Ryou: Probably not.

WSJ: -.-; Let's ignore it anyway... *perks up* PRESENTS! *dives on the huge mound of boxes and begins to sort through them* Let's see... O.o; Better be on your guard Bakura, seems to me that everyone's out to get you... But here.

Bakura: *gets an evil-psycotic gleam in his eye* Mwaha! Thanks for the flaming bow and arrows Baby Winter! They'll go great with my flame-thrower... But I could've done nicely without the whack...

WSJ: *jumps in* Or the kiss! Bakura's mine! Ryou too! You can have Jonathon! ^_^

Ryou: *sighs* Give it up WSJ... Now you're just going to start up the ages old 'fangirl wars'...

Bakura: *snickers and dials his new cell phone. Zoom in so we see that the phone has a tag on it that says "From KaTyA"*

Mr Cell Phone: Ring Ring!

Yami-Malik: *stops fiddling with his Chibi-fying spray (from Baby Winter) and box of candy (from KaTyA) and answers his cell* Hullo?

Bakura: Hey Y-Malik, have you had a chance to open your other present from Baby Winter yet?

Yami-Malik: Er... No, why?

Bakura: Yes! *runs in and grabs the wrapped up pole away from Yami-Malik* Now you can't whack me! ^_^

Yami-Malik: *starts to chase him around* BAKURA!!!!!! *accidentally squeezes the trigger on the Chibi-fying spray* Oops...

WSJ: *looks up from polishing her awards in a giant nest of plushies* Oops what?

Yami-Malik: *nervously points at the now-chibi Yami-Yugi and also-chibi Bakura. Yami is chasing Bakura around with the club he got from Baby Winter and yelling at the top of his squeaky little voice*

WSJ: O.o; Odd...

Chibi-Bakura: *dives into WSJ's pile of plushies, where he somehow finds Ryou and glomps him* Rwou! Yami bein' mean t' me!

Ryou: *drops the book from Baby Winner and manga from the gift certificate from KaTyA (^_^ Heh heh... Ranma and Oh My Goddess...) he'd been reading* Ack! Bakura?

WSJ: *shrugs* Dun look at me! It's Yami-Malik's fault! He managed to nail both Yami and Bakura with his spray. *sweatdrop* We'd better get on to the story before my readers kill me...

Malik: *fiddling with the Yami-Repellant from Baby Winter* What readers?

WSJ: *sweatdrop* Malik... That's mean...

Yugi: *wanders over* Since when is he nice? Hey! Yami keeps getting stuff, but I don't have anything!

Chibi-Yami: *shuffles over and hugs Yugi around the legs, a plushie almost as big as he is dangling from one hand* You's can hafe my Dark-Magissin pwussie...

Yugi: *sweatdrop, looks down at his chibi-dark* I don't want to know, do I?

WSJ: Nope. *eyes light up as she spies one of the last presents in the stack* Hotaru-sama!!!!! OMG! Can I have copies of those pictures? *snickers* Amish Bakura... *hugs the DVD player and PS2* ;_; This is the best present I've ever gotten!!! Well... Except for my trophies, and my plushies, and my Chibi-fying spray... *wanders away to play Kingdom Hearts, still babbling*

Yami-Malik: *looks around* Er... She doesn't own YGO, but Jonathon is hers...

Notes: Sorry I didn't mention all the presents. ^_^ There were too many! Thank you so much everyone! I'm glad you really like this story, and I'll try to live up to your expectations. Oooh, and Bronze Eagle? I've come up with an explenation now. The best way I can explain it is that in the Shadow Realm everything sort of goes numb and you can't feel anything at all. Which doesn't work very well either, but it fits better then the last one.

Also, attention to Baby Winter, KaTyA and HotaruMaxwell I need you guys to e-mail me, 'kay? I have something special I need to ask/give you. ^_^

()()()()()

Chapter 5 - Bakura's Hikari: Ryou in Danger!

~Yami-Malik's POV~

My jaw went slack. It did! The only way that a hikari and yami wouldn't be able to feel one another was if one or the other of them was dead or dying. I didn't want to think about what this meant for Ryou.

In my arms he was beginning to tremble violently, and his eyes were closed tightly in pain. I swore softly and lifted him onto the couch, rubbing my hands over his face and neck. "Come on Ryou, stay with me! Keep your eyes open k'so!" I felt Malik's hand on my shoulder and I half-turned to look at him.

"I'm calling Yugi." he said quietly. He was stating the fact, not asking my permission, but even so I opened my mouth to protest. Under my hands Ryou gave a particularly hard shudder and I snapped my jaw shut and nodded, heaving a sigh.

"Alright. Go ahead. But make it quick!"

Malik nodded and headed for the kitchen to get the cordless phone, while I continued to try and keep Ryou awake. Falling asleep now could prove disasterous for him.

--~Yugi's POV~--

Granpa was out running some errands, and the shop had already closed for the evening, so Yami and I were just sitting around the livingroom. I was trying my best to wade my way through my algebra homework, and Yami was pouring over an ancient scroll he'd found in some obscure corner of his soulroom.

"Hey Yami," I asked, chewing on the end of my pencil. "If x=17 and y=-22, then what does (y+x)2y-(-36+6x)/2+y equal?"

He looked up at me, a slightly amused, slightly amazed look on his face. "You're asking me? I had to use an abacus to count anywhere above ten."

I chuckled. "And you could only count to ten on your fingers, right?"

He opened his mouth to answer, then shivered and hunched over the coffee table we were sitting at. "Yami, what is it?" I asked, leaning over to make sure he was all right.

"I-I felt a disturbance in the Shadow Realm. Something's happening."

My eyes widened in terror. "Do you think it's Bakura? Ryou was acting really strangely at school today."

"I do not know aibou. But I can feel that someone has cast a Shadow Spell."

The both of us nearly jumped out of our skins as the phone rang. We sat staring at each other, trying to get our breathing back down to a normal level, before I rose to answer it. "Turtle Game Shop, this is Yugi Moto speaking."

The voice on the other line was high-pitched and sounded a little frantic, so it took me a moment to place it as it began to babble about Ryou and yamis. "Whoa, whoa, slow down Malik, now tell me what's wrong."

Apparently Yami had senced my distress, because there was a click as he picked up the upstairs extention. "Tell us what is wrong." //It must be pretty bad if he is calling us.// he added mentally.

I agreed as Malik began to try to explain the day's events. He got no farther then finding Ryou in such poor condition, however, before my yami interrupted. "We will be there as soon as we can."

"There's more..." he said, rather weakly.

"We'll figure it out when we get there." I said, and Yami and I hung up. We met at the foot of the stairs on our way to the front door.

"Do you think this has any connection to the Shadow Spell you felt earlier?" I asked.

He frowned. "I'm afraid it does. I can sence a lot of negative energies spiraling around Ryou's house, like buzzards waiting to swoop in as soon as their prey is dead. I am very afraid for Ryou right now, as well as Bakura."

I gasped as we sprinted down the street in the direction of my friend's house. "You mean they're in real danger?"

Yami's frown deepened. "Yes." he said, half to himself and half to me. "It's getting far too near the time of the Locking Rituals..."

"The what?"

Yami blinked, as if suddenly remembering I was there. "The Locking Rituals. Once every 2,000 years the Shadow Realm choses a pure heart to be sacrificed to it in exchange for staying out of the affairs of this realm. And if the spell I felt is what I think it was, then Ryou's in a lot of trouble."

I staggered and almost fell as the realization of what Yami was saying hit me. "You mean the Shadow Realm wants Ryou!?! But why? How?"

"The spell I felt was a Switching Spell, for lack of a better translation. I have most of my memories from my days as Pharoah back, and I remember that Bakura had, or rather, has, a brother. Bakura locked him in the Shadow Realm. I think the spell was Jonathon switching places with Bakura, which leaves Bakura in the Shadow Realm, Jonathon as the Spirit of the Ring, and Ryou very, very vulnerable, because that would break the link between yami and hikari."

I yelped in dismay and increased the speed of my sprint without even realising it.

"Ryou!"

~Ryou's POV~

The pain was too great for me to handle. It was a thousand times worse then any beating Bakura had ever given me. It ate through my heart and seemed to be burning my very soul. I felt strong arms lift me onto something soft, the couch? as my vision began to blur.

I got a vague sence that someone was rubbing my arms, neck and chest, trying to keep the circulation going, all the while muttering at me to stay awake.

I can't... It's just too much... I try to reach out to Bakura. He's always there, even if he hates me for it. But I only run up against a blank wall. No link. No mental ranting. No Bakura.

I feel myself beginning to dim, and I know I'm losing conciousness. I welcome it, hoping it will bring releif from my pain. But it does not. In fact, it only intensifies.

I scream, locked in the confines of my own head as the agony washes over me in waves. I can feel the darkness creeping closer, waiting to take me. Take me where? For what? I do not know, and I'd rather not care to find out.

But it seems I really don't have much of a choice.

()()()()()

WSJ: *giggles insanely* The plot thickens! Or, as I love to say about really cheesy soap operas, the plot sickens! *snickers* So, it isn't just being torn from Bakura that's making Ryou so sick and weak, it's the dark forces closing in... *grins* Oh, and in case you're wondering, Yami and Yugi don't know Ryou's blind yet. They just know he was really severely beaten up.

Yugi: *looks up from cuddling still-chibi Yami* He's blind?

Ryou: *rolls eyes* Hello! What have you been doing for the past half hour while WSJ's been writing this?

Yugi: Er... *sweatdrops, tries to hide a magazine behind his back*

Chibi-Bakura: *grabs it, shreiks* 'SJ! Nakie ladies!

WSJ: O_O;; Gimme that! *grabs it and flips through* OMG!!! Tea! Mai!! Dark Magician Girl? Ooooo! Now you've gone too far!!! *tosses the magizine in an incineratior and begins to chase Yugi around with a mallet*

Ryou: *sweatdrop* That's what you get for looking at porno pictures of her favorite Duel Monster...

Joey: *nervously, whispers* At least she didn't see the end... There were pictures of her in there too...

Ryou, Chibi-Bakura and Chibi-Yami: O.o;;

WSJ: I HEARD THAT!!!!!!

Joey: Eep! *runs away*

Chapter 6: The darkness pulls Ryou farther and farther from his physical self, into the Shadow Realm. Yami and Yami-Malik, desperate, deside to go after him, but are delayed when Jonathon arrives. A chase across Domino City ensues, leaving Malik and Yugi to watch their friend as he slips farther from their grasp. (Joey finally gets an appearance!)

God bless minna-san!