capeandcowllogs | You teach me and I'll teach you!

Entry tags:

You teach me and I'll teach you!

WHO: The other ~~dark meat~~ Bakura (

gallitrap)
WHERE: Nowhere near Moonybase
WHEN: Saturday the 6th of March
WARNINGS: n/a
SUMMARY: Short: After getting strong-armed by the other Yuugi into utilizing some very specific skills, the dark Bakura has been sent on a fetch quest. In the background, the Pokemon opening theme plays on loop.
FORMAT: Paragraphs as far as the eye can see.

She was lost, and scared, and has been for a very long time. She'd been somewhere bright, and warm, and fun; suddenly it had all been torn away to drop her in this place, where it was always cold, and dark, and everyone ignored her no matter how much she asked for help. Even when she started crying, or screaming, no one even looked her way.

The first place she'd arrived had been strange, and cold, and no one had been there at all but a large phone-screen like at home that she couldn't reach. She called for help, but nobody answered, and even though she waited, nobody came to get her. She wasn't surprised: nobody had come to find her after she left for the world of monster spirits, and since her parents were never around, and her brother didn't care about anyone but himself, they probably never would. But everyone in that world, she knew that they would be worried about her! After all, she was supposed to protect them from people with evil intentions... even if being responsible for all that was really scary. Maybe Ancient Fairy Dragon couldn't find her, because she wasn't dueling? That was when they met before. And Ruka didn't have her cards or anything, and nobody would even talk to her, so finding someone to duel was impossible. She knew she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, but she couldn't read any of the signs and didn't understand what anyone was saying anyway. It wasn't like home at all.

Every little while, though, she felt a tugging--like something was calling her to go this certain way--but whatever it was seemed to go quiet after only a little while, and no matter how far she went, she didn't seem to get any closer. It was hopeless.

And so, she gave up.

There was a young boy holding tight to his mother, babbling excitedly in a language Ruka couldn't understand, pulling that woman impatiently towards some unknown destination; the woman, in return, was hiding a bright smile and questioning the boy about something in return. The woman didn't look anything like her mother, and the boy nothing like her brother, but Ruka was overcome with a heavy weight of envy, and homesickness, and without intention she followed the two a couple blocks. The boy pulled the woman through the automatic sliding doors of a relatively small shop, a bell tinkling inside, and she followed them as well.

The store was brightly lit, and full of color, and hidden laughter resounded from behind tall shelves--lined with toys, and games, as far as she could see. Nobody seemed to notice her, even here, and when the store closed for the night no one tried to make her leave, so she didn't. She retreated to the largest bin of stuffed animals and hid among the toys there when it was dark, and when it was light she watched the other kids and families that came through, not understanding them at all.

It was lonely, but she was used to that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It always, always seemed to come down to the Pharaoh's dirty work.

The thing with long memory was that time inevitably faded it; try as he might, he couldn't remember whether the boy-king had been this helpless in life, or if it was just the modern incarnation. Not that one or the other would have stopped him from laughing in Yuugi's face, of course. There was just something about having him come crawling for help -- metaphorically, if not physically -- that gave the Ring Spirit a certain amount of glee.

And oh, how he would've loved to refuse that plea. And he very likely would have, sneering in Yuugi's face, if it wasn't for that one minor detail that made him stop, sigh, attempt to will the headache away again and finally grudgingly agree.

Even he had a sense of honor, if a selective one. And the girl -- Ruka -- had been one of the few genuinely helpful people he'd encountered in the City. And -- he wasn't afraid of admitting it to himself -- it did bring a nice pang of satisfaction to be able to do something the King of Games couldn't. Yuugi, unable to help his friends? The thought made the Spirit laugh.

It was one of the few things that did; the weather was still too cool for his tastes. He fought down a shiver, pulling his coat closer about his body as he followed the pull of the Ring's needles, concentrating on locating the wayward soul. She couldn't be far now; the feeling was strong.

The impulse spiked and he looked up to see...a toy store? Well, he supposed it made sense, considering her age. Tucking the Ring back inside his coat, he stepped through the doors, taking a moment to savor the warmth -- and curse the sound of obnoxious children -- before prowling the aisles to find Ruka.

Past the radio-controlled monster trucks, fashion dolls, board games, collectible trading cards, and very small section of used video games, sat the large bin of stuffed animals—lions and tigers and bears, and unicorns, giant spiders, elephants, dragons, off-brand giant robots, and anything else stuffed with cotton or sand.

Camped out in this bin was the girl in question, who was, instead of playing, like the other screaming children, watching the other children. Invisible and ignored, playing voyeur was the most that she could do.

He might have slowed down just a bit at the displays of trading cards -- once a duelist, always a duelist -- but ultimately continued on, following the Ring's tug to a bin heaped with stuffed animals. He almost turned back, actually, at first not seeing her amid the colorful plush figures, but the shift in angle when he tossed his unruly hair from his eyes confirmed that yes, there was indeed a little girl sitting in with all the toys.

The Ring Spirit blinked, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things -- he wasn't -- and strolled over to lean against the side of the bin and sigh.

"I suppose I should make a comment about a little lost sheep, but I don't see a single lamb anywhere near you." Ignoring the looks he got from another nearby child he kept his gaze right on Ruka, breaking it only to toss his hair out of his eyes again.

That guy was looking at her!

Use to both being completely ignored by everyone, as well as not understanding a word of spoken English, Ruka was visibly shocked that someone was actually talking to her at all. Even if the stranger was a little scary-looking, her hopeful excitement easily knocked away any suspicions.

"Do you mean me?" she asked, softly, cautiously, afraid that maybe he really wasn't talking to her at all. "You can see me?"

Well, she understood him at least; that made things a little easier. If she would cooperate with him, this whole thing might not be nearly as bothersome as he'd initially thought.

He nodded, patient for now. "I certainly don't mean the unicorn next to you." At least, he thought it was a unicorn. It had a horn, but also some kind of weird fin things -- a knockoff of some kids' show, no doubt. Hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things, really. "Yes, I can see you."

She looked at the toy in question curiously at his response, as unicorns were one of her favorites, but the toy itself didn't really look like one that she had seen before. It had fins (why would a horse need fins?). Her attention remained there only a moment, returning immediately to the strange guy when he spoke again.

"Nobody else can see me... it's like I'm a duel spirit now." With ideas suddenly connecting together, she perked up, pushing closer to the front of the bin to look at that guy more closely. "Are you a duelist, too?"

As she pushed closer he leaned forward too, then waved off an approaching salesperson, tapping the side of his head as if he was having a conversation via one of those wireless cellphone headsets. The man veered away to cheerfully greet a different customer.

"Maybe they just don't know how to look correctly." He nodded at her question, belatedly adding a friendly smile borrowed from his former host. "I am."

So excited she was to actually talk to someone again, and a duelist who could see spirits at that, that Ruka probably wouldn't have cared if the man never smiled or looked friendly at all, so long as he was paying attention to her.

Ruka beamed back. "I am, too. I was in a tournament! Then I went to the world of duel monster spirits, but now..." She frowned, looking down with some shame. "I don't know where I am."

It would have been hard not to pay attention to her, truth be told. Aside that he'd been sent on what was essentially a fetch quest, Ruka struck a chord with him. Her loneliness and apparent desperation to latch onto anything reminded him of a village long since turned to dust and a child orphaned from the horrors performed there.

Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone, of course.

"You were, were you?" This was almost too easy; the phrase 'candy from a baby' came to mind. "Tell you what. If you want to come with me, instead of staying here all alone, you can tell me all about it. How does that sound?"

Of course, Ruka knew better than to go anywhere with a stranger—technically, anyway. It was one of the rules her frequently absent parents had left behind. But, he was right: she was alone, and if her family wasn't going to look for her, and Ancient Fairy Dragon and the others couldn't find her, then why should she follow that rule anyway? She didn't want to be alone at all; ironically, it was why she was in this position in the first place.

And so, at the offer—to go with the only person who had given her any sort of attention in weeks—Ruka's eyes widened with excitement. "Really?"

"Really." The spirit smiled again, indulgently; her enthusiasm actually made the smiles come a bit easier, not that he would ever admit that. Come to think of it, there were quite a few things he would never admit, but he was trying not to admit that to himself either. "You see, I'm pretty lonely myself. So shouldn't we stick together?"

A bit of a stretch of the truth, of course -- not that he hadn't been stretching the truth for the entire encounter, of course -- but that was a minor detail. Souls really could be such fragile things, and he'd promised to bring this one back intact.

"Okay!" With a little bit of effort she shuffled forward to come out of the toy bin; whether she could affect the physical world itself, or was merely limited by it, was a little unclear as she pulled herself up and out of the box.

Standing, she was minuscule compared to the man; her head topped off roughly at the height of his knees. Which, juxtaposed with what she said next, likely made the whole image entirely absurd.

"And if anything happens, I can protect you!"

The spirit was so glad he wasn't going to have to go in there after her; he could just imagine what he'd have to tell the sales clerk. Or, what excuse he'd have to use to get the man somewhere more private in order to be dealt with. Thankfully, it looked like he was going to avoid all of that nasty business...and perhaps even escape without having to buy anything. This was looking pretty positive.

But it did take a hell of a lot of effort not to laugh at that statement coming from the child in front of him -- even if it was as endearing as it was absurd.

"You can, can you?" He held out his hand. "How about you just try to touch me, okay?"

She nodded, but then looked a little uncertain. "I think so... That's what Ancient Fairy Dragon said."

Of course, Ancient Fairy didn't exactly explain how it all worked — her heart would keep evil intentions at bay, but Ruka didn't know how she was supposed to do that. She was a little scared of what would happen if she couldn't protect all those spirits by herself...

When she reached up to grab his hand, though, her hand passed straight through his. She frowned, trying again—with no success. She'd always been able to touch the duel monster spirits at home, so... what did this mean she was?

"Well, if that's what she said, then I'm sure that you can." And thank every sort of god and spirit everywhere that Yuugi wasn't around to overhear him say that.

He frowned when her hand passed right through his. He probably should have anticipated it -- everything had been almost too easy so far -- and sighed. "Well, this makes things a little more difficult, doesn't it?"

He supposed he could probably just tell her to follow him, but if anything happened to her -- and who knew in a place like the City -- then that would be an even bigger headache to deal with. The obvious solution would be to put her soul into something, and didn't that make things interesting. "I suppose we could do that..."

Trying her utmost best to hide her disappointment at being unable to even hold this person's hand (and wondering if that's why no one paid any attention to her; she hadn't actually tried grabbing anyone before), Ruka almost missed his comment.

"That?" she asked, a little hesitant.

"Well," he began, kneeling to look at her better, "I have this magical item, see?" Pulling open the top of his coat, he allowed her a glance at the Millennium Ring, and did his best to borrow one of his former host's trustworthy expressions. It felt weird on his face. "And it'll let me put you inside a stuffed toy so I can carry you. Then, when we get out of here, I can let you out again."

"The only problem," he stood up, "is that I'm no good at picking out toys. You'd have to choose one that you like."

The necklace was very pretty, and she felt the urge to touch it—the shape of it was cute, and the dangling cone-shaped needles looked as though they would be fun to play with—but something about the eye in the center of it seemed to warn her away.

So it wasn't entirely her fault that she missed most of what he was saying. Blinking clear of her daze, Ruka nodded, turning back to the bin of plush toys with careful consideration. She of course had to scale the side to even see what was inside—how unfortunate that she could touch walls, but not hands.

Finally, she turned back to the stranger, pointing to a distinctly bunny-like doll (though thankfully near the front of the bin). "That one?"

He probably should've just stopped when her gaze drifted from his face, but on the other hand, she wasn't asking questions about the Ring. And that was a Good Thing. The more she cooperated, the easier this would be.

"This one?" He reached into the bin, holding the bunny-thing up for her to confirm the selection. "This is the one you want?"

She nodded firmly, dropping down from the bin once more.

"Mmhmm. That one."

"Okay." He nodded, gave her a smile, and held the bunny firmly in hand. "Can you close your eyes for me?"

A little nervous, she smiled back and nodded, before closing her eyes. It was a little similar to when she had gone to the world of duel monster spirits; closing her eyes in the middle of a duel at the spirits' behest, she'd let herself be transported to that other world with little concern for the one she left behind.

"Good girl."

It's said softly, and he closed his own eyes just for a moment, just enough to concentrate on using the Ring to snare her soul -- carefully! -- and pull it into the plush bunny.

Then, not speaking aloud but instead reaching out with his mind, through the Ring, he asked her: "Are you okay?"

It was an incredibly strange sensation—being clamped down like a mound of soft clay and moving, being pulled, and she wanted to scream. It was scary, it was bad, something was wrong, this wasn't right, this wasn't like when Ancient Fairy had plucked her to the spirit world at all—

And then it stopped. The pressure released, and Ruka was expanding out again. She felt... constrained, and trapped, and that she needed to get out—

But, strangely enough, when she heard his voice, she felt a little calmer. So long as she wasn't alone, she would be alright.

"I'm okay. It's... it's really weird."

"I know." Soothing tones now, or what were meant to be soothing -- how does one soothe a soul trapped in a toy? Certainly wasn't something he was used to; it was more his style to mock them. "But it won't be for long, I promise. I'll bring you somewhere safe, and you can come out again. Okay? Can you do that for me?"

Bunny in hand, he turned to make his way toward the registers. It wasn't that bad, he supposed; aside clothing and food, he hadn't really had any expenses, and a stuffed toy certainly wouldn't have any negative impact on his savings. Not that he was sure what he was saving for, really, but that was no matter. What mattered now was that the line moved quickly so he could exit the store, bunny in hand, as soon as possible.

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Not the unicorn, huh?

It had FINS!!

Still a unicorn...thing...

Probably a kelpie. //Which eats people// 8|

She was the one hiding in a bin with it.

There were lots of dangerous things in that bin.

As opposed to the dangerous thing taking her out of the bin.