Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

Like Comparisons and Two Minutes of a Life, this is a candy fic.  As in, I was on a sugar high when I wrote it...so, it follows the trend of the other two: blood, death, and stylistic oddness.

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Pain.

It was the first thing he was aware of.  So much pain, it made Ryou wonder how it was still possible to be alive.  And it was all focused on his back.

He lifted his head from the ground he was lying on and looked at his surroundings.  The scenery kept shifting, and it took him a while to realize it wasn't his eyes that were wavering, but the place itself. 

Everything was shades of gray, making impossible to see any sort of depth.  Ryou started to push himself up, then cried out at the pain in his shoulders.  He slipped back to the ground and faintly noticed it was just as gray and malleable as the air.

There was a touch on his hands, and then he was being lifted up and set on his feet.  Ryou glanced down at the King who was steadying him, and pain flared along his back as he bent his head.  "What's wrong with me?" Ryou asked.

"Something has been taken from you," answered the King.  "You must find it."

"Do you know what it is?" Ryou asked.

"Yes," answered the King.

"What was taken from me?" Ryou asked.

"I cannot tell you," answered the King.  "You must learn for yourself first."

"Oh," Ryou whispered.  "Can you tell me how to find out?"

The King took a step to the side and pointed forward.  "Go that way.  It will take you to the end."

"What's at the end?" Ryou asked.  He winced as his back tore more when he looked.

"You already know," answered the King.  Then he strode away.

Ryou began walking.

His bare feet padded silently on the soft ground and the grayness surrounded him, shifting in the space around his path.  He couldn't tell how much time had passed before he saw someone else.

There was a young man in a trench coat standing with his hands in his pockets, who was not on the path.  Ryou veered off to the right and walked up to him.  "Can you help me?" Ryou asked.

"It depends," answered the young man in a trench coat.  "What do you need?"

"I'm trying to find something that was taken from me," Ryou said.  "And my back hurts."

The young man in a trench coat circled behind him.  "I see," said he.

"What is it?" Ryou asked.

"I can't tell you," answered the young man in a trench coat.  "It's too horrible."

"Okay," Ryou said quietly.  "Can you fix it?"

The young man in a trench coat took his hands out of his pockets and handed Ryou a robe.  "I can give you this.  Then you won't be naked anymore."

"What is it?" Ryou asked.

"False comfort," answered the young man in a trench coat.  "So it will only hurt later."

Ryou took the robe, but when he tried to lift his arms the pain in his back staggered him.  "Will you help me put it on?" Ryou asked.

"I can't, I'm not good enough," answered the young man in a trench coat as he moved behind him again.  "Keep walking that way."

"What's that way?" Ryou asked, peering.

"The end," answered the young man in a trench coat.  Then he faded away.

Ryou rejoined the path and continued walking.  He carried the robe in his hand, and it seemed almost too bright in a land composed solidly from shades of gray.  He had been walking a long time when he saw someone standing on the path.

Ryou came to the boy, who turned and smiled up at him.  "Will you help me?" Ryou asked.

"I'll try," answered the boy.

"I need to put this on," Ryou said, holding out the robe.

"Okay!" grinned the boy.  He took the robe from Ryou's hands and shook it out.  "Bend down so I can get it over your head."

Ryou bent slightly, trying to ignore the never-ending pain in his back.  The boy slipped the robe over his head, then smoothed out the wrinkles as Ryou stood up.  "Anything else?" asked the boy.

"My back hurts," Ryou said.

The boy peeked around his side.  "Ohh," said he sadly, "it's all stained."

"What happened?" Ryou asked.

"I can't say," answered the boy.  "I don't know about those things."

"All right," Ryou said.  "Can you clean it?"

"The world won't let me," answered the boy.  "You should keep walking."

"For how long?" Ryou asked.

"Until you reach the end," answered the boy.  Then he scampered away.

Ryou continued walking, and the cloth of the robe brushed against his shoulders.  It no longer hurt, but each step left him with an emptiness inside and a sense of dread.  After a shorter stretch of time, he saw a gleam in the grayness to his right.

Ryou veered off the path again and followed the gleam.  He found a girl inside a sphere, dancing.

He knocked on the glass.  "Do you know how to fix my robe?" Ryou asked.

Never stopping her dance, the girl inside a sphere shook her head.

"Do you know why it's stained?" Ryou asked, sighing.

A nod came from the girl inside a sphere.  She touched the glass to show that she couldn't answer him.

"Very well," Ryou said louder, to be heard.  The girl inside a sphere pointed behind him.

"Where does that lead?" Ryou asked.

The movements of the girl inside a sphere came to an end, and she waved once.  Then she danced away.

Ryou returned to the path and continued walking among the grayness.  His footsteps grew slower and slower as the robe brushed his shoulders hypnotically, so that it was a very long time before he noticed a movement to the left of the path.

He veered over to see a yellow puppy tugging at a bloodied wing.  Ryou bent down carefully and picked up the wing, drawing a whimper from the puppy.

"Why do you want this?" Ryou asked

Yipping at him, the puppy latched onto the hem of his robe.  It began pulling Ryou in the opposite direction of his path.

"But I can't go that way," Ryou told the puppy.  "Everyone says I have to walk to the end."

The puppy let go of his hem and barked at him, with a single feather still stuck between its teeth.  Then it ran away.

Ryou stood there and watched it go, and took a single step to follow.  But the grayness offered neither comfort nor answers, and he couldn't see the puppy anymore anyway.  So he turned around, rejoined the path and reluctantly continued walking.  He dragged the wing along beside him, and his left shoulder began to hurt again despite the robe.  Because he was walking so slowly, it was the longest time before he saw a light further down the path.

When he reached the light, he found a mirror blocking his way.  "How do I keep going?" Ryou asked.

"You can't," answered his reflection, stepping out of the mirror.  "This is the end."

The knowledge made him shiver.  "Why did the puppy want this?" Ryou asked, lifting up the wing.  Both of his shoulders pained him again.

"He tried to keep it from me," answered his reflection, holding out a hand.  Ryou hesitated.

"Why is my robe stained?" Ryou asked.

"Because you got blood on it," answered his reflection, stretching his hand out further.

"How did that happen?" Ryou asked as he gave over the wing.

"There was blood on your back," answered his reflection.  He set the wings on the ground.

"What does my back hurt?" Ryou asked.

"Something was taken from it," answered his reflection, pulling off Ryou's robe.

"What was taken from me?" Ryou asked.

"Those," answered his reflection, pointing at the bloodied wings upon the gray ground.  "I ripped them off of you."

Ryou clutched his arms as his reflection walked around him to stand at his back.  "Why?" asked Ryou in a quiet, shaking voice.

"Because I love you," his reflection answered darkly.  He placed his hands on the bloody, raw patches of Ryou's shoulders and pushed.

Ryou stumbled over the wings at his feet and fell into the mirror.  The silver streamed into his nose and mouth and cut off all his air.  Ryou tried to scream, but he smothered in the mirror instead.

~~~~~~

Inside the hospital waiting room, four teenagers were huddled in a corner.  Tristan was in an old, slightly tattered chair staring at the doors, watching for Bakura's father.  Yugi was sitting on one end of a sofa across from him, with a spaced out look that told the others he was talking to Yami.  Tea was sitting on the other end, fidgeting every few seconds and staring in the opposite direction at the nurse's booth next to the Emergency Room doors.  Joey was hunched over in another chair with his arm in a cast, glaring down at the floor.

A nurse walked out of the ER door, causing Tea to straighten.  The woman glanced around the half-full room, and her gaze settled on the four in the corner.  She began to walk over.

"He's here," Tristan said, causing Yugi to blink and glance at the entrance where the elder Bakura was rushing in.  Joey and Tea were focused on the nurse.

"Are you the group that brought in Ryou Bakura?" she asked.  Joey nodded.

"Yes," Tea said quickly.  "Is he okay?"

The nurse glanced down at her clipboard.  "Are any of you family?"

"I'm Ryou's father," the man said as he strode up to the group.  Tristan stood up reflexively to offer his seat.  "How is my son?"

"I'm afraid I have bad news, sir.  You might want to sit down."