"Seven now," Bakura replied dryly, appearing disturbingly relaxed about his permanent death in his own world. "Apparently that was the magic number. Given there being seven Items, there's something more than a little ironic about that."

He rested his bo across his knees to regard pensively Pepper at her outburst; he hadn't realized she'd be upset about it on his behalf.

"It was vicious," he said eventually. "I won't deny that. It was a very unpleasant way to go, and I've got some experience in various unpleasant ways of dying. You know, when he came to me to apologize, he expected me to kill him. I told him it was pointless, and more than that, cheap because death isn't permanent here. I said it made it too much like a business transaction, one for one."