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“What’s the matter sweetheart?” Yusaku gently tilts Skye’s chin up to look at him, and her breath hitches, and for a split second she feels something in her heart that she can’t quite explain, but then she sees those glowing red eyes, and remembers why she’s here, and that feeling is gone.
“Yusaku.” She says shakily. “What happened to you?” Her eyes were watery. It was so terrifying to see Yusaku like this. His eyes used to be a beautiful shade of green, and the way he looked at her was always with such softness, love and kindness. Now he looked at her with a terrifying smile, one filled with malice. This wasn’t her Yusaku.
“What happened? What happened was that I came to a realization. All those simulations that Ai ran, every one of them ended badly. There’s one variable he didn’t take into account though.”
“And what’s that?”
“He didn’t expect that I would take over. He didn’t expect that other humans would be out of the picture.”
“What?”
“I’m going to take control, not just over Den City, but the entire world. I will make sure that Ignis can live. Coexistence is no longer the goal. It seems that to get what I want, I’ll just have to give other humans a new home. It’s going so well so far. Look, he seems to be settling there so nicely.” He pulls out a card. A Duel Monsters card. Except on the card there was no monster.
It was Theodore. His face had a distressed expression, as if he were begging someone to save him, to let him out of his two dimensional prison.
Skye knew what to expect. Before she went to find Yusaku, Ryoken had already told her exactly what he had done. Still, it was even more awful to see in person.
“No Yusaku, you’re wrong.” She takes his hand that was under her chin and she holds it with both of hers. “Ai will be fine, we can live with the Ignis, but your way isn’t right. We can’t just take innocent people’s lives! Please Yusaku, this isn’t you.”
Yusaku gives a maniacal laugh. It was so unsettling. “Oh Skye, you’ve always had such a sense of humor.”
She squeezes his hand gently. “I’m not being funny, please Yusaku. This isn’t you. You wouldn’t have hurt Theodore like that. “
“He was in my way… And now it seems you’re getting in my way too.” He yanks his hand out of her grip. “This is me. So if you want me to change so badly, I guess you don’t really love me then.” He lets out a sob, and it hurts Skye, but at the same time she knows it's not truly Yusaku. She knows his sobs are all fake, all wrong, but his words still hurt. It hurt to see him like this, to hear that him say he feels unloved.
“Maybe I am in your way, but I can’t just let you get away with this! You were right about one thing. I don’t love you. I love the boy that you’ve trapped inside of you! And I’ll do whatever it takes to save him.”
“Oh? And what exactly do you plan to do to stop me?” He smiled at her, in that terrifying way again.
“I’ll… I’ll duel you!”
“How foolish of you. We both know that I’m a much more skilled duelist than you are. Your pathetic little fairies won’t even get close to beating me. And by the way, if we duel, you’ll feel real damage.”
“I don’t care! If it’s the only way to save you, I’ll win, no matter how difficult it may be.” Skye knows that her dueling record isn’t really the best, but she also knows that there’s no better way to snap Yusaku out of this. Whatever pain she’ll have from this duel won’t mean anything to her if Yusaku will be safe again.
“Well, since you’re so determined, I suppose I could waste a little time, and duel you.”
For once, they left the VR headsets at home. No Link Vrains, no duel boards. Just duel disks, and cards. A standing duel.
Still, it was a shadow duel. Just because they weren’t on duel boards didn’t make the stakes any less high. The damage was real here. If Skye lost, she’d become a card just like Theodore…
“Since you seem so eager to lose, you can have the first turn.” Playmaker says.
“Don’t underestimate me. I draw!” Skye looked at her starting hand. Not too bad, but could she really beat Yusaku?
This task seemed almost impossible. She had never seen Yusaku lose a single duel. Even when he was up against such strong opponents, like Ryoken, or Bohman, he always won. It was quite a contrast to Skye, who had recently lost a majority of her duels… She wasn’t nearly as smart as Yusaku.
As the turns of the duel went on though, the two of them were a lot more evenly matched than Skye had expected. It was almost as if Yusaku was going easier on her. She could also see that he was getting visibly frustrated. It was like Yusaku was struggling against whatever evil force that had gotten a hold of him, and he was trying to help her win. She’s grateful for that, she isn’t quite sure she would’ve won if he didn’t.
“You know it’s rather sad. I thought I was going to keep you around. We could’ve ruled the world together. You would’ve been my queen. I guess things will still work out between us though. You’ll be easier to carry around as a card. I’ll be able to fit you right in my pocket. Now, Firewall Dragon, attack her life points directly!” He expected this to be his final attack. Yusaku was ready to watch her life points drop to zero.
“No thanks. I activate my trap card, mirror force!”
“What?!” Yusaku was outraged. “How do you have that card?”
“I don’t think I can beat him…”
“Yes you can.” Ryoken reassures Skye. “I know you’re the best one to snap Yusaku out of this.” He pulls out a card. “Here, I’m trusting you with this card. It’ll save you in a tough spot. Don’t waste it.”
“I won’t. Thank you.”
Ryoken’s words are said harshly, but the soft smile on his face makes her feel better. “You’d better win. I don’t want to have to come over there myself and deal with this. And I want my card back.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll do whatever it takes to win!”
“Your monsters are all destroyed now. There’s nothing left for you to do!”
Yusaku’s face twisted into an angry expression. He hated how she was right. He had nothing left to save his life points. Even with Firewall Dragon’s effect, he had no monsters in his hand that he could summon, and he had no more spells or traps set. “I’ll end my turn.”
Deep inside, Yusaku was so relieved. Maybe he would finally be freed from this mental prison…
“I draw!” It didn’t matter what she drew really, she already had a few monsters on her field, and just a direct attack from one would be enough to wipe Yusaku’s life points. He only had 100 points left.
This was it. “Trickstar Holly Angel, attack his life points directly!”
Yusaku shouted in pain.
Skye did it. She defeated Yusaku.
She quickly ran over to where Yusaku was laying on the floor. Skye got on her knees next to him, and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He sat up, and his eyes were staring into hers.
His eyes. They were green again. That beautiful, natural green color.
“Yusaku, are you okay?”
“I’m sorry.” Is his reply. And he sounds so quiet. So pained, so guilty. His eyes are filled with tears.
“No, no, no, don’t be sorry.” She can’t help it. She can’t stop the impulse. Her arms wrap around him tightly.
His arms are limp at his sides for a second. He’s still not used to being hugged so abruptly. After his initial shock though, Yusaku buries his face in Skye’s shoulder. Her arms are so warm, her light blue cardigan is so soft. He knows that here in her arms, he’s safe, he doesn’t have to worry. He feels so safe, that he begins to sob into her shoulder.
It’s the first time she’s ever seen him cry so openly, and it hurts, there’s a painful ache in her heart. She smooths a hand over his head.
“Shh, shhh it’s okay.” Her fingers continue to run over his hair.
“I hurt Theodore, and I hurt you… That damage in our duel felt real.”
“You were being controlled. None of this is your fault. Look, you’ve snapped out of it, and Theodore is going to be fine, I’m fine. You felt that damage worse than I did anyways. I’m sorry I had to hurt you.”
Her words tugged at his heartstrings. “Don’t be sorry, you saved me.”
She pulls away from the hug, keeping her hands on his arms, but he wishes that he could go back to hiding in her shoulder. Then she moves her hands up to cup his face.
The tears are still falling, and her thumb gently moves to brush them away from Yusaku’s face. Honestly it’s just making him want to cry even more. The gentleness in her touch is making his heart overflow with love.
“I could tell you were trying to fight whatever it was that was controlling you. You helped me so much in that duel you know.” Skye tells him.
“The darkness… I felt like I was drowning in it. It felt like whoever was controlling me was pulling me down. I was getting so tired of struggling against them, I started to lose hope…” Yusaku puts his hand over one of hers. “Then I heard you… Your voice was like a hand trying to pull me from the water. You gave me the strength to start fighting back again. Their hold was still too strong for me, but I was able to at least make sure I would lose the duel.”
“You fought so well, I’m so proud of you.” Skye is nervous, but her fingers gently brush some of Yusaku’s hair away from his face, and she leans over to press a soft kiss to his forehead.
Yusaku’s breath hitches. Yusaku doesn’t even remember the last time anyone kissed him. He’s not even sure it’s ever happened to him before. Perhaps it had happened before the lost incident, if he had a loving family. He doesn’t remember that though. There’s only this moment right now. Either way, this kiss would be different than any from family. He doesn’t even know what to do, so he just settles with telling her this: “I’m proud of you too. You dueled so well. I was barely able to help you at all. That win was all you.”
Skye feels her heart warm up. Yusaku was an amazing duelist, so for him to tell her that meant so much. He didn’t give compliments so often either, but when he did she could tell he was sincere. “You’re so sweet Yusaku.”
There’s a bit of pink dusting Yusaku’s cheeks.
Then he remembered something about their duel that he’d been meaning to ask. “Hey Skye, did you mean what you said in our duel?”
“Did I mean what exactly?”
Those words echoed through his mind. Considering her loving actions towards him after their duel was over, he was pretty sure that she really did feel that same way about him that he felt for her. Still, he wanted to hear her say it directly to him, and not some evil force controlling him.
‘I don’t love you. I love that boy that you’ve trapped inside of you!’
Those words echoed through his mind, he just wanted to hear her say it again. To hear her say that she loves him.
“When you said that you…” For some reason, it feels like the words are all just getting stuck inside his throat. Yusaku doesn’t usually have such a difficult time saying what’s on his mind. “When you said that you loved me?”
Skye blushes remembering how those words had just slipped out, and she was unable to stop them. She’s sort of grateful though, now she finally found a way to let him know. “Of course I did.”