***Oooops, forgot to post this! It's a bonus chapter I wrote for an anon on Tumblr (fyi, I'm also sitabethe on tumblr). They wanted to see Ryo learn how to summon his ka***

He was a thief. At least, he'd been a thief a long time ago, and it did feel like a very long time ago. Regardless, he still knew when someone was walking up behind him. Perhaps, then, it was a testament to the sort of life Bakura had been living over the last year and a half, that he didn't feel the need to check over his shoulder and draw the dagger in his boot. The shadows slipped behind him, two of them.

"Fuck off, I'm busy. It's harvest time and I have a fuckton of crops to deal with."

One of the two shadows chuckled. "It's good to see you, too, Spirit."

"Ryo." Bakura turned around. No one else would call him spirit.

There they stood side by side, Ryo and Kek. Ryo's hair was past his shoulders again, although not as long as when he was a kid. Kek's hair stood shorter on his head, though it still spiked into the sky. He wore a black tank and skirt while Ryou still wore jeans and his ugly double vest with a few more patches in it and his naginata slung over his shoulder.

"Hey, asshole. Long time no see," Kek said.

"But if you're busy I guess we could go spend the night at Yugi's house instead."

Bakura knew his old host brought up Yugi just to grate him, but Bakura really was more concerned about the crops than his former rivals.

"Quit chatting and help me pick all of these if you think we're cooking you dinner tonight."

Ryo laughed, setting his bag and weapon down and kneeling beside Bakura to pull up turnips and set them in the basket between them. Kek, however, frowned.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Marik's in the kitchen. Go help him."

He nodded, grabbed Ryo's things with his own, and disappeared into the house Bakura had built over a year ago.

It was dusk when they finished gathering turnips and storing them into Bakura's root cellar. As they dusted off their jeans, Bakura finally saw Miyu walking towards the house.

"Why the hell are you so late?"

"I got detention!" She shouted back.

"Again?"

Miyu stopped in front of them, face twisted in anger. "Yeah."

"Fighting?"

"Yeah."

"Did you win?"

"Of course I won!"

"Really, Bakura?" Ryo asked.

"Oh hey, Ryo's back!" Miyu grinned when she noticed Ryo standing beside Bakura. "Are you staying the night?"

"Of course! I already paid for it by helping with turnips. Bakura has to let me stay now." Ryo winked.

Bakura shrugged, still looking at Miyu. "Why were you fighting?"

"These boys were picking on another kid because he wore glasses. They took them and wouldn't let him have them back."

"But you got into trouble?"

Miyu scowled. "Yeah, because those cry-baby cowards all lied to the teacher and she couldn't figure out who to believe so we all got detention."

"I'll have a talk with your teacher. Go wash up for dinner."

Miyu winced. "Can't Marik do it? Last time you talked to the teacher he had to drag you home screaming."

"Your teacher is a bitch."

"I know! Why do you even make me go to school? You were a better teacher and you're an idiot!"

"Thanks, kid." Bakura sighed, crossing his arms. "You're going to school because bla bla bla, rebuild society, and bla bla bla responsible parents, and bla bla bla Ishizu bitched me out for weeks until I agreed we'd try it for one school year- and you have two months to go, so suck it up."

"You need to stand up to her, Bakura!"

Bakura snorted. "You know where she lives. Go give it a try."

Ryo shrugged. "You could try being nice to the teacher. I find that it helps."

"But I don't like her."

"If you give her a chance, maybe you'll find that she's not so bad."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Miyu rolled her eyes. "I'm going to go wash up before dinner."

Bakura started at his hands. "We should do the same."

"Do you have hot water?" Ryo asked with a hopeful look on his face.

"Of course."

"Then I can't wait. Most cities are on Kaiba Corp generators now, but the small towns still don't, and that's where we spend most of our time."

"What have you been doing? You left without much warning."

Ryo grinned and shrugged. "Level grinding."

"Ha ha. Are there jobs posted in each tavern for adventurers?"

"Sometimes! But mostly we wander until we see someone who needs help. It's easier than I'd like it to be."

"Freaking do-gooder," Bakura mumbled, but he let Ryo take the first shower.

They ate rabbit stew for dinner. Ryo and Kek both ate two bowls. They rinsed it down with a gruel-like beer that Bakura bragged about making himself. It tasted like it. Still, Ryo had an unexpected sense of homecoming as he sat in Bakura's and Marik's kitchen eating stew and listening to Kek tell Miyu, Marik, and Bakura some of their better travel stories.

"Can I practice now?" Miyu asked once supper was finished and the dishes washed and put away.

"Do your homework."

"I did it during detention."

Bakura raised an eyebrow.

"I really did!"

"Okay, we'll go outside."

"Finally. Something useful- unlike school." She waved at Ryo and Kek. "Come and watch me, you guys."

They got up and sat on the porch. Cicadas hummed, making the air alive with noise. Bakura and Miyu held a dagger in each hand. Ryo smiled as he watched them spar. Bakura still had noticeable experience over Miyu, but it was obvious that she was going to be better than him one day by the way she made him earn each advantage.

Then they brought out their ka to join the battle. Both creatures glowed pristine white as they crashed together. Ryo watched in wonder. His eyes struggled to follow the creatures' movements because of their speed. Eventually they both dropped to the grass, exhausted.

"Done already, Bakura?" Marik called between cupped hands. "You're getting old."

Bakura snorted, pushing himself up and stumbling over to the concrete patio. He crashed to a sitting position between Marik and Ryo, slinging an arm around Marik's shoulders.

"Gross, you're covered in sweat."

"You love it." Bakura chuckled.

Miyu sat in the grass in front of them. "I need more sparing partners. You're getting easy to predict."

"Okay, first off, fuck you, and second, good luck finding someone else to fight, kid. No one can summon their ka anymore."

"Teach Ryo."

Ryo blinked. "Me?"

"Yeah, you have white hair. Your ka would be as strong as mine and Bakura's."

Bakura scratched the back of his head. "It's hard to teach adults."

"Quit being lazy," Kek said.

"I don't mind," Ryo said. "I can at least try."

Bakura dropped backwards so that his back rested on the porch. "I'm not going any easier on you than I went on Miyu."

"When have you ever gone easy on me?"

"Are you still writing Amane?"

"You changed the subject, but yes. I write her every week."

"I'll teach you," Bakura said, sitting back up. "You'd better go to sleep, dawn comes early."

Ryo started laughing. "Gee, I hope sensei notices me in class tomorrow!"

"Shut the fuck up."

Dawn did come early. Ryo was used to it, but he still rubbed his eyes as he rose from the pallet on which he'd slept the night before. He stumbled outside, the morning air cool and a slight mist on the ground. A basket dropped by his feet and then Bakura came into view.

"Today we're harvesting radishes and parsnips."

"What does this have to do with my ka?" Ryo hid a yawn behind his hand.

"We're going to go fast."

"Does that actually help or are you just using me as labor?"

Bakura smirked, then shrugged. "Honestly? I don't know. My father used to make me run to the river and fetch water and then help in the fields before practice every day. It's just how the village trained the children."

Ryo blinked, picking up the basket and following Bakura to the parsnip fields. "You've never talked about your father before, or any of them."

They knelt in the earth, the smell of soil and vegetation prominent in the morning air. "I didn't think about them then, not specifically. Everything had boiled down to vengeance back then."

"I know." Ryo struggled to keep up with Bakura's pace. "But what about now?"

"He was smart, my father, good at games and building traps in the tombs. He was sensible. I'm more like my mother. Her voice carried across the village, laughter, singing-"

"Rageful screams?"

"You're laughing, but it's true. She's not a woman you want to see angry."

"What about Amane? You talked to her, right?"

"Yeah, it's sort of like a dream now, though."

"But what was she like? Was she happy? Was she well? Did she talk about mom?"

"You can't think about this when you're meditating."

"Dammit, Bakura, we're digging in the dirt. Tell me."

"Everyone's happy there, Ryo. No one can be unwell. It's not here. She spent a lot of time with your mom, and at the village, and she had other friends- lots of them. I never really understood why she talked to me. She's a lot like you, but has a sharper tongue and smiles more."

"I smile."

"She smiles more- dammit, Ryo, don't hug me!"

Ryo let go, wiping the corner of his eye with his sleeve. "Thank you, for telling me."

"You'd better hurry up. The longer we take, the less time you have for actual training."

"The key is to stay calm, relaxed, and focused. Don't force it."

They'd been meditating for twenty minutes.

"But what exactly am I supposed to be doing?"

"Becoming aware."

"And finding Zen?"

"You know, I don't care if you learn this or not."

"Okay. Okay, but aware of what exactly?"

"Everything."

"And you said this would be hard." Ryo chuckled.

"I'm pretty sure being a smart ass isn't a requirement."

"Then why are you so good at it?"

"Touché."

Ryo's face wrinkled. "It's like light threads everything together. Is it always like that?"

"Yes."

Ryo frowned, opening his eyes. "Bakura."

"Don't open your eyes, fool. You won't summon your ka staring at me."

"You sense this all the time, and you still went with Zorc? Why?"

Bakura flung his hands out in an exasperated gesture. "That doesn't have to do with anything!"

"But I don't understand. Heka, ka, you can sense those things, but you were going to destroy it all?"

"Exactly." Bakura stood up, pacing. "I was going to destroy it all. Kul Elna was destroyed. I felt destroyed. Everything else needed to feel like that."

Ryo stared at the grass below him. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

Bakura dropped to the ground, spread-eagle. "None of that feels real anymore."

"Nothing feels real anymore. We live in a post-post zombie apocalypse."

Bakura glanced over at Ryo, raising a white eyebrow. "Does nothing feel real to you? For me, it's like things are finally solid."

"Kek's real," Ryo answered, "and I suppose the people we help as we travel are real." Ryo sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Sorry, I'm bad at this. I've been thinking too much."

Bakura sat staring at Ryo. "You're not weak." Bakura looked away. "I know what I used to say, but I was lying. You're not weak. A weak soul could never have bore the Ring."

"I know that, but … thanks." Ryo closed his eyes.

He couldn't help but think of Kek, who had to earn his soul by serving the gods. He remembered Kek on a rooftop with gardenias tied into his hair and wearing a wedding dress with a hem grayed from ash. He remembered singing to Kek as they slipped off their clothes and made for love for what they both had been convinced would be the last time.

But it hadn't been.

And maybe Bakura was right and it's only now that anything was solid in the world.

Bakura was shouting at Ryo, but he wasn't really paying attention. He was too focused on the energy he could feel coursing through his system. Then he felt a name come up from within him.

Yggdrasil

Ryo opened his eyes and blinked, bright light hurting his eyes. An enormous, white kirin stood in front of Ryo, pawing at the ground. Ryo stood up, reaching out his hand and brushing his hand against the creature.

"Yes! You did it!" Miyu's voice shouted from somewhere out of Ryo's field of vision. "Now we can fight!"

"How the hell did you managed that after one day? How the fucking hell?" Bakura was shouting close by.

Then Ryo heard another voice, confident and smug. "I knew he'd do it."

He spun around and saw Kek grinning at him. Ryo mounted Yggdrasil, holding his hand out for Kek to clasp. "Want to ride away with me?"

"Hell yes I do." Kek grabbed his hand and allowed Ryo to help him onto the Kirin's back.

Kek's skirt flared up behind him as his legs swung onto the creature's back. He wrapped his arms around Ryo's waist and rested his chin on Ryo's shoulder. "Where to?"

"Hey! Don't take off!" Miyu shouted. "I wanna fight!"

Ryo laughed. "We'll be back before dark."

"Ryo, you can't just-"

But Ryo wasn't in a mood to listen to Bakura. He didn't care who saw his ka. If people could accept zombies then perhaps it was time for them to accept the presence of good magic as well. Ryo nudged Yggdrasil forward with a soft squeeze of his knees to the ka's sides. They melted into the wind.

Moving fast, they saw the town in a blur, but Ryo still noticed the changes. With zombie-free streets, the clutter, corpses, and rusted vehicles had been cleared. A few shops had been reclaimed, KC power lighting up the store windows. The roof tents, shanties, and lean-tos couldn't be seen any longer, but Ryo noticed herbs in window sills and hanging tomato and strawberry plants.

Everything came back. The grocery store where they had burned corpses in the parking lot, the leveled parking lot that was once the Kaiba Corp stadium, the electronics store, the hospital, and Seto's mansion. The memories burst through Ryo's head as he saw each place, but almost all of the damage was gone. Scars of it remained, much like the scars marking Ryo's entire body, but the city itself was whole, and alive, and well again, like Ryo himself.

Ryo wasn't sure where he was going until they stopped on one particular rooftop. They dismounted, Ryo called back Yggdrasil to conserve energy.

"The flowers are still here," Kek said, taking Ryo's hand.

"Anzu probably sneaks back here to take care of them. For some reason I was hoping they would still be here. They remind me of that night." He offered his hand to Kek once again.

Kek grabbed it, clinking their rings together as their fingers met. He leaned in close and Ryo rested his cheek against Kek's chest as they started a slow waltz.