"Oh, yeah. He's a terrible bastard who would and did stab me in the back as soon as it was convenient. But the real Bakura got his soul stolen at the beginning, and since the spirit needed his human counterpart for his schemes, we had to work together to take down Dartz." Zahra shrugs, thinking back to the nightly Monster World games and the acerbic barbs they traded with the spirit that ever-so-slowly turned good natured as time wore on. "...there's still something human in him, though. I wish I had been able to draw it out in time." My, that's ominous.

"As for Noa... I wasn't going to let a depressed twelve year-old kill himself in a grand heroic gesture and give Gozaburo the pleasure of not dying alone." Zahra taps the puzzle, smiling. "He's renting out a room in here, so to speak. Noa was able to manifest corporeally once the world of Duel Monsters intersected with our own, and hoooo boy he's real grumpy he can't do the same thing here." His sullen temper tantrums are already giving Zahra a headache.

"If you do, that would have terrifying existential implications for me," Zahra half-jokes, smiling back. They realize that word is probably too big for Joey, but they don't really care.