Hey people, this is going to be my third in this series. I didn't know it was going to carry on like this. You're going to have to read the first two to understand this, don't worry though; they're only one-shots.

I'll be taking most of the information I know about Jing from the manga and not the animé series. I've only seen the first four episodes while in the manga, I've read six out of seven volumes. I love the intro though.

Hope you guys like it!

Key:

'Blah' Ryou talking to Bakura or to himself.

'Blah' Bakura talking to Ryou.

Old Acquaintances

By Dark Ice Dragon

Have we met before?

Ryou opened his door and looked outside. It was a clear sunny morning without a cloud in the sky. Glancing around, he couldn't anyone who could have rang his doorbell. There wasn't even a breeze. The only thing outside that was alive was the albatross sitting in the tree…

Come to think about it, since when did an albatross go into the city? Didn't they live near the sea? Staring at it, Ryou noticed that the albatross was wearing a striped scarf around it's neck. Who would do such a thing like that? At least it wasn't on too tight because it wasn't trying to scratch it off. So how long would it have had it on for it to be used to it? Eyes traveling up slightly, Ryou started when he saw that the bird was staring directly at him. But as soon as this thought registered in his brain, the bird turned it's head away.

"Weird." Ryou muttered. But who was he to judge? Not everyone had a three thousand-year-old dead tomb-robber spirit residing in his or her head after all. Shaking his head, Ryou went back into his house to get his schoolbag. He was supposed to getting ready to go to school anyway. Maybe he was getting a bit paranoid. Ryou blamed it on the aforementioned tomb-robber.

Said tomb-robber was still sleeping in his soul room. Considering what had probably happened over the last two nights, Ryou wasn't at all surprised. Last night was Halloween and he and Bakura had been out until after eleven o'clock, guising. The night before that, Bakura had been his normal self, gone out, and stolen something. Ryou still couldn't decipher what the hieroglyphs said and Bakura wasn't telling him anything for some reason. He seemed almost embarrassed to tell him. Ryou got that only because of their mind-link.

This wasn't normally the case, since Bakura used to tell Ryou every gory detail that the item had been a part of. Ryou hadn't seen anything in the newspapers as of yet about any stolen goods and he was starting to wonder what the bracelet was actually worth and why Bakura had stolen it if it wasn't valuable.

With these thoughts on his mind again, Ryou forgot the albatross in the tree and started to walk to school.

If he had remembered and turned back, he would have seen the bird's beady eyes watch him all the way down the street until he turned the corner.

---

Ryou heaved a sigh of relief as he walked closer and closer to his house. As much as he liked hanging out with Yugi and his friends, it was nice to get some peace and quiet.

At school, Yugi had noticed Ryou wearing the Egyptian bracelet and asked him about it. When Ryou had replied that he didn't know what it was and that he couldn't take it off by normal means, Yugi's face became calm and blank. Ryou assumed that he was talking to Yami. Blinking a few times, Yugi then asked Ryou if he could get a better look at the inscriptions. When he was shown, Yugi frowned at what he was seeing and traced his finger over the hieroglyphs. Ryou asked him what Yami told him it was saying. Yugi then blushed and said it really wasn't his place to say. Seeing Ryou's bewildered look, Yugi assured him that it wasn't anything binding, even though Ryou couldn't get it off.

Ryou shook his head. He was even more confused by the days events than before. If he didn't find out what the hieroglyphs said soon, he was going to explode. But the only people who he knew that could understand ancient Egyptian was Bakura and Yami, and neither of them were willing to tell him anything. Why were they both embarrassed? Or was it because of him?

All these thoughts were momentarily forgotten when Ryou saw a black shape in one of the trees. It stuck out so much because the trees were already losing their leaves and had mostly turned into the reds, yellows and oranges of autumn. Still walking, Ryou remembered that it was exactly the same bird that he had seen that morning. Unless the same people had put on scarfs on more than one bird. Again, the bird was looking straight at him.

'Bakura?' Ryou asked nervously through their mind link.

'What?'

'There was this strange bird that I saw this morning but I was leaving for school so I ignored it. It's still here.'

'Let me see.'

'Okay.' Ryou relented a portion of his control over his body so that Bakura could see through his eyes.

Almost as soon as this had happened, the bird took off and started to glide towards Ryou, as if it knew what had just occurred. With a start, Bakura recognized him as the bird that Jing had with him at the museum. But then were was his partner? Without a word, Kir landed on Ryou-Bakura's shoulder. Taking this as a sign, Bakura continued to walk down the street and into his own house.

'Bakura? You know this bird?' Ryou asked, wondering if the bird's master was also a thief.

In reply, Bakura said, 'A little bit. I've only met him once before.'

'What does it want?'

'I don't know.'

As soon as the door shut behind them, Kir flew off Ryou-Bakura's shoulder and hovered in front of them.

"Who am I talking to?" he asked.

'It can talk!' Ryou was more than surprised. He was used to his darker half being able to summon duel monsters and be able to control them, but he had never seen or heard any of them speak before. Was the bird a duel monster? That would explain why it was wearing a scarf, though shouldn't its appearance be straying away from what it normally looked like more? Ryou then noticed that Bakura was also surprised but not because it could talk.

"Who told you?!" he snarled, gaining total control of Ryou's body and pouncing on the hapless bird.

"Whoa! No one told us!" the bird screeched as it flew out of his grasp, "Jing worked it out after you fainted."

'…You fainted?'

Bakura ignored the question. "Why did you give me it back?" he asked quietly, his mood changing completely.

Ryou was now more confused than he was before the bird had started talking. What had the bird given back? Bakura even sounded grateful. This wasn't the Bakura that he was so used to. It must have happened when Bakura was in the middle of stealing something. If that was the case, how come the bird wasn't in the Shadow Realm?

The bird did it's version of a snort. "I wasn't the one who gave it back. I was all for leaving when you fainted. It was Jing who put it back on ya. Even though he knew about the possession." The bird explained. "I wouldn't have been able to put it back on you anyway, not having fingers and all."

Bakura stared incredulously at the bird. "So, without knowing a thing about me-"

"Apart from being a thief." The bird interrupted.

"-you and Jing instantly knew that I had fainted because of possession?" he asked sarcastically.

'What? You fainted because of possession? What…How can that happen?'

Again, Bakura ignored his lighter half. The bird shrugged, "We've had a similar experience before. Because of that, I thought you were a zombie."

At this, Bakura barked out a laugh. "You thought I was a zombie? I am nothing like that."

Ryou's thoughts were running along the same lines. But what were they talking about? If Bakura had fainted, then Ryou would have immediately taken control whether he liked it or not. But what did the bird and this 'Jing' do to make Bakura faint?

"You're a spirit. Jing told me afterwards."

He couldn't take it anymore. Ryou shoved Bakura out of control, and before the ancient spirit could take it back, Ryou started his questions, "Who are you? What are you talking about? Who's this Jing? Why are you he-" the questions stopped abruptly when Bakura regained control.

The bird was staring at him. "So the original person doesn't know what happened. But if he's asking questions now, how come he wasn't aware of what happened two nights ago?" the bird glanced at Bakura's wrist.

Two nights ago? That was when Ryou woke up with the bracelet around his wrist the following morning. Did the bird and its master help Bakura to steal it? But since when did Bakura count on others for help? Practically never. He prided himself in being able to do everything himself. So how did the bird and Jing fit in?

"He was sleeping." Was Bakura's short reply.

Ryou sighed mentally. He'd gone out even after he said that he wouldn't. Not that Ryou could stop him or anything, but he'd hoped that Bakura would stop stealing. At least for a while so that Ryou's body could get a proper rest.

"Who wants to explain?" the bird asked.

"You. You know more about Jing anyway."

"Okay. Can the original person hear me?" the bird asked, looking straight into Bakura's eyes.

He nodded. "His name is Ryou. So that you don't get mixed up."

"Fine. First of all, my name is Kir. Jing is the person who I've been with ever since I hatched from my egg." Kir paused as if remembering something. "You've probably guessed that what we're talking about happened two nights ago so I won't go into that. And the reason I'm here? Jing's been kidnapped."

---

Darkness. That was all that he could see. Jing wondered how long he had been in the lightless prison but because he woke up in it he had no idea how long he had been unconscious for. When he had woken up, Jing's trademark orange trench-coat was nowhere to be seen. Not that he would have been able to see it anyway but that was beside the point. The only other thing that was missing from his person was his sword that was normally strapped to his right arm. But before he had noticed those things where missing, the first thing that Jing had realized that Kir wasn't with him. Jing wondered if that meant that whoever had taken him also took Kir but put somewhere else. If they hadn't, that left two more options. They had either left Kir where Jing had last seen him…or they had killed him. Jing hoped that they hadn't done the latter.

Normally, Jing would have already escaped if he had been caught but there was a slight problem with this prison. As far as Jing could tell, there wasn't a door or even any walls. He had walked for about five minutes in the one direction without bumping into anything. How was he supposed to escape from somewhere when it didn't have any boundaries? The only thing he could do was wait.

And so he waited. And waited. And waited.

He couldn't tell if he had been waiting for hours because without any kind of reference, he was lost to how much time had passed.

"Where is it?" a voice boomed.

Startled, Jing jumped up from his sitting position and made a motion that would have brought out his sword if he still had it. He couldn't see anyone -the lights were still out- but the voice sounded vaguely female.

"Where is what?" he asked.

"You know exactly of what I speak of. You stole my priceless treasure!"

Unfortunately, Jing had stolen many items over the years so he didn't know what treasure she was talking about. "I'm sorry ma'am, but I don't know what treasure you're talking about." Before he could continue, the woman interrupted him.

"Is the modern man's memory so small? So feeble it is, that they cannot remember what they did two days ago?" the voice sneered.

So the lady was talking about the Egyptian bracelet that he had stolen at the museum. Was that the reason he was there? But he had given it to Bakura. Why was it he was the one who was in the darkness instead of Bakura then?

"I'm sorry but I don't have it."
"You pawned it?! Do you have any idea what it could do?" the voice shouted.

Jing nodded, not sure if the being could see him. "Yes, but I didn't pawn it. I gave it to someone else. Why am I the one who is here instead of him?"

"Because," the voice said slowly, "You are the first person to touch it after three thousand years. It was made for a specific purpose and you may have changed it because of your inability to leave what is not yours!"

Okay, it's a sort of cliffhanger, not quite sure. Anyways, I hope you guys liked that. Tell me what you think!