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Post by mugenginga on Dec 12, 2009 4:32:15 GMT -5
Bakura continued to make incoherent noises. He slowly pushed himself up by his arms. It was the type of move commonly known as a "girly" pushup. He had pushed himself up just enough for the Ring to raise. The prongs chimed together and his eyes widened. There was nothing but terror in them as he looked down.
"Oh god no..."
Whether he was aware of Souji and Minato or not was unclear. His focus was on the Ring. He looked like he was going to collapse again, this time from terrified shock.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Dec 12, 2009 4:37:47 GMT -5
Souji's eyes narrowed as the Ring raised up and Bakura reacted in shock. Bakura hadn't known it was there until now. And the way Bakura had reacted made Souji think it might have been better if Bakura had remained ignorant of that fact.
"Are you okay?" Souji repeated. If Bakura wasn't injured, then he could get to the next problem.
At this point, Minato was feeling rather sorry for Bakura. He'd just gotten out of this situation before, and now he was back in it.
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Post by mugenginga on Dec 12, 2009 4:42:12 GMT -5
Bakura's arms were shaking as he looked up at Souji. Who...? He looked up at Minato, he knew him. He'd been with Yuugi and that teenager who'd said he was Dark Yuugi. And then he had...
"Did I do anything to you!? Where's Yuugi-kun and Adachi-san!? Are they okay!?"
He was very clearly panicked.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Dec 12, 2009 4:45:24 GMT -5
Souji gave a pained smile. "They're okay. You just ran off, so we went to look for you, that's all..."
"I'll text Yuugi and tell him we found you, okay?" Minato said. He stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He got to work texting Yuugi.
After hitting send, he closed his phone.
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Post by mugenginga on Dec 12, 2009 4:55:25 GMT -5
Bakura looked somewhat relieved. He pushed himself to his feet, stumbling a bit back to the building wall behind him. He held the Ring in one hand and looked at it for a few moments. They said he'd run off? The presence of the Ring and his lack of memory of that only left one solution. That his body wasn't totally his... again.
"A-Are you sure I didn't do anything...?"
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Yuugi blinked as the COMP in his pocket went off. He'd gotten used to carrying it around, and while the modded functions no longer worked it was still a COMP. Atem paused and looked towards his partner, but Adachi didn't seem to react.
"Adachi, stop. Partner, who is it?"
Yuugi flipped open the COMP, "It's Arisato-kun! He found Bakura-kun!"
Atem looked relieved, "We should hurry back, then."
He looked towards Adachi to let him know he could continue again. Adachi seemed to be worried about Bakura as well. He was willing to take Souji's word for what Adachi was like. After all, the man had put the Puzzle in the TV World. Still...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Dec 12, 2009 5:13:06 GMT -5
"Positive," Souji said. He wasn't going to tell Bakura that Anpu had nearly killed him. Bakura had enough on his plate without that. Minato had said the Ring was clingy. That meant Bakura couldn't just take the Ring off and throw it away somewhere.
He stood up. "We should hurry back home." Minato nodded.
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Adachi breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god, they'd found him... He was starting to get worried. He started walking even faster back toward the apartment complex.
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Post by mugenginga on Dec 12, 2009 5:19:06 GMT -5
Bakura nodded. It was clear he didn't believe Souji. If he hadn't done anything, he wouldn't be here. With this silver haired teenager he didn't know and the teen that had been with Yuugi and... Atem, he had said. He was still holding the Ring. He lifted it a bit more and the prongs moved ever so slightly. He dropped it like it had suddenly scalded him and closed his eyes.
"I'm Bakura Ryou... I don't think I got your name," he bowed as he introduced himself, and after addressing Minato he turned to Souji, "and I am fairly certain I've never met you. Oh, I'll go with you back to the apartments, don't worry about that."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Dec 12, 2009 5:31:09 GMT -5
Minato smiled. "I'm Arisato Minato. Nice to meet you too."
"Seta Souji," Souji said. "I'm a friend of Yuugi's. He asked me to come help out when you ran off." Another lie. He looked over to where his sword lie in the alley and walked over to it, picking it up.
Minato started leading the way back to the apartments. "Let's go, they're probably waiting for us."
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Adachi stood outside the apartments with Yuugi and Atem. He was nervous. They were coming, right?
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Post by mugenginga on Dec 12, 2009 18:26:03 GMT -5
Bakura nodded, remaining silent as he followed the two. They didn't think he knew about his other self. Even the hunger was second to something like annoyance at that. He didn't want to spell it out for them, but he knew about the issue with the Ring. The fact that Yuugi's "other self" was clearly a seperate entity was actually one of the better pieces of news Bakura could recall since he first started blacking out. Maybe... maybe it wasn't a side of him after all.
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Yuugi looked at Atem, who seemed zoned out. It was that expression the former Pharaoh had whenever he was thinking hard, trying to come up with a solution to a problem. It was Bakura, of course, but he'd talk to Atem about it later. The fact that Adachi seemed to have sort of an older brother relationship forming with Bakura had shifted Yuugi's opinions of the man. Maybe he'd changed. It wouldn't be out of the question. Pegasus, Malik (dark sides notwithstanding), Siegfried... even the worst of people changed. Why couldn't Adachi?
The short teenager turned as he heard footsteps. A huge grin, and not just from relief, spread on his face as he saw the three teenagers, "Seta-kun, Arisato-kun, Bakura-kun!"
Atem looked up and smiled softly. He walked after Yuugi, who had run towards the teens. Bakura looked up at Yuugi's excited voice, "Yuugi-kun, hello... Oh, Atem-san, Adachi-san..."
Adachi was unlikely to miss the Ring. It was visible, but it seemed like Bakura. Then again, Anpu had shown he could mimic Bakura...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Dec 12, 2009 18:43:34 GMT -5
Adachi had looked up as he saw Bakura approach, but his relieved expression dropped when he saw the Ring. Anpu had shown he could imitate Bakura before. How did he know this was the real Bakura?
He noticed Souji had a slight red spot on his neck. Unlike Minato's all so common nervous tic now, though, Souji wasn't rubbing it.
"Hey, Yuugi, Atem," Souji said. He didn't say Adachi's name on purpose.
"He gave us a bit of a runaround, but we tracked him down," Minato said. He smiled.
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Post by mugenginga on Dec 12, 2009 18:55:27 GMT -5
Bakura saw the expression shift on Adachi's face. He had a feeling he knew what it was. Whoever used his body had probably done something to Adachi. Something that Souji and Minato didn't want to tell him.
"I'm sorry, Adachi-san, Yuugi-kun, Atem-san... For anything I did."
He was aware that he might insult Souji and Minato there. And he felt bad about that, but he had to apologize. Even if that thing taking over his body wasn't a part of him, it was still his fault for not being able to fight it. He'd felt that way since the beginning. If he was only a little stronger, he could fight it. He gave a smile to try and diffuse any situation that might come up.
Yuugi looked at his feet. It wasn't Bakura's fault. He knew his friend thought that, but it wasn't his fault. Yuugi could only force dominance with Atem because they were friends. Allies, tolerant of each other at the very least. That fear from blacking out... Yuugi remembered it well. At Death-T he had fully accepted there was someone else, at Duelist Kingdom he had learned to communicate with Atem. But even then there were times when he couldn't force himself out. If Anpu had no illusions of friendship with Bakura, it wasn't his fault.
"It's not your fault," Atem said, echoing Yuugi's thoughts, "We're not mad. Do you have a place to stay?"
Bakura looked pained at Atem's reassurance. It was his fault. He shook his head towards the question though,
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Dec 12, 2009 19:28:00 GMT -5
Adachi looked down. Shit, now he'd made the kid guilty. He still couldn't tell if this was the real Bakura or not, but he was hoping it was the actual Bakura.
And then Atem brought up Bakura having a place to stay. Bakura did not. But there was no way he'd be able to stay at the spiky-haired kids' apartment; Anpu hated them. And from all of the noise around the building this morning, Adachi had a feeling the Seta kid and his blue-haired friend both had people already staying at their apartments.
Plus he just didn't feel comfortable with Bakura staying at the Seta kid's apartment anyway.
"Er..." Adachi said. "Why don't you stay at my apartment for now, Ryou-kun?"
Souji opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it. Shit. He hated to say it, but Adachi had a point. His thoughts mirrored Adachi's ones from before. It wasn't safe for Bakura to stay with Yuugi and Atem, and neither Souji nor Minato had room at their own apartments, and he didn't want to dump Bakura on Naoto and Kanji all of the sudden.
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Post by mugenginga on Dec 16, 2009 7:13:14 GMT -5
Atem narrowed his eyes at Adachi's offer. Yuugi looked between Atem, Bakura, and Adachi several times. If he was right, Adachi would be best. Not because of any crowding issues, and only in small part because of Anpu. Bakura trusted Adachi, and Yuugi was still convinced that Adachi had been understandably frightened of Atem before. Anyone that didn't know Atem was in truth a nice person were liable to be fearful of the Dark Games. Heck, those that did. Adachi didn't act like he knew that Dark Bakura had access to the Dark Games. Yuugi wasn't sure Anpu did, although in theory anyone with a Millenium Item could start one.
Bakura's eyes got fairly wide and he opened his mouth. He hesitated before nodding slightly to himself and speaking. He bowed, "Thank you very much, I am sorry for putting you out like this. I... Are you sure its okay, though? ...I know that I'm not always myself when I black out, after all... I don't want to hurt you!"
Atem looked up towards Adachi. He'd given the man the warning. If Bakura ended up hurt Adachi would have explaining to do. And it wasn't just physical hurt he spoke of. Bakura trusted Adachi. There would be hell to pay if he broke that trust.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Dec 18, 2009 2:56:57 GMT -5
Adachi looked between Atem and Souji. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Atem was the biggest problem, though Adachi had a feeling that if he broke Bakura's trust, there'd be hell to pay from whatever that thing possessing Bakura was. And he didn't want to let the kid down.
"It's perfectly fine. I know what it's like to not be yourself at times, I had to deal with that same shit once," Adachi said. Well, similar. And it was only really for a few days. Hours? Hell if he knew. All he knew was that he'd been possessed by a disco eyeball, tried to turn everyone into Shadows, and then got the shit beaten out of him by a bunch of kids and their sparkly teddy bear friend.
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Post by mugenginga on Dec 18, 2009 3:23:20 GMT -5
Bakura looked up, relieved. And then Adachi said he'd had to deal with "the same shit once". Bakura hesitated, not sure if anyone really knew what it was like. Surely Adachi just thought it was a case of split personality? Well, there was Yuugi and Atem... but Bakura still couldn't accept that Atem was anything like whatever had him possessed. They were friends... Bakura had never considered "his other self" to be anything but antagonistic.
He simply nodded in response.
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"Wow."
It was the fifth time Ryoji had said that. Teddie was split between looking out the window and wondering if Ryoji had broken. Souji and the others had wandered off. They were back now, but things still seemed a bit tense. He couldn't tell what they were saying from up there.
On top of that, the apartment smelled like smoke. By some miracle the alarm hadn't gone off, but the pot on the counter looked ruined. Ryoji had caught it during the conversation and a bit of panic had lead to the pot getting knocked on the floor. They'd worked together to get it up onto the counter. Teddie had finished up his explanation of who Adachi was at that time.
"Yeah, and I bet he's connected to the mess in my world again!"
"Are you sure? I'm not defending a murderer, but it could have been going on before Adachi showed up. He wasn't here when you got here, right?"
"...I.. well, I don't think so. Sensei is really tense, though..."
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