Ryou

The vision gave me the will to fight on. My body was still mostly numb, and it took all my strength just to lift my head. My mind was clear again. I could focus. I saw Yami Yugi battling with my yami. And he was losing. The vision had told me to fight, so that was what I was going to do.

My yami was strong, but not strong enough to stand against both me and Yami Yugi. I could feel my yami fighting me for control of the eye. But he couldn't win. The eye's magic rested with me. I was now its rightful owner. I strained my powers, as did Yami Yugi. And it paid off. My yami fell.

Yami Yugi came to me first. Now that the eye was once more protecting me from the shadow realm, I was slowly regaining my strength. He helped me to my feet, but I needed him to support me. My legs still did not completely work on their own.

Yami led me over to where my yami still lie. My yami was just knocked out, not dead. But it would not take much to finish him off. The shadow realm was already draining the spiritual energy from his unconscious form. Yami spoke up.

"We can end it all now," he said. "We can destroy him, eliminate all possibilities of his return." He was asking my opinion. I shook my head.

"Wouldn't that just make us like him? That's just what he would do, and I do not want to be like him."

"What do you propose then...?"
 
 
 

The phone was ringing as I opened the door to my house. I had regained my full mobility and didn't so much as stumble as I rushed to catch it. I knew who it was.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Ryou, where the heck have you been?!" came my father's voice. "I've called you three or four times, and you never answered. I left the number on the second message, why didn't you return the call?"

My father's rapid-fire questions didn't exactly take me by surprise. I understood his concern. But I had no answer ready. I was tired. Tired from the experiences of the last few days and the years before that, and tired of lying to explain away it all. Father noticed my silence and spoke again. "Ryou, what's wrong?"

It was like a dam breaking. The stress of it all got to me and I broke down on the phone. I not even sure of what I said, but Father wasn't either. He couldn't make it out through my sobs. He hushed me and told me to calm down and tell him again what happened. I didn't want to tell him all that I had hidden from him over the years over the phone. I felt I owed it to him to tell him to his face. That is, if my boldness held up. But I had already started, and now he wanted to know what was bothering me. And I wasn't going to lie again, not even to make him feel better.

I told him about the accident at the movie theater and having to go to the hospital. It explained both why I hadn't phoned him, and (at least partly) why I was upset. And it wasn't a lie.

He immediately started fretting over me, saying how he knew he shouldn't have left me alone. Now it was my turn to calm him down. I said that it just happened, and nothing could have been done to prevent it. But I couldn't talk him out of cutting his trip short, no matter how I tried. He would be on the first plan back to Japan that he could get.

I felt guilty after hanging up the phone. I didn't like to worry father. That's why I had kept so many secrets. But no more. I had it in my head that I would explain everything to him once he got home. Everything. Then, hours later, after more thought, I realized I wouldn't know where to start. There were so many questions. Would Father believe me? Would he think I was losing my mind? Even if he did believe me, he would blame himself. He had given me the ring.

Needless to say, I decided later to leave it at what I had already told him.

At the earliest, Father wouldn't be home until late the next morning. I had the rest of the night to myself. It was probably the last solitude I would see for a while, what with my father's worried protectiveness.

I stepped outside onto the back porch. Yugi's damp jacket still lay on the floor just outside the door. I would have to remember to get that back to him.

The air was still heavy from the rain. Clouds blew across the moon, causing the shadows to move as the moonlight came and went. The wind rustled my hair nicely. I closed my eye against it, just enjoying this simple pleasure. I breathed the night in deeply. The scent of rain still hung in the air and I could hear little drops of moisture falling from the plants as the wind blew their leaves. The peacefulness of it was bliss as far as I was concerned.

I gazed up at the stars. They blinked in and out as the clouds passed over them. My mind could not help but wonder back to the days events, and they baffle me even now. Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu had all been fine. Yami Yugi had helped me release them from their card prisons. They woke up in Anzu's house, and were a bit nervous around me. I can't say I blamed them. But the image my mind focused on most was that of the woman. My mother, I was certain. As if right out of the pictures my father had always shown me. The eye had the ability to see the dead. Yugi had told me later that he had heard of an instance such as this one from Pegasus's diary. But as many times as I tried (and I assure you, it was almost everyday) I could never get the millennium eye to repeat that one bit of magic again.

I had never really grieved that my mother had passed away. It is hard to mourn someone you never knew. But now it seemed so much harder to accept it, now that I had seen her that one time. Father had always talked about how beautiful and kind and strong she was. I saw now that he was right. As great as she seemed to me in that one moment when I was in need, she must have been perfect in life.

It was beginning to rain again. A light shower. I turned back inside and headed to my room. I was extremely tense. I decided to take a hot shower to take my mind off things. My clothes were dirty and I knew my body had not been washed while I was out off it. It would do me good.

I emptied the contents my pockets onto my dresser. My wallet, some loose change, and a single card.

The hot water was incredibly refreshing. I stood there for well over ten minutes, just enjoying the steam and the water dripping down my body (it was so good to have it back). I was cleansed, body and soul.

I dressed into a fresh pair of pajamas. I was just about to climb into bed and catch up on some rest for my weary body and mind, when the card I had placed on the dresser caught my eye. It didn't seem right to just leave it there.

I picked it up and examined it. An image much like my own glared back at me. Hair, white like mine, only more wild. Face twisted in an expression of resentment. And a single eye narrowed in a harsh gaze.

I wouldn't have felt right if I had allowed Yami Yugi to destroy my yami. And he had escaped from the shadow realm so many times that it seemed pointless to leave him there. If I had, I don't think I would have ever slept well again. So I had invoked the eye, using its magic to seal him in a card the same way he had sealed up Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu. It was the only way I knew how to keep him under control.

I walked to my shelf and pulled a book out. I placed the card that contained the soul of my other half inside the cover and closed it. I glanced at the title of this particular book. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Fitting. At least I wouldn't forget where I had placed the card for safe- keeping.

I flicked off the light and crawled into bed. I let my head sink into the soft feather pillow. My muscles almost instantly relaxed. I wished my mind shut off that easily. I couldn't help but wonder just how long the peace would last. It never seemed to last long. As soon as I recovered from one adversity, another seemed to be in the waiting. It was almost as if there was someone out there who delighted in watching me suffer. Who would put me through hell so long as it amused them. Maybe it was several someones, for all I knew. But I soon dismissed these thoughts. Who could find so much entertainment in me, anyway?