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Powerless	By : Ochodre Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Het - Male/Female Views: 2661 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh!, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
Author's Notes: If you liked this, stay tuned for the sequel, which will be much, much more appropriate for AFF. *cough*
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Everything I know has let me down

So I will just let go

Let you turn me inside out

'Cause I know I'm not sure about anything

But you wouldn't have it any other way
And the world keeps spinning 'round

My world's upside down

And I wouldn't change a thing
I've got nothing left to lose

Lost it all when I found you

And I wouldn't change a thing

No, you and I

I wouldn't change a thing...

~Lifehouse, 'Spin'
Bakura stared up at the stone tablet that held the Items. Once again, there was a chill in the room, but it was only from the temperature.
Night had fallen, but this time, she and Ryou had entered the museum through the front entrance. The guards let them past once Ryou had explained their intentions. They had eyed Bakura suspiciously, sensing something familiar about the girl's face and hair... but it was obvious she was not the boy who had broken in several weeks ago and remained at large.
Bakura smirked slightly. They would never find him.
Ryou stood beside her, waiting. Her eyes wandered over to him, and he smiled as if to reassure her. Instead of the indignation she expected to feel, she surprised herself by smiling back for a fleeting moment. Bakura sighed and shook her head. She really was going soft.
The days after the last battle with Malik had been spent readjusting to life. Luckily, her new body was as resilient as the last one, and all her physical wounds healed with nary a trace that they were ever there. Ryou probably had a hand in that, since he spent every waking moment tending to her, changing her ice packs, supplying medication and bandages, and cooking her favorite foods every night. At first, she loathed having a nanny, but she came to enjoy being waited on hand and foot.
A few times, as he had scurried around doing his best to please her, she had stopped him and roughly warned him that he had better not be doing this out of guilt. His eyes would sadden, his head would drop, and he finally explained that he didn't just feel guilty for the bruises he had inflicted, but for the fact it was his fault she was stuck in her new body.
Bakura had grabbed his chin and forced him to look her in the eye and growled, "If I can deal with it, certainly you can."
And she dealt with it fairly well. She had let Ryou and Serenity take her shopping again, though she refused to enjoy it. Ryou had been teaching her how to read, and she was picking it up swiftly. He helped bridge the gaps in her understanding left by the fragments of his memory that she still possessed. She also spent long hours considering her new life - that all her past obligations were only memories, that she was finally free to live a normal life without either haunting or being haunted.
It was somewhat strange to digest the fact that she was now a woman. But really, she had reflected, being a woman is less strange than being a ghost, and she had been one of those for three thousand years. True, she missed having magical powers at her beck and call, but she had lived once without them, and she could live without them again. Besides, such a mundane existence brought a challenge and risk back into life that she had not seen in a long time.
Without the hope that she would be able to revert back to distract her, Bakura had gone from bemoaning her condition to doing what she always had when faced with the inevitable - adapting. With this change in attitude, what had seemed like defeat suddenly became a challenge.
Certainly, you were the King of Thieves when you had strength, spirits, monsters, and powers at your disposal, Fate seemed to say, But can you still be a thief, when all you have now is your hands and your wits? Can you be a real thief?
Though she was loathe to admit it, Bakura knew she and the Pharaoh were similar in one respect. Neither of them could resist a challenge.
When she had regained enough confidence and learned as much as she could about the new world she lived in, she started to sneak off when Ryou was away at school. She could not yet will herself to go out at night alone, but she found that she didn't need to. Her first few attempts at thieving were remarkably successful. Manipulating people proved even easier in this form, too. It had disgusted her at first, but she soon found the right kind of smile and the right kind of pose would turn the majority of males into the most gullible of fools. She knew masculine psychology well, after all, and as much as doing it repulsed her, she found it irresistible to not use the tools at her disposal to bend them to her will.
That, and the looks of disappointment on their faces when they realized they would not even get to touch her were strangely satisfying.
The body she had hated so much was finally starting to show some of its advantages. Very few people, it seemed, suspected attractive young women of anything. She was light, small, and thin, and she could bend in ways and get into places she never could have previously. She had gone from being a tiger to a house cat, and though she might have been less dangerous, she was much sneakier and much less conspicuous. She found a thrill in thievery once again, one that she hadn't even been aware that she was missing. Stealing when you knew you could simply will anyone who caught you into the Shadow Realm hadn't been half as fun.
So far, Bakura had kept her crimes small and low key, little more than minor shoplifting and pick-pocketing. What she stole wasn't so different from what she had taken as a male, but what she did with some of the goods she pilfered was a radical departure.
Ryou had, more than once, been quite surprised to find his favorite candy bars or a rare Duel Monsters card he'd been wanting for his collection in his backpack. He asked Bakura about them, but she feigned ignorance, and she was a good enough liar that he believed her. He soon learned to stop questioning the odd gifts.
But of all the trinkets and jewelry in her steadily growing collection, Bakura's eyes kept being drawn to one piece in particular. The Ring would stare at her, no matter where in the room she tried to hide it. It was a constant reminder of what she had given up, of an existence she had started to want to put behind her. The Ring had been an inexorable part of her being - had been her being for so long - and it seemed to be accusing her of treason for wanting to leave it behind. Its cold presence reminded Bakura of so many conflicting feelings and memories that it robbed her of her good moods as deftly as she had robbed shopkeepers.
Ryou seemed to notice. He had also picked up on the newfound sense of freedom she had been cultivating, and the more she came to appreciate her new life, the less guilty he looked around her. Recapturing the joy of thievery had made Bakura realize that good moods and been a rare thing for both of them, and now it seemed like their moods were linked. If she was happy, he was happy, and that, strangely, made her happier.
Maybe she felt some guilt, too, for everything she had done. Seeing the boy happy was new and strange, and she liked it more than she wanted to believe.
But if she wasn't happy, he sat close to her, touched her shoulders, looked at her with concern in his big brown eyes - all privileges only he was allowed, and he didn't even realize it. There were walls Bakura took down only for him, and it seemed like more came down every day. He was the only one who had earned the right to see past them.
It was that which lead her to confess that the Ring bothered her, though in as few words as possible. He had said something about closure, and they decided it was time for another trip to the museum.
Bakura shook her head out of her memories and looked down at the Ring. She grasped it in her thin fingers, in hands that, though once alien, were starting to become familiar. She stared at it past breasts which, while still cumbersome and weird, were easier to get used to than she would have guessed. Her eyes flicked back towards Ryou, and he complied with an order that she didn't even know she had issued by setting his hand on her back.
She reached up and slowly set the Ring into its niche, carefully setting each pendulum into the notches carved for them. The Puzzle was already below it, and the Rod was already beside it. Her hands moved with a sense of finality, and when they pulled away, she was unprepared for the sense of relief that washed over her. Bakura felt herself smiling again, but felt no inclination to fight it this time.
It was over. She no longer needed this cold museum as her sanctuary.
She had a new one.
As they turned and headed back towards the entrance, Bakura glanced up at her former host. He hadn't removed his hand, and once again seemed completely unconscious of his actions.
"Landlord."
Ryou blinked and looked over at her, a questioning look on his face. The corner of her smile became a slight smirk. He responded to all her old pet names for him as readily as his real name. She had been tempted to stop calling him by them, after the spirit of the Ring had reminded her of the darkness in those words - but both she and Ryou realized that she meant no longer had any malicious intent in those nicknames. In fact, they had almost become... affectionate.
Besides, it was too much fun to startle him by sneaking up on him and whispering them in his ear.
"You never finished reading that fantasy book to me," Bakura noted, and her smile lost the smirk, confidence staggering for a moment, stolen by what seemed like fleeting shyness. She had enjoyed that night more than she wanted to admit. And the morning after...
But the wide, innocent grin on Ryou's face reassured her, and he nodded. "Want me to read more after dinner?"
Bakura nodded slightly, tilting her head. "You know, you could read beforehand, too, if you ordered out instead of cooking."
She had liked parts of that night too. Despite what she tried to convince herself, the steak was not what she remembered the most.
Ryou's hand slid around to her side to squeeze her - another subconscious movement, she guessed, since he seemed distracted by grinning like an idiot and nodding. Bakura chuckled and let him remain unaware.
Though the spirit was gone, being close to him chased away any other, more personal and less magical demons that might threaten in the back of her mind, and she still saw no reason to tell him. Maybe she would someday, but right now, she didn't mind the amicable silence and warmth.
It reminded her that she was alive.
Again.
- 13
- 14
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Powerless