Ennead: Past Troubles: Part 2

“You have about as much clue as I do.” Bakura grumbled. “And that is disturbing.” Honda let out a low, rumbling growl, frustration obvious. “You have no leads at all?”

“Nothing now.” Honda grumbled, “The last time we saw her, she was heading for yours to play games. So we assumed...”

“While I appreciate that someone remembers I’m the bad guy, I’m not actually at fault this time.” Bakura snorted, “I would be gloating a lot more if I was.”

“If you hear anything, anything at all...” Honda threatened.

“I’ll let you know.” Bakura promised, crossing her fingers behind her back.

Honda didn’t look like he believed her. She wasn’t surprised but she didn’t really care. She had much bigger things to worry about. Her Ring wasn’t working properly and no one had seen the Pharaoh’s brat since yesterday afternoon.

Despite her reassurance to Honda, she couldn’t be sure if Yugi was alive or not. Without some way of tracking the brat, she had no easy way to find out either. If the blasted Pharaoh had gotten herself killed she was going to get very, very drunk. She was pretty sure that Jonouchi and Honda would join her, possibly Mutou-san too.

If Yugi wasn’t dead however and had just gotten herself into some mess that had distracted her all night, she soon would be. Bakura would quite happily end her for worrying her Landlord and failing to check in with anyone.

Well. School could wait. Her Landlord had high enough grades that skipping a day of class wouldn’t do much damage and it shouldn’t take her long to find her target. She had been a Queen amongst thieves, she had found treasures and riches beyond a normal thief’s wildest dreams, broken into supposedly untouchable tombs, and discovered secret stores and hidden libraries long before she had ever gotten her hands on the Ring.

She didn’t need the Millennium Ring to find her treasure. It was just one of the many ‘cheats’ in her possession that made her life easier.

She would just have to do it the old fashioned way. Through research, footwork and hard graft. It would take her longer but with the Puzzle at the end of the trail it would be worth it.

Sneak Peek - Ennead: For Those We Love: Chapter 2

Bakura paused as she stepped through the classroom door and looked over at her group of friends, who were gathered around a travel video player, chatting to the screen.

“Good morning?” She questioned, curious as Yugi looked up and nodded to her, then slumped back into her seat, while the others all gave her smiles that looked rather false. “What did my other self do now?” She asked as she moved over to the group.

“It wasn’t her fault.” She jumped a mile as the video player answered her, causing her to move around to see the screen. Yugi’s grandfather was on it, waving merrily at her, “Good morning, Bakura-chan.”

“G...Good morning, Mutou-san?” It was more a question and she glanced around at the others, noting Yugi had seemed to sink further into her chair. “Is he really...?”

“Yeah.” Jou nodded, his tone angry and his movement sharp. “Some prick with a Millennium Item challenged Yuge, cheated all the way through and sealed Ojiisan’s soul into the tape when she lost.”

Bakura could feel her other self shift at the back of her mind at Jou’s words and mentally grimaced. She was well aware of how close her other self had come to total victory just a couple of months ago. It was only the fact the she had sacrificed herself to halt the final blow that had saved her friends.

It had only been a miracle that had saved her life and the life of her Other Self, but they had been dead, at least temporarily, and while she was willing to do it again if she needed to, the spirit of the Ring had made it clear that she had no intention of dying again. Not for a long time at least.

This meant that, for the time being, Yugi’s Puzzle was firmly off the radar. Any other Items however were still fair game and Bakura couldn’t really bring herself to object considering that most other item holders seemed to be obnoxious prats.

“Can you get him out?” She asked, remembering how Yugi no Oneesan, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had seemed to have no difficulty in helping her free those trapped in the game pieces from her Monster World set.

“No.” Yugi shook her head, seeming calm, though Bakura could see it was just a mask. She couldn’t help but wonder if the others could see the dejection hidden underneath. “Anesan tried. We just ended up with a headache for our troubles.”

‘Of course they did.’ Bakura flinched as the voice of her other self echoed in her head, still not used to being able to hear the thoughts of the spirit of the Ring and mostly wishing she still couldn’t, ‘The Penalty was set against them. They will have to fulfil the ‘out’ clause before they will be able to free him.’

“Could we do it?” Bakura asked the voice, startling them both. “Could we free Yugi’s Grandfather?”

‘I don’t know,’ The voice replied after a moment of thought, sounding amused for some reason,‘And quite frankly I don’t care to try. The Pharaoh got herself into this mess and she can get herself...’

The Other Bakura paused, retuning into the conversation at the table in time to see Jou rolling his text book into a cone shape, pointing it at the Puzzle and yelling, “Hey Oneesan! If you can hear me in there, cheer up!” at the top of his lungs.

“Jonouchi!” Anzu shoved him away as Yugi tried to get some hearing back. “Seriously! I don’t think that’ll help.”

It had a little though, Bakura could see, as Yugi smiled for a moment, some of the despondency lifting a little in the face of her friend’s lunacy.