It Wasn't Meant to Be This Way

By: Emif

The hallway seemed familiar. Ryou's room was normal. It contained a small table with a set ouiji board and Chinese throwing sticks. On the floor were scattered tarot cards, rune stones and dozens of books on everything with ghosts to ogham reading. The walls were lined with windows covered by black drapes and pictures of Stone Hedge lined the wall. This was typical or at least for Ryou. He had quite the obsession with divination especially lately.

Bakura turned to the other direction of the hallway. His soul room door was slightly open. A dark mist poured out calm yet eerily. Still this was nothing to be concerned about. It wasn't something as the door at all. It was hidden. He groaned annoyed. Unlike Ryou soul room, a small creepy room of a haunted house, his was far larger and more complex. It wasn't an insult to Ryou's subconscious. He had just been burying one thing after another for 3000 years and had never taken anytime to clear his thoughts. The result was a messy gloomy world collapsing and holding itself up at the same time in other words the mind of someone with no lines to cross. It was frayed and distorted and he was trying to find something wrong.

He opened the door and stepped inside. It lead into a cold deserted street corner. Adobes lined with trees sprouting from them. It was dark with two large moons illuminating the buildings and roads an eerie blue. Crows sat in the bare trees watching silently. They made no sound and hardly moved. There ebony eyes were solemn and ever watching. They did not act but watched as others did. He knew these crows well. He had created them over the 3000 years. They were his imprisonment and disability to act in that time. He walked down the narrow street lining with broken pots and abandoned booths. This was him or his outer shell. He had to go deeper to find the answer to this problem. Why had his ancient self called him Pharaoh? It had to be a metaphor. His whole mind was one, why not the words of he, himself.

He walked silently down the streets looking about for anything odd. Anything he would call out of the ordinary. Just then he saw something or someone. He was small with white hair and light clothing. Beyond that his image was unclear. His immediate thought was Ryou. Ryou must have snuck into his soul room. Bakura flared. This is not only highly unlike Ryou but impolite as well. It was not appropriate to enter the sanctity of another's soul room. Even he had never entered Ryou's soul room. He had of course looked from the hallway out of curiosity and he had taken refuge in the Pharaoh's soul room but he hardly considered that an invasion. If the Pharaoh had not destroyed his village it never would have passed this way. It was his doing more than Bakura's. He rationalized this way. If you were to do something do it right by any means. Ryou had no agenda like this. Well he assumed. He had stopped periodically reading Ryou's thoughts. It had been a dirty habit of his and protection against Ryou rebelling. It was a ridiculous idea but he hadn't known Ryou and precautions were necessary. Now he hardly did much to alienate Ryou. The less he knew the better. A wise decision on his part. Bakura's position to Ryou was not one to tamper with. If Ryou was not to suspect his yami of anything malicious he would remain content and use to control. Ignorance was Strength in this case.

The figure quickly recoiled at the sight of him and ran. Bakura followed and yelled "Ryou!" he followed always too far behind to truly know who it was. He never knew Ryou to be so fast but he hadn't investigated it. It was necessary to know Ryou's capabilities, only his body's were of any importance.

He ran following the unidentified person into a small adobe. Inside it was hardly one though. It was a large room almost appearing to be a meeting place. It had a board room table with several assorted papers. Each with one note on them. A marker board was at the front of the room with writing an picture. He looked about the entrance and Ryou had disappeared. This was his plans. His thoughts. His schemes. It had to be here. He picked up a small piece of paper and it read: 'GAIN RYOU'S TRUST'. He looked at another: 'COLLECT SENNEN ITEMS'. There was hundreds on the table. Some were scribbled out, some rewritten, and some torn to shreds. One was most disturbing. It was written in Egyptian, old and lying beside the table on the floor. It was abandoned and forgotten and strained. He bent down and picked it up. It was very comprehensive. It was planned and thought out. It was a to do list and reasoning why. It read:

'COLLECT SENNEN ITEMS why TO DESTROY THEM AND SAVE SOULS.

ADDRESS THE PHARAOH why TO SEEK SOME JUSTICE FOR THEM

GET THE MAGIC BOOK why TO DESTROY IT SO IT CAN'T HAPPEN AGAIN'

Bakura snorted at it. Who wrote this. It couldn't have been him. It was over past is past. You can't stop what was to be and why stop the creation of more items. They would only aid him further. He placed it on the desk and turned his attention to the marker board. It was almost like a political strategy. It was broken into three groups. They were written OUTER, INNER, and PURPOSE. Each category had a short written goal and a picture. The OUTER was a small scribbled picture of some ghosts and little adobes. It was labeled KUR-ELNA. He looked to the next, INNER, was one of himself and written 'SELF PRESERVATION'. Finally was the PURPOSE, it was small picture of a crown and written 'HEIRARCHY'. He stared for a moment. What was this? It made it appear as though Kur-Elna was a clever cover. A noble shield of something far more self oriented and shallow. This had to be trick of Ryou's. It hardly seemed in character though.

"It used to have Kur-Elna in the PURPOSE." it was a small voice. A voice of no one older than 10 or so. He didn't turn around not knowing what to see. "I keep trying to put it there. I keep erasing and rewriting it but it always changes."

He had by now gained more than a slight interest in who it was. It sounded nothing like Ryou. Ryou's voice was soft and small as this one was but it was deeper as well. This was a less mature but equally innocent He turned about and looked to it. He blinked and recoiled at the sight. This wasn't only odd but impossible. Well perhaps not it was his soul room. He stared for another moment at himself as he was right after the Kur-Elna massacre.