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It was… odd having his own body again, for the past however long, he’s been stuck inside Yuya’s soul—a by-product of Zarc’s failed merger.
He decided he wanted to duel as many as he could find; he had been deprived of dueling for so long, and now was the chance to satiate that hunger.
At first it was a bunch of no name’s, but they were such a bore, he had no interest in wasting his time with amateurs. So then he found Yuya, and instead of jumping straight into the rematch, he was forced into listening to Yuya's questions about why he’s been dueling constantly, and just while he was about to explain that Yuya and he were one in the same, Yuya cut him off with another question, if he was planning to turn people into cards; he tried a ‘I will explain after the duel’ response, but Yuya wanted an answer, so he gave a vague answer, and finally that was enough to make Yuya come off his back for now.
Then he encountered Hiragi Yuzu, who seemed frightened to see him, he offered her a rematch, a decisive rematch they never had before, and then he got asked about the carding people thing once again sigh ‘Is this all people think about when they see me’ and after promising not to card people if she won, he finally was able to convince her.
And then next was Gongenzaka, Yuya’s closest friend, he must admit, he was quite interested in Gongezaka’s style of dueling, it was unique from what he has seen with others. Luckily for him, Gongenaeka didn’t interrogate him, if only Yuya was more like his friend. Next was the arrogant self-absorbed Sawatari Shingo, who mistook him for Yuya, and then of all people… Yugo, surely that had to be an insult; He couldn’t wait to crush his ego. Then he got another interrogation from Akaba Reiji, The Professor’s son. And then there was Yuto who was adamant on “Putting him on the right path” did he think he was his brother or something? And then he encountered Fusion-kun, Fusion-kun’s girlfriend, Kurosaki Ruri and her brother, the traitorous Shiun’in Sora, Mackfield who said he should apologise for his actions and so on. Why was he being blamed for everything? He was just following orders.
He kept walking hoping to find someone who wouldn’t barrage him with questions.
And then he saw her, Serena. He never really spoke to her, besides a few short interactions when he was a child but The Prof... -Akaba Leo, never really allowed them to interact. He realises why now, obviously Leo didn’t want a fragment of his daughter being anywhere near a fragment of the person she sacrificed herself to stop.
Still though, he always felt a strange pull to her–a pull he could never quite understand, though now he speculates that it had something to do with Ray, perhaps Ray made it fate for he and Serena, and their other selves; to meet and be close to each other.
She was always someone he wanted to duel, he was forbidden by Leo to never interact with her, much less duel with her. He almost had the opportunity back in Synchro to duel her, but she was in a weakened state, and Fusion-kun--ever the master of interruptions, stopped any possibility of the duel happening that night .But now that they were both free from Akaba Leo's shackles. Perhaps now is the time to finally get that duel, and he was curious about her reaction to him as well.
“Hey Serena.” he greeted “Yuri! So your back too…” she said with a tone that hinted she was… less than thrilled to see him, which shocked him a little. “Huh? Aren’t you happy to see me?” “Not really.” ‘wow okay, ouch’ he thought,
“Awww. I was expecting tears. Us Fusion folk need to stick together.” he feigned in hurt “But Whatever. I’m not particularly happy to see you either.” - though if he was being honest he was only saying that to protect his pride. “We’ve known about each other, but it’s not like we used to hang out. The only thing we had in common was The Professor.”
“Don’t bring him up!” Serena snapped, irritated by The Professor being mentioned, then she closed her eyes, almost as if to relieve her past at Academia. “It’s true he cared about me. But only so he could get Ray back!” Then she glared at him, “Meanwhile, you were willing to do anything for The Professor.”
“That’s true.” he sighed, “But that’s in the past. I found something more entertaining to do these days.” Serena reacted immediately “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of turning people into cards again!” her voice boomed. “Cards? Oh yeah - I used to do that, didn't I…” he trailed off, “But no. It’s something far more fun than that!” He then looked at her and smirked, “And you can play a part, Serena.” Serena’s eyes narrowed “What do you mean?” “I’m saying that I can have fun with you. I always wanted a real Duel against you.”
“If it’ll get your gums to stop flapping….” she sighed, Fine! If you want to Duel, let’s Duel!” Yuri’s smirk went from mischievous to much more intense. “I can’t wait to see what The Professor saw in you, Serena!”
He had to admit, she put up quite the fight, with them both being at 1000 LP, but nonetheless he was still able to defeat her.
As his monsters faded away he walked up to her and bowed, “That was quite the duel Serena, I hope it isn’t our last.”
“I assure you it won’t be. I’ll win next time.” she said with determination in her voice. “Especially now that I’ve seen your Dragon and Predaplant deck in action.”
“Don’t be so sure of that Serena dearest.” he said with a smirk playing on his lips. “Goodbye Yuri.” She said as she turned to head off to find another challenge. “And Goodbye to you Serena." he said before doing the same as her, off to find a new challenger. ‘Wow, I hope I didn’t come off as desperate during our conversation; I didn’t expect her to be so… uninterested’ as he thought as he walked off.
Serena stopped and turned to look over her shoulder to watch his departing figure and a faint smile tugged on her lips, as warmth filled her cheeks, ‘I’m glad your back you dork… Maybe we can start over and do it right this time.’ She sighed and continued on her way.