Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

--   we will become one  --

His consciousness is fading, no, blending.  The edges of his self are bleeding over, mixing and mingling, running together like too much water mixed into the paint and defiling the canvas of their souls.  The red of anger, the grey of despair; their emotions surge violently beneath the dark aura that wraps itself around them like a shroud.  Thick and vivid enough to choke on. Painful. Disjointed.

The darkness crawls up all around them, closing off their hearts, their senses, one by one until nothing of them remain.  Just before the end of everything, is one last thought.  One last burst of emotion, synchronized across four boys who had crossed beyond anyone's reach.  Beyond time. Beyond space.  

horror,

grief

loss

and above all, regret

I wish…

I wish I had another chance

They think as one before everything is dyed in white.

Yuuya awakens to more pain; it pulses through his chest like a monster clawing at his insides and sending fiery lances through his spine.  He doubles over, hands scrambling against his ribs as if his agony could be abated by such futile actions.  Tears spring to his eyes, unbidden, as he gasps for breath, his lungs burning from the chill of the evening air.

Slowly, his senses return as if sloughing through molasses.  The formless blurs before his eyes coalesces into an unnervingly familiar sight.  

He nearly cries out, limbs trembling as he lifts his head up to take in his surroundings.  The little parkette in the vibrant city where he was born (was placed?), dyed in shades of twilight.  He remembers the gentle swaying of leaves, the children's playground in the corner and the long hours he and Yuzu had spent there.  And there is a lamppost, bent and discarded on the concrete.

It is as if not a second had passed since that fateful day where the cogs of his cruel destiny started to turn.

Destroy, everything!

Burn it all to ashes!

A deep chill penetrates his bones as he gazes upon the other two, eyes aglow with a sinister flame, their expressions twisted with malice until their faces are almost unrecognizable.

Gentle, sad Yuuto, scarred by the horrors of war and tired of hurting.

Brave, lonely Yuugo, who crossed dimensions and fought alone for so long.

(And Yuuri, skulking in the shadows. Twisted, corrupted, but possibly just as sad, just as lonely beneath the madness that engulfed them all.)

For a moment, he thinks he's seeing a nightmare. How many times has his tortured mind replayed this exact moment over again?  He recalls every detail with vivid clarity; he remembers Yuuto’s fluttering pulse, the gentleness of his smile and the unmistakable tremor in his hand as he holds up his prized dragon with all his remaining strength. To pass onto Yuuya his legacy.

If it's you, you'll be able to do it.

Yuuto left him with those words.  The unbending faith in a power that Yuuya himself doesn't believe he possesses.  He had clung to them, repeated them in his head like a mantra until he could recite it in his dreams.

Duel to bring smiles. Bring joy. Put an end to this horrible, senseless war.  It seemed like an unimaginable, unreachable goal.  But he had to do it.  

There was never any other option. Yuuto had died.

He remembers pressing on, refusing to accept any other possibility.  He had to believe in his efforts.  To believe in his ideals or everything would crumble to ashes around him.  In the face of everything, he had persevered, even when friend after friend around him fell.  The names of the dead continued to pile up as the accumulation of his sins.

Hokuto.  Michio.  Hikage.  Tsukikage. Dennis. Crow.

His own father.

But somehow, against all odds, in spite of every fear, every doubt, he had persevered.  He climbed every obstacle. Beat every enemy.  He had saved the world… or so he thought. Instead, in the cruelest possible irony, he had become the very disaster he had sought to stop.  The scourge that will envelop the world in chaos and destruction.  

It makes him want to laugh. To throw his arms out and laugh like he had never laughed before. What was the point? For what reason had he fought so hard?  Everything he did, everything he suffered… all so he could lose everything he tried to protect.

Is this some kind of sick joke?  

The urge to yell bubbles up inside him even though he knows no one can hear him.  This was just another nightmare.  A ploy, he thinks viciously, from the mastermind behind everything to keep them weak.  Subdued. After all, he had seen this damned dream so many times before and it always ended the same.

“Attack Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!”  Yuuto snarls, his face twisted with such foreign rage and hatred that it physically pains him to behold.  Without the luxury of thought, his legs are already moving, running, the soles of his sneakers pounding against the concrete just as his heart pounds in his chest.

The first time, he had been so naive, so stupid.  He thought if he yelled enough, if he could just get through to people, he could change things. He had known nothing about the war, about the circumstances of the people he tried to reach. By the time he finally understood, it was too late. Far, far too late.

But what choice did he have? What other tools did he have at his disposal?  

He was just a kid.  They were all just kids.

Yuuya throws himself between them with arms spread wide.

“STOP IT!” he screams. A denial.  A rejection of the twisted world that Zarc had created.  "Just stop !  This isn’t right! None of this is!  A dimensional war? Kids killing kids?  It doesn’t make any sense!  Why did so many people have to suffer?! What was the point? It isn’t fair...!”  His voice breaks on the last word, frustration and loss and despair mounting until he can hardly breathe.

“It’s not fair,” he repeats, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his ears to shut out the world.  He expects to either feel the heat of Dark Rebellion's flames or Yuuto pushing him out of the blast's range.  In all versions of his recurring nightmares, one of them always burn.

But this time, there is silence.

Yuuya slowly opens his eyes.  Both Yuuto and Yuugo stare back, frozen in place.  

“Yuu… ya?” It is Yuuto who speaks up haltingly, a hand reaching up as if to clutch at his head as the glow in his eyes flicker. Across from him, Yuugo is groaning quietly, bent over his bike and trembling. But behind his coloured visor, Yuuya can see that terrible light in his eyes is also fading, giving away to clear blue irises.  

He watches with confusion as Yuuto reaches up for his duel disk and deactivates it. Duel interrupted, Clear Wing and Dark Rebellion give one last furious roar before disappearing in a shower of sparks.

His dreams never went like this.

Yuuya’s heart beats faster as he gazes at the two, feeling like time had slowed to a stop. For a long, tense moment, they stare at each other in awkward silence with three pairs of near identical eyes.  

Yuugo is the first to speak up, breaking their strange stalemate.  A fierce scowl settles over his features, displacing the momentary disorientation.

“You!” he snarls, jabbing an accusing finger at them. “Where is she?  What have you done with her?  Where. Is.  Rin?!”   But beneath the anger that had convinced everyone he was an enemy, Yuuya can see it now. The fear, the loneliness.

Rin. He was searching for her just as desperately as he had searched for Yuzu. But even in his darkest moments, Yuuya had his friends with him. Gongenzaka, a steadfast presence at his back. Even Sawatari. Who did Yuugo have?

Yuugo’s hand is inching towards his duel disk again, hackles raised like a cornered animal. He's clearly outnumbered but the stubborn set of his jaw tells Yuuya that he's not going to back down. Without Yuuya realizing, Yuuto had come out to stand beside him, also reacting to Yuugo’s unspoken threat.  But there is a strange hesitancy in both of them now; both clearly shaken by what had happened. Later, Yuuto had admitted to Yuuya that he hadn't been able to remember much of the duel with Yuugo.  Only that a foreign rage had taken his senses hostage and blocked out all rational thought.

“What are you talking about?” Yuuto growls back, expression tightening.  "I'm the one who has questions for you!  Where is Ruri?" 

Yuuya doesn't know what has changed or why this dream had gone wildly off-script.  Yuuto is still here, still alive, and Yuugo is glaring at them with lucid eyes.  Everything feels so vivid.  It's hard to believe that this is just another dream.

He takes a step forward, his heart racing with an odd sense of trepidation.  Even if it's not real, even if it's just another grand illusion, what's the harm in playing along?  “Yuugo, we're not your enemies! We didn't take Rin!  Akaba Leo is the one behind this!  He's the one who destroyed Yuuto’s homeland.  You were there, weren't you?  In Heartland--”

Yuugo cuts in, looking absolutely infuriated.  He slams a fist down against the dashboard, looking furious enough to kill.  “I said, it’s not Yuugo, it’s--- Huh?”   The mask of fury evaporates and a look of blank confusion settles over his face and the three of them are back to staring at each other in silence.

Then, Yuugo’s face flames a bright, embarrassed red and he seems to struggling for words.  “It… is Yuugo. I mean, I'm Yuugo. My name. That's my name.” He looks so completely flummoxed that Yuuya suddenly finds himself bursting into peals of laughter in spite of himself.  He laughs until his chest hurts and his lungs burn, all the while as Yuuto looks on in concern and Yuugo’s face grows redder.  

“Yuuya?” Yuuto speaks up carefully.  “Are… are you alright?”

If anything, that only fuels his hysteria and makes him laugh harder.  Everything suddenly seems hilarious.  The funniest, strangest, most terrible thing that has ever happened to him. “I… I can't believe it!” Yuuya wheezes between gasps of air.  “All this time, all of this is because Yuuto got his name wrong!”

Now it's Yuuto’s turn to colour.  His cheeks turn a pale, dusty pink as he opens his mouth as if to protest, but the only thing that comes out are sputtering denials.  “Yuuya, it wasn't-- I wasn't--” Of course he would be embarrassed to have jumped to such devastating conclusions, Yuuya can't help but think.  If Yuugo had been a little less worked up, if Yuuto had been a little better at explaining himself, maybe all of this could have been avoided.

Maybe.  Or maybe none of them ever had a choice.

Yuuya just can't stop laughing.  Or maybe he's crying; it's difficult to tell.  But either way, Yuugo looks increasingly unhappy.  He balls his gloved hands into fists and flings himself off his bike.  “Stop it!  Stop laughing at me!” he cries as he stomps towards him. Yuuya can see little, frustrated tears beading in the corners of his wide, expressive eyes and a tiny thread of guilt rises up. He gasps for breath, trying to force the hysterical laughter back down with limited success.  

Unfortunately, it isn't enough to appease his counterpart because Yuugo seizes him by the collar of his shirt with both hands.  “You bastard!” he snarls and Yuuto immediately comes to his rescue, grabbing onto Yuugo’s wrists to dislodge his grip.

“Let him go,” Yuuto demands.  “Yuuya’s got nothing to do with this--”

“Why don't you let go, you… you caped-weirdo!  What does this have to do with you?  If you hadn't attacked me with your big dumb dragon, this wouldn't--”

“--You're the one who attacked us! And what else were we supposed to think? We were in the middle of a war zone!”

“Well, you should have said something if you weren’t the one who took--”

“--You weren't even listening, you thick-headed--”

“No! You weren't listening, you pineapple-brained, jerk-faced son of a---”

“Guys ” Yuuya cuts in desperately, finally composed again, now that Yuugo is slowly cutting off his air supply.   “Look, I'm sorry I lost it, okay? I wasn’t to make fun of you, I swear!”   But his words seem to fall on deaf ears as Yuugo and Yuuto continue to bicker like petulant three year olds.  Yuuya had always thought of Yuuto as the calm one, but Yuugo seems to have a talent for riling people up.  He heaves a deep sigh, but for some reason, his lips can’t help but twitch up as the scene is strangely nostalgic .  

“Hey,” he tries again, exasperated as he reaches out to grab onto both of their arms.  “Why don’t we all just take a deep breath and--”

“Yuuya!” Yuuya stills, eyes widening in shock when another voice suddenly echoes through the empty park. A sweet, high soprano, brimming with worry.  The voice of the one he had tried to desperately to save.  His best friend.  

“Yuzu--!” he gasps, turning with a desperate look in his eyes as he strains to catch a glimpse of her.  For a moment, he completely forgets that none of this can possibly be real.  That he’s most likely just having some kind of lucid dream. A hallucination.  But even if it is a dream, even if it’s just an illusion, he needs to see her again. “Yuzu, I’m--!”

But the last things he sees are Yuugo and Yuuto’s horrified faces as his voice, along with the rest of his surroundings, are all swallowed up by a maelstrom of blinding light.  

Chapter Text

Yuuya is left blinking spots out of his eyes as he stumbles, disoriented and confused. His stomach churns at the nauseating sensation of being suddenly displaced through time and space.  He can only liken it to being squeezed through a vacuum tube while his consciousness is forcefully disassembled and then reassembled. It was a highly unpleasant feeling and Yuuya is in no hurry to experience it again.  

All in all, this is turning out to be the weirdest dream he’s ever had.

His counterparts don't look like they're faring any better, judging from their ashen complexions.  Yuugo, in particular, looks especially agitated. “What… What the heck just happened?” Yuugo blurts out, his grip on Yuuya’s collar tightens convulsively which makes him sputter and look to Yuuto for help.

But the boy in question is too busy staring at their surroundings with a tense, yet resigned expression. “We… moved,” is all he offers.

“Haaaah?!” Yuugo turns his glare towards Yuuto.  “What the heck is that supposed to-- holy shit, we moved!  Where the hell are we now?!”  Yuugo drops his grip completely, to Yuuya’s deep relief.  He straightens up, coughing lightly as he brushes the wrinkles out of his shirt. Slowly, he turns in trepidation to take in their surroundings.

The parkette is gone and Yuzu along with it. Yuuya can’t help the pang of loss that shoots through him.  The last time he saw her in one piece was back on that boat, heading towards Academia. It feels like lifetimes ago, even though their time apart only lasted days.  

Though, it is more accurate to say that they’re the ones who have gone.  

Instead, the three of them are standing in a small suburban district, in front of a modest, two-story house with an asymmetrical roof.  Yuuya is momentarily stunned until his shoulders slump as pure, unadulterated relief washes over him as he realizes that he recognizes these streets.  He recognizes this house.  

“We’re home ,” Yuuya whispers without meaning to. His throat tightens up as moisture wells up in his eyes.  It finally hits him that he's back. Waiting just beyond those doors is his warm, comfortable bed, his posters, his normal, everyday life.   His mom's here.  Uncle Shuzo.  The kids at You-Show.  They're all here.  

Suddenly, his mind is bursting with possibilities.   A dangerous hope starts to swell inside his chest, hot and nearly painful as it threatens to overwhelm him.  It’s far too real, far too vivid to be just a dream.  Yuuya can count the number of cracks in the sidewalk, the chipped paint on his walls.  Everything is just like he left it.

What if… what if …

He squashes the thought before it has a chance to bud.  It's too good to be true, too fantastical, like something out of a manga .  He can’t allow himself to even entertain the idea , because this could all a part of his plan. Yuuya isn’t naive anymore. There’s no way he can be blindly optimistic, not with how much he was disappointed, time and time again.  

“... We don't live here,” Yuugo reminds him, looking at him askance as he crosses his arms.  His posture is strangely defensive. He's staring at the warm light filtering through the windows with a complicated expression on his face. “It’s nice, though. I guess. For a house.”

Yuuya blinks, having nearly forgotten that the two of them are still here.  Yuuto also looks oddly chagrined, keeping his gaze averted to the ground.

“You should go, Yuuya,” he says quietly. Gently.  “Go to your family.  Now that the fusion user is gone, you don't need to have any further part in this war.”

A thread of hysteria rises up inside his chest, threatening to bubble up again as laughter as Yuuya fights to not correct him.  At this point, none of them had any idea just how involved the four of them really are.  This whole damn war was all because of them. Because of Zarc.

But when he looks at Yuuto again, really looks at him, it finally dawns on him why the two of them look so uncomfortable and Yuuya could have smacked himself for being so insensitive.  Yuuto had come straight out of a war zone, still dressed in that ragged cape and covered in the dust from the battlefield.  Yuugo, likewise, had been on his own this whole time, journeying fruitlessly through the dimensions in search of his best friend.   Where had they slept?  When did they last eat?

“What about you?” he asks, his heart in his throat. “What are you going to do?”

Before they can answer, another voice suddenly speaks up.  

“Yuuya? Is that you?” There is a click when the door suddenly opens, flooding the narrow street with light. His mother stands in its frame, her long, blonde locks framing her face like a halo as she gazes down at him with fond exasperation.  “Honestly, what were you doing out so late, huh?  And who are your friends?”

Yuuto and Yuugo’s eyes widen as they stare up at Yoko like deer caught in the headlights.

“U-Um,” Yuugo stammers, waving his hands negligently in the air while Yuuto seems to be trying to melt into the shadows.  “We’re not--”

“They're my friends,” Yuuya cuts in, determined. His heart is beating wildly in his chest from an inexplicable nervousness. Perhaps, it's because this is the first time he's knowingly making a change.  Tiny ripples in the pond that could be the key to creating enormous waves.  “From.  From out of town. They… they don't have anywhere else to stay yet.”

Yoko’s dark green irises flicker over to the boy’s disheveled and grubby appearances and Yuuto and Yuugo stiffen as one, identical expressions of discomfort appearing on their faces at her scrutiny.  His mother frowns and he can clearly feel her confusion and alarm and Yuuya wants to smack himself for the second time.   How could he have forgotten that the three of them had the same face?  He had gotten so used to the idea.  He had certainly spent enough time with Serena that the idea of doppelgangers prancing around had seemed commonplace.  He opens his mouth, even as his brain is frantically trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

But in the time he was berating himself, it seemed like Yoko had come up with an answer all on her own.  Her eyes darken in cold fury as her hands clenched and Yuuya gulps.  He belatedly remembers that his mom used to be a gang member and is suddenly filled with dread.  He can only imagine what is going through her head right now.

“Mom, wait,” Yuuya says hurriedly, stepping in front of his counterparts.  “It's not. Not what it looks like--”

“ Yuushou ,” Yoko growls and Yuuya stills.

“Huh?” Yuuya, Yuuto, and Yuugo all ask in unison,

“That bastard!” she yells, slamming a fist into the doorframe with enough force to make the entire house tremble and they all jump. “How dare he? Going off and making cute babies without me?!”

Yuuya chokes.  As far as he knows, his dad was happily married and completely faithful to his mother.  “Wait, mom, no !  Yuuto and Yuugo aren't--”

“ Yuu to and Yuu go!” Yoko throws her hands up in a mixture of disgust and despair.  “Just like that egocentric jackass to name all his kids after himself!  The whole goddamn house is already plastered with his face ! And you!  What are you doing here instead of being home with your moms? Your families must be worried sick.”

Yuuya turns to the other two boys with a pleading expression, hoping that they would clear up this horrible misunderstanding.

“My family is gone,” Yuuto says in a near whisper, his grey eyes darkening in sorrow.

“I grew up in an orphanage,” Yuugo offers. “I don't know my parents’ faces.”

Yuuya gulps and takes a step back when Yoko’s expression practically crumbles.  He was wise to get out of the way because, in the next moment, a sobbing Yoko had flung herself off the steps and crushed the two boys to her bosom in rib-crushing hugs.

“You poor sweet babies ,” Yoko coos, running motherly hands over their messy locks and then patting their cheeks.  “Don’t worry, the two of you are always welcome here.  Whatever you need.  Now, let's get you boys inside and out of the cold.  Dinner’s almost ready too.”  With that, Yoko immediately began ushering the two boys towards the warm, brightly-lit house and they follow along, dazed.

Yuuto looks visibly alarmed at the sudden attention and not so subtly tries to slide out of her grasp.  But Yuugo, on the other hand, seems to be experiencing a lot of complicated emotions.  Yuuya takes one look at the sheer naked longing on his face and he decides that he will perpetuate this misunderstanding for as long as it takes if it means he’ll never have to see Yuugo look that lost and uncertain ever again.

It's not like Yuushou is around to bear the brunt of his mom's fury anyway.

Yuuya is certain that this is the most surreal thing he has ever experienced.  

Forget interdimensional wars or duelists fusing themselves with dragons.  Clearly, having a nice quiet sit-down at the dinner table with three out of four fragments of destruction incarnate beats out all of those things by a wide margin.  Yuuya has to bite his lips to stop another hysterical burst of laughter from escaping.   All they need now is evil, creepy, tentacle-loving Yuuri to show up and demand to be invited to dinner.  

Yuuto and Yuugo look just as awkward as he does, sitting across the table from him.  Yoko had put them next to each other and Yuuya isn't sure which one of them looked more horrified.  Yuugo is sporting what seems to be a permanent blush as he fidgets with the hem of one of Yuuya’s shirts.  Yoko had been pleased as punch that Yuuya’s clothes fit them almost perfectly.  The orange doesn't look too terrible on Yuugo, but Yuuya needs to avoid looking at Yuuto lest he starts giggling again.

All three of them had been immediately ushered towards the bath since Yoko had deemed them all to be ‘absolutely filthy’ and their clothes had been subsequently confiscated, much to Yuugo’s alarm which could only be pacified with the promise that he will get it back after a very thorough washing.  After a series of extremely quick and extremely awkward showers, the three of them were led back down to the dining room while Yoko finished up in the kitchen.

“S-So,” Yuuya’s voice cracks on the first try so he pretends to clear his throat and attempt it again. What exactly is he supposed to say in a scenario like this?  It's not like they teach you this in school.Yuuya draws a deep breath and exhales through his nose.  Maybe he just needs to change his thinking.  Like, pretend he's just a regular kid with regular friends who are sleeping over for a night.  

Then he remembers that the last ‘friend’ that came over was actually a fusion invader and he quietly gives up.

Luckily, he’s spared from having to make small talk when Yoko bursts back into the room with uncannily good timing, in the way only a mother can, with her arms burdened with a large pot. Wisps of white steam wafted from its still bubbling surface and the savoury aroma makes Yuuya’s mouth water it never has before.  With everything that has happened in the last couple of days, he can’t even recall the last time he ate , let alone his mother’s cooking.  The food they served at the Friendship Cup should have been delicious but he hadn’t been able to swallow a single bite.

“Sorry, it’s just oden for tonight, boys,” Yoko says with a beaming smile as she sets it down in the middle of the table. “And I had to make more since someone hadn’t told me you were coming!  But tomorrow, we’ll celebrate properly.  How does sukiyaki sound?”

Yuugo’s eyes are as wide as their dinner plates as he silently mouths ‘ oden ’ like he can’t quite believe his ears. Even Yuuto doesn’t look nearly as stoic anymore, gulping quietly as he stares at the pot with a desperate intensity. Fortunately, Yoko seems to sense their hunger and is quick to spoon out big, generous portions into waiting bowls.

Yuuya quickly loses any sense of decorum when his share is finally presented to him and he dives in like a ravenous beast, rather than a teenaged boy, shoveling spoonful after spoonful into his mouth almost faster than he can chew.  It’s rich and flavourful and tastes so unmistakably of home , like early mornings with Yoko’s voice cajoling him to wake, like hours spent curling up beneath the kotatsu on cold, winter evenings.  

Once again, Yuuya finds himself wavering between his jaded suspicious and the desperate, childish longing for this to all be real.  

Please, please, just give me this .   Please .

He quickly rubs at his eyes to avoid an onset of tears.  He’s being ridiculous.  Crying over a pot of noodles.

Though it seems that Yuugo doesn’t share his compunctions.  “I’ve… I’ve never eaten anything this good in my life ,” Yuugo wails and Yuuya notices that he’s actually sobbing between bites and doesn’t bother pausing to wipe away the big, fat tears that are rolling down his cheeks.  Even Yuuto’s eyes look suspiciously moist, though that might just be from the steam.

Yoko watches over them all with a soft, proud smile that had saved Yuuya so many times before. Looking back, his mother had always been there, through all the whispers and all the jeers that followed him throughout his childhood.  Branded as a coward’s son.  Always in his father’s shadow.  But Yoko had been by his side, soothing away the bruises and making everything better.  And now, she’s doing it again.  

Dinner passes with surprisingly few incidents, ending when the three of them were stuffed to the point of bloating.  Yuuto had at least remembered his manners, thanking Yoko profusely after the meal had ended while Yuugo seemed on the verge of passing out, swaying on his feet until Yoko shepherded them all to bed.  It’s a testament to how exhausted they all are that none of them think of protesting when Yoko hands them unintentionally matching pajamas and bundles them all into Yuuya’s room.  Two freshly made up futons lie side by side next to his bed and the three weary travelers practically collapse into them.

Yuuya vaguely realizes that there is still a mountain of things that they all need to discuss, starting with the dimensional war, the four girls, and Zarc .  Now would probably be the best time, since they are all relatively calm and not on the verge of losing control and turning into an omnicidal maniac.  There is so much still to be done.  They need to stop this war, to make Leo see sense.  To stop Zarc’s revival.  To stop Yuuri. So many elements, so many pieces in an endlessly evolving puzzle that it makes his head hurt just to think about it.

But by the time he thinks of voicing his concerns, Yuuto and Yuugo had already given into slumber.

Yuuya sighs quietly and curls up onto his side, feeling strangely at peace, in a way he has never felt before.  Calm, for once, despite being in such a turbulent situation.  Perhaps, in a way, he feels like he has the answers for once.  He’s not burdened by the shadow of not knowing what happened to his father.  He’s not wracked with fear and guilt at failing to protect his friends.  For now, everything in his little world is as it should be. He basks in this momentary reprieve from the storm. This stolen time.

Sighing, Yuuya closes his eyes and slowly falls asleep to the sound of two sets of steady breathing.  

Chapter Text

Consciousness returns to Yuuya like a jackhammer; one moment he is floating in the fog of a restless sleep made up of dreamy whispers and an increasing sense of urgency, and the next, he is plunging off the precipice and into startled awareness.

A sudden shriek in his ear tells him two things: one, he had rolled off the bed which would explain that oddly realistic sensation of falling and two, Yuugo is also awake with a wild look in his eyes.    “Sorry, sorry!” he exclaims as he hurries to climb off him but he must have overestimated how awake he was since all he managed to do was elbow him in the gut.  

“What's the big idea?!” Yuugo yelps, the baffled terror giving way to annoyance when he realizes that he wasn't being attacked.  Yuuya gets a vengeful pillow to the face and he has to admit that’s only fair.  

“Sorry,” he says his muffled apology into the pillow before he finally figures out how to extract himself from Yuugo’s limbs.  Yuugo glares at him with bleary suspicion as he hugs the pillow back to his chest. Yuuya is struck by another moment of surreality as he considers the image of his doppelganger with mussed hair and wearing a rumpled pair of his own pajamas.  

He doesn't know much of Yuugo; for the longest time, he had thought he was an enemy.  What had been an anger born of worry and loss had been mistaken for hate and malice.  It was only much, much later that they had learned the truth.  Yuugo had been somewhat an enigma to him; they had never spoken directly, always just missing the other, save for that brief moment when their minds met.  Unlike Yuuto who was carried the greys of sorrow and Yuuri who was cloaked in the violet of malice, Yuugo reminded him of a clear blue sky.  Yuugo’s joy and sheer love for dueling had permeated his being and for a moment, all of Yuuya’s worries and fears had been carried away by the wind.  

Yuugo had protected Yuzu without asking for anything in return.  He kept her safe for as long as he could.

This time, Yuuya plans on keeping them all safe. All of them; Yuugo and Yuuto.  Yuzu and Serena. His friends from Standard.  Everyone he’s met on his journey, the lives that he touched. So many of them had suffered.  So many of them had put their trust in him, followed him into battle and believed that he could change the world.  And he failed in the most horrible way.

Yuuya’s pulse starts to quicken as anticipation builds in his chest. All of the urgency, the racing thoughts from the previous night threatens to spill over, now that his head is no longer fogged by sleep.  There is too much to do and precious little time to do it any of it in.  The enormity of it all is crushing, a vast, unfathomable pressure bearing down on him.  Half-formed plans flash across his mind, only to be discarded as the winds of uncertainty bat them away. Every second that ticks by fill him with dread, like he’s grasping at sands in an hourglass and watching them slip through his fingers.

“--uuya?  Yuuya?”  A concerned voice suddenly cuts in and jolts him out of his dizzying thoughts. Yuuya sucks in a deep breath, trying to calm the sudden burst of hysteria that had risen as he turns towards the window.

Yuuto is an inky blot against the streams of white light filtering in from the curtains, his cloak over his shoulders and collar pulled up over his face.   He looks even more like a spectre, a literal ghost from his past. Yuuya swallows thickly, hurting from the sight.

“Yuuto?” he asks, his voice coming out tinier than he had meant for it to.  He can see the concern etched into the stony lines of Yuuto’s face, transforming his stern countenance into something gentle.  Even Yuugo is looking at him with furrowed brows, sitting up in his makeshift bed with his arms wrapped around a pillow.

“You froze up,” Yuuto says softly.  Unlike Yuugo and Yuuya, he looks like he had been awake for a while.  Fully dressed in the freshly laundered clothes that Yoko had laid out for him, he is reclining against the window ledge with an air of wistfulness.  A sudden flash of insight tells him that Yuuto must have been about to leave before Yuuya’s sudden awakening; melting quietly back into the formless shadows like he had never been there. Yuuya remembers the regret on his face as he expressed his reluctance to involve innocents in his war.

But there had never been a chance that the four of them could have lived in peace.

“Sorry,” Yuuya mumbles, rubbing the sleep-dust from his eyes as he tries to sort out his thoughts.  “It’s just.  There’s a lot to take in right now. Knowing there are other dimensions out there and everything.”

“You said something yesterday,” Yuugo interjects, eyes sharp with the same frighteningly intense focus that he had during his duels. Yuuya stiffens, taken aback from how intimidating Yuugo could look with bedhead and a pair of his rumpled pajamas.   “About some guy called Akaba being the one who’s behind this.  That means you know, don’t you?  You know where Rin is!”  

Yuuya’s breath catches in his throat, thoughts in disarray as he fumbles with an answer.  Images of a green-haired girl trapped behind glass and the sadness in her eyes when she realized that Yuugo hadn’t made it in time.

Luckily, Yuuto saves him from having to answer.  “Akaba Leo is the leader of the forces that invaded my homeland,” he says and Yuuya detects a slight hitch in his voice.  “One of our comrades was captured and we came to Standard following a lead.”

Yuugo stills, frowning harder. “But I saw you,” he says, shaking his head.  Yuuya stills when he sees hostility suddenly forming in his eyes.  Without the confusion from the sudden teleportation and Yoko’s overwhelming mothering, the seeds of suspicion in Yuugo’s heart seems to have reemerged.  “That night. You were wearing that stupid cape and Rin was over your shoulder!”

Yuuto’s eyes narrow in turn and the temperature in the room seems to drop. “They saw someone who looked similar to me wandering around our camp the day before Ruri disappeared,” he says slowly, body tensing as if anticipating a fight.  “Are you going to tell me you had nothing to do with that?”

“I don’t know any Ruri,” Yuugo growls, tossing the pillow away as he leaps up to his feet.  Yuuya jumps up as well, alarm flaring up violently at the sudden turn of events.  “You’re the one who took her, didn’t you?  I should have beat the sh--”

“I will believe you are sincere about your friend,” Yuuto growls, grey eyes flashing with intent.  “But then again, Academia must have something on you for you to become one of Fusion’s pawns .”

“My name is YUUGO! ” Yuugo snarls, blind fury flashing across his eyes as he launches himself at Yuuto, hands balled into fists. Helpless and horrified, Yuuya throws himself forward, mind whirling frantically.

“Not in my room!” Yuuya shouts so loudly that he ends up startling himself along with his two counterparts, especially when he ends up colliding with the both of them and sending all three of them crashing down onto the floor. They groan as one but Yuuya only takes a moment to wince before hurriedly attempting damage control. “Will you two just stop?!  There’s got to be another explanation for this!  I know neither of you actually want to hurt anyone!”

“Then who the hell was it?!” Yuugo retorts, furiously trying to shove them off. “Unless there’s another bastard out there with stupid purple hair and wearing my face?!”

“There is,” Yuuya blurts out without thinking and shrinks back when two pairs of eyes swivel to pin him with identical glares.  His stomach sinks while his heart feels like it’s about to leap out of his chest as he realizes he had made a mistake.  “I… I mean,” he stumbles, flinching as even Yuuto starts to look at him with suspicion.  

“S-Sora!” The name tumbles out from his mouth as he flounders around for an excuse.  Yuuto’s eyes sharpen while Yuugo’s remain confused but Yuuya presses on blindly, scrapping together words as soon as they form in his brain.  “I remember him saying… that I reminded him of someone back home.  He-He called me by a different name when we first met.  Something like… ‘Yuuri’.”  The hasty lie falls utterly flat on his tongue and makes his insides squirm with guilt, but Yuugo and Yuuto have stopped trying to punch each other out which Yuuya has to count as a plus.  His heart flutters with dread as he tries to consider the ramifications of his impulsiveness.  “Yuuto, when we dueled--Sora said he was from Academia, didn’t he?  Then maybe this ‘Yuuri’ might be the person you both saw.”

Yuuto’s face looks like it could have been carved out of granite and Yuuya’s heart sinks.  He kicks himself hard, berating himself for blurting out the first thing he could think of.  Of course, they would be suspicious; it was a long shot and took a ridiculous leap of logic to infer that there was suddenly a fourth doppelganger. No sane person would buy that.

But then Yuuto begins to look thoughtful. “‘Yuuri’…Why does that name sound familiar?”  

Yuuya blinks at him, startled.  At this point in time, none of them should have any idea who Yuuri is.  But then again, something had changed.  Yuugo and Yuuto had stopped fighting and now Yuuto is alive and sitting here with them. Could it be?  Perhaps the two of them---

“Wait, wait, wait. Who the heck is Sora?” Yuugo cuts in, annoyed.  “What are you guys talking about?  Are you saying there’s another guy out there that I have to beat up?!”

Yuuya’s chest twists when he thinks of Yuuri, a rush of rage and hatred surging up as he remembers the resignation on his father’s face as the violet light swallowed his body.  He quickly clamps down on the feeling and buries it deep.  He can’t think about Yuuri now.  Not when his grip on this reality is this fragile, even the slightest ripples of memories can destabilize him.  “We’ve got to stay calm,” he says, mostly to himself.  “Jumping to conclusions is dangerous, especially since we don’t know what’s going on.  If… I didn’t believe you both weren’t dangerous, I wouldn’t have invited you here, right?   So let’s all talk this through.  Please?”

Yuuto nods slowly and Yuuya heaves a sigh before turning to look at his more impulsive counterpart.

Yuugo clenches his jaw stubbornly for a moment, before finally relaxing. “Fine,” he mutters, a light dusting of pink appearing on his face as he looks away.  “I guess you’re probably a decent guy.  And… And your mom’s really nice. So I’ll trust you guys.  For now.”

Yuuya’s chest finally loosens and he can finally breathe again.  “Thank you,” he whispers, fighting another wave of emotion. “Thank you so much.”  He’s suddenly grateful beyond words that the two of them are here with him.  Even though at the moment they are practically strangers, Yuuya feels as if he isn’t alone.  Like everything will work out.  As long the three of them never encounter Yuuri and never try to fight each other, Zarc will never rise again.  If anyone can defy fate, it’s the three of them.

“H-Hey, it’s not that big a deal,” Yuugo stammers, suddenly looking uncomfortable as he shoves at them. “Why do you look like you’re gonna cry?  And when are you guys gonna get off me?!”

“Huh?” Yuuya says before looking down.  Yuuto shifts a bit, expression unequally as uncomfortable and Yuuya realizes that he’s still sitting on their legs.

Of course, that’s when the door opens and Yoko saunters in.  “Rise and shine, boys!  Hmm? Don’t you boys look cozy?”

The three of them break apart with nearly identical yelps of dismay born of teenage embarrassment.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Yuuya hurriedly tries to explain, even though he himself doesn’t actually know what this looks like. But it’s already too late since Yoko is already smirking.

“It’s so nice to see that you’re getting along with your brothers,” she sighs, looking rather misty eyed. “I always regretted not giving you any younger brothers and sisters since you were always so lonely as a kid.  I suppose your no-good father was good for something, at least.”  

“Mom!” Yuuya exclaims, feeling like he’s eleven years old again.  The embarrassment is accompanied by a slight sense of unease as he definitely doesn’t remember Yoko ever slagging Yuushou off like this.  If anything, he remembers her smiling gently at him and telling him to believe in his father.  He couldn’t have already affected things this much, could he?  

Yoko obviously doesn’t appreciate his plight as she turns to Yuuto and Yuugo with a warm smile.  “How did you boys sleep? Yuuya didn’t fall on you or anything, right?”

“Uh,” says Yuugo.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Sakaki.  And for the washing,” Yuuto speaks up, the tips of his ears turning pink. “We didn’t mean to intrude on you last night.”

“Nonsense,” Yoko laughs, her eyes already brimming with fondness for the newest strays that the Sakaki family had picked up.  Just like, Yuuto and Yuugo had become family, whether they knew it or not.   “Like I said last night, you boys are always welcome here.  Just think of this place as your home. Now, Yuuya tells me you boys don’t have anywhere else to stay, but you can’t keep borrowing Yuuya’s clothes forever.  Why don’t you all get dressed and I’ll take you to pick something up?”

“That’s really not necessary,” Yuuto tries to refuse while Yuugo just stands around looking rather overwhelmed.  

But his protests are useless in the face of a very determined mother and the next thing Yuuya knows, he’s trailing behind them with his arms laden with shopping bags and trying to remember if he was supposed to be at school.  Yoko seems intent on interrogating his dumbfounded counterparts on every aspect of their lives like she’s trying to make up for fourteen years of mothering.  Yuuya can only be grateful that Yuuto seems to have caught on that they should be trying to hide the fact that they’re actually extra-dimensional aliens and is discretely covering for Yuugo’s overly honest responses by intermittently jabbing his ribs with his elbow.  

Although, Yuuya thinks glumly, not even Yuuto could have imagined that they were all reincarnated fragments of armageddon. He finds his attention drifting as they walk, quietly amazed at how ordinary everything now looks, with people bustling around and going about their everyday lives. It’s almost unthinkable that it couldn’t have been more than a few months since Yuuya was just like them.

He needs a plan.  The first time around, Yuuya felt like he had been running blind.  Yuuto had disappeared and he had woken up two days later with no time to process anything before the Junior Youth Championship started up again.  He has to hold back another hysterical laugh when he remembers how his biggest worry had been just a simple tournament. It had all happened so quickly; in three days, Yuuya will face Kachidoki Isao in a match and will lose control for the first time. Then, the ill fated Battle Royale will start, followed by Academia’s invasion. Which means Yuuya only has days to stop everything.

Soon, Serena will arrive in Maiami City and Akaba Leo will stop at nothing to get her and Yuzu back. Dozens of duelists will fall and Yuzu disappears in the confusion, sparking their travels to the Synchro dimension in search of allies. Yuuya unconsciously chews on his lip as he wracks his brain for a solution.  First of all, he has to keep Yuzu and Serena safe and out of Akaba Leo’s hands. Which means he has to first convince Serena that what Academia is doing is wrong.  But how can he stop the invasion?  And what can he do about Sora?  And Dennis ?

He lets out a sigh, thinking of the glass tower standing high above Maiami City’s skyline.  At the thought of LDS’s young president, a complicated mix of emotion surges up.  As much as he hates it, Reiji is probably the only one with the power to make any kind of difference now. But Yuuya can’t forget how he had knowingly let so many duelists fall, letting a bunch of unprepared children be picked off.  Hokuto, Michio, Hikage… When it comes down to it, can he really trust Reiji to do what is right?  Or even believe him at all?  It isn’t like Yuuya can simply march up to him and tell him that he has seen the future.  

Yuuya lets out another sigh. Chances are if he tries to tell anyone he would be locked up in a padded room.  Or worse, if they actually believe him, he and Yuugo and Yuuto would probably all be locked up to avert the apocalypse. Perhaps even killed.

Something sparkling in a storefront window captures his eye and his feet come to a stop.  A sleek, silver bracelet sparkles atop a velvet case and he stares at it, a lump forming in his throat.  

He casts his gaze forward to see Yuugo and Yuuto had somehow gotten into an argument, faces practically pressed together as they bickered with Yoko watching them with bemusement.  A wry smile touches his lips even as conviction slowly solidifies in his chest.

He wants a world where they can all live together.  Where no one has to fight for their lives, where Yuuto and Kurosaki and Ruri can be at peace, where Yuugo and Rin can work on D-Wheels and his mother makes pancakes every day in the morning.  He wants to go to school and nap in class and have Yuzu and Gongenzaka scold him. He wants Serena to not have to look over her shoulder and for Dennis and Sora to live the normal lives they should have had. There are so many things that he wants to protect.  So many things that are precious to him.

Which is why Yuuya can’t give up. Even if it all looks hopeless, somehow, somewhere, there has to be a way to set things right.

The strands of time are unbraiding themselves, coming undone from the loom of destiny.  Never mind causing ripples; Yuuya feels that he is standing at the head of a tsunami that threatens to wipe out everything in its path. There are so many choices, so many paths.  So many questions.  

It’s a new and terrifying feeling.

When was the last time, he wonders, that he had truly gotten to choose his path?  All his life, he had been guided and moulded by hands that weren’t his own.  He clung to Yuushou’s dueling and his ideologies, desperate to prove them all wrong. He had been drawn into a war that he couldn’t even begin to understand until it consumed them all.  

Today, he will take his first step as Sakaki Yuuya. Not a coward’s son, not a fragment of Zarc.  But as no one but himself.

Chapter Text

“Yuuya, your mom’s a pretty cool lady.” Yuugo was gazing at his reflection with a mystified expression on his face as he inspects the brand new clothes that Yoko had insisted on getting for him. Privately, Yuuya thinks she might have been a bit too enthusiastic, buying full sets of clothes for all three of them despite Yuuya’s insistence that he already had a full wardrobe.

Yuugo’s riding suit had been traded for a sleeveless white and blue hoodie and a pair of skinny jeans with pocket chains. Yuuto, on the other hand, had been put into a tailored black shirt and dark green waistcoat.  Both of them looked smart and trendy and were a far cry from their worn and bedraggled appearances from Yuuya’s memories.  It's almost disconcerting to see.

“Yeah,” he replies, lips twitching up into a grin tinged with just a hint of teenaged embarrassment.  “She really is.”  He himself was dressed in new fitted jeans, a scoop neck shirt and a bunch of superfluous accessories that Yoko insisted were fashionable.  To be honest, he feels almost more drained from clothes shopping with his mother than hurtling back in time.  

The three of them are finally taking a break, scattered around his room while Yoko bustled around in the kitchen downstairs.  Yuuto’s face has taken on a slightly pinched quality and Yuuya spies him fidgeting and glancing out the window when he thinks they're not looking. No doubt he's anxious to get in touch with Kurosaki too.  

No doubt they're all anxious in their own way. He shakes himself out of his thoughts and plasters on another smile.  The three of them are finally alone again and judging from the mask of seriousness falling over their faces, they too could sense the shift in mood.  All distractions aside, there are things that they have to discuss.

Yuuya clears his throat. It had gone dry, tightening at the thought of breaching the subject. Before Yoko’s interruption, they had reached a tentative truce.  But where exactly are they supposed to go from here?  Where are they even supposed to start when an entire dimension was their enemy?  So many words bubble at the tip of his tongue but Yuuya finds himself mute, too overwhelmed to pick the right ones.

But nothing will be started if he doesn’t step forward.

“So,” he says to get their attention, swallowing down whatever reservations he still has.  “What are you two going to do now?”

The pair of them pause.

“I was wondering the same thing,” Yuuto admits with a sigh. “Shun and I came to this dimension in search of allies to help us fight back against Academia and to find hints of where Ruri might be.  Those goals haven't changed.”

Yuugo yanks himself away from the mirror and plops down onto the carpet next to them, a pensive expression on his face.  This seriousness fits better with how Yuuya remembered him; driven and focused with a hint of desperate rage simmering behind his eyes.

“This Akaba asshole is the guy behind everything, right?” he says, smacking a fist into his hand. “Along with that bastard who kidnapped Rin. They're from this ‘Academia’ place, right? We just have to go in and break them out!”

“If we had the forces to storm Academia, we would have gone a long time ago,” Yuuto says stiffly. “We won't even make it to their doorstep.”

“Maybe for you ,” Yuugo shoots back, seemingly offended at the insinuation.  “But Rin is counting on me! I can't just sit here and wait for someone else to rescue her!”

Yuuto’s eyes narrow.  “Is that what you're saying we’re doing?”

“Guys,” Yuuya cuts in before anything can escalate.  “I know you're both worried about your friends but you can't help if you're fighting each other!”  The last thing he wants now is for them to get into another fight.  He breathes an internal sigh of relief when the other two only glare at each other for a moment longer before breaking away in a huff. Yuuto had always been so level headed and reliable, so why is it that he's seen him lose his temper in more times with Yuugo in a day than in the months he spent inside his soul?

It occurs to him that he's at a war council made entirely of his own counterparts. It is taking arguing with yourself to a whole new level.

Yuugo takes a visible breath and expels it hard enough to stir his bangs. “So what are we supposed to do? Nothing?” There's still a hint of aggressive sarcasm in his tone but Yuuto appears to let it slide this time.

“I have another comrade.  Shun.  The last time we were in touch, he told me he struck a deal with LDS.  Akaba Reiji, Leo’s son apparently wanted an alliance.  In exchange for our help, he will provide soldiers for the war against Academia.”

“His son? Sounds fishy as hell.  How do you know he's not actually on his old man’s side?” Yuugo says immediately and it seems that Yuuto is actually in agreement for once given that the crease between his brow deepens.

“I've told him to be on his guard,” he sighs. “But Shun will be Shun.”

Yuuya’s expression takes on a slightly pinched quality as he thinks of Akaba Reiji.  The first time around, Yuuya hadn't trusted him.  Sure, he respected him but it was through a frustrated reluctance from the one-sidedness of their relationship with Reiji holding all the cards, leaving Yuuya to flounder around in the dark.  He had known about the invasion.  He’d known about his father.  How different would Yuuya’s childhood have been if he knew his father hadn’t been a coward?

But no matter how hard Yuuya tries, he can’t think of a way around it.  He needs to speak with Akaba Reiji.

“That’s it?”  Yuugo’s jaw goes slack with disbelief. Then he scowls, shaking his head.  “That’s your plan? You’re just going to wait around and put all your hopes on this Reiji guy.  That’s the same as doing nothing! If you want to wait around while your friend might be getting hurt , then fine. But I’m not gonna sit around, even if I have to go rescue Rin alone! Like I always have!”

“If you want to get yourself killed for no reason, then by all means-”

“Guys!” Yuuya tries to cut in again but Yuugo had already lunged forward to grab Yuuto’s collar. He makes a frustrated noise and darts forward to try to separate them. “Guys, stop! Didn’t we just agree fighting each other isn’t going to help?!”

“You guys don’t get it!  Rin’s all I have!”

Yuugo’s sudden shout has them falling silent and Yuuya does a double-take when he finally notices the beads of moisture gathering on his lashes. Yuugo draws a shaky breath, letting Yuuto go to rub angrily at his eyes.  “She’s my only family. You’ve got your mom and you have that Shun person, but to me, Rin is everything.  She could be out there alone and scared. They could be hurting her.  If… If I don’t get her back... ”

Yuuto’s eyes go wide as he and Yuuya exchange slightly panicked looks when their counterpart lets out what sounds alarmingly like a sniffle.

“Yuugo-” they both start cautiously, with Yuuto moving to place a hand on his shoulder and Yuuya hurriedly grabbing a box of tissues.

“Sorry,” Yuugo says miserably, taking the tissues from him and blowing his nose loudly.  “I just…”

“I’m sorry too,” Yuuto replies, gaze downcast.  “Just like you, I want to get my friends and family back. But… But it’s because they’re counting on us that we can’t afford to be reckless.  If we get ourselves captured or killed, who is going to help them?”

Yuugo hiccups, rubbing harder at his eyes. He looks so much like a lost child that Yuuya doesn’t know how he could ever have thought of him as cold or cruel. “I know that! I just can’t stand it.”

“You're not alone anymore,” Yuuya says, attempting what he hopes is a reassuring smile. If Yuuya were to look in the mirror, he’s sure it comes out strained and cracked at the edges, barely held together with desperate optimism. But luckily for him, neither of them know him well enough to spot the brittleness in the curve of his lips. “You have us now.  And my mom said you’re both welcome here now, remember? We’ll figure this out.  We’ll save everyone together.”

To his great relief, Yuugo pulls back, wiping his eyes as he visibly pulls himself together.   “Right.  Together,” he agrees in a stronger voice and straightens up. Only the faint redness around his eyes and nose gives away the cracks in his composure.  Yuugo seems happy to pretend he hadn’t just burst into tears in front of them and Yuuya and Yuuto are more than happy to let him.  

Yuuya lets out the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. There is one thing Yuuya is sure of; he absolutely doesn't want the three of them to split up.  A wave of nausea rises up as he thinks about one of them running into Yuuri, or worse. He needs them with him.

Yuuto gives Yuugo another tentative pat on the shoulder and withdraws his hand, going slow as if to ascertain that he wasn’t about to fall apart without it. “I don’t like it either,” he admits, the crease between his eyebrows deepening. Yuuya realizes that he must be just as frustrated as Yuugo is.  “We don’t know what Akaba Reiji is after either.  All Shun told me was that he had a grudge against his father.”

“Maybe we need to ask him directly,” Yuuya mutters.  All this conjecture isn’t going to get them anywhere, this endless cycle of asking themselves if they should trust Reiji. Two pairs of identical eyes swivel towards him and Yuuya ends up squirming under the sudden intensity of their gazes. “I mean.  We’ve met before. He said he admired my father.  Maybe I can talk to him. Figure out what his plans actually are so we can be proper allies.”  Like they never had been in the past. Or is it future?  If they’re not sharing information, then how can there be trust?

Yuugo’s eyes clear as he smacks a fist into his palm. “That’s right!  If he’s not going to talk then we’ll make him. We’ll beat the shit out of him and then we’ll make him cough up where they’re keeping Rin and Ruri!”

“Wait, no. No one is beating anyone up,” Yuuya says hurriedly while Yuuto starts to pinch the bridge of his nose like he’s trying to stave off an impending migraine. It doesn’t seem to be working for him. “We’re just going to talk.”

The Synchro duelist doesn’t look quite convinced as he sits back down with a vaguely dissatisfied expression. “Okay, fine,” he says reluctantly.  “Yuuya will talk to him.  But I’m coming with!  What if it’s a trap?”

“It’s only a trap if he thinks Yuuya is coming,” Yuuto says, his expression neutral but Yuuya can detect a faint undercurrent of sarcasm that he dearly hopes Yuugo doesn’t notice. “And do all your plans involve beating people up for information?”

Yuugo’s eyes narrow suspiciously.  “What are you trying to say?”

“You would get along with Shun.”

“You’re picking a fight with me, aren’t you?”

“Guys!” Yuuya finds himself interjecting for the nth time. It’s almost as if there is just some immutable law of nature that the two of them will inevitably collide over every topic imaginable. Yuugo is the first to tear himself away, huffing childishly as he crosses his arms over his chest. The only indication of Yuuto’s annoyance is a tick in his brow, but it smooths over when he turns back to Yuuya.

“I never wanted to involve you in all this, Yuuya,” Yuuto speaks up quietly. “You have already done so much for us, taking us in and stopping us from making a terrible mistake. But this isn’t your fight.”

“No. It is,” Yuuya says. It takes all of the acting skills he possesses to hide away the crushing weariness that had buried itself deep in his bones. “If Akaba Leo is waging wars on the other dimensions, if he attacked Heartland and kidnapped people from the Synchro dimension… if he sent Sora as some kind of scout… then it doesn’t make sense that he’ll leave the Standard dimension alone.”

Yuugo frowns, eyes darkening. “You think there’s a chance that he’ll attack my dimension too?  I don’t want to save Rin just to make her go through a war.”

Images of straw-blond hair and sneering green eyes flash across Yuuya’s vision and he flinches at the phantom pain searing through his head. He bites his lip.  There would be no war coming for the Synchro dimension because it had fallen a long time ago.  Him knowing about Yuuri was already a stretch; there’s no way he can explain away this kind of knowledge.  “That’s why we have to stop Academia. Before they can ruin any more lives.”

“So it’s decided, then?” Yuuto murmurs, pushing himself off the ground and dusting off his jeans.  “We’ll go to LDS tower and get our answers.”  

“Yeah!” Yuugo calls out, also climbing to his feet.  His gaze is serious and focused, although the way he’s cracking his knuckles makes Yuuya slightly nervous. “We’ll make that Reiji guy cough up everything.”

Yuuya gets to his feet as well, a little warily as it seems like the both of them are under the impression that Yuuya had meant for them to go this instant .  He can still hear Yoko moving around downstairs, but from his counterpart’s determined expressions, he knows they’re tired of stalling.  He’s tired of it too; every second they spend thinking is another second of action wasted.  “Right, let’s-”

They're interrupted by a sudden blast of music which makes them all jump. Yuugo lets out a strangled shout while Yuuto has assumed some sort of defensive posture with his duel disk halfway to activation which would have been amusing if Yuuya’s heart didn’t feel like it was going to burst open. Until he finally registers what they’re hearing.

“- lights on, biri-biri, everybody going, kabe o tsukiyabure!”

It takes Yuuya an age to recognize the sound of his own ring-tone and he flushes red, practically diving for the duel disk that he had left on his desk. The display flashes insistently and he almost drops the device when he sees the caller-ID.  

Yuuya’s breath catches like he had been punched in the lungs. Suddenly, any thoughts of Akaba Reiji or dimensional wars bleed from his mind and the world narrows to the four blinking letters on the screen.  He’s peripherally aware of Yuuto and Yuugo’s calling out to him, but the concerned voices sound distant and muted like they’re coming through the end of a long tunnel. It isn’t until Yuuto reaches forward to grab his shoulder that he’s finally brought back to reality.

“Sorry!” he gasps, hands fumbling with the knobs as his body starts moving towards the other room without his brain catching up.  “I have to take this!”

“Hey, wait!  What about going to see Akaba Reiji? Hey, Yuuya!”

Everything is spinning; his vision tilts and Yuuya doesn't remember leaving the room until he finds himself with his back pressed against the closed door in his bathroom. With shaking fingers, he hits receive.

“ Yuuya !  Where have you been ?”

Yuuya fumbles with his duel disk again, nearly dropping it from surprise.  The phrase, ‘a sight for sore eyes’ springs into mind as he desperately drinks in the sight in front of him.  His eyes sting, even as he forces to keep them open so he can take in her face. Seeing her alive and well fills him with a dizzying euphoria and relief that he can't put to words. He had known, intellectually, that she would be.  But seeing her with his own eyes, even through a screen, hits him so hard that his knees buckle.

“Yuzu…” he chokes out past the lump in his throat.

She's here.  Safe and sound with her family and friends in the city they grew up in. If she had been here physically, he knows he would have broken down, clinging to her and blubbering like an idiot. There are so many things he wants to say, so many apologies and regrets.  He wants to tell her how much he missed her, how he never realized how much he leaned on her before she disappeared. All those nights of sleepless worry, the gut-wrenching fear as her body fell from the course, the blank look in her eyes when Akaba Leo reduced her to a doll.

But he holds it all back.  Choking it all back down even as his emotions threatened to combust.

This Yuzu won't have any idea what he's talking about.  This Yuzu hasn't lived it yet.  She hasn’t experienced being hunted by Academia, the madness of the Synchro dimension, or Akaba Leo’s twisted machinations.  Right now, all Yuzu had to worry about was competing in the championship and the whispers of a war she couldn't understand.  

He can't burden her with all that, Yuuya realizes as a pang rips through his chest.  She might not even believe him.  Yuuya wouldn't have believed him.  How could he tell her that some madman was willing to plunge the world into fire and chaos just to get to her?  How could he tell her he came from a future where he saw her disappear?

She already looks awful .  Brows knitted in worry, blue eyes shadowed by dark circles and her hair mussed like she hasn’t slept a wink.

“Yuuya, what happened last night?  Where did you go?  What happened to Sora? Is he okay? Is he with you?” Yuzu fires off a litany of questions that has Yuuya reeling once again.  His already turbulent emotions are thrown into further disarray at the mention of Sora.  

Reality hits him like a blow to the gut.

Yuzu isn't safe.  None of them are.  All of those terrible things are still lurking just around the corner.  At this point, Sora is only one of many threats ahead. Whatever sudden change of heart he might have had in the future certainly didn't stop him from doing what he did to Hikage or to Kurosaki.  

There just isn't enough time .

“Yuuya?”

Yuuya realizes he must have been quiet for too long when Yuzu calls out again   He swallows hard.Tries to sort through the mess in his head to come up with something to say.  Something to reassure her.  “It's a long story,” he says hoarsely.   “Sora… He... went back home.  I’ll tell you and Gongenzaka about it together.”

Yuzu’s lips pursed like she wants to poke all sorts of holes through his flimsy excuse but she ends up giving in with a sigh. “I guess the important thing is that you're okay,” she murmurs.  “You really scared us, you know? You could have at least messaged me back!”

“I… I know. I should have,” he says, wincing at the volume of Yuzu’s voice. “I just. Had a lot of things on my mind.”

“Like what?” Yuzu asks with a suspicious glare and Yuuya can fill in the rest. What could be more important than finding their injured friend ?

But Sora hadn't thought of them as friends, had he?  Yuuya had been so convinced that if they only talked it would all be a misunderstanding.  Until he watched him card another duelist and laugh.  It had taken Yuzu being threatened for him to come to his senses.  What would it take this time around?

“Just… just stuff,” Yuuya says.  

“Stuff,” Yuzu echoes, her voice flat with an undercurrent of hurt that makes his chest clench.  

“It's complicated,” he says and winces when Yuzu’s expression turns flatter.  “I mean.  I've… there's just a lot going on right now.  Like… family stuff?”

“Family stuff? Is your mom alright?” The hurt in Yuzu’s eyes is immediately replaced with concern.  “Do you need me to come over? Is there anything I can do?”

“No, no. Everyone’s fine,” Yuuya says hastily.  “Uh. I just… Have some relatives over.”

As if right on cue, someone pounds loudly on the bathroom door.

“Yuuya!” Yuugo’s voice rings insistently through the wood.  “Who are you talking to?  Aren’t we supposed to be going now? Yuuya!”

To make matters worse, it is then that Yuuto’s baritone also makes itself heard.  “Yuuya? Is everything alright?”  

“Yuuya, who’s that?” Yuzu asks with bewilderment on her face. Her eyebrows knit with confusion as recognition flashes through her eyes. “Wait… that person sounds familiar…”

Yuuya’s chest constricts; he had completely forgotten something very, very important. Yuuto and Yuzu had known each other.  Yuzu definitely won’t believe that they’re really Yuuya’s long-lost siblings from out of town (or rather, from different dimensions). If she recognizes Yuuto, he knows she’ll come running. The last thing he needs right now is for them to be separated again but how the hell is he supposed to explain that to Yuzu?  He hasn’t spent all this time and effort convincing them to work together, only to have everything undone. He sucks in a deep breath.  The concern and suspicion radiating from Yuzu is palpable and Yuuya knows that Yuzu would come running at the slightest hint that Yuuya is in distress.  And he certainly hadn’t helped himself any with how suspicious and off-balance he was acting.

Yuuya breathes out slowly and does the only thing he can think of doing.  He relaxes his shoulders, letting the built-up tension artificially dissipate as he slides a smile so smoothly onto his face that it looks real. The apprehension and panic is easily masked by the sheepish curl of his lips as he places a hand behind his head. The motions feel odd, yet familiar. Like he’s an actor playing an old part.

“Give me a sec, I’ll be right out!” he calls out to them. He turns back to Yuzu, lips still turned up into an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I have to go. I’ll see both you and Gongenzaka tomorrow, okay?”

“But-” Yuzu tries to argue.  Yuuya doesn’t blame her. He wouldn’t be happy if it had been Yuzu who had mysteriously disappeared and then refused to say a word. He’ll just have to make it up to her.

“Don’t worry, Yuzu,” Yuuya cuts in gently. “I promise I’ll explain everything then. We can meet up at that pancake house if you want. I’ll even treat you guys to apologize for making you worry.”

Yuzu still doesn’t look convinced but sensing that she probably isn’t going to get anything else out of him, she lets out a sigh. “Fine,” she says, rubbing her temples before she glares at him with a hint of childishness as she crosses her arms.  “But only if it’s your treat.”

“Yeah,” Yuuya says, managing a laugh. “See you guys then.”

“See you.”

As soon as the call ends, the strength leaves his legs and Yuuya finds himself sliding down against the door with a gasp.  He touches a trembling hand to his chest and feels his heart beating as furiously as if he had run a marathon.

“Yuzu…” he whispers, covering his face as he works to regulate his breathing. His eyes are damp. “I promise I'll save you this time.”

But this isn't the time to sit around and mope about his the rewritten past.  The banging on the door grows louder and Yuugo’s voice more impatient as the seconds trickle on.  

“Did you fall in or something?!”

“No, I'm coming.”  Yuuya turns on the tap and splashes water on his face.  By the time he opens the door again, all traces of redness have gone from his eyes.  In its place, determination burns.  He meets Yuuto and Yuugo’s gazes steadily.

“Let’s go then.  To LDS tower.”

Chapter Text

It only occurs to Yuuya he's only seen it up close a handful of times and only been inside once.  But it never failed to strike a strange sense of awe.  LDS Tower, clearly the tallest landmark in Maiami City, was a symbol of prestige and power. Leo Corporation’s young president, Akaba Reiji, had been lauded as a true genius when he took over from his absent father.  He would have been the same age as him, maybe even younger when he took on all that responsibility.

As Yuuya gazes up at its sleek glass curtainwalls stretching almost beyond what the eye can see, he feels incredibly small.

“Do we just walk in through the front door?” Beside him, Yuugo shifts his weight from one foot to the other.  He doesn't look anxious, per say, but there is an undercurrent of agitation in his voice that Yuuya can understand.

“LDS is mostly just a school.  At least, from what I've seen of the lower levels,” Yuuya replies. He remembers being given a tour by Sawatari the first time they met, under the guise of wanting a friendly duel. They did end up dueling in the center court, but only after he tried to steal his Pendulum cards.  He briefly spares a thought for the Sawatari he'd left behind in the future; he had really come a long way, hadn't he?

Akaba Reiji’s office would have to be on one of the upper floors. Yuuya can only remember going up there once, just before they departed for Yuugo’s home dimension.  The last time, he hadn’t exactly been in the right mindset to pay attention to his surroundings.  His emotions had felt like one open wound, bleeding from losing Yuzu and Sora’s betrayal.  They had just driven off an interdimensional invasion but all they had to show for it were fallen comrades and Reiji’s declarations of war.  They had effectively been conscripted into the Lancers.  Lance Defence Soldiers.

“Guess we’ll find out,” Yuuto mutters.

The three of them share a nod before Yuuto melts into the shadows and Yuugo, back in his riding gear, jams his helmet back onto his head and tints his visor. They agreed that it would draw far too much attention for three Sakaki Yuuyas to wander right into their lobby.

The glass doors slide open and the pair of them step into the foyer.  Yuuya fights an odd kind of double vision as he takes in the towering wall to wall screens and endless glass hallways.  Everything down to the last tile seems to redefine ‘state of the art’. The last time he was here, the place had been packed with students but now it is surprisingly empty.  There are only a few children scattered around, watching the broadcast on the screen or practicing behind the glass room.

The silence is almost eerie.  But with the Maiami Championship going on, it's to be expected that not many would still be hanging around, maybe aside from the unlucky ones that failed to qualify.

Yuuya takes a deep breath to steady his nerves and gives his gawking companion a gentle nudge. Yuugo snaps his jaw closed.

“This is a school?!” he hisses to Yuuya and even with most of his face behind his visor, Yuuya can still make out his incredulousness.

“I couldn't believe it either,” he replies under his breath. He had been just like Yuugo, looking around like a wide-eyed country bumpkin. “But we don’t have time to waste.”  

Yuugo nods imperceptibly and straightens up.  Their footsteps echo strangely as they make their way across the hallway towards the reception desk where a lone woman was standing.

“Welcome to Leo Duel School.  How can I help you today?” she asks in a polite monotone as they reach the front. But upon a second look at Yuuya’s face and a quick glance to his duel disk, recognition flashes through her eyes. “Ah, you're Sakaki Yuuya! You're the one who did the speech at the opening ceremony.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s me,” Yuuya says, slightly thrown for a loop at being recognized. But then again, this is his home dimension. He recovers quickly and cuts right to the chase. “We were wondering if we could talk to President Akaba.”

“Of course,” the lady says as she brings up a translucent screen. “Do you have an appointment to see him?”

Yuuya blinks.  “Uh. No?” It comes out as more of a question than an answer as he and Yuugo shares an awkward silence. “But it's important.”

“I'm afraid I can't let you to see the president in without an appointment,” the woman says apologetically.   “He is a very busy man.”

“Then,” Yuuya fishes around for something to say as he can feel Yuugo stirring restlessly beside him. “Can we make one?”

“Sure thing,” she says, scrolling through the screen which Yuuya realizes was actually a scheduling assistant.  “Let’s see. Ah, yes, he has an opening two weeks from now on Thursday at 8:00 am. Will that do?”

Yuuya’s stomach drops.  “In two weeks?!” he echoes.  “Are you sure?”

“I'm afraid so. Unless another appointment is canceled, that's the earliest available time.”

Yuugo cuts in indignantly, his hands balled up into fists and Yuuya is suddenly worried that he might leap forward to strangle the receptionist.  “We can't wait that long!”

“Can you send him a message?” Yuuya insists, subtly stepping in front of Yuugo. “Tell him that Sakaki Yuuya is here and… and we need to talk to him about Academia.”

“Academia?” The woman echoes with a hint of skepticism and Yuuya realizes his error too late.  “If you boys want to enroll in one of our duel courses, I can provide you with our application forms. There's no need to trouble the president for that.”

“No, wait!” Flustered now, Yuuya tries to backtrack. “We're not here to enroll! Please, just pass that message on to him-”

“I'm sorry,” she cuts him off with a shake of her head “But if you want to speak with him, then you will have to follow procedure like everyone else.  We can't just let anyone in walk in to see him, especially not if it's going to waste his time.”

“Screw procedure!” Yuugo explodes before Yuuya can react, slamming his hands down on the desk. The lady rears back in shock, a hint of fear flitting across her face.  “What's wrong with at least passing the message on?! Or are you saying your boss can't decide for himself what's important or not?”

“Ex-excuse me?” the woman stammers, startled offense spreading her face. “Even if you are children, you shouldn't speak to your elders like that-”

“Yuugo!” Yuuya lets out a panicked hiss. “Wait a minute-”

But Yuugo continues on like he hadn’t heard a word.  “Tell Akaba Reiji to get his ass down- mmpfh!”

Yuuya tightens his grip over Yuugo’s mouth, wincing when one of his pointy elbows dig into his ribs.  “Sorry, we just… really, really need to talk to him. Please, there are lives at stake!”

“Please leave the premises at once,” the receptionist says severely, the affront on her face melting into icy politeness. The two men in black suits and dark glasses not so subtly begin to leave their post at the elevators, advancing slowly on them. The message is clear.

“Haaah?!” Yuugo wiggles out of Yuuya’s grip and there is no doubt that his eyes are taking on a troublesome glint behind his shaded visor. Rather than cowing him, he seems to be taking it as a personal challenge, bringing his fists together and cracking his knuckles. “Just try and make us!”

Yuuya practically dives at him, locking his biceps around Yuugo’s shoulders.  “No, no! It's fine!  We’re leaving now, okay? There's no need to make us to anything.”

“What the hell? Yuuya, let me go!” Yuugo hisses, not at all appreciative of Yuuya’s efforts to do damage control. “We can take them!”

Yuuya doesn't doubt that they can, only he really doesn't think beating up Reiji’s employees is the best way to get an audience with him. He doesn't want to be spending the rest of the tournament cooling his heels in a cell.  “We don't want to draw any more attention,” he says into his ear.  “There could… there could be Academia spies around or something. We’ll find another way in!”

Actually, Yuuya knows for a fact that there are spies around. Particularly a certain redheaded Academia soldier who must be hanging around LDS to keep an eye on Reiji’s movements. There's more than one way in; Yuuto can try to get in contact with Shun and pass on the message that way. Or they could contact Hokuto, Yaiba, or Masumi.  The problem is, it all depends on whether Akaba Reiji himself would agree to see him.  It's demoralizing, to say the least, having met a roadblock at the first juncture.  But Yuuya isn't about to give up now.

For a moment, Yuugo falls into a pensive silence and Yuuya breathes a sigh of relief and lets his arms drop. “Come on, Yuugo.  Let's go back-to-back- Yuugo?!”

Yuuya is a step too late as Yuugo suddenly lunges forward. Snarling, he slams into one of the guards, leaving Yuuya to gape at him in horror.  The first guard goes down with a strangled yelp, obviously not having anticipated that someone so much smaller would be so ferocious.

There is a confused flurry of activity as the receptionist screams and Yuuya hurries forward to do something like pulling Yuugo back. But that only added fuel to the fire as Yuuya gets the breath knocked out of him as the second security guard tackles him to the ground without so much as a warning.

When they all eventually straighten up, the guard marching Yuugo out is spotting a nasty shiner and a split lip courtesy of his wildly swinging fists, while Yuuya’s captor’s nose is bleeding like a fountain from an entirely accidental headbutt.

“I’m really, really sorry,” Yuuya apologizes again but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Or rather, it gets drowned out by Yuugo’s furious yelling. “We just wanted to talk to Reiji!”   

Yuuya and Yuugo are sent sprawling as the guards toss them out bodily.

“And don’t come back!” the lady screams after them as the doors slide shut.

Groaning, Yuuya slowly picks himself up off the ground.  When he tries to get another glimpse back inside, he spies the two security guards cracking their knuckles and lets out a sigh.  This was not at all how he’d pictured this to go at all.

Yuugo growls, rolling up his jacket sleeves like he’s gearing up for round two. “Don’t think you’ve won, you bastards!”

“C’mon Yuugo,” Yuuya says, quickly grabbing into Yuugo’s arm before the situation can escalate any further than it already has. “Let’s go meet up with Yuuto. Like we agreed on, remember?”

To his great relief, Yuugo only gives the security guards a vicious glare before finally backing down. “Urgh! Fine,” he says with a huff and allows him to drag him away from the steps.  “We coulda taken them, you know.”

“Yes, Yuugo,” Yuuya says wearily. “I know. But we’re supposed to be asking Reiji for help. He might not want to hear us out if we beat up all his staff.”  Well, to be honest, with motivations as opaque as Reiji’s, Yuuya isn’t entirely sure how he would react, but it’s probably better to play it safe. Although, Yuuya doesn’t put it past him to have seen the entire confrontation.

Yuugo grumbles a few more uncomplimentary things under his breath as they make their way back to the alcove where they had agreed to rendezvous with Yuuto, out of sight from the surveillance cameras.  They settle in to wait.

Luckily, they don't have too long to wait.  Minutes later, Yuuto swoops down from the rooftops and lands in front of them, breaking the tense silence.  Yuuya is especially relieved as he had grown tired of watching Yuugo wear a hole in the ground with his pacing. But he doesn’t blame him. Yuuya has just as much reason to anxious, if not more.

“How did it go?” Yuuya asks somewhat anxiously.  “Did you get in touch with Kurosaki?”

To his disappointment, Yuuto shakes his head in the negative.

“It's no good,” he sighs, removing the mask from his face.  “Ever since Shun went to LDS tower, I haven't been able to get in contact with him.  Akaba Reiji must have installed some kind of jamming system to filter out unauthorized communication.”

Yuuya grits his teeth, all too aware of the seconds ticking by.  Time running out. If they don't talk to Reiji before the battle royale, things will play out exactly the same way. “Another dead end, huh?”

“I have an idea,” Yuugo pipes up and they turn to look at him with varying degrees of skepticism and hope.  “We’ll charge in from the front and make him talk to us!”

Yuuya stumbles while Yuuto claps a hand over his face. “Yuugo, there's no way they'll let us in there again.”

“And even if we do, we won't make it past the ground floors,” Yuuto explains with deliberate kind of patience. “You need a pass to even get into the elevators.”

Yuugo suddenly grins, looking so smug and self-satisfied that Yuuya momentarily mistakes him for Yuuri.  “You mean like this?” Still grinning, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out an LDS keycard.

“How- when did you-?” Yuuya sputters, torn between shock and admiration.

Yuugo shrugs, scratching his cheek almost bashfully.  “Took it off the Security guy when I was tackling him. I saw it sticking out of his pocket and thought it could be useful. Here.”

Yuuya snatches the card from the air, still shaking his head in disbelief. He looks back to Yuugo who seems to be watching him expectantly and it takes him a moment to realize he was waiting for a response. A slow grin spreads over his face as an incredulous laugh spills out from his throat. “Nice work, Yuugo!”

“I’m actually impressed,” Yuuto admits, looking just as flummoxed as Yuuya feels.  “I never pegged you to be much of a forward-thinker but I guess you’re full of more surprises than I thought.”

The answering grin that Yuugo shoots them both is blindingly bright. “Yeah, that’s right!” he enthuses.  “Let’s see them try and stop us now!  … Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”  The last part was obviously directed at Yuuto as he takes a threatening step toward him.  

Yuuya is almost moving on autopilot as he inserts himself between them again.  “We should probably wait until regular hours are over,” he says, finding it easier and easier to ignore the angry sparks flying between their eyes. “At least until those security guards are gone.”

“Shouldn’t be long now,” Yuuto says as he gazes up at the sky.  “When we first arrived in Standard, Shun and I conducted our own surveillance. They should be changing shifts in about two hours.”

“Perfect,” Yuuya says. “That’s when we’ll break in!”

Yuugo smacks a fist into his palm. “And this Reiji guy better have answers ready for us!”

Some think of time as a stream; a linear flow of events from one predestined path to another.  And now the first stone is cast.

Chapter Text

Leo Duel School is creepy at night.

As the sun dips below the horizon, long, eerie shadows transform the pristine, modern building into an uncanny house of mirrors.  Their footsteps echo against the tiles despite their best efforts to muffle the sounds and their reflections flicker from window to window almost like the had a will of their own. Yuuya feels almost as if they had been transported to a strange, silent otherworld that only consisted of the three of them.

In the two hours between the changing and the guards, the three of them had made a short pitstop back home, mostly to reassure Yoko that they would be coming back soon and also to pick up a  change of clothes. Something darker, mostly so Yuugo doesn’t stick out like a traffic light with his pale clothes. The stolen keycard had worked like a charm, unlocking the front entrance with a quiet click.

There’s no sign of any guards as they make their way through the empty hallways and the only signs of movement at all are their own. They come to a stop next to the very set of elevators that the security guards had been standing guard over.

“Everyone ready?” Yuuya asks quietly, the stolen keycard gripped tightly in his hand. His duel disk whirls to life on his arm, just in case they run into trouble.  And Yuuya has a sinking suspicion trouble will find them regardless this night.

“Yes,” Yuuto says as Yuugo nods vigorously, his body practically coiled like a spring. “Remember, if that security guard realized his pass was missing-”

“They'll deactivate it or get it to trigger some kind of alarm,” Yuugo cuts in impatiently. “We know already. Let's just hurry up!”  If anything, Yuugo looks almost eager for a chance to bash some heads.

“Let’s hope it doesn't come to that,” Yuuya says firmly.  The three of them watch with bated breath as he slides the magstripe through the reader and the light flashes yellow before finally settling on green.

They let out collective sighs of relief as the metallic doors slide open to reveal an empty car.

“It worked!” Yuugo exclaims in a loud whisper, but at least he’s making an effort to be stealthy.

“Save the celebrating for when we actually get to our destination,” Yuuto says as he strolls past them, stepping cautiously into the car. Even Yuuya doesn't think Reiji is insane enough to boobytrap his elevators but one can never be too careful.

“According to the floor plan, his office is on the 100th floor,” Yuuya says as he and Yuugo join him in the car.

The synchro duelist immediately goes for the control panel, gloved fingers hovering over the buttons. But that’s where they discover the first snag in their plans.

“Hey, what gives?  This thing only goes up to ninety!”

Yuuya preemptively shoots Yuuto a warning look because there is a glint in his eye that makes him worry that he's about say something sarcastic like congratulating Yuugo on being able to count that high. He does not want another argument while they're essentially going to be trapped in a small metal box.  

“It’s another layer of security,” Yuuto explains instead, his voice neutral.  “It makes sense that they would want to limit the amount of access that an intruder could have to sensitive data.”

“We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there,” Yuuya says. After all that trouble earlier, if things suddenly start going well now, he’d be even more worried.

The doors slide shut with an odd sense of finality.  They settle into a tense silence, watching as the glowing digits increment.  The ride is smooth, with almost no turbulence which speaks to how much importance LDS places on cutting-edge technology.   Until the car suddenly lurches and comes to a shuddering stop.  Luckily for Yuuya, he had been gripping onto the handrail and managed to keep his balance.

“Is everyone alright?” he calls out, trading concerned looks with Yuuto.

“What the hell was that?!” Yuugo yelps, scrambling back on his feet and leaping for the panel.  “Why’d we stop?!” He furiously mashes the lit-up button as if to urge it to move again until Yuuto swats his hands away.

“That’s not going to help,” he grits out, but his deepening frown gives away his anxiousness.  “Maybe it’s just a malfunction.”  

The display flashes almost mockingly, perpetually stuck at seventy-five. Yuuya’s hands clench as the seconds tick by. “Or maybe,” he mutters, “They’re onto us.”

A full minute passes by, full of gnashing teeth and Yuugo trying to dismantle the control panel with his bare hands, but the doors remain firmly shut. If they weren’t tense before they’re definitely tense now.  

“Damn it, we don’t have time for this!!” Yuugo shouts, slamming a fist against the metal and Yuuya winces when he feels the entire elevator shake. Suddenly, he’s reminded unpleasantly that elevators are only suspended by several thin cables.

“We have to get out of here,” he agrees.  The walls are starting to feel claustrophobic; with every breath that he takes, the tiny box seems that much smaller. He winces, squeezing his eyes shut when memories of being kept prisoner in the Synchro dimension assault his mind.  They have to get out .  He had been trapped in an elevator once before, when he had been very young.  He remembers clinging to Yoko’s hand and crying as the technician on the other side of the speaker tries to console them.  It had taken close to an hour before they were finally freed.  But they can’t wait for rescue. If they’re lucky, security will toss them out on their asses and if they’re not, they could all be headed for straight for a detention centre.

“Stand back,” Yuuto suddenly says, throwing an arm out that has Yuugo blinking at him in confusion. Before Yuuya can voice his questions, Yuuto’s duel disk is already thrumming and a card is shining in his hand.

“I summon Phantom Knights - Ragged Gloves!”

Yuugo lets out a yelp and scrambles out of the way as a ghostly figure suddenly emerges in the middle of the car. “What the heck are you doing? It’s already cramped enough in here!”

“Go!” Yuuto commands and the pair of haunted gauntlets rushes forward towards the door and wedges its fingers into the steel.  Mouths agape, Yuuya and Yuugo watch in awe as the metal strains and buckles beneath the monster’s assault.

“That’s right!” Yuuya murmurs, staring down at his duel disk. Unlike his own, Yuuto and Yuugo’s duel disks could materialize Real Solid Vision without the help of an Action Field!  It was only when they had departed for the Synchro dimension that Reiji upgraded the Lancer’s disks.

With a groan, the monster gives one last heave and the heavy elevator doors fly open.  Wasting no time, Yuuto darts through the entrance, having to hoist himself up onto the floor since the elevator had gotten stuck midway. He turns back around, his monster vanishing into sparks behind him as he peers back down at them.  “Coming?” he asks wryly.

The Synchro user is the next to recover, hopping a bit to get the momentum to heave himself up. “Okay, fine,” he says reluctantly as he crosses his arms. “That was actually kind of cool.”  Yuuto rolls his eyes in response but Yuuya can see a hint of a  smile playing at his lips.  “C’mon, Yuuya.  Let’s get going.”

Yuuya blinks, bemused at the sight of his counterparts’ outstretched hands as they reach back in for him. He stares up at their faces; Yuugo’s is tinged with an expectant impatience while Yuuto’s exudes a steady calm. But both of them are smiling at him. A lump rises up into Yuuya’s throat as he quietly engraves this moment in his heart.

For the first time, he believes that they can change the future.   

“Yeah!” he says, reaching up and grabbing onto their hands and lets them yank him up. With the three of them finally back on solid ground, they turn to take stock of their surroundings.  The light suddenly flickers on, momentarily blinding them. They recover quickly enough, thanks to the goggles lowered over their faces.

“Huh?” Yuugo mutters as he peers through his fingers, being the first to voice what they were all thinking. “There's nothing here!”

Nothing was an apt description. They had stepped into what looked like a massive chamber that seemed to span the entire length of the floor.  But there was absolutely nothing in it, just square, white tiles covering the walls and ceilings.

“This is…” Yuuya frowns. On the very far side of the room, he can make out what looks like another set of large, double doors; their only conceivable way out. “This feels like a trap.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the entire floor shudders violently and the walls and ceilings begin to glow.

ACTION FIELD, ON!

Yuuya barely has time to shout out a warning before their surroundings begin to warp. Alarm flares as columns of stone and metal rises up around them, spiraling up and twisting into corridors and staircases.  

“Yuuya!”

Suddenly, Yuuya experiences a bout of weightlessness when the floor beneath his feet suddenly vanishes.  He catches a glimpse of Yuuto and Yuugo’s horrified faces as they get further and further away. Or rather, he's the one who is plummeting like a rock.

Yuuya moves without thinking, hands blurring to his deck as he draws, slamming the first two cards onto his duel disk.

“Entermate - Whipviper !   Swordfish!” The violet serpent shoots up from around his wrist and coils itself around swordfish that had embedded itself into the side of the pitfall. Yuuya winces as the recoil jars his arm, but his body comes to a swinging stop.  Safe.

“Yuuya! YUUYA! You're not dead, right?! Yell if you're not dead!”

That would be Yuugo, he guesses with a relieved sigh. No sense of delicacy as usual.

“I'm fine!” he calls out, deliberately not looking down as he tries to figure out how far he had fallen.  He can barely make out Yuuto and Yuugo’s concerned faces.

“Hold on, I'm coming now,” Yuuto says but Yuugo cuts him off.

“Leave this to me,” he says, jabbing a thumb at his chest.  “You already got your chance to show off!  I summon Speedroid - Menkoat!”

Yuuya watches as what looks like a mechanical magic carpet zips down from above.  It covers beside him with four little jets blasting and Yuuya wastes no time in swinging himself aboard as his own monsters vanishing into sparks behind him. The ride up is thankfully much smoother and in a matter of seconds, Yuuya is thankfully back on solid ground.

“Thanks, Yuugo,” he gasps, finally noticing how much his heart was pounding.

“What the hell is going on!” Yuugo exclaims as he helps Yuuya steady himself, holding onto his arm with a bit more force than necessary while Yuuto hovers over him, checking for injuries.  All three of them were rattled by the near miss. “Did we teleport again?!”

Yuuya can understand how Yuugo could have gotten that impression.  The room they were in had been completely transformed.  Somehow, a labyrinth of thick stone walls and endlessly winding passages have sprung up between them and the only exit. Even the temperature seems to have dropped, cold and damp radiating from the aged stone which adds another layer of unwanted realism to their predicament. There’s no doubt now that they’ve walked straight into a trap.

“No,” he explains, frowning as he tries not to give away his anxiousness. They can’t see much from their vantage point; only a fork in the path between the set of gray stone walls and a claustrophobically low ceiling. The only consolation is that the area seems to have stabilized for now. “This is Real Solid Vision. We haven't left LDS tower… this must be an Action Field. But it's not one I've ever seen.”

And where there are action fields, there must be enemy duelists.  His fists clench as he looks up at the ceiling, wondering if they’re being watched. There’s no way Reiji wouldn’t leave his tower unmonitored.  He wouldn’t put it past him to be sitting on the other side of a screen at this very moment!

“Really? No way!” Yuugo says, doing a double take as he bounds over to the nearest wall, running his hands over the rock. He even raps his knuckles against it a few times and blinks in bewilderment at the dull thuds that it gives off.  “But it looks so real! And it’s hard!”

“It's not any different from your hologram monsters,” Yuuto mutters. “Just on a much larger scale.”

Yuuya sucks in a deep breath and expels it, but he doesn't feel any calmer.  With an action field in place and interfering with their senses, there’s no guarantee they’ll perceive the exit even if they’re standing right in front of it.  Even now, when he glances behind at where they came through, the broken elevator doors that he knows should be there are nowhere to be seen. “For now, let's just focus on getting out of here.”

“It’s obvious they’re trying to slow us down,” Yuuto mutters. “No doubt this is designed to keep intruders trapped in here until their security can catch up to them. If so, we had better move quickly.”

“The problem is, how are we going to get through this maze?”

“Wait a sec, we haven’t actually left the room, right?” Yuugo chips in his two cents, bringing a hand up to cup his chin. “So if we pick a random direction and go in a straight line, we’ll make it to one of the real walls for sure.”

“As long as the action field is generating Real Solid Vision, these walls are real,” Yuuya refutes. “We can’t get around them.”

“Then we’ll just break them!” Before any of them can react, Yuugo activates his duel disk again, causing them to hurriedly back away.  “I summon, Speedroid - Shave Boomerang!”

Yuuya and Yuuto both wince and shield their eyes as the monster rockets out of the portal and smashes into the wall with both its blades held high.  When they dare to look again, they see Yuugo grinning proudly at the smoking crater where the wall used to stand.

“Heh, that wasn’t so tough.”  But just as those words had left his mouth, the floors let out another violent shudder and the three of them find themselves scrambling for safety as the debris starts flying.  It almost looked like time was rewinding back as the wall that Yuugo had worked so hard to demolish literally reconstructed itself within seconds. “... Or not.”

Yuuto reaches out slowly and smacks the back of his head.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“Will you stop charging ahead blindly?” Yuuto admonishes. “You don’t know what traps might be in here!”

“Shut up! How was I supposed to know it was gonna do that?!”

“That’s the point: you don’t. We don’t know anything about this field and we’re in enemy territory. It won’t kill you to exercise some more caution!”

“Okay, okay,” Yuuya calls out wearily, sliding between them again with a hand on each of their shoulders to keep them apart. “But we’ve established that we can’t break the walls.  So what other ideas do we have?”  

“It looks like we have no choice but to solve it,” Yuuto takes a step back and adopts a pensive stance, unknowingly copying Yuugo’s earlier pose with his hand on his chin.  

Yuuya bites his lip, staring at Yuugo’s exhausted form slumped against one of the walls he had been trying to knock down.  “I’m not… really into puzzles or quizzes.”  A rather irritating memory floats up to the surface of his thoughts and Yuuya’s brows twitch as he remembers a duel he would rather forget.

Yuuto frowns consideringly as he places a hand on the closest wall. “The most common method of solving a maze is the wall-following method. In theory, if you keep to one side of the wall like so, you’re most likely going to end up at the exit.  But that’s only assuming that the walls are simply connected and that we’re not stuck at a set of walls that loops around on itself. And there’s no guarantee that this will be the quickest solution so maybe we could try using Trémaux's Algorithm...”  He pauses, finally noticing Yuuya and Yuugo’s blank faces.

“Dude, I have no idea what you just said,” Yuugo tells him, eyeing him weirdly.

“Same,” Yuuya agrees with an embarrassed shake of his head.  A pale flush dusts Yuuto’s cheeks as he coughs into his fist.

“A-Anyway.  But since this is a Solid Vision field controlled by someone else, we can’t assume it will even function like a conventional maze.”

Yuugo lets out a suspicious little cough that sounds a lot like ‘nerd’ and Yuuya watches warily as Yuuto’s gaze narrows.

“So,” Yuuya cuts in while massaging his temples. “To sum it up; we can’t stay here but there’s no guarantee that we can find our way out. I guess… we’ll just have to pick a random direction and hope for the best?”

“We might as well,” Yuuto sighs, sounding almost pained at their total lack of strategy. “We don’t have any better ideas at this point.”

Yuugo jumps up, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. On the other hand, he seems completely re-energised by the alarming lack of a concrete plan and the prospect of being trapped in a magical, moving labyrinth with no way out.  “Well, what are we waiting for?” he says with his characteristic impatience, only this time he’s actually grinning with far too much optimism. “Let’s go - left!”  He points in a random direction before marching forward.

Only for Yuuto to drag him back by the collar. “Left is this way.”

“I knew that! Let go, you eggplant-headed jerk!”

“Eggplant? How exactly do I look like an eggplant ?”

Bemused, Yuuya trails behind them. His counterparts are both sporting aggrieved expressions but this time he decides not to intercede since no one has suddenly developed glowing eyes or a supernatural need to absorb each other yet.  They continue on without incident... until one of the tiles suddenly sinks beneath his feet with an ominous click.

Chapter Text

"Yuuya!”

Yuuya barely registers the sound of Yuuto shouting his name before the world tips on its axis and the paved stone beneath his feet suddenly rips itself away. The virtual environment around them unravels, coming apart brick by brick as if being disassembled by invisible hands.  He scrambles to get his footing, grabbing at the walls only for the stone to sift through his fingers like grains of sand.  He yelps, only catching a glimpse of Yuuto’s outstretched hands and Yuugo’s wide blue eyes before the blond boy slams into his chest and knocks the wind from his lungs.

The two of them tumble back in a chaotic jumble of limbs and confusion, as the unstable gravity tosses them like a salad until they finally land in an undignified heap. Groaning, Yuuya tries to pick himself up once more, the task made more difficult than usual by the counterpart crushing his ribs.

“Oww,” Yuugo complains, and Yuuya silently agrees when his spine protests from breaking their fall. “What the hell was that all about?!”

Yuuya lets out a wince when he remembers the telltale click of the tile beneath his feet before the ground slid out beneath him. “I… I think I stepped on a switch.”   As if they didn't already have enough to deal with.

A quick glance at their surroundings confirms it; the entire labyrinth had reorganized itself again, swiftly cutting off whatever little progress they had made.  Akaba Reiji had really outdone himself this time. Yuuya grinds his teeth as another rush of impatience pulses through him and he glares up at the false ceiling.  Their destination was just floors above them, tauntingly close.  He didn’t come all the way back just to get stuck here!

“So how are we supposed to get out now?” Yuugo grouses, sounding every bit as frustrated as Yuuya feels as he slowly climbs off his ribs.  “Got any bright ideas now, Eggplant-head? … Yuuto?”

Yuuya pushes himself up to his elbows, frowning when the expected jibe doesn’t come. His gaze sweeps across the area with trepidation and lands on… nothing.  Yuuto is nowhere to be seen. The two of them are laid out in the middle of a crossroads with intersecting stone pathways with absolutely no idea where to go from here.

“Yuuto?” Yuuya calls out again, cautiously, swallowing hard as he tries to fight down the sudden wave of anxiety that is threatening to wash over him. His back screams in protest but he makes it to his feet.  “Yuuto?  Yuuto!”

He can feel his heart beating hard in his chest, feel anxiety’s cold talons clawing at his chest, wrapping around his throat and squeezing. Spots dance across his vision as he gasps. Yuuto.  Yuuto is missing. Yuuto had been his one constant since the world had stopped making sense. Even as he sat alone in the darkness of his cell, quietly counting the longest seconds as he waits for morning, Yuuto had been sleeping inside his heart.  He had been with him until the very end, supporting him, believing in him when no one else did.  But now, Yuuto is…!

“HEY!”

He rears back, yelping in shock at the pair of blue eyes just inches away from his nose. He inadvertently slams their faces together and the pair of them double over, clutching at their foreheads. The only consolation is that the impact to his skull seems to have knocked him out of his stupor.  Yuugo is the first to recover, glaring tearfully up at him with resentful eyes.

“What’s the matter with you?” he demands with his usual bluntness, although it’s tempered by the concern in his eyes. “Are you sick or something? You looked like you were freaking out and you weren’t moving.”

Yuuya stiffens, the colour draining from his face. He had another episode and Yuugo had seen. He fights down the remainder of his nausea and forces his shaking limbs up. “N-No, I’m fine,” he says, plastering another practiced smile on his face even as his pulse starts picking up again. He can’t let Yuugo worry, he can’t be weak now, not when so much is at stake. He makes a show of getting up, to reassure him, to convince both Yuugo and himself that everything is fine. “Just kind of dizzy. Maybe... maybe it’s motion sickness?”

“You don’t look fine,” Yuugo tells him, frowning. Suddenly, there’s a warm hand pressed against his forehead and Yuuya finds himself shoved back down into a sitting position as Yuugo plops himself down in front of him with his hands on his shoulders. “Take a sec if you need it. We can’t go find Yuuto and beat up Akaba Reiji if you’re sick.”

Yuuya puts up a token protest but he eventually gives up, drawing his knees up to his chest and taking slow, gulps of air as Yuugo rubs awkward circles on his back. He takes a second, closing his eyes and focusing on his breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Slowly, gradually, he comes back to his senses, the noise in his head quieting and the tremors leave his hands. Throughout it all, Yuugo is right next to him. His other counterpart will probably never know just how grateful he is for this moment.

“Sorry,” he murmurs at last. “I must have stood up too fast.” He trails off, unable to help feeling embarrassed and guilty, knowing he should have been… better. Panicking just because Yuuto hadn’t been in sight. It was such a small thing. How can he save anyone if he ends up freaking out every other minute?

“You good now?” Yuugo asks, sounding just as chagrined as Yuuya feels. He doesn’t meet his eyes, scratching his cheek. “D’you think you can walk?”

“I, yeah. I can walk.”  Yuuya still feels a little shaky but when Yuugo extends his hand, he grabs it, using it to pull himself back up to his feet. His insides feel a little hollow like someone had scraped out his chest cavity with a spoon but he can feel the world stabilizing and his thoughts slotting back in the right order. He’s rather grateful that Yuugo isn’t looking at him, giving him room to finish composing himself.  

He takes another breath, counting the seconds between breaths. First things first. He can wait until after they’ve secured Reiji’s help before buckling under the weight of this insurmountable responsibility. “Yuuto has to be around here somewhere. I mean, this is all just Solid Vision, right?”

Yuugo narrows his eyes and Yuuya luckily had the foresight to clap his hands over his ears when Yuugo turns to yell down the hallways.

“YUUTO! STOP WANDERING OFF, YOU BASTARD!”

The two of them wait until the last echoes of Yuugo’s voice fade but there is no response. Yuuya comforts himself with the knowledge that he's home. They’re not storming Academia’s halls, or stranded in an unfamiliar dimension. Yuuto will be fine. There’s no way Reiji would hurt them.

Right?

“I guess we’ll just have to keep going,” he says, eyes narrowing with determination as he readies his duel disk. They can deal with just a moving labyrinth.  Going slowly and cautiously hadn’t helped them; they’re better off trying to cover as much ground as possible since time is of the essence. There’s two ways about it: one, they wait for LDS to discover them, or they can keep moving until they find Yuuto.  And going slow and cautious hadn’t helped them avoid traps. So maybe it’s time for him to try taking a play out of Yuugo’s book?

Yuuya reaches for his cards.  “We’ll try to cover as much ground as we can. I summon, Entermate - Sliverclaw!”

A silvery wolf appears in a shower of sparks and lies down on its belly with a yip, looking more like a massive dog than anything else.  Yuuya can’t help but smile a little more genuinely as he threads his fingers through its silvery fur.  He quickly swings himself onto its back and reaches a hand out to Yuugo who is watching him with wide eyes. “Come on, we can move a lot faster this way.”

“Uh,” Yuugo says, oddly hesitant and slightly high-pitched. “You mean. You want us to get on that ?”

Yuuya stares at him questioningly with his hand still outstretched. “Um.”

The silence stretches a little until Yuugo visibly pulls himself together and presses his lips into a thin line. “Okay,” he says mostly to himself. “Okay, fine.”  He takes a rather obvious breath before clambering on clumsily behind him and Yuuya finally thinks he gets it when Yuugo holds onto his sore ribs a bit tighter than necessary.

“Uh, Yuugo,” Yuuya says tentatively as he tugs down his goggles. “It’s okay if-”

“It’s fine!” Yuugo replies quickly.  

“Uh. Okay, let’s go.”

Silverclaw gives a snort and paws at the ground and they take off at a dash, the monster’s claws scraping on the stone with a screech and Yuugo squawks into his shoulder but the sound is mostly lost to the rush of wind. The ride is a little bit rocky but Yuuya has learned to lean with Silverclaw’s gait.

Yuugo, however, isn't quite as used to it. “This is nothing like a D-Wheel,” he complains mournfully, digging his fingers in a little too tight and Yuuya lets out a sheepish laugh. Yuuya adjusts his grip on his monster’s fur and turns to check up on Yuugo who seems to be squeezing his eyes shut and feels another stir of guilt.

But at least he isn’t missing much; there isn’t much variety in the way of scenery; the silver wolf barrels through corridor after corridor and all Yuuya can see is more grey stone and he is starting to have second thoughts about this whole campaign when he hears another ominous click.

He really hopes Yuuto is having a better time than they are.

“Yuuya? ...Yuugo?”

Yuuto sighs when he gets no reply. Signals were still jammed which meant contacting Shun was still out of the question. If anything, interference here is even worse.

The halls are silent, aside from the sound of his own voice and footsteps. Silent Boots pads quietly along with him as per his namesake while Ragged Gloves hovers by his ears.  Mostly as a precaution and not because he found his newfound solitude slightly unsettling.

It occurs to him that despite the tragedy that had befallen his homeland, he had never been on his own. He had always had Shun. In the aftermath of Heartland’s destruction and Ruri’s kidnapping, they had left their home behind in search of allies. But they never could have guessed that they would end up allying with two of his doppelgangers.  It makes him wonder if they'll end up running into another Shun too.

His lips can’t help but quirk up a little as his thoughts stray to the two boys. It’s strange.  He had only just met, properly met, the others a day ago but it feels like their acquaintance had been for much, much longer and he had already gotten used to Yuugo’s irritating brashness paired with Yuuya’s calming influence.

If someone had told him yesterday that he would be wearing matching pajamas with the pawn of fusion, he might have lost his temper and punched them in the gut. Against all logic, their mutual aggression had turned out to be misplaced but Yuuto had still spent far too much time stewing with anger and resentment at the synchro user to really feel at ease. Old habits hard die. Yuuya, on the other hand, seems to be taking the news of different dimensions and a looming invasion in stride. As much as Yuuto feels guilty for getting him involved, he can’t help but admire his resolve and his kindness.

Yuuto lets out another sigh. It’s almost like he really had gained a pair of troublesome little brothers. He shakes his head a little to clear it, along with the light blush when he recalls the warmth of Yoko’s smiles. Now is really not the time for reminiscence, especially when a barrage of projectiles are suddenly whizzing at his face.

Yuuto leaps to the side, narrowing his eyes at the vibrating tail of the arrow that had nearly lodged itself into his head. There is a barrage of clinks as the next volley glances off his monster’s gauntlets as they closed around him to form a shield. He narrows his eyes, glaring through the gaps between his monster’s fingers into the darkness even as a knot of worry settles in his chest as his thoughts turn towards the others.

He waits until he sees an opening, a lull between shots and he takes his chance, swiftly darting out from under his monster’s protection to dive for cover.  Yuuto peers around the corner, glaring through the darkness to try to ascertain where the projectiles were coming from. His first thought is that this Akaba Reiji fellow must have watched too many adventure films, but then his ears pick up another sound; the subtle echo of footfalls.

His brows knit together, creasing his frown lines when a figure comes into view. With a start, he realizes he recognizes his attacker.

The boy carelessly flicks his bangs from his face, lips pulling back into a taunting sneer.  His uniform jacket is all too familiar, lined with gold and accented with red. Just like Yuuya’s.

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you, Mr. Knight.”

Yuuto drags his replacement goggles back over his face and tries his best not to sigh for the third time.   There is no mistaking those wild blond bangs and haughty smirk.  This is the absolute last thing he needs right now.

Sawatari Shingo, if he cares to remember correctly, had been boastful and far too overconfident in his strategies. Apparently, he was also the son of an official which must have inflated his sense of importance. As a duelist, however, he was decent.  But ‘decent’ isn’t enough to survive on the battlefield.

Yuuto takes a breath, quietly weighing his options. He wants to avoid wasting time, if possible. Unless this is actually part of Akaba Reiji’s plan?  

“Is he testing us?” he postulates to himself. If Akaba Reiji is anything like his father, he wouldn’t put it past him. He had thought things had gone far too smoothly. It would be more surprising if he didn’t have the entire city under 24-hour surveillance. If that’s the case, then Sawatari’s presence here must be deliberate.

“What are you mumbling about back there?” Sawatari demands. “Get out here and face me! Unless you want my Power Darts Shooter to keep firing at you? This isn’t your regular old Solid Vision here. If it hits, it’s going to hurt.”

Yuuto pushes himself back up to this feet, moving slowly back around the corner with unhurried steps as his monsters come to hover at his sides.

“How did you know where to find me?” he asks, making no move to uncover his goggles or to reach for his deck. Yet.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Sawatari smirks, tossing his bangs out of his eyes again. But he seems to be unable to resist showing off and brandishes his duel disk. “You see, only LDS honour students have access to the upper floors. Our duel disks are equipped with a program that lets us navigate the Solid Vision fields. Without it, you’ll end up trapped in here forever… or at least until our cleaners come to pick you up.”  His lips twist into a sneer.  “I guess it’s my lucky day. I’ve been waiting to pay you back.”

Behind his goggles, Yuuto narrows his eyes. This makes things a lot easier. “Very well,” he intones and clears his field with a brush of his hand and the Solid Vision monsters fade behind him, trusting Sawatari to do the same.

“But I have a condition. Once I defeat you, you will take me to my comrades.  And then you will take us straight to Akaba Reiji.”

“If you can beat me,” Sawatari corrects, still irritatingly smug. “This time, I’ll show just how sharp my blade is. Just like you wanted!”

Yuuto, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as enthused.  “Let’s get this over with quickly, then,” he mutters as he draws his first hand. He just hopes Yuuya is having a better time than he is.

Akaba Reiji absolutely watches far too many cliched adventure movies because there is no sane explanation for why they're being chased by a giant rolling boulder as giant axes swing before them. Overcompensating much?

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Yuugo says and clamps a hand over his mouth but Yuuya is too busy urging Silverclaw to run faster.

They seem to have moved beyond the drab, endless hallways and into a hell of collapsing floors and ancient traps. Yuuya supposes that the fancy columns and old carvings should have been a give away.

"Just hold on a bit longer," Yuuya cries, but he can already hear the telltale click of some other mechanism triggering. To his irritation, he thinks he can hear the sound of grinding gears.  “Sorry, Yuugo, can you give me a hand again?”

The Synchro user groans reluctantly and reaches for his deck.  “I got it, I got it,” he mutters. “I summon Speedroid - Beigomax!  Attack, that…. rock thing.”  He calls out his attack without enthusiasm and the series of bladed tops whizz behind them, bisecting the boulder several times until it finally crumbles into pieces.  “And the axes too, I guess.”

Yuuya heaves a sigh. At first, it had been rather nerve-wracking when they sprung their first trap - until they discovered that unlike the walls, other obstacles could be destroyed. Since then, it just became both tedious and nerve-wracking. They had already learned the hard way that the Solid Vision in the labyrinth was very, well, solid.

Silverclaw lets out a growl, leaping up high into the air to avoid a patch of sharp spikes protruding from the ground and pushes back off a wall to get back onto the path.  Yuugo plunks his head against Yuuya’s shoulder and makes another miserable noise. If Yuuya could spare the attention, he would have patted his shoulder or something. The rumbling sound is growing louder now and Yuuya can only guess at what else Reiji has in store for them.

The answer comes all too soon; another collapsing floor. Yuuya swears under his breath as the first tiles start to fall away. Silverclaw dashes forward, leaping off one piece of collapsing debris to the next to try to stay afloat.

“Up there!” Yuugo suddenly points out and Yuuya immediately spies their lifeline; a raised ledge at the very end of the hallway. And just beyond it, he can see light.

“Hang on tight,” he calls, leaning low in anticipation and braces himself against his monster’s back. Yuugo hurriedly does the same, just as Silverclaw leaps high into the air with a powerful thrust of its hind legs. The two of them hang on for dear life as they sail through the air until the great wolf’s claws slam into the stone ledge. For one heart-stopping second, Silverclaw slips backwards but he managed to recover, launching them through the narrow opening in the wall just as the rest of the catacombs cave in behind them.

The moment they land, Yuugo throws himself off Silverclaw’s back and promptly collapses on the ground, groaning gratefully as he waits for the world to stop spinning. Yuuya dismounts at a more measured pace, still breathing hard as he pushes his goggles off his face.  

“Let’s… let's take a break,” he gasps, right before realizing that his legs won’t take his weight and he sinks to the ground right next to Yuugo who makes a faint noise of agreement. For several seconds, neither of them speak and the air is just filled with the sounds of their ragged breaths.  Silverclaw nudges Yuuya gently with his nose before vanishing in a shower of sparks.

It takes a few more minutes before either of them feel up to talking.

“This is taking forever,” Yuugo complains into the ground, his voice coming out slightly muffled as he shows no signs of wanting to move. “I can't even tell if we’re getting closer. Can you?”

Yuuya shakes his head. He doesn't blame him for getting frustrated, especially since his own patience is wearing very, very thin. They must have been wandering around for hours and with very little to show for it, aside from massively wasting their time. And worst of all, Yuuto was still nowhere to be seen.  

Unknown to him, his hands curl into fists as his anger spikes. They are rats in a maze, jumping through hoops for the entertainment of their invisible observers. He can just about picture him, Akaba Reiji peering through the screens at him with his hands clasped in front of his face like some kind of bespectacled supervillain.  

“You’re watching us, aren't you?” he mutters, glaring up at the ceiling.  At this rate, there's no way their botched infiltration attempt hadn't been discovered. Especially not with Yuugo yelling loud enough to shake the building.

Of course, there is no response.

The only question that remains is why won’t Reiji see him?

“Uhhhhh, who are you talking to?”

Yuuya colours, forgetting that he isn’t alone. Yuugo seems to have managed to at least lift his head off the ground and is now using his newfound energy to shoot him concerned looks. “Oh, uhm. No one,” he says hastily, climbing back up to his feet and shoving down his ire. “We should keep going. Keep moving.”  His own words feel hollow, even to himself. Is there even any guarantee that they’re actually going to get out of here? For all they know, Reiji could be looping the labyrinth around them, forcing them to wander in hopeless circles for all of eternity. Yuuya shakes himself, trying to quash his doubts.

There is another pause as Yuugo groans, until very slowly and very begrudgingly, he rolls himself onto his elbows. His face is still rather pale and Yuuya feels bad all over again. “This is for Rin,” he says out loud, like a reminder and it seems to give him the strength to wobble back onto his feet with renewed determination.  “But…do we have to get back on that thing?”   

Yuuya tries not to smile at the plaintive look on his face and places a hand on his shoulder to help steady him when he stumbles. “There isn’t enough room for Silverclaw up here anyway.”

Taking cautious steps, the two of them edge their way across the narrow corridor that they had found themselves in. The space feels somewhat unfinished, compared to the rest of the labyrinth with claustrophobically low ceilings. And at the end, a bright, searing light poured in from the narrow opening, obscuring from view what laid beyond.  

They share a look, an unspoken message passing between them as they activate their duel disks again. There is a tension in the air that hadn’t existed before. Something electric enough to make his hair stand on end.  But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Yuuya takes a deep breath and steps through the opening.

He almost immediately flinches as a blast of frigid wind suddenly rushes up into his face. Beside him, Yuugo lets out a gasp.  “Holy shit,” he exclaims.  “Are we… outside ?”

“Y-Yeah,” Yuuya stammers. “Looks like it.”

They aren’t in the labyrinth anymore. But they are by no means even close to being where they have to be. In place of stone walls, they are now standing on a platform at the top of a long, stone staircase. Overlooking a vast field of sand, with the horizon line broken up only by shadowy dunes and strange, towering monoliths and stone debris. The scene is so realistic that, for a moment, even Yuuya could have sworn they really had been teleported. But surely if they had stepped through an interdimensional portal, they would have sensed it?

Yuuya takes a cautious step onto the platform, half-expecting it to collapse beneath his feet.  But the stone holds firm so he takes another.

“I don’t see that jerk out here, do you?” Yuugo mutters under his breath, his body swivelling around. “Should we go back inside?”

It’s a good question. Yuuya chews absently on his lip as he tries to think. There’s no guarantee that Yuuto will find his way out here like they did, but going back inside will just get them even more lost. Getting out of that maze counts as progress, right?  “We could try waiting out here,” he proposes slowly. At least here, there are no unbreakable walls. “If we keep going in a straight line, we’re bound to run into the boundaries of the building. Solid Vision can add mass but it can’t create space .”

Yuugo scrunches up his nose as he squints into the distance. “You sure? It looks… far.”

“It just looks that way,” Yuuya explains, absently touching a hand to his forehead. “I can’t tell you how many times I walked into a wall by accident back at You Show.”  He can’t help but crack a wry smile when he recalls the duel he had with Yuzu, right after he had pendulum summoned for the first time. He had been brimming with obnoxious confidence and had admittedly, let his victory against Strong Ishijima get to his head. And then she knocked him right into the ceiling.

He shakes his head to clear away the memories.

“Man, now I really wish I brought my D-Wheel,” Yuugo sighs before stretching out his shoulders until they pop. Then he pauses, suddenly glaring up into the sky.  “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Yuuya is suddenly alert, stretching out his senses. It’s faint, but he can make it out too; a whistling that grows louder and louder…

A hand suddenly clamps around his bicep and Yuuya gasps when Yuugo wrenches him forward. “We have to move!”

They don’t manage to take more than a couple steps out onto the platform when the entrance behind them explodes. The shockwave lifts them off their feet, catapulting them forward and Yuuya slams into the ground, groaning when the impact jars his already sore bones. He lifts his head, gasping at the red-orange plumes of flame licking at the stone. But then he hears it again, the same high-pitched whirling.

“Yuugo!” he warns, scrambling up to get to his feet. “Yuugo! There’s more!”

Scarcely as the words left his mouth, there is another explosion and he ends up yelping, diving for the ground and covering his face as he’s showered by an explosion of stone and debris. He desperately peers through his fingers, scanning the debris in search of Yuugo, his pulse hammering frantically until he sees the rocks shift.

Groaning, Yuugo pulls himself up from the other side of the partially collapsed entrance with his duel disk glowing, one of his Speedroids hovering protectively around him.

“Why are fuck are you attacking us? Show yourself, you bastard!” he shouts, punctuating his demand with a sharp sweep of his hand.

Yuuya lifts his chin, following his line of sight.  He freezes, eyes widening behind his goggles as he gazes up into the sky. Framed by the silver glow of the moonlight stood a tall figure in a dark, billowing coat. His lips drawn back into a sneer as he glowers down at them with a piercing golden gaze.

“Next time,” he promises, “I won’t miss.”

Chapter Text

Dark, sweeping bangs frame their attacker’s face as he glares down at them, shadowing their features except for the glint of his eyes. There was no mistaking those intense gold irises, smouldering with a dark, vengeful fire. For a moment, Yuuya is stunned into silence, gazing up into that unexpected face.

Kurosaki Shun.

His heart lurches. The last time he saw the XYZ user was through the glass window of his stasis pod with no guarantee he would ever open his eyes again. Kurosaki had been an unstoppable force of nature and seeing him so pale and still had struck terror into their hearts. It killed him to have to leave him behind. They were finally heading to Academia, to Ruri, and yet…

Unable to hold in his relief, he takes a step forward. “Kurosaki-!”

But Yuugo cuts him off.

“What the hell, shithead ?” he shouts, drawing his body up like a bristling feline. “What the fuck do you mean ‘you won’t miss’?  Why are you even attacking us in the first place? You could have really hurt someone!”

Kurosaki’s glare only darkens in return, sending chills up Yuuya’s spine, especially with his next words.  “Those who step onto the battlefield should be resolved to die. You should have thought twice about siding with Academia, pawn of Fusion .”

Far too late, it is then that Yuuya finally remembers where he is.

So wrapped up in his delight and relief, he had forgotten one obvious fact; this can't be the Kurosaki he knows. Fighting together in the Synchro dimension, their tag duel against the Tylers, Kurosaki telling him he believed in him … None of that had happened yet. Not here. He staggers under the weight of his realization, clutching a hand to his head at the rush of images and memories surges through his mind.  Crow, Tokumatsu, Shinji, Jack, Allen, Sayaka, Kaito, Edo -  none of them knows him. All the people they met, the ones they saved. Will he even meet them again? Can he afford to?

Yuuya deliberately breaks off his train of thought, breathing hard as he forces himself to focus on the present; on the reality that Kurosaki Shun is preparing to blow them off the face of the earth and Yuugo is about to go on the warpath.

Yuugo cracks his knuckles with a surprising amount of menace as his eyes narrow with belligerence. “How many times do I have to tell you assholes - that’s not my fucking name! If you call me that one more time, I’ll punch your stupid face in!”

Across from him, Yuuya pales, ironically remembering Yuuto’s wry comment, ‘you would get along with Shun’. No good can come out of having two of the most volatile personalities in the same space.

“Wait, wait,” he calls out hastily, holding up his hands in a gesture of universal surrender. “We shouldn’t be fighting. We’re all on the same side!”

Yuugo shoots him an incredulous look before gesturing rudely back up into the air. “How the hell do you figure that?! There’s some dude on a giant bird firing missiles at us and you think we’re on the same side? Did you hit your head, Yuuya?”

It would probably be insulting if Yuugo didn’t sound so genuinely concerned about it. Yuuya opens his mouth to deny it but Kurosaki beats him to the chase.

“Sakaki Yuuya…” Kurosaki drags out his name with slow, considering syllables, those fierce eyes flashing behind long, dark bangs that cast the rest of his face in shadows. Yuuya flinches, sensing a chill in the air as those eyes slowly swivel from Yuugo to him. “You were in the Junior Youth Championship.”

“Um. That's right,” Yuuya says, unsure of where this sudden line of questioning is leading but he’s pretty sure he won’t like it. The way Kurosaki’s gaze sharpens is not at all encouraging.

“And you were there last night, weren't you?” he asks with a deceptive casualness. “With Shiunin Sora.”

Oh. Oh hell.

Yuuya casts his mind back to that night and quietly curses his past self. Despite all of the signs pointing to Sora’s dubious origins, he had charged in headfirst to defend him from Yuuto anyway. Turning a blind eye to his secretive background, the disconcerting facets of his personality, the fact that he had announced to a stadium full of people that he had hunted Kurosaki’s comrades.

This doesn’t at all look good for them. Yuugo, who had mistakenly attacked Yuuto after confusing him for Yuuri, and Yuuya who had sided with a known fusion soldier.

“Wait, it’s not what it looks like,” Yuuya backtracks, mentally kicking himself again for good measure. “And about Sora, I’ve already heard everything from Yuuto-”

“From Yuuto, you say?” Despite Kurosaki’s seemingly impassive face, Yuuya can see the rage simmering beneath the surface all too clearly. He takes an alarmed step backwards when Rise Falcon trains its weapons on them again in unspoken threat. “Then where is he now? Ever since that night, I’ve completely lost contact with him! What have you done to him?”

Yuuya’s thought processes screech to a halt. Oh, this isn’t good. Really not good.  “You… You think we did something? To Yuuto?” he stammers, parroting his words like somehow saying them out loud would help them make sense. “No, we came here to help!”

But Kurosaki doesn't let him finish, pressing forward like a shark scenting blood. His lips draw back into a snarl, gold eyes flashing. “After Shiunin ran like a dog, the sensors picked up Synchro energy. And now, you bastards show up here. It doesn’t take a fucking genius to put it together!”

Too bad Kurosaki is putting it together so completely wrong.

“We didn’t do nothing!” Yuugo shouts, pushing Yuuya behind him in a show of protectiveness that he is far too stressed out to properly appreciate. “It’s not our fault that he wandered off on his own. If you have a problem with me, then why don’t you get off your stupid metal chicken so I can kick some sense into you?”

A slight narrowing of his eyes is the only thing that gives away his thoughts at Yuugo’s provocation. “You will take me to my comrade. Or else.”

Before Yuuya can think to say something to salvage the situation, Rise Falcon lets out a piercing cry. The glint in its mechanical eyes is the only warning they get before a barrage of shells suddenly bursts from its body. Stunned, Yuuya watches them arch high up into the sky, painting it with streaks of red fire… until he finally realizes that they need to move.

With a panicked shout, he throws himself down on his stomach, exposed arms scraping painfully against the stone as he braces himself for impact. But in place of the expected pain, a terrible grinding noise fills his ears instead and he lifts his head with relief at the sight of Yuugo’s Speedroid hovering above them. Menkoat’s bronze body spins rapidly, deflecting stray shells and sending them ricocheting around them. The rest of shots sail overhead, close enough for them to feel the heat against their backs.

Yuugo is the first to regain his bearings, bursting up from the ground with a snarl.

“That’s it! I’ve had it with you shooting at us for no reason!” he fumes. “We already told you we don’t know where he is. But if you’re going to be a big, stupid jerk and not listen when other people are trying to tell you things, then the only way to settle this is with a duel!”

“Yuugo,” Yuuya mumbles, pushing himself off the ground and scattering stray pebbles everywhere. A dull ache in his forearms make him wince but he isn't too much worse for wear.  But that might not be the case for long if this situation gets anymore out of hand. He can feel the beginnings of a burgeoning migraine as his vision becomes overlayed with images of giant mechanical golems and a decimated stadium.

But most of all, Yuuya doesn't want to hurt Kurosaki . Especially when he can't even look at him without remembering the rumble of falling stone and Sayaka’s horrified screams.

“Yuugo,” he tries again, this time trying to inject as much urgency as he can. “Can we please try talking this through?” At first, he thinks Yuugo doesn’t hear him, but then he sees the stubborn set to his chin and the defiant glare in those pale blue eyes.

“Sorry, Yuuya,” he says and Yuuya’s heart sinks. “Before we kick Akaba Reiji’s ass, I gotta kick his first. ”

“But we’re not here to kick Reiji’s ass...” Yuuya sucks in a deep breath, resisting the urge to bury his face in his hands as the situation devolves far too rapidly for his fraying nerves. Helplessness wells up in his chest and he can’t help but wish for Yuuto again. Surely, he would be able to beat some sense into the both of them? Or at the very least put an end to Kurosaki’s trigger-happy attacks. He tries imploring once more. “Yuugo. Kurosaki is too dangerous to fight. We should try looking for Yuuto-”

“Well, I’m dangerous too,” Yuugo snaps out unexpectedly and Yuuya freezes involuntarily at the sudden coldness in his gaze. The warm, bright blue suddenly transformed something sharp and hard like chips of ice in a disconcerting contrast from the warm, friendly boy he had been getting to know. Right now, Yuuya has no trouble imagining how Yuuto and Kurosaki could have mistaken him for the enemy.

Destroy… everything… burn it to ashes!

“Stay behind me, Yuuya,” Yuugo calls out and Yuuya’s head jerks up, shaken from the phantoms clinging to his thoughts like cobwebs. Only the back of his head is visible but there’s no mistaking the protectiveness in his posture. Yuugo tilts his head just enough to reveal a wide, anticipatory grin. “I got this!”

“Uh. Y-Yeah.” Yuuya swallows down his mounting worry and tries to convince that this doesn’t have the makings of a perfect disaster.

Still perched on the back of his falcon, what little he can see of Kurosaki’s face is as immovable as ever like a mask of granite, with only the glint in those eerie gold eyes to give away his bloodlust.  Rise Falcon descends, its mechanical wings stirring up a cloud of gray dust which has them flinching and shielding their faces. He leaps off, landing flawlessly atop one of the tall, stone spires.  

“Very well,” he intones coldly.  “Fusion scum. Let’s see if you’re even half the duelist Yuuto is.”

“For the last time, it’s Yuugo!” With a snap of his wrist, Yuugo readies his duel disk. Rise Falcon and Menkoat both fade from view as the field resets itself.

Two voices call out as one.

“Duel!”

A globe of light scatters above them, raining down around them like falling stars, but neither of them pay it any attention. Yuugo doesn’t waste any time cutting to the chase, literally racing down the stone steps to get the room he needed. “I’m taking the first turn! I summon the tuner monster, Speedroid - Tri-Eyed Dice! And when I have another wind monster on the field, I can special summon Speedroid - Taketonborg!”

“Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level 6! Hi-Speedroid - Makendama (2200/1600)!”

Makendama’s metallic body gleams silver in the light of its summoning and Yuuya’s eyes are involuntarily drawn to the wicked looking edge of its blade. The grin Yuugo flashes has far too many teeth to be friendly. “If you think I can’t damage you this turn, then think again! I activate Makendama’s ability and remove Taketonborg from play to inflict 500 points of damage!”  

Kurosaki: 4000 → 3500 LP

Aside of a narrowing of his eyes, Kurosaki is unfazed as the bolt of light strikes him, its force pushing him back half a step. “If I take damage, I can special summon Raidraptor - Avenge Vulture (1700/100)!”

If Kurosaki’s lack of reaction bothered him, Yuugo doesn’t show it. “When I’ve already special summoned this turn, I can special summon Speedroid - 56 Plane (1800/0). I end my turn!”

“Is that it?” Kurosaki shifts, and suddenly his body language transforms from stoic to predatory. “Do you really think you can afford not to go all out on me the first turn? If I control another Raidraptor monster, I can special summon Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius. Next, I normal summon another Fuzzy Lanius.”

Yuuya’s heart leaps up into his throat as he gazes up into the sky, framed by the shadows cast by the Raidraptor’s sleek, metal bodies. He’s seen this enough times to know where this is going. He should have tried harder to stop them, clocked Yuugo over the head and dragged him out. What good is any of his pre-knowledge if he doesn't put it to use?

“Yuugo,” he shouts, cupping his hands around his mouth. Maybe it’s not too late to run down there and knock him out anyway? “He’s got three level 4s now. He’s going to XYZ summon!”

“... How is that thing fuzzy?” Yuugo wonders.

Yuuya’s thoughts come to a stuttering halt. “Excuse me?” he asks, a little desperately. Even Kurosaki seems a little off balance as he frowns down at them from across the battlefield.

“But look! It’s not fuzzy at all.”

Yuuya can’t help following Yuugo’s accusing finger as instructed and even he has to agree that Yuugo has a point… but this isn’t time or place for this. He holds back a sigh and barely resists the urge to cover his face. “Just… Just be careful.”

Kurosaki cuts in, apparently fed up with talking. “I use my three monsters to build the overlay network!”

“Obscured falcon, raise your claws sharpened by adversity! Spread your wings of rebellion! Xyz Summon! Come forth! Rank 4! Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon! (100/2000)!”

Rise Falcon reappears with a cry, flexing its mechanical joints as it hovers next to its master. Even Yuugo looks serious once more, no doubt remembering its earlier assault. “By detaching an overlay unit, Rise Falcon gains the attack of all the special summoned monsters on the field!”

“But that means...?!” Yuugo gapes at the implication as he subtly counts on his fingers. “4100 ATK?! What the hell, that’s so hecking overpowered!”

This time, it’s Kurosaki who lets out a vicious grin. “And Rise Falcon can attack all the monsters on your field.”

“But if it hits… that’s 4200 points of damage.” Yuuya pales in remembrance Kurosaki’s reputation as a one-man army; laying waste to tens of Academia soldiers. Even the LDS trio had never stood a chance, falling like dominos at Kurosaki’s notorious one turn kills.

“This is it,” Kurosaki sneers, aiming two fingers at Yuugo’s face. “Feel the flames of our vengeance.  Brave Claw Revolution!”

“Yuugo!” Yuuya shouts, throwing himself forward, but Yuugo will have none of it.

“Stay back!” he cries out, crossing his arms over his face. Yuugo’s monsters surge up, forming a defence line before them. “This isn’t enough to keep me down. And that jerk would kill me if anything happened to you.”

Yuugo: 4000 → 1700 LP

Yuugo cries out as the first rounds pierce through 56Plane’s (1800/0) metal body and sending him flying back and slamming hard against the side of the dilapidated entrance. He crumples to the stone, groaning as he pushes himself up. Alarmed, Yuuya rushes to his side, throwing out his hands to support him, even as Yuugo half-heartedly tries to push him back to safety.

“Not so fast,” Yuugo shouts just as Rise Falcon sets its sights on his remaining monster. “If I take any battle damage, I can special summon the tuner monster Speedroid - Gum Prize (0/800)... and during either player’s battle phase, I can perform another synchro summon! I tune Gum Prize (Lvl 1) to Makendama (Lvl 6)!”

Despite the bruises on his face, Yuugo now looks impossibly smug.

“Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings, and strike down your enemies at the speed of light! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon (2500/2000)!”

Yuuya can’t help but gasp when Yuugo’s beautiful white dragon appears in a dazzling burst of light, it’s luminous crystal wings lighting up the sky. But his wonder is dampened when he suddenly feels a burst of pain in his chest and his hand shoots up to clutch at it. Beside him, Yuugo’s expression is just as pinched, but he grits his teeth anyway and pushes himself back up to his feet.

“Have you forgotten that Rise Falcon (4100/2000) can still attack all special summoned monsters?” Kurosaki sneers. “You might be scraping by with 100 LP, but you’re just delaying the inevitable!”

“Heh,” Yuugo cracks another smirk. “As if I’ll let you hurt my ace! I banish Three-Eyed Dice from my graveyard to negate your attack!”

Rise Falcon’s charge is finally halted as a barrier shimmers between them. The two monsters circle each other in the air, seemingly looking for openings until the raptor finally concedes defeat. Kurosaki frowns, considering the two of them for a moment like his feathers had been ruffled. “I set three cards facedown and end my turn.”

“So much for all that talk,” Yuugo taunts, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his lips on the back of his glove. “But with Clear Wing here, don’t think things will keep going your way!”

Yuuya finally lets out the breath that he had been holding and tightens his grip on Yuugo’s shoulder. He had only seen Yuugo properly duel a handful of times, once against Yuuto and a few times during the Friendship Cup. But it only hits him now just how good he is. Good enough to go toe to toe with Kurosaki which was more than many could say.  But it came with a price. Yuuya winces at the bruises and scrapes that the other boy had already accumulated. And if he has his timeline right, hadn’t Kurosaki just sent Sora to the hospital just a day before?

Yuugo lying there like Sora had, battered and broken as Kurosaki looms over him… turning him into a card.

Before Yuugo can draw his cards, he places a restraining hand on his wrist, eliciting a look of confusion from the other boy. If there was any chance of stopping this now, he had to take it.

“Kurosaki,” he calls out again, hoping that Kurosaki’s pride as a duelist would prevent him from shooting at them on Yuugo’s turn. “Please just listen to us! We came here with Yuuto! Yuugo and I aren’t your enemies. We only came here to talk to Akaba Reiji!”

Kurosaki pauses and for a split second, Yuuya allows himself to hope. Only for it to come crashing back down when the older boy sneers. “As if Yuuto would ever side with fusion.”

“That’s what I keep telling you, fuzzy-brains!” Yuugo yells, pulling away from Yuuya’s hold once again. “My name isn’t FUSION. My turn, I draw!”

At the sight of his next card, a wide, fierce grin splits his face. It is then that Yuuya notices it. Despite the damage he had taken, despite the knowledge that Kurosaki was with every intention of turning them into cards, Yuugo seems to be enjoying himself. His pale blue eyes are bright with excitement, nearly incandescent beneath the glow of the moon. Unlike his match with Yuuto, there is no all-consuming rage, no looming danger of losing himself, except in the thrill testing his skills against a powerful opponent.

Yuuya can’t help but wonder, when was the last time he had felt that way? When was the last time Yuuya had truly dueled for fun and felt that bright, blooming joy from the bottom of his heart? The last time he can remember dueling… it had been out of hatred for Yuuri. He shakes the thoughts away, refocusing back on the match.

“When I control a wind monster, I can special summon Speedroid - Taketonborg (600/1200)! Next, I normal summon the tuner monster, Speedroid - Red-Eyed Dice! (100/100). I use Red-Eyed Dice’s ability to increase Taketonborg’s level by one. And you get I'm gonna synchro summon again!”  Yuugo’s smirk is now nothing short of smug as he punches his fists together.

“Feel the pulse of this swordsman's soul! Come forth Level 5! Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider (2000/1000)!”

A massive blade bursts out from a glowing portal behind them, scattering traces of green synchro energy in the air as it comes to a stop next to Yuugo’s dragon. Clear Wing roars, flexing its claws restlessly, no doubt just as eager for battle as its summoner is. At the moment, Yuugo seems to have the field advantage, but Kurosaki’s three facedowns are worrisome. Not that it stops Yuugo from forging ahead. “Chanbarider gains 200 ATK every time it battles. Attack Rise Falcon!”

Chanbarider shoots forward but Kurosaki isn’t fazed. “Trap card, open! Raidraptor - Readiness! This turn, Raidraptor monsters can't be destroyed by battle.”

Yuugo’s brow knits, but the setback does little to dampen his enthusiasm. “Then I'll have you take the damage!”  His monster continues its charge as Rise Falcon lunges down to meet it, sending red sparks into the air as Chanbarider’s crimson blade smashes into its side but is unable to damage it through the sheen of the trap’s protection. But the force of the blow knocks Rise Falcon off course and it plummets, forcing Kurosaki to leap out of the way as his monster comes crashing down. Yuuya lets out the breath he had been holding when he spies Kurosaki emerging from the rubble, mostly unscathed but covered in dust.

He stands tall, impassively brushing off his coat even as his life points plummet.

Kurosaki: 3500 → 1400 LP

But Yuugo still isn't done yet, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet and brimming with excess energy. “Chanbarider can make a second attack during battle phase and its monster effect activates again (2200 → 2400 ATK)! Go!”

Kurosaki braces himself as Chanbarider lurches towards his monster. “I banish my trap card, Raidraptor - Readiness! I take no more damage this turn!”

Yuugo scrunches up his nose in irritation. “Damn. You’re actually pretty good, aren't you? Fine, I'll set three cards and end my turn!”

But Kurosaki doesn't look nearly as impressed. “Haven't you learned yet?” he sneers, glaring across the field with disappointment. “Rise Falcon can gain the attack points of all special summoned monsters, and yet you keep repeating the same mistakes? It's like you're begging for defeat.”

“Am not!” Yuugo yells hotly, the grudging admiration on his face transforming back into ire. “Bastard, if you’re gonna talk shit, back it up with your cards!”

Still, it doesn't look good. Yuuya finds himself bouncing anxiously on the balls of his feet. Yuugo must have tried to go for a one turn kill with Chanbarider, but Kurosaki still had plenty of overlay units left. If he takes even one of these attacks, it’s all over!

“Hmph.” Kurosaki looks like he intends to do just that. “I detach one overlay unit to activate Rise Falcon’s ability (100 → 5000 ATK)! Attack Chanbarider (2400 ATK)!”  

Rise Falcon blazes a trail of red hot flames as it rushes towards Yuugo’s monster, outstretched talons tearing through its armour with ease, forcing it to disperse. Yuuya takes a step back in alarm when the raptor sets its sight on them.

But just before the attack connects, its claws are deflected by another shimmering barrier. Yuugo’s hand is outstretched triumphantly, having activated another trap at the last second. “Defense Draw! I take no damage from this battle and I get to draw a card!”

Kurosaki frowns, the only hint he is at all perturbed by his persistence. “I still have another attack left. I attack Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!”

“Burning Sonic!” Yuugo counters with his remaining face down. “I negate your attack and Clear Wing gains 500 ATK! Ha, how do you like that? Still, think I'm going to lose?”

“Nice, Yuugo!” Yuuya can't help but exclaim. Yuugo beams brightly in return, clearly pleased with himself. If Yuugo makes it through this turn, then on the next, Clear Wing has more than enough attack to wipe out the rest of Kurosaki’s life points.

“Tch.” Kurosaki is frowning deeply now, studying the field with those piercing gold eyes. “It's still too early to celebrate,” he grits out. “Or do you still think this is a game? Laughing as you hunted down my comrades?”

The grin drops off Yuugo’s lips and a scowl forms in its place. “I keep telling you, I’m not from Academia! And I've never gone hunting in my life!” Unfortunately, the Kurosaki from Yuuya’s memories was nothing if not excessively stubborn and next to impossible to reason with… or to take down.

A trait that this one shares in spades.

“Reverse card open,” he declares and Yuuya’s stomach drops at the reveal.  “Rank up magic: Revolution Force! I use Rise Falcon to rebuild the overlay network to summon another XYZ monster that is one rank higher!”

“Ferocious falcon, break through this fierce battle and spread your wings! Destroy our gathering foes! Rank Up! Xyz Change! Come forth! Rank 5! Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon (1000/2000) !”

The falcon materializes with a harsh flap of his wings, surrounded by plumes of red-hot flame which cast unholy shadows over Kurosaki’s grim face. “While Blaze Falcon has overlay units... it can attack you directly! Go! Electrostatic Volt!”

“You- you gotta be kidding me!” Yuugo yelps as the raptor lurches towards them, blazing a trail of flames behind it. He barely brings his arms up in time to block, but ultimately the concussive force throws him back into the wall with a nasty crunch.

Yuugo: 1700 → 700 LP

“Yuugo!” Yuuya rushes over immediately to his crumpled form, frantically checking him over for injuries. Yuugo groans, clutching at his head as he rejects Yuuya’s help up.

“I’m fine, Yuuya,” he tells him with a hint of petulance, but the dazed look in his eyes is worrying. He shakes his head as if to clear it. “I told you that I was gonna kick his ass, so I will!”

But Kurosaki’s assault still isn't finished. “When Blaze Falcon inflicts battle damage, I can destroy a card on your field! Destroy Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!”

Despite the fresh bruises decorating his face, Yuugo bursts into a triumphant laughter. “I've been waiting for that! I activate Clear Wing’s effect! When a level 5 or higher monster on my field is targeted by an effect, it can destroy that monster and gain its attack points!”

“What?” Kurosaki finally looks shocked for the first time and even Yuuya can’t help but feel a little vindicated.

“Dichroic Mirror!”

Blaze Falcon cries out, its body disintegrating beneath the arcs of green lightning, leaving Kurosaki’s field open. Yuuya finds himself watching Kurosaki with bated breath until he grudgingly declares his turn over.

The air tingles with lingering electricity, with Kurosaki and Yuugo trading blow after blow. Neither of the two backing down even as their injuries are accumulating with a dangerous speed. Both of them are bruised and battered; Yuugo’s new clothes are torn and Kurosaki is favouring his right leg. He must not have been as unruffled as he tried to appear. Throughout all of it, Yuugo is sporting a wide, exhilarated grin and even Kurosaki looks more animated somehow, his brows knitted in a mix of frustration and intrigue.

“Heh.” Yuugo couldn't look more pleased if he tried. Beaming bright enough to outshine the sun and Yuuya is reminded of another time and place.Their connected hearts, the sensation of rushing wind as their blood sings with joy and freedom.

With a start, Yuuya realizes that he’s grinning too, dragged in by that infectious enthusiasm. He… he wants to see this duel to the end. “Yuugo!” he calls out without thinking. “Kick his ass!”

“Yeah!” Yuugo punches the air in response, lips quirking with triumph as he draws with a flourish. “I activate Shock Surprise! I banish 56Plane from my graveyard to destroy your last set card! Now your field is empty! Go, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon! Direct attack!”

Yuugo’s dragon throws its head back and roars, its magnificent crystalline wings spreading as it takes to the sky, twisting its body into a whirlwind of blades.

“Senpuu no Hell Dive SLASHER!”

Kurosaki’s lips thin as he visibly digs his heels into the ground, the glow from Clear Wing’s attack reflected clearly in his eyes, growing closer and closer. But just at the last possible second, he reacts, fingers flying towards his duel disk.

“From my graveyard, I activate-”

“-I discard Damage Juggler from my hand to reduce the battle damage from Clear Wing Synchro Dragon’s attack to zero!”

And just like that, Clear Wing’s attack slams into another glowing barrier, dissipating harmlessly before its claws could reach Kurosaki. Enraged, the dragon roars its displeasure as the phantom image of a clownish monster sticks its tongue out.

Both Yuugo and Kurosaki seem to share Clear Wing’s outrage, judging by the near identical growls emanating from their throats.

“What the heck?” Yuugo hisses in frustration, swivelling around in search of the culprit.

“Why are you interfering with my duel,” Kurosaki demands at the exact same time and Yuuya follows his cold gaze with a deepening sense of dread. “Macfield.”

Perched atop another stone obelisk is a tall, gangly figure with an unmistakable shock of curly red hair. He laughs lightly, the shadows on his face lifting just enough to reveal a glint of opaque blue eyes.

“Now, Is that any way to greet a fellow LDS comrade?”