***
The next day, after hearing about what had happened, Ryou’s girlfriend comes over to the apartment to visit and see how Ryou and his father are doing. Dr. Bakura had taken time off from work, but he seems to be constantly on the phone with the museum.
“Ryou, did you really do all this?” Ryou’s girlfriend asks after he tells her the “official” story.
“Um, well, yes...” Ryou says, not really wanting to tell her about the dark lord.
“That’s amazing! Too bad the others aren’t around to hear about it. They’re in America for the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix.”
“That’s just fine.”
“Come on, let’s go play a friendly game, okay?” His girlfriend thinks this will make him feel better about his friends not being around, but she also has something else to share with him.
After Ryou ends up defeating her at Duel Monsters, she says, “You’re just too good for me! But there is something I need to talk to you about, though.”
“Really? What is it?” Ryou asks, wondering what can be so important.
His girlfriend brings out an alternate deck box but does not yet reveal the contents. “I believe that some cards are evil and should never be used, so I put them in this box for safekeeping. I thought I’d get your opinion on it.” She opens the box and pulls out one card in particular. “This one here, take a look.”
Ryou looks at it. “It’s the ritual spell card to summon the Dark Lord Zorc card. Where did you get it?”
“Probably from one of the packs I bought, but after playing Monster World back then it doesn’t seem right to me. What do you think?”
Ryou rummages through his card collection. “I’m pretty sure I have the Zorc card in here somewhere. Yes, here it is.” He pulls it out and holds it up next to the ritual card. There was a brief pulsation of dark energy between the two cards, and the two of them gasped and pulled the cards away from each other.
“Whoa. Did you see that? I was right,” the girlfriend says. “What should we do?”
“These cards must never see daylight again,” Ryou replies. He then spots Spirit Bakura beside him, looking at the cards as if interested. “Under no circumstances are the two to be combined,” he emphasizes, hoping the spirit would back off.
“Right,” the girlfriend agrees, putting her card back in the box.
Ryou catches the spirit trying to sneak a peak at the other cards in his girlfriend’s box. “Don’t get any ideas,” he warns him.
Spirit Bakura tries to smooth things over. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t trying to make a pass at her,” he says just to make fun of him.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
The girlfriend can only hear Ryou’s side of the conversation. “You two are arguing again.”
Ryou’s girlfriend was the only one to have taken the time to get to know Ryou and his spirit problems more than his other friends. Even though she can’t see or hear him in his spirit form, she knows when they’re having words.“It’s nothing,” Ryou assures her, still with a cross look on his face.
“If you say so.” Packing up all her cards, she says, “I wish I could stay longer, but I have to get going. I’ll come by and visit tomorrow if you want.”
“Yeah, I’d like that,” Ryou responds, kissing her goodbye. She says goodbye to Dr. Bakura too on her way out.
“Again, what does she see in you that no one else does?” Spirit Bakura asks.
“Mind your own business,” Ryou shoots back.
“Honestly, though. I have no interest in the Zorc card or its ritual summon card. Even if I were to use them to unlock its power, that creature is a demigod compared to the power of the real Dark Lord Zorc.”
“Okay, good to know.”
“The real Zorc is so powerful that only one thing can defeat him.”
“And what is that one thing?”
“Shut up.” Spirit Bakura realizes he’s been talking too much and ends the conversation at that.
***
After dinner, Ryou is getting ready to work on some more lead miniatures for his Monster World game when he receives a phone call. It’s on the cell phone that he only keeps for emergencies. Besides his father, only one other person has the number. He quickly answers it, wondering what could be wrong. “Hello?”
A rough man’s voice replies, “I’ve taken your girlfriend. Meet me at the pier in two hours if you want her back alive. Also, bring your cards - all of them. You have something I want.”
Ryou recognizes the voice as one of the thieves who had been in the warehouse the other day. “She never made it home,” he whispers to himself. “One of the thieves escaped and he’s got her. But what does he want with her or my cards?”
“You were near the window when you were playing earlier, weren’t you?” Spirit Bakura reminds him. “Maybe he was spying on you from across the street and can read lips too.”
“The Zorc cards. Oh no...” Ryou puts his cards and a few other things in his bag he used the last time and prepares to sneak out of the apartment again.
“Here’s another chance for you to save the day,” Spirit Bakura mocks. “Don’t blow it this time.”
“Shut up.” I can’t let her get hurt...not over something like this...
Ryou had already lost his mother and younger sister in a car accident a few years earlier. The pain of that loss will never go away, and the loss of another person dear to him would surely tear him apart even more. Whatever that man wants with the Zorc cards, nothing seems to matter more to Ryou at this moment than saving the person he loves. At least he could do something to stop it from happening this time.
***
Ryou arrives at the pier, full of resolve. He sees the man standing on the pier and his girlfriend tied up kneeling on the ground next to him, still groggy from the chloroform he used to knock her out. She looks up when she hears him approach. “Ryou!” she exclaims.
“I have what you want,” Ryou says, addressing the man. He holds up the Zorc card.
“Good. Put it on the ground in front of me then back away.”
“Don’t do it!” the girlfriend pleads. “He took the ritual card!”
“I know. But you’re more important to me.” Ryou puts the card down in front of the thief and backs
off a few steps, not wanting to be too far away from his girlfriend just in case. The thief picks up the card, grins evilly, and nods to Ryou. Ryou glares at the man but stoops down to untie his girlfriend.
The thief takes the other card out of his pocket and holds it up alongside the other one. “At last I can summon a new dark lord to follow.”
“Why in the world would you want to do that?” the girlfriend asks, being helped up by Ryou.
“Simply because I am a thief and an evil person by nature. I must have a strong master to follow so that I can reap as much conquest and glory as I can under his name.”
“That makes no sense,” Ryou states. He can feel the spirit’s anger boiling from within the Ring.
“Don’t you judge me, kid! I’ll do whatever it takes to get what I want, as you already know. Once I summon my new master, we’ll be unstoppable!”
“You coward!” Bakura snaps, taking over Ryou’s body. The girlfriend takes a step back out of surprise.
“What?” the thief demands, also surprised.
“A good thief doesn’t need a master to hide behind. If you have any self respect at all, you would be able to start your own gang of thieves to be respected and feared. Become a master thief by your own merit instead of blindly following a dark lord you know nothing about!”
The thief, shaken, takes in Bakura’s words and realizes that it’s the truth. He drops the two cards and walks away, leaving them behind.
“And then you can go straight to Hell,” Bakura murmurs darkly, exasperated.
“Wow, you really let him have it,” the girlfriend says. “Maybe you should take your own advice.” Ryou appears in spirit form next to Bakura and agrees.
“You fools,” Bakura scoffs. “I can’t wait until the Pharaoh gets back so that I can summon the real Dark Lord Zorc to the table and claim my vengeance.” With that, he switches places with Ryou again. Ryou and his girlfriend exchange nervous glances.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Ryou says, worried. What’s that maniac going to get me into this time? He sighs deeply and then tries to put on a happy face. “Well you can’t live with him and you can’t throw him out a window either. Come on, I’ll walk you home.”
“But what about the cards? This could happen again if we’re not careful,” the girlfriend points out.
“That’s why I brought this.” Ryou reaches into his bag and pulls out a kitchen knife. He stabs it through both of the cards one at a time. “That should do it.” He hands the ritual card back to her and puts both the knife and the Zorc card in his bag.
“I hope that’s the end of it.”
“Who knows when this will all end? But one thing’s for certain...” Ryou grabs his girlfriend’s hand and looks her in the eyes emphatically. “...I will never stop trying.”
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