He was home again. Or what was left of it. It was a little hard to look at overall, but he supposed not having a body helped him close his eyes a bit longer.
Awful... he felt... awful. Powerless even. He couldn't even walk around by himself, and his home was being raided entirely.
"A duel filled with smiles..." Yuto would tell himself. He had been holding on to this phrase while watching Yuya's dueling deep from within, but somehow, when he said it this time, it felt empty.
He was asking for a duel filled with smiles while his hometown remained a wreck. It was laid completely to waste. The idea shared to him by Ruri and shown by Yuya... It was such a wonderful idea, Yuto had seen this in the synchro world. But here... here even he couldn't smile.
A duel filled with smiles? Here? How would that even work? Yuto felt conflicted, trying to hold himself to that logic all of the sudden.
What had happened to him? When he left to standard, he only thought of a way to stop Academia at its source, almost hurting Sawatari in the process. But... he also saw Yuzu. It was hard for him to swallow at first, but he began to watch her more and more. At first, he was almost certain it WAS Ruri, but time moved forward and Yuzu began to stand out. Still, he couldn't bring himself to hate her, even if she was learning fusion. Her intentions behind the method were pure with good intentions. Maybe this is why he began to soften towards fusion users. He had absolutely hated them before, but seeing Yuzu, someone with Ruri's face, use that terrifying style to bring smiles to people's faces and hope into others lives... It made him reflect on himself.
Fusions users...aren't bad. Academia... is bad. There is a difference.
Even that swift jumping blue haired boy Sora didn't seem to be too awful. While he and Yuto were at each others necks, Sora seemed rather soft towards Yuzu and even Yuya. With an attitude like that, Yuto could have almost easily mistaken Sora for a normal person.
That must have been it.
Yuto went to Standard and found himself going soft towards a style he hated. The fire in his heart died down slowly. Watching Yuzu and her friends go about their everyday lives made him feel some degree of peace.
By the time he found Shun, Yuto had already begun to calm down. "That's enough, Shun." Yuto would tell him. Trying to hold to his own more of not wanting to hurt anyone, he found himself going weaker and weaker, until he found himself trying to protect Standard as if it were his home. He even was slightly in awe when his own monster was used for fusion. Something that Yuto himself would have been so adamantly against just weeks ago he found himself in amazement at its power.
But now, Yuto actually was home. That sting of reality and burning anger was slowly reignited again. "Easy" Yuto would tell himself. "I need to take it easy. This is Yuya's body..."
After the synchro world, something had happened and now Yuya could easily speak to Yuto and converse with him as if he were there. Yuto was not one to hold something like this lightly, even if he had no idea what actually caused it. He had no interest in testing it further either. The body was Yuya's, so the battles were Yuya's. Yuto could only help him when needed.
It was a good thing too. Kaito appeared and showed no signs of being the person Yuto knew him to be. He was only going toward a flat out attack with Yuya, even mistaking him for Academia. Yuto knew Kaito had no intentions of backing down, and yet Yuya had been holding his head high with his "duel of smiles" logic.
And this was where Yuto's doubts begans...
Yuya could have gotten hurt because he was trying to make Kaito smile. Kaito didn't want to smile. He didn't need to smile. He was angry and rightfully so. Yuto understood his anger and here Yuya was, an outsider, trying to make things better. But nothing could "make this better". Nothing except getting rid of Academia.
Still, it was not Yuya's fault. He meant well, so Yuto did his best to give him help, explaining that Kaito is not ready for that kind of duel yet and finally striking the point that Yuya was not with Academia. It took some work and even Shun showed up to help, but Kaito still had yet to calm down to his normal self.
It is not like Kaito was in the wrong about this though. In fact, he was rather right. Yuto and Shun left the world when they were needed most. They were strong duelist, they had proved this. They could have helped. They could have done something!
The wounds tore open again as Yuto recalled people like Kaito, people like Shun, people like himself. People that lost everything and ran everyday for their lives in terror.
But again, Yuto held his emotions to himself. There was nothing he could do now except talk to Yuya and hope that he could do something...
Until that one showed up... This... This... Academia member! Yuto didn't even have the dignity of learning his name. He watched Yuya duel for a short moment and noticed Yuya wasn't dueling like he was fighting... No... he was fighting like he was trying to make him smile again?
"This isn't the time, Yuya!" Yuto thought to himself. He began to scold Yuya for his behavior in this duel and was almost given a shock to be shouted at back.
"He knows about my father!" Yuya yelled back, "If I can get something from him!"
"FORGET IT!" Yuto huffed, "If your father couldn't make him smile, what makes you think you can?! He's tossing you around left and right!"
Yuto slowly gave up on Yuya listening and just began to ramble to himself, trying to convey his feelings to Yuya. These emotions that he had been hiding since coming back and seeing his home. Since seeing Kaito in such a state of rage. Since seeing how hopeless everyone was once again, made his heart go cold again. A duel filled with smiles? You weren't going to find something like that here, Yuya. Nobody could smile here. Not until Academia was gone.
An odd emotion began to swirl up. It was similar to when Yuto became angry in the synchro world but... tamer? He couldn't explain it. He was just too angry to even acknowledge his own hand on the card itself as he summoned his trusted dragon. Yuto only cared about one thing and that was eliminating this Academia member before him. Smiles? Those were worthless right now. Nobody was smiling.
His turn ended and he could only breathe and watch as a huge turn around threw Yuya back into the wall again, but in the midst of watching it, he felt the regret. Regret that he had left to Standard. Regret that he let himself go this soft. Regret that he honestly thought a duel filled with smiles would be possible here. Forget smiles, forget not hurting anyone. His anger returned and it was time to make them pay.
Yuya's cries fell on deaf ears as Yuto experienced to duel again. He was so focused on winning this duel that he didn't process that "Yuya" didn't know how to rank up XYZ monsters. He was so focused on fighting back that he couldn't feel the cards in his own hands. He was so focused that he didn't realize he was in control of the body. He could only feel anger, making the shock of a tie breaker exhaust his own mental state as well as Yuya physically.
He began to black out, trying to gather what he could hear, but he couldn't hold any longer. He felt tired. It had been so long since he fought with that weight on his shoulders that he almost forgot how tiring it was.
And yet the flames for revenge began to burn as bright as ever.