Bakura: Welcome back to all of my adoring fans!!!

Ryou:  Hey! They like me, too!!

Yami: How come you guys get all the chicks and fans?

Bakura and Ryou: Because we just do.

Bakurasgirl: Us fangirls love you, Yami!!!

\\…..\\-More of Anzu’s evil thoughts.

Yugi’s Puzzle

Anzu followed Yami, Yugi, and Grandpa home.  Tristan and Joey lingered behind playing with their cards on the beach, both not trying to look at Mai Valentine lying on her back.  Joey had the worst crush on Mai and remembered the first time they met.  “Please crush me,” he sighed in response to her threat that she would crush all of her opponents.  At least with Anzu gone, they didn’t have to worry about drawing attention to themselves drooling all over their cards. They were glad to get rid of her .  Who wouldn’t?  

Anzu hugged the last crab that couldn’t escape in time.  She decided to name him and make it her pet.  She wanted to name it “crabby.”  It was easy for Yami to ignore her, he still had Yugi’s walkman on singing his songs from “Top Ten Most Annoying Songs Sung By Complete Amateurs Who Should Never ever Sing Again.”  Grandpa and Yugi covered their ears.

“I’m going to give my Crabby the best home I can!!”

“Put it out of its misery, Anzu!!!”

Grandpa drove to the Game Shop and opened it quickly.  Yami entered the house, but Yugi stayed outside.  “It wasn’t nice to throw crabs on us, you know.”

\\ The  Millenium Puzzle….The spirit inside of this item is strong..he will be an invaluable ally in my quest to possess all of the millennium items.\\

“I was only trying to share.  I love to share. Yeah Friendsh-.“

“Please don’t finish that sentence.”

Anzu pouted.  She grabbed Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle.  “How did you put that together?”

“What?”

“The puzzle.  You should have left it here, Yugi.  You don’t want that to fall into the hands of someone who isn’t concerned with love and friendship, but being naughty and mean.”

“This never leaves me, Anzu.  I don’t have to worry about it.”

Anzu looked at it closely running her fingers across its crevices and around the eye in the middle. 

\\ The pharaoh will be mine to control….Oh, yes…He will be mine. BWAHAHAHAHA!!\\

 “I’m glad, Yugi!  Just be careful with it.  You know, you never know when Bakura’s going to come after it.”

“Bakura?”

“I heard him say that he still wants the millennium items.”

Yugi looked at his puzzle and remembered Duelist Kingdom.  Bakura wanted his puzzle bad enough, Bakura was willing to risk Ryou’s life in the process.  “How do you know this?”

“You know, Yugi, the leopard can’t shed its spots.  Sometimes people can seem to change, but they continue to be as ruthless as they always were.”

Yugi shook his head.  Wow.  Anzu was actually making sense when she spoke normally and when it had nothing to do with friendship.

“Your puzzle is much better than Bakura’s, though.  Your spirit is strong within, Yugi.”

Yugi stood quietly looking at the item in his hands again.

“Don’t tell Bakura that I’m onto him, Yugi.  He told me his plans.  I’m just warning you never to let that thing out of your sight for a second….as a friend.”

Yugi knew something was wrong with her.  Anzu never spent this long without babbling about friendship.  “Anzu, what is going on?  Why are you like this all of a sudden?”

“I can be serious, too, Yugi.  Don’t tell Bakura I’m onto him.  He promised he would hurt Ryou if I told anyone.”

“Hurt Ryou?  Bakura wouldn’t do that anymore.”

“You didn’t see the scars on his back this afternoon when Bakura lifted his shirt?”

Yugi stepped back from her.  “No.”

“Bakura’s been beating on him again.  Ryou said he wanted to warn you, but Bakura hit him.  Not a pretty sight, I assure you.  Just don’t tell Ryou.  Ryou will deny it, but the marks on his back are tell-tale signs. I’m doing this for you, Yugi, as a friend.  Promise you won’t tell.”

“I-I promise.”

\\ I will possess that item…no matter what. \\

Anzu walked away.  Yugi slowly entered the Game Shop again and ran to his room to think of Anzu.  Yugi sat up in his bed, his legs drawn to his chest.  Bakura was beating Ryou again?  The possibility was always there.  Maybe Anzu was right about Bakura.  He denied beating Bakura before.  What was stopping him from doing it again? 

He wanted to talk to Yami about this, but remembered Anzu’s warning.  The last thing he wanted was to endanger Ryou’s life.