It was the next morning when Ryou's friends talked and giggled among themselves.

"Hey, aren't we going over to that weird kids house today?"

"Oh yes, to play board games!"

More laughter.

"Hey Nina, I didn't know you even liked board games." Rosie sat down, swinging her legs.

"Some more than others. Mostly I just want to see the kid's house." Nina smiled.

"He's rich, isn't he?" Samantha jumped up, stars in her eyes.

"Richer than the old lady down the street!"

"Oh wow! I'm going to see a real mansion!" Rosie squealed and the others laughed.

Little did they know, Voice had been watching them all morning.

The day was going too slow for Ryou's liking.

"Voice, what time is it now?" He asked again and again.

His Voice groaned, "It's lunch, Landlord. Hurry up and eat."

"Lunch… Still?" The boy took a spoonful of soup and blew on it.

"Don't be so impatient. The day is far from over…"

"-Oh but I can't help it!" Ryou gave a cheerful smile, "I'm so excited."

"For this afternoon?"

"Yes…" Getting bored of his spoon, he tossed it aside and drank right from the bowl, "I've never had other friends before."

Voice hissed in his head.

Why was this so important to his landlord?

It wasn't as if those girls really cared about him anyway.

So annoying…

So very annoying…

The rest of the school day didn't go by much faster.

Ryou and Nina sat a ways away from each other.

Even so, Ryou kept looking back at her with a smile.

He just couldn't hold in his excitement for the game.

He had spent the entire night before making pawns that could be used for the game.

Voice sighed, as his landlord was now paying no attention to the lecture at all.

Taking control of the boy's hand, he began writing down everything that was missed.

Because what kind of voice would he be if he couldn't do that for his misguided landlord?

"The rich boy's staring at you." He heard one of Ryou's "friends" whisper.

"Oh give him a break, he's just excited."

"It's still creepy."

And Ryou just blinked, without the slightest idea of what they were talking about.

When school finally ended, the first thing Ryou did was go over and introduce himself to his friends.

"Ah, my name's Ryou."

"We know." Nina giggled, "…This is Samantha."

She pointed over to said friend, who smiled.

"…And this is Rosie."

Rosie waved both hands in the air as a friendly gesture.

"It's nice to meet you all." Ryou grinned excitedly.

The group of friends made their way out the school, where Mr. Ronald waited with the vehicle.

The three girls each gapped when the laid eyes on the old thing.

Ryou didn't really understand why they did.

It was just a car and there wasn't much to do in it.

Mr. Ronald raised an eyebrow as the girls fought over who sat in which seat.

He didn't say anything, as usual, and put away all of their bags and belongings into the trunk.

The car ride didn't last very long.

The group spent the time telling stories and jokes.

Ryou even laughed at the jokes he didn't get.

The girls looked at him funny when he laughed at a joke only a girl would understand.

They decided to let it go, assuming that he didn't talk to many people.

Voice simply sat there, watching the group of friends.

'It's not going to last forever, by tomorrow this will be history…' He had to keep telling himself.

Soon they would be gone, and his Landlord would go back to talking to him on the way back home.

And soon enough, the car drove parked itself in front of the mansion.

Mr. Ronald opened the car door and let the children out before getting their things for them.

A series of gasps could be heard and the girls just stood there, staring at the mansion.

"Wow, so cool!"

Ryou got out the vehicle and grinned, "That's my house."

"I wanna live in a mansion just like this!" Rosie cried out and ran on ahead.

Nina giggled, throwing her arms into the air, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The other two girls then chased after Rosie.

Ryou was about to follow them when Voice stopped him.

"...Yes Voice?"

Voice crossed his arms with a huff, "I... Thought I should warn you now. Those girls aren't any good."

The boy tilted his head to the side, "Whatever do you mean? I like them."

"Just do us both a favor and stop liking them."

Ryou scratched his head.

His Voice wasn't making any sense...

Ah well.

Shrugging it off, Ryou went to join his friends.

When the servant opened the door the greet them, she was taken by surprise as three upbeat girls zoomed in.

"Just look at this place!" Samantha exclaimed.

"We can look around, right?" Nina pulled at Ryou's arm.

"Oh, okay." Ryou nodded.

Before the group of children wanted to explore the upstairs as well, when Voice decided he would just meet them in the game room.

He'd let Landlord have his fun for now.

Ryou simply followed the girls around, telling them what each room was or who it belonged to.

Now in the bedroom wing, they wanted to know about nearly every room.

"Who's in here?"

"Uhm…" Ryou scratched his head, awkwardly, "That used to be my sister's room."

"You have a sister?"

"Well-"

"What's in here now?"

The boy blinked when his friends opened the door, "…Ah, that's Mother's room!"

His mother was in the middle of reading the newspaper when the door swung open.

The group of children stared over to her, somewhat surprised to see someone.

"…Good afternoon, Mrs. Bakura!" Nina greeted.

Ryou's mother raised an eyebrow.

Wasn't this the first time her son had brought friends over?

"And who are you?"

"Oh! I'm Samantha, this is Nina, and that's Rosie! We're from school."

"…I see." His mother said.

Ryou glanced over to the article.

From where he was standing, he couldn't see what it was about, of course.

It was a rather long article…

There was a word in large, bold letters that he could see:

Schizophrenia.

…How odd.

Was mother interested in that sort of thing?

"Well, onto the next room!" Samantha giggled and ran out, followed by the other girls.

Ryou stood there for a moment.

He knew something like this shouldn't have bothered him, but…

"Have fun with your friends." His mother looked up at him with an odd expression.

Her eyes…

Why was she looking at him like that?

Eventually Ryou slowly nodded and closed the door.

"Come on Ryou, what's keeping you?" Nina waved to him.

"Ah… Sorry."

Odd.

Just… Odd.

The game room…

Voice loved this room.

This was where he gave his first present to his Landlord.

Lisa Thompson stood there on the shelf, a frown on her face.

He could hear her mumble something in that little pawn body of hers.

It made him happy when the pawns spoke.

He couldn't quite explain it…

The clay pawns that he and Landlord made are just like real people.

Yet they are perfect.

He could do anything he wanted to them and they wouldn't be able to fight back.

He thought he could make a little house for dear Lisa.

After all, she was an admirable person.

Perhaps she deserved something better than the shelf.

If he wanted, he could even turn her into an avatar…

Wouldn't she like that?

A smirk crept onto the spirit's face and he laughed.

Soon he'd have an entire village filled with people.

People with their own thoughts and feelings…

He supposed that the souls would eventually forget who they were.

That would be just fine.

After a couple of hours of exploring, the children finally came to the game room.

"And here it is!" Ryou proudly declared.

"Oh…" The girls blinked.

"O-Oh wooow!" Rosie clasped her hands, "This is really something!"

Voice grinned, "Landlord."

Ryou giggled and nodded.

While the girls looked over the model, he went over and took the little pawn of Nina.

"Hey… Nina, it's you!" He smiled.

Nina gasped, taking it from him, "It looks just like me!"

"…Mm?" Samantha glanced over to them, "Hey, that's neat!"

"I made avatars for you, too."

The girls giggled with pleasure before taking their pawns from him.

He then went on to telling them about the different RPG classes and the girls began planning out their characters.

Ryou felt odd.

He had always played this game with Voice…

Well, he had always done everything with Voice.

The only other person who he had ever played Monster World with was Lisa Thompson.

And she was, well…

It was strange.

Being around other people.

He wasn't quite sure if it was a good feeling or not,

It was simply strange.

Voice watched as Ryou got the game ready.

With everything nearly ready to go other than the player details, Ryou plugged in the computer that his grandmother had gifted him.

Player 1:

Name: Nina-Lovely

Race: Elf

Class: Level 0 Magician

Player 2:

Name: Sam

Race: Human

Class: Level 0 Warrior

Player 3:

Name: Rose

Race: Pixie-Fairy

Class: Level 0 Bard

And then Ryou, who played the Dark Master.

"A bard? Really?" Samantha crossed her arms.

Rosie giggled, "The description said they play lots of instruments."

Now that everything was ready, the group sat down around the game board.

Ryou explained the rules and then soon enough the game started.

"Okay, game start."

To begin, the girls decided to head off to the town for information.

Which was usually the first thing done in any RPG game.

The villain of the story was a werewolf-like creature.

Honestly, Ryou was quite proud of him.

His name was Glen and actually worked in the village as the bookstore owner before his transformation.

And Glen was doing an amazing job at playing his role.

Voice watched the game, waiting for the best time to put his own plan into action.

As the game carried on, the heroines set off to explore the world.

Nina rolled the dice, "…Oh, I got a Forty-six."

Ryou smiled, "Looks like you're ambushed by a group of level one monsters!"

And so the random encounter began, and that's when Voice took control…

Voice smirked, "Oh, I should probably tell you that this is this is a shadow game."

"…Did you say something?"

When Ryou came back into cautiousness, the first thing he saw was the girls bodies.

"W… What?"

The last thing he remembered was the random encounter.

What happened?

…What happened to his friends?

Voice was over examining the pawns that now held the souls of his friends.

Ryou slipped out of his seat and slowly went over to Nina.

"Nina?" He poked the side of her head.

No response.

"That's not going to do any good, Landlord." Voice seemed quite smug, "You can't expect an empty vessel to say anything."

Ryou brought his attention to the spirit, "You… What? Why?"

Voice appeared right in front of him, "It's not as if those girls cared about you from the start. They were using you."

"But… Nina stood up for me, she's my friend!" The boy could feel a tear run down his cheek.

"She wasn't. None of those mortals care for us." Voice hissed, "None of them. They never will care."

"B-But Voice… All I want is a friend."

Voice's eyes turned cold, "You made a promise to me, Landlord."

Ryou looked down at the ground.

He did make that promise…

And he broke it just by talking to Nina.

"I-I… V-Voice, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." His hugged his arms.

Now the tears were really coming.

Voice sighed.

He didn't think he was that hard on the poor boy.

Taking his host's hand, he pulled him into an embrace. "The world is still as cruel as it was when I was alive… If I didn't do anything, surely something terrible would have happened."

"Voice… I don't understand."

Voice made a small smile and he wiped away his Landlord's tears, "Someday you will."

Eventually Ryou returned the embrace.

Though he found himself unable to say anything more.

The maid gasped when she walked in only to see three incautious girls.

Ryou looked up to her, appearing to be frantic, "Help! T-They just fell asleep and I don't know what to do! Please tell mother…"

The maid nodded and rushed out the room.

The boy sadly looked over to his former friends.

From now on, he'd never break his promise again…