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Jack let the phone ring out.
Ever since the dimensions had been connected, three things had been bothering him. The echoes of a time he couldn’t return to filled every second he wasn’t dueling. They were the kind of thoughts you could feel in your chest, like they were ripping you apart, exposing your soul to the cold, and yet your brain just couldn’t register any actual pain.
He wasn’t from the Synchro Dimension.
Jack knew this, and in all honesty, he always had. Too many of the memories he had growing up in the Commons that just… didn’t match up with any actual place that existed in City.
He’d shaken it off before, not trying to place too much significance on a misremembering of something he’d put far behind him. It wasn’t worth digging up history when he knew he’d find nothing but old wounds.
The place he came from was long gone, after all. None of the dimensions lined up with his memory, so the only option left was the United World… the one Academia tore apart so many lives in an attempt to bring back. Despite this, Jack never once regretted helping the Lancers. He wouldn’t let himself become a ghost of a past life. The present world was the one they had now, and they had to accept it. Besides, if he was here, however it happened, surely everyone else from that world was also okay. He was content here, so there was no reason to wish to go back.
Well, maybe one reason.
Yusei was gone.
He wasn’t in City, much less any of the other dimensions… Jack knew that for certain, after how long he’d spent looking.
…he didn’t want to admit it. He wanted to keep looking. But he knew. He knew, deep down, that Yusei wasn’t coming back. That’s what was bothering him, wasn’t it…? Giving up?
Jack was a horrible brother.
Yusei always forgave him, every time… and he never even apologized. He only ever ran away. He left everyone for his own benefit, he distanced himself from Carly because he was scared of losing her again, he avoided going back to Satellite for so long after everything because he didn’t know how he could face Rally after what he did—all he ever did was push other people away for his own selfishness.
But Yusei always did everything he could to keep everyone safe. He had so little care for his own self…
A King shouldn’t cry like this.
But he wasn’t the king anymore.
He held onto that title for years, in its true owner’s absence. He hated every second of it, but he held on, even when he didn’t remember why. But he had to, so that when Yusei…
Jack was only the third best now.
It didn’t hurt as much as it should’ve.
No, it wasn’t about the title at all.
It was being forced to confront the fact that the world was moving on… that it could move on without…
The names made it worse. Was it some kind of cruel joke? That every time he saw someone talking about that loss, the only thing he could think about was how everything would be right in the world with the changing of a single syllable? They could (they should) just say ’Sakaki’, but for some reason the only time he hears people talking about Yuya is when…
Maybe he was just tuning it out most of the time. That’s something people say, right? You remember things better when they hurt you…?
Maybe Jack would be over it by now, if the stupid dimensional split hadn’t messed with everyone’s memories. Maybe he wouldn’t have left everyone behind again, wouldn’t have let himself get consumed by a grief he couldn’t put a name to…
The phone was ringing again.
Crow.
That’s right. He was… he was doing it again. Running away. Crow was his brother too, he was going through the same thing, and all Jack could think about was himself—
But Yusei would want them to be there for each other.
Jack picked up the phone.