the_campus | The Self-Proclaimed "King of Thieves"

Yes, that's...better. [He seems distracted.]

Tell me, Ryou Bakura...what do you see?!

You look a lot like me... eerily so, in fact. The facial structure is so similar it gives me the chills to see it. Though your eyes are a lot narrower and you're a lot, uhm... [more intimidating] ...larger than me.

Even father doesn't look so much like me as you do... it's kind of frightening.

[That's what he wanted to hear. That reassurance that it wasn't just him seeing this.

In the mirror, he had two faces.]

Ryou...h-hehehe...I think I just realized something interesting. I have one more question to ask you...

Do you know how long ago it was, since that bastard of a Pharaoh, Akhenamkhanen ruled?!

Edited 2013-10-08 00:02 (UTC)

Akenamkhanen...

[He has to think on that one. His father's favourite subject was Egypt, but it wasn't the name of any Pharaoh he was truly clear on. But he's sure he knows of it. Wasn't there some Egypt display that mentioned it? That was right...]

Uhm... I think it was three thousand or so years ago. But I'm not really sure. He didn't do anything too important, so he wasn't recorded too well beyond the usual preservations of his name. But the display where I saw his name was from around then, so it's probably right.

[It was all coming together.

There was not a single doubt left in him. This weak, pale-skinned boy had to be a reincarnation of at least one portion of his soul.

Why and how he was seeing him now was something else all together, but that didn't change the fact of the matter.

When he speaks, it's with exuberance.]

That's funny...I remember seeing them seal up his wretched tomb just a few days ago!

Eh-?! I knew you weren't from my time from the style of dress, but to be from such a long time ago...

[How could someone from that long ago have his face? Of course, it could be chance. There were a limited, if huge, pool of possibilities and doppelgangers existed even today... but for someone with that face to be pulled here was beyond coincidental. It was almost terrifyingly so.]

But, I've met people from centuries years in the future, so I guess it isn't so strange.

[Why did this man have his face? Were they related? Was it chance?]

H-hehe...HAHAHA! Do you not realize what I've just told you?!

[He gestures towards Ryou.] Ryou Bakura... [And then to himself.] The Great Bakura.

[He rips the eye from his pocket, holding it out at arm's length.] The Millennium Items! You say Akhenamkhanen didn't do anything important, but he's the reason why these exist! [Bakura's words become more and more venomous as he goes on.] It was under his reign, fifteen years ago my time, that the village of Kul Elna was slaughtered before my very eyes for his "peace" and "justice".

And you, Ryou... [He laughs again, leaning close enough that their noses nearly touched.] You're a part of me. I must have had some unfinished business...if you exist now, holding the Millennium Ring and Eye!

[Ryou squeaks, stumbling back and falling on his backside again out of a desire to not be that close to a deranged lunatic like this. And there he stays, staring up at the man with wide eyes. Insane... the idea was completely insane. This terrifying man with his face couldn't be any less like him. He reminds him more of the spirit of the Ring than anything else.

But...

The same name. The same face. Colder, narrower, but still the same. How could a coincidence like that exist? The story doesn't even register at first. That little-known king had slaughtered a village? In the scale of history, that was nothing. Of course it was an important, even terrible thing. It was painful to think that this man had suffered something like that. But something like that wouldn't go down in history. It's only once he thinks more that things click. Akhenamkhanen - gods, he didn't want to try to pronounce that name again - had caused the Items to be created. For whatever reason, this guy was gathering them to take them back. And in this time, the Items had been drawing together. The Puzzle. The Ring. The Eye. Malik's Rod of unknown abilities. Slowly, like a jigsaw puzzle being put into place by the hand of fate.

Was this insane man claiming the Ring had come to him because of some... unnatural connection between them? Absurd! Though... what was it that the spirit had said to him? I feel good inside you. Something like that. Could it be fate that had brought the Ring to him?]

That's...

[Coincidences this blatant didn't exist. They were the sort of things people would laugh off as being impossible, unable to accept. 'Reality' didn't work that way. Did it?

He swallows, nervously.]

How is that even possible?! Even if the faces are the same, and the names, you and I are nothing alike!

You don't know anything, do you?!

[Bakura stays standing, holding his hands up as he looks at them, a wild smile...and a hint of terror. His hands were shaking at the realization coursing through him.

One day...soon...was he really going to fail? Was he going to become trapped within the Ring? But even if he did...his plans didn't end there, and maybe with his new found knowledge, he could cut out three thousand years of wasted time!]

You're my Ba. And that Spirit in the Ring--he's my Akh!

[Okay. He needs to think straight. He's heard those words before, right? What the hell were they? The ba was the immortal part of the soul, right? It was the part that would be consumed if the person that took the challenges to reach the afterlife was evil... meaning as long as it lived, the soul did.

The other bit... the akh was what held the personality. And he could definitely see some similarities. Then the spirit of the Ring was part of him too? That twisted soul that had claimed to be comfortable in his body... was that because it was his body?!]

Then... I'm...

[It makes sense. He doesn't like it one bit, but it makes sense. He laughs a little, aware that it doesn't sound quite normal.

For the longest time, he'd blamed the actions of that spirit on himself. It had taken a long time for him to release that guilt... longer than he liked, and it was still hanging around. Now it seemed like it was meant to be there. If he was the same as the spirit, then that guilt was not misplaced.

He feels grateful that he's already on the floor.]

That's not... fair...

Life's not fair, is it? [The words are bitterly amused. He had his own reasons for not being thrilled with this arrangement. Mostly it was the implications.]

But since you're my Ba...oh, heh, I almost feel bad for threatening you!

[He glances towards the bathroom door, wondering again when the Ring will show itself.]

H-hehe... [It was an unhinged sort of laugh this time. Dammit...what was this feeling? He didn't know how he was truly supposed to handle this.

You weren't supposed to meet your reincarnation...you were supposed to be them!]

Reincarnation takes such a long time...it would be troublesome for me if you died. So know this, Ryou Bakura! [His eyes settle on Ryou again.] I'll slaughter anyone who tries to harm you!

Edited 2013-10-08 01:16 (UTC)

E...eh?!

[It's eerie, hearing words like that from outside of his head.

He just wanted to be normal. To go back to school, to play games, to cheer on Yugi and the others in their duels. Now the weight of the Ring was settling in on him harder than ever before and it hadn't even returned to his neck yet.

Now he's sitting on the floor of a strange bathroom, staring up at a half-naked psychopath who happened to be essentially himself from the past, and finding out his deranged alter ego actually was his alter ego. At first, back then, he'd thought that the other him was literally another him. Then he'd come to realize just how old and wicked that spirit was.

Now he was discovering his first guess was right. The weight of those crimes was on him. It was like the fingers in one hand claiming they shouldn't be put in jail because it was the other hand that held the knife.

It wasn't fair.

The only relief he had right now was that the guy wasn't going to slit his throat on a whim. And that was definitely a relief. He let out the breath he'd been holding, using the counter to pull himself up on shaking legs and dusting himself off.

Get in line, he thinks quietly to himself in response to that promise of vengeance. But what was a person meant to say so something like that?]

I. Uhm. Thank you...? But it's really not good to kill people around here... Or anywhere else.

I'll decide what's good and isn't good! If anyone so much as touches you wrong, I'll rip them apart.

[Bakuras lips crack into a grin.] Like I said--it would be troublesome for me if you died. I'll protect you like I would my own life. Because it is my own life!

Edited 2013-10-08 01:39 (UTC)

[Before Ryou can formulate an answer - and really, it would take him a while, because he's reeling over those words in something approaching pure terror - blessed darkness takes over him as a familiar weight slips over his head. The glow of the Ring dims as that familiar person takes control.

This distress... the body is tense, trembling, too hot and filled with the urge to run. With his presence, that calms, but it lasts long enough for him to notice. The other Bakura simply opens his eyes and stares into his own face, betraying little of his own concern. That foolish host... to get himself caught like this!]

And just what the hell were you doing to my host?

[While he had originally intended on catching the Ring before it ahd a chance to reach Ryou, his new knowledge had him allowing the Spirit to take over instead.

When that familiar personality comes out, he grins.]

Nothing, nothing~ Just using him as bait for you! [Thief King shrugs, hands held out casually before he rests one against the counter.]

But that's changed. While talking to him, I realized something!

Edited 2013-10-08 01:47 (UTC)

...Hoh? Is that so?

[Well, if the guy isn't going to try to snatch him, he'll just hop up on the counter to sit there, drawing one leg up to rest his arm on it. It's a familiarly casual pose.

Whatever this guy is up to, if he's changed his plans, that's something he wants to know about. After all, this is someone extremely dangerous. For him to decide not to just snatch the Ring and stab his host in the face... that meant it was something he wanted to know about.

...the location doesn't help much. A bathroom? Did he just save his host from being ridden like a pony or something?]

And just what is that important something you realized?

[For once, Thief King decides to cut the dramatics. After all, he'd just gone through plenty of that with Ryou, and despite his cool outward appearance he was still feeling a bit shaken.

Besides, his Akh already knew what he was.]

You're my Akh, and your "host" is my Ba!

[Clap. Clap. Clap. He finally got it!

...wait a minute.]

The akh part I knew, but the hell do you mean my host is our-?

[Turning his head slightly, he glances at their reflections. Like this, it's even closer... That similarity he'd noticed is impossible to ignore. ]

...

Shit. That explains so much. And yet so many things are suddenly unanswered.

[He looks like he might reconsider that offer about cutting Ryou's hands off when his Akh starts clapping. Luckily it doesn't last long enough for him to actually make good on that threat.]

H-hehe! You see it now? It's unbelievable...that I'd be meeting myself like this.

Kh... [Bakura has to look away, his expression more than a little bit wary. Yes, he sees it. It's easy enough for him to accept. After all, the way this body feels is almost... fitting. Like a well-worn suit, or a comfortable chair.]

Hard to believe... this weak child holding any part of me. But I can't deny it, either... there's too much evidence towards it.

[He lets out a sharp bark of laughter.]

And to think that filthy fragment of darkness calls me 'Parasite', when it's my own ba that I've been possessing... hahahaha! The irony!

[Bakura found it hard to believe himself, but likewise there was no denying it.]

Oho? What "filthy fragment of darkness" is this?! And, not that it matters much, but he's still young...although I think was farther along than that at his age. My Ba has been letting himself go...I'm disappointed!

[Mimicking his Akh, he takes a seat on the counter as well.]

Heh heh... He's hopeless... No aspirations at all! If it wasn't for me, he'd just sit around and play games all day. The youth of today are so spoiled!

[Scoffing a little, he shakes his head. No sense letting this guy know about his own weakness towards Malik.]

One of my host's friends has a... call it a split personality, of sorts. The other side is little more than a loathesome fool who thinks himself greater than us. He's taken to addressing me as 'Parasite' because of my dependance on my host's body. Heh... that fool.

He disrespects you like that, and you still let him live? Don't tell me my Akh's gone soft as well... [The words are ominous if anything, and Bakura's smile darkens.]

Kh-! [Oh, that smarts.] Shut up! My plans would be interrupted if that kid dies too soon! I've just learnt patience, that's all!

What use would an arrogant brat be?

[He taps his fingers, trying to figure a solution.] You should fill me in, my Akh.

Edited 2013-10-08 03:14 (UTC)

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