12A/N: A couple notes to keep in mind before reading ahead – I am using the manga's version of Bakura and the events from Season Zero through Duelist. As such, the events from Otogi's capsule monsters duel combine the possessed Bandit Keith episodes before Battle City with those ones and replaces it with Yami Bakura coming to "help" Yuugi throughout the duel. Additionally, without the filler 4Kids inserted into the anime, there is very little to no interaction between Yami Bakura and any of the side characters aside from Honda in Duelist Kingdom. I've also decided to pull Anzu's character from Season Zero where she is more tomboyish and confrontational rather than Duelist onward to give her a little more spunk while remaining true to her canon character. With that said, that's the angle I'm approaching this one-shot from and hopefully it will make reading it a bit less confusing :)
"I could kill you, you know," he said with utter calm, "and nobody would notice you were gone." The reality of his words frightened her, but Anzu was not one to back down from a challenge.
Anzu, her elbow propped against the table, surveyed Domino Square with an almost detached expression. Not for the first time, she had lost Jounouchi and Yuugi in the crowds of Battle City duelists. If not for the fact that there were several Ghouls running around and Marik seemed intent on killing Yuugi, this might not have bothered her. Honda and Otogi had been taking turns visiting Shizuka at the hospital, leaving Anzu to her own devices. She had helped Grandpa Mutou at the shop, as he, too, had been left alone, but now that night had fallen, she began to worry. There was one more day in the weekend for Yuugi and Jounouchi to collect their locator cards and while she knew, deep down, there was little she could do to help them, she did wish she could be there to show her support.
Well, forget them, then, she thought in a brief spurt of irritation. They're boys – I always tell Yuugi so – they can handle it. She took a drink of the shake she had ordered, then grimaced, noticing that most of it had melted. She pushed it away and sighed, her eyes sweeping the crowds of Domino Square. Who am I kidding? I feel left out. I used to be able to beat Jounouchi at Duel Monsters, no problem. Maybe I should have tried to enter Pegasus's tournament and had Yuugi train me – then I would have been able to get into Kaiba's tournament and... Her thought trailed off briefly and she released another heavy sigh. And then what?
Her train of thought did little to comfort her. She knew it was pointless to spend time feeling lonely and jealous of Jounouchi's success. She had never been good at puzzles, but had been good at the role playing and tabletop games Ryou would bring to school. Since Bakura, the dark spirit of the Sennen Ring, had pulled them into a Shadow Game and turned them into the figurines, however, she had not quite been able to pick them up again. Not for the first time, she wished that she had more female friends aside from Mai, who was six years older than her and travelled so much that she was rarely in Domino City. She felt that her hobbies outside of dancing would revolve less around games if she more female friends.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she stood up and tossed the melting shake away. Pushing her hands into the pockets of her denim jacket, she glanced at the clock in the center of Domino Square. It was almost ten and even though it was getting late, there were still a multitude of duelists and average Domino citizens out alike. She assumed Yuugi and Jounouchi had already headed home and, if they were in a tight spot, they would get themselves out of it as they always did. If she never found them, she was sure that Kaiba would find them. He seemed to show up at the most convenient moments.
Shrugging to herself, she made her way from the table she had been seated at, heading towards the area of town where her house was located. With her friends otherwise occupied and with little else to do, it made sense to enjoy the night alone. Maybe I can finally relax for a night, she mused. Take a bath, watch a movie, do a face mask... She smiled at this and as she rounded a corner, she spotted a familiar figure laughing over a hunched figure. Pausing in her steps, she frowned. Is that Ryou? The hunched figure scrambled to his feet and bolted away from the white-haired teen. Upon closer inspection, however, she saw the Sennen Ring around his neck and recognized the wicked gleam in Ryou's normally soft, brown eyes. Her stomach dropped. No, it's Bakura...the Sennen Ring's dark spirit.
She made to take a step back, to continue the way she had been walking, but he looked up in time to spot her. Frozen, she stared back at him. She had thankfully never had the opportunity to exchange words with Bakura. His attention had always been focused upon Yuugi and with the exception of Honda, he generally ignored the remaining members of their party. Now, however, he contemplated her thoughtfully, a crooked smirk lighting his features. Clearing her throat, she called uncertainly, "Is it you? The spirit of the Ring?"
He chuckled and stepped closer to her, spreading his arms out. "Glad to see you recognize me. Come to say hello? Or simply here to watch me defeat these fools with my occult deck? Ryou should be thanking me for giving him a proper deck to duel with." He dropped his arms, his grin turning a little vicious as he glanced behind her. "You're all alone, I see."
"And so are you," she reminded him boldly, her heart not quite matching her defiant tone.
One of his eyebrows rose and this time when his gaze swept over her, there was a rising interest in his darkened eyes. "Care to play a game, little Anzu?" She stiffened. "Just for fun." He raised his hands in a gesture of innocent. "Yuugi and I have the same intention now – to collect all Sennen Items to piece together the pharaoh's memory. As I have told him, I am a better man now – you might even consider me a friend." He bared his teeth in a parody of a grin. "I did, after all, protect the Sennen Puzzle when Otogi's father tried to steal it. My host would have been too weak to help."
Anzu hesitated, recalling the conversation Yuugi had with her and the others after the capsule monster duel with Otogi. He had admitted that the spirit of the Sennen Ring was back and had, in fact, helped him protect his Sennen Puzzle. She knew the pharaoh was still wary of Bakura given what Yuugi had said of his reaction, but Yuugi, at last, had been grateful for Bakura's assistance. Jounouchi and Honda had been, understandably so, alarmed by this news. Anzu had trusted Yuugi's instinct, knowing better than to judge without having been there herself to witness the event. She had made that mistake too many times already.
"What type of game?" she asked cautiously, folding her arms beneath her breasts.
"A tabletop game, of course."
"And what are the stakes? My soul?"
He laughed and there was a dark edge to his voice. "Only if you want that." His eyes glinted with mirth as he looked to her. "No...there's no fun in a Shadow Game with you, girl. You have no Sennen Item that I want. I'm simply bored and not quite ready to give up control to my host yet. Entertain me for a night." He began to walk away, adding over his shoulder, "Or did you have something better to do?"
Anzu hesitated, watching him walk languidly towards a narrow street. She recognized the name as being the one where Ryou's apartment was located. Recalling the way in which he had savagely ran his hand through the sharp top of the castle turret, she shivered in the spring air. He had been out of his mind then, only seeking to win and to prevent Ryou from breaking through his possession. He was not pretending to be Ryou right then, though, and did not appear as if he intended any harm upon her. His interest in her, it appeared, was nothing more than boredom as he had said.
Dropping her arms, she followed him as he rounded a corner. When she caught up to him, he glanced over his shoulder and smirked at her, seeing her following. She bristled at the triumphant look on his face, but chose not to address it.
Am I really so lonely that I'm accepting the company of a psychotic three-thousand-year-old spirit? she demanded of herself as she trailed after the male in question. But of course Anzu did not have the answer to the question, instead reflecting dryly, Maybe I am being as stupid as a rabbit is when they walk into a fox's den.
When she followed Bakura inside the apartment, it was quiet. He pulled off the duel disk and set it aside as she removed her shoes and followed him into the game room. Her eyes shifted, but there was no sign of the turret that Bakura had damaged his host's hand on. Instead, it was swept clean save for a collection of what appeared to be tiny, plastic figures of soldiers. Leaning over it, she noticed the careful painting and the large map upon the table. "This looks like a continent map," she observed, pointing down at the collection of continents.
"It's called Risk," Bakura said, tapping his knuckle on the table. He smiled tauntingly. "Care to try against me?"
"Are you planning to cheat like you always do?" she returned sarcastically.
He smile broadened. "A fair game, since the stakes are so low. No fear of a penalty game from the pharaoh this time around." He paused thoughtfully. "As long as you have no plans to remove the Sennen Ring."
"I'm not Honda," Anzu answered curtly, picking up a figure and inspecting it interestedly.
"Yes, a fine way he repaid me," Bakura said with an irritated frown twisting his mouth. "I break him out of a cell and he decides to try to get rid of me. Not that it worked." His expression cleared, a slow, unpleasant smile curling his lips. "I came back for Pegasus."
She stilled, her eyes flying up to his face in alarm. She recalled the article they saw in the paper a week after the end of the Duelist Kingdom tournament announcing the death of Pegasus. It did not go into detail on how he had passed away, only that he had died the day they had left the island. "Did you...?"
He laughed, interrupting her question. "I didn't kill him, necessarily – only hastened his end." He waved a hand to dismiss the subject. "Now, enough of that, let's go over the rules, shall we?" Anzu listened while he explained the rules, which seemed straightforward enough. Bakura counted out the armies and set the cards in the middle of the table. After he had counted out the armies, he picked up one of the dice. "I'll roll first." He rolled and it landed on a four. Anzu took the die and rolled it, where it landed on a five. He gestured, saying, "Now, you place one of your Infantry on any of the territories."
After they distributed their armies, Anzu made her first move, rolling three of the red dice and Bakura rolling the two white dice. Rolling higher, Anzu took out one of his army.
"Tell me," Bakura said some time into the game after they each had taken out some of each other's armies and Anzu was contemplating the board with a serious expression, "why did you choose to not become a duelist?" Anzu blinked, briefly removing her eyes from the set of armies on the map.
"I used to play Duel Monsters," she answered slowly, "but it lost it's appeal after Duelist Kingdom. It's not fun when it's taken so seriously to the point where Shadow Duels are happening."
Bakura, his arm propped on the table with his head resting in his chin, considered this for a moment and then broke into a wicked smile. "If you had a Sennen Item, you might feel differently."
She scowled at him. "I don't want any part of the Shadow Games! You turned me off of that a long time ago!"
"I've watched you play my host in these games," he said, pointing at the table, "and you always break even. You even used to beat Jounouchi and the only reason he started winning is because he cheats."
"What?" Anzu cast him a startled glance, now entirely distracted from their game. "What are you talking about? Jounouchi doesn't cheat!"
"And exactly what do you call having someone tell you what to do? Is that part of the rules?" He smiled his darkly amused smile, giving her pause to note that, while Bakura was possessing Ryou's body, he did not look entirely like Ryou at all. His eyes were more narrow and the chocolate brown in them were so dark it was nearly black. His hair seemed more wild, untamed, and longer, and the angles of his face seemed sharper. Looking at him, she did not see any of Ryou in his expression.
"Jounouchi doesn't always have Yuugi there telling him what moves to make," she muttered, returning to the game and pointing to a territory where Bakura's army was lacking. "I'll roll two red dice." As she rolled, she winced as combined they only totaled two. Bakura chuckled, rolled his own two white dice that came to a total of eight. As he removed one of her armies, she said, "You got me worked up on purpose."
"No," he drawled in reply, "I am making you think." He pointed a finger to her. "Think of it this way – Jounouchi has only become a duelist because he listened to Yuugi's tips and had him on the sidelines telling him what to do. And the only reason Yuugi is a duelist and does so well is because the spirit of the Sennen Puzzle possesses him during a duel. They're both cheaters. What other duelist working on their own would be able to fight against that? It makes for a better challenge, but it is hardly fair." He gestured lazily with a hand to the table. "This, however, leads to a fairer competition. You have to rely on the dice and even outside tips can't help you in a tabletop game. It seems to me you're better competition when it comes to games."
"Flattery doesn't work on me, Bakura."
"And I don't flatter, girl," he sneered. "Simply stating a fact that your friends are a bunch of cheaters."
"And what about you? You cheated in the role-playing game we played!"
"Of course I cheated!" he snapped at her, his eyebrows shooting down, his brow wrinkling in clear annoyance. "My host was trying to sabotage my strategy and both the Pharaoh, my NPCs, and your little group weren't playing by the rules. I'll lower myself to everyone else's standards if I must to win, but my host got in the way."
"And is it any surprise he did when you keep possessing him like an evil demon?" she demanded, irked by having her friends called cheaters.
Abruptly, he had risen to his feet and before she was given a chance to leap up from her chair, he had a grip on her hair, forcing her head back and there was a sharp point of a knife against her throat. She grimaced in pain, her eyes flickering down to the pocket knife he had pulled out. "I could kill you, you know," he said with utter calm, "and nobody would notice you were gone." The reality of his words frightened her, but Anzu was not one to back down from a challenge.
She could not deny the truth of his statement, though she flattered herself that at some point her friends would wonder where she had gone. His words, however, had dredged up every feeling she had been experiencing that night when she had gotten left behind that day. She had been feeling more like a background piece than an actual person in their group and even though Yuugi still occasionally came to her for comfort or a little "buck up" speech from her, he had been turning to the pharaoh within the Sennen Puzzle more often. Similarly, the spirit seemed more focused on Yuugi and less aware of anyone else around him when he was in possession of Yuugi's body. Even so, Honda and Otogi had Shizuka as company and Jounouchi remained near Yuugi, leaving Anzu with little to no company or purpose, really, outside of showing support for her friends. At the end of the day, she doubted it amounted to much when Yuugi had the spirit and Jounouchi had Yuugi for that type of energy.
The situation frustrated her beyond belief and it was clear that Bakura, at least, had picked up on it at some point that night.
In spite of her predicament, she said to him, "Don't threaten me with a good time, Bakura."
There was one slow, long blink, and then his mouth tilted in his familiar, crooked smirk. The light of fury was gone from his eyes replaced with an interested curiosity. He removed the knife from her throat, closing the pocket knife and tucking it in his pocket. She felt his hand release her hair and she nearly released a sigh of relief. She had expected the sass to enrage him further, but it seemed it had intrigued him for some unknown reason.
"You're fun," he decided, still leaning over her, his hand braced against the back of her chair. She eyed him warily, her heart still beating fast from her near-death experience. "I think I'll take you for myself."
"Excuse me?" she sputtered, confused. "What the hell does that mean?"
He laughed softly, leaning closer so their noses were nearly touching. "It means," he murmured, "that I am going to enjoy breaking you." She started in shock when his lips closed over hers and she made to push him away, but her hands touched the Sennen Ring that hung around his neck and she jerked her hands away. The sensation of his mouth was far from unpleasant and when she realized she was trapped in the chair, she let the curious, adventurous side of her overrule her mind.
When he pushed in closer to her, his other hand pressing against the back of her head, locking her in place, she trembled slightly as she parted her lips, returning pressure, and felt his amused smile against her mouth. She felt her skin flush, embarrassed at feeling as though she were a prize won, but his tongue swept against hers and her mind went perfectly blank. She felt his knee prop on the chair between her legs and her arms went around his neck instinctively, pulling her body closer to his. She felt the Sennen Ring against her breasts and it seemed unusually warm, as though it had been in a fire, and became dimly aware of who it was that was she kissing.
The awareness rippled through her and she broke from him, breathless and her lips swollen from his exploratory kissing. The urge to slap him warred with wanting to kiss him again when she saw how hazy his dark eyes looked when his gaze met hers. She opened her mouth to berate him, found her words were lost, and closed her mouth, scowling at him instead.
He laughed at her, pulling away entirely and returning to the other side of the table. When she collected herself enough to look at him again, he had a smug smile on his lips that could not erase the intense heat of desire that gleamed in his eyes. "I believe it's my turn."
Bakura was resetting the table, not wanting his host to know that he had the girl over while he had been under possession. Smirking to himself, he recalled her disheveled, flushed appearance. She had eventually lost the game, though only due to a poor decision shortly after the event that had caused her to lose one of her strongest territories, allowing him to subsequently wipe out the rest of the map. She had frowned down at it afterward, seemingly annoyed with herself for allowing herself to become flustered to the point of losing the game to him.
"Well," she had said after the game had ended, "I guess you've won." She was, he had noticed, purposely trying to pretend as if the kiss had not happened.
In more ways than one, he had mused.
It had been past one in the morning when they finished their game and she quickly gotten up to retrieve her shoes from the foyer. As she was putting them on, Bakura had come up beside her, remarking, "I believe, as the winner, I am owed a prize."
She turned, startled by his sudden appearance. "What?" she had blankly asked and, recomposing herself, she had frowned up at him. "I thought you said no stakes."
"I said no Shadow Games," he had corrected. In a moment, he had closed the space between them and took her chin, tilting her head up. She hesitated a beat, then swept her eyes up to him, appearing uncertain. He had tilted his head curiously, asking, "I thought you liked the spirit of the Puzzle?"
"I thought I did, too," Anzu had replied, yet still she did not move.
When he had extracted his prize from her, kissing her as languidly as if no time were passing, she pressed into him, aligning her body perfectly to his. He could not recall the last time he had experienced anything akin to desire for a woman – certainly not in this lifetime while being trapped in the Sennen Ring – and he found the drunken, lightheaded feeling to be addicting. It had been difficult to disengage himself, knowing that any distraction from collecting the Sennen Items and unveiling the shadow power within the pharaoh's memory could lead him astray. Even as he had acknowledged that, however, he had said to her as she stepped outside, "Expect to see me more often, little Anzu."
She had turned slightly, eyed him, and then gave him a far too sassy smile. "See if you can catch me alone."
"Oh," he had murmured, "I have ways of blending in."
Presently, Bakura inspected the table and, satisfied that everything appeared as it had been when he returned to the apartment that evening, he left the gaming room and went into the living room, settling on the couch. Soon, he would relinquish control of the body and allow his host control again. Briefly, he reconsidered over the night's events and a devilish smile crossed his lips.
No, he decided, I think I can afford a small distraction while I wait for my plans to begin. Anzu Mazaki is never going to be able to blend into the background again.
A/N: I am contemplating turning this one-shot into a small, chaptered story that follows the events of Battle City in the manga, but I haven't quite made a decision on that. For now, it will stand as a stand-alone vexshipping one shot. Please let me know how you liked it, how you felt about sticking to Bakura and Anzu's manga personalities (I know most of us pull from the anime), and see you in the next one!
