War (Sequel to Rebellion)

Part 3

"I can't believe we have to work with those two idiots." Malik whispered very loudly to Ryou as they continued to sharpen their swords. It was a beautiful day in the battle arena, well... almost beautiful.

"We heard that!" Bakura yelled from the other side of the battle area, he stood up from the ground in an aggressive stance.

"Nice to know your hearing is better than your fighting!"Malik shouted back, he was about to get up but Ryou held him down. "Don't start a fight, that'll just get us in more trouble. We have to get on Yugi's good side again."

"Is that a fucking challenge I hear?" Bakura got up and pointed his sword directly at Malik. "Yeah, fight! fight! fight!" Marik started chanting.

"Come on Ryou, are you gonna help he or not." Malik pulled away from Ryou. "These idiots need to be taught a lesson." Ryou looked down nervously. "I don't know Malik, we need-."

"Aww, look Bakura your scaring the mini- you." Marik laughed and pointed at Ryou. Ryou and Bakura's faces became red,

"No I'm not!"

"I'm not afraid of him!"

Ryou picked a sword from the rack and pointed it to Bakura and Marik. "I am not afraid of either of you. I can fight just as well, if not better!"

"Now we're talking!" Marik jumped up with enthusiasm. He walked past Ryou and Malik and got a sword. "So, what's the rules of our little... training session?" his grin got wider when Ryou and Malik started to back away from him.

"Hmm." Bakura stabbed his sword into the ground to rest his elbows on the iron hilt. "First one to die looses." he suggested looking proud of himself.

"No! We'll get in serious trouble if once of us dies!" Malik crosses his arms. "And your not worth the trouble."

"How about first one out of the lines looses?" Ryou suggested drawling a decent sized box in the sand with his sword.

"Meh, I'm game." Marik said. He looked over at Bakura with puppy dog eyes. Bakura just rolled his eyes, "fine, if that's what everyone wants then so be it." Bakura pulled his sword out of the ground and got in a fighting stance. "But just for the record my idea was better."

"Whatever." Ryou said and got into his stance.

"Okay, after the count of 3 we fight." Malik grinned as he locked eyes with Bakura.

"1...2."

"3!" Marik interrupted and went straight for Malik. Malik jumped back and managed to block with his sword. "Hey! I was suppose to count to 3!" he yelled. Marik got closer and whispered in his ear "You were to slow." before he attacked again.

Meanwhile Ryou and Bakura were going at it, Ryou attacking while Bakura defended with ease. "I can tell your holding back." Bakura said as he dodged his opponents blade. Ryou stopped for a second "This is only training, of course it's not serious." Bakura used this moment to attack head on. Ryou put up his sword and blocked it, but Bakura kept pushing.

"That's not what training suppose to be." he started pushing Ryou back farther and father. Ryou looked back and saw the line getting closer and closer.

"Training is pushing your limits so they become your comfort zone." He shoved Ryou back. Ryou stumbled a bit but was able to regain his footing."How do you expect to improve if you don't push yourself to be better?"

Ryou tightened his grip on his sword. "Why do you keep pushing yourself to be a better fighter? It's almost like you want someone to die!" his face was starting to get red as he started to yell. "There are other important things besides fighting, but you wouldn't know that would you! All you care about is pushing yourself, well what happens when you push yourself so far you don't come back! Don't you care about the people that care about you?"

Bakura, Malik, and Marik all stopped and looked over at Ryou shocked.

"Ryou!"

Everyone turned to look at Joey. who walked up to Ryou with his arms crossed.

He did not look happy.

"You four are in big trouble."