Yuuto wakes up to an unknown blonde woman and Ruri – no, Yuzu? – watching over him.
Where am I? Yuuto feels the thought forming, the words rising to his lips, but his muscles and voice refuse to respond.
And then, "Yuzu. Mom?"
A wave of panic crashes over him, and he remembers with sudden clarity that he lost to the Pawn of Fusion. After everything, he too has fallen. He had been ready to die (has been, ever since Ruri was lost and Shun lost himself), finally protecting rather than inflicting pain, and yet, here he is. (He failed again.) Between his lack of agency and the fact that Yuzu and the blonde lady's insistently address him as Yuuya, Yuuto gathers that he is somehow inhabiting – cohabiting? – Yuuya's body.
It's strange to hear words come out of his mouth that aren't his, except, it isn't really his mouth, is it? His limbs move when he doesn't want them to as Yuuya sits up, and he feels Yuuya's emotions running a mile a minute, as incessantly energetic as the boy himself.
He idly wonders if Yuuya can sense his thoughts too.
Except… How can he save Ruri like this? From what Yuzu and the woman say, it's already been two days, and he has made no progress, trapped and unconscious in Yuuya's body. (One more failure to add to his list.) He's failed Ruri, failed Shun, failed Heartland, because how can he do anything to save her and rebuild their home from here? Though Shun is uncommunicative on his best days since Ruri's disappearance, they've relied on each other. And now they can't even speak to each other. Yuuto would cry, but he doesn't have the power to do even that.
It's a bit like watching a movie, Yuuto muses as he listens to the crowd jeering at Yuuya in the Synchro dimension, except that it plays all the time, you can't leave the theater, and there's no way to stop the film.
AN: This was originally meant to be the first section of a longer oneshot chronicling Yuto. It might one day get rewritten and completed. Anyway, thanks for reading!