I'm back! And this time it didn't take me a year. Yay! You can honestly blame my S/O. Who finally got into Yugioh, found my fics, and immediately demanded I update this one. But hey! That means I'll probably be updating this faster!

Chapter 6

In the middle of the night, the noise in the Ring became too much and the Spirit found himself sneaking out of the Ring and sleeping on Ryou's bed, on purpose this time. He was still frustrated with the questions Ryou asked him the night before. It also made him aware of just how curious Ryou's mother was becoming. Such a person was a threat to the mission. He had to have autonomy to do what needed to be done when the Pharaoh arrived and he couldn't risk her pushing her way into the situation.

He didn't care if his light show last night scared her or not. He was getting stronger. If he had to guess he was fairly certain he could return the ring to Ryou no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it. That is if he wanted to return the Ring to the noisy brat.

"Ryou, wake up we have to get ready for chapel." Mrs. Bakura said as she knocked on the door. The Spirit awoke in the process.

"Okay, Mummy. I'll be up in a second." A still sleepy Ryou said as he tossed his head back on his pillow not even registering that the Spirit had returned.

"Come kid. You got to get up for this Chapel thing." The Spirit did not want Mrs. Bakura to come back and open the door to a clearly colder room.

"Okay, just a second," Ryou said from under his pillow.

"Oh no," The Spirit chuckled darkly. "You pulled that one over your mother, but you're not pulling that one over me." The Spirit stated as he pushed Ryou out of the bed.

"Ow!" Ryou cried out as he hit the floor. "Why'd you do that!?"

"You're awake now aren't you?" The Spirit looked smugly over the side of the bed. Payback was a dish best served with a cold floor.

Ryou stuck out his tongue at the Spirit and quickly rushed to the bathroom while the Spirit laughed at him.

The Spirit waited in the hallway as Ryou brushed his hair and got dressed and then the two walked downstairs together to breakfast. The Spirit only having to focus for a second to change into Ryou's outfit.

"Good Morning Mummy! Good Morning Amane!" Ryou greeted the two people in the room as he sat down for breakfast.

"Good Morning Ryou!" Said Mrs. Bakura from the counter where she was getting breakfast ready.

"Ry!Ry!" Amane greeted her big brother from her seat at the table. The Spirit came in after Ryou and was greeted with the same happiness. "Spi! Spi! Spi!"

"Mummy! Amane just said Mr. Spirit's name!" Exclaimed Ryou excitedly.

"Did she? Amane what did you just say baby girl?" Mrs. Bakura asked hurrying over to the table.

"Spi! Spi!" Amane said again pointing towards the Spirit's seat.

"That's right Amane! Spirit, good Job!" Mrs. Bakura responded happily. She was glad that her daughter was starting to learn and use more words. Ryou was already a chatterbox at two after all. But it worried her that her daughter was growing up so comfortable around a ghost. Why had she been fine with this before?

The Spirit was surprised that the toddler had already learned the name everyone was calling him. He wasn't used to being around babies, but he was pretty sure it was supposed to take them awhile to learn names and new words.

"Ryou you might want to warn your mother about the food that's starting to burn in the kitchen." The Spirit warned after it became apparent no one else was paying attention and he really didn't want to deal with a fire, for reasons he didn't want to think about.

"Mummy! Mr. Spirit said to check the stove." Ryou relayed the Spirit's message.

"Oh, that's right! Phew, the pancake is just a little dark Ryou don't worry. Thank you, Spirit for pointing that out." Mrs. Bakura went back to finishing breakfast. She didn't get it, he was furious and angry last night, but now he was helping prevent house fires? The rest of the pancakes were finished and Mrs. Bakura quickly had them dished out to Ryou and Amane.

"So Ryou, I was able to talk to your father last night. He said the dig was going good and to tell you that he loved you and your sister." Mrs. Bakura spoke while everyone ate.

"I'm happy the dig is going well. Has he found any mummies yet?" Ryou was always excited to hear about his father's work.

"No, I don't think they have found any mummies yet. Sorry Sweetheart, they're digging up an old village, not a secret burial ground." Mrs. Bakura chuckled at Ryou's question.

"Oh, well have they found an old microwave yet?" Ryou asked, trying to think of things that would be in an old village.

"We didn't have microwaves back then Ryou."

"Oh, then what did you have?" Ryou turned to the Spirit when he asked the question. Letting Mrs. Bakura know that the Spirit had answered Ryou's question and Ryou was now talking to him.

"Well our kitchens weren't much more than the fire we cooked our food over and the pot we cooked the food in." The Spirit answered thinking back to when he had actually lived in a house back then.

"But where did you keep your bread? And how did you keep your juice cold?" Ryou pointed to each item on the table as he mentioned them.

"The bread was kept in baskets and the "juice" wasn't kept cold. You couldn't keep anything cold in Kemet. It was always too hot." The Spirit easily answered all of Ryou's questions.

"Oh, that makes sense." Ryou said, "But what about-"

"Ryou why don't you focus on finishing your breakfast, and ask Spirit these questions later?" Mrs. Bakura didn't want Ryou to ask a question about the Spirit's past that angered him. It was too many questions that upset him last night after all.

"Sorry Mummy." Ryou got back to his breakfast.

Once Ryou had finished eating and Mrs. Bakura had cleaned up. They all got their shoes on and went to the car. While Mrs. Bakura was putting Amane in her car seat, Ryou waited in his booster seat, and the Spirit waited outside. The Spirit was contemplating whether he should get into the metal thing or risk waiting in the Ring. When Mrs. Bakura finished buckling in Amane and started closing the door.

"Wait, Mummy! Mr. Spirit has to get in still!" Ryou said realizing the Spirit was about to be left behind.

"Oh, that's right." Mrs. Bakura opened the front passenger seat door. She didn't like the idea of him sitting in between her kids in such a small vehicle. Even if they could both see him.

Once again the Spirit was trapped. He couldn't just back out. So the Spirit stepped forward and got into the car. When Mrs. Bakura saw Amane's attention move to the front seat she decided it was now safe to close the door. She then got in the driver seat and started the car subtly turning up the heat on her side of the car.

Mrs. Bakura decided now would be the best time to ask the Spirit the questions she had been wanting to ask. Ryou wasn't distracted by anything else and she was pretty sure the Spirit wouldn't try to just vanish in a moving car. Especially with how bright of a flash it caused last night.

"So Mr. Spirit," Mrs. Bakura started catching the Spirit's attention. She rarely called him "Mr." like Ryou did. "I realized something last night and I thought now would be a good time to discuss it. I realized that Ryou had told me you were from Kemet. But he never explained why you were in that ring." Mrs. Bakura asked as they waited at a stop light.

The Spirit froze. He didn't like that she was asking questions about the thousands of years old battle. "It's complicated. I don't actually remember ending up in the ring." He said lying through his teeth. No way was he going to tell her any of that.

"He said he doesn't remember," Ryou answered for the Spirit.

"Well that can't be right you've mentioned things from Ancient Egypt multiple times." Mrs. Bakura looked to the left, right at the Spirit.

The Spirit stumbled for a moment not expecting her to call him out so quickly. To be honest he remembered that battle far better than his life before it. Those five days were all he thought about for thousands of years after all. "I remember my life, not my death." The Spirit lied again.

"He remembers being alive Mummy," repeated Ryou.

"And not dying." Mrs. Bakura finished for him. She sighs and gives in, accepting the fact that she's not going to get that answer out of the Spirit.

It's not any of your business anyway grumbles the Spirit to himself. He was relieved she wasn't pressing him more about it. He dealt with enough questions from Ryou the night before.

At that moment they pulled into the church parking lot. Mrs. Bakura was alright with that outcome of a conversation she was sure was going to go south. She didn't get any answers, but the Spirit didn't blow up in anger either. Meaning she could most likely ask him more questions at a later date.

They quickly hurried in, having only come for chapel and not Sunday school. Once they left Amane in the Nursery and found a set in the pews. Ryou quickly became bored. There wasn't something for someone his age to do during the service after all. The Spirit was slightly interested in how these people worshiped. Every town in Kemet worshipped a different god. Even if the Spirit had demolished any faith in the old gods he could have had. He still wanted to see how big of looneys Religious people were nowadays.

"Psh... Mr. Spirit..." Ryou whispered as he sat in the pew during the sermon that just never seemed to end. "Want to play a game?" He whispered as he pointed the pencil at the piece of paper in his hands. Ryou was pointing at four lines etched out on the paper.

"Sure." Said the Spirit in his normal voice since no one other than Ryou could hear him. The Spirit had gotten bored when the sermon had started as well. Ryou pouted at how loud the Spirit was able to be but drew an O on the drawing anyway.

"You're supposed to draw an X," Ryou explained as he handed the paper to the Spirit, still whispering. The Spirit took the paper and pencil and drew an X randomly in one of the spaces not knowing where he was supposed to put it.

Ryou took back the paper and drew another O. This went back and forth two more times before Ryou drew a line through the O's and wrote an R and an S on top of the piece of paper he put a stroke under the R. Ryou drew another for lines and another O. After a few more rounds the Spirit understood the game it was a smaller version of connect four.

"I win." The Spirit said after the next game. Ryou drew a line and wrote a stroke under the S. The next five games the Spirit won easily, but on the fifth game, no one won. Ryou wrote Cat above this game and drew another four lines.

"Why did you write "Cat" over the tie? What does that mean?" The Spirit was confused.

"I don't know it's just what Daddy writes whenever we play this game," Ryou answered forgetting to whisper.

"Ryou shush Reverend Robert is talking." Mrs. Bakura hushed him not noticing the game the boy and spirit were playing.

"Sorry Mummy," Ryou whispered back embarrassed at how loud he had been.

Ryou and the Spirit played for six more games all of them ending it a "cat" as the Spirit had started calling them. Ryou had started changing how he played in order to find a way to beat the Spirit. That was causing all the draws. Ryou tried going second, started on the edge, starting in the middle, or just doing whatever and putting them in random places. This was frustrating the Spirit since he couldn't predict Ryou's moves to ensure his own victory.

"Ryou it's time to go and get your sister from the nursery." Said Mrs. Bakura ruining the two's concentration.

"Not yet Mummy! Mr. Spirit and I have to break this tie." Ryou looked up at his mother in all seriousness.

"What Tie?" Asked Mrs. Bakura looking at what Ryou was holding in his hands. "You two are playing tic-tac-toe?"

"Yeah! And the last seven games have been ties. So we have to play to break the tie."

"You know you could always break the tie with rock-paper-scissors." Mrs. Bakura joked suggesting the worst-tying game ever.

"No I have to beat him at tic-tac-toe or it's not the same win," Ryou said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Alright how about we have the tic-tac-toe tiebreaker at home?" Mrs. Bakura offered as she reached for the paper.

"Okay Mummy." Ryou handed his mother the bulletin that was now impossible to read.

"Let's go pick up your sister." Said Mrs. Bakura once again as she took Ryou's hand in her own.

Mrs. Bakura hadn't really been listening to the sermon either. Instead, she was busy thinking back on everything she knew about ghosts. It had surprised her that the Spirit had been able to enter the church unhindered, but she didn't want to think of those implications about her place of worship.

After they picked up Amane from the nursery, they headed home and unlike that morning there was a peaceful silence in the car.

"Ryou! Jason and I are going to play some football you want in?" A boy called running up with a black and white ball as Ryou got out of the car.

"Sorry, Jamie. Ryou just got back from Chapel. He has to eat lunch before he can come out and play." Mrs. Bakura answered for her son holding Amane in her arms. She had barely remembered to open the door for the Spirit and decided if she was going to keep randomly opening the passenger door. She would just have to start putting her purse in the floorboards as an excuse.

"Oh. Okay. Mrs. Bakura." Jamie said as he ran into the back garden next door.

"Mummy why can't I go and play now and eat lunch later?" Whined Ryou as he followed his mother up porch to the door.

"Ryou you can play once you eat lunch." Mrs. Bakura stated as she unlocked the door and went inside.

Mrs. Bakura went to the kitchen put Amane in her chair, started lunch and then sat down. By this point, Ryou was already sitting in his seat and after a moment the Spirit sat down in his own seat.

Mrs. Bakura had an idea while she making lunch. "Ryou why don't you and the Spirit finish your game before lunch?"

"Good idea Mummy!" Ryou got up from his seat and ran into the study for a moment. He came back with a new sheet of paper and two pens.

"I'm totally going to beat you Mr. Spirit!" Ryou rewrote their scores from the bulletin and drew new lines.

"Now that I know the rules I'll win this." The Spirit stated as he grabbed one of the pens from Ryou.

"Hey!" Ryou was surprised at how quickly the pen disappeared from his hand. "How did you do that?"

"What take the pen? Simple I'm faster than you." The Spirit smirked glad that his reflexes were as fast as ever.

"But I didn't even see it happen! It was like magic!" Mrs. Bakura chuckled in the background. She was fairly sure magic had nothing to do with it.

"I don't need magic to steal from a six-year-old. That was all skill." The Spirit replied smugly.

Ryou wrote down an "O". "Wow, that is so cool! Could you teach me that?"

The Spirit wrote an "X". "Hmm may-"

"Oh no," butted in Mrs. Bakura unknowingly interrupting the Spirit. "You're not learning to take things without asking Ryou. That's rude remember?"

Ryou sighed, "You're right Mummy taking before asking is wrong." He wrote down another "O".

"Spirit please try to not do that again. Stealing isn't right." Mrs. Bakura really didn't want the Spirit to start teaching Ryou how to steal. She didn't want Ryou learning such habits this young.

The Spirit slouched at this. Being told off for petty theft was not something he was used too. He lived off of petty theft when he was Ryou's age. He absentmindedly wrote down an "X".

"HA! I win!" Declared Ryou as he wrote down the final "O".

"What!?" The Spirit looked at the sheet. He had failed to "cat" Ryou and instead left the board wide open for a win. "We have to go again that doesn't count. Your Mum distracted me!"

Ryou groaned, "You just want a redo so you have a chance to win."

"Yeah so? What's wrong with that?"

"But I want to win! You won last time!"

"That's how we tied in the first place kid. I caught up with you."

"So I was winning first!"

"Because you didn't explain the game to me!"

"I couldn't! We were in Chapel!"

"Boys! That's enough, lunch is ready." Mrs. Bakura interrupted the pointless argument.

Mrs. Bakura served a few sandwiches for lunch. Once Ryou had finished eating he got up and rushed to put his shoes back on.

"Come on Mr. Spirit! We have to hurry if we want to be able to play any football." Ryou called over to the Spirit who was still at the table messing with Amane.

"I'm coming kid." The Spirit got up and followed Ryou out the door. Once they were outside and the door was closed the Spirit stopped Ryou from running off the porch. "Ryou I'm not playing football with you."

"What? Why?" Ryou questioned starting to get disappointed.

"Because you have other kids you can play football with and I thought this would be a good time to check on things in the Ring." The Spirit explained in a quiet voice not wanting Mrs. Bakura to know they were still on the porch. In that moment forgetting that Mrs. Bakura couldn't hear him.

"Are you talking about the noises?" Ryou whispered back.

"Yeah, you're going to school tomorrow and I would like to know the situation in the Ring before then." The Spirit finally started to lead Ryou off the porch.

"So you're not going to school with me tomorrow?" Ryou asked with a pout. He had fun playing with Mr. Spirit in Chapel and had hoped that meant Mr. Spirit would start hanging out with him at school too.

"No, I'll stay in the Ring during that and knowing the situation now is better than knowing the situation then." The Spirit explained as they headed to the other house.

"What will you do if the noise is still there?" Ryou asked a good question.

"I'll figure THAT out when I get there." The Spirit didn't know what he could really do if the voices were still mad. He might just have to pull through it for a few hours. The two got to the neighbor's fence and the Spirit stopped again.

"Well, I hope you fix the noise problem." Ryou also stopped at the fence.

"Yeah, have fun playing football or whatever." The Spirit responded not used to getting "good lucks". The Spirit vanished into the Ring after finishing the conversation off awkwardly.

Ryou stayed for a moment staring at the spot where the Spirit was just standing. He was still worried about what was wrong with the Ring. He hoped Mr. Spirit would let him try and help soon.

"Hey, Ryou! You finally ready to play?" Jamie yelled from inside the garden.

"Yeah, I just finished lunch. Whose side am I on?" Ryou asked walking into the back garden.

"Yes, I would like the items delivered."

"You are aware of the risk, we don't sell toys here, they're the real deal."

"I am aware and that's the very reason I am calling."

"Very well the things you have ordered will arrive within the week."

"Thank you, goodbye."

Inside the Ring, the Spirit was greeted with the last thing he wanted to see or in this case hear. The voices hadn't quieted down. In fact, they had gotten louder than when he had been in there the night before! The Spirit couldn't figure out what was going on. The Ring wasn't in danger, in fact, it was in the safest location it could ever be, with its chosen host. Maybe one of the other items was in danger? But what was he supposed to do about that? The Spirit didn't know where the other items even were!

Was it... Was it because he was leaving the Ring so much? Were the voices Jealous that he got to leave the Ring? At this thought the Spirit got angry, how DARE they try to control whether he left the Ring or not! He needed to be outside of the Ring to get THEIR revenge. That wasn't it the Darkness told him. The voices and the Darkness were mad because he was getting a little too comfortable with his host's family. If the Spirit wanted his plan to work correctly he would have to pull away from the family.

"And if I don't?" The Spirit challenged into the darkness. Then the Darkness would have to get rid of the risk to their plan.

Dun Dun Duuuuuun! cliffhanger! Not really, but sort of a cliffhanger.

Sorry, this chapter's so short. It's a weird middle ground between straight fluff and plot. Also, there's only so much you can write about tic-tac-toe.

No, we're not going any farther into religion stuff. Just felt like it needed to be referenced. Ryou is one of the only yugioh characters to have any form of religious background (his letters to Amane). Other than maybe Tea if only because of visuals. Religion background is something you get from your parents and since Ryou's dad is the way he is. Well, he's clearly not the one who gave Ryou a religious upbringing.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Darkhorse out!