Do You Even Care?

by WSJ

WSJ: ^^ *sniffles* This song is so kawaii, and it fits Ryou so perfectly!! Wai! Go R&R now, m'kay?

Disclaimer: I don't own YGO. The song is Pat Benatar's.

Inspired by: Fragilis Pondera, by IrishJade. I command you, GO READ IT!!! (And also inspired by, for some reason, Strong Bad from "HomeStarRunner.Com". If you've never been there, go.)

()()()()()

Do you even know who I am? I mean trully, do you? You know I hold the Sennen Ring, you know my father is an Egyptologist. You know that I transfered to your school eight months ago from Juuban High.

But beyond that, do you really know anything at all about Bakura Ryou?

He used to be somebody's baby.

My father travels all over the world. My father gave me the Ring. My father is never home. My father doesn't know about mou hitori no boku. My father doesn't care beyond the fact that I'm still alive. My father, my father. My 'tou-san.

So why do I never mention my mother, my okaa-san?

Do you know?

Someone used to hold him close, and rock him gently.

But of course, it is of no matter now. If I told you she died, I know what you'd do. Your eyes would get really big, and then your face would bunch up and you'd say something like 'I'm sorry, I didn't know...'

Heh. Of course not. I never told you, did I?

I never told you that I had a sister either. But she doesn't matter anymore. Nothing does, not even me.

Especially not me...

He used to be the light in someone's eyes.
He used to matter, he used to matter,

Hah! If mou hitori no boku were to be believed, no one matters. But I know better. I know that you are the Hikari, the lightest of the lights. You could bring about the end of the world, or the beginning of a new era, just by that shiny little Item you hold.

Me? No. The Ring was tarnished long ago. Tarnished by blood and tears and so many broken dreams...

And you know what?

Most of the dreams shattered weren't even mine.

But some were.

He used to matter.

But now, no one cares anymore. Mou hitori boku is tired, he says. Oh so tired. There are times he wishes for the oblivion of being sealed in the Ring, and there are times when I don't blame him. But sometimes, just sometimes, I hear him singing at night, when he thinks I'm not listening or I'm already asleep.

Mou hitori no boku sings in Egyptian. I don't understand the words, but I know the song. I sing the same one. It's a song about purpose lost, dreams buried with dead loved ones, love left to fade and tear.

It is a song of death.

A song of all that was and can never be.

A song of sorrow.

I'd bet my teeth that Yami no Yuugi sings the same.

Someone cared if he lived or died,
Someone held him in their arms
When he cried.

You think mou hitori no boku is heartless. I know you do, I can see it in your eyes, read it in your soul. But he isn't. Dispite the pain he brings, the "lessons" he gives me, I cannot bear to hate him, simply because we are so very alike.

Both of us miss our mothers, sisters, friends and family that have left us.

And what would you know of loss? You watch it on the TV screen, you read it in books, but have you really known it? Have you ever cried out at night, wishing someone would come but knowing no one would? Have you ever screamed of grief and felt an answering cry from the Spirit inside you, and know that neither of you can comfort the other?

Opposites. It is destined. Dark and Light are seperate, they cannot mix. So I lay at night crying, and I hear his sobs inside me just as he hears mine.

And there is nothing we can do.

And when he hurt, someone kept the world away.
Someone loved him, someone loved him.

I don't know who it is that mou hitori no boku is missing. Mother, father, sister, or brother, I do not know. Really, I do not wish to know. Knowing that he feels, that he cries, that is enough. Knowing that, to one small degree, he is still human.

The Ring has not hardened his heart completely.

Not yet.

He used to be somebody's baby.
Someone used to hold him close, and rock him gently.

I used to dream, sometimes, about getting rid of the Ring, throwing it away. If it was me doing it, and not someone else trying to get it away from me, it would not be able to return to me. But now I know that I can't. Mou hitori no boku and I need each other. Dark must balance the Light.

They must hear each other cry.

They must know, in their deepest heart of hearts, that the other hurts.

Do you know?

Do you know if your other hurts? If he misses someone? If there is something he regrets leaving behind? He's your dark. Don't you know?

Have you even bothered to ask?

He used to be the light in someone's eyes

Yami no Yuugi was a pharoah. Mou hitori no boku was a tomb robber. But now they are just lost souls. They just want something to hold on to, something to make them feel human again. To make them feel like they can make a difference again.

Like they matter again.

That something is me. And you. Hikaris.

He used to matter, he used to matter.

Mou hitori no boku says that compared to today, Egypt is a dream. But it's a dream he clings to, lest he forget where he came from. Forget his wife and his child and all that he held dear.

Hai, mou hitori no boku had a wife, and a child. How could I be his decendant and reincarnation if he did not?

But he hasn't told me. About them, I mean. I suppose he does not trust me enough, not yet, not after all these years...

Do you know that yamis dream too? They may not sleep, but they Remember. And when they do, or at least, when he does, I can see his memories in my dreams. I can see his wife (how she looks like my mother!) and his infant child (so much like Amane, my dear imouto-chan...). I can see his loves, his hates, his passions. He must remember.

If he doesn't, I'll Remember for him.

Those beautiful memories must not die.

Do you hold your Dark's memories?

Do you dream his life?

Or have you shut the door between you?

That was then, that was so long ago.
Long before, they came and took his soul.

Another thing I have learned from mou hitori no boku's memory-dreams is that his anger is misdirected. Mou hitori no boku should be plotting to murder Kaiba Seto, not Yami no Yuugi. But of course, I have not told him this. Maybe he doesn't even know himself.

It was not Yami no Yuugi's fault. It was Kaiba Seto-san's ancestor, the high priest, who locked the Spirits into their Items. Mou hitori no boku has been hating an innocent man for a hundred generations and still longer then that.

But old habits die hard.

Habits from before he was cursed with immortality and eternal imprisonment.

Long before, he became invicible.

Mou hitori no boku may have been a tomb robber, but he and his beloved lived like kings. What do you suppose they did with all the loot from the tombs anyway? Most of it they buried into a tomb that they supposed to be forgotten, planning to sell it a bit at a time, so no one would get suspicious.

But before they could get any of it back, mou hitori no boku was caught, his beloved killed, their daughter sent in the nick of time to be raised by a friend of a friend across the Nile.

The tomb was in the Valley of the Kings.

Mou hitori no boku said no one would ever be able to get into the tomb except for him or a decendant of his. He said he'd cursed it. He said I should go and get all the loot back, and then live like the pharoah myself.

He started laughing when I told him that it had been found unplundered in 1922.

Did I mention my mother's maiden name was Carter?

That was when, he wasn't human garbage then.

But I am straying away from the subject.

You know nothing at all about me. So why do you insist that I am a friend? I am not, not really. While you seem to count me as one of your group, I've noticed that I'm never included when you list off your friends. Jou, Honda, Anzu... And there it stops.

Do you really care, then, what happens to Bakura Ryou? If I simply faded away, drifted off, went back to being a loner, would you care?

He used to be somebody's baby.
Someone used to hold him close and rock him gently.
He used to be the light in someone's eyes.

Would you notice?

He used to matter.

Ah, so maybe your other has it right after all, little Yugi.

Maybe I am a danger to us all.

()()()()()

WSJ: Oo;;;;;

HOLY NINKOMPOOP!!!!!! Where'd all that come from????

God bless minna-san!