DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.
Chapter 2: The Shadow of your Soul
Bakura stood staring down at his light as he lay sleeping peacefully in the last place he should have been. Inside Bakura's soulroom.
*How did this happen? He was only supposed to stay for a little while but it's been four days since he found me. How could I have let the time pass like that? What if it's too late? If he remembers this… it could ruin everything! All my hard work. All my planning and preparation. Ruined! All because of this human boy. He's the only one with the power to stop me. Thank Ra he doesn't know it. He must never know it! But… curse it all! I can hide nothing from him! He sees everything. He knows my every thought, my every fear, before I do. He knows me!*
The spirit sighed heavily. He'd been shocked to realise that he'd come to care for the boy. Just as the boy clearly cared for him. If he allowed it, they might even become… friends.
The thought filled his heart with warmth for a moment before he ruthlessly forced it aside. No! There was no time for friendship! He had to keep his mind focused on one thing. The only thing that mattered. He had to gather the seven Millennium Items. Once he had them, he'd be able to do whatever he liked.
Even befriend a boy who was as lonely as he was.
Bakura tensed as he realised that Ryou had awoken and was blinking sleepily up at him. He quickly wiped his thoughts from his mind and concentrated on the task at hand.
It was time for Ryou to have control of his body again. It was time for him to forget all about his time in Bakura's soulroom. It was time for Ryou to forget all about Bakura.
Ryou stirred and slowly opened his eyes. He frowned, momentarily disorientated at finding himself in his own bed in his own room with the day barely dawning. He had the strongest feeling that he should have been… somewhere else. Only… he couldn't remember where.
Shifting, he frowned again when he noticed the slight stiffness in his left arm. Ryou slowly stretched it, wondering if he'd slept on it all night or something and also wondering why it made him so uneasy.
An image suddenly flashed into his mind. A white-haired boy, cradling his left arm as he cried in pain. A boy who looked so much like Ryou it made him wonder if it was really him that he was seeing in his mind. And yet… there had been differences. The boy's voice had been husky when he'd told Ryou to leave. His shadowed eyes had been fiercely determined, even when he'd realised that he was too weak from his injuries to force Ryou to go. His body had been stronger, leaner, as he'd slept peacefully in Ryou's arms.
Ryou's heart ached as the rush of images through his mind slowed and finally stopped on a single one. The boy as he'd last seen him. Ryou had woken to find the boy standing beside the bed with such a sad and lonely look on his face. He had wiped his expression clear the moment he realised that Ryou was awake, but Ryou knew what he had seen.
After that, there had been a flash of light from the boy's forehead and Ryou had… woken again to find himself here? But… that didn't make any sense unless… Had it all been just … a dream?
"Yes, it was only a dream," came a whisper at the back of his mind, but Ryou refused to listen to it. He knew it had been no dream, although he wasn't quite sure exactly what else it could have been. It had all felt so real. But how could it be real? That boy… did he really exist? "No, he's just a dream. You only imagined him." The voice came again, with just the faintest note of sorrow in it. "Now sleep. You need to sleep."
Ryou found his eyes drifting shut against his will, he struggled to keep awake but soon succumbed to the insistent whisper in his mind that urged him to rest.
"Who are you?" His voice was barely a whisper of sound as he drifted back to sleep.
The air shimmered beside the bed as a form took shape. Bakura looked down at his sleeping light and smiled slightly, although his smile did not extend to his narrowed brown eyes.
"Who am I? I am the shadow of your soul. Sleep well, my light. You must regain your strength." He began to fade, his voice echoing faintly in the silent room. "We have work to do."