Bakura's Choice (Part 3)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

"Egyptians have always had a great affinity for games," Bakura said, trying to get Kaiba Corp. "I'll stretch out to Kaiba Corp so we can all continue to play."

"I'll watch the Kaiba Headquarters area," Hanasake said. "It's near home and my scarab will do." Out from beneath his shirt, he showed off a gold scarab.

"Each person has an item that allowed them to take over a person? Almost a million?" Bakura asked.

"Yes." He tucked it back in. "Gifts from the gods. You're the last left." He left a moment to a table and picked something up. He brought it back over. A laptop. "Funny you just made the media joke." He turned it on, clicked a few buttons and then messed with the mouse. "This is a detailed map of Domino City. You can go up to around this street. There we go. In the red highlights is what you take care of." He turned it around for Bakura to see. "Mark about twenty percent that you want to survive."

///Bandit King: Every name of every street. Every alley. Every business. It's for Rider./// He clicked the Game Shop.

"It's fun, better than Sennet. You can save anything from entertainment to necessity. Just click the back and forth buttons to change sizes of the area for detailed or general. It's a good idea to save food places and medical and such too," Hanasake insisted.

"I know what I'm doing!" Bakura's crossed anger was coming out. He shook his head. "Let me do it." ///Bandit King: That fuckin' Pharaoh or Yuugi or both better have some miracle up their sleeves.///

Twenty percent. Bakura clicked on another area and it got smaller so he could move around the map. He enlarged it again. "Education?"

"To a degree. Basic. Do try and save an elementary or two. When it happens, they obviously won't be at home. We do need futures. Oh, hang on." Hanasake got up. "Terribly sorry, I almost forgot." He went back to the drawer. "We'll need plenty of blood for the new dynasty. These are the possible pregnant women, women who have high chances of being fertile because of a relationship, and their addresses. You still can't save them all, but try to do what you can."

///Ryou Bakura: I just . . . got a chill.///

"It's now, isn't it?" The Bandit King had to ask. "After I fill in the information." ///Bandit King: I don't want to care again. Caring is a pain. I rode a demon inside of me because I didn't care. I was powerful! Caring.///

///Ryou Bakura: Makes you human.///

///Bandit King: I feel weird. My eyes are stinging.///

///Ryou Bakura: The body wants to cry. I am inside too. We need a miracle right now.///

Bakura kept the stinging sensation back. He took the list that he was given. "After I make my selection of choices, what's the next step?"

"Taking care of your little corner of the world. How they fair is up to you. It is encouraged to be merciful, it makes change easier. Best Pharaoh of All Time Who Ever Lived will have his own enforcement to keep people in line."

"Walking through piles of rubble," Bakura stalled. "That won't be easy."

"You'll have additional help show up afterwards to explain everything to you and help make the environment better again. Help sort out households and such. Don't worry, the millions of dead bodies won't stick around long." Hanasake just . . . smiled. "I do hope Haruto enjoyed his last supper with his wife's parents. She had really cared for them." He shrugged. "Everyone is different."

"Ah yes, wife and kids. That must be a tricky mess." Bakura tried to stall longer. If anyone had any trick it needed to be used, now.

"Are you stalling?" Hanasake asked. "If you don't want to join, just say so. Either way, it begins soon."

///Ryou Bakura: No. The other half of Domino City will be gone. Save what you can, please!///

"No. Just, savoring the moment." He looked at the list. ///Bandit King: Curse Rider for putting me here. No? No, curse that Pharaoh! If he never came back I-I!///

///Ryou Bakura: Wouldn't be able to save Yuugi.///

///Bandit King: But it makes no difference. Don't you see? Back or not, it makes no difference. As much as you hate it, this new Pharaoh will destroy most of the world, and then heal it. People will repopulate with a second chance to learn it right.///

///Ryou Bakura: This isn't how anything starts. This is how things end. Someone like that, someone using all this force, that's not someone I want to follow into a new world. Someone who killed my loved ones, my friends, and . . . it's like you controlling the world with Zorc inside of you! It's not right.///

Bakura listened to the words. The panicked, frantic words of a simple human he used to easily throw away. ///Bandit King: Where is Rider?/// There was no guarantee anyone was at the Game Shop. Anywhere. Anything he chose not to save. She could be on the road. She could be shopping. She could be anywhere. There was no telling where she'd gone. ///Bandit King: There's no time. She either survives or not.///

"Hey!" Hanasake was getting tired of the stalling. "Savor the destruction afterward or I will show you my power. You don't want to know it."

No choice. Bakura clicked on the hospital. The sick and injured would need a place to go. Grocery areas. No, grocery area. The biggest one. ///Bandit King: Seto Kaiba. If he's at home, it wouldn't be on my side./// He couldn't handle Kaiba's area. ///Bandit King: Our place. A safe place to go to./// What else? Elementaries were two with the high school.

Jounouchi's apartment. He moved places to be closer to Yuugi and Anzu during this time. ///Bandit King: I think it was in that lower area? Oh, Mai's pregnant! She must be on that list.///

Bakura checked it. He didn't know if it was it. Population. Of course. Definitely the old thinker kind of Pharaoh. He looked at the paper. Five pregnant women including Mai Kujaku lived in various places. A click per one. One even lived near the mall, that would be useful. Clothing and such. On the bottom, was the percentage left, along with the total percentage. Nearly 20 percent on his, nearly 100 total percent on the world.

He zoomed all the way out to see the whole world map. One million dots. One million is a big number, but when it came to populations. ///Bandit King: Your stomach is unsettled, Ryou Bakura. Get it together or you'll vomit.///

///Ryou Bakura: I can't affect that right now. It's you.///

///Bandit King: Fucking useless former Pharoah, what could he do? Why did they give him a body, the Dark Magician, Kaiba, even the fucking dragon! Why? Why if it was so useless?/// "Decisions, decisions. Who to kill and who to spare, ever so much fun." What left? "No need for a prison, it'll be fun to deal with troublemakers. Wasted area." Billions. Farming land. The total went over 20%. Barely.

"Oh, don't worry about farming," Hanasake said. "The Greatest Pharaoh of All Time Who Has Ever Lived or Been Born's best duty is to provide his people with fertile soil and land. There will be plenty of area. Pick something else. You don't have much. Pick a random home. Those are fun. Someone that wouldn't have lived now will."

"Yes, that makes it just so much more . . . fun. Fun. Fun, fun, fun, fun." The Domino City museum. The survivors. Should have something of their time before it all changed. Almost twenty percent. "Fun. Fun, fun, fun."

"Do you say anything besides fun?" Hanasake asked. "You're not very original."

"Can't think very well at such a . . . a fun time." Something. Anything.

"I left a bank, a gas pump station, restaurants, entertainment, and a whole normal area for people to dwell in. I basically left my whole twenty percent in a given area so it was untouched," Hanasake reasoned. "They can be there to reminisce about how it used to look. In order to have any fun, people will have to walk a distance from your side. It'll be all split up like crazy. You do see that?"

"Fun on your side. In order to live, they'll have to come to my side." Wait? Restaurants? A bank? "Are you making money off of them?"

"Of course," Hanasake said. "Nothing changes overnight. Essentially, we are rulers of our small area. Besides protecting our population, we need to make sure only the worthy move on into the new dynasty. We are but a small step to the Pharaoh's plan."

///Ryou Bakura: Can you get a bank? I have a feeling people might need it too.///

Bakura looked at the properties. He selected the bank. Twenty percent. "Done."

Hanasake took back the laptop, clicked around some keys, wiggled the mouse and smiled back at Bakura. "Welcome to finally being a ruler."