dad’s just getting ready to leave on Thursday, so he said it’s okay if I came out here with you guys.”
Megumi nodded. “Do you want to play a game with me?”
“Ah, oh, well, I don’t really know how to play. Last time—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know what happened last time. But don’t worry, I’ll help you and teach you how to play! Besides, I’m about as bad as you can possibly be, so you’ll look all right,” she told him as she led him on to the court.
“Hey, Bakura!” Kenta shouted from the sidelines. “If she gives you advice, just do the opposite of what she says and you should be good.”
“Shut up, Kenta! Come on, let’s do this!”
They formed a team with her classmate Kaoru, and considering everything, Megumi thought they were doing pretty well. Five minutes in, and the score was only four to zero. Poor Bakura often stood in the middle of the court, confused as to what to do, or would just follow his teammates and run from end-to-end. Half of the time, Megumi felt that when she gave him instructions, people would tell him to do otherwise.
“There! That’s it, Bakura, run down the court with the ball!” she shouted. “No, no—you have to dribble it, remember?”
He started bouncing the ball up-and-down unsteadily, trying hard to keep his eyes on the path ahead and making sure the ball didn’t slip from under his grasp. But he was going smoothly down the court; no one stood in his way, and he had a clear path to the opposing team’s basket.
“That’s it! Go, go, go!”
Bakura stopped before the basket, and gracefully threw the ball overhead. Megumi gasped with delight as it bounced off the backboard and went through the hoop.
“Awesome, great job Bakura! Give me a high-five!” She ran over to him, holding up both hands for a double high-five. He returned the gesture, and the enthusiastic smile lighting his face lifted Megumi’s heart.
“I scored, didn’t I?” His voice was brimming with joy, and the nervous tremor that often infected it was gone.
“Yeah, that was gr—what it is?” she suddenly shot at the group of people laughing on the sidelines.
“This is why you never take advice from Megumi, Bakura. You scored on your own basket!” Kenta hollered as the rest of the group roared with laughter.
All happiness left Bakura’s face as it steadily turned a shade of bright red.
“Oops… sorry about that, Bakura.”
“No, I—I’m sorry, I should’ve…”
“Well, whatever. Let’s get back out there and try again!” She headed back towards the center of the court, and turned when she noticed Bakura wasn’t following her. He was just staring at her in disbelief.
“You really want me to keep playing with you?”
“Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I? You can’t just stop after one mess-up. Besides, that was mostly my fault anyway. Come on, won’t you please just forget about that and come play with us again?”
He stared worriedly into her black eyes, studying the pleading and slightly-annoyed look on her face. Nodding shyly, he answered, “Okay.”
++++++++++++++++++
“That was all right,” Kenta said as the sky darkened and everyone began to depart.
“Just ‘all right’? Not ‘great’? Are you just bitter that your team lost to Nozomi’s?” Megumi teased.
He shrugged. “Maybe a little. Anyway, do you want me to walk you home?”
“Sure. I’ll just say ‘bye’ to Bakura real quick.” Trotting over the white-haired boy, she nudged him. “Hey, thanks for coming out tonight!”
Looking down at her, he returned the smile. “Yeah, it was fun. Thank you, Orihara.”
“I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow, then?” He nodded, and she added, “See you later!” before walking off with Kenta.
Bakura watched the two of them go, his heart lighter than it had been all week. As he watched the two figures disappear down the sidewalk, a smile crossed his face, and a flash of purple flickered across his eyes.
++++++++++++++
“Crap crap crap crap crap…” Megumi muttered as she walked out of Rintama High’s front doors. As soon as she was free from school, she unbuttoned the top coat of her slate-grey uniform, letting her undershirt air out. She didn’t want to think about the load of homework that awaited her, or the detention that was looming closer. She was half-regretting hanging out and playing basketball last night. But she remembered the smile Bakura gave her, and the joy that she felt when she saw him so happy. Maybe it wasn’t really a waste of time.
“Orihara!”
She turned around to see Bakura walking towards her in the crowd of students.
“Hey Bakura. Sorry, but I have to go right now. My ballet class starts in forty-five minutes and my parents are going to be here to pick me up soon.”
“I understand; I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.”
Megumi hesitated for a moment, then walked to a side courtyard with Bakura. If their conversation was going to distract her from school or dance, then she could make time for it.
“What’s up?” she asked him.
“Um, I just wanted to say thank you for inviting me last night. I really had a good time.”
“Oh, I’m glad to hear that! That was the whole idea, after all.”
He suddenly looked concerned. “Did you not enjoy last night?”
She sighed. “I really love hanging out with all of my friends, but honestly, I hate basketball. I still don’t understand it, I’ve never been good at it, and it really just seems like the worst sport in the world. Still,” she said as she turned to him with a smile, “being with you guys makes it all worthwhile.”
He nodded. “What kind of things do you like to do, then?”
“Well, I’ve been taking ballet for six years, so that’s definitely near the top of my list. There are times when I hate it, but I can’t just stop doing it, you know? And on the school side of things, I like math, like pre-calculus and trigonometry stuff.”
“Do you like games?”
“Games?” She frowned. “Do you mean like ping-pong or cards?”
“I mean like board games, or Role-Playing Games. I got a new one, called Monster World, and I wanted to ask you if you’d like to come over sometime and play it with me.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it, and I haven’t ever played a Role-Playing Game. But,” she added when he sudden look of disappointment, “if you don’t mind teaching me what to do, then I’d love to come over!”
His face lit up, and he inclined his head. “No, I don’t mind at all! What day works best for you?”
“Can we do Friday after school? My ballet classes are in the evening then, and I’m busy on Thursday.” A weight dropped to her stomach at the thought of detention.
“Okay! I’ll see you Friday, then! Thank you, Orihara!”
“You can call me Megumi. I don’t mind,” she stated as she walked out of the courtyard.
“Megumi, wait!” he called. She turned around and glanced curiously at him. “Does this mean—would you say that we’re friends?”
“Yeah, I’d say so. Anyway, I’ve really got to run. I’ll see you later, Bakura!” She turned around and headed towards where her mom waited impatiently in the car. As she rode in the vehicle, she tried to focus on going to Bakura’s on Friday. But as she sifted through her thoughts, she couldn’t push away the unsettling sensation that took hold of her.
In the last moment before she left, she sensed a change come over Bakura. The nervousness had left his voice again, but this time it held a cool confidence instead of a childlike enthusiasm. For just a moment, his shyness was replaced by a quiet, controlled calm—something about it was not like him at all.
Megumi shook her head. How could he have changed that much in so little time? And it did seem to be for just a moment, after all. If anything, Bakura growing more confident should be a good thing, not something for her to worry about.
“How did school go?” her mom suddenly asked.
Megumi started to answer, but stopped and let loose a sigh of regret. Her parents still didn’t know about her detention.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
“You’re actually going over to his place?” Hanako asked in disbelief.
It was Wednesday afternoon, and Hanako stood impatiently by Megumi’s desk as her friend finished packing her schoolbag.
Megumi shoved her pencils into one pocket as she explained, “I already told you, yes I am. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“I just don’t see why you would want to.”
“Because he’s my friend and I actually like hanging out with him.”
“But don’t you think it’s weird that he only asked you to come over?”
Straightening up and putting her backpack on, Megumi replied, “He actually told me that you and Takeshi and everyone else we played basketball with on Monday are invited.”
“Why wouldn’t he just ask us himself?”
“Probably because he’s too shy since the rest of you are so rude to him.” Turning away from her violet-haired friend, she started to walk towards the door when Mr. Karekura spoke.
“Orihara, could you come here for a moment, please? Hoyashi, you may go.”
The two girls exchanged worried glances as Megumi walked over to the teacher’s desk.
“Yes, Mr. Karekura?”
“It’s about your detention.” He rubbed his eyes as he replied, “Something unexpected came up, and I can’t be here tomorrow for you.”
Putting on her most charming smile, she suggested, “So I don’t have detention at all?”
“No, you still do. It’s just going to be Friday instead.”
The smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “But—but after school Friday—”
“No ‘buts.’ You can serve it or get referred to the principal’s office.”
“I had already planned everything out—even with dance and…” Her voice died as Mr. Karekura stood up and stared down at her.
“ ‘Academics Before Athletics,’ ” he recited. Striding over the door, he held it open and gestured outside. “That’s all. You may go now.”
With a heavy heart, Megumi walked out of the room to where Hanako stood waiting outside for her.
“Are you kidding me?” Hanako exclaimed when Megumi explained everything. “Changing it one day before—is that even allowed?” She threw her hands up. “I can’t believe him. And giving you detention in the first place! I mean, at least you come to school. You’re not like Hiratani and his gang who skip half the time and spend their days picking on younger kids.”
Her friend was only half-listening. “Yeah… I feel pretty bad for Bakura, too, though. I know that he was looking forward to this as well.” She glanced sideling at Hanako. “You’re not going to his place, are you?”
“Be honest with yourself, Megumi. You’re the only one who would show up anyway.” She sighed. “I guess we can’t do anything about it now. What are you going to do?”
The blue-haired girl shrugged. “Put it off, I suppose. I guess the poor kid’s will have to do without me for now.”
+++++++++++++++++++++
Megumi meant to tell Bakura the next day that her detention was moved to Friday, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Maybe he’s sick,” Hanako said hopefully. “And maybe he’ll still be too sick tomorrow that you wouldn’t be able to go to his place anyway!”
So Megumi went to school on Friday as per usual. She was trying to get by in the flow of student bodies rushing through the hallway.
“Sorry, excuse me—oof! Watch where you’re—oh, hi Bakura!”
She bumped into a boy’s pale grey uniform and looked up to see bright green eyes gazing down at her.
“Hi Megumi!” he replied as the two made their way to the edge of the hall, where the traffic thinned out. “How are you doing?”
“I’m doing okay. Are you? We didn’t see you at school yesterday, and Hanako thought you might have been sick.”
“Oh, no I’m feeling all right.” His eyes roved down to his chest as he quietly said, “I’ve been having a few memory lapses, lately. They’re usually only a few minutes, I think, but yesterday it was noon before I realized where I was or what I was doing, so I never came to school.”
“Really?” Megumi paused to gaze at him in concern and disbelief. “Bakura, how long have you been getting these?”
“Only for the past two weeks, and I can’t think of what’s causing them. I think it’s all right, though. As far as I could tell, I don’t think I left my apartment at all yesterday.
“Oh! That reminds me,” he added as his face suddenly brightened, “are you still coming over tomorrow? I have the adventure written out, and you can choose from different character bios!”
Megumi’s heart sank with guilt as she slowly replied, “Bakura, I’m sorry, but I can’t go. I was supposed to have detention with Mr. Karekura yesterday, but he moved it to today for some stupid reason.”
The smile left Bakura’s face and his expression clouded over. “Oh, I’m sorry that you have that. It’s all right, though.”
“Bakura, believe me, I would much rather hang out with you than spend two hours in Karekura’s room scraping gum off the underside of desks!”
“It’s all right, I believe you. But,” he said as he looked around at the now near-empty hallways, “we should get to class now, or you might get another detention for being late.”
“Oh crappers, that’s right,” she muttered. She took off down the hallway, calling, “I’m really sorry about this, Bakura! But we’ll work something out!”
“After school detention with Karekura today, eh?” Bakura said softly to himself. His eyes narrowed as a small smile curved at the corners of his mouth. “That won’t do at all.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++
“Hey, Megumi, how was your detention?”
Takeshi caught up with Megumi as she walked slowly down the hallway, clutching her schoolbag worriedly with both hands.
“I’m going there right now,” she answered dejectedly. “Mr. Karekura said he couldn’t do it yesterday, so he moved it to today.”
Takeshi stopped in his tracks, his dark brown eyes open in shock. “Are you serious? ‘Cause we were thinking—”
“Yeah, I’m serious,” she cut him off. She didn’t even want to hear about any plans her friends had that she couldn’t be with them for. As she stopped before the classroom door, she said, “I’ll see you later, Takeshi.” Turning away from her friend, she grasped the doorknob and opened the door.
Mr. Karekura sat inside at his desk, his pen scribbling across a paper. As Megumi entered, he looked up.
“Ah, there you are, Orihara. The tools you need are right there.” He indicated a scraper and waste basket with a nod of his head. “You can start.”
Megumi enjoyed scraping fossilized gum off the desk bottoms even less than she had imagined. She had hoped it would be mindless and she could at least spend time thinking about other things or daydreaming, but a lot of the gum refused to come off at first. Wiggling and pushing the scraper about, she struggled to get the hardened substance off.
After about fifteen minutes, her teacher said, “I’ll be back in a bit.”
As soon as he left the room, Megumi put the scraping tool down and stared at the clock. How could she still have an hour and forty-five minutes left? And was Mr. Karekura expecting her to clean every desk in the classroom? She knew she didn’t have nearly enough time to do that.
Megumi sighed, thinking about what each of her friends might be doing. Even though she had been assigned detention before meeting Bakura, she still felt guilty about having to break her promise to him.
She glanced back at the clock. An hour and twenty-five minutes to go. At least it’s the weekend soon, she thought. And Karekura’s been gone for a while…
A scream suddenly rent the air. Megumi jumped up as she heard footsteps in the hallway, and peered out the open door to see staff members running as quickly as they could. Glancing at the scraper and waste basket for a moment, Megumi decided to abandon them and join the small group of people forming at the entrance to the bathrooms.
“Someone call the hospital; he won’t wake up!”
“Is he breathing? Does he have a pulse?”
“I don’t know—I—I think he does—”
Megumi stood at the back of a crowd of faculty members. People were running down the corridors as quickly as they could. A few teachers shuffled aside, and Megumi gasped when she saw Mr. Karekura lying face-up on the ground, unmoving, his eyes wide open. Another teacher was kneeling on the ground next to him, her long ebony hair messed-up from her clutching it so much, and looking as if she was about to faint herself.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
Megumi looked up to see a teacher she didn’t know glaring at her. “Students shouldn’t be here after school hours.”
“I had detention with Mr. Karekura, though…”
He waved a hand in annoyance. “We’ll worry about that later. For now, just go.”
“But shouldn’t I—?”
“JUST GO!”
Without further hesitation, Megumi ran back to Mr. Karekura’s classroom, grabbed her things, and left the building. As she walked through Rintama’s front doors, her heart pounded furiously in her chest, and her breathing was shallow and quick. She was grateful that she got of detention early, but just what had happened to her teacher?
She walked hurriedly down the sidewalk, theories and speculations coming into her mind. Had he been attacked? Or was Mr. Karekura getting old and dying? He had seemed all right just moments before...
It would be quicker to go home on foot than wait for her parents to come. Large apartment buildings lined the street on her left, shading her from the sun shining brightly overhead.
Megumi glanced at a man ahead rubbing his eyes and looking around dazedly, then did a double-take when she realized that it was Bakura.
“Megumi!” he called when he caught sight of her. She stopped in her tracks, waiting as he walked up to her. “How are you? Did you finish your detention already?”
“Uh, kinda…”
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Megumi told him what happened after school, and Bakura frowned. “Poor Mr. Karekura… I hope he’s all right. But why are you walking home by yourself? Don’t you live pretty far from school?”
“My parents don’t expect me to be done for over another hour. It’ll be faster if I just walk home now.”
He nodded. “It’s a bit hot outside now, though. Would you like to come inside for a bit?”
“Oh, do you live here?” She indicated the apartment buildings next to them.
“Yeah. My father’s not home, so it’s all right if you want to step inside and cool off.”
She nodded, her mind still whirring from the recent events. “Okay, thanks.” As he led her to apartment number 601, she asked, “By the way, what were you doing out there in the middle of the street?”
He paused as he put his hand on the door handle. “I’m not sure. I can’t remember.”
“Ah. Another memory lapse?”
He nodded and led her inside. Megumi gazed around the spacious room as she took off her shoes.
“This is a pretty nice place!”
He shrugged. “I think it’s a bit too big. It feels empty a lot of the time.” He smiled gratefully at her. “So it’s really nice when company comes to visit. Watch the step!”
Megumi’s eyes were glued to a glass cabinet holding dozens of tiny figurines and failed to notice the step in front of her. She tripped and Bakura reached out to assist her. As her hand hit his chest, she felt something cold and hard beneath his shirt, and it made a jingling noise upon impact.
“Sorry about that—and thanks too, I guess.” She pointed to his shirt. “Do you have something underneath there?”
“Yeah! Take a look!” He unbuttoned his shirt to showcase a golden ring about as large as his hand with five spikes dangling from it. A triangle with a large eye inlaid in it was set in the middle of the ring.
“Woah…” Megumi was lost for words as the item seemed to give off a golden glow.
Buttoning his shirt back up, Bakura said, “My father gave it to me when he got back from Egypt. He said it used to belong to one of the pharaoh’s of the Eighteenth Dynasty.”
Megumi had no idea what the Eighteenth Dynasty was, so she just nodded. Looking back at the glass cases, she asked, “What are all of those figures in there for?”
The two walked up to the cases to see dozens of miniature people dressed in arrays of fantastic armor and medieval-style clothing.
“These are the figures you’re supposed to use when playing Monster World.” He glanced at her and asked, “Do you still have interest in playing that?”
Smiling reassuringly, she answered, “If you can tell me what to do, I’d be happy to play.”
His face lit up at her words, but his happiness didn’t have the same whole-hearted joy that was present before. Something about his mood didn’t seem quite sincere.
“Very well. I’ll show you into the game room.”
He led her through another door, and she gasped when she saw a large table completely taken up by a three-dimensional game map before her. A number of small houses stood at one end, and a spooky-looking castle dominated the other. Small hills and miniature trees dotted the path between.
“Did you make this?” She asked him.
He nodded. “I designed the layout by myself. It might be tricky, but I’ve put in NPCs to help.”
“What are NPCs?”
“Non-Player Characters. Like villagers and travelers.”
“Oh, okay. So how do you play?”
“Players are split between adventurers and the dungeon master. The player tries to advance through the world, and the dungeon master controls monsters who tries to stop her. If the player can defeat the final boss, she wins. If the player loses all of her health points, she’ll lose.”
Megumi studied the path on the board game leading from the village to the castle. “Sounds straightforward enough.”
“Then let’s get started.”
Megumi looked up as a ripple of alarm coursed through her. She stared at Bakura, and it seemed as if he had changed again. He was looking down at the game board, but she could tell that he was carrying himself more confidently then before. His voice had dropped slightly in pitch, and he had a cool, determined smile playing on his face.
It’s because he’s home, she told herself. This is his place, after all. Without anyone making him nervous, of course he’d be more comfortable. Even with these words, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was different.
Bakura looked up, gazing at her coolly with narrowed eyes. “Oh, you don’t have a player character yet.” His smile widened. “That’s fine; I’m sure we’ll find one that suits you. Come.” She tensed as he put his arm around her shoulders and led her over to the glass cabinets holding the figurines. While he reached into one, she couldn’t help but stare at him. There was definitely something different about him, and she wasn’t sure that the difference was to her liking.
He handed her a miniature model. “Here. This one looks like you, don’t you think?”
Megumi took the figurine in her hand, and thought her heart might stop. The figurine looked exactly like her, with the same porcelain skin, the same rounded eyes, and the same navy hair tied into her usual half-ponytail. The only difference was in the clothes, whereas instead of having her grey Rintama High School Uniform, the figure was wearing a green robe bisected by a yellow cross and holding a staff with a yellow orb on the end.
She could feel Bakura’s eyes boring into her, but as much as she didn’t want to look at the figurine in her hand, she wanted to look at him even less. The sound of her heartbeat seemed unnaturally loud, and she licked her lips as she heard Bakura walk back to the game table.
“Now you can choose a character class. What do you want to be?” He looked up, and smiled as he saw her standing there, confused. “Ah, that’s right. You haven’t played this before, so you don’t know the classes. I’ll make you a priestess, that way you’ll have high magic and hit points, though lower attack and defense.” He was looking at the computer set up at his end of the table and typing rapidly into it, the same small smile lingering on his face.
“Bakura.” He looked up as she said his name. “I don’t think I should be here. My parents don’t know where I am, and I never got their permission to come here. It isn’t right.”
His smile widened at her flimsy excuse. “Your parents probably still think you’re at school, and as far as they know, you’re just stepping into a friend’s house for a moment. It’s just a game, Megumi. What could go wrong?”
Really, what can go wrong? she thought. It is just a game. Was it, though? The atmosphere was heavy with tension, and she could feel a menacing presence bearing down on her from some unknown source.
I did say I would play a game with him, though… she thought a little guiltily. She looked up to see Bakura still staring at her. One game, she decided. Then I can go home and won’t ever have to do this again.
Setting her character player on the board, she asked, “What do I do now?”
“You can go into the village, or into the field and do battles with monsters,” he said as he held up two ten-sided dice. “The battles are done by rolling these dice. You’ll get a double-digit number. The lower the roll, the better, and the higher the roll, the worse. If you get two zeroes, that’s a super-critical hit and you’ll deal the most possible damage.” His smile widened, and his long white bangs hung deep shadows over his eyes. “But if you get a ninety-nine, there will be a penalty.”
“What’s the penalty? Does my player get hurt, or lose or something?”
He put down the dice and folded his hands, looking over at her coldly. “This is the ultimate role-playing game. Here, it is not enough just to play with your character—you must become who you’re playing as. You must have the same goals, celebrate the same victories, and even suffer the same consequences. As for what the penalty is, don’t worry about it. If it comes, then I’ll explain it to you.”
A chill shot through Megumi’s spine. Who is this guy? He’s so creepy!
“Well?”
She glanced up to see Bakura staring her down. “Where are you going to go?”
As she took up the dice, she asked, “Are you going to guide me and point out what I should do?”
He gave her that same, cool smile. “Of course. I am the dungeon master; it’s my job to both help and hinder the player character.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll go in the field.”
At his instruction, she moved her character forward a few spaces. Looking at his computer, Bakura said, “You just moved into a monster area. On certain tiles, monsters will appear. And where you are, there’s a goblin.” Taking the figurine of a stunted, brown-skinned creature, he placed it before her on the board. Indicating the two ten-sided dice near her, he stated, “Now you roll and see how much damage you do.”
Grimacing, she shook the dice in her hand. Should I really roll? Something was definitely wrong. Bakura had never acted like this; it was as if he was a different person when she was at his place. His heavily-lidded eyes were gazing at her pale hand clenched around the dice. The fact that he wasn’t blinking only seemed to intensify his gaze.
Reluctantly, she tossed the dice and got a sixty-three.
“You did some damage, but not quite enough to defeat him,” he said as Megumi retrieved the dice. His fingers flew rapidly as he crunched the numbers into his computer. “The goblin attacks, and you lost five life points. Now your roll again. But be careful; if you don’t do enough damage, you leave yourself open to attack. You don’t want your health to drop to zero!” He finished the sentence with a soft, maniacal chuckle.
Megumi slammed her fist down on the table. “What is wrong with you?” she shouted. “You were always so nice, and now you’re being such a creep! I always thought you were a good person and liked hanging out with you at school and tried to get my friends to hang out with us too, but if this is how you are then I can see why no one wants to come over here!” She turned to make her way back into the main hall. “I’m leaving.”
“You can’t leave in the middle of a game!”
Turning around, she saw him glaring at her. His knuckles were white from gripping the edge of the table so hard, and every vein stuck out of his thin arms. She had never seen him this furious.
“Now that the game is started, you can’t just leave! You need to finish it!”
“I don’t care about this stupid game!” she shouted as she threw the dice back on the table. He hands were shaking badly. “I just wanted to spend time with you, but since you’re being such a jerk, I don’t even want to do that anymore!”
Bakura turned his eyes from her back down to the table, and the self-assured smile graced his face again. “You’ve rolled the dice.”
“No I—” Megumi gasped as she saw the two dice she threw down in her anger. Both had fallen with the number nine face-up.
She looked up when she heard Bakura chuckling. “The worst possible event has happened for you. You will receive a penalty!” His thick white hair seemed to rise slightly as his purple eyes lit up with maniacal pleasure.
Purple?
“Bakura, weren’t your eyes green before?”
”SOUL-BODY TRANSFER!”
Bakura pointed at her as he called, and Megumi suddenly felt faint. Her vision wavered, and she felt as though she was slipping in and out of consciousness. A few seconds later, though, she was blinking and shaking her head to get rid of the feeling.
What happened? she wondered as she rubbed her face. She took her hand back, and let out a scream when she saw she no longer had fingers. She still had a regular thumb, but everything else was molded together. Looking down, she saw herself wearing a long green robe with a yellow design, and in her other hand was a scepter.
Shaking, she looked up to see the trees and hills of the board game all around her. And above them, Bakura loomed, gazing down at her with a calm smile playing on his face.
Bakura! What did you do to me? Her voice seemed so thin and weak now.
“You lost,” he replied. He reached out, and Megumi nearly squealed as his long pallid fingers closed around her miniature body. Holding her at eye-level, he gazed at her with mock-pity. “You rolled a ninety-nine, and so you lost all of your health points. And without anyone to roll the dice for you, you have no way of winning or getting your body back.”
My body?
He turned her, and Megumi wanted to cry as she saw herself, now a giant, slumped over the game table, her black eyes staring ahead dully.
Why did you do this to me, Bakura? What did I do to you to make you do this?
Bakura turned her back to face him. “You didn’t do anything wrong; you were always kind to my host, to where he considered you his friend. And that’s why I’ve put your soul into your figurine—so that you can stay here. Ryou said he wanted to keep his friends, and now he can keep you forever.”
Something was odd about the way he was talking to her. Are you saying that you’re not Bakura? Who are you?
He smirked. “I am Bakura. Or at least, I was three-thousand years ago.” He set her down on the table and began unbuttoning his shirt. “I believe he showed you this, didn’t he?” he asked as the golden ring appeared, its eye staring menacingly down at Megumi. “This Millennium Ring is what allows me to remove souls from peoples’ bodies and put them into new objects. It can also contain souls, including my own,” he finished with a sneer.
Hold souls? You mean— Megumi suddenly stopped as something clicked in her brain. You’re a soul trapped in that ring, and you’ve been possessing Bakura’s body all this time?
“That’s right. You mustn’t blame poor Ryou—he didn’t know what I was doing, and he still doesn’t know that I exist. You see,” he said didactically, “only one of us can possess the body at a time, and so all the times Ryou has memory lapses are because of me. When he missed school the other day, I was busy making this little figurine of you to hold your soul. And when you saw him outside, I sent him out there to intercept you and invite you in here.”
Why do you have to do this to him? What are you taking over his body—he hasn’t done anything to you!
“I can’t just possess anyone’s body—Ryou is the only one fit to be my host. There are other people who have put this ring on, but…” his eyes shifted to the side as he wistfully reminisced. “Let’s just say things didn’t end so well for them.” Picking her back up, he ran his thumb along her edges. “Don’t look so upset. Since Ryou has proven to be such a fit host for my spirit, I’m choosing to grant his wishes. He said he wanted to have friends, and now you belong to him. You’re fulfilling his desires. Isn’t that nice?”
Megumi couldn’t think of anything to say, and had no choice but to remain stationary and watch as Bakura opened a hidden drawer in the game table and took out another figurine. “Besides, you won’t be all alone. I have a friend for you. Though it’s been while; I think he’s gone silent now…”
Megumi let out a squeal as she saw Bakura hold up a figure resembling Mr. Karekura. He didn’t seem to have any life in him, however. He made no response to Bakura’s touch and just stared blankly.
Mr. Karekura! Did you take his soul too?
“That’s right. You said that he gave you detention and you couldn’t come over, and Ryou was so looking forward to having you here. So, being a good servant, I got you out of detention so you could come over here and play. Yes,” he continued as she started to shake, “I know everything about Ryou. I can watch what he does and listen to what goes on around him, but he will only know what I do if I allow it. And I don’t want him to know about me just yet—I’ll get him some more friends first and make it a surprise.” He laughed softly, and his eyes roved from Megumi to something behind her. “Now, what to do with your body…” He walked over to it, his eyes scanning it up and down. “So much well-toned muscle. But how is that going to be maintained when no one is keeping it active?”
Stop! What are you going to do to me?
He looked back at Megumi’s figurine cocking his head as he grinned. “You need not worry; I’ve decided not to do anything with it. Can you imagine the look on Ryou’s face when he suddenly finds himself here and sees you passed out on his table?” He laughed openly, sending chills down Megumi’s back. “Ah, I almost wish that you could watch it! But by that time, you’ll probably be stationary.”
He walked back to his end of the game table and opened the drawer again. “I can’t have Ryou finding you just yet. But don’t worry,” he said as he laid her down in an indent, “I might pull you out here some other time and have you play as an NPC. When that time comes around, though, you’ll probably have forgotten yourself and just be a figure to do my bidding.” He paused as he set down Mr. Karekura’s figure beside her, and took a moment to study Megumi with his violet gaze. The corners of his mouth lifted up in a cruel smile. “You should sleep, now.”
Bakura, no!
But the drawer was already closed.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Everything was dark…
There were soft noises around her… Were those voices?
Whatever she was lying on, it was soft…
And something was beeping.
Megumi’s eyes fluttered open, and she saw a ceiling light staring down at her. She turned her head to the side, but that seemed to take almost too much effort. Her eyes darted around—she saw she was lying in a bed in an unfamiliar white room, with tubes connected to her body. Where was she?
She tried to sit up, and found she barely had enough strength to do. Why was everything so hard? Looking down at her, she gasped when she saw how thin her arms were. Bones were visible, and her skin hung off them like loose rags. Breathing quickly, she grabbed her blanket and pulled it aside.
She couldn’t stop crying.
A hospital gown was over her torso, but her whole left leg was visible. It was so thin and decrepit from lack of use that it might not have been her leg at all. All the strength she had built up, all the muscle she had spent years toning and refining and making perfect for ballet techniques, was gone.
People burst into the room to find her sobbing apparently about nothing. When the nurse saw her, his face lit up, and he called, “She’s awake! Doctor, come here! I’m going to go call her parents.” He left the room, and soon a man wearing a white lab coat came in. His purple beard was graying at the roots, and he was cleaning his glasses with the edge of his coat. He tried asking Megumi a few questions about how she was feeling, but all she could do was wail about her condition. Why was she there? What had happened to make her body like this?
In a few minutes, the door opened again, and Megumi’s dad was there. A large grin split his face as he rushed over to his daughter. “Megumi!”
“Papa!” she cried.
He gently put his arms around her and kissed her head, laughing with relief. “How are you? Do you feel all right? Mama’s on her way.”
“What happened to me?” she cried.
“We don’t know. You’ve been in a coma for months, but we don’t know how this happened,” he said gently as he wiped her tears from her face.
“You just found me like this?” she asked with a hiccup.
“Some kid said he found you at his place. He said he tried to wake you up, and when you wouldn’t move he called an ambulance and then we got a call saying you were in the hospital.”
Some kid? Who could that be? She shut her eyes, trying so hard to remember. Everything seemed so blurry, but as she thought back to what happened, a pale face with white hair and bright green eyes appeared in her mind.
“Bakura?” she wondered. “Did you find me at Bakura’s apartment?”
“I think that was their name. But don’t worry,” he said with a smile, “you won’t have to see him ever again.”
“What? Why not?”
“As soon as this incident happened, he transferred schools.”
“He did?” At this news, Megumi’s spirits sank a little. Even though she had been found unconscious at his place, she had a feeling that none of this was his fault.
She listened politely as her dad filled her in on what had happened for the past several months, though nothing struck her as extraordinary or exciting. She merely sat quietly, still upset over her decayed body and worrying about Bakura.
Poor Bakura, she thought with a sigh. But perhaps it was for the better; maybe he was finally at a school where nobody picked on him and he had plenty of friends. I hope you like you’re new school.
Her father mentioned that her friends had come in occasionally to visit her. Megumi felt oddly touched; even when she was incapacitated, lying on a hospital bed and unable to talk, her friends were there for her. She thought of Takeshi’s words to her the last night they played basketball together and realized that, whatever might come in the future, her friends were determined to keep her close in the present.
“Aw, crap,” Megumi whispered. Burying her head in her hands, she leaned forward on her desk just as the class got up to depart for lunch.
“You look upset. Is something wrong?” Hanako later asked as they stood in the lunch line.
Megumi turned to her friend and nodded. “I just realized that I left my history homework at home.”
“Oh… That’s not good.”
Megumi turned away. She was too nervous to say anything; she had already missed three homework assignments and her teacher told her that if she missed any more, she was going to get detention. Megumi continued through the lunch line silently, only nudging Hanako when they were about to sit down.
“Hey, that kid’s all alone again.” She gestured to a table in the far corner of the room, where a kid with shaggy white hair sat.
“Oh, that’s Bakura. He’s always alone,” she said nonchalantly as she sat down at their usual table.
“Don’t you think we should invite him with us or go sit with him or something? I feel like a jerk for leaving him by himself.”
“Sit with who?”
Megumi jumped as Nozomi suddenly appeared behind her. Megumi cursed while she picked up her spilled food, and Hanako answered, “Megumi feels bad about leaving Bakura over there by himself.”
“About him?” Nozomi’s pencil-thin eyebrows disappeared into her dark bangs as they rose in disbelief. “A couple of us tried to be nice and get to know him. And he is pretty nice, he’s just really weird.”
“Weird in what way?”
“All he wants to do is play games or do puzzles or stuff, and he liked talking about creepy things. A bunch of us showed him around school in the first week, and he just wanted to be left alone. It’s like he doesn’t even want any friends.”
“It doesn’t look like he’s happy now,” Megumi noted. The boy’s eyes were downcast, and he had a small, troubled frown on his face.
“But he doesn’t seem to want to be with us, either.” Megumi looked over to see Kenta and a few other boys sitting at their table. His uniform was unbuttoned, exposing his wrinkled white t-shirt.
“If any teachers catch you with your uniform like that, you’re screwed,” she told him.
He shrugged. “I’ll take my chances. But that Bakura kid—we’ve invited him to hang out and play different sports with us, but he’s not really good.”
“You’re not one to talk,” she shot at him.
Taken aback, he insisted, “I know, I know. But at least I enjoy doing stuff with my friends. He looked like he was trying really hard to like it, but just didn’t really care for any of it.”
“Then try asking what he wants to do for once. Now come on.”
“Who? Me?” Hanako asked.
“Yes, you. We should at least try to talk to him! Besides,” she stated as her friend looked worriedly at Bakura, “if he is one of those ‘weird’ people or whatever, it’ll be easier to get along with him if we hang out in a group.”
“Have fun,” Nozomi said distastefully.
“Thanks, I’ll try.” Making her way across the room, Megumi smiled at Bakura as she approached him.
“Hi there!” He jumped up as she spoke, his brilliant green eyes open wide in shock. “Sorry if I startled you. Do you mind if we sit here?”
“Oh—no, go ahead,” he said demurely. Megumi sat down, and a smiling Hanako sidled in next to her. “I’m Ryou Bakura, by the way.”
“I’m Megumi Orihara, and this is Hanako Hoyashi.”
Hanako waved a greeting and asked, “Are you new to Rintama High School?”
He shook his head. “This is my second year here. I just haven’t been at school much since my dad was on a trip to Egypt and just got home last week, so I’ve been helping him out.” His eyes turned downwards as he added, “Of course, he’s leaving at the end of this week to go on another business trip.”
“Egypt? What was he doing there?” Megumi asked as she twirled a strand of navy-blue hair around her finger.
“He’s an Egyptologist, so he’s been studying tombs and working on excavation sites.”
“Tombs?” Hanako’s eyes popped open worriedly. “Aren’t those supposed to be cursed and extremely dangerous?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Megumi snapped. “All that’s just made up to scare people. The ancient Egyptians were harmless.”
“Oh, no, she is right! My father said that inside the tombs he found multi-headed skeletons and disfigured and burned bones.” Bakura’s eyes were alight with excitement, and he spoke with such alacrity that Megumi was a more than a little creeped out by him. “There are also tons of stone tablets filled with pictures of monsters that the Egyptians would use in battles to the death.”
Hanako made a disgusted noise. “That’s horrible!”
The smile fell from Bakura’s face and his shoulders drooped. “Oh. I thought it was really interesting…”
Megumi’s heart panged with guilt and resentment at the boy’s sudden despondency. “It’s not that bad. Anyway, Bakura, do you want to hang out with us later on? I have ballet practice after school, but a group of friends and I were thinking of getting together this evening.”
“Oh, thanks,” he said unconvincingly as he glanced at the group of friends Megumi indicated. “I’ve played basketball with them once before, but they were pretty upset when I kept passing to the wrong team. And the only basket I made was our own. Then I accidentally knocked a girl to the ground and she skinned her elbow…” His voice trailed off when he saw the two girls staring at him uncertainly. “But if you want me to come, I will.”
“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I just thought it’d be nice to get to know each other. After all, the school year’s just started and a lot of people are still making new friends.” Megumi shrugged. “I can understand if you’re busy or would rather do something else; I just thought you might like to join us.”
Bakura smiled, and though it wasn’t a cheerful, enthusiastic smile as before, its gentleness and sincerity warmed Megumi’s heart. “Thank you, Orihara. I’ll see if I can come.”
+++++++++++++
“What’s up, Megumi?” Takeshi asked as Megumi buried her head in her hands. She was sitting on a park bench, tired from ballet practice and mentally stressed from having to explain to her teacher why she didn’t have her homework even though it was only the second week of school. In front of her, a group of kids were sprinting up and down the court, passing a basketball to each other. The brown-haired boy shook her shoulder gently and repeated his question.
“I just found out that I have detention this Thursday,” she groaned.
“Detention? What did you do?!”
“Nothing!” When she met his accusatory glare, she clarified, “I’m serious. I didn’t do homework four times in a row, so now I have to spend two hours after school cleaning gum off the bottom of desks.”
Takeshi stood straight up and crossed his arms. “Why wouldn’t you do your homework? Especially if it’s Karekura—you knew that this was coming.”
“I forgot! And history is so dumb anyway, why does it matter what crops the Chavin grew in South America in the fourth century or whatever it was?”
Takeshi shrugged. “It’s school. Ninety percent of this stuff won’t ever be useful, but we have to go through with it anyway.” He looked over at the people playing basketball. “It’s the same with them. All of our friends are probably just temporary. I doubt I’ll be seeing any of you once we’re done with high school.”
“Don’t say that,” Megumi objected. “Of course we’ll keep our friends.”
“Will we, though? Or are we just forcing ourselves to get along with each other so that we aren’t so lonely for a certain period of time?” He turned away from the people playing basketball, a wistful look in his eyes. “Besides, I can’t see myself holding on real closely to people. Not if I’m going to do what I want.”
“And what’s that?”
“To see the world. Look at me; I’m too young to spend my whole life in this town and not do some traveling! I want to get out, visit other countries, live in other cultures, speak other languages, see new scenery, study different architecture, see new environments—everything,” he finished with a sigh.
Megumi looked away. She could understand his desire to travel, but she honestly felt that she could be all right staying in Japan her whole life. A part of her did want to go to Russia to see and train with the ballerinas there, but with the money her family had, she accepted that it wasn’t an option for her.
She shrugged. “It’s just that I’ve known you forever, Takeshi. It’s weird to think of not being friends with you…” As she studied her friend group, her heart sank. “I’d like to think we could all stay friends.”
“Even with that freak?”
She turned her head as Takeshi jabbed his thumb to the side. Bakura was walking over, studying the basketball players and looking unsure.
“Don’t you call him a freak,” Megumi hissed.
“Why not? Hanako told me what he said earlier about Egypt and whatnot. Guys like that are going to be living in their moms’ basements all their lives.”
“Shut up.” Standing up, she shoved Takeshi. “He’s really nice. And if you’d even try to get to know him, you’d see that he’s really not bad.”
He smirked.
Shaking her head in disgust, Megumi walked over to where the shaggy-haired boy stood. “Hey Bakura! Good to see that you made it.” He turned around, and even when he left behind his school uniform for a white button-up shirt and green shorts, he still seemed uncomfortable.
He smiled back at her. “Yeah, my dad’s just getting ready to leave on Thursday, so he said it’s okay if I came out here with you guys.”
Megumi nodded. “Do you want to play a game with me?”
“Ah, oh, well, I don’t really know how to play. Last time—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know what happened last time. But don’t worry, I’ll help you and teach you how to play! Besides, I’m about as bad as you can possibly be, so you’ll look all right,” she told him as she led him on to the court.
“Hey, Bakura!” Kenta shouted from the sidelines. “If she gives you advice, just do the opposite of what she says and you should be good.”
“Shut up, Kenta! Come on, let’s do this!”
They formed a team with her classmate Kaoru, and considering everything, Megumi thought they were doing pretty well. Five minutes in, and the score was only four to zero. Poor Bakura often stood in the middle of the court, confused as to what to do, or would just follow his teammates and run from end-to-end. Half of the time, Megumi felt that when she gave him instructions, people would tell him to do otherwise.
“There! That’s it, Bakura, run down the court with the ball!” she shouted. “No, no—you have to dribble it, remember?”
He started bouncing the ball up-and-down unsteadily, trying hard to keep his eyes on the path ahead and making sure the ball didn’t slip from under his grasp. But he was going smoothly down the court; no one stood in his way, and he had a clear path to the opposing team’s basket.
“That’s it! Go, go, go!”
Bakura stopped before the basket, and gracefully threw the ball overhead. Megumi gasped with delight as it bounced off the backboard and went through the hoop.
“Awesome, great job Bakura! Give me a high-five!” She ran over to him, holding up both hands for a double high-five. He returned the gesture, and the enthusiastic smile lighting his face lifted Megumi’s heart.
“I scored, didn’t I?” His voice was brimming with joy, and the nervous tremor that often infected it was gone.
“Yeah, that was gr—what it is?” she suddenly shot at the group of people laughing on the sidelines.
“This is why you never take advice from Megumi, Bakura. You scored on your own basket!” Kenta hollered as the rest of the group roared with laughter.
All happiness left Bakura’s face as it steadily turned a shade of bright red.
“Oops… sorry about that, Bakura.”
“No, I—I’m sorry, I should’ve…”
“Well, whatever. Let’s get back out there and try again!” She headed back towards the center of the court, and turned when she noticed Bakura wasn’t following her. He was just staring at her in disbelief.
“You really want me to keep playing with you?”
“Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I? You can’t just stop after one mess-up. Besides, that was mostly my fault anyway. Come on, won’t you please just forget about that and come play with us again?”
He stared worriedly into her black eyes, studying the pleading and slightly-annoyed look on her face. Nodding shyly, he answered, “Okay.”
++++++++++++++++++
“That was all right,” Kenta said as the sky darkened and everyone began to depart.
“Just ‘all right’? Not ‘great’? Are you just bitter that your team lost to Nozomi’s?” Megumi teased.
He shrugged. “Maybe a little. Anyway, do you want me to walk you home?”
“Sure. I’ll just say ‘bye’ to Bakura real quick.” Trotting over the white-haired boy, she nudged him. “Hey, thanks for coming out tonight!”
Looking down at her, he returned the smile. “Yeah, it was fun. Thank you, Orihara.”
“I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow, then?” He nodded, and she added, “See you later!” before walking off with Kenta.
Bakura watched the two of them go, his heart lighter than it had been all week. As he watched the two figures disappear down the sidewalk, a smile crossed his face, and a flash of purple flickered across his eyes.
++++++++++++++
“Crap crap crap crap crap…” Megumi muttered as she walked out of Rintama High’s front doors. As soon as she was free from school, she unbuttoned the top coat of her slate-grey uniform, letting her undershirt air out. She didn’t want to think about the load of homework that awaited her, or the detention that was looming closer. She was half-regretting hanging out and playing basketball last night. But she remembered the smile Bakura gave her, and the joy that she felt when she saw him so happy. Maybe it wasn’t really a waste of time.
“Orihara!”
She turned around to see Bakura walking towards her in the crowd of students.
“Hey Bakura. Sorry, but I have to go right now. My ballet class starts in forty-five minutes and my parents are going to be here to pick me up soon.”
“I understand; I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.”
Megumi hesitated for a moment, then walked to a side courtyard with Bakura. If their conversation was going to distract her from school or dance, then she could make time for it.
“What’s up?” she asked him.
“Um, I just wanted to say thank you for inviting me last night. I really had a good time.”
“Oh, I’m glad to hear that! That was the whole idea, after all.”
He suddenly looked concerned. “Did you not enjoy last night?”
She sighed. “I really love hanging out with all of my friends, but honestly, I hate basketball. I still don’t understand it, I’ve never been good at it, and it really just seems like the worst sport in the world. Still,” she said as she turned to him with a smile, “being with you guys makes it all worthwhile.”
He nodded. “What kind of things do you like to do, then?”
“Well, I’ve been taking ballet for six years, so that’s definitely near the top of my list. There are times when I hate it, but I can’t just stop doing it, you know? And on the school side of things, I like math, like pre-calculus and trigonometry stuff.”
“Do you like games?”
“Games?” She frowned. “Do you mean like ping-pong or cards?”
“I mean like board games, or Role-Playing Games. I got a new one, called Monster World, and I wanted to ask you if you’d like to come over sometime and play it with me.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it, and I haven’t ever played a Role-Playing Game. But,” she added when he sudden look of disappointment, “if you don’t mind teaching me what to do, then I’d love to come over!”
His face lit up, and he inclined his head. “No, I don’t mind at all! What day works best for you?”
“Can we do Friday after school? My ballet classes are in the evening then, and I’m busy on Thursday.” A weight dropped to her stomach at the thought of detention.
“Okay! I’ll see you Friday, then! Thank you, Orihara!”
“You can call me Megumi. I don’t mind,” she stated as she walked out of the courtyard.
“Megumi, wait!” he called. She turned around and glanced curiously at him. “Does this mean—would you say that we’re friends?”
“Yeah, I’d say so. Anyway, I’ve really got to run. I’ll see you later, Bakura!” She turned around and headed towards where her mom waited impatiently in the car. As she rode in the vehicle, she tried to focus on going to Bakura’s on Friday. But as she sifted through her thoughts, she couldn’t push away the unsettling sensation that took hold of her.
In the last moment before she left, she sensed a change come over Bakura. The nervousness had left his voice again, but this time it held a cool confidence instead of a childlike enthusiasm. For just a moment, his shyness was replaced by a quiet, controlled calm—something about it was not like him at all.
Megumi shook her head. How could he have changed that much in so little time? And it did seem to be for just a moment, after all. If anything, Bakura growing more confident should be a good thing, not something for her to worry about.
“How did school go?” her mom suddenly asked.
Megumi started to answer, but stopped and let loose a sigh of regret. Her parents still didn’t know about her detention.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
“You’re actually going over to his place?” Hanako asked in disbelief.
It was Wednesday afternoon, and Hanako stood impatiently by Megumi’s desk as her friend finished packing her schoolbag.
Megumi shoved her pencils into one pocket as she explained, “I already told you, yes I am. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“I just don’t see why you would want to.”
“Because he’s my friend and I actually like hanging out with him.”
“But don’t you think it’s weird that he only asked you to come over?”
Straightening up and putting her backpack on, Megumi replied, “He actually told me that you and Takeshi and everyone else we played basketball with on Monday are invited.”
“Why wouldn’t he just ask us himself?”
“Probably because he’s too shy since the rest of you are so rude to him.” Turning away from her violet-haired friend, she started to walk towards the door when Mr. Karekura spoke.
“Orihara, could you come here for a moment, please? Hoyashi, you may go.”
The two girls exchanged worried glances as Megumi walked over to the teacher’s desk.
“Yes, Mr. Karekura?”
“It’s about your detention.” He rubbed his eyes as he replied, “Something unexpected came up, and I can’t be here tomorrow for you.”
Putting on her most charming smile, she suggested, “So I don’t have detention at all?”
“No, you still do. It’s just going to be Friday instead.”
The smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “But—but after school Friday—”
“No ‘buts.’ You can serve it or get referred to the principal’s office.”
“I had already planned everything out—even with dance and…” Her voice died as Mr. Karekura stood up and stared down at her.
“ ‘Academics Before Athletics,’ ” he recited. Striding over the door, he held it open and gestured outside. “That’s all. You may go now.”
With a heavy heart, Megumi walked out of the room to where Hanako stood waiting outside for her.
“Are you kidding me?” Hanako exclaimed when Megumi explained everything. “Changing it one day before—is that even allowed?” She threw her hands up. “I can’t believe him. And giving you detention in the first place! I mean, at least you come to school. You’re not like Hiratani and his gang who skip half the time and spend their days picking on younger kids.”
Her friend was only half-listening. “Yeah… I feel pretty bad for Bakura, too, though. I know that he was looking forward to this as well.” She glanced sideling at Hanako. “You’re not going to his place, are you?”
“Be honest with yourself, Megumi. You’re the only one who would show up anyway.” She sighed. “I guess we can’t do anything about it now. What are you going to do?”
The blue-haired girl shrugged. “Put it off, I suppose. I guess the poor kid’s will have to do without me for now.”
+++++++++++++++++++++
Megumi meant to tell Bakura the next day that her detention was moved to Friday, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Maybe he’s sick,” Hanako said hopefully. “And maybe he’ll still be too sick tomorrow that you wouldn’t be able to go to his place anyway!”
So Megumi went to school on Friday as per usual. She was trying to get by in the flow of student bodies rushing through the hallway.
“Sorry, excuse me—oof! Watch where you’re—oh, hi Bakura!”
She bumped into a boy’s pale grey uniform and looked up to see bright green eyes gazing down at her.
“Hi Megumi!” he replied as the two made their way to the edge of the hall, where the traffic thinned out. “How are you doing?”
“I’m doing okay. Are you? We didn’t see you at school yesterday, and Hanako thought you might have been sick.”
“Oh, no I’m feeling all right.” His eyes roved down to his chest as he quietly said, “I’ve been having a few memory lapses, lately. They’re usually only a few minutes, I think, but yesterday it was noon before I realized where I was or what I was doing, so I never came to school.”
“Really?” Megumi paused to gaze at him in concern and disbelief. “Bakura, how long have you been getting these?”
“Only for the past two weeks, and I can’t think of what’s causing them. I think it’s all right, though. As far as I could tell, I don’t think I left my apartment at all yesterday.
“Oh! That reminds me,” he added as his face suddenly brightened, “are you still coming over tomorrow? I have the adventure written out, and you can choose from different character bios!”
Megumi’s heart sank with guilt as she slowly replied, “Bakura, I’m sorry, but I can’t go. I was supposed to have detention with Mr. Karekura yesterday, but he moved it to today for some stupid reason.”
The smile left Bakura’s face and his expression clouded over. “Oh, I’m sorry that you have that. It’s all right, though.”
“Bakura, believe me, I would much rather hang out with you than spend two hours in Karekura’s room scraping gum off the underside of desks!”
“It’s all right, I believe you. But,” he said as he looked around at the now near-empty hallways, “we should get to class now, or you might get another detention for being late.”
“Oh crappers, that’s right,” she muttered. She took off down the hallway, calling, “I’m really sorry about this, Bakura! But we’ll work something out!”
“After school detention with Karekura today, eh?” Bakura said softly to himself. His eyes narrowed as a small smile curved at the corners of his mouth. “That won’t do at all.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++
“Hey, Megumi, how was your detention?”
Takeshi caught up with Megumi as she walked slowly down the hallway, clutching her schoolbag worriedly with both hands.
“I’m going there right now,” she answered dejectedly. “Mr. Karekura said he couldn’t do it yesterday, so he moved it to today.”
Takeshi stopped in his tracks, his dark brown eyes open in shock. “Are you serious? ‘Cause we were thinking—”
“Yeah, I’m serious,” she cut him off. She didn’t even want to hear about any plans her friends had that she couldn’t be with them for. As she stopped before the classroom door, she said, “I’ll see you later, Takeshi.” Turning away from her friend, she grasped the doorknob and opened the door.
Mr. Karekura sat inside at his desk, his pen scribbling across a paper. As Megumi entered, he looked up.
“Ah, there you are, Orihara. The tools you need are right there.” He indicated a scraper and waste basket with a nod of his head. “You can start.”
Megumi enjoyed scraping fossilized gum off the desk bottoms even less than she had imagined. She had hoped it would be mindless and she could at least spend time thinking about other things or daydreaming, but a lot of the gum refused to come off at first. Wiggling and pushing the scraper about, she struggled to get the hardened substance off.
After about fifteen minutes, her teacher said, “I’ll be back in a bit.”
As soon as he left the room, Megumi put the scraping tool down and stared at the clock. How could she still have an hour and forty-five minutes left? And was Mr. Karekura expecting her to clean every desk in the classroom? She knew she didn’t have nearly enough time to do that.
Megumi sighed, thinking about what each of her friends might be doing. Even though she had been assigned detention before meeting Bakura, she still felt guilty about having to break her promise to him.
She glanced back at the clock. An hour and twenty-five minutes to go. At least it’s the weekend soon, she thought. And Karekura’s been gone for a while…
A scream suddenly rent the air. Megumi jumped up as she heard footsteps in the hallway, and peered out the open door to see staff members running as quickly as they could. Glancing at the scraper and waste basket for a moment, Megumi decided to abandon them and join the small group of people forming at the entrance to the bathrooms.
“Someone call the hospital; he won’t wake up!”
“Is he breathing? Does he have a pulse?”
“I don’t know—I—I think he does—”
Megumi stood at the back of a crowd of faculty members. People were running down the corridors as quickly as they could. A few teachers shuffled aside, and Megumi gasped when she saw Mr. Karekura lying face-up on the ground, unmoving, his eyes wide open. Another teacher was kneeling on the ground next to him, her long ebony hair messed-up from her clutching it so much, and looking as if she was about to faint herself.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
Megumi looked up to see a teacher she didn’t know glaring at her. “Students shouldn’t be here after school hours.”
“I had detention with Mr. Karekura, though…”
He waved a hand in annoyance. “We’ll worry about that later. For now, just go.”
“But shouldn’t I—?”
“JUST GO!”
Without further hesitation, Megumi ran back to Mr. Karekura’s classroom, grabbed her things, and left the building. As she walked through Rintama’s front doors, her heart pounded furiously in her chest, and her breathing was shallow and quick. She was grateful that she got of detention early, but just what had happened to her teacher?
She walked hurriedly down the sidewalk, theories and speculations coming into her mind. Had he been attacked? Or was Mr. Karekura getting old and dying? He had seemed all right just moments before...
It would be quicker to go home on foot than wait for her parents to come. Large apartment buildings lined the street on her left, shading her from the sun shining brightly overhead.
Megumi glanced at a man ahead rubbing his eyes and looking around dazedly, then did a double-take when she realized that it was Bakura.
“Megumi!” he called when he caught sight of her. She stopped in her tracks, waiting as he walked up to her. “How are you? Did you finish your detention already?”
“Uh, kinda…”
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Megumi told him what happened after school, and Bakura frowned. “Poor Mr. Karekura… I hope he’s all right. But why are you walking home by yourself? Don’t you live pretty far from school?”
“My parents don’t expect me to be done for over another hour. It’ll be faster if I just walk home now.”
He nodded. “It’s a bit hot outside now, though. Would you like to come inside for a bit?”
“Oh, do you live here?” She indicated the apartment buildings next to them.
“Yeah. My father’s not home, so it’s all right if you want to step inside and cool off.”
She nodded, her mind still whirring from the recent events. “Okay, thanks.” As he led her to apartment number 601, she asked, “By the way, what were you doing out there in the middle of the street?”
He paused as he put his hand on the door handle. “I’m not sure. I can’t remember.”
“Ah. Another memory lapse?”
He nodded and led her inside. Megumi gazed around the spacious room as she took off her shoes.
“This is a pretty nice place!”
He shrugged. “I think it’s a bit too big. It feels empty a lot of the time.” He smiled gratefully at her. “So it’s really nice when company comes to visit. Watch the step!”
Megumi’s eyes were glued to a glass cabinet holding dozens of tiny figurines and failed to notice the step in front of her. She tripped and Bakura reached out to assist her. As her hand hit his chest, she felt something cold and hard beneath his shirt, and it made a jingling noise upon impact.
“Sorry about that—and thanks too, I guess.” She pointed to his shirt. “Do you have something underneath there?”
“Yeah! Take a look!” He unbuttoned his shirt to showcase a golden ring about as large as his hand with five spikes dangling from it. A triangle with a large eye inlaid in it was set in the middle of the ring.
“Woah…” Megumi was lost for words as the item seemed to give off a golden glow.
Buttoning his shirt back up, Bakura said, “My father gave it to me when he got back from Egypt. He said it used to belong to one of the pharaoh’s of the Eighteenth Dynasty.”
Megumi had no idea what the Eighteenth Dynasty was, so she just nodded. Looking back at the glass cases, she asked, “What are all of those figures in there for?”
The two walked up to the cases to see dozens of miniature people dressed in arrays of fantastic armor and medieval-style clothing.
“These are the figures you’re supposed to use when playing Monster World.” He glanced at her and asked, “Do you still have interest in playing that?”
Smiling reassuringly, she answered, “If you can tell me what to do, I’d be happy to play.”
His face lit up at her words, but his happiness didn’t have the same whole-hearted joy that was present before. Something about his mood didn’t seem quite sincere.
“Very well. I’ll show you into the game room.”
He led her through another door, and she gasped when she saw a large table completely taken up by a three-dimensional game map before her. A number of small houses stood at one end, and a spooky-looking castle dominated the other. Small hills and miniature trees dotted the path between.
“Did you make this?” She asked him.
He nodded. “I designed the layout by myself. It might be tricky, but I’ve put in NPCs to help.”
“What are NPCs?”
“Non-Player Characters. Like villagers and travelers.”
“Oh, okay. So how do you play?”
“Players are split between adventurers and the dungeon master. The player tries to advance through the world, and the dungeon master controls monsters who tries to stop her. If the player can defeat the final boss, she wins. If the player loses all of her health points, she’ll lose.”
Megumi studied the path on the board game leading from the village to the castle. “Sounds straightforward enough.”
“Then let’s get started.”
Megumi looked up as a ripple of alarm coursed through her. She stared at Bakura, and it seemed as if he had changed again. He was looking down at the game board, but she could tell that he was carrying himself more confidently then before. His voice had dropped slightly in pitch, and he had a cool, determined smile playing on his face.
It’s because he’s home, she told herself. This is his place, after all. Without anyone making him nervous, of course he’d be more comfortable. Even with these words, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was different.
Bakura looked up, gazing at her coolly with narrowed eyes. “Oh, you don’t have a player character yet.” His smile widened. “That’s fine; I’m sure we’ll find one that suits you. Come.” She tensed as he put his arm around her shoulders and led her over to the glass cabinets holding the figurines. While he reached into one, she couldn’t help but stare at him. There was definitely something different about him, and she wasn’t sure that the difference was to her liking.
He handed her a miniature model. “Here. This one looks like you, don’t you think?”
Megumi took the figurine in her hand, and thought her heart might stop. The figurine looked exactly like her, with the same porcelain skin, the same rounded eyes, and the same navy hair tied into her usual half-ponytail. The only difference was in the clothes, whereas instead of having her grey Rintama High School Uniform, the figure was wearing a green robe bisected by a yellow cross and holding a staff with a yellow orb on the end.
She could feel Bakura’s eyes boring into her, but as much as she didn’t want to look at the figurine in her hand, she wanted to look at him even less. The sound of her heartbeat seemed unnaturally loud, and she licked her lips as she heard Bakura walk back to the game table.
“Now you can choose a character class. What do you want to be?” He looked up, and smiled as he saw her standing there, confused. “Ah, that’s right. You haven’t played this before, so you don’t know the classes. I’ll make you a priestess, that way you’ll have high magic and hit points, though lower attack and defense.” He was looking at the computer set up at his end of the table and typing rapidly into it, the same small smile lingering on his face.
“Bakura.” He looked up as she said his name. “I don’t think I should be here. My parents don’t know where I am, and I never got their permission to come here. It isn’t right.”
His smile widened at her flimsy excuse. “Your parents probably still think you’re at school, and as far as they know, you’re just stepping into a friend’s house for a moment. It’s just a game, Megumi. What could go wrong?”
Really, what can go wrong? she thought. It is just a game. Was it, though? The atmosphere was heavy with tension, and she could feel a menacing presence bearing down on her from some unknown source.
I did say I would play a game with him, though… she thought a little guiltily. She looked up to see Bakura still staring at her. One game, she decided. Then I can go home and won’t ever have to do this again.
Setting her character player on the board, she asked, “What do I do now?”
“You can go into the village, or into the field and do battles with monsters,” he said as he held up two ten-sided dice. “The battles are done by rolling these dice. You’ll get a double-digit number. The lower the roll, the better, and the higher the roll, the worse. If you get two zeroes, that’s a super-critical hit and you’ll deal the most possible damage.” His smile widened, and his long white bangs hung deep shadows over his eyes. “But if you get a ninety-nine, there will be a penalty.”
“What’s the penalty? Does my player get hurt, or lose or something?”
He put down the dice and folded his hands, looking over at her coldly. “This is the ultimate role-playing game. Here, it is not enough just to play with your character—you must become who you’re playing as. You must have the same goals, celebrate the same victories, and even suffer the same consequences. As for what the penalty is, don’t worry about it. If it comes, then I’ll explain it to you.”
A chill shot through Megumi’s spine. Who is this guy? He’s so creepy!
“Well?”
She glanced up to see Bakura staring her down. “Where are you going to go?”
As she took up the dice, she asked, “Are you going to guide me and point out what I should do?”
He gave her that same, cool smile. “Of course. I am the dungeon master; it’s my job to both help and hinder the player character.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll go in the field.”
At his instruction, she moved her character forward a few spaces. Looking at his computer, Bakura said, “You just moved into a monster area. On certain tiles, monsters will appear. And where you are, there’s a goblin.” Taking the figurine of a stunted, brown-skinned creature, he placed it before her on the board. Indicating the two ten-sided dice near her, he stated, “Now you roll and see how much damage you do.”
Grimacing, she shook the dice in her hand. Should I really roll? Something was definitely wrong. Bakura had never acted like this; it was as if he was a different person when she was at his place. His heavily-lidded eyes were gazing at her pale hand clenched around the dice. The fact that he wasn’t blinking only seemed to intensify his gaze.
Reluctantly, she tossed the dice and got a sixty-three.
“You did some damage, but not quite enough to defeat him,” he said as Megumi retrieved the dice. His fingers flew rapidly as he crunched the numbers into his computer. “The goblin attacks, and you lost five life points. Now your roll again. But be careful; if you don’t do enough damage, you leave yourself open to attack. You don’t want your health to drop to zero!” He finished the sentence with a soft, maniacal chuckle.
Megumi slammed her fist down on the table. “What is wrong with you?” she shouted. “You were always so nice, and now you’re being such a creep! I always thought you were a good person and liked hanging out with you at school and tried to get my friends to hang out with us too, but if this is how you are then I can see why no one wants to come over here!” She turned to make her way back into the main hall. “I’m leaving.”
“You can’t leave in the middle of a game!”
Turning around, she saw him glaring at her. His knuckles were white from gripping the edge of the table so hard, and every vein stuck out of his thin arms. She had never seen him this furious.
“Now that the game is started, you can’t just leave! You need to finish it!”
“I don’t care about this stupid game!” she shouted as she threw the dice back on the table. He hands were shaking badly. “I just wanted to spend time with you, but since you’re being such a jerk, I don’t even want to do that anymore!”
Bakura turned his eyes from her back down to the table, and the self-assured smile graced his face again. “You’ve rolled the dice.”
“No I—” Megumi gasped as she saw the two dice she threw down in her anger. Both had fallen with the number nine face-up.
She looked up when she heard Bakura chuckling. “The worst possible event has happened for you. You will receive a penalty!” His thick white hair seemed to rise slightly as his purple eyes lit up with maniacal pleasure.
Purple?
“Bakura, weren’t your eyes green before?”
”SOUL-BODY TRANSFER!”
Bakura pointed at her as he called, and Megumi suddenly felt faint. Her vision wavered, and she felt as though she was slipping in and out of consciousness. A few seconds later, though, she was blinking and shaking her head to get rid of the feeling.
What happened? she wondered as she rubbed her face. She took her hand back, and let out a scream when she saw she no longer had fingers. She still had a regular thumb, but everything else was molded together. Looking down, she saw herself wearing a long green robe with a yellow design, and in her other hand was a scepter.
Shaking, she looked up to see the trees and hills of the board game all around her. And above them, Bakura loomed, gazing down at her with a calm smile playing on his face.
Bakura! What did you do to me? Her voice seemed so thin and weak now.
“You lost,” he replied. He reached out, and Megumi nearly squealed as his long pallid fingers closed around her miniature body. Holding her at eye-level, he gazed at her with mock-pity. “You rolled a ninety-nine, and so you lost all of your health points. And without anyone to roll the dice for you, you have no way of winning or getting your body back.”
My body?
He turned her, and Megumi wanted to cry as she saw herself, now a giant, slumped over the game table, her black eyes staring ahead dully.
Why did you do this to me, Bakura? What did I do to you to make you do this?
Bakura turned her back to face him. “You didn’t do anything wrong; you were always kind to my host, to where he considered you his friend. And that’s why I’ve put your soul into your figurine—so that you can stay here. Ryou said he wanted to keep his friends, and now he can keep you forever.”
Something was odd about the way he was talking to her. Are you saying that you’re not Bakura? Who are you?
He smirked. “I am Bakura. Or at least, I was three-thousand years ago.” He set her down on the table and began unbuttoning his shirt. “I believe he showed you this, didn’t he?” he asked as the golden ring appeared, its eye staring menacingly down at Megumi. “This Millennium Ring is what allows me to remove souls from peoples’ bodies and put them into new objects. It can also contain souls, including my own,” he finished with a sneer.
Hold souls? You mean— Megumi suddenly stopped as something clicked in her brain. You’re a soul trapped in that ring, and you’ve been possessing Bakura’s body all this time?
“That’s right. You mustn’t blame poor Ryou—he didn’t know what I was doing, and he still doesn’t know that I exist. You see,” he said didactically, “only one of us can possess the body at a time, and so all the times Ryou has memory lapses are because of me. When he missed school the other day, I was busy making this little figurine of you to hold your soul. And when you saw him outside, I sent him out there to intercept you and invite you in here.”
Why do you have to do this to him? What are you taking over his body—he hasn’t done anything to you!
“I can’t just possess anyone’s body—Ryou is the only one fit to be my host. There are other people who have put this ring on, but…” his eyes shifted to the side as he wistfully reminisced. “Let’s just say things didn’t end so well for them.” Picking her back up, he ran his thumb along her edges. “Don’t look so upset. Since Ryou has proven to be such a fit host for my spirit, I’m choosing to grant his wishes. He said he wanted to have friends, and now you belong to him. You’re fulfilling his desires. Isn’t that nice?”
Megumi couldn’t think of anything to say, and had no choice but to remain stationary and watch as Bakura opened a hidden drawer in the game table and took out another figurine. “Besides, you won’t be all alone. I have a friend for you. Though it’s been while; I think he’s gone silent now…”
Megumi let out a squeal as she saw Bakura hold up a figure resembling Mr. Karekura. He didn’t seem to have any life in him, however. He made no response to Bakura’s touch and just stared blankly.
Mr. Karekura! Did you take his soul too?
“That’s right. You said that he gave you detention and you couldn’t come over, and Ryou was so looking forward to having you here. So, being a good servant, I got you out of detention so you could come over here and play. Yes,” he continued as she started to shake, “I know everything about Ryou. I can watch what he does and listen to what goes on around him, but he will only know what I do if I allow it. And I don’t want him to know about me just yet—I’ll get him some more friends first and make it a surprise.” He laughed softly, and his eyes roved from Megumi to something behind her. “Now, what to do with your body…” He walked over to it, his eyes scanning it up and down. “So much well-toned muscle. But how is that going to be maintained when no one is keeping it active?”
Stop! What are you going to do to me?
He looked back at Megumi’s figurine cocking his head as he grinned. “You need not worry; I’ve decided not to do anything with it. Can you imagine the look on Ryou’s face when he suddenly finds himself here and sees you passed out on his table?” He laughed openly, sending chills down Megumi’s back. “Ah, I almost wish that you could watch it! But by that time, you’ll probably be stationary.”
He walked back to his end of the game table and opened the drawer again. “I can’t have Ryou finding you just yet. But don’t worry,” he said as he laid her down in an indent, “I might pull you out here some other time and have you play as an NPC. When that time comes around, though, you’ll probably have forgotten yourself and just be a figure to do my bidding.” He paused as he set down Mr. Karekura’s figure beside her, and took a moment to study Megumi with his violet gaze. The corners of his mouth lifted up in a cruel smile. “You should sleep, now.”
Bakura, no!
But the drawer was already closed.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Everything was dark…
There were soft noises around her… Were those voices?
Whatever she was lying on, it was soft…
And something was beeping.
Megumi’s eyes fluttered open, and she saw a ceiling light staring down at her. She turned her head to the side, but that seemed to take almost too much effort. Her eyes darted around—she saw she was lying in a bed in an unfamiliar white room, with tubes connected to her body. Where was she?
She tried to sit up, and found she barely had enough strength to do. Why was everything so hard? Looking down at her, she gasped when she saw how thin her arms were. Bones were visible, and her skin hung off them like loose rags. Breathing quickly, she grabbed her blanket and pulled it aside.
She couldn’t stop crying.
A hospital gown was over her torso, but her whole left leg was visible. It was so thin and decrepit from lack of use that it might not have been her leg at all. All the strength she had built up, all the muscle she had spent years toning and refining and making perfect for ballet techniques, was gone.
People burst into the room to find her sobbing apparently about nothing. When the nurse saw her, his face lit up, and he called, “She’s awake! Doctor, come here! I’m going to go call her parents.” He left the room, and soon a man wearing a white lab coat came in. His purple beard was graying at the roots, and he was cleaning his glasses with the edge of his coat. He tried asking Megumi a few questions about how she was feeling, but all she could do was wail about her condition. Why was she there? What had happened to make her body like this?
In a few minutes, the door opened again, and Megumi’s dad was there. A large grin split his face as he rushed over to his daughter. “Megumi!”
“Papa!” she cried.
He gently put his arms around her and kissed her head, laughing with relief. “How are you? Do you feel all right? Mama’s on her way.”
“What happened to me?” she cried.
“We don’t know. You’ve been in a coma for months, but we don’t know how this happened,” he said gently as he wiped her tears from her face.
“You just found me like this?” she asked with a hiccup.
“Some kid said he found you at his place. He said he tried to wake you up, and when you wouldn’t move he called an ambulance and then we got a call saying you were in the hospital.”
Some kid? Who could that be? She shut her eyes, trying so hard to remember. Everything seemed so blurry, but as she thought back to what happened, a pale face with white hair and bright green eyes appeared in her mind.
“Bakura?” she wondered. “Did you find me at Bakura’s apartment?”
“I think that was their name. But don’t worry,” he said with a smile, “you won’t have to see him ever again.”
“What? Why not?”
“As soon as this incident happened, he transferred schools.”
“He did?” At this news, Megumi’s spirits sank a little. Even though she had been found unconscious at his place, she had a feeling that none of this was his fault.
She listened politely as her dad filled her in on what had happened for the past several months, though nothing struck her as extraordinary or exciting. She merely sat quietly, still upset over her decayed body and worrying about Bakura.
Poor Bakura, she thought with a sigh. But perhaps it was for the better; maybe he was finally at a school where nobody picked on him and he had plenty of friends. I hope you like you’re new school.
Her father mentioned that her friends had come in occasionally to visit her. Megumi felt oddly touched; even when she was incapacitated, lying on a hospital bed and unable to talk, her friends were there for her. She thought of Takeshi’s words to her the last night they played basketball together and realized that, whatever might come in the future, her friends were determined to keep her close in the present.
