MAGNIFICENT DEPRAVITY

AN: I saw a tumblr post on this and just couldn't resist.

WARNING: May be OOC, since I have zero idea how to handle Yami Bakura.

PAIRING: Tendershipping - Yami Bakura x Ryou Bakura.


THE DEVIL WAS ONCE AN ANGEL, PART ONE


There is a certain kind of beauty to human wickedness.

Humans commit the vilest of acts under the guise of righteousness. They separate themselves into a multitude of groups based on the tiniest of differences. They live and breathe sin, corruption and greed. Human lay waste to everything they touch, and glory in it. Humans ruin. And yet... There are still so many who live every day in hopes of making this world just a little bit better. So many who do genuine good, despite it all. There are those who are kind, and remain so, no matter what the world puts them through.

And then ... there are others. Those who struggle with the duality of human nature, who can be endlessly kind one minute, yet turn horribly cruel the next. Those types are perhaps the worst of all. They're the ones you should be the most careful about. Most vile specimens of humanity at least have the decency to remain consistent. When someone puts on a mask of affability, or worse, remains both cruel and kind at the same time...

Humans are so wondrously complicated, in all their magnificent depravity.


Ever since he was little, Ryou Bakura had adored things most others found creepy. Things that would give most others screaming nightmares for months appealed to him.

Once, he and Amane had secretly watched a horror movie, the one they had heard the older kids at school raving about. Amane had been terrified the whole time, clamping her hands over her ears and eyes tightly shut. Ryou, on the other hand, was enthralled. He stayed and watched till the very end. Amane ran out sobbing halfway through. For many nights afterwards, she woke up screaming that huge, bug-eyed, slime monsters were coming to eat her. She never watched another horror movie as long as she lived. Ryou watched many, many more.

The point remains that, Ryou was never an ordinary child. Over the years, his fascination with the creepy only grew. It eventually became something of an obsession. As he spent all of his days alone, he had plenty of free time to dedicate to this hobby. Various supernatural occurrences, the occult, possessions and, of course, ghosts. It was his refuge, just as much as games were. Ryou had researched and Ryou had learned and Ryou had remembered. Which was why he was not at all surprised to learn that an evil spirit was trapped within the Millennium Ring.

He had suspected for a long, long time.

Whenever he befriended someone, something bad happened to them. Whenever someone actively harmed him, or tried to, something even worse happened.

He had begun having blackouts, large stretches of time which simply evaporated, leaving him in a different place than the one he last remembered.

Those things coincided too well, too perfectly, for it to be a mere coincidence.

Ryou Bakura was a great many things. He was a lover of all that was creepy or supernatural in nature. He was a big fan of role playing games. He was saddled with a father who was absent and a mother and sister who were dead. He was a very pretty, very broken boy. He was kind and quiet and polite. He was also not an idiot.

So yes, he had suspected that something was terribly wrong for quite a long time. Long before meeting Yugi and his friends. But once he did, things started to move at a rapid pace. Ryou had made friends once again at a new school, once again they played a game together. Except this time, things were different. This time, things finally began to make sense. The Millennium Items, the spirit residing within his own, the dark games they played, and their outcomes. Everything was so much more complicated than he had first thought.

In some ways, it was like a story in one of those Hollywood movies. Or a horror manga. The thought was both amusing and slightly horrifying in its implications. Nevertheless, he knew enough to recognise what he saw. If one could detach themselves from a situation and analyse with a clear head, things that seemed daunting and terrifying became simple. If he worked himself into a state, the whole situation would seem even worse than it actually was.

Ryou looked, Ryou remembered and Ryou realised.

Once both had become aware of each other and a connection was established between their souls, the boy had become hyper-aware of the second soul residing so very close to his own, every second of every day. Perhaps the most frightening thing was just how familiar that felt. He had never noticed before, but now that he had, it was impossible not to notice. The two of them were tied together. The spirit was the stronger one between them, certainly, what with the magic and the extra three thousand years of existence. But he was the one still alive: and that gave him a certain degree of control.

Ryou Bakura was not about to let himself be used against his will. It was his life, his body, and he had had enough of letting the dead decide for him. If the spirit wanted to take over his body by force, fine. He would just have to wait and strike back even harder. Despite what the spirit may think, there were options.

And so, Ryou sacrificed himself and the Spirit of the Ring lost.

You would think that he would be scared, terrified. You would think that after this kind of experience, Ryou would toss the Ring as far away as he could and never let it come near him again. You would think he was weak for not doing so.

You would think wrong.